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.
Katrina had not been entirely pleased with his refusal, however this was hardly unexpected, few children were ever able to accept repudiation with any kind of grace. Indeed it could be said that one of the key lessons of childhood was learning that things would not always go your way, that life would contain disappointment. Personally Zephyr thought that a child Katrina's age would have learnt such a lesson by now, however it appeared as though the puerile gamine was in need of a reminder and so the elemental once again ignored the girl as she muttered rebelliously and shifted to stare defiantly out the open window in the evening dying light.
The relative quiet which followed this act was, sadly short lived, indeed the hessian would have sworn that not even five minutes had passed before the blonde ingénue grew bored with her juvenile antics and once again began to pester him with unwanted questions, apparently heedless of the fact their discussions thus far had not improved his mood. Admittedly the painkillers had begun to take affect and so the violent pulses inside his skull had begun to subside, becoming little more than a dull throb which was aggravating but manageable, and though this was a relief it was not enough to shift him into a shining disposition. Far from it actually; family was not a pleasant subject for the hessian and while he had volunteered information regarding his mother it was largely due to the fact that he had never known her and thus held no real feelings for her, positive or negative.
His father on the hand was a source of constant resentment if not outright animosity and so the hessian endeavored to avoid even thinking of the man and for the most part he was successful. As for his sister well... a simple glance at Katrina was that was needed to remind him of his sibling; the two girl's appearance was utterly uncanny, indeed the first time he had encountered Katrina Zephyr had actually mistaken her for his sister, so strong was their resemblance. Still though, if the girl wished to know about his family he could, perhaps, indulge her. Turning his head and cracking open his eyes the hazel haired hessian and focused his azure gaze on the adolescents own ashen orbs before speaking his typical indifferent tone. "My mother is dead and my father abandoned me-"
'Just like yours.'
Zephyr cut himself off just before the final words could escape his lips, they were needlessly cruel, he was perfectly aware of that, and given the girls current attitude she'd likely take such a comment quite poorly to say the least, yet despite that a vindictive portion of his mind wanted continue speaking, wanted to lash out, force another to experience some form of misery. Fortunately it was small section of his thoughts and it was rapidly overruled and replaced with something slightly more diplomatic.
"...and I do not enjoy discussing them. Anything else?"
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
She had asked for a little bit about his family and he had given her exactly that: a little bit. He spoke of a dead mother and father who abandoned him and that was all. He was the same as Ghost. Like many mutants his family life was not the happiest. But Ghost's father came back to look for her. There was still hope, perhaps, for Zephyr. And for her.
“Maybe someday he'll come to his senses,” she mused quietly.
She ignored that his query about whether she had any other questions was in all likelihood sarcastic and not at all a sincere desire to further sate her own curiosity. Tidbits were more interesting than nothing at all.
“Yeah, what's your real name?” No one actually named their child after one of the Greek wind gods, unless they were hippies or something, and he was too young for that anyway. Besides, did they even have hippies in England?
A scornful expression passed over Zephyr's features as Katrina's pablum comment reached his ears over the dull monotony of the ships engines; the mere notion that his father would ever attempt to reconcile with him was nothing more than juvenile tarradiddle. The elemental knew too well what his father thought of him; he'd been a mistake, an unwanted bundle of joy, nothing more than a burden to be dealt with at arm's length. In fact considering the circumstances surrounding the hessians departure he wouldn't have been surprised if his father had attempted to disown him
"I doubt it." The words were spoken in a low yet audible tone enveloped in a subtle undercoat of anger which became noticeably more pronounced with the Kabal members following sentence. "That would require him to give a shit."
Relative silence followed the elementals comment, providing Zephyr with both a measure of relief that he had managed to deter any following questions but also a level of opprobrium over his words. He would need to find a better way to deal with soon and swiftly for if he was incapable of even acting civilly to Katrina it was doubtful he'd manage to dissemble the appropriate behavior for his upcoming assignment. A more potent form of medication would be required, until then though he would simply have to-
"-what's your real name?”[/color]
Shaken from his internal machination the azure eyed elemental narrowed his gaze in annoyance as he glanced down at his blonde charge, surely the child wasn't quite this ignorant? He had informed her not five minutes ago that he cared nothing for his father, indeed would gladly throw the man off a building if a convenient opportunity presented itself, yet the girl saw nothing wrong in asking for the name given to him by his father?
A scathing comment was prepared almost instinctively, one designed to criticize the gamines immaturity, lack of social wit and overall undermine what little confidence normally subsisted in puberty stricken teenagers. The words had been on the tip of the mercenary's tongue before they were pulled back and dismissed to the back of the elementals mind as he attempted to calm himself, drawing a slow breath before allowing himself to speak.
