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.
With the first round of pictures finished, they could officially move to take on the convention. Juliette looked down the long row that they had started in, keeping an eye out for their first target: swag. Who didn’t love getting free stuff from an experience? It was probably one of the most endearing reasons to go to one of those things. For a complete comic newb, anyway.
What she wasn’t aware of was the fact that there were rules to collecting items at places like that. According to Booker, their first stop had to be getting tote bags, since otherwise they would be forced to carry items by hand. That would, without a doubt, make things difficult when trying to navigate a busy convention and pick up other items. His rule made sense, so Juliette nodded and changed her mental criteria as she scanned the room.
>>”Score.”
It was Booker who spotted the table first. Juliette blamed her failure on the greater amount of convention experience that he had under his belt and made a mental note to be sure to be the first to spot the next thing. ”Looks good,” she nodded. Xenomorph Wars was something that she’d heard of before… she was pretty sure, anyway. ”Let’s go grab it.”
She slid her hand into his and pulled him along through the crowd, making sure not to hold too tightly in case any makeup decided to come off. They weaved through the mass of people and before long, they were in the queue for the Xenomorph Wars table.
”So we just grab the things and keep going? Is there an autograph or something that we should be aiming for?” Juliette asked as they watched the people ahead of them slowly trickle away. It was a relatively fast moving line; faster than Juliette would have imagined the convention lines being.
Before long, they had reached the front. On the table, tote bags, pens, piggy banks, posters, and more were laid out for their viewing pleasure. Three men and one woman stood behind the table. “Nice costumes,” a man behind the table whistled. “What can I get for the lovely Glamora and her comrade?”
Juliette grinned at the compliment. If even people from the convention were complimenting them, then Booker had really done a good job. She looked to him to dictate exactly what they were taking first. For all she knew, there were more rules that she wasn’t informed about.
Juliette held her pose until she was sure that the three had taken a sufficient number of photographs, making sure not to let her face fall. It was a simple enough pose, but it felt sort of foreign to her. She wasn’t an actress by any means, and pretending to be someone she wasn’t was a little ways out of her comfort zone. Still, she was committed to it, and she wanted to ensure that everyone around her had a good experience too. Especially Booker.
When it seemed like they had enough photos, Juliette dropped her arm and stood straight, fixing her hair as she looked back around the convention for their next destination. When she turned her head back, it seemed like they were expecting another photograph from the duo.
The next pose that was asked of them gave Juliette a moment of pause. She was pretty sure that she knew which pose they meant, but she wasn’t entirely certain that she was remembering it right. ”Um, sure?” she agreed nervously, looking at Booker to get the headphones.
She took the device from him and slipped the headphones over her ears, careful not to mess up any of the body paint. It would be a shame to ruin it on the second photo. Once they were on, she pressed play on the tape that was set up already and grabbed Booker’s hand, pulling him into a slow dance position. On the quietest setting, Fooled Around and Fell in Love played through the headphones; a fitting song.
He had stopped before they got too close, but she’d ruined it for him. She had the image in her mind that they were going for, and she wasn’t about to stop. She was going for it, whether the situation was ideal or not.
>>”Are you okay with this?”
Momentarily, Juliette broke character and gave him a grin. She leaned her head up and pulled close to him, making sure that their faces were just inches from each other. ”With almost kissing you?” she asked. ”Yeah, I’m okay with this.” As much as she could, she tried to keep her face like she had seen Glamora have it in the film. It was simply difficult when she wanted to lean up and close the distance between them.
“That’s just perfect. Thanks so much!” The voice of Princess Leila reminded Juliette what exactly they were doing, and no, it wouldn’t be appropriate if they took things a step further right there. She turned back and flashed the little group a smile before stepping away from Booker.
”Alright,” she began as she watched the trio leave the area. She clapped her hands together and looked back down the way. ”So. Swag?”
It had come time for Juliette to figure her life out on her own and do what she had been dreading since she left the mansion: live on her own again. She munched almost nervously on a chocolate-coated marshmallow as she considered her options. Her laptop was in the other room, but she could go get it if she needed to start looking again that night. She wouldn’t have blamed Rebecca in the slightest, either. It was her apartment, and Juliette was just an intruding temporary resident. She had to go at some point.
