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.
Cafas grunted as a fist hit his face. He could feel a warm trickle above his eye. His energy was flagging, he was slowing down. There was still too much of the simulation left for him to be in that state, but stealth wasn't his strong point.
This would all be a lot easier if I could use lethal force...
The simulated guard swung a simulated baton. The fist it was held in had hurt enough, Cafas wasn't about to be hit by the rod. He ducked, just under the heavy blow. As he rose he drove an uppercut into the simulation's gut. It doubled over, Cafas used its own momentum to force it to the ground, and handcuffed it with its own cuffs. "You have the right to remain alive, anything else I will happily deny." A small klaxon alerted him that this was not what the room wanted him to say.
Wiping blood from his face Cafas dropped into a crouch and moved on to the exit of the monitor room he was in. Anyone on the other side would have heard the struggle, but then they probably would have come in too. He melted the handle and inched the door open. An empty corridor, several doors leading out. He approached the first.
Target should be in one of these. Gotta be holding cells, they're in the middle of the security centre.
He pressed an ear to the door. No sound within. He moved on. The next door was similarly silent, but for the impatient tapping of a booted foot. Likely a guard. Behind the third door he could hear muffled thumps and what sounded like an interrogation. Bingo.
Three... Two... One...
The handle came off the door in his grip. Cafas hardened it and toughened it.. His boot rocketed the door open, slamming into the wall behind it. Cafas charged in. A guard stood over a bound prisoner. Cafas' shoulder found the guard's chest as the door handle found mach 3, right through the one way glass. Even with reinforcing, it never stood a chance. The interrogator hit the wall behind him and slumped down, dazed. Behind the shattered glass the guard, moments before impatiently tapping his foot, reached for a gun.
No you don't...
Even if he was personally impervious, one stray bullet could easily fail the mission. Cafas threw himself in front of the captive, vaulted the low wall and grabbed for the gun.
Very suddenly everything froze, then faded.
"Warning, door opened. Simulation ended for safety."
Damn it..
He turned to look who had walked in to the activated danger room, though coming out of a simulation was somewhat disorienting.
Cafas would have to excuse the spatter of orange juice.
The internet was blowing up so Jude had squirreled himself away. OJ in hand, he'd stolen one of the Poli-Sci class papers and curled up in his favorite reading spot ready to get his fill of the entertainment section when -BAM!- Unexpected!
It was a picture of Ghost. Smiling.
And Cafas. Smiling.
Jude hadn't seen either of those things lately, though he didn't have a lot of first-hand experience with the pink-haired guy. He peered closely at the photo until all he could make out was the dot-matrix of ink and how it had spread in the grain of the flimsy newspaper.
And what was the title of such a joyous dancing scene?
Wicked B**** Seduces Fairy Prince
Spittake.
Really. This PR crap was too much. Yeah, movies and yeah FBI investigation and after today, it seemed like she'd really earned it. Jude wadded the paper in anger and threw it at the wall.
Wait. There had been text. He un-wadded the slightly moistened page and skimmed.
..."He didn't even ask," one patron complained. "Yeah, he's in those movies, but he took my drink. What was I supposed to do? He's a mutant, right? And that girl used her power on all of us. I couldn't make it stop. I felt so [dirty] that I had to leave. It's downright shameful what some people will do [to others without their permission]."
No comment from the X-men. Shameful. Taking advantage of others. Bullying attitude prevalent in the police and mutant police alike.
Yeah. He wadded it up again and went stomp, stomp, stomping to the danger room.
The X-men didn't need that kind of rap. Relations were... strained at best. Any time he'd been in the field lately he got it from all sides. Police, civilians, other mutants... pretty much anyone who wasn't an X-man was getting pressure from all sides to be this paragon that none of them were.
And Ghost certainly didn't need to be in the news again.
Cafas could go suck a duck butt for all Jude cared.
Jude put his hand on the scanner and waited for the green light to show.
"Warning, door opened. Simulation ended for safety."
And there he was in Jude's happy place. The young mutant didn't stop to think, he just threw the paper at Cafas' face.
"You leave Ghost alone, buttface!"
