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.
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 14, 2009 11:03:16 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
Researching everything to make sure things were legal, like his stay in the country and the opening of the clinic, seemed like a very good idea. He wondered how large the section of the library devoted to understanding the country's complicated law system must be. It seemed to him that a person could be breaking ten or twenty laws without even knowing it!
And daisies were delicious. Even better than popcorn in his opinion. “If you want to try some, most flowers I can eat are quite edible for you omnivores, too. Though, you might like yours more in a salad than plain.” He grinned back at her.
He stood when she did, as was proper for a gentleman to do. “If we are picking a direction, let's go West. The sun will be setting soon, we can see if it leads us anywhere tasty.”
He opened the door for her with a slight bow, “My favorite flowers are probably sunflowers, if both looks and taste are to be taken into consideration. They are so cheerful looking, and if they start to look glum and moody I eat them. If we ignore looks and just go by taste I like clover the best. It tastes sweet without being too sweet, like a dessert that isn't too overpowering.”
On the other side of the door, he pulled out a key to lock up the clinic. It wouldn't prevent the most determined of individuals from getting in through the window, or over the dumpster and up the fire escape as he and Garrett had done once. It would, however, keep people from just wandering in.
“If smell is the determining factor, I love Lily of the Valley. However they don't agree with my stomach. You can't imagine how many times the delicious smell has tricked me into eating them then made me feel sorry afterwards.”
After locking the front door, the unicorn man offered his left arm to the lady. Corsages belonged on the left lapel and ladies on the left arm, the side closest to the heart.
Ghost took Sebastian's arm although she didn't feel all that lady-like at the moment in her slacks from work. She had to hmmm over the flower question for a bit. People didn't bring her flowers very often. In fact, she was pretty sure except maybe her high school graduation or maybe a valentines day where her dad had gotten flowers for both the ladies in his life, no one had ever had any reason to bring her flowers.
They started toward the sun and Ghost had her answer. "I like irises. Uh- Not because of your Clinic, but we had a garden of them at my family's last home. My mother really liked them a lot." And that had sort of rubbed off on her. The flowers were like dignified ladies in ruffles of purple with blushings of yellow and white. Some even had a streak of rebellious polkadots, another thing Ghost enjoyed.
"As for smell, maybe plumeria or gardenia? Have you ever smelled a growing, healthy gardenia? I would think that would be good enough to eat." They walked right past an All-American-Joe dive. It looked dirty and smelled like coffee and cigarettes. Ghost wasn't a huge fan of the cigarette smell.
"The Mansion has some pretty flowers in the back garden, but I don't think I could name very many of them." Maybe if she had a few extra lifetimes, she could memorize flower names and learn how to grow proper flowers like her mother had.
She spotted an Indian restaurant down the street, their sign so very close to touching the sinking sun and motioned to it. "Do you like Indian food? They have lots of herbivore options if I remember right." Ghost resolved to find more vegetarian restaurants. In fact... hadn't she seen a vegan cupcake place once? It was so odd, she remembered seeing the sign, but not exactly where she had seen it.
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 14, 2009 14:23:59 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
She mentioned her mother, and Sebastian noted that it was the first time he had heard her mention anything about her family. He wondered if it would be appropriate to ask about her family, or if it might be a sensitive subject. He was curious, but not wanting to spoil the mood by exchanging talk of flowers with talk of families just yet.
Sebastian sighed, recalling the smell of gardenia, “I lived next to an accomplished gardener once. She was an expert at growing gardenias as well as a few other things. I was a boy then, and she would set her dog after me if she thought I was after her prized blossoms,” he smiled fondly, “Not that I ever was, of course. I used to save little scraps of meat I couldn't eat and feed them to her dog. I think that was the reason he came tearing out after me, he wanted his treats.”
“I don't know all the flower names either. I mostly recognized them by their shapes, smells, and tastes.” Speaking of smells, the grill / bar they passed smelled rather strongly of frying fats and cigarette smoke. It wasn't exactly appetizing. The smoke made his lungs tingle just a little bit, healing any second hand smoke damage as it occurred which felt like taking a deep breath of icy winter air.