Or, at least, she assumed that she did. What she hadn’t anticipated was that Rebecca would want her to become a permanent resident there and take up the mantle of her actual roommate. The idea hadn’t even occurred to her, but it was definitely something that was exciting to hear.
Juliette blinked as she digested the idea. It would change her plans entirely, but decidedly in a way that was for the better. She loved living with Rebecca, and the idea that it didn’t have to and gave her hope. Midnight talks with chocolate and wine could become a regular household tradition.
Still, there was some part of her that felt like she was imposing on the redhead. That or make her feel like she was required to offer her a place to stay just because she was having a rough month or two were the last things she wanted to do to such a good friend. She loved the offer, but she didn’t want it to be a forced one.
Rebecca didn’t sound like it was causing her any pain to offer it, and it had been her idea to say anything, after all, so Juliette allowed a bit of a pass at that. It was good to double check, but for the most part, she didn’t have to feel bad about saying yes. It wasn’t something that she was forcing on a friend.
”I mean, if you’re willing to keep putting up with me on a regular basis, then I would love that, Becca. Really. Thank you,” Juliette said earnestly. She took a deep breath and reached back for her wine, taking a sip before adding. ”Are you absolutely sure, though? I mean, it is your apartment, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this, because you don’t. At all. I don’t mind looking for somewhere else.”
All things considered, Rebecca was winning all the friendship awards. Whatever she ended up deciding, Juliette owed her a lot.
If Rebecca truly believed that Agnes was the person for her, then, dammit, Juliette would try to make herself believe that too. Rebecca was really the best friend that she could possibly ask for, and whatever she could do to repay her for taking her in and letting her impose on her life, she would do. Especially if it involved that much chocolate.
”You’ll get through it, Beck,” Juliette said soothingly. It sounded sort of stupid when she said it, but it was something that she actually believed. Kismet or fate and all that. She was a hopeless romantic that still counted on the universe to ensure that things that were supposed to happen, would. ”If it’s meant to be, then it will be.”
Looking back, she had come to terms with the fact that she and Sam were not meant for one another. There were things working against them that she had ignored until they had all piled up so high that there was no way around them. She was okay with that fact, though. It meant that there was something better suited for both of them out there somewhere. It would take a bit of time.
From the sounds of it, though, Rebecca had already met her person. Juliette was getting the end of a bad night, so she knew that her assumptions about Agnes might not be fair or correct. For all she knew, the hurtful Agnes could actually be the sweetest person in the world and she was just hearing the one side. She did her best to push any judgements down and give her the benefit of the doubt.
>>”Hey Jules? Ye really ur an amazing friend. Havin' ye aroond has pure made a warld ay difference. Ah was wonderin… hoo has yer apartment search bin gonnae?”
The first comment had made her smile as she put a piece of banana on the end of her chocolate stick and dipped it in the bubbling pot. Living with Rebecca really had been a blessing for her, so it was good to hear that it went both ways.
The second comment had given her pause. She had spent some time searching for a new place to live, but not as much time as she really should have. In truth, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to live on her own again just yet. It had been fine when she’d first moved to the city and didn’t really know anyone, but so many things had changed since then, and she didn’t want to go back to that old way of living. Still, she felt bad about overstaying her welcome there.
She sat back, chewed the banana for a second and thought of what to say. ”It’s… it’s going. Nothing in my price range and target area is really catching my eye, you know?” she quickly made excuses for her own unwillingness to leave. ”I’ll put in more time, though. I can even ask other people - maybe Sarah - if they have room for me if you’d like to speed things up.”
She watched as Gavin carefully made his way down from the back of the loveseat to where Bijou was sitting on Becca’s lap. The two cats touched noses quickly before the one moved along to his next destination. It would be sad when they would eventually have to be parted again. Maybe they could plan cat dates or something.
Juliette didn’t like her own plan. The last thing that she wanted to do was act as bait for the… whatever the creatures were. What she wanted to do was take a step back and perhaps step right past the police barricade. However, that was not what she had signed up for. She was a member of the X-Team, and she could do something that her teammates could not, which meant that it was on her. Whether she wanted it to be or not.
Jorge had taken a moment to consider what she was proposing and then gave her the wary go ahead. It wasn’t as if they had many backup plans anyway, considering they hadn’t expected anything like the creatures to accompany the giant thing in the sky. The universe had handed them a whopper of a problem to deal with.
