"Well, huh." Goodwill looked at the paper in confusion. He knew about Washington Irving from a report he'd written in high school. Author, best known for his stories of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving had done a ton of other things, writing plays and histories and biographies... and even served as the U.S. Ambassador to Spain for some years. He was prolific. Though he was best known for two short stories, his complete works in a single collection spanned a good forty volumes. "I wonder what that could mean."

(If no one has any guesses or theories, I'll allow each PC to make one Insightful roll. The highest single roll amongst you will get a clue. (Yes, even if that means Scraps.))

"Well... I guess I might have done the same if I were you, hard as that is to imagine. I did really want William to come out of this okay. I really think they might've killed him."




"I think I'll be okay eventually. I hope that I can take a long rest... um, I don't mean behind bars..."




Shawna sighs. "...I went to Hollywood because it was my dream to be a stuntwoman... but I just couldn't find work. So I thought, what's sort of dangerous, but really lucrative? Being a henchwoman sounded like great money... and it might've been, but I soon found out just how scary these three guys were. I thought-- at first, anyway-- we were just going to rob this huge house-- or pretend to, so Breakneck could fight Silver Streak. I didn't understand why they were so confident that Silver Streak would show up."

"But the second I realized how terrible these guys were, I also realized I wanted to stay to be with poor little William. He's a really sweet little boy, and they basically made me his babysitter, when I volunteered to be in charge of him. I stuck this out to the end mostly to see if I could help him at all..."

"Um... not to interrupt... (but I guess that's what I'm doing)... does this mean anything to you?" Goodwill asked, holding out the paper he'd obtained from Blackjack. It felt important. "'Washington Irving' and a string of numbers...?"

Shawna blinks... then looks just a little sly. "Would... it... be... worth something to you...? Mayyyyybe letting a first offender go...?"

Cosmos twitched at that. "I... I don't think I can help with that, I don't really have any authority." She looked to her fellow heroes. "How does that work? Maybe if we vouched for her good behaviour? We might even be able to help her find some work? Law supporting heroes need help as much as those villains did, and her experience with those awful men might prove invaluable in tracking them down."

She was baffled by the note. "That could be... a street reference? Is that anywhere where there's a junction of Washington and Irving? I've not actually read any of his writing..."

Shawna is quiet, waiting to see what the other heroes will say.

Her expression shows that she's
--disappointed with Cosmic Girl balking at the idea of just letting her go, then
--a little hopeful at the idea of the heroes vouching for her good behavior, then
--even more hopeful at the idea of maybe getting some kind of real job...

"It's really not our place to let you go — sorry." Goodwill agreed with Cosmic Girl with a regretful shake of the head. "The police are right over there, and they'll be over here any second. But we can put in a good word for you, explain how you protected the kid, gave us a clue... it'll have to count for something.

"As for finding work... have you ever considered going into private security?"




(Please don't make me have to roll Charming.)

"...Mm. You mean, like a security guard? I... haven't ever thought about it..." Shawna gets a little excited. "Sure, I see... you guys must know good places that'd hire me if you guys recommended me...!"




(I'll do it, I'll make you, I'm crazy, you dreading it just makes me want to make you do it more... Or make ONE of you do it...)
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:47, Sat 04 Apr 2020.

Well, she had left Diana’s prior job a little quickly, but they’d probably accept a recommendation from her still. Hadn’t been too discerning about where their employees came from too. Ch’rava was a little worried, seeing as it might weaken the whole “secret identity” thing heroes had, but...if it got them the info they needed...a little risk would have to be fine.

“I, uh, happen to know a good place? Private, hirable security, though they primarily specialize in bodyguards. Last I checked, at least. One thing is that my experience with them is, ah, out of costume. So I can certainly point you in their direction and offer a recommendation, but those will have to be in private and anonymously, respectively.”

"Being a bodyguard might be cool... and not too different from being a stunt body double... But if you think your recommendation would carry weight..."

Shawna seems open to the idea...

"Or I could talk to my people," Cosmic Girl beamed. "There is something very rewarding about working for the government. And I am sure they would be understanding about your recent actions. They are very nice to me!"

As suggestions went, it was a real stinker...

“Yes. Yeah, I’m pretty sure. Look, I’ll write down the address whenever I can find some paper. The place is called Specter Security. The main guy you’ll want to ask for is named Lewis S. Lewis. He’s a decent enough guy.” Decent enough that he didn’t mind her quitting with such a short notice. “I’ll go and talk to him later tonight, once my neck stops stinging and my back stops aching. I’ll give him your name and my recommendation. With any luck, you should get that job.” It had seemed like Ms. Clarke was rather well respected there, so hopefully her word would mean a lot.

Goodwill held out the note he'd found again.

"So, what does this mean?" he prompted.

- rolled 7 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,4.  Insight to get a clue.


As the Heroes and ex-henchwoman talked, Scraps wriggled in Gil’s arms, to be let down.
Once down, he jumped up next to Shawna to play with the nice lady.
- rolled 9 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,2.  Charming.





