A Flat Circle - Roland

"A third party decided to insert themselves, a bunch of neo nazi skinheads who think they're protecting america from 'foreign invaders.'" He said, using air quotes. "They ambushed the original buyer and hogtied him in the back of their truck. Thankfully they seemed to be incompetent as hell. Somehow the police got wind of it all and decided to pay us a visit, when that happened, they all panicked and got themselves caught, and the buyer got away in the confusion." No need to tell Patchy how he had more or less orchestrated that whole affair. He didn't need that attention just yet.


Something was prickling the edge of his senses, and he was having a hard time ignoring it. With a bit of focus, he narrowed, or widened, depending on how you look at it, his view of the world, taking in the universe as it truly was.


OOC


Activating Mage Sight
 
Patchy's web of intrigue in the back of the room - you see threads that aren't there. This cop to that gang leader, a senator to a cartel lieutenant, linked by silver threads. One falls right off the board, down to the floor. The shadows seem deeper, there. A cold sense of something aware slides down your spine. 


Patchy exhales, hand going to her forehead as she sits behind her desk.


"Sure, sure. But you took the money and kept the guns, huh?" She pauses, drags on her cigarette. "Might have to put up with Feds for a while - standard response to Neo-Nazis looking for guns, but I doon't think they can implicate us."


She exhales a plume of smoke, looking at the duffel bag.


You follow her gaze. Space seems distorted around it; like it's so very, very heavy. Like it's pulling things inward. 


You know that it is 09:02 PM exactly. When Patchy reaches for the bag, that clunky antique watch of hers is spattered with blood and reads 9:20. 
 
Roland shook his head. "No, the cops showed up before the exchange could happen. We still have the guns if we want to try selling them again, otherwise I can make them disappear for a while." Left unsaid was the fact that the money had been tainted. Sadly there was no way for him to really 'know' that in this timeline. 


In the meantime, whatever was at the end of that string was starting to draw Roland's curiosity. Focusing his senses on that patch of 'awareness' he pushed his senses passed what was right in front of and in to the unknown.


OOC


Activating Focused Mage Sight, Revelation style: Gnosis 3 + Fate 3 = 6 dice for 5 successes
 
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Something dead gazes back with hollow sockets, and even that is a puppet, tendrils of darkness wrapping around ribs and humerus, and a splitting headache strikes when you try to look at it directly.


The money is a trap, a tangle of threads leading out in the world, into the shadows. You can see hands holding them - some gloved, some skeletal. 


But the threads are bullets and the bag is a gate to death.


You see the door kicked down. The undercover agents draw their guns. The enfilade formed around the perimeter.


There are ten minutes to escape. 
 
Damn, looks like some things were inevitable after all. He'd have to remember that for the future.  Ten minutes was too short a time to do anything significant, but the nature of his skill at his newfound abilities lent themselves to the subtle and subversive rather than flashy displays.


The question was however, what would help him best in the long run? Roland wasn't content to remain a simple mercenary, and had ambitions on becoming a major player in Vegas's underworld scene. As his new talents had opened up a world of possibilities to him, he felt the need to capitalize on them and advance his position.


The way he saw it, two paths lay before him: One was to simply conclude his business and leave, allowing Patchy to take the fall. He could then move in and assume control over her organization, quieting any dissent and smoothing any wrinkles in the transition with a mixture of occult and mundane means.


The second option was for him to allow the ambush to happen and save Patchy. He could, with a reasonable degree of certitude, ensure that they would escape. With a bit of fine manipulations, he could also guarantee that he was the only person other than her to make it out of the ambush alive. Patchy would likely be grateful enough to hire him on as a significant figure in her organization, which would later allow him to either take over once she retired or splinter off with his own group one he garnered enough influence.


The flaws with each plan is that one relied on effectively betraying Patchy (which left a bitter taste in his mouth) and the other relied on him being able to count on a crime boss's generosity.


In the face of two uncertain futures, most people would have to take a chance and gamble on a choice.


Roland, however, was not most people, and could shine a light in on to the paths before him.


