The X-men run missions and work together with the NYPD, striving to maintain a peaceful balance between humans and mutants. When it comes to a fight, they won't back down from protecting those who need their help.
Haven presents itself as a humanitarian organization for activists, leaders, and high society, yet mutants are the secret leaders working to protect and serve their kind. Behind the scenes they bring their goals into reality.
From the time when mutants became known to the world, SUPER was founded as a black-ops division of the CIA in an attempt to classify, observe, and learn more about this new and rising threat.
The Syndicate works to help bring mutantkind to the forefront of the world. They work from the shadows, a beacon of hope for mutants, but a bane to mankind. With their guiding hand, humanity will finally find extinction.
Since the existence of mutants was first revealed in the nineties, the world has become a changed place. Whether they're genetic misfits or the next stage in humanity's evolution, there's no denying their growing numbers, especially in hubs like New York City. The NYPD has a division devoted to mutant related crimes. Super-powered vigilantes help to maintain the peace. Those who style themselves as Homo Superior work to tear society apart for rebuilding in their own image.
MRO is an intermediate to advanced writing level original character, original plot X-Men RPG. We've been open and active since October of 2005. You can play as a mutant, human, or Adapted— one of the rare humans who nullify mutant powers by their very existence. Goodies, baddies, and neutrals are all welcome.
Short Term Plots:Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
The Fountain of Youth
A chemical serum has been released that's shaving a few years off of the population. In some cases, found to be temporary, and in others...?
MRO MOVES WITH CURRENT TIME: What month and year it is now in real life, it's the same for MRO, too.
Fuegogrande: "Fuegogrande" player of The Ranger, Ion, Rhia, and Null
Neopolitan: "Aly" player of Rebecca Grey, Stephanie Graves, Marisol Cervantes, Vanessa Bookman, Chrysanthemum Van Hart, Sabine Sang, Eupraxia
Ongoing Plots
Magic and Mystics
After the events of the 2020 Harvest Moon and the following Winter Solstice, magic has started manifesting in the MROvere! With the efforts of the Welldrinker Cult, people are being converted into Mystics, a species of people genetically disposed to be great conduits for magical energy.
The Pharoah Dynasty
An ancient sorceress is on a quest to bring her long-lost warrior-king to the modern era in a bid for global domination. Can the heroes of the modern world stop her before all is lost?
Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
Adapteds
What if the human race began to adapt to the mutant threat? What if the human race changed ever so subtly... without the x-gene.
Atlanteans
The lost city of Atlantis has been found! Refugees from this undersea mutant dystopia have started to filter in to New York as citizens and businessfolk. You may make one as a player character of run into one on the street.
Got a plot in mind?
MRO plots are player-created the Mods facilitate and organize the big ones, but we get the ideas from you. Do you have a plot in mind, and want to know whether it needs Mod approval? Check out our plot guidelines.
Jude knew that look. He was that look. And he was gonna do ab-so-lutely nothing to stop Evelyn from making trouble here. She could intern there just as easily, but it was just too perfect to have a get out of jail free card.
A get outta jail free card that she didn't even actually need since she had an apartment.
"There's other places to train. Maybe the chem lab is legit, I dunno. Just seems like where there's a will, there's a way." But he was sensing some bull. Or maybe it was possible that she didn't realize there might be other reasons.
"I'm not advocating you leave. I guess I just want to know that if I ever run across a power to help you out, if you're even interested. I haven't yet, to be clear."
"I didn't mean to." Jude let Celeste take his chin in her hand and turn him this way and that. Some people were insulted, others intrigued. He couldn't yet tell which way Celeste felt about Jude copying her power so he remained on his knees in front of her.
There were definite differences. For starters, he remained a man. The stubble growing at his jaw showed just as neon as the hair on his head, more permanent and fixed than the nebulas that drifted behind their skins, but too pigmented and concentrated to be starlight.
"I copy. Like a mirror." It was hard not to fall into a simplistic way of speaking since she seemed to have such trouble with ispeaking. He wasn't sure if that was insulting or if it helped her understand. Another glance to DocProf, but the man only shrugged.
Jude didn't know exactly what he looked like, but he was pretty sure he and Celeste could now pass for twins if they wanted to trick someone into believing it. Uh. Not that Celeste was all that into tricking people.
