Setting & Timeline

[Calley]

Setting

MRO is a "real world with superpowers" RP: while we have our share of costumed heroes and villains, they draw the same share of weird looks and media coverage that they would in the RW. We have regular over-arching plots, but the majority of threads revolve around how our individual characters try to live their lives. Mutants, humans, and Adapted humans (see below) are all playable characters.

In the MRO!verse, the existence of mutants has been increasingly common knowledge since the early 90's: by now, everyone not living in a cave has at least heard of them, though many people still may not have met one face-to-face, especially in more rural areas.

The overall situation between mutants and humans is somewhat tense, but for most people, life goes on: the majority of humans are just trying to work a job and keep bread on the table, without thinking any harder on mutant rights on a day-to-day basis than they do on gay marriage rights. Whether they love or hate the idea, it's more of a water cooler topic than something to get really worked up about. Mutants don't always have the luxury of ignoring the inter-race tensions, however...

Mutants have seen groups like the Church of Humanity fighting to limit their freedoms—in 2009, lobbyists succeeded in convincing Congress to pass the Mutant Registration Act, effectively making it illegal to be a mutant in the United States. Though the Act was overturned a few months later, the scars and distrust from that time remain. Every day, mutants with visible mutations or those who use their powers in public can expect to draw looks from human passerbys--some of curiosity, but some of fear or loathing.

Not that the humans' fear is unjustified. Humans have been subjected to an ever-increasing mutant presence, especially in big cities. While some mutants are clearly out to benefit the world—like healers who open community health clinics, and the X-Men's partnership with the NYPD to take down mutants criminals—the bad can overshadow these. In NYC alone, mutant brawls and rampages leave hundreds of bystanders dead every year. Every human in NYC lives with the knowledge that they could be killed today; maybe not even through outright murder, but through some senseless accident caused by a mutant who can't control their power.

We live in a time of change--does it give your character hope, or fear? Human or mutant, they would have good reasons to feel either way; our world is not a black and white place.

Unique to MRO

The X-Men & the NYPD

The X-Men (and the Mansion) are publicly known advocates of human/mutant equality; the NYPD, realizing that human cops are simply not equipped to handle mutant criminals, have allowed certain X-Men to go through a deputization program that allows them to respond to calls for backup on the streets. This is overseen by the NYPD's Mutant-Related Crimes division, or MRC. For more information, click over to the "Factions" tab.

The Sanctuary / the Order

The Order is our secret baddie group; they operate mafia-style, with deep loyalties to their new mutant "family." They're based out of a publicly known homeless shelter / safe house for mutants, the Sanctuary. For more information, click the "Factions" tab.

Adapteds

Every species either adapts to its environment, or dies. With mutant attacks on the rise, the very stuff that humanity is made of is steeling itself to fight back: in some humans, the ability to completely negate the effects of a mutant's power is being born. Read more about these rare individuals in the Adapted description. (Note: Adapteds are not yet publically known, even among themselves: many of them assume that they're mutants until their x-gene tests come back negative. Unless your character learns about Adapteds IC, they shouldn't know of them.)

"M"

Stick of being powerless? Some humans certainly are. For them, the mysterious street drug known only as "M" has become a seductive lure—for a few hours, these little pills will temporarily grant a human their very own mutant ability. Whether they can control it, and what they'll do with it, well... whoever's making this drug doesn't seem too concerned about that. Incidents involving M-users, both power accidents and outright crimes, are on the rise. For more information, see the M Plot. (M gets plenty of air time on NYC's news stations, so your character will likely know about it. They might just be unfortunate enough to run across a user, themselves...)

Meese

Scientific Name: Alces alces superior
Common Name: Telekinetic Meese (plural: Meese, or Meeses)

Just when you thought the Canadian Moose couldn't get any more badass. With the ability to telekinetically backslap a house off its foundations, Meese are nature's worst kind of joke. See the Meese NPC profile for more information. (Meese are very rare—an accident involving a power-boosting mutant created three of these beauties in 2011. While they are alive and breeding in the forests of upstate New York, your character will only know of them if they learn about them on screen.)

[Historian]

MRO Timeline

Note: This is NOT required information to get started RPing!

