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 Iris/Rayne on Jan 19, 2008 23:14:54 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
Iris paced back and forth across the living room floor, her socked feet sliding every now and then on the wooden floor. A gambit of emotions flitted across her face, like a cartoon animation. Anger, anxiety, frustration, pain; all of them chased each other around, one right after the other.
She turned toward the kitchen, and reached out to pick up a glass of water on the table. She twitched a bit in pain as she opened her hand, and pulled back. She frowned at the bandages wrapped around both hands, and the memory that they evoked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had only taken a little over two weeks for she and Hunter to infiltrate the Church of Humanity’s higher ranks. She wasn’t sure how Hunter had accomplished it, but the pair of them had passed the blood screening for the Xgene, and been accepted almost immediately. It wasn’t long before the head of the church had approached them, and offered them the opportunity to become Acolytes. Iris had smiled and made a smart-alec remark about how nothing labeled ‘light’ was good for a body. He hadn’t seen the humor in it. Then again, he saw very little humor in anything, and Iris had found herself enjoying the rebellious persona she had adopted as part of her guise. She wasn’t sure, but she guessed that Hunter was enjoying it as well, since it gave him momentary respite from her acid tongue.
Several days after the proposal, Iris found herself wondering what they had truly gotten themselves into. The ceremony took place at night. The two of them were led into separate rooms, and required to strip. Iris had stared at the female priest blankly, thinking she’d heard wrong. She hadn’t. While she couldn’t remember being so embarrassed in her life, fear momentarily overwhelmed it. She couldn’t hide the gems. There was no way, at all. The priestess tilted her head disapprovingly.
”Such mauling of the flesh is unhealthy Katrina,” she stated, assuming them to be simple tattoos and piercings. Iris fought back a heart attack, and rolled her eyes dramatically.
”This coming from the woman who won’t even pierce her ears.”
”True beauty can only be found within. It does not need to added.”
”Whatever.” Some of her embarrassment translated into her voice as irritation, helping Iris to focus on things other than what was happening.
She was led to a table, where another woman stood over two bowls and two jeweled daggesr. Iris eyed the weapons with growing fear. Had their deception been uncovered already? Was she being led to her own execution? She couldn’t activate any of her gems now; the transfer would be too obvious! Then again, if either of these women came at her, she didn’t care that they knew she was a mutant. She was not going to stick around and become a casualty.
The first priestess took Iris’s left hand, while the other took her right. Iris fought her reflex to run, forcing herself to stay put. The women began to chant softly, words that she didn’t understand. Then, before she could move, both daggers were slid across her palms with deft precision, slicing cleanly through the flesh. The pain was delayed, because of the sharpness of the knives, but it was pain nonetheless. Iris yelped and jerked back, but they held her wrists firmly in place.
”Stay,” one of them ordered softly. Releasing Iris, the woman turned to her own hand, slitting it open as well. The other followed suit. Continuing to chant, they turned her palms downward, over the bowls, allowing the blood to drip in, along with their own. After several moments, they bowed solemnly, and touched their forheads to the backs of her hands.
”We welcome you, Sister, to our pure ranks. We are now bonded by blood in our divine mission, to rid this world of all defilements of body and mind, and of the fleshy vessels used by such evil to walk this world. We vow to help you achieve purity, in its highest form of humanity.”
”Yeah. Thanks.....” To herself she was thinking, <“These people are lunatics!”> Iris began to understand the meaning of the word fanatic. She twitched all through the bandaging of the new wounds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iris shuddered at the memory. The Acolyte ceremony had shaken her to her core. Since then they had learned some of the true plans of the CoH, to rid the world of mutants completely. Some of the plans horrified her. She was having difficulty believing that there were people in the world that could hate another so fiercely and deeply, simply because they were different. Everyday she feared more and more for her friends still in the Camps. She wasn’t sure if Hunter was keeping contact with the rest of the Resistance; if he was, he wasn’t telling her. But nothing had happened yet, a month and a half later.
