debriefing ♔ in the emptiness there's a solution | just look within yourself for absolution

[nepotism]

♬ locking up the sun- poets of the fall

WHO || Wynn, Buffy, Myri, Finnick, Spike, Gar, Archer, Des, Vi, Rafael, Fred Jr., Dumage, Mark, Rocket, open! [Closed]
WHAT || Andres Mission Debrief & Aftermath
WHERE || Knights HQ, lobby etc.
WHEN || September 18th [forward dated*]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

There are plenty of missions that return to the castle a success - most of them, even. The defeated air of the solemn group that returns from their diplomatic mission to Andres Isle to hear the demands of dictator Dimitris Sarandis makes it quite clear that this wasn't one of those.

Starting with Sarandis' actual demands - for all Knights to withdraw from Andres under penalty of death, or for Wynn to offer his own head in return for Thomas' safe return - and ending with the unexpected, disturbing confession from Kat that she intended to stay behind on the island because she had "fallen in love with" the dictator, the events of the island made it very clear that Sarandis was cannily playing his hand to get the Knights where he wanted them.

Fred Jr. shoves open the doors with his unnatural strength, stalking in ahead of the group into the lobby. Whoever's on desk duty isn't going to have to roll a high wisdom check to see that these people are pissed... and distraught... and a myriad of other emotions on the bad end of the scale.

*I am changing the date of the briefing log and Andres log/live session to have taken place in September, to avoid us being in backdated hell forever, and to allow for a September squiring ceremony before apps are closed. Carry on... in the future!

Comments

rocket ❖ ota, but mostly for drax. follow your heart, son.

[beatupgrass]

[With the meeting disbanded and... with no actual place to go and too much pride to be like "so uh...??" Rocket makes his way to the lobby, the picture of exhausted raccoon misery. He is tired, he is beat all to hell, and oh yeah, he just signed up to go back to the place he just escaped from BECAUSE THAT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO AND APPARENTLY THAT IS WHAT HE DOES NOW.

Oh, and to put the cherry on this gruesome little sundae that has become his life recently, he's standing in the middle of a ragtag bunch of misfits facing insurmountable odds and really that probably says everything about why he agreed to help. Because ornery bastard that he is, he misses his ragtag bunch of misfits.

...Which is why he had to duck out fast. And if he comes out into the lobby rubbing his face with the back of his paw, it's because he's allergic to... dragon motifs. Giant lizards and small mammals, man. It's legit.]

[spinerip]

[Drax has heard the message. There's to be a war. The mood in the castle is grim, but honestly, this is the best news Drax has heard since he landed on this backwater planet. He knows how to fight. Destruction is what he's best at, what he's made for, and with his family avenged and his friends gone, it's not like he has much to--

He stops short when he notices a raccoon--not the first he's seen since arriving on this planet, but this one walks upright. This one's wearing a jumpsuit, though it's in even worse shape than when last he saw it, as is the raccoon wearing it. This one looks so much like Rocket that he can't help but stare.

But it's not like he hasn't seen raccoons before on this planet. It can't be Rocket. Drax couldn't be so fortunate as to be stranded here with his friend.

Could he?]

[beatupgrass]

[Rocket's look of misery becomes one of shock.

It's happened. He's snapped. He's hallucinating. Maybe it's a latent side effect of the drugs. Maybe he didn't get enough sleep on the plane. Maybe that bourbon was laced with something. Maybe he's-

And suddenly shock gives way to anger, because Rocket is in no position to be rational right now and if he is hallucinating then what he's about to do won't matter and if he isn't... well.

He marches over to Drax.

He stares up at him with a look of such bared-teeth rage that you'd think Drax called him a vermin again.

And then...

He begins repeatedly kicking him in the... ankle. I'm not rolling for that, because it's not like he can do any damage. It's like kicking a brick wall.]

WHERE. THE. HELL. HAVE. YOU. BEEN. YOU. JACKASS.

[spinerip]

[Oh. That is definitely Rocket. The ankle kicks are bothering him about as much as the grass kicks did, and he grins widely.]

