Lucy Lopez

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
While Hector hasn't seemed to pick up on it, you can hear-- faintly in the distance-- the sound of 3 people running up the stair well.

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 21:28, Mon 16 May 2022.

Lucy grabs Hector by the elbow, and when he stops to look back at her she has one finger over her lips.  She'll move to the next landing down, open the door onto whatever random floor of the apartment building she happens to have arrived at, and slip into the hallway, pulling Hector along with her, waiting for the mysterious stair-climbers to pass them by on their way up to (presumably) where Lucy and Hector had just come from.

All of this as quietly as she's able to manage, of course.  Stealth isn't exactly one of her strong suits, but she's ready to fade from perception at any sign that they've been detected.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Here's one of these just in case.  :)
15:41, Today: Lucy Lopez rolled 10 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 9.  Stealth.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 21:42, Mon 16 May 2022.

Lucy Lopez

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
16:09, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC 3 agents, rolled 14 using 1d20+3 ((11)).- Perception

---

Lucy is not sure how but she can feel that the she had been heard. The sounds of the approaching feet quicken.

"Oh, mierda..." Hector whispers, looking around. The majority of the building is condemned. The majority of the apartments on this floor were boarded up and there was only a single window across from the stairwell streaming in cold winter light. There were 2 elevators on the wall perpendicular to the window, but Lucy was sure those hadn't worked for many years.

The landing they were in was covered with dust that danced in the air around them the more they moved. It smelled musty and the air was cold and stagnant. It didn't seem like this floor had been used recently.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Don't forget you have the hero point. Otherwise, how you try to escape is up to you. :)

---

... okay, screw this, Lucy decides, closely followed by:  ... lo siento, Hector.

She waits until a moment arrives when Hector's attention is somewhere else (the door, probably), then reaches out with her mind to emanate into the whole surrounding area the little nudge of suggestion that allows her to just pass unnoticed among searchers and pursuers.  There's not much she can do for Hector, sadly, but damned if she's going to get caught by these assholes.

(i.e., she activates her Concealment, disappearing from everyone's non-tactile senses.)

... fucking hell, I hate cops.

Lucy Lopez

Hector, distracted by the approach of the agents and desperately looking for a place to hide does not notice his companion disappear from sight. A moment later, three men in black suits, each holding a handgun, burst into the hallway. Instantly, they see hector trying to pull a plank off an apartment door and one of the three approach him.

"Fuck off, puta!" He yells as the man approaches, his pistol lowered.

"Sir, you are not in trouble. We just want to talk."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Let me know if you stay or dip.

---

Lucy hovers a few steps away, keeping as still as she can, silently observing the goons' interaction with Hector.  If there's anything she can do to help him without getting caught herself, she's glad to do it, but keeping out of the goons' clutches is top priority by far.

If she can get a sense of which of the goons is the one in charge, she'll reach into his mind, searching for what his intentions are, who gave him his orders, what he intends to do if he catches her.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Lucy, please give me a mind reading check. You are easily able to tell the one speaking seems to outrank the other two.

---

In reply to The Narrator (msg # 21):

14:00, Today: Lucy Lopez rolled 32 using 1d20+15 with rolls of 17.  mind reading.

In reply to Lucy Lopez (msg # 22):

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
16:10, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC agent 18, rolled 1 using 1d20+3 ((15)).

---

Lucy's mind is suddenly filled with thoughts and images. She suddenly has the realization that she now knows agent Robert "Bobby" Lawson now very well.

Shifting through all the information is difficult but she is able to pick out the following:

The man works for the criminal branch of King pin's organization. Essentially, he is part of the most powerful mafia this side of the wasteland. It seems some of Osbourne's men were able to reach and make a deal to capture Lucy, though there were no stipulations on bringing her in unharmed. It was only required that she was alive.

She is also able to see flashes of imagery in his memory of another group of agents hidden outside the building, waiting, their guns all seem to be armed with tranquilizers. One agent is carrying gas grenades as well.

