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.
Screw companionship, screw loyalties, and screw partnerships. Zephyr had had his fun pushing her buttons and had finally found the one that really set her off. Isabel had managed to get her hands around his throat and she didn't plan on letting go. The medical staff could usually patch up anyone that was brought in, no matter how close to death they had come. Those that had already died, however, were out of their collective grasp. She was going to squeeze the last breath out of him and then she was going to leave him to rot right were he was.
He was a fighter, she'd give him that. She actually had to climb on top of his scrawny body in order to keep him from shoving her off the bed with his thrashing. She could feel his protests getting gradually weaker, though, could practically see his eyes clouding over. Her smile turned into a smug smirk as previous embarrassment gave way to confidence. The jackass had finally gotten what was coming to him.
At least, she was sure she'd finally gotten back at him when he messed everything up again. One minute she was on top of him, slowly squeezing his life out of him, and the next minute she was nowhere. The closest thing she'd ever experienced was being set into the void by Pluto in a past fight. She had no body, no senses, nothing.
And then just as suddenly as she was gone, she was back again, her body falling a short distance and landing with a dull thud accompanied by an 'Oof!'. At least the landing was somewhat soft, if not for a few knobby edges poking into her.
It was very disorienting to go from nothing back to something. Her body felt heavy and it was a few short seconds before her lungs kicked back into action, her landing only hindering such progress as the air had been knocked out of her in the process. A dull ache was also settling in her skull as her mind tried to process the robbing and returning of all of her senses. She felt like she was dealing with a momentary case of sensory overload. She gave a groan as she began trying to move only to freeze when her mind finally processed that something was definitely not right.
As it turned out, the semi-soft, bony thing she'd landed on was Zephyr, which wasn't all that surprising considering that's where she'd been when she'd disappeared. While she didn't exactly care to be in such a position, that wasn't what was bothering her, nor what was quickly whipping her mind into a panic.
She had landed on top of Zephyr. The two of them had reappeared, but their clothing hadn't.
An alarmed shout escaped her as she scrambled to remove herself from the young man. She hoped she broke his nose or something in the process. As luck would have it, and as sheets had a tendency to do, the thin white covering was quickly tangled around her ankle and her attempt to climb off of the bed was soon thwarted as she instead tumbled to the floor, smacking her head painfully while her hands were busy trying to pull the offending sheet down with her.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
As he felt Isabel beginning to stir on top of him an instinctive and resourceful portion of Zephyr’s mind recognized that there were, in all likelihood, an untold number of individuals who would have gladly given their left lungs for the chance to see, let alone feel, even half of what he could right now. And as the buxom brunette placed a hand atop his chest and pushed herself into a dazed sitting position, the elemental allowed his eyes to trail down and found he wouldn’t really be able to fault any of them.
He found he also couldn't fault the resourceful portion of his mind when it informed that the girls phone was still quite close to hand…
Appreciative of as he was of the sight before him though the hessian had no intention of giving the bonemancer an opportunity to finish what she’d started just a few moments ago. However before he could properly summon his thoughts and take hold of the surrounding air, the shapely gamine abruptly stiffened, her eyes widening almost comically before a high pitched noise escaped her, one which sounded suspiciously like…
“Eeep!”[/color]
The girl then seemed to try and do several things instantaneously, one arm clumsily crossing her chest in a failed effort to protect her modesty, whilst her other hand grasped desperately at the sheets beneath her, even as she lurched backwards in panic and her legs flailed.
The end result of this was, in hindsight, somewhat predictable as the ingénue quickly lost her balance and toppled off the bed. There was a rather unhealthy sounding impact as she hit the floor head first but was prevented from falling completely due to one leg having become entangled in the sheets, leaving her in an awkward position for a handful of moments as she tried to drag the sheet down with her before the cheap material eventually tore and she fell into a crumpled, but partially covered, heap.
