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.
Posted by Noel on Jul 28, 2020 15:29:56 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
Having offloaded all the responsibility for the wedding felt like escaping from a significant looming burden. She simply let it move on like a dark sky that suddenly cleared of threatening rain. Not her problem. She only had to show up. In a dress.
"No tux for me?" She was only kind of kidding there. Dresses were a necessary evil at times and she could admit the necessity of a dress on the girl at a wedding. But, maybe she could get away with a short dress. Or a not-white dress. If she was walking around with a bowling ball between her legs, it'd be impossible to claim virgin white.
Noel received her cone first and, tempted as she was to secret it away to a table so she could inhale it at record speeds, she decided she should wait on the Ranger instead. He had paid for it, after all. She took a politely sized lick, much more ladylike than she was feeling at the moment.
"I don't want fireworks. I think "something small" sort of precludes fireworks, but I suppose I could be clear there." What else was an absolute no-go? "No unicycles or swords." Was his ice cream sort of purple? She compared Michael's cone to the options until she came up with a best-guess match since she hadn't been paying attention to his order. Lavender honey sounded... something. She'd have to steal a bite. "We probably shouldn't be flying somewhere fancy either. Or flying at all."
Was she something to show off? Maybe like calling dibs, he'd claim her in public with a kiss, which was one step up in classiness from a lick. That was also fine. She'd let everyone know she was his gladly because she'd cast her lot in with him already. This baby was the biggest plank in the foundation of the rest of their lives. They would always have shared DNA between them now. Some people used that to entrap a man.
And yet, between the two of them, he seemed the happiest about it all.
"Did you always want a kid? Or come around to the idea just recently?" They wandered to a table tall enough to stand at or take a stool. Noel opted to stand, but she did fish out the brochure she'd been given. She should probably ferret out a timeline for when she would be rendered completely useless and maybe learn a thing about the nebulous idea of what might come in the "after" part. This wasn't like a puppy where if things didn't work out, she could just drop it off at the pound.
Although... Orphanages existed. But Michael wouldn't let that happen.
They were in a video game. Cool. Noel tried to remember a video game he might be into, but sometimes trying to access his ill-gotten memories without powers made it hard to recall. He was still thinking when their third was threatening him about retribution. He would be dealt with.
"Huh? Oh yeah, sure." He wasn't overly worried because that was the future and the here and now was confusing enough. Also no friendly fire and a propensity for bullet-proofness made him a tad less worried.
Just a tad.
There were little dudes walking by and he tried to wave a gauntlet in front of one of their faces. They were like little zombies, hell bent on walking in a certain way.
Or computer programs. Okay. He wouldn't feel bad about hurting anyone here, then.
Wasn't there a phone game sort of like this?
Realizing that the girls had been planning without him, he zered back in on the conversation in time to hear that he was supposed to go to the top lane. Kill the enemy base. Not die. It sounded doable on paper.
"What's the point? Not the pings. The game." He motioned up which quickly went to darkness. Beyond a certain point there was no sky. No nothing. "Why send us here?"
The sounds of distant fighting drew his attention. Whatever her answer, they clearly had places where they needed to be and standing behind some surprisingly low castle walls was not that place.
"We'll settle th' score later." He waved to the ladies and hefted his sword so he could jog toward the top lane. Waiting for him there were more little dudes with a different color tunic and also it looked like there was a very small rat... hamster? Thing with a blowdart. It also had a custom name "FistyMcFearmeson."
"Howdy." Noel let his sword drop through one of the little fighting dudes in the middle of melee. In a satisfying explosion of pixels, the enemy minion disappeared and his lil dude advanced. "Crazy game, huh?"
"Die scum!" He was hit by a dart and suddenly all he could see was purple fog. He spun around in a blind panic for a full two seconds before it cleared. Once he could see again, there were a few new things to see. His green bar had decreased a surprising amount. None of the enemy's little dudes were left, at least three of his were. The little rat was running away with his green health also diminished.
Noel watched the last three dudes march bravely to throw tiny pixels at the enemy front turret. One or two tower shots and they each exploded. But already more little dudes were arriving, unaware and unphased by any potential mass massacre.
Posted by Noel on Jul 17, 2020 20:11:41 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
Something small was a relief. Something at all was not. "I don't want the attention." But that wasn't why they'd be doing it, was it? Noel went to loop her arm in his only to find that his arm was already around her shoulders and that was even better. She could imagine him with shined up shoes, ready to dance.
