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 Welldrinker Cult
A shadowy group is gaining power, drawing in people who are curious, vulnerable, or malicious, and turning them into Mystics. They are recruiting people into their ranks to spread the influence of magic in the world, but for what end goal?
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.
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 8, 2011 8:46:15 GMT -6
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The huffing and puffing of the tall mutant, Mettaliar, had a long journey ahead of him. In one arm he held a guitar case, long and black, that he snugged into his body, as if holding on to a child. To the young adult, the case was of the same importance; his love for his instruments was truly one of a musician. He cared for it as much as he could, changed the strings whenever the became old or broken. This time around, he hadn't practiced in some time. His usual life affairs had taken time away from keeping his skills high. Instead of risking someone getting riled or woken up by his playing, he figured going to the grand Central Park would be a good destination, only seen by travelers who may listen and enjoy his playing, at least Mettaliar hoped. He would rather not disturb anyone but when it came to playing music that always seemed to be the risk; someone passing by may not enjoy it. The mutant figured that pleasing those who do enjoy it would be a greater pro then disturbing others would be a con, since, you know, walking away is always an option and earphones always helped block out unwanted sound.
Seeing the park, Mettaliar got a bit giddy; one for being able to sit down and two not having to lug around the giant "please rob this object" sign in the shape of a guitar. Once entering the park he walked around a bit to find a place where people weren't gathered. Yes, people could walk away but Mettaliar knew that forcing people away was just rude. Finding a park bench, Mettaliar sat down and took a second or three to catch his breath and rest his legs and arm. Enjoying the weather, Mettaliar's mind wandered into a daydream about how he hoped someone who were passing by may work for some business that needed studio musicians. Mettaliar knew a bit about music and finding a job in the field, either rock star or producer, interested the young adult. It was a lot better then what his life had given him in the past. Hopefully karma turns out to be real; she's passed due on rent. The thoughts escaping him, Mettaliar set down the case and went to work.
The mutant grabbed the elongated case and carefully opened it. Inside was his Gibson Hummingbird True Vintage VOS, a decent guitar to some yet the long-haired young-adult's idol of his room. He set the guitar on his lap and got out his pick out of his guitar cases' pouch of tools. Once he had that settled, he strummed the guitar, creating an out-of-tune wave, the mutant quickly putting his hand on the strings and tried to wipe the wince off his face from the sound. Once done, he focused on tuning. Plugging in one headphone from his mp3 player, he played a recording of an E, tuning to top string to match it. He moved on to tune the next string via matching the note with the fifth fret of the E, making an A. He went down the line to tune the rest of the guitar, strumming at the end to hear a tuned guitar sound that brought a smile on his face.
Switching his mp3 player to a specific song, he readied his hands and pressed play, Megadeth's "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" to be exact. With the small delay, the man had time to ready himself and play in time with the song, making sure to keep in tempo. The strings cluttered a little on the intro, clumsily trying to get his rhythm back. Finally he found just in time for when the drums and bass came in through his headphone, his fingers flying off and on the fret board and his right hand systematically hitting every string in time. He payed no attention if anyone where to stand or shout or wave a hand to distract him from playing; when Mettaliar played guitar, his mind was barely reachable to reality. Barely. . . .
The 2011 school year had begun at Beacon School on September 8th. Amelia had attended. Dutifully, she'd returned to classes, and quickly forgotten the freedom that was Summer vacation.
YEAH RIGHT!
In her heart, Summer was still about. The sky was blue, the weather was fair, and when it wasn't being fair, it was scalding. The weekend was as it had been before, during every other school year to date. It was a time of escape, of retreat from studying (or at least, a minor break during which she had a few hours to clear her head a week). Amelia was a good student. She didn't put off ALL her homework on the weekends, after all.
Thankfully, all her homework for that week was already done. She'd powered through whatever had been assigned. Not much. Now, she got to walk the park and listen to the music player she'd gotten for her last birthday.
As Amelia walked down the path, she hummed along with Sarabande and didn't hear much anything else. She would hardly have noticed the guitarist were it not for the sweet guitar and the hair. Mainly the hair.
"Whoa." Amelia stopped stock still, a few feet from him on the man's right. Before he noticed her staring, she found her words and explained the cause of her pause. "Nice hair." And nice guitar, she reminded herself. "Is that a Gibson Hummingbird?" That too.
