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.
Ah. Was now a good time to spill the beans on living three different adult lives? On temporarily assuming the identity of a mob boss for money? On breaking rules, hiding runaways, running a pre-pubescent gambling ring, and running away from home not once, but twice?
Maybe on the surface he seemed like a nice guy, but Jude had forged his own path and he'd hurt plenty of people to get to where he was today.
"What you don't think I'm tough?" Jude grinned with as many teeth as he could manage, but immediately felt a bit self-conscious about it. "I don't really have to be scary. I haven't trained with the guys in the field and there's never been anything that's required all hands on deck. That's the beauty of it. Most of it for me is being the reliable guy behind the scenes who does the paperwork." Value assessment of skills, of a life, of a threat. He might even be more ruthless with his paperwork than the insurance industry. He was pretty good at it now.
"I hear there's temp work if you did want to work through. Like, at department stores and stuff. People get money from Santa and then they can't wait to spend it. Time off is good too, though." How long had it been since Jude had played a video game? Probably since he had lived at the Mansion. He had seamlessly transitioned into adulthood via a short stint of homeless wandering on foot after getting stranded in Canada by ColdSteel. It certainly broke his addiction to trashy tv shows quick.
"Oh man, there's so many awesome ramen shops around. It's sort of a hobby of mine to walk around and find the most hole-in-wall places. Any kind of food and the smaller the place, the better it usually is. There's a place just before you walk into SoHo, it only has spots for 4 people and only if they're all standing-" he could, and would, go on if Zaid let him.
"I don't know anyone that dislikes the smell of coffee." Even non-drinkers seemed to enjoy the smell. It was weirdly comforting. Like it was a part of their collective upbringing- everyone knew at least one person who drank coffee.
> ”Do you enjoy your job?”
"I guess so. It's my first real adult job, y'know? The first thing that I did from scratch all on my own and it's enough to pay my bills. It's basically playing secretary to a lot of scary dudes, but it's my freedom." It wasn't exactly inspiring, though as he moved more into a leadership role, perhaps he was going to get to choose what sort of jobs their band of mercenaries took. He could maybe even direct the chaos toward good assuming he could shoulder the same amount of respect that Michael had... that would be the hard part, really.
"It's not at all what I thought I'd be doing right now, y'know?"
Dammit gave his arm a tug and he was easily able to keep her on the path despite a passing squirrel. She really was a good dog. They both were. They just needed to get out all their extra energy.
The wave surprised him, not because it was dangerous or flirtatious. And as hilarious as it was, not because it caused a grown-ass man to walk into a big-ass pole. It was because for the first time since they'd met, he saw Zaid smile and look confident. Jude was sure if he'd had human ears, they would have turned red. Actually... did he have human ears? Checking that was a nice distraction from the saucy saunter walking ahead of him.
He also checked over his shoulder at the aftermath and couldn't help but snicker. The guy was dazed, but unharmed physically. He was getting a few catcalls of his own now and that was the sweet, sweet social justice that New York loved to dish up. You step up publically? You better be ready to defend your actions.
The park opened up around them, the treasured green space of New York City mostly brown from the cold winter, but somehow still a more quiet and natural place. He felt a little something inside of him relax and, if he had to guess, the dogs were a little less on edge as well.
"Where do you work?" He'd said it was just him so logically he had to work... unless he was a bajillionaire or something. That would also be interesting to know. Oh, but wait. Hadn't he said he didn't have a lot of cash for Jude's phone? "I work in security. Uh- just the administration side of things, actually. I just got a promotion, actually." It was new enough that he hadn't even told his adopted mom, and otherwise probably no one in New York gave a shit.
And just like that, Jude's troubles were cut in half. With only Dammit to tow around and bunny legs for bracing, it was totally more manageable. He reached up to scratch again and ended up poking the headphones. Ah. He'd have to remember to return those. For now, he tried to be grateful about them. He could still hear. So it wasn't terribly difficult to imagine how much more he would hear without the help.
Just four words and Jude was cut real deep.
> "...It's just me though."
"You should meet my adopted mom. If-if you wanted to, you know. I think she'd freak out, actually. Uh- in a good way." In the best way, probably. "She lived in Japan for a long time and she's got bio kids with, uh, ears." So it was totally true that he could on occasion sprout his own. Though Roger didn't seem to have the leg thing, he was still young.
