ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 1

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: Early/Mid November
Location: Under the shell
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The Foreigners had begun their counterattack by trying to possess the Great Turtle whom Malicant had taken, and although the movement had failed, some vital information had been uncovered. Under the shell lay Malicant's weakness, and inside the Dreaming was where he could be fought.

Any help from the kedan is uncommon. They're wary, watching, as a group beginning to lose sight of the community. Their family groups are more tightly-knit than ever, and any approach from the Foreigners is answered by suspicion at best and violence at worst. That makes daily life difficult, when the majority of the city refuses to have much to do with them. Why aren't you doing anything? they seem to say. What good are any of you? All you've done is make things worse. We'd be better if you'd never come.

The Foreigners are unwelcome in Keeliai. The cultists are becoming a majority. Now is the time.

There aren't many left of the Foreigners left, but inside the Dreaming the limitations of the waking world no longer exist. For every Foreigner and their worlds, their loved ones, this is the chance to make themselves safe for good. And all of them will be needed.

---

LINKS
Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC Plot Post

OOC
There are two main headers, one for preparation at the Hotel where Milyn and Eva will be available to speak with The second section where they will be able to search the caves beneath the Shell inside the Dreaming to find the Vilii Stone, and where the boon'd characters will be affected. If you are threading something that doesn't fit one of those categories, just add it to the bottom of the post. Questions go to the plotting post, please! Once the Stone has been acquired the second half of the plot will go live in the logs comm.

Comments

:D looks fine to me!

[solo_patria]

Right. At that point, Enjolras glances at Sokka, and has to snicker at the commentary.

"That is a good point. It doesn't do to doom us before we've even gone, now does it?"

And he hardly means to be so grim as he is right now, even in the case of Malicant. It is more the fact that the last time he was involved in something like this, he had neglected a great deal of his responsibilities as a friend and as a leader, and he'll not neglect those things again. Perhaps it is more the memory of 1832 weighing on him a little, though he does not see his inevitable death in this, only a possible one. Possible is better than probable, and he is fine with risking possible.

That said, he does have something to say right now, to the person in front of him.

"I have appreciated coming to know you a great deal. I would hope that we have more time for things of this sort in the future. Boomerang lessons, for one. Well, after I sleep for about a week." He jokes, feeling better with that, and Sokka's presence in general.

"That said, the needles look a little terrifying. I have not exactly had an injection before."

[theideaguy]

"Exactly!" exclaims Sokka, feeling a bit of the camaraderie. "Trust me when I say it that there's plenty of doom out there waiting for us; it doesn't do any good to bring it in here." Okay, perhaps those aren't the most inspiring words that have ever been penned, but it's at least the truth.

"I've appreciated getting to know you as well," he adds a little more thoughtfully. "It's weird; this is like the second really big battle I've ever been in, and the first one technically hasn't ended yet, since that's when I got zapped here." He looks to Enjolras with a grin. "But I think that one was going pretty well? So hopefully this one replicates the success."

Though the talk of the needles is a little terrifying. "Wait, they're going to stick those needles into us? Is THAT what they're for? I thought we were going to leave them behind as traps!"

[solo_patria]

"Oh certainly not. We've been lucky enough here to avoid attracting humanity's, let alone wherever one would file this. Is it?"

He studied Sokka with interest there. He'd known his fellow turtle-parent had done fighting of his own, but they'd not talked about those experiences with any length before.

"I can certainly hope that your success lends us a bit of luck, then. The last large fight I was a part of, my barricade fell and my lieutenants and I, and our volunteers all died. But for one man, at least. I should say we were triumphant enough in the legacy we left behind us, but even so...it would not be the best of odds for this.

Of course, the time before that one, when I was not quite in charge of more than myself and my men, the lot of us throughout the city managed to overtake it, and the King and Parliament stole our revolution so, my luck in general, if we go back track records, is less than impressive. They say the third time is the charm. I can only hope they are right. " And then he paused, looking a bit thoughtful.

"I have quite often wondered who 'they' are meant to be or represent."

Ah yes, the needles. Exactly. Enjolras bites his lip at the question, tugs at one of his earrings and nods grimly. "Rather. I am told they are varying degrees of painful, depending upon what one puts into them and the sort of needle used, but I suppose if it is necessary..." He shakes his head there, looking a little horrified.

"I've had my veins sliced open and been bleed when my doctor friends thought it necessary but this seems...different somehow. I am not certain I entirely approve. I will do it, of course, but I do not approve." At all.

1/2

[theideaguy]

"The third time is the charm, huh?" Sokka says musingly. Just how many battles against the Fire Nation has Sokka fought. Certainly more than three, and certainly only a couple of them were decisive victories. At least the only times he's been decisively defeated isn't that high. "For me, let's hope that the umpteenth time is the charm. I've completely lost count.

"But that said," continues Sokka as he segues to another topic of conversation, "the battle ahead depends upon a battle of intelligence and ideas. We may be the underpolar-dogs in this fight, and... maybe we are. But I don't want to go into this battle thinking that we don't have at least a small fighting chance? The only thing we can do is try to streeeeetch that small chance as big as we can, right? Besides, I've already told you I've lost at least battle, so you're in good company. And really, if we don't strike now and win, given how disliked we are by the kedan, we might as well just give up and go home... if we can even figure out how to do that."

Best motivational speech ever.

"But seriously, the past is in the past. Let's just focus on this battle right now."

2/2

[theideaguy]

He pauses before adding, "Well, that and getting big needles poked into our flesh."