“I do like Indian food. Especially if it is authentic.” Not like that food that pretended it was Chinese, made to look authentic but intended to please American taste buds. The thought of the Chinese food reminded him of an enigma that had been puzzling him.
“I've been wondering something. That night I fell asleep at Full Circle, how did I end up waking up back at the Sanctuary again?”
Many of the shops were beginning to close their doors and turn off their lights, while the restaurants and clubs were turning their neon lights on for their busiest part of the business day. The city itself never slept, but its citizens took their shifts keeping different parts running at different times.
"Hmm. I don't know anything about what makes up authentic Indian food or not. I've never been there." To the restaurant or to India. But she had been to China and lots of Japan as well as a brief holiday in New Zealand once. And in the future she had been all over Europe, even being stationed as a weather monitor in Paris for a time. She wished that she had picked up some of the languages in the places she had visited.
Ghost steered them toward the menu displayed in a little glass case beside the door. Malai Kofta. She knew that was something she liked, but not exactly what it was. Aloo Paratha. Aloo Gobi. Ghost shrugged and stepped back as someone exited the door. The smells that came out of that door were milky and spice laden. Authentic enough?" They could find another place down the road if this one was not up to scratch.
The night he fell asleep... "Oh. I took you home by ghost." She beamed, quite obviously proud of herself though it faltered at the edges a bit as a thought occurred to her. "You do live at the Sanctuary, don't you?" How embarrassing if she'd just dumped him off at a homeless shelter.
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 14, 2009 15:16:33 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
“It certainly smells like the real thing.” If his nose was remembering correctly, that is. The blend of spices used in that area of the world greeted his nose like an old friend. He liked India. They had lots and lots of languages there. A person could spend several lifetimes just studying their languages. Like any country, they had a few issues to work out, like the caste system and women's rights, but every country did.
Then he blinked, not quite sure of what she had said or rather what she had meant by what she said. “You took me home by ... ghost?” He thought she was an air elemental, not a spirit medium. That was Tarin's realm, and he hadn't realized the two overlapped.
“I do live at the Sanctuary, or rather, I did up until Haywire was destroyed. I'm fairly certain I'm not welcome back anymore. I'm now making me residence above the Iris Clinic, though, it isn't much to look at yet. It's a little bare bones and not quite finished.”
The waitress at the counter smiled and gestured that they should follow, her brightly colored sari swishing behind her as she led the way to a small two person table near the corner of the store. It would be a quiet location, one that would give them a full view of what was happening in the store. Sebastian wished he knew what her native tongue was, so he could thank her, but there were so many possibilities that he didn't want to guess incorrectly and offend her. He used English instead.
“Thank you,” he nodded to the receding waitress and pulled Ghost's chair out for her in one motion.
He pulled out her chair. She was going to get spoiled if he kept escorting her places and tucking her in to the tables and such. And really... what was the etiquette for sitting in a chair someone else was scooting in for you? Did you let your bum hover while they adjusted the chair? She tried just sitting in it. She more than likely weighed a small enough amount that a gentleman could shove her and the chair in to the table.
"That is too bad, about the Sanctuary..." She had stayed there once too, though it was a long time ago now. Things seemed to be changing at an alarming rate there. It was a sad thing to change homes not entirely of your own free will.
"Ghosting. I can turn into my element, air. One day I will not be able to turn back to solid mass, already... it's sort of questionable. That is what I was talking about with genetics and the future. But when I turn incorporeal I can take someone with me light as the breeze so there is no heavy lifting. I just dropped you off on the bed Lisa said was probably yours." And as far as powers went Ghost did have a confession to make.
"Uhm... later, I went back and reviewed the security tape of that night." Ghost accepted her menu and kept her eyes on the colorful sauce pictures so she would not be embarrassed. It had been a very little screen. She hadn't seen anything too indecent, though her tail attachment question had been answered. Okay so she wasn't able to fight off the impending flush of skin. "I don't think you were aware that you changed in front of a register, right where the camera was pointing." And she certainly had questions about that.
"Does it hurt? And do you always go through the ages? Always forward in age? Can you be any age you want?" Her eyes flicked up to his and then back to the pictures on the menu, though that wasn't the image she was seeing in her mind. She had re-wound the tape in disbelief at first. And re-wound it again out of curiosity. She had felt silly, like she was a voyeur after she had watched it forward and backward a few times.
