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.
Lenna got to work the next day with a headache like a gun barrel. Every step she took made the whole world spin like a Russian roulette. Her hands slipped past the boards, grip tightening on the hammer. Vision blurred. Her head throbbed. The aftermath was making it hard to work. Gripping the planks and hammering nails was more difficult than talking about the weather now, but hell. She brushed back the brown hair plastered to her brow. It had been worth it getting drunk off her ass. She’d needed the outlet for her steam. A night of drinking with the giant had been well worth the price of pain. And all that talk, all the knocking fists and slamming down drinks, had given her a chance to recoup her confidence and get a grip on the situation.
She was a slave. Forced to come when called and do tricks on command. Cortez had her in a noose, and he could kick the chair out from under her feet at any moment to let the rope close in. Life was shit. This whole ‘information-gathering’ quest was trash, and she wasn’t suited for spy-work. Infiltration and elimination were her fortes. This was just… ill-placed…But still… She closed her eyes in a millisecond of meditation as she placed both palms down on the wood. For all the fire and brimstone igniting around her, she still had the freedom to relax amid the work. And maybe it wasn’t so bad working as a spy when considering the alternatives.
The hammer came down sideways on a nail as she worked away at one of the projects a contractor had sent her to do. The frame was up. Now they were fastening boards. Safer than cutting wood. Lenna wouldn't have survived working a band saw now, with the whole world shaking like the vibrations of a gong. She took in a calming breath and counted to ten. This was fine, really. All she had to do was find out what made the good Samaritan special, outside of being so damn nice all the time.
Mornings sucked. At least Tarin was there so Lee was able to get up and moving in the morning, but it was hot, and it was dirty, and it was sweaty, and despite the fact that Tarin was there with her in Columbia, mornings still sucked.
Apparently, the contractors had gotten the main frame for the building done, and now wanted the helpers to help with nailing up the boards that would become the walls.
She'd only been working for an hour so far, and already Lee was sure she had pounded in more nails in that single hour than she had in the whole rest of her life combined. Needless to say, she was sure she was going to be sore when she woke up the next day, and that would only make the next morning even worse than this one was.
But, Lee finally finished the section she had been working on, and rounded a partially completed corner to see a slightly familiar figure also hammering away at the boards.
"So, you came back for another day of punishment, did you?" Lee asked, deciding to take a bit of a break. "I thought one day might have been enough before you headed back to that boss of yours."
And, speaking of breaks, where was that husband of hers? She was still tired and needed a pick-me-up, preferably in the form of a kiss.
Posted by Tarin Brooks on Jun 17, 2009 21:56:44 GMT -6
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The longer he was in Colombia, the more Tarin felt like he was really doing a good thing. Getting rid of the spirits and helping them go on to wherever it was that spirits went when they went away had felt great in the first few days. So had everything else, well aside from the whole almost dying thing…and now he and Lee were going to be involved in something big. Something that was actually going to change the world…one hammer strike at a time.
The rebuilding had really picked up once the lumber had gotten there. The frame for the entire school had gone up in a matter of days and now they were just trying to put up the planks that made up the walls. Tarin had moved around the work site for the first part of the morning, helping out where needed, and now he was taking a break and looking for Lee.
The mornings were slow for her here like they were back home, and they were expected to be moving a little more quickly here. And it was hot. Tarin wandered now, checking from work station to work station, trying to find his wife. At first, the search was fruitless and Tarin started to get a little worried. They’d talked about this, Lee wasn’t going to go on any walks without him, no matter how amped up she felt, or how tired he was.
He rounded the final side of the building and finally found the familiar form of his wife and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and planting a kiss on her cheek.
“Here I am, working my poor fingers to the bone and I take a break to check up on my wife...and find her simply lounging in the sun.” He grinned at his own cleverness and kissed her again, this time on the neck. It was obvious by how damp she was that Lee had been doing anything but lounging.
“I’m just kidding…how’s the nail pounding going on this side?” Tarin looked up, eyes finally falling on the woman who Lee had apparently been talking to when he walked up, “Hi there.” He said with a smile, “I’m Tarin.”
