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.
Raine? Preggers? She did let her eyebrows visit her hairline briefly. She was far, far too much of a goody-goody, or maybe far too afraid, to risk it.
So she tugged her friend, all in good fun, toward the singing crowd. And she sang. And she encouraged Steph to do the same and... and she didn't know the words at all!
"Ohmigod." She slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the unbridled laughter. Raine snorted over her hand, and realized in that moment just how affected she might be by the drinks she'd already pounded. It was funnier than it had any right to be.
"It's an improvement on the original." She offered the compromise. "Honestly, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing because it's 'set fire to the rain' like my name." And if she was anything, she was burning.
Raine's cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright, and she grinned a hair wider as the song continued and Steph leaned in a bit to admit she'd missed this particular ballad. Adele was great for break up songs, but Raine wasn't really feeling like sobbing in the shower. She wanted to grab Steph's cute little cheeks and give her a smoo- oh hey. Where did that wine go?
"Maybe you just didn't have as many people dump you?"
The song dwindled to a close and people started calling out suggestions for the next song. Was that really how they were deciding?
The minotaur didn't seem to need any help in tossing the iceman's around, and so it had become more interesting when his buddy went flying off his feet. Goon #2, as Zero dubbed him in her head, saw Zero throw a tether his way. He even tried to catch it, but since there wasn't really a "thing" to catch, once his gravity was redirected his whole body fell toward Zero and Goon #1.
She was rushing things a bit because #1 looked like he was going to be sick.
Zero wanted desperately to go help the Iceman, since it looked like he wasn't having the best day... But taking her hands off the first goon made his eyes bug. "Oh no. Oh gad. Please don't." She was busy catching #2 and securing him with her last tether so Thing 1 and Thing 2 could walk away hand in hand skipping off into the sunset ne'er to be seen again.
Goon 1 threw up.
The vomit first fell toward the side of the building, toward the gravity that Raine had assigned to the man. But once it was out of him it became disconnected from her influence. She was at her max gravity manipulation. There was nothing she could do but watch as the vomit fell about halfway toward the side of the building before regular gravity took hold instead and it fell straight down into the alleyway.
"Oh gross, man. I mean. Kinda cool, but still—" "Shyaddap! You try-! Oh. Hey, Carl."
"Could you- uh... help him? Just walk toward the ground around the side of the building. Your friend is out there. I'll—" Zero glanced back at the minotaur and cringed on the iceman's behalf. "I'd like to see what I can do for those two..."
"Hey-" Goon 2 who goon 1 had called Carl, caught her hand. "Thank you and all, but we're not... stuck like this? right?"
"I'll let you go when you're on the ground." As for Zero, she only had one tether to work with until then. So she let it go and fell from the wall of the building with a small salute. Carl, the dear, made a grab after her, but she was already intent on the fight.
As soon as she was in line with the combatants, Zero threw her tether and changed direction. She went from falling straight toward the hard pavement to a moment of zero g followed by a direction change. Zero went feet first toward ColdSteel and the bullman, her hand skating along the ground as she seemed to zoom across it.
Oof. Raine exhaled and tried to keep her eyebrows out of her hairline when Steph admitted just how she got pregnant. Not that Raine hadn't already surmised that there was no permanent man in the picture, but... that was just one big oof that deserved another clink of the wine glass and a swallow of courage. Pregnant at 17 was something else entirely.
"Then we find you a nice girl tonight. No chance of— ohmigod. Malia needs a little sister, though." She interrupted her own train of thought once she'd thought it through. Malia was adorable and the world could use more Malias. Raine didn't want her to grow up lonely like she had. Not that Raine got any say in Malia's life as her sometimes daytime caretaker.
The Beastie Boys melded into something far more sing-a-long-able... Adele? And Malia really needed a sibling.
"I'm having fun." Raine insisted as she stood. "Here. I'll pick your next genetic donor." Of those caterwauling... yeah. No. Raine stood and took her glass in one hand, her other hand found Steph's hand. "C'mon we have to get closer to the action if we want to get in on any fun." She tugged her friend to her feet and had to steady herself and her heels before they could both be off, but they were both on their way eventually.
And as they drew within spitting range of the piano, Raine realized she recognized not only the song (though those singing were not at all helping on that front), but she recognized where they were in the song. Adele. Setting Fire to some Rain. She jumped right in.
