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.
Cafas stood before the large metal doors, not wanting to go much closer. The nineteen year old had a white shirt on, with a black hoodie over the top, a pair of baggy khaki cargo pants and camping pack on his back. At his left side hung a leaf-bladed sword, roughly 93cm total length, with a 75cm blade. on his left arm was a round shield, 60cm across at any given bisection. Despite the rather fierce array on his body and within his bag, also containing weapons, he was somewhat scared of the room. He had only just recovered from jetlag, literally a week since his arrival, and he wasn't ready to mess up. How time flew when you were passed out on a soft bed.
'So now we wait for someone to find us, yes, that's a good plan, if I wait then no-one can steal the room for their own purposes and I'm likely to run into someone planning to us it anyway.'
He continued to ponder the metal doors, and what could possibly stand behind them. Danger room, as a rule, didn't tend to imply butterflies and kittens, more hundreds of machine guns and booby traps. Yep, that about summed up what he expected. The name was clearly marked, so he knew he was in the right place. This was where Streak had told him to go for training, and training he would do, after a week without he was starting to feel a bit lazy. The danger room gave him a chance both to work out, and possibly expand his lattice of connections within the U.S.A.
'Good thing I took Meld's number out of my pocket before the jeans wash.'
The Mansion's purely mutant population had Alchemist feeling relaxed enough to leave his sunglasses in his room, his eyes completely revealed in whatever shade they were. Likely a nervous green, he didn't pay much attention, but nerves were usually tumultuous colours such as greens or oranges. Cafas stood almost dead still, facing the door, listening for the sound of footsteps, but also thinking about what could be behind that door.
It was early. Earlier than was normal for Ghost. She had made it home from work and had slept for a time. It was probably some time around midday judging by the passing of students and smell of food. Food was a pretty thought. Waking up in the study area near the kitchen, it was hard to ignore the smell of food. So after a quick jaunt to her room for tooth and hair brushing, Ghost stopped by the kitchen and grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich from the growing stack that the kitchen staff was making for early lunch goers.
She was recently promoted to team leader. And, though she'd normally be sleeping now she felt obligated to rise early (Well earlier than was normal for her oddball schedule. It was definitely lunch time now.) and head to the Danger Room. She'd had some rough scrapes lately. Maybe it wasn't her fault. Maybe it was. She could certainly train harder and more often, though. That couldn't hurt, could it?
One triangle dangling from her lips and the other half in her hand, she dodged the lunch rush and waded down the stairs into the Mansion's spartan underbelly.
A sight stopped her on the last step.
There was a man... boy... Maybe her age? He had a sword. And a shield. And was watching the Danger Room door as if he expected something. Ghost shoved the rest of her cheesy buttery triangle into her mouth and wiped her non-grilled cheese filled hand on her sleep shorts. If she thought she'd be meeting someone new, she would have changed out of her pajamas.
"Hey, Mister Sword Guy, I'm Ghost." She made her way lightly down the hall and took a bite of her second grilled cheese triangle. "You looking to get in here? I'm willing to split a session if you want." She eyed his sword before wiping her free hand again and laying it across the hand scanner in front of the Danger Room. She grinned up at the camera and crossed her eyes while pulling up her nose. The door hushed open. She liked to make faces at the cameras she knew people were watching. Gave them something to shake up the routine nature of the security guys jobs, no doubt.
C.J. almost jumped half a foot in the air. He had been waiting, but it was creepy how some people just seemed to sneak up on you. Perhaps he had just phased out. He turned to observe the new addition to the hallway. She seemed to be eating some form of sandwich. Her size and proportions seemed at odds with each other. On one hand she was only about five inches shorter than himself, however she had a rather light build. The new mutant appeared to be dressed in her pajamas, but he wasn't one to keep up with fashion. Ghost, another alias, C.J. looked her over once to check for any visible mutation but found none.
'Keeping in mind I have no idea who she is, eyes remain at face level. Should I be ashamed that was the first thing I thought of?'
"You looking to get in here? I'm willing to split a session if you want."
