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 Pharoah Dynasty
An ancient sorceress is on a quest to bring her long-lost warrior-king to the modern era in a bid for global domination. Can the heroes of the modern world stop her before all is lost?
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.
The bar was a loud, lively place. There was no denying that fact. However, there were booths along the wall that allowed for a bit of a quiet spot in all the chaos. Charlie had set her drink down on the table, feeling the glass meet the somewhat sticky surface of the rubber-coated wood. It made her wonder what sorts of things went down at tables like those at a mutant bar.
She had actually been surprised by the fact that there were so many mutants there that evening. For a relatively small population, she was running into more and more mutants in New York City. Mutants of all different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and appearances. There was even one with tentacles out on the dance floor. He seemed to be having a rather good time with several other people.
It also likely meant that the woman she was sitting next to was either a mutant or a very strong ally. She hadn’t really thought about that fact before that moment. Silently, she explored images of what the woman’s mutation might be…
That fact also meant that she was in the clear for sharing fact about her own mutation. She wasn’t exactly secretive about things like that, but it also wasn’t something she typically led with. Especially if she didn’t feel like dying that night and she knew that it might put her in danger.
>>”So you really don’t remember me? And here I thought I was pretty unforgettable.”
Charlie smirked and sipped her drink. ”My mutation makes me forget things sometimes,” she admitted freely. ”I’m sure I’ll get it back eventually, though. I mean… I couldn’t possibly forget you forever.”
The blonde raised her eyebrows quickly at the other woman, her face displaying her amusement with it all. The chances of her forgetting both meetings of the woman were quite low now, so she was bound to remember at least a little bit of her. It was just which bit that was up for debate.
>>”Oh well, probably better that way. The Skyline Hotel, I dunno how they’ll recover from that event. Wasn’t specifically their fault but so many got hurt.”
Charlie cocked her head. That was an interesting thing to say. She had figured that their first meeting had just been a little.. freaky, but it didn’t sound like that was entirely it. There was definitely more to the story. ”So what am I missing from that night? Fill me in on the details, sweetheart.” She really had no idea what she was getting herself into. She figured it couldn’t be that bad, after all, especially if it had brought her close to the pretty woman she was sitting next to.
It had been a long time since Charlie had actually liked a person enough to give a crap about them. Yes, there were people that she would be disappointed to find in the obituaries, but she had come to the conclusion over her long existence that those sorts of things just happened. They happened and she had to man up and move on. Life would keep going, the world would keep spinning, and Charlie would be there all the while.
Gwen, though…
She had known Gwen for just a few months, and already she was seeming like something else. The fact that she lived just down the hall was torturous, but it was a torture that Charlie didn’t mind putting up with. If it meant that she got to spend time with her and make sure that she was alright, then Charlie would put up with seeing her in nothing but a towel every now and then and doing nothing about it.
But man, the idea that Gwen would be one of those people that Charlie would have to leave behind worried her. She knew that it was going to hurt like a b**** when that day eventually came, which was why she typically avoided situations like that one. This one, though, she just couldn’t help. That was why she planned to make the most of their time.
She rested her elbow on the door next to her and thought through that fact as she let Gwen continue to drive. One more time, she had said. She had come to a rather fast stop, but that was to be expected for the first little while. ”Good job,” Charlie nodded encouragingly.
Time for a break, then. Perfect timing for Chinese food. Charlie was hungry in a way that only the sodium filled noodles of her favourite place could fix. ”Alright, scootch, kid. I’ll drive us to get some food so we don’t die on the streets of New York.” With a wink, she unbuckled and opened her door to walk around to the other side of the car.
”Don’t apologize to me, just show me that you can do better,” Charlie told her. That was her life advice in a nutshell: anytime someone doubted her, she worked to prove them wrong. Or outdrink them. One or the other.
The second time around started off much smoother. Rather than pressing the gas all the way down, Gwen pressed it slowly and the car moved forward. It didn’t hurt that the squeal that had accompanied it was also adorable. Coming from anyone else, Charlie would have cringed and rolled her eyes at the noise, but coming from Gwen it just made her a little happier. Seriously, she was beginning to think that there was nothing that this woman could do wrong. That was a strange thought.
The brunette was commanding the vehicle with excellent control. She turned it to the right and parked it just a little ways off from where they had started, no problems whatsoever. There it was; Charlie had taught the woman from the 1800s to drive. Of course, she couldn’t take all the credit, but she could take a lot of it.
