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.
ooc: Poking along. I expect to be a little all over the place til June.
ic:
>>"You remind me of someone I knew quite a while ago. You have a sense of humor a lot like hers and she was very observant as well but in a different way. She was blind but her other senses made up for it. She could hear things and smell things that I would normally miss. She also had a sixth sense about people... maybe it was just her womanly intuition but she could always tell who was trustworthy and who wasn't."<<
So he'd been married before. Or at least had a very serious relationship from the way he spoke about her. That didn't really surprise her. In fact, she mentally chastised herself for not picking up on it. It was hard to get a true read on Paul. It was like he'd been alive forever or something. He was good at masking things, sending her mind off on rabbit trails. She suspected he was an excellent liar but was too polite to lie to her about anything too important. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.
"I'm sorry she isn't around anymore." Lana replied. She wasn't sure if there was a bad breakup or the person moved or maybe even died. But it was clear Paul hadn't seen them in a long time. Distance makes the heart grow weak, and Lana knew people always seemed like better people the more time passed.
>>"I was out in California at the time. It's actually where I learned landscaping, my current profession, though I can only do that during the warmer months. Of course, I was so busy on land that I never learned how to surf."<<
"California sounds nice." Lana preferred to be in warmer places when she could. >>"So tell me Lana... what sort of deep dark secrets are you hiding? If we're going to be working together then I should probably know at least one of them." <<
Later on, when Lana looked back on this night- she'd tell herself it was the wine that led her to just out her biggest secret. She knew it was probably a lie, but allowing herself to believe that she'd become comfortable enough with a stranger to just blurt it out was harder to accept.
"Oh you know, the usual..." she began. "All us mutants have some tragic back story don't we? Then again, the majority of kids these days will have a traumatic experience by age 10 so maybe it's just life. My sister was killed by a drunk driver. Now she's a ghost I see sometimes. She jokes she's my guardian angel." she took a long sip of the wine, finishing it off and putting it down like a shot glass on the table. "I mean, it's not like I'm haunted by the past, but I am literally haunted by the past." she laughed.
I enjoyed my time as a Mod, but don't see me having time for anything like that until the summer. I'd like to get back into the swing of posting first but if you're still looking come Juneish then maybe we can see Good luck either way. I think one of the things that has kept mRO going is having dedicated Mods who keep pushing fun new ideas!
Posted by Lana on Apr 16, 2014 14:31:57 GMT -6
WereCat likes this
Epsilon Mutant
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May 3, 2014 19:00:29 GMT -6
finally got my laptop back annnd they didnt fix the issue. *sigh* I am doing my best to get caught up, I miss my MRO world! Please be patient with me At the very least I'll be back full throttle in June, but between now and then I will be sporadic. I have so many ideas, and I'm so excited for the next xmen movie wooo it reminds me of our old plot haha
My laptop has been away for 3 weeks following on the heals of being super sick and in hospital. These past 3 months have been hard on my health and totally upset my plans of leaving my job because of how insanely expensive my meds are. I will likely post occasionally between when I get my laptop back and May 31. Starting June things will be opening up for me and I have so many great ideas!!!
Thanks for being patient I feel like a real bum lol. Realllllly hoping to be back soon!!
Hey folks, slowly getting caught up! I replied to my threads but probably wont venture into new ones til I catch up on the plot and read some threads that have been posted since December
I've had a very unexpected hard time with my health. I already have 1 chronic illness and was just diagnosed with another after several hospital visits. My immune system is down so I keep getting sick and all kinds of other issues. Some days are good, but I haven't had my usual zap of creativity. Hoping to get back on track. <3
Lana reddened for a second. She was usually SO good at picking that sort of thing up and she was mad at herself for not recognizing it in her roomate. Why would she drink when she had a memory mutation? That would make it all the harder. Plus, she was a physically fit person for her job. Lana imagined her body was a temple. Tattoos and all. "Oh, Sorry." was all she managed to say before Noel went on to responding to her recent statements. She was thankful for the turn in conversation. Sometimes Lana just didn't pick up on those social queues. But Noel didn't seem to mind. She did feel awkward now though about having the booze.
"It's not... I mean... Hmm It's mostly just awkward. It helps to be able to read people, their body language and all that? Really it's only weird when they're familiar and I just can't get that same feeling. With some friends, they just click back into place." She shrugged. "Other times I just fake it 'til I make it."
