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

[henchgal]

The Media Relations team is here to help with the false reports. Meredith's heading up a crew who are writing, editing and posting the blog posts, news articles and other neat cult-related nonsense.

When she's not hunched over a keyboard (though let's be honest, Meredith is currently spending a lot of time hunched over a keyboard), she can be found with hard copy of what other people have written, editing with a red felt-tip pen in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

Feel free to help, or to take the approved reports and help post them online--Meredith needs computer-savvy sorts to make sure it looks like this has been going on for a while.

(She may also need reminded to eat and sleep. She's in Work Mode hardcore right now.)

[aelwyn_aberration]

Do you want coffee or tea?

[That's Aelwyn's sudden statement as she approaches Meredith's table during the late hours of the night. A better person would, rather hypocritically in Aelwyn's case, dissuade Meredith from working too hard. But Aelwyn is someone who has also never fully been able to wrap her head around the idea that maybe more hard work isn't always better.

But she doesn't want Meredith running herself into the ground either.]

[henchgal]

Coffee. Sugar and some sort of dairy if we've got it on hand.

[Meredith glances up at Aelwyn, offering a mild smile.]

We've got a mostly-consistent timeline going for the cult, with some information that they'll have to search for. You know, make them feel like they've worked for it. Like a chunk of brownie in a tub of ice cream, feels better when you need to dig it out.

[Which makes her pause. Food metaphor because she forgot dinner? Maybe.]

[aelwyn_aberration]

Excellent work.

[She looks over the timeline with an appraising smile. Meredith knows her stuff. It's one of the things Aelwyn likes about her.

She makes a curious hum at her description of ice cream, because that's so different than what she's already had and now she's a bit curious, and a bit hungry. She walks past her and starts up the coffee machine.]

I'll take your word for it, I suppose. Have you taken a break at all today?

[henchgal]

Malcolm brought me lunch, and I stepped afk to eat it. That counts as a break, right?

[But it’s well past sane hours for dinner. More like ‘order Taco Bell and suffer’ hours, now.]

[aelwyn_aberration]

It's 9pm, Meredith. [She considers, before sighing.] There's a 24 hour place I know. They do decent hamburgers and chips.

[She patently refuses to shorten it to burgers. And also refuses to use 'fries' like a common fool. Of course they're fried? They're very visibly fried?]

Probably a good opportunity to talk shop anyway. [You know, away from ADI's potentially prying ears and eyes. She figures Meredith will probably catch her meaning.]

[citizendetective]

"How's it going?" says Misty, leaning into Meredith's space to try to get a look at whatever she's working on. She's in Investigations and Medical, not Media Relations, but she's contributed a thing or two all the same - and while some of it might have needed to be thrown out for being just a little too out there, other ideas of hers have been solid.

"Hey, you know, I've joined up with a couple crime forums since I got here; I could probably post about some of this...?"

[henchgal]

"Yes, that'd be amazing--though please spread it out and make sure not all of it's current. Things like 'that reminds me of something that happened a few years ago' is really useful, because we're building a history."

Meredith nods, looking up at Misty. Her computer has a dual-screen thing going on, one with a spreadsheet for incidents and dates, one with a word processor where she's blurbing out some of those incidents for a blog.

(It's entirely possible Misty's seen Meredith in medical from time to time; Mere's got some chronic illness bullshit that means regular check-ups are a must.)

[citizendetective]

"Oh, yeah, definitely; I never tell anyone online who I am or that I'm with ADI, so for all they know, I've lived here my whole life. So how are those joints feeling?"

She segues abruptly from one topic into the other, leaning forward to squint at the blog-oriented screen as she does so.

[henchgal]

"Functional." Which is not actually an answer to the question asked, but Mere always feels like a real piece of shit whining about chronic pain. She hurts. She always hurts. It's nothing new.

(If a day came when she was completely without pain, she'd have no clue how to feel about it. It's a constant within her life.)

[thedoctorsmate]

"Hey," Donna's just a little breathless as she leans into Meredith's cubicle. She's toting an extra coffee and offers it to the other woman. "I've been looking into some conspiracy websites for postings. Think I found a backdoor in one of them we can exploint to put up posts dated in years past. Should give us some good coverage in the mid-2010s, I was thinking. That's when the site got started.

"Whatcha think, boss?"

[henchgal]

"That's perfect. As long as you're sure it won't be traced back to you, full steam ahead. Are you writing the articles, or do you want me to send some to you?"

She accepts the coffee, lifting it in a friendly toast before taking a sip. "If you are writing your own, please have someone glance over them for any stray Britishisms. I love hearing your talk, but that might send up a red flag."

[thedoctorsmate]

"Nah, they're security's awful. I'll just use a VPN. And can I say? Loving how much easier things have gotten. It's wild seeing how much things have come up since 2008. I'm used to jumps over, like, centuries, or whatever." But anyway.

