Esperanza

Life for a runaway is hard. Every moment feels like you are going to be caught. Every decision feels like a mistake. Every time you go to sleep you wonder where you will wake up.

This life is even harder for the young Esperanza as she is travelling with her mother. The journey across the country has been hard: Avoiding the monsters in No Man's Land, the gangs and war lords of the great plains, and not to mention any place with working security cameras.

Every shadow is an operative on her tail, every flash of movement an enemy. This isn't to suggest that she was afraid. But though she wouldn't admit it, Esperanza knew that Julieta was. Though she was always careful to drive as smoothly as possible, the last 4 days on a motorcycle have been taking their toll on her mother's health and it was beginning to show.

"Don't worry about me, Essie," Her mother would say, rubbing her leg, "the important thing to me is that you are safe, mi hija." and she would say no more on the subject.

But she was starting to look paler and hobble even slower. Then, this morning, with snow blanketing their campsite in it's suffocating embrace, the cough started. The cough was deep, from the chest.

Julieta coughed so hard she could barely swallow her breakfast. The coughs shook her body, causing her to resemble the last Autumn leaf clinging to it's branch, desperate to will the seasons into a stand-still.

Luckily, up ahead was a sign. Spray painted over what ever it was originally meant to say, were the words: The Dust Bowl, 25 miles ahead. The town had been mentioned in passing amongst those Essie had passed on her travels. She knew it was a relatively large town that seemed to be doing well enough for itself. A town that most likely would be large enough that remaining anonymous would be easy and, if she were lucky, had a doctor...

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Go ahead and roleplay as much of the journey as you want in your post. Please end your post with your character finding the one doctor's office in the center of the Dust Bowl.

---

This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 20:33, Fri 13 May 2022.

Lucy

The dreams were starting to become more intense. In her drug-induced stupor she couldn't remember when they had started, and sometimes, where they ended. But she remembered the images. They always came in rapid succession, as if she were watching a slideshow at 10x speed: A mountain, the top covered in snow and an orange light, a town, large by her standards and seemingly covered in dust, a woman with red hair that looked like an angel, smiling at her, and finally an image of herself-- standing in a beautiful garden, a look of triumph on her face. These would repeat again and again, every pass through faster until Lucy thought she was going to get sick and then... she would wake up.

Tonight was different. Tonight there was the usual slide show but it was slower. Having newly arrived at the dust bowl, she recognized the town as the one from her dreams but that didn't seem to be the important place for her... It was the mountain.

At the point where she usually would be about to get sick and wake up, suddenly Lucy's dream fell still and an overwhelming sense of peace filled her. It expanded from her heart and the intensity of the feeling grew such that she could not stop herself from crying. It had been a long long time since she felt this good... had she ever felt this good?

A moment later, a dove appeared in her vision. It sat on a large pine tree. Somehow, Lucy knew the tree was a white fir, though how she knew that she could not say.

A voice spoke to her then. The voice was never picked up by her ears, it massaged her brain directly as it spoke, almost as if it were the exact opposite of the headaches she had grown so accustomed to.

"Lucy... Lucy, listen. It is time." The voice said and Lucy knew it was emanating from the dove, "Lucy, you don't have much time. They know. They are coming to get you. You must get to the mountain."

The dove's eyes began to glow. Their intensity unmistakable. "You know the way now, you must go. There is no time! Go! And go alone!" While she had never been there, Lucy did indeed realize she knew exactly which path to take to get to the mountain and to the commune of people she had seen there. Before she would have a chance to say anything though, a sharp knocking on the door would wake her up.


"Lucy!" Hector's loud whisper could be heard coming through the rotting wood of the guest room door, "Lucy! Wake up! We got to get going!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:32, Fri 13 May 2022.

Essie winced with every wracking cough that shook her mother's frame. While she could probably use her ability to create machines to poof some medical devices into the air, she had no education on the matter. An MRI machine would do no good if she couldn't read it, after all. For all her unique power, she felt helpless. Still, it would be a cold day in hell before she let her Madre die without a fight. She went over to to her bike and dismissed it with a thought. The vehicle melted into a flash of light roughly the same shape as the bike before it went to wherever her machines went when she uncreated them. While motorcycles were what she was most familiar and comfortable with, it was snowing, and the only place that might have a doctor was called "Dustbowl."

Not exactly a place that screamed it was good for the lungs.