Combing through his mind further, Lucy also knows that they do not know why Lucy is wanted by Oscorp. They were given orders by the kingpin and that was the only important thing. Plus, Lucy can see that Bobby had some insecurities at home with his spouse that he liked to make up for with a little "professional brutality". While he is promising Hector he will be safe, Lucy knows he is lying.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
16:20, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC bobby, rolled 15 using 1d20+3 ((12)). Bobby was not able to kick you out of his subconscious. Please tell me if you want to look for any more info.

---

"We... I'm just looking for something to eat." Hector says, his voice shaking. His eyes dart around wildly, apparently just noticing that his friend has disappeared.

"That's alright," 'Agent' Bobby responds, inching closer, one hand reaching into his jacket pocket and producing a photograph. "We just want to know if you've seen this girl?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:25, Wed 18 May 2022.

Esperanza

As Essie and her mother reach a safe distance away, she can see 5 men in riot gear run into the clinic. A sigh of relief passes through her, she'd have to be careful not to attract much more attention in town but she and her mother were safe. Perfect timing, it seems.

Once on the outskirts of the city, in the isolation of the wilderness, Essie is able to create her vehicle.

Her mother coughs but places a pale hand on Essie's shoulder, "I'm proud of you, Nina. You did the right thing. I will be fine." She smiles.

The directions that Essie had been given were clear in her memory. All that was left was to journey onward.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
This plot line will be paused for now until Lucy reaches a certain point.

---

Lucy will wait for Hector to give whatever answer he's going to give to the goon's question about the photo, probably some variation on "I've never seen that girl before and oh also by the way go fuck yourself," and then try to give just the gentlest, subtlest little nudge she can manage to Bobby the Goon's mind:  you believe him, he's not a threat, he's irrelevant to your plans here, you and your sub-goons can just ignore him.

10:48, Today: Lucy Lopez rolled 18 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 12.  nudge the goon's mind.

These aren't the droids you're looking for, he can go about his business, Lucy sighs to herself, silently shaking her head.

Hector looks at the picture and scrunches his nose up in disgust, "I don't like little girls, bendejo. I don't know who that is."

Agent Bobby hesitates. The grip on his pistol tightens, hinting at some kind of inner turmoil. "Get the fuck out of here, lowlife." He finally says, re-holstering his gun. The other two agents look at each other, plainly surprised at how that conversation ended. Bobby glares at them, "And what are you two idiots looking at?? The girl is obviously upstairs somewhere. Fan out and find her." He shoves past the two men and starts running upstairs. After a moment where they exchange looks, the other two do the same.

Hector waits a moment until after they leave to finally start breathing. "Nina??" He calls out in a frantic whisper, "Nina, they're gone!"

It seems he is smart enough to not call Lucy by her name but his panic has otherwise stopped him from realizing the agents aren't that far away.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:48, Thu 19 May 2022.

A few moments elapse while the stairwell door swings closed behind the departing agents, during which time Lucy ponders how exactly to proceed, eventually deciding that Hector, being not a total dumbass, was likely going to eventually realize that there were only vanishingly few reasons why that caliber of goon might be looking for a fourteen-year-old girl.

Lucy silently fades back into visibility a few feet beside Hector, arms crossed, glaring up at him balefully.  "¡Cállate, cabrón!" she hisses in a harsh whisper.  "They're like three feet away, are you fucking loco?"  Though her expression softens likely before his startlement at her sudden reappearance fades, and she glances towards the door where the goons vanished, their footfalls trudging solidly up the steps and off into the other reaches of the building as she murmurs in a far gentler tone.  "Thank you for lying for me."

She's of course not letting her monitoring of the goons' minds fall completely from her senses here, she needs to know if they decide to come back for whatever reason.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:08, Thu 19 May 2022.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Lucy can sense the goons getting further away. Please describe how she and Hector are going to try to leave the building-- remembering, of course, the pending ambush outside.

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Lucy isn't planning on taking Hector with her.  With Lucy's suggestion planted in the goons' boss's mind, she judges that he should be safe for at least the immediate moment, until the goons get out of here and report back to someone who has a clue and who realizes what happened.  Maybe she's wrong, but she thinks Hector should easily have at least enough time to pack up most of whatever he needs and either bug out of town or go into hiding somewhere else in the Dustbowl.  And Lucy was explicitly told by whoever projected into her mind to come to the mountain -alone-.  So she's going to leave by herself, planning to just nonchalantly stroll on out past the goons outside, psychically concealed from their perceptions.