>>”Circle up who you can, stay out of touch. When I give the word, lead them in there. Maybe we can pack them on ice.”
Juliette followed his eyes to the restaurant across the street and nodded after a second. He was right; places like that usually had a large walk-in freezer. Usually, they only held about two or three people at once, but there was a chance that they could get lucky and it would be bigger than usual. If worst came to worst, maybe they could just lock them all in a building and figure things out from there. So far, the creatures didn’t seem to be able to do anything other than looking terrifying.
”Will do,” she nodded, her voice shaky as she looked down the way at the moving creatures. There was no telling what they would do if they didn’t act quickly.
>>"Firefly? You okay?"
Firefly touched the X-Com that she had in her ear and spoke into it quickly. ”Yes, I’m good for now, but I’m about to go back off your grid. Catch up with Jorge, yeah?” Her mind hadn’t yet considered the reason why Ghost hadn’t come with them initially. She was too focused on other things for the time being.
>>”Go!”
He was right. No more delaying the inevitable. ”I’m gone,” she nodded and stood up.
As soon as she was back in the sightline of the creatures, she was noticed. One regarded her coolly and then kept walking. They wouldn’t be interested in her unless she shifted, so that was what she did. Her body was back in her light form, and it was only a matter of seconds before they started to shamble back toward her.
”Yeah, that’s right. Follow the pretty light,” Juliette muttered under her breath, lifting herself off the ground and flying away from where Jorge was as quickly as she could manage. She twisted and turned for a while, trying to gather as many of the shamblers as possible within the barricade, using up as much energy as she had available to her. It wasn’t long before she could feel herself needing to shift back. Quickly, she changed course and made her way back to the rift where she had started out. She simply hoped that either they were ready for her or they had managed to find a light source or two.
Flying was not happening anymore. Juliette touched down but remained in her light form, relying on running to get her through. If she was judging correctly, then she had a few minutes left in that form, but all other powers would be off limits if she wanted to keep it that way. The rift was in her sightline.
”Jorge? What’s the situation with the light sources?” she called into her communicator, glancing back at the numerous followers that she had accumulated.
Everything was a tad overwhelming, and Juliette wasn’t really sure what to do with any of it. She had decided that it would make the most sense to lean on Booker for some support and guidance, even if he had already proven several times that day that he was not afraid to steer her wrong.
>>”Since this is your first, maybe we can walk around and collect some swag? Pose for some pictures? I wouldn’t want overload you for your first time.”
Other than the costume, Booker had decided to take things easy on her since it was her first convention. Juliette was thankful for that fact. As much as everything was very cool, she wasn’t entirely sure if she was ready to be waiting in lines and screaming lines from movies (other than The Princess Bride) just yet. She still needed some time to adjust and take everything in before she dived headfirst into the world of the nerd.
”Swag sounds like fun,” she nodded at the idea. Who didn’t like free stuff? It sounded like a good way to get integrated into the event. She wasn’t entirely sure what they would get, but it sounded like a good way to go anyway.
She scanned the area and the various tables that were set up around them, trying to see which ones would be good to stop at first. She had spotted one that had a whole bunch of t-shirts and posters that she was going to point out to Booker when someone interrupted.
Glamora-Juliette turned with her mouth slightly open to see a trio staring at her and Booker with excited faces. The costumes had apparently turned out as well as she thought they had, since more people had called them out for it. She grinned awkwardly and looked at them first and then Booker. It was go time.
”You guys want a picture?” she asked, feeling a little put on the spot. It seemed like now was the moment that Booker was talking about; they had the chance to take a photo with Glamora beating up Star Baron. She wasn’t exactly sure how they would go about such a pose, even though she had more than wanted to try out a few things earlier that day.
“Definitely!” The guy on the left, who was dressed liked Hands Solo, nodded enthusiastically. His two friends, the first of whom looked like Princess Leila, and the second like Luke Skydancer, agreed quickly.
Juliette gave them another uncomfortable smile and then tried to give her best Glamora smirk as she turned her back to Booker and pulled out one of the prop guns that she had strapped to her leg. ”How’s this?” she whispered to Booker/Star Baron.
