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.
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 10:42:22 GMT -6
Guest
Meld wondered, for just a moment, if she even wanted to be able to feel the emotions behind the deaths she had caused. There had been so many of them, from the human cult massacre to the church incident to the cupcake shop to countless other single deaths that occurred here and there. So what if they were all justified in the fact that her targets had been in some way anti-mutant, they still had families and friends who may not have been nearly so guilty. Especially if they had children.
Despite her mental shudder, however, Meld tried to follow the instructions given to the best of her ability. "What if I'm unable to handle the emotions that you help me unlock?" Now that was a frightening thought. Few things frightened Meld but emotions were one thing that she had never fully understood. Her survival depended on suppressing them, completely in some situations, and not upon experiencing them. She had always believed that strong emotions led to mistakes and mistakes led to death. The only good emotion Meld could remember feeling in recent memory was for Pluto and she wasn't even sure what that was yet.
Hunter offered her a reassuring smile. “While the experience is likely to be intense, unpleasant and potentially overwhelming it won’t be permanent,” he assured her, “If I still had my old psychic abilities the process would be much faster, but there would the risk of you not being able to handle it.”
“Using none psychic methods to perform the mental healing, like we are doing, is slower but safer. While this will teach how to pull down your walls, if you let god they will spring back up. Keeping them down will be the big challenge. For now let’s just bring them down. Go back to the memory of the first man you killed. Watch the memory playing on a television screen. You feel the detachment as it’s just and image on a screen. Now I want you to step into the screen and really relive the memory. Leave the feeling of detachment behind as you step through the screen and really feel the emotion of the memory.”
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 11:08:14 GMT -6
Guest
Well, at least Hunter didn't sugar coat what the experience was likely to be like. That had to count for something, didn't it? Meld wasn't a person naturally inclined to trust, the people she actually trusted she could count on one hand. Hell, for that matter the people she actually trusted were two, maybe three if she could sort through her feelings for Pluto. But Hunter had been where she was, been there and far deeper and then came back out again so she felt, in many ways, like she had no choice in the matter.
"I'll take the long way, thank you," Meld answered. Psychic powers were creepy, simple as that. She had only met one psychic and that was bad enough. Meld brought her memory back to the time she had killed her first cop. She remembered feeling fear for her life, fear for the fact that if she didn't escape she would be killed or worse. But what had she felt regarding the cop himself? Regret certainly, but hadn't she all ready admitted that? Where was the visceral feeling of anguish that she was supposed to be feeling right now? How could she bring up an emotion that had never been there to begin with? Or had it simply been so deeply buried that she hadn't even known it had existed?
"I don't think I felt what you're saying I should have even then. Maybe I did and just didn't know it, but its not a memory I possess. I regretted it and maybe felt a vague sense of horror at what I had done, but no more than that." Frustration began to enter her voice, rare for someone who rarely showed any emotion let alone the emotion of frustration.
“That’s fine,” Hunter said reassuringly, “As I said this is the slow path, don’t expect to be cured in a day. The vague sense of horror and regret is what I was looking for. It’s that which we need to explore. The fact that you can feel it is good, it means that you have some kind of connection to it. Let’s draw on that connection and try and embrace that feeling.”
“Go back to the memory until you find where you feel the vague horror and replay that over and over in your mind. Let the emotion build up as you replay the moment. Don’t let go of the emotion at the end of each moment, but hold on to it and add the emotion of the next to it. And the next. And the next. Let it build and build until it becomes too much. Hold onto it until it becomes overwhelming.”
As she started Hunter placed his hands on hers, palm to palm. This would give a physical anchor to the emotion. While not strictly a meditation technique this psychological trick was part of Hunter’s repertoire and he would make use of it. If this worked every time he placed his hands on hers it would start to subconsciously bring back this emotion that she was building now.
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 11:31:47 GMT -6
Guest
Meld did as instructed and began replaying the memory in her mind, trying to draw up both the details and the emotions associated with them. The fear, of course, was there as it had always been. She remembered her clawed hand tearing through the man's throat and blood spurting everywhere. The blood itself was warm and wet and there was just so much of it. Now she was used to such things, having torn out many throats, but way back then? Violence she was used to even at that time, but not death, not death caused by her own actions.