"'Cause there's a side to you that I never knew, never knew," She winked at Steph and put her wine glass down so she could properly belt out the parts that needed belting. "All the things you'd say, they were never true, never true, And the games you'd play, you would always win, always win”
Raine bumped Steph with her hip. "C’mon.” This was the part everyone knew...
"Somebody! Please help!" A woman scrambled out of the mouth of an alleyway, but was not pursued. Zero threw a tether to a building in the opposite direction of her initial flight which put her in zero G and stopped her momentum. With her cat suit in all it's neon glory, she was in full vigilante mode with her domino mask on and her hair in a high ponytail.
The stranger caught sight of Zero and waved at her running over toward where Raine waited mid-air.
"Please! It's a mutant, an x-man. He's gonna kill my Guild of Greats team!?"
Oh? An x-man on a rampage? They weren't so blameless now, were they? Raine let her two tethers go and landed in a crouch in front of little miss 'help me.' Oof, she'd misgaged the drop and it'd been further than was comfortable. But it did look cool.
"Which x-man?" Zero rolled her wrists as she stood.
"I don't know the names. The famous one. He was, like, a pirate for a while? He does ice."
Oh. That one. Zero was sure she'd seen him in a drunken stupor surrounded by pets and taking swings at his teammates. The fact that he might get sloppy and stupid was legitimately plausible.
"Okay. I can get your friends out." If she could handle the ice man? That was a very different question. But she was going to try. Zero told the girl what to expect and where to wait. Then she threw the invisible line that told her gravity which way to go and fell toward the alleyway in question.
She caught herself with zero g just before landing, and released everything until she was walking along the third floor, trying to find an opening to the fight. She grimaced for the bullman who got a swift kick in the ribs. Yay mutant rights?
Quietly, Zero threw a tether at one of the men guffawing at the situation and pointed his gravity up higher on her building.
He made a small sound as he was yanked off his feet, but she caught him and put his gravity on the side of the building, covering his mouth and pointing for him to walk his way out. He didn't seem to like that idea, or the heights.
She was so lucky to have Steph. Puppy dog eyes brimmed with hopeful near tears. Yeah, because she felt all that stuff, but also because she was being pet by a beautiful woman who made Raine's engines turn over. They were talking about lovin' the ladies and she was being encouraged. By the one she'd mentally sworn off.
Sort of like chopping jalapenos and then rushing to put in her contacts, Raine was feeling more pretty than smart.
"Hah! I am not trouble. I'm a stable, responsible woman with a job. Kids look up to me. Strangers smile at me in the street." She did have to reclaim her arm in order to take a drink from her refreshed drink. She should have just asked for the bottle at this rate. With her arm back some small pressure released from her chest. That was... normal. So, so normal. Was that... piano Beastie Boys? Huh.
She would take the mean girl stuff to heart. Raine couldn't let the soft, luscious lips and curves and sumptuous curve of... The waitress stopped by again and Raine shook herself out of her reverie with a quick smile. She rolled her neck before she took a hefty gulp meant to cover a few too many thoughts. She would stay and try out a girl long enough to get to know her, first. Then maybe let her heart go wild. That sounded like a plan, though the plan was predicated on Raine meeting a woman and keeping her cool.
"This may not surprise you a whole lot," Raine let her head fall to the side again, avoiding the face-to-face confrontation, "but I am not super great at going with the flow."
They were a team. And teams stuck together. They worked out strategy, together. That's exactly what was happening when Steph grinned at Raine. That wasn't a sign. It didn't mean she liked her-liked her. They were a team.
"I mean, I know it was a good sign. I think maybe I just wasn't ready." Which was embarrassing to admit. She'd been raised conservatively enough that even with her parents on the other side, she knew they'd be disappointed. Even now it was hard to shed those expectations for what she thought she wanted. Well... it was hard on paper. In reality, all it took was a little skin to skin and Raine just flat out short circuited.
"I just can't seem to handle--" There was a hand on her. The hand belonged to Steph and so all of her nerves became hyper aware that it was THERE. Yeah. She couldn't handle. But she also somehow didn't dare move. You’re a cutie Raine echoed like bells in her head. She was gonna get that tattooed... somewhere. No wait. that was a TERRIBLE idea. It sounded good because it was Steph and her little bit of drawl.
"But... They're so... soft. And judgy." She turned the full force of her puppy dog eyes on Steph. Surely she would have mercy on Raine... "How do you know which ones are bad news?"
