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.
Despite she was sharing a lot of her personal space with a bunch of multicolored boxes, she found the white leather seating so comfortable that she started to forget all about the boy in danger, the cold weather she hated so much and the fact that her chauffeur was holding the door open for a stranger to jump in. All of that disappeared from her mind as soon as she rested her back on the cozy couch, and just a moment later, the quietness and warmness of the limousine invited her to sleep one more time. This time, she accepted the deal. Her mind drifted away for just a few seconds, a glorious moment that took away the exhaustion of her mind and body but as soon as it started, she woke up and all the tiredness returned in an overwhelming wave. She opened her eyes all of a sudden; certain that she had been sleeping for hours but when she looked around, everything was as she left it, except for a few presents that were crushed when she used them as improvised pillows. It was not a big deal since she had a lot of "not so loved ones" that would gladly receive a battered gift instead of nothing. It was just after she opened her eyes that the boy jumped inside the limousine she blinked furiously for a moment to get rid of the fog that took over her black eyes and then hide her sleepiness behind a well practiced smile.
The fake smile vanished as soon as the newcomer used his dirty shoe to stop the door from closing. She only had time to cast a severe glare of disapprobation before he accused her of forgetting something. She stared at him, puzzled by his accusation. What could she have forgotten...? She understood what he meant a second too late. She wanted to scream at Jeeves but she did not manage to articulate any sound, it was too late. The two dogs jumped inside as well and went directly toward the boy. Why would he open the door for them? Was his life so bad that he wanted to die? Why would he do it in front of her?
So many thoughts ran wildly through her mind that it was almost impossible to pick one and analyze it to know how to react, so she acted by instinct and covered her eyes as if that could protect her from the carnage. She closed her eyes at an almost impossible speed, just in time to avoid the rear end of one of the dogs. She kept her eyes closed tightly, not because of that disgusting part of the dog but for what was going to happen next. One more time, the limousine was taken by silent but this time it seemed to be unnatural. Why was it taking so long? Since he did not look tough, she was expecting him to scream like a little girl but there was no sound coming from him... the silence was worst than watching, it commanded her fill the gap with her imagination. She could almost imagine the blood gushing from his throat, broken before he could produce any sound. She could almost imagine the white leather sipping on his blood, changing slowly from white to red while forming a grim flower of dirty crimson. She imagined all that and more but when she finally decided to open her eyes, she saw something entirely different but still shocking. What she saw instead was a family picture; the boy was sitting on the seat with the dogs happily resting at his feet. He just lacked a pipe to complete the picture.
She was puzzled and angry, and she did not bother to hide it. How could he deceive her like that? Of course she was glad that the leather seating was not ruined by his common blood but why was he still alive? Why were the dogs so quiet when a moment ago both looked so feral? "You better explain what happened or I will kick you out." It was not like her to resort to physical violence when verbal violence was enough in most of the cases but he really angered her.
"Sweet bunker baby" was not amused by the new nickname given by the bug but she knew better than to enrage the only person that was stopping the poncho lady from filling her body with lead, so she shut her mouth and moved closer to the red woman to wait further orders. She waited in silent beside the crimson lady, observing the ridiculous scene with a mix of curiosity, fear and disbelief. It was all real, she was sure of that but at the same time, a surreal veil covered everything. What she saw was impossible, yet it was happening in her lobby as if it were the most common thing on earth. The giant cockroach was speaking as a polite and cultured man, using a mix of values and customs long forgotten that contrasted greatly with his bug-like appearance. He was addressing a woman wearing a poncho that was very hard to spot and that gave Celeste a headache each time she tried to focus on her face. At least she had her name: Seyta. She will make sure to burn that name so hard on her brain that she would never forget. Then, there was the red woman carrying a trident as if she were Poseidon's daughter, she was most likely a cousin of Venus and of course, a mutant. To complete the silly scene that took over her once peaceful bunker, there were a lot of smaller roaches poking at the furniture with child-like glee. If she were not a hostage of these monsters, she would have laughed very hard at the unreasonable scene but since she was their prisoner, she was not amused.
A very sharp noise made her flinch back to reality or at least back to the joke that really had become. She looked with desperation at her chest, clearly expecting to see blood gushing from a freshly opened wound but there was nothing there aside from her almost pristine clothes. She raised her gaze in confusion, to find that the source of the noise was produced by a broken vase. He questioned her before she could even register the destruction of that beautiful piece of furniture, when she managed to decode what he asked, she hastily negated with her head.
