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: So, hm. It's looking like the "post when you feel like it" strategy isn't actually working so well. Would folks prefer a stricter order of rotation, so we know whose turn it is?
Sonya-Cyra-Kaz-Hades is the order we posted in initially, though Kaz mentioned he'd be not-posting for a bit.
So, Cyra, then Hades? If we can get the inter-post delay down to a day or two at most, that would be great.))
* edit - oops! Cyra also down for the count. So, Hades... I guess it's you and me, pal! (grins)
Sonya/Teresa grins at Hades briefly when he picks up her pebble-tossing strategy, and is about to make some introductory small-talk when she's distracted by the sudden appearance of a previously invisible little girl. No way. That actually worked?!? Sure, it had been her own idea, but she hadn't really expected it to accomplish anything!
She's sufficiently flabbergasted by it that the girl has fled and Cyra has taken off after her before she can even react. Which is probably just as well -- any traps the little girl might be leading them into, better that Cyra trips first. Not a terribly "teamworky" attitude, now is it? She shrugs at herself as she jogs more slowly behind Cyra, careful to keep a significant distance between them and to pay attention to the floor and the walls and the ceiling as she does. OK, so I'm keeping an eye out so I can keep my teammate from falling into a trap... how's that?
Nobody else seems to have an opinion, so Sonya/Teresa shrugs and nods "Works for me."
The doors are heavy, but still well-hinged... they open smoothly, with only a little tugging, to reveal a long ornate entrance hall out of some boring period movie, probably something French with subtitles. Without pausing, she tosses a half-dozen pebbles one at a time down the hallway, in slightly different directions, wondering if they'll hit anything invisible.
(( OOC: So, I know it's a little weird to post twice in a row, but nobody else seems to be posting on this thread so I figured I'd move it along.))
Sonya isn't entirely sure how she ended up at the front of this crowd, once they'd finished up their general chit-chat and started moving, and she isn't entirely comfortable with it: there's probably traps and things that she'll end up springing this way. She has to keep reminding herself over and over that it's only a game and she's not actually going to get hurt... well, not permanently hurt, anyway.
Traversing the hedge-maze isn't too difficult, since she's seen the pattern from atop the ruined wall, so she devotes most of her attention to looking for hidden passages or other surprises. From time to time she picks up a handful of pebbles and twigs from the ground, which she scatters randomly in front of her as she walks... probably pointless, but when facing invisible opponents it can't really hurt.
It doesn't take long, even at a relatively slow walking pace, to reach the gates of the building, and she turns around at that point. "So, what do folks think... go through the obvious entrance, or look for a sneakier path?"
> “Hi, my name is Hades. Thought I would do a bit of scouting. > Anyway as I was coming back I over heard someone asking > about the resistance? I did not hear the question. I am an inventor > here in the Labs, but I am also involved in some planning.”
Sonya startles a bit as the middle-aged man in camo appears, then recovers.
"Um... cool. I guess that's our team, then. Nice to meet you, Hades... I'm Teresa, this here is Cyra, and I gather you already know Kaz... and, yeah, Kaz was just about to tell us newbies what the Resistance has been up to for the last couple of months."
As she talks, she picks up a handful of pebbles from the ground and, without warning, starts throwing them in seemingly arbitrary directions, nowhere near any of the people she sees. They travel down corridors and collide with walls, to no noticable effect, and she starts picking up more of them.
> "Actually no, I mean think about it, what would weights do > to someone with superhuman strength? Just add more weight > to their punches.
Sonya keeps a straight face at that. Right. Which explains why super-heavy wrist- and leg-weights are such a popular accessory among brawlers.
She's privately annoyed at his dismissive tone and the way he just ignores Cyra, but she sees no point in arguing about it... even on brief acquaintance, Kaz strikes her as the sort who likes to be right all the time, and in Sonya's experience the best thing to do with that sort is let them have their way until it actually matters. Otherwise you waste all your time in pointless arguments.
> "Assuming is a bad idea."
"That's a really good point, thanks for bringing it up. I can see I'm going to learn a lot on this exercise." It takes heroic efforts to keep a smirk off her face, but she manages to keep a neutral expression. So, the question is, is he serious? Or is he just trying to make the rest of us underestimate him by acting like a pretentious jackass?
The casualness with which he duplicates her scouting effort, without even bothering to coordinate results, leads her to conclude the latter... within less than a minute he'd managed to be pointlessly dismissive to his entire team, and that requires true skill. Jeez. If they're all like him, no wonder they need 'team-building' exercises... and no wonder they've gotten nothing done in months! They probably waste all their time infighting.
