tushanshu_logs | Possession is 9/10 of the law

Entry tags:

Possession is 9/10 of the law

Characters: Anyone helping Wan attempt to counter-possess Asti; Malicant
Date: Sat. 10/25
Location: Various TBD
Situation: Wan is attempting to possess Asti; others are acting as distractions/helping power boost
Warnings/Rating: Will post them in subject lines when/if needed

The log is going to be broken up between the following Event 'points' just to manage them easier:

Pre-Possession Power-Up (Mingle for those powering up Wan before his group heads to the Turtle's Head)
Pre-Distraction Meet-Up (Mingle for the distraction teams to finalize tactics or throw caution to the wind)
Possession Attempt (The actual possession attempt)
Distraction Group One (Headed up by Dante, this group is going to be dealing with the cultists directly)
Distraction Group Two (Network distraction group and/or different group of cultists)
End of the Day (for people to deal with the fallout of the event if they want to do so in this log)

ANYONE can tag in and take part in any of the threads except the Possession Attempt itself - that's closed to Wan, Valdis, Zuko, and Katara so the group is small and less easily noticed.

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Raine leans over to look at the pamphlet in question, noting the locations and the probable courses of movement. "In truth, I'm used to something a little smaller in scale," she says absently, considering their options. "How skilled are you at defending yourself and others? We should be able to cover each other, especially when moving."

Hmm. He's thought this through, at least, and she's not finding any immediate fault. "I'd agree that pushing for the hospital will likely be too risky for the moment. The Hotel works as a fallback, and I know Anton keeps some healing supplies to hand as well." A pause, thinking over the rationing of her skills. While she can expect some regeneration over the day, and she has some food tucked in a pocket, she doesn't have a massive backstock of gels; she's going to have to work sparingly, to the minimum. "I can get the wounded we can reach on their feet, at least, which will solve some of the problem of moving them."

She surveys the immediate area again, and the place he's set up. "I'm under the impression most of the people volunteering for this are experienced combatants," she says finally. "Patients, yes, but don't forget they're fighters, as well." What she's getting at, a little obliquely, is that there's a point at which healers have to be all right with sending their patients back into danger.

"And I've not coordinated this sort of thing when it comes to healing. That was the work of Joly and Combeferre. I've learned a bit from him, and from the hospital, but..." Enjolras is pausing for a breath and a tug at an earring to calm himself, and then looking back to Raine, his expression settled, at least.

"I can provide cover, yes. Nothing in the way of projectiles, unfortunately, but I've trained my other skills since then, and can be a distraction with a blade, which I've actually managed to acquire and become accustomed to. A grip here, is, thankfully, close to the grips I used at home, and I've been known for being fairly fast.

I've also got a device for protection that will set off enough of a distraction that would allow for vacating a situation if one needed. I can activate it and get you out of a bad spot, or you could do the same as we need it. " He's nodding toward the device of Tony's. "I trust the young man who fashioned this with not only my life, but would trust him with Taraja's too."

It's different from when he was leading things on the barricade, trying to protect his friends as he could, though that often meant cautioning many of them to stay back or hold their fire. He can still, when pressed, defend someone for a short period of time.

"On their feet would definitely increase the number we could send back out to fight." Enjolras sees the point of that rather well enough. It does no good if they hold people who might continue to protect them back when they can be made ready to step in and take up the fight again. "Anything less would be impractical."

Still, he's prepared, as he can, against the possibility of having anyone coming to them and dying. There are always chances, in the fray that something might give way to that. Too many wounded at once, perhaps, diminished energy, things like that. Perhaps it is simply the nature of what he noticed his friends doing at the barricade, when they could be spared from fighting.

"I think that they would not appreciate being held back from the fighting, somehow."

What Raine takes out of the first part is that he's a swordsman, and this irrationally warms her to him a little more than previous encounters, perhaps solely for nostalgia's sake. "That's good. I can give you some support, should I have enough time. All of my artes take a few seconds of focus, whether offensive or defensive, however. If it comes to a full-out fight, I'll have to rely on you to give me that time." She'd rather someone she knows a little better, but Enjolras has always been straightforward and helpful; she can put her faith in him for this much.

"Ah," she says, when he points out the device. "One of Tony's. Yes, I know him." That's a high mark of trust. She's not sure she'd agree, yet, but Enjolras' trust says something. "I have a shield he crafted, as well. It won't last long, but it may make a difference nevertheless."