"Can I get up?" He was pretty sure he could, but he also didn't want to startle her. His dang knees were killing him on this tile floor.
Revenge was Zaid's. Why did fluffy things end up in his face so often?! He sputtered as the shutter clicked. There was no chance an up-the-nose cat-in-face picture was a good look for him. But the picture had been forewarned. Jude's only real hope was that the burner phone wouldn't have much memory for more. The frenchman wrinkled his nose in Zaid's general direction.
"Maybe someday we'll take a photo when we're both ready." Today was not that day.
Jude had a lot of unexpected feelings about what Zaid had to say. Pregnancy with mutants seemed an oddly fragile thing. Ghost had gone away for hers, coming back into Jude's life with a new, unasked for sibling. He'd never held it against Ro. In fact, he'd thought of the baby more like a trial run for what he might some day experience.
Now... fatherhood was not so much in his cards.
Mutations still were, though.
"Worry is counter productive. I get it. But there's really no point in worrying about what might not ever actually be a thing. Let's worry about what is for just right now." Like a blush and an admission.
"You stuck your tail in my face before I even knew your name." Jude teased. "I'd call that some heavy handed pursuit."
It was nice being pursued, though. "Though, my favorite part has to be when you got all flirty in front of Zee." Jude beamed up at Zaid, unrepentant. He would move heaven and earth to see flirty Zaid again.
It was nice to find someone who understood, even if the situation wasn't the same.
As for the job situation... It was tricky. Very, very tricky. "I registered with the Mansion for community service so when you get in trouble, you can serve time at BlacTac instead of doing detention all the time." That was definitely a when, not if. "I need somebody to do what I used to do, actually. Reload magazines, fill out paperwork, keep schedules. The more I get out of the office, the more the office itself is being neglected."
He eyed her as surreptitiously as he could, but so far it didn't seem like that had talked her out of anything just yet. Not that he was trying to. Just that office work wasn't terribly glamorous. Neither was kissing butts in order to drum up more work or renegotiate purchase material prices, but it was something he was okay enough at.
"You can really." She was full of ideas to make the commute suck less, but until she lived it, Jude was going to dismiss the enthusiasm. He'd been living the commute for only a week-ish and already he was sick of it.
"That's good about your ID. That means we can do paperwork and compensate you for you time. That makes me feel less yucky about child labor laws." Not that he'd had any qualms whatsoever when he'd been the child under 10 demanding proper compensation.
Jude shifted on his stair tread. "Why do you live here? If you're not doing class and they won't let you do anything?" Jude's ID issues were the opposite of Evelyn's, it seemed. He'd had to come back and do the whole school charade just so he could live his name with legal ID. Evelyn, though... Her problems were merely aesthetic.
”Naw it’s all good. I-I mean. I’m sorry too. Really.”
Jude fell forward onto his hands and knees and sighed a huge sigh of relief as he relaxed. The threat was over. From his vantage point, he could see on the floor where she'd melted footprints through the vinyl and he knew that could have just as easily have been him.
The problem was, Jude relaxed with his power poised to take hers away. Without a close eye, his power hungered. It’s what got him into trouble when he slept or let his guard down. Like now. His power pivoted to doing what it did best: copying.
Jude realized too late. He struggled to fend it off but the change was already overtaking him. His skin darkened and darkened and darkened and his hair changed from near-black to hot pink. Jude sighed again, this time because he was more tired than anything else. It felt like he had diffused the situation in a way that Ghost would have been proud of.
”Are you… okay?” He tried to feel out the power without truly knowing what it did. But, considering the floor, he didn't try anything active.
Interesting. "It sounds like it's similar, but not the same. I definitely remember. But I woke up one day and it was like ten years I lived just didn't happen. The things I did in that time? Gone. The people I knew? I've only ever met two who remember. I was-" confused, depressed, hopeless, angry? All those things. But he settled on the more palatable tac. "I was powerless, literally, and so frustrated.
And then everything started happening in different ways. I wanted the timeline to be different. I'm glad it's different. But for me it was still a lot of repeating stuff I'd already done." Maybe that was why he'd done things like run away or throwing parties on the X-jet. They'd all been new experiences. And if he woke up tomorrow having to do his life over again, he might choose even more outrageous things next time.
