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.
She could trade silliness for silliness, too. “Oh thanks,” she licked her chin as well. Her tongue was also purple, if anyone was looking closely. “It's funny, you know? I've been growing my beard for, like, a dozen years but it never seems to fill in.”
It seemed the sniffles had retreated to wherever sniffles go when they are asleep. Katrina was a happy person by nature and it was difficult for her to stay upset for very long, especially with someone as awesome as Abyss to cheer her up. The teen illusionist was all smiles as Abyss reached for the Neptune colored earrings and immediately made room for them in his red ear lobes. She was glad he liked them.
“They look nice. I didn't know that all your brothers' haircuts would switch back once they went into the void. That's pretty cool. If they always get reset to look just like you, if you get a tattoo do they automatically get it too? What if one of them gets a tattoo, would it be erased?”
Katrina ate a few more spoonfuls of ice cream, but she was slowing down. It seemed she was reaching the capacity of her ice cream storage facilities. With Abyss' help the ice cream mountain was almost fully demolished anyway. Soon, all that would remain was a little bit of the ice cream flavored root beer.
Katrina liked Garrett. It was nice that he was willing to talk to her about things without treating her like she was a little child or making her feel like her opinion didn't matter. She thought it was cool that he would consider her a friend despite their differences in age and opinion. It was too bad he didn't live as close by as he used to, but at least she now knew where she could find him. It seemed to the thirteen year old that she should have come to visit the Sanctuary much sooner than she had. Granted, it was difficult for a young girl to get anywhere in the big city all by herself, that wasn't really an excuse for not trying to come visit her friends more often.
“Thanks,” Katrina smiled as he brought her a blanket for her feet. As he swept his arm over the wide variety of games in the room, Vanna White style, she peered at the boxes in various sizes. There were so many options, it was difficult to choose one of them. “Hmm. Well, I'm not sure which games are best for two people. Checkers is good for two people, or cribbage, or card games. I'm not really very picky. I'm not very good at pool, though. It's hard to hit the balls anywhere I want them to go. Or hide and seek! Though, I don't know any of the good hiding places here, so I don't know how well that would work.”
Fausto left her to wander back to the party alone. He also had left her to fend for herself for what would likely be a long time, possibly until the end of the school year even. She ad gotten used to having him around and she would really miss hanging out with him and even seeing him at random times like breakfast or in the halls. He always had a friendly smile for her, it seemed. Now she would have one less friend at the mansion, at least for a little while.
She wished she could have gotten a better idea of his reaction to what she had said about her feelings. She just couldn't be sure that he was going to be okay about it. He said he wanted things to stay the same, but if he was leaving he might have a lot of time to think about things before he saw her again. What if he decided he didn't want to be her friend anymore? He might decide that it wasn't worth it to be her friend if she didn't admit to liking him the same way she liked her. Katrina couldn't bear to think that she wouldn't ever get to hang out with him again like they used to. She really wanted to still be able to have fun with him, but what if she had ruined it forever? There was no way to know. All she could do was wait for him to come back from his sabbatical and see how things turned out. She didn't know how she would ever get through all those days of worrying about him!
With a downcast face, perhaps not fitting for a party, Katrina turned back to look for Koga. He had wandered off somewhere towards the stage, she had thought. The young girl threaded her way through the people over to where she thought he had gone. Instead of finding Koga, though, she found one of the planetary red brothers who smelled like tobacco smoke. He was ... throwing part of a table into the waste basket?
She wrinkled her nose at him, “What are you doing? You're making a mess. And you smell funny.”
She didn't quite understand what he meant by "the evil you know over the evil you don't know" stuff. He wasn't evil. He just had a different opinion on some things. It wasn't important at the time to correct him. Later, though, if he called himself evil she might have to pursue that topic of discussion.
Well, she had done it. She had admitted what she said to Abyss. She watched her upside down reflection through tears. Would he be upset with her? Would he think she was less of a person and more of a monster? What kind of person would say something cruel enough to make their own mother cry?
...
