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.
Katrina could see the emotion drain out of his face. Any excitement or anticipation that had been there, about the concert, about the trip, about Valentine's day, about declaring his feelings, all of it was gone. Perhaps it was just the dim lighting, but he seemed pale.
>>>"I will return to you safe and sound. Until You do decide how you feel,I want us to be how we are. I don't want my feelings for you, to ruin what we already have. Promise we will still be friends no matter what you decide?"
“I promise. Nothing changes for now.” She nodded solemnly. It seemed like such a solemn situation. Fausto was leaving and she had quite possibly broken his heart. She felt so bad. Why couldn't she have figured it out sooner? Why couldn't she just have known right away how she felt? It was all so confusing. She did have feelings for him, but they were still like a tiny sprout, just barely emerging from the seed. They still needed water, sunlight, and time before she knew what kind of plant those feelings would grow into. It could be romantic love some day, or it could be like the love between a brother and a sister. It was so hard to tell right now.
Fausto seemed to be ready to walk away. Before he could go, Katrina ran up to him and gave him a big hug. “I'll miss you.” She really would. The mansion would seem so empty without him. There were tears in her eyes as she buried her face in his shirt. They must have squeezed right out when she hugged him. Then, after a long moment, she let go again. It sounded like it was something that was really important to him, so she had to let him go do it, what ever it was.
As long as so many people are off having fun in Columbia, we might as well have some excitement at home as well, right? How about a sleep over party at the Sanctuary? That sounds like fun right?
Katrina has run away from home after an argument with her mother, and she ends up at the Sanctuary, where she will stay at least until morning. Any Sanctuary residents are free to come hang out, play Twister, DDR, dress-up-like-Syn, or any other fun things we can think of to do. Click to join in on the fun!
CS, Koga, and Ghost (and anyone else from the mansion who wants to come) are forming a search party to look for Kat. All they have to go on is the words Kat said to the taxi driver before she left: "I need to see Abyss." A pretty clear clue, really. Things will probably get interesting when they show up. Maybe Issy and CS will face off in a game of Twister.
(This thread is open to anyone at the Sanctuary or to anyone searching for runaways who thinks to look there. Note that it takes place at the same time as all the action down in Columbia. Continued from Stray Kat I.)
Katrina was feeling a little better now. She still wasn't ready to go back home yet, though. It would take a little while before she was ready to face her mother again. It was something she had to do, but she wasn't exactly looking forward to it. In the morning she would be ready to deal with it. For now, she was just going to hang out at the Sanctuary for the evening and perhaps meet a couple of the residents. She had known some of them during the Resistance, like Abyss and Geo, but others she had never met before. It would be interesting to see who else lived here.
The first place she wandered into was the recreation room. It was kind of like a living room combined with an arcade or something. There were comfortable couches and chairs to sit in and several television to watch. On a shelf next to the big screen t.v. sat every kind of video game system known to man or mutant kind, with all of the controllers sitting on top, cords wrapped neatly around them. Except for one. Someone had been playing Majora's Mask and had left out the N64. Another shelf next to the first one held board games like Twister and Apples to Apples. There were two pool tables, a couple of arcade games, a candy machine, and a refrigerator filled with different kinds of beverages.
All in all, it was a much cooler room than the living room back at the mansion.
“I hate you! I wish you'd never given birth to me!”
Katrina glared out the window as the buildings and streets rolled past. The taxi driver was the same one who had given her and Fausto a ride to meet his band members one afternoon after school. Fausto was now in another country, working to make a change in the world, hopefully to make it a better place. Katrina was still stuck in New York, and fuming at her mother for keeping her there. As he had done in the past, the driver had appeared at the gate when she needed him and had known exactly where she needed to go. He always seemed to know. Just like the buildings that kept flying by outside the taxi windows, the events that had just transpired in the mansion kitchen kept replaying in her head.
