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.
Roland rolled from beneath the bed and looked around. Well, actually scanned the room would be the proper word. He noticed the opulence of the vanity and the stunning amount of jewelry in the open jewelry box on it. Easy pickings for the luck and stupid to make it here. He didn't have to check it for the obvious motion detector on it. No negative points this early in the game. There was one thing here and he knew where it was, his eyes looking at the ceiling of the room. He crept through the room and noticed the interior door was unlocked. After a long and intensive examination, he found it was nothing more than an unlocked door.
A fiber optic cable slid beneath the door and craned its little neck in a circle, observing the hall. the lights were on. Not surprising as it would make a dark stealth suit all the more revealing to the cameras. The cable was attached to the datalink of his HUD and he switched to an electromagnetic frequency to scan for the cameras. Two, one on each end, set into the wall about an inch off of each other to prevent an easy block. No obvious rotating old models here. They were quite small as well, perhaps button sized. The cable retracted, the door opened slightly. From the opposite corner of the bedroom, still in sight of the distant device, Roland covered the first with a dime mirror. He opened the door fully and covered the other one from behind the crack of the door. Like its smaller brother, the black head with its eerie single red line next poked out from the now open door, looking both directions and then leading the way for the body to creep out prone. The door was then closed with a click as Roland crawled on his elbows, sliding his legs along until out of sight.
Rolling into a ball around the corner after seeing a roving camera at the end of the next hall, Roland quickly kipped up into a handstand in the corner. He needed cover. The camera was slowly coming back and if it was capable of surprise it would have showed such an emotion as a grandfather clock was now in the corner, a man standing on hands behind it. The camera alone wasn't enough to cause such a movement. The opening of a door at the end of the hall was more than enough. A slight score deduction for a clock movement was worth stalling the meeting of himself and contestant number two.
Perry Green. A ruthless information fence. The knowledge he had kept him at both completely safe and completely unsafe. A habit of the traders of things others wanted and how to get them. You either knew him or you didn't. There was no knowing of him or hearing of him. Usually, if you were one of the few that did know him, you had a reason not to like him. Roland's was similar to most in that Perry had a habit of not mentioning something crucial to the job as a form of some sort of sadistic amusement. His leads were always so good though that the brave or the stupid usually took the risk. Roland hoped he would be the former.
They met at Coney Island in the mirror maze. Perry also had a penchant for the comical and bizarre. No doubt he had protection nearby. Roland set himself up through himself in a manner of speaking, presenting himself as Ray Verb. Obviously a cover but he wanted to ensure that Perry had no clue who he was really dealing with. The lights were flashing and music blaring, Roland finding the aforementioned mirror panel with the x in the bottom right corner. He set his briefcase down, which included several documents and a large sum of cash which would both identify him as "Roland's" contact and pay off Perry."Thank you for your donation, traveler. I assume you are here for something?" Roland's eyes rolled in his head. Why couldn't so called professionals just act like them?" Yes, I'm here for .." Perry interrupted him quickly. " I know what you are here for friend. Tell Roland this one is as smooth as silk. Not a bit of trouble out of this one. I wanted to let him know that we could be friends again and this is my sign of good faith." Roland picked up the alternate briefcase, identical to the one he had brought in."I'll be sure to pass it on."
----
The Tudor-style house belonged to Katharine Simms, known to those in the underground as Kimi. Kimi was a retired thief herself and always put things out where they might attract the proper kind of flies. She usually made the bait juicy enough that no one would turn down the gauntlet they would have to fact to glean the prize offered. Fortunately, Roland had had the distinct pleasure of knowing andworking with Kimi and knew of her one weakness. Kimi never liked the idea of not having a way out. Everywhere she had resided or squatted in always had an escape tunnel. Some intuition and the plans to the house had given him the boon of finding the hatch, cleverly linked in with the nearby drainage system.
Roland was suited up in his work suit. It was a suit he had implemented over the years with the money and tech he had come across. it was a work of passion and obsession. All darkness, not a bit of skin uncovered. A thin red line was all that was revealed of the multi-spectrum sensory device, which gave Roland a constant HUD of the area. Knowing many of the houses defenses ahead of time made for easy pickings, though of moderate danger, even to someone of Roland's caliber. Finding the entry into the tunnel wasn't so bad. Finding the tunnel running for 300 yards with at least a hundred laser lines running it was more like fun. Roland opened his hand and there was something akin to a stack of dimes in his hand. They were actually finely polished metallic mirrors, fifty of them. Roland had worked with these little lovelies for so long that he was intimately familiar with their use and the movement down the tunnel displayed such. Having roughly four feet of room to work with , Roland rolled and leaped through the tunnel, the 'dimes' constantly teleporting and moving to reflect the lasers back at themselves.