Raine would have charmed Steph? What with the pity over the soul-crushing sound of bottles dropped? Nah. Steph was just being nice, that was all. And the jokes about going on a heist together proved it.
"Nono, maybe you didn't hear me. I said I'd be a terrible thief! Why would anyone invite a terrible thief?" A mock gasp for a sudden realization. "Are you setting me up to be the fall girl?" She was teasing, of course. Raine being the master of gravity, only fell in the directions she choose... like head over heels for a not-available-hot-mom.
Raine drank to that. She was going to drink that right out of her head, even if it took all night. Steph was off the table. It wasn't fair to jeopardize Raine's day job and it wasn't fair to Malia.
> ”So what’s your flirting game? Assuming you have game...”
Raine very nearly spat her wine out. Was that... was that a challenge?
"In my vast and varied nun experience?" Oh what the hell. They were friends, right? The piano music had shifted to what Raine thought might be Lizzo. The waitress helpfully stopped by and asked if they wanted to open a tab and get a refill. Yes. And yes. Raine rounded on Steph as soon as the waitress was out of earshot.
"I'm an abject failure, Steph. It's easy with guys. They'll come up to you. If they're too chicken, then they're flattered when you choose one of them. So it's like no pressure. Guys are easy. Girls. I think girls are going to be the death of me." One especially in particular. Raine did not look at that one in particular. She just fulfilled her self-promise and drank to the bottom of her glass.
"One time a pretty girl took my hand and we started to dance and I started just... shaking? She thought I was having a fit, I'm sure."
She lolled her head to the side for proper side eye. "So much. Proper ID is important." Emphasis on the proper, but Raine had already let it go, so it was more of a tease than an admonition. She resolved to let it go better, and smiled gratefully at the waitress who delivered her drink and took a refreshing, hefty gulp. Wine didn’t take any time at all
Raine the bartender. She wished she could do the flips and the bottle twirls. It'd cost her more than an entire day’s wage when she’d tried. Steph's imagining was far superior to reality.
"Me? Flirting the whole time?” Raine was mock scandalized. ”I would never! It’s far more humiliating. It’s just not lucrative when you butterfinger the bottles. Some of those suckers are mighty expensive.” She tipped her glass toward the bright and shining display.
"Plus, yeah there was flirting too.” She held up her glass to clink against Steph’s in salute to the flirts that had cost her a job… not that she expected to lose her job at the daycare for this. Okay that seemed like bad juju to even think about.
"On the plus side, I guess you know I’d make a terrible thief?”
There was a pause. Like, maybe she'd broken Steph for a moment. Or, oh god. Was her bra showing? She thought she'd checked every angle! But before Raine could step in close enough for girl-confidence level confrontation, Steph's brain booted on and Raine was thoroughly distracted.
Alcohol. Steph was 18. Alcohol. She literally had not even thought about it until this moment. Raine was encouraging bad behavior! Steph was so mature and cool, it was hard to remember sometimes how young she was.
Be cool, Raine. "Oh did you get your ID for this universe?" She knew enough not to just shout SHOW MY YOUR FAKE ID, B**** but it had to be fake, right? Or Steph lied about her age... Raine's eyebrows were skeptical. Very, very skeptical. She wasn't about to ruin today over such a small thing, but Steph clearly had a wild side.
Not that Raine the vigilante didn't...
Okay, realizing she didn't have a leg to stand on gave Steph a hell of a lot more leeway. Raine slid into the spot next to Steph and felt weird with how tall her legs were on the chair. The heels made just that much of a difference.
And it wasn't like there was a huge difference between 18 and 21.
Raine let it go. She raised her hand and ordered herself a sauvignon blanc because Steph was right. She didn't need anyone else to order for her. "Once GPS behaved, it was no trouble. You know... I dabbled in bartending, but it wasn't for me. Maybe in another life..."
She ran her hands through her hair because it was both her pride and always in her way, and worked to unknot her shoulders. "Can you imagine me as a bartender?"
Raine was cutting it tight. Worse than tight. Actually late according to Ryde and Suuper and any cabbie worth his salt. But Raine had an ace up her sleeve in the form of non-street-bound navigation. She took off her shoes and held them both in one hand. The other hand was needed for her odd ball swinging version of flights and falls.
Recalculating route...
Ciri was proving to be less than useful when she took the quick way. Raine paused at the top of a building she thought was close enough and let her phone recalculate her location.