Apparently lots of kids did, according to her sage red brother. Everything would turn out okay in the end, he promised. Somehow, he made it seem so obvious. Of course her mother would forgive her. Of course she would still love her wayward daughter. Katrina sniffled and let the corners of her mouth tug upwards into the beginnings of a smile, casting off her downward glance to look him in the eye again just in time to see a big drip of creamy root beer splash from his overloaded spoon onto his chin. The smile that had been threatening to appear now split her face into a teary eyed grin.
“Thanks Abyss,” she sniffled one more time, then wiped her nose on a napkin. It seemed he had successfully scarred away the second round of tears before they had really had a chance to get started. ”You have ice cream in your beard, by the way.”
She reached for her another spoonful of her own. It was modest in comparison to Abyss' average spoon size, but was much larger than her first bite.
“Yeah, Pluto is kind of silly sometimes. He seems to be the most like a kid, out of all of you guys. Ohh-!” Katrina sat up straight, not that she had been slouching, not really anyway. She reached into her pocket for the object she had found in her bed room. She'd made it months ago, but hadn't had had the chance to give it to him.
“I made this for you. And for your brothers, too. They're earrings, but they are special.” The teen looked around the cafeteria, but there was no one nearby that she could see. Even so she dropped her voice so there would be less of a chance of someone overhearing. She didn't mind that Abyss knew, but she didn't want anyone else to overhear about her powers.
“See, there are two for each of you. One is colorful so if you want people to be able to tell you apart easily they will have an easier time. The other ones are colorful, too, actually, but I put an illusion on them that makes them all look the same. If you wear those ones, only I'll be able to tell the colors.” The young teen held out the card that held the fourteen little gifts in two little rows so he could take it.
The quintessentially quiet Ghost seemed slightly uncomfortable under the undivided attentions of her audience. On the spot, she seemed to squirm subtly. The winsome white haired wind wielder rubbed her wrists and sipped at her straw between the two segments of her story. Were there perhaps painful experiences excluded from the tale? It was difficult to determine. Zephyr closed his eyes, clearly contemplating something about the story.
>>>Before the Registration, I was supposed to be attending NYU. Came from Yakota to the airport here and from the airport straight to an individual holding cell. I like it better here at the Mansion."
The blue eyed British breeze bender furrowed his brow at the termination of her tale. Perhaps in a show of concern for the previous predicament of his fellow mistral manipulator. He didn't press for particulars of the gruesome gulag, and instead inquired if her hometown was located in Japan.
>>>“Yakota.. that would be in Japan wouldn’t it? How long were you there?”
“Japan, really? What was it like? I've never even been out of the country before.” The inquisitive ingenue picked up a pretzel, but paused before biting, “How about you Zephyr? You're from England? Why did you decide to come to the United States?” Someday she too would sojourn to countries outside her own. At least, she hoped she would.
New York Fifth Federal Bank- the bank CS and Jacen saved from robbers (Anywhere would work, I think. Ask CS/ Luke.)
Orchestra Hall- This modern building is the seaside home of the Club House Orchestra (Somewhere on a short cliff/ rocky outcropping with a beach down below. Ask Slate for exact location.)
Hijinx Supermarket - This is the closest supermarket to the mansion. (Anywhere close to the mansion would work.)
Velfont Hotel - Fancy hotel across from the park- they have a waterfall in the lobby! (This is right next to the park, possible on the opposite side from the super busy neighborhood.)
Flower Peddlers is near the park, and the medium shop, and the book store.
WereCat's Chinese Restaurant - I don't remember what it is called, but it deserves to be on the map!
Apartments: If we're showing apartments, perhaps they should all be on there? Calley - ? Zephyr - Hampshire Building, across from the park Rupert - ? Luke - ? others - ? [/ul]
Calley wasted no time in finding a uniform that suited his tastes, and had slipped beneath the plane to help check out the next mysterious obstacle in no time at all. Ghost took a little longer, what with the hiding in the locker while she waited for the rogue to give her some privacy on the starboard side of the plane.
Calley was not shy about going right up to the door and allowing it to scan him from neck to kilt. Somehow the black and silver X's failed to convince the boob scanner that he was authorized to stand in front of the almighty door, for suddenly a hole appeared where there should have been floor. “Wa?!” Aviator Kat scrambled backwards, for had she been standing an inch closer, she too would have been fried as crispy as Calley's checkered drawers. She had been kidding about the bug zappers.