"You don't have answer." She was sort of prying anyway. Ghost ordered water and the veggie dumplings she always seemed to enjoy at the restaurants she'd visited before. They would have to share naan.
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 14, 2009 18:14:26 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
The etiquette for tucking ladies into their tables was that the lady need not think about it. They need only to sit, and the gentleman would take care of the rest. With well practiced timing, Sebastian scooted the chair forward just as Ghost bent her knees to sit, so that when her derrière touched down the chair was already perfectly placed for her at the table.
He didn't feel too badly about not living at the Sanctuary any more. He had been planning to move out anyway, he just ended up doing it a bit earlier than he had expected. He had found that while he liked some of the residents there well enough, most of them had a mindset that was entirely different than his own.
“It was bound to happen, no need to feel badly about it. It was getting difficult to live as a peaceful person while constantly being summoned hither and yon to heal people who had just come home from a fight they had started, boasting that I should have seen the other guy. They are kind of a rough and tumble group.”
To ghost was a verb now, and it made complete sense for it to be so when she described what she could do. She had turned him into air and simply carried him home on a breeze.
“I wish I had been awake to enjoy the ride. It was the correct bed, too. You had me wondering if the whole thing had been a dream, except that I was still wearing those red pajamas. I think I must have been completely color blind that day, nothing went together in the slightest.”
Then Ghost had another confession to make. She blushed behind her menu as she talked about security tapes and cameras. Sebastian blinked. He had no idea what a security tape was. He thought that was what the police put up around a crime scene. Cameras he knew about, but they required a flash of some sort, or they used to. The more she spoke the clearer it became that what she was talking about was having seen pictures of him changing or something like it, for she had a whole slew of questions on the subject. He didn't mind answering them, though he blushed at the idea that she had seem pictures of him even after he had tried so hard to be modest.
“It doesn't hurt at all. I can go forward and backwards through ages stopping at any age I like. If I don't try to control it at all, I appear to age forward normally except that when I reach the end of the life cycle instead of dying I transform into an infant of the opposite species. Then it starts all over again, which is why I am still around.”
The waitress came to take their order and he ordered sambar and tea.
Turning back to Ghost he asked, “What is a security tape?”
"I can take you ghosting anytime. You might not even like it..." Most people were quite uncomfortable throughout the process. "Most people don't."
"And you were tired. I was surprised you had the foresight to grab clothes at all. It was an unexpected favor." When the sari-clad woman brought Sebastian's tea, Ghost eyed it a bit enviously. Why had she not thought of that? She sipped her water more for something to do than for actual thirst. She liked to have something to do.
He answered his questions and she tried to commit each detail to memory. Just in case it might be important somehow, someday and also just because she was very curious.
Instead of dying...? Well, that certainly did explain why he was still around. Ghost imagined what it would be like to watch the years roll by. There was no telling what you would take out of each year, especially in these last years where everything had changed so rapidly. Even she couldn't keep up with technology like some.
“What is a security tape?”
Ghost gave him wide eyes. Well, it seemed she kept up better than some. He didn't seem to be joking either. Oh brother. "Well, you've seen movies, right? Luke Jacobs, a fellow X-man, owns a security business. He helped me outfit the store with extra security precautions including movie cameras pointed toward the registers and outside. It was technically still during business hours so the inside ones were still on..."
She rubbed at a spot on her upper lip and made note of the colorful decorations around the room. "So... now you know. We get all kinds of interesting things recorded at the store. One guy turned into a mechanical pencil once... he could possibly still be a mechanical pencil..." Hmm. Now that was a frightening thought. Being stuck as a mechanical pencil for the rest of your life.
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 15, 2009 11:21:53 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
“Is ghosting painful, then? I could imagine that in becoming air you might lose little bits of yourself each time. It sounds like it would hurt.”
Sebastian noticed her examining the tea when it came, but sipping only on her water, “Would you like to try some? It's a bit different than teas from other parts of the world. It tastes a bit like cinnamon. You can have the first sip if you like, but be careful; it's hot.” He remembered the last time when they had shared tea she had practically been drinking hers boiling. Just because it didn't feel as warm to her didn't mean that it wouldn't burn her.
