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.
Charlie followed close behind Jorge, her arms crossed and her brow furrowed. One hand hung just a bit lower and held her scotch tight. There was no telling when or how much she would need of it. Jorge still wasn’t telling her much, which was disconcerting. He had the clear upper hand in the situation, and it didn’t seem like he was going to be relinquishing the hold on it anytime soon.
Usually, Charlie wouldn’t care much about herself, since whatever happened, she could just come back from it, but there was a catch there; Jorge knew how to kill her permanently. She wasn’t sure that it would be the worst thing in the world, and she wasn’t even sure if it was something that he was going to go through with, but it was still something that she had to consider when choosing the best course of action.
They reached a second hallway, at the end of which there was an elevator. Charlie got inside and stood next to the man, keeping her eyes forward as the little box shot downward. As he began to speak, she glanced at him through the corners of her eyes, her arms still crossed. Again, he wasn’t giving her any straight information. It was all buried in words and poetic phrases, to the point where Charlie was getting a little frustrated. All she wanted was a straight answer to what exactly she was walking into. Even if he simply told her that it was some sort of cult, it would be a better answer than the bulls*** he was giving her.
The elevator lurched to a standstill and dinged, letting them know that they had reached the floor below. The doors opened to reveal a white lobby. It almost looked like a doctor’s office, though she doubted that Jorge was running a free clinic in the basement of his club. It seemed a little less than likely, especially since there were armed guards standing in front of a door.
The blonde took a quick sip of her scotch before following Jorge out of the elevator. The guards looked apprehensive as she stepped outside, but her companion waved them off. Charlie saluted them with a smirk as they walked past. She liked having special access to things.
He pushed the door open to reveal a little room made entirely of a thick, weight bearing glass. It looked like the little hanging boxes on top of the Willis Tower in Chicago, only larger. They were suspended over… something.
It looked like a business floor. What looked like a large group of mutants were performing tasks that could only be referred to as ‘jobs’. If it was just the boxes, then Charlie would have assumed that ‘The Syndicate’ was a factory of some kind, or perhaps a drug cartel. Only, there seemed to be other things going on as well. Groups trained together in another area of the large room. There was definitely something other than the loaded boxes going on down there.
”This certainly is… something,” Charlie mused, hiding the fact that she was intrigued by taking another sip of her scotch. She was still a little put off and she wasn’t about to bury herself further by making it clear that she thought it was something special. ”Now, are you going to give me a straight answer for once or are you going to make me guess what exactly is going on?”
Charlie’s free hand had migrated to her forehead, where it rested, as if that would help her get a grip. The hand was a physical manifestation of her frustration and just how out of control she was in that situation. She had only tidbits of information, and nothing to do other than asking him more questions and hope that he gave her answers. Essentially, she was at his mercy there. Especially with that whole water show he had just given her.
She’d asked her question, and now he was making her wait for a reply. He was clearly considering it as he puffed away and looked over his club. As if his stance didn’t seem powerful enough from Charlie’s perspective, he had taken a measure to ensure that he appeared even more so.
With a bit of a scowl, Charlie calmed whatever nerves were left with a second glass of scotch. She poured a large glass, took a sip, and then replaced the bit of liquid that she’d drunk for good measure. She didn’t want to be caught without enough if things got even weirder.
Finally, he began to explain. Smoke swirled around the room, creating a warm, dignified atmosphere as he began to describe exactly what they did. The first part was a given; they were an organization, so they did a bit of charity work and yada yada. It was the second part that gave Charlie pause. They were working to ensure that mutants reigned supreme. That was a bold statement.
There was helping mutants and making the world a better place for them, and then there was taking steps toward a different world. How far did things go? Were they actively changing things? If so, then how far? Were there criminal aspects? Judging from the nature of the club and the general aura of the man, she didn’t believe that it was that far of a stretch. Was her doppelganger really a member of such an organization? She needed more information. Much more.
>>”Care to see?”
”Yeah, I would,” Charlie nodded, taking a sip from the scotch so that the liquid level was low enough that she didn’t have to worry about spilling it as she stepped out the door. She walked a few steps out of the office and then waited for Jorge to lead her farther into the depths.
Charlie’s assumption had been more than correct, not that it came as any surprise. It was hard to lie away anything at that point; she hadn’t given her her real name, and there was no other way that she could have come up with it. There was nothing left to do other than what Vanessa did: swear and therefore confirm her accusation.