"So, you came back for another day of punishment, did you?" Lee asked, deciding to take a bit of a break. "I thought one day might have been enough before you headed back to that boss of yours."
"Yeah, well I'm more interested in helping this project to completion than I am in going back to him. And he's certainly not reprimanding me for the initiative." Lenna replied curtly but with a smile. She tore the bent nail out with the teeth of the hammer, and set a second nail in place over the hole. Her tongue jutted out from the side of her mouth as she focused on the swing and drove that sucker home. Hands dropped down to grab another nail, balancing it between index and middle digit. The nail moved to a lower point on the board, lining up for another whack."I see you're still braving the heat as well." As she looked over her shoulder, Lenna caught Tarin's stealthy slip of a hug. It seemed the woman had some heat of her own. Lenna's hammer dropped a half-inch as she returned her focus to the nail.
“Hi there.” The brown-haired man said with a smile, “I’m Tarin.”
"Nice meeting you," Lenna replied, back turned to the couple. The head of the nail dug into the board slowly, keeping pace with her even tone. "Work's going fine over here. Nearly-finished. I was just going to see if anyone else needed help. My name's Eliana, by the way." She glanced over her shoulder to smile at the two. "Some call me Lee for short, but we can dodge that today."
So they were a couple? Already, Lenna was making connections in her mind. One out-of-place worker on-site was a coincidence, but two? Maybe odds were getting better that they were somehow connected with the object of Cortez's attention... and maybe he'd be a bit easier to chip information out of. Less suspicious of her, more like a rock. And the fact that they were together? In lesser gunners for hire, that'd set off bells, but muttering Oh, exploitable just didn't feel right here.
Her hands wrapped around another board on the ground, and Lenna lugged it up onto the wall. One hand pressed down to keep it in place. A nail sat between the place-holding fingers.
She drove it in.
"Come to think of it." Her hand hesitated as she dropped down for the box of nails. "Maybe a break's just what I need..."
The sun was hot, she was still a bit hungover, and maybe a little sit-down would help. Yes. She finished setting the board in place, then clapped her hands. A little rest was a wonderful idea.
Almost as if her thoughts had summoned him, Tarin suddenly appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and planting a kiss on her cheek. That was so much more like it. Not only was it simply enjoyable to feel Tarin's arms wrapped around her like that, even with this heat, and feeling his lips pressing against her cheek, the contact gave her energy which made it much easier to get through the day.
But then he spoke, and Lee rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see it with how he was standing behind her. "Well, I've got to work on my tan sometime, don't I?" She asked, then shivered slightly as she felt his lips pressing against her neck. Yeah, even in the heat of Columbia, Tarin could still make Lee shiver.
And only then did Tarin seem to realize that they weren't alone, and introduced himself to the other Lee. Who in turn introduced herself as Eliana, though often shortened as Lee.
That caused Lee to raise an eyebrow as she looked across at the other woman; very little that she had said caused the slight suspicion Lee had to disappear; even as she suspicion was leaving, the woman would say something else to cause it to spring back up again.
"That would have made things a lot easier yesterday," Lee pointed out. Yesterday, this other woman had been 'Lee Smith', a rather common name, though quite odd to come across down here in Columbia. And now all of a sudden she was introducing herself with another name?
Though, Lee thought, maybe after that attack where they had tortured Tarin, she was simply being too suspicious. She technically did have another name that she could be called, since her full name was technically Emily.
But the other woman agreed that a break did sound good, so Lee simply nodded. "How 'bout we go find something to drink?" She suggested. "I'm still not used to all this heat."
Posted by Tarin Brooks on Jun 23, 2009 19:57:47 GMT -6
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Jun 17, 2024 22:22:43 GMT -6
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“Mmm…you don’t need a tan.” Tarin said, continuing his mild assault on Lee’s neck, “I like the color that your skin is.” She shivered and he decided that he should probably stop before they’d grossed out Lee’s work-mate to a point that she moved somewhere else and Lee had all this work to do on her own.
