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.
Her bedroom, her sanctuary, had been infiltrated. Half of the invading army, in the form of one super saliva-ed teenager, had been repelled with a withering look and the excuse that the girls needed some time to settle in. The other half of the invasion had made it through the barricades and now stood on the opposite side of the room gazing around at Katrina's meager belongings.
The little illusionist hefted the older girl's own meager belongings, housed in her luggage, up onto the bed, then took a step back to survey the room herself.
It had always seemed so cozy before. Quaint, brightly lit with sunlight that spilled in through the window facing the front lawn. It had been a happy place.
Now, it seemed as if the walls were closing in. It was too small, with one bed, one dresser, a tiny closet, a nightstand, a little chair, and a music stand. It didn't even have its own bathroom, like many of the other rooms in the mansion did. Katrina's things were somewhat scattered about the floor; she hadn't expected company.
“Let me just put some of this stuff away, and we'll have some more space.” There, that had sounded civil. She dropped to her hands and knees and shoved textbooks back into her backpack, clothes into the closet, and a stray teddy bear back onto his rightful place on the bed.
“I think the greeters might know where an extra set of bunk beds is. Maybe. Or I can get a sleeping bag and sleep on the floor, too. Whichever.” She hoped that they didn't have to go the bunk bed route. Changing around the furniture seemed awfully permanent.
Fausto left (more like ran away from the younger girl), and left Effie alone with her new roommate, in her new life. At least one of those was temporary.
The room looked much nicer than the one Effie and Bo grew up in - not as nice as the rooms in the Matchmaker's house though. Somewhere in between the two. Effie hoped that once she became the lady of the whole Mansion she would have a better bedroom. One that actually included a bed.
"Itis okay" she shook her head "I sleep on flor. I not want to..." Damn those English words "... itis okay for me to sleep."
I have slept in places much worse than your floor.
"Jet lag." it was time to throw in a very useful word she had recently learned. "I can not sleep early or I be up all night."
Besides, there were so many things to find out about her new home...
*italics are spoken in Russian* Thanks to Siren for the sig and avi!
>>>"I sleep on flor. I not want to... itis okay for me to sleep."
Katrina glanced up from the pile of laundry she was making by the closet door. As much as she resented the girl for intruding on her bedroom, she sure as heck wasn't going to let her sleep on the floor. She was a guest, and that just wouldn't do.
With a head shake and a finger point at her own chest she insisted, “No. I'll sleep on the floor.” Besides, she needed something real to resent the girl for. A stolen bed and a sore back from a hardwood floor were tangible things she could blame on the older girl, unlike the confusion over the loss of Fausto, which she was so uncertain as to why she was feeling at all that she couldn't really blame it on anyone at all. She shook her head again, to clear her thoughts this time.
Why did she have to feel resentment? Under any other circumstance, she would have been happy, even excited to have a roommate. Now, because of how she was introduced, 'I'm Fausto's fiancée,' Katrina had a hard time even imagining her as a friend. It was so petty it made her feel guilty, which made her dislike the new girl even more. Maybe she just needed to get to know her, to learn why it was that Fausto had fallen in love with her so quickly. Or rather... get to know her on her own terms.
>>>"Jet lag. I can not sleep early or I be up all night."
“I'll help you stay awake,” Katrina wanted to kick herself, why was she such a masochist that she wanted to spend the entire day with this girl? Maybe she needed to, in order to better understand her own feelings.
“So, how did you and Fausto meet?” Err... I mean... “Can you tell me more about yourself?”
>>"So, how did you and Fausto meet? Can you tell me more about yourself?”
***, I'd rather sleep.
Effie smiled a bright smile and blushed a bit. Faking a smile was easy for her. Faking a blush would have been harder, but fortunately, it was real, and thus saved her the trouble.
"I come from Russia." well, that was kind of obvios from the accent she had. Subtle as a sledge hammer. "We met on the Internet."
It was not really a lie. It was the internet that created the connection. Via the Matchmaker. And some paperwork. And all kinds of mediums she didn't know about. But that was something very private, and something she had to be subtle about, so she left the story at that.