A slip of the tongue had led to all the issues of the night; Rebecca had revealed to her mother that her and Agnes’ relationship was something that had to be done under the radar. Juliette blinked at that information and nodded, digesting it and what it meant for a moment. Agnes had felt betrayed and Rebecca had felt bad for letting it slip. Perhaps it was Juliette’s natural bias toward supporting her friend, but she couldn’t help but think of how unfair it was for Rebecca to have to keep that secret while being strung along by a woman still with her fiancée.
Again, the fiancée played a role in the evening. A photo that Rebecca shouldn’t have had to see had come into play, and was now causing issue. Juliette didn’t know Agnes at all, but already, from what she was hearing, she didn’t care for how her friend was being treated by her. She knew that it was wrong to assume the worst of someone, but her protective walls were up, and she was on high alert for the possibility that Agnes didn’t have Rebecca’s best interests in mind.
Next, Rebecca shared her fears. Juliette nodded, her stomach twisting for her friend as she took the information in. While she thought it over, she took a strawberry, dipped it in chocolate, and nibbled away at it with her hand held under it to catch any drips.
As if he knew the perfect moment to comfort one of the two girls, Bijou appeared and took up residence in Rebecca’s lap, nestling himself between her thighs. Rebecca had been chosen, which meant that she could not move until he decided to move. It was a huge honour.
Juliette chewed the last of her strawberry and set the skewer down on the table for a moment. She reached down and scritched Bijou on top of his head while she considered everything that her friend had told her. She felt defensive of her and, frankly, wanted to give Agnes a piece of her mind, but she knew that wasn’t the time. She needed to be supportive and caring, not judgemental or vindictive.
”I think… you might just have to show her that you’re not going to leave, Beck,” she suggested lightly. ”I mean, if you’re still involved after everything, then clearly you haven’t ruined your chances with her. There’s clearly something between you. You… might just have to make it clear that you intend to stick around through it all.”
She hated that she was suggesting that Rebecca put in the effort when she’d already been the one to end her relationship, while Agnes was still juggling the two of them. Sure, she only had pieces of information, but what she’d heard wasn’t promising. Still, if Rebecca loved her, then she needed to be supportive of that choice. She would save any harsh feelings for the possibility that something went wrong.
As Juliette put on the last part of her costume (a long, red leather trench coat), she turned to face Booker, who was already finished dressing. She narrowed her eyes at him as he claimed that she was done, not entirely sure if she believed him or not. At that point, she wouldn’t have been all that surprised if he turned around and told her to glue on some weird body parts or something. Sure, she was already the spitting image of her character, but she still questioned it.
It did seem as though he was telling the truth, though. She was finished and didn’t have to worry about putting any more aspects onto her costume. That, at least, was good to know. She looked up at him with her brow slightly less furrowed as he leaned down and kissed her. As he pulled away, she noticed that a little of the green paint on her lips had rubbed off onto his, but she didn't say anything. Served him right to be walking around with a bit of green on him.
>>”You’re going to knock ‘em dead at the convention. And, as an apology… here’s usually a lot of request for pictures of Glamora kicking Star Baron’s butt. You will be free to do so.”
”Well, I can’t say that I don’t like the idea of those pictures,” she smirked, imagining the poses that they could come up with. Already, she could see several. ”But don’t think that I wouldn’t have done them anyway.” She would have done it with or without permission. If people requested it, of course… probably.
She ran her hand through her hair and took it out of the ponytail that it had been kept in to keep it away from her face makeup. Carefully, she did her best to get the kinks out of it and make it look like Glamora’s did in the picture. Once it was as close as it could be, she turned to Booker. ”Alright, ready to head out, Star Baron?”
Once they had reached the convention, Juliette felt a lot less strange in her costume. They were surrounded by thousands of other people dressed as their favourite comic and movie characters, and many people that actually were their favourite comic and movie characters. It was a lively, exciting event that Juliette was actually a little sad about having missed out on until then.
All around them, people were moving to get toward different lineups and areas of interest. There were food booths, swag booths, and booths to meet people. Really, there was very little that you couldn’t find in there. Glamora-Juliette turned around with wide eyes as she took in the surroundings, a little awestruck by the various things.
”So what do we do first?” she inquired, turning around to face her boyfriend. As a convention newb, she figured that it would be best to lean on the experience and wisdom of Booker.
