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apocalypsehowcomm2021-12-01 10:18 am
aelwyn_aberration) wrote in apocalypsehowcomm2021-12-01 10:18 am
[Log : Open] sometimes the only road to take is the darkest
Who: Aelwyn Abernant & YOU
When: November
Where: Around town, the ADI library and archives, the docks.
Summary: Aelwyn attempts to bury herself in work and schemes, goes house hunting, spirals in paranoia and rage.
Warnings: Paranoia, PTSD, referenced drowning, and that's it for now!
I. i bet my billionth dollar on a hopeless case (early november)
[Aelwyn has been lingering around the apartment complex ever since the event. She still does her work, she still shows up in person sometimes, and she’ll still wave hi, but it’s pretty obvious to anyone who knows her that she’s in a slump.
She’ll go out some nights and not come out until the next day, but today, for whatever reason, she’s sitting just outside the apartment staring up at the foggy morning. She appears to be smoking and wallowing at the same time.
Get you a girl who can do both.]
II. the devil on my shoulder has a knife to my face (mid november)
A.
[Back to work, Aelwyn has been hard at work in research, particularly looking into the Deadman family, the Lullaby Girl and the Fenix Down circus. One day, while stirring sugar into her coffee before returning to her desk, she’ll sigh and look to anyone in the library.]
Hey, are you busy? I could use a second opinion on something.
[She gestures to the computer she’s been using.]
B.
[This time, it’s after hours, late at night. Her energy is a lot less professional and calm and a lot more manic and bordering on paranoia. She’s obsessively reading over missing person cases, gnawing at her lip. She looks like she’s about to pop, given the amount of tension in her.
She’s been here the last few nights, trying to find something, and mumbling something about work if anyone asks what she’s been looking for.
And suddenly, with no real warning, she does in fact explode, and tosses her notes aside, sliding them and the whole keyboard off the table in a rage.] Fucking useless! I could’ve done all this in seconds and now...
[She simmers down in a moment and seems mostly surprised at what she just did before she goes to pick what she threw around and put it back on the desk without another word.]
III. you begin to understand you’re no hero in this story (20th of November)
[Aelwyn can be spotted on the docks, staring at some of the passing ships. She comes here, every now and again, to look at them. Cruise ships, cargo ships, yachts, the lot. All so full of people…
She’s experienced it now, drowning. She remembers what it was like. Kalina said it was you or them. Anyone else would’ve made the choice, or they’d have died. And now, they’re dead, and you’re alive. It doesn’t matter now.
So, it’s some kind of contradiction when she just can’t stop imagine these ships sinking suddenly, and all the people on them struggling in vain to get to the surface, to swim to safety even though nowhere is safe. Penelope said that killing made her feel like a god. Aelwyn lied and said the same, when in actuality all it made her feel is sick.
Why did she come here? She can’t even remember. And then her eyes zero in on a large, expensive yacht, docked right there, and a bunch of people – children, really – only a bit older than her partying on it. They’ll be gone in the morning. She could sink it. She could sink it with all of them on it.
It’s unsettling. She hadn’t realized she was hunting, so she turns away to go back home and leave that well enough alone, breaking out of her disturbed trance. It takes her a few moments to realize she’s not alone, but she’s glad to be freed from her own mind.]
Do rich people normally buy giant party boats here? Were my parents just unimaginably boring? I never got one of those.
[She knows the answer to that, her parents were in fact unimaginably boring.]
IV. you’re just another wretched pawn (December 1st)
[Some time in the middle of the day, you might find yourself receiving a text from Aelwyn.]
Feel like taking a day trip to Rockport? Work related, naturally. I’d go alone, but I don’t want to end up missing.
V. Wildcard (DM me and we can work out a closed prompt!)
When: November
Where: Around town, the ADI library and archives, the docks.
Summary: Aelwyn attempts to bury herself in work and schemes, goes house hunting, spirals in paranoia and rage.
Warnings: Paranoia, PTSD, referenced drowning, and that's it for now!
I. i bet my billionth dollar on a hopeless case (early november)
[Aelwyn has been lingering around the apartment complex ever since the event. She still does her work, she still shows up in person sometimes, and she’ll still wave hi, but it’s pretty obvious to anyone who knows her that she’s in a slump.
She’ll go out some nights and not come out until the next day, but today, for whatever reason, she’s sitting just outside the apartment staring up at the foggy morning. She appears to be smoking and wallowing at the same time.
Get you a girl who can do both.]
II. the devil on my shoulder has a knife to my face (mid november)
A.
[Back to work, Aelwyn has been hard at work in research, particularly looking into the Deadman family, the Lullaby Girl and the Fenix Down circus. One day, while stirring sugar into her coffee before returning to her desk, she’ll sigh and look to anyone in the library.]
Hey, are you busy? I could use a second opinion on something.
[She gestures to the computer she’s been using.]
B.
[This time, it’s after hours, late at night. Her energy is a lot less professional and calm and a lot more manic and bordering on paranoia. She’s obsessively reading over missing person cases, gnawing at her lip. She looks like she’s about to pop, given the amount of tension in her.
