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 world was all a little… hazy. Matt could feel his body straining against the electricity that had been sent through his muscles. It took him a minute to figure out what was happening as he lifted his head to watch. Svetlana was giving herself up. The smartest decision for the guards would be to have her stand next to Matt and get the two of them out of there as quickly as possible. It was just too bad that they were, in fact, the D-Team.
Even through his groggy state, Matt could make sense of things. The woman standing behind him was trying oh so hard and doing very little. They were taking Svetlana out into the hallway, which was a poor choice on their part. It would mean that his radius would end and she would be able to use her powers. That was good. Very good.
He was still stuck in his apartment, though. The gun had been moved away from his head, and his arms still hadn’t been tied back at all. In fact, no one was really paying much mind to him other than the fact that they figured he would be out for the count. If he had decided to give up, then he would be, too. Really, he should’ve been, but he wasn’t ready. As best he could, he made his feet move beneath him as he stood up. He balled his fists and tackled the woman behind him. Well, it wasn’t really a tackle as much as sort of falling onto her, but it had done the trick. He had weight on her and she wasn’t standing square.
“Get off me!” she yelled, squirming beneath him. Up close, he could see how young she was. She was very, very young. What kind of agency was this? Unfortunately for Matt, despite her age, she still knew how to shoot the gun that was in her hands. She raised it beneath him and shot just once, through Matt’s side. It was off to the side, missing any potential internal organs, but it still hurt like a b****.
“F*** off,” he yelled, leaning over to place his arm over the woman’s windpipe. While he did that, he reached down and grabbed the gun from her. It wasn’t difficult, really. She was distracted by the arm over her throat, which was constricting her breathing. She was barely even trained. As best he could, Matt stood up, wobbling on his feet just a little. The other agents just looked confused. The whole operation was a complete bust. Outside, there were sirens going off and feet coming up the stairs.
Matt turned around and fired a shot toward the woman on the floor. It missed her by several inches and went through the floor instead. “S***,” Matt muttered. He was going to have to pay for that, too. He tried again, this time hitting her thigh. That would keep her down for a while. Then, he turned toward the other two agents. They had just been standing there the whole time, not shooting him.
“Look, please don’t make me shoot you. My aim is s*** and the cops are coming up the stairs right now,” Matt said. He was tired and done. And he was bleeding now, too. That sucked. His free hand clutched the wound, trying to stop the bleeding as much as possible. At least she hadn’t hit an artery.
“What are you doing? F***ing shoot him already!” The woman on the floor shouted, gripping her leg. The two men simply looked between each other, setting their weapons down.
“I really don’t think this was a good idea,” the first one said. He looked like he might wet himself.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 23, 2018 11:55:11 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
The taser had gone right through his body, the electricity making his muscles spasm. Matt’s face contorted as he struggled to regain control against it, but it was useless. The signals from his brain had been temporarily interrupted, and it was getting hard to fix. His already bad hands were lost to him as he tried his best to grip the gun. To grip anything.
He managed to lift the gun a little, but the taser was still in his back. Somewhere beyond the countless agents (what the hell were they thinking?), he heard Svetlana’s voice calling out. He probably looked like s***. Great, now he was in dept and he looked like a total loser, having been taken out by the agency’s D-team. Some veteran he was.
Another shot from the taser brought him down completely. He couldn’t hold up his body anymore. A noise came from his lips as he tried to break his own short fall, but failed to move his arms properly. He felt himself be yanked back up a second later, and the gun was taken right from his grasp. He was held up by the back of his shirt, unable to fight back as he tried to retain consciousness. It had been a very high voltage.
An agent stepped out of the crowd and a few of the others stepped back, filling into the hallway to make space. They had very little time left before the police would arrive. “Alright, sweetheart,” the agent said, her face visible beneath the plastic visor on the helmet that she was wearing. “We’re going to take this nice and easy. It was so nice of you to make a friend so we could find you here.”
The agent accepted the gun from the man standing next to her and held it up to Matt’s temple. “He’s a nice man, isn’t he? Got a nice face. He’d be useful, sure, but blowing it off really isn’t out of the question. What do you say we all take a little stroll together?”