This timeline is for people who like knowing what's come before in the storyline; only characters that were actually in the thick of things would even know about most of this, so if you're a new member, you don't need to read this unless it interests you. For some plots, a more detailed summary is posted below this timeline.

default color = public knowledge, and fair game for all to know from newspapers, the internet, etc.
this color = things your character won’t know unless they learn them IC from another PC


Fall/Winter 2005

• MRO was founded in October. Following the events on another (rather dying) X-Men RP, Xavier’s Sister School was rebuilt and reopened, with Tricity, Cassiel, and Daria as its first X-Leaders.

Spring/Summer 2006

• An errant faction of the US Military, under the command of General Whitmore, began a plot to control mutants using strangely powered gemstones. A mysterious virus briefly struck through the Mansion’s students, as well.

Fall 2006

• Several Mansion students were kidnapped by General Whitmore, and taken to the labs of Doctor Fusionist for experimentation; the X-Men rescued them, destroying the labs and its creators in the process.
  
  
• The Order was founded by Dorian King, aka Oppressor. Mr. King was the wealthy owner of King Pharmaceuticals. In a generous philanthropic move, he constructed an upscale homeless shelter known as the Sanctuary; with its golden front doors, it was destined to become one of the city’s new icons. At the grand opening in November, however, Isabel Duskmoor and two other unidentified mutants ( Syn and Raptor) started a deadly riot that became known as the Sanctuary Police Massacre. (At this point in time, the Sanctuary welcomed both humans and mutants; mutants were lodged semi-secretly in the Sanctuary’s lower levels, and Order members were recruited from their ranks. The Sanctuary has been public knowledge since its conception. The Order wasn’t, and still isn’t.)

Winter 2006/2007

• The Order raided a medical facility, acquiring Jacquelyn “Haywire” Guy, whose mutant ability killed all humans around her and caused mutant powers to boost far beyond their owner’s control.

Spring 2007

• The Order kidnapped mutants and humans off the streets and brought them to King Pharmaceuticals for experimentations. Their aim: to create a “Haywire virus,” with which they could bring humanity to its knees.

Summer 2007

• The Kabal was founded by Hunter Antonescu, at the newly opened Mondragon Labs.
  
  
• The Order’s leadership passed to Syn. The X-Men caught wind of the Haywire kidnappings, and the first KP brawl ensued.

Fall 2007

• The US Congress passed a nationwide Mutant Registration Law; those who did not immediately comply—or those with “dangerous” mutations—were tossed into the Camps. Both the Mansion and the Sanctuary were destroyed in government raids. Those who escaped came together at Mondragon Labs, where New York’s Mutant Resistance was formed.

Winter 2007/2008

• The Camps sucked.

Spring 2008

• In a bloody breakout, the Resistance succeeded in freeing the inmates of the New York Camps. Meanwhile, in California, a lawsuit that had been working its way up the legal system finally reached the Supreme Court: in one sweeping vote, the Registration Law was overturned. The damage it did, however, continues to linger. (New members: If your character was living in the US during this time frame, they would know about the Registration Law and the Camps. If they were a mutant, they either had to hide their power from authorities, voluntarily register, temporarily leave the country, or get tossed in their own state’s Camps. We recommend the first option, since it saves you knowing any in-depth plot details.)

Summer 2008

• The Mansion and the Sanctuary were rebuilt; the Sanctuary gained a new reputation for being unsafe grounds for humans to tread.

Fall 2008

• (The Future Plot started. Premise: The Order released its Haywire virus ten years in the past: now, in 2018, our characters were dealing with its global repercussions. This plotline was a collective dream shared by some—but not all—people around the world. If you were not an active member during this plot, your character would not have shared in this dream.)

Winter 2008/2009

• Slate took over the Kabal. Caleb "Slate" Swartz became the CEO of the newly re-named Mondragon Labs Medical.
  
  
• (The Future Plot headed into WWIII. Hello, thermonuclear chemical agricultural ebolapox mutant human warfare. Oh, and Adapteds in Australia, a mutant colony in Antarctica, and telekinetic meese in Canada.)
  
  
• The first PC Adapted hit MRO's screen. Adapteds have since become a persistent plot element at MRO.

Spring 2009

• The Kabal took over the Colombian drug trade, and through it, most of the country.

Summer 2009

• The Future Plot dreamers woke up, with scattered memories of what they’d seen. In order to destroy the Haywire virus before its release, they converged on King Pharmaceuticals, destroying both building and virus in the resulting brawl. The Order's Leader was reportedly killed by a traitorous member of her own team, throwing the Order into grief and confusion; Lori Faust stepped in to fill this power void as the Order’s new Leader. King Pharmaceuticals was rebuilt as Faust Pharmaceuticals.