Cafas would have to excuse the spatter of orange juice.
Cafas had a face full of newspaper briefly. Not as briefly as he would have liked, given it was both damp and sticky. By the smell, orange juice. He assumed a best case scenario, that someone had been reading it at breakfast.
Wonder why he's so angry?
The newspaper fell to the floor with a rustle and limp smack. He was left vaguely irritated, but mostly confused. In front of him, framed in the doorway, stood... Jude, was it? He was new to the X-men, and apparently to decision making. While still fighting to subdue the adrenaline coursing through him, Cafas wordlessly picked up the newspaper.
His eyes scanned the pages quickly.
"Wicked B**** Seduces Fairy Prince"
He didn't even need the photo. All said though, it was a nice one. They'd done them both that courtesy at least. Cafas heaved a sigh, closed his eyes tightly, grit his teeth, tried to control himself. His fists gripped tight around the paper.
RRRRRRIIIP!
Oh well.
You'd think I'd be used to it by now.
He could already feel a headache building. He really hadn't needed that. Nor had he needed it thrown right in his face. His eyes sprang open and affixed the young mutant in front of him with a glare that would give a bull elephant pause. The glare really wasn't for him. Don't shoot the messenger and all.
"Jude isn't it? Let's get a few things straight. First, normally we aim to defuse situations, not escalate them. Second, you should have hit me while I was blinded, not given me time to recover. Take whatever advantage you can get in a fight. Third, Maya and I are friends and comrades. I'd die for her, so I reserve the right to see her socially."
Sam would be proud. Proper X-man lessons...
Cafas ran through a breathing exercise while he spoke, trying to calm himself. It really was a bit of an over reaction. Adrenaline would do that to you though. Still, if he ever got his hands on the editor who ran that headline, they'd learn very quickly not to use that sort of language about Maya. Or any of his friends.
So Jude took a few calm steps into the danger room and tried to leverage the element of surprise in a neatly executed spinning back crescent kick to Cafas' head. If he only hit the clown with the soles of his shoes, he wouldn't accidentally transfer powers.
Except he would have had to remember that part and Jude wasn't exactly in a remembering mood.
He was giddy when his shoe actually connected. Kicks, especially high kicks, were usually too slow to both execute right and hit. This was one that Mirror especially had made fun of him for trying to make work.
If Cafas hadn't been a solid refrigerator-sized man, Jude probably would have knocked him off his feet. Physics being what it was, the guy was hardly staggered and now Jude's foot hurt. Hurt and then started to heal.
He'd at least had the foresight to grab DocProf's power on the way in.
Jude's hand shot out toward Cafas' neck. Well, the guy did say he should take every advantage, right? So now he was. While Cafas was reeling he was gonna...
A flashback started of Jude kicking Cafas. He shook his head to clear it, but the next one started even as Jude's hand tightened around Cafas' throat.
> "I like this."
Wha- NO!
He was seeing Cafas' nose injury now. And that was something he could not unsee.
Jude took steps towards him. He seemed angry, but surely the newspaper headline wasn't enough to make him attack Cafas. It didn't make any sense for one. The younger mutant didn't seem to be in a fighting posture either, until...
Weight shift, stance, yup...
Cafas watched the kick come in. The stance had telegraphed enough of what was happening, the kick itself would give him more than enough time to react. He didn't bother. The kick landed with a surprising amount of force, forced him to adjust into an actual fighting stance. The combination of blood from his earlier cut and new blood from the kick forced him to wipe his eyes so he could see.
Nice kick really. Needs to learn not to open with it.
He felt the hands at his throat before his arm was clear. Cafas hadn't taken this for a death-match. It appeared Jude had. He could see him, wide eyed, fingers tightening. Cafas wasn't the most level headed of people. He knew he could end this in seconds, after all, there was a reason martial arts had weight-grades.
... Wait... did my nose just heal?
No time to dwell on it.
So maybe he should have pulled the punch a little. If he hadn't just been in a full on simulation, who knows, maybe he would have. In the moment though, he decided to teach Jude a valuable lesson. Cafas broke the choke, throwing his arms up through Jude's. He took a step back, then in, driving his fist for Jude's solar plexus with everything he had.