Cafas watched as she laid her hand across some form of device, possibly a palm scanner, and pulled a face at a camera. Well, mental age didn't seem much in question, but he found her funny enough to be tolerable. Her hair was a little disconcerting however. He wasn't particularly one to talk though. For someone who seemed not too far from his own age she had white hair, and he found that a little off putting, ignoring the fact his was bright pink, with hot pink highlights. putting aside the hypocrisy of his statement he decided it was time to reply. " Hi, yeah, I'm Alchemist, and I was kind of wondering how to get in, and what to expect." The doors slid open and Alchemist took a step forward, then another, approaching slowly. From what he could see there was a very large metal room and what had to be the controls, just out of the main circle from what he could tell. "Guess that answers that huh. So how does this all work?" He turned to address his question to Ghost. Awe filled his eyes at the spectacle, sending them light pink, almost white, but still visibly pink.
'This place is absolutely crazy, people walking around in pajamas, giant metal rooms, palm scanners, what next solid holograms?'
The sandwich she held looked rather delicious to C.J. in a way, but he'd eaten so much breakfast that it really didn't matter, it would only slow him down, and he wasn't hungry in the least. He was now almost worried as to what the room could do. did a full gym for mutants come out of the walls or something. Would it kill him? Could it kill him? He awaited Ghost's answer, his eyes shifting back to the vivid lime green they had been before.
He jumped. Sometimes people did that. Ghost couldn't ever really imagine why. She was a friendly ghost. Not scary in the least.
"Hi, yeah, I'm Alchemist, and I was kind of wondering how to get in, and what to expect."
"Alchemist, eeeeh?" She seemed to roll the idea around in her mind as the doors swooshed open. Alchemy was the turning of boring things into gold, right? The danger room was bare. Only a little control panel off to the side. Ghost walked in with an air of one who knows what she is doing.
"Guess that answers that huh. So how does this all work?"
She glanced back at him beckoning him in. He was already dressed for battle. It was obvious he wanted to be in here.
"Mkay. Lesse. What gifts does Alchemist possess? I'm an air elemental. Maybe we can find something to test our combined skills..." Ghost poked at the control panel like it might bite her. A little poke at this button and the screen flared to life. A little jab at that one and words started scrolling. That was better. She manned the keyboard in order to scroll through some pre-made sessions. She wasn't very good at programming them.
"Were you looking to spar or for a brain cooker? Maybe just a work out to keep the body in shape?" She was leaning toward the latter, but as the host she would let the guest choose. She wasn't much for testing her skill against a live opponent, though. Even against the robots she was often squeamish about their deactivation.
"Mkay. Lesse. What gifts does Alchemist possess? I'm an air elemental. Maybe we can find something to test our combined skills..."
C.J. entered and considered the question, it was a fairly typical introductory question apparently. He looked to the air elemental and spoke "I manipulate the properties of metal, density, melting point, that sort of thing, but I gotta be touching it." He smiled weakly, he knew that the whole touching thing was a drawback, and would have very much liked to have some range, but the weird energy seemed only able to flow into metals from his body. He threw a look at the console again. He noticed it was displaying text as Ghost played around with it.
'So, that's the controls, but what does it control?'
"Were you looking to spar or for a brain cooker? Maybe just a work out to keep the body in shape?"
The question sparked a thought for Alchemist. If it could do all that, then clearly it was similar to a large virtual reality chamber. He wondered how they could possibly simulate solidity. "A spar would be great, an all out battle would be some good training. Brain cookers would likely kill me, my areas of expertise are more school smarts. I'm sure though, if you don't want to spar or fight, we can find a compromise.
'Battle simulation, but with tactical components, such as many many enemies? Or fighting blind, teamwork builder, who knows what this will be capable of. I wouldn't mind just mindlessly training against wave after wave of opponent though. Such are the joys of working with others.'
C.J. paced up to where the floor of the room dropped out, clearly the massive space below was to allow for dips in the land, or tunnels, but it seemed dangerous to him. Then again, those silly enough to go exploring without knowing what they were doing weren't the brightest sparks. He stared at the ground a bit, avoiding eye contact, a few nerves still clinging on tight, everything he had taught himself over two years screaming against getting to know people too well. He'd have to fight that.
Ghost frowned at the computer display. She hoped her frown was ambiguous and the Alchemist would assume it was something unsavory on the screen that gave her the sour expression. Sparring. Or Fighting. He chose the most combative options available to him. Maybe she should have known given the fact that the boy-man-person had a sword. And shield. Sword and shield = battle ready. At least they were directly related to his mutation... metal.
