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 Jude on Jan 15, 2020 15:29:42 GMT -6
Zaid likes this
Omega Mutant
rosybrown
Zaid
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Mar 3, 2021 17:12:08 GMT -6
Ghost
He said her name a few more times, at least, he tried. She seemed a bit spaced out and that gave him the briefest time to look her over for obvious malady. There was no knife sticking out her front, but still the illusion of wrongness persisted. Shouldn't she have been taller? Her hood fell back and... it was definitely Chief, but not quite the Chief he knew.
She searched his eyes and touched his face. What was she looking for, exactly?
"Jacquelyn?" It was cheating, but he knew more than he should considering his relationship with Haven's security. So he tried using her real name, the name listed on her paperwork. Jacquelyn Dyer? It's me. Jude. Your—" his voice broke and she leaned forward into the hugging arms he threw around her. It's your son. He'd been about to say. By blood or technicality, they weren't anything, but Chief had been a constant for him in a world of inconsistency.
"I was looking for you everywhere."
He choked back a quiet sob at the smell, the state of her dress, the blank look in her eyes. It was hitting him now that something really might have happened to her, even if he couldn't see what exactly had happened he felt that she was physically smaller. She was confused. She wasn't talking, either?
Oh. Oh boy. Any time memory issues came into the picture, Jude had a solid lead on who to blame, but this time Noel was solidly out of the question. But the size thing... did she get shrunk?
Jude hastily wiped his face with the back of his hand and pulled Chief's... Jack's? hood back up before putting his arm as best he could around her shoulder-area. She might be smaller, but she still was not small.
"Come on. I think we should get out of this cold. I know a place where—" He stopped. Where they served apple pie? Yeah. She didn't like to eat in front of people and he assumed that could be an issue. Besides, he still hadn't ruled out that she had a concussion or needed something more than a good, hot shower.
He could take her home. The honeycomb collective was a miniature mutant haven, but the conditions weren't ideal considering his small room and the very real and very large dogs that took up most of it right now. His bed would probably collapse under the weight of all four of them, and that wasn't even taking space into account.
Zaid's apartment? He couldn't impose. Even if this was an emergency, it was a bit harder to explain. Jude figured that he could take her home to her own apartment at Haven, but after glancing back at her again, he thought she might need a little more supervision than that. At least until she got her bearings back.
"I know a place where we can get warm, but it's kind of far. Would you take the bus with me? I have enough on my pass for us both."
He had expected to have to do this himself. Jude knew that security had likely seen him struggling and done exactly nothing to help out. Celeste, too, had seemed stand offish as the new and skittish sometimes were. So it took him by surprise when he was offered a dark, planet-circled hand.
He inspected her face and was even more shocked to see her trying to talk. He'd known her for all of 10 minutes and those had thus far they'd all been silent ones. He thought that she simply couldn't. But apparently she could. It didn't look easy, though.
> ”F-F-Friend...h...elp…”
He'd recoiled last time for fear of touching a visibly mutated individual, but now... she'd put herself out there. She was offering when even the people who typically lived here were not.
He took her hand and tested what kind of weight he could apply there without toppling them both over. It seemed he might still need the help of the planter pots that lined the front walk, but just having her there made his balance that much easier.
"Thank you... really."
Now he just had to concentrate to keep his power close so he wouldn't spawn planets of his own. Curious about the hand planets, he tried to scope them out as they hobbled from one planter to the next. At the front doors, Jude decided that enough was enough and he rang the bell. He was hurting and sweating, but worst of all he was feeling vulnerable and worthless because he'd been walking his whole rememberable life and somehow now that simple act was freaking difficult.
The door opened and one of DocProf's sometimes assistants, an androgynous lizard anthropomorph, offered a scaly shoulder to balance Celeste's help. Fantastic. More physical mutations that Jude's power wanted to gobble up.
"Took you long enough."
"Yeah speed's not really my strong suit today." He stepped funny while getting his arm around the lizard and had to stop with a long grimace while he got his feet back.
His power, that invisible reaching wind, grasped outward inspiring goosebumps as it rubbed up against the powers around him like a cat that had yet to be fed.