And wow. He had not meant to start talking feelings and stuff. Jude mussed Evelyn's hair as she took a seat next to him because he couldn't take the heavy atmosphere. "Nothing really changes if you take a macro view. Up close, nothing stays the same. If we're a product of our experiences and you lost a chunk of your memories? You're already a different person. It would be crazy to expect the same."
As for the 'okayness' of it all? "You've got time to be who you'll be this time. Just... don't count out the good totally. You don't have to be Mansion good. You can just be Evelyn good." He'd given X-men good a shot and ended up not being good enough. Now he was just Jude. That would have to be enough because he didn't have anything else.
"I don't know if you're interested..." And he was totally fishing here, "but I registered BlacTac as a community service option. Qualified applicants only." That was one thing that had truly turned his life around... finding a place to fit. "It's a hell of a bus ride from here, though."
Jude cackled without mercy over the photo. Zaid couldn't hate it that much, he'd asked for his own copy. Twice, now! "I think the solution to this problem is that we need to take more photos together. I'll just zoom in on the parts I like, and you can do the same." In fact, Zaid with a kitten riding his shoulder wasn't a moment Jude wanted to forget any time soon.
"Are you really worried about your powers changing?" Jude supposed his was rather invisible. Insistent and annoying, but at least it was only that way to him.
"As if I could pass judgment on you not knowing your father." He could, however pass silent judgement on a father that prioritized everyone except his son. That was a feeling Jude knew all too well.
He hummed thoughtfully at the mention of not having to come out to anyone, judgy or not. "Did you come out to Layne?" Jude wondered if anyone at BlacTac cared. He got razzed no matter what, it seemed. He'd learned that it was all supposed to be in good fun even if they perpetually crossed lines.
He took her questions very seriously. "It's yours." He confirmed. She had to understand it was a gift, even if the cost was ongoing. It was important to him. "Yeah. It does cost me money, but not so much that you should feel bad. I couldn't have found Zaid without you. This is nothing in light of that." It helped that he'd gotten a little pay bump recently. He was worried for a beat that his explanation didn't pass muster, but eventually her face softened. It must have helped that he meant every word.
"Yeah, it was good in is own way, huh?" Jude stretched his legs out in front of him. The stairwell wasn't the most comfortable place to chat, but it was public enough to not be weird, but still private enough to not be overheard. "I'm not used to doing "good" things, per se. For a long I was just doing what I could to get through... now I'm legitimately approaching the age I was before I woke up young, when I started all over again." It was like his life was finally getting to start. He wasn't sure he'd ever explained that to Evelyn properly. No doubt she'd surmised anyway. Not much got past her.
"I screwed up a bunch." Simple facts. No judgement. "It's easy to do when nobody understands where you're coming from and what you're trying to do. Don't let that stop you from persevering."
And he had to snort at the jet fuel thing. "And I fired the x-jet missiles at the pool." And then held up his hands in his defense. "Not that it's a competition. I somehow think you'd win. Just pointing out that the adults can't spend every waking moment surveilling you and you reeeeally don't want them to. So maybe find a way to self-regulate if you want to keep your phone off their radar."
Tax season was upon them, but apparently their payroll company didn't provide the 1099s. Jude was scrambling with one ear to the phone on hold, two hands on the keyboard emailing, and about 5 clusters of a burgeoning headache.
THUMP! Rattle, rattle, rattle.
Murder was blossoming in his heart as his eye started twitching. Cold, premeditated. He would make it hurt, thump, and then rattle.
"Ah- yes, I was calling about tax forms—" THUMP! Rattle, rattle, rattle. "—you're not the right department?" THUMP! Rattle, rattle, rattle. "Then, can you transfer me TO the right department?" THUMP! Rattle, rattle, rattle. He was sure his blood pressure was doing a thing. A bad, bad thing. "I need to know about sending out— no. You guys literally handle our payroll— Yes. I'll hold."
Thump. He stood so suddenly that Jude hadn't actually thought out what he was going to do, exactly. He just knew that it was going to end someone. Unfortunately, all it ended was Noel's careful trip through Jude's space on her way to the breakroom. She didn't even work here and yet... here she was... again.
