[princessapollo]

ATHENA PARIS THORNWOOD

31 / Lawyer / Hunters / Widow / APP

ABOUT

Athena is a manipulative, sociopathic, pathological liar. She doesn't care about other people outside of say her mother, her brother, and her son. She's been apart of the Guild since she was six years old and was raised as a child soldier to hunt down and eliminate other Gifted. And she was very good at her job, until they took away the only man she'd ever truly loved. Now she's actively working against the Guild. Attempting to tear them apart from the inside out like a disease. Ready to ruin and destroy everyone and everything that took her soulmate away from her.

PLATONIC

Athena doesn't really do friendships. She'll certainly be friendly and nice. There are plenty of people who consider Athena a very good friend of theirs and she goes along with it. As long as they are of use to her. She doesn't actually care about them, their problems, or their accomplishments. That's not to say she can't form genuine connections with people it's just very hard.

Once people spend enough time with Athena she can start to become unnerving. And should she really connect with someone and see them as a person she tends to become possessive over them. She can become incredibly jealous over other people receiving what she sees as more of their time and attention than she does. She becomes very protective and a little obsessive as it's not often these blurs of robotic figures lift the veil to reveal a real person to her.

ANTAGONISTIC

This area wouldn't really be a problem at all. Athena is fairly good at making people not like her. Whether it's because she's lost use of them and has become cold and mean or because she's been caught in a lie and simply keeps doubling down to see how crazy she can drive them. In the case of Hunters Athena is purposefully antagonistic towards them. Hunters are a group that has fully earned Athena's ire and she's more than happy to bring them down.

However, outside of the case of other Hunters, any real antagonism will be fairly one sided. Athena needs to actually care about a person to feel strongly about them one way or another. She needs to either see you as a person or a legitimate threat.

ROMANTIC

Oh boy good luck with this one. Athena has only ever been in love with one person in her life and that is her deceased husband. Now, that isn't to say she doesn't enjoy flirting and the occasional hookups. But actual romantic feelings aren't something she often feels. It took her husband several years for Athena to realize she had feelings for him. And most of the time she's only willing to give someone the time of day because she wants something from them.

However, much like with her platonic relationships, if Athena were to eventually manage to become romantically attracted to someone she becomes possessive and obsessive. Should that veil lift and she see them as someone who deserves her love and adoration there's no middle ground for Athena. Like a hungry dog after a bone she will become deeply territorial and struggle with her jealousy over others getting their time and attention.

PLOT HOOKS

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss: Liar, liar, pants on fire. Athena is charming, sweet, and very convincing. Most people tend to accept her word at face value. And Athena is a professional bullshitter. But uh oh, it seems your character has seen through her fallacies! You know what they say to do when you get caught though. Deny! Deny! Deny! So she just keeps doubling down on her lying. Partially to see if she can get your character to really accept that what she's saying is true and maybe they were dumb to think otherwise. Part of it she just wants to see how crazy she can drive them.

Let's Play a Game: Athena hates Hunters. She's made her her sole mission in life to make sure they're wiped out. Or, at least the Guild. And wouldn't you know it, your character is next on her list. But Athena loves torture more than she hates Hunters. So she decides to play a little game of cat and mouse. Setting up assignments for your character only for them to fall through and they get reprimanded for letting their target get away. Making sure they get caught by the police doing things they shouldn't be doing. Cutting out their Gift during training to make them think they're losing it. Pushing more and more until your character realizes that at every downfall, Athena has been there.

You're New to This, Huh?: Oh it looks like your character has committed a crime! Luckily for them they got caught by Athena before they got caught by the police. And she's not here to judge. Well...okay yes she is. But look at this sloppy work! Footprints everywhere, fingerprints, possibly blood, and you didn't even bother covering your face! What kind of amateur are you? Luckily for you, Athena is willing to help clean up this mess, for a price.

[Ray]

Hi there, Apollo! I think Athena is such a cool character. If you're looking for some enemies, I think I might have some candidates!