Posted by Jude on Jan 14, 2020 23:31:50 GMT -6
Zaid likes this
Omega Mutant
rosybrown
Zaid
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Mar 3, 2021 17:12:08 GMT -6
Ghost
Zaid thought he handled change well. He didn't know the half of it. Jude was fractured, totally incomplete inside and always scrambling.
> ”Although, I can say your ears were pretty dang cute,”
He flushed and fumbled his scarf in front of his face.
"That- That was my first thought, the first time I saw you." So it was completely believable that Zaid had thought the same. And they both trod carefully around the subject of parents. Jude didn't know the circumstances about Zaid's parents, but Jude's had walked away and planted the first seed that he was unworthy and unwantable... disposable. So what Zaid said next resonated through Jude down to his chilly toes.
> "...It doesn’t matter how old you are sometimes. Everyone wants to be somebody. I think people just want to matter to someone...”
"Yeah. I mean yes. Absolutely! Everybody wants to be somebody, but it's even more difficult to recognize that everybody already is somebody. Off in their own little worlds, affecting those around them daily. Maybe people like you and me- maybe we can't change the world on our own. But we can choose who matters to us. And we can matter to each other. Our friends, our communities. Butterfly wings have to flap somewhere, right?" But even if he didn't matter like he had in his future dream, he had to believe that he would matter eventually to someone, somewhere.
And he'd totally gotten off on a tangent while the ramen orders took place. It was a quick turnaround, which was good because the next set of ramen hopefuls were starting to edge in for a look at the menu boards. Tonkotsu Ramen was what was announced when Jude's bowl arrived and the broth looked almost milky, it was so pale. A little round of pork and plenty of garnishes were made it picture-worthy. But even better, he got to eat it.
Zaid didn't waste a single moment. And the ears. They melted adorably in an echo of the curl of contentment Jude felt. This moment was nearly perfect.
"Say cheese." He held the camera out so the could both be in the shot and, though he caught Zaid mid-noodle, Jude was sure that only made the photo that much better. He did let Zaid see, but he would guard and protect that photo from deletion.
"I hear it's polite to slurp. Is that a thing?"
He slurped. How could he not? It was hot and every bit of fatty, salty goodness that he'd wanted.
Usa and Usagi. Jude tried to take mental note of things that he might want to look up later, but quickly realized that he was just going to have to ask because there were too many. "What's an usagi?" Jude had known that he would be an "invisible" mutant even before he'd been a mutant... until it hadn't exactly worked out that way.
"I wasn't born with my power active, but once it took hold it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out all the ups and downs. I kept getting stuck with other people ears and wings and tails. You name it, pile it on, and then blend it up." So, while he wasn't unused to being visibly marked as mutant or other, he'd absolutely never been accused of being cute. He'd been quite motivated to find a way out.
> ”I suppose France was more similar to American culture?"
"Uhhh. No." He laughed it off, but also scratched the back of his neck with sudden nerves. Okay, so maybe it was better to just say it. Sooner, rather than later. "I was in an orphanage until I was 9 and that's not... normal culture. I kept dreaming that I was going to be a mutant and be somebody important. To save the world. Kid dreams, you know?" Totally normal kid dreams, but in Jude's case they'd been taken up to eleven. Even as a child he'd been wildly aspirational. Add in a realistic shared predictive dream and... yeah. He'd long since stopped telling people he once had a dream about a future that never happened.
It took Jude's brain a few clicks to realize that he'd been linguistically left in the dust. He'd thought that he could keep up if it was about food, but native speakers were on a whole different level than he was as far as Japanese went. He smiled and let them talk while he made sure the dogs were settled. They were big enough that if they jumped up to the bar, he was sure they would have knocked the whole thing into the tiny kitchen behind. So the dogs both sat and then were asked to lay down.
Hey. At least his Russian was improving.
Eventually Zaid came back to English, roping Jude back into the conversation.
"That's so kind, thank you." He dipped his head, having picked up on the sort of micro-bows that had been going on in his household as he grew up. "Domo arigato."
As far as what he wanted to eat... "Totally helpful. I like the really fatty ones. And salty. Spicy is good too, but fatty is the best by far. Is that... duck?" From the picture, he thought it might be duck or pig meat. "Ehm. Would it bother you for me to eat meat?"