"That makes sense." replied Lana. "I think a lot of us do that."
>>"Hmm. Well, some jobs I get hired specifically for my ability to forget. But that doesn't mean there are days I don't.I've been puked on more than twice. Bluh."
Lana gave a laugh, "Would you believe I have too? Though for different reasons. Usually it's a cop's first time working a murder scene or something. I feel bad for them, except when they contaminate my scene. The good ones are the ones who have the decency to run a bit away before doing it." she literally did have scenes ruined that way. It was common in her field.
>>"One time I got tricked into thinking I'd been doused in Anthrax so I stripped and jumped into the lake over by the the jogging path in Central Park. Not my brightest moment, but I kinda panicked, you know? Some scamp ran off with my clothes and I had to bum a jacket off of some guy to get home 'cause it was winter."
Lana laughed trying to picture it. "Oh man that's rough! And cold." she put the back of her hand over her mouth while she laughed so she didn't spit cookie dough everywhere. "What a sin!"
>>"I dunno! I bet you have better."
Did she? She'd been the one to bring it up in an attempt to be light hearted. But there really wasn't anything light hearted about her job. Just a lot of dead people and psychopaths. "Well in terms of the patients I deal with, it really is a bit stereotypically like the movies. You get what you'd expect. There's a lot of hazing of new doctors and that sort of thing so they'd always give me the guy who'd pee everywhere during a session. One guy tried to take a dump in a fake plastic tree." she snorted. "The doctor who sent him to me thought it was funny til I sent the patient to his office bearing the tree as a gift." she grinned.
ooc; once again, was really really sick. So sorry! Hoping to be back for good now! I'm thinking we can start inviting anyone else in we'd like who'd been through an attack after this
Ic:
>>"We certainly need to get a master list then. There's no way to identify any patterns until we know the full scope of what's been going on."
"I agree." nodded Lana. "Too much at stake."
Shawn looked conflicted over her next statement, and Lana felt herself again wondering at how close he and Sam were. Shawn had the appearance of a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"We want to keep him safe but we also want to keep the kids safe as well. We're hoping that by keeping Sam hidden it'll make his attackers restless and possibly we can identify them before they strike again. We also don't want to put the kids in any unnecessary danger by bringing his attackers to the mansion, if we can help it."
Hmm well that made things difficult. She had assumed he was either in a hospital or held up in a safe house. From the way Shawn was talking he was most certainly around children, possibly at the mansion. While that might prove safe for a time, Lana was worried that regardless of whether they interviewed Sam or not, the perp might track him there anyway- putting the kids at risk.
"Well, that is a dilemma." she admitted
>>"Now that I think back...I was involved in a confrontation with a mob of humans and a couple of mutants. I don't know if it has any relation to Sam's attackers but it does seem pretty random now that I think about it. I wasn't a target, per say, but I happened to show up during it. It seemed like both humans and mutants were responsible for the outburst. So, it wasn't like it was a targeted mutant hate thing, or vice versa."
Lana furiously wrote notes as he spoke, nodding. "SO you're not sure if the two events are linked. But without more info to make a bigger picture we can't be sure. Good to know. Anything else you remember about that? Anything that stood out?" she prodded. It was Lana's job to ask questions, sometimes that could put people off but she tried to do it in the kindest of ways.
"For instance..." started Lana as she stood up and moved to a map on the cork board. She pushed a red push pin into a spot. The Map was all of NYC. "He was attacked here. I know of one other attack... here." she popped another pin. "Where was your issue?" she held out a tack for him.
Lana wasn't sure how else she could impress about him that it was vital she interview Sam. She also needed that list of other victims so she could start interviewing soon. They were wasting valuable time held up in the office. The perps would most certainly strike again.
IC: >>"Either his wife doesn't approve of his working on a screenplay or she doesn't know about it. He wants to prove he can be successful but something about his relationship with his wife makes him doubt his own abilities..."
"Yep, I'd say that's accurate." replied Lana, prodding a piece of her dinner with the fork, inspecting it, and then popping it into her mouth. She munched for a second and then smiled. "Mm delicious." followed it with a swish of wine. "Good call." she grinned. "I'd say he's trying to find the courage to do this full time but he's afraid to ask her. I think we're both getting the impression though that she's either a tyrant at home, or holding something over him. Poor guy...."
