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.
Juniper just stared at him. She got the bit about being on camer- she tried hard not to get caught on camera, too. But the part about him being a mutant? The point went right over her head.
"I mean, yeah? Like... kinda hard not to figure out you're a mutant with the wings and all." The human vs mutant thing had never really been a thing she needed to deal with seeing as she came from a very long line of mutants. She also "passed" as human unless she used her powers around someone, so not many people immediately pegged her as some sort of monster or demon... unlike those who couldn't hide. "Now that mention it... I don't think I've ever met a person with wings before. I knew someone once who was totally green, like a frog, but no wings. Must be kinda rare, huh?"
He questioned whether or not the venom affected mutants differently and the joke once again went over her head. "Ohshi-" She turned back to the sign to check.
Nope. No mention of mutants. Was that a good sign!? "I didn't know Jellyfish could be poisonous. Wonder what else is dangerous..."
Like a mind reader, Carrick found one! "Lionfish?" It wasn't the biggest fish she'd ever seen, and it was very pretty. She could see where they got the name from. "So what, it bites you, and you keel over? Or is it like catfish needles?" She focused on the sign to find out.
"I dunno..." Juniper mumbled, before sliding a sly smile the winged mutants way. "I'd say you're the better looking of the two. Much more majestic."
She glanced down the hall at the other tanks, before spotting a sign that said 'reef'.
There were a host of other tanks, with many different kinds of fish in them. She got distracted by a tank that was seemingly empty, though.
"...Sea horses. Where? There's nothing in this one."
That earned a grin. "I know... that's why I like him. That's what I like about you, too."
How'd she managed to get stuck with so many people like that?
Xavier was lucky she wasn't in a mindset to pick apart what he meant by shortcuts. Instead of asking him what he meant, she just cocked her head slightly at him and remained silent. He was a worrier- she knew that much. She was fine with letting him worry a bit if that's what he was on about.
A much deeper frown appeared when he mentioned why he'd want her on the team. She wanted to tell him that he was wrong. Explain that most of what he knew about her was a slew of off-the-cuff lies she used on almost everyone. She wasn't brave, she wasn't kind... Xavier didn't know about all of the other things she'd done. She was sure that he'd only stuck around this time because it was a clear-cut case of her being a victim.
In the end, she wasn't able to make her thoughts vocal. Xavier jumped in valiantly to defend her own character, which was just so like him it wasn't even funny. She just ended up laughing a little through her nose.
"Alright, alright, I give. You win." She lifted her hands in surrender, "But... you're not totally correct."
She shifted the empty plate off of her lap, "Juniper Brown is my past. You met her a long time ago, and I think she's slowly been going quiet. I feel like I'm somethin' different now. Don't really know who I am."
She glanced at him, offered a nervous smile since she didn't have hair to hide behind anymore, and stuck one burned and bandaged hand out. "So... hi. I'm Juniper. I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm not perfect, but since people seem to wanna believe in me, I'll try my best... Let's be friends?"
...Lock set? It took her a moment too long to comprehend what he was talking about. What, was he a locksmith or something?
But, then he mentioned security tapes and it clicked. Ooooh. A thief? An enthusiast? Eh... didn't matter in the end, she supposed. "Sure. They have to have a security office in here, somewhere."
Juniper giggled impishly at the 'how?' that popped out of him. Surprising people with her mutation was always fun. One of the best ice breakers for parties!
"I've never been to one before..." She stopped by a big mural on a wall of a bunch of different fish. She couldn't really identify any of them. She was used to seeing Channel Catfish and Muskellunge, though she knew there were a lot of other kinds in the waters of her state.
"Manta ray? Are those the ones with the stabby bit?"
She continued on down one hall, and pretty soon there were aquariums on wither wall, built-in. Pockets of different kinds of aquatic life. The first one that caught her eye was a tank filled with what looked like floating bags with tendrils.
"Ooh! Jellyfish?!"
