GROUP 3: SO I OPEN MY DOOR TO MY ENEMIES—

[dipolar]

WHO? group three, see below links.
WHAT? hrhr: retreat missions.
WHEN? february 9th, you're here forever.
ANYTHING ELSE? planning and submissions.

CHARACTERS WILL ENCOUNTER THESE OBSTACLES:

—Locating the base and arriving without interference by the Turks or the Regency.
—Getting at least one person past the soldiers and into the base.
—Scouting the base and locating Atatürk without causing an incident.
—Handling soldiers who might interfere with attempts to reach Atatürk.
—Combating any Regency soldiers assigned undercover to the Turkish side.
—If anyone is captured by Turkish or Regency soldiers, you'll have to stage a rescue.
—Successfully gaining an audience with Atatürk and acquiring amnesty.
—Returning to Lone Pine in one piece.

RAISING THE DEAD AND SCOUTING, 18/30
yoshitsugu otani, dorian pavus, jon snow, jeyne westerling, sebastian michaelis, ashitaka, hei, noctis lucis caelum, chiron

"Raising the dead and scouting goes well, if not smoothly. You have to dodge enemy combatants the whole way, and it's a little hard to get the intel and supplies you need when you're also trying not to get shot. Somehow, you manage it! Probably through the power of positive thinking. And murder."

—chiron and hei do an initial scout to map out the turkish base and find entry points
—hei stresses that everyone stays with at least one other person so as to not get separated/held hostage
—yoshitsugu uses his spell to raise the dead for an hour to gather information about the turkish base/plans
—yoshitsugu experiences convulsions as a result of using the spell and dorian will use his revival spell on him to help him recover
—entire group stops to plan out specific teams and what they’ll been doing, team a and b are born
—sebastian recounts the letters he found in the tunnels verbatim to the group, mostly sharing the atatürk part
—entire group decides that non-lethal action is to be taken, so they can easily discuss terms with atatürk without killing his men
—noctis and jeyne act as contacts between their separate teams to keep information fresh and to relay important updates
—jon provides the bottom halves of turkish uniforms so their disguises can be put together; they steal the top halves from the dead soldiers yoshitsugu has raised because we're here to demean literally everybody

COMBAT WITH THE REGENCY, 13/30
hei, noctis lucis caelum, chiron, sebastian michaelis, ashitaka

"Combat is where things get difficult. While nobody dies, a few characters are seriously injured. You can decide who and how. Likewise, if you have anybody due for a kidnapping, now would be a good time. But, essentially, this is a close call. You lose ground to the enemy, some ANZAC soldiers might get caught in the crossfire, some precious resources may be lost! Your choice, but something goes to shit."

—chiron using magical detection to weed out the regency agents and the entirety of team b engages the three regency soldiers in combat
—hei uses his ability to shock memory out of the people who may have spotted them using their powers, with the exception of regency soldiers
—noctis will be using warp-strike takedowns to reduce their chances of detection, as they're near-silent and an instantaneous skill
—ashitaka gets kidnapped by the first of the undercover regency agents somewhere in the middle of this because he's literally and figuratively cursed, leaving them down a group member
—sebastian leaves team b and joins team a to fill ashitaka’s empty diplomat position, because he can do anything and likes to show off
—yoshitsugu avoids his kidnapping somewhere in the middle of this, with chiron on rescue duty to facedown the second undercover regency agent
—dorian will use blood magic in a desperate attempt to save himself from capture from the third undercover regency agent

ACTUAL DIPLOMACY, 16/30
yoshitsugu otani, dorian pavus, jon snow, jeyne westerling, sebastian michaelis

"Actual diplomacy is terse, if only because it feels difficult to get a foothold. Atatürk gives little away, and is very quiet and cautious in his delegations. He doesn't fill you with confidence. But in the end, he does come around, admitting to seeing your point. He'll do what he can to call a cease fire."

—team b attempts to come to an agreement and work things out with atatürk
—yoshitsugu attempts to talk atatürk down from a strategical point of view, "there's no sense in attacking when your enemy is already retreating"
—jeyne uses the locket to take the stance of women missing their husbands and lovers, as well as their children having no fathers; she's especially good at calming people when tempers run hot, as well as appealing on more personal levels
—jon speaks with atatürk on a personal level: "no more men have to die - i know you've watched your countrymen fall, i know everyone values bravery, we do too, but these deaths mean less and less when no one is fighting anymore”
—dorian has a gift for politics and has sat in on war counsels and engaged in political debates, making him approach this from a political angle
—if things start going badly, yoshitsugu will use his guilt spell to sway atatürk to their side of the discussion

Comments

[fessus]

[ Mud sucks at his legs with each labored step forward and he tries not to think about what he knows is likely behind him, able to imagine the appearance of a soldier at his heels with each passing second. It doesn't change anything. He wouldn't leave Hei alone then and he won't now, only casting hurried glances back when his paranoia gets the better of him.