She pulls her own out of one jacket pocket to show him briefly before stowing it again. Unlikely that if she goes down he'll have time to get to it, but at least he'll know where it is. "No," she agrees. "They won't. Which means our priority must be to get them functional enough at least to run, if not to fight." Which may mean she has to be rather more precise about her mana rationing than usual, depending how long the day goes, but it shouldn't be impossible.

"Altogether, you have a solid base plan and this location should work well enough." She nods, satisfied for now. That may change with contact with the enemy, but that's only to be expected.

Enjolras has not used the skills in an actual fight so much as he's been in bouts before, fencing being the one typical hobby of the rich that he'd taken to enjoying enough to actually practice at home. He's been using it more often here, too, since the last landfall, when he improved some of his skills, and as things started to heat up here. He's rather glad he's done it now, along with the skills he learned for some defense.

As Raine speaks, Enjolras is nodding, licking his lips, which feel a little dry.

"I can manage that, I think. I have before." He's not adding that the time 'before', still ended with his friends', then, later on, his own death. It had hardly been a proper foil he'd worked with then, either, but a rather large staff he'd found. Since he'd practiced again here, he'd purchased a decent foil, and been working at it.

"Oh good." He's nodding at her device, and, just in case, where she's storing it. "Yes, Tony is good at what he does. At least, better than I can imagine being when it comes to this sort of thing." Really, He has no idea how the kid manages it. Even Combeferre and Leo, working together, wound up doing more along the lines of, well, blowing things up.

"Functional is a good place where I can come in." he adds, "If you can get those who are badly hurt to a level where I can step in, and make them suitable to go back to the lines, it may save you some resources to move to someone else."

If her powers work that way. Enjolras gained his so recently, and so randomly, in that dreaming realm, that he is rather unsure of how it might work for others.

"I had hoped so." He allows himself to smile a bit himself. "I suppose we'll find out for certain once it hits, but at least now we seem prepared. I am glad of that much."

If all else fails, Raine can swing a large stick with a fair amount of efficacy, but things will go much smoother if Enjolras can buy her precious seconds to cast. "Good," she says, nodding. It may not come to that, but no sense in being unprepared, especially since most of the other Foreigners are going to be making themselves targets.

His suggested apportioning of duties is good, as well. It's about what happened during early days at the hospital, when her efficiency hadn't yet been boosted: heal the worst, make sure no one is in immediate danger of dying, handle the rest via mundane means as possible. "That'll work nicely, yes. I think that's about as much as we can reasonably prepare for." For the rest they'd simply have to adapt on the go.

But there was going to be a little time yet, before anyone came to them, most likely, and the waiting was always the hardest part. Raine goes to pace around the immediate area, looking at both the immediate environs and how Enjolras has laid things out.

Seconds Enjolras can manage as they're needed. And if all else fails in his case, he's learned enough self defense techniques at this point to buy a little more of that time. He's hoping it doesn't come to that either, but as things go, well, better to be prepared against the possibility, especially because in this fight, their deaths are not going to mean a thing other than that Malicant's claimed another casualty. There's a problem with that as far as Enjolras is concerned, and he's not going to let it happen. Hopefully there's enough skill laced with the conviction to at least give them a chance.

While Enjolras was not working in a healing capacity at the barricade, it seems the most reasonable option based on what he's seen the others do, and also on the fact that at the hospital here, he's sometimes dealt with the minor things, stitching, bandaging, and setting limbs and the like, while the actual doctors used their skills for the more urgent injuries as they've come in.

"Rather." Anything else, well, he might very well be following Raine's lead when it comes to that. For now, he's joining her, taking another walk about, surveying the perimeter as he goes. And this is when a few things occur to him.

"The last time I had the chance to speak to those who were directly working with me in a fight, I did not manage to convey my thoughts," His feelings, really, "To very many of those who stood with me. I am grateful for your presence here, and that you were able to help me before." From Enjolras, something like that means rather a lot, and that's not the only thing he's had to say.

"I...if anything should happen, I've left a note in my pocket." To make it clear, he's indicating his waistcoat with a sewn in pocket, rather than any others. "Nothing earth shattering, but some thoughts for the people I've come to know here. Hopefully, it should not come to that. I intend not to need it."

It's a reassurance to have someone with her, even someone she knows only this well, and when Enjolras joins her in her circuit Raine exhales a little of the pre-fight tension. She's not alone and they're as prepared as they can be. It's enough. It will have to be enough.