Sokka's eyes tear up a little bit with that last bit.

Re: 2/2

[solo_patria]

"Lord." Enjolras mutters, at the thought of the needles, and the tears. He's...well, it certainly is not helping when it comes to his own nerves regarding those. Sure, they are a small price for the chance against Malicant they'll provide by way of advantage he does not entirely understand, but even so, the idea of them is not particularly fun.

"Perhaps we ought not to focus on it so much until it is happening? Not thinking of painful things that must happen to you until the moment you cannot avoid it any longer has proved to work fairly well in my experience before. " Sure, it occasionally creeps into your mind as it is, but not focusing on every detail of an experience did at least make the time between it happening and the actual event go a little smoother.

"Let us hope either way this action is our charm, though?" He suggests, instead. "And no, I agree that we are lost if we do not carry some hope for victory into this. We are ready, whatever ready will mean. I see no reason to think we are not ready for success, and I trust you, and several of the others fighting with us. We can do this. I think that matters."

[theideaguy]

Sokka is a man of rather intense emotions. He knows it's best to delay fretting over things until the time comes; he just... well, can't do that... at least easily. Though distract him into thinking about something else, and that will be the ticket.

"I suppose though, though trying not to focus on something is about as bad as focusing on it itself," he says with a bit of frustration. "I mean, that involves actively trying not to remember the thing you're currently remembering." Or something like that.

But there is another venue to go off on. "We're as ready as we can be. I don't know what's outside those doors, but we've done as much as we can to think of everything that could be outside them. And if we're completely unprepared for what actually is out there...." Well, Sokka leaves that unspecified; hopefully they'll be able to escape it. "But we're going to do everything we can, and that's better than just sitting around and waiting for some magical flying fishopotamus to come by, wave its magic fins, and fix everything for us.

"So let's go do this thing. Even if only so we can get it over with and don't have to do it again."

[solo_patria]

"You make a good point." Enjolras wrinkles his nose a little, laughing as he considers that. Sometimes trying to avoid things does make them seem worse. "What is it that people always say? Do not think about the elephants in the room, and then you end by thinking only of the elephant?" He shook his head a little. "Ah, sometimes that IS true."

Yes, yes, there is another venue, and it does seem safer. "If we are unprepared, well, we will figure out something that works." He allows, nodding at that. "No holds barred, and..." He blinked at the mental image.

"Ah...I suppose it is, at that." Did Sokka's world have something like that? He found it hard to tell, still, where he was joking and was not.

"Good enough. Getting it over with is likely for the best."

[theideaguy]

Everyone keeps referring to these imaginary animals. Sokka has more or less gotten used to it, but that doesn't mean he's going to just kowtow to them when he's making animal-related analogies. "Well, the moment I think of just an elephant will probably be the day that I think of them all the time," he muses, a little bit of humor in his voice. Maybe, accidentally, that will half-answer the other question Enjolras has. Of course, the answer was that Sokka was being humorous at the same time as he's making an actual reference to a real thing.

"Alright, well I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Time to get stuff injected into my body, I guess. Hey, if I don't see you out there, good luck, and try not to die on me. I'd still rather have someone to help me with Taraja at the end of the day."

[solo_patria]

Oh right. Like Wan and the idea of deer as opposed to catdeer. Enjolras pauses, smiling as that sinks in. But, yes, the point is clear, and he is grinning.

"I suppose you would not know elephants then. I've just remembered that. But if I said not to think of one, you would probably still wonder what it is, so there is that point, I suppose." He winks a little, finding that humor there.

"Good then. And the same, though perhaps we might try to find each other. It would seem to be a bad idea if I could not help getting you back to her as well. You are good for her." He added, smiling.

"I think she's learned to be less...I was rather too serious as a boy, and think I might have been accidentally raising her in the same sort of way my parents did with me. My father was very good to me, always, but I think...we did not laugh so much, or step outside of very many tightly defined standards of behavior. It made me rather solitary later on, and things were...harder when I met new people. You've taught Taraja there is room for laughter and creative thought, and ingenuity in the tight places." And, to a degree, he's taught Enjolras the same.

"She'll need us both if we can manage to make it happen. So, please keep yourself alive as well. Provided," he adds, winking, "That these needles do not do us in just now."

[theideaguy]

Ah yes, Enjolras knew about the hybridized animals. That saved a lot of complicated explanation, and for once Sokka is happy that he doesn't have to go through, yet again, with the oddity of the animals of every other world.

"Those are the gifts my swordmaster Piandao told me I had when I learned from him the way of the sword," Sokka explains. "Well, perhaps not as much laughter, but the other ones certainly." It was actually quite amazing how close he got to the list of things he had received praise on all those weeks ago. "But hey, I couldn't do any of that without your help. So good job on your part too." He points to him with a half-wink, coolly giving his co-parent a well-deserved compliment.

"But yeah... first, survive the needles. Then, survive the Creep Lord. At least we have our priorities down."

[solo_patria]

Yees. He's met one of them, anyway, which sort of helped with the whole wrapping his head around the idea of things as different from his reality. It does beg the question of what other animals in other worlds might be like, but that is for another time.

"That makes a good deal of sense." Enjolras nods, considering the idea of laughter carefully. Perhaps it was a bit of a word choice that needs to be expanded on. "Perhaps not so much laughter as an ability to see a positive in any situation. That is important, encouraging. And well, we do our best, at that, but thank you, truly. I am glad we've been in this together.

Something like that, at least." He adds, at the issue of priorities, there. "We should be able to have both done."