”See? What did I tell you?” Charlie asked her with a wide grin. Her hand had migrated to the side of Gwen’s head where she trailed it down to the back of the woman’s neck. She was a naturally physical person and it was getting difficult to constantly keep her hands to herself. Anyway, what was the harm in a simple touch like that? ”You’re doing fantastically. Now, do you want to keep going to take a bit of a break? I don’t want you to get too overwhelmed.”
Charlie was forward. That fact about her count be easily discovered after just a few minutes spent around her. There had been a point in her long existence when she had just realized that if she wasted time waiting for things to fall into place on their own then she would lose her chance. If she acted right away, then they would either happen or they wouldn’t. Simple, and she would know right away. None of that cliche drama that modern television loved to exploit.
Of course, there were exceptions to this fact. Gwen, for example. Gwen… gorgeous, displaced Gwen. Charlie liked her a lot, and there was no denying the fact that she was incredibly attractive, but Charlie was in a position of power over her and she was just getting acquainted with the new world she was in. If there was ever going to be something between them, then Gwen would have to really want it.
Even if it was killing Charlie to live just down the hall from her. Damn, she wasn’t supposed to think of her that evening. Great time for another sip of her drink.
Pushing all thoughts of the woman she was housing out of her mind, Charlie returned Winnie’s smile and stood up. She grabbed her drink and rolled her shoulders back as she looked around for a place for them to go in the bar. It was a fairly loud place all around, with the dance floor, flashing lights, and pumping music, but off in the corner, there were a few relatively hidden booths. From that vantage point, she could see that one was open for them.
”Come on,” the blonde said as she trailed her hand along the length of Winnie’s arm, ”let’s go over there.” Her hand finally fell into Winnie’s and she used that position to pull the brunette through the bustle of dancing bodies. People rubbed against her and attempted to pull her into the movement, but Charlie had a mission. With a pretty girl in one hand and a drink in the other, she had it made. All that was needed was a quiet spot to enjoy them.
Once they were through the thick of things, they came to the quieter section of the bar and the empty booth. Charlie plopped herself down on the cold vinyl and patted the spot next to her for Winnie.
Gwen was cute when she blushed. Well, she was cute no matter what she did, but she was extra cute when she blushed. Charlie’s eyes lingered a little too long on her as she dangled her cigarette between her two first fingers and let her thumb rest on her lip. She soaked in the image of the other girl, obviously flustered in a place that she was uncomfortable in. The blonde smirked at the thought of that. She would be comfortable in a few months. It was just a time that had to be experienced.
She followed Charlie’s instructions and pressed down the gas pedal. Pressed it down. The car shot forward through the abandoned lot and then came to an abrupt stop when Gwen slammed on the breaks. It was a good thing that they hadn’t started out on any actual streets.
Charlie closed her eyes, scrunched up her nose, and lowered her legs back down. As comfortable as that position had started out as, the bang up that her legs had just received was definitely going to leave a bruise. She stuck her cigarette back between her teeth rubbed her shins for a second, regretting her decision.
She couldn’t let Gwen know quite how much that had hurt, though. She sighed quickly and sat back in her seat, letting the other girl settle herself. After a minute, she her hand back on Gwen’s arm and squeezed it encouragingly. ”It’s alright,” she told her as gently as she was capable of doing. ”You’re doing fine; you just have to take it a little easier. Try that again, but put a little less of your weight on the gas pedal, okay?”
It wasn’t Gwen’s fault by any stretch of the imagination. Charlie felt for the girl and her strange predicament in this new time. There was a learning curve that had to be taken into account. ”Just remember that you’re doing well and I’m here the whole time if something goes wrong. If.”
”Winnie, hm?” Charlie smiled easily, the words spilling out of her like sticky honey as she shook the woman’s hand. ”Pretty name for a pretty girl. Much more fitting than Toxin.” Whatever they had been doing when they met must’ve been really kinky. Charlie wasn’t unknown to occasionally take part in things like that, but she would have liked to at least remember it.
>>”And we met last month. At the Halloween party in the Skyline Hotel. It seems that one of us was successful in forgetting that awful night,”
Charlie cocked her head at that new information. A Halloween party. She couldn’t remember Halloween of that year. It seemed to be getting mixed with a few other Halloween memories, but none of them included Winnie or were at a hotel. That meant that, this time around, the memory was all but gone.
From the sounds of it, though, she wouldn’t want to remember that night. Interesting. She quietly wondered what sorts of things they could have gotten into that would make a person want to forget something that adamantly. In the very least, she seemed somewhat glad to see Charlie, which meant that she had made a good impression on her. Wonderful; that meant that there was still something to be salvaged from whatever wreckage her brain was keeping from her.
