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.
Katrina woke up nervous. Her tryouts had been yesterday and she didn't know the results yet. She thought that she and Slate had done well, but she wasn't entirely certain what the X-men were looking for in these danger room session tryouts things. She had paced her room holding her phone in her hand for about 30 minutes that morning before she realized that she needed to distract herself or she'd go crazy.
So, she turned her attention to another pressing problem: Christmas was coming and she hadn't done any shopping yet.
Normally one would nab a girlfriend and go off to the mall to take care of this issue, but Katrina only had one and a half friends who were girls, and one was currently missing with absolutely no clues as to her whereabouts. But thinking about that was something that was going to drive her crazy if she thought about it, too. Ghost being missing. Maybe if Katrina was made an X-men the rest of the team could help her, they could pool their resources... and she was pacing again, waiting for the phone.
She really, really needed a distraction right now.
The little illusionist brushed her hair and tied it in a quick ponytail, then headed out into the hallways. Her mission: find someone willing to go to the mall with her. Mirror didn't answer when Katrina knocked on his/her door. She didn't want to call Slate, because she wanted to shop for his gift. She thought about calling Aedus, but before she could, she found herself in the kitchen across the table from a tousled pink head of hair and a stubbly chin that was busy chomping away at late-breakfast cereal.
Apparently not even when he carefully planned his meals to avoid others could he manage it. Late breakfast, before the first thoughts of brunch crossed anyone's mind but after they had decided breakfast was not an option. And to top it all off he was to be shopping that day! What was the world coming to? He stared back at cat, and mouth half full, pointed his spoon at her and said "You just had your try outs yesterday didn't you?" It came out muffled, but he skilfully avoided spraying breakfast anywhere. He was confident in his rightness on the matter too.
Who even goes shopping at this time of day?
Still he finished his cereal, in his own good time mind you, making conversation with Kat. The usual questions, where we going? What’re we shopping for? You do something new with your hair? Looks good. How'd the tryouts go? Nervous? Want some coffee? Here have some toast; you shouldn't shop on an empty stomach. The usual sort of chit chat. With his coffee in a travel cup and a thermos the size of his arm full of it in his backpack Cafas was ready to go. He'd been planning on a day out anyway, though less of the shopping, more of the crime fighting.
Well, at least it should be less dangerous.
Quick check of wallet, phone and keys and a smile accompanied by “Let’s get this show on the road!”
“Yeah,” tryouts were yesterday, but she didn't want to think about that.
The mall, where else? She'd been growing it out (a years worth in a week of Egypt vacation). Fine, they went just fine. Shifty eyes towards phone that wasn't ringing yet. Coffee? Eww. Toast, yeah. She probably should eat something, after all. Maybe since it is early the mall will be less crowded. Etcetera.
Finally Cafas was ready to go. Katrina was bouncing with impatience the entire time. Bouncing and eating toast.
Once outside, Katrina was impatient enough to grab Cafas' hand and pull him quicker to the street where they could hail a cab.
There weren't any to be seen. At least not for a few minutes that seemed to stretch into eternity. Le sigh.
“So. How are you doing lately? Is Calley back to being your roommate again now that school has started?” He hadn't been in Kat's room much as of late, perhaps due to heightened security measures on her mother's part. And he had to sleep somewhere. And sleeping at the mansion would make it easy to go to classes and such. And it made sense that he might be. Not that she was prying or anything.
Dragged into the street to hail a cab, he felt a bit like he imagined pushover fathers felt. The time seemed to pass slower than usual, as the wait for any sign of a cab grew longer and longer. Eventually he knew the silence would be broken, one of them was impatient and one of them was a standing at the side of the road holding the hand of a girl who was clearly much younger than him, though that might just have been how awkward he was feeling about it speaking. The Cab couldn't come quick enough. Also, he wasn't sure if it would be rude to disengage the hand contact so he just went with it until she stopped. They were, after all, only friends, and friends did such things, or so cartoons had lead him to believe, though less so for live action TV.
Say something, say something, say something, say some...