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 8, 2011 9:48:30 GMT -6
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As the final chords were being shred from the frets, Mettaliar played the last one out with and elongated pause before switching off his music player to rest before playing again. He took the earphone out and seemed to pat the guitar, not the electric Xplorer at home that could match Dave Mustane's sound, but still the power of the acoustic made it still a sweet sound to hear, especially the seemingly random acoustic guitar break after the first verse, something that is just divine to hear on a proper acoustic guitar. As he was about to prepare another song to play, a soft "Whoa" coming from his right, catching him offguard as his eyes turned to see the source of the voice. All but a blush came when he realized the surprise of a petit girl caused the surprised reaction.
Mettaliar sat and tried to stop the blush from being visible, as impossible as it seemed. He wondered his brain how long she had been standing there. He noticed the position she was in, his right-hand side, and the fact she seemed intrigued by his hair from her comment of, "Nice hair," that she might've seen his scar, making the blushing officially impossible. Trying to put out the idea in his mind, he heard her mention his Hummingbird and looked down, dumbfounded through embarrassment to say something that first but fought out the lump in his throat to respond to the girl's comments.
"Oh, uh, th-thanks. I try to ke-eep it straight and nice and, like, stuff." His response seemed awkward, Mettaliar noticed, producing that weird warm feeling one gets when things get awkward. He never really cared for how his hair was, except one part, yet figured others would find the style different and shouldn't just think no one would comment on it. At the very least, his mind repeated over and over in some way, it was a positive comment rather then something mean-spirited. At least she's nice. Hell, she DID stop to acknowledge it.
"Y-yeah, it is." Moving on the the guitar, he felt less weird about the whole situation. "It was something I've had for a while; I always liked the sound of it. Something that set it apart from others is it always seemed to sound as gorgeous as it looks." Feeling that he had went a bit beyond answering the girls question, he decided to either try to pass the burden of conversation on to prevent rambling. "At least, that's why I practice. It's always a good goal to have with a Hummingbird. You a guitar person? Not very many people can name the guitar type off of first glance." He turned to the girl and gave a welcoming smile, acknowledging he didn't mind the slight attention away from playing.
>>"Oh, uh, th-thanks. I try to ke-eep it straight and nice and, like, stuff." The guy stumbled over his words.
Amelia didn't hear any of it. Realization struck like a thunderbolt. She pulled the ear buds from her ears. Now she could hear him. Forgetful of her.
Now, why was he blushing? Hm. He must've not expected people to notice his playing in Central Park. And technically, she hadn't... funny how that worked.
"It is gorgeous," she agreed. "The guitar. I've got an older brother who likes to play. And I hang out with band geeks. That's a loving term, by the way." She smiled. "Some of the coolest people. I don't actually play myself... though I've been tempted to learn."
Guitars were cool. Maybe if she played guitar it'd help her pick up guys?
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 8, 2011 11:03:50 GMT -6
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Mettaliar noticed the girl take out her earphones after his stammered sentence about his hair. Mettaliar nodded his head, slightly glad that he didn't have to face more awkwardness about the subject. He found it a lot easier to talk about guitars and music rather then his attire or appearance. He was modest about himself and never wanted to seem too self-centered or apathetic about himself. With that settled he listened in to her analysis on the guitar and guitar -associated things.
She admitted the beauty of the guitar and talked about her history with other people interested in music, or "band geeks," a term Mettaliar chuckled at warmly, taking in the loving term as it was. He remembered being with his friends back home, whether practicing a violin piece for school or jamming at another friend's house, turning the normal daily stress he felt into treble cleft notes that warmed the family members and the travelers of his home sweet home. He was glad this girl had an appreciation, and an apparent motivation, in music.
"Hah, a loving term indeed.," he joked. "People who love music always seem to have great personalities. I dunno, something about someone's interest in music, whether it's studying Baroque-era pieces or simply learning an instrument, that seems genuinely amazing. It helps with a lot of things and can work wonder's for a person's psyche." Mettaliar caught himself rambling again and figured to switch the focus to the girl.
"Tempted? Interesting. Guitar's one of those 'minute to learn, lifetime to master' instruments. If you want, I could teach you a few things. That is, if I'm not holding you up from anything." The emphasis on could was friendly, leaving the idea of invitation up to how tempted this girl was to learn. If she had nothing to do and really wanted to learn, chances are she'd ask. Mettaliar couldn't care either way; either he teaches someone something and makes a new acquaintance or he could just converse and play. The thought of him play led to his subconscious playing a few hammer-on's on the high E string, the same kind of reaction as thumb-twiddiling.