Rocket, my friend!

[He moves down to pick Rocket up and pull him to eye level.]

You live!

[And then he starts noticing the condition of Rocket's body and WOW THAT IS NOT OK WHO IS DOING THIS TO HIS FRIEND. His expression clouds over with rage.]

Who did this to you?

[Time to go destroy some people.]

[beatupgrass]

[Rocket flails bodily BECAUSE HE WASN'T DONE AND ALSO RUDE, but it's half-hearted, because despite his anger and frustration and the fact that OF ALL THE PLACES IN ALL THE WORLD, Drax is here, it doesn't really change the fact that Drax is here. He's not alone anymore.

He goes slack, expression grim rather than pleased, because he is being a man about his emotions right now.]

The Andres vacation package failed to mention that if you come for the beaches, you gotta stay for the gruesome torture.

[I am Rocket's ability to be flippant when 88% really wants to cry. He's 12% sarcastic right now. And normally he'd be flipping his gourd about Drax wanting to go there and start smashing JUST IN CASE he ends up just as bad off as Rocket did, but if he's in this place, he's gonna go anyway. They both are.]

[spinerip]

[Drax frowns, but his wis 17 means he realizes Rocket wasn't actually going to Andres for a beach vacation.

But just to be sure.]

...the vacation package was a metaphor?

[beatupgrass]

[Low agitated growling sound.] Yes. And, in case you're wondering, Terrans take attempted political assassination very seriously.

[As opposed to space where you just get thrown in jail with no trial regardless of your crimes, apparently.]

[spinerip]

Why? If you didn't succeed, no harm was done.

[beatupgrass]

That's what I said! They're just so sensitive. [And also racist. And wow it's so easy to pretend like all of that wasn't horrifically traumatizing for him.] And it was all kind of a horrible misunderstanding, which coulda been talked out. Terrans, man. No wonder Quill don't live here no more.

[spinerip]

I have not met a single person who owns a walkman. They have something called ipods instead.

[beatupgrass]

I don't even wanna talk about it. Just when I was starting to get used to Quill's freakin' mix tape, I end up here and nothin' sounds like that.

[YOU DAMN KIDS WITH YOUR RAP MUSIC.]

[spinerip]

Do you suspect him of falsehoods?

[Quill is his friend and he will punch anyone who insults him, but he is still shady and dishonorable. He could have lied to them about Earth.]

[beatupgrass]

No. [Because of all the things to lie about, he's pretty sure the Jackson 5 do not rank.] I just think he hasn't been back in awhile and this is gonna be a rude awakenin' for him if he ever does turn up.

[They'll probably have to console him. Ugh. Feelings.]

[felidity]

[ kali suffers from no such fears of dragons. because she is a cat. cats are genetically predisposed to be better than everything they see. it's physics. but she sees this small, bipedal raccoon muttering to himself and a triggers the memory of, like, two weeks ago and the huge man petting the non-communicative raccoon. ]

Excuse me. [ yes, she is talking to you, ponytail cheerfully swishing back and forth from the momentum of walking and because her hair is basically a glistening, glossy sheet of straight blonde magic in and of itself. her wide green eyes hold no guile, not in part because why... would... she need that? ]

Are you Rocket?

[beatupgrass]

[Rocket gives her the flattest look he can manage... which is pretty flat. Raccoons are not as adept at "dead eyes" as seals are, but sometimes, man.

Mostly he's just hoping if he looks surly and un-adorable, she will go away. HE KNOWS YOUR KIND, GUILELESS BLONDE THING (no really that is not the smell of human). HE IS IN NO MOOD TO BE-

...Wait.

Squinting.]

Who's askin'?

[did everyone update their facebook statuses when he walked in. what even, castle of misfit toys.]

[felidity]

[ hopefully he wasn't expecting kali to read a social cue into his expression because she sure doesn't. nor does she infer his question to be asking for anything other than her name so that's what he gets. ]

Kali.