Things had started badly from the very beginning, with a blond thirteen year stomping into the kitchen, slamming a dinner plate down on the table, then slumped into a chair, too crabby to even bother with any semblance of an upright posture. After a moment of awkward silence filled only by angry crunching and the light tinkle of clean silverware being put away, a frustrated mother had thrown her last handful of spoons into the drawer with a clatter and slammed the drawer closed again dramatically.
“That is quite enough of that attitude Katrina Dumonde. Sulking is not going to change anything, so just cut the drama right now.”
It was clearly the silverware thrown into the drawer that had started this whole mess.
“It's not fair. Everyone else is at the convention right now.”
“We've been through this before. Columbia is the least safe place in the world right now for young girls, and I'm not sending you there for any reason.”
“Oh sure, like I'm any less likely to get attacked or something living right here at the mansion with half the residents out of town leaving the place practically unguarded. Even when everyone is here, that doesn't stop people from attacking it. Like during the resistance- oh wait, you wouldn't remember that, because you weren't here.”
She had stomped up to her room afterwards, leaving her mother in the kitchen. She would prove that she could make it on her own. She didn't need to be coddled any longer. She didn't need to ask permission or have a chaperone every time she left the mansion grounds. She dumped all her books out on the bed and had started packing.
“You are still a child, I'm still your mother and legal guardian, and you still have to do as I say. I know what's best for you.”
“You've never thought of what was best for me! You only think of what is best for you. You lied to me my whole life. You lied to dad! If you had told him from the very beginning that you were a mutant none of this ever would have happened! Maybe I wouldn't have been born, but maybe it would have been better that way!”
As she shoved spare clothes into her backpack, she uncovered a set of earrings. There were seven pairs. One earring from each pair was a ball with multicolored swirls on them that looked like tiny little planets. The matches to each of the planet earrings shone like solid silver metal in one part of Katrina's vision. Underneath, the individualized color swirls still showed through. One gold hair was wrapped around each of the balls and held in place with clear glue. The silver had faded, just a little bit since Katrina had made it, but when she ran her finger over each one and thought about how they were supposed to look, the silvery image brightened again. She had always intended these to be a gift, but hadn't managed to have the gift and the intended recipient in the same place at the same time before now.
“I bet you wish I'd never been born, too. At least if I hadn't been born dad never would have found out that you were a mutant. You'd still be living in a big fancy house with someone else to cook and clean for you and all you'd have to do is go to parties every night. You tried to get me out of the way, didn't you. You tried to make sure I went to a boarding school far, far away so dad would never find out your secret, but he found out anyway.”
She had never made her mother cry before. She had felt neither triumphant nor ashamed at the time. She had still been too angry at the woman who was failing so miserably at understanding her, that she couldn't think straight anymore. She had just known that she had to leave for a little while. She had to get away.
“I need to see Abyss.”
And the taxi cab driver had known right where to take her. A mere thirty minutes after Katrina had started packing, she stepped out of the yellow cab in front of the city's most famous pair of doors. The rapidly disappearing evening sunlight reflected off of the gold, throwing sparkles across Katrina's face and finding matching sparkles in the corners of her eyes, where tears were just now threatening to spill over.
>>>“Look, Ssshe knowsss the guy, infact ssshe isss the Katrina from the dedication. Come on man be cool and don’t hassstle ussss. I am sssure he wantsss to sssee her.”
Katrina would have grinned at the lizard boy, but it would have looked too suspicious. Instead, she added her cutest puppy dog look with raised eyebrows, a slight pout, big eyes, an innocent blink and everything else that added up to perfectly irrisistable.
The combined efforts of the two teens did at least get one of the burly (though still humanly so) men to poke his head back through the curtain. It turned out the band was right on the other side and was coming out anyway. Katrina waved to Takumi and Cielle as they slid past to join the other party goers. Fausto was the last to appear, dressed to the nines in a very fancy tuxedo. Katrina grinned at him as he came through the door, practically bouncing with excitement. She dropped Koga's hand (without any inkling of what that might imply to the poor lizard boy) and rushed to give her rock star friend a big hug. After the quick embrace, she bounced back into position halfway between the two boys.