> "we're trying to find Katrina. A 12 year old girl, who can create illusions. > She's somewhere back there. Our goal, is to find her and bring her back > here. Simple right?"
"If you say so, Kaz. So, should we go in now, or wait for Hades to join us?" Not that anyone had declared Kaz in charge, but Sonya gets the impression that things will go more smoothly that way, and it's not like it actually matters. Privately, she wonders about the "simple" part, though... finding an illusionist in a strange building full of windy corridors and hidden alcoves sounds more or less impossible to her. But at least it's clear... and it's not like she cares about winning, anyway.
> "As I'm in charge of the labs for the moment, I should have been notified of new arrivals."
He's in charge? Yeesh. The wording is interesting, though... Sonya'd been told this Hunter fellow was in charge, which suggests that either there's been a change in leadership, or (more likely) Hunter was off somewhere and Kaz was one of his most trusted subordinates. And if that's true, it tells her a lot about Hunter and the kinds of people he likes to work with.
She shrugs in response to the actual comment. "Well, if I were the sort to make assumptions, I might assume that whoever's responsible for notifying you of new arrivals is slacking off on the job." Which wouldn't be too surprising... from what she's seen so far of Kaz' leadership skills, she suspects he's not getting much support from his boss' other underlings. "But since I'm not, I haven't a clue why you weren't informed when I got here. Whoever is running this little exercise knew enough to assign me to this team, so clearly I'm in somebody's database."
> "The leaders of Thailand who supported mutant camps and all the other laws > against mutants. Well, they were exterminated."
Say what? Sonya can't decide whether the girl is bluffing or not... she seems perfectly serious and matter-of-fact about it. Sure, she was no fan of the Registration Act or the Camps, but slaughtering the government as an act of political protest? That's... extreme. All of a sudden, Sonya isn't sure she minds how ineffectual the local Resistance has been, if large-scale assassination is the sort of thing they are planning on. What have I gotten myself into here?
> "What is the resistance here planning on doing?"
Sonya nods agreement with the question and looks back to Kaz attentively. Mostly, she expects him to dodge the question, but who knows how much information he might give away in the process?
Sonya stumbles slightly on the crumbling rocks she's climbing, then catches herself and waves to the new arrival. "Teresa." Then she turns her attention to the maze, now that she can see it, paying only the vaguest attention to Cyra's questions.
Armed with a hopefully reliable route through the maze, she jumps carefully down to the floor and looks them both over more carefully. "So, I'm guessing the weights are to handicap superhuman strength? Man, that's gotta be uncomfortable. Good thing about healing, they don't have to do anything to neutralize it." She looks around for their fourth team-mate. "Guess we're still waiting for 'Hades', then? Maybe he -- or she -- will know something more about what we're supposed to be doing."
(( OOC: Sorry all! I should be clearer about Sonya's always-confusing identity.
Sonya is in the Labs under a fake identity, "Teresa" (appearance), officially a self-healer. Thus far the only person who knows the name "Sonya" is Syn, and the only folks who know her real powers are whoever Syn told. (Vibe and Abyss, for now.)
I'm moving forward assuming Cyra actually said "Teresa"... correct me if I'm wrong.
Incidentally, does Cyra have her own profile anywhere?))
> "Hello, are you Teresa?"
"Yup, that's me. And you are...?"
Sonya knows the names of her team-mates, but the names don't tell her much... "Kaz" and "Cyra" are sufficiently foreign-sounding that they could be male, female, who-knows-what? And "Hades" is obviously a nickname or gang handle or something like that... she's gotten used to those.
Actually, she's not even sure how this girl knows who she is, but assumes she knows her other two team-mates and identified Sonya -- or, rather, "Teresa" -- by process of elimination. Great... that makes me the newbie.
> "I have no idea if we are supposed > to wait here for the rest of our team or wait at the entrance. > That's part of the test I believe."
"Yeah, me neither. But I figure it can't hurt to at least take a look at this labyrinth now, figure out what the best path is..."
(( OOC: With respect to posting rules, I'd like to suggest we leave this completely free-form and see what happens if we all just try to have fun and be considerate of one another. If we run into problems, say so, and we'll deal with it then. Anybody object? ))
Sonya is still somewhat disoriented by recent events, her mind buzzing with the ramifications of her arrival at the Labs and her introduction to the other Order members, including her anxiety about her real identity having been more broadly disseminated than she'd intended.
But she forces herself to think past all of that and concentrate on her sudden recruitment into this so-called "training" exercise. She's not entirely clear on what she's supposed to be training, or what the ostensible point of this exercise is... the organizers had said something about teamwork, and she'd gone along, figuring the rest of her team would have a better clue.