Meld tried to pull of more of the details, the small things she may have forgotten. She remembered his gurgling death rattle, unable to scream because she had severed his vocal chords and blood was filling his lungs. She remembered, rather keenly now that she paid attention to the image, the terror in his eyes. Terror that had been worse and far more intense than anything Meld had felt at that point. She remembered seeing the certainty of his death in his own eyes. What must it be like to know, not just think but actually know, that you were about to die?
Eyes closed and in a uniquely vulnerable state (something she would probably over analyze again and again later, why she had even allowed herself to become so vulnerable) Meld didn't realize that Hunter had put his hands on her own. Touch was forever lost to her, something she was never to experience. Or at least, never to experience without the help of Garrett and then only for a brief moment in time which was almost worse than not having it at all. By now, however, she was deep within her own memory. A shudder washed over her as, finally, the horror of what she had done that day began to reach her.
“Good, good,” Hunter said reassuringly. While Meld had stopped talking her body language portrayed that it seemed to be working, she was starting to feel the true horror of what she had done. “Play it again. Live it again,” he urged her, “Don’t fight the emotions, embrace them. Painful as it is, embrace them.”
Hunter was unaware that Meld had lost her sense to touch, and so his attempt at anchoring had failed. This didn’t me that he could anchor with her, just he would have to use a different approach. But right now that wasn’t important, reconnecting Meld with her emotions was.
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 13:08:47 GMT -6
Guest
How could Meld continue playing the murder over and over again in her head? The scene was beginning to elicit feelings within her that she hadn't even been aware that she had possessed and had been suppressing all these many months since that very first murder had occurred. The horror of that first act was slowly beginning to creep its way into her mind and she didn't like it at all.
Suddenly Meld's eyes darted open and she almost jumped, realizing that Hunter had his hands on her own. She quickly got to her feet, irrational fear in her mind. "I can't do this. I don't know what you're doing to me, but I don't like it. This isn't me, this isn't a regret that I have." Her voice was defensive and she felt the urge to flee. And yet, even with that thought clearly in her mind, she didn't. Two impulses warred within her, one that she needed help and Hunter might be the only one that could help her and this might be her only opportunity to get that help, and the other that she didn't need help at all and that she had been functioning just fine before that day. She wasn't certain, at that moment, which impulse would win.
Meld’s reaction revealed that she hadn’t been aware of Hunter’s hands on her. She had no sense of touch in her hands at least. It meant that his attempt at anchoring had failed, but that was unimportant right now. She was freaking out over feeling the emotions of the kill that she’d repressed for so long.
Placing his hands back on his knees Hunter kept his voice calm and level and looked Meld straight in the eye as he spoke. “I told you that this wouldn’t be easy. If you truly believe that you don’t need my help then I will not force it one you. If you want to go back out into the dark and continue along the path then you may. But you don’t have to. Hard as this is the end is worth it and I will be with you every step of the way.”
“I know how hard this is. I’ve been through it. And I’d been suppressing for so much longer and killed so many more. The process nearly broke me. Remembering all the things I’d done Feeling the emotions for the first time in centuries.” His voice trailed off as he closed his eyes and a tear rolled down his cheek as he remembered just a fraction of the people he’d killed. Every day he’s see a new face. Someone he’d killed long ago and forgotten until the pain resurfaced. He longed for the day when he’d not see and new faces but knew that day was far in the future.
Composing himself Hunter opened his eyes again and looked into Melds. “For your sake I implore you to continue. But the choice is yours and yours alone to make.” Hunter’s eyes showed a genuine concern for Meld. He so badly wanted to help her. But she had to want to be helped.
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 14:23:55 GMT -6
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Meld felt vaguely ashamed at her freak out. She was normally so calm and collected, she was the one who always thought with her head rather than with her heart. Even when she felt anger, it was of the cold and calculating kind, almost a righeous anger. Even when she plotted revenge it was plotted from a place of cold rationality. And yet, here she was virtually having a breakdown because she was unable to confront her past.
Meld wasn't ready to give up, not by a long shot, but she knew she needed a break. She opted for a change in direction, something to get her mind off of what she was trying to confront. In time, maybe, she woudl be able to deal with these things but she needed a while to think, even if only a short while.