Your destination is on the left. She zoomed and turned the phone around until she actually believed the GPS.
Excellent. Raine stashed her domino mask and shimmied out of her catsuit leggings. The night air reminded her that it was, indeed, still winter and perhaps she should have put something on for real that she could keep on, but she was a chronic jacket forgetter and she’d be inside soon enough. The roof access door was mercifully unlocked and Raine took a moment to shoot a text off to Steph as she waited for the elevator.
Allllllmost there. 🙃
Four or more stories down, she had gotten her heels on and checked her makeup in the backside of the shiny metal doors. Eh. The smokey eye look was semi-intentional. She walked hips first and with as much je ne sais quoi as her catwalk classes had given her. It wasn’t like the crowds parted or that anyone in the whole entire city gave a damn that she was there. But it felt good to get out.
She’d brought heels as high as she dared, but still it was a bit hard to see her. Raine didn’t blame Steph one bit. She raised her hand above the crowd to get her friend’s attention.
"I hope you didn’t wait long!” Raine had texted Steph a few options laid flat on her hand-me-down bathroom rug, and Steph had helped make her ultimate club choice. Black, short, with peekaboo cutouts. If Raine had much up top, it would have been better filled out, but a push up bra could do wonders, and she appreciated this choice because the structure of the dress had straps. Straps were wonderful assets in avoiding dancing-induced wardrobe disasters.
Posted by Raine on Jan 27, 2020 21:25:15 GMT -6
Eupraxia likes this
Mutant God
Member of the AV!X-Men
khaki
Bi
Pining all over the place
1,635
182
Dec 14, 2021 8:29:26 GMT -6
Ghost
Second date territory. Raine filed that information away because it felt like it meant something. "There are metrics and rules for dating that I just never caught on to, I guess." Not a complaint exactly, just an observation. Hopefully not a friend-breaking one. If they’d been dating, then maybe she would have agonized a bit more on it.
And it seemed that Stephanie was well connected. She’d found the pizza place and she’d heard of a piano bar slash night club. If one didn’t work out, they could simply migrate and try again. Malia made herself un-ignorable and all things considered, she’d been a fantastic baby.
> "But what do you say? Have I succeeded in winning you over for a much-needed girls night out?"
"I’ll hang up the habit. Nun’s honor.” Since she didn’t know any gangsta nun hand signs to throw, Raine settled on the scout’s honor salute. The scounts and nuns would have to forgive her.
Though… it didn’t answer the hem-line question as thoroughly as she’d expected.
"Erm. Could I get your number? And I’ll text you mine so if one of us gets lost then it’s less of a deal.” Was that lame? Nah. It was giving her a way to back out in case she came down with too bad a case of the hot moms. Raine offered her phone with the ‘add new contact’ menu open. Once she got Stephanie in as a contact, Raine fired off a hello message with a rain cloud emote.
"Bye Malia." She waved, though Malia was too far gone to care. Stephanie might care, though. She smiled, a mix of excitement and nerves. "I'll see you around, Stephanie!"
Raine wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that there weren't two Stephanie Graveses in this world. Maybe they'd gone through the rip and simply swapped places. Or maybe it wasn't as much of a mirror as it first appeared. Raine's counterpart wasn't a mirror of her, either, at it turned out. Unless mirror meant opposite.
> "...we should get to be happy."
"Yeah. You're right. And having a reason, like a job or a friend... that kind of stuff helps." She was not the girl she looked like, just because they may as well have been twins. At least she'd never actually met the woman. Lori had the decency to know she'd ruined her own name in town and so, had thoroughly disappeared and left Raine to deal with the consequences.
Raine picked at her pizza while Stephanie tended to Malia, and was glad that Stephanie wasn't there to see her personal rollercoaster of realization. One-off dates were fun? So, the previous dates had been one-off. Not a stable girl and Raine would be no side chick. But then also the crusher: Stephanie wasn't ready for commitment. She was right there, too. Malia needed stability. Had Raine been hoping for commitment? She'd only just met this hot mom. She supposed that the crushing defeat she felt was that the door was closed. She hadn't even gotten there, but she could already see it. A relationship just wasn't going to be possible here.
Raine shrugged her shoulders and tried to realign her expectations. She needed a friend, too.
"Yeah. We'll go dancing!" There was a shortage of exclamation points in the world because Raine kept spending them on Stephanie. "What kind of place? Like, how high should my hemline be? Or there's piano bars and stuff— Wait, do you sing?"