The phrase 'we've got a kid on the way' still didn't sit on her tongue right. It wasn't that it was untrue, it was just unbelievable. Noel swallowed hard as she reached for the door to the ice cream store. She didn't open the door straight away. She felt like she had something to say first.
"You know... once upon a time, I think that having- or even the idea of having a kid... that was maybe the worst possible thing." She was still nervous bordering on scared. Her world was shifting whether she was ready for it or not. And yet—"I think it's... possible. With our set up. Not what I would have picked and I'm still freaking out. But... possible, y'know? Before it was very impossible."
A satisfied customer armed with a waffle cone in each hand approached the other side of the door so Noel pulled it open for them.
"You're really good at making the impossible happen."
Which reminded her. "So I hope you're good at planning weddings because you're the only one with opinions on them other than 'ew' and I'm going to blow up like a watermelon and I'm not getting in a dress hella pregnant." Ugh just thinking about it made her both want to roll her eyes and hide in shame. Talk about a trashy shotgun wedding. She forced a smile. "And you want to find a family in there too, huh?"
She did step into the shop then. There was ice cream to be had and that was the least stressful possibility she'd had to face all day. The printed menu was not long, but there was a whole section of mix-ins.
"I want a cone with black walnut ice cream and toffee bits. He's paying." Like it mattered. They were a joint household at this point.
The instructions were clear. The execution was... less so.
Noel pulled herself off the combatant and resettled herself in the here and now while Sabine gave out instructions and made sure he was secure. Touching a few key stones of her reality gave her a solid set on what was now and who she was— her hand, her weapon, her night vision goggles. She left her coms on the channel with the X's to hear the banter and get a guess for what was out there in the expanse of open that they had to cross.
Like... a rhino. There was supposed to be a charging rhino-shifter out there.
"Should be fun." The real trick would be to not get mistaken for one of the aimless wandering threats.
Noel nodded to Sabine and when she got her nod back, they edged to the front plate window of the store. There was a yawning open space like a hall that lead to the main attraction of action. She had to orient herself to be sure of the maps she'd studied before hand. They needed to find an escalator, escalate, and that would get them to the home center of JC Nickle's. Or, if they wanted to risk the melee, they could find the escalator inside the store.
Something hit a wall or maybe the floor hard enough that the plate window in front of Sabine and Noel them rattled in its housing.
"Up then over, I think." They were both as fragile as humans. No way they should be walking through fire needlessly. They would just have to cross carefully and then they'd be out of the X's way.
And Noel lead the way. Keeping low, Noel made it past a dark echoing store and a boggy nail salon before she stopped to watch the chaos of the open mall where the X-team had been let loose. There wasn't time, but there could be novels written about what was going on in there.
She waited while a teen stepped fully past the opening of the escalator before running behind her. She seemed foggy and not at all very present, but Noel tased her to drop her anyway. She hadn't gotten on the ground when the X-men were shouting about it, either.
The escalator wasn't moving, of course, but it still functioned as a way up. Again, she kept low which royally sucked since the escalator rails were less cover. Her thighs could complain tomorrow, but she was determined to live today.
She got to the top and scrambled backwards into Sabine before she actually hit the top step. Something flung toward the pair as soon as Noel's head had crested the top of the stairmaster and splattered against the toothy metal top step, a tiny droplet ricocheting onto Noel's headgear.
It sizzled and started steaming almost immediately.
She'd already launched her stun gun cartridge. The base would arc and she could press that into a body to get the same result, but... a chunk of metal fell from the top of the escalator down into the mechanism that would normally make it move.
Posted by Noel on Jul 10, 2020 22:34:15 GMT -6
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Ghost
Handsome Pantymelter McSuaverson caught her hand and proposed which was seemed like a foregone deal considering the tattoos. "I mean, obviously I'm not opposed." She planted a light kiss across his knuckles since they were there and accessible and part hers. She may have felt a bit proprietary of them.
It seemed like she was turning out to be the voice of reason in these lofty dreams, though.
"You're not thinking anything crazy, right? Just small? Or just us?" She tried to search his eyes and make sure she wasn't breaking some expectations he might have been forming. "It'll have to be courthouse. I can't scrape up enough bodies to fill to fill a church, and I don't have anybody to show off for. I'd probably light on fire just crossing the threshold, anyway." And a dress? Forget it.
