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.
(( OOC: I’m jumping the gun a little bit on this thread to introduce some power upgrades that will come out of Everybody wants to be a cat, since this thread is happening after that one. I will get around to explaining them all, but short form: Sonya/Teresa is stronger, faster, and has better senses than she used to, and her personality has changed somewhat. ))
About twenty-five feet away from the park bench Sonya/Teresa is sitting – or perhaps “crouching” is a better word? – on, a vole is burrowing in the ground. She can’t see it, but the sounds are unmistakable. About thirty feet past that three squirrels are fighting over something… a cache of nuts, from the smell of it. Two of them are chuffing loudly at each other, the third is watching quietly… waiting for its chance, she assumes.
About thirty yards away, a couple of teenagers are making out in the bushes. Them, she can actually see… or glimpse, anyway… though mostly she is aware of their progress by smells and sounds. She licks her lips unconsciously, concentrating her attention on the girl’s breathing, the boy’s heartbeat, the RING!whatinthehell was that who turned up the ringerRING!so damned high I thought I’d turned it down andRING!okayokay shut up already I’m answering "What do you want?!??!?"
Sonya responds to both the angry glare and the subsequent submission with the same blank, vaguely curious expression. Sure, this woman might strike out if balked, but the prospect doesn’t frighten her as much as she’s pretty sure it would have once… it might even be an interesting challenge.
Lead, huh? Neat. Easier to find then Kryptonite, anyway. Of course, she might be lying… that’s certainly what Sonya herself would do, faced with that kind of demand. Then again, Sonya wouldn’t have admitted to her real powers in the first place... and in fact, she hadn’t. (Indeed, it seems to be a tradition… Calley hadn’t fully disclosed his own, either, and Syn has never actually said what hers are. Sonya supposes it’s rather a lot like a first date… a certain amount of lying is expected. She’s not sure why she’d made such a fuss over it with Calley.)
Come to that, Sonya has no particular reason to believe the woman is as powerful as she claims, either, and as before it really doesn’t matter… all she’d really needed was plausible deniability, and now she has it.
"Sure thing, sweetheart. Can you teleport us over if I tell you where to go? Or should we rely on more conventional transportation?"
Of course, she’s right… there’s no reason for her to believe anything this woman says. But she would like some level of plausible deniability, if this self-styled goddess of chaos turns out to be danger to the Order or the Resistance.
Besides which, for all of the woman’s attitude, she’s the one asking Sonya for a favor, and Sonya intends to extract a price for it.
> “Now when can we leave?”
"Just as soon as you let me know what those limitations I’m supposed to rely on are."
Sonya/Teresa’s eyes widen a little at Katran’s summary of her powers… if she’s not just bragging for effect, she sounds pretty much godlike. Good person to have on our side, I suppose… though she’s no longer naïve enough to expect that to mean much of anything. She had said it herself, a moment before: the Order wasn’t a social club.
I wonder if she’s going to try to take over? Not that that affects Sonya much; either way her position is fairly secure. And who knows? Maybe Syn can use Katran to take down Hunter, solve a lot of problems all at once.
> “We need to be serious about the threats we face, and show the humans who's in charge.”
"Sing it, sister! Maybe with a heavy hitter like you on board we can finally make this raid on the Camps we keep talking about." Not that she really cares that much anymore…. sure, sooner or later they’d have to rise up and crush the Camps, but much like Katran’s potential for mutiny, it doesn’t have much effect on Sonya herself.
She shakes her head to dispel a strange feeling, like double-vision of the mind’s eye. She knows perfectly well that, mere days earlier, she’d been a lot more concerned about the Camps and the state of the mutants in them, impatient and outraged at how the Resistance was delayed. And she knows nothing significant had changed in the world… which meant something had changed in her own mind.
Who knows? Maybe Calley left some of his me-first attitude behind in there. Whatever caused it, Sonya can’t imagine going back to being her old self… after all, what had all that worrying about other people ever gotten her, besides shot at?
