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

/throws a wall of text at you

[littledhampir]

[Later, Rose is probably going to be angry at herself for dropping her guard like that in front of Faye, for showing some sign of weakness in front of somebody she still thought might not only be inclined not to throw water on her if she were on fire, but was probably the one to have made her that way in the first place.

Right now though? Getting a Sense Motive of 19 was really helping things, Rose even relaxing just a little, enough that she didn't seem half as guarded as before though she did seem to be more in control of her emotions, not quite the open book she'd been a moment ago and Rose manages to nod her head, looking thoughtful as she presses her lips together.]

Yeah... [She frowns, mostly because she's not entirely sure what to say, those lines on her forehead threatening to become a permanent fixture as she rolls it over.

She'd never seen Faye as anything more than some bratty little bitch who seemed to take great pleasure in trying to screw with her and she'd been okay with that, even if she hadn't always been okay with how that played out. She expected the worst from Faye and the other girl always managed to live down to Rose's expectations ; Not that Rose had ever behaved in a stellar manner but still.

A lot could happen in a few months though. She'd said as much to Dean. She'd had as much proved to her all day today she'd just never expected to be proved wrong about Faye Chamberlain, to be surprised, pleasantly or otherwise by the person standing before her now.

Silence lingers a moment longer as Rose finally tries to pluck some thought from her head and put it into words.]

I think maybe you're not the same person I met when I first got here... [It was the weirdest form of compliment that anyone could manage but it was Rose's strange way of acknowledging the difference between that first Faye and the one she was looking at now, maybe in some small way acknowledging the difference in herself. Eighteen months ago, Rose wouldn't have been able to say something like that to anyone, least of all Faye.]

The fear? [Not making a whole lot of sense at first and yet oddly enough, despite her age, this wasn't the first War she'd fought in and her fingers brush the back of her neck, absently touching the Zvedza mark that was inked on her skin. Faye had given something of herself and whether it was readily apparent or not, this was Rose's twisted way of doing the same.]

It goes away. More like, becomes something else? Fuel, I guess. [Her lips twitch, an almost frown, mostly because even though Faye can't know it, this is something Rose has never talked about before.]

There's going to be a moment when you're out there when it's going to hit you that this is insane because... you're way too young for this crap and you don't want to die.

[This doesn't sound comforting, but she's going somewhere with this.]

But you just, you remind yourself why you're doing it. If you can remember why you're doing it then the fear doesn't matter anymore because you have something more.

[reallywicked]

Pretty sure I could say the same about you. [Before, there would have been punches thrown by now, or one of them would have just walked away in a huff. Having a real conversation with Rose Hathaway is the very last thing that Faye ever expected to find herself doing. But there's no snarky response to Rose's advice. There's no brush off, no insult. Faye just listens- she really listens, and she nods.

After having your nose broken twice by someone, you're forced to recognize that they may know a bit more about how to win a fight than you do.]

I know. [She speaks up, because she does. She gets it. She felt it while trapped in the facility in Germany. It wasn't the same, exactly. It wasn't an outright battle, but there had been moments when Faye wasn't certain if she was going to make it out alive. The fact that she was simultaneously facing the mortality of people she cared about only made it all the more vivid. Two of those people would be on her mission team. Lila and Emma. And it made everything easier and harder all at the same time. She couldn't just look out for herself. That 'something more' that Rose was talking about would be standing at her side and in just as much danger as she was.]

Fuel. [She repeats Rose's wording, her lips slowly lifting in the smallest sort of smile.] I like that. [Fuel to the fire is definitely the approach she plans to take. Her spells have increased in power quite a bit since Rose last had the chance to see them up close and personal. She's not going to show off, because she knows that magic has limits and wasting it here would be foolish.

Faye straightens a bit, taking a half step back, because they aren't really going to have a friendly chat. They aren't friends. But at least they don't have to be enemies. She glances over her shoulder, as if looking for someone, when really she's just trying not to fall into old, bad habits in an attempt to keep from feeling vulnerable. So before either of them slip up and ruin this very shaky bridge that's started to be built, Faye turns back to Rose and smirks, that usual smugness now laced with a sense of camaraderie rather than combativeness.]

Give 'em hell, would you?

[littledhampir]

[Rose opens her mouth, not even sure what remark is going to fly out but in the end, all she says is an honest; ]

Yeah. [She's really not the same person that she used to be, she just hadn't known that until today.

The I know would normally have been met with a no you don't from the Dhampir but surprise registers in her eyes when they briefly catch Faye's and it hits Rose that she does, she's not just paying lip service but there's a part of her at least that actually gets what Rose is talking about. Another person might have found that sad in a way. They were the same age; These two girls shouldn't know what it meant to face down death but it earns Faye some grudging respect from Rose, whether she'll admit it or not.]

That's the plan. [The corner of her mouth curves up into a half smirk that mirrors Faye's and it hits Rose that this is in fact the first time ever that she's been in Faye's presence and hasn't had so much as the urge to cock her fist back and break her nose. Again. They were never going to become BFFs. They were far too alike for that, whether either girl knew it or not but that didn't mean they couldn’t coexist, maybe even have each others backs some day. Stranger things had happened; Look at her and Dean.]

And Faye - [Before the other girl can disappear and Rose would be left wondering if this conversation actually happened.]

When in doubt? Nuts or hair. [The first casually delivered line of the conversation from Rose.] It's dirty but it works.

[There we go, matching smugness and that was Rose's own way of sorta saying; I'd prefer you didn't get dead. If she actually tried to say that it probably would come out all wrong so you take your wins where you can get them, especially with these two.]

[reallywicked]

[Faye doesn't say anything further, not needing to get the last word in, especially because that is some damn fine advice. With another nod of acknowledgement, Faye takes an additional step back before rocking back on one heel so she can pivot and head off elsewhere.

Maybe if they both survive, they can trade war stories and see if they can manage a second conversation without killing each other.]

/fin

[littledhampir]

[Rose just kind of, watches her wander off, shaking her head though amazingly enough, because she was pleasantly surprised and not because she was angry.

Maybe they actually could have that second conversation if they both survived? Or if nothing else... maybe they could just both go to the same place without a high chance of blood being spilled. #progress.]