"Katrina, I'm not overly fond of the name my father gave me, if you need something to call me Dio shall be fine. Now I'm going to try and get some sleep, feel free to use my headphones if you need to but please stay here."
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
>>>"I doubt it. That would require him to give a shit."
Katrina's eyes widened at the harshness in the elemental's words and voice. Her first reaction was surprise, and then denial. She didn't want to believe that he wouldn't still care... and then finally she remembered that they were discussing his father, not hers. The anger still stung, even if it was really deserved most by someone who wasn't here.
She suddenly felt guilty for even having asked. It seemed that no matter what topic she brought up it was a sensitive one. Something else perhaps. She'd ask about his real name or something equally harmless.
Except apparently that hit a little close to home as well. The air elemental made it clear that he wasn't going to share and furthermore, that he was done with conversation altogether.
“Thanks. Sweet dreams,” she offered the sentiments as a sort of olive branch as she in turn accepted the headphones that he offered. It would be a long plane ride and a little music would be nice to listen to. The cord was attached to something in his bag, and when Katrina pulled gently a yPod slid out of the unzipped opening in Zephyr's bag of carrying.
Katrina glanced at the air elemental, but he was leaning back with his eyes closed now and didn't seem to care if she listened to his music or the plane provided radio stations. She was more curious about his music. She turned it on , found the list of all his songs, and started scrolling down. There were a lot of interesting titles and bands she had never heard of:
Autumnbound – Rachel Diggs Can't Get My Head Around You -- Offspring Cemeteries of London -- Coldplay Walking in the Air -- Nightwish
...and many more.
Finally she picked one that she liked the title of and pressed play.
...The smoke stack spittin' black soot into the sooty sky the load on the road brings a tear to the indian's eye the elephant wont forget what its like inside his cage the ring master's telecaster sings on an empty stage
ah ha, goddam right, its a beautiful day ah ha, goddam right, its a beautiful day ah ha...
The little illusionist leaned her own head back against the seat and soon, and about five songs later had fallen asleep.
The first sensation Zephyr registered upon regaining consciousness was a slight but noticeable impetus as the aircrafts landing gear made somewhat rough contact with the runway. A mere moment later his mind recalled recent events and the mercenary shot a sidelong glance at Katrina who, thankfully, had fallen asleep in her seat and was also in the process of awakening. A swift second after that and the audio system within the craft began a meaningless stream of twaddle interlaced with the odd passage of poorly pronounced English informing the hessian of the local time, temperature and location.
Once the announcements had concluded an unseen signal seemed to spark throughout the other passengers as they restlessly began to shift and recollect their nearby belongings. For first class this was not the same ordeal as economy seating; ample space was provided to each individual thereby allowing those with the privilege of class to gather their possessions in relatively little time. Zephyr however made no immediate move to rise from his seat, instead withdrawing a slim sable device from his pocket. A simple flick of the finger caused the item to split in half and pivot along a hinge set across its length revealing a sharp backlit screen above a slim keyboard which the hessian deftly manipulated as he sent a short yet concise message to the Kabal’s jejune leader asking for a meeting to discuss the issue of a certain blonde stowaway. The missive was then finalized by the inclusion of a photo of said stowaway sitting in her seat with a somewhat puzzled expression on her features as the camera captured her image.
With the dispatch sent Zephyr returned the phone to its place before then removing the familiar alabaster container of pills from the depths of his coat, idly swallowing another pair of pain killers as he considered the situation. Even if Slate were familiar with Katrina he doubted the boy would assign any priority to such an issue and so the mercenary made a mental note to repeat his original message in an hour if he failed to receive a suitable response from his employer. In all truth the message was little more than an empty courtesy; the azure eyed mercenary knew full well the type of accommodations the Kabal padrone would likely commandeer for such a sojourn. It would be a simple matter to scout the handful of applicable locales to find the boy, yet for the moment such an endeavor was not worth the elemental’s time and thus he deferred to politic niceties.
How long that remained true however would depend largely on Slates initial response.
When at last the craft finished taxiing in to the terminal the hazel haired hessian deftly extracted an ebony toned duffel bag from the overhead compartment before quietly disembarking from the craft with Katrina in tow. As soon as they entered into the terminal proper however Zephyr placed a hand upon the blonde gamine’s shoulder and deliberately steered the girl to a bench away from the passing crowd before quietly asking her about the location of her additional belongings
The adolescent had hesitated for a moment and then shaken her head without meeting his eyes, causing the mercenary to frown. Surely the girl wasn’t sulking over their brief affray last night? Admittedly it hadn’t been the most pleasant of discussions but there was little point in dwelling on it. The fact of the matter was that Katrina had made her way to Romania, how or why she had done so was not his immediate issue, but rather one for the girl’s mother and, depending on the boy’s involvement, Slate. Instead Zephyr saw it as his responsibility to ensure that the puerile teen avoided causing any additional problems. Arguably this was a somewhat more difficult task as it involved sneaking the child through immigration and then escorting her to a hotel room without any... problems.