Charlie had met a few psychics in her time, and she wasn’t exactly a fan. Her brain was enough of a mess without someone else digging around in there, and it wasn’t exactly great for her job to have someone reading whatever was on her mind at the time.
The bright side was that she clearly wasn’t a very good psychic if she hadn’t figured out who had hired Charlie yet. That meant that all she had to focus on was keeping that information off the surface of her brain and buried. Keeping information buried? That was what her brain was best at.
Apparently, being outed as a telepath held more weight for Vanessa than just Charlie knowing what to watch out for, though. Charlie blinked as she offered to give her what she asked for, just like that. The only catch was that she wasn’t allowed to reveal her mutation to her clients. As it turned out, Charlie was the only person that she had ever told about her mutation.
It all had to do with how she discovered it. Coming out was apparently a big deal for people in the twenty-first century when they had any sort of living relative… like parents. The ones that had hired Charlie.
...s***.
The blonde shook her head and kicked her heel against the floor. There went her cover. If Vanessa could read her thoughts, then she would already know exactly who it was that had sent her. It was too late to backtrack. Lowering her head, Charlie tried to think as she rested her thumb against her bottom lip.
”Well. If you’re not the s***iest telepath in existence, then you’ll know that it was your parents who sent me,” she sighed and met her eyes again. ”And you probably already know that I have a bit of a connection to the mutant cause. So, that being said, I’m willing to make a deal with you.”
Charlie crossed her arms over her chest and walked out of the kitchen, bending down to pick up her clothes that had been strewn across the room. There was no need for distractions anymore; they had levelled the playing field. As she dressed, she filled in the rest of the details. ”You answer any non-mutation related question I ask, and I won’t say a thing about you being a sneaky mind reader to your parents.”
The scotch was gone far quicker than it should have been. Quick sips had turned into long, thoughtful ones, and the formerly rather full glass was empty within a few minutes. She glanced down at it with a sour expression and held it by the top, resting it against her upper thigh. She didn’t set it down quite yet; there was still the chance that she would need a refill.
The culprit of Charlotte’s death was the mysterious group called “SUPER”. Charlie listened with narrowed eyes as Jorge explained what they did and how they killed her shadow self. It was strange, almost as if she were listening to a tale that she could have been a part of, but wasn’t. She wasn’t sure whether to mourn Charlotte’s death, learn something from it, or simply brush it off.
Adapteds were what had made her ultimately stay dead. Of course. Charlie had heard rumours of people that could turn off mutations by just standing near a mutant in her own world, but she’d never come across one in person. Until that moment, the memory of them had been buried and she had never thought too much on the subject. It made sense, though, and it did mean that she had the chance to die, if she so chose. It was a big deal to someone who had come to terms with the fact that she would be one of the world’s few constants for the next foreseeable forever.
Did she actually still want to die, though? Did she have anything to live for anymore, or was she just making her way through life, waiting to see whether it would give her anything new? The thought sent chills up her spine. It was a decision that she would review at some point when she wasn’t standing there.
She lifted her head as he claimed a reason for sleeping with her; one that was different from what she had accused him of. Her lip twitched, but she remained silent and still, not commenting on any of what he said. There was a time and place for dry humour, and that was not it for her. Her brain was a little occupied.
He had claimed that the club did more than just what a club was supposed to do. They protected mutants and fought for a world that was better for them. That was all fine and dandy to say, but she didn’t know what any of that actually entailed. Mostly, she wanted to know what went on there and what her alternate self had been a part of, especially if they were working against something that actually killed her. There was a lot that was still unanswered, and she wanted to know more.
Sure, there were things that worried her about the situation. There were things that she wasn’t sure she wanted to be involved with. If Charlie had learned anything in her 200+ years, though, it was that she didn’t want to live with regrets. She would regret walking away at that moment.
”So what do you and Atlantis do, if you’re here to protect mutants?” she asked, diving straight for her biggest question. There were things she needed to know before they got into anything else.
Charlie’s mouth widened into a grin as she looked at the woman still lying on the countertop. She was trying to get her own information at the same time that Charlie was attempting to get hers. It was just too bad that Charlie never, if she could help it, revealed who had hired her. It was one of her ground rules. She wasn’t about to break it just because one woman had been a little bit of fun as well as a well-paying job.
