The X-men run missions and work together with the NYPD, striving to maintain a peaceful balance between humans and mutants. When it comes to a fight, they won't back down from protecting those who need their help.
Haven presents itself as a humanitarian organization for activists, leaders, and high society, yet mutants are the secret leaders working to protect and serve their kind. Behind the scenes they bring their goals into reality.
From the time when mutants became known to the world, SUPER was founded as a black-ops division of the CIA in an attempt to classify, observe, and learn more about this new and rising threat.
The Syndicate works to help bring mutantkind to the forefront of the world. They work from the shadows, a beacon of hope for mutants, but a bane to mankind. With their guiding hand, humanity will finally find extinction.
Since the existence of mutants was first revealed in the nineties, the world has become a changed place. Whether they're genetic misfits or the next stage in humanity's evolution, there's no denying their growing numbers, especially in hubs like New York City. The NYPD has a division devoted to mutant related crimes. Super-powered vigilantes help to maintain the peace. Those who style themselves as Homo Superior work to tear society apart for rebuilding in their own image.
MRO is an intermediate to advanced writing level original character, original plot X-Men RPG. We've been open and active since October of 2005. You can play as a mutant, human, or Adapted— one of the rare humans who nullify mutant powers by their very existence. Goodies, baddies, and neutrals are all welcome.
Short Term Plots:Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
The Fountain of Youth
A chemical serum has been released that's shaving a few years off of the population. In some cases, found to be temporary, and in others...?
MRO MOVES WITH CURRENT TIME: What month and year it is now in real life, it's the same for MRO, too.
Fuegogrande: "Fuegogrande" player of The Ranger, Ion, Rhia, and Null
Neopolitan: "Aly" player of Rebecca Grey, Stephanie Graves, Marisol Cervantes, Vanessa Bookman, Chrysanthemum Van Hart, Sabine Sang, Eupraxia
Ongoing Plots
Magic and Mystics
After the events of the 2020 Harvest Moon and the following Winter Solstice, magic has started manifesting in the MROvere! With the efforts of the Welldrinker Cult, people are being converted into Mystics, a species of people genetically disposed to be great conduits for magical energy.
The Welldrinker Cult
A shadowy group is gaining power, drawing in people who are curious, vulnerable, or malicious, and turning them into Mystics. They are recruiting people into their ranks to spread the influence of magic in the world, but for what end goal?
Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
Adapteds
What if the human race began to adapt to the mutant threat? What if the human race changed ever so subtly... without the x-gene.
Atlanteans
The lost city of Atlantis has been found! Refugees from this undersea mutant dystopia have started to filter in to New York as citizens and businessfolk. You may make one as a player character of run into one on the street.
Got a plot in mind?
MRO plots are player-created the Mods facilitate and organize the big ones, but we get the ideas from you. Do you have a plot in mind, and want to know whether it needs Mod approval? Check out our plot guidelines.
Allison was, generally, appreciative, of both Aura and the Amazons in general. She knew she was weaker than most of the others, and in fact weaker than most outside of the Amazons, too. She needed the protection, and they didn’t really demand much of anything for it. She really couldn’t have asked for anything better.
It was still frustrating, though, to so consistently be the one who couldn’t do things. All the Amazons had something specific they could do, and Allison did too, but hers was… not so useful. Pretty, certainly, and enjoyable, but not useful. Tattoos didn’t gain the Amazons food, drink or shelter, or chase away enemies. So, when she could, Allison preferred to find things she was able to do.
Most of the time, that meant wandering the area around the Amazon fortress, in search of interesting or useful things. Ruins and rubble were everywhere; there were always chances of something that hadn’t yet been found, or which an animal had carried in. Or, sometimes, animals themselves; it was rarer now that one would trip and break its own leg or neck, but it still happened sometimes. Especially when Allison left scraps of fabric or leaves to hide unexpected holes in the ground. Plus, there was always the occasional item dropped by travelers who fled when they realized just what territory they’d wandered into.