She poked here and there half heartedly. She had a recovery scenario she had yet to complete. It had the potential for fighting, but she believed it also had great potential for stealth. She just hadn't figured out how to complete the scenario her way just yet. Sam had edited in a little quirk that sort of .. wasn't the most pleasant for Ghost.
The program booted up and once ready the start button was flashing. "I... have a scenario. You may be able to help; it's a recovery situation. Something has been taken and it will be our job to recover the item in question." She jammed the button and the walls started melting from plain metal into something a lot more moonlit and meadowy. What was once an empty room slowly trickled into being a woodland clearing a little ways away from a well guarded, well lit boundary around a house.
"If you don't mind, I can get us inside past the initial guards with stealth, but I need your permission to touch you and carry you in what might be an uncomfortable way with my power. Once we're inside we'll need to locate the item. It's some kind of files, I haven't gotten that far." In all actuality this was a continuance on a series of training missions she had started a while ago. It was quite probable that this wasn't even the last one in the string of missions, just another sub mission in the grand scheme that had also so far, eluded her. "There will be opponents with which you may clash, but I believe this to be first and foremost an important chance to employ stealth, strategy, and tactics."
She nodded having said her piece. If he were to hack and slack even the robots cloaked in holograms, she would probably leave the training session early in favor of something else. "Ready?" She extended her hand to him. If he chose to accept, she would be ready to change his body into air alongside her own before spiriting him away.
Cafas noticed a frown cross Ghost's face, but he couldn't be sure what it was about. Perhaps the overly complex looking system was being difficult, he knew computers could get like that. Perhaps they were running it off windows Vista, that would explain it. He laughed at his own joke and went back to watching the room and the digital display, without much luck with comprehension. He wasn't quite prepared when the air elemental spoke. Startled from his thoughts he almost hit the roof. Figuratively.
"I... have a scenario. You may be able to help; it's a recovery situation. Something has been taken and it will be our job to recover the item in question."
'Uncertainty in that pause, or dramatic effect?'
C.J. nodded and turned to observe the room as his new acquaintance jammed a finger onto what he could only assume was the start button. What he saw made him choke. The room seemed to melt away into nothingness, reforming itself as an outdoor environment, a fortified looking house just a little across the way. Once he finally ridded himself of the spit blocking his airways Cafas heard Ghost speaking. He turned to watch as she spoke, it seemed this was important.
"If you don't mind, I can get us inside past the initial guards with stealth, but I need your permission to touch you and carry you in what might be an uncomfortable way with my power. Once we're inside we'll need to locate the item. It's some kind of files, I haven't gotten that far."
'I wonder what is stopping her, apparently she can sneak us both past what looks like half a dozen armed guards.'
He nodded, comprehension rather than permission. He considered the statement for a minute and decided large amounts of steel and stealth did not go hand in hand. "Sure, go ahead, the less beat up I get the better, I hardly think I could take out those guys anyway." He dropped his sword off his belt loops and onto the ground and lay the shield next to it. From his bag he extracted three knives and fist wraps. Re-zipping the bag he began wrapping the black cloth around his knuckles. He paused to listen again.
"There will be opponents with which you may clash, but I believe this to be first and foremost an important chance to employ stealth, strategy, and tactics."
'Cool, still some fighting involved.'
"Go it, not a run 'n' gun, sneaky. As he finished he layed the Velcro of his first wrap onto its corresponding spot and started the other, the knives safely through his belt loops. It seemed, from her nod, that she was done, and that she was trusting him not to be a complete Philistine about the situation. That was something he was willing to do. "If, however, these simulation people raise an alarm, whatcha want me to do?"
"Ready?"
'As I'll ever be...'
He smiled, nodded, and pulled up a sleeve of his hoodie to expose more arm, encase she needed it. "Let's roll."[/i] He internally chuckled at the cliche and readied himself for whatever was about to happen.
Ghost was not sure what a "run 'n' gun" was exactly, but she was pretty sure it was a bad idea. The place had extensive security measures. She'd run into a few of them, interior rotating patrols mostly since she preferred to become solid and use her eyes once inside. Perhaps this time she would rely on the Alchemist's eyes.
"If, however, these simulation people raise an alarm, whatcha want me to do?"[/b]
Curiousity painted her features. "Why, use your best judgement, of course." She would be watching him and his choices. Training with an X-man was hardly ever just that. Besides, one situation was hardly ever the same as the next. How could she possibly know exactly the right choice to make once inside?
