briefing ♔ i will never know myself until i do this on my own

[wynn]

This is War- 30 Seconds to Mars

WHO || Wynn,  Jack, Hasmed, Lis'sa, Dovan, Solace, Koraith, Christos, Tia, Nessa, Grant, Buffy, Myri, Finnick, Spike,  Gar, Archer, Des, Fred Jr., Dumage, Mark, Alainn, Zero, Colin, Lan, Eric, Val'drin, Risa,  Anastacia, Faith O., Max R., Belle, Kadir, Edain, Sydney, Zatanna, Aurelius, Jaina, Erky, Davin,  Riddick, Jordan, Henry, Leia, Willow, Kate, Allison, Francesca, Bo, Han, Aedan, Rocket, Drax, Nathan, Maxwell, Sam, Faith L., Cora, Dimitri, Alanna, Jaime, Klaus, Gus, Andrew, Stiles, Lydia, Gold, Jackson, Adam, Miles, Penelope, David, Derek, Andie, Kali, Cara, Nels, Taradiddle, Abigail, Astrid, Bambi, Frankie, Rose, Helen, Alaric, Alice, Lissa, Alex, Emma F., Cordelia, Zoe,  Sebastian, Malina, Alcide, Phineas, Fiona, Arthur, Faye, Mars, Kate, Lila,  Jameson, Felicity, Thoster, Adi, Brantley, Hook, Emma, Eleven, Alisha, Will, Dean, Grimrot     [Closed]
WHAT || Andres War Briefing
WHERE || Knights HQ, Round Table Room
WHEN || September 19th [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, please call dibs in the dibs plurk!

On the eve of battle, an impressive array of Knights gathers in the Round Table room of the castle.  The usually cavernous room seems tightly packed with this many bodies, and places at the Table are reserved for Wynn, the Section Heads, all those who have had any hand in the Talisman mission, including New York, and Christos, but who's going to argue with him, really.  The air buzzes with a mixture of impending dread and on some fronts, excitement.  It's hard to deny that there are those in the room who have wanted to make a move on Andres for years.

Wynn waits for the appointed hour, before nodding for the doors to be sealed and calling the meeting to order.  

"Before we begin, I'd like to thank each and every one of you, many who have traveled an extensive distance at a moment's notice to join us here today.  I understand that many of you have little idea what you have agreed to, but I hope that before the end of this meeting, you will come to understand what we are doing, and why it must be done.

Andres' Isle has been held under the sway of the man who calls himself their "Prime Minister" for nearly a decade.  In these ten years, he has turned what was once an idyllic country steeped in tradition into a tightly controlled fascist nation disguised as representative of its people.  

Andres is far from the only country to fall to such a fate over the course of history, and it has never been the prerogative of this Knighthood to enforce our own personal vision of some sort of world order onto any nation.  We are protectors of justice, and our enemy has always been both that which comes from the darkest depths of Shadow, and intolerance and prejudice that stems from this world. 

But Dimitris Sarandis has proven to be an exception, an embodiment of all the ideals we stand against, who has aspired to systematize the kind of violence and hatred that threatens the welfare of countless innocents under his rule.  He has used his position to exploit Shadowkind on the island to the point of conducting torturous experiments on them, designed to help him accomplish his goal of forcibly enslaving non-humans, so that they may serve what he sees as the superior race of homo sapiens.  

As if this were not enough, Dimitris knows of our existence, and wishes to tear down our organization, understanding that we pose a threat to all he seeks to accomplish.  To this end, he has conspired against us, kidnapped members of our organization and subjected them to brutal and vile torture, and attempted to blackmail us through detaining Sir Thomas Bancroft and now Sir Samcelot, into complying with his whims - to leave his regime alone entirely, to turn over our most ancient, powerful artifact, and for me to submit to death at his hand.  

Killing Dimitris alone will not stop the system he has created, and will not help free the people of Andres.  Most citizens of the country remain innocent, terrified into compliance, or completely ignorant of what Sarandis does behind closed doors.  These people deserve our help, and the only way to do so is to show them the evil that lurks at the heart of their government, gain their support in uprooting that evil, and assist them in stabilizing their country thereafter.   

To do this, we will need to go beyond the usual parameters of our missions, with a militant, strategic push into the island designed to seize the castle, and take down Sarandis' rule."   He pauses there, letting that sink in.  "What I will not stand for is a callous attitude towards the innocents who we seek to protect on the Island, during this insurgency.  Their safety will be paramount to our operation, and as such, speed is important to what we will be accomplishing.  Dimitris expects retaliation, but he also underestimates our tactics.  As such, rather than attacking the castle with an army, you will be deployed about the Island in a number of small teams, each with an objective that will help us cut off Dimitris from contact with his supporters, secure Sir Bancroft and Sir Samcelot's safety, free those who are imprisoned, and confront Sarandis, taking the castle in the process.