So, when nothing else was going on, Allison made it her job to wander the area around the Amazon fortress, protected by the Amazon’s reputation, but still doing something more or less on her own. Normally the walks were short, but like before the destruction days, Allison was perfectly capable of losing track of time and walking for hours. As long as she stayed within, or close to, sight of the Amazon fortress, it didn’t matter.
When she looked up and realized she wasn’t within sight of the Amazon fortress, it caused a slight pang of nerves, but nothing was around, so she frowned, lifted up the dead dog she’d found (gored by deer antlers, so not poisoned), and started back. She couldn’t be that far away.
Feeling restless Aurion paced the area around the pack's current 'camp' on all fours, his tail flicked side to side restlessly. He had already gone around the place at least a handful of times. The others were out and about, somewhere, not that that was anything new. As often as they called themselves a pack, they were still individuals first, they were together as much for company and mutual assistance as they were often apart at times, to get away. Call them nomads, vagabonds, feral, or whatever else, and you'd be right, and wrong. Every inch of the city that was not claimed and guarded by those like the Amazons or the Town, or even that strange place under the city, was theirs. They didn't have to post guards, they had no need. Others huddled together in large groups to survive. Each of Aurion's pack-mates could survive on their own, at any time, anywhere.
Finally fed up Aurion threw his hands in the air and left his stone to let them know he'd be back.
Stepping from the shadows, he felt the sun against his eyes, could feel its warmth every time he breathed in. He stood there body bared to the late morning's light for a while, letting his muscles soak up the heat, even though he couldn't feel it. A shudder ran down his spine and he took off, claws digging into the ground propelling him forward and away. There was an itch in the back of his skull since he woke up, and he hated it. It came and went with no real reason. With each passing week it had become more frequent and insistent. It wasn't a real, physical itch though, but a metaphorical one. The only thing that he could figure it was, was the animal-like instincts within him mixing with his subconscious, to keep him on edge, ready for anything. Ready to survive, like he always did.
When he got the itch, and his patience finally wore out, he always ran, and didn't care where or how far. His eyes took in everything as he sped along the ground, up broken buildings, through the air when he inevitably jumped from them. An hour later he was still breathing normally, and kept going. Two hours later and he was only then just beginning to breath heavier.
When the itch flared up Aurion slowed down to a slow jog as he moved from four limbs to two. Five hours after he started running he had gone all over the broken, torn, demolished city, and he was finally breathing hard. It took the lizard man a long few minutes to realize where he was, and for half a second, he nearly stopped breathing. Was he afraid? No. Was he wary? Yes, of course he was, he'd be a fool not to be. He had wandered fairly close to the one place he made a point to keep some distance from. "Amazons." His deep voice rumbled in a near whisper. Those crazy women were not a group to screw with willy-nilly. Not to mention he didn't want to lay eyes on those of his former 'family'.
'Isabel, Syn, Aura....' Aurion shook his head before his thoughts could go down that road again, before he thought about all of them again. 'But...' He thought to himself, 'Since I'm already here.' That's curiosity for you, sometimes you just don't get to choose whether to go with it or not, you just do. So he did.
After getting his bearings, Aurion started making his way towards the bone white encampment of the women who thought themselves Amazons.
Aurion hadn't even had a chance to get far before he caught movement and ducked behind cover. He got close to the ground, and moved just enough so that one eye was exposed. What he saw made him smile. One woman walked along the ruined street. 'Alone?' That didn't seem right, it was stupid. 'Why would SHE be alone?' Yes, Aurion knew her, he recognized the face almost immediately. 'Allison.' He grinned a mirthless smile and ran his tongue over his lips.
Quickly the lizard man dashed from his spot to rush ahead of where the girl was walking a block away. Up the crumbling side of a building and onto its top floor. He was about three stories above the ground, though how enough of the building still stood, he had no idea. Aurion scanned the area to see if anyone, if another Amazon was flanking Allison. There wasn't. Aurion grin turned wicked. The girl seemed oblivious to Aurion or her surroundings.