”You know it doesn’t work that way,” she smirked, her eyes trailing down the woman’s form rather than meeting her eyes. Eventually, they snapped back up toward her face, but she was still actively clearing her mind away from any thoughts of her employers. There was a still a possibility that she was pulling information from less than kosher methods.
>>”Come on, work with me here, Charlie,”
Suspicion confirmed.
Charlie was not the name that she have given Vanessa. If she wasn’t a telepath, then the only name that she would be able to know her by was ‘Cece’, but clearly that wasn’t the case. She knew her real name somehow, and it wasn’t difficult to connect the dots.
Charlie pursed her lips and turned around, removing her arms from the counter as she took slow, pacing steps around the kitchen. After a minute, she’d migrated to the other counter and leaned against it as she focused on the woman. She remained quiet as she studied her for some sort of reaction.
Eventually, she spoke. ”So how long have you been a telepath?” she asked directly, her eyes staring directly into the other woman’s. Her mind was rather focused on finding out more about her, and she was still actively trying to keep her thoughts from roaming. It was easier said than done.
It took a lot to rattle Charlie Sinclair. She’d seen a lot in her day, and there wasn’t all that much that surprised her anymore. It was very rare that a situation could really shake her and make her feel something. It was rare that she felt like she didn’t have a bit of the upper hand.
Jorge Cervantes had really rattled her. The picture that she was holding had stirred up something real and scary, and she wasn’t sure how to react. There was a woman in the photo that was her, but wasn’t her.
She held on tight to the picture frame as she readied herself for some sort of explanation. She needed a long one, too. There was clearly no simple answer for whatever the hell was going on. Jorge seemed to be taking his sweet time, though. As if the cigar he was smoking was more interesting than filling her in on details.
The blonde narrowed her eyes as he crossed the room and put his hand on hers. Was he seriously trying to get in close with her? Sure, he’d made the joke about the couch, but it really wasn’t the time to get into that. She was near ready to aim a knee to his crotch and make a break for it before he took the photograph away and placed it back on the desk. He really was mysterious.
He motioned to the tray of drinks next to her, but she shook her head. No, she wasn’t going to day drink right now. She needed her mind as clear as possible to process anything weird.
Finally, he said something. Well, he played with her a bit. The psychic shtick was over the top and downright infuriating, especially when he gave her that smile. Charlie ground her teeth as she watched him, her face twisted in disdain. ”I get it. You’ve seen it before. There’s no need for salt in the wound, yeah?” She was being civil for now. If he kept it up, he would see something a whole lot different.
He paused again after revealing that he had known her power all along. There had never been any mystery. For her, anyway. It was clear from the way he snapped his fingers and the water swirled upward like a living creature that she wasn’t the only mutant in the room. It was amazing how it seemed to follow his commands and move freely through the air, but Charlie stayed still with her arms crossed. Her face was emotionless as her eyes flickered between the man and his display, trying to appear unenthused.
Finally, he explained what was going on. Mostly. She had a doppelgänger that was a dear friend of his, and she had died… permanently. That didn’t make sense at all. For years, Charlie had searched high and low for some way to end her life in a way that would stick, but she’d found nothing. To find out that it was indeed possible when she’d already come to terms with the fact that it likely wasn’t going to happen threw things off. She could die… she could die for real.
She let out a long breath and ran her hands through her thick hair as she tried to process the information. She turned away, trying to get a grip before she actually addressed him again. Mostly, she was amazed that he’d gone that long without tripping up and telling her something. A little angry, too, that she’d been strung along without any explanation when he had so many answers available.
”So let me get this straight,” she said slowly. ”Last night… you f***** me because I looked like an old… friend, was it, that you have unresolved feelings for?” She shook her head and let out another quick breath. It was easier to judge than it was to deal with anything real. ”You, my friend, need counselling. Maybe even more than I do, and that’s saying a lot.”
Her legs wanted to move, to take her for a walk. She had pent up anxious energy that needed to be used, so she began to walk around the room. Suddenly, that day drink didn’t seem like such a bad idea. She moved over the cart where he was standing and poured herself some scotch. She drank quick sips as she continued to move.
”So how did she die?” Charlie asked bitterly. The idea that some other version of her had figured it out when she hadn’t ate her up inside. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted it now, but the idea that she could still have… whatever it was if she wanted it was appealing.