Except that she finds herself alone at the entrance of a hedge maze leading to some kind of medieval castle, with nobody to go along with. So am I just early? Or is finding the rest of the team part of the test? She really has no idea what they're supposed to be doing, an experience she's growing increasingly accustomed to.
Well, no use standing here. Ultimately she decides to make her way to the castle entrance... maybe that's where the rest of the team is, or maybe they're inside the hedge maze itself? Who knows.
Of course, navigating the labyrinth is itself likely to be a challenge, and she'd gotten the impression that time was important. So, instead of diving directly into the hedge-maze, she climbs up along the pile of debris accumulated where the stone wall has partially collapsed, hoping to get a bird's-eye view of the labyrinth before entering it.
> " Is the resistance in habit of integrating children through such means? Let me know if it becomes an issue by the time I return. "
Sonya/Teresa really wants to say “No, of course not,” but the truth is she’s not really clear on what the Resistance is in the habit of doing, and she’s fairly sure they wouldn’t consider torturing children out of the question. So she settles for "It won’t become necessary, I’m sure. Kaz, the truth is I don’t know all that much about the boy either, other than that he’s a mutant and his life was in danger. But I’m sure that once he’s conscious he’ll willingly tell you what you want to know."
Which she isn’t, really. But she hopes he will… or, at least, that if he doesn’t, he refuses relatively politely.
"In the meantime… it’s been a LONG day, and I’m still recovering from having been shot in the chest. So if you don’t mind, I have a date planned with a shower and a couple of bottles of vodka… feel free to email me any other questions you have and I’ll answer them once I’m over the hangover."
In retrospect, she can’t believe she’s being this snippy to Kaz, but she honestly can’t bring herself to care that much. What’s he going to do, kill her? She’s been there and done that.
To Shrapnel she adds "Thanks again for the help, and the rescue. I’ll get you your info tomorrow, like I promised. And now, if neither of you has any other questions…?" She indicates the exit and starts heading towards it.
> "The boy doesn't matter much. You could have brought him to a > hospital instead of here. Unless there's a good reason why you didn't."
"He was in a hospital when I found him. His father had put him there in the first place, and was about to kill him when we intervened. I figured another hospital would just postpone the inevitable. If Sanctuary were still running I’d have brought him there, but right now the Resistance is the only group I know of that’s taking in mutants. Even ones that don’t matter."
> "You don't seem to be wearing the watch. If you were, we might > have been able to tell you a better place to go than here."
Sonya nods. "I'm not, and don’t intend to. But I should have called… you’re right, and I didn’t think of it. Next time I will."
> "Knowing what you know Teresa, is it really a good idea to do what you just did?"
Sonya/Teresa is startled by Kaz’s arrival, but in retrospect it’s less surprising than it could be. She shrugs in response to his surprisingly politely worded censure. "Sorry. I used the most discreet route I could think of consistent with the kid’s medical state. If there’s a secret route I should use for this sort of thing in the future, let me know about it and I’ll use it."
> "I'm concerned and curious about what happened. I hope none of the blood is yours."
This, too, is more polite than she’s come to expect from Kaz... especially after the little tantrum she’d just thrown in his lobby. She wonders what the catch is but decides to take it at face value for now. "Thanks… I appreciate that. Though actually, it’s all my blood... I try to avoid leaving a trail of bodies behind, it gets messy. My own fault, though... you know how it is, I spend too much time hanging around folks like Abyss, and I forget I’m not bullet-proof. Forgot to duck. It’s OK, though… I got better. Healer. Though you probably know that."
She realizes she’s coming very close to babbling manically, if not in fact over the edge, so she shuts up. Also, she’s not really sure who Syn and Calley have revealed “Teresa’s” powers to within the Resistance, but it doesn’t matter – since she has no intention of keeping it a secret, she doesn’t have to keep track of who knows.
>> "You registered willingly correct. On the first day if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps you've been in the camps then, and if so, you've escaped. I'm greatly interesting in your story." > " I would have the man's name who already has my own, before I answer any of your questions."
He was in the Camps? She mentally kicks herself for being an idiot. Of course. That’s why he’s so gung-ho about the guards. Should’ve guessed that. Hadn’t known anyone had escaped, though. Suddenly she’s interested n hearing his story, too… so she steps in quickly before things get too tense. "Oh! Sorry. This is Kaz… he’s running things here till the head honcho gets back. Kaz, I know you have procedures to follow and stuff, but he’s a good guy. Saved the kid’s life, and pulled both of us out of what would otherwise have been a pretty messy firefight." Granted, it had been for his own reasons, but he’d still been a great help. "I’d like to hear about your breakout, too, if you don’t mind?" She winks at him and adds with a broad grin "There’s another twenty in it for you if it has a happy ending…"
> “No, problem that’ll be twenty-five fifty, plus another four bucks for the kids, > and then there is the charges for the upholstery, can’t run around picking up > people with blood all over the place.”