"You don't have to deal with looking like a monstrous killer. Everywhere I go, people stare because I am, quite literally, a walking weapon. My actions are there for all to see, in my clawed hands and feet and in my tail. I bristle with blades, I am walking death. Even if what we do here is successful, how does one combat that stigma? People see you and they don't see the violence, except in the way you move and then only a trained eye would be able to pick out such details. But they see me and they know, no matter how much I might try to hide it, what I am."
Even if Meld was able to let go of the killing, she wasn't sure that she'd be able to let go of her weapons. They were a part of her, a part of who and what she was, a part of her identity. And even if she was able to let go of the killing, no matter what she did she would still get the stares, the reactions and, occasionally, the idiots that thought they were badass enough to test out the mutant cyborg woman.
Meld hadn’t run away from what lay ahead, but she was changing the subject. She needed a break and that was fine with Hunter. If he pushed her too hard she would never make it. Instead he tried to answer her questions. “While I don’t look like a killer in as obvious a fashion as you may do I have a face that is almost universally feared and largely from my reputation.”
Hunter looked down for a moment and then looked up again with his lips drawn back and his mouth slightly open. His canines had extended into fangs. That coupled with his silver eyes and the predatory expression that always fell into place when he extended his fangs was a terrifying sight. There was a reason that vampires were feared. He was it. Although the vampire myth had diluted with time seeing his predator face normal invoked something primal in people. The feeling that they were prey.
Lowering his head once more Hunter’s face had returned to normal when he looked back up. “So I know the look of fear,” he explained with a sombre tone, “even though I can hide myself. Honestly I can’t say that once you abandon violence everyone else starts looking at you differently. However it is you reactions, not theirs, that marks the person you are. In the mast if an anti-mutant zealot attacked me because of my silver eyes I would have snapped his neck like a twig. Now I will defend myself without hurting him while trying to talk him down. If that fails I will either leave or if that’s not possible subdue him with care so as not to harm them.”
“While these may just sound like hollow words you will be amazed how well you can be received by letting your actions do the talking for you. If some mutant hater’s attack you and you restrain yourself and simply defend yourself rather than injure them others will see that. The hater’s will lose support if you show them that you are not the monster they claim you are but a good person.” Hunter gave Meld a reassuring smile. What he had said was true, but it was far from easy. Even if he succeeded in helping her Meld’s life would not be easy.
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 15:08:11 GMT -6
Guest
A vampire? This man was a vampire? Meld was pleased with herself at the lack of reaction she elicited at the realization. It explained a great deal about him, really, from the past to the longgevity. Never mind the fact that she had always thought vampires to be myths but then again, why shouldn't a mutant the the source of a myth? With his fangs extended he looked every bit the undead killer of myth and legend. It was impressive to say the least and, if Meld were any other person, she woudl have found it terrifying as well.
"I assume you drink blood then?" Meld's voice remained calm and professional. In truth, far from feeling fear (though there was the weariness that came froma strong survival instinct) she felt curiosity. She had never met a vampire before, never even imagined one existed and here she was with a reformed mutant vampire who was trying to help her reform her own violent ways. How surprising life could be at times.
"There was a time when I didn't simply react by killing anyone that stood against mutants. I wasn't always like this." It almost came out as a sort of revalation to herself, though she knew the truth in the statement. She knew her own past. "I did what I had to in order to survive but I didn't kill and I didn't hurt people beyond what was absolutely necessary. Somewhere between then and now I discovered my cause and my passion and in that I became the killer I am now." How, exactly, that had happened she still wasn't certain. Oh, the cause she understood, how not when shen had dedicated her life to it? But when had it become so much about death?
There was a flicker of wonder and wariness in Meld’s eyes at his revelation. Hunter had to admit he was impressed. “Before Tibet I needed blood every few days or I would suffocate and die,” He explained, “In Tibet I had help turning my psychic abilities inward and using them to restrain my powers. Normally I am stronger, faster, more agile, have sharper senses and heal quicker than any human.” He was actually quite a lot beyond human in each category he mentioned, but he didn’t bother to add that.