The red woman name was Jezebel. She had another name to add to her list. Poor Celeste, she was so young and with so many arch-enemies... she had to do something to reduce the size of that list at some point in the future but not at that moment. She had more pressing matters to attend to, as the bloodstained trident the woman was pointing at her. If that was not a pressing matter, she did not know what it was. Celeste lifted her gaze from the bloody tip of the weapon to her face, glad to take her eyes away from that dangerous triple spear. She was rewarded by a very sweet smile from the red woman. Her expression puzzled the girl. What did it mean? Was she trying to tell her something? Maybe she was on her side... no, she was not. Her sweet smile was fake and soon faded into a very hostile expression that chilled her blood and sent shivers down her spine. The red of her skin made that expression worse, it was as if she was covered in blood from head to toe, Celeste's sweet blood.
Before Princess Jezebel could even think of repeating her order, Celeste was already speeding toward the door that separated the lobby from the kitchen. She glanced back one time, to make sure that the woman was following her and then continued walking pass the orderly kitchen toward a smaller corridor that ended in a medium size service elevator and a cold metal ladder. "How much do you weight?" She asked the red woman with delight in her voice. Celeste knew very well that the elevator could carry both of them and more without problems but since the female version of Venus did not know that, she decided to play dumb and started to stare at her as if she were extremely obese and would not fit in the lift. If she could take the elevator alone, she may be able to gain some advantage. "You may have to use the ladder." It was a step ladder, difficult to descend, harder to ascend. She grinned.
While the two of them, client and detective, were still weighting each other to determine if the other was a potential business partner or a waste of time, the receptionist took advantage of the silent and expressed her opinion about them. She turned Celeste's words against her, delivering at the same time and in the same sentence an excellent attack to Mr. Crowe. She displayed such grace, cleverness and quick tongue in that act of defiance that Celeste started to consider offering her a job as her personal assistant but before she could compliment the receptionist for the witty remark, Crowe mentioned that she was a minimum wage assistant and that alone made Celeste reconsider and reject any possibility of working with her. So she moved closer to the detective and away from the reception desk and her highly contagious poverty. After all, it could be fatal in some occasions.
Despite that each word that came out of his mouth sounded as very bad excuses, she silently listened to him. During that horrendous shared dream, she met Katrina, a girl able to create illusions and mess with your senses. Her powers alone were quite impressive but talking with an invisible woman was even more shocking. No matter how many times she did it, or the fact that she knew that Katrina could do that, it always surprised her. The experience of talking with a voice without body was always impressive. So, she was impressive and perfect for stealth operations... it could totally discredit his little speech but she remained silent and waited for him to finish. She would not give him that much information. She could not. Who would believe a bunch of people dreamed about the apocalypses to come? So telling him that she met an invisible girl during a dream was out of the question.
She was so distracted with her own thoughts that the question caught her off guard and made her flinch. The flinching alone was enough to give him the answer he wanted but her body was determined to give away her secrets and commanded blood to rush to her cheeks, coloring her face with a deep crimson that was impossible to ignore.
Celeste did her best to recover from the surprise and reply his question as best as she could, but the question was so tricky that she was not sure how she should feel about it. She was in conflict with a mutation as the source of her abilities, but in turn, she loved to color stuff and experiment with these same abilities... Hidden mutations could be a bless for the eye, since she did not need to glance at horrendous, gross or unnatural things like the big lizard that appeared in her party, but hidden mutations also helped mutants to hide and that disturbed her a lot since she could not tell apart a mutant from a human... Before replying his question, she thought about herself and her special abilities. She liked them a lot but for the most part of the time she kept them a secret, even from her parents. Only a handful of people knew about her powers and most of them were the people that helped her survive during the apocalypses. Everything was linked to that grim dream. "No, I wouldn't agree." She replied in a hurry, not wanting to extend the waiting any longer but still trying to fully form the idea in her mind. "Those who hide their mutations are just better at lying." She paused for a moment, reordering her thoughts and adjusting the story she was going to tell him, a story about a giant cockroach. "I am still wondering if you are just a better liar than the rest or if you are really worth the money and the trouble..." She spoke in a neutral tone, trying hard to hide the mistrust she felt for him but also to hide any leftover of emotion from that dream were she crossed paths with that abomination. "Locate a human sized roach and inform me of its location." With so few information, Mr. Crowe would need to base his search on rumors alone, it could be tricky and that was why he needed to be the best but also because the roach could be very dangerous. She omitted that part.