A smile slowly crept onto Charlie’s lips. Vanessa was clearly considering her advice. Long legs closed the gap, and suddenly, they were pressed together once again. Charlie turned and put her drink back on the counter, being pressed back into a kiss as soon as she turned back around. Yes, her advice had certainly done the trick.
There was nothing loving or tender about the way that things proceeded. Neither of them were looking for any sort of real relationship, or even anything that lasted. There was an understanding that anything that happened there would be temporary and purely physical. Charlie was more than fine with that arrangement.
Hands roamed, and within seconds they were showing the kitchen counter something more than just food prep. Charlie grinned and shook her head at the woman. She was giving her something that she clearly needed; information could wait until afterward.
The blonde lay on her back against (formerly cold) granite, her heart pounding in her chest. Her arms rested lazily on her stomach and she stared at the ceiling for another minute, shot a glance at Vanessa, and then decided to get up. She turned her body away and sat up straight.
Charlie ran her hands through her thick hair and planted her feet back on the floor. She stood up straight and stretched out her back, the little romp through the kitchen having reached a clear end point. Neither of them had what they really wanted, but they’d both gotten the opportunity to take out some frustrations, whatever they might have been toward.
Vanessa seemed like she had many frustrations.
With her back suitably stretched out, Charlie turned back around. She’d never been one for clothes, so she felt no need to go retrieve hers from the floor. Instead, she placed her arms on the counter and bent forward to put herself on eye level with the other woman. There was clearly something fishy about her, and she still needed to figure out exactly what it was.
”Well. That was fun and all, but you still owe me some info, sweetheart,” she informed her through a sly grin as her fingers traced back up her neck. Even if she didn’t get it, at least the day hadn’t been a total bust.
Charlie was intentionally being rather cryptic and not saying anything outright. Her mutation was really all there was to her mystery, so she had wanted to keep it for a good moment. He had directly asked her about mutants, so she’d said something along the lines of being alive for a few centuries, but there wasn’t a lot of information behind what she was saying. She was fully expecting that he would have several questions for her.
Instead, he took what she said in stride. Actually, he seemed to be expecting it, as if he had been waiting for her to say that all along.
>>”I figured as much.”
”Excuse me?” she asked, a little more flustered than she would have liked. No one responded with ‘figured as much’ to the revelation that she, a woman that looked to be about twenty-five, was actually well into her second century. Especially not people from different worlds.
When she looked back, Jorge was already gone. He had waltzed off down the hall somewhere, oblivious to the fact that he had just thrown Charlie completely off kilter. Maybe he hadn’t heard her correctly? Maybe he was thinking about something else? There was no way that he should have reacted like that. No way. Even if he had just figured that she was an immortal mutant, there should have been more processing time. A lot more, in fact.
She took off behind him, shaking her head as she followed into the office. There was quite a bit more explaining that needed to be done, because she was clearly missing information of some kind. She expected it in that office, and if she didn’t get it, then she would force it out of him.
The office was equally as nice as the penthouse had been. Expensive furniture, memorabilia, and a window that looked down on the club. It must’ve been a two-way mirror, since Charlie would have remembered seeing a window into an office like that the night before, even if she had been a little distracted. The whole scene looked like it had had money thrown at it left and right so that it had the aura he desired. An aura of power and knowledge that he wasn’t sharing with her yet.
She stood in the middle of the floor with her arms over her chest as she waited for him to say something. He was standing at his desk, staring at a photograph in a gold frame. After a minute, he finally spoke.
Everything that he said, she was expecting to some degree. The club was built to help mutants in several capacities, and he hadn’t done it alone. Sure. It was unlikely even a man of his power had started out like that alone, carrying the entire enterprise on his back. Still, there was something missing. Why on earth was he telling her all of that?
Blue eyes flickered from Jorge’s face to the photograph that he passed to her. In it were three individuals: a young Jorge, an older woman, and… Charlie. Only, it wasn’t Charlie.
It was hardly the first time that she had seen a picture of herself that she didn’t remember being taken. Her memory was spotty, and, really, who actually remembered the 60s? That photograph was different, though. She knew without a doubt that the woman pictured was not her. There was no way that she could have completely blanked out living in a different world and starting a club; that was too big, even for her s***** memory.
