Maria Santos
Community Organizer (NPC)
"We're gonna split into groups of four or five. Stay together, don't go anywhere alone, and if you see David or anybody who might be David, bring him either here, or to one of these places here on this list..."
Maria Santos is the public face of the families' fight against Smith International. Her brother David disappeared along with seven other workers, and she didn't wait for corporate answers or government investigations, she acted. Within days of rumors about David's sighting, she caught the local news's attention, landed screen time, and mobilized several volunteers and even made sure to make sure everybody had coffee and kolaches.
She's exhausted, running on fumes and community goodwill, but she won't stop until she gets answers, a working-class woman with deep neighborhood roots, fighting a billion-dollar corporation by herself if she has to - she doesn't know about monsters or the supernatural, she just knows her brother is missing and someone needs to be held accountable.
Mentions/Logs
- Search Party Tori, Ajax, Chance and Molly meet Maria as she puts on the search party.
- Maria is mentioned alongside Maria Aguilar and Danielle Jackson as co-leaders of the families' resistance, having hired attorney Michael Brennan.
General RP Hooks
The Reunion
David's been rescued, but Maria doesn't know yet. She's still organizing searches, still calling people, still holding the community together while her own heart breaks. She's desperate for answers and won't take "it's complicated" well - what do you tell her, knowing that bringing them together might endanger both of them if Smith International is watching her?
The Public Campaign
Maria's fight is getting media attention. She's appeared on KHOU news, organized community events, and is working with an attorney to pressure Smith International. Characters could support her legal case, provide anonymous tips, or help amplify her message. But making her more visible also makes her more of a target.
Infiltrated by Design
Unknown to Maria, Smith International agents infiltrated Maria's search party with radios and coordinated tactics. They're watching her, waiting for David to surface. She's a liability because she's effective and she has zero idea how deep all this goes.
The Other Families
Maria works alongside Maria Aguilar (Joseph Aguilar's mother) and Danielle Jackson (Byron Jackson's wife). Together they're a three determined women who refuse to let their loved ones be erased. Supporting Maria means potentially connecting with the other families and what lies behind the curtain of knowing them.
Key Relationships
Player Characters
- Ajax, Tori, Chance, and Molly: They found David and made sure he was safe for now, but haven't told Maria yet.
- South Park Houston Characters: Maria knows everyone in her neck of South Park, even if it's just in passing! This is her community, are you a part of it?
NPCs
- David Santos: Her brother, missing worker, the reason she's fighting.
- Maria Aguilar: Co-leader of the united effort to find the missing 8, mother of Joseph Aguilar (another missing worker).
- Danielle Jackson: Co-leader of families' resistance, wife of Byron Jackson (another missing worker).
- Michael Brennan: The Attorney the families hired to fight Smith International's stonewalling.
RPing Notes
Maria is aguante as a person. She's exhausted and you can see the toll it's taking, but she's going to get through it with quiet dignity and she's not going to let you see her fail, even as she moves on autopilot with those dark circles weighting her eyes.
She's a natural organizer with backup-plans: it truly takes a hell of a lot of talent to handle a thirty-person search operation, so quiet competence is sewn into her energy no matter how threadbare she is. She's frazzled but not scattered, the sort of distraction that comes from juggling a dozen things and thoughts, but she's not falling apart. Not yet.
Maria has a proactively responsible streak that speaks of either having kids or young nieces and nephews she's had to care for, and is a woman with deep community roots around Navigation Boulevard.
She has radar for something "off" but can't articulate it - it's not supernatural exactly, it's just a woman who has enough wonder left over for the world and its oddities to know to never stop paying attention to her gut.
- Age:20s
- Height:5'1"
- Occupation:HEB retail manager
- Status:Searching for her brother
- Stamina:4
- Empathy: 4
- Leadership:4
- Willpower: 3
Mixtape
- Mercedes Sosa - Todo Cambia
- Selena - Si Una Vez
- Mana - ¿Dónde Jugarán Los Niños?