She took his hand and forearm gripping him about half way down from his elbow. More skin contact made this easier and faster, but she wasn't comfortable pressing herself up against just anyone. For her, it was as fast as an inhalation of air and she was as her namesake suggested, a drifting ghost of her former self. For the Alchemist it started with a numbness around the area of her contact. He would still feel her skin, but slowly as she plucked apart the bonds that held his physical form together he would feel less and less of himself and a little more of the air around him.
Ghost was never quite sure what her incorporeal passengers saw. Zephyr seemed to be able to make the most sense out of her areal sense of sight and rightly so since he was another air elemental. But she knew it was really disorienting for first timers. Especially when she was doing as she was now.
She stretched them thin like so much smoke out of a fog machine. Mentally she felt a sort of stretch in her mind that nothing else ever quite matched. Physically she felt nothing except the hand and forearm under her own. If he let go, it would ruin her trick. He would recompile into a fleshy bag of his own human skin again when her power was severed from him.
Summoning a breeze, Ghost pushed them both up over the wall and a slow rate. There was no rush really. And the slower they took the travel across the guarded yard, the less likely they were to draw attention to themselves. Once inside, Ghost would likely try to find a place where it would be safe to let the Alchemist go and reorient himself with things. She would stay in her gaseous state to add her form sight to his eye sight. Hopefully together they would be able to avoid interior detection as well as they were currently avoiding the exterior guard.
A man stepped in their fog and shuddered as if he had walked on his own grave. It was always strange for something to disrupt her flow, but Ghost was an expert by now at the odd sensations that accompanied ghosting.
Ghost gripped Alchemist's arm as he finished the thought and he began to feel a bit numb. It felt like he had been leaning on his arm too long and had cut of circulation, then it got weird. He had the sensation of numbness begin to spread, until he couldn't feel anything but the connection between himself and the elemental. There was really nothing in his life he could compare it to. He had a vague feeling of something surrounding him but was unsure as to what.
'Really creepy, I think I felt something move... sounds like wind. Gonna try not to think about it too much.'
Something stirred around him again, but he didn't know what on earth it was. C.J. imagined that if he could feel his body, he would feel violently ill from all the crazy sensory loss. The sound of someone shuddering reached his airy ears and he felt somewhat more comforted, at least he had his hearing still. However he didn't know how Ghost planned on getting inside the house, he was unsure as to what she was capable of.
There was a distinct feeling of air currents going down, something solid passing through the strange sense, then again, and C.J. found himself with his senses back. He was quite sure that if he were to continue doing that for the next ten years he still would never get used to it. Standing up he brushed himself off and looked at the faint mist around him that he assumed was Ghost."That was both creepy and amazing." He whispered, before attempting to search out where he was. He appeared to be in some form of closet, just large enough for him to fit in comfortably, if it weren't for the fog surrounding his body in places.
'Speaking of creepy...'
Cafas cracked the door open a tiny bit and peered into the outside area. As far as he could see it was clear of anyone. He turned back to Ghost, shutting the door and focused as best he could on not shivering repeatedly. "It seems all clear on the side I could see, and I can't hear anyone, if there's no one out there, could you go out as a signal?" He found himself feeling a bit dumb whispering to thin air, but he wasn't able to pass himself off as mist.
If Cafas thought it was strange to talk to thin air, he would think it even stranger when the air spoke back. "I will scout." The voice was a small whisper that tickled at Cafas' ears even though the smoke of Ghost was already seeping through the upper crack of the doorway.
She could see just fine dark or not, though not in precise detail. As a roil of smoke along the ceiling, she was an effective scout. Years of evolution had trained people that no predator large enough to worry them would come from above. It was all that kept the suspicious special effects from being given away. Her ghostly body had a knack for refracting light in an eerie way. Not that she could ever tell with her vision in this form.
Ghost warned the Alchemist to wait for a moment with a little voice that sounded by his ears as if she were there in the closet. When the coast was clear again she let him know. The hall was one way. So Ghost crept along the ceiling ahead of the Alchemist.
Hopefully they could keep pace behind the rotating guard while they scouted out the location of the files. It was random each time so that repeat missions weren't won by memory, but instead were won by skill.
