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 Rupert Kelley on Jul 23, 2018 20:30:48 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
"She… blew up?" 'Or something.' This was Rupert's or something facial tick.
>> "Our base is at Xavier's. I can mirrorhop back there on my own, thanks. We have a healer... well, he doesn't really heal me anymore, which is his way of trying to keep me less reckless, but I bet he can save me the stitches."
That she could get back on her own wasn't much of a surprise. And it was good she could, because he'd made the offer without remembering something a little vital: he didn't own a car, here. The other guy had car keys, but he had no idea where it was parked, and no valid driving license. Sure he could use the other guy's, but for all he knew they drove on the left and red meant go around here. And even no one else cared, he would know that he was driving illegally. Not something he was going to do.
"What's Xavier's?" Kind of sounded like a restaurant, or a night club. His eyes tracked that second cookie. He wasn't going to say anything, but he was going to judge.
>> "So, what's your plan now, being stuck on this side?"
"Short term, I'm going to find a coffee shop, and start reading the news. Assuming my phone can even hook up to wifi around here." He ran a hand through his hair. "Long term? Get back on the force. Us humans can't just up and join the vigilante squad. A friend—one of the other guy's friends, I guess—is helping me volunteer at some community projects, too." What was the place's name, again? Sanctuary, or Haven? One of them was the homeless shelter and one of them was the organization—he couldn't remember which was which, and he doubted Maya would recognize either name. The X-Men on his side weren't the type to put in hours in a soup kitchen, and the ones over here didn't sound any different. "I guess I'll see you at… work."
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 22, 2018 13:26:42 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
Rupert picked up another cookie—much less ridiculously hot—and used it to point at the mirrorwalker's smug smile.
"Can it. I'm still getting used to how things work around here, all right? I am going to tentatively," another cookie gesture, "tentatively assume that someone somewhere wasn't a total idiot when they approved the deputization thing. Or under the effect of mind controlling pheromones, or something."
That kind of thing happened with just enough regularity that every time a politician changed their stance on an issue, their competitors jumped on the chance to accuse them of being under a mutant's control. Did that happen over here, too? Eh, he'd find out during the next election.
Maya explained the deputization process. It was both more and less appalling than he'd feared. Throwing kids in hadn't worry him, because he hadn't even thought about that until she raised the point. Having cops on the team was an excellent point in their favor, unless said cops had retired right before Internal Affairs caught up to them. He'd have to snoop around on that a little. And that whole 'not every X works with the police' was just a round about way of saying 'some of us are still flaunting our illegal activities even though there's a clear path to doing this on the up-and-up'. He'd have to check out what the other cops thought of that.
This place looked like NYC, but that was just making it harder for him to wrap his head around how different it was. He might as well be in a foreign country, trying to re-learn culture.
"Yeah, I'm human. Mere mortal sitting over here." Trying to process all this. "Do you… need a ride to the hospital, or back to wherever your base is, or something?"
Rupert totally missed the irony that, back in his world, 'hospital' and 'X-Men base' would have been redundant.
When Rupert spoke briefly of what he'd left behind, Maya's face… twitched. And he knew, on some instinctual level transmitted by the universal Rupert unconsciousness, that he never wanted to know what thought had caused that twitch. There was not enough liquor in this apartment to deal with it.
It was much more fun to talk shop. On the occasions he'd had the pleasure of ranting at Mirage, she'd usually ducked out of the mirror with a smirk before he could win that argument.
And he could win this argument. Because he was right.
"One," Rupert replied, copying her, "Anonymous evidence, as long as it's actual evidence, works just fine. Two, the government functions at the whim of the people. Prove that the government is doing experiments on kids, get it on the evening news and the morning talkshows, and the same people who authorized things behind closed doors are going to trip over themselves trying to point fingers at the next best scapegoat. And three, maybe if the X's weren't terroristic vigilantes, we could have… admitted their testimony in… shit."
If they weren't vigilantes. Like… if they were deputized. Please don't have her follow that train of thought. He did not need her snark on top of his self-defeat.
He pointed a finger at her. "What do they even do to get you qualified as deputies? You better not just slap on a badge."
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 19, 2018 14:20:15 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
The guy was laughing. Laughing a lot. …Still laughing.
Yep.
Rupert's eyebrows climbed up his forehead by slow degrees, and he started seriously wondering if the other Rupert had been on to something with that Tarin-gun. Was this guy… a little off his rocker? Actually dangerous, somehow? He hadn't exactly been handed a user manual with this new life of his, but he was starting to think that if they other him had literally left a gun with someone's name on it, he should maybe take that as a clue next time.