Another virgin smile. "He is very kind."
And loaded.
"You know him for long?"
*italics are spoken in Russian* Thanks to Siren for the sig and avi!
“Ahh, I see,” Katrina nodded and started folding the shirt she was holding. Never mind that it had already been worn and needed washing more than folding.
“I've known Fausto for two years.” Almost. Rounded up. “He came to the mansion after... well I suppose he's probably told you all about his past already, since you are getting married and everything. I won't bore you with details you already know.”
Unless... what if she didn't already know everything about Fausto? Somewhere in the back of her head, a diabolical plan was forming. She could tell her... she could...
She couldn't.
She wasn't spiteful enough to try and ruin Fausto's wedding by telling secrets and lies. She'd rather that Fausto be happy than for him to be miserable. Following that route was a certain recipe for disaster and unhappiness for all three of them. That meant she had to continue to be nice to Effie.
“So, I'm curious, how do you two get around the whole saliva thing?” Katrina really needed to stop asking questions about their relationship that she really didn't want to know.
>>“I've known Fausto for two years. He came to the mansion after... well I suppose he's probably told you all about his past already, since you are getting married and everything. I won't bore you with details you already know.”
Effie's eyes narrowed for the briefest of moments. It was bad luck, passing up such a great opportunity to learn about her husband-to-be. She was just not sure if the miss was due to mere bad luck, or... she was being played. By a fourteen-year-old? Come on.
It was at that point that Effie decided to call the Matchmaker when she had a moment of peace and quiet, and yell her eardrums out of her head.
>>“So, I'm curious, how do you two get around the whole saliva thing?”
Blink.
"Saliva?..."
She knew the word. Heck, she really did. It appeared quite often in the lessons the Matchmaker gave her after Bo was safely tucked in and sound asleep. They were, of course, strictly theoretical lessons. She was kind of familiar with the practice already. The ol' woman had some tricks up her sleeve, when it came to advice on such... ummm, private matters.
But what the heck was the word doing in that sentence?
Again. Katrina was either asking something totally innocent and simple, and somehow very American... or she was asking something a girl her age shouldn't even think about. But which one was it?
"I am sorry, I think I not understand the question." she said, trying hard not to stutter "I am still learning the language."
At least she got that sentence right.
*italics are spoken in Russian* Thanks to Siren for the sig and avi!
Katrina folded another shirt without even looking at it. She was too busy staring at the older girl to really watch what she was doing. She didn't know about that?
Then the bride-to-be clarified. That made more sense, then, if she didn't understand the vocabulary.
“Saliva is the same as spit, and kind of like drool,” she opened her mouth and pointed inside. “I was wondering how you can possibly kiss someone whose saliva burns everything it touches?”
Not that she had ever wondered about anything like that.
Also... shouldn't saliva have been one of the first vocab words she learned while talking to Fausto? He was obviously neglecting his fiancé-esk duties to teach his bride all the English words she'd ever need to know. Maybe it was a good thing she was rooming with Katrina after all. The girl needed to be educated on some really important things before she could marry Fausto.
>>“I was wondering how you can possibly kiss someone whose saliva burns everything it touches?”
Effie stared at the blonde girl with her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. Only. Two. Options. One: The Matchmakes sucks as an English teacher. Two: There is something terribly, horribly wrong with this marriage. Even before it began.
"Wh..." she shook her head and started again "What you mean, burns everyting?"
Something was not right with that statement. So very not right.
*italics are spoken in Russian* Thanks to Siren for the sig and avi!
Katrina's hands stopped midway though folding a pair of pants. They hung suspended, waiting to be creased in the proper places. Katrina's jaw hung suspended for a moment, too. She... didn't know about that? Really?
Though neither girl knew it, they were in complete agreement about one thing. There was something wrong with this marriage: they hadn't even kissed. Fausto hadn't even explained to her that they couldn't kiss.