Details of these individual operations not withstanding, I imagine there are some questions.  I open the floor to you to speak."

Comments

[nosdacariad]

Well, to be fair, I worked pretty hard to make sure... no one did.

[witchwoman]

I know. [Still sort of flustered.] But I'm meant to be more in tune with everyone, aren't I? And all of our conversations- Well, they make sense now but I didn't put it together. I'm...

[She stops herself from rambling further and shakes her head.]

I'm glad you told us. I'm glad you felt like you could.

[nosdacariad]

That's mostly your fault, you know. I was sure that no matter what else, you'd understand, somehow. It doesn't change... anything I did, or what happened, but--

I'm just sorry, Myri, that this had to drag on so long. That I didn't do this sooner.

[witchwoman]

Please don't. [She gives him a weak smile, getting emotional over it.] Don't apologize or feel like you've wronged me or any of us for not saving something earlier. That doesn't matter. You never really lied to us, did you? You've said you're the same man I met, the same one I consider one of my closest friends. None of that was a lie? Because that's what matters to me.

[nosdacariad]

Of course that wasn't a lie. But you can't say it doesn't matter that I let this go this long. Hearing what happened to you and knowing that I had the chance to have prevented it and didn't?

[witchwoman]

None of us had any way of knowing that he was going to send Kyp for me. Mark, what happened to me wasn't your fault. [It was Des' fault. No jk.]

The only person to blame for that is him. It took me some time to realize that, to know that I didn't need to blame myself. And I'm certainly not going to let you keep that guilt for a moment longer.

[nosdacariad]

I might not have known exactly what his plans were, but I knew he was doing evil, Myri. And it shouldn't matter if that evil were going to be visited on my best friend or someone on Andres I've never met. I could have tried to stop him years ago, because no one knows better than I do what it means for him to be sitting on that throne, and no one has a better chance than I do at putting a stop to it.

And I... I waited. Almost ten years.

[witchwoman]

You were a child when it all began, Mark. Ten years is hardly fair. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you knew you for one year or fifty. You're doing something now and that's the important part.

[nosdacariad]

After what happened, I was never going to be a child again, no matter how old I was. Dimitris took what I had left of that, too.

[witchwoman]

[Myri nods in understanding. She had been on her own from a very young age. The loss Mark had seen would force anyone to grow up too fast.]

We can't dwell on what we haven't done. Nothing can change what has already come to pass. What we can do is make a better future. All of us. Together. You aren't alone in this. It isn't just your burden to carry. We love you. I love you.

[She reaches for his hand again, this time taking one of his in both of hers.] You're family, Mark. And that makes your family mine. We'll free them. All of them.

[nosdacariad]

[ he squeezes her hand, looking down at it, then drawing his gaze back up to her face. ] I believe it. You helped me believe it.

[witchwoman]

Good. I've done my job well, then. [This time, she manages a more genuine smile.]

And I won't let things change. We'll have ice cream sundaes and everything once it's all settled.

[They just... might have them in his castle. Which would be kind of fun, honestly.]<

[nosdacariad]

I hope when it is, that I can change your mind.

About Andres.

[witchwoman]

Promise me something? The facility he kept me in... The one he uses for all his mad torturous desires? Promise me we'll tear it down. There's blood soaked into the stone. I... I can't stand the thought of it remaining.

[nosdacariad]

I didn't really consider that up for debate. But hearing people talk about the entire island like it's-- [ he grimaces ] If there's a way to avoid bombing the whole palace and destroying my ancestral home, it'd... mean a lot to me to preserve it.

[witchwoman]

It's... difficult. We all knew that Sarandis took control of the country by force, but there was no face to the overthrown royal family- your family. I'm sure Andres was a much nicer place before. I just... It's hard to imagine it sometimes.

[Her mind flashes to the terrible things she's said about Andres. She can't take them back. And she did mean them, so she won't try to back track now. But she realizes that she's turned her hatred for the man into a hatred for the entire island. And that's unfair.]

[nosdacariad]

Well, I'm... hoping it won't take a great deal of imagination soon. I'll do whatever I can to bring it back, to the way it's supposed to be. To a place people want to belong to.

[witchwoman]

If anyone can do it? It's you. [And she truly believes that. No one has faith in Mark like Myri does okay.]

[nosdacariad]

[ he cuts her a private, grateful smile, reaching out to squeeze her hand. ] Guess we'll see.

Tell the others I'll be there soon, alright?

[witchwoman]

[She nods and doesn't say a goodbye because they will see each other not very long from now so that seems silly. With a final lingering smile, she lets go of his hand and heads off to find the group.]