Her throat went dry as she took in the image, her fingers running over the figures pictured. Was it some kind of joke? Some sort of photo manipulation? No, that was absurd. They’d met the day before, and even then, she’d known that there was something fishy about the way that he looked at her. Before that moment, she’d just chalked it up to regular old lust, but now she knew that it was something more. Something that ran deeper than she could have known.
There were so many questions that she had. Did that mean that there was someone running around that New York that looked exactly like her? Was this some sort of test? Did Jorge want her to be a body double for her twin? Did she have her powers? Was she already dead? Rather than asking any of them, Charlie took a deep breath and steadied herself. She needed to get a goddamned grip.
She closed her eyes as she tried to figure out what the right question would be to ask. ”So what is this? You wanted two women that looked exactly the same? Is she going to jump out from a closet or something?” she let out a slow, angry breath. She felt blindsided. ”I want to know exactly what’s going on.”
Charlie froze in place as she stared up at the orange man. He was offering her… the chance to relive memories with no strings attached. Well, a few strings, but they had to be weighed against the pros of what she was considering.
If you lived long enough, you accumulated quite a few memories. Charlie had more than her share, but it was rare that she could access them all. Sometimes, she woke up in the basement of that old bar and could barely remember where she was. All she wanted sometimes was to be able to remember why exactly she was still fighting to live.
What she wanted in that life was to be able to remember her first life. Her first memories were fragmented after her last death, and she could hardly remember Elizabeth, her first love. There was a part of her that wanted to see if she would be able to find that again; to hold onto it.
She stared at him blankly for a moment, her eyes moving slowly between him and the waiver. There was a chance that she could relive something beautiful, but there was also a chance that she could go somewhere dark and lose it. She could lose it in the middle of that big field in front of a bunch of people and do something dangerous.
It was a good thing that she could care less about those people.
The corners of Charlie’s mouth tugged upward as she reached for a pen. She would either see something amazing or she would see something horrible; either way, it would be something new and interesting. She was there.
She paused. Allegra. She was supposed to be sticking with Allegra. Did she really want to risk losing it in front of her? She was probably the one person that she actually cared a little for, despite having just met her. Eh, f*** it. Allegra would get over it if something bad happened and move on with her life. It wasn’t as if she was making her do anything, either. She was… some age, and probably capable of making her own decisions. Charlie wasn’t her mom. If she wanted to ignore the risks and participate too, then it was her own choice.
”I’m doing it,” Charlie announced as she scratched out her name on the form. ”You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I won’t judge.” She gave the orange man some cash to cover the entrance fee and then looked at Allegra. She had just enough to cover her if she wanted to join.
”Good choice, lady. You’ll have yerself a good time. Pro’aly.”
The morning was very different than the night before. There was no touching or motions of anticipation made by either one, and they had settled into a bit of a stride. They weren’t talking and he was driving too quickly, something which Charlie enjoyed. She sat with her feet on the dash as they zoomed through the streets of New York, her face locked in a smirk. There was no amount of speed that would really scare her, really. She’d seen much worse.
There was some unspoken deal that Charlie understood; they wouldn’t talk until he was ready to reveal why he wanted some one night stand of no real consequence to join him back at work. When he was ready to share, then they would discuss things. Until then, they would sit in silence and enjoy the rush of cutting the corners a little too closely.
Jorge parked the car out in front of the bar, which was also very different in the morning. It wasn’t exactly a slimy bar, but there was something about seeing any nighttime establishment in the day that was a little unsettling. Charlie had much experience with that. They drove into a somewhat well-kept garage (as far as garages went) and the blonde saluted the security guard that passed them by.
There was no thought of chivalry as Jorge silently got out of the car and began to walk away. With a raised eyebrow, Charlie followed. Intriguing. He was making her work for what she wanted, which was something that she often liked to make others do. Sometimes it was nice to meet someone that was on a similar level.
She fell into step beside him after a bit of a brisk walk to catch up. Once they were on their way, he finally started to talk. He began to explain that the world she was in was a little harder on mutants and that he did whatever he could to help them. It was a noble cause if she’d ever heard one. Combating ignorance and bigotry with dancing and drinks. A damn good cause.
She listened silently as she slipped through the door he had opened and stood in a grey hallway. He was explaining, so there was no need for her to cut in. That was, until there was a question posed to her.
>>”…where do you stand concerning them?”