And now here she was, pacing back and forth, waiting for Hunter to return from yet another ceremony, placing them deeper and deeper into this pit of scorpions. The Church was vocal, so she could see now why the Registration Law had so much support. And now she was part of that voice. A double voice yes, but still a part of it. She felt dirty, soiled, and the bandages simply reminded her of it. This task couldn’t be over and done with soon enough, and even then, she didn’t think she’d ever feel clean again.
Hunter had gone through the Acolyte Ceremony at the same time as Paragon had. His cuts had already healed, but he wore bandages over them to hide the fact. He was unsure of what to expect in the upcoming Hierophant Ceremony. This was where he would join the upper echelons of the church. From there he could call a meeting of the church’s High Council, gathering the leaders in one place to make a swift, decisive strike.
Only he was going for Hierophant, Paragon only needed to become an Acolyte. He walked into the room wearing a set of vermillion robes he had been given. Around the candle lit room were three other Hierophants, the high priests of the Church of Humanity. On the alter in the centre of the room was a woman, bound by iron chains. She was clearly a mutant, the second, diminutive pair of arms at her midsection were broken in at least three places.
The woman had most likely managed to avoid capture by wrapping the second set of arms around herself and concealing them under baggy clothes. Unfortunately for her the church had found her, and rather than hand her over to the camps concocted a far worse fate. She’d clearly been tortured, and he could guess what was coming next from the bejewelled dagger, just like the ones used in the Acolyte Ceremony, that rested atop a golden pedestal.
“Welcome brother King,” said one of the Hierophants. To a normal man their faces would have been hidden by the shadows cast by the hoods of their robes, but Hunter’s keen eyesight pierced the shroud and saw clearly each of their faces. “Now is the time to join our ranks in another ceremony of blood. Remove this blight on the world and become one with us.” The three then began to chant in what Hunter recognised as a bastardised form of Latin, just as they had at the Acolyte Ceremony. There words were filled with a mixture of hated and zeal.
Hunter wasted no time in striding across the room and picking up the knife. He’d killed before, many times before. He’d killed the helpless, people who he himself had tortured before hand. So what he thought when he drew the blade across her throat was not anguish, pity or regret for the unnamed woman, but relief that Paragon had not undergone this ceremony. She had yet to kill someone willingly, there was no reason for her to start now. In fact, if all went to plan he would do all of the killing this mission required.
The chanting had stopped as the woman’s chest fell, never to rise again. “Welcome, Hierophant King,” said the three in unison, before pushing back their hoods and coming up to shake his hand.
Two hours later Hunter returned to the apartment. The three Hirophants, George, Bill and Malcolm, had taken him out for drinks, to celebrate his ascendance to Hirophant. Now the infiltration was entering the final stages, the end game was nearing. In a few more days, and a lot more blood shed, it would be over.
Posted by Iris/Rayne on Jan 21, 2008 1:39:35 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
As usual, Ebony's low hiss and abrupt disappearance warned Iris that Hunter was approaching. She really didn't know why the cat dislike him so much, but her radar was better than any alarm system. Sure enough, several minutes later the lock clicked, the door opened, and in strode the dark-haired man.
She ceased her pacing. "You're late," she stated, a bit crossly. She wouldn't admit to being worried, though obviously she was. "What happened?"
She searched his currently blue eyes for any sign that something was wrong, despite having long realized that, even if there was, she'd never see it there. It was simply becoming a habit now.
Despite her attempt to hide it Hunter could see Paragon was worried. She'd never admit it, but the two had grown closer over the past seven weeks, even if only a little. They might have gotten closer if Hunter haden't revealed his need to drink blood. While he could of kept it hidden from her, he had promised no secrets.
"They insisted I go out for drinks," he explained, "to celebrate my ascendance to Hierophant status. I tried to get back sooner, but they kept me there for a while." He didn't mention anything about the ceremony, that was something that he hoped Paragon wouldn't ask about, as he had no desire to tell her what had happened.
Posted by Iris/Rayne on Jan 21, 2008 16:32:21 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
"Drinks?" Iris frowned. "You mean alcohol. Right?"
