[No roll necessary]
"... them a story. 'We brainstormed some ideas in the break room' is a boring story, nobody will give you ten million dollars for that. You need to tell them how you had this problem for months, searched around the entire marketplace for anyone who could possibly help you, wrote letters to the government to try to get it fixed and eventually decided that the only way it was going to happen was if you did it. Tell them the story about how you sought expert advice in the industry and did an elaborate study of what it'd take to exploit. Tell them how you built up this prototype in your garage, working from nothing. Tell them how you just need them now as the final step on an extended project. That's how you get people to give you ten million dollars. That's how you get people to trust you with that kind of money."
The lecture hall she'd walked into seemed to be some kind of business class, teaching how to pitch to investors and be confident in your ideas. It was compelling - evidently the teacher took his own advice and was a commanding public speaker.
By this point, Amy Acre had vanished into the woods. Pope shuffled his deck and drew seven cards, dropping them down.
+Advance+
The thought appeared in their heads. It wasn't mind control, but it was a strong enough prompt to send them moving before they even thought about it, as if the thought was their own idea. The Summer Court started to walk, spread out in a long line.
+Cover+
Even knowing what to expect, their bodies still reacted a split second before their brains did and everyone took up positions in cover - behind fences, tree-stumps and in ditches. An appropriate metaphor for what Pope's control was like flinching when something flew at your eyes - if you resolved yourself and stared right at it as it came you'd be able to resist the motion, though you'd still probably blink.
+Advance+
This time the message came only to Jon - and he knew the point he was supposed to advance to, an old rusted oil barrel. The orders became more individual as Pope sent them forwards in sequence, one ahead to cover the progress of the others. It felt strangely effective, like being part of a professional military, knowing that there was someone covering every angle you weren't directly looking at.
If you were imagining that Gabriel Pope was playing a real time strategy game with human beings as the pieces then you'd be one hundred percent correct. And, as a GSL Code-S Champion, he was extremely good at using people as pieces.