Posted by Jude on Sept 25, 2015 22:32:11 GMT -6
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Mar 3, 2021 17:12:08 GMT -6
Ghost
Not only could he not unsee, he couldn't seem to stop seeing. Jude turned red all the way up to his hairline.
The younger X felt Cafas break his choke and then quite suddenly Jude was out of air. He doubled over, growled, and launched his whole self at Cafas, still mostly blinded by what he was seeing. Still not thinking about how if he would just stop touching Cafas, maybe he'd quit healing him.
In the future, Ghost and Jude been peers. In the now?
'That's my Ghost!' Was what he'd wanted to say, but it didn't exactly pan out. Really even growling was a chore since sucking in air after a punch to the gut was a luxury.
He was frustrated with his situation as a new X-man. Helpless to fix the ongoing PR mess of his adopted mom. Abandoned by yet another dad and now this?
It was a sloppy scramble of arms and attempted close quarter grappling and punches. Within the cycle of healing flashbacks, Jude was all but blind, only catching snippets of the here and now.
Pathetic gasping growl aside, Cafas was impressed. Jude could take a punch. He'd leveled bigger guys with a hit like that. Still, it had taken its toll, and they weren't on even footing to begin with.
It also seemed Jude was having trouble tracking him for some reason. Like something kept distracting him. It really wasn't even fair. He threw off a few grapple attempts, deflected some blows, gave Jude some time to find his footing in the fight, but ultimately it wasn't happening.
"Floor mats."
The room shifted, the floor was covered in spongy springy mats. He didn't want to injure the kid. Cafas grabbed Jude and spun him to face away. He gripped and twisted one of his arms into a lock. Considered and resisted the urge to suplex him, then with a sharp kick to the back of the knees and a shove, drove him face first into the ground, leaning heavily on his back.
That was just embarrassing.
Cafas was breathing heavily, more anger than exertion. He reeled himself in and shook off the reddish haze. He felt himself calming down, and decided to question the kid, give him some time to calm down.
"That was stupid of you. Now, what the hell is your problem? I didn't write the headline, I went dancing with a friend I ran into on a night out. That's all. So why the hell are you attacking me?" He did not relinquish his grip on Jude's wrist, nor stop pushing him into the floor.
As much as he wanted to shout that Cafas wasn't his real mom, Jude was, admittedly, a bit preoccupied.
This was so not fair. But life wasn't. If he wanted to get better, he should be bulking up and learning from the more experienced X's instead of throwing himself at them like a cat trying to pounce a bug that was on the other side of a window.
"Get off!" What little pride Jude had was wrapped up in the fact that his face was being ground into the floor mats. To be honest, he felt a little ill after a gut punch like that.
> "I went dancing with a friend I ran into on a night out. That's all."
"Let go!" He wriggled ineffectively until Cafas applied more pressure and he had no choice but to calm down or be sick.
"Dancing." Jude panted. "Iz zat what they're calling it these days?" Nope. Not dancing. Did the tabloids have pictures of that too?
>"Dancing. Iz zat what they're calling it these days?"
That was... Pointed. Cafas missed a lot in conversation, he wasn't great at reading people's true meaning, but this one he knew.
"How do you..."
Seemed unlikely Maya had told him. Then suddenly his nose seemed to make sense. Of course, Jude the mimic. Sam had told him, he hadn't really listened. He'd been a bit busy trying to pretend he was sober.
I mean, it was 10am, I didn't wanna deal with the earful.
"Visit the Doc recently huh? Regretting it yet?" Cafas smiled. Just a touch. It was kind of funny. Still, there was a reason his nose was still broken. He had wanted to keep his memory to himself, or however exactly it was the Doc's power worked, that moment. Maybe moments? Had he re-damaged it in the Sanctuary? Very possibly. Cafas could feel the colour rising in his face.
Well now I wish it'd been Doc.
"Still, you didn't answer my question. Why are you attacking me over someone else's headline? If you want to find them and beat the hell out of them, I'm happy to help, but attacking me seems a bit of a weird move." Especially considering Cafas was more than capable of killing him. Heck, that violin guy had learned that the hard way.