“A security tape is like a motion picture?” That meant the cameras she mentioned didn't just capture pictures of him changing species, but a moving picture of it. And she had watched it, even when she had been embarrassed to see him in just the apron. He blushed again, a darker shade of rose this time. It probably looked very red indeed against his white skin.
“I'm sorry,” for the unintentional immodesty, “I didn't know that the register was being filmed. I should have chosen a different location. Out in the alley or somewhere else.”
Ghost went on to list another interesting incident that had been captured by her motion picture cameras. Perhaps a unicorn transforming into a man was not the strangest thing she had ever seen. Turning into a pencil of any kind would be something very odd to see. He couldn't help but wonder if the pencil shifter also lost his clothes when he transformed.
Their food arrived then, and Sebastian was impressed with the speed of their service. There were no chopsticks for Indian food, and most of it was eaten with the fingers. Soupy things like Sebastian's sambar were most often scooped up with small pieces of bread. In a displaced restaurant like this one, though, they provided silverware as well for all the non-Indians that would be eating here.
Though this wasn't a Japanese restaurant he was tempted to utter an いただきます before eating. Why was it he was reminded of the Japanese culture at an Indian restaurant? The last time he and Ghost had eaten together, he'd said it then too, but they had been eating Chinese food then.
“Ghost, were you raised in Japan, by any chance?” That would explain why he was always reminded of the small island nation when he was around her. She didn't look at all Japanese, but her mannerisms would fit in perfectly in that culture.
"Ghosting? Painful?" She was already shaking her head. Maybe she was loosing pieces of herself each time. The thought hadn't occurred to her, though she didn't feel any less like herself. "Incorporeality might be a little spooky, but it's more numbing than anything else. You can can only feel what you were feeling before you ghosted. Like If I were holding your hand, you would still feel that, maybe you would feel your clothes against your body how they felt before, but nothing else."
"And you can't see with your eyes. You have to see through the air. It doesn't seem like everyone can do that the same. For me I can see a long way all around all at once except that everything is sort of the same if it's open air. Where things and people are, objects that take up a space of mass, those areas are sort of a different quality."
"It makes details harder and easier to pick out since there is no light or dark, only air or not-air. I'm used to traveling that way so I can recognize buildings and things. People you can recognize by their mannerisms and voices more than by their face." Several of those things had caused her trouble in the past, but the trade offs were quite worth the effort to be impervious to physical harm. Well, most physical harm. Whatever the man with green eyes had done must have been a part of his mutation. because it had been the only thing to wound her post ghost transformation. Maybe it was a kind of heat or fire touch? But she wasn't burned.
Sebastian offered her some tea and she respectfully declined. "No thank you. I'm not much for cinnamon flavors. Maybe after it cools properly you can convince me of a taste." See? She had learned her lesson. Don't drink hot things in front of Sebastian if you don't want to be scolded... or scalded.
She nodded at his security question. "There is no sound to the movies, though. And the picture is very small." All of those things made it sort of better. A little bit removed from reality, perhaps. Now he knew the full extent of his embarrassment, though.
As long as he didn't know how many times she watched and and what things she was trying to notice, Ghost was mostly over her own share of the discomfort. He hadn't known so there was not much else to say on the matter. Now he did know. The matter was taken care of.
The food arrived and smelled wonderful. Ghost's came in a metal boat shaped dish. Four or five vegetable dumplings in an almond yogurt sauce that was a distinct color of yellow ochre. The sauce really was the meal.
“Ghost, were you raised in Japan, by any chance?”
She reluctantly tore her eyes away from the food to meet Sebastian's gaze before trying to think if she had done something curious today that was too Japanese. Nothing specifically came to mind, but then again she was a third-culture kid. "I was sort of raised all over, but I attended high school in a Japanese school in Japan. My mom liked the idea of cultural integration and fluency." If it'd only been her dad, Ghost would most likely have been stuck on the Yakota airforce base school learning in English about American subjects only. That would have been easier, sure, but Ghost found her high school days precious to her.