Because she was bad at self-control, she pressed her face up against the glass to get a closer look. "I've never seen one in real life. I wonder what they feel like."
And then she reached on in and snagged one, pulling out a hand that was suspiciously not wet, with a deflated opaque blob in the middle of her palm.
It just sat there. Didn't do anything. Her disappointment was clear on her face. "Aw... I woulda thought it would wiggle around like an octopus or something. Look!" She held it out to him, and only after grabbing it did she think to turn and look at the placard on the wall beside the tank.
"Moon jellyfish?..." She read further, ".... VENOMOUS!?" That jelly ended up back in the tank super fast, and she tried to wipe her hand off on her hoodie.
"The fish are what?!" She absolutely believed him. Why wouldn't she? She immediately turned to try and see if there were any glowing fish in the water. "I thought that was just an Ohio thing..."
She didn't have much time to dwell on that, though, as they were suddenly joined by even more bad guys. Two stooges and a pirate, apparently. She wasn't familiar enough with pirate movies to make a joke, though.
Helmet dude leapt in all cool like right off the bat, and Juniper just stood there and watched him for a moment. He worked a lot different than X did... the giant blonde hero tended to go into things with a cheerful smile, depending on the bad guy, and just effortlessly bounce people around. It was cool, but not like... martial arts master cool. He took down one guy in... was that two moves? And suddenly they were down to two bad guys to deal with.
She might have gasped softly in nerdy fangirl glee when the batons appeared, and even more so when the guy he was going up against whipped out an expanding staff from nowhere.
"So coooool..."
Oh, er... she should probably help, right?
The last guy had some kind of rifle- it was hard to see what kind in the dark- but as luck would have it he'd jammed it somehow already. She scooted on over to him real quick, grabbed him by the pants and one jacket arm, and hefted his phased self over her head. He went sailing out over the water a moment later to join his buddy in the water with an audible splash.
Then she stood there awkwardly wondering what to do. She wasn't gonna barge into Helmet's fight, it was probably against Hero rules or something.
... Start throwing crates?
Start throwing crates!
She started phasing and chucking crates into the water.
She was actively gesturing at the giant bird with both hands. "What do you mean 'Who's carrick'? THAT was Carrick! Now look at him! They exploded him into a bird somehow!" She glanced back at the creature as it approached. Was it even a bird? Birds didn't normally look like that. Wait, no, not an it, that was still Carrick in there.
She snuffled right the heck out of the way and behind Zek more as Carrick went in for a head bump, but that was at least... Like, a good sign? Like... he wasn't gonna carry them off like an Eagle and devour them in a tree?
Zek didn't seem surprised, though. Was... Was this a normal thing? Juni had never met someone who shifted before.
"Uh...." Duuuude, she'd never seen feathers that big before! Maybe a taaad bit hesitantly, she inched forward to crawl on. He was, like, chirping at them? Birb language? Lord, she barely even knew english on a good day.
Her steps were light as she found herself a spot and just kinda awkwardly stood on him. She had most of her body phased away, so just the weight from her feet would be present. She'd rode on a horse before, once, and a mechanical bull one time... but never something or someone that could fly. The closest she got to that was the few times she'd "jumped" with Xavier or Saph.
"Carrick, have I mentioned how cool you are?" Super cool. She was balancing on him like a surf board, with her arms straight out at her sides. You know, just in case she needed to jump off or whatever.
Were people doing cool stuff and she just couldn't see it? How lame! Smithers was quite a bit bigger than her (most people were) so even craning her head to look was damn near impossible. Zek was on some sort of rant, Elliot was apparently the calm, cool-headed one of the group, with the foresight to ask about Eisen and getting his wounds seen.
Oh.
Duh. That made sense. She supposed that-
"L-LITTLE GIRL!?"
Ah, and the blind rage was back.