Charlie took the final sip of her whiskey and then slammed it down on the table once again, signalling the bartender for a refill with her right hand. He rolled his eyes at her, but he appeared to be grabbing a bottle from behind him. Success.
She would soon have a fresh drink in hand and there was a pretty girl to her side. It was the perfect situation. Maybe after awhile she would start to remember something.
”Well, Winnie, I’m Charlie.” She turned in her seat to look the woman deep in her eyes. ”I gotta say, it’s a goddamned shame that I can’t remember you, but I have a different proposition… it’s getting a little noisy in here, so what do you say we get a table in a quieter area and make a few new memories?”
Her glass was set back down in front of her, so she nodded toward the bartender and snatched it up with her. With her other hand, she traced lines along Winnie’s arm. Really, she was just too pretty to forget.
Charlie smirked at the blushing woman in the driver’s seat. She definitely hadn’t quite learned the skill of a poker face. Part of her felt a little bad for her, but the rest of her just thought it was cute. She didn’t seem to be entirely straight, but whether she had come to terms with that herself was the real question. Charlie wasn’t going to do it for her. She had already had enough change forced upon her, and if this was one that she wanted to make herself, then she was welcome to do so. If not, then that was too bad. It also wasn’t Charlie’s issue to deal with.
Driving, however, was. Since Gwen was essentially her ward, Charlie felt a duty as her Captain to make sure that she had all the skills that she needed to survive in the twenty-first century. Driving was one of those skills. Gwen seemed to be nervous about it, but the nerves would fade eventually. Or maybe they wouldn’t. Either way, she would learn to deal with it and have a driver’s licence.
She did have to leave Charlie’s apartment eventually, after all…
”’Cause those are the rules,” Charlie answered her question simply. ”I don’t know. I didn’t make them. Something about it being dangerous. All you need to know is not to do it.” She reached over and rubbed her arm quickly, trying her best to comfort the other woman. She was far from the best at it, but Gwen seemed to make things easier for her. Being in constant contact with another person actually didn’t seem like the worst thing in the world.
The blonde sat back in her seat, ready for the car to lurch forward. It was going to be fun to see how well she did with the new experience.
>>“I… I am not quite sure. I feel certain I will get us killed, however.”
Charlie merely grinned and shook her head. ”I’m sure I’ll survive,” she teased with a twinkle in her eye. Her mutation was not a secret. It wasn’t often that she went more than a week without dying since starting to work for the Syndicate. That was fine with her, though. All for a good cause, right?
With her back pressed against the seat, Charlie reached for her pack of cigarettes and her lighter, lit one up, and pulled her legs up so that her shins were against the dashboard. She had broken both her legs doing that once. ”Now, what I’m doing is an example of bad car etiquette. Don’t do what I do. You, however, should put the car in drive and give it a little bit of gas.”
Charlie was beginning to feel the beat of the music around her. As much as the eighties weren’t really a decade that she wanted to relive (they weren’t as great as everyone suggested), the music was a little nostalgic. It was bringing back all kinds of memories; all kinds of bars just like that one. She could remember that just fine, but for some reason, she couldn’t remember the pretty girl beside her. All that drinking and dying had not been a good combination for memory retention.
Hopefully she would be able to fill it in. Charlie had looked to the other woman to give the details about how they met. Charlie had little doubt that it was in a situation very much like the one they were standing in then. A few drinks in and the blonde would have had a difficult time keeping away from someone like her.
>>”Sandy. It’s Win--err, Toxin.”
Charlie merely raised an eyebrow. Sandy, huh? And Toxin, apparently. That did not make things any clearer. Nothing like those two names rang any sort of bell in her mind. Maybe it had been a murder mystery event? Perhaps she had been working under cover? Nothing came forward.
>>”Wow, I haven’t seen you since...you know…that night. You look amazing. And...heh, thanks for the rescue. Thought I was losing my touch.”
That night. Well. That could mean absolutely anything. Charlie did like to think of herself as decent when it came to things that happened when she was alone with another person, she was also known to get involved in some shady things. When ‘Toxin’ referred to that night, the blonde’s mind went in a million different directions. Had they hooked up? Done some Syndicate work? Had she investigated her? All three, perhaps?