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 16, 2009 14:51:52 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
“Being incorporeal sounds interesting, if a bit disorienting. I imagine it takes some getting used to having senses that are completely different than when you are solid.” He wondered if being a vapor or a wisp of air was anything like being a real ghost.
He was still trying to imagine what that must feel like when Ghost declined to try the tea. He nodded; very well. He stirred it with his spoon to encourage it to cool off a little bit. He kept stirring all the way through Ghost's description of the smallness and soundlessness of the security motion pictures at her store. That wasn't so bad, he supposed. Stir, stir.
He used the bread that came with his sambar to scoop some of the vegetables out of his soup and eat a bite. The flavor was stronger than he remembered, as if his memories of it had faded somewhat over the years. He appreciated the full flavor more than the dulled memories of it.
>>>"I was sort of raised all over, but I attended high school in a Japanese school in Japan. My mom liked the idea of cultural integration and fluency."
“I think I was too tired to realize it last time, even though you were using Japanese words.” Observant he was not when he was that tired. He hoped he hadn't done anything too embarrassing while he was so exhausted. He smiled nervously and picked up his tea cup and took a sip of it. Still too hot! He set it down again quickly and swallowed the scalding liquid. Gulp. He needed to learn to take his own advice about waiting until it was cool.
And they were back to the subject of her mother again. He might as well ask about the rest of her family, too. “Was it just you and your mother traveling the world together as you grew up?” He watched her face, hoping that he wasn't broaching a subject that was too sensitive or anything like that. He was curious, but he didn't want to make her uncomfortable by prying into every aspect of her personal life.
Ghost tore a bit of bread from the piece they were sharing and dipped in her own sauce. It was as buttery and spice laden as the air around it had promised. Better than the last kind she tried, though she couldn't quite compare it to her first Indian experience. That was some time ago and no doubt he had idealized the experience.
“I think I was too tired to realize it last time, even though you were using Japanese words.”
"I did not know you were multi-lingual." It was clear that earned him several points in her book. "Nor did I imagine that we could communicate in a language other than English. If I had secrets to tell you, I could say them in broad daylight and most likely it'd only be the tourists that could decipher what was being said." That was a bonus. Not that she really had many secrets, but as isolated as America was from other languages its inhabitants rarely put in the effort for fluency. And even then the odds of them knowing Japanese of all things was slim, despite the growing number of anime fans. It was almost like having a secret language together with Shin and Sebastian. Ghost was glad she had practiced so that her skills did not grow dull. "Not to mention the fact that you could raise polyglot children." She shrugged as if these were the things that everyone thought about all the time.
“Was it just you and your mother traveling the world together as you grew up?”
Ghost jabbed at a vegetable dumpling with her fork and casually placed it on Sebastian's cursory plate, the one meant for foreigners who weren't savvy enough to eat with just their fingers and the bread. "No meat. Try it. I'd like to try some of yours too." And then she carefully pulled out a dumpling for herself as she collected her thoughts. It wasn't that big a deal really.
"No. I have a family like most everyone else. My dad and myself are the only ones left." Quite delicious, this food.
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 16, 2009 22:38:05 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
>>>"I did not know you were multi-lingual."
Sebastian nodded. She sounded impressed, but he was too modest to take all the glory. He felt like a bit of a cheater in that reguard. “When it comes to learning a new language I have two advantages that most language students don't have, though. I have a long time to spend leaning a language, for one. As for the other, I can learn each language as if it was my first one by starting as a baby and learning it as I grow up again, surrounded by the language for an entire childhood or even an entire lifetime.”
Sebastian poked the side of his teacup. It was almost cool enough to drink now.
“If you ever wanted to share a secret, you certainly could. It could keep the language from getting rusty for both of us. It's been awhile since I've been to Japan, so I might be a little slow to recall words at first.”
>>>"Not to mention the fact that you could raise polyglot children."
“I have,” he stated simply with a nod and ate another scoop of his vegetables. “It's not terribly difficult, but it requires a lot of dedication. You have to stay committed to what you are doing for many years.”
He quirked an eyebrow at his companion as she started adding her food to the small plate in front of him. Her meaning became clear shortly when she instructed him to try it. Of course he would. It looked delicious and the taste did not disappoint. He spooned some of his food onto the equivalent small plate from her side of the table.