How did Jude keep trying to tempt people to the Mansion? It wasn't like he really believed in their mission. If he did, he would have gone through with his plan to become an X-man.
Instead, he was out here. Walking a dog with a bunnyman. As a bunnyman.
"Get a room ya weebs!"
With all the grace afforded to him and by the miracle that was Christmas spirit, Jude turned them away from the road and in toward the walking trails instead of making rude gestures and shouting back. See? He was totally mature now. An actual grown up.
"Thanks for walking with me, with us, I guess. I hope I'm not keeping you from something..." Because, when it came down to it, it was just Jude out here, too.
Only a select few people frowned over Dammit's name. Jude was glad that Zaid was the type to smile about it, instead.
> ”Did you live outside the US?”
"I was born in Saint-Fargeau, France and lived there until I was nine." He shrugged. No big deal. It felt like the city was full of a hundred different accents and immigrants. He'd worked hard so that there was hardly a hint of accent anymore. "Then I got adopted and I've been here ever since."
Seeing Zaid's ears move made Jude curious. Were his perking and telescoping without him knowing? Or was that a learned on-purpose skill?
> ”Use your legs more..."
Legs? Jude also inspected his legs, but his jeans were not so skinny that he was busting through them. In fact, they had a loose leg and there was no discernable change. He did as instructed, leaning away from the monstrous beasty dogs and using his legs more. He definitely felt that he had more strength to tug back when they tried to test their boundaries. Maybe that was a good tip even in not-bunny form. And he even passed over his headphones. Jude had the distinct urge to jerk away as Zaid approached, an uncharacteristic shyness for him.
"Thanks. Do you, maybe... want to walk one with me?" Jude offered a leash. He was doing better than before, but the dogs were huge and strong. Splitting the work would mean splitting burden. Four hands were better than two and all that.
And he had to notice that Zaid didn't exactly seem local. Though, there had to be millions of people (and therefore hundreds of mutants) that he had yet to meet. "What about you? Did you ever live outside the US?"
This was new, but no reason to panic and, as much as he'd like to, it also wasn't a reason to blame the bunny. Again. The urge was rising. Instead, Jude tried to placate the other guy, but the other guy was pretty jumpy (no pun intended, though his vertical was impressive).
"Uh. Hey. Relax. It's not a huge deal. This sort of thing happens to me every now and again, and it's pretty temporary." Though, he'd rather not demonstrate just now. That took concentration and then it would mean further concentration to keep his power in check. Though a quick prod at his power proved that it was coiled up like a freshly fed snake, happy to hang out for a bit. "And I don't think I smacked my head that hard. If I went back to the mutant doctor I know again so soon, I think he'd start changing me." DocProf was equal parts good heart and sassy face. He should charge for what he did, but if Jude had to guess, the Mansion paid him enough to keep his heart bigger than his face.
"Look, I think we sort of, whoah-" Reville made like she was gonna jump up on the other bunny so Jude had to reign her back in. Reigning in two giant animals was just not his normal. And as much as they only sort of obeyed before, now they just blatantly did not care. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Jude. I sometimes copy powers. These are my foster dogs, just here for the holidays. Meet Dammit in the reddish collar and Reville in the leather." The way he said the last showed he definitely had some French language experience.
Though he wasn't going to make a deal of it, his head was throbbing and he couldn't wait to get out of the cold. He still had to walk these pups until they looked tired enough not to chew through his apartment door. So. Really. If the boy could just calm down and stop making the dogs so excited... that would be ideal.
Was he hurt? Good question. Jude reached up to touch the tender spot near the back of his head, but somehow managed not to touch the budding ears that were growing like a stop motion flower.
"Yeah. I think I'm okay, actually. Oh, man! My phone!" He'd dropped it! Crap. Was the screen cracked? he hated that. Jude scrambled up through the blanket of doggo licks and grabbed his phone. It looked okay. A new ding on the corner and a single, long crack, but otherwise it still turned on. He scratched absently at the base of an ear as he fiddled with his phone and as the other guy sputtered.
> "Did I, When did..."
"Yeah. When you fell on me, I guess." He was trying not to be grumpy about falling over and getting dragged around, honestly. Good attitude and all that. "It's- fine- I guess." He pocketed the phone and regained control of the leashes. For some odd reason both Reveille and Dammit were now trying to jump on him. They weren't jumpers... normally... but today was turning into a totally non-normal day.