“Fausto, great songs! They sounded awesome once you got them all put together! This is Koga by the way. He's a new student at the mansion.”
The singer seemed to stumble over his next words, which was understandable considering how complimentary they were. The bumbling sentence left Katrina blushing, which seemed to be happening with a much higher frequency recently than she had previously been accustomed to. Perhaps it was simply the romantic nature of the season.
“Thanks, y-you look nice, too.”she managed to blurt out while he was composing himself for rounds two and three. He seemed nervous, which made Katrina nervous, too. Things had never been awkward between them before, when had that started? It use to be so easy for them to talk about anything and everything.
Round two came, with the announcement that her friend was planning on leaving for quite a lengthy period of time, and was unsure of when he would come back. Katrina felt something pull tight inside of her, and her face fell. Grins and shy blushes were wiped away in a look of regret and concern. She didn't want him to leave. When people did that, sometimes they didn't come back again. Not because they died or anything, but because they just drifted away. As far as she could tell, mutants tended to be drifters. They came and went, and sometimes didn't come back again.
From the sounds of it, the place where Fausto was going was a bit on the dangerous side, which meant he might not be able to come back, even if he wanted to. Even if he didn't forget about her and move on to a different life, someone could put a bullet through him just as easily as a knife cut through butter. At least, the way Fausto had described his dream of recreating the world as a better place through domination and fighting off all the evils, it sounded as though he was putting himself in quite a bit of danger. Butter knives and bullets were both very efficient at their jobs.
“You have to go?” It was a rhetorical question, uttered so softly that Fausto probably couldn't hear it anyway. Koga might have been able to, if he was still standing next to her and hadn't wandered off disgusted by the sappy sentiments flying back and forth. She would have to apologize to him later, for not introducing him as properly as she had meant to do.
She wasn't ready for round three.
>>>¨ well , the good news is that ... I just ... I ... I love you Kat. ¨
Katrina's mouth fell open in surprise. She shut it, then opened it again to respond, but no words came out. Again she shut it. All the while the blush that had been rising reached full bloom as dramatically as blushes can only on pale skinned individuals. She had no idea what to say to that. She had no idea even what to think about that. Her mind and heart both raced, but to no avail. She was still as speechless as a goldfish. Luckily Fausto continued the thought, thus giving Katrina just a little more time to try and form her jumble of thoughts into some semblance of words.
>>>¨ in a second tough isnt a good news,it only make more complicate the situation ... but if i die tomorrow i would be happy for had been said that today ¨
How was she supposed to respond? How was she even supposed to feel? She hadn't really even considered this type of thing before. At least, she had thought of Fausto more like an older brother. Mostly because he was older, and brothers were the types to throw eggs at people, weren't they? She wasn't sure anymore. The emotions that stirred within her were so confusingly jumbled together. Sadness and loneliness from learning he was leaving, and regret for the same reason. Surprise. Confusion. Certainly some variety of love, but the young girl couldn't discern what kind it was. There had to be some kind, though, because there would be no reason for all the sadness for his leaving. Through the swirl of foggy feelings and jumbled thoughts, Katrina realized that she couldn't stand there all evening slack jawed. She still owed him a response.
She looked at her feet, then up at Fausto, then back at her feet again. How to word it? She met his eyes again and this time didn't shy away from the visual contact.
“Thank you for telling me,” her voice was quiet and a little shaky, but the words came out in the proper order. “I guess... I don't know how I feel yet. I am still happy that you said it though. Do try to stay safe while you are gone.”
And, err, was Koga still here too? Katrina's blush deepened again. What an awkward conversation this turned out to be.
Claire accepted the young man's extended hand and shook it tenaciously. It was a well practiced hand shake, for the eleemosynary wife a senator got a lot of practice shaking hands. She hadn't officially been employed then, her chief occupations having been meeting, greeting, and donating other people's money to charities. It seemed like ages ago now, but the handshake was still automatic.
