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

[littledhampir]

[Wait for it. Wait. For. It.]

King Arthur?! [Things we file under the long list of crap that most people take knowing for granted unless thy're Rose Hathaway. Meet one of the few people around here who doesn't understand why their cover is the Karthur Institute.]

Can't say I hate having Team Badass as the back-up.

[moonheart]

Yep! They say he's the real deal, some kind of time travel slash parallel universe mumbo jumbo. He showed up a few years ago.

[littledhampir]

[Blink, blinkedy blink blink blink from Rose who completely misses any significance of this Arthur dude and ya know, figures he's just some Royal shadowkind type and that's really NBD to somebody bonded to a Princess so. GJ Rose. (Wis 6)]

The veil sure likes the - [Another Wisdom Check because Faith said a magic word. 19 this time.] Wait, parallel universe? [She remembers the word but she doesn't actually know what it means. (Int 8).]

[moonheart]

Yeah, like... what if everything was the same in this world except we were all Smurfs? Or I guess in Arthur's case, it's like what if everything were the same, but happened thousands of years after it was happening here for some reason.

[littledhampir]

[Why do people pop culture Rose? (Know PC 6.)]

Smurfs. [Nope. No bells ringing.] But that would mean, two Arthur's. Right?

[moonheart]

Well... except for the part where one died like a million years ago, sure.

[littledhampir]

Right... [No she still doesn't really get it, that's written all over her face.] But still. Two.

Is the Arthur here now and the one that died a million years ago exactly the same?

[moonheart]

How should I know? I doubt there's anyone hanging around who could really say one way or another.

[littledhampir]

[...] Good point. [God Faith you're supposed to know these things! Rose might actually have to do research now and we all now how well that will go.]

Who would I ask about that sort of thing? [Or she could just find somebody else to tell her. Much better plan.]

[moonheart]

You'd have to find someone who was hella old. I'm not sure anyone I know qualifies as that ancient.

[littledhampir]

Define hella old. [I'm a little sad she passed her will save to not say 'as in older than forty'.] When did this Arthur guy live anyway?

[moonheart]

Over a thousand years? Maybe up to fifteen hundred. I don't know, people still debate when Arthur was around, exactly.

[littledhampir]

Oh - What about Spike?! [(Wis... 7)] Vampire, plus. With hair like his you know he hasn't updated his look in a while.

[70's - 80s hair does not 1500 years old make, Rose.]

[moonheart]

Is he from this world?

[littledhampir]

[Crickets chirp.] I don't know. I just figured, ya know... old.

[moonheart]

Old comes in a lot of different flavors.

[littledhampir]

[Eyes narrowed.]

Yeah.... maybe I should just ask Gar. From what I hear she knows everything. [Wis. 20 tot.]

[moonheart]

Plus, they're friends or something anyway.

[littledhampir]

[Confused face.] Wait - Gar and Spike or Gar and King whats-his-face?

[moonheart]

... Both?

[littledhampir]

So... basically I should just, talk to Gar, huh.

[moonheart]

Couldn't hurt. When we get back, I mean.

[littledhampir]

Yeah... [A beat as the idea of 'getting back' sets in.] You every really wanted something to just be over with and at the same time, not so much?

[moonheart]

I guess. Sometimes I feel that way with missions. I mean being out there doing them is more exciting than just hanging around here but sometimes when things get really bad --

[littledhampir]

Heh, yeah I get cabin fever between missions. [She'd take living out of a car and cheap motels any day over being couped up in the Castle.] But I can, see how that would be.

[Not... really actually. She was trying to picture it and all she could think was that even if it was really bad, there was still a chance she could do something about it in the heat of the moment.]

Sometimes the aftermath is worse than the fight.