One of the positives to scrounging a living in the ruins of Old Detroit was all the defunct vehicles that scattered the place. Despite being in an economic downturn before the villains of yesteryear organized, their was a lot of automotive work and culture all about the city. So when she needed to picture something in her mind's eye for use, all she had to do was remember all those years of crawling around old rusty wrecks.

When she opened her eyes, there was a flash of white light, and suddenly there was a heavily modified Lenco BearCat G3* sitting beside her. Fresh gasoline was hard to come by out here, and she wasn't sure she could even make the raw material by itself. So she had converted the gas guzzler to a solar powered number. The heavy solar panels sat proudly on the roof, and could take one hell of a beating before breaking by the look of things.

"Perfección," Esperanza purred to herself, pleased.

"Madre! Get in! I have an idea!" she called, turning to her mother.

A few moments later, they had packed up what meager camp they had, and were roaring along the "road" to Dustbowl. It wasn't the smoothest ride, even with the off-road conversions, but the thing was a beast, and at miles at a deceptive pace. It only took a little over a half and hour to reach the city. They drew more than their fair share of looks. Not only because they were driving an armored vehicle, but because in her creativity, Essie had replaced the usual metro markings and slogans with a stylized middle-finger and a number of rude mottos in both English and Spanish.

When Essie finally saw a building near the center of town that appeared to have medical signage out front, she took a hold of her mother's shoulder, and dismissed the vehicle around them. It was an impressive entrance to be sure.

"Oi! Is there a doctor in this cesspool!?" she barked, letting her mother lean on her as they walked into the building.

OOC Mechanics
Create: Armored Car, Core Rulebook page 224

Esperanza

The old woman sitting in what must be the receptionist's chair widened her eyes as Esperanza burst in. "Dios mio, jovencita..." She mumbled as she waved the newcomer in. "That language is not becoming of a young lady," she continued in Spanish.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Forgive me, my Spanish is terrible. Was trying to say: "My God, young lady..."

---

"Yes, this is the Dustbowl's only doctor." Before she could continue, a tall white man with blonde hair and blue eyes approaches. The wrinkles on his face were lined with disgust as he visually dissected every inch of the drifter that had just barged into his clinic. Esperanza could feel him take in every dirt smear, every oil stain, every tear in her clothing.

"We take payment upfront. It will be $2,000 for the exam."

The old receptionist's eyes widen again and she starts to say something but a glare from the doctor shuts her up.

"Well, what will it be?" The doctor demands, his eyes cold.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
If it wasn't obvious, you don't have the money. Feel free to roll a persuasion roll if you want to plead your case (for you, this would be a flat d20 with no modifiers), I may add a bonus or negative after the face based on how you roleplay.

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 19:40, Sat 14 May 2022.

Essie smiled sweetly at the doctor, as if he was an old friend. She sat her mother down in the receptionist's area and gave her a kiss on the top of the head before turning back to the doctor and the receptionist. She made a show of reaching behind her back like a magician, before bringing them back out with a heavy M60 Machine Gun. How such a large weapon could have been physically hidden behind her was a mystery, but one that would have to be solved later.

"I can give you two thousand brass casings, if you want to wait about three seconds. Does that work for you?" Essie asked with a saccharin sweetness that was beyond sarcasm.

Now, Essie didn't like hurting people. She was very much against a might-makes-right mentality, having grown up in the shadow of Osborn. But there was no possible world where this backwater doctor didn't treat her mother. That simply wasn't going to happen.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC Mechanics
16:43, Today: Esperanza Oshiro rolled 13 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 8.  Intimidation.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 20:45, Sat 14 May 2022.

Esperanza

The Doctor's eyes widen at the sight of the gun and then narrow again, his hands in the air, "Do you know WHO is my backer??" He hisses, disgust in his voice, "When he finds out what you are doing..."

Two other patrons waiting for care get up and try to run out of the clinic, if Essie doesn't stop them they will leave without a word. A third is shivering face down on the floor, his hands over his head.

"Miha!" The receptionist yells in Spanish, "There is a better way!" She looks at the doctor then back to Esperanza, "There is a group in the mountain. They can take care of your mother."

The doctor looks at his employee, confused. The receptionist gives Essie directions to the secret place in the mountain, the whole time in Spanish.

