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.
"Great, wonderful, spectacular, but it can't be here." Options ran through her head. YMCA? She'd avoid that one if she could, but they were the most accessible. There were various hotels around New York, but that would require renting a room and that meant leaving a trail. Not that she thought anyone was on her trail, but old habits died hard.
"There is a Pharmaceutical company called Faust Pharms..." No. Too obvious. Though she was the boss there. She could probably use Riley in more than just a showering capacity if they went there. "There is also a youth hostel called K's Room. Both are in northern Brooklyn by Prospect Park. Wait for me in the lobby of one, I'll check both." That gave her the chance to choose her own fate.
The hushed part of their conversation was over. Lori turned it on. Her features darkening and her face turning a color of red reserved for fruits and vegetables. "Now. Get. out." The words were dark and low. She wasn't causing a scene exactly, but people were giving them a wider berth than they were before. Lori winked to Riley, a movement hardly seen beneath the fall of blonde hair into her face.
"You will get your check in the mail." Or Lori would have Lisa draw up a slightly fatter one for the girl before she left. "So leave." She pointed. "And don't let the doors hit you on the way out." Lori turned and marched darkly toward her own room. As soon as she was outside of Riley's range, her hair started raising on end. It might have been humorous had it not meant that her power was very close to the surface.
If Riley didn't go to either place... what would she do? Hold the girl's check for ransom maybe. Or pout. Or both.
Lori glanced over her shoulder at the girl she was supposed to kidnap... and laughed. She hadn't meant for her little screw you to attract the girl to her, but it seemed it had worked even when she hadn't meant it to.
"I haven't done that in a few years. Here." Lori dug out the gloves and tossed them to the girl. She didn't want them. She'd only taken them on a whim because the target had been looking at them and they were a low enough ticket item that they were not ink tagged. Magnetic tags were no problem. It was the ink tags that were dangerous to her.
"If you don't want them just throw them away, though I would rather see them put to good use."
It was play dumb or play her hand time. She wasn't sure which would be the most effective. She'd gotten maybe 6 words out of the girl and only just now learned she was a foreigner. Maybe her intel wasn't as thorough as it seemed.
"You're a mutant, right?" Well, there was only one way to be sure this was the girl Lori even needed. "The gloves." Lori pointed at Muse's hands. "Nobody but mutants or people in love with the 80's wear gloves that long."
Lori's hands went back into her pockets as they walked. No chloroform in there... unfortunately. Just hands.
The girl made eye contact. Perfect. Spectacular. Now she was getting pity from the girl she'd come in here to threaten into submission. This was exactly how she'd planned on this day going. Rocket bra and everything.
"I am not buying it." Dead pan was as good as the woman would get from Lori. Dead pan was better than angry. Angry meant the metal frame racks would start coming off the walls. No one wanted that.
When the woman pointed out a small scuff, Lori rubbed it off with her thumb. Well, all except the part that was damaged by their spiffy, trendy floor. "You don't want stuff damaged, don't make it with a faulty clasp."
The woman protested until Lori pulled the clasp off with a quick jerk of her arm. Shock! Righteous sputtering. She would have to pay for it now! Except that she was walking away. Lori tossed the clasp over her shoulder at the woman and it bounced off of her forehead. Lori knew it had without ever turning around because there was more righteous, indignant sputtering.
"I hope you don't work on commission."
Lori paused by the other blonde in the store. "I wouldn't buy this stuff." A few steps to the other side of the girl. "It's cheap even if it does cost an arm and a leg." She was also tempted to shove something in her pocket before she left, but... oh hell. She grabbed the pair of lace gloves the other girl had been eyeing and then walked out and kept walking.
Screw it. Lori shoved her hands in her pockets along with the lace gloves. She could grab the girl later. Send a team or something.
> “No one told me the cool kids were doing shadow-dealings.”
"The cool kids are always shadow-dealing." And he would do well to remember it.
> “So what you got planned from here, Boss Lady?”
Lori's eyes flicked across the tank. Up and across the tank. Had he always been so tall? Or maybe she'd only really seen his seated around the dinner table.
"Well, everyone is all up in arms about this here mutant situation we're in." The words were her father's and came out in a tone not too unlike what he sounded like.