He wasn't a cop yet, in this world. The interview had gone well enough, but he wasn't in yet. HR needed some time to figure out whether he was an American citizen or an illegal immigrant from another dimension.
No cop status meant no service weapon. No permit to carry, either. And none of the ones in front of him were either legal or loaded, he'd made sure of that.
The guy was winding down. And staring at the box of guns, which was less reassuring than it could be.
"You… doing all right, there?"
>> ”I hope you don’t think I’m touching any of that with a ten foot pole. Those need dropped off on the doorstep of the cold cases department in the dead of night...while wearing a ski mask so nobody knows you dropped them off.”
"Fuck no, I'm not taking a fall for your guy. I just got here. These are going straight to the station." Open and honest, and if they wanted to try pinning anything on him–
"Did you just say cold cases?"
He'd suspected. Box of guns, and all. But having someone else put it that way, like Tarin expected him to be just as numb to it as the medium clearly was, that was a whole new level.
"Anything you need to tell the police, Mr. Brooks? If you were such special friends, I'm sure he told you all sorts of things."
Or maybe the guy had helped. But not even Rupert was stupid enough to say that out loud to the mutant's face. No, he'd just mention it at the station as he turned these in.
He nudged the box a little more to Tarin's side of the counter. "You need to… work your voodoo, or whatever… and make sure I don't turn the station into Poltergeist III when I drop this off. There's been some weird things—"
A crystal ball hit the floor behind them, and smashed.
She wrinkled her nose at him. Like a disapproving bunny rabbit. He wrinkled his brows right on back.
"What, is this the part where we trade sob stories? I didn't leave behind a wife and five kids, if that's what you were getting at. I did leave behind a girlfriend who's probably still waiting for a cop to knock on our door and tell her they found my body, a mom who needed a ride to her oncology appointment on Tuesday, and literally everyone else I've ever known. So can the nose wrinkles, Bugs."
And then she as good as admitted that yeah, in fact, she had wracked up a few crimes that he'd never be able to prosecute her for. Attacks on government facilities—B&E and property damage at the least, and he'd be damn surprised if there'd been no physical assaults on the staff in the process.
Rupert set his elbows on the table, and rubbed at his temples. "Yes, I think we can both agree that rescuing children is a noble goal. Just tell me—in between that and patting yourself on the back, did you or dear Mirage even once bother to present your evidence to the police? Because my department has been working around the fucking clock to get an actual warrant on those places. You know, so we could implicate their leadership, follow the trail back up to the top, get real changes done instead of doing a smash-and-grab raid that lets them play the victim and rile up more support for anti-mutant measures as they set up a new lab down the street? How many new eleven-year-olds do you think they have by now? Fucking vigilantes."
The way he said it, 'vigilante' was the worse insult.
The whiskey bottle was tempting. Really tempting. Rupert shoved a cookie in his mouth, instead. Tasted like chocolate, caramel, and burned taste buds.
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 18, 2018 16:29:50 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
There was a very distinct pause as the shop's proprietor pushed aside a curtain from the back room, and stared at him with bleary eyes. It was a look Rupert was starting to recognize, a kind of curious 'who's there' that got immediately snuffed out on sight of him. The Oh, it's Rupert look.
Rupert was getting a little sick of that look. So if his own face took on a little Yeah, it's me, whatcha gonna do about it? disgruntlement, excuse him.
"Lee and—" Confusion for half a second. Then he snorted. "Are you her ex? What, did you and the other guy bond over scotch in the deadbeats club?"
As far as he knew, the other Rupert hadn't managed to reproduce. It said good things about the intelligence level of this world's women, really. But there was more than one way to be a deadbeat, and this Rupert was pretty sure that the other guy had been playing bingo with them.
Time to nip this in the bud.
"Listen. You heard there was a whole dimensional rift thing? About yea big, open for a year, snapped shut one day without giving any polite warning?" He pointed at himself. "Different Rupert. Don't know where yours is. But hey, while we're on the subject," he reached into the box, "I think these were for you, Mr. Brooks."
He dropped the box of Tarin Brooks ammo on the counter, along with its matching gun.
"Still illegal on this side, huh? Then none at all, Deputy."
Deadpan, meet deadpan. Rupert sat down, and poured a glass for himself. Alcohol, much like pot cookies, was perfectly healthy in moderation.