~~~
Smithers got his wish of her climbing out of him, but probably not with the end that he had wanted. Instead of leaving him fully alone, she'd just turned herself around and climbed him like a ladder so that she could seat herself on his shoulders and sink her feet and lower legs in his body. That gave him freedom of movement without the possibility of escape, or turning on them, right?
She was also visibly pissed the whole trek back, which on her face just looked like a mix of adorably grouchy and disgruntled sour.
Once they were back inside where there was seating to go around, the very place this had all started no less, she remained seated where she was. The old Bat could try and remove her, but he'd quickly find any such attempts futile. Juniper could be as stubborn as a barnacle on the side of a ship, that had somehow learned how to phase.
"If you murdered glowstick dude, I will permanently fuse your head with something in this room." She started looking around, making up her threat on the fly.
"Like that Urn over there... or that Clock. Or that pillow head. Wanna be a pillow head for the rest of your long life?"
He didn't seem frightened of her threat. More he seemed visibly irritated by the fact she was still stuck in him. A too big parasite that could talk, poorly. Smithers sighed, "You will have to bring your friend out, my man is on his way." He gestured toward a couch.
The butler arrived a moment later in a full-length leather apron, with gloves and a mask on, and a very large doctor's bag in one hand.
She glanced sidelong at him, a half-empty tray of food in her lap that she'd more or less given up on. It was nice... hearing that. It was the, what, second time she'd ever had someone say they were proud of her? She couldn't help but feel like it kinda hollow though. Did it really count as surviving if she didn't really fight for it? It didn't feel like she had. Still, she offered him a tired half-smile.
Hearing that he'd met Blue and was still walking around un-singed, she was mildly surprised. More than that though, she felt bad. She'd gone and promised him that she'd try not to just leave again, and that was exactly what she had done.
"I hope he wasn't too mad... I sorta made a promise to him that I'd stick around for a while." Was she even going to get to see him again? She wasn't sure if she'd be allowed back to her apartment after all this, and that led her to worry about what Blue was gonna do. The remainder of that caused fresh, hot tears to pool in her eyes and she tried to scrub them away before they could fall.
She was honestly a bit confused about his stance on how she'd handled her Uncle or tried to at least. She had thought for sure he would be super disappointed in her, and say just as much. "The other guy that was there told me I needed to take care of it, and all I could think about was all of the other kids who didn't make it. It made me really mad."
She nodded, too tired to react to his visceral reaction at Saph beating him to the offer. His admission of wanting to scout her definitely caught her off guard though, and she pulled a face at him. "Me? What? Why?? All I've gone since I let you convince me to try and get a GED was cause problems around there."
... Which led her back to the problem that she was going to be there for a long while from now on, doing god only knew what through the program. What would everyone else think of her? What would Becca or Sam think of her now?
"It ain't gonna be daisies and roses..." She mumbled out, repeating back the words Saph had just said to her. "I dunno, Adonis. I don't know how any of this is gonna go. People don't tend to like people like me getting some magical Hero makeover. Doesn't matter what I do from here on out, I'll always be first and foremost the mistakes I made in the past."
She traced invisible circles on her blanket and sighed. "But, I mean, like... no change there. I'm pretty used to that at this point. Probably shouldn't worry about it."
Welp, that settled it. He wanted the why's the what's and the who's. He was in for a long story if that was the case.
"Alright."
She settled herself back into her pillows and took a deep breath, and started where it all began.
Literal hours passed as she worked her way through her story. It was hard to start from just when she'd met him, or just when he'd bumped into her at the alley. Too many places for questions to pop up and divert the story. She knew that if she didn't get it all out in one go she'd stop and stumble, and then get nervous about continuing.
She explained where'd she'd come from, who her Uncle had been, and his importance in the events that followed. She explained her rag-tag group of friends, their subsequent deaths, and her exit from Ohio. She explained the thefts, the few jobs she had that she'd failed in. Why she didn't stay anywhere for too long and hopped state to state.