I thought we agreed not to think about that?
Cafas let up slightly, just to make sure the kid could breathe.
"Because she's like a child always putting her faith in the wrong people." Sam the alcoholic. Sebastian the terrorist. That big red guy who used to share their building. Even Sveta turned out to be a more ruthless vigilante than Jude had.
Jude all but spit his words. He should know. He was one of those people she trusted without hesitation or reason. If she knew how many times he'd broken that faith already... But, it didn't really matter did it? He wasn't really her family. And he'd been replaced by Ghost's bio kid anyway.
"Sebastian iz making headlines in middle America. You guyz make this headline. Cafas. Have you seen her today? Because I have." He shut the internet off because they wouldn't shut up about it. Jude had sought solace in the newspaper because, really, what could possibly be in there that he didn't already know?
"She sru a livestreaming laptop at an interviewer. A kid." Well, technically his own age. But those schmucks were stupid.
Stupid enough to throw themselves at seasoned X-veterans because mommy doesn't love you?
He was pissed and he didn't know what to do about it. There was nothing he could do about it.
>"Because she's like a child always putting her faith in the wrong people."
That was... Actually that analogy made him feel a bit gross. Still, Sebastian did kind of stick out as evidence for his case about the wrong people. Also Cafas a little. Was he the wrong person to put faith in? Maybe, he did just punch a teenager, and it wasn't even the first time.
>"Sebastian iz making headlines in middle America. You guyz make this headline. Cafas. Have you seen her today? Because I have."
Cafas had not. Frankly, he wasn't incredibly certain what terms they'd left on. It had seemed... Well awkward really, but kind of good awkward? Cute awkward? He really had trouble not attaching the word Cute to Maya these days. Or pretty, or some other similar word. The flush made a return as he thought about it. Luckily Jude was face down on the ground.
>"She sru a livestreaming laptop at an interviewer. A kid."
Yeah he'd seen that. The X-men had been watching. Personally Cafas understood the scandal of it, but he found it kind of funny. Kid sort of had it coming. The X-men had the... Privilege? Of watching the chat. If she'd seen that...
God, people with anonymity.
He slumped on the ground next to Jude and released him. If the last fight was anything to go by he wasn't much of a threat anyway. If he had half a brain he'd have learned his lesson.
"In order. I'm not sure I'm the right people, hell, are any of us around here?" The violent tendencies of the X-men were readily apparent. Hell, it had been almost all of their job before the Deputizing. Any and all of them were troubled to say the least.
"I've not seen her today. Don't know how much you saw but... I dunno exactly where we're at. I'm bad at reading people." He could read a fight. That was kind of it. Extremes and the obvious he could also manage. Certain things like sarcasm. Other stuff... Not so much.
"The laptop thing was awkward. I tried to call her after but it rang out." He'd left a semi drunk voicemail. He'd maybe left it a couple of hours too. He hadn't been sure if she'd want to talk to anyone, let alone him.
He finished speaking and took a breath. When he put it like that... He'd kind of earned the kick. He hadn't thought how it would be spun by the tabloids. He hadn't even considered that it would make it to the tabloids. That was a thing he had to think about now. Oh god if they got a hold on the fact he'd ended things with Calley...
"Just so you know, this might get worse in coming days..."
When Cafas let up, Jude was soooo tempted to lash out again. Instead the teen grit his teeth and rolled onto his back. Opening up his shoulders helped him catch the breath he'd been chasing ever since Cafas had socked him. The overhead lights were bright, but Jude stubbornly looked at the searing brightness until that was all he could see.
It wouldn't burn out the forever looping GIF he'd seen of the look on her face when she saw what she saw. Jude had skipped the X-viewing. He figured that he might come up and didn't want to be there for that. Funny. He hadn't come up at all.
"Stop. I don't want to know 'where you're at'" Jude wrinkled his nose. Why would Ghost pick... this? Why now?
> "Just so you know, this might get worse in coming days..."
