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

[aelwyn_aberration]

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.]

[the_archivist]

...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.

[aelwyn_aberration]

...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.

[the_archivist]

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

Wanting to help people is admirable.

[aelwyn_aberration]

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.

[the_archivist]

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.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[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.]

[the_archivist]

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.