Silence then fell over the room, broken only by the faint panting of breath as both mutants began to regain their bearings. Zephyr for his part had no intention of being the first the tense quiescence; the adrenaline surge had gone a long way towards clearing his thoughts and he could recognize when a situation had gone too far. He therefore wisely kept his mouth shut and directed his attention elsewhere.
Elsewhere being the rather depressing pile of multicolored fabric sliding off the edge of the bed nearest Isabel. Zephyr sighed, he’d been hoping to make a peace offering out of the girl clothes, apparently that wouldn’t be an option. He thus turned his attention to plan B and started sending a message with Isabel’s phone.
Idly he wondered how long it would be before the girls shock gave way to anger.
This was officially the worst day of Isabel's life. Not only had she failed her attempted murder, but she had ended up in a position she'd never wanted to be in and with one of the worst possible people. She was certain she'd never live this down, even if it wasn't her fault. She might have prompted the defensive reaction, true, but the idiot didn't have to go a ghost her, too. It was also eerily familiar to a run-in with a certain clothes-stealing individual. She was just thankful a camera hadn't materialized out of thin air again.
The sheet turned out to be very little help. Rather than pulling it off the bed effectively, the damn thing just ripped and offered far less coverage than she found acceptable. If her mind wasn't in so much of a panicked blur of embarrassment, she might have been thankful that the young man hadn't wound up peering over the edge of the bed to assess the damage of the fall. Not that it would have done much to win her favor anyhow.
As her mind drifted back to the similarities between a past and present situation, she covered herself in much the same manor. A thick band of bone wound its way across her chest and a matching band snaked its way around her hips. At least this time she wasn't stuck conserving her abilities and could afford herself a little more coverage.
She didn't abandon the portion of the sheet she'd managed to claim even as she attempted to gain a little modesty back. The damn thing didn't want to come unwound from her ankle without the help of her hands, but she wasn't about to sit up and amend the situation, especially if it would potentially put her at eye level with the young man still on the bed. Instead she allowed the twisted fabric to drape where it may while pulling part of it up over her brilliantly scarlet face.
The mild throbbing in her head from before was now a full-blown headache thanks to the bump of the back of her skull that she'd received from the floor. At least she wasn't bleeding. Sitting up would probably just make it worse, adding another reason for her not to do it. Instead, the band across her chest sprouted two spines on either side of it that stuck straight up into the air. From there they flattened out and lengthened parallel to her body until they matched her height from head to toe, caught ankle included. The two sheets of bone anchored themselves to the floor, and part of it to the side of the bed, and bent inward to meet in the middle above her where the two sides fused together to create a sort of tent-like covering for her to hide beneath.
Taking care to keep the steel frame of the bed between himself and the flustered bonemancer’s newly erected tent, Zephyr allowed his eyes to roam the private room as he waited for the gamines phone to finish uploading it’s package.
In a manner akin with most hospital rooms the quarters were rather sparse. The walls, utterly lacking in windows, had been plastered with a dull off white colour where it hadn’t been covered cupboards, the odd abstract paintings or a solitary air vent. The floor consisted of linoleum which was standard for an area which would most likely be hosed down for disinfection. The lighting overhead was provided by cheap florescent bulbs which filled the air with a low but noticeable hum, only serving to draw attention to the fact that nothing beyond the room could be heard… and vice versa.
Still, just because no had heard the shapely soubrettes mortified shriek didn’t mean someone wouldn’t be by to check up on them eventually. If nothing else the IV which, until a few moments ago, had been supplying him with morphine would need to be changed or removed at some point and the last thing the situation needed was a new variable.
Fortunately though such a risk could be mitigated rather easily, it took no more than a brief focus of will and a slight gesture of the hessians free hand for the latch of the closed door slid into place with a dull ‘click’, thereby ensuring at least some further measure of privacy.