Ew. Okay. Jude threw his elbow up over his eyes. He didn't feel any healing any more and he wasn't getting any echoes. That meant his power had probably swapped out for Cafas' some time during their tussle. He usualy paid better attention to those types of things.
Jude wrinkled his nose again and tried to think it through. If he treated Ghost like his friend instead of the pseudo parent role... maybe then he could just be happy for her. If he treated her like an adult would treat an adult...
Ugh. That would never work. She was like a child. Until she could act like an adult, she didn't deserve that right.
"If you hurt her, I will break you." Didn't matter that he'd just thrown himself up against Cafas and lost, embarrassingly. Jude would find a way. "She's the only person who's ever actually wanted me." Assuming that was still true, anyway. She was definitely the only one who'd ever held him to any kind of standard.
>"If you hurt her, I will break you. She's the only person who's ever actually wanted me."
That one was rich. Especially after that display. Cafas laughed openly. He couldn't help it. "Luckily for you, it'll be a very long time before that happens. Still, I respect your chutzpah." Cafas hauled Jude to his feet by his shirt and an arm. Kid didn't look injured. Good.
Maybe I should throw him through a simulation or two?
It certainly seemed like he needed the practice. Maybe it was just the visions. Still, Cafas wanted to make sure. Lives were on the line if he wasn't up to scratch. Not to mention if he was going to pick another fight, Cafas wanted it to at least feel like a fight. "I'm sorely tempted to put you through a training session. You may be, what, sixteen? But people have to rely on you in life and death situations. They can't afford... That."
He was already mentally running through what needed work. It was hard to tell with the grappling, but the rest he had a solid idea of. Definitely needed to work on tactics. Opening big and slow, going for a choke, or any static, non-locking grapple on someone so much larger, healing the opponent as he fought. Sure, he'd been angry, but people were going to make him angry in a real fight too, for exactly that reason. To stop him thinking. Jude needed to work on that.
If he refuses, I'll tell Sam. He'll make sure he gets the training.
Cafas did not endear himself to Jude when he laughed, a full blown belly laugh that boiled down to a hearty chuckle, when Jude threatened the man. Nope. It just triggered his sneaky, vindictive side. So if Cafas found something like, say, rotten eggs down inside his shoes some morning... or maybe stinky cheese in his X locker?
Oh! He'd seen a great prank that involved a duffle bag, a bunch of ones, and an un-boxed bag of chocolate chip cookie mix. Then a wee little call to the police? Yeah. That was the winner.
The teen let himself get hauled to his feet. He was even gracious enough to help now that his sorta-kinda plans were in place.
"Then do it." Jude grumped. "I still have a lot to learn in the hand-to-hand area. Couldn't skip mutation training othserwise I couldn't stay here." In New York or the Mansion, probably. Seemed like you couldn't spit without hitting a mutant these days. "I don't seem to learn unless it's bashed into me." He shrugged because he was willing. More than willing, he was actively trying. But it was always one step forward, two steps back and to the side.
>"Then do it. I still have a lot to learn in the hand-to-hand area. Couldn't skip mutation training otherwise I couldn't stay here. I don't seem to learn unless it's bashed into me."
Cafas didn't need telling twice. "Run simulation one zero one. Danger level five. Special condition: no weapons. Special condition: Ignore Cafas." the world warped around them. They were left standing in front of a plain, windowless building. The only feature on it was it's door. Cafas pointed to it.
Let's see what he's made of.
"Clear that building. Non-lethal, we're cops now after all. This one's zero intel, you'll have to improvise." Danger level five was probably a bit higher than Cafas would suggest Jude was ready for. Still, he'd been half blinded in their fight, perhaps five would only be a challenge, not a complete trouncing.
Used to be out of ten... Wonder if CS has added new levels?
"I'll just be along to provide criticism. If it's too much, let me know." There, that aught to hurt his pride some. He'd push harder now, at least that was the plan. It was only the 101 sim anyway. Pretty standard bad guy beat down, unlikely to kill the kid, especially without weapons.
Cafas approached the door, stood next to it, doing his best to be out of the way. Hopefully he wouldn't be as bad as Sam at pushing people too hard.