>>>“A pleasure to meet you Ms. Dumonde… I can see Katrina is going to grow into a fine woman.”
The sandy haired teen earned himself matching blushes from both Dumonde females, as well as an abrupt subject change to the topic of snacks from the younger of the two. A juice box for Ghost and a water for the one trying to make a good impression. Katrina helped play hostess by delivering the beverages and helping herself to juice box and a bowl of pretzels rather larger than she was intending to eat all by herself. The juice boxes went into the bowl for transport in one hand and Zephyr's water glass took up her other hand all by itself. Walking carefully so as to avoid spilling all over the pair of air wind manipulators, Katrina delivered the drinks, set the salty snacks within easy reach of everyone, then seated herself next to Ghost.
Zephyr took charge of continuing the conversation and Ms. Dumonde took charge of finishing her task of unloading groceries. She didn't mind working while she listened to the conversation. She could be perfectly sociable and productive at the same time.
>>>“You never did tell me Ghost, how was it you came across the mansion?”
Katrina listened, too. She didn't know how Ghost found the mansion either. She had just been here when Katrina arrived after everyone returned from the Labs. To the young teen, Ghost was as much a part of the place as the front gate and the main staircase. It was strange to think of her ever not being here.
For his outstanding attitude, his dedication to the site, and his unique ideas, I would like to nominate Iron Mouth for Mutant of the Month.
He has helped to make the MRO atmosphere warm and welcoming by greeting new members in the cbox and helping them get accustomed to the cbox ettiquette, site rules, and any other things that are confusing to our incoming RPers. He has been dedicated to the site for ten months, and constantly uses his knowledge and experience to be as helpful as he can. Since joining ten months ago Iron Mouth's writing has improved by leaps and bounds. He has been fun to RP with since the beginning, and he keeps getting better and better at including details and finding the right words to express all his unique ideas. He does an excellent job at developing his character through solo posts and threads with others. Even his NPC characters have well developed personalities and well thought out, incredibly unique mutations.
Posts and threads to see: Everyone Love's a Party: Check out Iron Mouth's awesome band that he has been developing for months.
Johnny Three Fingers: Slate finds that Iron Mouth's ideals are closely aligned with his own. (Iron Mouth had them first, though.)
Black Hawk Down: See Iron Mouth's mutation in action as he aids in a rescue!
In conclusion, vote for Iron Mouth! He's a great asset to our site and thoroughly deserves a MotM win!
The pair of young teens squeezed past the adults with whom they shared the balcony, but had to first endure the embarrassment of Abyss' teasing.
>>>“Treat her right kid she deserves nothing less, keep an eye out for her too there are some less then savory folks her tonight.”
Katrina blushed automatically at the idea that Abyss thought they were dating or something. Ryooichi was nice, certainly, but they weren't dating or anything like that. He was older than her for one thing, and they'd just started getting to know each other, too. The chameleon boy coped with the teasing much better than she did, by stealing the big red man's color in order to scare off any unsavory characters.
>>>“Of courssse you are right, I will treat her well, I think thisss ssshould do, to chassse off mossst of the ne’er do wellsss, Sir. Thanksss.”
All Katrina was left with for come backs to the impish monkey tailed man was, “Yeah, well, you should tell your brother not to smoke. He's going to ruin his lungs.” Then they were past and on their way down the stairs.
>>>“Isssn’t he one of the bad guysss that attacked the mansssion, before I ssshowed up?
Katrina gave him a puzzled look in response, “I didn't see him there. Abyss is nice though, you don't have to worry about him. He's really a nice guy once you get to know him.” If he had been at the mansion fight, Katrina had been too busy trying to keep Sam and Geo from killing each other that she hadn't had time to pay attention to all the other chaos that was happening all over the entire mansion lawn. He was capable of violence, she knew from the way he had spoken at one of the resistance meetings so long ago and from the story Pluto had told her of how the seven had broken free of their captivity in their youth. That was all so long ago, though, that Katrina had a hard time thinking that any of the Abyss brothers would still have any cause to harm anyone.