OOC


Casting Divination, 1 Reach to make it Instant, 1 Reach to ask specific questions. Asking which plan will be the most expedient in Roland's ascension in Vegas' criminal hierarchy. Gnosis 3 + Time 2 = 2 successes
 
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Getting a well-connected and capable fixer like Patchy out of trouble and in your debt is an excellent step on the path to power, if you're willing to let her enemies be your enemies.


Slipping away at the first sign of trouble means no rep at best, and the lingering suspicion you brought the feds down on her at worst. 


Saving Patchy is the better bet. 
 
With the best future apparent to him, Roland now had to make it come to pass, and that involved keeping Patchy alive for now. Knowing he had only a few minutes before the impending assault, he quickly worked to twist Fate to suit him. It was difficult, as he had to expend precious resources that were not easily required, but in the long run he hoped, wth Patchy's territory to draw on, to secure a means to restore that resource

Casting Exceptional Luck, bonus dice Boon. 1 Reach to make it Instant and 1 Reach to increase the Scale of the spell to affect me and Patchy. +1 Reach/Paradox to make it last for the escape scene. Spending 2 Mana to remove the paradox die. Gnosis 3 + Fate 3 = 6 dice for 4 successes


Casting Exceptional Luck again, Buffing Conditions: Charmed and Steadfast. Same Reach/Mana perimeters as above. Gnosis 3 + Fate 3 = 6 dice for 3 successes


Mana reserves at 7/12
 
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"They caught up pretty fast, then?" Patchy continues. "That's... wait, shit. Waltz, get the geiger..."



The device crackles as it passes over the money.


Patchy kicks her desk.


"Jesus. We've been had," she breathes. "We go underground, or we get put there. I can get these clean, but not fast enough."


She glances up at you, a sharp jerk of her head.


"You got a safehouse?"


 
 
"One, not far from here." Roland said, parroting himself from another time. "I should be able to get there in a few minutes if I leave now." He said, knowing that he would be immediately doubling back in a few seconds after he 'saw' the upcoming ambush.
 
"Get your ass out there, then," she waves a dismissive hand. "You'll know when the heat's off, trust me - but it might be wise to leave town for a while if you can."


Her lackeys are already packing.


"I have my own holes to hide in."
 
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"Got it. I'll see you when the heat is off. Good luck." He said, getting up from the chair. His hand was resting on his concealed sidearm by the time he got to the door, ready to open fire when things got hot. All it would take now was a little more patience.
 
You pass the plain-clothes infiltrator on your way out.  Street seems quiet.


You've got a few more minutes to pick a vantage point, prepare, watch them arrive.  What do you do?
 
Walking in a brief semi-circle around building, Roland spotted a window that would allow him the most visible entry once the firefight started. It was perhaps, a bit melodramatic, diving in through a window to rescue a damsel in distress, but could indulge in these theatrics every so often, thanks to his new talents.


As a final bit of preparation, he wove around himself a net of causality, tuning it to ward off harm and ill fortune.

1 Mana on Mage Armor. Adding Fate to my Defense and allowing my Defense to apply against firearms. 6/12 Mana
 
 A few sedans, unmarked and innocuous, which implies FBI, then the SWAT vans a little further out.  The growing enfilade, the pair of officers who run right by you so focused on their destination they don't look at where you're standing.  The plain-clothes guys inside will be heading for Patchy now - you can practically see the door opening from here, even though that must be seconds away...
 
Almost time. Drawing his weapon and giving a check, Roland cast one final spell that would let him know the best moment to intervene and give him the best chance of success.


OOC


Casting Momentary Flux using the +1 Reach option for the Initiative bonus. Gnosis 3 + Time 2 = 1 success, which is barely enough to cast it.
 
Door kicked open. Gunfire. Yelling. Sirens and bullhorns. The screams of fleeing civilians - risky play, this; they must want Patchy bad.


Plain-clothes is pointing a gun at Patchy and she's pointing one right back.  One her goons is going to die for this, taking a bullet thrown wild by your intervention. You can see it happen even as you seize that ideal moment and crash through the window behind her, as the young man moves to grapple the agent before his blood sprays across the desk.  Patchy's hesitating, but your finger is on the trigger.
 
Taking aim, Roland opened fire at the agent, aiming for the soft spots on the body armor that his sighted awareness of probable outcomes granted him. "Move it!" He shouted, continuing to provide cover fire for Patchy to escape under.