Her internal ruminations are interrupted by Katran’s explanation of how her mysterious abductor had psychologically conditioned her, which does nothing to alleviate her worries. If she’s as powerful as she says she is, she might take the Labs out altogether, eliminate the Resistance in one fell swoop. Not that most of them would be much of a loss, but it would look bad if Sonya was the one to bring her in. Might make her enemies she really doesn’t need.
> “So, when can I get... 'reaquainted'?"
Sonya frowns and sucks air through her teeth. "So, here’s the thing. You basically just told me that you have pretty much unlimited power, and that some mysterious figure just got finished brainwashing you and sent you out into the world… conveniently, at the same time that half of the mutants in New York are gathered together in one, increasingly cramped, secret location. Can you think of any reason for me to believe that whoever your mysterious captor is didn’t turn you into some kind of anti-mutant brainwashed time bomb, primed to destroy the Resistance with your godlike abilities?"
> "…anyone in the quote, unquote posse would know me, and probably > not like me. I'm fairly hard to get along with and somewhat cold."
Sonya/Teresa allows herself a tight-lipped smile at that. Something about Katran’s delivery suggests that she’s not being self-effacing, merely accurate. She shrugs noncommittally in response. "As far as I know, we have no plans to start a social club any time soon. As long as you’re useful and not more trouble than you’re worth, you can be the biggest b---h that ever delivered a litter for all I care."
> "Basically, if you can imagine it physically, I can do it physically. > It's that simple really. I bend the laws of nature to the point before > breaking them completely..."
She frowns thoughtfully, unsure whether that was an honest attempt at an answer, or an evasion. Either way, it was a bit on the vague side. " I have a pretty active imagination, Katran… it would help to be more specific. Are you faster than a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings in a single bound, bend steel in your bare hands? Can you induce heart attacks from a distance? Transmute killer robots into harmless bunny rabbits? "
Her eyebrows go up in curiosity as she listens to Katran’s recounting of her abduction, torture, and release. "He let you go? That’s… interesting."
Sonya’s fairly sure Katran isn’t lying – not that she’s in any position to know for sure, of course – but her story arouses suspicion. An unknown enemy kidnaps an Order operative, tortures her for six weeks, and returns her to the Order… why? Maybe he just got bored… or maybe she escaped and is being modest about it… but it’s more likely that he has some plan in mind. Has Katran been turned into some kind of traitor?
Well, if she has, that can cut both ways… we can trace her actions, find out who her mysterious captor is. That telepath Syn recruited, Ash, might come in handy. Of course, Sonya herself could access Katran’s psyche directly, but without knowing more about the mutant woman’s capabilities and mental state that’s extremely risky.
"Well, anyway… you’ve gotten back in touch. Congratulations." She scratches her cheek idly with a thumb and adds "So, you have two choices. I can bring you in to our current home away from home, where you can get reacquainted with all your old pals… catch is, it’s somebody else’s “house.” We’re there on sufferance, they make the rules. " She lets her face show her own feelings about that option. "Or I can give Syn a call – she’s running the show, these days – and have her make this all official and stuff but keep you active on the outside. Your call."
> "Now that you know me, may I ask what your power is Teresa?"
"Costs nothing to ask..." Sonya/Teresa smiles, then shrugs. "Like the song says: I get knocked down, I get back up again. Comes in handy on recruitment runs like this one… last time, couple of trigger-happy bodyguards put a couple of rounds through my spine."
It’s a funny thing: when it happened, and for a couple of days afterwards, Sonya remembers she’d been a basket case. Looking back on it, though, she can’t understand why. Sure, it had hurt, but she’d made such a fuss about it! Come to think of it, she’s not sure why she let the guards live, either. Not that there’d been any overwhelming reason to kill them, granted, but why leave prey alive once the hunt is over?
Not for the first time, she feels as though she’d been a completely different person back then. Which probably has something to do with her newfound strength, speed, and senses, too… though she doesn’t think too much about those.
Sonya suspects she’s being overly cautious, perhaps even paranoid, but after the fiasco that her last “recruitment” mission turned into she supposes she’s entitled. She’s been sitting in Java Express(o) since 10:15, wearing a variety of different bodies, keeping an eye on the ebb and flow of customers.