“There you go.”
>>>"No. I have a family like most everyone else. My dad and myself are the only ones left."
She had paused to think about how to answer that question and she hadn't offered very many details, but the way she kept eating seemed to indicate that she wasn't phased by the question or anything. Sebastian kept eating, too, and wondered if Ghost's father was anything like her.
It was just... weird to sit next to a man and share dinner with him knowing that he had lived innumerable lifetimes. Did he see her as less of a person because of only having one life to live? She didn't seem to be taking care of her one life as well as she should either. Ghost sort of squirmed in her seat and plucked up the bit of food he had traded her.
"Is it ever weird to you? The age thing? I mean, who do you hang out with? You could be a kid all the time if you wanted." Her thoughts were sort of tumbling out of her mouth in a jumble. "Do you like to start as a kid and grow up with people? That would make a life cycle normallish as far as friends and family."
It all felt really personal. "But I guess kids aren't the most intellectually stimulating company..." If she had to be stuck at any age, this one did seem about right. Old enough for various legalities, but not old enough to where the joints and muscles are starting to wear out.
Just about everything he said about his life so far made her fidget with her food more and eat it less. He had already raised children. And he'd told her before that he had wives and other lives before this one. It was just... strange to hear it. "Do you ever keep up with any of your descendants?" What if she was somehow related to him? They both did have white hair...
Posted by Sebastian on Sept 21, 2009 15:23:21 GMT -6
Beta Mutant
730
0
May 18, 2013 11:53:12 GMT -6
Once she got started asking, all her curiosity seemed impossible to satiate. Sebastian chuckled, slightly amused at her rapid fire questions. He didn't mind sharing the answers.
“I think it is more strange for the people that find out how old I really am than it is for me. I suppose it might have been strange once, but I have since gotten used to it.”
She was only fidgeting at her food now. Sebastian took the opportunity while she was asking questions to chew his own before starting on more answers.
“Your guess about starting as a child was correct. Most of the time I will start from the beginning and live all the way through being old in order to have a normal life with family and friends. It seems like the right thing to do, to grow old with someone rather than stay young forever while they have to age.”
He smiled at the comment about being a child, “Children might not be the most stimulating of companions for an adult, but for another child they are perfect. When I am a child, even my mind is that of a child. It is not a bad existence to be young enough to be completely carefree, to find wonder in the smallest of things from the softness of a caterpillar to the beauty of the first snowflakes of winter, to find joy in running through a field and pretending to be a bird or presenting someone you care about with a scraggly bouquet of freshly picked wild flowers. Children also have the most vivid dreams, their imaginations make night visions super realistic, which, granted, can be both a good thing and a bad thing for the little dreamers.”
He tested the tea. It was finally cool enough not to burn, so he took a sip. Mmm, tea.
“I don't constantly start over and over, though. Sometimes I stick with one age for awhile if I am traveling or haven't settled down with a group of people. At those times I am usually the age you see me at now, as a young adult. Though, one time I did an experiment and lived an entire lifetime backwards, youthening as everyone else aged. That was strange.”
She fidgeted more and he hoped he wasn't making his companion uncomfortable, though she kept asking questions which meant her curiosity was most likely stronger than her discomfort if she had any. The next question was about his decedents.
“As I live through a life cycle, I get to a certain age where it is natural to leave my decedents behind. By that point children have their own children and grandchildren to worry about, and no one needs to be taking care of an old great grandfather. The goodbyes are sad, but less sad than the ones you say at a funeral. Sometimes I go back to visit later, but they move forward with their lives as they should. After enough time passes it is impossible to keep up with all the generations as they move around and change names.” There might also be rather a lot of them to keep track of by this point. Given enough time, numbers of descendants tended to increase exponentially as his blood in their veins became more and more diluted.
Was that a bad thing that he didn't keep very close track of his now distant relatives? It wasn't that he didn't care for his relations, just that he didn't know them and it would be impossible to find them all now. For all he knew they had all died out completely. Or had grown to a number so large that an entire country full of people might have some measure of his blood flowing through their veins.