Juliette turned her head and squinted to see what Ghost was referring to. A little area shielded by cars that the… creatures hadn’t reached yet. Best of all, it wasn’t anywhere near the barricades, which some part of her realized that they needed to protect. She nodded quickly and ran forward, her legs carrying her toward the area. Behind her, the things followed blindly.
She wasn’t watching as Ghost and a creature took off in the opposite direction, toward the portal. She was more concerned with the fact that the longer the creatures were in that form, the faster they seemed to be getting; the more in control of their bodies. It was frightening enough that she was running at full speed.
Jorge caught up with her and shot off a blast of water to get a shambler off of their tails as he did so. It floated away, but still more fought through the water to take its place. Cut off one head and two more grew back.
She was still in her energy form, despite the obvious fact that the creatures seemed to be attracted to it. It was a difficult trade off - in her energy form, they couldn’t hurt her, but they would sure as hell try. In her human form, she would be just as vulnerable as anyone else and most of her power would be off limits to her.
As they ducked behind a car, she shifted back to her humanoid form, causing the light to disappear. The shamblers behind them stopped their running and looked around, confused. With no light to follow, a few of them began to shamble toward the portal, a few of them to the barricades, and a few of them toward the X-Men. They had limited time and limited options, and it didn’t help that they were sitting in the dark.
Firefly took in a deep, shaky breath and ran her hands through her hair. She glanced at Jorge with wide eyes and thought through their options. If she shifted back, then they would follow her blindly, meaning that they could herd them somewhere. She couldn’t very well let them just make their way toward the barricades and harm people on the other side.
She could already feel her energy depleting, though. She wasn’t sure exactly how long she would have in energy form, and any sort of flight, firefly use, or blasts would only make things worse. Whatever they planned on doing, it would need to be done quickly.
”I think… no, I know that they’re following me,” she told Jorge. ”We need them to do that so we can get them to stay away from the barricades and so we can decide what to do with them. I’m going to shift back, but I’m running low on energy. Can you… find a place to take them and see if you can find any other light sources?”
She spoke quickly and shakily, unsure of whether what she was saying made sense or not. She knew that she shouldn’t have been ordering around a senior member of the team like that, but they had limited time and they needed to act quickly.
With the promise that next time, she would have her vengeance, Juliette felt a little more validated in her annoyance. She intended to collect, too. She was not going to suffer through body paint and the torture of looking at funny faces while being told not to laugh all on her own. No, she was going to make him feel all the pain that she had felt.
Thankfully, the worst was over. The paint had been applied, and she looked almost exactly like the reference picture. He had done a very good job.
Juliette stood straight in the apartment, no longer Juliette. No, she was the mysterious Glamora, daughter of Theymost, and deadly assassin turned rogue. She looked damn cool, even if she’d had to suffer through a ton of prep to get there. She did a quick turn for her boyfriend to take a look at his handiwork before glancing in the mirror again.
They weren’t quite finished, though. There was one more step before they could take on the comic convention: sealing the paint. Juliette waited for him for him to approach and then nodded at the instructions. She raised her arms, closed her eyes, and stayed as still as she could while she waited.
The liquid hit her and she had a hard time not wincing. It was cold on her skin, and it smelled just as terrible as he had promised. She coughed at the smell, doing her very best to remain still and not open her mouth or her eyes. It was a lot easier said than done. All she wanted to do was open her mouth and cough out the scent. Thankfully, he was also being truthful when he had said that it dissipated quickly.
When the spraying stopped, Juliette opened one of her eyes a crack to see what was going on. Booker had dropped the spray bottle to his side and was now giving her a once over, so she figured that he was finished. It did feel like all the painted areas had been covered, anyway. She blinked both her eyes open and rotated her jaw, feeling the pain move with her skin. It was a weird feeling.
>>”Okay! Nice! Now, you just need to stand perfectly, and I mean perfectly still for the next forty-five minutes so that the sealant will mix with the pigment and last, okay? Otherwise, the whole paint job is ruined.”
If Juliette’s falling expression could have been measured in physical distance, it would have been miles. She looked at him with the most hatred that anyone had ever looked at someone with in all of human existence (absolutely no exaggeration). ”You have got to be kidding me,” she deadpanned. There was no way that she was standing around for forty-five minutes with her arms up like that. ”I guess I’m not going then,” she decided. Nope, not worth it.