The blonde paused and took in his smile. It was foreboding, like he was daring her to say that she hated mutants. If she hadn’t been completely desensitized to that sort of thing, she would have been shaking. It was a good thing that she had a) the correct answer and b) a pair larger than most of the men she met.
”Wherever I want to,” she said, matching his smile. ”I’ve been a mutant for a few centuries longer than most. I’ve seen my share of bigotry and I’ve never been a fan.” She stepped forward and turned back so that the cold light cast shadows over her features. ”Now, is there something that you wanted to show me?”
Yep, the guy was out of his mind. For a moment, she thought that he was considering her offer as he lifted his hand to his face and scrunched it up, but that wasn’t the case. Either he had some really bad brain injuries, or he had no idea what he was really talking about.
He didn’t even seem to be injured by that point, either. He was just a guy lying on the road, his clothes soaked in blood. Was it some sort of practical joke? Were there cameras waiting to jump out at them from behind a bunch of bushes, or something? Whatever it was, it wasn’t funny and Charlie wasn’t interested in playing.
”The f***ing gun to your head, idiot,” she huffed, shaking it a little so that he could hear the click of metal near his skin. She was getting close to just shooting him out of pure annoyance. The world needed fewer idiots anyway. ”You asked for someone to kill you. Do you. Want me. To kill you?” she spoke slowly and intently, making sure that he caught every word.
Either he gave up the act or he really was as stupid as they came. Whatever it was, her trigger finger was getting antsy.
Charlie chuckled from her place against the wall. Nessa was cute when she was trying too hard. Maybe if they had met a century ago, the blonde would have tried for something other than just physicality and information, but she had too much experience to tell her that it would be a bad idea to do so. She was going to get what she had come for and then get the hell out of dodge before someone caught feelings.
She stopped kissing the woman’s neck for a minute to look her in the eyes. Her thoughts had travelled far away from any information that she might have wanted. ”Sweetheart, if you want to sleep with me, then just say so. Don’t find a way to justify it for yourself.”
No, she wasn’t going to let things happen that easily. Sure, Charlie and her clearly wanted the same thing, but she wasn’t quite that easy. She wanted to feel like there was someone putting in the work.
Charlie pushed the brunette hard by the shoulders and stepped away from the wall. She shook out her limbs and walked across the apartment. She picked up the drink that she had discarded earlier and took another sip before turning back on her heel.
”You need to learn to take what you want,” she said with a smirk as she gave the woman a once over and set her drink back down on the countertop. ”Otherwise, you’ll never get anything.”
Charlie rolled her eyes at the comment about the sofa in his office. If she was going to be going to work with him, then she was going to work. The idea of sex had come and gone, and now she was interested in other things. Things like finding out exactly what he wanted from her. Other than the sex.
Clothed, Charlie followed Jorge out into the kitchen. Her phone and wallet were still in her jacket where she’d left them, so there was nothing to worry about on that account. Not that he needed to steal the $40, her fake I.D.s, or her punch cards to the local bars on the other side of the rift that occupied the space in her wallet.
She picked up the mug on the countertop and nodded a thanks to him before downing half of the liquid. Coffee wasn’t coffee if you put anything else into it. She rested her arms on the countertop and leaned forward as she watched him, clearly poised to say something important.
>>”Though I’m certain this is an obvious question… I take it that the mutant phenomena does exist in your world? How is their situation where you are from?”
Charlie took a moment to think before nodding slowly. She hadn’t even considered the fact that mutants might be different or have a different situation on the other side of the vortex. What a strange idea. Were they persecuted or hunted there? Or maybe they had no troubles and they had reached a level of acceptance that her own world was still many years away from? That was definitely something worth looking into.
Her lips pursed for a minute as she decided how best to approach her answer. As she thought back to the night before, she clearly remembered there being mutants opening using their powers around them at the bar, so it wasn’t as if Jorge hated them or forced them out of the place that he owned. Even some of the dancers had been mutants. It was actually strange that she hadn’t noticed it more when she was there.
Still, Charlie wasn’t entirely sure where he fell on the subject. She had nothing to lose other than a location setback by telling him, but it was still the only thing that she really had that was a mystery to him. She wanted to keep that to herself until she knew a little more.
”Mutants exist. They live their lives. Some people have issues with that, and some people don’t, but everyone gets over it eventually,” she replied vaguely. ”What’s it like over here? Does everyone lose their s*** if someone has a tail?”