"Down, girl." One of them goosed him which made Jude aware of something... fluffy... in his pants.
He looked at the bunny boy then scrambled to tug open the back of his pants and confirm that, yes, he had grown a fluffy cotton tail. And if he had a tail then... Jude reached up and felt the fluffiest, softest, furriest, biggest ears he'd ever grown.
Cute. How could Jude not think it when it was so fluffy and blushing and right there. He was totally cute. And totally trying to climb him in a near-blind planic.
Jude was helping. Sort of. He thought he might be helping anyway, but he tried most of all to help himself not get strangled. He tried to get the bunny boy's fingers free of his throat and he wasn't watching the dogs close enough to interfere when they thought they might want to help as well.
He didn't let go quick enough to be able to properly protect himself, and all the air left his lungs in a whuff that summoned the licking questioning from his goodest doggo friends. Stunned, he wasn't sure what was up, let alone what was dog fluff or what was tail fluff. He also was not holding on to to the leash of his mutation and it greedily roved through the bunny boy like someone might have walked over his future grave.
Dazed from the light smack to the back of his head, Jude took a moment to regret all of his life choices.
"Off." He waved his arms to ward off the puppers who, from his current angle were far taller than he was, and made motions in an attempt to sit up. Only sitting up was sliding bunny boy down. Jude groped for the shoulders. The shoulders were safe and he just wanted to safely rearrange how they were sitting. That was all. Safety first. He snapped at the dogs until they backed off a step.
"Are you okay?" That was dumb. He was the one who'd gotten landed on. And now the crown of his head was itching, a result of his head smack, he reasoned, mostly because he could not see the bunny ears growing in.
Reville sat all on her own and Jude was reminded of why she was the favorite foster-dog. Dammit was nosing the thing in question as Jude approached, but true to their bargain, she hadn't picked it up in her mouth again. That got her a good girl pat. And then he felt guilty so Revvie got one too.
From what he could see... It was not an animal. Jude toed the moist heap of cloth until he heard a crack.
In slow motion he looked up just as someone else was having a slow-mo oh god why me sort of fall. Jude put his arms out, out of instinct. He wasn't really trying to catch the falling person, it just sort of happened. He fell into his arms, Jude's phone was slapped down out of his hand, and they were both bowled backwards by the momentum. One-two-three steps backwards and he was able to catch his balance and not drop anything terribly important.
Shocked, Jude's mouth just sort of flapped open. In his arms was a grown-up version of his sort-of step brother Roger. If his own mutation wasn't champing at the bit to copy this person's power, he would have been sure this was some sort of weird fetish thing. A cosplay. But it wasn't and that's why the dogs had gone crazy.
And the dogs continued to be incredibly excited. They came snuffling in immediately and Jude wrestled his catch up in an attempt to keep the bunny out of their reach.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I am so, so sorry. They're usually better behaved and there's no excuse. Сидеть!" He spat the command and they both sat down, responding to the crack of force in his voice.
Posted by Jude on Dec 18, 2019 14:13:48 GMT -6
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Mar 3, 2021 17:12:08 GMT -6
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"No! Erg. Halt! Spyetchna-kaffka... Arrêt! Dammit, Reveille, arrêt!" He was not strong enough or RUssian enough. The Ranger was strong enough, but he was also strong enough to man handle a fire truck so Jude wasn't terribly upset about not being up to Michael's level there. The Russian thing was now a bonus, considering politics and election meddling.
They pulled him along with zero hint that they could hear or respect him. Jude was not the alpha dog, here. He caught his foot on the curb and was able to catch the dogs and pull them up short for a moment. They seemed to be aiming for something small on the ground, but then his tenuous hold was broken by the constant strain against the leashes. Whatever poor, helpless, small animal had been on the ground was no more.
"Stop. Stop!" And then he remembered that the sound wasn't so different for the Russian command. "Сидеть!" They stopped. Reluctantly- but they did. Something dropped from the side of Reville's mouth. It gave Jude enough time to fish out his phone. "Stupid commie dogs." He muttered. "I'm going to teach you to speak in French like sophisticated, proper ladies."
He typed in the command for "drop it" and as soon as the phone had spoken, they did. Eugh. It was time to inspect the remains...
Michael had reached out with a cryptic message and a promotion: Jude was now acting head of Backforest Tactical on one condition. He had to watch his boss' dogs while he took his girlfriend on holiday.