Luckily for Calley, Ghost had quicker reflexes than her own. An instant after the plaintive “Merrow” Ghost was risking a life and limb to rescue his furrified self from certain electric doom. It was clearly written in the code of leadership that after terrifying , she should comfort the team with hugs. Carefully the little blonde aviator scampered around the edge of the pit and threw her arms around her party members in a hug.
“Are you okay,” she echoed Ghost as she stroked the kitten's head. “That was a close one.”
>>>"Must be something good if they set traps like this..."
Katrina nodded. “We should be more careful. Who knows what other kinds of traps they have?” There could be lasers, flame throwers, chopping axes, or any other manor of dangerous devices. Why didn't they post warnings or anything telling students not to come in here? You'd almost think they wanted to reduce class sizes or something.
Katrina grinned at the hairless wriggling of his brows. It was nice to know that he would still like her even if she was human. She knew that was a pretty big compliment, especially for some mutants like Garrett who were so certain that humans weren't worth giving the time of day.
>>>" I never participated in the Resistance. I wish I had. I was removed from the camps in a coma-like state after my time in Medical."
Katrina wrinkled her nose and brow and stuck out her tongue in her best impression of Mr. Yuck. She hated getting sick, and having to rest in bed was the worst. She couldn't even imagine having to stay asleep that long. Even dreaming had to get boring after awhile. “I didn't really get to participate much either. I got to help out with some of the training, but I didn't go on any missions or on the raid in the end. I just got to stay home to worry and defend the headquarters from monsters and such. Calley stayed back with me, too.” Fighting vampires was a pretty good bonding experience, actually. At least it was better than being in a coma.
The blonde teen made another face as Garrett described his experiences as the guinea pig of humanity. This face was harder to classify into one sing emotion than the last one had been. It was a mixture of horror that wasn't quite shocked and understanding. Pity was absent. Garrett didn't need it, as he had obviously survived and found a way that he could cope. Garrett's reason for hating humanity was also the Abyss's reason. It was also the reason Katrina made it a habit to keep her own abilities under the radar. Someone had told her once that it was safer if people didn't know how useful an ability could be and the little illusionist figured that making stuff invisible was less likely to seem useful than illusions were.
She had to admit, there were some really evil humans out there, and probably mutants as well. Not that Katrina had ever met any of these evil people, she'd just heard stories second hand. The trouble was, she didn't know any really good examples of humanity either. Everyone she knew seemed like they were right in the middle, or closer to good. There weren't any shining examples from her own person experience of humans saving buses full of nuns or stopping armed robberies or anything like that.
With a thoughtful expression on her face, she shared the first example she could think of. “Well Martin Luther King Jr. was a human, right? He was a good person who didn't fight with bullets and fists. He used words and peaceful resistance and he made a difference for a whole lot of people. Maybe if we had a mutant version of him, we could get human rights for mutants, too.” She wriggled a little, until her toes were tucked into the crack between her cushion and Garrett's; they were just a little cold. Was her second hand history text answer a good enough example of a good person that it balanced out the evil examples he had experienced firsthand?
“A sleep over would be fun. I might have forgotten to bring pajamas, though. I don't remember which clothes I packed when I was so...” she was going to say angry, then was going to change it to upset, but in the end didn't finish the thought at all. She stuck another spoonful of root beer soaked ice cream in her mouth instead.
Katrina let the walking red fingers take the spoon that had been destined for them, anyway. They proceeded to dunk the mass of ice cream underneath the soda ocean momentarily. She was certain that moving the mountain in such a way would splash the root beer onto the table, but miraculously the liquid levels raised only high enough to threaten flooding. The liquid crystallized on the cold ice after it popped out of the pop once more. The crystally parts were the best parts, in her opinion.