She picked up her mug and finished off the last bit of coffee. ”Now, are you just going to talk about taking me places or are we actually going to go?” She was getting a little anxious, really. She didn’t like not knowing things if it was in her power to find out.
Okay, so perhaps Charlie had gotten a little ahead of herself.
Jorge didn’t want what she’d assumed that he wanted. In reality, he wanted… something? A business deal, maybe? She wasn’t sure exactly what for, but it was worth finding out. So long as he really didn’t want something romantic.
It really seemed like he didn’t, though. He was even laughing at the idea. She understood being a bit thrown off, or even finding the idea hard to picture, but the laughter was a little much. The blonde stood in the doorway with a sour expression, her hip jutted and her hair still tangled as she regarded him. It wasn’t as if he was relationship material either.
”Well I can’t say that I’ve ever accompanied a one night stand back to a bar,” Charlie admitted, her voice a little sharper than before. The idea of falling for her wasn’t that absurd, was it? It had definitely happened before. He was just too spoiled up there in his penthouse.
She did the best that she could to complete her morning routine and comb her long hair with the items that she pilfered from his bathroom, and by the time she walked back into his room, she was mostly ready. She didn’t often carry a lot on her, so she was pretty much screwed in terms of makeup and extra clothes. If she was going to go out again, it would be in the same clothes that she had worn the night before. It would be her second walk of shame that week.
Charlie walked back into the bedroom and pulled on her clothes as Jorge got dressed at the other end of the room. The man even had a stinking moving closet, of all the things to waste money on.
>>”I’m earnestly asking if you would be interested in coming back to the club. I think I have something you might…like. Come on, Charlie. What’s another couple of hours? I’ll even throw in free drinks and front you a stack of chips to play the tables. Sound good?”
She narrowed her eyes and made her lips thin for a moment as she considered his offer. She didn’t really have any plans other than exploring, so it didn’t sound like the worst idea. She wasn’t sure if she completely trusted Jorge, but it wasn’t like she had anything to lose. Plus, free drinks and game chips sounded like a pretty damn good deal.
”Alright, fine,” she relented, shaking her head and throwing her hands up in the air. She was going back to that bar during the day. Day drinking wasn’t the worst thing in the world, and it wasn’t all that bad of a plan. ”Show me what’s so interesting. If it’s some ploy for more sex, though, then there will be consequences.”
She tacked on the last sentence with her finger extended to point at him. It was a pointless warning at that point, but it was worth putting out there, even just to make sure that it wasn’t the case. She’d seen some crazy things in her time.
Charlie dusted her hands off as she watched the flames lick at the boy. He was screaming and she was pretending not to notice. He would be fine… probably.
She ignored the cameras, screams, and yells of terror behind her as the onlookers watched in horror. Yeah, she realized that it was likely a little terrifying to watch someone be burned semi-alive, but they didn’t understand the bigger picture. It was all for a reason. The kid had to be taught a lesson, or he would keep going around, blaming all his problems on random people who passed through. Who knew! Maybe she had even saved him from actually killing someone else!
She was in the right there. It was that thought that kept her walking away, shaking her head as she abandoned the scene. He would understand eventually, and the media would die down at some point. She knew for a fact that there wasn’t much that they could do to build a case against her if the kid was still walking around the streets of New York.
Maybe she would get a drink, or-
GRAH!
There was something sticking out painfully from the back of her neck. It was sharp and surrounded by warm, sticky blood. When she pulled her hand away from the fresh wound, her fingers were covered in it. Damn.
She shot one last murderous glance back before she fell to the ground. "You're so dea..." God dammit, she should have never turned her back on him. Her body disappeared, leaving her clothes and a small puddle of blood behind.
Motherf*****!
Charlie sat up with a start, her face twisted in anger. There was no haze when she woke up that time. Her memory from the last life was perfectly intact, and she was pissed. She hadn’t replaced her clothes after her last death, so there was nothing for her to put on except for an old shirt from the bar that hadn’t been unwrapped from the plastic yet.
She put it on, the XL shirt hanging just over her knees as she trudged up the stairs. She took a shot off of a waitress’s tray and downed it quickly before looking out the window. The street was still as she had left it a few minutes before, and she could even see the nude little idiot running away down the street. There was no use chasing him at that point.
If she ever saw him again, though… he was going to die for real.
