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.
Jude kicked a snow dusted bit of underbrush and the powdery snow floofed into a satisfying cloud. He already smelled! Why hadn't he bothered to shower after Sam made him walk back to the Mansion?
Because you didn't know you were going anywhere...
Jude kicked a tree and a plop of snow fell toward him. He just barely hopped out of the way in time. Augh! At least swapping to Cold Steel's power meant he wasn't feeling cold. At least Sam had the forethought to give him a backpack.
The Frenchman slowed enough to stop and run his hands through his hair and breathe in a shaky, angry breath. He looked around, for whatever good that was worth. One tree looked like another tree and, oh hey! Another tree.
They had flown north. So New York was south... ish.
He strained his neck to try to see the sun, but it was no good. There was a general cloud cover. The whole sky just looked bright. And the trees were more than a little in the way.
Time to see what was in the bag.
Crinkly plastic wrapped medicine? An overly bulky straw. Dry dog food? Maybe? Blankets. Those were a good thing. But, did he need blankets anymore? First aid, knife (which would probably be the reason why he'd need first aid), matches... it was all pretty standard stuff as far as he could tell. The book on knots and hunting/gathering was an interesting touch. Jude rolled his eyes at the thought of snaring the local wildlife. There had to be a DacMonald's somewhere nearby. This was America, wasn't it?
Jude rummaged through the backpack thoroughly. This was definitely not enough food for one week. And no water.
When he shook the bag upside-down, a map of Canada and a handwritten note fluttered out of a side pocket that he'd almost missed.
Canada.
This was not America after all.
‘You can survive...’ Honestly, he skimmed. ‘...you will have a three free hits on me and your communicator waiting for you when you meet me at the randevu point. If you don’t get there by the end of the second week… good luck.’
Wait. Did he read that right? Second week? He'd said ONE WEEK to his face. Jude was almost certain he'd said one week to Ruddy.
"AND YOU MISSPELLED RENDEZVOUS!" He shouted the most Charlie Brown frustration moment of his life loud enough that he heard a faint echo and caused one or two more plops of snow. "AUUUUUGH!"
Jude crumpled the paper and stuffed it in his pocket. Everything except the compass and the map got heaped back into the bag.
So. He was trapped. In Canada. With one week to avoid a pickled, bipolar asshole team leader who had hand-to-hand martial skill oozing out of his freaking beautiful pores.
The shouting had no doubt made his position easy to discern. Jude hefted the lumpy bag and picked a direction while he tried to get his bearings on the map. He was going to get to the peak. He was going to claim his free hits. And he was going to do his damnedest to do it all without Sam.
Operation hide and seek was now forming in Jude's mind.
Posted by Cold Steel on Sept 7, 2016 19:16:03 GMT -6
X-Men
Team Leader of the X-Men Teacher of Self-Defense
color=48D1CC
4,380
107
Sept 11, 2024 5:25:13 GMT -6
By now Jude was probably realizing that since he had copied the ice-mancers power set he’d be immune to being cold. Sure he could feel it was cold but it wouldn’t be deadly to him. In fact this was one of the best locations to have Sam’s powers. It was already freezing, the snow and ice were scattered about and when it got dark if the kid was smart he’d use his powers to make a shelter if he couldn’t find one. Not the way Sam wanted this to go down but if Jude at least tries to learn how to survive Sam will feel a little less concerned with the kids well being.
Sam heard Jude yell first then came up on him the tracks that he was leaving was pretty easy to follow, it was almost like Jude had been stomping his feet most of the way. The thermal image of Jude was next. Sam walked up behind a tree and crouched blending in to a nearby snow pile as some of his skin coated in ice and snow.
Sam waited and felt to see or feel what Jude’s next move was, was the kid going to walk all the way to the nearest village or try to give the generic ‘f’ you Sam knew Jude wanted to give him.
With the mental inventory Jude had of his pack, he started guessing at what was actually useful in there. Sure, all of it was useful to someone. Not all of it was useful to him. Also, he knew that he needed to move. Or keep moving. His legs were already fatigued from walking all the way from the park to the Mansion, though, so Jude was going to have to get smart. Smarter than Sam in the woods.
Maybe it was a good thing that the guy'd been drinking.
Step one: Figure out the Map was not going as smoothly as Jude had hoped. Canada was a rather large place that the Frenchman had zero experience with, so he had to assume the map he'd been given was local. But trees were trees. And there were hills that turned out to not be mountains. Where he expected to find a little ribbon of water, he instead found more trees. If he had a starting point, that would have been helpful. At least the rendezvous point was clearly marked.
And then there was the matter of Sam.