((OOC: feel free to take charge/add on to the mission. i don't know any more than you do at this point. ))
Cafas was rather surprised, and somewhat freaked out by Ghost's Ghost form voice. He waited for a signal as she slid out the top of the door. First came a warning, and he heard footsteps from the other side of the door, but as they faded He heard the all clear and once more opened the door. The first thing he noticed was that it wasn't all that much brighter out of the closet than in, just a few fluorescent tubes along the ceiling. The second was that Ghost was nowhere to be seen. He began to follow the corridor until a shimmer off the ceiling caught his attention.
'So that's how she gets past them. Sure hope they don't have some form of air flushing system.'
Ahead was a bend the guards had obviously rounded before Ghost gave the all clear. Alchemist approached it slowly, his boots making a dull slap against the tiled floor. He peered around and found himself looking at a security camera down one end, currently focused on a group of guards flashing I.D. to get in a door. There were three doors in the corridor, including the one the guards were being checked for clearance to, and no cover. Pulling his head back he looked up at the mist on the ceiling. "We need to either get rid of the camera, which could cause problems, drop the power, again, problems, or get to one of those rooms quickly before the guards finish at the end of the hallway."
'The doors are badly placed, and if the files aren't there, what then? We could, I suppose, wait for another round of guards to come, sneak in after in cloud form...'
C.J. shook his head, he had never been called upon to be quite so stealthy before, even the airports had been less trouble. If things got too complex he'd have to leave it to Ghost, it was a great feat for him to have thought of what he did, on the spot like that. It was simple maths and logic at this point, one step at a time plans, that's all he was good for at the moment. He'd need to work on that, get some more tactical smarts, or he'd never win at chess. He risked another glance around the corner and noticed the door was opening, the camera would be raising to scan the hall at any moment.
'Now or never Cafas.'
With a deep breath C.J. covered the three metres to the door and twisted the knob, finding it luckily unlocked. No sound of pursuit was good. He'd taken a risk with going out in the open. Closing the door as lightly as he could Cafas turned to examine his new surroundings. The lights were on, and he stood among rows of stacked boxes. Whoever had designed this little excursion must have particularly hated the mansion dwellers.
'I now know why I was nervous... Tedium... Box upon box of tedium.'
When the Alchemist paused, Ghost observed him carefully looking for any indication of his next move. She wasn't sure what he was doing and since they were being stealthy, he did not think to chat it out with Ghost. She could hear quite well in this form. In fact, she could hear the approaching footsteps of the next rotation of guard that had not stopped despite the ever decreasing distance.
Just as Ghost thought to warn the Alchemist about the closing gap between himself and the guard, he darted out into the hallway. Ghost reacted by sending a gust of air at the camera to turn it slightly. Hopefully he had not crossed its path and the abrupt change of direction could be attributed to a loose screw or something.
Sure enough Ghost heard a walky-talky sound behind them as she slipped through the door crack after the Alchemist. Hopefully he would fiddle with the camera for a while before moving in to the storage area where they now were.
Ghost couldn't seem to identify where the cameras were in this room, if any. "Alchemist." The word drifted past his ear totally disembodied. The roil of smoke that was ghost slipped long the floor now. "There should be a manifest. A clipboard or computer. I cannot read it as I am. If I find it before you, I will send word. If you find it or have need of me, stomp your foot three times. I will return to you." She was whisking through the aisles on the far side of the warehouse, careful to never let the Alchemist out of her equivalent of a visual range.
"Alchemist. There should be a manifest. A clipboard or computer. I cannot read it as I am. If I find it before you, I will send word. If you find it or have need of me, stomp your foot three times. I will return to you."
'Some secret agents get cool gadgets, some get epic cars, I manage to score myself a warehouse full of boxes, time to find out what's in these.'
He made his way around a stack, going the opposite direction to Ghost. Her voice sort of freaked him out in this form. Reaching his first corridor of sorts he couldn't see any form of camera and as such made his way along the path. The boxes were stacked to the roof in places. He came to a solid wall of boxes with two branches, but he was sure the room was than what he had just walked. He looked down both options and noted distinctly boxy walls all the way along. A single box, seemingly a step up the pile, stood in the centre of the path. C.J. nudged it experimentally. It didn't budge. Not even a fraction of an inch. Curious he attempted to open the box, which seemed to be all but nailed down. The cardboard felt solid. Extracting a dagger he placed the tip along the line where the two top flaps met and pushed down. The tape held firm.