Giving a mirrorwalker tips on how to cause more trouble: much more of a threat. At least to his mental health.
Her not inconsiderable pause over the very concept of him dating also gave him and eye tick on the other guy's behalf.
>> "So... you left someone on the other side?"
"I left everyone on the other side. That's... kind of how it works."
He downed the rest of his glass, then slid his cup away. The bottle, too. That would be way too easy of a habit to get into. He'd seen what it did to the other guy's life. If he was going to hate on himself, there were more productive ways to go about it.
Like cooking an entire batch of cookies for himself.
"What'd you get up to on the other side? Wrack up any outstanding warrants?"
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 17, 2018 10:07:40 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
Of course she laughed. She was the alternate universe reflection of his half-lesbian cross-dresser. Mirage like to take a laugh at him, too.
Rupert dug out the aspirin, and seriously contemplated taking one for himself before handing them over.
But like she said, whiskey was a fine substitute.
Outside the bathroom, the apartment was just about clean. The trash had been bagged up and dragged to the dumpster (ten bags. Ten), the dirty clothes had been washed, and were sitting in a laundry basket on the couch waiting to be folded. The carpet was still a little squishy around the edges from its shampooing. He'd even consolidated the other guy's booze supply from 'within arm's reach of every seat in the apartment' to 'neatly lined up on top of the fridge'.
He grabbed a flower-print oven mitt, and opened up the oven. The smell of chocolate cookies with caramel chips wafted out. Whatever else had been wrong with this guy, Rupert couldn't fault his pantry. The kitchen was stocked like a chef preparing for the apocalypse.
He got them on a rack to cool—"Touch those if you want molten caramel on your skin"--and reached up for the booze. He didn't know any of these brands, but so he just grabbed one, and trusted in the other guy not to buy from the bargain bin.
"So, exactly how much of this do I have to feed you to get a truce? I do not need another prankster leaving lipstick on my mirror. The inside of my mirror. You know how hard that is to explain to a date?" Pretty damn hard. Especially when all his guilty wiping didn't even smudge it.
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 16, 2018 16:07:15 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
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Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
Ah, the ol' smile-then-glare as she caught his little barb. Score one for the other universe.
"If hot chocolate is the worst this place has to throw at me, I think I'll survive."
It was the kind of thing a person shouldn't say out loud. This universe or the other, a wise man didn't dare reality to do its worst. But that was a problem for another day.
Right now, right here, this Rupert could relax a little. The coffee was terrible, but the company was good. And hey, at least he didn't owe her child support.
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 16, 2018 15:19:27 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
Lee had that look on her face. It was a look he new from co-workers, friends, family: the little patient smile of there he goes again.
If he'd had any doubt before, that would have sealed the deal: Lee Smith was well familiar with Ruperts.
Apparently hers had been louder, though. And did he catch the subtle implication that she hadn't agreed with all of the other guy's rants?
>> “But yes, I can help get you set up volunteering at the Sanctuary if you wanted. They always need people to help out. And I could check out whether Haven has any volunteer needs, see what you can do there.”
He smiled another one of those unguarded smiles. "That would be great. Thank you—I mean it. You show up at my door, and the first thing I do is yell at you, but then you help me talk through all this weirdness, and now you're helping me get on my feet here. I hope the other Rup knew what he had in you. You're a pretty amazing woman, Ms. Smith." He flashed a grin. "Even if you do have terrible taste in coffee."
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 16, 2018 15:04:07 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
The X-Leader was a he here. He wasn't going to get his hopes up, but maybe, just maybe, that meant no more laser beam eyes. He'd never done much with physics in college, but even he got a facial twitch just thinking about laser beam eyes. How did that work? At least mirrorwalking was so off the wall it wrapped back around to magic. But laser beam eyes? Weren't eyes basically made of sclera-wrapped goop? Why didn't their eyes explode when they super-heated them?
>> "I assume you met Mirage then, huh?"
"I know to keep my mirrors covered at night so I don't get woken up by vindictively off-key singing, yeah. Just didn't know I had to do it here, too. I hope she didn't give you any tips when you were over there." Rupert gave the woman the stink eye, because he suddenly knew, as surely as the sun rose in the East (…it still rose in the East, right?), that she deserved it. "Or did she come over here? Thought she was still stuck in that mirror, but it's not like we send each other Christmas cards."[/color]
Except for that one time. They didn't talk about that one time.