Amelia agreed with his ramblings, even despite her lack of training in music. She loved to sing. Singing was one of her favorite things to do. A tale as old as time, really. A song as old as rhyme.
The girl had grown up singing in front of her bedroom mirror, in front of her bathroom mirror, and in front of her mother's bedroom mirror. Actually, it was kind of funny how big an attraction she'd had to those mirrors. There must've been some sort of draw. She couldn't place it.
From mirrors, she'd gone to the occasional church group or choir practice at school. She hadn't taken singing lessons. Hadn't needed them. No perfect pitch, but... she wasn't bad. Probably not the next Kelly Clarkson. Not that she cared. It was more about having 'fun' than it was cashing in on that 'fun'. And... like the dude had said, it was good emotional release. Good for the 'psyche'... whatever that meant.
Yup.
Was she tempted to learn? Hell yes. And from a cute, sensitive-sounding guy in the park? Icing.
"I'd love to learn," Amelia replied. She felt a slight pang of guilt for talking to some guy without knowing what Gawain was up to, but heck. It hadn't been like they'd been dating. Stupid bastard. Probably his fault for that.
Amelia smiled on, despite that sudden shift in thoughts.
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 8, 2011 11:47:26 GMT -6
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Mettaliar sat and continued to hammer on the fretboards in some off-the-cuff rhythm that came to him. Weird thing about guitars, sometimes you play them even when you don't mean to. Mettaliar could name numerous times he would be sitting back with his guitar in his lap and be either thinking, reading, writing, typing and so on, then suddenly his finger would slip or spaz on a note, then the next would work it's way up to another, then another until he caught his subconscious having a field day on the fretboard. What was greater were those times that those eventual spazzes would be worked and tweaked into a new riff for a song he was trying to work on. His mind always seemed to do that; creating new songs when he stopped trying to.
After hearing the girl's approval, the mutant smiled and nodded his head, trying to make room on the bench for her to sit down on. "Sit down, unless you prefer standing. And here, you should take the guitar," he said, offering it in one hand for the girl, "I know most of the frets and notes by heart now, so you can use this to practice and get a feel for the guitar." Mettaliar felt his hand hesitate seemingly on it's own about handing over his closet idol to a stranger though the fear was more of it breaking then of theft; a bo staff whack to the side was a good way to prevent a runaway. As he accepted letting the girl have it, a thought popped up.
"Oh wow, I'm handing my guitar over and I haven't event introduced myself," the mutant laughed off how the whole conversation went without an exchange of names. "The name's Mark, by the way. Care if I asked yours?"
As he sat there, he continued to absentmindedly hammer out some tunage. Amelia appreciated it idly. Art was cool like that. Random junk you did without thinking had the power to lead to something original. And a simple hum had the power to lead to so much more. Sometimes.
Hrm.
When he offered, she took him up on it. She plopped down and held out her hands for the beautiful instrument. She could see the hesitation. She took note of it. "Don't worry," she smiled politely. "I'll take good care of your beauty."
He accepted her statement. Amelia took the instrument and let it rest in her lap, against her chest. One hand slid down the fret board, taking note of string positions and the tension. The other hand checked out what happened when you applied pressure to those strings at various levels.
Would she need a pick for this or what?
It was heavy across her chest. Maybe even bigger than her. A thought ran through her mind. Will I even be able to shift quickly between hand positions on this thing? Did they even use hand positions? What had she seen on TV?
Amelia looked up from the Gibson as the guy started talking again. His name was Mark.
"Amelia," she replied. "So, tell me. Where do I start?"
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 9, 2011 17:57:00 GMT -6
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Mettaliar let go of the guitar once he heard her ensure that his guitar would be safe and her grip was tight around the neck. He moved over a bit and watched her try to get her bearings on the fretboard and the size of the guitar as a whole being big enough to give the small girl trouble. Mettaliar tried to hide the chuckle from the situation, not because of the fact that she was having problems but because all of it seem cute somehow. As the girl looked up and introduced herself as Amelia, Mettaliar tried to figure out the best place to start as far as explaining everything. A lack of knowledge on how much Amelia knew about music made this a bit more challenging in his brain.