Something caught his sleeve and immediately Jude was at war. He hadn’t come out here to do charity. He couldn’t be distracted when his mission to find Chief was so urgent. Disgust and sympathy fought which stopped him in his tracks. He had been there. But there was the last place he wanted to be now.
Someone had tugged and the tug persisted. And… his power thrummed at his core. Mutant.
The people walking were not so plentiful that stopping on the sidewalk they made a scene. New York sidewalks ran like a chilly stream, unbothered by obstructions so long as there was ample room to squeeze by on either side. He could have kept walking. He could have pretended he didn’t notice.
But what if they’d taken his wallet?
He swung around to see a rag child. Uh. No, actually, the person was hunched and trying not to be as tall as they could. Easily, they could have hit six feet, but as they stood, they were nearly eye-to-eye at the upper end of five feet. Something, despite the size, screamed immature or incomplete about it… about… lavender eyes in a rainbow swirl of carapace.
”Chief?” He squeezed her hand and reached out for her hood, just to be sure. But he already knew. His borrowed power had been thrumming in his chest like a strummed guitar, resonating against the idea of Chief that he'd been trying to find.
Oh. Right. They really did do things differently in Japan. He might not have been, but both his adopted parents had spoken. "Oh so you were Wylde… chan?" He hadn’t really paid too close attention. Usually they spoke in Japanese to exclude him, specifically, from their conversations.
The ramen shop waited for them, a slender teal awning wedged between a flower shop and a asian convenience store. It may have been obvious to Zaid what it was by the signage, but Jude had wandered up to the standing-height bar the first time and asked. It had been the smells that lured him in.
It was the same this time. Even his non-bunny nose could pick out warming spices and salty sides. Jude sidestepped the bar-height table for now as it was housing three very squished ramen eaters who just barely made it work with their bowls and elbows. Luckily, they seemed close tot he ends of their bowls.
”Irasshaimase!”
"Hello!" It was hard not to marvel at the efficiency of movement in the tiny kitchen quarters. The menu was a chalkboard behind the lone old guy dressed in a happi coat to match the store’s awning. "Can you read any of that? Last time I just picked a number."
His ears were a tad chilly. His scarf only went up so far. "I was out for a bit to get in extra walking. Had to make sure the dogs wouldn't be too crazy. Should be fine once we get eating."
Honestly, he had debated about bringing Dammit and Reville, but decided that since they were the reason that Zaid and Jude had met, that they could be allowed to ease any potential tension. Also, the more outside time they got, the better behaved they were once inside. "I hope you don't mind the dogs. Still no word from bossman. I'm trying not to worry 'cause he's a big kid who can take care of himself, but it's also been a while."
And of course, the last name. He hadn't asked for no reason. "Zaid Wylde, I hex you to not attract trouble in the next hour." He nodded, satisfied. Poor Zaid's eye hadn't changed much in the last day. Jude resolved to come back with healing next time, should he have time to run back to the Mansion and snag the power again. "There. It takes a full name and very specific instructions. The tighter the time frame, the better the fulfillment. Bonus. Now you can't be hexed until you fulfil that one." One hour should cover a date, right? They could get into trouble after.
Jude worked to wrangle his power from escaping and considered his own last name. "Mine? It's nothing, really. On paper it's Csendes. Spelled with cs, but said with a ch? It's Hungarian and totally made up by adopted dad." It would have been so much easier to just call them mom and dad, but he never did. Never.
"My adopted dad was cool at first, but... ehhh." It was just too much to explain that he was a unicorn who'd tried to bring about an apocalypse. "He skipped out after a while, cheated, now he's off in Idaho or something last I heard." They had a couple of blocks to walk which gave them a little time to chat. Not enough time to explain an apocalypse, but ... a little time.
"I could go to my adopted mom's maiden name, but she's already re-engaged to someone else so I'll probably never be in synch with her anyway." Family was messy, even or maybe more so for adopted ones.
The wind gusted and Dammit seemed to be trying to bite back at it, which Jude thought funny, he didn't seem particularly bothered with any of what he was sharing.
