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.
His response was valid, if unexpected. When she'd assaulted people in the past, they usually liked it. No. Wait. Silhouette had liked it and she was seriously skewing Raine's perception of "normal" by messing with her heart. Of course nobody liked getting landed on, let alone in mid-air. He told her to get off. "Uh. No can do."
Though she did snort at the joke. He was, what? A couple years younger than her? She wasn't about to make it a habit to buy under age kids drinks. "And that's a double no can do. You're underage." She didn't know that for sure, but she was willing to bet on it.
He was quite mouthy which made Raine exercise her eyebrows. Raine reached for the instrument until she felt him secure her against him with an arm. That made her immobile enough to not be able to reach. Short arms. All that. Ugh.
"Oh, I don't actually fly. Like a jet ski, I tethered to you." She massaged his ego since it seemed a bit sore. "You'd never win that race 'cause that was your speed plus... mine." She'd hesitated, not because she was trying to deceive him, but because "plus the rate of gravity" was starting to sound like a math problem, rather than the simple fact that Raine didn't always fall down.
"It's not flying. I just point and that's the way I go. It's a lot more like falling." Because it was. But, again, she didn't want to nerd out at the first meeting, unsolicited. "You'd beat me in maneuverability. I go in straight lines?" Was his ego satisfied yet? She'd really rather be on her feet again.
Posted by Raine on Jul 31, 2020 16:53:39 GMT -6
Zek likes this
Mutant God
Member of the AV!X-Men
khaki
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Pining all over the place
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Dec 14, 2021 8:29:26 GMT -6
Ghost
Was he testing her? He was about to be sorely disappointed in himself because he was having to flap his wings. All Raine had to do was fall. Only one of those things took energy.
The wind whipped at her face making her eyes stream tears behind her. It plucked at her clothes and the edges of her shirt kept threatening to flay her upper arms and stomach as she spread herself out to increase drag in an attempt not to clobber the dude. She really should have found a new costume before heading out. Civvie clothes were no good in the air.
And even with all that, Raine's collision was anything but gentle. She'd planned to shout "tag!" but only just managed "Ooof." and she was flung into him from below. Her version of "flying" put a new context to the small spattering of bruises she sported, but never could remember where they came from.
"Hi! It's nice to meet you." Mid air. Were they losing altitude? Could he not carry two people? What kind of air bus was he!? "That's my ukulele." In case he'd forgotten. She put on her best volunteer and childcare smile. "Can I help you? Are you in need of rescue or assistance?"
He could push her away, but she'd only drop right back into him. She was stuck, in a way, like glue.
It wasn't a love song. It was worse- a booty call song. Raine strummed lazily even after the song had finished just as an easy backdrop to their conversation. No real song pattern emerged, but it kept them from awkward silences and gave her plenty of opportunity to stretch her fingers on the frets.
> "You never disappoint, do you?"
She could absolutely disappoint and did regularly. Like when she shot back "I aim to please." Because she hadn't meant it. Except, she had. She just didn't plan on acting on that as she wanted. She strummed along and tried to think of any other non-love songs, but this time she added an additional addendum. No booty call songs either. Maybe a song about something totally un-lustful. Like a tree. Or America.
> "Can I though?"
Steph seemed determined to draw Raine into conversation and the blonde focused her attention where she'd not been allowing herself to focus: Steph's troublesome libido.
"You weren't troublesome to me." No, but Silhouette had been. Just the thought of that brought some color to her cheeks. Never again. Never ever. "I'm sorry too. We didn't exactly set ground rules so heat of the moment and all that. If you're good, we're good. Mostly, I'm glad you made it home safe and all that. Normally I would have texted to check in." But there'd been an incident with a thief and a safe room that'd made her lose most of her vigilante uniform. Stupid. Raine tried to keep her cringing internal.
And still, she couldn't think of a non-love song. Love was something to sing about, after all.
"Have a song request? You can find almost any chords on the internet these days."
Raine picked up speed at an alarming rate. She tucked her arms and pointed her toes and felt her hair whipping behind her like the flapping of wings. Like she was really and truly alive. A waft of cursing drifted up to her ears and Kid Icarus flapped open his wings to catch the wind.
She and her ukulele were headed like two bullets straight at him.
Raine moved her arms and legs and that put her in an accidental spin, but no longer in a direct collision path with the winged boy. Her poor uke didn't have legs and arms so it plonked right into his hand. Raine cringed and hoped the body wasn't cracked and that the boy's hand was okay. The item that the boy had hurtled after fell anew. That was fine because Raine still had speed.
"On your left. Uh. Watch out!" She had to move her arms and ended up flipping crazily again just avoid landing on his back. She came nearly nose to nose with the guy as she passed, marked with a tiny salute that helped turn her mid air, and then she tucked her arms and legs again.