She was so tired from her visit to overseas relatives that almost felt asleep a few times while Jeeves skillfully advanced through some patches of heavy traffic. She was so tired that she even considered a few times to go back to her apartment and sleep for the rest of the day, but since the limousine was half full with undelivered souvenirs, she decided to postpone the nap for later. It was then, when she was lost in that foggy drowsiness that a running person caught her attention. It was not uncommon for people to jog, so she was about to look away and ignore that boring running guy when she noticed something familiar about that boy... he was at her party. Could it be that he was the slave Maxine promised to her? "Stop." She said almost in a murmur but neither the limousine nor the boy stopped moving. "Jeeves McServington. Stop the car." This time, she raised her voice enough for him to hear each word and despite that was not his real name and he hated it, the chauffeur obeyed without complaint. He pulled the car over and stopped the engine.
Without the smooth purring of the engine, the inside of the limousine was soon completely taken by an eerie silence that Celeste was glad to break. "I think I know that boy..." She commented casually while still glancing through the tinted glass. The chauffeur did the same and was immediately struck by horror. Despite the dread displayed by his face, when he spoke again, he did it in his usual calm and professional tone. "He seems to be... “ She sighed, interrupting his speech before he could even finish the sentence. It was not like her to ignore the social status of people so she did not deny it, she just stated the truth. "Poor? Yes, he is poor but he is also a nice person." The chauffeur chuckled and then addressed her again. "I was going to say "in trouble" but he looks poor too." She pressed her face to the glass, straining her eyes to see what he meant by that. The boy was running away from two feral dogs and not only that, he was also outrunning the animals. She broke the silence one more time. "Now that you mention it..." She started, strangely calm, then finished the sentence with something quite obvious. "He is being chased by dogs."
The driver stared at her with pleading eyes for a few moments and then when it was clear she will not take the initiative, he verbalized his plea. "Can we help him, Lady Celeste?" The question puzzled her. Why should she help him? She could pretend they did not notice him trying to escape a bunch of savage dogs... that could work, but then she would need to explain Maxine why she let the slave-in-training die. She gave him a look both knew too well. The one that says "I kind of want to help but I am not going to admit it." She knew she got the message but even then she felt the need to make up an excuse. "I am not going to wrestle with these dogs. Both are huge." He gave her a knowing smile through the rear mirror and then exited the vehicle. She watched as the driver walked around the white limousine to position himself at the side of her door. He waved his gloved hand toward the boy and pointed at the limousine before opening the door. It was such a bad idea... but it was already too late. So she just moved deeper inside the limo to give him some space.
I knew about Precidency, that is why I suspected it could be like that for simillar politics careers... thanks for the quick history class, it is always good to learn new stuff.
If Markus were more active, I would say your best chance to enter politics is by teaming up with him... but he is not very active right now, so you are better on your own. Maybe... if your character does not care about getting his hands dirty, he can ask The Order for support.
In my opinion, Central Park is too big, too wide for a proper match. If you are looking for some funny chaos, it is ok but if you want a somewhat normal match (as normal as it can be with mutants using their powers) you should aim for somewhere more limited in size like the mansion grounds. The mansion was used before for some open events despite factions as the last Valentine auction, so it can happen again.
It can be a very fun massive thread, I will glad to throw Guglin into the mess.
While Celeste and her growing impatience were waiting together by the reception desk, the receptionist called the famous Harlan Crowe and asked him to meet with the young client at the lobby.Then, she hung the phone suddenly and started to pretend to order some papers on her desk. She looked as if she was about to breath fire all over the place, so Celeste chose to ignore her since it seemed to be the less dangerous thing to do. Was the woman upset because she did not want to share more information about her case? Or was it something else? It kind of made her feel a little guilty, after all her case was not a secret, she just did not want to repeat everything twice. But as the girl tried to make eye contact with the woman and start a new conversation, she found herself in front of an impenetrable barrier. It was better to let her alone, so she focused on contemplating the rest of the building.