The new person was slightly less than talkative and seemed far more interested in pounding her nails into the board than stopping to have a chat. Tarin had to admire that tenacity, but wonder exactly why it was…the woman gave her name and Tarin nodded slowly. This was the woman that Lee had told him about the night before. The one that she’d felt so suspicious of the night before.
“I’m going to stick with Elaina if you don’t mind.” Tarin said conversationally, trying to take in what he could of the woman and raising an eyebrow from behind Lee’s back when she pointed out how much easier that might have been the day before. It was strange that the woman hadn’t mentioned having a full name when the two of them had struggled the day before. Tarin wasn’t quite ready to write her off as a spy for the bad guy, no matter how much it had hurt for that man shove a knife into his shoulder…twice. Tarin shuddered at the memory, but shook it off as Elaina finally looked away from the boards and commented that maybe a break was exactly what she needed.
Lee seemed to be cool with the idea, and Tarin reluctantly removed his arms from around her waist. It was really hard to walk that way. “I think they’ve got something of a rest station off that way.” Tarin said, gesturing with a hand in the direction he’d seen the tent set up. “I think I made friends with the foreman today too, so we shouldn’t get yelled at for a good ten minutes.”
>>"That would have made things a lot easier yesterday," Lee pointed out.
“Sorry,” Lenna set her hammer down and responded to the comment on the name. She shook her head and wiped her brow. “In my haste yesterday, I just sort of forgot. It’s so much more formal than what I go by usually… kind of like calling someone by their full name, you know?” They couldn’t fault her for faulty memory, could they? She was benching on it. “Not that there’s anything wrong with you using it. A rose by any other name?” She slipped out of Spanish and into English for the verse, then back into Spanish. “What’s in a name, anyways? I was reading this philosophy book the other day, and…”
She bent over to snag a lunch tin that was propped a few feet away from her against the wall. It was gray, slightly dented, and looked the part of something construction workers usually used. She cradled it under one arm and started past them towards the rest tent, glancing back to finish her thought. “They have a lot to say on how we make our own meanings in life.” Hmph. She put a hand on her hip and mused at the sky with a wide smile. “I suppose that’s why I find this work so rewarding. I’m doing my part to help my home, yeah. But there’s something beyond that that hearkens to the very nature of the act. It’s hard to describe, but…” She smiled at Tarin and Lee. “You ever feel the same?”
All this chipper was giving her a headache. Still, there were some truths in her words.
Well then...She did seem to have a half decent explanation as to why she hadn't given her name as Eliana the previous day. There were times now when she herself actually managed to forget that her actual name was Emily, not just Lee.
Plus, Tarin wasn't seeming to be all that suspicious at the moment. She was probably just over reacting, Lee decided. They had been through quite a bit in the last few days, and she was still at least slightly on edge. It wasn't all that surprising, really, that she was jumping to conclusions like this.
But then Eliana finally decided that she was ready for a break, too. Unfortunately, that meant that Tarin felt it necessary for him to stop hugging her like he had been. So, while he explained that he had seen a tent which he thought was some sort of rest station, Lee grabbed Tarin's hand as he moved to step beside her.
An actual rest like that, with shade and water, sounded really good about then, Lee thought as she stood there. And then Tarin commented how he thought he'd made friends with the foreman today, so they shouldn't get yelled at for a good ten minutes.
"Really?" Lee asked, turning a happy smile over to Tarin. "That's the best news I've heard all day! But come on, I'm thirsty." With that, Lee tugged on Tarin's hand as she started walking off in the direction he had pointed the rest tent as being in.
Posted by Tarin Brooks on Jul 13, 2009 0:42:48 GMT -6
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Jun 17, 2024 22:22:43 GMT -6
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Eliana explained her reasons for not giving her name the day before, Tarin listened to what she said with half an ear, most of his attention still focused on Lee. It was so damn hot in Colombia. The last thing he really wanted to be doing was playing Extreme Makeover: Third World School Edition. In this heat, he wanted nothing more than to be chilling out in the little living space he and Lee had been given. Chilling in there with as little clothing as possible.