A faint vibration in his left hand brought Zephyr’s attention back to Isabel’s phone and ghe glanced down to see that the device had finally finished transferring the few photos he’d taken of the buxom brunettes when she’d still been gathering her wits. In truth the images were rather tame compared to some things one might find, but they still left rather little to the imagination and the elemental was rather counting on the fact that, if push came to shove, the mere threat of releasing the images would be enough to make Duskmoor behave for a least a short time.
Hopefully though, it wouldn’t come to that, as far as he knew the ingénue had no idea he’d taken the photo’s in the first place and the hessian had little intention of revealing them if he could avoid it. There was still a chance, albeit a small one, that he could perhaps reason with the girl and end this entire debacle if not on a positive note, then at least a neutral one.
He also wanted his trousers back.
And his wallet.
A few minutes later an old, but still rather serviceable woolen blanket had been removed from the upper shelves of the rooms sole cupboard and draped across the bonemancers tent. It was accompanied by a disembodied knocking caused by short, pressurized bursts of air hitting ossien structure in a staccato rhythm whilst Zephyr himself remained a few feet away with nothing but the bed to shield both himself and his modesty.
“While I do appreciate the quiet, you can come out; I’ve managed to find you a spare blanket.”
Much as it might be inconvenient the elemental recognized that his own state of undress would likely go some way towards deterring the soubrette from any immediate violence, and at present he wasn’t above taking what advantages he could get psychological or otherwise, and in any case he’d given the girl the only spare blanket.
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."
Isabel continued trying to will herself to die in the midst of her embarrassment while it sounded like Zephyr was busying himself moving about the room. She was also willing him to die, though her wishes upon him were far more brutally violent. If she managed to make it out of the room alive, she imagined she'd get the chance to make another attempt at his life eventually. She'd just have to figure out how to do it. She really didn't want to be disappearing again, especially if her clothes didn't come back with her. Maye next time he overexerted himself. He seemed awfully vulnerable to blackouts like that. Maybe he couldn't pull his little tricks while unconscious.
She was still pondering the gruesome possibilities that could be open to her in such a situation when a muffled whump sounded against her enclosure. The sheet she'd been holding over her face slid down just far enough to expose her eyes as she peeked at the roof of the tent-like creation, as if she'd be able to see whatever it was that had interrupted her pleasant thoughts by doing so. It didn't sound heavy enough to be any part of a body. What on earth was that jackass doing out there?
A sharp knock followed closely behind the previous sound. He couldn't possibly be stupid enough to get that close to her could he? Was he honestly lacking so much in wits that he'd so carelessly intrude upon her space? He had been making some outrageous suggestions prior to her attempt at murdering him, but that wasn't exactly different from how he'd been speaking to her throughout their partnership.
The muffle voice that addressed her didn't sound very close when she thought about it, though it was no less irritating for it. She hadn't heard him doing any moving after the knock. Maybe it was another one of the tricks he could pull with his mutation. Figures. At least it solved the mystery of the whump. She did have to wonder at the reasoning behind his rather generous gesture. He'd never really come across as the generous sort.
She opened up a small hole in the top of her makeshift tent to see if he was being truthful in his statement, and as it turned out, he had indeed dropped something that looked like a blanket on top of her small shelter. The top of the tent split down it's length, allowing her to reach up and drag the old wool blanket into the tent. It was somewhat worn and smelled kind of musty, but it was a lot better than the torn sheet she had only managed to partially cover herself with.
In order to wrap the thing around her, she'd need to at least sit up, meaning she had to readjust the little fort she'd shut herself into. The top of the bone structure remained split and the two separate sheets extended upward, allowing her to remain hidden from sight as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, finally freeing her ankle in the process.
Detangling herself from the ruined sheet and pushing it to the far corner of her shelter, she quickly wound the worn blanket around her body, the twin bands of bone remaining in place beneath it. Two small hooks protruded from the top band and clamped onto the edge of the blanket, allowing her to keep herself covered without relying on her hands to hold the thing in place. She'd need them if she decided she couldn't wait to make another homicidal attack on the young man.