Shaking such thoughts from his mind Zephyr decided to simply try and make the most of current situation, for as the ancient axiom averred, even the most tenebrous cloud had its silver lining. In this particular case the slip of sterling was practical opportunity to lightly inquire as to the nature of Katrina's mutation. Upon reflection it was something he should have done far sooner but the gamine had always seemed hesitant to discuss the subject on prior occasions. Now though the hessian had an excuse beyond mere curiosity; after all if he were to attempt to smuggle the child through airport security it was only logical that he be aware of the resources at hand.
Irritatingly though someone appeared to have seeded a deep sense of caution in the girl when it came to her abilities for she constantly paused before answering a question, as though running it against some internal checklist. While such discretion would likely serve the Katrina well in the future it did nothing to make her answers any less annoying. In the end all the British elemental had been able to determine was that, yes she could turn invisible, no she didn’t know how it worked, yes she could turn other people invisible, and no it might not work on camera’s or other scanners.
All in all it hadn’t been the most insightful discussion in the world but it had allowed the hessian to contrive at least a basic plan to cozen those stationed at immigration. Katrina's invisibility was, of course, an absolute necessity; for while she could conceivably fit within the confines of the mercenary's duffel bag Zephyr would not have been able to physically support her weight and he had not yet become practiced enough to levitate the bag without drawing undue attention.
Katrina herself however had admitted her means of concealment was far from perfect, a fact the hessian found somewhat odd given his understanding of physics. In any case the high density of camera's in the area made it quite possible that the girl would be spotted in spite of her best efforts which was not something she could afford until after passing through immigration.
Fortuitously however the solution to such a problem was relatively rudimentary; it merely involved acting according to others expectations and thus fading into the background. In this case the expectation for those monitoring the cameras to draw would be that of brother and sister, an image which was crafted quite easily by simply having Katrina latch onto the hessians free arm as he joined the short queue at the security barriers. To everyone nearby the gamine would be nothing more than an empty patch of air contiguous to a somewhat bored and taciturn azure eyed man. Then, for those would could catch sight of adolescent, they would see only a blasé pair of siblings making their way through the tedious bureaucratic red tape required to gain access to the country.
For such a careless and hastily concocted stratagem it worked rather well, Zephyr was able to present his necessary documents without any questions being raised as to Katrina presence, though there was a brief moment of uncertainty when additional security guards happened to wander by with an inquisitive canine who managed to catch Katrina scent. A dully crafted blade of air drawn across the creatures flank swiftly redirected the animal's interest elsewhere though and both mutants were able to proceed to the next section of the airport.
The small segment of the transport complex devoted to the public reception of international passengers was somewhat crowded but as neither Zephyr nor a now visible Katrina had needed to collect additional baggage the pair managed to emerge ahead of the other passengers and thus slipped through the assembled coterie of individuals without any great difficulty. Before they could depart the airport proper though the elemental paused and gave Katrina a considering glance; the girls attire was a striking contrast to heavy coats sported by multitude of surrounding people and once again served as a reminder to the typically taciturn mercenary that the child had failed to adequately contemplate the numerous consequences of her impulsive actions. One of the key points being that, while America may be enjoying a warm summer, that did not mean the rest of the world was doing the same.
The beginnings of a lecture was on the tip of the elementals tongue however he swiftly swept aside the urge, he knew from experience that any such castigation would more likely than not be ignored and only serve to deplete what little goodwill had been restored between them. No, a more practical means of discipline was called for here, something indelible but not too terribly harsh; the hessian had no wish to spend all day with a sulking adolescent.
Striding purposefully outside into the gelid winter air Zephyr maintained a casual but firm grip on Katrina's shoulder as he finished shrugging on the long coat he'd stored in his sable duffel bag before then adopting a slow, meandering pace which soon carried the pair to the roads edge. There the speed of the passing traffic rapidly amplified the heavy wind from merely cold to bone chilling. With her lack of proper attire the freezing gusts quickly stole what little heat Katrina had managed to retain from inside and the gamine had soon hunched her shoulders and crossed her arms in a futile attempt to regain warmth as her hair danced across her features.