At 10:55 she is wearing an elderly black woman eating a fruit salad, watching a twentysomething brunette order some coffee. When that brunette takes “Gone with the Wind” out, Sonya takes a last look around to satisfy herself that none of the other customers are likely to be bodyguards, secret agents, or anything along those lines. Of course, she can’t be certain, but she can at least be cautious.
She finishes her fruit and heads to the rest room, which is conveniently empty. A few seconds later she walks back out wearing Teresa’s body and sits down smoothly across from her. "Katran, I assume? Hi. I’m Teresa."
Sonya still can’t get over how much clearer her senses have been the last few days, or how much stronger and quicker “Teresa” is. She doesn’t understand how, but it seems that some of the physical capabilities of Sara’s body have stayed with her, even though the template itself is long gone. It’s a little overpowering, actually; now that she’s wearing Teresa’s body it’s like she can smell every roasting coffee bean, every bag of tea, every sprinkle of fake cinnamon in the entire store.
She sets it aside, though, and concentrates on the woman across the table from her. "So, you want to get re-acquainted with your old posse? Reasonable enough. Except, you understand, things are a little different now, what with the unexpected building renovations and our, shall we say, more aggressive relationship with the state. We need to be careful who we trust how far." She leans casually against the fake leather seat. "Suppose you start by telling me what you can do, and where you’ve been since you left?"
Sonya/Doug keeps her eyes locked on Iris’ in what has somehow become an impromptu staring contest. At first, it had seemed like the woman was feeling guilty over having added insult to Sara’s pre-existing injury, but after a moment that disappears, leaving only a smug, stubborn expression, and Sonya assumes she’d mis-read it.
Sonya still has trouble understanding people like her. OK, sure, mutants are scary – she gets that. Her own initial reaction to Sara hadn’t been especially polite, either. But to add degradation like that to a helpless prisoner, for no reason, and then to not even have the good grace to be embarrassed by it… she doesn’t get that. What did Sara ever do to you? Don’t you have real enemies you can harass?
Of course, there’s really not much she can do about it, other than keep her eyes on the potential troublemaker, which she does.
After a few minutes of this she decides it’s time to go back to patrolling the mutants, so she turns away… and trips over something on the ground and falls over flat on her butt.
Great. I’m sure that made a very dramatic impression, she thinks, getting back up to her feet.
For a brief terrifying moment Sonya is afraid she’s going to accidentally shift forms right there in public. Sara’s psyche is suffused with a primal and non-negotiable refusal to be caged unlike anything she’s ever before experienced. Intelligent, yes, but… uncooperative.
Fortunately for Sonya’s continued imposture, she was prepared for it. After all, it wasn’t that long ago she wasn’t able to keep a template latent at all, and she doesn’t take the ability for granted, and after a brief period of private mental struggle she manages to force Sara’s template into a latent state. Still, it doesn’t feel entirely safe or stable, and Sonya makes a mental note to let this template fade as soon as possible.
During all this internal struggle, Sonya is mostly unaware of the activity of the crowd and the male inmates. She becomes slightly more aware of it when the crowd activity, in the form of an over-ripe avocado, collides with Sara’s face… which in turn triggers another silent battle, as the fragment of Sara in her head demands vengeance.
Sonya/Doug remains still and self-absorbed while a new inmate – something-or-other Thorn, strong and fast and a shifter, a little like Kaz, if she remembers her inspection of the Registration DB correctly – comes to Sara’s assistance and both are shocked into submission. When she finally regains enough self-control to do so, she walks quickly away from both of them before they give Sara-in-her-head some new provocation.
Meanwhile, the two civilian groups have gotten louder and more active, which is very much not a good thing, but fortunately gives the Doug part of her mind something to concentrate on. "All right, break it up before I have to start arresting people!" she roars at the crowd.
She mostly addresses Dougself to the pro-mutant crowd to avoid further inflaming their more volatile opponents, but makes a point of glaring pointedly at the woman Sara had given the finger to, who she assumes was the initial avocado-flinging troublemaker, and communicating a non-verbal I’m keeping my eye on you as best as she can.