As much as she had claimed that she wouldn’t be waiting the required time, she didn’t move. They had already spent a long time painting her, and it seemed like such a waste to go wash it all off at that point. Plus, she really did want to go to the convention.
She sighed heavily and kept her arms up, relenting to the fact that she was going to get some serious cramps going. Booker had moved away, putting things in their rightful spots in the apartment, almost as if to make it more obvious that he was able to move when she wasn’t. It was infuriating, and she was so getting him back for it.
All of a sudden, there was a sharp feeling on her rear. She yelped and whipped around, abandoning her post to glare at Booker. Funny faces were one thing, but expecting her to stay still through that was next-level.
>>”What? Like I was supposed to resist doing that? And yes, you are dry already. I was only teasing.”
”You are the worst!” Juliette announced loudly, real annoyance on her face. She was not pleased, to say the least. She kicked him in the shins as hard as she could, which wasn’t all that hard, considering she was barefoot and still trying her best not to ruin her makeup, despite knowing that she was dry by that point. She was still afraid that if she moved the wrong way, she would wreck it all. ”You, mister, had better watch your back. I’m going to get you for that. Maybe not now, but it’ll happen and you won’t know what hit you.”
She shook her head and turned back around to the table. Carefully, she picked up the rest of her costume and put it on, being especially observant of any areas with paint on them. She was not about to sit through another round of painting and spraying. ”Alright, if you tell me that there’s anything else that we have to do to this costume still, I will scream. And then I will deny everything when the neighbours come knocking.”
It seemed like support was exactly the thing that Rebecca needed. She couldn’t imagine what she must’ve been experiencing, all things considered. Guilt, worry that she would be angry, confusion. All those emotions crossed Juliette’s mind as she was reminded of personal experience, but she stayed silent, wanting to give Rebecca the chance to explain them all herself.
With her friend somewhat consoled and on the road to speaking, Juliette took the opportunity to dip a marshmallow in the bubbling chocolate. It looked too good to ignore for long. On the way out of the bowl, it was almost lost to Gavin, who made a mad grab for the gooey treat, but he was fended off by Juliette, who was ready for him. The cats had been working in cahoots for extra food of late, so a watchful eye was necessary in that apartment.
Rebecca had begun to recount how exactly things between her and Agnes had spiralled into a full-blown affair. It had started with a kiss, and then they found themselves unable to stop. Juliette had a very difficult time judging her for that one; she knew from experience that there were just some times that all sane decisions and rational thought were thrown to the curb in favour of chemistry and desire. She imagined that Rebecca and Agnes were one of those cases.
Juliette knew that Rebecca had broken up with Vanessa already, but she didn’t know why until that point. She sincerely hoped that she hadn’t strung her along for too long, but again, she wasn’t in a place to judge or to bring it up. It was a conversation for later.
Agnes, on the other hand, couldn’t leave her fiancée. Rebecca didn’t give a reason, and Juliette didn’t push her to. She silently felt bad for River, but she didn’t have all the details and she didn’t know what it was like in her shoes.
The redhead finally reached a crossroads in her tale. Things in the affair had been going well until that night, when things obviously went quite sour. Juliette furrowed her brow and let out a small sigh as she looked at her friend. ”What happened tonight?” she prompted softly.
There was no crying on the other side of the room, or really any emotions shown at all. Juliette seemed to be the only one actually surprised by the events of that evening. Either Sam was the most well-adjusted person on the planet, or he was bottling up his emotions again. Juliette had her money on the latter.
She was crying and making a fool of herself while he was speaking about all the good that she had done and tossing alcohol out left and right, offering to give her space. Maybe she should have broken up with him months ago so that she could have seen that side of him. It was just too bad that she was past waiting.
”No, I’m going to go,” she announced, taking a tissue gratefully from the box. The last thing that she wanted was to be left alone in his office, of all places. Her room or anywhere else sounded like a much better option, even if it meant having to go through the rest of the mansion to get there.
An air of awkwardness had settled over them, and she didn’t want to prolong anything. They had reached an understanding, and there was no need to push things any further. If she stayed any longer, then she knew that she would say something or do something that she regretted and make things even worse. Besides, she didn’t want him to feel like he had to get out of his own office.