Despite the girl's obvious discomfort though Zephyr maintained his languid stride as he idly passed the lane of humming taxi's, steadfastly ignoring any suggestion from his charge promoting their use as he instead headed towards a rather crowded bus stop and made an idle show of pausing to examine the Romanian timetable. Despite only possessing a rudimentary grasp of the language however the British elemental was able to able to easily discern the pertinent details, after all while literary symbols tend to shift from region to region numbers tend to be a constant, at least in the western world.
After having spent a handful of minutes examining the placard placed against the wall of the bus stop Zephyr tilted his head and sighed insouciantly before turning to Katrina and forcing down a self amused chuckle as he spotted her huddling against the opposite wall of the bus stop; clearly seeking what little reprieve was available from the flimsy shelter.
Upon informing the gamine that the next bus would not be for another half hour the child's expression and jaw dropped before she once again made an earnest request to use one of the taxi's nearby. Her pleas however soon ceased when the hessian asked how the child intended to pay for her choice of transportation because, clearly, she must have thought about such a thing before deciding to stow away on a plane to a country currently holding rather hostile views towards mutants.
Katrina fell silent then and the elemental allowed another five minutes to pass to ensure the gamine understood at least part of the lesson before declaring his own impatience and guiding the thoroughly shivering girl off towards one of the more opulent taxi's and ushering the freezing girl inside and offering her his coat as the driver started the engine and asked for a location.
In response Zephyr merely turned his head to glance at Katrina before replying, "Well Katrina where would you like to go? We can either head down town to get you some more suitable clothes or we can head to the hotel where you could have a warm shower which would you prefer?"
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Katrina was still half asleep when Zephyr took her picture with his phone and sent a text message. She really hoped that he didn't have her mother's phone number. At the same time, she was sending an illusory voice message to Fausto in the back of the plane.
“I have to go with Zephyr. Hang onto my stuff for me please.”
Just off the plane the aeromancer pulled her aside to question her about said stuff, as if he knew she must have some somewhere.
She just shook her head. “I didn't bring anything else.” It was better to seem unprepared than it was to get Fausto in trouble, too. She would do the noble thing and take all the blame for this fiasco.
Next were questions about her mutation. About time he asked. Not that she was going to tell him everything anyway... it was just one of those things where they had known each other for well over two years and he had never inquired before.
“I can turn invisible and I can turn other things and people invisible too.” And yeah, she wasn't sure if it would work on security cameras or not, but she said no just in case. Invisiblity had already gotten her though one airport, so she wasn't too worried about a second one. Couldn't they just go already, before Fausto got off the plane and tried to come talk to her? Or even Slate or anyone else that might unexpectedly be at this airport?
It all turned out in the end, with a solution that let them hold hands. That was kind of weird feeling, actually.
It was much colder outside than she had expected and Zephyr was just as cold. He could have offered her an extra sweater or something. He had a whole suitcase, full of clothes, resumably. But no.
She suspected that this might be some kind of lesson.
She always hated lessons.
Finally, he handed her his coat and gave her a choice. It was not an easy one. Instant gratification, or long term planning? She shivered beneath the excess fabric of his jacket and answered, “A coat, p-please.”
Inside of the taxi the seats were getting a little threadbare, it smelled faintly like stale cigarette smoke and body odor mixed with , and it was warm. It was absolutely delightful. At some point she stopped shivering as she stared out the window at the foreign buildings and street signs in Romanian. She could barely believe she was even here.
The taxi deposited them in front of a clothing shop. Katrina glanced in the window only briefly before skittering in through the solid glass door. The inside looked much bigger than it had from the outside, and Katrina didn't quite know where to start. Things were organized differently than she was used to. The coats were... this way?
In the back corner she found a rack with coats and parkas that looked approximately her size. She thought she would try to find one that was cheap, but she she looked at the prices all the numbers seemed really high. It took her a moment to remember that they weren't dealing in dollars any more.
She felt very far away from home.
She stood with a coat in each hand, forlorn. “Dio? I'm sorry to cause you all this trouble.”
When Zephyr had given Katrina her choices he had expected the shivering gamine to select the comforts of the hotel, which would have given the elemental a chance to review his assignment and organize a few smaller points of his plan, such as transportation. The hessian was far from put out however when his ashen eyed protégé instead opted to go shopping, as it was a task which would have to be dealt with regardless and so he acquiesced to the child's choice and informed the driver of new destination.
The journey itself was a somewhat blasé affair during which Zephyr once again loaned Katrina his music player whilst he himself used his phone to idly review what information was available for his target. Admittedly the small screen was not the most ideal method by which peruse such data but it was currently all he had until he found a chance to charge the battery in the small laptop within his duffel bag. Once again switching the device on the elemental waited a moment to receive a signal before connecting to the storage site where he had copied the documents Slate had granted him earlier.