He waited until she had passed by him, but not too far, before he moved to follow. He didn't need to wait long. Down a few more blocks she had stopped to grab some dead animal. Pumping his legs he pushed himself forward hard for a few paces to pick up speed before he leaped. "Allllliiiiiii!"
Aurion's powerful legs sent him sailing high up and forward. He would land right behind her if he let himself, but what fun would that be. Snapping his body forward Aurion sent his body into a spin, first into a forward flip, but as he neared the ground another twist of his body and a snap of his tail rotated him horizontally. Both motions combined so that his long, heavy, powerfully muscled tail struck the girl and sent her tumbling into the ground, hard.
Aurion stood there, watched as the girl finally stopped moving some feet away from him. Again he spoke, long and slow, drawing her name out, "Aaaaaaalllliiiiiissssoooonnnn." He chuckled as he walked towards her, slowly.
“Wh--” The nerves turned out to be far more than justified. Allison was, without quite knowing how she got there, on the ground, the dog dropped six feet back and dirt on her teeth. “What the ****!” There was a long patch of not-quite-pain across her back and side; the kind that guaranteed she’d have painful bruises later, but which hadn’t yet gotten past the adrenaline.
She was on her back, apparently, which meant she must have rolled over at least once to get the dirt on her teeth. She raised a hand without paying attention, trying to rub the dirt off, and craned her head to look around, but stayed laying down. Getting up seemed painful, she could do that later.
“Aurion?” Allison’s hand dropped back to the ground, still without notice, and she pushed herself cautiously up to sit. The pain in her back and side complained, but wasn’t overwhelming; good. “Are… you okay?” Allison was still not good at reading lizard man expressions. She was fairly sure, though, that that was not a friendly one.
…Especially not with that… whatever that was. Allison had not known it was possible for her own name to be that creepy.
As he stalked towards her Aurion expected Allison to be knocked senseless, maybe even to have passed out, but she hadn't done either. "Ooooooo." A deep chuckle escaped his scaly lips. In fact she almost seemed able to get up, she had apparently toughened up quite a bit since he had last seen her. She had seemed such a frail, breakable girl then, and he had thought that she still was. He was finding himself reevaluating her.
"Oh little Amazon," He said with a soft chuckle, "I'm perfectly fine." He looked from her to look in the direction he knew the Amazons fortress was as he stopped to stand next to her. Head tilted to the side a bit, "You're so far from home," His face and expression were almost remorseful. "That I can't say the same," Up came his foot as he looked her in the eye, "For you!" And down it went, aimed for her gut. Not enough to kill, or injure, hopefully, but hard enough to blow the air from her lungs. At the same time, his fin slipped under her head and his tail encircled her neck, lifting her up.
With her hanging in the air, arms pinned to her side, feet dangling he brought a hand up to stroke her cheek. "Outside your home is my land, did you not realize that pet?" Aurion's eyes were deep, dark, slits, that held no remorse for the girl in front of him. "You know what happens to little rabbits that wander too far from their holes?" He dragged one claw along her cheek, drawing a line of bright red. Leaning forward he used his long tongue to lick the blood from her face. "Delicious."
His tail suddenly loosened and let Alli fall, right into Aurion's waiting arm. An arm that held her against his side easily, like a parent might carry a child at times, by the waist, facing down. He took a few steps then adjusted his hold a bit, and took off at a run. Away from Amazon territory, away from those who might go looking for Allison. He hadn't decided where to take her, hadn't decided what to do with her, hell, he didn't even know if he'd eat her or not. He'd figure something out. But he wouldn't stop to think until he was a goodly way away from where they had just left.
“Um….” Allison was not sure what Aurion was doing, but she was quite sure she didn’t like it. What had happened to Aurion? Sure, she hadn’t seen him recently, but he’d been completely friendly when she had known him. Possibly even shy, and worried that she might not like him.
Then again, she hadn’t been part of a gang known for killing people last time they met, either.