Ah! Silence was broken! Victory was his! Ignore the odd look from the passing car, anyway 21 and 16 was... well it was 5 years, which had they both been in their 20s would have been nothing but given their respective ages was a huge gap, according to society's standards, which he on the occasion enjoyed living by. "Never really left, and I'm doin' alright, happy not to have a cast on, though it's been ages and my arm still twinges, especially when I'm training, and in this weather. You sure you're gonna be warm enough, I have a jacket in my bag if you like?" All should be as rugged up as possible for NYC winters; it was something Cafas had learned on Christmas of 2009, underwear was FREEZING!
Finally, after what felt like an age, a cab pulled up and Cafas opened the door for Kat before jumping in the front seat. He directed the Cabbie to take them to the largest mall he could think of and sat back for the ride. It would not be cheap, but heck, he had again taken to liberating funds from people, it was so much easier than getting a job, though his metal crafting had been being called upon in recent times. He even had a web page. Orders were steady and never anything he couldn't handle, and he had to admit he enjoyed charging people far too much, though always less than the competition.
She already had long sleeves, plus a sweatshirt, long underwear, plus pants, two pairs of socks, fur lined boots, and a fuzzy bearhatscarf with mittens attached. But if he had extra layers he was willing to give up for her sake, she'd keep that in mind in case of any sudden drops in temperature.
The mall was packed. The parking lot was jammed with cars circling for empty spots and following anyone leaving the mall with shopping bags, luckily they didn't have to find a parking space, which saved them time and a long walk through a cold parking lot. Inside wasn't much better. Wall to wall people, arguing over who was going to get the last hot gift item on the display shelf, standing in lines that looped through the entire store, carrying their selections by the armful through the narrow aisles, and jostling items off the shelves with their gigantic shopping bags.
Katrina stood at the entrance, bewildered only for a moment. Then, she straightened. She was going to be an X-man. She was ready for everything.
“Don't worry Cafas, I won't lose you.”
She grabbed his hand once again and started to weave them through the department store so they could get at the smaller shops in the central part of the mall where, hopefully, it wouldn't be as crowded.
Cafas was not familiar with Christmas shopping, he had heard about it, rumours, tales, legends of women fighting over Lego sets and x-boxes, but this, this was so much worse. His one solace upon entering the mall full of ravenous shoppers was that he had a certain height advantage he had come to appreciate in the states. Despite this though he felt as if he had entered a stormy see, with only a teenager to guide him. On that note, he drew a mental line in his mental sand, if they had a fashion montage, he was going home, not to the mansion, but home home, because frankly he'd rather be ripped to shreds by the pro-human mob he had once called his family than sit through that.
Placement of line may be subject to change at any time without notice, please note self respect not included.
He was pulled past all the big name stores, past the food court, past the sea of soccer-moms and the treacherous toddler reef, and navigated smoothly past Santa photo point into the comparatively peaceful waters of small shop bay. There were less people here, but on the other hand, less things people would actually wish to buy. Still, better than the madness they had left behind, with its hour-long lines. At this point he had resigned himself to being led around like an obedient puppy. He wasn't even getting the bonuses normally associated with this kind of male female interaction. In fact, he was paying for the cab, he would likely pay for some form of food later in the trip, and he would almost certainly pay for his lack of foresight on the whole socks thing, which he had made on the assumption of not being taken shopping during designated breakfast time.
And she's Calley's friend too so Bro code applies even if I was interested.
And with that commentary by his brain he closed his eyes, sighed, and allowed himself to be dragged into the first, somehow much quieter than outside, shop.
This was insane. So many people, so many shopping bags to dodge. They needed a reprieve, so Katrina ducked into the emptiest looking store she could find. It was a narrow squeeze between a mannequin wearing a kilt and a display of canned haggis in a tree-shaped stack. It must have been a Scottish gift shop or something, but she really picked it because it was quieter than the rest of the mall. They could talk here, form a game plan, a strategy to tackle the rest of the mall. Once they knew what they wanted, they could get in, get it, then get out again.
If she had known that Cafas had closed his eyes, she may have chose a different entry point to the store, perhaps waiting for the big group to move away from the main entrance rather than trying to dodge through displays.