“These enhanced abilities are powered by blood. While I don’t know the exact process by depleting my body’s blood supply I can make it much more efficient,” he explained. This was the second time he had every fully revealed to someone what he was. It felt good to not have to hide because of his own paranoia. Hunter’s change had brought about a new and healthier mindset. “Through continual psychic effort I force my body down to human levels, or near enough, and I no longer require blood.”
“Despite not needing it my body still wants it. Even without enhanced senses the pulse in your neck is very clear to me. Being near people is constant temptation. But I resist.” Realising he was staring at her neck he forced himself to look her in the eye.
“So it seems what we need to do is separate the violence from the cause,” he said as he weight up her words, “Unless your cause is genocide I can see no reason why we cannot accomplish this. With the two clearly separated in your mind you will be able to continue with your cause without compromising it with needless violence.
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 15:52:46 GMT -6
Guest
"You suppressed your own abilities so that you would no longer need to be reliant on blood?" The thought was such a foreign concept to Meld she almost couldn't wrap her mind around it. To suppress abilities that had been given as gifts? Perhaps her lack of understanding was due to the fact that her own abilities required her active particiapation, so to speak. She literally removed limbs and replaced them with metal limbs that she had carefully crafted herself. Everything that she was she was by choice. To think about becoming merely human once more was...more than she was willing to do.
"I know more about addiction than you might think," Meld answered. She wondered how many could really understand the urge to do something that one knew was unhealthy? Oh, she didn't need blood and probably never would but sometimes the urge to actually feel something, anything, was too strong to resist. Somehow, in her own mind, her sense of touch had been replaced with her sense of the pain of others. She coudln't feel her hands or fit or skin, but she could feel when another human being suffered due to her work. Their pain and fear became almost akin to sustinance to her. She wondered if that was how a drug addict must feel, that their drug sustained her. She knew what withdrawal was like, the ever building pressure that must somehow be released or else it would explode.
"Maybe the violence got linked to the cause because of the sustinance I gain from their pain. Even you, ageless as you are, don't know what its like to be denied a sense. Its not like being blind or deaf, not being able to feel...Even if I chose to return my limbs to what they once were, I would still forever be seperated from the world, an outsider. Have you ever felt something for someone and yet knew that you couldn't be everything they deserved to have because you were broken and imperfect? Sometimes the violence is all I have." Her voice almost cracked at the end. How could she give that up when it had somehow began to mean so much? It was horrible and unhealthy and yet it was all she had.
Hunter listened sympathetically to Meld as she explained. While she was correct and he had never lost a sense he had lost something. “You are right,” he said simply, “I have never lost a sense. But I have lost. The woman I love died one hundred and seventy four years ago.” The simple statement caused Hunter’s voice to waver and fail. Katherine was the one thing he had avoided thinking about while at the temple.
When he had found his voice again he continued, “He death drove me to the edge of my sanity. Perhaps beyond it for a time. I can recall little of that time other than rage, violence, blood and death. My rage burned for years before it finally went out. But it did go out. If you succumb to violence and let it be your replacement for your lost sense of touch it will sustain you. But only for a time. Sooner or later the sustenance you take from violence will turn to ash, living you bitter and hollow. Believe me, I know. You need to find something else to replace the void. Something that will sustain you. I can’t tell you what that will be, but I can help you try and find it.
Posted by vampyremage on May 21, 2010 16:48:27 GMT -6
Guest
Meld wondered if everything he said by way of comparison in his life had relevance in hers. After all, he had lived for many hundreds of years and she would have mere decades if she was lucky. In truth, she didn't even expect to live to her middle ages, let along to become an old woman and die of old age. The thought had occurred to her that she might be able to replace her organs and thus extend her life but in truth she didn't even expect to live long enough for that to matter. She was a warrior in a war and most warriers died early and young.
"I don't know what it's like to lose someone you love," Meld admitted honestly. "Except my sister. I thought that I had killed her because I failed to defend her. It ate me up inside. When I discovered she was still alive..." Her voice tapered off. She still hadn't seen her sister since that discovery not long ago. She still didn't know exactly what she felt.
"How do I find something to replace what I've lost? How can something like that even be replaced?" It was a confounding and disturbing dillemma and she simply didn't have any answers.