His words are a sharp distraction, however, eyes immediately fixed low on a blood-spattered uniform where underneath he knows that futuristic tech lies, piercing into his skin just like Noctis's does. ]

Don't-- [ The first word of warning, heavily exhaled. ] Don't say that shit, don't even think about it... Got it? You're gonna' live...

That's the only way we're gonna' see it together, so listen to yourself...

[dipolar]

I'm gonna live... (repeats him dutifully, swallowing thickly around his tongue.

his throat bobs as he tries to form the words he wishes to convey, but his body — trying to cope through its terrible shock — is too weak to offer the support he needs. muscles are useless, shredding with the difficult job of keeping him tense and saving the blood that's managed to stay on the inside of his body despite dorian's best efforts to siphon his veins dry. if someone were to ask, hei couldn't begin to guess or describe how much of it has been washed afield... but not many questions are liable to be answered correctly right now.

noctis' voice fades into the background of his delirium.)

Dorian... blood. Where's he? (slurring speech indicative of organs being frozen in their lacking states, BCE kicking in and scrabbling to refresh him with a copy of a body backed up before the fight.) Regency. Kidnappings...

(all things important to note, or would be if he could get them out. his mind reels and tries to claw onto the vestiges of words that make sense and all he can do is hope to god they make it back before— the blast of a grenade from tens of metres ahead makes him clench his teeth together with a shaken breath, fingers digging into noctis' back as roughly as they can to get his attention. they were bound to run into danger crossing no man's land, but there's no doubt in his mind that this is what he feared.

because there are no more turk soldiers fighting, on ataturk's command. they succeeded. so the only ones left tearing across this war-torn graveyard are the ones trying to find them and separate them and take them.)

Fuck, leave me, run—

[fessus]

[ Dorian? He'd seen him earlier but Noctis hadn't witnessed the casting of the spell or indeed even its immediate after-effects, still angry at himself for not making it to Hei's side sooner. All he can assume is that Dorian is hurt too, but he doesn't have the time or energy to go back or the ability to carry one more body. ]

Calm down, stop trying to talk... I'll come back out here and look for him, okay? There aren't any-- [ The explosion cuts his words off as straining muscles hoist Hei an inch or two higher, jerking him closer to instinctively try to shield him from the blast. The stench of gunpowder rolls over him in a nauseating wave that adds more color to tanned skin, scrambling to take a few hurried steps sideways. ]

Shit! Shit, just... keep holding on, I'm gonna' try to run. [ He thinks to apologize for how it's going to hurt Hei, but for some reason his mouth won't form the words. It becomes a foggy desire instead, one he's so fixated on that he can hardly feel or notice the tiny dart now stuck into the back of his wrist, fired precisely when Noctis had dodged into a Regency soldier's line of sight. ]

... Hei... Hei, something's wrong... [ The last word is almost impossible to decipher as his voice goes quiet, his next step forward meant to balance a swaying form but his knee buckles under their combined weight. He hits soiled earth hard, slumped partly over his injured companion in a half-conscious effort to make the fall easier on him but he can't muster any ability to fight back. Not when everything around him's going black. ]

[dipolar]

(it's a sweep. hei recognizes the tactic. create a disturbance ahead so the targets flee in the opposite direction or off to designated sides for an ambush. he performed so many of these lures, how did he miss this?

panic spikes in his chest and not because of the danger they're in when the regency soldier appears in smoke and embers. noctis has been hit. he sees the slender thing that looks like a miniscule hypodermic needle, capsule of its drug affixed at the end and feeding itself like an iv drip into his comrade's wrist.)

Noctis, no, no— (cut off by their fall its unbearable pain, only managing a tortured gasp as his back hits the ground and noctis folds over him.

the jackals converge and circle at a distance, careful and methodical like contractors waiting for their opponents to sink in exhaustion and succumb. hei can't even summon the energy required to activate his abilities and stave them off or stopper whatever poison coursing rapidly through noctis' veins, well within the field of their nullifiers. this can't happen again, he can't have anyone else stolen from him. noctis bows above him and hei whispers nonsense, gibberish that sounds like rushed pleas — "don't let go, don't fall asleep, don't close your eyes, don't leave me."

one of the last thing he feels is the pull of noctis' arms out from underneath his back and legs. one of the masked agents grabs him by the ankle and yanks, action remorseless. his fingers try to grab at him, one of his only friends, blood-slick grip weak and too easy to pry loose.)

Take me, take me instead, please, please take me instead—! (another pull, body sliding away from him, his nails biting into fabric until the butt of a gun slams into his temple.)