“It was about the Youth for Change Conference. At least, that's how it started.” Katrina's brow furrowed. Despite feeling so terrible for the argument that had followed in the wake of her original anger, she was still disappointed and a little angry about it. “It's going on in Columbia right now, and I really wanted to go. A lot of the other students from the mansion, including some of my friends, are going down there for the conference. She wouldn't let me go, though. I guess I understand why, she says it isn't safe there. But it didn't seem any less safe than New York City.”
Katrina twirled the ice cream in a circle inside the glass, but didn't remove any spoonfuls. She was frowning to herself, remembering the part of the argument that came next. “Then, we got mad. Or I got mad. I can't remember who was mad first. I slammed my plate and she threw the silverware,” the teen paused, realizing how that might be interpreted incorrectly, “...in the drawer, that is. And then, then... I...” This was the hardest part to admit to her friend. What if he hated her because she was such a mean person? She sucked the root beer residue off of her spoon, then stared at her upside down reflection with saddened eyes.
The next part came out in a rush, “I said a bunch of really mean things. I knew they would hurt her feelings, but I said them anyway.” She had twisted up the truth into small hateful knives sharper than a stone could whet steel. “She was just trying to protect me, and I said...” A sniffle snuck into the middle of her guilty admission. It had been wise to bring the extra napkins.
“I-I told her I hated her and wished I'd never been born.” Another sniff punctuated her sentence and her reflection in the spoon blurred.
The thirteen year old wiped her eyes on her sleeve. She'd be needing a tissue for her nose as well, though a napkin from the cafeteria would work just as well. She was certain her face was about as red as Abyss' face from crying and she probably was the exact opposite of adorable at the moment.
>>>“Well lets go to the cafeteria while we chit chat and go from there, I don’t suppose you’ll be staying?”
“Maybe until t-tomorrow morning,” she sniffled. She hadn't thought about how long she was going to stay, but sleeping over for a night seemed like a good amount of time to wait before going back to face her mother again.
Katrina refrained from wiping her nose on her sleeve. She'd wait for the napkins, no matter how much her nose tickled and threatened to leak down over her lips. She didn't have to wait long, for the cafeteria was not a long walk from the entry. Though, there probably weren't many long walks in the Sanctuary when Abyss was the one doing the walking. He wasn't perhaps as fast as Kaz, but he had a long stride that carried them swiftly toward eatables, drinkables, and napkins.
>>>“Whenever you are ready, I am all ears.” He chuckled for am moment. “Well, I will try to be anyhow. Sometimes I have trouble not putting my two cents in.”
He wasn't chuckling at the idea of someone actually being all ears, was he? If so, he and Katrina's minds were on the same track. She was trying to decide if it would be a useful mutation or not, to be made of all ears. It might have been her first fraction of a smile since her arrival.
“Two cents are okay. I'll be right back.”
Katrina scampered straight to the napkins and took care of wiping her face. She also put some extra napkins in her pockets, just in case she needed them later. There was a distinct possibility that when she tried explaining what happened, all of the Abyss' and all the ice cream in the world wouldn't keep her from crying more. Her next stops included the hand washing sink, the soft serve machine, and the soda fountain. Soon she was sitting at one of the tables with an ice cream float. The ice cream swirl mountain was big enough to have sunk the Titanic and the root beer was sufficient in quantity to drown a whale, but Katrina was not daunted. She figured she could always call in reinforcements and had, in fact, brought an extra spoon and straw just in case.
The fledgling illusionist took a spoonful of ice cream. The root beer float hardly noticed. “So, I had a fight with my mom. That's why I'm here today. I kind of ran away. And I think it was my fault.” She stuck the ice cream in her mouth. Cold ice cream makes the hurt go away.
She was trying to get a hold of herself. Deep breaths was the key. Enough deep breaths and she'd be done with her sobs in no time. Or she'd give herself hiccups.
“Th-thanks,” she managed between a gasping breath and a hiccup as the big red man paid her cab fare. If Abyss ever needed anything from her, she'd give him whatever she had, too. Already, she was feeling a little better. She had made it here safely and just being in Abyss' arms made her feel better. It was almost like being a little girl again and running to her dad to be comforted after she fell of her horse, or being held by her mom after waking up from a bad dream. Except that in this case, being held by her mother wouldn't have helped.