When he starts speaking again she splits her attention between the perimeter and him, because this sounds important. "Of course," she says after a moment, in response to his thanks. It's not something she usually expects thanks for, healing, because it's just what she does, but she does appreciate the sentiment. "I'm happy to have helped."

And Raine memorizes the positioning of the pocket he indicates, as well. "You shouldn't need it," she says, after a moment. She's not going to let anyone die if she can help it, and if he doesn't die instantly she can probably heal him. "But should it come to that, yes, I'll ensure it gets to the right places." For her part she's pretty sure the people who she'd want to say things to know how she feels; it's not something she's honestly considered until now.

It is much better not to be alone in this, true. Enjolras had been nervous about that very fact. Alone, he would not have been enough, but now they can manage to scrape by with what they have. Because, yes, they have to.

He's returning Raine's answer with a serious nod, his face calmed enough, though he takes a moment to release some breaths as well, his thoughts turning to Combeferre. Enjolras knows, without a doubt, that he would have been here now, were he still on the island, and there is something of the training that he's gotten that means anyone he manages to help will have been helped, in fact, by Combeferre's own skills, simply passed down a little. There is a comfort in that, and a new confidence that, whatever happens, things will be as they should.

"Good." He's aware, really, that healing for himself is obviously possible, but even so, there is a part of him that holds to pre-battle traditions that were part of fighting in Paris. "Old habits die hard, I suppose."

And the friends that he has here are friends he has not known long, or well enough that they could know his mind the way les amis were. And there is also Taraja. Should anything happen to her... He's putting that thought out of his mind before it is fully formed, looking ahead to the moment before them instead.

"But, no. We will be all right. And so will all of them."

That's a good sort of optimism to have. Raine can't quite believe everyone's going to come through perfectly all right, but she wants to, and Enjolras' words are a nice thing to hear. She's reminded of one of her students, and she smiles just a little, for nostalgia's sake more than anything else. "Yes," she agrees. "Yes, we'll make sure that happens."

And if she says it aloud, maybe she'll believe it a little more.

"Old habits?" Raine asks neutrally, after a few moments more of space. Not quite idle curiosity, if they're going to work side by side she'd like to know more about him. And there's a dearth of activity at the moment, so it's that uncomfortable place of anticipation, just waiting for something bad to happen. She's certainly not expecting anything good.

It's not as though Enjolras is certain that it is a sane thing to think, but, well, he cannot help but believe it anyway. He knows perfectly well it could all end rather worse than he is predicting, but this has also reached the point where everything but his job is well out of his hands, so he'll focus on the positive thinking aspect of all of this, where he is sure things will go well. And maybe he's started believing it more too, since he said it.

"Old habits." He agrees, "At home, well, the worst possible outcomes often came about. The abilities of even our best doctors were not a guarantee and we had no healers who can work with spells and such. Much of the fighting that we did was fairly...bayonet wounds, many wounds, were fatal even while a man had yet survived an initial injury. Death was far more likely as an outcome there with no healers like you, and not quite so many advancements in treatment. I learned here that we had a long way to go, then. And I suppose, it was as likely we'd be executed at any given moment. Some of us were, though I was in the last two of those to fall.

Setting plans in order is left over from Paris because of that reality. Here, it is still different, but I suppose I derive comfort in the old attempts at ensuring all would be well, though they seem far less necessary precautions here."

Believing it really is half the battle, sometimes, as much as pragmatism would like to say otherwise.

Raine nods, tucking the information away into her mental picture of him. No magic, high risk of fighting, tactical knowledge. And he'd died, before he came here, which wasn't wholly surprising any more. "A war?" she asks, which seems most logical given what he's said. Though execution might suggest something a little more treasonous; most soldiers don't outright get executed when their leader surrenders.

"Even if those precautions turn out to be unnecessary, taking them can only help," she adds after a moment. Past actually surveying the area, she's taking up pacing, chafing a little at the waiting. It makes tactical sense to be a fallback point; they don't have enough healers to spread among everyone. She's just used to being a little closer to the thick of things.

"We certainly considered it a war."