Noel turned to exit the car, but had to wait for cars to finish passing before she could even attempt the door.
Posted by Noel on Jul 8, 2020 22:35:06 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
"Shut up!" She gave him a shove because he'd said that on purpose knowing full well that his face melting her lady parts was some of what got them into this whole mess. She still wasn't used to it, but he left her laughing as they gamboled down the sidewalks, significantly less burdened than when they'd shuffled in to see the doctor.
"That was more like a wash of rose colored paint than a picture." And damn. A tree? That sounded like straight out suburbs. And expensive. Teamwork, at least, was where they excelled. She could see that part of it.
"Providing for sounds easier than-" loving. She was all too happy to imagine Putney had only spoken t Michael. She snatched the keys rather than finishing that sentence and went for the driver's side, quickling running through her phone for an ice cream place.
How could she love it? What if it was terrible? She couldn't just return it to the store.
"What about Christmas? You got a plan for a tree? Traditions?" Family traditions. With a thrill she realized that they were a family. Noel had tried to throw him something specific and happy. Something to help him untangle the knots she was tying in her guts.
Noel's notes had said that she was not to drive. Apparently she'd proven that she couldn't before, but that was from the time when she was old. Now, her memories were filled with offensive and defensive maneuvers and she was more fluid at manual than the Ranger was. She waited for a car to pass and backed out of the parallel parking in one roll, shifted, and they were slinking between cars and weaving through traffic like the cat this wonderful machine was was named for. Her phone called directions, but honestly the trip was short. New York was in no short supply of great ice cream.
She twisted and put her arm across Michael's seat so she could line up the boot of the car for entry into a tight parking spot.
Posted by Noel on Jul 7, 2020 20:49:13 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
It was so cute to see him off kilter. This guy was unflappable and yet here was was. Flappin.
"I think my problem is that I have no experience. Zero. Less than zero maybe? Is that-? Is that possible? I don't have family or experience with family. I can't think back and remember what my mother did with me. I have a hodge-podge of self-satisfied soccer mom memories, but most of that's older kids. But babies? I mean, they don't come out walking and talking. I haven't even seen? A baby? Outside of a commercial?" She took her time getting her boots and shirt settled as she talked. Her pamphlet took a place of honor in her phone memory. She took a picture of each page before it got lost or damaged. "I'm sure commercials are really true to life."
The picture? She let Ranger hold the picture.
"I can't see terminating. Like, I... I just can't feel good about that right now. But I also can't imagine going forward. I see the past, and as far as all this kind of stuff goes it's blank."
There was one thing, one small glimmer of something.
"I can imagine it for you, though." She nudged him with her shoulder as they made their way out. "You could totally be a dad. Your face back there was... uterus exploding? Lady part melting?" It was near impossible to name, but she'd do almost anything to see that look on the regular, and it seemed there was a really selfish way to get there. Possibly the worst reason to have a kid in the history of ever.
"Paint me a picture, Hunter. Tell me what it's gonna be like." Not what it "might" be like. What it would be like. She could deny it all she wanted, but on some level, her mind was already made up.
Posted by Noel on Jul 7, 2020 19:25:45 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
He was so gone, trying not to show it, but totally in love.
On one hand, she was a tiny bit insulted that he loved so easily. On the other hand, she was so into it. If a grainy blobby promise of a baby made him make that face, she could only imagine what the actual thing might do. He'd likely split in two.
The idea was still growing on her, but she couldn't see it, couldn't imagine herself with a child in arms, let alone her child. But him… she could see him. She saw him with the dogs, he would crazy spoil a child. She could watch and fall even harder every time.
The sound of a cruddy printer brought Noel back to the here and now.
"This one is for you."
Noel accepted the black and white. It was just as blobby in still form, but had measurements that said 9w2d and identified the heart rate as 163.
"I'll uh, take it under advisement." Had she even seen a baby in her working memory? Survey said no.
Noel held up the paper for Ranger, trying and failing to be nonchalant. His reactions were everything here. Maybe he'd seen a baby this decade.
There was a little clean up, but really the baby seemed to account for any and all symptoms she'd come in with. She got her pamphlet and her pants. Both of those helped immensely.
Posted by Noel on Jul 7, 2020 18:00:13 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
There it was. The inevitable. The inescapable. That little flickering blob of grainy black and white sludge made her puke in front of powerful people. She watched the doc as he worked the machine, but he didn't seem alarmed that anything was wrong. He seemed delighted, in fact. Maybe he was to caught up in playing with his equipment. And Ranger... he was gone over the moon.
