[Log : Open] sometimes the only road to take is the darkest

[aelwyn_aberration]

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!)

Comments

CLOSED TO KURAPIKA

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Aelwyn, noticing Kurapika on the couch, will drop down and plant herself on a chair nearby. Despite seeming pretty dejected for the last while, her spirits at least seem to be up at the moment.]

Are you in the mood for a chat? I figure I should probably give you some pointers about this place, considering I’ve been here a fair bit longer.

[Maybe Kurapika will stick around. If so, she’d like to prod him a bit, see if he can be trusted or relied on.]

CLOSED TO JEFF

[aelwyn_aberration]

Want to go out tonight? There’s a place nearby that’s reasonably quiet and I could frankly use the break. Actually scratch the question mark, be there or I’ll attack you with a swarm of bees.

[She knows how to make a point. But she isn’t prepared to be turned down considering she’s already at the place.]

CLOSED TO ROMELLE

[aelwyn_aberration]

[It’s a cold winters morning while Aelwyn waits for Romelle just outside the apartments. She got starbucks, considering she only sleeps four hours anyway she had the time to kill in the early hours when she could see her breath freeze.

When she spots her would-be companion, she raises an eyebrow at her.]

Ready to go?

[cacophonish]

i was gonna say yes before you threatened me with bees

now im gonna say FUCK YES

where?

[aelwyn_aberration]

Good! I'll call off the bees.

I'll send you the location. It's where I tend to go to get away from work.

[Or the prying eyes of the ADI anyway.]

[cacophonish]

ok be there in a few. i just have to make myself pretty

[ By which he means: put on something clean. Oh, but, one more text before he heads out: ]

want me to bring anything?

[aelwyn_aberration]

That'll take some work.

But no, nothing in particular. I'll be waiting.

[romelle]

[ Does she look ready? Romelle thinks she does! Except ready means she's wearing this atrocity with a pair of baby blue tights and a mercifully normal brown coat. Her ears are carefully hidden under her blonde hair which is braided - evidently, she has slightly better taste in hair than anything else.

Aelwyn gets a bright smile though, as Romelle remains largely unaware to the affront to good taste she is currently presenting. ]

Absolutely! I haven't been on a girls' day out in-- way too long, I don't want to count the years. Thank you for taking me, Aelwyn.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Dear god, this girl needs her help more than she thought. Oh fuck, how does she approach this tactfully. She told Keith his bright red jacket looked bad and he declared a blood feud against her that's lasted to this day.

Well, Romelle's not a man, so maybe her ego isn't as fragile as an uncooked egg. Maybe? Hopefully?]

...First of all, I absolutely love your braids, darling, they're adorable. [She has a braid herself, we assume, based on very inconclusive canonical character art. She hesitates on the next part... how to say this delicately.]

But um... do you want to borrow some clothes...? I don't know if that look particularly matches this world's... fashion? [SHE IS TRYING SO HARD. SOMETIMES YOU'RE AN EX-HIGHSCHOOL MEAN GIRL BUT NOW YOU JUST WANT FRIENDS.]

[chainreactions]

(Sometimes, a change in scenery does wonders when trying to get one's head around something. Therefore, he leaves his room and finds comfort on the couch, his hair in a ponytail to not get in the way of the intense reading--

Oh. She's never home, is she? This is an opportunity to prod her a bit, see if she can be trusted.)

As long as what you have to say is valuable, I'm all ears.

[aelwyn_aberration]

Lovely! Because what I have to say is always valuable. [She claps her hands together gently to start herself off, Melanie King style.]

First off, I imagine they've given you the whole speech on power usage, yes? That you should avoid using it because there's a massive cost that's not worth it in the end?

I don't go to the new orientations, but did they specify what it is for you yet?

[cacophonish]

you're right. i'll just save time and shoot for halfway presentable

[ Ok ok, he's wearing clean clothes (and... layers. Fuck this increasingly chilly weather.) and thus leaving now, off to meet up at the address Aelwyn sent his way! ]

[aelwyn_aberration]

[She sits at her table in the corner, and raises her drink at him as he arrives.]