He was either tracking Jude or planning to nuke him from orbit. Either way, Jude had to assume the team leader wouldn't let him storm off so simply. He eyed every falling snowflake that fell with suspicion. And he knew what it must look like, with Jude wandering around aimlessly and the map.
Because that's exactly what it was.
He sighed and put the map away. Jude had to prove himself smarter than this, for his own pride if nothing else.
So, if Jude were Sam, he'd be tracking Jude's heat. Or maybe his tracks in the snow. The Frenchman lifted his sneakers and looked back at his obvious trail. Also, he was glad frost bite was not going to be a thing. At least, he really hoped not.
Jude made a set of ice stairs to help him climb a tree. The ground had a tiny bit of residual heat. The tree trunks, too showed a bit differently in this thermal wonderland, but the branches were cold. Jude's stairs were clumsy, but he wasn't as focused or angry as he had been before. They were good enough to get him up off the ground and into the tree. He dismissed them and then frowned at the big, ugly track they'd left where he'd planted the base of his stair structure.
Ugh. Every solution he found made another problem.
He sprinkled a bit of snow there, but that was still a bit obvious. Maybe he should just make a flipping blizzard. It'd obscure his own heat signature...
Jude nestled himself into a crook between branches and tried to scope out where Sam might be. He couldn't guess how much daylight was left. Weren't there months of uninterrupted daylight up this way? Was this one of those times?
Or, maybe he really had been abandoned in the woods.
Posted by Cold Steel on Sept 14, 2016 15:14:36 GMT -6
X-Men
Team Leader of the X-Men Teacher of Self-Defense
color=48D1CC
4,380
107
Sept 11, 2024 5:25:13 GMT -6
It was clear Jude was resourceful. The ice mancer felt Jude shift about and then end up in a tree. Sam took a swig of the flask and folded his arms when he finally got into a visual line of sight. Sam could see Jude so if the kid was really looking for him he would have caught a glimpse at some point though the vision would have been very brief. Between the snow that he could hide behind or under and his line of cover from the trees Sam did what any hunter did when the prey was on to them. Sam waited.
Leaning up against a tree and willing some snow to move from the ground up to cover him, Sam waited till dark while staring at the area he last physically saw Jude. He could still feel Jude as well but the longer the kid had his powers the more likely he was to figuring out how Sam was following him. It was obvious that as soon as the kid went into the trees that he was on to Sam. Jude might have not seen Sam but he knew.
As soon as dark fell Sam moved in the woods and started to gather twigs and branches making sure to keep an eye out for Jude, weather it was his lone eye which only worked so well in the dark or the thermal vision.
Trying hard to not make a ton of noise Sam set his pack down and went for the matches. Getting a few bundles of twigs together he then lit it and started a fire. Directing the snow around the fire away so it would burn longer Sam snuck back into the trees and waited to see if the kid would take the bait. If not then Sam was going to find something to eat. There was a family or rabbits nearby.
A plan was starting to form. It was just the wisp of an idea right now. Maybe he would pull it off in the morning, though, because now that he had stopped moving his soreness was making him sleepy. This was a crappy day full of ups and downs. Tomorrow, if he ever got there, would be better. It had to be.
Except, no matter how he tried to get comfortable, it proved impossible. Also, there was something still nagging at Jude... No matter what the Frenchman had said to him, no matter how drunk Sam might have been, there was no way the hero would have let him go.
Was Jude really out here alone? And what the heck did he have to do to gain the old pirate's trust? Box a bear? Light a fire with his shoelace? Where was the arbitrary line that declared Jude man enough to be an X?
Jude resolved to force Sam into some kind of Expectations in Management class. He'd write a note for Ghost to find on his corpse. That'd teach him.
Beyond frustrated, Jude shimmied across a tree branch until he felt it begin to bend under his weight. He carefully maneuvered as far as he dared and then secured the limb to another tree branch beneath it with a slick of ice so that the branch remained under tension. He reached across to the next branch and repeated the process using his bodyweight again and again to set each branch in position so that the entire area around him was secured with the only sort of booby trap he could think up for now.
Hypothetically, if someone climbed up on one of those branches, the ice would break and the tension would fling the branch upward. A best-case scenario had Jude imagining Sam missing a step and getting launched into outer space à la Team Rocket, but more realistically he would feel the wobbling of the branch and wake up in time to do something if a racoon (or whatever) had the gall to try to steal from his backpack. To be double sure his pack was safe, Jude turned it around in front of him and hugged his dear, sweet supplies.
Now that that was done Jude tried more seriously to catch a quick nap.