At the bottom of the staircase Katrina had a hard time seeing a clear pathway to the stage area. Everyone was taller than her, and constantly moving. They'd have to weave in and out amidst the dancing and mingling couples and groups in order to get anywhere. It would be difficult to navigate through without losing track of each other.
“They didn't all look so tall from up above,” Katrina admitted. “Here, don't get lost.” She grabbed Ryooichi's hand in her own and started bravely threading her way through the throngs until they found the door that led from the backstage. She could tell it was the correct door, because it was guarded by two impressively strong looking men with very strict looking postures and name badges clipped to the lapels of their suits.
“Umm, is Fausto back there? Can we talk to him please?”
Oh? Katrina held out her hands to accept the small folded present. It was a pink origami kitten, making the evening officially an origami night. She wouldn't be at all surprised if there were how-to-fold-paper-hearts lessons as a party activity later.
“Thanks Ryooichi. It's really cute. You'll have to show me how to make it later.” Katrina grinned, inspecting the little paper feline to see if she could figure it out. As she did so, the personnel on the balcony shifted toward the more crowded side. A couple of familiar faces joined first; Katrina waved excitedly to Abyss and Sara as they joined the balcony crew.
>>>“Who’s this?” the lioness asked.
Katrina grinned as she made introductions, pointing to each person in turn, “Ryuichi, Sara, and Abyss.” She was distracted, though, by the flames spouts that announced the entrance of that evening's feature band. The band members appeared, wearing black leather accented with primary colors. As soon as they started to sing, it was impossible not to watch them. She knew this band... It was Fausto's band! She hadn't realized at first, because he looked and sounded so grown up on the stage down below. The balcony was a really good place to see from, she could see every hair on the band members' heads without any tall people getting in the way.
She stood mesmerized, watching, not even realizing that their balcony was getting more and more crowded; two more people had appeared during the first song. They were a tall couple that seemed to be friends with Abyss, or Sara, or both. Katrina waved to the newcomers, then turned to listen to the second song.
Fausto surprised her then, by dedicating the song to her. The young illusionist blushed. She hadn't done anything to deserve a song dedication had she? She listened carefully. The words that she had read once before were so haunting with the melody added in. The guitar line and the vocal line intertwined like two strands of the same thread, weaving in and out of the subtle fabric provided by the drums. The overall song gave Katrina goosebumps, she was mesmerized simply because the song itself was enchanting in its loneliness and desperation. The poetry of the words painted pictures in Katrina's mind as vivid as any illusion she could ever make. Then, the song and the spell ended.
“Ooh. Ryoo, we should go down and say hi. Wanna meet a soon-to-be famous rock star?”
The young blonde woman managed to keep herself to a speed walk until she reached the curb outside the front door of the grocery store before she switched to running. She had walked from the apartment she normally shared with Slate, so she had worn sensible shoes. As she sprinted back toward the closest available television, the same thoughts repeated themselves over an over in her head, like a toy train on a circular track.
It's impossible! She must have been wrong. The plan could not have failed. Why didn't he inform me right away? What happened? Are they okay?
The news anchor on channel twelve verified the story of the gossipy old woman from the grocery store. The Asian countries were at war. On and on, he repeated the information for those people who were just tuning in. Katrina kept listening, kept watching the small tidbits of footage from across the world over and over, just in case new information came in.
Again and again it was the same. China had irrevocable proof that Russian troops had crossed into their land, trying to kidnap and coerce Chinese mutants into crossing the borders. Russia had proof that China wouldn't submit to diplomacy. Russian soldiers had crossed into China, and those Russian soldiers would not be leaving again, except on the airwaves of hundreds of television stations to millions of televisions around the world, like the one in a small apartment in New York City. There was little to no information on what happened to the Chinese refugees that had been involved, no matter how many times the information cycled through.