"I'm not coming out. You can go to Hell," she spat, refusing to move any further than she already had. There was no reason to be civil just because he'd made one polite gesture. She wasn't exactly excited about the fact that she'd have to walk past not only him, but the medical staff and other Sanctuary residents to get back to her room, either.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
Zephyr withheld a sigh as he watched Duskmoor continue her surprisingly diffident behavior; snatching his latest peace offering back behind her ivory walls without and adamantly declaring she had no intention of moving. Truth be told it was like dealing with a twelve year old, granted it would be a rather well developed and appealing twelve, but she was still being stubborn and jejune enough for the analogy to hold weight.
In all honesty he didn’t even know why the soubrette insisted on making such a fuss. From what his spatial awareness could discern, she managed to make herself a form of ad hoc clothing by using her mutation to wrap a visible layer of bone around her hips and bust. That, in addition to the blanket he’d given her meant that the girl was essentially decent, if not precisely fashionable.
Sadly when he tried to raise a similar point with Isabel herself, the gamine failed to take it well, uttering an oddly short list of repetitive curses before their discussion seemed to hit an impasse with Zephyr insisting that the gamine couldn’t hide forever and to which she simply responded with variants of “Watch me.”
After a few trying minutes, during which Isabel refused to be persuaded and became increasingly jejune, Zephyr finally found his own already strained patience beginning to fray as his own temper began to rise to the fore. He’d been willing to extend something of an olive branch to Duskmoor in order to keep a profitable if tenuous partnership, but there was no way in hell he was going to apologize for ending the brunettes petty little tantrum. He wasn’t going to cater to her spoiled whims, if she wanted to continue acting like a child he’d simply treat her as one.
“You’re trying my patience Duskmoor.” His words were low and carried more than a faint note of ire as he began to silently spread his influence through the surrounding air towards the girls contrived fort.
“Either come out and act like an adult or I’ll treat you as the child you seem to want to be.”
He was going to put an end to this, one way, or another.
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."
What the hell was so damn difficult about grasping the concept that Isabel did not want to leave the confines of her shelter at the present time? She especially didn't want to climb out from behind her erected walls while he was still in the room. She couldn't have cared less if he waltzed himself out of the room in whatever state of undress he might be in, but she wasn't going to join him, nor was she going to precede him and potentially allow him to make any kind of comments while he trailed behind her.
She stubbornly refused to be persuaded, even while his attempts were surprisingly rather polite. Or at least, they sounded somewhat polite. He could easily have been mocking her some more. She wouldn't put it past him to do so. The fact that he seemed to enjoy how red her face got at any given time didn't do anything to coax her out of hiding, either. She was sure her coloration could have rivaled that of the Abyssi at the moment and she didn't want to allow him the chance to point it out.
She did notice that his coaxing grew gradually gruffer as the minutes ticked by, not that she particularly cared. It was about time he got upset about something instead of responding to her in that infuriatingly smug way he always did. It hadn't exactly been a pleasant day for her, and she felt no sympathy for his efforts.
Her own voice had just gotten louder in her protests against his persuasions. He wasn't getting the message, so he must have been dim or hard of hearing. Shouting was the best option she could see while she was cursing. It probably wouldn't be long before someone came knocking on the door to see if everything was alright. Isabel's reputation was well-known in the Infirmary and most of the staff wouldn't appreciate her killing someone that they'd just patched up not too long ago. Their interference was just one more reason to stay put.
"I'm not a child! Leave me alone!" she shouted. She was angry and embarrassed There was a difference! She'd like to see him act any differently if he were in her position. Well, technically they were actually in a very similar position, but in one where he turned out to be flustered and embarrassed, she was sure he'd act a little less than maturely himself.
Treating her like a child was only mildly worrying. Verbally scolding her was pretty close to childish treatment, but she didn't want him trying to get any closer to more effectively do whatever it was he was thinking of. The tent she'd erected covered itself in little spikes as she sat within, sulking. And just in case that visual wasn't enough, she'd give him another.