She’s been here the last few nights, trying to find something, and mumbling something about work if anyone asks what she’s been looking for.
And suddenly, with no real warning, she does in fact explode, and tosses her notes aside, sliding them and the whole keyboard off the table in a rage.] Fucking useless! I could’ve done all this in seconds and now...
[She simmers down in a moment and seems mostly surprised at what she just did before she goes to pick what she threw around and put it back on the desk without another word.]
III. you begin to understand you’re no hero in this story (20th of November)
[Aelwyn can be spotted on the docks, staring at some of the passing ships. She comes here, every now and again, to look at them. Cruise ships, cargo ships, yachts, the lot. All so full of people…
She’s experienced it now, drowning. She remembers what it was like. Kalina said it was you or them. Anyone else would’ve made the choice, or they’d have died. And now, they’re dead, and you’re alive. It doesn’t matter now.
So, it’s some kind of contradiction when she just can’t stop imagine these ships sinking suddenly, and all the people on them struggling in vain to get to the surface, to swim to safety even though nowhere is safe. Penelope said that killing made her feel like a god. Aelwyn lied and said the same, when in actuality all it made her feel is sick.
Why did she come here? She can’t even remember. And then her eyes zero in on a large, expensive yacht, docked right there, and a bunch of people – children, really – only a bit older than her partying on it. They’ll be gone in the morning. She could sink it. She could sink it with all of them on it.
It’s unsettling. She hadn’t realized she was hunting, so she turns away to go back home and leave that well enough alone, breaking out of her disturbed trance. It takes her a few moments to realize she’s not alone, but she’s glad to be freed from her own mind.]
Do rich people normally buy giant party boats here? Were my parents just unimaginably boring? I never got one of those.
[She knows the answer to that, her parents were in fact unimaginably boring.]
IV. you’re just another wretched pawn (December 1st)
[Some time in the middle of the day, you might find yourself receiving a text from Aelwyn.]
Feel like taking a day trip to Rockport? Work related, naturally. I’d go alone, but I don’t want to end up missing.
V. Wildcard (DM me and we can work out a closed prompt!)
no subject
[She says, with a brittle smile.]
Tell me, how do you know me?
no subject
I'm quite observant, and you are hard to miss. I mean that in the best way possible, naturally.
no subject
[Never mind that she hasn't actually done anything too awful here; never mind that her motivation to do so is low, even if her willingness is high.]
no subject
Oh, I'm sure you're that too. My standards are a bit skewed.
no subject
[Callisto asks, with genuine curiosity. This woman feels the most familiar out of everyone that Callisto's met so far - though that's likely a bad thing as much as it is a good thing. As much as she craves connection and understanding, she also hates herself: and it would not take much to extend that hatred towards people who remind her of herself.]
no subject
[Her smile's a bit hard to read. Halfway between genuinely amused and a bit sad. She doesn't really have the energy to lie like she normally does.]
And also my world's just different. If this organization existed back there, they'd be a lot more violently proactive and a lot less prone to having their agents wind up dead or missing. People here don't really get that.
no subject
[She says matter-of-factly. It is what it is, and self-hatred aside, the times she's appalled at herself are few and far between these days.]
If you get it, then what stops you from seeing it done here?
no subject
[She smirks, crossing her arms with a playful tilt of her head.]
I'm limited in what I can do, considering we're all just low-level sacrificial pawns in the eyes of the organization, and even among my fellow pawns, I'm quite outnumbered, but I certainly have plans for the long-term. And a few for the short-term.
no subject
[She absolutely can't, as her wry little smile hints.]
no subject
I'd make a joke about planning an elaborate ritual and ending the world, but some might take it seriously.
I'll just pull myself up by my bootstraps and make it in this great capitalist society. Hard work and obedience is the way to success.
no subject
[Your words are a mystery, Aelwyn.]
Do you really care about all that? This world isn't yours. Why should succeeding here matter?
no subject
No, that was all bullshit. [Well, most of it. Success... She shrugs.] But succeeding is important to me, no matter where I am. I just hate losing, I guess.
And I'm not overly attached to my own world when there's billions of others to choose from. Big picture.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Starting over's not quite it. More like ditching the dead weight and continuing without it.
What's stopping you, if you don't mind me asking?
no subject
[She catches a whiff of the smoke coming off the cigarette, and automatically inhales.]
My dead weight is all stuff I'd rather hang onto.
no subject
[She considers, is there anything she wants to keep hold of?
Adaine. You already abandoned her twice.
...Nothing that's not better off without her.]
What's your dead weight, then? Love? Hate? Patriotism? Ambition?
no subject
[Is the one thing she picks out of that list, her expression hardening.]
Revenge. Justice, of a sort.
no subject
[Justice... How noble. Aelwyn's not sure if she relates, but she understands spite.]
Want to talk about who you have this grudge against?
no subject
Xena.
They used to call her the most terrifying, most ruthless, most destructive warlord anyone had ever known. People quaked, when they heard her name. I did, when I was small. So did my family - before she murdered them.