They turned a corner and Lori shifted her grip. "They're just jealous." Probably more true than most of the humans were willing to admit. There was definitely one way to find out, though. "I've been rebuilding the Pharmaceutical company so that we can help as many people realize their genetic potential as is humanly possible." The wording made her smile.
What made her smile more? When it was finally time to put the tank down. She lifted with her legs.
The thought of lobenstein making for a delicious death made Lori feel a bit better about Calley. As nice as it was to keep things alive, accidents did happen. This was just a lobster, but recognizing that there could be a benefit to his death meant that Calley could see that there might be benefits to the deaths of others. Even if he didn't participate it was better to condone, tolerate or pretend to understand. Anything less made for quickly sinking sand.
Lori sat back on her rump behind the tank.
Sus Chef 24601 made a grand gesture of putting the behemoth in the tank. The lobster fit in there, but he didn't have to be happy about it. In act, he was shaking his clawfists in an awesome imitation of an old man gesture. If the lobster had a lawn, Lori would be getting off of it now.
"What are you going to do with him if he lives?"
Sus Chef handed over a bag with a few catfish odds and ends in it. Lori was happy to pass that one on to Calley.
She had the distinct urge to tap on the glass even if prolonged exposure to ground made controlling herself that much harder.
Me-ow! It must have been a long time since some of these guys had seen a proper lady because her baggy khaki cargos were getting the response her miniskirt wished it got. Not that the cat calls didn't add a little extra swagger to her step. It was hard not to feel pretty after such a grand entrance.
"We're here to bust you out, Brickson." As if that weren't obvious from their tearing down of the prison walls. Inmates started clapping. She wouldn't admit to business or pleasure in reference to Baccus Brickson. Only the facts that he needed to know. Escape seemed a pleasurable enough experience.
Lori stepped close to Lenna partially for the yips and yowls and partially because she wanted to tell her to take post. "Cover me." She would add to Lenna that Brickson was mentally stable as a house of cards, but the man had wonderful hearing. On impulse Lori gave Lenna a peck on the ski mask. She was just so cute in her mask and it set the prisoners to howling.
"Move, Brickson." As soon as he was away from the door, Lori pulled it from it's hinges. She always had to throw it elsewhere afterward or risk getting hit. The door skid across the hallway and Lori wobbled. This was getting to be tiring.
She took on a more powerful stance that helped keep her on her feet, but noticed a brief gap in the yips and yowels. Now that they knew there was a distinct chance some of them were getting out they collected their jaws and started shaking the bars in front of them.
"Any friends you want to take home, Brickson?"
Lori put her hands on his collar and sucked the energy out of it. Ah. Much better. Now she was going to get way the heck out of arm's reach.
Madonna. That's what these clothes reminded her of. All they were missing was the giant conical bra-- oh wait. What was that over there? Lori scooched past the obnoxious attendant who didn't know when to shut her yap and went to investigate.
Aww. It wasn't Madonna's black ziggurat cone bra, it was a bra made of two rockets. Maybe more protruding than Madonna's sense of style allowed. She couldn't resist. She held them up and turned around to see a mirror. Instead, she saw her target and realized she'd gotten off task.
She dropped the bra (the price tag called it a novelty shirt) and it clattered against the tiled ground. "Oops!" Well now that was embarrassing. The attendant clucked ehr tongue and abandoned her flattery tactic on the target with Madonna lace gloves and came to inspect the novelty item for damage.
Shopping. Why did everyone in New York seemed obsessed with stuffing their wardrobes? Admittedly New York had some of the biggest names in fashion, but New York storefronts didn't come cheap. Big names in big stores meant big ticket prices. Lori had money now with her Order exploits but that didn't mean she felt comfortable around such opulence.
It was a pity she had to go in at all.
In a crowded city like New York, following someone unnoticed wasn't the problem. Loosing your target in the crowd was. Lori just wanted to talk to the girl. Ask for a favor. There was no way to approach the girl out of the blue without being a total creep about it.
Lori checked her cargo pants pocket. She was under dressed for this kind of store, but she did want to be prepared... just in case she had to use force. Gloves, check. Marble, check. Should only take one.