Finally, Katrina turned it off, feeling numb. She still couldn't accept that it was real. It couldn't be true. Slate would have told her. He was capable of communicating this far, at least with her. Unless... Her mind refused to admit to the possibility that he couldn't communicate. He must have had a reason. She had to get back to him. Screw the mission with Zhang Xiao. It wasn't as important as this. It wasn't as important as making sure her seniors were safe. It wasn't as important as making sure Slate was safe. If she had to comb through every cave and turn over every rock in the Himalayas, she would do it. She just needed to get there so she could see for herself that it was all an elaborate set up. It was all a lie, a set up by the Chinese government. She had to see for herself that it wasn't true.
The fastest way to get there was on the Blackbird. It didn't require waiting in line for security or customs. It was faster than a normal airline. It could stealth. It was perfect.
On her way out the door, she remembered that Sarah would probably want to know where she was going. It wouldn't do to simply vanish and not tell anyone. Perhaps the lioness woman would even be willing to help her look for the students and Slate. She was their teacher as well.
Quickly she flipped open her phone and sent a text message to the lioness' cell phone. “Seen the news? Meet me at mansion, ASAP.” Another message she sent to her ice manipulating friend at the mansion, so he would know to expect them. “I need your help. I'll be stopping by shortly.” All that was left was to catch a quick cab ride to her old school, and she'd be ready to go.
Jean Anderson was a practical woman. She was tall and thin and every one of her dark gray hairs lay perfectly on her head. She wore practical clothes and practical shoes, nothing superfluous. She didn't believe in gossip, only in news. If it wasn't backed up by facts, she wanted nothing to do with it.
“Jeeeean, ohmigosh!”
That was the danger of grocery shopping in the middle of the afternoon. It was also when all the other retired church choir ladies descended upon the little family owned corner grocery store. It was only inevitable that eventually she would run into someone like Ethel McIntosch, the city's biggest gossip and possibly the world's biggest bore. She was very friendly, but the proper and practical Mrs. Anderson had no use for her flowery scarves nor for her incessantly waggling tongue. It was all so unnecessary. At least at choir the woman's mouth was busy forming “do re mi”s and praising the Lord. Jean gave the woman a tight lipped smile. It could not have been considered insincere, though, because it looked just like her normal smile.
Mrs. McIntosch interpreted the smile as a greeting as well as permission to park her cart right next to her fellow alto's effectively pinning it to the Old Dutch display. She then launched right into her juiciest piece of news, or gossip, depending on the perspective, “Can you believe it? My husband just called. He was watching the news. Apparently China and Russia are officially at war now. There was some sort of border skirmish, I guess. Can you believe it?”
Mrs. Anderson wouldn't believe it, not until she saw the news herself and read the next morning's paper.
The young blonde woman who had been politely ignoring the pair of dropped a bag of tortilla chips with a soft crunch. Mrs. Anderson glared over at her disapprovingly, just in case she had been eavesdropping. She did not approve of eavesdroppers any more than she approved of gossipers; they were just one more link in the gossiping chain, ready to rush off and tell all their friends, just like the blonde woman was doing. She didn't even pick up that bag of chips she had dropped before rushing off down aisle six. Mrs. Anderson snorted, half ill wishing and half wishing that she too was able to scurry away from the potato chip display and the matronly woman who had trapped her there.
“So anyways, what do you think?” finished Mrs. McIntosch, peering up at the taller woman with a curious look.
Sam was running faster than the two girls, fast enough to pass them just before they hit the stairs, fast enough that an ill placed shoe at the top of the stairs caused him to trip and fall, showing off...
>>>“...one of the finest asses I have ever seen. Thank you Jesus!"
Katrina looked the other way. Looked any way other than down at the bare bottomed man at the foot of the stairs. She found herself examining the shoe that had somehow found its way to the middle on the hallway at the top of the stairs. It seemed to be covered in a fair amount of slobber, which hinted at who had left it there. How could a few animals cause this much trouble in such a short amount of time?
She held her hands like blinders to avoid looking at Sam as she made her way down the stairs. She had a job to do, and no amount of nudity was going to keep her from doing it. This mess was all her fault, after all!