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 23, 2018 11:14:08 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
It only took a minute for the little apartment to become the stomping grounds of an angry government operation. It wasn’t a large place, but it seemed to be even smaller with that many people sharing one space. More just seemed to keep coming, too. They had definitely decided to pack heat. Matt stood with his back toward Svetlana as he took on the oncoming people.
Over his shoulder, he could hear Svetlana putting up a struggle. He had seen her in a fight before, so he knew that she would be just fine fighting on her own. Besides, he had enough to focus on without trying to save her at the same time. There would be no shining knights that day.
He was keeping up, sort of. He had managed to avoid being hit with a taser, and he had just barely dodged a shot from a tranq gun, which went right into the floor. F***, he was going to have to pay for that. And the door, too. It was going to be expensive. To make himself feel better, he had hit one guy over the head with the butt of his gun, and had disarmed another. The armour that they were wearing made it hard to get a shot in, but he managed to shoot one guy in the leg where there was little padding.
He was getting into the swing of things, now. It felt like he was back somewhere, fighting for a cause again. This time, the cause was not to be taken by some sort of government operation. How f***ed up was that? He nearly felt like waving his dog tags around and reminding the assholes in front of him that he was a veteran. Usually that got some sort of respect.
They likely already knew that, though. Besides, it didn’t really matter. He was busy by that point, trying to wrangle a gun out of the hand of his next attacker. It wasn’t working to do hand-to-hand combat with all the armour that the guy was wearing, so Matt took a step back and loaded his gun instead. In a quick motion, he fired at the man’s leg, just to wound him. He wasn’t shooting to kill, but he had drawn the first real blood. He was going to have to get the stain out of the floor later, though. The man tumbled to the floor, clutching his new injury.
The shot had distracted the man, but there were still countless others in the apartment. With how distracted he had been, Matt hadn’t been watching his own back. He wasn’t expecting it, but he could definitely feel the taser be thrust into his back. It was a high voltage, for sure. It wasn’t the first time that he had had that done to him, but it wasn’t any less painful. He dropped to his knees, the experience hitting him at full blast. He glanced up, finally realizing the situation that they were actually in. There would have been no chance for them to get out, anyway, given how many people were swarming around them. He just hoped that Svetlana was doing better than he was.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 22, 2018 23:09:17 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
Usual thoughts were pushed aside as Matt entered an alternate state of mind. Nothing else mattered for the moment; the rest of their evening was forgotten. It didn’t matter what they had been doing before. All that mattered was that there was a threat outside that was trying to come in. There was no time to figure out tactics or a specific plan of action, either. It was all based on whether they could be smart enough to get out of it without getting captured or killed.
“SUPER?” he muttered questioningly back to her, his brow furrowed. He hadn’t heard of them before. Whatever. “It doesn’t matter. They know what you do?” Of course they did. He was clarifying. Why else would they show up at his doorstep if not for Svetlana? Adapteds couldn’t be rare enough to warrant a public capturing display.
Really, they had gotten lucky that it was some untrained sucker behind the door and not a full agent. Had it been for looks that they had chosen him? The most like a delivery boy? Or perhaps it had been a diversion. Whatever it was, it was a poor choice on their part, but it gave them a minute to figure things out. A minute was a blessing in a time like that.
He had returned from his bedroom with two guns, one for each of them. It was nowhere near enough firepower to get them though much of anything, but it was something. If worse came to worst, then they both knew how to throw a punch. Not incredibly effective against tranq guns, but it would have to do. He was just glad that she didn’t argue when he handed her the second firearm; she knew the situation as well as he did. Probably better.
The team was getting their s*** together, though. They had limited time before they descended upon them with a new kind of hellstorm, at which point they would be screwed. They would both be screwed, though. “No way in hell am I turning tail,” he said with a quick shake of his head. It was out of the question completely and it would be near impossible to change his mind. “We’re both in this now, alright? And I have to make sure you don’t destroy-”
Too late. The door had come crashing down and soon enough, the room was flooded by armed guards. Yeah, the first guy had been a mistake.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 22, 2018 14:34:28 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
In Matt’s opinion, there was hardly anything that could beat traditional cooking. It was traditional for a reason, after all. One of the best parts of travelling when he had was getting to experience the varieties of food that the world had to offer, often from small places that weren’t tourist traps. Even when he was at some of his lowest points, that could make him interested in learning.