A deep breath and she walked inside. Immediately assaulted by bright patterns and overly helpful employees, Lori frowned. Maybe she could just stalk out the girl and jump her in an alley somewhere. Why hadn't she just brought chloroform? Lori shrugged off the attendants and poked through the skirts. The girl was in here somewhere. Lori had seen her go in. But where was she now?
She scooted down the aisle lazily. That price tags here made her want to hurt someone.
Why had Lori gone? No one had bothered to question her comings and goings before. "They needed liberty. Red liberty." But that wasn't why she had gone. Someone handed her the double bagged ice cubes and she found a towel for them before passing them off to the nose. "Besides the fact that we libertines were sorely needed..." Sarcasm? What Sarcasm? Lori bat her eyelashes at the thought of the "liberty" they spread in Romania.
"I actually went to bargain. The Order did the smashy, smashy as we so often do and the rebels paid us back in the form of a few brilliant scientific minds and some machinery that isn't exactly legal in the states." They brought weapons and bloodlust and come home with some new toys for Faust Pharmaceuticals. Slowly she was turning this Order boat around and honing it down to a fine focus.
"Why didn't you go?" not that she blamed him. There were definitely times when she wished that she hadn't had to be there to facilitate the trade. But the Abyssi were too soft, half the Order mad and 3/4 of them unreliable. There was no one else that could have gotten her exactly what she had wanted.
> "...Trust me. With or without the collar, people are who they are.”
That was a thought to file away for later dissection. Lori could read people, she could talk circles around them and lead them by the nose until she got what she wanted, but understanding what made people the way that they were was often beyond her. For some, like Aura, there were obvious motivators... for others? Lori was flying blind and guessing or leading most of the time. People always did and said the most unexpected things.
"We had a hermit crab once. He ate peanut butter covered dog food and drank out of a sponge."
Lori had to tear her eyes away from the nose to regard the lobster. He had some wicked spikes that were tipped with orange. It wasn't a mohawk made of shell, but it was almost awesome enough to pass for one. A glob of fish gut landed suspiciously close to Lori's shoe. "Can you bag a lump or two of that too?" She pointed at it. It wouldn't hurt to try it. She didn't think.
"Just so you know, I have a horrible record for keeping things alive." She shrugged after her warning and went to grab another towel so that she could help carry the tank to Calley's room.
Whatever made Riley speak up, Lori was glad for it. It just wasn't every day that an adapted walked by. She was afraid to ask Lenna to help her shower because she might break that tenuous almost-field. That was nice asset to have and she was afraid to poke it too hard lest it develop into something she couldn't use.
Lori was a bit tense when she turned around. Because what did she have in mind? Beyond the drink thing... "I don't have a whole lot, I mean... I really wouldn't know. Look, I have a request... It's kind of odd, but I don't have a lot of options." Nervous? Maybe. Riley was a rare find. An actually agreeable adapted that RUPERT hadn't snapped up yet.
"I know a lot about adapteds. I've worked with some before and I think I could help you if you wanted it, but... I couldn't help you nearly as much as you could help me."
Anxious ears were perked all around the room. Lori waved Riley off to the side. They weren't needed here anymore. They could certainly help by staying, but there was something Lori wanted more. "I'm ruined." It made her nervously laugh in a way that made her want to slap herself. This was real and it cost a lot just to say the words.
"I can't touch water without loosing a lot of my mutation. It's not even summer, but you have no idea how much I could use a shower." She was begging blue eyes to blue eyes, but not yet with her mouth. That was as much of her flaws as she was willing to admit just now.
Lori just had to know if she needed to close down all hope. If that was the case, that was the case and Riley could have her check and move on to the next lingerie shoot and Lori would call RUPERT herself. Maybe there would be a finders fee for turning in an adapted...
There were a few things that Lori hadn't counted on.
One. The throwing phase was b-b-bumpy. The tanks inhabitants suddenly became much better friends with the metal surrounding them, not to mention each other.
Two. It was harder to gauge where they were in relation to the ground once they were off of it. There was a brief moment where Lori's guts visited her throat, but it passed. The tiny manual viewing hole showed them a slowly rotating view of the tops of some trees sailing far below them. And as they turned, things started to get closer.