Lana was enjoying this. It was refreshing to go through her skills with someone else. Helped her stay sharp, and she seemed to have a natural rapport with Paul. It wasn't everyday she randomly met a man, thought he was a ghost, and then insisted he work for her and go out for drinks. Not exactly a Lana thing to do. She found herself once again wondering if he might have some sort of charisma or magnetism aspect to his mutation, or if this really was just her being a bit impulsive. It all gave her hope either way that she could carve a life for herself here in NYC.
>>"So, how do most of your dates react when you start profiling other people at the bar? Or do you normally only profile the person you're actually going out with?"
Lana grinned like a cat. "I usually keep my observations of the date to myself." she admitted. "I make my points in my mind, then go through them as I go through the date trying to confirm them all. I only start vocalizing their mommy issues when they turn out to be jerks." she laughed. "I honestly don't usually share these things out loud with other people though. Guess you're special."
Why did she share all this with him? What was it about him that made him so easy to talk to?
>>"Not a problem... I don't think anyone noticed so we're still clear for profiling."<<
"Sorry" Lana apologized trying not to seem TOO apologetic, she was a mutant, she'd been forthcoming about her mutation. "I try to speak into the phone but I wasn't thinking. Usually that works." glancing around she didn't think she had much to worry about. People were pretty absorbed in their own worlds. >>"I think I'll have the chef's choice of 6 cheeses for just a little something to eat and as for the wine... would you rather we each order our own or would you like to share a bottle? The French Cabernet's looks pretty good."<<
Lana nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good. I'll do the same and sharing wine is fine. I think I'll have some stuff to do in a few hours so I don't want to be too inebriated. " she passed the menus back to waitress who bobbed her head and went off.
>>"So... the waitress..." <<
Lana grinned a toothy smile. Paul was catching on. Lana's eyes followed the waitress as she left. In truth, she'd been caught off guard by her sister, and Lana's thoughts were already going crazy thinking about the possibilities the morning might hold. She'd made a few casual automatic observations though...
>>"She's been in New York City for several years and learned the hard way that appearances are important. She's tried to make it as an actress or performer of some type but thus far she hasn't had her big break. She's either just worn out by life in general or something from her past still haunts her. Am I close?"<<
Lana nodded along with his observations. Most were ones she already made, but he made the leap to actress or performer, she had to agree. "Based on the forced walk and the way she's carrying herself I think she's running on energy drinks. It suggests either a daytime job as well, or perhaps a student. Could honestly be both. It seems to be the standard these days." she frowned. So many young people running themselves dry. "But, she's seeing someone. She saw them today. It doesn't take an expert at observing to notice that makeup is a little too intense for work, but not quite intense enough for stage. Or though, maybe that's a female thing." she laughed. "In fact, I detected a hint of strong floral perfume. That's a bold statement. She's not just seeing someone. She's the other woman. Other women often intentionally leave clues to their partners infidelity, hoping their wives will notice and leave them."
She had to go silent because the waitress reappeared with their drinks. She placed them on the table and gave a smile, then promised the food would be ready soon. "I'd go with the student. She's sleeping with her drama professor. Though, she's trying so hard to hide her exhaustion I'd gather there's not much actual sleeping in her life. It's why she looks happy, but it doesn't quite come up all the way."
Lana sipped the wine. This was good. She and Paul were on the same page.
"Now that guy..." she bobbed a motion with her head for Paul to look across at a man sitting at one of the tables, tapping away at his phone. He was dressed rather hipsterish, and had barely touched the food. "He's not here for the food, he's here to work. Or rather be seen working. Not trying to impress anyone specifically, just trying to validate how he's spending his time... on that screenplay..." she grinned. "What do you see?"
Before Paul would of have a chance to answer, the waitress came back with their food. Lana eagerly accepted it and without thinking added, "Men like that, they never leave."
The young woman looked up. "Sorry?"
"Your professor. He's not going to leave his wife." Lana remarked organizing her utensils.
"...but how did you?"
"And you're a pretty girl. I bet if you got a little more rest you'd stop forgetting your lines at every audition." Lana smiled at her.
The girl took a step back like she'd seen a ghost... but she was also nodding. Nodding the way a person might nod to a therapist. It might have been Lana's tone of voice, or her professional manner that just never turned off, but they instantly had a rapport. The girl smiled and walked away thoughtfully.
