Possession is 9/10 of the law

[raavashing]

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.

Comments

<3! No worries!

[solo_patria]

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."

[ruinsprofessor]

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.

[solo_patria]

"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."

[ruinsprofessor]

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.

[solo_patria]

"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."

[ruinsprofessor]

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."

[solo_patria]

"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."