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]

You know what? You're right!

[Fenix's smile curls up.]

Every question you decide to interfere in--[his head jerks toward Jon]--I burn away something important from her memories. Wanna try me like that?

[aelwyn_aberration]

So I'm the damsel in distress now? [She exagerates her tone and holds a hand against her forehead.] Oh no... save me, Mr Oculus.

[Concerning, but there's a small smug smile on her face. She has a countermeasure for this kind of ability in place, a spell she hand crafted and used to reverse the psychological effects of her own torture.

Besides, what happiness is there in any of her memories? Mercy, and she'll use magic to repell any attack on that part of her mind, ADI be damned.]

He hasn't interfered with any questions. If I didn't know any better I'd say you're just waving your waxy dick around to try and reestablish control.

In fact... I'd say you're scared. Poor baby.

[the_archivist]

Yes yes, you're very intimidating. I'm sure we're all suitably impressed.

[As if threats had ever actually deterred him from finding out information.

And it isn't as though he needs to ask questions to get the information. Not necessarily.]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Oh, I don't think you're a damsel. I just don't think you're gonna care if I hurt him. He's got a sweetie pie, though, so I know he's got a heart. And people with hearts usually don't like hurting other people because of the things they do.

So! Let's get to your questions, my girl. Faulk... something, ADI, and the Web. You're gonna have to actually give me some specifics here. And you mentioned some sorta statement, but I don't even know what I'm supposed to be telling you about. You gotta work on your interrogation skills.

[aelwyn_aberration]

That's a rather bold assumption. You don't have to have a heart to love someone. [Kalina quite literally had none, and Aelwyn's sure she was capable of it. Her ex partner, for one, she talked about him with admiration and nostalgia, even when recounting how she killed him.]

Let's start with a few easy ones. What happened to our boy Pyre? I miss him, he was so terrifically easy to push around. Less like wax, a whole lot more like putty.

Secondly, this circus. What's it for? You recruit people and help them become avatars, but it doesn't seem limited to our beautiful burny boy in the sky. After-all, you tried to recruit Jeff Calhoun and you had that spiral mirror.

[the_archivist]

'Don't like' and 'Won't' are very different things.

[He could tell him about the last Desolation avatar he'd met, or what had happened when the Not-Them had threatened Martin. Could tell him about how it had felt to stab Jonah Magnus. But he holds that back for now. No sense in revealing more than he has to.]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[Fenix just smiles at Jon.]

Oh, you're in deep, Eye boy. Still gonna guess you'll feel worse than she will in all this, though.

[There's a sharper bolt of pain through Aelwyn.]

But Pyre, Prye, burning bright. It's a shame, really. His act's been drawing in huge crowds. Lotta potential in that kid. Daddy called him home to help with some family business. And when Daddy calls... He's a good boy. [There's clear derision in that.]

Just like Jeff! Now there's a talent I could've done something with. Might still do... Hey, Jeff, you listening from anywhere? I don't mind a double-cross, but you know what's even better? The old triple-cross! They'll never see it coming. There's a space for you in my circus! Based on what your 'friends' are saying, I'll be needing a few new headliners.

[aelwyn_aberration]

I can guarantee you he's not listening. It's a nice effort, though.

[She does show a physical sign of irritation at the pain this time, the slightest wince that she tries desperately to smother, but she comforts herself with the prospect that it's nothing compared to the unimaginable pain and suffering waiting for this fucker.]

Who are his parents, then? And his real name for that matter?

It's interesting, there's a new influence pushing. F-Y-R-E. They've been sponsoring avatars of all sorts, Spiral, Slaughter, Corruption, Flesh... Desolation. And they keep sending them our way. F-Y-R-E gives off certain associations and with a sizable grudge against ADI. You're seriously saying you know nothing about that? I guess your fire god doesn't keep you informed.

[the_archivist]

[Jon return's Fenix's look with a complete lack of concern, just blinking slowly for a moment before he smiles, dark and hungry.]

Oh, you have no idea.

[Fenix has no idea how deep things really go, or how far Jon has gone. It's almost embarrassing honestly. Part of Jon wants to gloat, to force the knowledge of what he had been into Fenix's head and watch him beg like Jude had done.]