"I think you mentioned you're living alone." That was the best way he could think to ask if his parents had passed without actually asking. Tact. He tried sometimes.
His nose was red and trying to run. That's what Jude got for taking the dogs on a walk first. He jogged up with his gray scarf and hair askew. He wasn't into this whole 'oversized' fashion trend, nor did he buy into the tiny bag (aka FANNY PACK) that guys were now wearing strapped across their chests. No, Jude was still mired in more classically tailored fashion: olive green trousers cuffed to show off his funky stegosaurus socks and brown chukkas as well as a well-fitting cream sweater and overcoat. New York was chilly, but really it was the wind that felt like it was getting to him.
Dammit and Revvie did not care one lick. They rushed in to share kisses with Zaid before Jude ever had a chance.
"Were you waiting long?" The dogs had gotten excited as soon as they'd scented Zaid and Jude'd had to jog more than he thought. He was currently trying not to huff or puff, though he very much wanted to.
"It's uh- It's an outside place? Jude eyed the clouds that were zipping by, pushed by strong and hair-mussing winds. "The old guy at the counter assured me that there's nothing better than hot ramen when you're out in the cold. Ready?" He offered an arm to Zaid and an leash. One dog each. Eventually he wouldn't have to walk these monsters, but the Ranger still had not come home or even out in the open.
"Oh. Uh, I realized I don't know your last name yet."
Don't be sorry. There was a chill in the air, but Jude felt a zing of warmth all the way down to his toes. Was it possible that he might have finally stumbled into someone who wouldn't immediately discard him? That smile said there might just be hope...
"Me? Intimidated?" He laughed out a soft whuff of chocolate-scented air and leaned down to seal the evening with a kiss. A good and proper bookend to how the evening had started...
Who was intimidated now?
"See you tomorrow, then." Cool guys didn't look at explosions as they walked away, but Jude wasn't that cool. He had to check at least once, from the open front door of the Honeycomb collective.
Tomorrow was too soon. He at least knew that much about the stupid, invisible, and unwritten rules of dating. So naturally, his big dumb mouth suggested tomorrow.
"I can meet you for dinner tomorrow?" Oof. He cringed at himself and what had to sound like overeagerness. Space was important to some people and some people needed time to figure out their feelings and stuff. That just wasn't Jude, though. He knew that he liked. He also knew he'd been burned before for being too much, too soon. "Or later in the week. I'll text. Or you can. I'm at a desk most days so I don't mind, I mean."
He was trying not to be... what he was. But that hadn't worked out last time, either. So, it needed to be a balance, then.
Jude sighed and let his forehead fall against Zaid's. The height difference made Zaid's ears tickle the top of his hair. "Sorry."
"Wha-No way would you drowned. Not with those legs. You could doggy paddle and be okay. Rabbit paddle?" All jokes aside, no one was drowning. Or even going skinny dipping, now that he thought about it.
"Well, yeah." Of course he'd gone skinny dipping... hadn't he? There was that hot tub in the limo... err... no he'd been wearing at least his underoos then. Hmmm. "Actually, I can't think of a specific time. I'm sure there's been at least once... isn't it very Japanese to take baths a lot? I guess it's like that. Relaxing."
And it wasn't like Jude was the posterboy for naked swimming. He had no skin in the game... but they were now at the end of the little front walk in front of the honeycomb collective.
"I had a great time tonight." Oh. There were the nerves. Talking about nudity? No big. Talking about a potential next date... suddenly he was all thumbs and his thumbs were still sticky from the chocolate. The natural conversational segway would be to suggest they go skinny dipping. Oh. Maybe that was why Zaid had turned pink.
He was fretting, chewing his lip and overthinking his options. So he just blurted the next idea that popped into his head. "Let's go get Ramen? Next time?"
Being in charge was awesome… until something went wrong. True to life, the trouble all hit at once. Zaid was a trouble magnet. The Ranger was off the map and some scary dudes had tried to sniff up any and all information they could about him while Jude did his best to keep them out of the more… sensitive information. Blackforest Tactical was balancing on the edge of a knife. He should be forgiven for missing the note about a missing club bouncer.