"So, the guy?" prodded Lana, spearing some food with her fork.
>>"Do you ever have others observe your sessions?"<<
Lana nodded. "I usually record everything via camera or tape recorder. Then, several times a year just for assessment sake a higher up will usually observe. Of course, if a prisoner is proving to be especially difficult or dangerous someone may come as well. There's always a Uni outside the door too." she added. "I've only just started at this location, been there about a week. Of course, the boss was a bit floored at my.. ah... youthfulness I guess? I mean, I'm 28 I'm not THAT young, I have plenty of colleagues my own age. But I guess I remind him of his teenage daughter so he had to throw his weight around. You'd think in 2014 some men would get over women being in the workplace but apparently many are still old fashioned." While Lana was most certainly a feminist on principle, she never considered simply working to be that shocking. It drove her nuts when it came up.
***
Lana was pleasantly surprised to have Paul open her door, and of course, it was at that moment her sister appeared on the hood of the car- waving. Lana tried not to glare and her sister, and gave Paul a great big smile.
"What are you doing?" groaned Laura. "First the room mate, now this guy? Some unscheduled date you forgot to tell me about?" Laura waggled her eyebrows in the same way Lana did. They'd both picked it up from their father.
Lana did her best to ignore her sister. Laura simple grinned and floated behind the two.
>>"They have a decent tapas menu from what I understand if you'd like a little snack." <<
Paul lead the way and held the door open for her. Lana found herself wondering just how old Paul was. Not that it was too old fashioned to open doors... you just didn't see it often anymore. Men either didn't care, or were too worried of insulting a strong minded woman. Plenty of those types around. Still... she was curious about Paul's age. She knew he was quite a bit older than her, maybe the same age as her boss, but he didn't have the same creep factor- Thank God. But with Paul's eluding to his mutation... he might not be mentally the same age that his body was showing either. It was curious, but she couldn't think of any way to bring it up that wasn't very rude. Even for Lana, who often couldn't grasp certain social nuances- she knew that was a bad question. "I've never had tapas" she managed to get out as they entered the building. Laura was in pursuit, clearly something on her mind.
>>"Would you like to sit anywhere in particular?"<<
She had followed Paul in and now she was overwhelmed with delicious smells, warmth, and remarkable ambience. There were little indoor water fountains around, two large koi tanks, low lighting with the sort of decorative Christmas type lights hanging around, and the chatter was minimal. Soft jazz music played in the background. Lana grinned. "A booth would be great if you don't mind." she pointed. She knew it was traditional to sit at the bar, but if they really were going to profile people she didn't want someone to overhear her by accident.
She squeezed into a seat across from Paul and smiled, but then her smile very noticeably dropped to a frown when Laura appeared right next to Paul.
"Listen, I've been checking out that house from the victim and I think I may have found something. But I'm going to go back to check!" exclaimed Laura. Lana's eyes darted from Laura to Paul.
Lana opened her mouth to say something and then thought better of it. "Excuse me for just a second Paul, there's a rather rude ghost sitting right next to you. She followed us in." she hated talking to spirits in front of others. She really hated it. She felt she looked crazy. But she'd already laid out all the cards with Paul and right now, she knew the look on her sisters face. Laura wouldn't go until she was addressed.
"Whoa whoa whoa he knows?" demanded Laura.
"Yes, of course he knows. I invited him to work with me, kind of have to be honest" She smiled at Paul but turned her attention back to Laura. " His name is Paul. But everything else isn't really any of your business." said Lana, looking intensely at the space right next to Paul. "We're a little busy here, so be quick about it. It's late, I want to unwind, and I'm not interested in running any spirit errands. "
"I think I found the murder weapon." exclaimed Laura, not even caring to ask for more details on Paul. She was bursting with the information.
Lana's eyes widened a bit. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"I think so. I've been sorta manifesting several places tonight, you know how it is. Sometimes I can control where I go, sometimes I can't. I'm trying to get back there, it'll take a few tries unless you take me." explained Laura.
Lana nodded. "Okay, but it'll have to wait til morning. No sense me poking about a murder victims home this late at night. I'll look like I'm trying to steal something."
"You'll look like you're trying to steal something during the day too." quipped Laura.
