Settle The Score | The Assassination of Fenix Down (Player Plot Open-Log)

[aelwyn_aberration]

Who: Aelwyn + Anyone Who Wants To Be Involved In This Assassination
When: April
Where: Around Gloucester, Springfield, the Circus, assorted other locations.
Summary: A murder is planned, executed, and staged. The details are yet to come.
Warnings: Discussions of murder, actual murder, blackmail, espionage, gaslighting, TBA.

[Several months ago, following the Circus' initial visit, Aelwyn was given permission to take down Fenix Down and his circus. Now, after more recent revelations about their unseen enemy, the plan has become a higher priority.

The plan is as follows. To ensure that this doesn't implicate ADI, a false cult will be created for this specific purpose. They'll keep the entity behind it vague, but one must be selected to ensure anyone paying enough attention would be able to identify it. They'll create conspiracy theories, fabricate old reports from decades ago to make it seem like this group is only recently being resurrected.

And then, with that done, they'll execute the plan itself. Staging the kidnapping and murder as if it was the act of that cult, and an extensive interrogation.

OOC Post here!]

Comments

PRIVATE NETWORK

[aelwyn_aberration]

This serves as a private place for those of us involved in this plan to communicate the details remotely. While I am open to suggestions, there are a few ground rules that need to be set before we go any further.

1. This doesn't leave this group. If I find out you jeopardized all our lives and ratted us out either to the circus or to some other bleeding heart who would stop us, I will come after you.

2. Fenix Down is going to be captured and interrogated and then he will die. This is not up for negotiation. It is far more expensive, impractical and dangerous to keep him prisoner. This wasn't my decision, but I agree with it anyway. If you can't stomach that, you can walk away from this. Nobody will blame you.

3. Keep magic use to a minimum, and reserve it only for extreme situations. We are being monitored by one of Nia's agents.

4. This is very unpleasant business. There are parts of it that you might not be able to help with, or that you might not want to be a part of. I understand this. There is no shame in it.

With that in mind, we can more or less begin.

[OOC: Put your network top-levels below here! Threadjacking welcome and encouraged.]

THE ENTITY IN QUESTION

[aelwyn_aberration]

We are running out of time so I'd like to simplify this argument. We need to settle on an entity sooner rather than later, so guess what. There are websites on which you can make polls.

Let's just vote here.

un: supertemp; text

[thedoctorsmate]

Does anyone have a summary of what happened with this guy?
More specifically, what he can actually do?
And is there some sort of Entity that's associated with water?
If he's fire, we could do some sort of fire vs water spin.

@jelica

[musicdied]

The Buried covers drowning and suffocation, which are both very good ways to deal with fire.

The Vast has fear of the ocean, but I think that's a little too tangential to be very useful.

[thedoctorsmate]

Ugh... more of the Buried.
At least we got a 'good experience' with that one recently.
Fresh in people's minds...
Might be easier to work with in terms of coming up with things for postings.

[musicdied]

It could be.

But we've encountered enough nightmares that someone could probably draw on experience for any of the options.

[thedoctorsmate]

How long have you actually been here?
I keep thinking someone needs to make some sort of survival guide.
Or just, like... a record of things we've all encountered.
Maybe what we've done to fight back and what actually worked?

[musicdied]

Almost 9 months.

I keep records. They're mostly for my own reference, but I wouldn't mind translating them into something other people could use.

But I think it would be mostly useful if we encounter the same threat again.

text; un thearchivist

[the_archivist]

It depends what about water you're afraid of. There isn't a 'water entity' or anything like that.

And the fire is tangential. It's the destruction, the pain, the fear of loss and hurt.

[thedoctorsmate]

Right, but a theme gives us something to really work with, marketing-wise.
There's got to be one of these ones that would lend themselves more to water than the others.
Yelena suggested Buried.
Thinking that might make sense.
Snuff a flame?

[the_archivist]

Buried or Vast are probably your best bet.

I'd be inclined towards Buried. It's the... crushing pressure, squeezing, rather than the terror of the ocean being unfathomably huge.

[thedoctorsmate]

All right.
That's sorted if we want to play up the fire vs. water angle.
What about the Slaughter?
I was getting sort of confused between the Hunt the Desolation and the Slaughter when they were explaining all that.
Could we have a sort of rival angle for the types of fear they're gunning for?
They all want to hurt people in some physical way, right?

[the_archivist]

Hunt is possibly one of the oldest. The primal fear of being hunted, chased. Fear of becoming prey. With them it is the hunt that is important, more than the catching of whatever is being hunted.

Slaughter is the fear of violence, unpredictable, sudden. The fear of not knowing where, how, or when pain will come but that it will. It could be a frenzied mob after a football match, or cold, like soldiers firing on a battlefield.

Desolation is fear of loss, of pain, and cruel destruction. Someone is causing you harm because they know it will hurt you, rather than any other goal. Setting fire to a- a place beloved by the community, just because it will cause them pain.