If Esperanza hesitates, she will plead with her to leave, "It's not worth it, Miha. He really DOES work for very dangerous people. Go!"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
The Narrator, for the NPC Doctor, rolled 23 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 18. ! Resist Intimidation.
20:17, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC Doctor, rolled 10 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 5. Insight Check on Receptionist
20:17, Today: The Narrator, for the NPC Doctor, rolled 7 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 3. Insight Check- reroll

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 00:20, Sun 15 May 2022.

"Leave the one doctor I know about in the area for a secret hidden group in the mountains you say? Uh-huh...and I guess Thor came back and gave everyone cupcakes for lunch too, eh? Do I really look that stupid?" Essie asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Now, I've asked politely. If you want I could start threatening you. Honestly, I don't give a damn about who you work for. You are going to fix my Madre, because I insist," she said cooly, pressing the barrel of the oversized weapon against the doctor's forehead.

"Volcán no! *Cough cough cough cough* These *cough cough* aren't b-bandidos! No blood niña!" her mother managed to shakily exclaim.

She lacked the strength to stop her, but she was still a fierce and principled woman.

"Uuuuggghhhh! Fine! Maybe this place in the mountains will Not be a fairy tale after all. Come on Madre. Stay behind me," the young woman sighed, clearly not in the mood to argue with her mother.

She made sure to slowly back out of the doctor's office, making sure to keep her mother covered. Once they were clear, she spun quickly in place and dismissed the weapon. Hopefully to any onlooker, it would appear that she had simply tossed the weapon as she spun. Guiding her mother, she began to make her way out of town, supporting the other woman's weight. While they had driven into town quickly, she figured conjuring a vehicle in the middle of town would cause more notice than dismissing one. So once they were clear of onlookers, she would summon the armored vehicle again, and make for the mountain camp that she had gotten directions for.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:10, Wed 18 May 2022.

Startled from sleep by Hector's banging, Lucy groaned as she dragged herself out of bed, grumbling a "cállate la boca, Hector!" at the door as she pulled her jeans back on.  Bare feet padding across the room, she yanked the door open to glare balefully up at him.  "What the fuck, Hector!"  Though she didn't wait for so much as a breath of a reply before sulking back into the room, first grabbing up her jacket to shrug back on over the t-shirt she'd been sleeping in: being sour and grouchy as being jolted from sleep didn't make her incapable of recognizing the note of alarmed urgency in his voice; if she had to get on the run, she'd get on the run first, and ask questions later.  "... qué está pasando?" she asked as she reached for her socks.

Lucy Lopez

Hector rushes in and shuts the door behind him as soon as he is able. In Spanish, he starts rapidly explaining that there are some men in suits outside trying to get in. They have asked for Lucy, specifically.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
You know that 'men in suits' either means Government agents or Mafia.

---

He franticly rushes her to pack her shit and starts grabbing stuff off the walls and shoving them into a raggedy back pack.

"¡Vamos, Sucia!!" he yells, throwing an old black hoodie at her that smells like it hasn't been washed in... forever.

When Lucy is ready, Hector will try to lead her down the stairs. In his hurry he is not paying attention to where he is going.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Feel free to role play more in the apartment if you wish. Otherwise, as you enter the stairwell, roll Perception please.

---

Living on the road and on the run had instilled in Lucy at least one habit that was useful in the moment:  once she'd flung on her jacket and boots and backpack, she was fully ready to bug out, all her worldly possessions either in the backpack or zipped snug into her jacket pockets.

Even as they make their exit and (hopefully) their escape, still a small corner of Lucy's mind is occupied in turning over the dream she'd been dreaming before she was so abruptly interrupted.  Or rather it had seemed to be a dream at the time, though she now suspected it to be something rather different - a projection into her mind, from...  someone.  She had no idea who; she in fact hadn't had any idea that there was anyone else in the world who could do such a thing other than herself.  And it was that realization, not any of the obvious cheesy bullshit religious imagery, that truly compelled Lucy to go along with the suggestion that had been dropped into her mind - the realization that there was someone up that mountain who could project their thoughts into other peoples' heads.  There's someone up there like me.

So for the moment, she followed Hector out of the room and down the steps, though she had every intention of disappearing and ditching him once they'd gotten away, and making her way to the path up the mountain she'd seen in her "dream."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
18:16, Today: Lucy Lopez rolled 18 using 1d20+13 with rolls of 5.  Perception.

---