"Well at least during the day I can wear my badge and look official. You know how it is. The place is still taped off but it wont be guarded anymore. They think they have all the evidence processed. I shouldn't be stopped going in and if I do it'll only be from local cops and one flash of my ID Badge from the NYPD and I can claim part of the investigation. It won't be a problem. Meet me back here at closing." explained Lana. "I'm going to relax until then."
Laura nodded. Lana never liked investigating things late at night. She'd get anxious and sometimes have panic attacks.
"Bring the newbie." suggested Laura. It caught Lana off guard, and her eyes fluttered to Paul for a second and then back to Laura.
"Uh, I'll ask." she said unsure of what to say. "See you." and with that Laura was gone and Lana was left momentarily distracted. "Sorry about that. Ghosts." she said as a waitress dropped a wine menu in front of them.
"Uh, what are you having?" she was trying to get her bearing back. There'd been a flush of excitement and colour about her. The chase always did that. It was weird to have given herself up like that and simply chatted with her sister right in front of someone. But it felt kind of natural too. She had a feeling Paul wouldn't act like she was crazy. She was sure he had his own demons... she just wasnt sure what.
But right now she needed to come back to earth. If the murder weapon was there and her perp was incarcerated, it wasn't going anywhere. Maybe she'd feel out how things went with Paul in the next few hours and see how much energy he had. Who knows? It could be a fun morning too...
ooc: I'm going to stick us in the car and get us there if that's okay
ic: >>"Why does that not surprise me... how about classics that aren't mysteries? Have you ever tried Jules Verne?"<<
Lana shrugged and smiled. "Yes. No. I mean, well sort of. I've only read the really well known ones. Back when I was... well it must have been junior high. Journey to the centre of the Earth... Around the World, and 20,000 leagues..." she trailed off trying to remember the stories of her youth. "I was always intimidated by books written in the 1800s because I expected the language to be.. I don't know... really outdated? But when I picked up the Sherlock books I realized there was only the odd phrase that stuck out. Like, how often Watson said he ejaculated." she laughed. That had certainly been a learning curb in her late teens. "Holmes! Don't go in there!" I ejaculated to my friend!" she laughed again. "eh.. bad joke." Lana was terrible at jokes and humour. She was always making inappropriate jokes without meaning to. But she really did think it was funny. "You know, Holmes never actually said 'Elementary, my dear Watson.' in ANY of the books or publications?" she returned to spinning her cup in her hand. >>"Meditation is a matter of psychological survival for me... come to think of it so is the running...Sometimes memories flare up in vivid nightmares and the only way to get my mind to quiet down is to run myself into sheer exhaustion. Most days I enjoy a leisurely run but other day or nights I'm running to escape, not for pleasure." <<
When he first began reflecting on meditation, Lana thought he'd only followed her thought pattern out of courtesy. He'd caught her slip and didn't want her to feel bad. But then he elaborated and she realized he was sincere. "Yeah, my room mate likes to run." she agreed. "I think for similar reasons. I like to work out to stay fit and healthy, but I don't think I'll be winning any races anytime soon." she smiled.
>> "There's a place called 'The Wine Bar' over on 2nd Avenue. Would you like to go there right now or would you rather meet up a little later?" <<
"Hmmm... the Wine Bar." Lana brought out her phone and punched it into google maps. Directions came up instantly, along with the hours of operation. "Hmm it's still open for a few more hours, late night place this one. It's only about 10 minutes away too I can't imagine there's much traffic at this hour of the night. It's settled then." she smiled and organized her belongings and the cases she'd been working on. "I've got a car here, we can pace ourselves or I can catch the subway from the Wine Bar, so how 'bout I spin us over?" she stood up and headed for the door with a smile- clearly not taking no for answer.
Lana led the way to her car, parked close by. It was neat and tidy inside, and she popped the trunk to drop the case files in. They had to be locked away. She plugged her phone into the stereo system, and the google AI voice came on and started giving her directions. "Everyone always told me driving in New York was bad. I think I made it up to be this awful thing in my head, and now that I'm here, it's much better than I thought. I'm sure it'll come out though." she commented making conversation as they drove.
This was fairly forward of Lana, but when all you saw were ghosts and people like Paul and Noel came into her life, showing a genuine interest to get to know her despite the fact she saw, well, ghosts... she couldn't just let those things fall to the side. She had a chance at real relationships with living and breathing human beings that may or may not be psychopaths like the ones she counselled at work. It was worth a shot.
