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

[witchwoman]

He only does that when it really matters, you know. [She smiles, despite herself. Leaning against him as they walk, she lets out a sigh. That was a nice brief departure from reality. Now back to your regularly scheduled sad.]

I've never been apart from him for this long. And knowing what they might be doing to him, I just...

[65]

[he frowns, keeping her close.] ... I'm sorry, Myri. We'll get him back. I know we will.

[witchwoman]

I hope you're right. [She will cling to his certainty.]

I killed a man. On Andres. I've never done that before. I've seen plenty die- or those that I couldn't save with magic, but... This one died by my hand.

[She honestly isn't sure how she feels about it.]

[65]

I'm sorry. [he frowns. killing people is basically old hat for him, but he knows how hard it must have been for myri, when that sort of thing goes against her entire nature.]

[witchwoman]

I'm not. And I think that's the strangest thing about it. It's not... I didn't want him to die, but what I did stopped him from hurting someone else. And I didn't regret it. [It's just very odd for her. She seems mostly confused by the turn of events.]

[65]

You were just doing what you had to do. [he nods to himself, trying to help myri make sense of what happened. and get a handle on it for himself.] Sometimes we have to do awful things to protect ourselves or the ones we love. And, however awful those things can be, they're worth it.

[witchwoman]

I know. And if I had to do it again, I wouldn't change anything. One more chance to fire and one of us could have died out there.

[Myri, Gar, and Vi had been pretty bad off by the end of the fight, after all.]

I just never thought I could do it. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to- that I would hesitate and someone would end up hurt because I couldn't find it in me.

[She's full of too many conflicting emotions. But one of them is a little bit of pride? For being able to do what needed to be done. It's a weird time to be Myri.]

[65]

After you've been so much ... parts of you change. It happened for me when I was younger, after ... what I told you about. But you learn to want to survive. And sometimes you may hesitate [like he did at the concert...], but it'll happen less.

[witchwoman]

Thank you. I just... [She steps closer to him, reaching for his hand.]

I don't know how I would manage any of this without you.

[65]

[awww yeah totally gonna take her hand.] I hope you never have to.

[witchwoman]

Are you not worried? [He seems way more okay with all this war business.] I hope you aren't trying to put on a brave face for my sake.

[65]

[he shakes his head] No, of course not. It just ... something feels familiar about it. Something similar happened at home.

[witchwoman]

The battles they put you through as a child? Or something else?

[65]

In a way. It was related to the battles. That was our stage. Our way of communicating with the rest of the nation. I — when I woke up here, our plan had just started to go sideways. I don't know what became of it.

[witchwoman]

Plan? [She's hesitant to pry too much into his past, but it seems like it's partly relevant to their current situation, so maybe it won't be too difficult to talk about?] What were you trying to accomplish?

[65]

[ ♬ kingdom come - the civil wars ]

Overthrow the government. A complete revolution. We were done being pawns.

[witchwoman]

[it's strange how similar that sounds to what they're going to be doing so soon.]

I imagine there are many people on Andres who feel the same, who only need to opportunity to rise up.

[65]

There are. At least, that's what I surmised when I went into the slums with Rafael and Archer.

[witchwoman]

What did they have to say?

[She was only there for the fighty part. And honestly after all the stuff with Kat, she never thought to ask.]

[65]

They want to change their situation, but they don't know how. And they don't have the means. We can give them that.

[witchwoman]

That's good. They haven't given up hope. I was worried that Sarandis had managed to make them think there was nothing they could do. But they can, with us behind them, of course.

[65]

I mean, that's only information we got from a bartender ... but I have a hard time imagining that it doesn't ring true. Hope doesn't really die, I don't think. It may get smothered, buried, but it's always there waiting to be dug up again.

[witchwoman]

I suppose we'll find out for ourselves soon enough.

[65]

I suppose we will.

[and then they had a sad time drinking together for awhile???]