Good evening, Calhoun. I trust you didn't get jumped by punks on the trip over here?

[chainreactions]

I'll be the judge of it.

(Listen, he had to put down his book!! She has yet to unlock the softness in this boy, anyway.)

Becoming an Avatar, correct?

[aelwyn_aberration]

[She's used to bluntness. At least it's honest. She just smiles.]

Not quite.

It's more just feeding the entities, and once you start feeding them you become more and more reliant on them the more you do it. It's more similar to an addiction than a pact. Do you have pre-existing powers, Kurapika?

[chainreactions]

Unless you disclose your own in full detail, I'm not discussing my own.

(But that being said, he's aware. He felt the delicious thrill of chasing prey. It was horrifying.)

[aelwyn_aberration]

[That answers her own question. Kurapika has power and is thus, already marked.]

I don't keep it a secret, darling. I'm an abjurative wizard. If you want a full list of my spells, I can lend you my spellbook and watch you try and fail to make heads or tails of it.

[chainreactions]

Then speed up the process. I'm not from your world. I don't know what that entails.

[aelwyn_aberration]

Protective magic. Wards, deterrants, runes, barriers, that sort of thing. Essentially, if you were to attack me randomly, at least in my old world, the attack would simply bounce off unless it could breach my external shield.

I do branch out into other schools, especially conjuration. I created a spell that can summon beings of pure elemental energy that serve my whim, for one. [A previous version existed but hers is vastly more overpowered. She won't get into how.]

[chainreactions]

Magic in my world does not exist. We deal with life-force, although it's not known to the general public.

(And likewise, he won't get into all the applications of that.)

I can conjure a set of chains, each with its own ability.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[That is. That is the same thing. Bitch, she's gonna kill you.]

Perhaps we can write out the details of our specific powers later, if we both prove trustworthy.

But brief tangent aside, the ADI are not receptive to the idea of creating a way for people with powers to feed in ways that allow them to recharge that power without causing too much damage. I believe Bonnie over at Bonnie's Flophouse is a bit more receptive, but still.

cw: drug use (brief mention, non-explicit)

[cacophonish]

[ Jeff's looking awfully chipper and bouncy today-- either he's in a good mood, or he's on good drugs. As he spots Aelwyn, he makes a beeline for her table, flopping down in the seat opposite of her. ]

Not today. [ He shrugs, careless and with a totally unearned confidence. ] They know not to fuck with me. [ Grin. Yeah, he knows he's absolutely not imposing in the slightest. ] What's up? How's it going?

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Well, that's a bit annoying. She'd preferred to have him sober.]

I have a proposition for you. [A beat.] Of the business kind, not the sex kind, but maybe if I'm drunk enough later.

[She just assumes he'd be into that because, like, look at her. But even though she's invited him out it's pretty obvious she's still in a professional mindset, because there's really no off switch.]

See, I noticed something that's a major weakness for all of us. And it's money. We're too reliant on the ADI for money.

[cacophonish]

[ Oh man, hooking up. The big, fuzzy, gray area question mark in the room. There's a topic he's been avoiding while trying to figure out just what the fuck he and Tim are doing.

...then again, the fact that Tim's been leaving him on read lately is probably indication enough that it doesn't matter what he does with other people. So, sure, it's on the table. Maybe. If they get drunk enough.

In the meantime: business? Jeff lifts his brows. ]

Oh. Yeah? What, uh... what kind of business? I mean-- [ He shrugs. ] I get by okay without the ADI's money.

[ Yeah, right. The only reason he can "survive" off busking and dumpster diving is because he lives at Bonnie's. ]

[aelwyn_aberration]

Oh yeah? Is that why you're living under Bonnie's roof?

[She raises an eyebrow.]

I'm not suggesting we all vacate Bonnie's or the ADI apartments, or even stop working with them, because I think that's stupid, and anyone who goes off on their own will probably just disappear into thin air.

But so long as we don't have money that doesn't come from them, we're pretty much powerless to take any bullshit they feed us. And I'm coming to you because I have no interest in doing this the legal way.