The man's name was Marius Brezeanu, age 46, married with 3 children and a background in business which had led him to become senator for the county of Arad which bordered Hungary. The area was one of the most developed in the country as its location attracted a good deal of foreign investment though it specialized in manufacture of costly machine and automotive components in large volumes, therefore the continued economic health of the region was something of necessity as it allowed Romania to avoid importing the same self said components and prevented the price of vehicles in the country from rising. This in turn increased the number of cars on the country's swiftly growing motorways and thus provided a greater source revenue for government via vehicle taxes which would be quite valuable in the foreseeable future even with the current global depression.
Additionally, one of the various company's taking up residence within Arad was a recently globalised entity largely responsible for the production of the mutant collars being utilized in the newly erected internment camps. Founded by rather wealthy members of the Church of the Humanity the corporation had relocated its headquarters to Europe after public opinion in America shifted against the mutant registration act. With only a handful of manufacturing facilities scattered across the continent Romania's new stance on mutants looked to be vital for the company's existence.
Also worthy of note was the fact that, prior to the CoH backed company's introduction to Arad, Brezeanu had been largely silent on the issue of mutant rights before then becoming an avid proponent of the country's mutant registration bill, and though no concrete evidence could be found a mild perusal of the organizations financial statements listed a number of unmarked expenditures which posed rather interesting possibilities.
Any further investigation of the issue was halted as the hessians migraine began to make its presence known somewhat sooner than usual and Zephyr sighed before returning to the phone to his pocket and taking yet another dose of painkillers. Likely squinting at the small screen of his phone for over half an hour hadn't helped matters but still the frequency of his megrims were getting out of hand. If his powers didn't settle soon he would have to procure more stringent medication.
Upon finally arriving at the prescribed destination Zephyr had found himself unable to comprehend the cab drivers broken English and thus had simply thrust a handful of notes into the outstretched hand. Ordinarily the mercenary would have been somewhat more parsimonious with his tender but in this case the pulsing between his temples prevented the elemental from truly caring and in any case he could always claim it back from Mondragon as a travel expense.
Allowing Katrina to lead the way for the most part Zephyr quietly followed the girl as she browse the racks of attire in search of a suitable item. Within a relatively short time however the hessian noticed that the girls posture had remained largely unchanged; previously her figure had been tense and withdrawn due to the gelid temperatures, now though her shivers had ceased yet she had not relaxed.
It was as the hessian was starting to ponder precisely what could be troubling the child that Katrina turned and spoke, in a tone so dejected and a posture so despondent she painted a perfect picture of misery which, had the girl been anyone else, Zephyr would simply have ignored her, yet in this case he once again found the beginnings of a condemning lecture on the tip of his tongue.
Katrina bore an almost identical resemblance to the mercenary's own sister and her appearance always stirred to life memories and emotions he typically kept buried. He knew that this caused him to treat her differently than he would another child her age and why he cared for her more than he had any right to. He had no wish to see her hurt and the fact that she had done something so, so... idiotic, without regard to her own welfare both angered him and, on some level, scared him.
"Katrina, I'm not going to pretend I'm pleased with what you've done. It was arrogant, juvenile, and dangerous; had you not found me you would have been alone in a country without food, clothes, money or a means to contact anyone who could help you. You could have gotten lost, hurt or killed, I...
Zephyr paused, with each point he'd made he had seen the girl flinch and her shoulders shrink slightly until she had noticeable curled in upon herself and for a moment he struggled with the urge to go forward and comfort her; reminding himself this was not his little sister and, even if she were, Katrina needed learn her actions held consequences, yet...
"However, part of growing up is learning from your mistakes to avoid repeating them in the future. If you can promise me that you will not doing something so idiotic again I will consider the issue closed and we can move onto to more pleasant topics, agreed?"
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
With each of Zephyr's words, Katrina shrank a little bit more. She hadn't meant to make him angry, but a part of her felt like she deserved to be scolded. He sounded a little bit like... not quite a mother, but very much like she imagined an older brother would sound: not just someone who held her hand and led her though the airport, but like someone who actually cared about her and worried about her when she made stupid mistakes. It made it hurt all the worse that he was so disappointed in her.
“I'm sorry.” She wanted to apologize again and again until all the apologies washed away what she had done, but it wasn't possible. All she could do was move forward, put this behind her, and learn from her mistake. She showed her agreement to his terms by hugging him around the waist and nodding. It was a little awkward with a coat in each hand, so she let go quickly, letting her arms fall back to her sides. She kept her submissive posture, eyes pointed at her feet, so he wouldn't see that there was extra moisture threatening to spill over the corners of her eyes.