Wait. What was she doing? The ground was MUCH closer than she'd thought and she didn't actually have to catch the item in question. She just had to stop it from falling down.
Raine wound up her arm and pitched it forward, connecting her will with the phone she tapped her belly and pointed its gravity up toward herself. The phone stopped and hung for the briefest of moments before it changed direction. But she didn't see because she'd turned and pitched again to the only thing nearby enough to get a hold of... the boy.
She felt the tether engage and Raine whooped as she stopped falling down and abruptly started falling up. There would be no extra drag or weight for Kid Icarus. But she was falling toward him now, his phone trailing soon after. She spread her arms to increase drag and got thwapped in the back by the phone which had been mere feet from becoming a modern art display across the ground.
Hopefully she could find a tall building to connect with rather than clobbering into the winged kid, but for now she grabbed at the phone and waved it above her head. Wherever he went, she was skiing on air after him at terminal velocity... which was a rather new experience for her.
"Hostage exchange?" She shouted over the wind and hoped her uke was alright...
She was dumb. Like a dummy dumbdumb kind of blonde stereotype that Raine tried and obviously-was-incredibly-failing at not being.
Who walked into the den of a leopard and expected to walk out without getting her face eaten?
Who had two thumbs and was playing her ukulele while standing on the underside of a bridge?
Raine strummed her ukulele with her feet firmly planted on the concrete underlay of one of the many twisting roadways that rose up to meet a bridge to mainland New York. The acoustics were great and she paced as she strummed and considered how dumb she was.
Yeah. Real dumb. No more tequila before going on a self-appointed x-man mission. She was not a good representative of the brand that way, not that she was officially affiliated.
She didn't exactly register that she'd started running through a Fleetwood Mac song until it came time to transition.
Like a heartbeat drives you mad In the stillness of remembering what you had And what you lost And what you had And what you lost
Something dropped past her field of vision and she turned to watch something smooth fall past her. That was quickly followed by a boy. With wings.
Raine yelped, pinwheeled her arms, and fell back on her butt. She still wasn't used to just seeing these sorts of things happening out in the wild and it surprised her enough that she dropped her ukulele. Raine stayed connected to the on ramp bridge. Her ukulele fell just after the diving boy.
> "...I'm hoping we both get some actual sleep tonight..."
Steph meant herself and her baby. Raine cut her mental meandering off with a harsh mental reminder before she tried to find further meaning in any part of Steph's statement. Steph and baby needed rest. Raine was just hanging out. Making up for lost time spent on making regrets instead of memories.
Raine wanted to apologise about the last time they'd hung out, but what came out instead was— "We're good hanger outers." She took a serious swig of wine and tried not to look like she was dying on the inside or outside even as Raine was sure she was doing both and failing at hiding it. A state of embarrassment that fast faded into curling lips and a toe curling thrill.
Oh. Steph liked her singing? Well Raine really liked to sing.
She tried not to smile into her glass, but was entirely too flattered to avoid it. Besdies, she'd tried to hide in her glass for too long. Now the wine had mysteriously all teleported into her belly.
"I like, no, I love singing for people. Bonus love points when singing with people." She indicated with an eyebrow that was much appreciated, but had to admit it didn't always work out. Okay. Okay. She was sold, but she would not sing a love song. She had to know at least ONE not-love sing for f***'s sake!
Raine traded glass for ukulele.
No wait. She did know a not exactly love song, but she was gonna mess it up if it was from memory. She held up her finger and Raine fished her phone out of her back pocket for a quick search. Yessss. She settled and resettled ehr shoulders as she fit her fingers into place.
Raine trailed a few steps after Steph, feeling all the world for a minstrel, to see mom in action. It was a tricky transition, one Raine had experienced a hundred times with dozens of kids, Malia included. But for a mom it was somehow ten times the stakes. If Steph couldn't get the angel down, there'd be no...
No what? Raine checked her expectations. There would be no nothing anyway. Even if it made her heart swell to see Steph tuck a wild stray strand behind her baby girl's ear. It was like a renaissance master's painting, a play of soft light and making an important moment out of a humble one.
Raine strummed one last chord, one string at a time. A perfect book end. She should go just so she wouldn't ruin it.
Instead, Raine sat herself down to take a sip of her glass of bodega wine. It wasn't great, but it was sweet and light. Okay, maybe she could relax for a few minutes. A reward for a sleeping baby well into her dreams.
And a compliment to make her swell with pride.
"You did all the hard lifting. To sleeping babies—" She tipped her glass toward Steph so they could clink them and drink. "Hope Malia gets some healing rest. You too."