> “Yeah there are a couple I’ve noticed, who like to try and play hero. I’ll see what we got.”
Sonya/Doug snorts at that. "Heroes just get people killed… usually themselves. What we need are leaders. But anyway… do what you can. I’ll do my best to give you some warning."
One of the interesting consequences of interacting with Sara as much as she has lately, Sonya realizes, is that her animal phobia no longer seems to be registering. Which isn’t too surprising, when she stops to think about it – what she’s been scared of really all along is being trapped in a stupid body again, and Sara is clearly anything but that.
In fact, it occurs to her that Sara’s body could be extremely useful to her… fast, strong, agile, tough. Assuming she can even imprint on a mutant body, but she can’t see why it wouldn’t work… she’s learned how to maintain multiple forms, after all, and it’s not like Sara’s got any magic powers. An unusual body, yes, but it’s a body made of flesh and blood, just like anybody else’s.
What the hell. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. "And thanks for listening." She sticks a hand out, steeling herself to not change bodies right away or show any reaction to the imprinting.
Sonya thinks about it for a second, then nods. "Yeah, actually. When the Resistance makes its move it’s going to have to move fast; it will help if the inmates are organized to take advantage of the opportunity. Obviously nobody’s really going to trust me, so we need you all to work out some kind of internal organization so that when the moment comes, we can get the word out quickly and people can know where to go to get extracted, and that sort of thing.
I figure you probably already have some internal organization in place – your friend Michael seemed pretty clear about being important, for example – and I don’t need to know what it is or how it works, but I need to know that you’re using it to prepare… we’re only going to get one chance at this.
But, also, be careful… I know you don’t trust any of the humans, but don’t think you can trust a mutant just because he’s a mutant, either. You never know what kinds of deals people will make for better treatment. But I figure you probably know who you can trust among the inmates better than I do, anyway."
Doug nods. " Anti-lice shampoo and antisceptics… got it. " She’d put some of the latter in her initial care package, but she’d had no idea how bad the situation was at the time… that had probably lasted a day, if that. Assuming they could bring themselves to use any of what I brought.
"As for information… can’t tell you much, I’m not exactly high on the totem pole. The Resistance is working on something, but I don’t know what, and I don’t know when, and I don't know why it’s taking them so long to make a move. I’ll try to give you guys some warning if I can, let you get ready to take advantage. With a little luck, we’ll be able to neutralize the cuffs and cut off the goop-supply in advance. "
> “Then I’m lucky I try not to ignore those things. I used myself to test the things in that > package of yours. So far you have my curiosity because my abilities didn’t kick in”
Sonya/Doug isn’t entirely sure which abilities Sara’s referring to, but she infers from context that she either has some kind of resistance to toxins, or some kind of danger sense. She resists the temptation to chortle evilly and mutter something about how Sara had fallen into her evil plan… she suspects the joke would be lost.
Not that Sara seemed without a sense of humor, granted, but even so. So she settles for a neutral nod. "I’d wondered where that had ended up. Well, if you ever decide to take the risk of getting more supplies from the outside, let me know what you need and I’ll do what I can."
> "There is a third one I can think of. You just happen to know that name, > and decide to drop in around just to see who happens to know it."
Sonya/Doug snorts. "Right. Because that would tell me you'd been to Sanctuary. From which I could deduce... something very important, I've no doubt."
> "Can you blame us if we expect you to be an enemy?"
"Expect? No. But when you ignore what's actually going on because it ain't what you expected, then yeah, I can blame you. Where I grew up they called that bigotry."
Sonya/Doug grins a little at the success of her gambit – she’d at least gotten Sara’s attention – and looks around to make sure she isn’t being overheard. "Well, let’s see. Two theories present themselves… first, that she found a way of planting an agent among the guards to provide assistance where I can. Second, that I made it up to trap you into, um, I don’t know, revealing yourself as a mutant so I can throw you into the Camps, or something else equally brilliant. Guess it’s up to you to decide which is more likely… so far your friends seem to have decided I’m probably a trap of some kind."