>>>“sorry Kat I Suppose you have legs of your own don’t you.”
She supposed that she did, “It's-hic alright.” She didn't really mind either way. Even though she was growing up, at this particular moment in time she didn't particularly want to admit it. At least, not yet.
She missed the endearing look that the secretary was giving them, but did wave hello and when Abyss introduced her as his guest.
“Talking w-would be goo-hic-d,” she almost could talk normally again. Maybe some hot chocolate or ice cream would help.
She relaxed her shoulders. She hadn't even realized they had been tensed. He wasn't going to turn her in. That was a good thing. She would go home eventually, but she'd do it when she was ready and not any sooner. She gave an audible sigh of relief. Clearly, Garrett was someone she could trust.
“Well, I saw Abyss already. I was thinking of maybe just hanging out around here for a little while. Maybe until tomorrow morning,” the teen wrinkled her brow in thought for just a moment. “Yeah, if I stay the night, I'll probably call and let them know where I am so they won't worry too much.” Probably.
Katrina took a seat next to Garret on the couch in the spot he indicated. It was a nice couch. It was a deep chocolate brown leather, softened with age and use. It was a little worn at the corners, but after sitting upon it all its imperfections were easily forgotten. It was exactly plush enough: a person sitting in it would sink into it just a little, but not enough that the person drowned in plush and couldn't extricate herself again. Sleeping over night was looking better and better.
Katrina nodded in all the appropriate spots as Garrett spoke of his reason for moving out of the mansion, “I don't really understand why all the groups of mutants don't get along anyway. We all lived together during the resistance and got along okay, and then everyone went their separate ways and now they hate each other.” Katrina leaned back on the arm of the couch, finding another comfortable position sitting sideways on the couch with her feet pointed toward Garrett, after taking off her shoes, of course. The feeling of shoes was uncomfortable and she wore them as little as possible.
“I agree that it is stupid for mutants to fight each other, but I don't want to fight with humans either. I guess, I just don't see us as that different than them. I mean, we are different, obviously. On the inside, though, humans and mutants seem the same to me. As far as I can tell, we all need and want the same things for ourselves and we think about the same things. I can't even tell the difference when I am talking to someone if they are a mutant or a human, unless they are all red or don't have eyelashes or something.” She smiled up looking through her own lashes, coyly indicating that she was just teasing him about that part.
Katrina, who had been checking out the selection in the candy machine, jumped slightly. It shouldn't have been a surprise for someone else to wander into the rec room, but the voice the quiet hum of the vending machines had masked his footsteps and she hadn't realized anyone was coming, let alone someone who knew her name.
>>>"Katrina? What in the world are you doing here? Does your mother know you are gone?"
The blonde teen dropped her gaze to the floor at the question. The fact that her mother didn't know where she was made her feel slightly guilty. She wasn't ready to face her mother again, not even over the phone. She needed just a little time away, to let all the emotions settle, before she could go back to apologize, for an apology was definitely in order. She had said some very hurtful things, and they had been hurtful because they had had a lot of truth mixed in. She had never realized how easy it was to cause pain; the recipe was actually quite simple. She just wished that she hadn't chosen to serve that particular dish.
“She doesn't know I'm here.” She might know by now that her daughter was gone, though. The thought of her mother worrying about her made her feel even worse. Maybe she should have left a note or something. As for the reason she was there, what she chose to share was truthful, if not one hudred percent complete. She didn't particularly want to go over all the details of the argument all over again, “I came to visit Abyss.” Speaking of reasons for being here, “What about you? Do you live here now? I haven't seen you in ages.” Subject switch time. The ball was in his court now.
As she made her way to the door from the taxi, a couple of people were coming out of the Sanctuary. To Katrina's eyes, they looked like a rougher type of crowd than lived at the school. The strange men seemed to jeer at her on their way out, but they went on their way without bothering her. Maybe she had made a mistake in coming here. Maybe she should have just stayed home where she knew she was perfectly safe.
Just as she was contemplating just going home again, the golden doors opened again and Abyss rushing out to hug her. Katrina clung to her big red friend, returning the hug.
