Name: Adriana Maria Estavão
Nature: Hedonist/Explorer/Thrillseeker?
Allegiance: Norça
Visual: an unholy combination of Caterina Zeta-Jones looks
with the age and attitude of Dawn (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Strength 2;
Dexterity 4; Athletics 1, Drive 1, Legerdemain 1, Martial Arts
1, Melee
Stamina 4; Resistance 1,
Perception 2; Awareness 1,
Intelligence 2; Intrusion 3, Linguistics 1 (Portuguese, English),
Wits 2; Meditation 1, Rapport 1,
Appearance 3; Style 2,
Manipulation 2; Subterfuge 1,
Charisma 3; Perform 1 (specialty; Acting), Savvy 2
Willpower: 5
Psi: 7
Aptitude: Biokinesis
Basic Techniques: Biosense
Modes: Adaptation 1, Psychomorphing 0, Transmogrify 3
Auxiliary Modes: None.
Backgrounds: Cipher 1 (records not available outside of
Brazil), Citizenship 1 (Brazil, Australia), Followers 1 (A Capivara!),
Resources 4
Weapons: Orgotek Electric Eel Taser Pistol (Dmg 6B, RoF 1,
FT 1), Chain
(Dmg 7B), Fighting Gloves (Dmg 7B), Enamel Knife (Dmg 8L)
Armor: Armor Vest (1/3, 0), Reinforced Clothing (several
suits, commonly
tight leather 'catsuit') (0/2, 0)
Other Equipment: All-terrain jeep, pemmican snacks (dried
fruits, meats
and nuts) for Cappy (and self).
Adriana's life
reads like some sort of juvenile bit of romantic fiction. She was born and raised on a coca plantation
outside of Maraba in northern Brazil to a rich landowner and de facto ruler of
the local townsfolk. Her mother was an
actress he had met and married and she was their firstborn. Her parents had the son they had been trying
for the next year and promptly moved to separate bedrooms as they were tired of
pretending they liked each other even a little. Unfortunately, their son Carlos contracted a wasting Taint-related
sickness that was currently unidentified and withered to half his size,
remained all but retarded and caused all concerned a sort of guilty relief when
he passed away in his sleep at the age of 11.
Their parents at that point finally realized they would have to bite the
bullet and it was about 2 years later that Adriana was graced with yet another little
brother, Paulo, who was much healthier and doted upon by both parents, since in
the 14 years of her own life, Adriana had been a holy terror to them both!
Adriania had spent
the intervening years being benignly neglected by her parents, who were
spending most of their time and attentions either with their sickly son or with
their own interests (maintaining the productivity of the fields and sleeping
with the female servants in his case, attending extravagant affairs with her
newfound elite friends in the social scene in her case). Adriana put this unprecedented freedom to
good use, dressing and speaking and acting as she pleased, often scandalizing
the servants merely to hear them squawk.
She often went 'riding the range' (dressed in clothing optimistically
bought for her brother against the day that he would 'get better' and be able
to wear them) and was a more familiar sight to the local townspeople and
farmhands than even her father was.
Indulging her various whims (and using stuff from her mom's old acting
supplies), she would disguise herself as a peasant boy and work the fields for
a day or pretend to be a visiting landowners dashing son and flirt with her own
maid! She would occasionally drag girls
from the mission school (which as a wealthy young mistress she did not actually
have to attend, having a computer at home) about on her jaunts (after school of
course. Not.) and to irk the proper
young ladies of the other local landowners (most of whom wouldn't even talk to
her anyway), she would find the girls in the threadbare dresses that looked to
be sewn from clothing their mothers had worn as a girl and she would drag these
girls on her little adventures, showering them with (to them) extravagant gifts
all the while. She was familiar with
the jungles around the plantation and every nook and cranny of the local town
(having run its streets picking pockets!), knowing many secret places where
people went to complain about her father or share a private moment.
After the birth of
her second brother, she again found more time to go wild (it had been a pretty
tense couple of years and her parents had buckled down after Carlos died) and
soon discovered that some of those private moments were pretty fun as well in
the hands of some of the men who worked the fields (whom she vastly preferred
with their rough hands and coarse humor to the sequined dancing peacocks that
her mother would introduce her to with their silken hands and smiles and words
and the same coarse desires). For all
her secrets and worldliness, she never managed to find out that her father had sweated
away many hours staring at the same cracked plaster ceilings in the servants
quarters as she had, but part of her being so 'wicked' is that she never would
have expected it of other people! She
managed to con one of her fathers' workers to teach her the basest rudiments of
Capoeira, convincing him that she needed to be able to defend herself if a man
ever tried to take advantage of her. He
agreed and convinced her in turn that the best defense for a lady is a knife in
the ribs, teaching her more of that sort of fighting in turn.
Perhaps as a side
effect of their first son's death, or perhaps because of the effect of the
Norça upon the 'gentry' of Brazil, her parents were united only in their
loathing of Psions, considering them only 'watered down Aberrants.' It was a particularly vivid argument with
her mother (on a totally unrelated issue, that maid should really have kept her
mouth shut, she seemed an enthusiastic enough kisser when she thought Adriana
was a boy!) that led to Adriana riding off to town the next morning and getting
herself tested at the hospital. She
didn't hang around to find out her score, assuming that like 99% of the
population she would score normal. She
had merely gotten the test to annoy her parents anyway. So it came as a great shock to all concerned
when a representative of the Norça Order phoned and informed them that no less
a personage than Victor Trabaj was coming to the villa to meet with her!
Her mother made a
production of fainting at the head of the stairs and her father, looking on
with mild interest, let her fall. She
was not seriously hurt, but that incident certainly didn't improve the mood
that evening and Mr Trabaj was certainly startled to find the mistress of the
house sporting a vivid bruise on her temple and the house to filled with enough
tension to insure that the reception and dinner, while well conceived, could
only be described as oppressive.
Despite his misgivings about 'those damn Norça running about as if they
owned the place, regardless of their lineage, making those who had earned their
station run about like lackeys,' her father fawned on the representative with
only his sarcasm keeping him from seeming totally obsequious and her mother was
simply atrocious, despite the man's legendary charm, which, even with her
mother kicking him under the table and casting disapproving glances, had her
brother giggling and bubbling over tales of adventure almost the entire
time. It came as only a mild shock
after this intolerable evening for Victor Trabaj to come out to his car and
find that Adriana's bags had been delivered there by one of her friends among
the servants during the meal and that she was leaving with him, now.
The next week she
met the Pai de Norça himself, after an excruciating miles-long (it felt)
blindfolded trek through subterranean warrens to the cavern that held the
Prometheus Chamber. At first she was
wondering if they were putting her on, since the man they introduced had
nothing like the charm and presence of Victor Trabaj, seeming more like an
underling than a leader of men. But
when he took her hand she could feel his presence within her every cell and
knew that with the slightest thought he could tear her apart or turn her into a
thing of legendary beauty or monstrous horror.
She nearly pulled away and he smiled at her realization, as he could
feel her heartbeat quicken in that second even more intimately than his own. Then she understood that she stood before one
of the six most powerful beings on the planet!
He released her hand and suddenly he was just the little man again,
somewhat shorter than she had pictured, a bank clerk perhaps or a gas station
attendant, anything but a God on Earth.