Michael was weirdly capricious, but even for him this was on the extra side of weird. Why would he give up control of the company he started up? Was he... thinking of starting a family?
And how did Jude, of all people, end up having to take two bear-sized dogs into his tiny apartment? When they were all in there, there was hardly enough room to shut the door! The absolute worst part of the deal was that as well trained as the dogs were, they apparently trained them in Russian?
"Сидеть." Google translate had told him, and so the dogs sat. One dog, aptly named Dammit, looked directly at Jude as she sat on top of his running shoes.
"You are why I do not understand why people like animals." Both dogs wagged their tails, one knocking his bedside lamp to the floor.
Grumbling, he got their leashes affixed, wrestled his shoes out from under one, got them to sit again, and got his jacket on and then went out into the unknown cold, armed with two dogs that came up to his breastbone. He brought three plastic bags for pick up. There was so much. Always so, so much to pick up. No wonder he deserved a promotion.
As much as he complained, they were pretty well-behaved. It was only when they across really, truly interesting scents that they disregarded him entirely.
Like now...
"Стоп! Wait!" He was skiing across the cold pavement and no doubt wearing the rubber from his soles. Digging in his heels was no good. They smelled something and were on the hunt. "Stop! Uh-" Crap. He couldn't wrestle the leashes and google translate all at once.
He was tense and shaky, worn out and not even yet at the infirmary. It'd been a hecking long trip considering that he'd started in the city.
Again, Jude took a moment to bask in the sun before checking on his escort. She seemed to be waiting for him to look at her because she motioned with her stick and then poked at the dirt again. Her dirt was fast disappearing now that they'd made it to the Mansion front patio area. He had to sit up and lean over to see that she'd written out a question mark.
Puzzling out what she meant wasn't that hard. She'd pointed at his legs first. Jude glanced up at her intimidating space owl eyes. "All knowledge of the cosmos" was apparently not included in her power set, even if it appeared so.
"I picked up... ehm. I mean-" He had to back up and start at the beginning. Or just show her.
Jude untangled his legs and set one of his feet out between them. It was still attached, he hoped. It'd gone all pins and needles while he'd hand-walked over here. He tugged his jeans up to reveal a banana-themed yellow sock and a hairy ankle. Another tug and he showed that the ankle quickly transitioned to a thin sheet of gray gridded fabric... or metal? The transition was seamless from flesh to screen mesh. And the mesh continued from where his calf should have been all the way up to where an anatomically-typical person's knee would have been, there Jude's leg transitioned back from bug guard to leg.
"It's not normally like this," he lamented, but didn't seem too terribly upset. Instead, Jude just started to tug his pants leg back down. "I sometimes pick up different powers on accident, in my sleep or when I'm not paying close enough attention." Times like now where he was absolutely not at this best. These were moments to watch out for. He kept a stranglehold on that invisible, seeking hand.
"I need to get to the doc to make sure everything still works. The Doc can fix what doesn't work when I eject this power and get back to being me." Somewhere along the way, the pins and needles bothering his feet had dulled to a low static buzz. It was hard enough walking after one foot went numb. Trying to walk with two numb feet and a stiff fabric for shins and that was Jude's day in a nutshell.
And no point in delaying further.
He laid out his legs and scooted himself toward a patio pot big enough to hide a corpse in. He certainly hoped there was no corpse in it, 'cause he tried to haul himself up and get the balance right so that the thin metal weave might support the weight of his upper body.
She walked by him. She listened. But she didn't answer. Odd. Instead, the space girl ran ahead a bit when he'd tried to give her an opening to the conversation. He continued his way toward the Mansion, eventually catching up to where she waited next to some scratched up dirt.
Not scratched up. They were letters.
"Celeste." A small wave of guilt hit Jude as he remembered Celestina, his last girlfriend. She'd been kind, but her powers were dangerous. With him around, that was double the danger. He liked her, maybe even approaching love-levels of like. But he hadn't be able to keep his power himself. Much like now. That invisible force inside of him was pointing at Celeste, reminding him that she was a mutant, that she was close enough to take her power.
And again, he had to stuff that invisible hand deep down. He had to sort out the current mess before he got himself into a new one.
"It's nice to meet you, Celeste. Thanks for keeping me company." Could she talk? Or did she just not want to? The strain of physical exertion was making it harder for him to carry the conversation, so he let it drop.