“What do we do now?” She had had more than enough of trying to figure things out and simply wanted to follow someone else's orders. She'd go wherever Dio wanted her to go.
She took one last look at the price tags of the two coats and simply chose the smaller number. The other she hung back up on the rack. She held her choice out to the air elemental, “Do we have enough to afford this one? I'll pay you back somehow. I'll shovel snow and walk dogs and mow grass and do whatever I need to do to earn enough for it.”
Katrina still refused to meet the elementals eyes as she replied to his offer, however it was clear from her cadence that the gamine was finding it difficult to speak and so the elemental simply nodded and chose to take her words as acceptance before then returning his attention back to the files on his phone. Despite of what he'd just said the elemental was still rather disappointed with his blonde protégé and though he disliked seeing her so crestfallen the hessian made no immediate move to buoy the child's spirits. Perhaps when they arrived at the hotel he could-
The elementals internal perpending was brought to a rather abrupt halt as found himself on the receiving end of an unexpected embrace as small but resolute arms encircled his torso and gripped him tightly. The hessians initial reaction was one of inaction as his body stiffened for a split second and his mind reconciled the sudden change in circumstances, then the moment passed and Zephyr glanced down at the young gamine clutching his midriff and dropped his free hand down to the middle of Katrina's back to gently return the hug as an uncomfortable sensation tightened his chest.
Then, as swiftly as it had started, the embrace ended and Katrina was retreating with her head still bowed, leaving Zephyr's arm to fall silently back to his side as he attempted to dismiss the unpleasant emotion which had somehow caught hold of his heart strings. He'd done nothing to feel guilty for, he knew that, if anything he was doing Katrina a favour by forcing her to bear a measure of reasonability so she wouldn't do something so fool hardy in the future. So why, despite all that, did his lungs suddenly feel as though they were made of lead?
“What do we do now?”
Zephyr blinked and his gaze shifted back to Katrina, her posture was still subdued and did nothing to ease the tense sensation in his chest. He was not going to apologize to her. No, they were going to buy the coat, find another taxi, then head to the hotel and hopefully by that point Slate would deigned to have called and between them something could be figured out. Until then though he would simply have to-
“Do we have enough to afford this one? I'll pay you back somehow. I'll shovel snow and walk dogs and mow grass and do whatever I need to do to earn enough for it.”[/color]
The elemental glanced at the proffered garment in the ingénue's hand, the back to her sad yet earnest expression before rolling his eyes skywards and taking a deep breath as he waged a silent internal battle. He had more than enough funds available to easily purchase the shops entire stock let alone a single coat, and though making the gamine work off the price of the coat seemed quite a fitting punishment her desperate eagerness somehow made the idea distasteful; to say nothing of how it was the sensation of guilt running through him.
Sod it.
With a sigh Zephyr lowered his gaze back to Katrina and his posture fell slightly. "The money is not an issue Katrina, don't worry about. Now, unless there's anything else you need I was thinking we could get some lunch, what would you like?"
Lunch? It was lunch time? Even though she had slept on the plane she still felt like it was nearing about 100 o'clock. She poked at her own stomach, she had been hungry awhile ago, but it had sort of gone away on its own. She wasn't sure if it still wanted food or not.
“I suppose a sandwich or something would be good.” Eating was probably wise, since she hadn't done it in quite a few hours now. Even if she didn't feel hungry at the moment, she'd likely regret it later if she declined his offer. “Do they have sandwiches in Romania?”
She followed guiltily behind him to the checkout where the cashier rang up what seemed like a rather large number to her. Zephyr didn't even blink at it as he handed over his card. It was a shiny visa with “Mondragon Medical” written on it instead of an actual name. Katrina had never seen a corporate credit card before.
“Have a good day,” their cashier used one of the handful of English phrases she knew, then one in Romanian that Katrina didn't understand, but from her tone it was probably 'come again soon' or something like that.
At the door the little illusionist zipped herself into her new coat. “Thank you, Dio.”
Katrina made no indication that she needed anything else besides the coat, and Zephyr was tempted to impress upon the child that it could be a few days before she was able to go home. A change of clothes would be advisable at the very least. The elemental held his tongue however, he had no wish to come across as reproachful , additionally the gamine clearly felt a measure of guilt over using someone else's money so the hessian allowed the issue to drop and instead walked the ingénue over to the cashier to pay for her garment.