Sonya/Teresa isn’t entirely sure whether Shrapnel is kidding or not, but she decides it doesn’t matter; she splits the difference by laughing as if it were a joke, then pulling two $20 bills out of her wallet and handing them to him. "Keep the change, cabbie," she adds with a broad grin.
It occurs to her that she should not be this cheerful given how close she had just come to dying. Screw ‘close’… I pretty much was dead! The phrase “post-traumatic compensatory mania” does not come to her mind; she’s never heard it before. If she had, she might associate it with her current feeling of being on top of the world, and predict that it will collapse in a matter of hours now that the immediate crisis is dealt with. But she hasn’t, and doesn’t.
> “Names next to address are all I want. I will recognize them once I find them.”
She nods. "OK. I’ll have ‘em for you tomorrow. You want a printout, or should I email them somewhere?"
>. “So, how did you get the triads to hire outside of Japan?”
She blinks at that a few times, utterly clueless as to what he’s talking about, and covers with a shrug. "Oh, you know… everybody has a price," she replies vaguely.
By the time Shrapnel delivers them to Mondragon Labs, Sonya/Teresa has had several extended opportunities to regret being so damned cavalier about taking him up on his offer.
Sure, it got them out of the hospital with no more than a couple of angry shouts from the parking lot, and gotten them here quite a lot faster than she could have driven… but she’d nearly passed out from the cold and the wind-chill three times on the trip. Even with “resetting” her body regularly to repair any damage, she still feels like she’ll snap in two if someone sneezes too strongly in her direction.
On the plus side, the blankets and her own body heat seemed to be enough to keep Michael warm, and he hadn’t lost too much blood on the flight over. Now that they’ve gotten him to a doctor, one where his father’s men won’t be able to find him, Sonya worries a lot less.
Of course, there’s a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy the guards at the front desk want them to go through – especially the extremely nervous-looking woman with the missing finger on her left hand, who seems neurotically adamant that nobody enters without going through the proper procedures.
Finally Sonya can’t take it any more. "Are you people INSANE???!! You have a kid BLEEDING TO DEATH IN YOUR #@!$!@#!#$ LOBBY and you will damn well get him to a doctor because I did NOT rescue him from his !@#!@#!@ mutaphobic father and their goon squad for him to die of neglect at the nine-fingered hands of some brain-damaged bureaucrat who left her soul in her other suit DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!? Call whoever you have to call and do whatever you have to do but get a doctor to look at this kid NOW!!!"
The yelling seems to get through to them, and a few hurried phone calls later Putto is being wheeled into the infirmary. Only after a puzzled conversation does Sonya realize that the fact that she is still covered in blood and vomit probably helped a little, too.
"OK… thanks for the ride, friend. Now, a deal’s a deal… what do you want to know about the Camp guards?"
> “Those things are beasts and they work in numbers, they are programmed well for what they do, I think one on one, most are probably not going to do too well against them much less with the numbers in their favor, I don’t think that should be a problem at the raid though.”
Sonya nods… from what she’s seen of the Stalkers in action, Abyss himself could probably take one on, but other than him she’s not sure she’s met a mutant who could. Certainly, she herself wouldn’t even slow one down.
> "I don't like people who try to manipulate others. She seems to be naturally good at it and she made some remarks that didn't fall too well with me."
"Mm," she mms noncommittally. She’d had the impression there was more of a personal grudge going on between them, but she can see where it wouldn’t necessarily take long for them to prickle at each other.
Privately, she sympathizes with Voltaire… but she’s not prepared to criticize Syn in front of her brother, so she keeps her private thoughts to herself.
"Gotcha. Well… you do get used to it, after a while. Anyway, it sounds like you’re looking forward to the raid, huh? I have to admit, I’m kinda worried about it myself."
? Sonya can't decide whether the girl is bluffing or not... she seems perfectly serious and matter-of-fact about it. Sure, she was no fan of the Registration Act or the Camps, but slaughtering the government as an act of political protest? That's... extreme. All of a sudden, Sonya isn't sure she minds how ineffectual the local Resistance has been, if large-scale assassination is the sort of thing they are planning on. What have I gotten myself into here?