She shouldn't have let him see it.
"Ah! There! Knew we were missing something." Putney thumbed a few keys and they got audio. Mostly it was whooshing, but underneath that, in time with the little flicker... "Heartbeat."
"That's right. I know it's hard to make out because it's still early, but here's the head. Right now I'm just measuring crown to rump, that might give us another data point to guess gestational age." He moved the wand for a better and different angle. "Kiddo's running from it. Hold still, baby. Let me measure you."
Another gut punch as Noel realized... It wasn't an "it" at all. It moved. It was trying to get away. Already it had things it wanted, or didn't want. Already it had... feelings.
Ours was what Ranger had breathed in awe. Like it was as easy as adding 1 and 1 and everything would be okay.
"When- How long until you can't do normal things? Running. Lifting weights. Bending over. You know. Cliche pregnancy woes." Basically how long could she sit on this ticking time bomb and maybe pretend it wasn't there?
"Running?" He was typing, rolling a ball connected to the monitor, clicking to mark a spot and measure, and otherwise distracted as he answered. "I've seen ladies in the city marathon who are hella pregnant. You can run recreationally the whole time so far as I know. I think if you keep eating healthy you don't have to sit out of your normal everyday activities. No roller coasters or alcohol. No smoking or drugs. I have a pamphlet if you're interested."
"I'm... interested." She chanced a look at Ranger.
Oh, he was here for her decision, was he? "That's not how this goes, cowboy. It's not just my decision." He was in it for life? Well then he got a say in the rest of that life. His DNA donation, his vote. He could just chew on that because they needed to put this conversation on hold. Dr. Putney was rolling in with a computer screen and a few wired things on a cart. Her hand found his pretty quick.
"To figure out our timeline, all I need is a measuring tape and for you to lay down flat, legs straight. I brought the cart, 'cause... well I never get to use this thing. That's up to you if you want to see more. Most who decide against proceeding don't want to. I suspect you have some questions, regardless of what you decide. If one pops up, just shoot it off. I'll answer anything I can to the best of what I can."
That meant Ranger was officially kicked off the table. Rats. Noel's anxiety kicked up. Her brain was screaming vulnerable as she laid out flat. Ranger was there. He'd punch through anything that might actually hurt her.
"What do I do with my hands?"
Putney blinked like that was a brand new question. "Whatever you want so long as you don't try to block my way. I'll talk you through before I do anything."
Okay, so maybe Noel looked as spooked as she felt. He was talking to her like a restless horse. Noel moved one hand under the small of her back and the other went to Ranger. There. See? Plenty safe. She would have to make a conscious choice to do something now.
"I'll touch your abdomen. If I can feel the top of the uterus, then I'll measure from pubic bone to the top edge. One centimeter per week, is the going rate." She nodded and he pushed into her stomach with strong fingers, lower than she expected but then she'd never really thought about where a uterus might be.
"Here we go. I found it right here." He marked the spot with a finger and fetched the tape measure. Putney did it all on top of the cloth and then transferred the spot he'd marked on her belly to a spot on the tape measure which he then held up to show off for the crowd.
9 centimeters. How could it be 9 centimeters? 9 weeks sounded like a lot. There was no bulge in her tummy, nothing but queasiness to indicate that really anything was different.
"The way the cycle is counted, 2 weeks pregnant is before you've even ovulated. Crazy, but that's just how it goes." So for the math, 7 weeks ago... Noel had just poured over her timeline and she knew that was suspiciously close to when they'd decided this was a forever thing.
"What else is on the cart?" She recognized a shiny silver speculum, which was absolutely no fun, but none of the rest.
"The IUD comes out today, no matter what you decide. You can schedule with your regular Gyno for a replacement, but it's possible the extra hormones are what's making you feel sick on top of sick. Taking that out should help. And, if you're interested, we can try the wand ultrasound to see what we can see. I'll take some measurements that can help your OB. Excited? Ya wanna see?"
It was clear that at least one of them was excited. What had Dr. Putney said? He never got to use that machine?
"Okay. The IUD comes out." She didn't even have to look at the Ranger to know that he wanted to see it up on the screen. But, like a rescue puppy, Noel knew that if they saw it... they'd want to keep it. That's how that went, right?