She was finishing to complaint about the last piece of furniture when the "particular" detective sneaked out of his office. He extended his hand in a friendly way and gave her a smile so sweet that leaked honey but she was not impressed. Was he really expecting her to reply that manly handshake? She was a lady. Where was the kiss on the hand or the polite bowing she deserved? In any case, she could curtsy for him and let him standing there without handshake but that would be extremely impolite. Not that she care a lot about his feelings, but it was better to start in good terms, so she obliged herself to stretch her hand and meet his for an awkward greeting. At least she was wearing gloves. Who knows where were his hands. "My name is Celeste." She said while handshaking him and then, once her hand was free again, she started to add the rest but stopped mid-sentence. "I am here because..."
An annoying voice inside her head continued the sentence for her. "I am here because I need the services of a very good detective. No, of the best detective." As her inner voice resounded in her head, she started to notice for the first time the details surrounding the so called detective... the suit was not bad despite the fact her shoes were more expensive but the color was a different matter, it ruined the whole setup. Why would a detective pick that color? Where were the overcoat and the hat? Certainly, he did not look like a regular detective, neither a good one. So she ignored him for a moment and focused her gaze on the receptionist one more time. "Are you sure this man is Harlan Crowe?" She did not even care to lower her voice or hide her suspicions, or to sugarcoat the next line. "I was expecting someone more impressive." According to her father, that man in blue suit was supposed to be the best detective in the agency. Part of his success had something to do with his uniqueness since he was a mutant of some sort despite she could not see anything special about him. He had no wings to fly, no red skin providing him with super strength, no scales, horns or anything remotely different. As far as she could tell, he was a plain human or a very useless mutant. Could looks be so deceiving? She doubted it would be possible.
Since the temperature in the outside world was far below the controlled climate of the limousine, Celeste took the chance to glance at the building one more time before going out. Was it the correct place? The address was right but the building looked too average for her taste. It was not in the best neighborhood, it was not fancy or exclusive and it did not look like the best detective agency of the city… it was just average. Why would her father trust such a common-looking business? Maybe she did not hear the address as well as she thought, after all, she just happened to hear him talking on the phone… but which was be the odds of having the wrong address but finding a detective agency anyway? It had to be the right place.
She descended from the limousine slowly while trying to resist the urge to jump inside again, it was freezing cold outside and she was not dressed accordingly but appearance was first, so she took the time to straighten her skirt and cardigan despite the cold and then she skillfully donned a silver scarf around her neck and a pair of warn gloves. Once she was ready, she moved toward the front door of the office building as fast as she could to avoid being in contact with the freezing air for more time than necessary. One quick look at her bodyguard was enough to command him to open the door for her, and another one told him to wait outside in the freezing cold.
The girl advanced toward the reception desk as if she owned the place, moving with an incredible amount of conviction. Once there, she stared intently at the receptionist until she acknowledged her presence. “Hello. Can I help you?” She said in a very professional tone. Celeste was not professional and replied with a hint of disdain. “I hope so. I am looking for a roach.” The woman glanced at her with curiosity. “Is that your lost pet?” She glared at the receptionist. “Of course not. It is a human…” She did a small pause to decide how much she would tell the woman. “… Or it used to be one at some point…” She would not tell her that she was looking for a giant cockroach that killed the whole humankind in a distant future… that could not go well, so she waited for her to say something back. “So, is this human a friend of yours?” Apparently the receptionist was not good at guessing… Celeste did not blame her. Who could guess she was asking about a mutant whose appearance resembled a cockroach? It was farfetched even in her wildest nightmares… so she just negated with her head. The conversation was not going well… she was losing control of the situation quickly, so she tried to regain some control by changing the subject, the woman did not even flinched. “I heard your agency has a very particular detective.” In the past she would have used the word “mutant” to refer to that kind of uniqueness, now she prefers “Primus”, it has a certain charm that the other words did not. “Is Mr. Crowe available at the moment?”