OOC


Dex 5 + Firearms 4 + Handguns 1 + Disadvantage 1 + Potency 3 (Luck Boon) + Double 9s = 14 dice for 5 successes
 
The coronor will talk about this one at the bar for years. 


The bullet passes between two ribs, caromes improbably off a benign fibrous growth near the agent's shoulderblades, and spalls right between two vertabrae.


"Jesus Christ, Roland," she barks, staring at you with a hand over her left ear. The tinnitus is settling in for you, too, but thankfully you don't need flawless hearing...


He drops like a stone as Patchy runs by. One her goons tosses her an uzi, but she looks distinctly uncomfortable with it. She makes him take the lead, heading for that side door you remember with such clarity. Patchy follows.


You have to get ahead of them and time the opening right. You know this. You've got only seconds to find an opening in the cordon - the right the moment when a lieutenant's back is turned and one of the boys in kevlar thinks he's seen a sniper in the next building over.
 
Time went liquid as Roland took hold of it, pooling in to stillness as the seconds began to extend. With only moments to act and no second chances, he pierced past the veil of the Now and look in to the Could Bes and the Maybes.


Slowing his pace by a half step, he moved in front of Patchy to both force her to match his pace and to provide protection should she come under fire. While his previous twists of fate were still in place to ward away harm, he wasn't taking any chances at this critical moment.


OOC


Casting Choose the Thread to try and get the better outcome. Gnosis 3 + Time 2 is 5 dice for 5 successes, spending 1 Reach to make the casting Instant.
 
You open the door as Patchy falls in line just behind you. Her goons are not far behind. One of them dies holding the floor while the other follows you with a briefcast handcuffed to his wrist. You step out into the deepening Nevada evening and Patchy is so busy watching you with uncertain thoughts that she doesn't notice how close the cops are, because if she had the hesitation would kill you all. But you lead her to cover behind an unmarked van, hearing someone nearby swearing viciously to themselves. 


"Hey," Patchy hisses, "this is mine, but I don't know if we can just drive out of this mess."
 
"We don't have a lot of good options. Unless you know something I don't, trying to bust through is our best best right now." Roland said, peaking over the van to get a look at the cops. There were more of them than he liked to see, and he ducked back behind the van before he got his fool self spotted.
 
"Fuck," Patchy muttered. She paused, followed by another stream of swearing and a very deliberate effort not to sound like she's going to cry. 


She fumbles some keys from her pocket and opens the door of the van. "Pile the fuck in!" she hisses


Once you're all in, she doesn't question you taking shotgun. She seems to count down to herself before turning the key and slamming the accelerator. 


There's what sounds like a gunshot, but you realize it was the van backfiring. As you roar out of the parking lot, the backfire is answered by reports from rifles; none of which are pointed at you. Someone had an itchy trigger finger. Patchy keeps her speed up right through a plastic barricade and headed toward the edge of the city, and she has nearly a minute headstart before the cops overcome a streak of terrible luck to actually get on the road.


She loses them on a hard turn into an alley, when you look back to see one of the police cars hit a civilian while trying to follow and spins out, blocking pursuit.


A bit further and Patchy parks amid some similar vans in the lot of a disused mini-mall. "Okay, we split up here and go on foot while we've got some breathing room. Lucky thing they never got a helicopter on us."
 
Personally, Roland was tempted to be disappointed that the helicopter hadn't tried anything. Part of him had wanted to see how effective his new abilities would be on it. Then again, better not to tempt Fate. Ha. Ha. Ha.


Still, he hadn't expected Patchy to be so shaken up over the sting.  For a criminal mastermind, she was displaying a surprising level of vulnerability. Maybe her tough attitude was just an act? Questions for later, for now it was time to go to ground.


"Good luck. Get in touch when the heat is off and we'll see where things take us." He said, exiting the van.
 
"Yeah," she said, audibly grateful. "I'll do that."


She and her goons escape into the night, leaving you alone with the van and the possibility of the NVPD descending on your head.
 
Now that Patchy was safely on her way to her bunker, Roland decided it was time for him to do the same. He had a small apartment that he used to crash when he was between jobs nearby. As Roland began to move towards it at a casual pace to avoid attention, he hoped he wouldn't run in to any trouble along the way.
 
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