“I’m… not…” that far, was abruptly cut off by the foot that knocked her back down, and replaced by what would have been a scream if she’d had air, but ended up silent. Choking was slightly more audible as his tail held her up.
Pet? Allison knew she was weak. That did not mean she was anyone’s pet. Or a rabbit. Or… she wasn’t going to think about delicious. She still didn’t have air, but her lips pulled back in a half successful attempt at a snarl anyway. Rabbits ran. Amazons fought.
Not that fighting was successful in any way. Aurion didn’t even seem to notice her attempts to get away, much less care, and she still ended up carried, staring at a ground that was moving far faster than she had thought possible without an engine.
Well. At least she had air again. Allison focused on breathing for a few moments, half noticing the tears that had welled up in her eyes when she was choking before shoving the thought away. They didn’t matter, pain didn’t matter, and… and apparently friendship didn’t matter, either, and how dare Aurion take advantage of it anyway? Well, whatever; if he didn’t want to get along with her, fine. She could do that.
Ink slipped out of her skin, and then out of her sleeves, waiting just below her face for a moment before flying up and towards, she hoped, Aurion’s face. Moving the ink in relation to herself was a bit harder than moving it in relation to where it had been before, but not too hard. And it was less accurate, but she couldn’t see Aurion’s eyes, so she couldn’t be very accurate anyway; she simply moved the ink as quickly as she could, in every random direction near where she thought Aurion’s head should be. Eventually, it’d have to hit.
It was stupid, so damned stupid, but Aurion had let his guard down just a little. Allison seemed to have quit struggling and resigned herself to whatever he was going to do with her. But no, she hadn't, the wench. No she had been gathering herself together to strike at him. At the worst possible moment to boot!
Aurion couldn't really go full speed while carrying Alli under one arm, which was probably a good thing after all. He had a habit of going straight up and over or through something if he could, instead of around, since it was usually quicker and shorter in the long run. He was doing just that when he caught movement from Alli. With a quick glance downward he saw black come flying at him and involuntarily he blinked, not just normal eyelids, but his second one as well. Needless to say he was caught by surprise and she got lucky.
Not a lot of it, but then again, you don't need a lot of anything foreign hitting your eye for it to hurt and shock. His missed his footing as the stinging, itching pain ran across his eye. The second eyelid that was suppose to keep things out did the opposite, it kept the ink in and spread it around as they went tumbling. His momentum carried them off what use to be some sort of apartment building, flying at over 60mph through the air. His arm started to loosen in those few heartbeats, but he overcompensated and gripped her harder while pulling her across his chest. Did he do it to be nice? To save her? Hell no. If she were going to die, he was going to do it, or choose how it would happen. It wouldn't be because of some bumbling girl's lucky mistake.
He had tried to curl his body around hers before the inevitable impact, and partially succeeded. His back hit what had once been some type of car. That wouldn't have been so bad if it had been straight on to the side, the top or anywhere else really, but no, the middle of his back had to strike, near perfectly, against the corner of the roof. A small, 'Whooph' sound escaped him as they flipped over the top. His grip on Alli weakened on impact, and when he slammed his free hand into the car's roof, tearing through most of it, she went flying out of his arm.
The impact had cut most of their momentum, Allison, if she knew better, would be thankful for that, and for Aurion taking that blow, even if the whole thing was her fault. His claws ripped clear through the roof and sent him into an awkward twisting roll. When he stopped he got up slowly, groaning a bit, feeling the ache in his back, and knew it would be sore for a while, he probably bruised his spine, or ribs, but definitely muscle. He looked around for Allison, realizing he couldn't open his eye much, and the little it did open, hurt, and its vision was blurry and nearly black.
He started growling and snarling, 'I'll kill her! "What did you do to me you b**ch?!"
