andres ♔ are we wrapped in black paranoia

[koraith]

♬ wood - second person

WHO || Koraith, Tia Ellison, Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin, Jackson Whittemore, Gold, Belle, Grimrot, Dovan Ironsides, Miles Cuivre, Jaina Solo, Penelope Sariel, David Levin, Davin, Derek Hale, Richard Riddick
WHAT || A team of Knights is tasked to contact the residents of the Shadow Village on Andres Isle, recruit those who are willing to aid them, and protect the others from harm
WHERE || Andres Isle
WHEN || September 19th, 2014
HOW || Actionspam

[ The two groups tasked to deal with the denizens of the Shadow Village arrive on the bank of the river that bisects the capitol city of Andres in half.  The river slopes down from the woods and city around it, meaning that they're afforded a bit of concealment here, unless anyone stood at the top and looked down.  At this hour of the night, however, there's no one around.   Dovan grumbles a bit about 'blasted magic' as they shake off the disorienting sense of vertigo, while Koraith waits for Belle to confirm they've arrived in the right place.  She pats Gold on the arm as she pulls out her phone, and moments later, she nods to the others in confirmation.

The water laps gently nearby against the rocks, and in the distance, a bridge is visible that links the segregated Shadow village with its thatched roof houses, to the city proper, which seems lined with wealthy manor homes.  ]

Comments

[behindcloseddoors]

It's Matt. [ hey look she remembered! gold star. ] Speaking of naked, though... [ she moves forward to shut the door ] You want to give us a second? If I'm going to go drum up a place to gather an army, I'd rather do it fully clothed.

[immuno]

Obviously.

[ She turns away from the door, looks at Stiles with a certain amount of criticism, and then glances away, back to David. ]

Are you the only one that followed us? Where are the others?

[generaldavideus]

Dovan and his team are covering the road into town. Koraith and Gold both took groups to go drum up support. I'm supposed to be backing you guys up and scouting for soldiers in the city.

[And he manages to not make it sound like he volunteered to keep an eye on them because they're just squires and Tia was questioning their safety on their own (diplomacy 20 total).]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ anira pipes up, still staring at the closed door like wtf nyna. wtf. ]

There have been more of them coming through recently. Some kind of... shoot out in the streets, the other night.

[killingtodeath]

That was actually-- [He looks at Lydia and David.] I think that was us. Well, not us but Vi's team.

[Yeah, they are Vi's team to him. Because he likes her best and the rest of you haven't talked to him /shrug.]

[immuno]

A shoot-out that our people won, for the record.

[ All but one coming back counts as a win. ]

[generaldavideus]

[That's not really what David is concerned about, however. A larger military presence to start with in the city makes things a little harder to get a message out discreetly, or to gather everyone somewhere to form a plan of attack.]

Have they been getting more violent?

[behindcloseddoors]

[ she folds her arms, lips pursed ] They're never openly violent, so to speak. They drive around in their menacing looking trucks, sure, but everything they actually do to people is behind closed doors. We hear stories, secondhand. No one sees anything.

[generaldavideus]

[He rubs his chin a bit as he considers this, trying to figure out the best way to go about this.]

Do they have a place within the village where they take people? Or is it all done up at the prison?

[behindcloseddoors]

They come right into people's homes here. We're not legally allowed to deny them access.

[immuno]

Well they won't be doing it anymore when we're through. We need a place to gather people. So we can start funneling the people who want to get out to safety, and arm the people who want to help us fight. Is there anywhere in town that you go for meetings of some kind? A church, or a school?

[behindcloseddoors]

[

nyna's door opens, and she's fully dressed now, and yanking on what look like gauntlets of some kind. ] Not town meetings in an official capacity, but there is a school, yes, and a few different churches. The temple of Helm is probably the largest, and most defensible. Have you brought weapons? They confiscated almost everything any of us arrived with. Searched our homes and all. Took my ancestral blade.

[byrned]

[ And low, just a step or two behind Nyna, Matt follows, also fully dressed, and wearing a Guinness tshirt like he gets extra Irish points for that or something. He'll just... listen to everyone else for now. ]

[killingtodeath]

We don't expect you guys to just jump in unarmed. We're just here to rally the troops. Actual battle plans will probably come along with weapons and a some sort of battle cry practice.