Magic time.
Things were choreographed beautifully. A resounding thunder echoed down and out of view of their little hole that now showed them approaching fence tops rather than building tops.
Dust streamed through their little hole as Lori pressed her hands against the tank and let go. That tightly curled fist of power let go not one finger at a time, but all at once. The tank caught in the field and almost continued all the way through it— their momentum was that great —but in the end, stuck some feet inside a smoldering penitentiary.
The tank groaned and around it smaller metals squealed out their twisting joyous cries as they writhed free of their homes and crawled toward the massive magnetic field.
1. 2. Lori took a deep breath and closed the fist inside of her, the field folding in alongside her visualization. 3. Then tank dropped onto its back end in the middle of a thoroughly wrecked prison. Many of the prison cell doors had plumb flown off their hinges and now lay jumbled at the feet of the teetering tank.
Lori took a shaky breath and flopped onto the closest surface. That was not an entrance they could use every day. She wiped her brow and flicked the betraying sweat off with a flicker of electricity following in its wake.
"Now let's go find Bane." And someone go find her stomach. She thought it might have dropped out somewhere mid-flight.
Boom Boom showed up with a honking big book. Lori's eyes and grin widened appreciatively. Pride for her little concussion maker? Nawww.
"That's a big book, you've got there. You must be really smart." The birdwoman offered the girl her feathery hand. "I'm Ms. Cook. How old are you Kaitlyn?"
Lori ushered the three women toward one of the library tables. Ms. Cook thought that for their first meeting it would be best to have Lori along since Kaitlyn seemed to have latched on to her a bit. She wasn't trying to pass off the girl's attachment. She just wanted to ease her into the idea of another authority figure.
"Ms. Cook is going to be your tutor. She's really smart and I like her. Is that cool with you?" Lori pulled out a chair for Kait and then flopped into one of her own. That is until she got the teacher look from Ms. Cook. Then Lori scooted her bottom square onto the chair. She must be a good role model.
They were going to have to do something about Calley's nose. "I can't understand a word coming out of your mouth. I guess that hurts?" Once in the kitchen, the staff scurried to get them a pot. Lori pointed instead to the tank where several catfish currently begged for escape. The head chef shouted orders and tonight's menu was quickly re-arranged. The boss wanted catfish? There would be catfish. Though she actually wanted the tank. "Some ice too. Double bag it." Lori also fetched a roll of paper towels. Because the bubbling noise needed to stop coming out of Calley's face now. She handed him a wad. "Romania was as much a victory as any. I was really surprised how weak the spirit is, though. A few weeks with collars everyone was revolutionarily uninspire-able. I had to leave all on my own and then come back for the rest of them." Triangle eyes and the old one had been the worst of all she spoke with. She was embarrassed to call them mutants.
And leaving all on her own was no picnic. Not that the day to day of the Sanctuary was, but anything was better than a work camp.
"I'm actually glad to be back." And glad they had plenty of people to dump out the tank for them. The water looked not only rank after it had catfish in it, but heavy.
"What do lobsters eat?" Because they were cleaving catfish heads now. Calley should gurgle if he wanted one for the wriggly thing under his arm.
Was he playing with her? Taunting her? Or was he really just that horrible at empathizing with others? (She left stupid off that list on purpose.)
A moment's deadpan assessment told her that murderers and thieves often had trouble empathizing with their victims and if that was the case it wasn't that hard to imagine that Roland, accomplished at many,many forms of villainy, would have trouble interpreting her intonations. If she wanted him to know that she'd killed Slate now she was going to have to write it in the sky. That wasn't the kind of theatric she had been shooting for. She didn't want showoff. She wanted ruthless, respectable and ingenious.
He wasn't bumbling over himself to call her any of those things. Instead he felt the need to share how he'd noticed her struggle to stay above water. And it really had been a struggle. She didn't trust much of anyone with what she'd been cooking up... until now. Now she'd called Roland here. For empathy.
Stupid she reserved for herself in this situation.
"Roland, I called you here today. Not a clone. Not Isabel." Certainly not a lot of other people. She collected her papers and her mind. He had distracted her from what she'd been saying with his needy little exercise. Lori stood and handed him the slip of paper that she'd jotted a few things down.