He had the memory of the recipe mostly sure, but he wasn’t entirely convinced that it was one hundred percent. He took the pen from her with a quick, “thanks,” and then began to write down what he could remember. Olive oil, flour, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and much more was written hastily on the receipt. He was writing it on the palm of his hand, so it got a little bit crinkled in the process, and his writing was even worse than it normally was. His motor skills were already decreased, so his writing was already pretty horrible.
“I’m Matt. Nice to meet you, Zoe,” he said, looking back up at her briefly as he paused what he was doing. He hoped that he hadn’t offended her by running over her idea, but this was important to him. Tradition, and not only tradition, but Latino tradition, was a big part of his life that he wanted to make sure didn’t die out with an internet generation.
After getting as close as he could to the recipe, he held up the receipt and squinted at it. Yeah, it was pretty s***. “Sorry, I hope you can read this,” he said, handing it over to her with the pen. “You might want to search up Red Enchilada Sauce just to make sure I didn’t completely screw up, anyway.”
Matt felt his shoulder be yanked backward as the scene unfolded. Having been back in civilian life for nearly ten years, Matt wasn’t accustomed to being on his guard all the time. In fact, he usually let his guard down quite a bit when he was at home, and physically, he was pretty much open for fire if someone wanted to. That was the thing, though - no one really cared that he existed when he was simply living his life has a New York civilian. Sure, there was an occasional drunk person who wanted to chuck a bottle at his head, but other than that, he was in the clear.
What he wasn’t accounting for was that he was with Svetlana, the woman who judged the status of a week by how many times she was attacked. Everyone wanted her on their side; whether it was for her powers or otherwise. This paranoia that came with the territory gave her a bit of a leg up when it came to reacting, so when Matt was pushed to the side, she was moving to disarm the “pizza guy”.
If it had just been a gun that was in his hand, then he might’ve assumed that it was a regular old robbery. Or if he was with something else. His mind, instead, went immediately to what it likely was. Someone was after her.
Matt let Sveta take charge as she slammed the door in the face of the man. From the sounds of it, the guy wasn’t alone. They had a minute, but there was no way that a simple door was going to stop them. He ran his hands through his hair as he tried to process what was happening. As best he could, he tried to access the side of himself that had been used to being in the army. He was not completely inexperienced in something like that.
“What’d you see out there? Did you get a visual of how many there were? Do you know who this is?” he drilled, his eyes already steeled in his usual style. He was stepping away from the door, a clear direction in mind as he thought through how they could get through this. There was the fire escape, but there was a chance that there would be people parked out on the street. They needed a plan that would give them both a fighting chance and a way to get out.
The voices outside were getting louder. They had a minute at best. Matt walked into his room and grabbed something from his bedside table and from his closet. Two glocks. It just so happened that he had two. He held one out by the handle toward Svetlana and then held his carefully. They were nothing like the weapons that he’d carried when he was in the military, but he hadn’t exactly stocked up for a home invasion. They would have to do. “We can get out through the fire escape, but I don’t know how much good that’s going to do.”
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 22, 2018 11:01:45 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
Was codependence usually unhealthy? Yes, yes it was. Matt was certain that he and Svetlana weren’t at that point, though. He felt good about calling her a friend by now, but he still wasn’t sure where that actually left them in terms of, well, everything. It wasn’t difficult sitting there, though, in his living room again. Neither of them were drinking this time, but a good meal was definitely in the picture. They had both worked all day, and as such, it was nice to have a moment to relax. The air was already lighter and the sky was dark. It was just too bad that it was so hard to see the stars in the city. He thought Sveta might like the stars.
“They’re probably just stuck in traffic,” he said with a smirk, glancing over toward her from his spot in the chair. It wasn’t unheard of for someone to be late in New York city, even if they were coming on foot. It was funny how angry she got over something as small as that.
"I feel like I am getting the college experience I never had"
Matt grinned at her and shook his head. “How is this the college experience? Don’t tell me you’ve never ordered a pizza before.” He knew that she could be a bit of a shut-in sometimes, but that seemed like it would be a bit overboard.
