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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8562713" data-attributes="member: 30538">Penelope Jones<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-FhhNSv6/0/83d74882/M/agNjLbr_460s-M.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />People saw her throw off bon mots after putting an end to some villain who was trying to kill her, and viewed her as being cold as ice, never knowing that she would go home to a nearly empty manor afterwards and cry herself senseless over how scared she had been. People saw her wrecking more of the heritage of the world than she ever managed to document and crack jokes about it, never knowing that she poured huge amounts of her family fortune into trying to recover what had been damaged. Everyone saw so much in her -- explorer, adventurer, hero, criminal, and, never deny it, sex object -- that maybe it is not all that surprising that no one ever stopped to wonder what she saw in herself. And apparently, what she saw in herself was a gigantic failure.Just as her own daughter grew up in her shadow, Penelope Jones grew up in the shadow of her father and grandfather, both far more respected archaeologists than she ever managed to be. She heard what people said about her -- "one of the worst things to ever happen to archaeology in the history of the discipline", in the words of one particularly eloquent jerk -- and arguing the point would have done no good. So she kept on having her bloody adventures, even though she had come to hate everything about these fiascos, until one of them finally killed her.Except that she only died in the "no one could possibly have survived that" sense. Spared the reaper one more time, she spent weeks trying to make it back to Quito, only to find out that Penelope Jones had been reported missing and was presumed dead. Deciding that this suited her, Penelope eventually made a quiet life for herself on the Isla de la Sol in Lake Titicaca, avoiding contact with tourists while conducting some private study of the Incan ruins there. She had the peace that she had craved for so long, and was content.That contentment was disturbed a few weeks ago when Virginia, having grown up into even more of a menace than she herself had ever been, teamed up with some aliens to finally investigate the account of her death. Panicking, Penelope faked up what she hoped would be taken as a gravesite and attempted to present it to these Vagabonds as the place where Penelope Jones had eventually passed away. She honestly thought she had succeeded, and watched the boat that they were taking pull away from the docks while indulging in some monologue about how it was better this way.Then she turned around and found that Virginia was standing behind her and glaring furiously in her direction. "Do you think I don't know a bloody thing about anthropology?!" she ranted. "That skeleton showed no signs that it had ever been anywhere close to the sort of pollution you would have grown up in! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCUH0r52eM" target="_blank">Where's your head at?!</a>" After some further abuse, and the return of the boat, Virginia essentially ordered Penelope to get on the boat and return to civilization with her. Penelope, thoroughly cowed, did so.She and her daughter have not spoken a word to each other since then. Penelope does feel bad about this, but to her mind, it only makes sense that she would be just as much of a failure as a mother as she was at everything else that ever actually mattered, and Ginny is probably better off without her. While attempting to disentangle her status as one of the legally dead, she has been given a position as the social studies teacher at the Futurian Academy. She expects that she is failing at this, too, since the students keep asking her about her adventures -- ick -- rather than what the course material. Ah well. Time is bound to catch up with her eventually.Penelope Jones -- PL 8Abilities:STR 1 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 4 | AWE 3 | PRE 2Powers:Cunning Linguist: Comprehend Languages 3 (understand, be understood, read), Quirk (requires a scene of exposure) - 8 pointsAdvantages:Attractive, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Evasion 2, Improved Initiative, Jack-of-all-trades, Tracking, Well-informed.Skills:Acrobatics 8 (+10), Athletics 6 (+7), Expertise: History 9 (+13), Expertise: Survival 7 (+11), Insight 9 (+12), Intimidation 8 (+10), Investigation 6 (+10), Perception 7 (+10), Persuasion 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Guns 7 (+10), Stealth 6 (+8), Vehicles 5 (+8)Offense:Initiative +6Unarmed +4 (Close Damage 1) Defense:Dodge 6, Parry 4, Fortitude 4, Toughness 4/2, Will 6Totals:Abilities 42 + Powers 8 + Advantages 9 + Skills 43 + Defenses 9 = 111 pointsOffensive PL: 3*Defensive PL: 5Resistance PL: 5Skill PL: 8Complications:Peace--Motivation. Legally Dead. Old Enemies. Terrible Self Image. Unbelievably Estranged Family (Virginia.)Note: In her prime, back in the 90s, she was PL9; her physical abilities and FGT were each 1 rank higher, her Ranged Combat: Guns skill was 1 rank less, and she had Benefit 4 (millionaire, paired guns), Defensive Roll 2, and an Equipment budget like that of Virginia, favoring a pair of Heavy Pistols (Ranged Damage 4.)</blockquote>

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