"I want to see it." Her words were sour and undecided. "He wants to. I can just close my eyes if I have to." She amended until it tasted right again.
Putney got her legs into stirrups. Joy. She squeezed her eyes shut as he talked her through the removal. It wasn't bad. Just a bit of a pinch. Of course. Then he was getting the wand ready. It was clear where that was headed.
A steady and low stream of "shit, shit, shit, shit" streamed from her lips and Noel wasn't typically a curse word sayer, nor did she seem to realize that she was both watching the screen, and squeezing the everloving hell out of Ranger's hand.
Posted by Noel on Jul 6, 2020 22:19:04 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
He said terminate it and Noel felt a visceral thrum through her whole body. It was the right thing to do, the responsible thing to do.
Just the idea of it made her feel ill. She'd shouted no before because, in her heart of hearts, she just wanted time to think it through, to talk it through. She should be shouting yes. But this was a situation she never thought she'd get to.
"Never in my life did I think I'd be here in a loving long-term relationship." She swallowed hard. Somehow she'd found someone so good at rolling with the punches and finding ways to juke her power. He'd bend over backwards just to make things work, he sure sounded like he wanted to make this work. "If it'd been me and just me... well, this wouldn't have happened, but if it had maybe I could have talked myself out of it."
Why couldn't it have just been a tumor?
"Why...? What benefit does a child bring? To people like us? Isn't that one more thing to be used against us?" To distract them. To worry and split their time or focus?
"What if I don't like it? I just like you. There's not anything more to give." Or... more likely it wouldn't like her.
But then again, he'd said it was "ours". Both of them. A definite and permanent tie. They were both fixers and problem solvers, if there was anyone who could solve this problem... who could make this work...
A knock at the door surprised her into action. Noel hopped down and started shucking her boots so she could get out of her pants. "Not dressed. Just gimmie 60 seconds." She yanked her top off. A few months ago, she'd have been mortified to do that in front of anyone, especially Ranger. She grabbed the two cloths and puzzled them out. There was one rectangle with a hole for her head that just sort of draped around her like a too-short and too-worthless poncho. The other was a wrap-around and tie situation, rather like an apron. The effect was that she felt rather covered, even her cheeks were tucked in, but her belly was exposed and there was easy access to any part of her.
"You owe me ice cream." She jabbed her finger into his shoulder and hopped back up to the bench, realizing too late that she'd just left her clothes all higgldy-piggldy on the ground.
Posted by Noel on Jul 6, 2020 20:23:43 GMT -6
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Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
"Dangerous jobs. Not to mention that I just started this job and already I'm going to have to take a break or ride a desk. I'm not giving up my job. I'm not staying home. And we don't even take care of our dogs right. And the dogs would gobble a baby right up. Do we have to get rid of the dogs?" Once she'd started, it was just every fear tumbling out one right after another. Because that's really what it was. Not anger. Fear.
"It's forever with a kid. Not just 18, forever! You can't just drop them off and come back two weeks later!" Which was basically what they'd done when de-aged. "We don't live in a permanent residence. We're not even actually married. We don't have help, or support. I don't have friends on my own, I basically only know people you know because I can't keep up with relationships or conversations or pop culture or... or... I won't know it. I might really fuck this up. Like. Really-really. I can't guarantee that I won't accidentally take something really important from it.
And. And I have no patience or experience with kids. I'd be more confident fist fighting a crocodile underwater."
Posted by Noel on Jul 6, 2020 19:13:46 GMT -6
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Ghost
She got a hand over her eyes which meant she was about to do something bad. Michael explained and Noel had to upgrade her transgressions to already did a bad thing. Michael pulled her in close and no doubt could feel the fine tremor wracking Noel's body. Her eyes were going off and she was squeezing them shut, but it was more than that. It was a violent need to do something and a total inability to do anything.
It was so much worse than a tumor.
"Sooo. I am not sure what that was, but I can tell this is unexpected news." Unexpected was a nicer way to say "unwelcome" it seemed. The doc for his part, was trying not to intrude, but he didn't have all night to stand and wait. "We've got a lot of options. Day after pill or manual evacuation."
"No!" She was absolutely pissed--balling her fists into Ranger's plaid shirt and keeping her face stuffed into the folds there, but she was more mad it happened than anything else. She couldn't even think that far ahead, didn't want to hear it. How could it be true? She'd had an IUD! That was supposed to work!