Of course, no-one would possibly ever see a betrayal coming from something known as the Twisting Deceit.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

I'm not in the business of asking for real names. He calls himself Pyre? I call him Pyre. I'm also not in the business of educating you kids about the Dancing Flame, but apparently no one ever told you how this actually works. They don't talk to us. Maybe the youngsters like Jeff and Pyre think something's there, whispering orders, convincing them they need to do whatever it is it wants, but that's not how it happens.

[His gaze flicks to Jon.]

Maybe Eye boy understands better. There's no talking. You get a sense of what you're supposed to do and you make it up as you go. Twisting Deceit, Oculus, the Dancing Flame. They're all the same. And FYRE, apparently, decided to put its mits in everyone's business. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't get them burned in the end.

[aelwyn_aberration]

That is such an overwhelmingly shit deal, I feel sorry for you. So what, you're a slave to something that isn't even listening to you? Wow. [She'd actually figured as much, whatever the entities are, they're not like the traditional gods she's used to. Closer to the Nightmare King, vague glimpses of information, no conversations, just creepy dreams at most.]

I'm ever so humbled by the knowledge you use people's preferred names when manipulating them and twisting them up. You're just a poor misunderstood little clown.

Do you often let your property walk away from you to leak all your dirty little secrets, Fenix? Or were you just unable or unwilling to say no to Pyre's papa?

[the_archivist]

Nightmare logic.

Jon says it crisply, and then sighs as he looks at Aelwyn.]

They are people. They aren't gods. They don't think like we do, not in any way people can really conceive of. It's like expecting us to understand the innermost thoughts of- of one of those bacteria that live on deep sea vents. Too alien to really conceive of.

But they- they sing.

[He still hears it sometimes. Not that hearing really is the right terminology. Still feels that pull.]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

They sing and they dance. [For a moment, when Fenix looks at Jon, there's something less derisive, something more like understanding as he nods.] Always wondered how your lot experienced it.

[But it's only a moment before his attention is back on Aelwyn, a smug smirk curling up his lips.]

You're also only a slave if you're being forced to do something. Last I checked, I'm doing what I want. I wanna watch the world burn out, and the Dancing Flame's on board? Win-win, in my book. I don't need it to listen. It just needs to give me power. Which... it does.

[A burning sensation starts under Aelwyn's feet. There's no actual flame, and if she checks it later, there will be no damage, but it feels like she's standing on hot coals.]

Pyre's daddy is making a mistake, as far as I'm concerned. Kid'll come back to me, and he'll learn how we should really be doing things.

cw for eye trauma, threatened throat trauma, threatened mind control

[aelwyn_aberration]

[That causes a reaction out of Aelwyn, a hissing of pain as the bottoms of her feet are set alight with pain. The look in her eyes turns merciless, the smile disappearing off her face.

She unlatches the container she'd been carrying, pulling out the vial of liquid nitrogen.]

There won't be a you to return to by the end of the day. Well... not true, strictly speaking. After-all, why would we kill you?

But you're never talking to anyone ever again. [She cocks her head, as if considering what to do.] Pyre's daddy, yes. That's useful. Is that all you're good for? When you're stuck in one place for months or years at a time, it helps to be able to talk, you know. They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, but at least you have someone to talk to.

I'm going to do horrible, horrible things to Pyre and his daddy, don't worry. I did tell him so when we first met. [She looks at the vial of liquid nitrogen, walks closer to Fenix, and starts pouring it into his right eye.] Tell me his name. Or I'll pour another vial down your throat before we subject you to a fate that will make our mutual patron blush and clap with delight.

And if you try that little pain trick again, I'll actually mentally enslave you. The materials are costly but I have the means in my spellbook.

[the_archivist]

[He truly hates that look of understanding. Because he does feel it still. And there's a scorn to it too in his mind. How can this fragile burning thing ever understand the true unrelenting glorious terror of the world that he made.

And he hates himself for feeling that way.

And then things turn so quickly, and his breath catches as Aelwyn pulls out the nitrogen and begins... oh god...]

Stop. Just- let him write a statement, or give me one... you don't need to- not yet.

cw: eye trauma

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[Fenix convulses when the nitrogen is poured into his eye, but Aelwyn will find herself subjected to the same. It's a vivid, excruciating agony that will leave her temporarily blind in that eye. She asks for answers, but Fenix is clearly in too much pain to provide them, his vocabulary culled to pained, nonsense words.]