#1 | safety first

[kiljoy]

[EVENING, HOUSE 7 - 21ST JANUARY - CLOSED TO FAITH]
[Death hurts like a bitch. After days of confusion and nights haunted by dreams of a woman's blazing eyes and cruel hands wrapped around his neck, he finally puts the pieces together. Jessica. He remembers what she did. He remembers this place, the strange musty room, the silence.

He takes back his device and scans through the messages. He sees Jessica's public service announcement – Jesus Christ. She told the entire fucking community everything, even his real name. The only thing she neglected to do was provide a picture. How did he ever think he was in love with this woman? He's going to have to hide and he's going to have to change his name. How many people has he introduced himself to? A few: some will remember and recognise him. But a lot won't, and that gives him some breathing space to figure out how to deal with this.

First, he needs a bodyguard, preferably someone who can match Jessica and someone he can control. Someone he knows how to find.

Well, then. A name does come to mind. He goes to House 7, looking around for a familiar face, a girl with dark hair and eyes, a girl who told him that she had super strength. The moment he sees her, he doesn't wait: he has to risk it. He speaks a single, quiet word:]

Stop.


[DAY, HOUSE 9, HOUSE 10 AND OUT AND ABOUT - 23RD/24TH JANUARY - SEMI-OPEN]
[He lies low for a couple of days but he can't hide forever. Eventually Jessica is going to learn that he's back and he'd rather do that on his terms. Be prepared. So he takes Faith out with him and heads first to House 9 where he's looking for Kara, the one other person whose location he knows who is both susceptible to his control and has the ability to protect him.

Then he goes back to House 10, but warily, making Faith check first that Jessica isn't there before going in, and keeping his visit as short as possible. He's here to pick up a couple of things from his room, that's all.

While he's going from house to house, he can be approached – but note that Faith is with him at all times and she is under orders to protect him from any threat or attack. He's sticking to the busiest areas so there will always be NPCs around. Safety in a crowd.]


notes
(Please read Kilgrave's permissions post before tagging. This log is likely to include disturbing content. Open to other prompts if you want to bump into Kilgrave elsewhere, just PM or pp me at wildabyss!)

Comments

[kiljoy]

[A were-coyote. Did this place just hoover up all the people with super powers? That would explain a lot. Aaron. That name is familiar. Didn't one of the kids he played rock paper scissors with introduce himself as Aaron? Which probably means he knows Kilgrave's name and face. Which probably explains why he's following them disguised as a coyote.

Contingency planning is one thing. How the hell is he supposed to plan for all the madness here? Kilgrave barely avoids an audible sigh, turning to stare at the coyote. Now he knows it's a person that means it should understand him. Maybe it will even follow orders.

Shoo, he mouths, waving it away. Get out of here. It's worth a try.]

[xochipilli_cursed]

[Oh no, Kilgrave's staring at him. Aaron stops gnawing on his leg to look up at the man wondering where this is going to go.

Then see's Kilgrave trying to get him to leave. If not for the hand waving he might miss what the man's mouthing at him. As it stands, he gets it and suddenly he just wants to leave.

The coyote stands up, gets its footing on the sand and trots off in the opposite direction.]

[kiljoy]

[Huh, it worked. Finally, something going right today. It's only a temporary measure of course, but it'll have to do for now. Kilgrave turns back to Faith, making a face. So what was that about?]

He was following us. Watch out for that one.

Future dated to the 25th.

[xochipilli_cursed]

[It isn't until the effects wear off that Aaron gets a chance to sit down and think about this one. So Kilgrave can command people. It doesn't make the rest of what was said true but it still seems to be Kilgrave firmly in the likely Wyrm tainted category.

So, being a coyote won't work. Time to play a game. Aaron uses one of the hand full of Gifts the spirits have granted to him. Blur of the Milky Eye veils him and makes him unseen in most circumstances. He decides to stalk Kilgrave some more, collecting things after Kilgrave moves on. Left over trash from his food? An object he payed a little too much attention to? Anything Kilgrave may have noticed enough to remember? Whatever he finds, he picks them up and pockets them.