Fall/Winter 2009-2010

• In response to the growing number of police deaths, the X-Men have put themselves on call to aid the NYPD as special deputies.
  
  
• Romania, in an ill-planned repeat of history, passed its own Mutant Registration Act in November 2009. All Factions converged there. Through dangers untold and through hardships unnumbered, the law was overturned on January 1, 2010.
  
  
• While the X's were away, the X-Kids played. With a giant clay Cthulhu, who attacked Central Park on Christmas Eve.

Spring/Summer 2010

• Muse arrived, fresh from a Russian bride mail order. City-wide illusions, neural bombs, and the destruction of Mondragon Labs via tornado followed (...it got better). To the general public, it sure seems like large-scale mutant power displays are getting more and more common. Freaking power boosters.
  
  
• The Order embarked on its Drug Plot, with the creation of two drugs: a legal drug to awaken inactive X-genes, and a street drug to give straight-laced humans a little taste of mutant power. These drugs have become persistent plot elements at MRO.

Spring 2011

• Slate turned the Kabal over to Lenna, unaware that his trusted employee was a double agent for the Order. A Order/Kabal merger followed; Mondragon Labs is now part of the Order's turf, and the Kabal's members either joined the Order or went their separate ways. Lenna Solderberg became the public CEO of Mondragon Labs Medical.

Fall 2011

• The birth of Meese. <3

[Historian]

Haywire (King Pharmaceuticals) & The Founding of the Kabal
January, 2007 - August, 2007; Haywire plot originally proposed by Witch Doll; the Kabal's founding executed by Hunter Antonescu

A 13 year old girl, Jacquelyn “Jack” Guy, possessed a dangerous mutation: any human who came near her became deathly ill, and any mutant experienced an uncontrollable surge of power: their mutation went “haywire”. The Order rescued Jack and many other mutants who were being held at a research facility, but kept her at King Pharmaceuticals for their own dastardly schemes. In the following days, a string of seemingly random mutant and human kidnappings made little stir in the NYC news, but changed the lives of those involved. These captives were brought to King Pharmaceuticals, imprisoned, and subjected to exposure to Jack's powers. From these tests, the Order developed a prototype “Haywire virus”: injected into mutants, it causes temporary power boosts at the cost of severe hallucinations. Its effect on humans has yet to be tested.

The X-Men caught wind of the nefarious goings-on at KP, and set out in force to take Jack from the Order's custody. As they rolled out of the Mansion's garage at full throttle, a lone vehicle was dropping off the subject of a field-test at their front gates: Iris, infected with the Haywire virus. As the Order and the X-Men fought an inconclusive fight on the steps of King Pharmaceuticals which caught national attention and hastened the passing of the Mutant Registration Law, the students of the Mansion were desperately working as a team to calm a terrified—and unimaginably dangerous—Iris. Though they left the fight with Jack, the X-Men returned to a Mansion which was half-destroyed, and students who were reeling from their own fight. (PS: Ted helped a great deal in the Mansion destruction, when an Iris-induced injury made him furry for a time. )

In all the chaos, it is safe to say that no one paid particular attention to the house cat who briefly groomed its fur outside of the X-Men's war room. Back at Mondragon Labs, a powerful mutant by the name of Hunter Antonescu set into motion his own plans. As the X-Men and the Order flaunted their public brawl and the Mansion frosted over, the Kabal was founded.

[Historian]

The Mutant Registration Law
September, 2007 - June, 2008; originally proposed by Emerald

It began innocuously enough: with the introduction of a bill before the United States Congress. Pushed heavily by the Church of Humanity, and with popular public support in the wake of numerous terroristic attacks by mutants, the bill easily passed into law: overnight, it became illegal to be an unregistered mutant in the United States of America. All mutants had to be entered into a database and fitted with either a bracelet or collar that would deliver a searing electrical shock into their system if they tried to use their powers outside of their own homes. The most "dangerous" mutants--including those captured in the police raids at Xavier's Sister School and the Sanctuary--were immediately shipped to state Detention Centers; aka, the Camps. As time went on, more and more mutants seemed to fall into that "dangerous" category, and little was ever heard from those who had been taken away. Meanwhile, eerily intelligent AIs known as the Stalker Robots became a regular sight, patrolling cities for mutants not in compliance with the Registration Law.

