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

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

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!]

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[His eyes narrow at the sudden snap of flame. Well, that's interesting. Dangerous though. And something to keep an eye on.]

My getting involved in things has historically never made things better. And Martin deserves a chance to be... normal. Happy.

And I don't trust ADI. Even with the best of intentions, organisations that investigate the entities tend to end up serving them, in one way or another.

[And because his ability to trust had been so thoroughly broken that it was a conscious choice now.]

...fine. I can provide some information. And this mission? The murder you've got planned?

Well, if they're made of wax then it's worth investing in a lot of sawdust.

Yes, this is normality. [She snorts.] You do you, Mr Sims. I'm in no position to judge anyone, really.

[She judges anyway, a little. But she understands wanting to escape this. She'd want the same for Adaine, if it were ever an option.]

I do agree, though. If ADI isn't already actively serving evil, it's going to turn that way. That's just inevitable. My current theory would be that Reyes is an avatar actually pulling the strings, but Nia is a human being played like a cheap whistle.

If they are genuine, they're so mind numbingly incompetent that they wrap right back around to being malicious.

[She raises an eyebrow. Sawdust? Huh.]

The ADI operative supervising us recommended liquid nitrogen. They're all aligned with the desolation, if that helps.

For us, it's about as normal as it gets.

[At least in theory they could leave if they wanted to.

He gives a soft hum at the mention of Reyes, turning the idea over in his mind.]

Pulling the strings... yes, that does sound like something the Web would do.

[They'd been manipulating Jonah after all, hadn't they? Guidinng him towards his inevitable destruction.]

Yes, I know they're Desolation. Martin mentioned Jude Perry, you said? The Desolation cult she was part of, they would self-immolate and remake their bodies in wax, able to be endlessly reshaped, at least until they burn out.

Of course, that's only if it's pure wax. Mix it with something else and it rather inhibits that ability.

And then you can decapitate them.

...won't kill them. But they won't be able to do much about it.

...You've disagreed with my theory that all of this was the result of human ambition before. People of multiple different patrons collaborating for a mutual goal outside what their great big elemental masters might want. Your theory is that the Web is behind it all, then?

[She considers this.

It feels... wrong. Shallow, somehow. Maybe in the far background the Web is manipulating everything for it's whim. God knows the Mother of Spiders did so when she was manipulating her own shadow wars, back in her solar system. But Jon is the expert, for better or worse. She thinks it's possible his experiences might be colouring his biases, but they're useful nonetheless.]

I'll keep that in mind. Martin's good at forging documents, isn't he? [Their mutual appreciation of crime is one of their few shared commonalities. There's probably others, she's just going off vibes.] Do you think he could forge a report detailing as much, dated from around the point in which the circus and ADI went toe to toe last time?

Collaboration isn't impossible. But it's not- in my experience, there are... oppositions between entities. Some will just never get on. The Strange and the Eye are never going to be close. They're sort of... anti-ethical. The Stranger is the uncanny, the unknown. And the Eye thrives on knowing, on revealing.

And the Web is usually pulling strings, somewhere along the line. They tend to think more long-term.

[And are potentially the only entity that can think in anything close to what a human would understand.

All of this is gross simplification, of course.]

Martin did fake his CV, so I suppose a report is something that he could manage.

The entities themselves, yes. But the avatars still have a modicum of free will to decide what they want. Unless you think that the kid in the Bunkhouse is secretly plotting the apocalypse. Or Jeff.

[She hums. Well, she wouldn't put it past Jeff. She wouldn't put it past herself, really. The apocalypse was a laugh for her, for a while.]

It could be that they're all just planning to betray eachother. But you've surely noticed the pattern that none of the incidents neatly fit into a single entity, right?

[She chuckles at that. Martin the little crime man... fair enough.]

I'll let you bring it up with him, then.

Jeff... he's the- hm, Spiral...

All the Entities want to get off their ritual first. Their servants tend to want the same because they believe that if another entity does it first, they will be destrtoyed, or left behind, or become victims of the entity that does perform the ritual.

[All futile in the end, but not inaccurate for how they work pre-apocalypse.]

And of course I've noticed. It's not-

The entities are less discrete points on a line, and more a spectrum of colour.

Where does blue end and purple begin? But orange and bright green will never work together.

The Lonely and the Vast tend to be rather complimentary colours. The Lonely and the Corruption, rather less so.

[This would be easier if he could just say what he knows. Or even better, force that knowledge into people's heads so they understand like he does. Words seem so flawed and inefficient.]

I'll speak to him, if you give me a solid task summary.

Colours but if colours hated me. Got it.