Finally, the doorbell rang. Matt stood up and made a point of stretching out his shoulders and walking slowly toward the door, just to annoy Svetlana. Eventually, he did make it there. He pulled the door open, letting whoever was behind it see right inside. Whoever it was would have perfect clarity of the whole apartment. He wasn’t exactly paranoid about his own doorstep.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 21, 2018 15:00:06 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
The “broody musician” thing was something that he was more than adept at pulling out of his hat. He had been playing the guitar since he was little, and singing along came naturally with that. Plus, he could smoulder like no one else; it was one of his special talents.
As such, it made good fodder to tease her with as well as himself. She had claimed that it was just the music, and was sticking to that. Otherwise, she would have made a move on him back at the bar. He chuckled and leaned his head back slightly, tapping his hands on the top of his guitar. Wouldn’t that have been a change of events? “It wasn’t that easy, was it?” he pointed out soberly. If they had just had a one night stand rather than actually speaking, then there would have been a specific change of pace. What would he even know about his abilities if that had been the case? Would he want to know? They were likely much better off in this scenario.
Plus, he liked getting to know Svetlana.
“Instead we got each other’s baggage,” he continued, more to himself than to her. “I think I like it that way around. It’s been good getting to know you, Svetlana.” No more explanation was needed.
She seemed to be waiting for him to do something, and he was still holding his guitar, so he went back to strumming a few chords. A brief flash of eye contact, and he decided to play another song. A bar or two in, he began to add in lyrics. This one was less of a question, and more of a feeling. He felt like the air was right for another song, and he didn’t want to leave empty space for things to be awkward or strange again.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 21, 2018 9:10:08 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
The jab was meant to lighten the mood a little; maybe get her from focusing on the ViewTube comment, and it had gone smoothly. She smiled at it, clearly thought about it for a moment, and gave a fair answer. He nodded, his smirk rolling into to a closed lip grin at her response. Did cooking matter? To some, definitely. It mattered to Matt and his family, so he understood the desire to have it go well. What was the point in doing it if it wasn’t worth raving about?
He had assumed that she was going to be making tomato sauce to top some spaghetti, but that wasn’t the case at all. Enchiladas. He had to assume that she meant Mexican enchiladas (which was too bad, in his opinion), but even then, he knew the traditional recipe and how it was meant to go. Tomato sauce was an addition made by the Americanization of it in order to make the process easier and possibly less intense. According Matt, though, that was cheating.
“Ay ay ay,” he said with a shake of his head, muttering something under his breath in Spanish as he dug through his coat. He couldn’t let this woman go through life thinking that Enchiladas were at their best with tomato sauce, even if they were Mexican and not Guatemalan. His hands searched through his pockets, finding his wallet, lighter, and cigarettes, but no paper. Eventually, he came across an old receipt in his wallet. Something from a trip to the store last month.
“Do you have a pen?” he asked the woman, nodding to her purse. There was usually something useful floating around in a purse, or at least something that could make a mark on the receipt. “If you can make this sauce, you’d be closer to real enchiladas. Much closer.” It wouldn’t give her a chance to perfect the sauce recipe that she had, but it would be worth it in the long run.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 21, 2018 8:53:04 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
It might’ve been a little strange to learn Svetlana’s real connection to adapteds, but he still understood why she hadn’t told him. She had a lot to lose by making wrong moves, so anything that she told people would be a risk. Just because he didn’t have powers didn’t necessarily mean that he wasn’t also potentially dangerous. He wasn’t, of course, but he’d proven that to her. They’d been vulnerable with one another and that allowed them both to show the merits of it.
There was still a nagging voice in the back of his mind going off about how she was only there because he turned her powers off, but he pushed it aside for the time being. She had been honest about everything else, so there was no reason why she wouldn’t be honest now. He just wished that he could believe that completely. Would there always be that feeling when he was around her? Feeling like she was only there for an escape or because she could safely hold his hand without having to worry about blowing up the city? Svetlana didn’t seem like that kind of person, and he felt like they were closer than that by now, but he couldn’t help but think about it.