It was convenient, sort of, that Allison had already had to hold the ink in relation to herself, because it meant than when she (and Aurion, but she was a bit less than concerned about him) unexpectedly was crushed, and then went flying and rolling away from where Aurion had landed, the ink stayed with her. She scrambled from the last roll to her hands and knees, pushed herself halfway to her feet, stumbled, gasped, got upright, and was just slightly too off balance to truly run in whatever direction she ended up facing.
Fortunately, the direction she’d been facing was both away from Aurion and toward the ruins of a building, and a few seconds was enough for her brain to catch up. She veered toward a crack and squirmed through; huge boulders of cement and twisted iron had fallen against a still standing wall, making a sort of natural cave several feet deep, four feet wide and a few inches taller than her head, with an opening barely large enough for her to fit through, gaining a few shallow scrapes on the way.
She was at the back of the cave before she began to think again. Bruises that were starting to form from the first time Aurion knocked her over, and new aches from the most recent fall were clearly going to be joining them soon. The cut on her cheek stung, and she could feel dirt in it and, still, in her teeth. Her breathing and heartbeat were starting to slow, though not nearly calm yet.
Well. She had, at least, a few minutes. Ideally Aurion would leave, but if not, she… would figure something out. She had ink, anyway. A minimal amount, but still. She absorbed the ink back into her palm, in simple lines; one running up the center of each finger, and four concentric circles on her palm. The concentration was enough to get her breathing and heart back to mostly normal, though the bruises just complained more instead. And she had a headache; well, that was no surprise. She didn’t specifically recall hitting her head, but she’d be surprised if she hadn’t; she hadn’t exactly had time to prepare for either fall.
Now. To figure out what to do about Aurion. Allison stayed back against the back of the cave, but looked up, and listened. Hopefully actually looking out would not be required to figure out what was going on.
Aurion's head whipped from one side to the other, scanning the length of the ruined street. Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. 'Where'd she get to? Seconds! She was only out of my reach for a few seconds, dammit!' He cursed to himself inwardly. 'Or,' The thought struck him hard, 'Was I out of it longer than that...No...Maybe. Crap!' He slammed his hand down on the broken car's slashed rooftop, crumpling it inward more.
He had to fight the urge to rub his eye, he knew it wouldn't help him any, and would probably make it worse. But by the tiny gods it was hard not to do. Aurion's eye blinked, both sets of eyelids, furiously, chaotically, to try to clear the ink. It was like he was having a seizure, but it was confined to one eye. After a minute or so he started to calm down and assert his mind over his body. That was no easy task, anger, frustration, pain, fear...yes, fear. Fear his eye was damaged, forever. He knew if he lost vision in his eye, he was screwed, he relied on his eyesight, maybe more than most. Without it, well....
Once he had calmed, he forced his eyelids to work they way he told them to. Consciously he blinked both sets in a rhythm. It seemed like it might be working, but he couldn't be too sure. He could open his eye fully now, and that was improvement. His vision was still a fuzzy, blurred and darker than it should be. If he were human, the whites of his eyes would be redder than blood and irritated as hell, as it was his normally yellow eyes were shot through with tiny, bright red veins showing through. His depth perception was off, he could tell that almost immediately.
How long had it been since he stood up...a few minutes? Ten? If Allison had bolted, and there were plenty of places to run from where they crash landed, it could be very annoying to try and find her. He hopped over the ruined car and into the middle of the street. Looking around he tried to find the most likely places she could have gone. Ruined buildings and rubble were everywhere. There were niches everywhere, some large, some small. Alli wasn't a large girl..woman (sometimes it was hard for him to think of her as a woman), that she could probably fit or squeeze into or through any of them (if they went anywhere). He cursed again, but not loudly.
If she was still around, hiding somewhere, he might be served best by 'leaving' the area and waiting. He was good at that, he could wait for a long time. But if she had skipped out, if he waited for her, he'd just be letting her get further and further away, which would make it harder to catch her and find out what the hell she had done to his eye.
Aurion looked around the area and to things further away, not in an attempt to find Alli, but to figure out where he was. He knew the city backward and forwards, having run through it's ruined streets more often than probably anyone else. The location clicked in his head only after a few moments, they were a goodly way from the Amazon compound. Aurion chuckled aloud.