Posted by Cold Steel on Jan 22, 2017 16:26:40 GMT -6
X-Men
Team Leader of the X-Men Teacher of Self-Defense
color=48D1CC
4,380
107
Sept 11, 2024 5:25:13 GMT -6
A few minutes went by and Sam decided the trap of the fire wasn’t doing a good enough job. Sam sighed and pushed himself up from his hiding spot and decided that Jude must be far off some where or bunkered down until the kid could come up with a plan. Either way Sam would need to eat eventually and if the smell was good enough it might be a better lure than the smell and sight of smoke.
The rabbits were easier to catch than he remembered, easier to clean as well. Sam skewered the three rabbits and placed them over the fire. Sam looked around with both his vision and his thermal vision and found nothing other than a few more rabbits a ways off. Sam was starting to think that that Jude did head to civilization, which was unfortunate. Sam did have high hopes for the kid one of the reasons he was brought.
Sam sipped his whiskey and closed his good eye as he felt the rabbits being cooked and anything else around him. Sam wasn’t sleeping he was just waiting.
He dozed off. Jude knew this because he had time to dream he was back in Saint-Fargeau. He often slept with his belongings, few as they were, held tightly in front of him. He often slept fully clothed since he never knew who might stop by his cot and make trouble.
It'd been a long time since he'd thought about those things.
Something tickled at the edge of Jude's perception. He abandoned his self-pity to get a look at... was that a fire? And something cooking? Jude had stood before conscious thought stopped him. Fire meant Sam. Sam was tailing him! He knew it!
The Frenchman doubled down on his plan.
He needed something warm. He'd thought to make a fire and heat some rocks or something, but after seeing the way that Sam saw fire, Jude knew immediately that idea was out. It was too obvious in this trippy heat-o-vision. He climbed higher in the tree and strained to find something, anything warm.
Actually.... a couple trees down there did seem to be something small. A bird? Jude crept out on a limb to get a better look. An owl. Eating something that was no longer as warm as it once had been.
It wasn't as big as he'd been hoping, but being winter and all it seemed the animals weren't keen to be out. Hibernation? Maybe there was a cave. Bears hibernated in caves, right?
Who was Jude kidding? He was not going to go bother a bear. He would, however, go bother an owl.
He pulled out a tiny bit of jerky and one of the crazy space blankets. The teen cringed at the crinkle as the owl looked up. He wasn't even close to the thing! Trying for nonchalance, Jude put his backpack back on and secured two branches between trees together and belly scooted his way until he was hugging the trunk of a non-boobytrapped tree. He poked his head around to check and, yup. The owl was looking right at his tree.
For a moment, Jude didn't even dare to breathe. And after a time the predator bird went back to its meal.
Another tree, another shimmy along the branches and Jude was now only one tree away.
He put his hand out to help him visualize and carefully crafted a cage of ice around the distracted bird. The bird gave zero f***s. Not even after he was fully encased. The bird did, however, start to care when Jude edged closer to his tree.
That was when the panic started.
Owl-bro looked up. Owl-bro got mad. Owl-bro treated the entire forest to loud squawking and angry lunging at the icy barrier Jude had made.
Crap! It put a timer on his plan, but it might be okay. It meant the bird was gonna make more heat because of the angry fluttering.
"Sorry, man. Er. Bird. Owl-bro." Working at a break-neck speed, Jude made a sort of body shaped lump of snow as if it was a boy curled over with his arms posed to defend the head. The owl would have been the chest area... that held the most heat for people, right? Well, it was too late to change it now. The teen dropped the tidbit of jerky in through an opening between the ice cage bars and then tossed the blanket over the ice body. He secured that with a bit of ice and then dropped to the ground and started running.
Where? Out. Around. Far away. And eventually, back toward Sam's camp.
Posted by Cold Steel on Feb 19, 2017 10:55:10 GMT -6
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X-Men
Team Leader of the X-Men Teacher of Self-Defense
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Sept 11, 2024 5:25:13 GMT -6
Rabbits were never a hearty meal it didn’t matter how many you had, they were just never that filling to Sam it was a gamey taste and it was chewy but given with where they were there weren’t a lot of options. Owl’s didn’t taste good and he’d have to go tracking if he wanted to find some deer. Mid chew his stomach growled when he thought of some venison. Sam stifled the growling with another bite of the not-venison. Honestly he had been out in the wildness for less than forty-eight hours and he is already turning into diva.
Washing all the rabbit down with a swig of whiskey Sam moved the smaller rabbit off to the side of the fire so it didn’t get overcooked. Jude would be by eventually once he saw the fire and smelled the cooked rabbit. Jude probably didn’t know this about Sam’s power set but the kid would have been fine without a fire or any warmth they were a comfort however the cold wouldn’t kill him make him uncomfortable sure but that was why they were out here to be uncomfortable.