'How very peculiar, impenetrable boxes that weigh too much to push along. Crazy stacking techniques with no feasible way up. Wonder what on earth they're hiding.'
Alchemist chose left and headed along that path, coming to another decision. A right and now he had a tri-directional choice, left, right or straight ahead. He chose left again, that being Ghost's direction of disappearance. He was forced then to take three rights before coming to a dead end. Puzzled, Cafas spun around. He aimed back toward his crossroad again and went straight ahead, this time taking a right when the choice of two, forward and right, was provided, eyes peeled for anything that wasn't a monotonous cardboard brown.
'Their unloading crew must have really sick senses of humour, or a very complex system.'
As he broke into yet another corridor of boxes C.J. got the distinct feeling he had been there before, but it was hard to tell, every intersection had a box in the middle, every box looked the same. He resigned himself to the need for help and lightly tapped his foot on the ground three times in quick succession. Planting himself on the immovable box marking his current location. There was a cross of tape on the top of it, just like the rest of them. Utterly confused he awaited salvation on the winds.
Keeping the Alchemist in her range while splitting her focus to look for some kind of information proved to be rather difficult. So it didn't surprise Ghost when she did, in fact, find a clip board, two clipboards in fact, but had lost contact with the Alchemist.
The two clipboards slipped off their hook and bobbed this way and that in a constant stream of air, another distractions as she scoured the floors for some sign of inhabitants.
Vibrations tickled along the floor to the right and so she sent her wind and consciousness down that way. Yes. There was a person there. So Ghost slipped up the side of a row of boxes and made her way in that direction, clipboards bobbing along merrily behind her. Except... Something tapped three times down below her.
Ghost blinked and set the clipboards down on top of the boxes as she reformed on top of the precarious stack of unknown materials. Below her, at a junction of some kind was the Alchemist. But then... who was the unknown person?
She grabbed the clipboards and stood carefully atop her lookout. She could not sense the other now and they were out of view from her vantage point. One thing at a time.
"Alchemist" Her voice floated down even as she was looking at the manifest. Well, one clipboard held a print out of numbers and barcodes and brief convoluted descriptions. The other clipboard seemed to be a map of numbers and the like. If they could figure out how the two fit together they would at least have a map. If they could figure out what the descriptions meant, they might have their answers.
"We are not alone." Her lips moved but despite the fact that she was solid, it took longer for the words to reach his ears and the whisper tickled around his neck hairs. Ghost jumped from her perch and became less than solid before she had reached the ground. "Hold out your hands and see if you can make sense of this?" She dropped the clipboards one at a time from her incorporeal hands. They went from so much smoke to solid and real as soon as they left contact with her skin.
His name reached him, and if it weren't for the omnipresent feel Ghost's voice had previously been characterised by he probably wouldn't have looked up. There she was, standing on a box. With two clipboards. That was all well and good, but unless it included a map it was going to be completely useless. This training was getting to be very complex, if he had of been alone, he knew he would be lost by now, horribly lost.
"We are not alone."
'Sure, now is the time to go getting all conspiracy theory on me... Oh wait, maybe she meant in here...'
"Hold out your hands and see if you can make sense of this?"
C.J. caught one of the clipboards but the other fell to ground, making a loud clicking noise when the metal clip struck the floor. He picked it up and spoke as he studied them. "The other person, a confusingly complex maze, this all sounds familiar from somewhere you know, that niggling that I've heard this story before." He shook his head in distaste, mostly at himself, he'd forgotten something from school. Two years took its toll on you when you weren't using information. He studied the clipboards a bit more. Then he looked at the base of the box he sat on. Then back to the sheets. "They're co-ordinates, split between the sheets. How they go together I couldn't tell you, there doesn't seem to be a key anywhere. The bar-codes also seem a little off but I don't know why. Any theories as to why the descriptions are complete non-sense?" Cafas stood, holding the clipboards to him. There were footsteps now, and they weren't slow.
'That can hardly be a good sign.
His eyes darted from side to side, looking for an escape, but he didn't know his way around the boxes any more than he had when he walked in. His hand extended to Ghost as he headed for the corner, any time they could buy would only help. He was now talking in a low whisper. "Need to get out of sight, head toward other end of warehouse."
'Yes, that's a good course of action, get more lost. Could pass something useful. Need to get away from this patrol.'
))