At the hatch at tunnel's end, a neat stack of dimes closed back into his hand and vanished. Roland smiled as the hatch merely had a complex keylock, probably being fit by the key Kimi generally wore around her neck. His picks appeared and he worked the lock like an old, familiar lover, feeling the easy push as the last bit of resistance melted before his dexterity. The hatch popped up and slid to the side, revealing the narrow space beneath a bed. Roland crept under and peered out, grinning underneath the temperature controlled suit as he was the monster under the bed.
Neena continued to stare at him, seeming as if she might actually take him up on his offer. The wheels were definitely turning up there. Roland could only hope they were turning in the right direction for him."I think your expectations of me might be a tad high, Jordan, but routines do get old after awhile, and I could use a change in mine. I'd be delighted to spend an evening with you. On one condition."Roland's grin perked up considerably at the agreement as well as the use of the first name, as fraudulent as it might be. He raised his eyebrows in chin, in anticipation of this one condition.
Smiling, she hid the milky orbs from him beneath her dark glasses once more."I don't really care what we do, as long as it doesn't include any of that pampering you mentioned." A rough and tumble girl, just how he liked. Not at all afraid to get dirty.She even grimaced when she said the word pampered. He made a mental note to avoid fancy dinners and whatnot." That's perfectly reasonable. A small price to pay for your company. " She turned and put her official tone back on."Now then, should we continue the tour? The grounds are pretty extensive, and there is a lot that your daughter might be interested in hearing about.."
Roland put his own business face back on." Certainly yes, let's continue." He was really thinking about what fate lied in store for his imaginary daughter. Death and consolation from her? That was a bit trite, even for Roland, though he could see himself hiring actors for a fake funeral. Perhaps she decided she didn't want to be in a school with other mutants, preferring a tutor or nanny. That did seem to fit the spoiled Daddy's girl routine more. By then, he hoped to be seeing Nehanda regularly, so it wouldn't really matter.
Eyes down. Eyes up. Following a person required the remembrance of little details that one might practice should they only be walking alone. Staring at quarry was a fine way to get pinched. They were neither aware of him nor eluding him, so it was fairly easy to watch them.He removed an ear piece which was remarkably disguised as a Bluetooth device, so popular these days.He turned his streaming video on from the phone at his waist, securely fit facing forward, though easily passed off as the standard phone receiver. The ear piece with its forward pointing shape, was actually a laser microphone, a blue laser, increasing the quality of the conversations listened to. The laser itself was of a particular violet which made it only visible through a medium, such as smoke or fog. Night time use with weather made it fairly undetectable.
The image would be grainy at best with the weather as it was, but it was still preferred over silence. Silence might make Roland's footsteps otherwise more noticeable then they were now. ".....ask whatever you like. I work as a healer at a homeless shelter not far from here, and the nurses rather insisted that I take the night off. They may have mentioned something about mother hens before shoving me out the door.” A homeless shelter in the vicinity with mutants. Sounded like the place where Miss Duskmoor spent her time pouting and stomping like the petulant brat she was. So the Horned One was one of theirs. But who was the other one? Only time and surveillance would tell. Roland saw the coffee shop in question coming up. He diverted his own path off toward the side of the building, seeing a group of teenagers hanging out on the side of the building taking shelter under the awning of the shop's signage and awnings.
He approached them slowly, knowing teens' general distrust of anyone over 30."Any of you have a smoke?" One of the older looking ones, a boy in a leather jacket and sporting a classic Yankees hat offered him one. ' Here ya go. Got any money?" They didn't look the pilfering or thuggish type. Merely panhandlers. Or more than likely bored suburbanites who had spent Mommy and Daddy's cash on drugs and coffee. Pupil dilation confirmed this. " Sure I do. I'll give you a hundred dollars for that Yankees cap." The bill came out of his pocket, folded in half between his fingers. The kid's jaw dropped and he quickly pulled it off, greasy tendrils of hair falling in his face. " Hell, yeah. It ain't even mine!"
Roland inhaled the nicotine from under the brim of his new cap, shifted down to cover his eyes somewhat. He saw the two enter through the front and he waited for them to order and sit. Once he knew of the best place, he'd make his entrance and begin surveillance. Well, surveillance for Melissa. His had already begun.
She was young, but very professional. Having seen what he had done and still laughing, Melissa had definitely been around the block at least twice. The kind of girl Roland was used to. His charm was on, but not dead on, as it would have been had there not been silky white eyes in the back of his mind. He appreciated the consent for his anonymity, as it was the thing he held most dear these days. The price of surgery was really prohibitive unless death or a little box were the alternatives.