One hand poked up over the top of the enclosure and she offered him a one-fingered salute.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
One of the reasons Isabel was able to live as she did was because her mutation rendered her almost untouchable. However, Zephyr had noticed that, unlike certain facets of his own mutation which were always active, the soubrette had to consciously keep hers working and only did so when she felt there was a genuine threat.
In short, this meant that not only could the brunette be taken by surprise, but if she were kept from gathering wits then she was just as vulnerable as any other girl her age.
At least, that was the theory, and while Isabel’s immediate reaction to her sudden disrobing lent the idea a certain amount of weight it by no means confirmed anything. With that being said though, the rather rough plan the elemental had in mind only needed the soubrette off balance for a few seconds, just long enough to prove his point. After that well… he’d deal with that when he had to.
"I'm not a child! Leave me alone!"[/color] The words were quickly accompanied by an abrupt lancing movement as the ingenue brought her mutation to bear and a mass of ivory thorns sprouted across her improvised barrier in the blink of an eye.
It was actually a minor, yet impressive display of control, to consciously generate what had to have been at least 300 individual spikes and force all them into being simultaneously wasn’t a small thing. Most minds had difficulty tracking just five variables concurrently. Notable though the action was, it was rendered quite futile the moment Isabel foolishly raised her arm.
The instant the offending limb came into view Zephyr seized it; making a fist with one hand he crushed the air around the gamines hand and turned it into solid vice with nearly enough strength to crack her wrist.
Once he had a good grip it was simply a matter of strength, and even in his present condition strength was one thing his mutation had in abundance. Wrenching his closed fist upwards, back towards him and then down, the shackle of air mirrored the elementals movements. Isabel was abruptly hauled up into the air by her captured arm, her blanket tearing away in the process as it caught on the freshly made thorns, which seemed to otherwise leave her alone.
As soon as her shoulders and most of her torso rose above the top wall of her enclosure her arm suddenly jerked towards the front of the room and then down, leaving the brunette almost horizontal for a split second before gravity took hold and she fell non too softly atop her own barrier.
The end result left Isabel draped over her own wall, forced to bend over at the waist and pinned there by her captured arm, leaving her long auburn hair to fall over her crimson features, revealing the pale skin of her back and just a hint of her lower callipygian figure before it was masked from view by the thin band of bone which snaked around her hips like an ivory miniskirt.
It should be noted however that this lower band did not behave like cloth and as such rather failed to follow the contours of Isabel’s body. Thus, while it would have served its purpose had she been standing or even sitting, her current position left her lower half… framed, instead of covered.
This meant that there was nothing shielding the shapely soubrette’s derriere when hardened slices of wind began to audibly slap across it, each one drawing a short shriek of surprise and pain from the girls lips in time with the sharp decisive motions of Zephyr’s remaining free hand.
One, twice, three times.
In the new and strained quiet which fell in the wake of Isabel’s last wail Zephyr took a deep breath and allowed himself to rest nonchalantly against the front wall of the room in an effort to mask the sudden wave of weariness his powers had cost him. He wasn’t about to let Duskmoor think it was beyond him to ‘discipline’ her a second or even third time.
“Shall I keep going?” He asked with the same note of ire as earlier. “I can keep this up all day.”
Zephyr's abilities probably should have come to mind when he'd threatened to begin treating her as she was acting in his opinion. It hadn't occurred to her that the young man could do anything to her without physically touching her. Isabel had been much too busy engaging in a shouting match and had apparently been getting far too used to his exhausted state to realize that he might actually be able to back up his threats in a rather unconventional way. That was a mistake on her part.
She'd been just about to retract her arm once she was satisfied that her insult have probably gotten across when a rather harsh grip encircled her wrist, eliciting a squeak of alarm from her. She tried to wrench her wrist back, but there was no hand to wrench it from, and with such a painful grip, there was little she could do. Not that she had a whole lot of time to try and think something up anyway.