---

"They're going to figure out what happened eventually, you're not going to want to be here when that happens.  If you stay in the Dustbowl, leave word with Plug," she says, naming the guy who ran the by far sleaziest of the few operating bars in town.  "I'll try to find you when I can."  She's not motivated entirely by friendship, of course; Hector is her only current source for her "medication," which will eventually need re-upping, even if she's mostly set up for the moment.

Hector nods and turns to leave but stops half-way, thinking better of it. He ruffles her hair and smiles, "You stay safe out there, kid." He looks as if he considers something but decides against it and runs down the stairs.

Lucy is able to get out easily enough. Her powers protect her from any form of monitoring the hidden agents have at their disposal as they obviously were not made aware what she is.


It's a long walk out of the dustbowl and longer through the wilderness towards the mountains. a few hours later, hunger and fatigue set in. She knows she is still close to town, but she can no longer see it, the town hidden by the countryside and the dead trees.

Lucy smells the waft of meat and can hear the crackle of a grill nearby. Following the signs, her stomach growling, you come across a small campsite. 3 men in leather jackets are all sitting around a fire, grilling what looks like preserved beef. There are 3 motorcycles on the other side of the campground, dirty with mud.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
While I assume your pc has a coat, you are hungry and fatigued. Please describe what you do during your break and when/if you drop concealment.

---

Obviously Lucy has no intention of letting herself be detected by a bunch of biker dudes in the woods in the middle of nowhere, that would be just begging for trouble.  She will, however, gladly help herself to some of their food: she'll reach out with her mind across the campsite to shove the kickstand of one of the motorcycles as hard as she can, knocking it over with (hopefully) a startling clatter, causing the biker dudes to alert in the opposite direction, and probably get up and go over to deal with the fallen bike.  Then while they're distracted she'll telekinetically pull one of the biker dudes' meals towards herself, and and just keep strolling along her merry way, eating on the move.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Lucy's Move Object power is pretty feeble, but she'll do this to push over the bike if she has to: "Your effective Strength for lifting and moving objects with this effect is equal to your rank. By taking a move action to concentrate you can increase this by +1 Str, changing the effect’s duration to Concentration."

How long is this trip going to take?  Is Lucy looking at the prospect of having to spend the night alone in the woods?

---

The biker's all jump to the feet at the noise, their bodies tense and ready for a fight. Their attention is firmly fixed on where their bikes are so Lucy is able to easily grab the food and get out of dodge. The last she sees of them is one of the bikers gingerly approaching the bikes. As they disappear from her sight, she can almost hear him call back to his gang, "Must've been a dumb rabbit or something!" the sound of relief in everyone's voice soon to be replaced by fear and anger as they notice some of the BBQ has gone missing.

The sounds of arguing echo through the woods, following Lucy as she follows the trail, a mental map as her only guide.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Yes, you get the sense that it will take at least 24 hours to get up the mountain on foot. Also, you are officialy fatigued, moving at half speed.

---

If Lucy can find a nice secluded spot not too terribly far from her trail, where she can sit down and take a breather away from the wind and elements, then she'll do that.  She'll take off her leather bomber jacket for just long enough to pull the huge (or huge relative to her, anyways) black hoodie that Hector had given her over her body, reapply her jacket over it, and curl up in the hollow of a tree for a bit of a rest, pulling the hood up and her legs tucked inside it for more warmth, just until she feels like she's able to keep moving.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Can Lucy get enough rest to get her through the night in her Trance state?

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Yes, that works. :) you are no longer fatigued.

---

Lucy is able to slip into a restful trance quickly, the mental pathway to do so is lubricated by lots of practice. Slowly, the bite of the cold disappears and Lucy is able to return to some semblance of rest. The night before had given her precious little, after all; her dreams had been intense and mentally uncomfortable. The last thing she sees before entering her meditative state is the image of a white dove on a green pine tree...