"Well, that depends, actually." Mettaliar naturally put his thumb and pointer finger on his chin and leaned on it, trying to think about exactly where to get started. "If you know much about music and theory, I could easily just tell you notes and steps of the frets and you could be on your way to mastering the guitar. Buuuuut," his voice and head swayed a bit with that last word, "if you don't know all that stuff, I can show you some basic chords and technique's which would help start you off." He left it off there in hopes she would respond with an answer. Not a bad start... I hope.
Mettaliar really wasn't one to teach guitar but more "let friends play with it and give advice." Most people he had jammed with were already musically knowledgeable. All he'd do was correct stuff from a distance and make things easier for them. This time it may seem he had to start from scratch, calling for him to remember how his past guitar tutors managed to get all this information to him when he was younger. Then again if he just stuck to what he knew and remembered to keep it slow, he was sure Amelia would develop skills quickly. Let's see what he answer is first.
What he would teach her. Depended on what she knew.
Cop. Out.
Luckily, not a complete and total fail.
Amelia considered the guitar thoughtfully for a minute. Hm.
"I know notes. I was in choir for a while. But I'm not really familiar with chords and that sort of stuff. You might as well teach me like I'm dumb." She decided. She smiled up at him. "If I know something, I'll let you know."
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 10, 2011 17:16:04 GMT -6
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"Alright," the young man smiled and nodded while saying. Mettaliar knew exactly where to start from there. "Okay so, the strings are, from closest to your face downwards, E,A,D,G,B,E; at least that is standard tuning, which is what most use. Now, each fret is a half-step, such as A#, Gb, etc." Man, I hope I'm not going too fast. The mutant figured Amelia would ask if she was confused or something. Heck, she did say to "teach her like she's dumb." Mettaliar hoped he was at least treating her with more respect.
"Ok. Chords; pretty much a big part of playing guitar. To start, I'll show you 'power' chords. These are chords mostly used in rock music, noticeably punk." With that, he remember the pick in his hand and sat up in a kind of Oh my, how silly of me. I should probably hand this off to her. way, bringing his hand toward her, holding the pick with the wide-end up so when she grabbed it, it'd be in the proper position. "Oops, I should have mentioned that this helps with chords. Simply use your thumb and the side of your pointer finger to grab it, which ends up being how you hold it." He smiled and remembered to get back onto the whole 'chord' thing.
"Okay so, easy first try. Leave the top E open then use your pointer finger to hold down the A and G strings. Then play those three." With Mettaliar's little ramble coming to a close, he realized that in his mind that whole explanation felt around five seconds or so. He hoped it was quite a bit more than that yet that small embarrassed feeling started to creep up again, causing him to tighten up a bit. "Yeah, sorry if that seemed fast or s-something. I get excited a bit easily about guitar." He looked at her with hopes that he was just being paranoid rather then being right.
Amelia listened, closely following his directions and the things he pointed out as best she could.
Half-steps. Frets. Chords. There was a lot of vocabulary she needed to pick up.
So far, the strings made sense to her. They were a progression of notes. And each fret... was that each spot on the guitar where there was some sort of stick? So going down from each division, that changed things. And going up and down... those were steps? At least, that was her guess. She'd get confirmation later. For now...
Chords.
Hold on. Pause. He had something for her.
Aha! The pick. Amelia took it. She knew what one of these was. She wasn't totally clueless, after all.
As he described how to hold the guitar, she shifted her fingers to mimic the description. "Like this?" She asked. She thought she had it right.
First try: Top E, open... Amelia bit her lip, focusing. She tried to remember the order of the strings, then pressed down a finger on the ones specified. Lightly. IE, the wrong way. Which she didn't know.
Amelia gave the guitar a strum with the pick. It didn't come out sounding just right.
"Hrm..." She said. "Thought I had it. Quick question. Steps. Those are the divisions on the neck, right? So going up and down by half-steps would do... what again? And... did I not press hard enough or what?" Ow. The tension kind of hurt her fingers. He held her hand out in front of her face, flexing them to demonstrate just this. "Wish there were a way to apply pressure without wrecking my hand." Little lines had already appeared across her fingertips from the strings.
Even if she felt lost, she was actually picking things up fairly quick.