The night of the 25th is when the fun begins. Aaron seeks out any openings to where Kilgrave sleeps. If there's a gap he can crawl through, no matter how tedious, Aaron will use his Gift to slip on in. If someone leaves the door open a crack, he'll wait until no one's watching to quietly nudge it open enough to pass. Once in, Aaron deposits the item as close to Kilgrave as he can get and quietly escape into the night. If he can't get close he puts it somewhere Kilgrave may pass when he wakes up. This time, the present is just the remains of things Kilgrave has eaten during the previous days. Aaron's going to hide himself again with his gift and visit in the morning to watch and see how things pan out.

Aaron wants Kilgrave to know someone's watching. They're following. They're learning his habits.]

[rockypath]

[Kilgrave is staying in Faith's room in house seven, having taken her bed while she's taken up residence far from him, curled up on the ground in the corner. It's lucky that his antics don't wake her and that her Slayer senses can apparently be deceived by his abilities, otherwise she'd have been compelled to act- to attack Aaron.

He'll no doubt notice that odd arrangement as he lays his gift. Clearly something odd is going on here.]

[kiljoy]

[It's in the morning that Kilgrave notices their strange "gift". Well, not a gift. Just a couple of empty food jars on the floor. Weird. Naturally, he goes over to Faith and nudges her shoulder, indicating the jars.]

Did you leave that there? Clean it up.

[xochipilli_cursed]

[Well, that didn't work yet. That's okay, Aaron's persistent. A good trick is one that builds to... something. The interactions with Faith are disturbing enough, he doesn't picture her as someone likely to put themselves out like this.

Killing him might not save her. Aaron decides to hang around a bit longer just to see how she responds to him in private.]

[rockypath]

[Faith glares back at Kilgrave. She can't do anything to harm him, but that doesn't include damage from vicious looks. Yet.] That shit's not mine. Don't know how it got there. [Of course that doesn't stop her frantically cleaning it up. That had been an order after all.]

[kiljoy]

[He frowns at her reply. Huh. That's even stranger. Suspicious, in fact. Did someone come in while they were out? But why would they dump rubbish in the room?

The hairs on the back of his neck prickle. Something doesn't feel right about this.]

Have a look around the house. See if anyone came snooping around. Be quick about it. Five minutes or less.

[It's rare that he'll give her a command that requires her to move out of his sight. But better safe than sorry.]

[xochipilli_cursed]

[Aaron waits until Faith is about to leave the room before slipping away under the effects of his gift. No need to stick around at the moment. Kilgrave would just need more lessons. Which means returning later with more goodies.

Aaron's return will be in the evening, checking to see if Kilgrave was even home or not. If he was, Aaron's content to camp outside until everyone stops stirring. If he's not home Aaron intends to act quickly while the chance is perfect.]

[kiljoy]

[They're asleep. What now?]

[xochipilli_cursed]

[Aaron's back into the house again. This one's a little trickier. He gets to the outside of Kilgrave's bedroom door. There he pulls out out some sticks and rocks. Small things. Double checking that the door to their bedroom opens inward, Aaron arranges them to match the lay out of Kilgrave's room.

He makes the shape of the room with sticks. With a rock resting in the little bed made of twigs. Aaron includes some furniture set up out of twigs and another rock resting to the side of the room where Faith tends to rest.

Last, but not least, if they don't have a trap for him outside their room, Aaron intends to leave a little stick man made of twigs and grass outside Kilgrave's windowsill like a little man looking in. Watching him.]

[rockypath]

[Faith's starting to get a little antsy too. Clearly someone is fucking with them. Or maybe just Kilgrave? She's not sure. Sticks looking like their room. And a rock where she'd have been in the room. Then the waving stick figure.

If Kilgrave looks to her, he'll see she's just as confused. Clearly she's not going to be any help here.]

[kiljoy]

[Okay, is Mike pranking them? It seems like the kind of arsehole move that a kid would pull. Kilgrave again makes Faith clean it up. Then he adds:]

Someone's messing with us. Keep watch. If they come back again, I want you to catch them.

[xochipilli_cursed]

[He honestly wishes he could somehow spy on messages. That's a bit beyond the Gifts he was given though. For now he just moves on after they clean up.

With a mix of impatience and also genuine disregard for his own safety, he tries again that night. This time he's made a list of all the places Kilgrave has gone since Aaron started tailing him and placed it on a bit of fabric. Just for fun, he even used his own blood to write it. Maybe he's going too far with the horror part, but he wants this to escalate.