[beatupgrass]

[oh his fuzzy god. she's like mini-drax. only cuter and fluffier. there is something inherently wrong with that.]

Of course. [He throws a paw up, like "okay gonna have to use the small words now."] Yeah, that's me.

[He places his gun on the ground and spreads his arms wide, which while being a gesture that's purely sardonic has the horrible effect of revealing just about every visible scar and implant on his chest not covered by his tattered jumpsuit.] Gawk at your convenience. Please. I never get sick of it.

[felidity]

[ she gives him a cursory glance, not very interested. almost as if she has seen this before and she's not sure why she is meant to be so fascinated. ]

You should put orthodontic wax on those. [ she motions to where the implants seem to be rubbing his skin raw. ] It will give your skin time to heal without the constant friction of the metal.

[ the more you know. ] You talk less excessively than I was told.

[beatupgrass]

[EXCUSE YOU.

His initial response is to bare his teeth at her, because apparently any comment about his cyborg-y bits is an insult to his character, except... oh wait. It wasn't. His brain catches up with what she actually said and his temper fizzles out and he's left gawking at her for a second.]

What d'you know about it? [He tries to pull one of the straps on his jumpsuit back up over his shoulder, but it slides off again. Pathetically. GDI. Someone in this castle better be his size.

...also wait. Again. HE FOUND SOMETHING TO BE ACTUALLY OFFENDED ABOUT.]

And who the hell told you I talk too much?

[felidity]

An extremely large man named Drax. [ no big deal, just not answering his first question. ] He said you were genetically modified, like me. [ which she says with all the eerie calmness of some who has known that since she was born. turning slightly, she sweeps her hair away from the back of her neck, black barcode standing out starkly against her pale skin for a moment until her hair slips over it again like a blonde waterfall and she turns back to face him. ]

[beatupgrass]

[omfg drax he can't leave you alone for five minutes or else you're drunk dialing the villain or saying too much about his tragic origin story.]

Drax is an idiot who don't know a d'asted thing about discretion and not talkin' about shit that ain't his business.

[that said... he eyes her for a second.]

Is that supposed to mean we're gonna make friendship bracelets now?

[despite the words, it's not really a harsh statement. he's never really heard the words "like him" and felt like it might not be bullshit.]

[felidity]

[ ... what .... the fuck .... is a friendship bracelet and why would she make one with him? you can't make bracelets out of friends, that is unsanitary. ]

...no.

[beatupgrass]

[i can't believe i rolled a nat 20 to figure out why she's so confused. this is all your fault, drax. and he is just marveling at her. drax's dead kid, is that you???.]

Okay. Good talk. [he's about to walk off but his conscience makes him stay. stupid conscience.] And here's some advice- if you end up going off to liberate the Andresians from that overbearing whackjob Sarandis with the rest of 'em? Try not to let that whole "genetic experiment" thing out. If things go south, maybe you'll get lucky and they'll just off you.

[felidity]

Oh I doubt that. I'm a startlingly successful experiment. Not only do I meet the optimum performance levels prescribed for my unit, but I'm very pretty and fit into normal society flawlessly. No one who conducts genetic experiments would dispose of me, my base DNA sequence is too valuable.

[ she'll be getting tests if it all goes fubar and she knows it. ]

[beatupgrass]

[here's the thing.

rocket handles being the product of mutagens and bargain bin cybernetics with as much grace as a sledgehammer slamming into a concrete wall. he can't imagine anyone in his position taking that well unless they're heavily warped or possibly had the existential crisis centers of their brains removed.

so he's staring. and there's a lot of emotion here. rare sympathy because if he's basically a cheap joke made out of spare parts and had to endure the shit he's endured, then what's the cost of perfection? there's some mild annoyance that she can take it so gracefully and he can't. then there's just some nameless other emotions that keep him from speaking for a long time.]

If you say so. Not like they care either way, I guess. It's all the same to 'em. If it ain't human, it oughta be gutted. [the realization he's going back hits him hard and he struggles to find his composure, scratching an ear with a scowl.]