[She sighs. Does becoming an avatar really rob you of the ability to see how thoroughly dull a world with nothing but one type of fear would be? Yes, she's experienced the rush of feeding and it's the best feeling in the entire world, but nothing but that and it would stop feeling like that. It'd just be numb.

Ridiculous. The absolute lack of vision on these idiots.]

I'll send you one. The most important part is that I need it to realistically note that it's a genuine weakness for them, from a first hand account.

Anything else I should know before we go into this? Ideally I'd like to avoid torturing Fenix for information. His patron is quite literally pain. And it's an inefficient means of gathering accurate information even when it works.

[He can't help but give a small smile at that, although it's tinged with sadness. He wonders what Gerry would have made of all this. Of him.]

Yes, exactly.

[He stubs out his cigarette at the idea of information gathering. He knows where this is leading.]

And let me guess, you want me to share how I got Kahlil to talk so you can do that?

Yes, precisely.

Fair warning, though, if you tell me that it can be achieved by treating him with common human decency, I will punch you in the head.

[Said extremely flatly. Somehow she doubts that solution is particularly viable with Fenix anyway. She raises an eyebrow at Jon expectantly.]

[Jon sighs and tips his head back against the wall.]

You can't do it.

...but I can.

[Why would he phrase it like she could...? Hello? She stares at him incredulously.]

Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit of a drama queen?

...it might have come up.

Yes, I can do it. You'll need to restrain him though.

[He holds up his scarred hand.]

I'd really rather not repeat this if possible.

That'll be handled. [She'd noticed his hand, yes... So that's how he got it. It's not as if she doesn't have scars of her own. She tries not to pry more than necessary when it comes to them.

Still, she wonders. Martin mentioned Jude Perry, this Avatar of the Desolation who died screaming and begging. Is that the one who left her mark?]

Thank you. [She sighs. She realises that this is more or less just blackmail, but she doesn't think she's been unreasonable in her demands.] I'd like to avoid losing people.

...Any more than we've already lost anyway. [And despite talking about pre-meditated murder and assassination along with a massive amount of fraud and deception, there is a wistful grief to her tone that suggests it's genuine.]

...I understand that.

I'm not- I don't avoid things and lie low because I don't care about people suffering. We've lost a lot of people.

But I know how much damage I could cause. I've had a lot of experience of making things worse.

...I do understand that sentiment.

For me? I'm used to standing back and letting horrific things happen to people I care about because I was too scared. That's what I want to atone for, I suppose.

I'm sorry. That is difficut to deal with.

Wanting to help people is admirable.

I'm a very admirable person.

[It's a joke, even though her smile is bordering on sardonic. She's anything but admirable. Even protecting others doesn't come as naturally to her as she'd like. Like when she saved her own skin and left Meredith to die.

She still isn't convinced there's no hard feelings there. There should be. Adaine wanted to kill her. Adaine had a right to kill her. But she shakes her head.]

Well... anyway. [Because vulnerability has never been her strong suit, and she might feel a bit bad about the way that she's more or less just using Jon and Martin for her own ends if she comes to sympathize. (As if that's stopped her from hurting people before.)] Fair warning, there will be an agent of ADI overseeing the interrogation and the operation itself. Austin, I don't know if you're familiar. If you can be discreet about it, that would be preferred, but if he learns anything I have a few tricks of my own I can pull to get past him.

Hm, that could be a problem. Fenix will recognise me and has an idea of what I can do.

[He should never have tried compelling him without better reason, but he'd been so thrown by the circus not being the Stranger...

He frowns and considers for a moment.]

If you want specific questions answered, I would need to be the one asking them. And a spoken statement from him might be unpredictable. I can't control what he says, just make sure he says it.

If someone could persuade him to give a written statement though... me being nearby should suffice.

[She considers this with a hum.]

Just because he's an avatar of the Desolation doesn't mean he's immune to the fear that comes with the Desolation, right? Pyre, for one, was very afraid when I threatened him.

We could tell him that if he gives a written statement the rest of his cabal will be spared, perhaps. [She doesn't really want to kill everyone, but it's sort of just a matter of whether or not he cares about them at all. ADI's incompetent anti-magic practices continue to be deeply annoying.]

I could also probably read his mind without Austin picking up on it, though wandering into his subconcious would be more obvious. I could use Suggestion... or we can just try to negotiate the old fashioned way. [Seduction is probably off the table.]

It's a possibility. But he might just see his own fear as an act of worship to the Desolation.

[There just isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to this. But he had seemed rather attached to his crew.]

Theoretically I could pull the statement out of him and write it myself but... it would be noticeable. Probably rather obviously. Me just being around might make him more willing to talk anyway. Sometimes people really want to make everything known but...

There's a lot of ways it could go wrong.

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

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