"Whoa, tiger. Slow your roll." She untangled her feet from the legs of his chair and then caught sight of his face and phone and her tune changed. "Ooooh. Uh- You're stuck on hold, huh?"
He grabbed her shoulders, realizing for one of the first times that he had overtaken the boss' girlfriend in the height department. His eye twitched in time with the thumps, his neck kinked awkwardly in order to keep the phone in place.
"You will make Michael Hunter forget that tomahawks exist or so help me, I will burn this motherf-cker to the ground."
THUMP! Eye twitch. Rattle, rattle, rattle. Ranger piped over the intercom asking for papers and his eye twitched again.
Her eyes got wide when she realized that she didn't taste a single lie.
"I'm inclined to agree. Just a sec."
Noel hurried to grab coffee mugs and the entire coffee pot from the break room, worried that even that might be taking too long. She didn't work here. She didn't fetch and carry usually, but she figured that filling Michael's hands was bound to help the tomahawk situation. She scribbled a sharpie note as she walked and juggled things.
"Michael Blackforest Ninja Tomahawking Hunter, you best look me in the eyes before we have a murder scene." Jude said to make him forget. And the forgetting was likely to be temporary given the physical item being present in his office. She set the things down and one wiggly eye'd memory erasure later, Noel sighed in relief knowing that she'd just evaded some impending disaster. And realized there was a stranger in their midst. Oops. Maybe she shouldn't have done that right here, right now.
"Hi, I'm Noel." She offered her hand and noticed some black markings on the inside. Get them to go somewhere else. "Would... you... like a tour? Michael? Did you give him the tour?"
Oh? Jude had started it? "Yeah, but I hate the way I chew. Mine was a legitimate concern." He hoped it was obvious from his tone that he was teasing. Less meat. That was and wasn't a huge deal. BlacTac was one big sausage fest. Oh, and they also tended to grill meat for fun. Man bonding, or something.
Zaid readjusted and a kitten made itself known somewhere in the vicinity of Jude’s head. He just had to trust that Zaid would protect his skull from tiny, curious claws.
"I'd like to see photos. I don't have anything from my bio-parents. I'd share my Ghost with you, but she's moving, I guess. I also wouldn't call her fierce, but she's always been there, at least. No dad to speak of." That meant there'd be no awkward family holidays, right? Jude tried not to squirm as a kitten investigated the bottom hem of his jeans by popping it's head into his pants leg. "What about your dad?"
"Yeah it's no fair, he picked Cheapachu." "Cheapachu can hit the whole screen." "All is fair in love and war." He'd discovered the second joystick that did the really big hits. In this level of play, it seemed no one else had. If a truly skilled opponent were to arrive— "Hey, Evelyn." —his butt would be astroturf.
"If he's so good why didn't you pick— AH! How do you double jump!?" His downfall was himself, really. Jude tended to jump off the edge and not be able to recover.
Out of lives, he set his controller down and let the kid gloat even though he'd just barely scraped through for the win because of Jude's suicide. Jude weathered it in good humor as he exited the couch area to give Evelyn his full attention. The rabble behind them as they walked away was who got to pick Cheapachu. Apparently, all of them could.
"Hey, so I never said thank you for your help. I brought a couple things." He wasn't sure the best place to give it to her so Jude went to the stairwell and dug in his pockets before he sat on a step.
It was a box, very smooth and tactilely pleasing. He hadn't bothered to wrap it since the box was so cool, but that did mean it was obvious from the outset what it was.
A smart phone.
"Don't let the adults take it from you. I added you to my plan, but I'm not made of money so while there's unlimited texting and calls, you only get 1 gigabyte of data. You'll need to get the wifi password everywhere you go."
If there was anything that Jude could empathize with, it was being a grown up and enduring being treated as a child. He did it, first against his will and finally on purpose so that he could live in his own legal identity. But Evelyn... he was pretty sure based on the few conversations they'd had thus far that Evelyn was not exactly in her situation by choice. His first inclination was to find a power to fix it, but he had no options there. Age shifters weren't that common, and in his experience, they only just affected themselves... and going out and getting a power to "fix" someone was an absolute assumption. What if Evelyn didn't want to be "fixed"? Just respected?