Without any further warning she was hoisted rather painfully by the arm up through the gap she'd created in her shelter and then promptly dragged over the side and left to hang over the edge by her waist, her wool covering stripped off in the process. Her free hand pressed against the side of her enclosure as she attempted to prevent herself from sliding any further down and to gain some leverage so she could tip herself upright once more. However, the grip on her other wrist remained so firm and her arm was pulled tight enough that she couldn't get very far.
A loud squeal was given in the next moment when a sharp pressure struck across her derriere. Not only did it sting painfully, but it further hampered her attempts to right herself, as the force of the blow seemed to be trying to tip her further forward.
Not once, but thrice she was struck in such a manner, a sound of pained protest accompanying each. Her temper would have boiled over into a murderous rage if she hadn't been so damned surprised. She'd never been treated in such a manner. Never. No one would have dared. She doubted anyone had ever even thought of such a thing before.
She was beyond humiliated and the nonchalant pose she glimpsed him falling into as she was finally allowed to right herself made her question whether retribution was such a good idea. Maybe he really could keep tormenting her like he claimed. Maybe whatever the healers had fixed and administered had finally kicked in and he was feeling well enough to at least keep his shenanigans going without blacking out as he had before. She really wanted to get back at him, but she actually might die of embarrassment if she ended up miscalculating yet again.
So instead she sat herself on the bed, the sheet of bone dissolving as she walked through it. She sat with her back turned to the young man, his state of undress not having gone unnoticed by her while she had been correcting her posture. She definitely did not want to be looking in his direction when he was in such a state. Not that she'd really want to look at him anyway with how upset she was at him.
"I hate you." She crossed her arms and fell into a deep sulk. She didn't want to move any further. He'd gotten her out of her tent. He should be satisfied now.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
With complete disregard for his current state of dress Zephyr silently stared Isabel down as he released his hold on the girl, breathing an inaudible sigh of relief as the humiliated soubrette resolutely refused to meet his gaze. Keeping her head low and her shoulders hunched as the bone partition she’d been bent over slowly dissolved, lowering the gamine to floor and allowing her to get her hands and knees before she pulled herself somewhat awkwardly onto the bed where she sullenly turned her back on him and crossed her arms beneath her chest.
“I hate you”
The breath of relief which had escaped the elemental became a resigned and irritated sigh the moment the words reached him. He could all but see the pout on her lips just from the tone she’d used. The girl was actually sulking, sulking after having what was possibly the first spanking of her life. A small part of him was simply incredulous even in spite of all he’d seen; after all she was an adult for pity’s sake, easily in her early twenties and yet she was acting as though she were only in her early teens.
The more rational part of the hessian however soon reminded him that while Isabel Duskmoor may indeed be a grown woman, she had never actually grown up.
It was about time that changed.
“No.” He stated simply, his voice cold and stern. “You just hate not having your way; you’ve become far too use to always getting what you want. Part of life is learning how to deal with disappointment, and from what I’ve seen you are in sore need of a teacher.”
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."
Isabel was trying very, very hard to ignore Zephyr as she sulked on the edge of the stiff mattress. She'd heard chiding tones plenty of times before, though usually they were in a much more comfortable environment, and thus were easier to ignore. She could try to drown out the young man, but that left her to pay attention to the burning heat in her face and the slightest chill crawling up her spine, neither of which were any more pleasant than the scolding she received.
She huffed and kicked a foot out, forcing a small portion of her former enclosure to shatter when she came in contact with it. It was about as close to breaking his nose as she was willing to bet she'd manage. She didn't care what he thought of her. Not one bit. He could hum and haw all he wanted about how he disapproved of her personality quirks and she certainly wasn't going to lose any sleep over it. It was his idea to drag her out in the first place, so if he didn't like the way she acted, he could just stop requesting her assistance.