She talked about meeting him and for the first time in a long while wanting to try again. About how she'd actually gotten somewhere and felt like she was achieving something she'd always been told she couldn't. She brought up her parents and how them showing up out of the blue hadn't just been to check in on her. It was tied to her Uncle's release from jail, and him worming his way back into her life.
She explained the blackmail, stumbled over-explaining why she even cared, and that led to her talking about her time with the collar around her neck. ... And then her running into him, and the order from Keith for her to get rid of him.
"...I wasn't sure it would work, but I couldn't think up anything else to do. If I had hesitated he would have told me to do something else, something even more horrible. I'm sure of it."
Her fingers clenched in her blankets. Her throat hurt, but she wasn't even close to being done.
She continued on, only interrupted by a nurse stopping in to bring food and check on her.
She carried on into what had happened after the heist. How he'd tried to have her killed, and very quietly, how she'd decided to kill him instead. She absolutely did not look at Xavier while telling him this, because she was well versed in his feelings on people killing people.
She rambled off into ending up in the dark place, how terrifying that had been, and ended with her return... and then running into the hooded figure who'd ultimately put her down.
"-Probably shouldn't have all things considered but... I mean, I wasn't really thinking straight."
She'd paused here and there to clarify anything he asked, and now that it was all out there she just... didn't know what to do. She still had to answer him for his idea. "Saph already mentioned something like that. I agreed to it already."
... Still didn't know how it would go over, though, but all she could do was try, right?
"I don't really think it will go well, but at least the X's can say they like, tamed a wild criminal or whatever. Maybe that's the silver lining."
"I know... Saph told me my brother was here to see me."
He sounded fine. Like, sure, mortal wounds or missing arms probably didn't change the sound of your voice, but still. She was afraid to ask... but maybe she didn't have to.
He said he was worried about her and her chest clenched, and just about every other sore muscle on her. Ouch... that had hurt. "I know..." Her voice was muffled a little, and raspy, but there. Quietly guilty.
He asked her to tell him, and for the life of her she struggled to figure out what he wanted to know. Out of everything what did he need to hear? Or was it just everything?
The bundle of blankets on the bed shifted. She was uncertain and her gut reaction was to tell him no. She didn't wanna talk about it. Any of it. Bringing it up just hurt because there wasn't anything she could do to go back and fix it all.
But... he was involved, and he was owed an explanation at the very least, she felt.
Slowly, reluctantly, she pulled her blankets back and sat up. She didn't look at him right away as she preoccupied herself with getting the blankets how she wanted them on her lap.
If he had thought she looked bad that time she and Elke fought, he was in for a shock now.
Bruises all over, rings of purple and brown around her neck. An old scabbed-over cut on her bottom lip, and a new, still swollen split on the top with two small stitches in it. The long wound on her cheek had been cleaned and treated and was patched with a clear protective layer as a bandaid. She was thin and pale, with scratches all over what the hospital gown didn't cover.
When she finally looked at him, she couldn't muster up the energy to offer one of her usual smiles.
She heard the door open again, footsteps came inside. She realized she was holding her breath, waiting for the worst.
... and then he spoke and it was just so normal.
He called her Juni, and she was keenly aware of how that made her heart hurt a bit.
"...hey."
What was she supposed to say? 'Sorry I tried to kill you, I'm glad it didn't stick'?
'Sorry I left without saying anything, again, but hey I'm back now and also a huge criminal!'
He may have rehearsed what he wanted to say over and over and over, but she hadn't thought of it. She didn't want to, because she knew she'd start crying, and what was that gonna solve?
"Sorry... I know you hate lying."
She chewed on her lip and remained under her cotton shield, hiding in the slight darkness it provided. The lights from above still shined through or glowed rather, but the barrier between her and him helped.
She shrugged at his warning. Hard work was fine, so long as she didn't have to give up the few precious things she now had in life. "I don't mind hard work."
His reaction to her comment was concerning right off the bat. Not a good sign if even he was wary, right? She dipped her head a little, wanting very much to hide her face in her hair... only it was still sheared short.