The barkeeper had noticed her little display. He stalked up to the two girls and set a pale yellow cocktail down in front of Charlie. She traded her whiskey for the long-stemmed glass in order to toast the man with it before handing it over to Toxin. He merely rolled his eyes at her. Sure, service wasn’t the nicest when you were pushy, but it was better than no service.
With the pretty girl properly supplied with a drink, Charlie could turn back to their conversation. ”Sorry, luv. I’ve got… memory issues sometimes. You’re going to have to be a tad more specific. I’m sure Toxin isn’t your real name.”
It required a) out mutants and b) out, out mutants. In the actual 80s, there would have been few brave enough to fill that bar, even late at night. In 2017 in the heart of New York City, though, it was chock-full of people.
In all honesty, Charlie hadn’t felt like going out that night. She was still reeling after a tumble (push) down a few stairs (a flight and a half) and the subsequent encounter with the basement bar floor. She’d already been day drinking.
Still, as much as she didn’t feel like going out, she also didn’t feel like going home. Things had changed since Gwen had moved in, and she felt like she had to step up her behaviour a bit around her. She felt bad about coming in at four in the afternoon with whiskey on her breath. Sure, Gwen likely wouldn’t question it, but it would make Charlie feel weird. She didn’t want to let Gwen in on the poorly kept secret that Charlie Sinclair was often an absolute mess.
It had been a long time since she’d cared that much about someone. Most of the time, Charlie could care less who saw her at her worst, but Gwen was an exception. She didn’t need to see that. Around her, Charlie needed to be poised, confident and knowledgeable about the world that she was unacquainted with.
So, after her time spent at her usual bar, Charlie had wandered into a few other places while she avoided her apartment. A few bars that she’d just stumbled upon, one sports place that served great wings, and finally The X-Gene Persuasion. What a find. Hot mutant girls walked around there like it was going out of style and Charlie got a front row seat. For a moment, she could forget that Gwen existed.
She hadn’t been going slow throughout the day. It was only thanks to a semi driver that hadn’t looked both ways that she wasn’t actually on the floor. Two deaths in one day. It definitely wasn’t a record, but it had been the first time in a while that that had happened. It had let her cut even more loose without repercussions, though, so that was a positive. Who didn’t love an excuse to keep drinking past their limit?
Charlie was seated at the bar, staring down at her glass. The whole atmosphere was a little loud and colourful for her current demeanor, but she could drink good alcohol with a bunch of attractive mutants, so she wasn’t going to complain. She did, however, stick out a bit from the eighties theme in her unplanned all black ensemble. It wasn’t her fault that she hadn’t gotten the memo.
The bar was very full. In the twenty minutes that Charlie had been there, it had apparently gotten all the more appealing (her tipsy brain liked to think that she had something to do with that fact), and it was so insane that the bartender was overloaded and Charlie was being pushed by all the people trying to get his attention. She looked to the side to check out one girl in particular who was trying to get herself a lemon drop. She looked… almost familiar. Maybe.
She was cute, anyway. Charlie grinned at her a little, took another sip of her drink, and then slammed it down on the table. The bartender didn’t even look in her direction. Time to step it up, then. She shoved her fingers in her mouth and let off a long whistle, which immediately made him turn his head.
”Yo! Barkeep! Lemon drop for the pretty girl. On me.” There. That should get her one. Her hand was poised in the air with her finger up as if she were declaring something, but as soon as she was finished, she let it drop back down to her glass, where she used it to bring another sip to her lips. Yep. It was a drinking kinda night.
She then turned to the pretty girl to her side. Very pretty. Big brown eyes, short brown hair, eerily familiar features. Her brain had obviously pushed all the memories of how they knew each other out that time around. Way out. What a shame. ”How do I know you?” she asked her quizzically, her voice crescendoing over the music.
”Alright, now turn the key in the ignition,” Charlie instructed from the passenger’s seat. Gwen had seen her demonstrate it enough times to be able to do it herself, but Charlie was still keeping a watchful eye out for anything that could go wrong. They were in New York City, after all, and there was lots to go wrong. Most people would have started them out on country roads, but Charlie felt that an abandoned parking lot was good enough for a start. If she was going to learn how to drive in NYC, then she needed to learn to drive in NYC.
The blonde leaned over her ward to see how she was positioned in the driver’s seat. From what she could see, things looked good. Real good. Charlie needed to stop looking at things or she was going to get herself in trouble. ”Just remember to keep your foot on the brake pedal.”