In fact, maybe she should make that fact perfectly clear. He did seem to be a bit slow on the uptake when it came to heeding her demands. That was definitely something on the top of the list about why he was such a huge pain in the arse. She almost turned to glare at him while she told him to beat it, but remembered at the last moment why she'd turned her back in the first place. It was very likely the he was still entirely indecent.
"No, it's you. I hate you. Always telling me what to do. Always telling me what I'm doing wrong. You don't like the way I handle things? Then stop calling me for help. I do things my way and some guy with money to burn that doesn't like it isn't going to make me do things any differently. I already told you, you go to hell and leave me alone."
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
Zephyr’s expression clouded in annoyance as he listened to his companions jejune retort and saw her foot lash out in impotent anger towards the remnants of her bone walls. A part of the elemental was simply amazed that the girl could be this dimwitted or, possibly stubborn, after what she’d just been through. The brunette had to have realized she was in no position to argue yet that was exactly what she was doing and the behavior frustrated the hessian to no end.
As it was there were only two things preventing the elemental from bending the shapely soubrette over the bed and repeating the lesson he’d just given her. The first being that he was still, in a manner of speaking, getting his breath back and likely wouldn’t be able to hold the gamine down for more than a few moments without obvious effort and would thus rather undermine his small psychological advantage. The second was that, without the element of surprise he doubted the same trick would work Isabel again so soon.
He’d simply have to be creative.
Allowing his gaze to rove over the soubrettes hunched form the elementals azure eyes finally settled on her head before he spoke in a cold and distant voice. “You don’t seem to realize the kind of position you’re in Duskmoor, so allow me to spell it out for you.”
Keeping his arms folded, and thus his hands hidden from view, Zephyr made a pinching motion with the fingers of his right hand and compressed a patch of air surrounding the soubrettes left ear. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have needed to rely on such gestures but, in his current state, he needed the extra focus to ensure he merely pinched and didn’t pierce as he slowly pulled the girls ear upwards until the pain forced to her knees on top of the bed.
“You cannot bully me, you cannot threaten me, and we’ve seen what happens when you try to hurt me. In short you are in no position to argue, and if you continue to act like a spoiled child then I will take… measures.”
As his words trailed away a slight but noticeable breeze wound its way across Isabel’s neck, drawing a short and startled cough from the girl as a tiny but noticeable patch of air within her throat froze and hindered her breathing ever so slightly. The breeze then snaked down the shapely soubrette’s chest and torso, dragging the tiny frozen patch of air with it; highlighting precisely how vulnerable the gamine was until the solid speck of air vanished in the pit of her lungs.
The whispering breeze however merely drifted lower, reaching the band of bone which wrapped the brunettes hips, circling it once and drawing the slightest twitch from the girl before the wind finally dissipated, though the hold on her ear remained.
“If you wish to avoid that however, I suggest that you ask me politely to let you go, and in case you’ve forgotten, that normally requires the word ‘please’”
Zephyr was a cheater. A dirty rotten cheater. One of the main reasons Isabel was able to throw her weight around and use her mutation to get whatever she wanted was the fact that most people were unable to physically prevent her from doing so. Anyone that attempted to lay hands on her immediately regretted it. She even had some longer-range capabilities that kept others at bay. Her current annoyance, however, seemed to be the exception. There was very little she could do against a mutation that dealt with air. Air wasn't something she could effectively impale.
She'd barely been given enough time to protest the use of her hated last name when she was forcibly brought to her knees on the sparse bed by a sharp pain in her ear. He was treating her like a child yet again using one of the oldest parenting ticks in the book. It wouldn't have been nearly so bad if he hadn't taken it further.
The breath catching in her throat was an unpleasant reminder of their first meeting where she'd been forced to halt her assault on the young man through a similar method. Though this time it was more of a warning than an actual attack. He wasn't trying to choke her into unconsciousness like the first time, just prove a point. Somehow she clearly heard every word he said even as she was sputtering, the cold air sliding through her lungs making breathing rather uncomfortable even as the obstruction in her throat was removed.