His reaction caught her completely off guard. In just an instant, it carved an expression of utter bewilderment on her face that she could not erase for the rest of the day. He was supposed to yell at her with fury, to cry in disconsolation for the ruined shirt or even better, he could do both at the same time and look very pathetic but what he did instead was to ask her a bunch of questions about her powers. Without even noticing, he took the victory from her in the last second by not letting her enjoy his despair. She was furious. Even more than before, but she was also pleased that he found her powers so interesting. What should she do? Should she punch the boy and run or should she stay there and answer his questions politely? The first option was not ladylike and she was not trained in the art of making people suffer with her bare fist… so she decided it was time to talk. She did not know what pushed her to reply these questions; maybe it was the fact that he kept repeating how awesome she was … or maybe she just wanted someone to appreciate her abilities aside from Venus.
Since it never occurred to her that the boy could ask her these kinds of questions, she needed a moment to gather her thoughts and start replying. She had trained a lot with her powers to discover the limitations and possibilities for each of her abilities so it was just a matter of recompiling the information. “Yes, I can do it with any solid object.” It needed to be solid enough for her to touch it with her fingernail and it also needed to have a solid color, nothing of crystal like surfaces, so precious stones or frozen water were out of the equation… “I can pick any color and texture…” It was necessary to pick up the color previously and she needed to extract it all in one pulse but since he did not asked that, she did not say it aloud. “… and put it anywhere I like.” The new object needed to follow the same guideline as for extracting the colors and she could only paint it if there were no stripes or changes of color that could act as limits, otherwise she would need to paint each different area separately. “It does not wear off and the sun has nothing to do with it… why would the sun have any effect on it?” It was her turn to ask but she did not have more question of her own since she was still extremely puzzled by his strange reaction, flattered but puzzled, so she just keep staring at him with a new beautiful smile. Her powers could be awesome and cool but better than that was the fact that she has a fan.
Soup Kitchen. Guglin is too short to be serving soup behind a counter, so I guess he would be helping with some other things... there are a lot of things that can be wrong, he could eat a good amount of the soup, so the X-teenagers/kids must prepare more or go buy some food elsewhere. If he is near the kitchen while they are preparing the soup, Gug can toss some unedible or raw ingredients...
Street Clean-up. I can picture him wearing a bag and using his home-made lance to pick up empty cans and other kind of garbage. He will be very excited with the idea of cleaning up the streets, even more if the cleaning takes place in a park. Things that can go wrong... he could chase people and obligue them to throw the trash were it belongs intead of littering the street, or he can save some of the trash for his personal collection, mostly shiny stuff like candy wrappers.
It was a very bad day. Not bad enough to be compared with the time she was attacked by an octopus woman, or that other time when she was bitten by a vampire… hell, it was not even bad enough to be compared with that horrible Valentine auction were no one bid for her but it was still a very bad day. So far she had to take a cab with a broken heating system, no TV and no mini bar… she was thirsty and freezing to death all the way to the store, and there was nothing to amuse her during the heavy traffic they encountered... yet she arrived in one piece against all odds. She hoped her luck to change once inside the store but someone was enjoying making her suffer. A boy almost caught her using her powers and later the very same boy insulted her by saying she was “not anything special” . The words were still bouncing inside her head, fueling her anger to the point she did not even care if someone else discovered her powers. She just needed to get revenge on that boy and set the world in the right path again.
Once her weapon of mass destruction was ready, she moved back to the corridor where she met the boy the first time. He was moving away from the beautiful purple fabric that caught her attention, so she darted behind him until she was close enough. She then moved in front of him to interrupt his walking and to block any attempt to escape. So far it was all going according to her plan. Once in front of him, the girl lifted her right hand and pressed her index finger against his shirt. "You got something... right there..." There was nothing wrong with the fabric, not even the slightest stain but she kept staring at the point where her fingernail was touching the shirt. She gave him enough time to lower his gaze and confirm that there was nothing there. She wanted him to look what it was going to happen to his beloved shirt. When each of her thoughts were focused on that particular color, the muddy brown spilt from her fingernail forming a perfect circle that devoured the original color and texture of a big chunk of his shirt. Her ability to see that shade of brown returned immediately, rewarding her with a very pleasant sight. “Not anything special, huh?” She crossed her arms over her chest to let him know she was not joking, she was very serious about her revenge and she was not going to let him counter attack but all the same she was already celebrating her victory over him with a big bright smile.