"No matter what you decide," he continued, unphased, "I've got a two piece gown for you. We'll need to do some measurements to figure out where you are exactly. We can even wheel a cart in and see if we can get a heartbeat" He set the generic cloth pile down on a nearby surface. "I'll leave you to discuss and I'll knock before I come back. If you need anything sooner, just pop out and get the front desk's attention."
Shoot, shoot, shoot!
Everything about Michael's attitude seemed to have flipped. The worry seemed to evaporate. That's because he didn't have a body snatcher invading his personal space.
Whatever it is, we'll handle it is what she'd told him. This was... this was so much more permanent than she'd been thinking.
Posted by Noel on Jul 6, 2020 17:18:35 GMT -6
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S.U.P.E.R.
S.U.P.E.R. Agent
yellowgreen
Ranger
1,751
532
Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
When Noel went to the bathroom, there were instructions on the wall for how sanitize and a tray waiting for her sample. She left it, washed her hands again, and let the front desk know it was in there before popping back to the space where Ranger waited.
In the end, she'd chickened out on telling Putney about her mutation. This way, she assured herself that he wouldn't dismiss anything suspicious just because her brain was involved. Visions of brain tumors danced in her head right up until the moment she squeezed herself onto the paper-covered bed next to where the Ranger was swinging his legs, and put her hand back where it belonged in his.
She was starting to get the impression that he was more worried than she was.
"Whatever it is, we'll handle it." That's what they did. She was a cleaner by profession, if there was a problem she made it go away one way or another. And they were just starting tests here. They might not get "the" answer today, but eventually they'd get some information.
She settled just a mite closer so she could lean her head against his shoulder. "Besides. Peeing in a cup wasn't on the list. What do I get for that one?" She was ready to open negotiations, maybe a bit sad that she'd put ice cream so far off on a gown. Seemed like a gown wasn't in the cards (and she was so, so okay with that).
"C'mon. If you're gonna bribe me, bribe me properly."
A knock at the door kept her from teasing Michael further. Teasing was better than stewing. They just had to get past whatever news Putney walked in with.
"Good news. We've already got some answers for ya. Congratulations! You're pregnant!" He offered a paper to whoever would take it and
She felt like she'd been gut punched. She could hardly breathe out the first question that came to mind. "IUD?"
"We'll need to take that out, but--"
She met Putney's eyes, feeling decidedly sick.
He stopped, looking a little confused for a moment and started again.
"Oh. Hey, there you are. I've got some good news! We've already got some answers for ya. Congratulations! You're pregnant!"
Noel paled, feeling like she'd had the air knocked out of her with a hit to stomach. "Wha- What about the IUD?" She raised her eyes to meet Putney's.
Posted by Noel on Jul 6, 2020 13:51:24 GMT -6
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S.U.P.E.R.
S.U.P.E.R. Agent
yellowgreen
Ranger
1,751
532
Dec 21, 2021 8:26:40 GMT -6
Ghost
"Tiredness? A week, maybe more. It's been a bit of a stressful spring with some major life changes, job stuff, you know. The vomiting is exclusive to today. I mean, twice today. A puke here or there isn't unheard of.
Noel wasn't sure if the doctor introducing himself to the Ranger first counted for her treat scale, but she had predicted blood draw. Neat. She was already racking up the medical frequent flyer points.
"Dizziness? Headaches? You're eating enough, not crash dieting for that summer bod?"
"Negative for dizziness. Mostly I'm just so tired I can't keep awake, even with an early bedtime. Headaches can be a regular part of my day. I... like food more than bikinis?"
He outlined how and where he would use the stethoscope before doing so, directing Noel in how and when to breathe. She appreciated that even if it did involve hands up under her shirt.
"Heart sounds strong and regular. Lungs sound clear. No shortness of breath or…?" She was already shaking her head no.
"Ah well you hit 30 and your body starts falling apart, right?" Though he did do a double take between her paperwork and her face.
Maybe they should start using different birth years.
"We can run a full battery. You'll need to pee in a cup."—dammit. She hadn't put that one in the list— "Your blood pressure looks a bit elevated, but you did mention stress. We'll just have to keep digging. Headaches and vomiting are the only things that stand out so far as concerning to me. Are we taking lay you out fist migraine or just an annoyance?"
Noel had slept on the way over instead of strategizing with Ranger. Demore being who he was… did that mean they could talk about their powers freely with this Putney guy? She glanced at Ranger, unsure of how to ask.