Stumble, stumble, bump, open eyes, KILT MAN TO FACE!! Cafas had managed to run into a mannequin, with his eyes shut as they were. In an attempt to avoid further disrupting the display he stepped back, tripped, and landed painfully on some metal cans. Those came down on him rather heavily, luckily avoiding anything likely to kill him, such as his head. His clothes, on further inspection, had saved him from emptying a dozen cans of haggis all over himself, for which he was very grateful. Still, he was in quite a bit of pain, and could feel the bruises developing even as he sat there, and he wasn't one to bruise easily. So now a mannequin lay on the floor, a bunch of cans lay in Cafas' lap, and still more had been flung into the crowd behind him.
"Well ouch. You okay?" Luckily for both of them (her because she'd avoided the whole mess as far as he could tell, and him because he wasn't fond of injuring friends) he had let go of Kats hand as he had performed his amazing stunt work. Before he could get an answer though there was a shopkeeper in his face. "Are you alright? You know this is what you kids get, we have a door for a reason!" Cafas felt insulted to be addressed as a kid, especially by a woman who (despite her attire) wasn't even slightly Scottish, and couldn't have been older than 26. "Perfectly fine, thanks. Sorry about the mess." He had already rolled out of the cans and started re stacking them. "Oh no, please, let me, my boss would kill me if I let you do it."
Deal!
With another apology Cafas grabbed Kats hand and pulled her further into the altogether not big enough for the amount of clutter shop. "Yeah sorry, had my eyes closed." He shook his head and laughed looking around to see where they were a little better. "The assessments from the danger room always tell me to work on my awareness of the environment." That and team work. He couldn't even seem to master working with the holograms he made. He had improved on the whole making sure others were okay etc since his try outs, but he still had trouble with the whole communication thing.
Worst. X-man. Ever.
After looking around a while longer something of interest caught Cafas' eye. He grabbed it down, held it up to his waist and with a grin asked "What do you think, could I rock the mini battle kilt?" He was very tempted to try it on (though he would most certainly be keeping his underwear on) He chuckled and looked around for a change room.
You make me sad. So sad. Why do you never listen to me?
Katrina felt terrible. She hadn't had any idea that Cafas had been walking around with his eyes closed! And now there were cans of weird food and kilts all over and an obsessive compulsive store clerk looming over them and and and...
Luckily they were able to escape farther back into the store, past window shopping territory, all the way through the realm of casually wandering in, and into the serious shopper area. A shadow loomed in the plaid filled shadows behind Cafas as he held up something that was so small it had to either be an undergarment or a kilt for a very small dog.
Katrina looked up at the shadow, and up and up and up. He was tall. He was bearded. He was kilted. And he was a serious looking as they come. The little illusionist gulped.
“Uh...”
“Can I help you find something in your size?” The clerk's voice was thunder rolling in the distance; an ominous sign that a storm might be on the way.
“We were just...” Katrina started to say looking, but at the man's scowl she quickly amended it, “...looking for something in the right size.” And that made her and Cafas sound like a pair of plaid happy lovebirds or something. She poked Cafas in the side, in a friendly and not dating kind of way. “Don't you think something a little larger... I mean longer... I mean more conservative looking!”
Cafas refrained from flinching at the sound of a voice behind him. He turned to face the newcomer, and took a step back, level with Kat. The man dwarfed Cafas, easily a head taller than him, and hi build reflected his size. IT made Cafas feel short and weedy, which was something he had not felt in a very long time. The beard, the kilt, the general scottishness, it was scary. Then came the voice. Cafas wasn't much for being intimidated, but this guy was just something else.
Yes, that was clearly a natural thing to say Kat. We don't sound sus at all.
Then came the jab in the side. That had caught him right in the ribs, on, to put it another way, ooouuuch. He couldn't help but wince slightly, though that was soon replaced by the look he directed at her with the mention of conservative appearance. "I have pink hair, I think I'm a bit beyond conservative, especially around you, after all you've seen me in less." He of course referred to the time he had answered his bedroom door in nought but the boxers he rolled out of bed in, and she was lucky he'd been wearing even that much.