“What do you mean 'what do you mean'? Fausto's a mutant. His saliva is like an acid that burns through everything it touches.” Katrina forcibly quieted her voice from a volume that was getting a little too loud for the small room, “How could you marrry someone...” and then she stopped talking altogether.
Her mother had married someone without him ever knowing that she was a mutant. It had not ended well. Why would Fausto keep something like that secret? How long did he expect it to stay a secret?
Well, it wasn't a secret any more. For better or for worse, Effie knew now. What came of that, they'd soon find out.
Effie stared. With the wide-eyed, no-brain-activity shock of a deer caught in the headlights of an alien spacecraft. Then, very slowly, she sunk down and sat on the edge of the bed. It was either that, or faint. Right now, she needed to do more important things, like, for example, breathe, and think. Faintig could wait till later.
>>Fausto's a mutant. His saliva is like an acid that burns through everything it touches.
She has to be lying. It can't be true. .... He didn't kiss me.
Effie took a shaky breath, trying to sort through all the thoughts that were rushing through her mind. Mutants. She had a general idea about the mutant issue, just like all the other issues the USA had in the ethnic and minority department; the Matchmaker explained it to her, and... ... did she know? Did she pick Fausto on purpose? Did Fausto pick her on puropose? And why didn't either of then tell her what she was... who she was marrying?
Effie felt like she was going to be sick. She took another breath to calm herself down. Throwing up in Katrina's room probably wouldn't have been a good idea. She looked up at the blonde girl, looking for signs of emotion. Did she enjoy, talking about Fausto's... condition?... like that? Seeing Effie suffer? Or was she honest about...
How do you kiss someone whose saliva burns everything?
That's easy. I friggin' don't.
Say something.
"But..."
*italics are spoken in Russian* Thanks to Siren for the sig and avi!
Effie sat down, rather quickly, on the bed. Her eyes were wide and not really focusing on anything. That was not a good sign. Nor was the very careful breathing the older girl was forcing herself to do; it almost sounded like she was hyperventilating.
Katrina dropped the laundry and stood quickly, but then didn't know whether to go and comfort the girl or not, so she ended up just standing lamely in the middle of the room.
This hadn't been at all what she had expected or wanted to happen. She had only just finished deciding that she was going to force herself to be happy for Fausto while still secretly holding just a tiny grudge against the fiancée that was stealing him away into the land of grownups.
Now, it had all gone wrong. The girl she thought was grown up wasn't acting very grown up at all. And she didn't really want to be happy for Fausto, because he had messed something up, big time. And it was impossible to be angry with the girl that looked so bewildered sitting on the bed.
“Look, Fausto is a great person. I'm sure he was just waiting for the right moment to tell you,” the little blonde couldn't believe how lame she sounded, nor could she believe she was trying to patch up the relationship between her friend and this almost complete stranger.
But she hadn't meant to break it, and she felt like she had to fix it.
“Mutants are just like people, except they can do special cool things, like a superhero from a comic book. Just think, if you ever were captured, Fausto could eat right through the bars of your prison to rescue you,” she was grasping at straws, but she needed anything she could get to make the girl feel better. Katrina couldn't help but feel that if things didn't work out between them now, that it would all be her fault. The last thing she wanted was two people hating her because she had broken them up.
“Look, the Fausto you fell in love with is still the same person he always was. Nothing about that has changed.”
>>“Look, Fausto is a great person. I'm sure he was just waiting for the right moment to tell you.”
Tell me what? That he would burn my mouth off if I kissed him? And what would be the right moment to tell that?!
Effie didn't say anything, just started at Katrina. Now the blonde girl seemed a bit scared too. Did she realize what she'd just done?
>>“Mutants are just like people, except they can do special cool things, like a superhero from a comic book. Just think, if you ever were captured, Fausto could eat right through the bars of your prison to rescue you,”
Oh, great. Americans and comic books. Superheroes. Right. Effie shook her head slowly, hoping she would wake up and he nightmare mould go away. Would he come for me? Really? Probably not.
>>“Look, the Fausto you fell in love with is still the same person he always was. Nothing about that has changed.”
That really was th last straw. For Katrina, as well as for Effie.
