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

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"A new challenger enters the ring!" And immediately, Garner will find that there's pain starting in his joints. It's not intense, yet, but it's noticeably there, along with a jump in apparent temperature to something uncomfortably warm and humid around him. "I'm always excited, my boy. But what're you talking about? The ringmaster runs the show, last time I checked. Not really a lackey, am I?"

[whisperedone]

He blinks as the pain settles in and there's a heat in the air. Alright, then...
"You are, though. You have underlings, of course, but you don't call your own shots. Your power is not your own, it is a gift and gifts of that nature are never free."

That, at least, he can offer from experience.

"I doubt you know anything." Hopefully, maybe, what Garner wanted to know, but anything more he might be interested in asking...he won't waste his time. For now, he unwraps the leather strip from his arm and ties it about his waist, unhurried in the practiced motion. There's fresh cuts along the scars of his left arm, already congealed and no longer bleeding, but he finds the edge of one and rests the knife's blade there.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Not sure who you think is calling the shots, my boy. We all pay a price, and judging by whatever you and your friends think you're doing, I'm guessing you might have your own. ADI's really using people like you? Hypocrites... from what I hear, anyway."

[whisperedone]

That gives him pause and a crease forms between his brows. "Your flame god, of course. Entity. The Desolation." That was always how entities worked...at least...back home. Maybe he needed to rethink his context. Another question, then. For now- "What do you mean hypocrites?"

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Fenix chuckles. "You think the Dancing Flame's, talking to me? Where are you people from? And I mean what I said. Those assholes have been making it their business to screw everyone trying to do a ritual over, but they're employing people like you."

[whisperedone]

That-his confusion only digs deeper in him. How could they serve something and not know what it wanted? How could they go about doing what they did without orders or directions or a cause? There were still vague murmurs at the corners of his mind for the shreds of the connection he'd brought with him. The Whispered One had never once made him doubt what was expected of him.

Then again, Fenix didn't seem especially doubtful as to what he was supposed to do either. Well then.

"Alright, you've made your point. You're the man with the plan...and maybe the knowledge. Frankly, I don't care what you were doing or who you were serving, as I'm sure my fellows do. I only wish to have names, particularly the ones of other avatars you might have come across."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Well, gosh, son... what was your name again? Or that pretty little girl who came in first?"

[whisperedone]

Garner's brow raises. "Everyone's exactly as pretty as you are to me right now. My name is Cinderbrooke. And you are named for a fiery bird that actually exists where I come from, I don't expect any names you give me to be real, but they can at least be a start."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Oh, stop, you!" Fenix can't bat his eyes at Garner, but he's doing his best verbal equivalent. "But Cinderbooke, eh? I like it. Let's see... who else do I know? You heard of M.C. Escher? Hear he's big over in Europe."

[whisperedone]

Escher...the name did actually sound familiar. One of his later nights with the audio tours of museums Crowley had recommended he investigate. Still, it only pinged slightly in his mind, he couldn't remember much more than that off hand.

"He's an artist. His name is in the museums here. Something to do with abstract art." Which he had only taken note of for how he wished he could share it with Fig, what the halfling wouldn't give to know abstract art like hers was appreciated elsewhere. For now, he puts the thought back out of his mind and lowers the blade he'd been keeping ready.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Oh, yeah. He was all about that twisty shit. Not my bag, but it can come in handy, if you know how to use it. Tried to get my hands on one of his special drawings a while back, but when we got the mirror... eh! Lowers the priority."

[whisperedone]

Twisty shit. He makes mental note, but if it's a picture, better to get someone else looking into that. Literally.

"Right...some artifacts are more important than others...what's your mirror do that makes it better?"

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"I dunno about better, but it does a job. Keeps people off balance, confused, turned around. Why sink the money into fine art you gotta protect when you got something else?" He shrugs, even if Garner can't see that. "Now for you... I'd be interested in seeing if it could have an effect. Usually works by sight, but I've never played around with it for a blind guy."

[whisperedone]

He nods. That made perfect sense, really Function over form. "I've found most visual things do not work on me, no. That was true at home and it seems to be remaining true here."