"When you press me to your heart I'm in a world apart A world where roses bloom"
Raine was so dumb.
She'd thought that coming here, she could maintain the guard on her heart. Malia was asleep now. She'd done a friend's worth of duty in showing up and soothing Steph's worry. Malia was asleep and on the mend now. She should pack up and slink away.
But roses were blooming. She'd come here with ulterior motives, selfish motives. Raine turned toward the opposite wall. She couldn't stand seeing Steph smiling at Malia in one breath and beaming at her in the next. She had come here for Malia. She needed to focus on that.
"Angels sing from above Everyday words seems To turn into love songs"
She hadn't planned to be serenading the girl she so desperately crushed over. She needed to not sing a love song next. Just a normal song. Raine turned to see if Steph had managed to get Malia set down or if she planned to hold her all night. And, inevitably, her eyes swept up to check on the other woman's face just in time for the finale.
"Give your heart and soul to me And life will always be la vie en rose"
Raine let that hang in the air between them as she imagined it: coming home and cooking dinner together, singing Malia to sleep, and welcoming Steph to bed soon after. She would tickle her. They would share the day's concerns. Raine would hang up her domino mask... maybe for good.
She picked up the rhythm of the song's chords and hummed for a bit while she tried to think of a different song that didn't involve love.
If there'd been more to La Vie en Rose, it was lost in wholesome fantasy.
Rather than trying to piece the versus together perfectly, Raine let Steph wrap it up with a chorus and a wink that made Raine want to crawl all over her. But she was the grownup in the room and not yet that shameless. God, why wasn't she that shameless? Ah. Right. THe woman of the hour, Malia was dozing adorably. SHE was Raine's fountain of self-restraint.
Raine kept strumming but slowed things down, switching almost seamlessly into a slower ballad that was lower energy that dragged out to be even slower and way better for Malia to relax to. This one she had to either hum, because it was French, or stumble through what she could remember of the English translation.
Also, definitely an attempt to lessen that budding electricity from Steph's wink. Which was silly because as she sang softly, she realized it was yet another love song.
"Hold me close and hold me fast The magic spell you cast This is "La vie en rose""
There was no dancing around or dipping of the ukulele this time. Just a soft thrum of the chords that'd be easy to sink down into.
And here's where things got tricky. There were a lot of words and a lot of verses and Raine didn't have a cheat sheet. The music and strumming was locked into a repeating pattern that she had memorized. The words, not so much.
"Cherry lips, crystal skies I could show you incredible things Stolen kisses, pretty lies You're the king, baby I'm your Queen Find out what you want Be that girl for a month"
And really, who could stand to not rock back and forth, dancing and dipping in time with the strumming? It seemed Steph was keeping time with Malia and the whole scene was so heartwarming and fun that she stumbled in her verse, totally carried away in the moment of it all.
Something, something... Raine smiled and shrugged and hoped Steph could fill until she figured out where they ended up.
Oh! Right! The absolutely relevant part.
"Keep you second guessing like "Oh my God, who is she?" I get drunk on jealousy But you'll come back each time you leave 'Cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream."
If tight ripped jeans and a Modern Art tee shirt was Steph's daydream, Raine would eat her ukulele. She hadn't really planned anything. She'd just thrown on shoes and tossed a bag together so she could come over. Raine would just have to settle for flyaway hair and her charm 'cause if anyone just kept on coming back, well, that was Raine, right? She'd tried to be the adult in the room and then went and bought booze and sang silly songs. What a stand-up selfish vigilante she was.
Raine followed to the living room while strumming and singing. Yes, that left Steph with drinks and a baby, but Raine had to start now or forever hold her peace. And she was instantaneously rewarded. The blonde felt a sort of shock when Steph chimed in. It was an absolute thrill. Steph not only recognized the song, which meant Raine hadn't totally messed it up, but it also meant that Steph knew it! She didn't know Adele, but she knew Tyler Quick. Tyler was love. Tyler was universal.
"Oh my god, look at that face. You look like my next mistake. Love's a game, wanna play?" Raine quite suddenly was reconsidering her song choice, but what was sung could not be unsung. She bulldozed right over potential implications to continue on. The upbeat tone that the ukulele lent to the song really helped there. She couldn't stop and think on it too long otherwise she'd forget where she was.
So she blundered on, dipping and swaying to the beat she'd set. Malia, at least, seemed enthralled. Raine hadn't quite gotten the courage to watch Steph's reaction after she'd sung that she could make the bad guys good for a weekend. Because, well, as far as mistakes went she hadn't really turned a certain shadowmancer good.