Athena Thornwood and Aurora Aquino: So Aurora's a journalist, and a determined one too; she will go to the farthest depths possible to find the truth for a story she's writing. She's also really good at detecting lies, which is where Athena comes in. Maybe Aurora sets up a private interview with Athena, or maybe they just run into each other and begin talking, but if Athena's compulsive lying tendencies kick in, that would set off Aurora's BS radar and get things tense, possibly even a little violent if in a private enough space. I'm interested to see where a thread like that could lead! I don't think they'd end up friends, though. I also feel like this would be a great start for both of our characters, since Aurora is fresh out of being accepted as well!

Athena Thornwood and Walter Bell: Since Athena seems warm and friendly at the start, Walter would probably love her at first! He'd want to talk with her, become friends with her, the like. I'm thinking one of two paths after this: while they talk, she starts to reveal her true self with Walter which makes him uncomfortable and even a little sly, starting to pry for her secrets, which I'm sure Athena wouldn't like. The second path is that maybe Athena slips too quickly, or is having a bad day, which Walter notices. Walter might try to use his gift (Emotional Manipulation) to cheer her up. I don't think that her power negation would come into play because he is not attacking her, but if it would please tell me otherwise. Anyways, Athena may or may not notice her spontaneous happiness come out of nowhere, and it could lead into chaos depending on what Athena wants to do! She is a Hunter after all, even in she hates the Guild and other hunters.

Let me know what you think of these plots! And I'm up for other ideas as well. Maybe Walter could be one of her targets, who knows! I'm looking forward to a reply.

[Erik Vaughn]

So Athena Thornwood and Erik Vaughn has so much potential to have beef with each other or potentially a sort of frenemy thing going on? Both are lawyers that have some involvement with the Guild. Whereas Athena was raised in the guild, Erik joined in his early twenties when his idiot younger brother was recruited and is hunting for the Guild now. Erik doesn't do any actual hunting or is involved in that part of the Guild, he's there to clean up any legal issues and provide cover-ups. But I imagine him and Athena has probably worked together a few times? At least on the paperwork and legal side of things, if you put this man in a physically dangerous situation he's toast.

Now Erik isn't a man who pretends to be nicer than he is, he's an asshole and honest about it. He'd hate the sort of saccahrine sweetness that Athena plays at, but would probably be too arrogant to dig deeper at least at first. But maybe he's starting to suspect that it's more of a facade and is now trying to poke holes in it for his own amusement? I imagine he's got enough expirience with liars through his job that he'd catch on at some point, so this could be a fun plot to explore? Or maybe he's noticed something else is off, something that starts him looking closer at Athena and what she's up to.

Erik is also not happy about being part of the Guild, but he's loyal to them as long as his younger brother is. It is obvious he despises it all, but that he's fiercly loyal (if only because he has to be).

Let me know what you think!

[princessapollo]

Ray Hi! I think something with either Aurora or Walter would be interesting. I think especially maybe Walter trying to be her friend would be cute and Athena just smiles and goes along because she likes the drinks he makes lol Also while if he just tried to manipulate her emotions to make her happy it wouldn't trigger her negation ability if she noticed something was weird and thought he might be the cause she would definitely activate it herself just to test it out. Which could be interesting with him suddenly not having his Gift and Athena realizing he's Gifted making her more interested in him. Which could then lead into her prying more into his life and who he is.

Erik Vaughn I do think Athena having a sort of rival would be fun! Her purposefully trying to irritate him by being way too sweet and obviously fake about him. Him being too arrogant to show it's getting under his skin. Or even them going out for like drinks or dinners as colleagues and frenemies having some kind of bond over both hating the Guild and both being vicious assholes lol I think they're interactions could be super fun!

[Erik Vaughn]

princessapollo
yesss, I'm all for these two being frenemies who deliberatly tries to get on each others nerves, but also team up to talk shit about everyone else. Sometimes you just need a worstie to be your most bitchy self with. I would be so up for exploring this dynamic and how these two characters would interact around each other.

[Ray]

Athena Thornwood and Walter Bell: Cool, I'm really liking the idea of taking away his gift after she realizes. It'll definitely tense the situation, and Walter will realize that she's gifted as well, and I'm excited to see how a thread like that will play out! In the most likely scenario, Athena would probably just stumble upon Walt in the coffee shop he works in and let conversation unfold from there, although I'm open to other options if you have any other ideas! But if you're okay with that, then would you like to start? If you can't, I can start it instead, no worries!