He pauses, head tilting as though he could look Fenix over to take him in better when all he has is a deft ear. "You are being awfully friendly while tied to a chair talking with a man holding a knife."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Give it a spin, if what that girly said was true, you're wrecking my circus. Which, honestly? Hey, I'm impressed! We were sold out in Springfield and our next three stops for our big top events. You're gonna be upsetting a lot of people. Especially when you... murder me, I'm guessing? I can see the headlines now! 'Tragedy Strikes the Fenix Down Extravaganza! Can a touring circus ever rise again?'

"If you're gonna go out, do it in style, right? Not with that little knife you got. That's just boring. Show me what you can really do, my boy."

cw: self harm, blood

[whisperedone]

He hesitates...that was his intention in stepping in here. The information was nice but secondary, he'd come here for his quarry, but it was little to hunt when he was tied up and accepting of his predicament.

Better on the stomach than screaming and crying, he supposes.

Yet it occurs to him there might be people watching this, ADI or people who might take unkindly to Garner's intentions, so he crouches down in front of Fenix, his arm tucked close to his stomach as his blade finds the edge of the fresh cut there.

"Are there any other names you'd like to give me? Anyone else whose crossed your path? You seem affable, despite it all, but I imagine there might be those you quarreled with. Other avatars who stepped on your toes...perhaps you'd like to give me their names."

Carefully, slowly, he digs the knife into his arm and pulls it along the wound, ensuring the blood it would pick up coated the tip and edge the most. There's a new spring of power, not deep but enough, from his recent entanglement with Roderick, and he pulls on that now to cause the blade of his knife to frost with icy chill.

cw: sadism/masochism, self-harm

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Fenix watches Garner cut himself, and there's no small amount of amusement on his face for anyone else watching to see. "Aw, that's cute, puppy. You wanna be my attack dog? Kill the people I hate after I'm dead? I mean, I have got some assholes you could go after for me.

"Here's the deal: You cut off one of your fingers, and I'll give you three names to run with, kid. I don't care which one. Just make sure you can live without it."

cw: torture

[whisperedone]

Puppy? Attack dog, at least, he felt familiar with.

"You seem like a business man...so don't mind if I haggle a bit." He shifts so his knee braces on the floor and he raises the knife, the air steaming around the chill in the metal.

"I'll stop when you have a name." Cool as the ice on his blade, Garner shifts the knife in his hold to cut into Fenix's leg, horizontally, just above the knee. Not especially deep, but about two inches in length, partially just to test.

cw: torture, masochism, vaguely nsfw

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Hah! Haa... Mm..." Fenix's breath comes out in a few pained gasps. He's lips are pulled back in a fierce grin. "We're down to two names. But only if you push that all the way through. No real bones to worry about. So just keep pushing. Hard as you can."

cw: torture, kneecap injury

[whisperedone]

No bones? He shouldn't be doing what's being suggested to him, but he's curious and that temptation to know tickles at his mind.

He doesn't drive the blade into Fenix' thigh, but instead moves down to his bent knee and digs the frozen blade directly into where he expects the kneecap to rest.

cw: torture, kneecap injury, masochism is going to continue for this thread

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Another sharp breath. There's more resistance, but nothing like trying to pierce through a bone should be. "If you're gonna freeze pieces of me, you should try breaking them off, too. C'mon, puppy. Really sink your teeth in."

cw: torture for the forceeable future, kneecap injury

[whisperedone]

"Why are you calling me that?" It slips from him unbidden and he mentally berates himself. It didn't matter, that wasn't an important question. "No. What names.?"

Slowly, he pulls the knife back out, moving it ever so slightly back and forth as he does.

cw: warnings continue

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Mm! You know the problem with being made of wax? You don't feel things like you used to." His voice stutters, but there's something that's... more than the pain there. It's not faltering in defeat, certainly. "I'm calling you what you are, dog. Hunter. Dunno what cult you're with that you managed to infiltrate the ADI lot. Good job, though. Should I shout it louder, just to make sure they know what you are?

"Or do you want one name?"

[whisperedone]

That hits a nerve and not the one specifically aimed for. Garner's eyes narrow and he stands as he pulls the knife all the way out so he can press the blade to the bends of Fenix's fingers.

"I am part of no cult." Not one he'd know of, a whisper offers and he hates that he can't tell if it's his own mind or planted.

"Names, Fenix. I won't cut off my fingers, but perhaps yours will do."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Fenix just laughs, and as he does, Garner will find a searing pain in his knee and leg, one that matches precisely what he's just inflicted on Fenix.