Enjolras has never been quiet about his past, and now is definitely not the time to begin being that. Instead, he's allowing himself, just a moment, to slip a bit from the tight constraints he's held himself to so far here, and to think of Paris, all the heat, the scent of powder on the air, Bahorel collapsing just like that, Prouvaire's words demanding that the future live on, a smile from Courfeyrac, Combeferre's hand on his shoulder, the words Long Live The Peoples! etched into a wall, even Grantaire's final decision and declaration that he was one of them. He's smiling, as they rush through, taking the moment to thank, and to exist with each of his brothers, before he's clarifying the statement.

"The National Guard called it an Insurrection. Both sides of it were right." He adds, a hand sliding to an earring briefly, then back down again. "They killed nearly all of them before I was ready to give in, but for one of them, as I said, and I suppose, at home, we've been billed as either idiot students wanting to change the world, or terrorists of some sort." He shrugged at that, not quite admitting or denying anything when it came to those statements. It was only that sometimes, when there were no sane or simple options left, violence became the only alternative.

"True." He agrees. "And it stands against the day, whenever it is, that I am recalled to home, after as well." He's fine with leaving that behind if nothing else. "I take it your experiences add up quite a bit to this."

There's something about his words that rings a bell of familiarity with her, though emotionally rather than anything else. "Idiot students wanting to change the world," Raine repeats, and it sounds fond. "There are worse things to be. I have some of those, myself."

And they succeeded, which is still half a miracle sometimes when she thinks about it. "There were nine of us," she says out loud, reflecting. "Months of fighting, journeying across the world to try to put it right. The dynamics were decidedly different than they are here, of course, but many of the same principles apply."

A pause, and she adds, quieter, "I'm sorry." She means it for his loss, because she can only imagine losing so many of her friends, and hopes she never has to do anything else.

"There are indeed." Enjolras agrees. "If that is all that we were seen as, well, the truth was known amongst our brotherhood, and the republic. I can be content with things along those lines." He smiles at the mention there. "Do you? That is well, then, I can hardly sound so stupidly idealistic to one who understands."

Nine of them, to put the whole world to rights. Enjolras finds himself nodding at that. His brotherhood of nine had striven for the same, and well, at the heart of it, all stories about putting things to rights do have principles that match up all the same.

"They do at that. And thank you. I saw many of them again here, for a while. I am not certain whether I was able to convey to them everything I'd wished, even here, but...it did not all end in tears, I think."

Idealism's a lovely thing, which burns and warms in equal measure. But she does understand. "I don't speak of them much, here," Raine says, reflectively, "but I think of them often. Good people, all."

It really isn't so uncommon, she guesses, to see people from your own world here. She wonders, briefly, if it's a good thing or a bad thing that she's seen no one from hers. They're safe, they're not being dragged into all this... but all the same, Lloyd or Colette or any of them, really, might be able to do wonders for the cause.

"I'm sure they knew how you felt," Raine adds, and it should be a platitude, but it isn't, not quite. "Even if you didn't manage to put it into words. Oftentimes our friends understand more than we think."

"Ah yes." Enjolras knows the feeling. "I could not speak of one of them at all until very recently, myself, despite him being on my mind quite often, and for the others...I think I miss them too much to allow myself much speaking of them. I must not devastate my thoughts, but wait until the day we're reunited."

He does believe that they will all see each other again, and that, now that the others have all left this world, that they are waiting for him in the corner of some far off cafe, catching each other up and chatting until he arrives, and they can venture forth into the bright new world to come. Heaven, he is sure, if he's earned it, must be something of a republic after all. He longs for it, and them, with an intensity that he can not describe, but in the meantime, he's been put here to do a job, and he must be the one to see it through.

As it is, he misses them very much, now that they have come and gone. But it was good for him, he guesses; having gotten to know some of them in a new time and place. They were all his best friends and brothers, but here, in a place of relative calm, even as the war had been building, he'd come to understand, if not to know them, and that made him happy, in a way. He wishes Bahorel, though, had managed to be here for this. The older man had been a constant, with a strength and passion that could not be rivaled, and he'd have thrown himself into this eagerly. Even without powers, he could have done much as well. And, well, perhaps.

"I hope that it was clear enough. Friends do know each other very well when they are so close as we were." He agreed, smiling at Raine's assessment. "Perhaps my actions served well enough." He certainly hoped they had.

"I hope that they can do the same just here."

Edited (damned tenses! (AGAIN)) 2014-11-21 20:49 (UTC)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Possession is 9/10 of the law

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wow sorry i just realized i've had this tab open for like a week

<3! No worries!

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