She was still dealing with Hunter's need for blood. Finding out had simply been coincidence. One of their 'disagreements' about things they were getting involved in with the Church had ended, as usual, with Iris storming off to her room. An hour later, Ebony pulled her hiss-and-disappearing act. Still angry, she'd thrown the door open and yelled at him.
"Can't you walk around like a normal person, instead of skulking around like a Vampire?!" The accusation had absolutely nothing to do with what they'd been arguing about; it was just a developing pet peeve on her part. She hadn't expected the explanation he'd given.
"Yes," Hunter clarifide, "alcohol. My blood however has cleared any trace of alcohol from my system. Can't get drunk, one of the pros of my mutation." He hoped by the offhand comment about his mutation he could steer the conversation away from the ceremony, even if it worsened Paragon's mood by reminding her that he needs to drink human blood.
"Have you eaten yet?" he asked as he made his way to the kitchen. Hunter haden't eaten since an early lunch and it was now late evening. During the time together Hunter had always cooked, and while Paragon my not especially like him, she did like his cooking.
"Now," said Hunter, pulling out a chopping boad and ingrediants to make a quick stir fry, "as a Hierophant I can call a meeting of the council. I don't want to do it right away, I've got to 'settle in' in my new role before I do. That buys us some time to get ready, like working on the unused powers of your gems."
Hunter pulled out the wok, stuck it on the stove and drizzled in some olive oil before going back to the ingredients. "Have you had any luck in activating them yet?" he asked, "And could you fill this pan with water and set it on the stove for the noodles."
Posted by Iris/Rayne on Jan 21, 2008 22:11:07 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
"Now, as a Hierophant I can call a meeting of the council. I don't want to do it right away, I've got to 'settle in' in my new role before I do. That buys us some time to get ready, like working on the unused powers of your gems."
"Hunter, I don't like this," she started to protest. "These people are fanatics! We're getting in too deep. I don't think I can keep this charade up. What happens if they want us to kill another mutant? I can't do it, and I won't!"
"Have you had any luck in activating them yet? And could you fill this pan with water and set it on the stove for the noodles."
"No I haven't. I'm not one of your soldiers anymore," she snapped. His calmness irriated and infuriated her to no end. She expended some of her annoyance through setting the pot of water to boil. Some of it. Not all. It came through in her grumble.
"I don't get what I'm supposed to be able to do anyway."
Apparently her onyx and gypsum gems had secondary abilities, abilities she had never been able to tap into. She hadn't even known they existed. Both of them, to her relief, were more defensive abilities. The one he'd been trying to get her to unlock was the onyx; other than seeing in the dark, supposedly she should also be able to turn herself into, in his words, 'a living shadow'. She had no idea what that meant, nor how to do it.
Hunter could see that Paragon was beginning to doubt herself. However, they were so close to their objective that they couldn't stop now. "You don't have to keep the charade up much longer," Hunter assured her, putting the noodles in the pan she had just set on the stove, "until the meeting with the council you're going to be 'ill'."
"That'll give you time to practise with the living shadow ability. I know you don't understand it, but I can help you. I've used the ability, I know how to activate it. Together we can unlock it." He added the ingrediants to the wok and began to fry them, hoping to have eased Paragons worries.
Posted by Iris/Rayne on Jan 23, 2008 0:09:04 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
(OOC: Sorry for the delay.)
"Ill? I never get sick. I never even fake sick...." In truth, up until her arrival in New York, Iris had been a workaholic; never took vacations, never took sick leave, even when she should have. She really didn't have much of a social life, and she'd been content with that.
She sat back down at the counter with an oddly thoughtful expression. <"Talk about a sheltered life....">
"That'll give you time to practise with the living shadow ability. I know you don't understand it, but I can help you. I've used the ability, I know how to activate it. Together we can unlock it."
"How could you have used it?" she asked idly. "I thought the ability came from someone else."