Except that club bouncer had been a better role model and friend to Jude than any of his fathers, real or adopted. He would never forgive himself if she was in trouble and he could have helped.
There was next to zero information to go off of. Chief didn’t show up to work. Being acting head of security gave Jude the permission needed to enter Haven and visit the surveillance area. They even let him review the security feed in the common areas, they let him poke about in her room. But as far as he could tell, she’d walked out the front door one day of her own volition. She’d planned to come back. She’d planned to carry on as normal.
Something had interrupted that normal.
So he did what any semi-desperate, power borrowing mutant would— He went to find Gwen, his secret hobo roomate of years past. She famously did not want to be found, but Jude didn’t harbor a fugitive for 5 years without learning a few things about her… one sandwich bribe and a high five later, he was navigating the trickiest power he’d ever used. Finding one single person in a city of millions was a needle in a haystack situation. Every mental presence was a distraction that threatened to tip his focus out of balance.
And then… then there was the fact that Chief, as he remembered her, couldn’t be found. Whatever metric Gwen’s power used looks or memory or… whatever… it was leading Jude around in circles.
He stuffed his scarf into his coat to guard better against the cold and wished that he’d remembered his gloves. Jude was sure she was alive. He was sure she was close. He would walk around and knock on doors if he had to.
He got some cantaloupe which was not an A-tier fruit in Jude's mind, but B-tier was still an acceptable vehicle for chocolate.
Why were swimsuits difficult? Jude’s deadbeat adopted dad had a tail. It never seemed to stop him, but then… he’d also been a sewing wizard, practically a tailor. Seriously. Why was Zaid turning red and making excuses to leave? Jude let himself get dragged up by the elbow while his fingers were still in his mouth. Not a drop of chocolate was going to waste here.
He chuckled as he accompanied Zaid to the front door with the bunny man’s arm in the crook of his elbow, and into the cool night air. And now that they were away from the Safe For Work stipulation, Jude had a very, very serious question to ask.
"Wait- Does this mean you've never gone skinny dipping?" How was that possible? Who wore clothes, like, all the time? Jude wished he’d had a chance to wash his hands, which felt sticky and unsuitable the moment they were up from the table.
He never dreaded these group meals until tonight. This one had him on edge. Between not wanting to look like a doof, not wanting Zaid to look like a doof, and inevitably feeling like a doof because Zee was there making faces. Derek was there, too, making equally passionate but totally opposite faces. There was a new guy on the first floor that Jude hadn't met yet, Depak, and a few other returners and friends.
All in all, it wasn't bad. Jude couldn't say what they'd talked about, exactly, but he remembered laughing a lot. And eating a lot. Like, a lot-a lot.
Eventually the meal had would down and most people had taken their plates and crock pots away. Jude was running his finger along the still toasty inside of a metal pan, enduring the heat to get the dregs of chocolate fondue out. And Depak had sort of goaded them into a SFW version of "I have never" so that they could get to know each other.
"Okay. I got one for you. I have never been back to the public library after my first visit. I lost my book. I guess I couldn't handle the shame of returning?"
"Are you kidding? It's not a big deal. You just pay for the book's value so the library can replace it. Although, I have never let a book even be overdue at the library." Jude grabbed around with his free hand for whatever fruit might be left. Was there fruit left? Or had they finished it all? "Did you try any of this, Zaid? It's good."
He meant it, otherwise the hex would have persisted. The bubble taste faded quickly. It wasn't that Jude doubted that he meant it, but he was... new. To this kind of romance. To the idea of romance at all, again. It'd been more than a year since his last date and he hadn't gotten a kiss until much, much later into their relationship. This was fast. Quick like a bunny.
Jude might have stayed longer than was polite, except that Zaid seemed to be melting. At first, mildly alarmed, Jude pulled back to find the threat.
Turned out that Jude was the threat. And he was rewarded with the promise of another date. Maybe a more traditional one, where they were both a little more secure in their knowledge of what might be.
"I'd like that."
"Anyone left up there? We're about to start!"
They didn't have to go down. It was tempting to suggest otherwise. Instead, Jude cleared his throat and leaned past Zaid to grab the plate of sliders again.