He owed her the biggest thank you possible, so barring all assumptions about her willingness to age, Jude decided to bring her what he was always begging for... intellectual freedom.
Not knowing exactly where the girl lived and not wanting to be a creepy Mansion uncle about it, Jude bribed a kiddo to go check her room on his behalf while he set up shop in the living room. Some kids were playing a retro game that he'd never excelled as while living here, but since he was waiting for Evelyn anyway he figured he'd give it a shot.
He made sure to have the kids explain the controller to him since this was a different game system before he gave Super Fight Siblings a shot, like a proper old man who didn't know anything. Then he chose the electric mouse and did his best to murder everyone... in a not creepy way.
She threw the phone and Jude stared wide-eyed at where it lay on the ground for a full heartbeat. That was... okay. Zaid had already cracked it and it still worked. This was somewhat less embarrassing than that, but no less alarming. Chief certainly seemed to be alarmed.
"Where are we going? There's a school that's a kind of safe house." He didn't like just shouting about a Mansion and mutants on the bus. She should know that one, though. "It's bigger than it has any right to be, but there's no...boss? I don't know what boss you're talking about." He tried to be patient, The Mansion was a place she should have known since she'd worked there a bit. And yet very clearly did not recognize its description.
But... the boss? That one had him bamboozled.
Jude picked his phone up off the rubber foot traffic mat. No harm, no foul. He reopened the app and cleared everything so that they could start over again, this time Jude assumed she knew nothing... just in case.
"The apartments where I live are called "The Honeycomb Collective." But the rooms are small and I don't do much there besides sleep. I know that at the school there is a man who can heal, there's food, lots of security in place because there are kids around." Would the parents of those kids want someone like Chief around? Jude dismissed that concern. She'd literally already been there as a part of that security structure they had in place.
How was this possible? Jude tried very, very hard not to knot his eyebrows and show his concern. He was getting her help. That was step 1.
He held the phone back out to her main hands if she wanted it as the bus bumped along. With the running lights on and the heater humming, it was almost a cheerful ride. If nothing else, it was much better than being outside. "This is my phone. I'm sorry it surprised you, but please don't drop it. It's a little bit broken already." He pointed out the cracks in the screen.
"So... who's the boss?" He glanced out the window to be sure they hadn't missed their stop, but busses were slow going and the Mansion wasn't exactly nearby.
Dammit had opinions and was not afraid to make them known. "You said the "W" word." Walk. He'd said walk and despite the fact that they'd literally just gotten home from an hours-long excursion, Dammit was ready to go once again. Jude snorted and wiped his hands against one another to de-fur them before hopping back up to his feet.
"I'll w- escort you to the front door." He stuck his tongue out at Dammit and a waft of fur landed on it like a disgusting snowflake. Eugh. Definitely time to go. Jude scooped up Zaid's shoes and blocked the door so he could escape into the general area.
"I habd a goob time." He also had a napkin and was attempting to de-fur his tongue. Once he was done and Zaid had his shoes on, he walked with the bunny boy to the stairs and the front door. "Would you, er- maybe want to go again?"
Oh sh*t did not adequately cover Jude's chagrin. He stumbled over himself to both get up off the floor and to hold his hands out between himself and Celeste. DocProf suggested that he apologise. Jude figured that was going to be a mere beginning to the situation.
And, while he floundered, his mutation honed in like a pointer hunting dog that had found something of definite interest. He held his hands between them to try to placate the girl and the invisible hands of his power tried to reach further, and Jude was too conflicted to stop it. If he took hold of her power... if he pulled... then nothing would happen, in the end.
"I'm so sorry. It was a joke. A poor decision. A bad, bad joke. Please don't explode. She's not going to explode is she?" He looked at DocProf who didn't seem terribly worried.
"I dunno, but she might just supernova your face shut."
He'd been relaxing ever so slightly since DocProf wasn't panicking, but that put him right back up to alarm level 10. Jude fixed his eyes on the galactic girl. He'd only managed to get back up to his knees so he may as well be begging.
"It was in bad taste. I was trying to be silly. Please." Please don't make him take her power away. Was what he was thinking, but at the same time he was quite ready and poised to do it. If he was a better person, a nicer person, it wouldn't have come down to "you or me."