The main goal of the party was to throw some light in the matter of the wicked collective dream she experienced but she also orchestrated it to meet one more time with the people she learned to love and respect during the apocalypses. It was funny how she was unable to make friends during the current time but managed to do some real bonding when the world was at its worst… maybe that dream was a way for her to learn these things, to experience friendship. Could it be possible that someone created that dream for her? It was farfetched but how much more unbelievable things could be? It was a shared vision of the future… things could not be more farfetched.
There she was, inside a mansion the family never used, surrounded by strangers but happy all the same, happier than she had been in years and why? Just because Maxine and Sarah were there and that means they were real. She admired Maxine because she did what it needed to be done in order to survive. She loved Sarah because of all the good and bad moments they shared together that in turn helped them create a very strong bond. In retrospective, the time they shared in the bunker was like a very bad sitcom but at that time it was what they all needed.
She returned to the real world in time to heard Sarah´s reply. She had missed her too. It was not a surprise, how can she not miss her? But even then that little confession brought a wide smile to her lips. “Not yet.” She replied with a heavy heart. Celeste was hoping to meet them there but apparently they missed the signs or they chose to ignore them. Katrina and Slate were valuable resources that with time became very close acquaintances with her, same with Juka. Where were they? She would not admit it openly but she missed each of them. Hell, she even missed the confined space of her bunker and the constant humming of the machinery.
Since they did not show up for the party, she could not be sure if they wanted to be found or not but other people´s feelings never stopped her from doing whatever she wanted so she was going to storm into the mansion and ask questions around. It was not the wisest plan but it was the only way she could come up for gathering the old crew again. “I am going to the mutant mansion tomorrow. Maybe I can find them there.” Her voice was full of confidence but her eyes kept pleading for support, she did not want to be alone in that quest. She did not say it.
A mischievous voice inside her head repeated her words in a stupid mocking tone. “Time for you to learn about the outside world…” She knew all that there was to know about the outside world; after all, she had eyes in different corners of the wasteland and she had witnessed the effect of the sun and malnourishment in several trades. It was because she knew about the outside world that she wanted to be inside so badly. That irritating dust was cutting her throat from the inside like a very sharp knife; she could not breathe easily and that dust made her cough almost continuously. It was a miracle that she did not choke to death with all that dirt flying in all directions. It was also a miracle that her eyes could still produce tears when everything around them was so dry and dead. The biped roach was repulsive, the nightmare of nightmares, the most disgusting thing ever created and yet, that bug was behaving in a very humane way. Its very existence was a puzzle, a very bad cosmic joke and it was impossible for her to guess what it was going to happen with her. Was all that kindness a way to lure her into a false sense of safety? Did he want to give her hope to tear it apart later? As she suspected, there was not a coincidence that she was visited by a giant cockroach that same day. It was at that very moment that the woman wearing a poncho sneaked inside the bunker… how could she be that stupid and let it happen? She did not even notice the giant cockroach disguised as an old woman until it was too late… but what was the point on letting her alive and unharmed? What was the point on commanding the poncho lady to sneak in when he could have opened the door on his own?
She waited in silence without daring to look at the disgusting roach and his “small” cousins; she did not even dare to glance at the red hulky lady for fear of enraging her, if experience taught she something was that red skin means troubles. But then the roach spoke with his human-like voice and she had no other option than to acknowledge its existence. Celeste knew it was probably a lie but she could not avoid thinking that maybe it was not the end, maybe there was some hope for her… her eyes sparkled with life for a moment, the mere mention of that hidden clause managed to bring a faint smile to her lips. Was she safe with these monsters? Could she trust the word of a sentient bug? Before she could decide if she wanted to cling to that little particle of hope, the roach addressed her again, this time with a question. She tried to reply immediately for fear of reprisal but her throat refused to produce any sound aside from a painful cough, so she nodded energetically as the little girl she did not wanted to be.
She did not see how the interior of the bunker could be warmer than a post apocalyptic environment but she kept her mouth closed and let him walk her to the bunker. The roach then claimed to had questions and demands. She could imagine what kind of demands, food, clothes, weapons… but she could not picture what a bug could want to ask her. Of course she was very knowledgeable but what he could be so interested in questioning escaped her grasp.
A more tangible question was pronounced by the cockroach as they walked inside the bunker, a question Celeste had no idea how to answer. What was he expecting her to say? It was impossible for her to guess, it was impossible for any person alive to guess right… so she picked the first that come to her mind. “A fine bottle of Scotch?”