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 13, 2011 12:14:40 GMT -6
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Mettaliar watched Amelia take in all the information given to her and attempt the instructions given, nodding affirmation when she asked for some. He saw that she was picking up what he was saying quickly, something that she seemed to have a gift for; some people had a knack for learning instruments quicker than others. With Amelia, her eagerness to learn combined with her prior knowledge seemed to help her along. Mettaliar put his elbows on his upright knees and rested his chin on his fist, letting his ears do the rest of the work for the next part. With as much as he stared at the guitar, he could imagine in his mind what she would be doing, like the guitar being a voice to a blind man.
*Epluckpluck* Too soft.
His mouth curled slightly into a good smile as he turned his head towards the girl as she seemed confused, her following words confirming her suspicions of having done it right the first time. She turned and asked follow-up questions to his earlier explanations, particularly about half-steps, as well as asking why the sound of the chord was off. Mettaliar nodded his head and chuckled when she showed her fingertips which were slightly dent in from to tension of the strings. Ah, that feeling never gets old.
"Haha, well luckily, playing more will callus your fingers a little, making it hurt less. But yeah, the first time always leaves those little dents." Mettaliar tried to be warming and not seeming to scare the girl or anything; he was just stating facts, after all. "Now," he continued, "half-steps is a musical term for certain notes. A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H are all whole steps, or just steps. Half-steps are A, A#, B, C, C#, etc. So on the A string, for instance, if you hold down on the first fret you will play an A#, second being B and so on." Mettaliar slowed down and tried to look at the face of Amelia, hoping to see that lightbulb-going-off kind of reaction giving off the fact that she got the idea completely.
"Oh, and yeah." Mettaliar added to answer he second question with a chuckle. "You have to push the strings down to the fret board, or else they'll just be muted and sound off. I do that sometimes, too, so it's nothing bad. Just try again, I'm sure you'll get it." Mettaliar smirked and went back to his leaning position again, this time watching Amelia when she tried again.
Calluses? On her fingers? Ew. Maybe she didn't want to play guitar if it gave her farm hands... Yeah right! She still wanted to learn to play. She wasn't that dainty. It wasn't like she was anyone's princess... Despite her best efforts.
Meh.
The important thing here was that if she kept practicing, it would hurt less. No pain, no gain... to quote some guy she didn't know about... Who she THOUGHT was Mr. T.
Again, she focused while he answered questions. Oh, if only she had a notepad for this.
"Press harder. Half steps and whole steps. Got it. Okay. Let's try this again." Pressing harder this time, she held down A and G, leaving the top E free. She looked to Mark for confirmation and information. "Okay. Was that better? What chord was that?"
Posted by mettaliar on Sept 16, 2011 15:13:52 GMT -6
Guest
Mettaliar watched as he saw that realization face come across Amelia as she repeated what Mettaliar was saying, ending with an encouragement to try again. The tall male mutant knew that this girl would be a great player, if she kept it up, that is. Before, Mettaliar was nervous of rushing through information and having it all fly over Amelia's head; now he worried that he was actually moving too slow. She seemed to get everything so far and now that she knew how hard to push the strings down, chords would be something she'd quickly pick up once she was familiar with the notes. Technically, an internet connection, a laptop and a will to read tabs would send her in a good direction.
"Much better," he responded to her her with a smile. "That was an E5 chord, or a 'power chord' as mentioned before; power chords are a big part of rock, punk and most metal genres so if that's your big influence, you're close to becoming a rhythm guitarist one day," he finished, chuckling a bit. "I guess something I should have asked before is what kinds of music you listen to. Each genre has a certain style and progression, so starting there I can show you how to play most of that style. I'm more favorable to rock and such, so starting there was simple, also since power chords can be easy to pick up. That's on me though, I should have asked what you'd like to learn." Mettaliar tried to smile, yet he felt his head wanting to turn away, slightly embarrassed that he brought up all of this now instead of, you know, when they started. After fighting to try and hide his face, Mettaliar settled to continue on.
"To finish up power chords 101, with your pointer finger on either the first, third or fifth fret of the E string and you ring finger covering the A and D strings two frets away, you'll be playing power chords of other notes. Following the same logic starting with the A string and going two frets over on the D and G string, you can play variations of those in a rhythm and create a rock riff with them." Taking a sigh while trying to calm his nerves, he smiled and decided to move back to the topic before. "So yes, you can continue on the rock path if you want, but if there's a genre you specifically would like to learn how to play, please ask." Mettaliar smiled warmly at Amelia, feeling good that she was able to do something she had wanted to do for some time.