By the time Jude managed to handwalk his way to the front patio, his shoulders were shaking from exertion. Yes, he'd gained muscles in strange places from borrowing wings so often, but apparently it wasn't enough to cover the whole of the Mansion lawn.
He tucked his head and rolled, rather than trying anything too fancy to get himself down from his handstand. Jude flopped his arms and legs out and let himself just lay in the sun again for the moment.
Today was far from a "worst day," but it was definitely not his favorite.
"Still there?" He cracked an eye and satisfied enough with what he saw, resolved to use the nearby planter to help himself up to his feet. There was this planter, then the next, then a bench... he was planning his route already.
She didn't say anything, though she didn't exactly seem to buy his nonchalance. The eyebrow went up and she watched him with owl eyes. Or, maybe they just felt like owl eyes because they were vast and seemed to also look through him. Space eyes? Space eyes were a thing, he guessed, given the context of the girl in front of him.
He continued to try not to spook her by playing it cool. He also tried his best not to show just how spooked he was of her. If she came close, that was going to be one more complication to figure out. Two more than he needed.
She moved her hand and he stumbled back a bit. Considering his posture and predicament, it wasn't far. Ah. Only pointing. All cool. Just fine.
"Er. I mean, I get why you might not believe me, but I used to be a student here. Off and on." He didn't want her to touch him. He also didn't relish the thought of doing this in front of her; but considering his first point of reticence, he had to go with one or the other.
The other it was. He strained to push himself up and realized that without something to pull himself up, there was only one way to do this.
He hadn't been planning on being a clown today. Or, any of it really. Ugh. Jude tied his legs together in a knot to keep them from flailing. God that felt awkward considering his feet were actually still feet. And somehow he just kept talking. It was like he couldn't stop. The nerves piled up and he didn't want to freak her out, but even for a mutant this was gonna be weird.
"Yeah. So I came over from across the ocean when I was 9? I got adopted by one of the x-men here. They're totally suckers for kids. I mean, they've all got big hearts. Nothing was the same or as I expected it to be, y'know?" Jude knelt and put his forearms down against the grass.
"I had bigger dreams that this place so I didn't stay long the first time. I think my adoptive mom knew that the best way to support me was to let me make my own mistakes for a while." He had to pause as he strained to pull his lower body above his shoulders. He tightened his core and eventually found his balance on his forearms. He was lucky the lawn was mostly level.
"But, going it alone... it wasn't as easy as I'd thought. Even when I thought I'd found someone I could rely on." His shirt shimmied down his body to fall across the bottom of his face. Fantastic. His arms were otherwise occupied. Jude strained his balance and his arms, shifting to get one hand under him and then the other until he was a mutant tripod, his head and hands were the only parts of him on the ground.
He spit his shirt out of the way. "So I came back and finished school the right way. Luckily I was young enough that I didn't screw things up too bad. What about you? I'm afraid I've just been carrying on. What's-" He made a sound as he pushed off into a proper handstand. "What's your name?"
Jude took his first "step" toward the Mansion on his hands. Almost overbalanced, but continued with a second and eventually a third. This could work. He'd always had a talent for walking on his hands for some reason. It was about time that talent got used.
A stick made him aware that he had a shoulder. "Hn." Two and two came together and Jude realized he'd either fallen asleep or not noticed that someone was sneaking up on him. Another prod and he was stirring. It wasn't that bad. It was the sunlight. The sunlight was real nice.
"Just five more minutes."
He found a crook in his arm where his nose fit really nicely. It blocked the sun from his eyes and... was that stick jabbing him again?
Jude pushed up to one elbow ready to be grumpy. "Look, if you- uh." Pink hair. There was a whole lot to be distracted about, now that he was looking. Moving parts and even more physical powers to be afraid of picking up. His eyes widened with the realization that he was in close proximity and he hadn't been too careful.
Usually he managed to be more tactful, but he didn't have much left in him. Jude scrambled back, bending his empty looking pants legs at impossible angles by doing so. He had to check his arms, his— were those planets she had? He checked, but nothing seemed extra planetary on him.
"You uh- hello. Welcome to—" Where was he again? He was too flustered for words, covered in dried grass and having just woken up unexpectedly. Right. He saw it there behind the girl. "Welcome to the Mansion. I haven't seen you around before. My name, er, I-I'm Jude." He did not offer his hand.
"Do you happen to know where the infirmary is?" That's what he needed. Some good ol' DocProf supervision.
