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 say that like I'm expecting to live. I'll have some fun with all of you, and then one of you is going to kill me. That's how this goes.

"Didn't even get a chance to try at the ritual again. Kinda rude, preempting a guy like that."

[lesbeau]

Mm, well, that's more complicated when someone isn't afraid of dying. Then again, that gives her another idea...

"So why tell us anything at all if you know you're going down? Hope we'll get your enemies once you're in the ground?" Before he has a chance to answer, another question hits her mind, and she speaks before she has the chance to think about it further.

"Are you afraid to die, Fenix?" Beau is studying his face, looking for a tell, a crack, a bit of... fear, maybe. Yeah, fear. She'll think of this later and wonder if these were her words at all, whether or not it mattered. "Are you just doing all this so you can delay your inevitable, painful death?"

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"It's not where you end up, it's how you get there." His tone is blithe, but the simmering pain in Beau's body starts creeping up in intensity, perhaps indicating there is some fear there. "I'm telling you because I don't have anything to lose at this point. It's freeing, really."

[lesbeau]

Now that catches her interest, and she tilts her chin up, making sure she's looking down at him more. "Mmmm, dunno if I believe you. A guy who's totally chill about death wouldn't have set himself on fire to not naturally die."

Beau cracks a knuckle, getting ready to go at him again, maybe to finally weed out the truth this time. "Sort of sounds like you're looking for a way out. Hoping we won't do a good enough job so you can keep on burning, huh? 'Cuz fires go out, Fenix. And you're pretty close to being a puddle of wax with a burnt-out wick."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Fenix's brows simply rise up as there's a sharper pain to Beau's knees.

"My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my FOES, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!"

[lesbeau]

Alright, that's it. Beau grits her teeth, and finally decides she is done. She surges at him, pain be damned, and starts hitting what she thinks are just pressure points designed to make him tell the truth. What it manifests as more is... like opening a third eye. Like the feeling of Beau's fists reaching physically inside Fenix, trying to rip the truth out from the wax that forms his vocal chords, like she can see every lie, every time he's tried to escape, every pull he's had.

He can try to resist, of course. He very well might. But oh, it's going to hurt to do so.

"Tell me about your last ritual, tell me about your most recent plans, and tell me, Fenix, tell me you're fucking scared."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

His flesh gives in a way that isn't natural, like she's actually punching at wax. At first, there's no response except laughter, but that's quickly choked off as words begin to tumble out. "All right! All right! I'm scared! I'm scared of what you people are gonna do before you kill me. I'm scared I survived for nothing. I didn't even get to the ritual! You didn't give me a chance!"

Pain sears through Beau. For each hit, there's an answering agony lancing through her in that spot.

"I was just a kid the first time! The Great and Powerful Charlie! A magician they'd brought in last minute. You think Abe was gonna tell me any of the real info? He told us to wait in Boston. He had it all planned. We'd be there to hype up the crowd, get them all gathered to see the train bringing in the Big Top acts. But it all went wrong. They derailed. ADI derailed everything before they were supposed to. A couple dozen people died. Abe went up in smoke along with most of the headliners and the rest of us scattered.

"I hadn't even worked out what we were gonna do for our ritual, yet. That's still so far off. I needed a few decades to figure out the details, so would you people get off my dick?!"

[lesbeau]

Finally, finally, something gives. He speaks, he acknowledges, and something surges into Beau that makes her feel better than she's felt in months. Finally, she's got him. Finally, she knows something.

The pain he's sending into her hurts, and her teeth are gritted as she begs herself not to give until she's done with him. As soon as he stops talking, she grabs his jaw, dragging it to look up towards her.

"No. We won't. Because you did survive for nothing. All of those terrible things you've done to people, the ones you've killed, abandoned, all of them? It ends now. And nothing you've done will have mattered. No more outrunning death. Today, you fucking lose."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"I've never even killed anyone!" Fenix snaps. "I can't even do real fire. It's all just wax and pain. Smoke and fucking mirrors!" And then it feels like someone has kicked in Beau's teeth while simultaneously setting her tongue on fire. She's clearly struck a nerve... but at what cost?"

[lesbeau]

She stumbles backwards, dropping him as she does to put a hand to her face. Fuck, that hurts, but nothing's missing as she touches it, nothing is needing to be held in place. After a few seconds of examination, she drops her hand, breathing haggered from the pain.

"Well... guess you weren't even a good target, then. Scraping some shit off the world's boot." For just a moment, Beau sways, the pain hitting almost too hard, but she steadies. Just enough to keep going. Just enough. "Curtain's down on your show, Fenix. See you never."

And now she's going to make her way out and to somewhere less public before she collapses for a bit. It's fine. Never let 'em see you fall.