Svetlana was chuckling as she started talking again, and Matt couldn’t help but give her a small smile. Must’ve been the music. He reached over and grabbed his guitar from where he had leaned it against the couch and slung it back over his chest. He grinned at her as he began to strum a chord or two quietly, playing the strings in simple arpeggios.
“Are you sure it’s not the broody musician look?” he asked teasingly, the mood lighter than it had been before. He was trying to get the doubts out of his mind, and it was working for the most part. “I’ve heard that that’s really popular these days.” It had worked for him in high school, anyway.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 20, 2018 21:53:48 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
The question of what she put in her sauce had been simple, just to figure out why she wasn’t having success with her attempts. She seemed as though she wanted to talk, so he was willing to indulge her. Talking to strangers about their lives took up most of his days, anyway. It was something that he liked to think that he was good at, though he might’ve gotten a different opinion if he’d actually asked a customer.
It took a moment for her to explain that it wasn’t that her attempts had been complete light-my-kitchen-on-fire failures, it was that she just wasn’t completely happy with them. Matt nodded understandingly, moving his cart over slightly so she could have better access to the tomatoes up front. She was grabbing quite a few, so maybe she had plans to try out a few different sauce recipes. “So the real issue is that you’re a perfectionist?” he asked with a smirk, raising his eyebrows with the jest.
She didn’t seem all that impressed by his suggestion of checking out ViewTube, which was fair. She was likely a traditional cook; Matt had met a few people who refused to bring technology into their kitchen in the fear that it would change something good. His mother was one of those. She even shut off her phone before starting to cook. If this woman just didn’t like that sort of thing, then that was fine by him. Hell, he tended to just make things from memory or experimentation.
“Well then I hope this batch goes well for you,” Matt said, gesturing toward her as he spoke. Really, he wanted the best for her tomato sauce. He felt like he was invested in the success of it now. “What’s it for, anyway? Spaghetti?” That was often the default for most Americans when it came to dinner. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that someone happened to be making it.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 20, 2018 21:31:52 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
It wasn’t fair of him to pity. He had spent years trying to tell people that he didn’t want their pity and he definitely didn’t want them to give him the look that he was probably giving her in that moment. She couldn’t control the fact that she had abilities as much as she could control her eye colour. She had done her best to control their effect on others, but there was only so much that she could do, it sounded like. Even when she was wearing gloves, she still had an aura and the ability to boost powers that couldn’t be turned off.
She didn’t owe him anything, really, but there seemed to be an understanding between the two of them. There was nothing that was off the table as far as honesty went, and Matt had displayed this with his own admissions of truth earlier, so she must’ve felt like it was necessary. Part of him wondered whether he would have told her that it wasn’t if she had given him the choice. He did want to know, all things considered.
Dangerous to be around. That was how she described herself. He’d been around dangerous people before, but he could see why she might say that. Constantly being kidnapped and under the watchful eye of anyone who wanted to use her abilities. No wonder she was a little paranoid; he would be, too. Thankfully, she was in a good place for the time being. She had people watching out for her. Matt nearly opened his mouth to say that she was safe as long as she was with him, but he said nothing. They had just met, and as much as he liked her, he couldn’t go making promises like that.
The real kicker, though, was that she really couldn’t touch anyone. Not even humans. According to Svetlana, the only people that she was really safe around were adapteds. Matt rolled in his lips and nodded slightly, seeing the implications of that immediately. What a strange turn of events - she only wanted him for his body. She quickly added that she didn’t want him to think that, but it was a little difficult not to have his mind go there. He liked her, but was she only putting up with him for the feeling of not having her powers on? He’d teased her about it back at the bar, but what if that was the truth after all?
“I get it,” he said simply, scratching the bridge of his nose as his eyebrows raised. Did he actually get it? Mostly. Probably. He hoped that she was telling the truth there. “Thank you for telling me. Trusting me.”
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 20, 2018 18:14:59 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
The way that Svetlana had described her powers suggested that she just gave people a boost for a while, like coffee. Matt couldn’t feel it, obviously, but he had assumed that it was something like just… a good feeling? He supposed that he hadn’t put much actual thought into what it would be like. He’d sort of taken the fact that he wouldn’t be able to experience it at face value. That was that.