Raine math-sassed and for all her trouble she got math-sassed back. It didn't really ease her anxiety over a broken law, but that was only because she was pretty sure that law was in place for a reason... or something. Surely it wasn't just arbitrary? She could puzzle until her puzzler was sore, but she'd already decided to not take it back so there was no point. She fully put the matter to rest, by putting her heart on the line instead.
Could she sing a song? Raine used her pretty-please eyes on both mom and Malia. Steph did have a point in that Malia was good enough to take all her medicine and not (yet, there was still a chance) throw up.
"Would that really be okay?" Her devious plan was... working? "You're sure I'm not intruding?"
Once reassured, Raine unzipped the black cloth case and brought out a light colored four string ukelele.
"Do you want to stay over the tile in case Malia... you know?" She made puking motions, in her head it had seemed the more polite thing to do somehow. "Or maybe grab a drink and get comfortable?" She plucked a string and found it still in tune. The next was not quite right so she tweaked the head pin while plucking it individually a few times. The little plinking tune up seemed to catch Malia's attention. Maybe she recognized it from daycare? Or maybe it was just interesting. Already Raine was beaming, she didn't often get nerves but there were definite flutters afoot.
"Alright. You might know this one. I don't sing it for the kiddos, but... I dunno I think it's fun." She set a clamp down over the entire first fret of the instrument and strummed once after placing her fingers just so... satisfied, Raine left her hand loose over the strings and started the pattern. Up, down, up, down. Up down, up-up down.
"You mean 730 days… drinking age is 21, hun. If you just turned 19 that makes me an accomplice and you a full 2 years under age. Happy birthday! I guess I won't tell the cops if you don't…" Math came easy to Raine. Breaking the law? Or the laws of time? Not so much.
Cringe. So much cringe. She had given it and would not take it back. Besides. It was bodega wine. Not exactly top shelf. She'd just meant it to help keep her from only obsessing about Malia.
"Oh. No you're not interrupting anything except ukelele practice." Raine brought the small instrument around to show off the soft case. "The kids love it and honestly, I love performing for a crowd that gets into it as much as kids do. Much easier than a full blown guitar."
She was testing the waters, trying to see if maybe singing Malia to sleep might buy her a little more time together.
It wasn't weird, Raine assured herself. She would do this for any of her daycare kids. She wouldn't do it this late at night for all her daycare kids, maybe. But that was just because she was comfortable with Steph because they'd hung out. Pizza once. The bar... she was specifically blocking out the bar experience. It didn't count and was not at all related to taking care of children. That had been an almost lapse in judgement followed by several failures of her strength of will…
Yeah. Definitely blocking out the bar night.
And she had once again forgotten that Steph was under age.
”Mother fu-! huuun time is important.” She cringed. Sure, Malia wouldn’t remember if she cursed now, but it wasn’t the best habit to be in.
”I definitely forgot you’re not yet 21… again.” And she couldn’t take back a gift she’d already presented with such pomp and flare. Ugh! What an enabler she was! ”When’s your birthday? Because I’m going to continue to screw this up until then.”
Steph started with the good stuff: Malia’s meds. And she really seemed to have it despite the juggling act so Raine unloaded the rest of everything and made a little shrine to snacking and feeling better.
”I’m a panic shopper. Not that I’m panicked! Just… I dunno. Snacks are an important child food group and if you need to bribe her into feeling better or something…? You’ll know she’s feeling better if she doesn’t refuse snacks.”
It did warm her heart to hear that she’d be a good mom. Raine rocked back and forth from toe to heel, unsure if she’d be allowed to stay. Or if she even wanted to. The time directly after their awkward almost-date, Raine had been sure she’d ruined their not-relationship. But. They were friends. This was a friendship. They were friendly.
”I’m not sure being a mom is in the cards for me. I think I’ll just have to spend my love taking care of other kids.”
How far did things get? "There was no school, for starters. We hid. We lied. This being 'out' stuff is unfathomable. Good... or better, I guess? Definitely different." It was hard to say exactly how "far" something went.
"I've seen labs. I've been in fights that felt way more life and death than what I've dealt with over here. The actual governing body of the USA wanted me and people like me dead. So. I can't say I want to go back." So here she was. Just sorta stuck between words. People she knew over there didn't know her here. And the ones that knew her here didn't know her. They knew Lori.
She snorted in amusement over his comments about her face. "It's not a bad face, but she seems like a real bad dude. Kidnapping and stuff. She was also a big employer to a lot of people and nobody likes their boss."
> ”I’m not like the old Sam.”
She took a moment to study this Sam and take a sip of her drink.
"Oh? You're not like other girls?" She settled for teasing as a way to pry him out of whatever mental sinkhole he was falling into. "Look, I don't know old Sam. I've seen him, like, once. You don't have to live in his shadow. Not everybody knew him."