“I suppose a sandwich or something would be good. Do they have sandwiches in Romania?”[/color]
Zephyr paused briefly in withdrawing his wallet and took a moment to consider what he knew of Bucharest, this turned out to be very little. The taciturn mercenary knew the location of the capital building and the hotel where he'd be residing but little aside from that. He hadn't exactly been given much notice before his flight after all, he certainly hadn't given any thought to finding a child friendly restaurant. However, given this was a fairly well developed European capital city the hessian wasn't overly worried about finding something which appealed to his protégés palate.
"I'm certain we can find something familiar." He assured before handing over his Mondragon credit with a slight sense of satisfaction; he'd yet to discover a limit on the small piece of plastic despite some of the more expensive nonessential purchases he'd made earlier and was beginning to suspect the card had been authorized for any amount for the duration of his assignment. It was a pleasant convenience to have and the elemental fully intended to make use of this privilege to within just an inch of abusing it. Admittedly he'd likely have to argue one or two expenses but in the long he was confident the situation would end in his favour.
After the coat had been paid for and Katrina had offered her subdued thanks the mutant pair left the shop and wandered back onto the gelid streets under the midday sun. Zephyr shaded his gaze with one hand as he glanced about the streets, though the mercenary knew little about the surrounding area basic commerce generally dictated that any popular shopping district would possess some number of dining establishments and, due to capitalism, it was almost guaranteed that one would be able to find.. ah, that would do nicely.
Nudging Katrina forward with a gentle hand Zephyr calmly led the unusually reticent girl towards one brightly coloured sign among many, one which, hopefully, would be instantly recognizable to the girl; he would think her childhood somewhat lacking if she'd never been to a pizza hut before.
The pair got a table in relatively short order and were guided to a small table near the kitchens where the aromas of various dishes were strongest and did much to wet one appetite. A pleasantly grinning waitress rattled off a comment in two in Romanian before noticing the lack of comprehension on either mutants face and swiftly fell silent before handing over the menus and departing without her smile faltering in the slightest.
Deciding to take advantage of the slim window of privacy they'd been granted Zephyr spent a handful of moments searching his duffel bag before deftly withdrawing a slim onxy container which could almost pass for a film tube. The top was quickly removed and a pair of crimson jewels were shaken into the mercenary's waiting hand. After taking a moment to show the diminutive stones to his equally diminutive charge Zephyr swallowed one with the assistance of the complementary glass of water before sliding the other over to Katrina's plate.
"They're not what they seem, but they will make things somewhat more convenient."
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Bucharest was a big city, just like New York was a big city, but the architecture was completely different. Where her hometown had square toped skyscrapers, the capital of Romania had steeples and spires and ancient looking everything mixed right in with the modern stuff. Nothing looked familiar, until...
“Oh!” She knew that red roof logo. “I didn't know they had pizza hut here!” Her stomach finally decided the time was right to be hungry. She was already feeling a little more cheerful, even before they walked in.
Once inside, the waitress seated them at a table and handed them menus, just like they did in the United States. The only problem was, of course, that she couldn't read the menu. The waitress cheerfully informed them of something, the day's specials maybe, then walked off. Katrina bit her lip and flipped through, looking for pictures she could point out when it came time to actually order.
Zephyr took out another bottle of something, he must have had a really awful headache if it still hadn't gone away. Except this time he handed her one, and it wasn't a pill. Rather, it looked like a huge ruby.
She looked up to see the air elemental swallow his ruby with a mouthful of water and encouraged her to do the same. She pinched it between her fingers. It wasn't what it seemed? It seemed like a ruby. Hard, shiny, red... but if he wanted her to eat it, she trusted him.
A gulp of water later and it was gone, just as if it had been a pill and not a gem that was probably worth more than everything she owned put together.
Nothing happened.
Or so it seemed.
The waitress returned with an expectant look on her face, “[Are you ready to order?]” Katrina blinked at her. That had been in Romanian, yet, somehow she had understood every word.
“Uh, ” came her response, automatically in the vernacular. Woah. The waitress was taken aback slightly, but continued smiling and backed away once again to leave them with their menus.
“How did that happen?” She asked Zephyr her question in English once again. The fluorescent signs behind him, once garbled nonsense, were also making sense to her. The menu she was leaning on was suddenly clear. That word there... it wasn't pepperoni, but it meant pepperoni.
Zephyr's spirits rose somewhat as he watched Katrina inspect the carmine dragonspeak gem with a mild amount of amusement. He himself had possessed no small amount of skepticism when he'd first been introduced to the small linguistically gifted stones and it was entertaining to watch someone else go through the same process. In the end though Katrina took his word and consumed the tiny jewel before glancing at her surroundings suspiciously, searching for any obvious effects, leaving the hessian to conceal a smile as he took another sip of water
The exchange between Katrina and their hostess was short but it was a sufficient display of the gems powers and evoked quite an entertaining expression from the young gamine when it dawned on her that she'd abruptly become fluent in the Romanian languages oral and written forms. Needless to say the gamine felt a measure of disbelief and was compelled to question the origin of her newly acquired linguistic talent despite the sequence of events which had just occurred.