"I did put one article together, but wouldn't say no to a few more. And you look swamped with all that. Any recs on who could look mine over? I try to be professional, but you Americans dun' know how to spell anything, you know?"

[henchgal]

"Ainsley Whitley, if I'm not free when you need eyes. She's a reporter, I trust her with American English. Also, these are conspiracy bloggers--perfect writing wouldn't be the ideal. Good misspellings, local slang for wherever you're writing from, text speak or appropriate emoji for the time, that's all only going to help."

She grins. "As for bad security and VPNs, I leave the deeper tech stuff to everyone else. I worked for a tech CEO, so most of what I knew was how to talk to dumb machines, like printers and working PowerPoint for him."

Another, longer sip from her coffee. "And Donna? Thank you."

[lowficharm]

Martin isn't really the kind of person who advertises that he's decent at lying- sure, he's forged credentials, pretended to be all manner of people to get information, and done a little breaking and entering, but the point of being good at all that is you get less good when people suspect you. Nevertheless, Jon asked Martin specifically for assistance on this one, so here he is. He's decently good with a computer, and at least good at knowing where to look for certain things, so he's been doing his best.

For now, though, he's approaching Meredith with a tray, giving her a tap on the shoulder. "Hey, uhm-- how long has it been since you've taken a break? Brought you some tea, if it'd help." This, at least, is something he's quite good at after all these years- nagging.

[henchgal]

"What's a break?" She's joking, clearly, obviously, her smile warm and easy as she accepts the tea. "But yeah, I can take a moment. How are you handling, at this point?"

She doesn't yet have Martin pinned down. He's friendly enough, helpful enough, but she doesn't have the sense that she really knows him yet.

Which is interesting in itself.

[lowficharm]

Oh, no need to worry about all that, Meredith. He's just a nice friendly little guy. Who would need to be concerned about that?

"I mean, it's... fine. It's not worse than anything else this place has put us through." He chuckles like it's some kind of joke-- which it's not, but it might as well be-- and takes a sip of his tea in turn. "At least this time it's for a... good cause? A less good-people-getting-hurt cause."

He gives her a little grin over his cup. "What about you? I mean, I know you haven't been resting or anything like that."

[henchgal]

"I'll rest once this part of the op is done. I'm useless for the field work, so this is all I can do to help Aelwyn's team. I need to make sure everything's in place for them--there's people I care about who will be in the field."

She pauses, glancing up at him. "Besides, you're not supposed to notice when I'm not resting. That's not your job, really." It's sheepish, not scolding.

[musicdied]

Yelena swings by late in the morning, large cup of coffee and bakery bag in hand - one of the benefits of working as an investigator is that running down leads occasionally puts her in the vicinity of food that doesn't come from the company cafeteria. Not that the cafeteria fare is bad, exactly, it just...well.

It's a corporate cafeteria. It can only do so much.

She sets both down on Meredith's desk, carefully clear of any paperwork that may have accreted over the course of this particular project, gaze sweeping the workspace almost as a matter of course.

"I heard an interesting rumor today," she says brightly.

[henchgal]

"That's like holding a catnip mouse just out of reach of your kitty, Yelena. We both know you're going to spill, don't make me bite your hand or claw at you to get you to do so." That's all tease, as she pulls the coffee closer. Meredith's desk is in a state of organized chaos, with a few distinct piles accruing as she rallies her troops.

[musicdied]

Yelena's head cants slightly, and she grins at the mental image, eyes glinting with amusement. She relents without drawing out any further suspense, however.

"Apparently, 'that awful cult' cut power to an apartment building in Arlington on Saturday night. One of the women waiting at the coffee shop swore her sister was stuck in the elevator for two hours."

[henchgal]

“Oh, how awful. That damned cult has been all up in so many horrible things lately...” Meredith hides her smirk behind a sip of the coffee, and lets out a contented sigh.

“What do I owe you for the coffee and snack?”

[failedpromise]

Organics like coffee. At least, everyone she's encountered seems to, to the point of obsession.

She's brought a big steaming mug with her to offer Meredith. It's black-no idea what the woman takes her coffee with-but she's brought a few packets of cream and sweetener to provide some options.

"You know, I was thinking... it might be possible to stage some actual crimes to go with our falsified reports."

[henchgal]

"It might be. That'd be the purview of another department, probably, though. How would you get people to connect it to our cult?" She doctors the coffee with some sugar and cream, then lifts the mug in salute. "Thanks, by the way. Have you heard my yawning from across the office?"

[failedpromise]

"Maybe." Mostly she just knows that coffee is popular and tends to improve the mood of anyone who drinks it.

"I think anything that makes it clear that there's a dark association would likely rouse sufficient suspicion." They are supposed to be a darkness cult, yeah?