The girl switched back and forth between English and Spanish and Tarin’s brain struggled just a little bit to keep up with the conversation. The jewel thing that Slate had given him worked wonders, but it was still slightly confusing when locals switched back and forth without warning. She was quoting Shakespeare, she made a good point, though. If a person was used to being called by a nickname, it was strange to go by anything else. Tarin looked at Lee, as far as he knew, the first time he’d ever even called her Emily was when she was refusing to let Slate heal her. He could understand Eliana not giving her full name.
The woman was picking up her lunch pail now, and talking about a philosophy book she’d read as the small group made their way to the rest tent. Then she launched into a description of why she found the work rewarding. Apparently the girl liked feeling like she was doing something for her native country, but something better. She phrased the last part of her statement as a question and Tarin nodded his head.
“Changing things, fundamentally. Changing the world, one school building at a time if necessary.” He said with a shrug as explanation. “You have to start somewhere.”
Lee was thrilled about the prospect of a rest tent, and Tarin’s emerging friendship with the build site foreman. Pulling on Lee’s hand to bring her back to him, Tarin slipped an arm around her waist and smiled, “Maybe we can go visit Slate while we’re on our break and take the afternoon off.” Tarin kind of liked the idea, they’d been working pretty much non-stop since ponytail and his guys had been neutralized. Surely the boss wouldn’t mind them taking a few hours.
They were at the break tent though, and Tarin let the ladies in first, following behind them into the relative shade and cool of the tent. There were mostly foremen and contractors in here, and while some gave Tarin and his guests looks with raised eyebrows, most of them nodded to him as they made their way to where the ice water was.
“See.” He said with a grin towards the two women, “I told you I’d gotten in good with them. I guess we’re VIP’s now.”
>>“Changing things, fundamentally. Changing the world, one school building at a time if necessary.” Tarin said with a shrug as explanation. “You have to start somewhere.”
Lenna smiled back at him. “Indeed. I’m glad someone had the nerve to start here.”
And then he mentioned Slate, and her concentration on the conversation zoomed in imperceptibly. She kept walking, kept her cool, but the alarms were sounding. Her hunch had been correct? They were connected? Then again, maybe it was like asking the big boss on-site for a moment’s reprieve. Slate was the big bad philanthropist supporting all this, after all. Maybe he was kind enough to give those that asked or volunteered much-needed breaks. Nothing about her facial expression gave her away. This was their conversation. She was just a spectator today, acting as a set of ears on the sidelines for those that wanted to hear. She pushed through the opening of the tent, holding her lunchbox with an ardor that belied its utmost momentary importance.
“Yeah,” Lenna replied with a smirk as they stalked through the shade of the tent. “Like royalty. If only yesterday had been like this. I had to eat my empanada on the dirt by a tree. Still good, but this… just seems so much more comfortable.” She finished as her eyes fell on the water cooler. It blurbled magnificently as she pulled up a chair.
The lunch box clanged as she flipped the lid open, and pulled out a wrapped package full of small rounded pastries. She tore off the paper and took a bite of the first one. The taste of salami , tomatoes and mozzarella lit up her neural network as she chewed with delight. So good. "Totally worth it. She shook her head.
Lee had already been walking toward the rest tent when she felt Tarin tugging on her hand, pulling her back ever so slightly. And then she felt his arm around he waist. It really was too hot for this kind of close contact, but at the same time Lee didn't really care; her husband was sexy, and Lee enjoyed him touching her, even just like this, much more than the heat was making things uncomfortable.
It really didn't take long to get to the tent, and while the men in there did give them some strange looks, they didn't say anything as they made their way over to the water. Grabbing herself a cup, Lee took a sip of the cold liquid, then turned to smile at Tarin. "You did really good, getting in here," she told him softly, leaning in to kiss him quickly before stepping back. While the foremen who were in the tent with them might be tolerant right now, that attitude would probably change rather quickly if they let themselves get out of hand.