>>>“You ok Kitten? Did someone hurt you?”
She shook her head to answer his question. No one had hurt her except for herself. She had been angry with her mother, certainly, but it didn't give her the excuse to say all of the things she had said to her own mother. She now realized how terrible the things she had said were. She now wished she hadn't said them. All of the emotions that had been threatening to spill over the entire cab ride over did so now. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her breaths came in gasping sobs. For a moment it was impossible for her to talk at all, but she had to ask him one thing first.
“C-c-can I... borrow... s-s-some... money?” The crying girl pointed at the taxi that was still waiting at the curb. She hadn't paid him yet. He'd tried to tell her that a friend of Fausto's didn't need to pay at all, but she had insisted that she would pay. If she could just borrow some from Abyss, she could pay him back later.
“I-I-I...” She tried to explain what had happened, but she couldn't. Not just yet. She needed to get her crying done first before she could explain what had happened to make her want to run away and what made her not want to go back yet.
>>>¨We are going to central park,¨ Fausto announced as soon as they were standing outside by the curb. Katrina wasn't sure who he was talking to in such a loud voice, because it sounded like he was calling to someone other than her. Her questions was answered before she even had a chance to ask it. Within seconds, a taxi cab sped around the corner and came to a stop right in front of them. It was almost like magic, or perhaps, as was more likely in their own world, a special mutation that helped the taxi driver know exactly where to go to pick up riders.
The cabby knew Fausto, and called him by name. Their bantering back and forth led her to believe that they had driven together many times before. He even knew about Katrina, it would seem; after they were already seated in the back the cab driver talking about her, too. Just a hint of pink crept up into Katrina's cheeks as she realized the Fausto talked about her to his friends.
>>>¨Yes Arthur. Katrina is a great friend, she helped me a lot of times and I'd like to help her now. We are going to meet with the band. I do not think we should have a practices but we can try with something funy like the karaoke machine ... I would like to hear her singing.¨
“Ooh, I've only ever gotten to sing karaoke once before,” Katrina bounced on her seat, but not too high because her seatbelt held her down. "I usually play oboe when I make music, but I like to sing as well. I don't know if I am any good, but it is fun."
It wasn't a very long ride to the headquarters of “Corrosive Revolution”, which Katrina was assuming was the name of the band. She hadn't ever heard him actually say it was the band name, but it sounded like a good name for a band to her. It seemed like almost no time before they pulled to a stop once again.
On one side of the street was Central Park. It was still chilly and the were still small patches of snow on the grass that hadn't melted away yet, but the park was still beautiful. There was something about a patch of nature managing to hold its own against the city and survive despite the shadows of buildings being cast over them that made it inherently beautiful. On the other side of the street where the cab driver was letting the out was a hotel. From the outside, it didn't look very big compared to the tall skyscrapers that surrounded it. It was clean, though, and a bellhop in a fancy uniform stood at the door ready to help customers with luggage or to help hail a cab for them. She and Fausto didn't need a cab or help with bags, though, so he just smiled knowingly at the pair and tipped his cap to them as they made their way through the big rotating glass door into the lobby.
The lobby took Katrina's breath away. She had seen some pretty fancy hotels before. She had even stayed in some of them when the whole family had traveled with her father on business trips. She hadn't ever seen anything like this, though. There were all the normal things one would expect to be able to find in a hotel, except every one of those things was twice as fancy as usual. Everything was gold and silver with blue accents. The centerpiece grabbed Katrina's attention the most, though. To either side of the giant lobby two grand staircases wrapped around the room and met in the center one floor up. From the point where they met, a waterfall sent water splashing into a big pool in the center of the lobby. Two peacocks wandered near the edge of the pool. Their brilliant cobalt plumage reflected like tiny sapphires that danced across the ripples caused by the falling water.
Katrina could hardly take her eyes off it. Fausto could lead her wherever he wanted, and Katrina would follow, still in awe of the spectacle she had seen in the lobby and replaying it in her head over and over. She didn't want to forget any of the details.
“Wow. I didn't know we lived so close to a place that was so fancy. I can't believe that anyone could actually afford to stay here. It must be really expensive.”