Or perhaps she was trying to not get yelled at by McSasquatch.
The man however, short of what Cafas could have sworn was a smile, did not seem to react to his previous statement. Instead he kindly led them to a rack full of kilts of all colours, sizes and varieties. Cafas thanked him and the man stepped back, though kept watching them. "So what colour do you think?" He directed his question at Kat and prayed she would pick for him. It was quite an uncomfortable position he found himself in, with the mountain of a shopkeeper watching them. "Of all the shops you picked this one?" Whispered Cafas to Kat. "That guy makes me look like a scrawny teenager."
Katrina blushed even worse than before, turning to pull a kilt off the rack to hide her face from both Cafas and the thunderous kilt man. Right, Cafas, because this kilt guy needed to know that she'd seen him in less. That had been an accident, on her part, and laziness on his part. She hadn't known he would answer his door without pants on.
Their clerk led them through the racks, deeper and deeper into serious kilting territory. They didn't have much choice but to follow. As he went along, he pulled likely plaid candidates off the rack and hold them up for Cafas and Katrina's inspection.
“Maybe grey?” Because pink would match his hair, but might be a bit much. Red would clash. Green... might be okay.
After awhile, all the kilts their clerk was picking started to look pretty much the same. Still, he kept piling them up. And quite a pile it was, too, for his burly arms could carry quite a few kilts.
By the time they reached the changing room at the back of the store, McBurly was humming. He hadn't had a serious shopper in quite some time, and he so loved to help a happy couple find the perfect kilt.
“Here is the dressing room,” he thundered, joyously, “these are the more casual kilts, and these are the dressy ones. When you've found the perfect one... or two... just let me know and I'll ring you up!”
Apparently they weren't escaping without taking one of these things home with them.
Cafas accepted the pile of kilts. He had a distinct feeling like he was about to make a purchase he had never so much as thought he ever would. He assumed the clerk would not know or be offended if he did not wear them in the traditional fashion, as Kat had NOT seen him in less than THAT. He closed the door behind him.. The ensuing montage was worthy of a teen movie from the 90s. The big man seemed to approve of nearly everything, though clearly had his favorites. He tried not to look Kat in the eye, it was kinda embarrassing.
Why would you even have a yellow and pink plaid?
Finally, after having tried on every kilt available, Cafas picked five of the candidates he actually had the slightest chance of wearing. Two grey, one two tones of green, one dark blue and white, the other dark blue and grey. There was a nice mix of formal, casual, and battle kilt, the green being the battle kilt. "I didn't know you even stocked battle kilts!" He made it sound like he'd at least looked at the place before, which made the salesman even happier. So long as the man that could have been a mountain was happy, Cafas was happy, or at the very least alive.
This is going to cost me...
He wasn't wrong. He averted his eyes as he handed over the cash. It was too painful to look at, even on his budget. Supposedly these kilts were all hand made by kilt crafting families in Scotland, who had been in the trade long enough to be considered kilt 'Brand name', Which was a scary thought. "Thanks very much, I'll be sure to return if ever I need another kilt, or any other Scottish item."
Fat chance of that happening.
Cafas turned to Kat with an urgent look and a whisper "Quick, run, before he reels us back in."
The big burly man beamed at them like the sunshine after a rainstorm.
“Thank you for your business,” he responded as he gleefully rang them up and handed Cafas his bag.
Katrina smiled at him politely, and ever so seriously, then both of the bolted out the door before the man could try to convince them to also take a couple of the cans of haggis for an authentic Scottish Christmas dinner or something like that.
Outside the store Katrina's serious face melted into a smile and a laugh.
“Did you see that super long rainbow colored kilt hanging over the door? We're probably lucky you didn't have to try that one on. I never knew they had so many colors. I pretty much thought all kilts were red plaid or grey.”
“You know, Calley wore a battle kilt once. We were on an epic quest in a dungeon at the time.” The dungeon being the mansion basement, and the kilt being one Calley had found down there in a locker and worn because Ghost had accidentally ghosted him right out of his pants. It still counted, though.