As she drank, Lee watched Eliana sit and open her lunch box. Huh. Food did sound like a good idea too, now that she was watching someone eating. "Yeah, we probably should find Slate," Lee commented with a slight nod. "We should see if we can find some lunch too, while we're at it."
Then Lee took a deep breath and turned to refill her cup. "But later. Shade and water first."
Posted by Tarin Brooks on Aug 1, 2009 14:41:22 GMT -6
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Both of the ladies appeared pleased with the change in scenery. Tarin thought again how much cooler it was in Colombia when one was out of the direct line of the sun. There was even a water cooler in this place, and after Lee and Eliana had gotten drinks, Tarin helped himself. The Colombian woman commented that she was glad someone had the nerve to start where they were. Tarin shrugged.
“It’s for the kids, right?” he said, trying not to drink the water too fast, “And now we can only hope that the building doesn’t get torn down again.” Tarin was careful, careful of lots of things. First, he was careful not to mention the fact that Slate was well on his way to making sure that exact thing didn’t happen. He was careful not to even suggest that such a thing was a possibility. That was the type of thing that brought ponytail men down on the workers. Each with the same patient smile and sharp knives as the one that Tarin had met.
Eliana was appreciative, speaking about her lunch under a tree the day before. Lee kissed him and Tarin snapped out of the dark thoughts that had suddenly beset him, smiling as he kissed her back and bathing in Lee’s approval of his actions. The idea was good too, the one that involved talking to Slate and getting the afternoon off. Tarin grinned, as much as he loved the farmer’s tan he was getting from the scalding Colombian sun, some inside time with Lee would be vastly preferable to another afternoon of pounding nails.
The others in the tent kept casting strange glances in the trio’s direction, but none of them said a word. Tarin figured it was because anyone with the balls to walk into this place obviously belonged there. Tarin kind of hated that, but it was the sort of attitude that you couldn’t change overnight…no matter how quickly situations seemed to improve.
Eliana pulled food from her lunch pail and Tarin’s stomach rumbled slightly. In all his philandering for rights to the VIP tent, he’d forgotten completely about obtaining food for the afternoon. Still, Tarin smiled at the woman’s obvious pleasure in her lunch, “Well, I’m glad we could help you out.” Tarin paused, then decided that a quiet break was almost as bad as no break at all, “Lee didn’t tell me much about you. Did you grow up in the area? ”
"Me?" Lenna asked through a mouthful of pastry. She took a moment to get it down before she answered the question. One chew, two chews, three methodical chews, done. She set the empanada down daintily in the red wrapping on her lap and cleared her throat into a fist. "Actually no. I grew up in the heroic city, up towards the top of the map. Cartagena. The Same Columbia, but a different feel. I grew up facing the Caribbean sea,” She looked off towards the flap of the tent, thinking some stray thought. Her lips pursed into a smile as she mused. “Watching the ships pull in, and sail out into the sunset just sort of became second nature, I suppose. Guess that’s why I was drawn to my line of work. Cortez does a lot of shipping.” She explained. "And when I was younger, sometimes I'd sneak out to ride the fishing boats to the jetty of Bocagrande. I'd help the sailors all day, then come back home with am armload of the sea. My big sis was always so shocked. Here I'd come, tramping back home with my arms flopping and full. She wouldn't have to ask where I'd been that day, or how I was. She could tell. Honestly. The grin on my face gave it away."
Lenna’s smile twisted back towards Tarin and Lee. Her eyes fell on their utter lack of plates. Here she was, talking about food, and they were starving. She frowned down at her lunch tin.
“Oh, do neither of you have something to eat? I’m sorry. Awful rude of me to just eat in front of you like that. … Here.” She held out the wrapped package of five and a half empanadas to the couple. The smell of salami and mozzarella drifted temptingly. “Have a couple. I can share. It’s the least I can do really, since you helped me out with this.” She gestured towards the rest tent around them. “And I can hardly finish five right now, let alone six…” She was full of memories now, after all. And generosity was the order of the day.