“Maybe six puppies and a kitten all at once is a few too many for one house,” she commented as she past the prone form of the ice manipulator on her way to the kitchen, where she heard rustling and banging that she suspected had nothing to do with that nights dinner preparations.
Spotlights flared at their presence, illuminating a very large, very sleek looking plane. It was almost as if the plane wanted them to come visit it, and welcomed them with lights. Aviator Kat was so busy ogling it that she didn't even realize at first that two of the members of her party were distinctly less clothed than they had previously been. The lights beckoned her toward the plane, like a bug zapper welcomed flies, but hopefully with less casualties involved. Aviator Kat wandered past individual sized storage lockers, past a small cleverly camouflaged keypad that may or may not turn off buzzing alarms that may or may not be waiting to sound in a remote security office after a certain length of time without proper numerical authorization, past a clearly marked fire extinguisher, to where the jet crouched to greet them.
“I didn't know we had a plane under the school! This is so cool! Come on!” Aviator Kat beckoned her team mates, turning back to see if they had caught up yet. That was when she realized Calley lacked pants and Ghost lacked not only her solidity, which was relatively normal, but also lacked any clothing at all. Quickly the aviator turned her face away from the pair of them. Why, when one was adventuring, did someone always end up naked? She wasn't sure which was worse, either. Ghost was a girl, so that wasn't so bad, except that Calley was right there. At least Calley had boxers still, so that was a little better than last time when she had seen him with nothing but a pair of high tech accessories that could melt through layers of walls with a single shot.
“Err.” How did one tell one's friends that they were improperly dressed for adventuring? What if someone caught them like this? That would be embarrassing indeed. “Guys, you might want to check those locker things.” Aviator Kat waved her hand towards the small, narrow doors that were embedded in the wall. “There might be some spare uniforms or something in there. I'll just... look around over here... or something.”
The teen ducked underneath the noble plane to check out the other side and noticed the secretive outline of yet another mysterious door hiding in the shadows beyond the plane. That would be interesting to investigate while she waited for her friends to be once again properly attired so they could check out the plane together. She wouldn't want to start exploring without them. Slowly Aviator Kat wandered toward the silent portal, wondering what secrets hid behind door number four.
>>>“Is that so? Well I shall to ensure I never play with you then, after all I wouldn’t to ruin your fun by finding you in the first five minutes.”
Katrina's mouth twitched downward at the corner, as did her eyebrows in the center. He couldn't really do that. Not if she really wanted to stay hidden. After all, she was an expert at hiding and even without that, she had a mutation that aided her efforts if she needed it to. Not that he knew that.
“Hmm, I doubt it,” was her response to that. “You better not brag too much, or I will have to challenge you to a game to teach you a lesson. Though it might be a rather boring one, since you would take all day to find me again.”
>>>"So this is the kitchen and living room area." It was a good thing Ghost was helping with this tour, or it could easily devolve into a sibling style argument over who was the better hide-and-seek player, or some other subject of a similar nature. Katrina had never had a sibling, but she imagined that having one would be a lot like having Dio around all the time.
In the kitchen was Katrina's mother, earning both of their rooms by keeping the kitchens running. It was still a little strange to think of her mother cooking, after they had been served dinner by their family butler for so many years, but Claire Dumonde was getting to be quite a good cook. She had taken the veritable army of hungry mutants in stride and was somehow able to keep them all fed. It was a job that seemed much bigger than one person could do, and Katrina was proud that her mother could do it. The young illusionist grinned and waved to her mother as she led in the miniature tour group.
Since she knew everyone in the group, she did the introductions, “This is my mom, Claire Dumonde. Mom, this is Zephyr. He's a friend from the Resistance who knows Ghost, too. He came for a visit so we're giving him a tour.”
