Hunter: the Vigil - I Left My Soul in San Francisco - Renata Hodges - Prelude [Restart]

NOTE: The first post will be the "recovered" content from before the Big Crash.

RG Thread
OOC Thread
[sblock=Other Prelude Threads]Luke Chen
Ryan Smith[/sblock]

POST 1 - INSIGHT

***

PRELUDE - RENATA HODGES
This is the prelude thread for the Renata Hodges character in the Hunter: the Vigil game, "I Left My Soul in San Francisco".

***

Dec 2014 - San Francisco, California


Renata had just parked her car at one of the University of San Francisco's many commuter lots and locked the driver's side door and she heard a scream from somewhere nearby. This parking lot was within sight of Negoesco Stadium as well as Fromm Hall and Gleeson Library. It was dark; Renata had come for a night class. The parking lot was only half-full. Renata could not see the source of the scream, but she determined that it came from an adult female and it was not that far away.

There were no people visible on Parker Avenue, the nearest street, running perpendicular to the parking lot. To the north was Golden Gate Avenue, which formed the northern border of the University. To the south was McAllister Street. To the south were also the Carmelite Monastery and St. Ignatius Church.

Renata could hear scuffling, probably from the same direction as the scream. Something was happening and Renata would need to decide - quickly - whether she wanted to intervene.

***

POST 2 - SHAYURI

Renata's head snapped around towards the sound and her hand clenched on the windowframe of her car door. Damnit. Now she knew why superheroes always wore their costumes under their clothes. You just never knew when.

She'd tried that once. It had lasted about fifteen minutes before it'd started getting waaay too hot. Not that she had a 'costume' exactly. It was basically just workout clothes and a ski mask. Oh hey.

The glove compartment of her car stuck a little, so she bashed it with the side of her fist to convince it of the merits of opening. It reluctantly did, and inside...well, it wasn't her usual black mask. It was the red knit one she'd stuck in there way back when she was first moving out here. Where she was from, winter was WINTER and it SNOWED and she'd just kept a hat in there on reflex. Then, in the Bay Area, she'd forgotten about it because you didn't need that kind of thing here.

But it did unroll into a sort of face-stocking thing. It'd do.

She grabbed it out, closed her car door quietly, and peeled the red knit hat down over her head. It wasn't much for identity suppression. If a picture came out of this, and someone recognized her clothes, it could still be trouble. But she wasn't just going to let whatever this was go down. If it came down to it, she'd have that fight with her dad and see where the dice fell.

As she stalked forward towards the source of the noise, half hunched over and moving as quickly as she could without making distinct 'footstep' noises, Renata reached into her back pocket. There was a wad of leather there, punctuated with occasional pockets filled with sand. Her gloves at least she was never without.

Because you never knew when.

This is the "catch up" post. After this post, we will continue with the prelude.

***

Renata tried to sneak up to the two men attacking the woman. As she did, Renata got a better look at the men. They were hunched over the woman, who was struggling, unsuccessfully, against the men. Renata also noticed a van, with its engine running, parked right next to the site of the attack. Renata saw a man sitting in the driver's seat. He appeared to be watching the action.

In an attempt to stop the attack, Renata charged forward. She took a wild, forceful swing at the nearest attacker. The fist connected and sunk into her target's cranium. The two men turned, slowly, to face Renata. She could see their stoic faces, not seeming to react with any sort of passion or fear in the wake of Renata's strike. In fact, her punch didn't seem to have much impact at all.

Renata could see that the victim was bloody. Her neck was awash in her own blood. She was still alive, but struggling.

The van driver jumped into the back and started fishing for medical supplies. It was clear from his language that he was trying to bandage the woman. The two men were "not supposed to kill her". One of the attackers picked up the bleeding woman and took her towards the van. The other attacker faced Renata.

Renata stepped in, twisting a bit to the side and then snapping back around to send a blistering fist at the freakazoid standing between her and the soon-to-be kidnappee. She wanted to help, but giving this guy her back was only going to net these bastards two victims instead of the one!

PUNCHING FACE: 7d10h8 3

Ren has Defense 3 and no wounds yet.

Renata's punch connects. Her fist strikes the leering man right in the jaw. Teeth are ejected from the guy's bloody maw. Renata knows that such a shot would drop a normal man, at least for a moment. This guy doesn't seem very phased by it.

In her peripheral vision, Renata detects activity within the van. The driver, who is now in the back of the van, is hurriedly trying to bandage the woman the two weirdos attacked. The other guy stands by the van's open door. He doesn't seem to know what to do, as if he's waiting for further instructions.

(OOC - Are these things making any attempt to defend themselves, or is she just overcoming their Defense?)

These guys are slow to react to Renata and inhumanly tough

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

The van driver has just about finished patching up the woman. The attacker next to the van is still just standing there, staring at the open van door.

The other man, the hideously disgusting one that Renata just popped right in his kisser, hisses back at Renata and takes a lumbering and awkward swing at her. The strike is true, though, and rakes Renata across her left shoulder. This guy must have sharp fingernails, or something, because it is more of a claw than a punch. The strike rips whatever Renata is wearing, nearly tearing it completely from her body.

OOC: Mark 1 Health unless you can soak the damage

"Agh!" Renata feels a silvery slash of pain, and in a moment of panic thinks, knife! But focusing on his hands doesn't reveal a knife. It's hard to tell, but was it just that he had long nails? What the hell?

Unfortunately, stopping the fight so she could get a better look, or ask him what the hell was up, wasn't an option...so she took another shot at his face, praying that she could put him down before he landed another hit like that!

(2 successes, nyah...My previous rolls were mistaken, cuz I forgot to take her gloves into account...it seems like I could count them as 'brass knuckles' yeah? Attack!: 8D10.OPEN(8) = [9, 2, 8, 4, 2, 6, 6, 6, 5, 7] = 55)

Renata lands another shot that should at least drop someone, but the thick and sluggish thing before her is unfazed. Renata realizes that she is much quicker - and more lively - than her opponent. If she wanted to, she could probably run away from this guy.

The van's side door closes and the driver gets back into the front seat. The driver appears ready to leave the two thugs behind.

What does Renata do?

If he was going to fall, he woulda by now. He's...drugged up? Or something? What the actual hell, look at his freaking JAW!

The whole thing was next-level creepy. They'd bitten the girl. They had fingernails filed to fricking claws. And they took enough punches to put Brock Lesnar on his hind end. And there were two.

Meanwhile, the REAL point of all this was about to drive away!

Yeah, no. It was time to 'nope' out of here, and she had just the ride in mind.

Renata backed away from the...zombie?...and ducked around to weave between him and the other one and grab the latch of the van door. Predictably, it didn't open, but as the engine revved, she grabbed it tighter and got up onto the back fender.

Jesus help her if he was going to get onto the freeway.