"And what do you mean, a Maya day? Please don't tell me you name them all, not even Mirage is that bad."
Out in the kitchen, a timer cheerfully dinged!
Rupert started flushing a slow red.
"Okay, don't laugh, but… my cookies are done. You, ah, want one?"
He'd rented a carpet shampooer yesterday, but the poodle had been locked inside for who knew how many days. So he'd taken to clearing out the lingering dog smell the way any man would: through copious baking.
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 16, 2018 14:24:17 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
>> "I walked through the looking glass."
Rupert looked blank for all of two seconds. Then it clicked.
If snark had a baby with chronic depression, that would just about describe his voice.
"Half-lesbian. Because half the time you're a guy. ****ing mirrorwalkers. Let me guess: you've got some classical art on your walls, your codename starts with 'M', and you knocked up the X-Leader. Lovely to meet you, Deputy. Great to have you on this side of the law."
>> "What, the Danger Room? That's for powers training. I mean, I'm sure you can get an appointment if you go through MRC. Some people on the teams overlap, you know."
"All right. First off: whoever you let name things around your base, fire them. Second: I am going to play laser tag in there. Just try and stop me. We can do Cops v. Robbers." He smirked. "Sorry—Cops v. X-Men."
If only one good thing could come of this whole universe switch, then holodeck access wasn't too bad a consolation prize.
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 16, 2018 10:20:48 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
>> "Just don't download any porn. I'm sure your side has better porn too anyway."
She sure had a mouth on her. "No worries," he said, trying to figure out which of these icons was the browser, "I'll make sure to go through your stash, first. Gotta find something you'd enjoy."
Oh, there it was. The colorful segmented circle thingie. Because that screamed 'web browser'. On his phone, it was the cute Ooogle Overlord Spider, with its adorable all-seeing eyes.
So many eyes.
>> "Oh, boo-hoo. At least our government is not funding an active hate group like SUPER"
"No, yours is just taking people who've already shown a flagrant disregard for the law and giving them the power to arrest their fellow citizens. Can't see how that would go wrong."
The keyboard layout on her phone was different. Why was the 'e' there? Whatever. Search: X-Men Deputies.
…This was a thing, yeah. The kind of thing that made him taste bile in the back of his mouth, but he was just going to have to swallow it. New world, new laws. If he wanted to be a cop here, he was going to have to learn them. Couldn't work on getting them changed until he knew what they were. Rupert let out a breath, and handed her phone back.
"Congratulations. You're no longer under arrest. Though you could be, if I wanted to press charges. Or do deputies give themselves a free pass on breaking and entering? And seriously, how did you get in?"
He could think of a few ways: teleporter, quantum tunneler, please-not-a-mirror-walker. But that was the thing about mutations; there were so many, it could literally be anything.
Her… compliments… for his other self were the most back-handedly affectionate things he'd ever heard. As was her comment for him.
>> " You look like a... uh, less run down version of him?"
"Thanks. I hear he was having trouble with his maintenance. Wheezy intake values, limping suspension, don’t even get me started on the extra mileage. Should've bought the warranty." He deadpanned the words. They deserved deadpanning. He pushed the poodle away from the shirt again, while he was at it.
>> "But I'm telling you, the X-men on this side ain't that bad. They are not even bad on your side, really. They just got really bad rep."
And that told him exactly where her ethical standards were at. If he took her word that the X-Men on his side were about the same as the ones here, then that meant it her very idea of justice that was out of whack. He really needed to look into this more, see what kind of history this world had that made people accept deputizing rogue vigilantes as a good idea. 'Cause off the top of his head, he couldn't think of any unambiguously good things that would come of—
"Wait. If the X-Men work with the police, then police work with the X-Men too, right? So… does that mean we get to play in that training room of yours? The one with the crazy future-tech holograms and the robots and the other crazy stuff?" He gestured a little dramatically as he tried to wrap his head around that place.
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 16, 2018 9:18:59 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
>> "The bra is already toast. And I ain't playing on your team anyway."
Well there was the lesbian. He still wasn't sure why she was half-lesbian. Wouldn't that just make her bi?
>> "…We are deputized by the MRC. Mutant Related Crimes unit. We mostly get called in when the cops can't handle someone's powers."
Deputized.
They'd been…
"Deputized? They ***ing legalized you?"
Which meant that right now, she had more legal powers than he did. And he'd been a cop for eighteen years. He didn't want to pull the 'I was arresting people while you were in drinking juice boxes' line, but there was something fundamentally wrong with this situation.