Those three can overlap. Desolation gets a lot out of war, and I imagine there are a lot of hunters amongst soldiers.

But it doesn't have to be physical harm. It's the fear that's important. You can make someone fear being hunted without ever touching them. You can destroy someone's life without physically harming them - destroy their reputation, the people they love. And I think the entire Cold War proves that you can be scared of Slaughter without it ever physically happening.

@jelica; text

[musicdied]

Just Fenix Down?

We should consider how to keep him dead. We've seen Pyre's parlor trick. I'd be very surprised if Fenix can't do something similar.

un: Aberration

[aelwyn_aberration]

Just him at the moment. Do you disagree with that course of action?

But yes, I had a similar concern. Our ADI supervisor suggested nirogen dioxide, and said that bullets likely won't work. And then, on the other hand, from my own research, apparently some avatars of the Desolation can be made of wax. Which lends itself to a number of difficulties and opportunities.

That's one thing I'd like to find out on one of the scouting runs.

[musicdied]

I think leaving the rest of the cult standing is a risk. The best case scenario is the cover holds and they either scatter, or decide to retaliate and make themselves a problem for whichever entity we're scapegoating. That still leaves them to cause problems later, and we can't guarantee the fallout will be that contained.

That would explain the wax in the train cars. And Pyre's everything.

Nitrogen dioxide isn't a bad idea, as long as Fenix isn't interested in chemistry.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Thank god someone who wasn't her said it.]

I wouldn't opposed to taking out the other avatars at least. The humans could be a problem but without the direction of an avatar they'll be less effective.

On the other hand killing everyone sends a much stronger message.

Still, I figure that'll probably be a hard sell.

[musicdied]

You're right, it probably would be.

Just the avatars is a reasonable compromise. They're the ones who would be harder to hit later, if we need to.

I'd be surprised if they've promoted again, but whoever is scouting inside the circus grounds should watch for signs they've added to their number.

[aelwyn_aberration]

Even just selling people on killing one person has been more difficult than I would've thought, but I think just the avatars is a decent middle ground. Though... I suspect the higher ups at ADI wouldn't be opposed to doing an entire sweep of the circus, provided we could avoid blame being laid at our feet.

Oh? Why would you be surprised?

THE PLAN

[aelwyn_aberration]

The finalized version of the plan is as follows.

The Shadowcats will be portrayed as a cult of the Dark, with elements of the Slaughter. Their M.O will be in plunging entire streets into complete darkness and then leaving destruction to be discovered when the lights flicker back on. Largely benign and simple in their fanatical worship of the Dark, they mostly travel place to place and cause minor incidents. That is, unless crossed, in which case they will leave corpses in their wake. Sometimes just one, sometimes a group, once it was an entire riot squad.

As such, we will be plunging the circus and the surrounding streets in a complete and total blackout. We'll do this after we've captured Fenix, who will be lured out shortly before we take out the other avatars. We have been advised to avoid relying on simple bullets for this. Freezing them with liquid nitrogen will work and allow us to prevent them from regenerating, as will contaminating them physically with sawdust and then blowing them up or decapitating them. Human casualties are to be avoided, but it's expected that some of them will get in the way of their own free will, and the priority is the safety of our own people. If they do get in the way, aim to incapacitate. Ideally we'll leave them discouraged about continuing their little act.

Our targets are Fenix, Penny and Roderick. Fenix is the only one to be taken alive.

You've all done really well so far, and I'd like to personally thank those who've taken part in the whisper campaign for all the help. As for the ones who are getting started now? Good luck. And stay safe.

un; mkblackwood

[lowficharm]

Just to be totally clear-- and I'm not saying I want more killing, just thinking practically-- but... Are we sure only Fenix? Because if they ever find out it was us who did this, provided we get away with it, they're going to come back.

[aelwyn_aberration]

Martin, I'm surprised at you, I had no idea you had this unquenchable thirst for blood.

We're settling for all of the avatars, leaving the humans alone. Enough to put the fear into any remnants and convince them to maybe not come back.

[lowficharm]

You know I don't!!

Look, I'm just concerned someone is going to track this back to us. Or they'll blame someone else and someone innocent will get hurt. If we're going to do this we should... you know. Not leave loose ends.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[She was joking before but she is actually a little concerned about how gung-ho he is about killing people to make things easier for them.]

Every crime has loose ends. We've given them a culprit to chase, and given enough dead ends that they'll tie themselves in knots trying to chase a shadow on the wall.

I understand what you're saying, but if we kill everyone the demand for retribution will be so much higher than one case of spooky triple murder during a blackout.

Also, we don't get to decide what makes a person innocent frankly.

[lowficharm]

We're already deciding what makes a person guilty.

And I'm not advocating for mass murder. But what about the others he keeps close? We know Pyre has to be in with it, and if he keeps Penny and Roderick that close they're all probably at least aware. Trust me, I don't like this, I'm just trying to get the least amount of people hurt.