She tilted her head at the older pink haired boy. Speaking of a certain animal shifter, “Are you and Calley dating?”
She was his best friend, but Calley didn't really talk about stuff like that very often. It would certainly make sense if they were, with how much time the cat shifter spent hanging out in the pink haired boy's room and how much time he was spending knitting something that was starting to look suspiciously like a hat that matched Cafas' exact color of hair.
Cafas was actually quite grateful he hadn't had to try on that particular kilt. For one, it was... Well, a bit too 'out there' Even for the pink haired mutant that often wore red and had just purchased kilts, which he intended to wear... On that note. In the middle of the mall Cafas tugged on the battle kilt, pants gracefully removed without the slightest sight of underwear, or worse. While he did this he made sure to maintain both conversation and eye contact. "I'm sure it would look lovely, at Mardi Gras or something..."
Or on fire...
Cafas struggled not to picture Calley in a kilt. Or rather, he struggled not to laugh as he pictured that Marilyn Monroe moment. He had a sudden urge to stand over a subway grate. "I'm sure it was very... Noble looking?" He tried to keep a straight face, to no avail, as the scene passed through his mind once more.
The next question seemed a bit out of no-where. He could see the segue, but even still it was a bit of a topical leap. "I... Don't know. Honestly? We've gone out a couple of times, and we're pretty close, for Calley anyway... I just don't know if Calley's ready to call it dating, and I gotta respect that." Speaking of, did Cafas spy a medieval weapons store? He did! "This way, I gotta get something." Cafas grabbed Kat's hand, so as not to lose her, and ducked into the store.
Wow, what junk weapons.
Clearly everything in the store was more of a display piece. The katanas, advertised as authentic, were likely to snap with any real use, and he didn't even want to talk about the quality of the workmanship on most of the pieces. Still to someone untrained, they would certainly look cool, and would certainly pass for usable. Still, they did stock quality accessories. The water stones, authentic and Japanese, the boxes, well they ranged from basic mass produced to damned expensive hand carved ebony. Which was selling for more than most people made in a month.
Well... There goes my money.
The dimensions all looked right, the lining was high quality black silk. It had the room required for water stones. He looked to Kat "Is there a reasonable limit on what to spend on one persons Christmas present?"
Katrina loved how enthusiastically Cafas switched right over to his kilt, right in the middle of the throngs of shoppers. She grinned.
“That. Is stylish.”
If she was a boy, she'd totally wear a battle kilt, too. Together she, and Cafas, and Calley could start a battle kilt revolution. She wasn't a boy though, so it wouldn't have the same impact if she did it.
Cafas' description sounded a lot like Calley. Katrina hadn't ever seen him so much as interested in someone before, much less stick around long enough to date them. He didn't even like to commit to sleeping in one bedroom for longer than a couple nights in a row.
If being Calley's boyfriend was anything like being his friend, it was probably frustrating at times; never knowing where he was, never knowing exactly what was happening in his life, never knowing what he was feeling. Even the people closest to him were held at arms length a lot of the time. It was hard work to wriggle in any closer to his heart than that. It took lots of time and persistence.
It sounded like Cafas knew that.
“Calley's life is so topsy turvy sometimes, I think someone solid and dependable to come back to is exactly what he needs.” Or two someones.
Let him go when he has to. Be there when he needs you. Be solid. Be steady.
She followed Cafas into a weapon store. She recognized one or two of the more outlandish looking swords as ones from anime and video games.
“Well, they look cool,” Katrina admitted. She didn't know a thing about swords, and didn't really feel any desire to learn to use one. She had her hands full of phy. ed. classes already this year with Sam's run-your-butt-off class.
“Uh, you may be asking the wrong person. I've only got about twenty dollars total to spend on Christmas and I've got to find presents for...” she tried to count quickly in her head and came up with, “a lot of people.” Yeah, she'd probably be making a lot of things this year again.
“If it helps at all, I'll probably spend almost all of it on one or two of those people. Especially if I find a perfect present.”