{Apocalypse How » Application
Sep. 7th, 2021 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
welladjustedwhitlyCharacter Name: Ainsley Whitly
Age: 28
Canon: Prodigal Son
Canon point: 2x7 "Face Value"
History: Season 1 wiki
After disposing of Endicott's body, Malcolm has kept up the ruse with Ainsley that he was the one that killed him. The problem becomes Ainsley is starting to remember, and realizing she's been lied to. Despite her demands to be told the truth, her brother refuses to budge on the explanation.
During the investigation of "The Debutante Slayer", a serial killer targeting students of the debutante school Ainsley attended, she undermines Malcolm by interfering in the case. After stumbling onto one of the killer's victims, Ainsley turns it into a promo for her network and Malcolm calls her out for treating murder like a game. She pursues the killer again after an argument with her brother and almost ends up killed, with Malcolm coming to save her just in time. She still manages to gloat a bit later, saying she technically won, figuring out who the killer was first, and points out that even though she was young, she has a right to be just as messed up, because her father was a serial killer, too.
One night, Ainsley shows up at Malcolm's apartment in a trenchcoat, which she opens to reveal a blood-soaked shirt, claiming she doesn't know what happened. He has a connection at the police station test the shirt and insists Ainsley hides out at his place while he figures the rest out. Later, Malcolm confronts his sister with the discovery that the blood was pig, not human; Ainsley reveals she remembers and she was upset that, when she gave him every chance to come clean and tell the truth, he continued to lie to her. His insistence that he was protecting her and pointing out that this was seriously deranged, was met with calling him like dad and insisting she had to be sure he would never gaslight or manipulate her again. The argument ends on the note that he'll just have to deal with it
Personality: Ambitious: Ainsley is a real go-getter, do-it-herself sort of person. Why wait for someone else when she can get the answers or task done on her own? She’s a dedicated self-starter and will throw her whole self into any project she gets behind.
Example: Ainsley let the drive of a good news exclusive, that would break open her career, take precedence of her boyfriend; when he was stabbed during the filming of her interview with her father, she made sure the camera was still rolling before going to his side, and later was editing the footage while sitting at the hospital with him. He broke up with her after that.
Protective: At least of who and what she calls her own. Namely, her family. Though she sometimes takes things too far and crosses over into amoral or unethical actions in the name of it, Ainsley is fiercely protective of her family. In her summation, nothing is off-limits when it comes to doing so. This aggressive defense of her family can at times be extreme but ties into a strong loyalty to the people she considers her own.
Example: Ultimately, Ainsley killing Nicholas Endicott had everything to do with protecting her family; he was laying out a plan to lock her brother in prison for a murder he didn't commit and otherwise ruin the entire family as part of his revenge against her father for breaking their deal. The idea from their discussion with their father earlier indicated the only way to be safe from Endicott was to kill him; she knew Malcolm would never shoot him, so she took matters into her own hands.
Golden Child Syndrome: Ainsley's mother constantly pushed the idea of perfection onto her; Malcolm was broken, because of what he found the night their father was arrested, but Ainsley was never allowed that, despite having the same father, and the same complications of having the Whitly name attached to her. She wears a facade of being fine, and perfect, and always on, always smiling, compared to her brother's arguably less put-together vibes. It's a mask worn as a defense, and it's slipping lately.
Example: An exchange between her brother and mother.
Malcolm: I assume you don't break into Ainsley's place like this?
Jessica: God, no. She's perfect. You are my only concern.
Regarding the slipping, she plays a very cruel prank on her brother– soaking herself in pig's blood, and coming to Malcolm for help, claiming she's blacked out again– after the muddied memories of the night Endicott was murdered come back to her; the prank was meant to ensure he would never mess with her head again. She doesn't seem to fully grasp how deranged it was.
Malcolm: I assume you don't break into Ainsley's place like this?
Jessica: God, no. She's perfect. You are my only concern.
Regarding the slipping, she plays a very cruel prank on her brother– soaking herself in pig's blood, and coming to Malcolm for help, claiming she's blacked out again– after the muddied memories of the night Endicott was murdered come back to her; the prank was meant to ensure he would never mess with her head again. She doesn't seem to fully grasp how deranged it was.
Competitive: She has a bad habit of making literally e v e r y t h i n g a competition of some sort. This cutthroat attitude to always "win" at everything sometimes overrides her empathy and blinds her to the impact her words or actions have on others.
Example: The Debutante Killer case. What it says on the tin, and girls from Ainsley's former etiquette school are being targeted. She literally makes discovering who the killer is a competition with Malcolm, who's already on the case with the NYPD.
Malcolm: I'm annoyed because you're treating solving a murder like it's a competitive sport
Ainsley: We're brother and sister, everything is a competitive sport (and later) I guess this means I kind of won, huh? Like I solved the case first.
Malcolm: I'm annoyed because you're treating solving a murder like it's a competitive sport
Ainsley: We're brother and sister, everything is a competitive sport (and later) I guess this means I kind of won, huh? Like I solved the case first.
Reckless/Impulsive: It might just be a family trait; but Ainsley is not above ignoring the realities of consequence to herself to go that extra mile for what she wants.
Example: After happening across a victim of a serial killer, Ainsley turns the scene into a promo for her next timeslot on the news.
Malcolm: What if the killer was still there?
Ainsley: Well, then the video would be much more exciting.
Malcolm: What if the killer was still there?
Ainsley: Well, then the video would be much more exciting.
Suitability: Her brother is already here, and that's a good pull to get her to stay and engage; on her own, her curiosity to get to the bottom of the story and the reason everything is happening would get the better of her.
Powers/Abilities: Skilled investigative reporter; her ambition and stubbornness to find answers is Ainsley’s biggest asset. She is perceptive about things in ways people don't notice because they don't expect the pretty, rich girl to also be smart. She doesn’t give up, and will always keep searching. She has any/all teachings of etiquette school under her belt.
No powers or otherwise supernatural abilities, no combat training; knows basic first aid; might be learning a thing or two from her dad's journal about murder?
Entity Affinity: The Web, hands down would be the biggest probability. Ainsley's biggest concern at her canon point is never being manipulated/gaslit again. Upon entering the game, she would likely be very interested in doing almost anything to ensure it doesn't happen.
The Buried could take a specific interest in the ever-present pressures by her mother for Ainsley to always be The Perfect Angel Child in the wake of Malcolm's Very Broken Child role. It's definitely a big feeling of suffocating the broken, messed up parts of herself in favor of being the perfect one.
Inventory: Just the clothes she's wearing + a smartphone
Samples: [Introspection] [Dialogue]