A few hours later, Lucy is shaken from her reverie by a hand grabbing her foot and pulling her halfway out of the tree. A woman dressed in rags, her hair a mess of sticks and who-knows-what-else, cackles through a tooth-less maw, "Merry Christmas to me, eh?? A delivery of meat and warm clothes?? It's Old Nan's lucky day!"

The scavenger clearly seems to think Lucy is dead. If she activates her senses, Lucy can feel that there are two other scavengers a few feet behind the first.

Somewhere in the distance, the sound of a loud motor can be heard approaching. The icy hand of fear grips her heart as Lucy remembers the biker gang from earlier. The vehicle is still out of sight, a bit too far for even Lucy's extended senses to pick up. Based on the sound, however, that wouldn't last for much longer.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
As you were very smart with your hiding place, and I am pulling some GM fiat to move plot forward, you may have a hero point. You now have 2 for this scene.

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:44, Fri 20 May 2022.

[Private to GM: ... okay, srsly, the Trance state leaves Lucy still aware of her surroundings, and her Danger Sense should have been pinging like crazy, but I fully accept that you need to railroad me a little bit to set up the plot, so I'll just go with it.  :D ]

Startled and terrified, Lucy has absolutely no inclination towards subtlety: she reflexively absolutely SCREAMS into the scavenger woman's mind: <BACK OFF!!>, just straight-up bludgeoning the woman's brain into submission, commanding her to run.  Run fast.  ... in fact, run towards the sound of those approaching motors.

[Private to GM: I'm not sure what Lucy's bonus for this roll should be; she's trying to Mind Control the scavenger, but per our discussion in PMs, if I'm understanding the Alternate Effect rules correctly and you're ok with me giving her that array, she might be way better at that than the roll I'm about to make?]

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
16:30, Today: Lucy Lopez rolled 16 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 15.  mind control the scavenger.

---

Regardless of whether the woman bolts off towards the road, Lucy will activate her Concealment, hopefully startling the scavengers enough for her to make a getaway.

Coming around the bend, the heavily modified Lenco BearCat G3 that Esperanza had created roared into view. The lights on the front and road illuminating the area impressively. However, when the lights fell over the gathering of scavengers, there was a screeching sound as the brakes were hit and the massive vehicles came to a rough stop.

There was a brief silence as the truck idled in the middle of the path that the scavengers had occupied. But then there was a heavy thunk as the roof-hatch opened up, and a young woman appeared in the small portal.

And she was holding a big gun.

"Oi! Are you people friendly, or are things about to get loud?" came the call from the truck.

There also came the sound of a round being chambered into a Ferfrans SOAR, just to emphasize how loud it could get.

The first scavenger drops Lucy's foot quickly, screams loudly and takes off. The two scavengers behind her look on in confusion. The confusion turns to panic as they see the little girl they just found disappear.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Both scavengers will make attacks against Lucy's Dodge +5.

15:48, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC Scavenger 2, rolled 6 using 1d20+1 ((5)).

15:48, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC Scavenger 3, rolled 11 using 1d20+1 ((10)).

---

The two of them pull out pistols and open fire at the spot where they last saw Lucy but she is able to drop on the ground and avoid any damage, the tree behind her however is shredded.

As Esperanza calls out to them, grabbing their attention, they will turn and try to fire on her as well.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
They don't shoot yet but everyone give me an initiative roll

15:52, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC scavengers, rolled 15 using 1d20+2 ((13)).- Scavengers are at 15, if you get higher, feel free to go first.

---

Lucy ducks and covers desperately from the gunfire, giving a terrified yelp as she hits the ground, then a little grossed-out spitting noise as she takes a faceful of wet dead leaves, though she's more or less confident that her 'you-can't-find-me' psychic nudge will keep the scavengers' brains from acknowledging that they heard any such telltale sounds.  Then she scrambles back to her feet, and bolts off a few yards in a direction parallel to the road, getting herself well out of the field of any potential further gunfire.

14:08, Today: Lucy Lopez rolled 11 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 10.  initiative.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:09, Wed 25 May 2022.

OOC Mechanics
16:12, Today: Esperanza Oshiro rolled 9 using 1d20+4. Initiative.