"...My what?" Did he just evade her question? If he didn't know anything about Xavier, then... did that mean he was still down there? Trapped? How many days had it been?!
"I don't have a-"
She paused. The gears in her head all clicked on together and got spinning.
...Oh.
OHFUCK
"WAIT NO-!"
She just wanted to know if he was alive! She wasn't ready to face him!
"Ah, @#$&. Oh @#$%^ &^%$#^."
The machine would start beeping angrily if she took the wires off and out, and she'd just promised not to run! Acting on childish impulse, because she was trapped (even more than she knew) she grabbed the edges of her blanket and yanked it up over her. Maybe he would go away if she pretended to konk out again? Maybe talking would be easier if she just hid under the blanket?
Damn it all.
So, Juniper hid. Blanket pulled all the way up over her head like he was the under-the-bed monster and with her blanket shield, he couldn't get to her. A small lump on a bed, tucked into herself.
Long-term community service? That didn't sound horrible. She wasn't sure why he'd want her in a program like that considering how she'd acted as an actual student, though.
She thought about it. Let it absorb a little. It would be uncomfortable being there with everything that had happened. Everyone would know now. Past all the rumors kids had spread, she was actually a criminal. A well-known one to boot. She could imagine that being uncomfortable.
Then again, what did she had to lose? If she declined it was one quick trip to prison where she might be able to see anyone who cared enough about her once a month or whatever. Not that she'd have anyone who really cared after this... Maybe Blue, if he wasn't too pissed about her getting caught.
After a moment she shugged. "Guess it doesn't sound so bad. I'd give it a try."
Tilting her chin so she could look at him again, she continued. "I won't run... no point in trying since the cats out of the bag, ya know?... Wouldn't want to get you in trouble either."
"Besides... This is where my friends ar-... were. Assuming they still wanna be friends with me."
Which... brought up an even more uncomfortable thought that she wasn't fully ready to explore. No time like the present though, right?
"...Have... have you seen Xavier? He's okay, right?"
She watched him carefully, visibly on the edge of her seat. She was waiting for horrible news, fully expecting the worst, but hoping with all her heart that he'd made it out okay.
Saph pulled out a photo of none other than Simon, and she once more had to evaluate whether or not she was going to rat on him. This time at least she wasn't going to die either way. If she gave him up, would it look good for her?
She thought about what Simon had told her; he'd wanted to put Keith and the other two, as well as others like them, in the dirt for a long, long time. That had been the main reason for him joining the heist, or so he had said. Maybe he'd continue doing that... or, maybe he'd just retire with his wealth and live like the old man he was.
"That's John... or, that's what he said his name was anyway." She rolled the conversation back a little bit, explaining when the four men had met. She left out details that Simon had told her, and elaborated a little more on why Keith had said he'd invited him in.
"-wasn't nasty to me, at least. Didn't talk a whole lot compared to the others... I didn't really think a whole lot about him until Eli picked us up and drove us into some back alley. Said that Keith wanted both of us dead, he'd given Eli permission to "take his time with me" apparently." Thinking back on it, she owed Simon one for that. Lord only knew what would have happened had he not been there.
"He didn't say much after he killed Eli, just that it was one more out of the way. Guess I didn't pose much of a threat since I wasn't after the loot anyway, so he didn't put a bullet in me. Gave me a gun instead and told me I should go finish it."
Her hand fisted in the blankets over her legs. "... So I did."
She was more than willing to work with a sketch artist to get them what they needed, even if she was gonna go off the rails a bit with Simon's face. Hopefully, he wouldn't be mad at her for getting creative with his image, wherever he was.
Saph shifted back to her many, many crimes and the punishments she'd more than likely get for them. She didn't react a whole lot, other than nodding. "I know... It's not like that reality hasn't been looming over me for the last four years. It's fine." It wasn't. She couldn't say she was fine with it, cuz that would have been a bald-faced lie.