My original post was to show the PC’s Scraps’ support for Shawna.
But then I read OOC and realised that we were attempting to Charm info out of her. So I added this Charm.
I guess Scraps being so involved might remind Shawna that Scraps saved her life(?).   If that’s worth a +1 to my roll, then I get a Full Success in the Charm
This message was last edited by the player at 10:15, Sun 05 Apr 2020.

Shawna is super unimpressed that this will lead to the kind of consequences she might want. It's clear that she instantly categorizes Cosmic Girl into a new category labeled... well, Very Naive would be the nicest way to put it.

(Cosmic Girl gets 1 new xp, but has a -2 ongoing penalty regarding Insightful, Charming, or Confident rolls involving Shawna.)

On the other hand, White Lynx's subsequent words really seemed to cheer/soften Shawna up...




Scraps sniffed at the note Gil held. It had a funny smell. The smell of a person... He wasn't sure if the smell was attached to the person who'd written the note, a person who might have delivered the note, or the person who'd last held the note, but he'd know that smell if he smelled it again...



Shawna bit her lip... glanced at White Lynx... then glanced at Scraps. "...Okay, I can only tell you two things about that note. They're both based on me overhearing something yesterday-- Blackjack was talking with Tetsubo. One: I think that note involves a future meet-up spot. Two: I think it's in New York City somewhere. I think maybe Manhattan, specifically. But that's it. I don't know what those names or the numbers mean. And I don't know if it's where the three guys were going to meet up if this plan went wrong, or if it's for if the plan went right but they got separated, or if it's not for a meet-up for the three of them-- it might just be for Blackjack to meet someone else. But I'm pretty sure about the two things I said..."

Since he'd moved there, Goodwill had spent a lot of time in Manhattan, but he was hardly a native. Still, he knew some stuff... but he was hardly the smartest guy in the world, either.

Goodwill rolled 7 using 2d6-1 ((5,3)).

White Lynx rolled 3 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 3,1.  Insightful with -2 Forward. Solving a mystery.

Honestly, while Ch’rava had indeed done some research in the short time she’d been around, she had not yet gotten to know her way around the city. She’d been a bit more focused on the places that Diana had frequented, so as to avoid them. She wasn’t really sure why she was even trying with this here.

Cosmos frowned as she listened. Something rang a bell...

(White Lynx gets 1 xp, but gets -1 on her next roll (yes, even if that's in the next chapter).

Cosmic Girl has won the Insightful contest, and gets to be the smartest PC of (looks at watch) this particular 5-minute span of time!)


WASHINGTON IRVING 40 19 4 20 63

Two things occur to Cosmic Girl, looking at the note:

1. If the note is supposed to be about a future meetup... then maybe the last numbers might be a date? 4-20-63? So, a couple of weeks from the present moment...?

2. As for Washington Irving, the only thing she could think of... if we were talking about Manhattan... was that she seemed to recall that there was a school by that name somewhere? Washington Irving... High School? She couldn't remember for sure if it was a high school or not, but she was fairly sure it was somewhere between the Flatiron District and the East Village...

(I'll leave it to Cosmic Girl to communicate these thoughts to the other PCs (if indeed she decides to do so at all...))
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 18:46, Sun 05 Apr 2020.

Cosmic Girl finally twigged! It was not a street she was remembering, but a place, all the same!

"Manhattan? Yes, there is a Washington Irving there! It's a school! I think, I visit Manhattan sometimes - there's a centre there where they used to test me. I am almost certain we used to drive past it. And the numbers... I don't know what they all mean. The last three sort of look like a date, but the first two are not really fitting in. Do coordinates work like those? Not letters of the alphabet. Got me stumped!"

She scratched her head. The thinking was usually left up to others, and she was still fr too young to have the life experience she needed to work everything out herself.

“A school? If it’s that, then...maybe 40 and 19 could be room numbers? Or maybe it being a school doesn’t matter to the numbers and they’re codes for something. Like, maybe 40 means something like ‘go there in plainclothes?’ And 19 means go there on the following date?’ Or wait... What about streets? Maybe there are streets right next to this school that correspond to those numbers?”

Lynx wasn’t quite sure what it could be, but some of those would be easy enough to check with the power of maps. That would have to wait for a bit though, since it wouldn’t make too much sense to run for a library when they both needed to recover and report to the police about all this.

"There is a Washington Irving high school... on Irving Place, for the obvious reasons." It was near enough to Goodwill's loft apartment that he could easily walk there without super-stamina. "Irving runs from... Fourteenth to Twentieth Street, I think. Could be that 'nineteen' refers to Nineteenth Street? I don't know. I think the school is at Sixteenth or Seventeenth, for what it's worth."

---

Ironically, I think my father had an office on Irving Place, once upon a time. He worked in a few different locations downtown, in that general area, over the years.

"Then we definitely need a map, and get a trip to Manhattan organised at once. Whatever these villains are up to, you can be sure that it isn't going to be a trip to a milk bar, or a once round Liberty Island!" Cosmos turned to Shawna. "You've been really cooperative. Given how those men behave, you may have saved lives. Thank you."

Shawna sighs. "Just be sure you all tell the authorities that, please..."