Tracking Thread of Doom [Knowledge is Power Plot Post!]
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
BACKGROUND
In September 15, 2002 -- Andrea Cruz, formerly a Six of Spades, met someone during her first time off-Deck. His name was Jameson Well and he quickly became her world. James, a charming and sunny young man, managed to sweep her off her feet during the few weeks she was in the Outside. When it was time for her to go, Andrea couldn't bear to leave him. So she told him the truth. About herself. About the Deck. He took it with surprising stride and he helped her arrange the ways they could keep in touch. Through secret messages and letters and, yes, the secret meetings that were located in Deck. With the help of a personal deliveryman that worked for the Cruz family, who liked Andrea and is now deceased due to old age, James was smuggled every now and then in Deck so the two can see each other.
After a secret courtship that lasted for over two years, Andrea's parents discovered what she had been keeping contact with an Outsider but not to the extent of her letting him in their home. After a series of bitter (and often public) fights about her romantic attachments, Andrea finally left her home on June 1, 2004 when she was given the ultimatum of the Deck or James. She married him a month later and settled into the town he moved in a few years back, Whisper Springs, and the two were happy.
The good years weren't forever however. The marriage only lasted for two years before it screeched to a halt. James ran across Eli Johnson and '6' somehow. They were in need of information and James, always wanting to help people, provided them surprisingly accurate information. He was later found dead on December 26, 2006, in his home after he had Andrea leave their home to run some errands. It was at first chalked up to a simple but tragic home invasion that escalated to a violent murder.
The following months after the murder were difficult for Andrea. Not only was James dead, she ended up being bombarded with threats. In the forms of letters and phones and packages, a group of people blamed and taunted her for James' death, saying it was all her fault. When they somehow found out what she had done about her pregnancy, their methods only became crueler. It pushed her over the edge and on February 16, 2007 she tried to jump off the Saint Raphael church bell tower after she tried to talk to Father Forthill.
The policed stopped the attempt and she was placed in Blessed Margaret of Castello for a few weeks to recover before she was released. Charlie Eppens, her and James' lawyer and close friend to both, tried to help her adjust back to normal life. It didn't work and eventually she left Whisper Springs and traveled around the world in her attempts to find out who on earth would kill someone like James. Her travels spanned from 2007 - December 2011, going to different parts of the worlds with the slimmest of trails and hints.
Despite the colorful adventures she had, with several adventures ending up with her as a wanted woman in some countries like the Philippines and Myanmar, she found no trace or real clues to the case. Knowing it's been a long time coming, Andrea headed back to the Deck since it seems to literally be the last place to look at.
CURRENT DAYS
Returning back to the Deck after a seven year absence, Andrea immediately began looking for a journal in the Spades' libraries that belonged to her father since she believed they must have had a hand in James' murder. Though discovering fakes and decoys scattered across the Spade library, she found it with the help of Tegan Mills.
She had it sent to the Diamond Libraries, specifically to Sophie Berthier, for restoration and restoration only. This was mostly to avoid her mother from finding out. She got it back from the Diamonds a month after handing it over but due to work and personal issues she didn't have time to read it and puts it off until she somewhat settles back into the Suit of Spades.
While settling in, people noticed Andrea's unusual jittery and unbalanced behavior and commented upon it. Including but not limited to David, King of Spades, Katya, Queen of Spades, Ethan and other people.
It was only in her return from trip in Aruba did she finally read her father's journal entries. He wasn't involved in James' death at all but he revealed something more unsettling. Investigating James' background, Shing K. discovered James didn't exist. More than that James was stealing information from her family the whole time.
It didn't take long for someone else to notice the oddity. When speaking to Avery, Tegan saw that Andrea gave two different versions of how she and James ended their marriage. After that, Tegan discovered Andrea's messenger bag. Specifically the two page draft of James' will and a letter dedicated to Andrea in which he profusely apologizes for 'things.' Presenting the papers to Elisha, the two Clubs had a discussion about the odd circumstances and Tegan began to dig deeper into the Wells' pasts.
Meanwhile, Andrea finally decided to do something about the situation in her own way. Enlisting the help of Oliver Thyer and Zoë Kattalakis, she arranged to break into the Cruz apartments to see what exactly James stole. On the same day, Andrea approached Meghana about James' laptops since they were difficult to break into.
Andrea, Oliver and Zoë broke, unknowingly in Zoë's case, into the Cruz apartments (Event One) but were later discovered by Dao-Ming Cruz and Zhao Zhen Cruz-Shizuka when Zoë was injured by a booby trap hidden in Shing's offices. The three left immediately but not before Zoë was told by Andrea what was really going on.l
While this was happening, Tegan discovered news articles that concerned both Andrea's attempt and the harassment and a Youtube video that showed Andrea's attempt to kill herself. She showed Andrea what she found and learned the truth Andrea knew all along and had just learned now in terms of James' motives and actions. After speaking to Elisha, then Sieben, Andrea quickly retreated to the Clubs Castle under the excuse that she was visiting the Tung family to avoid the fallout.