The sound of the fire crackling was disturbed by a far off noise. It sounded like a large bird most likely an owl. Did Jude run into one when he was climbing some trees? Or was it more of the copycat startled an owl? Sam didn’t know but the sound eventually died down. The icemancer shifted in his makeshift chair of snow and looked up to the stars that were poking out behind both the clouds and trees.
It truly was peaceful being out here. Sam started to forget while they were out here in the first place. That was until he spotted a body temperature off in the distance, it looked like the chest was brighter than most bodies. ”You’re late. Or early…” Sam said yelling out into the woods. Sam was tired of waiting for the kid now and figured that while the kid was supposed to be surviving on his own until the pick up it was better to make sure the kid wasn’t lost or trying to hitch a ride back to civilization.
Jude froze from his slow and careful approach. He was still some 20 paces from Sam's camp, and Sam appeared pretty focused on the noisy owl, but everyone knew that eye patches were deceiving.
> "Or early…"
Maybe he didn't see Jude? The teen hazarded another step, trying to be as silent as the snowfall. He found a nice clump of something woods-y to crouch behind, even though that maybe didn't make a difference? Jude was pretty confused about this heat-ovision. Sam appeared warm. But then he'd been near to a fire. A delicious smelling fire.
Jude realized from seeing Sam as a slightly warm body that eating hot meat had warmed him. If Jude ate that, he would appear warm and he would be able to be tracked.
Damn.
Clever, clever Sam.
He should leave. This was too close and he definitely had changed his mind about pilfering food now. But Jude was curious to see what the team leader would do. Did he think Jude was getting attacked out there? And doing nothing? Jude heaped yet another transgression onto his mental image of Cold Steel and hunkered down to watch.
Posted by Cold Steel on Feb 27, 2017 14:50:32 GMT -6
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X-Men
Team Leader of the X-Men Teacher of Self-Defense
color=48D1CC
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107
Sept 11, 2024 5:25:13 GMT -6
Sam ‘watched’ the figure crouch and Sam chalked it up to the kid hiding. If it was even Jude Sam took a swig of his whiskey and spoke loud enough for the figure to hear, ”You know, we never used to do this type of training.” Sam leaned forward and threw another log on the fire ensuring soon he wouldn’t be seen through thermal vision just regular vision. Something Jude would find out about when it happened.
”It wasn’t till Romania when I noticed how important this time is. Being fully immersed in your classroom. Knowing that the only way you can survive is if you adapt. Plants that heal, food you can snare, shelter that is already provided for you.” Sam leaned forward and blew on the fire a bit still focused on the crouching figure. ”There was this rescue we did in Romania, raided a convoy of mutants going to one of the work camps.” Sam leaned back into his seat and waited for a moment to see if there was more movement.
”We were never able to drop them off at the rendezvous point , there were some of the Romanian government waiting for us so…” Sam sipped his bottle and continue, ”So we had to improvise and personally escort a bunch of mutants across the border. It was a four day trek and we had no supplies other than whatever we had on us.” Sam looked into the fire and stared at it, ”We had to rely on the land, if I wasn’t there the team and all the people we were supposed to rescue would have died.” so he was being a little extreme. The mutations on hand did help them survive but it was still a point that Sam made after that to make sure those on the X-Men could survive on their own. Especially the trainees.
”You’re not here to fight for a spot on the team.” Sam finally revealed, ”You’re here to prove you can lead one when we need you to.” the icemancer said.
Bullsh*t. Bullsh*t. Bullsh*t! Sam was making this about him and how great he was. The man must be teetering half-drunk all the time now which was just pathetic.
Jude knew he could go a long time without eating. He swore he never would again, but he knew deep down in his bones that he could do it. So this wasn't about being dropped in no man's land without proper supplies.
It was about the LIES.
About the way he'd been lured here with false hope and how his position on the team was being treated so callously. He lost it, he could earn it, just kidding, it's not about that? HINT FOR SAM: IT WAS ABOUT THAT. It was about being treated like he was stupid. About giving his trust to someone who didn't deserve it because that's what Ghost had taught him— that somehow giving people trust inspired them to be more, be better.
Not Cold Steel.
Jude didn't want to hear any more.
If the X-men didn't appreciate him, he was ready now to go somewhere else. ANYWHERE else. CS could just enjoy his little camping session BY HIMSELF.
Rendezvous point? Probably a lie. Compass? Probably only pointed to Sam's stupid ego. The book of knots... Jude scribbled a note inside with what he had and left it there with all the other crap, including the food.
Jude walked away with only his clothes and Sam's stupid power.