Except, that wasn’t that at all. There was more that she hadn’t told him, either from fear or shame about what had happened. Matt took in a deep breath as he listened to her describe the way that she could intensify powers and activate them without meaning to. His elbow rested on the back of the couch and his hand was used to rest his chin as he looked at her. There was no judgement in his features, just a little bit of sadness.
He knew what guilt felt like. The way that she was unable to finish her sentence reminded him of some of the body language of his friend. Taking the life of another person was an act that changed you forever, and having it be an accident could alter a person completely. Was it her fault if it was just a part of her, though? Hardly, Matt figured, though that was unlikely to matter.
So, she didn’t touch people. She didn’t spend time around people. What else could she do, if everyone was trying to ruin her life all the time? Matt nodded slowly, his eyes heavy with understanding. He almost reached out to grab her hand, but he thought better of it. He hadn’t paid much attention to the fact that she didn’t like to touch people before, but now he was acutely aware of it. Had it bothered her when he’d taken her hand before? He hadn’t even thought about that very much.
Now he felt bad about teasing her about the kidnappings, too. God, he just felt bad in general, messing with the woman’s trust when she was so clearly lacking in it. “So that’s why you wear the gloves,” he said dumbly. He didn’t want to patronize her, but he felt like he needed to say something. Something to show that while the idea was a lot, he wasn’t about to judge. He didn’t have the ground for that.
He had needed to clarify that bringing people up to the rooftop wasn’t something that he normally did. It was a spot that he didn’t often like to share with the rest of the world, since it was an escape, not somewhere that he wanted to be crowded by people who didn’t understand the significance. Sure, it was a shared location, but he did feel a bit of ownership over it. Maybe that had come with the territory of having most other things in his life be in a constant state of change.
Still, he didn’t know what Svetlana’s intentions were behind the question. Was she wondering if this was his usual move if he wanted to get in someone’s pants? While, yes, she was gorgeous and he liked her, he hadn’t brought her up there for that intention. He’d brought her up there because he wanted to share something that he thought she’d enjoy.
That seemed to make her smile a little. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, looking how her face seemed to brighten at the realization that she had been invited there specially. His own face mirrored her a little, the corners of his mouth turning up a little as he looked down at his hands, which were clasped in his lap. He shifted just a little in his seat, crossing his arms instead as he turned to her.
There was something that she hadn’t told him about her powers. He looked at her quizzically, his brow furrowing as he studied her. He had been under the impression that they’d gotten so personal with each other that there was little else to tell, but there was a chance that she just hadn’t felt comfortable enough to explain it at the time. What else would there be to tell, though? Would it have any effect on him? That seemed impossible, but the way that she was posing it made it seem like there was something worse that she hadn’t told him.
“Alright, shoot,” he prompted, lifting his chin just a little toward her in time with the sentence. What could she say that could make him change his opinion of her at this point? She’d already heard the worst from him and taken that in stride.
Posted by Matt Morales on Mar 20, 2018 10:49:45 GMT -6
Adapted
#407184
Heterosexual
Sveta
173
26
Feb 13, 2020 21:10:32 GMT -6
Lix
The cushions relented against his weight as he leaned back against the couch, watching as Svetlana took a seat next to him. This was his own place, but he didn’t mind sharing it with her so much. She was a kindred spirit who seemed like she could also use a place to escape every once and awhile. Every once and awhile when the world became too much or just wouldn’t stop for a second. It was somewhere that could become a refuge if let be, or it could just be a nice view for a time. That was fine, too.
"Did you bring Chris up here too?"
Matt grinned to keep himself from laughing. He couldn’t imagine Chris in a space like that, honestly. He could, however, picture her making a mess of it, bringing girls up there and making the place her own. She was a great person, and he did enjoy spending time with her, but Chris was on a level that was not the same as his. She was off in her own place when he was dealing with his feelings. Who else had he met ever that could empathize as much as Svetlana? He couldn't think of a single face.
“No, I didn’t bring Chris up here,” he said with a hint of a chuckle in his voice. Chris, who was more like his younger sister than anything else, did not belong up there. “No, just you.” That was the truth. He might've brought his sister up there, but the time never seemed to fit; she was a busy person. Everyone else... well, it just wasn't a place for them. He was sharing something personal with her.