Andrea left the Spades almost immediately after the break in of the apartments. The aftermath of was a catalyst of sorts for the situation to be revealed to a large number of people. Zoë had to get stitches done for the stab wound and later confided to Victor what was happening. Victor, when he couldn't get his hands on Andrea due to her staying in the Clubs, then told Katya and Julien, Ace of Spades. Katya was the one who informed David after discussing plans with Victor on how to deal with the problem.
Elisha went to Ceiro, King of Hearts, to explain the security problem the Deck is possibly facing to see if the Hearts were willing to join the team that will be heading over to Whisper Springs to collect any facts.
Meghana was finally able to crack one of the laptops of James revealing several things: He possibly has a sister named 'Addie', was called 'Mattie' himself and had an odd friendship with Father Forthill while not having any reasons to have one with the priest. But this was only the personal laptop of James/Mattie and it was oddly sparse. There was still the work laptop and the suggestion Zo ë made to Meghana that they track down the accounts James/Mattie had to see where it leads.
Jordan Novak was chosen as the representative as the Hearts to head to Whisper Springs along with others and has prepared for the journey.
EVENTS
EVENT ONE: EVERYTHING HAS A BEGINNING
On March 25, 2012 -- Andrea recruited the help of Oliver and Zoë to break and enter the Cruz apartments to identify the missing documents and items that James stole from the Cruz family. Unfortunately, Andrea forgot to mention to both Spades that her family is a paranoid one and have booby traps hidden throughout the apartments. It ends with Zoë injured.
Participants
Oliver Thyer | Seven of Spades | aceofsorts
Andrea Cruz-Well | Four of Spades | awearytraveler
Zoë Kattalakis | Four of Spades | headfollowheart
Dao-Ming Cruz | Seven of Spades | NPC
Zhao Zhen Cruz-Shizuka | Five of Spades | NPC
Posts
IC: ' Breaking in Cruz Apartments'
OOC: ' OOC Info and Quick Question in regards to Knowledge is Power plot!'
EVENT TWO: LOOKING FOR THE ANSWERS:
IC: ' Foundation Week at Whisper Springs!'
OOC: ' OOC Info on latest Knowledge is Power event'
Participants (Off-Deck)
Andrea Cruz-Well | Four of Spades | awearytraveler
Piper | Joker | eucre
Tegan Mills | Seven of Clubs | graceandwit
Jordan Novak | Nine of Hearts | heartsthespades
Hadyn Novak | Seven of Hearts | maskofhearts
Haylie Matsushita | Nine of Diamonds | NPC
Pasha Kelly | Two of Spades | permanent_trump
Participants (On-Deck)
Elisha Kagan | Ten of Clubs | cipherspeak
Victor Fox | Ten of Spades | morallydefunct
Sophie Berthier | Six of Diamonds | onlytolerable
Meghana Sankaran | Ten of Spades | wiredspade
EVENT THREE
COMING SOON
EVENT FOUR [SPECIAL]
COMING SOON
NOTES and OFF-TOPIC QUESTIONS
▲ Still work in progress. Sorry. Will add more to Current Days when I'm not asdfghjkl'ing on my keyboard at the moment because All the Threads.
▲ This will be constantly edited since everyone and their cats joined in one this and I'm struggling to keep up with what's going on. If I missed any posts or threads that are somehow involved with this plot, pretty sure I did miss some things by the way, please let me know and they shall be put up ASAP. Anything that mentions the plot one way or another counts~
▲ All those joining the Off-Deck mission and I didn't put your name in, please give me a heads up. Only put up the names of people I know for certain are joining the Off-Deck.
▲ If you have any questions about the plot, please ask me through any means you want. I'm more than happy to explain or even change some parts of the plan if you feel like it doesn't make too much sense.
▲ How long do you want the second event to last? I was thinking of making it two - three days only since it won't be hard to track information and it won't take long for a certain group to notice Andrea is back in town.
▲ So random but it had to be asked because it's been floating in my mind lately. Is it alright if I did a Tumblr for House of Cards? Like deepdarkmarvelous, a Tumblr blog for all things Echo Bazaar related, only about... our roleplay group? It won't mention characters unless the player says so, of course, but find pictures and quotes reminiscent of the secret world the game is set in. Okay. Um. Here's the Tumblr of it, now. If anyone has any objections to this, and I mean anyone, I'll be more than happy to shut it down as I don't want to cause any trouble. Hope you all like it though~