"I not fell in love!" she bursted out, pushing her hair back with both hands, a desperate gesture "I not even know who is he before today at the airport!"
Oops.
Effie drew another shaky breath, and buried her face in her palms. There. Now this girl will go tell Fausto, and then she'll be sent back home where she can beat the Matchmaker dead, take Bo, and go find another way to live...
*italics are spoken in Russian* Thanks to Siren for the sig and avi!
>>>“I not fell in love! ...I not even know who is he before today at the airport!"
Blink.
Katrina stared at the exasperated older girl on the bed who was running her fingers desperately through her long hair.
Blink, blink.
It took several moments for those words to sink in. Another few moments didn't do much to help her make sense of what they meant. Then, after an awkward moment of silence, the little illusionist's emotions finally boiled over the edge of the pot, splashing metaphorical hot water all over.
“What?! What is that supposed to mean? It's all a some kind of lie or some kind of cruel joke? Who are you then, just some chick he picked up on the way home from a concert tour and he talked you into pulling some kind of practical joke? And for what? What is the point of this elaborate charade?”
Katrina didn't realize that her quick, angry, and loud words were probably not very easy for a new English speaker to understand. She was too busy seething. Fausto was in trouble. Big trouble.
In frustration she picked up the last of the clothes that hadn't yet been folded and threw them as hard as she could into the closet. She would have liked to stomp up to her bedroom and slam the door... but she was already there.
She bit her lip to keep it from quivering, then added quietly, “Why?”
>>“What?! What is that supposed to mean? It's all a some kind of lie or some kind of cruel joke? Who are you then, just some chick he picked up on the way home from a concert tour and he talked you into pulling some kind of practical joke? And for what? What is the point of this elaborate charade?”
Uh-oh. The girl was pissed. At Effie. As if it was her fault that she got hooked up with a mutant guy who apparently lied his head off about who, or what he is. All right, so she was not exactly honest either, but right now, that was beside the point. Katrina talked way too fast for her to catch all the accusations, but she knew the girl was probably blaming her for the whole thing. Shouldn't she be happy that the guy she liked was not marrying Effie anymore? Because he wasn't. Was he?...
>>"Why?"
Effie was boiling inside too. What right did the little blonde have to yell at her like that for something that was Fausto's fault? She looked at her, eyes flashing, prepared to yell back... and at the quiet question, something inside clicked. The show must go on.
Effie's lips quivered and a shaky sob left her; she covered her eyes for a moment, waiting for the tears to come out. She looked down, the angry blush recycled as a sign of shame.
"No, I... I want marry him. I... he pick me, on the Internet, to come from Russia. At home there is, a lady, a... matchmaker, she does things for us, papers and that. So she say Fausto is good for me, I good for him, and I come here. I meet him." she sobbed again "He is, very nice. I... I do this, because, I want to come here, find guy who want to marry me, not just leave me. They do that, at home." she sobbed again.
All right, so it was half true. More or less. The Matchmaker would be so proud.
*italics are spoken in Russian* Thanks to Siren for the sig and avi!
Fausto had ordered her? From some kind of online wife ordering service? Really?
Not only that, the prospective mail order bride was crying. Big, fat, red faced, crocodile tears. Really? One moment she was angry and the next, her face crumpled and started leaking all over the place. Katrina pinched her own quivering lip between her teeth and glared at the older girl as she sobbed.
The little illusionist had trouble seeing how the older girl had any reason to cry. She didn't even care about Fausto as a person. She only cared that he had a profile that matched up well with hers, and she thought he would be loyal to her forever and ever. And here was Effie, crying all over her bed.
“You are so stupid,” Katrina blurted out without thinking. “That is the worst reason ever to get married. You're supposed to love someone first. You can't just take shortcuts to 'happily ever after'. It doesn't work that way.” At least, she didn't think it worked that way.
This was all wrong. Effie still wanted to marry Fausto without even loving him. It just wasn't right. He deserved someone who really and truly loved him, even if he was being an idiot about the whole thing. Honestly, a mail order bride?