"You think hiding is really going to help you?" Aurion was sure, after thinking about it, that he would heard her run if she had, and he hadn't. She wasn't too far he was sure, close enough to hear him. "How long do you think you can last hiding hmm? You'll die in your hidey-hole if you stay in it. Whether by the rats and other...creatures, thirst, or hunger. Trust me, I can last longer than you can, on less." He looked around slowly, listening. "If you do slip out without me noticing, do you have a clue where you are? I do. Even if I don't catch you right away, I can always wait for you to return home. But you'd never get within a stone's throw. I tell you I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than taking you, every way possible, stripping you of every ounce of dignity, enjoying myself as I dragged it out for days, weeks..." A low laugh of pleasure at the thought rolled through the air.
He walked over to the car, "Ya know, I don't even have to figure out where you're hiding Alli," Aurion wrenched the car up off the ground, "You'll show yourself." He hefted the car over his head, "Or do you think wherever you're hiding can handle it when I throw this car at it? Hmm?" Claws tore into the body of the car as he flexed his hands. He made the metal of the car squeal a bit as only metal could, "If you come out now AND FIX WHAT YOU DID TO MY EYE! I may let yo live! You have five seconds."
Well… yes, actually, Allison did think hiding would help her. It certainly seemed safer than letting Aurion see her, anyway. And she didn’t need to know where she was, necessarily; the Amazons would notice she was missing, and look. It might take them a few days to get to wherever she was, but a few days wasn’t that much of an issue if all she had to do was sit still. It wouldn’t be fun, but she wouldn’t die from it, either.
…On the other hand, Allison really hated hiding. It always felt like giving up and admitting the enemy was more powerful. Which he was, probably, but on the other hand, she had just managed to… do something, anyway. Apparently to his eye, from the yelling.
It seemed to be a pattern. The last time someone had made a threat anything like that, and actually had a chance to be taken halfway seriously about it and not laughed off by the full power of the Amazons, she’d cut his eye in half with Charlotte-Megan’s knife. Eyes really were an easy target.
She… really had no idea if her cave could stand a car being thrown at it. It was made of very large blocks, after all, which looked like they’d been there for quite a while.
On the other hand, if Aurion was politely distracting himself for her… she didn’t particularly want to have to wait to be rescued, anyway. Allison waited until it sounded like the car was being thrown in the opposite direction of where she was, peeked out to be sure Aurion wasn’t too close, and squeezed out of the cave, gaining a few more new scrapes. She bit her tongue; the pain was much more noticeable this time than when she’d gotten in. She supposed that was a good thing; it meant there was less adrenaline, so her heart should be slower. She’d heard that less adrenaline made it easier to hide, with a weaker scent and quieter heartbeat. Allison wasn’t entirely sure that was true, but no reason not to take advantage in case it was.
A few seconds glancing around let Allison spot another crack of about the right size, and she slipped over and into it as quickly as she quietly could.
That… was a problem. The crack was just a crack; a few feet deep before it became too narrow for her to fit in. Good enough for hiding, but not for staying out of the reach of treacherous lizard men. Allison frowned at it, then leaned out to quickly look for another, hopefully better, one. She wasn’t reckless enough to just walk away carelessly, even if it would get her farther faster.
Aurion could and did throw the damnable car, but that wasn't to say it was exactly easy. Not at all, it was unwieldy, awkward, and bulky, even to his large hands. He had to employ his tail to help keep his balance so he could throw the stupid thing. And when he did, it flew through the air with a satisfying crash when it hit solidly against the battered ruin of a building.
He watched as the impact cause dust to fly up and spread out, and then more bust out of the openings as somewhere in the building something must have crashed and fallen. His second eyelids kept his eyes free from the flying dust, but his inked eye burned while doing so. Aurion looked around for any sign of Allison. Finding none he picked up the car and repeated his actions.