Needless to say, a Resistance formed from day one. Staged out of Mondragon Labs, they planned and trained for months, developing anti-Stalker weapons and fighting techniques based on a captured robot. One agent for the Order, Sonya, even managed to acquire an unlikely ally on the inside. Two other Resistance members, Iris and Hunter, went undercover to stage a coup in the Church of Humanity itself. After working his way up their ranks, Hunter attempted to kill every ruling member in one gruesome stroke. The immortal evil met his match in the immortal good that night, and the survivors of the massacre were given something to think about; but that's another story.

Finally, in May of 2008, the Resistance launched a successful breakout raid on the New York State Detention Center for Dangerous Mutants, showing the world just how 'dangerous' mutants could really be. In the bloodbath that followed, the truth about the Camps came out: beatings, rape, torture, murder; not even small children were being spared, as long as they carried the damning X-gene. Even some of those who had supported the Registration Law were appalled.

Within three weeks of the breakout, the Supreme Court deemed the Mutant Registration Law unconstitutional in a 6-3 ruling on the historic Erickson v. the State of California case. Mutants nationwide were freed; collars and bracelets were scrapped; the Stalker bots were disassembled and destroyed. America's mutants were left to scrape up the pieces of their lives after nearly a year of the most blatant persecution yet to face them.

[Historian]

Kabal Coup & the Colombia Takeover
Coup—January 2009; Takeover—April 2009; executed by Slate.

During January, in a logically ruthless sweep, Caleb “Slate” Swartz claimed possession of Mondragon Labs and all of Hunter’s former assets. The title of ‘Kabal Leader’ came with. A complete restructuring of Mondragon Labs and the Kabal ensued in the following months. April lead to its natural conclusion: a take-over of Colombia. One must start somewhere, in this world.

Using the front of rebuilding a rural school torn apart by the country’s internal violence, Slate launched a series of covert Kabal missions that landed large parts of the drug trade and military into his hands. His goal, of course: to fix what is broken. That is simply what a healer does.

During his month long humanitarian absence, Mondragon Labs was renamed Mondragon Labs Medical, and its conversion into an above-the-board research facility cumulated in the public announcement of its first medical advance: a cloned human heart.

Your character would know of that last. The rest? Heh.

((See The World Entrepreneur's Guide to the Kabal for the complete Kabal timeline.))

[Historian]

The Future Plot/WWIII
September 1st, 2008 - June 2009; originally proposed by Dream

From the Fall of 2018 to the Spring of 2019, our characters met old friends, forged new alliances across countries and continents, and faced the aftermath of a world in which the Haywire virus had claimed millions of lives—human and mutant, both. They lived.

Put yourself in their places when, on a June morning in 2009, they awoke to find that the past ten years—the future ten years—had been nothing but a dream. Hard won scars of mind and body were gone; lovers were on the other side of the globe; children had never been born.

There was no Haywire outbreak. There was no mutant rebellion in Australia; no safe refugee in Antarctica. The Gulf Stream was just fine, and no white-haired elementals were losing themselves trying to fix it. There was no World War III. There was only this.

Fragmented memories and feelings, spread far and wide.

Vials of undeveloped Haywire sitting in King Pharmaceuticals.

A phone call that mobilized three Factions.

Welcome to the present, where it’s time to end what never began, for the good of the people we’ll never be. The future is in our hands. It’s worth fighting for.

---

For a listing of Future Plot threads by character, look here.
Future Plot NPC profiles are here.

---

During the Future Plot, MRO had a Fourth Faction. The following is a reposted from the Newb Guide to the Factions. Requiescat in pace, PAX.

(name unavailable)

Founded IC on Christmas Eve, 2007.
Allegiance: The lightest shade of gray.
No base of which to speak. Unless your character has heard of this group IC, they will not know about them. To join, RP in keeping with their philosophies. They will contact you. Membership in another faction is no bar to joining.

Sickened by the violence prevalent in the X-Men, the Order, the Kabal, and the world, this group came together under the leadership of Katrina Dumonde and Caleb "Slate" Swartz. Its members strive to influence the world through the traffic of information rather than through violent means. If pressed into a fight, they will seek to creatively side-step the situation so that their actions cause damage in the lightest shade of gray. They do not claim to be either good, evil, or neutral: they are what they are. If your character is nonviolent in action as well as intention, it is likely that the members of this group will contact you. How they operate is not a matter for public concern.

The Members: Ghost, Iris, Kai, Katrina, Raina, Rupert, Sebastian, Seizure, Shrapnel, Slate, Sonya, Ted, WereCat