Names. This wasn't staying above the board anymore because she wanted to speed it up with the perfect sample set.
"Alexandra Kettler. Her father was pseudo responsible for the Romania fiasco. I met her in a pool of the blood of her enemies in Romania." Lori dug in her desk for a different folder. She didn't have a photo of Ms. Kettler, but the rest... "I found out she's an X trainee of all things. I think her talents would be better suited for our purpose. For this purpose." Lori thumped her packet of genetic activations she'd tried to share with Roland earlier. He wasn't interested in the science and that was fine. She would call a spade what it was.
"With the right application of pressure she'd be a team player. Keep her on a tight enough leash and maybe one day she'll realize she actually likes it here." Lori pulled out a photo taken from KP's jumbled data banks next. "I need you to get me this one." The man was poised for a fight. His body was covered in reflective material and he had equally reflective swords in his hands. "He's head of Mansion security." Which meant it would be a challenge and nice smack in the face for the X-men. Lori wanted them to know that they could take what they wanted. Nothing was sacred or safe. "Take them quiet. I don't care what you do with Silverpants, but if you can avoid leaving a sour taste in Alexandra's mouth do it. I just need her agreeable enough to use her talents for us."
It was a tall order. She had every confidence in his successful return with both captives. "I need these too, but none of them should be a challenge." Two no names. A teacher with x-ray vision, a pharmacist with drool that turned things into different colors. Actual genetic gold mines. "I'll pass a few others on to the ones I think can handle it, but I need a strategic strike to keep this from coming back to us. Catch and release." Nice and scientific like.
"Bring them here to me on this day." She pointed at the scrawl of numbers at the bottom of the slip of paper. "I'll be ready to take all the samples we need." And hopefully she would be prepared to talk Alexandra into what she wanted from her.
He looked disappointed. It was a look Lori loathed.
"I just wanted to check on you. Both of you. I see you're doing well for yourself as usual, Meld." Creepy hand, new powers. It was all good information. "And you, Cameron..." Lori made a vague hand motion along with a shrug. "You're... budding..." Which was unusual even for a mutant. She had to give him that, she just didn't want to poke it or anything. Just in case.
"I just hadn't seen either of you in quite some time. You especially, planty, and I didn't see any harm in spending a little money at your store. I liked your store." They had killed together at that store. Disposed of a body at that store. It wasn't something very forgettable. "So. If you have to go... prune something. I understand. I just thought I'd support mutant-owned establishments wherever possible."
And then a thought occurred to her and she cleared her throat. "Though, could you bring Meld here some different flowers later? Since you're taking hers with you?" Lori smile shrugged to Meld. What were they to do?
One of the things on Lori's to-do list was to find a tutor for her little boom girl, Kaitlyn. The girl was useful in her current state, but with some proper molding she could make a wicked tool for the Order. Lori liked having useful tools in her arsenal.
It had taken a long time, perhaps too long, to find just the right mutant for the job.
Dallas Lee Cook stood about 5 foot 7, boasted gray downy skin that faded to a coppery red at her hands and feet, and the voice of a song bird when she wanted it to sound that way. She did not have a beak, but her schnozz was making up for that fact beautifully. The woman was sufficiently intelligent with a proper teacher look that could melt delinquent students down into their socks.
When Lori came across her file (with the help of a placement agency) she was amazed the public schools had let her go. Yeah she'd started turning colors and sprouting feathers, but her resume was astonishing. The woman looked an adequate teacher on paper and her mutation should only aid her in this case. Lori hoped the openly soothing voice could talk their little boomer down. It would be best if they could avoid blowing up their own things, for now. It was also good to have an openly mutated teacher as long as she wasn't openly bitter.
Dallas and Lori had to stop at the front desk to see where Kaitlyn was. It wasn't like Lori could schedule a appointment with a ten year old. Though the girl would have some routine now that Ms. Cook was her tutor.
Lisa directed the pair of women to the library, a perfect setting for pupil and tutor to meet.
"Kaitlyn?" Dallas' sing-songy voice echoed through the stacks.
"Kait, I have someone I want you to meet. Are you in here?"