He continued on, and what he was saying gradually drew her out of the depressive bubble she was entering. "What's the second option?" She was genuinely curious. She couldn't think of a way out of the trouble she was in, so if he had ideas she was all ears.
Was Azar with her already? Huh? "We weren't friends."
He went on about the robberies all over, and she decided to circle back to that in a moment. This Azar thing needed to be fleshed out, and the way he was talking about it kinda gave her a few ideas.
"I ended up on his badside a while back because I was one of the reasons he got caught in the first place." She was pretty sure that would be documented, somewhere. She'd stuck around to give a statement and all that despite her anxiety about it being sky high at the time. "After the diamond thing, I went back to the place my Uncle was, and confronted him about it. He must have brought Azar in at some point because he was there. Seeing me didn't help matters. When I.. uh... moved to wherever I was, it was just me. Azar and James, and my uncle all stayed behind.
Come to think of it, she kinda hoped James was dead too. Sonofabitch deserved it. "I don't know if Azar killed him or not. Last thing I remembered before vanishing out of there was James trying to pop my head off like a dandelion, and lots of fire." She shifted and looked at him again. "... But I shot Keith three times, i'm pretty sure." She didn't like the idea of lying to him... He already knew so much about her and he'd offered to off her uncle at one point. "I don't know if it was enough to kill him, my aim was a little off, but I tried."
Her gaze shifted back to the ceiling, "Guess it doesn't really matter so long as he's gone, huh?"
Oh, right, circle back. No lies.
"And... just to set the record straight, all those places where I was and banks and stuff got hit? That was me. I did it on my own. They started calling me 'Spektor' in the local papers just after I left Ohio and it stuck." She sighed lightly, "Hope that makes your paperwork easier."
What was the last thing he'd asked? "I did... but like, they were covered and stuff. Like full mask and hood and a really weird voice." She struggled to sit up a little more and lifted her fingers to her neck. "Don't know why whoever it was was after him, but when they got ahold of me they said a bunch of weird stuff. Wanted to know my name and something about paying for my transgressions later. Guess it wasn't time to kill me right then, though I probably should have died when they cold-clocked me. Don't even remember hitting the ground."
Now THAT got her attention. "He's... really dead?" Honestly, she'd had a hard time believing it. He'd haunted her life for so long it just felt like he was always going to be there lurking somewhere in the shadows.
The knowledge that he was dead and gone? It was... relieving.
She visibly relaxed into the bed a little more. "I don't really know, honestly. One minute I was there-" She thought back to the day, and everything that had happened. She didn't have to think too hard to know that Blue needed to be left out of the equation. Thoughts of the fight made her throat hurt, too. "...and then suddenly I wasn't. Like... I am dunno. My powers been on the fritz lately and it kinda felt like it all came rushing a back at once, and then I was somewhere else. It was weird."
She tried to stay on point while she explained a bit further... about the city that had looked like New York, but hadn't been New York at all. No people, no food. Empty streets and things.
"-got ruffed by a bit by whatever they were, and then suddenly I was back. I dunno how it happened." She moved to shrug, winced, and immediately stopped. "I hid out for a bit trying to figure out what was going on, and then... well, now I'm here."
She offered a bit of a smile at his concern. Get the story straight? Heh. Maybe a little too late for that.
"Thanks... I appreciate it, ya know? But... I dunno if it will matter." She went quiet for a moment, rubbing her torn fingernails on the cotton blanket. "I don't know what's gotten out already, but I know I've seen my face in the papers at least. The, uh... bank cameras." Her expression flattened a bit, "Things are already out of hand and I doubt anything I could say would fix it. Everybody knows it was me already, right? I can't hide anymore."
That wasn't even counting Keith's death, or anything that came before it.... did her mom know already? That would be a fun talk, she was sure.
"How'd he die? Like, officially? Did I kill him?" She looked at Saph again, and all of the exhaustion was there in her face. She was tired. Tired of running and fighting. Tired of not knowing.