And then he took it even further, the cold air snaking over her skin and caressing places that no one had ever been allowed to reach. Goosebumps sprouted over he skin and she couldn't repress the repulsed shudder that ran up her spine. It seemed as if she'd finally hit a nerve.
Under different circumstances she might have been pleased with herself for finally pushing him so far. He was usually the one irritating her with his little quips and smug expressions. Normally it would have been nice to finally ruin his resolve and cause him to lose his temper. However, she'd never quite imagined that his temper could be as scary as her own.
Scary was a word she was always reluctant to attach to anything. She was a killer and she wasn't supposed to be afraid of anything. Others were supposed to be afraid of her and do whatever she wanted because of that fear. It wasn't supposed to work the other way around. Isabel was afraid of very, very few things and she was loathe to admit that Zephyr may have made the list.
Of course she'd never admit such a thing out loud. That was absurd. But in her personal thoughts, that unsettling realization would still be there. The young man could apparently inspire fear in just the right way if he really wanted to, and she wasn't willing to find out if he was bluffing or not.
"Put me down! Right now!" she shouted, trying very hard not to let her current position inspire a panic attack. "Please." she added rather sarcastically.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
Despite the poorly chosen cadence, the moment the magic word left Isabel’s lips the painful pressure on her ear vanished, allowing the brunette to collapse onto the bed as she tried to steady her slightly shaking breath. Although he couldn’t be certain since her back was to him, Zephyr was fairly sure he’d managed to incite a spark of fear in the girl given that her lungs had all but stopped when the air had begun to caress her lower body.
Fear wasn’t the elemental’s preferred tool; unless it was taken to extremes having people fear you only meant they were constantly on their guard. The hessian would much rather reason his way out of an argument and thus be underestimated in the future, rather than showing someone what he was capable of and leaving them alive to talk. Unfortunately though Isabel couldn’t be reasoned with; the only thing the brunette respected was brute force and so that was exactly what he’d given her, along with the threat of something worse.
So she’d been cowed, how long that would last however was not something the elemental cared to speculate on. Still he’d managed to make the girl comply, if unwillingly, and it was a step in the right direction. He could build on that, and as his eyes once more trailed over her appealingly bare skin, he knew precisely what his next step needed to be.
“There, was that so hard?” His words were calm now, not warm by any means but certainly not as cold as they had been and they were in no way mocking. “Now that we’ve established you know how, I will get you some of your own clothing, if you ask me politely, and promise to make an effort to be polite in future.”
Isabel rubbed at her sore ear when she was finally released, sulking all the while yet again. She hated being told what do and she hated it even more when she had to listen. She'd tried to refuse this time and it had just bitten her in the rear. Hard. She really did hate Zephyr. So very, very much.
She only huffed when he spoke to her again. Voicing her rather impolite thoughts would probably just get her into another position she wouldn't like. She'd had enough humiliation to last her through the rest of the year already. As it was it'd probably take hours for her face to regain its natural tone. It might take even longer before she would be able to keep from blushing any time she dealt with the young man after this particular encounter.
Apparently this whole polite thing wasn't going to go away, either. Her irritation over that somewhat diluted the surprise she felt over his offer to fetch some clothing for her. She hadn't expected such an offer and couldn't help but feel somewhat suspicious of it. He'd offered her clothing at the beginning of their day already and the outfit had been far from appealing or appreciated. But considering his own state of undress, maybe he was being sincere. He'd have to find something for himself as well, after all.
"Fine," she spat, eager to regain some sense of modesty once again, but not at all pleased that she had to use her manners in order to achieve it. She was even less enthused about his expectation of a promise. She had never gotten into the habit of making promises and hadn't planned on doing so any time soon.
"Please find me some clothes and I'll try to be more polite." That was as much as she was willing to give him. She could always try and fail if she wanted and no one could say she'd broken any sort of stupid promise.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.