The worst part was, he could almost see the sense of it: being able to call in mutant backup would have been a literal lifesaver back home, and he figured it was the same way here. But over on his side of things, they still had moral standards, they still believed in what they did, they didn't just go around deputizing people who'd put themselves above the law. Those were exactly the kind of people you did not want to hand official powers to.
The wall of the tub wasn't too far behind him. He slumped back against it, his head banging a little on the tiles.
"Bandage is as good as it's getting. Can I borrow your phone? My data plan doesn't exist over here."
>> "So, how come you're dog-sitting for the other Rupert? Did you guys bond over hating mutants and decided to move in together or something?"
Rupert peeled off his bloody gloves, and tossed those in the tub, too. "While I'm willing to reconsider my stance on a case-by-case basis," a pointed stare at her, "I don't hate mutants. What I hate is people trying to put themselves so far above the law that they're lording it over the rest of us like kids burning ants with a magnifying glass. The mafia does it. The X-Men do it. And all the rest of us shmucks, law-abiding mutants included, get stuck putting out their fires."
"As far as I know, the other Rupert is either over on my side of the rift being an asshole to a whole 'nother universe, or he's dead in a ditch over here. All I know is he left his poodle, his gun, and enough liquor to fill this bathtub. He was such a charmer, his landlady didn't even care he was gone. I think her words were, 'Your name's on the lease, I don't care who you are as long as you pay the rent.' I—Oh, eww. Dog, no. Stop licking that."
He nudged the poodle away from Maya's bloody shirt with his foot. And now he was going to have to give the dog a bath. And re-clean the whole bathroom. Great.
Posted by Rupert Kelley on Jul 15, 2018 20:27:50 GMT -6
Haven
Member of Haven
Bi
822
9
Aug 29, 2018 17:15:00 GMT -6
Calley
They were going to have to agree to disagree about her world's sub-par coffee. Rupert took another sip of his cup. It was getting a little cold now, which added a whole new level of lukewarm awful into the mix. At this point, it was like eating some foreign food a friend got him as a souvenir: he was just taking on good faith that he wasn't drinking caffeine-flavored chemicals mixed with rat poison.
Lee went into shock at the mere idea of him helping out. It was actually a little alarming to watch. Was it a cultural thing? Did people over here not… just ask to volunteer? Maybe it was a recommendation system, or they had laws against unpaid labor, or… or you could only ask on Tuesdays. How would he know?
Or was the idea of someone named 'Rupert Kelley' wanting to help really capable of reducing a charming and eloquent woman to stammering?
The latter, apparently.
>> ”I know you’re not the same man I knew, but it’s just surprising to hear that. A nice surprise, don’t get me wrong, but it is a surprise."
His lips twitched. A surprise, huh? "Yeah. I kind of gathered."
Good to hear the stammering fading. He'd only broken her brain temporarily, not permanently. And this was one of the other Rupert's friends. Man, it was going to be hilarious running into the people who really didn't like the guy.
"I really am interested, though. Back on the other side… I'm guessing you've probably heard some things, but it wasn't good for mutants. And that's the thing about it: it's not just about mutants, right? Because the x-gene seems to be getting more common, and even the most die-hard card-carrying mutant hater could end up with a mutant son, or nice, or granddaughter. It's not humans or mutants, it's the future of our whole society. But here we've got politicians putting laws in place that basically lock you into a lower quality of life, and it doesn't even make any sense. If they want to stop mutant crime, the worst thing they can do is make it harder for mutants to find good jobs, to feel accepted by their community. That's how you drive people to commit crimes, and we are not equipped to deal with mutant crimes, not without getting more mutants on the force. But we can't, because they can barely make it past HR's screening, and some of the best candidates aren't even applying because they grew up thinking the police were the bad guys. And don't even get me started on those places that experiment on people, please tell me you don't have any of those here. I mean, we don't have any of them officially, but I've heard one too many rumors saying exactly the same thing, if you know what I mean. American citizens disappearing off the street? Once we start letting that happen to one group, who's next?"
He took in a breath. Let it out. Gave a little self-conscious sideways smile. "Sorry. I can kind of get on a rant, if you let me get started. Usually someone at work would have thrown something at me by now. But yeah, I'd love to volunteer. I'm trying to build up my social network from scratch, over here. This 'Haven' sounds like exactly the sort of people I should hang out with."