[immuno]

If this works out how we want it to, we'll get your ancestral blade back for you. We don't have anything on us, but once we have a location to gather, we can start bringing equipment for however many we can arm.

[behindcloseddoors]

Well, then. [ she looks pleased with the answer, cutting a glance over her shoulder at matt ] Then what are we waiting for?

[ to the church! ]

[killingtodeath]

[Oh my god they did it? That's pretty awesome. And then they took a stroll over to the church. Stiles takes some time to pull David back from the group so he can elbow him in the side.]

Pretty sure the elf has the hots for you. The first one. Pretty sure the sister has the hots for the guy she was banging. But hey! 50% elf success rate! Nice job.

[generaldavideus]

[David's lips press together, amused for the moment, before shaking his head and dropping his voice so that the elves in question don't hear him.]

Not now.

[Later. When, you know, they're actually winning. Though this he directs to both Stiles and Lydia.]

Speaking of weapons, what do you guys have on you?

[Because he's assuming you have some form of self defense.]

[immuno]

[ A beat. She looks between them, then defensively to David: ] Don't look at me. I don't carry weapons.

[generaldavideus]

[David's eyebrows go up a bit at that, but he tries not to jump to the conclusion that Lydia is an idiot right off the bat.]

Do you have magic?

[Because a lot of magic users don't carry weapons, mostly because they can throw fire or something.]

[immuno]

Technically speaking ... it's complicated. [ ~it is a mystery~ ] Made less complicated by the fact that I'm here to smuggle people out of danger. Not charge into it. [ staring at David like yeah who's the real idiot here. ]

[generaldavideus]

[ ...............................

David just stares at her, dumbfounded, for the longest time, because wow, does she hear how stupid that sounded? He comes to a stop and faces her fully, clearly not being congenial anymore.]

What part of "we are going to war" did you not understand? Did you think that smuggling these people out of here are was going to be as simple as walking them peacefully down a freaking garden path?

[He's keeping his voice low so as not to attract the attention of the locals, but his voice is no less serious.]

How can you expect to get them out of here safely, if you can't even defend yourself? Just because you're on a diplomatic mission doesn't mean you can't get killed just as easily.

[immuno]

A war that we had twenty-four hours to prepare for.

[ Her voice grows tight and she steps in close, toe-to-toe with him and voice just as low and sharp. ]

Now I don't know what backwater town you went to high school in, but mine didn't teach firearms safety. Given the choice between finding a way to smuggle—yes, smuggle, not battle—as many Shadowkind as possible out of this city without being caught and putting a bullet in one of my teammates because I thought I'd look cool carrying a piece, I made the call that keeps the most people alive.

[ She leans back, straightening her back. ]

Historically speaking, carrying weapons has always been more likely to get people caught and killed when trying to help anyone cross national boundaries, anyway. But I'm sure you were too busy playing with your sword to bother learning anything about that.

[byrned]

[ Matt is a few steps behind, watching the little band of would be heroes ahead of them. He hears them 'discussing' (listen 17) and steps up, throwing an arm around Lydia, and another around David. ]

You know you guys are just filling me with confidence over this whole thing.

[generaldavideus]

[There's a point in Matt's direction, before David fires off a quick:]

Shut up.

[Then he turns back to Lydia, clearly not deterred.]

I'm from Chicago originally, actually. But I didn't finish high school. Because I spent most of my teenage years in situations like this one, trying to keep my teenage ass from getting killed. And I learned a few things about war in the process.

[He points with one arm back towards the direction the soldiers are coming from.]

These soldiers aren't going to care if you're armed or not. They are coming here to torture and possibly even kill these people. They're not going to care if you're not one of them. They will gun you down without a second thought, because as far as they're concerned, you're just another obstacle to them getting what they want. You're not human or a person - you're a piece of meat.

[He takes a step back, his voice not broaching any more of an argument about this. She's a squire, he's a knight - a junior knight, but he's still the one with the most seniority right now. And he's doing it to keep her safe, and he hopes that shows more than anything else.]

Not all weapons are guns. You don't want to carry one of those, fine. But when the stash of weapons gets here, find something you can use and hold onto it. You might need it.