She held the package out long enough for each of them to snag a few pastries, then continued with her musing. "Hey, did you know that Cartagena is one of the few places in Columbia steeped in baseball tradition? If you want to see quality amateur baseball, Cartagena is the place." She laughed wistfully. Her headache was waning momentarily. "I used to sneak off to the stadiums and watch the games. So fun. Either of you a baseball fan?" Lenna snapped her attention back to the blindsided couple. She certainly hoped so. She'd be talking their ears off about it!
Lee listened, sipping her water slowly, as Eliana explained about growing up there in Columbia, though apparently it was very different than the areas they had seen on their trip. Though, after a moment of surprise, Lee wondered why she had been surprised about that fact; growing up in Barrie had been a much different experience than what she had found when she'd gotten to Toronto, and they were just over an hour apart.
And then Eliana was offering to share some of her lunch with them, since they didn't have anything to eat. They did look good, and since she and Tarin would have to track down something to eat, having a bite now sounded rather appetizing. So when Eliana held out the food, Lee grabbed a couple of them, bringing one of them to her mouth to try it.
"Thank you," Lee said with a smile after she'd finished her first bite and Tarin had grabbed some as well. "They're rather good."
But Eliana started going on about baseball then, so Lee just continued to eat and drink her water. She'd never really been that in to baseball, the sport had never really managed to keep her interest.
And then the other woman asked almost that exact question. Swallowing the bite that was in her mouth, Lee shook her head. "Not really, to be honest," Lee admitted. "Hockey's more my game, though I haven't really watched that much in a few years, either."
Posted by Tarin Brooks on Aug 21, 2009 17:09:30 GMT -6
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Jun 17, 2024 22:22:43 GMT -6
Jules
Eliana was more open than Tarin would honestly have expected in response to his question about her place of origin. It appeared that she hailed from a more northern region of the country, towards the top of the map. It sounded like a halcyon childhood, in and out of fishing boats, running up and down the docks. Tarin had to laugh and appreciate the woman’s story. In fact, “Your childhood sounds a little like mine. I was completely landlocked, though. My family owns a ranch in Northern Texas, I remember my mom having to force shoes on me once time for school rolled around. My brothers and I practically lived out in the fields during the summers and on weekends. We spent so much time out there that our parents had to actually force us to socialize.” He paused and smiled at the memories, “My mother almost called the rangers one time because my brothers and I decided that since it was summer, we’d just live outside. When we didn’t come home for two days straight, she got worried.”
They were good memories, and Tarin smiled over at Lee, wondering if she had any similar tales. Truth be told, it was a little difficult to imagine Lee romping around with her brother and sister like Tarin had with his brothers. She’d come from a different kind of background though, there was no telling. “What about you, Lee?” he said, turning to his wife, “Did you and Robert used to raise hell like Eliana and I?”
The woman offered them food, and Tarin’s estimation of her rose even further. Lee took one of the proffered munchies, and Tarin did the same, biting into his and mmm’ing in appreciation. “Thanks so much. I don’t want to take more, though, we’ll probably eat here in a little bit, and this is all you’ve brought for the day. Really awesome, though. Thanks!”
The conversation turned then, still fueled by memories of a childhood passed, but moving onto a subject that was still more than interesting to Tarin. Baseball. Over the years, he’d stopped following it as religiously as he had when he’d been a child, but Tarin still loved the sport. It was the only one he’d played for any extended period of time…it was the only one he could play after it had become obvious that he would not be the same stature as his brothers.
Lee commented that she wasn’t all that into baseball and Tarin chuckled, shaking his head slightly, “That’s because it’s the American past time. You’re Canadian…I’m American, and Eliana is South American. It makes sense that we would like baseball and you wouldn’t.”
Tarin studied the woman that Lee had been so suspicious of and shook his head slightly. Maybe his wife was getting a little paranoid. There didn’t seem to be anything strange about the woman at all. Maybe the previous day had just been bad, but at any rate, things seemed to be going swimmingly now. “So, yeah, in short, I’m a baseball fan. Haven’t gotten to be nearly as devout over the years as I’d thought I would be when I played as a kid, though. But you know…that’s life.”