Aaron's idea is to sneak up on Kilgrave's door again and tie it to his door knob. Of course if someone's waiting for movement by the door, and is really, really looking for someone when they open it, Aaron's invisible will likely fail him. His Gift helps him go unseen when no one knows you're there but the best it can do is obscure you a bit before failing completely if they know where to look.]

[rockypath]

[Faith doesn't sleep that night, keeping watch the entire night. Her eyes were blood shot and the exhaustion wracking her body. Her eyes snap to the door when it starts to move and she's on it in a flash. She opens the door, her eagerness to live up to Kilgrave's command meaning that the door made some amount of noise as it swung open.

Her eyes scan the area in front of her. Someone's there. Someone- there! Her hand darts out to grab into the darkness and attempt to drag the intruder inside.]

[xochipilli_cursed]

[The moment she grabs his shirt he's fully revealed. His prank in hand, he gets dragged in by Faith. The surprise is apparent on his face and he has to bite his tongue to keep from shouting out.

Okay, this isn't his best day. So now he's in the room, no longer hidden and red handed. He's not resisting right now and Faith is really, really intense.]

[kiljoy]

[Kilgrave is actually asleep at this point while Faith is playing bodyguard, but it's the sound of the door that wakes him up. He startles, sitting up, and then frowns blearily as Faith drags their intruder inside. Hang on a second...]

Aaron? What are you doing here? Answer me.

[In his surprise he's forgotten to be silent. But this is too urgent to waste time with the devices.]

[xochipilli_cursed]

[Oh, hey, this again. He's trying hard not to just blurt it out but Kilgrave's a little insistent so Aaron speaks out instead of just typing his answers.]

Leaving pranks and trying to scare you into stopping before it's too late.

[Great, well, now it's too late. Maybe. Who knows, Kilgrave might be reasonable enough to be talked down? Not really Aaron's thing but Aaron's thing got ruined.]

[rockypath]

[Faith closes the door behind them, holding tight to Aaron. He's not going to go anywhere. The both of them talking makes her eyes widen, glancing around a second just a second to be sure that nothing is about to come out of the wood work. Not this time luckily.]

[kiljoy]

[He raises his eyebrows. So this is the prankster. Unbelievable. He couldn't decide whether it was a creepy stalker or some obnoxious kid. (It certainly didn't seem like Jessica's MO; she's more of a 'snap necks first, ask questions later' kind of girl.) Apparently it's both.]

Stopping what? [He gestures before Aaron can answer.] Don't speak, answer on your phone.

[That's enough talking. He's still not certain whether it's safe to risk any lengthy conversation.]

[xochipilli_cursed]

[He smiles his thanks at Kilgrave for switching the means of communication. Aaron types away and just sends the message to Kilgrave instead of flashing it at him.]

All of this forcing people to do your bidding thing. I figure scaring you might be the nice way to go about it. I'm supposed to do that before I try the mean way.

[This is probably not going to go well. What would his mentor do in this situation? Probably say something a bit more wise and a bit more cutting.

He'd probably not get caught either.]

[rockypath]

[She leans over Aaron to watch as he types. She should have guessed this had been him. She knows he's a trickster and a bit reckless. If she ever gets out of Kilgrave's control, she's going to have words with him about being more careful.

If he manages to get out of this, anyway.]

[kiljoy]

[Kilgrave receives the message and reads it with a frown before looking up at Aaron. So he's taken it upon himself to mete out some bizarre form of justice? Ridiculous.]

Sounds like you've fallen for Jessica's lies. I don't just go round forcing everyone to do my bidding.

[...He types this with a straight face. He's annoyed, actually. Outraged at the accusation.]

I'm willing to let you go and call this a misunderstanding, as long as you leave us alone. No more pranks. And definitely no whatever the mean way is. Okay?

[This is far nicer than he needs to be. Aaron had better appreciate that.]

[xochipilli_cursed]

[Aaron knows he shouldn't kick the hornets nest, and he's probably at this guy's mercy, but...

He types.]

Some of it might have been a lie but you're still using your abilities on people and I don't think they're willing. Honestly, knowing what you can do first hand now, I don't think there is any way to convince someone you aren't controlling those around you against your will.

So new deal. You let Faith go by sending her away and not visiting her for a couple days, you promise not to use your powers on strangers, you go find a place to live alone and I will find a new way to appease Coyote. Maybe apologize to Jessica too. In person. The worst she can do is kill you.

[Aaron figures he's being more than fair here.]