In response to the gamines credulous question the azure eyed elemental steepled his fingers and adopted a dry tone and granted the girl a light condescending gaze before he spoke. "Well I see two possibility's; either you have a latent secondary gift which grants you fluency in any language, or, as I told you, the gems were not what they seem. Now, which do you think it is?."
Allowing a moment for Katrina to respond Zephyr then continued. "The jewels are something of a business perk, they should last for the rest of the day so I suggest you make the most of the experience." Lifting up his menu the elemental gave the listings a cursory scan as he searched for any unusual local flavours. "Now have you given any thought to what you might like? I'm quite partial to ham myself, though pepperoni is a good second."
Alright, yes, she ate a gem and gained the ability to speak Romanian. Duh, she got that part. She stuck her tongue out at her dining partner just as he went to take another sip of water.
“Right, but how does it work? And where do they come from?” And a hundred other questions after he answered those. If he answered those. It almost seemed like magic was the only explanation, except that magic wasn't real. Was it?
Zephyr hand waved his possession of the jewels as a business perk and made it sound like that was all he was going to mention on the subject. He really seemed to like to shroud everything in foggy mystery. Katrina had a hard time trying to think of what kind of business someone might have to do for a medical company all the way out in Romania. It must pay well if he got a company credit card and could afford to simply swallow rubies.
“I like anything except for olives or fish on my pizza.” She made a face at the mere thought of anchovies. At one point she had only liked cheese, but she had finally gotten sick of picking everything off years ago and found that most of the toppings were actually quite good. “Also, diamonds are a bit too crunchy on pizza for my taste,” just for the record.
She set down her menu and leaned her elbows on it, content both that she could read it and that there wasn't much on it that she disagreed with. Zephyr could choose and she'd be perfectly happy with whatever. “What is your job anyway?”
A small smile slipped across the elementals features at Katrina's puerile display; the girl may have grown but clearly she had yet to grow up. It was refreshing in a way to see how quickly the gamine could rebound from such a dismal mood and recover her habitual alacrity as she rapidly proceed to add query atop query in an effort to discern the origin and method of the jewels she had so promptly consumed, and while Zephyr could answer her questions to a degree it was for amusing, and satisfying, to withhold the information and instead feed the ingénue a series of amorphous answers.
"Well, you see there's this golden goose which-" The hessian stopped and then began to chuckle as he caught the jejune scowl Katrina was giving him before then leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "Very well, the stones were made by one with talents similar to ourselves. As for how they function I can only offer speculation, and I'd rather not bore you with my theories."
From that point the conversation then moved onto the vital subject of pizza toppings which, as any teenager or college student can tell you, is a matter of utmost importance. Fortuitously Katrina proved to be most flexible with her selections and so the choice was left to Zephyr. The hazel haired mercenary perused the menu for a moment or two, observing with idle fascination as the foreign datum's swiftly unraveled their meanings by some inexplicable process.
"It's good that you have an open mind for food, if you stay here more than a day or so we'll have to try some local cuisine, for now however I'm in the mood for something less closer to home, so I think ham shall do, though a 24 carrot topping does sound tempting I'll admit."
The waitress returned, her easy going grin somewhat more hesitant as she once more approached the two foreign mutants, unsure precisely how to proceed and so the azure eyed elemental dismissed the problem by greeting the woman in her native tongue and placing their order, requesting a new round of drinks before then moving on to inquire about the names and locations of a number of higher quality establishments in the area. The waitress answered the query's without apparent effort and finally seemed to relax for she treated them to a more genuine smile as she collected the menu's and retreated back to the kitchens.
No more than a handful of seconds after the woman had moved beyond earshot Katrina's curiosity got the best of her once again, prompting her to ask about the elementals profession. Admittedly it was a seemingly innocuous query, however the hessians occupation was not one he was quite willing to discuss in polite (read; naive) company. Still if nothing else Zephyr considered himself somewhat adept at twisting facts and omitting key details; it was a skill which served him well many times.
"I suppose my title would be that of a business consultant; in short I provide others with information and advice in order to assist them in making good decisions." He carefully neglected to mention that sometimes those 'good decisions' required certain people to take rather abrupt and permanent vacations.
"Now then, what have you been up to? Aside from the obvious of course, it's been some time since I last saw you."
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."