Stephanie smiled and Raine echoed that smile without thought. She had it bad. Coming here was a terrible idea. Or... or maybe she could frame it like a acting challenge. Raine would just have to pretend she wasn't so totally into the hot mom so that she could have a friend. Stephanie, by all accounts deserved a friend. Raine, also, deserved friends. She needed to cool her jets.
"Your favorite actress, huh?" Not free headshots? Damn. Well, she could still tease about how bad she had it as an actress. "So far your favorite actress is known for nausea, upset stomach, dizziness, or an erection that lasts for more than 4 hours." Okay, so the last one was for laughs, but the point stood. Raine didn't have enough experience to be called a real actress.
> ”For real though, a night out with a friend sounds perfect. Thanks, Raine.”
A friend. A friend. With a friend. Raine smiled as Stephanie relaxed. She was a good actress. She didn't show at all that she was dying on the inside. Of course, Stephanie wasn't done dropping bombs.
> "...I felt kinda guilty. Like I shouldn’t be bothering my babysitter so I could take a cute girl out for the night.”
... she had a girlfriend. On one hand, elation. Stephanie had a girlfriend not a boyfriend, not that she couldn't have a boyfriend, she totally could. But she'd chosen to say girl. And Raine was a girl. But, also... Stephanie had said she already went out with a cute girl. Was Raine thinking too hard? Yes. Yes she was. The blonde tried to make herself relax as well.
> ”I certainly hope you’re out there living it up in the nightlife for those of us tending to baby monitors. Or were you the ‘settle down after high school’ type?”
"Oh, I'm practically a nun." Okay, even pretending to be self-confident and friendly, Raine cringed at that. She tried to laugh it off, but continued to die on the inside. "I mean, I don't go out much. I like to hit the gym, go for a late night walk—" be gay, fight crime, "—you know... that kind of stuff. I- I haven't really connected with anybody here long term. My dopple seems like she might not have been the nicest person, and there's not even a family to contact. Did... did you ever look into that? Your universe twin?"
Was that an exclamation point in Stephanie's voice? Like, actual excitement? But, that was for the night out. There was no way it was for Raine accompanying her.
They were becoming fast friends and that was luring Raine into a false sense of security, surely. She was putting her feelings in a cart and then the cart was going ahead of the horse. Raine tempered her expectations like whoa and then took a monster bite so that she could just keep on blaming this perpetual flush on the peppers. She was hungry somewhere under all those butterflies.
> ”Sorry, I guess I worry i sound too excited for a night away."
Right, right. Definitely. Raine nodded along until Stephanie kept talking.
> "Is that selfish? ...I just want to be a parent she deserves to have. She only has one, so I need to do this right, you know?”
Raine had to shake her head no until she was done chewing. A thrill went up her spine. Malia only had one parent. They were both dancing around the fact that they were two single ladies. No- actually Raine was sure Stephanie had just been having a normal conversation like a normal human being and Raine was the only one dying of thirst... from the peppers.
"Not selfish. As a solo parent you've got no backup, no reprieve. It's good for your mental health to get away every once in a while. And work—" She shook her head— "work doesn't count. That's a whole different set of stress." She would defend Stephanie from Stephanie if she had to in order to get to go dancing.
Had Stephanie been a fussy parent? "You walked away on your first day without making a scene. You are not a fussy parent. I can tell you love and want what's best for your daughter because you didn't make any of that drop off about you." And that was a personal peeve. Dramatic self-centered narcissists, every one of them.
The first bite had been fine, but by the third, Raine's eyes started to water. She'd said to pile the peppers on and the peppers had finally caught up to her. She would like to attribute her near choke on the peppers as well, rather than the invitation to a night out.
Raine glanced at Malia, but babysitters did exist. And Stephanie was 18 for chrissakes. Of course she went out. Raine was 22 going on 40 by comparison. "Club-? I haven't- ehrghm. I'm sorry. These- these peppers." She was a nice girl with nice spinsterly habits. Becca'd tried to take her once and Raine had basically bailed in a blind panic as soon as she'd been challenged to hit on a girl.
She set the slice down and offered the plate to Stephanie with a 'by all means' hand gesture. If she wanted a bite, she was more than welcome. She'd paid for it, afterall.
"I wanna go." Raine blurted the words before she thought better of them. "I haven't really been that much. But I'd go. For- for the dancing." This was about dancing. Definitely about dancing.