The street was filling up with a large dust cloud. With his last throw he couldn't suppress a cough. He was going to berate himself for it but stopped when he noticed movement. It was only for a moment, but he was sure it was her. Picking up the car one last time he turned so that he could just barely see the crack she scuttled into from the corner of his good eye.
Aurion smiled to himself as he saw a familiar head poke out. 'Sometimes things go my way.' He thought to himself as he released the car towards yet another building. As soon as it was out of his hands he used the momentum to turn his body and jam his claws into the ground. His muscles bulged as he propelled himself forward. He wasn't fast because of some super speed mutation, no, it was the strength of his muscles that allowed him to dig in and go.
In this case it wasn't so much of a run but a couple very low leaps. His claws dug into the sidewalk near the crack as his leading leg passed it, slowing him down enough to grin at Alli as his opposite arm thrust in and grabbed her. As Aurion was pulling her out he pivoted on his leading leg, twisting him, giving him that extra bit of 'oomph' to throw Alli nearly all the way to the other side of the street with minimal effort.
His pivot finished, he kicked off the building, now at his back, with his free leg. As he was airborne, he dug a clawed hand into the ground changing his 'flight'. His new angle allowed him to grab Allison's shirt, twist them both as his foot made contact with the ground, and slam her against the wall across from where he had pulled her from.
He was holding her up by a fist pressing against her, the shirt clutched in it. Snarling and close to literally spitting the words out, "Fix it! NOW!" He emphasized this by pressing his thumb claw against her skin, through her shirt.
Allison wasn’t really sure what had happened. Her arm pulled, there was wind and air and sound, and her back and head hurt and the air was full of dust and she couldn’t breath. She gasped and coughed, and it didn’t really help but she could feel she was breathing, even if it didn’t seem like it. She had new cuts, deeper and bleeding steadily, and couldn’t place any new bruises but felt like they were there too. And, ow, that was loud.
Allison raised her hands to cover her ears, pressing her eyes shut for a moment as her head stopped ringing and she forced her thoughts around to something like rational order. Okay, so apparently Aurion had found her. She didn’t know what he’d done, exactly, or how he’d found her, but he had. And, it seemed, was angry.
…Well, really, she couldn’t blame him too much for that. Ink was fairly painful.
Allison opened her eyes and peered up at him, still a bit too distracted by the pain to react very quickly or accurately. Well, at least she could actually tell from his expression that he was angry this time; that was nice to know. And it looked like she had gotten ink into his eye. She tilted her head, examining it; it looked more like the ink was on his eye than actually in it; it was tempting to push it farther in and actually blind him. That would definitely be noticeable, though, and painful enough for him to (correctly) assume it was damaging, so she refrained.
She… should probably do something, though. This wasn’t, when she thought about it, a particularly good position to be in. And, well, she had proven that she could injure him, and could get away; generally, proving those made you more trouble than it was worth for most people to chase you. So she dropped her hands, eyed him for a second longer, and answered. “I can fix it, but I won’t unless you let me go.”
Aurion watched as Allison seemed to catch her breath and recover from the jarring he had just put her through. He could imagine how disorienting and painful it had been. Not that anyone had ever done that to him, but he could imagine, probably, maybe, a little. He knew how a ringing head felt though and he felt a little satisfaction that Allison was dealing with one.
When she started to look at him closely he made sure not to let his inked eye twitch at all or show that it was bothering him. He was mostly successful, it only twitched a bit in irritation. A low growl started in his throat as she took more and more time but didn't do anything to get the ink out. To Aurion, time seemed to drag on and on, and he was becoming ever more irritated. He was about to snap words to her again when she finally spoke up.
Let her go? Did she really think he'd let her go after this? He hadn't even thought what to do with her when he had seen her by herself, he just took her on a whim. Then she had to go and ink his eye, causing them both to fall and him to hurt his back. Now she's trying to what? Make a deal? Give him an ultimatum? Screw that.