It seemed like they both knew what needed to come next. They would get out of each other’s way and try to make things work, despite any feelings. She suddenly knew why everyone said that it was such a bad idea to date someone that you spent a lot of time with.
She opened the door behind her and stepped out into the hallway, pausing before she walked away entirely. ”Goodbye, Sam,” she said quietly, giving him one last look before turning away. She would see him again, sure, but things would never be the same again. It seemed sort of fitting.
Cosplay. That was not something that Juliette had imagined herself doing. It wasn’t something that had really crossed her mind or come up in conversation. Sure, she had friends that did it, one of those being Rebecca, but it still wasn’t something that she would have really jumped at the chance to do.
That was until Booker suggested it.
Maybe it could be blamed on the fact that she was in a new relationship and she wasn’t always thinking entirely straight, or maybe the fact that she would really do anything if it meant that she could get more one-on-one time with him, but it didn’t matter. She had agreed to it blindly and then had to deal with whatever it was that she had gotten herself into.
And, really, she had gotten herself into something much bigger than she had anticipated. Sure, Booker had told her how much work he put into his costumes before, but to be fair, she was a little bit distracted by the shirtless picture of him, and it hadn’t occurred to her that she might be privy to a front row seat. Or that it would come so soon.
She had thought that, since it was her first convention ever, that she might just be better off going in a nerdy t-shirt or something. She’d asked Booker about it, he’d laughed, and then told her that she needn’t worry about the costume. He would be handling it. That sounded like a great thing since she wouldn’t have to worry about any of the prep work. She could just show up at his apartment, step into the costume, and then they would go do… whatever people did at conventions. Easy as pie.
They were already at least forty-five minutes into the painting, and they were only just finishing up. She might have gotten an inkling about what their couples costume was going to be from the pink manic panic that she’d been told to put into her hair, but she still hadn’t clued in. Now, she was sitting at Booker’s kitchen table, trying to sit as still as possible while Booker applied green paint to her face with a sponge.
She had been a little annoyed that he’d picked a costume that required her to wear all the crazy stuff while he got to walk around in a t-shirt and slacks, but she did have to admit that it was a cool costume. She’d kept her annoyance (mostly) to herself as he set to work, but she had shot him a glare or two when they first started.
She was dressed in black pants and a white undershirt with the straps off the sides while they painted her. Her hair was up and off her face as much as possible, but she had to keep making sure that no strands wound up in the paint. Her hands and chest were done, so it was only her face left to finish. All the rest would be covered by the costume, thankfully. At least he hadn’t asked her to dress up as The Mystic.
>>”You have to stop flinching. Otherwise this won’t set.”
”Well maybe,” she replied, her voice dripping with sass, ”it would be easier if someone would stop making funny faces at me!” She lifted a green hand that she had dipped in some fresh paint and smeared a little on his forehead. She tried to keep her face straight as she did so so as not to wreck anything finished.
It wasn’t just the faces that had made it difficult to keep her face straight. The paint was cold and she’d been sitting for a long time. It was just a good thing that they had done her chest before her face.
>>”Not bad. You’re almost the spitting image of Glamora.”
Juliette stood up and walked across the room to look in a mirror. He was right; it was pretty dead on. ”Okay, I have to admit, this is pretty cool. Worth the prep. Mostly.” She turned and smirked at him after the last comment, her eyes glimmering. ”But next time, we paint you.”
The brunette turned back around and put her green hands on her hips. ”So how long until I can change into the costume?”
Juliette muttered a thanks under her breath as the P.A. logged off the computer. At least she was willing to work with her and not make her even later. She didn’t like her job enough to want to stay longer than required. There was far too much going on in that hospital.
She typed as quickly as she could, using the barely filled out page that the doctor had given her as a reference. She silently cursed the all-too-true fact that doctors could not print legibly. It was not going to be an especially quick or easy thing to convert it to text on the computer. It was stupid that they hadn’t yet converted the whole hospital to using tablets and she was stuck doing grunt work like that.
>>"...logging in health history, too?"
Juliette eyed the P.A. and gave her a once over. If she was finished, why was she just standing there? It was a little distracting and, frankly, a little creepy. Her typing slowed as she turned her head to face the woman.
”Yes,” she said, as if that fact were obvious from her forms and the page that she was typing in. ”Is there something that I can help you with, or are you just going to stand there watching?”