Sitting back in her seat, Charlie stared out the windshield. She had been meaning to teach Charlie to drive for a while, but she’d just never found the time. Still, she deserved to know and be able to get around by herself if she ever needed to. As much as she had enjoyed having Gwen live there, she knew that it couldn’t be a permanent situation. It wasn’t even supposed to extend more than a week or so.
Duke had originally set up a living situation for Gwen elsewhere. It was all ready to go, but for whatever reason, Charlie hadn’t been able to tell her about it. She had originally been against the idea of having her move into her apartment, but over the course of the first few hours that she had known her, Charlie had made the sudden decision to have her stay there rather than go off on her own, and it had… snowballed.
Charlie was not the type of person to share her space. She liked to be able to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, so a roommate had always been out of the question for her. However, Gwen was different. She liked having her around, even if it meant that she didn’t get drunk or take people home as often. Instead, she was learning to enjoy the company of a steady person. It was weird and the thought of her going elsewhere was hard to think about. She needed to ready herself for it, though.
Of course, Gwen was also nice to look at. Charlie stole a few glances every now and then, but she was trying to be careful about policing herself. Gwen had been a little flirty, but Charlie still didn’t know where she stood on the whole “girl on girl” thing, considering her heritage. Still, there was… something about her that made Charlie wonder. She would let her make the first move, though, if that was ever what she wanted.
For now, they just needed to focus on driving. Charlie watched the brunette go through the motions of turning on the vehicle carefully. ”So. How does it feel to be in the power seat?”
Charlie broke into a genuine smile. There was nothing… Charlie about that smile. She’d only spent a few hours around Gwen, but she was still glad that she’d been able to get her attention. She would have been… disappointed (if that was the right word for it) if she’d been turned off by the idea of the Syndicate.
”Perfect,” Charlie said and clapped her hands together. ”It’s up to you, then; we can either walk around some more, or we can get you set up with somewhere to stay. You’re probably hungry and tired, huh?” There was no use bombarding her with more things when she was likely overwhelmed already. Some soup and a nap. That’s what she probably needed.
A large man appeared in the doorway with his hands clasped around his back. He nodded to Charlie and then gave Gwen a once over. Duke Manchester. He would be able to figure some things out. ”Duke,” Charlie nodded to him. She strode forward across the room and met his eyes. ”If it’s not too much trouble, would you be able to figure out…”
Charlie trailed off. She could get Gwen a place to stay for a while, but leaving her alone in a strange new place to figure things out alone didn’t seem like a good idea. There were enough new things that she would likely end up getting herself accidentally killed before Charlie saw her again. No, there were better options.
”Never mind,” Charlie waved to Duke, ”I’ve got it figured.”
“If you’re sure,” Duke said slowly, raising his eyebrow at the two women.
”I’m sure.” Charlie turned away, ignoring the sigh from Duke as he realized that she was no longer including him in the conversation. Instead, she was talking only to Gwen. ”You can stay with me for tonight. It’s a safer option, anyway. At least until you get a little more settled.”
Charlie seemed to keep forgetting the fact that the sayings in the twenty-first century were not the same as the ones used in the 1800s. Back in Gwen’s time, magic would have been taboo. It was evil and to be avoided. In 2017, it was parodied and tested and used in everyday phrases. It wasn’t a big deal for Charlie to say it, but it was for Gwen to hear it.
”No, no. No real magic. It’s just a saying now. A figure of speech,” Charlie muttered as she shook her head. She needed to be more careful. ”What I meant was that behind this door is where the Syndicate operates. Anyway.”
Charlie pushed the door open, revealing a series of hallways not unlike the ones that Poseidon had originally led her down. The model in the AV worked so well that they had done their best to replicate it as best that they could. The area was very different from the interior of the club. Aquatic finishes and low lighting had been replaced with shiny, stainless steel structures. It wasn’t comfortable; they meant business.
Charlie led her through and gestured to things as they passed by. Various offices and a large area where most of the actual work was done. At the end of the hallway, they came to a glass box structure that was best described as an overhang. From there, they could see the entirety of the open area and the business that was going on below.
At the farthest place in the box, Charlie stood with her arms crossed over her chest and let out a contented sigh. Things were running smoothly that day. Boxes were being packed and sent out (luckily, Gwen wouldn’t be able to see what was inside them from that angle), people were training, and there was logistical talk being done at a table on the far side. ”This is where it happens. The Syndicate works out of here and figures out where we’re going to work next in the world.”
The blonde turned to her companion and looked her in the eyes. ”You wanted to know what you’d be doing here, right? I can honestly tell you that you would be doing good for all of mutantkind. You’d be helping out our logistics team by ‘seeing’ as you say, through the eyes of the people causing… setbacks for us.”