The petite brunette woman stood from where she was crouching at the refrigerator and smiled warmly at the group her young daughter lead into the kitchen. “Welcome to the mansion, Zephyr! It's nice to meet you.” As far as Claire knew, he was the first 'friend from the Resistance' that had ever come to visit the mansion other than mansion residents who were also part of the resistance. It was a little strange to think that she knew almost nothing about that year of her daughter's life that she had missed. No one talked much about their experiences during that time, her daughter included. Somehow Zephyr standing there made that time seem just a little more real. It really had happened. How did one speak to the friends of your thirteen year old daughter who had helped plan and carry out a rather violent plan to break the mutants out of the New York area concentration camp? Was there a different etiquette than how she would normally respond to her daughter bringing home friends that were so much older and more mature?
Katrina inadvertently interrupted her mother's pensive silence, “Did anyone want a snack or anything? We have juice boxes or soda.” She wandered over to where her mother had just been refilling the contents of the ice box and looked inside. “We've got lots of variety and ice, too. Most things aren't very cold yet.”
>>>¨ well I have trouble deciding which part should I use for a song, the song consists of three parts. i decided the first and last part but the medium is a bit confusing. I have two options but i dont know what part i should choose”
“I'll help you, if you need it! I'd like to look at your song. Songs are kind of like poetry.” Katrina didn't read a lot of poetry, but she liked what she had read. It was the only style of writing that seemed to throw all the rules out the window. It could rhyme if it wanted to, but it didn't have to. Punctuation was unnecessary, as were complete sentences. Poets were able to use words, strung together seemingly at random, to paint pictures in a person's mind. The effect was kind of like an illusion, but more permanent. Anyone could come along and read the poem even centuries after the poet had written it and the word pictures would still be there, ready to etch themselves upon the reader's imagination.
>>>“ ... if we have enought time we can go to visit Cielle and Takumi. if you want to meet with they . Cielle will become very happy to meet you. ¨
Katrina skipped and hopped the next two steps. “That would be really cool. I'd love to meet your other friends, too. And find out what it is you're doing when you're not going to class. It certainly seems more exciting that sitting through lectures and taking notes.” Though it sounded like more fun, it wasn't something Katrina could ever bring herself to do. School seemed to her like the ticket to a happy life later on. If she could learn everything that the school could teach her, she would be prepared to find a job and be able to help people with the money she earned. She couldn't help but frown disapprovingly at Fausto's next sentence, about cheating on homework.
His point about never knowing what would happen next did make a lot of sense to her. After all, if she were to die tomorrow, would she have wanted to spend her last night doing math homework? Then again, if she didn't die tomorrow, would she wish that she had when the time came to turn in that math homework? Continuing on was more likely than a sudden end, it seemed. After all, she hadn't died yet so she probably would still be alive tomorrow. She had to look forward to the future, or there was no point in doing anything. She had no interest in sitting around waiting until the end of the world. She wanted to be doing things, growing up, looking forward to what was ahead as well as enjoying the current time.
>>>“... the truth is that I do not like to think far into the future ... the future is uncertain, the past no longer exists. The only thing we have left is to live in an eternal present. nice phrase, right? I do not remember who said it but it was someone famous ...”
“Hmm,” They had reached the door of her room finally. Katrina was still musing about eternal presents as she opened the door for the boy carrying the heavy backpack. Her bedroom was presentable right now, even though it wasn't completely clean. At least, there weren't any undergarments lying around. She had learned to keep those in the closet as opposed to on the floor or under the bed.
>>>¨well, we are here .. do you want me to stay here while you let your stuff? dont take a long time please , you know that I dont like to wait ¨
“All I need is a jacket and a hat. It's still too cold outside for my taste.” Moments later she was dressed and ready to go. “I'm ready for an adventure! If I die tomorrow I'll be glad that I spent my last afternoon hanging out with you. If I don't die, it will be a fun memory when I am all grown up. So there.” Katrina stuck her tongue out at him. Who said she couldn't believe in both sides of that argument? She could enjoy the present and prepare for the future at the same time if she wanted to.
“Let's go!” Katrina grabbed Fausto's hand and pulled him out of her room, toward the staircase, and ultimately toward the front door. She paused at the top of the stairs, “Where are we going, again?”