He stopped pressing his fist into her to hold her up and instead pulled her shirt up, still holding her off the ground. His free hand came up and rested on her hip, pressing her body against the wall. He stared Alli in the eyes as he slid his clawed thumb under her waistline before his hand slid up her stomach to her chest, pressing against her the whole time. His hand cupped her as his thumb pressed against her skin so he could feel her ribs. When he felt the gap between the bones near her heart, without moving his hand from her chest, he pressed his thumb claw against her skin, drawing blood.
His tail fin came up to rest below her chin against her neck. His words were spoken in a low tone, a deep growl never seemed to stop while he spoke. "No. I'll let you go after you fix it. If you do any more damage, I'll live, but you'll be a corpse. Understand?" He pressed his thumb into the gap between her ribs just a little more as his fin stiffened and pressed a razor edge against her neck.
Allison didn’t quite comprehend what was going on until well after Aurion’s hand was sliding up from her stomach. When she did she stared, mouth open but lacking any words to say. Even disjointed words were more than her mind was able to process at that point, drowned out by shock.
It took a few seconds, but Aurion’s threat did eventually manage to get past the shock enough for her to respond. “...You asshole!” was accompanied by a not-entirely-thought-through slap.
...Ow. Admittedly, Allison’s hand didn’t hurt that much, but her wrist seemed to have been jammed a bit, and she could feel blood now dripping down her neck and side. Still, she was more offended than hurt, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t been bleeding to begin with anyway.
“That’s what I said anyway!” she finally managed to add after a moment of glaring. “I couldn’t fix it if I was already gone, could I?”
The look on Allison's face was priceless! For a few moments he forgot all about his eye seeing the shock creep into her expression. When it did he was full of gleeful butterflies and couldn't help but give her a little squeeze with his hand. That's when he noticed that she was actually quite soft and began to have real thoughts of exploring more.
Aurion wasn't sure if that was what caused her to react of if she finally snapped out of the shock enough to do something.
He had expected a reaction, but not a specific one, so the slap was only mildly surprising. The pressure on his face was slight but noticeable. It felt like a decent blow especially from her her position. A low soft chuckle had just started in Aurion's throat when a different surprised look crossed the girl's face. His chuckle faded as a grimace of pain took over the surprise. The scales on his face near his eyes were the only real indication that he had raised one eyebrow in slight confusion. The slap shouldn't have hurt her that much. He was sure of that.
Both eyes seemed to get slightly wider as realization set in and he moved his tail from her neck quickly but carefully. And he was right. A bright red line crossed her neck, and it wasn't a short line either. Blood flowed nicely from it down her neck and lower. If he were human, or at least had human hands, he would have been able to feel the blood, and her breast. He watched it for a moment before looking back to Alli.
He had apparently missed a good deal of her glaring at him, which pulled one corner of his mouth in an imperceptible smirk. "I would adapt. I don't think you can adapt when you're dead. You do what I say, not the other way around." He leaned closer to her and tilted his head a bit. "Fix it." His tongue flicked out and slowly slid along the cut on her neck. 'It's only skin deep. She'll survive.' "And I'll help fix you after I let you go."
Aurion removing his tail from her neck was slightly mollifying. The following comment, examination and lick was distinctly not. Allison’s own outburst was slightly calming, though, so she frowned back at him for a moment before responding. “We’re mutants, have you forgotten? It’s never that simple.” Allison smirked.
“I have ink in your eye, Aurion. In my range, near your brain. You have no idea what I can do to you.”
Which, really, implied something closer to mind control of some sort than the ‘blind, kill, or do nothing’ that was her actual list of options. Still, he didn’t know, and there was no reason she should tell him that. Most people would prefer not to die, anyway.
“If you can hurt me, I can hurt you.” True, as long as he didn’t use his tail to hit her. Allison absently grabbed control of the ink in Aurion’s eye without moving it; that still didn’t give her quite enough range to hurt him if he was careful, but she very much doubted he knew her exact range. “Now let me go, and I’ll remove the ink, and then we’ll both leave, like we both suggested.”