She turned back and faced the work that was happening below again. ”In exchange for that, we’ll outfit you here in this century. You won’t have to worry about food, lodging, or money while you’re with us.”
Well. As soon as Charlie began to approach the glimpse of the costume that she recognized in the crowd, the Amazonian made a beeline for the guy on the ground. In Charlie’s opinion, he seemed fine enough, and she figured that he was likely capable of dealing with his own s***, but if she wanted to waste her time on helping him out rather than actually figuring out what just happened, then that was her choice.
So, Amazing Woman was out. Too bad. Lucky for Charlie, though, there was a little ‘pop’ nearby, and a beautiful girl replaced the bird that had just been standing there. Her inkling about the bird being Toxin had been correct. Lovely.
>>”Well...I...I’m definitely ready to drink enough to kill every brain cell that tries to remember even a second of tonight.”
”I’m with you there,” Charlie nodded. She still wasn’t quite up for smiling, but if she was, she would have grinned at the other woman. She was just glad that things had gotten good enough that she was able to think about things like that again. She really didn’t need to relive any of that night. For the next year, she had to try to remember not to attend sketchy Halloween parties.
She turned to Toxin and nodded toward the door, which people were scrambling to get out of at that point. ”What do you say we forget about all of this somewhere else?” she offered. Anywhere but there. They needed to get out of that absolutely crazy hotel. Plus, she figured it might bring the mood back up a bit if they changed the scenery.
Charlie enjoyed taunting him, especially when he was that drunk. She’d won the game, fair and square, and that meant that she’d cut down just a little of his manhood. That made her all warm inside to know that he was experiencing a loss. He had probably greatly underestimated her to begin with. Every once and awhile, she needed to cut a man down for a really good self-esteem boost.
Still, he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. Losing hadn’t made him as angry as she thought it would, and instead he continued to try to make moves on her. He was either beyond drunk or completely starved of human touch. Either way, Charlie didn’t care all that much. There was no harm done if she got multiple things out of the night.
She let him unclasp her bra, held out her arms in front of her, and shimmied just a little to let it fall to the ground between them. It was actually kind of impressive that he had even managed to do that when he was that drunk. He put some of the guys that Charlie had been with to shame, and they had been sober. She just hoped that he would be just as successful at finding other things.
Instead of trying to please her, he was just attempted to make her pout go away by kissing it. Charlie stepped back, pulling herself away from the kiss that he was leaning into. There was nothing wrong with the situation, but she still enjoyed watching him suffer. She stepped farther into the middle of the room and looked over her shoulder at him as she hopped up onto the desk in the corner of the room. She beaconed him over with a finger waggle and brushed some of the objects from the desktop.
”I think I deserve a prize for winning, don’t you?” she asked with a smirk, waiting for him to amble over to where she was.
”It will, trust me,” Charlie said. ”I’ll make sure of it.”
The two of them walked through the streets of New York with Charlie doing her best to shield Gwen from anything too crazy. She just needed to get through here without freaking out so they could get to the new Syndicate location. Thankfully, with the change of clothes, no one really gave a glance their way. It was just the issue of the cars and the billboards and the constant noises that were very different from the ones in the 1840s.
Thankfully, she was able to usher the woman quickly enough through the streets and to the newest location of the Atlantis Club. It was a branch off from the one on the AV side (she still wasn’t really sure how that name had come to be) and it looked really similar. The only thing that it was missing was the constant presence of Poseidon, but she was doing her best to make sure that things ran smoothly anyway. She did have enough expertise and the responsibility had been left on her shoulders. She needed to live (or die) up to it.
Charlie sauntered easily through the front doors of the closed Atlantis Club, holding the door open for Gwen. She knew where she was going, and no one questioned her. It was very much against the rules to question a captain of the Syndicate, especially if they had such a low rank.
”This is the Atlantis Club,” Charlie told Gwen, gesturing to the space before them as they entered. It was only the afternoon, so the club hadn’t opened yet, which meant that it was just workers cleaning and setting up the place for the night to come in there. ”It’s partly a business and partly a front for the work that the Syndicate does. Oh, and the club is completely mutant-friendly,” she explained in a whisper. One could never be too careful around the minimum wage staff.
The blonde led Gwen past the beautiful oceanic decor and through a door that read Restricted. A badge that she had produced from her purse had granted them access to what lay behind. ”Alright, are you ready to see where the real magic happens?”