"I'm working on a case right now, I mean, I can't go into too many details- turns out even prisoners are granted confidentiality, but suffice to say I know the mutant isn't insane in the slightest and was well aware he drove a knife through his wife. I just have to prove it. It's driving me a bit batty, so this is a good break. Sometimes in our sessions I swear the guy is gloating. But that's a good thing. The braggers are the first ones to slip up." narrated Lana as she drove. She never knew how to make conversation in situations like this, so talking about work seemed the most logical.
She pulled into a metered parking and praised her own luck. "Ah, here we are." even from outside the place looked warm and inviting. "Why don't you lead the way?" she motioned.
>> "I was jogging in a rougher part of town and lost my ID. It was later discovered at a rather strange homicide location so Detective Cervantes had some rather interesting and pointed questions for me."<<
Now that sounded like an interesting story. She'd have to try and track down this Cervantes. For uh, professional reasons of course.
>>"Dates and profiling... I would have guessed a a nice glass of red wine paired with some smooth jazz or perhaps even a little bit of classical but hey, profiling dates sounds like fun too." <<
She blushed a little and hated herself for it. Paul was a hard guy to get a read on. She wasn't sure if she was talking to a potential lover or a father figure. He had that old soul appeal, that she'd seen from time to time. One minute they're bestowing wisdom on you, and you feel so empowered for it, and the next you feel too young and like a child. It was confusing to say the least, but it wasn't like they were super good friends right now and she had to figure it out any time soon.
She was relieved when the barista walked by and asked if she'd like the same drink, Lana nodded and passed her a 10. Freaking 6$ coffee...
"Wine is nice." she agreed. "I like music, I mean, as much as anyone. I guess I just don't really take the time to figure out if I like anything specific." she did like music, but often there was already too much background noise in her life thanks to spirits and her sister.
"Honestly I know it sounds weird, but I guess I'm just a workaholic. They always say there are two types of people: career and family. I guess I'm career." she'd never actually reflected on that before, and now that she said knew it wasn't true. She lived for her career... but she also sent money back home to her parents who were both really starting to age. And of course, her dead sister followed her everywhere. Didn't get much more family than that.
>>"For me... I love to read. Reading an old classic is like getting reacquainted with an old friend. I meditate to try and quiet the mind and when that doesn't work... I run until my mind simple shuts down from exhaustion." Paul responded after a few moments thought. "And I do a bit of cooking and baking though not much right now since I'm still trying to get settled back into the city."<<
Lana was fairly well off. She never really thought she was, until she started living with roommates. After hearing Noel's story, she knew that she'd really clawed herself up the ladder to make what she did now. She was never frivolously with her earnings, but she did have quite the stack of unread books at home, and lots of cooking appliances she had no clue how to work but always hoped she'd find some time.
"Well, I do love classics. Sherlock for example." she wiggled her nose without realizing it in a very Bewitched esq move. Her new coffee was placed in front of her with her change. Was this a coffee place or a bar? She was starting to think a bar wouldn't be a bad idea.
"I do meditate. I guess I didn't think of it because for me it's not fun, it's survival." Lana tried very hard to never be overly dramatic. Every time she met a psychopathic mutant in therapy, they would always play the 'my mutation ruined my life' card and try to use is to excuse all sorts of behaviours. She wouldn't allow herself that, but occasionally a subconscious thought like this would pop out. She seemed a little darker for a few seconds, her eyes a little distant. Then she sipped the coffee and snapped out of it. It wasn't something an average person would notice, but someone with Paul's power of deduction probable would. As for Lana, she hadn't even realized she'd done it. She was letting her guard down an awful lot around this stranger.
"Maybe I do need to have a bit of fun." she admitted. "Maybe we can combine two things, compromise." she waggled her eyebrows, and downed half the coffee. "Let's go get a drink of wine, and profile some bar patrons." she bit her lip with that sort of please daddy please smile the kids has when they want to go in the candy shop. There was just something infuriatingly interesting about Paul. She wasn't entirely convinced he wasn't a spirit in some shape or form either. Besides, her sleep schedule was all kinds of backwards right now. It was good to put her head into the real people world once in a while- and real people went for drinks. Of course, she hadn't the slightest clue where to go for a nice glass of merlot.
Good luck either way. I think one of the things that has kept mRO going is having dedicated Mods who keep pushing fun new ideas! 