At that moment a soft buzz distracted her; her new cellphone was vibrating. It had been part of the 'props' Hunter and Nigel had set up along with the whole infiltration. She had it on vibrate so she would remember which phone she was picking up, and how to answer it. This time, however, there was no need to answer, just to check her text messages.
Email[/i]
She bit her lip, glancing up at Hunter. The Church of Humanity ran a public website, like many other organizations, with a generalized mission statement about leading people to the 'Path of Purity'. Everything on the surface resembled other religious groups, with the usual variances in doctrine and other things. But all in all, very appealing to everybody. But since becoming an acolyte, she and Hunter had been granted access to more 'specialized' areas of the site.
She retrieved her laptop and logged into her email. The only content was a link, which in turn sent her to a page asking for a secure login and password.
<"Security freaks...."> she thought to herself. They were more paranoid than Hunter.
Well.... maybe not quite as bad.....
Brothers and Sisters,
There will be a mass cleansing ceremony in three nights hence, at exactly 2 am. All acolytes and heirophants are required to attend. Purity must be restored, and the balance maintained.
Below the message was an address.
She frowned at Hunter, turning the screen so he could read. She gulped, her throat suddenly dry.
Hunter was about to answer Paragon's query about how he could have used the ability when her phone beeped. The email was something he did not want to see. A cleansing ceremony was little more than a mob that went and applied their own style of justice to mutants, just like the Ku Klux Klan had done to blacks in the past.
"I was hoping that one of those wouldn't happen due to mutants being in hiding," he said, "It's little more than an attack on someone they believe to be a mutant. I'll see if we can get out of it, but I don't think I'm going to have much luck."
Posted by Iris/Rayne on Jan 23, 2008 17:36:50 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
<"Three days. That isn't much time....">
Iris glanced down at her bandaged hands. After five weeks the left one was nearly healed, enough that she could use it without too much difficulty. But her right....
She narrowed her eyes in concentration. The bandages bulged slightly, and she jerked slightly. The normal burning sensation that came with the gem transfer hurt worse because of the wound, and in turn, the wound hadn't had a chance to heal properly because of the gems. It began to look as though she'd have a permanent scar.
She frowned and began pacing again.
"Well, I'm not going to sit by and watch whatever 'cleansing' they plan on doing, not if it means someone's gonna get hurt. I'll bet half the people these lunatics go after aren't even mutants!" She waved her arm as she ranted. "If I have to go, I'm going to help the underdog. It's not like anyone is going to notice, especially with my hands all wrapped up."
A smirk passed over her face, an expression rather out of character for Iris. "Not that we really have much to worry about though, I suppose. Most the other acolytes are dim bulbs anyway, just doing what the 'hairy'-phants tell 'em. I doubt any of them can think for themselves."
She ceased pacing, and turned back to Hunter. She crossed her arms, and began drumming her fingers on her upper arms. The green contacts in her eyes were quite a bit darker than usual; it wasn't enough to cause suspicion in the normal onlooker. But her sudden change in 'behind-the-scenes' attitude was a clue that something was different.
"So, back to important matters. Explain this 'living shadow' thing to me again. Is it a teleporting thing?"
Hunter let the matter drop, they could argue about it later. For now they could argue about the living shadow ability instead. "It is essentially what I said," he explained, "You become a shadow. You look like a shadow of yourself, can move across surfaces and are impervious to harm. However in too bright light you'll revert back to your normal form."
What he was waiting for now was the inevitable question of how he knew how it worked. It looked like it was time to explain even more about his powers, the blood absorbtion ability.
Posted by Iris/Rayne on Jan 23, 2008 18:44:01 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
"You become a shadow. You look like a shadow of yourself, can move across surfaces and are impervious to harm. However in too bright light you'll revert back to your normal form."
"Well that's redundant," she remarked. "If I wanted to sneak around, I can just dress in black and pretend to be a ninja. No one in this city pays attention to anything anyway. Couldn't you have come up with something with more 'kick'?" She flipped her hair a bit.
"And how would you know, anyway? You never did answer that." She glared accusingly at him.