“I'm more of a business woman. My current business being to follow that horned man up there. If you don't mind, I would like to continue to keep an eye on him. Not that it will be very exciting to watch him drink coffee.” Roland's eyes pointed ahead at the second mutant. " I doubt it would be too difficult to track. Of course, with so many mutants afoot, there literally could be more than one horned man up ahead." She was Southeast Asia. Triads? Or perhaps something not as simple. Roland's latter estimate was realized when she spoke next. More illumination than a month of digging would have ever brought about.
“I suppose you have heard of the two rival mutant groups here in New York City?” Roland nodded. He had visited them both, in fact. Though he was glad to know there weren't more lurking under the surface."I work for the third group. We operate in the shadows more than the other two groups do, so most people haven't heard of us. Given what I have seen of your skills and your efficiency, I would venture to guess that you would be a valuable addition to our operation.” Roland raised one eyebrow, the only indicator of the shockwave of knowledge he had just received. Not only was there a third, but they wished to contract his services.
" Sounds mutually beneficial. You're on. Though, why would a mutant group enlist a human? My skills are well polished and practiced, but I lack the genetic edge that most do. I have to shore up said deficiency with even more skill and a killing streak. Either way, perhaps we can speak of it more afterward. I must take a stab at the thought that the man or the woman may know you. Perhaps I can further your confidence by having a warm cup o tea myself. I have my own wires, so no need to prep me." A phone came from his pocket, identical to the one he had taken pictures with. He handed it to her gingerly. " Press send to make the link with me once I am in position inside." He handed the umbrella off to Melissa and pushed ahead at a fair tracking pace towards the coffee shop, the mutants, and destiny.
"Pardon my bluntness this time, Mr. Hornbuckle. But are you asking me out on a date? I've only just met you."Roland sensed a possible defeat so early in the game. Then she tilted her head, and added, "What did you have in mind?" Ohh. Not defeat at all. Roland closed the gap between them slightly. " A date? Hmm, if you were agreeable to it, then yes. If not, then no I am not." He let his own smirk ride higher on his face. " Nehanda, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. That's all there is to it. The idea of merely leaving the grounds without a chance to see your face again just doesn't rub right with me."
He took a step closer. " I am a man of means so anything is possible as far as activities. I think it would do you a world of good to be pampered and treated like a queen for a while, rather than having to hustle and bustle all over the place. You name it and it is done. Perhaps I am bold. You don't get to where I am in life without making some bold moves and taking risks. Especially when there is something, or someone I should say, who is more than worth it." He had to think about it a moment, analyze it over the coals of his inner workings. He was indeed taken with her. He was within a foot or two of her now, her milky white eyes caressing him from over the shades. " Does it sound like something you might be interested in?"
Lack of adrenaline. It had to make for a dismally boring existence. Roland enjoyed the body's rush to aid him in a pinch. He doubted that Neena was devoid of all biological responses to stimuli though. It would just take a bit of dallying."Whatever strikes my fancy at the time, I guess. If it looks appealing or interesting, and doesn't hold the threat of immediate death, I might try it."Another fascinating delight of foreshadowing, Roland thought. He was certainly appealing and interesting. He had no interest in dealing death to Neena either, though he did wish to put his hands on her.
" 'Start', Mr. Hornbuckle?"
Roland smiled and placed his hands in his pockets. " Yes, where shall we start exploring to find a mutually beneficial shared experience?" He smiled and kept his face on straight. Half Jordan, half Roland. " Perhaps I could accompany you on one of your late night outings?"
“You are very efficient, it seems. Would you care to join me for a walk, sir?”
The phone vanished from his hand, replaced by the umbrella. Roland spun on his heels to find the young lady looking at him. There was no reason to make any sudden moves. He was caught if there was catching, killed if killing. Best to make the best of the situation. He stepped close enough to also shield her from the rain and continue the illusions to anymore onlookers, should there be any more eyes in the night. Putting distance between himself and the crime scene was also an excellent idea. " Thank you for noticing, Miss. You must be my superior though. Perhaps this walk is for educational purposes?"
He made sure to keep his hands free and visible in case the lovely young lady had eyes attached to rifles. Only the innocent umbrella covered them. " I take it you aren't the police or I'd be in handcuffs nor a casual onlooker hence the lack of screaming. " He stood still for a moment." Identities aren't that important, really. Which way are we walking, by the way?"
His smile was devious and genuine. Her mask had come off, so why not join the fun? This was clearly the wrong place for him to be. Lunatics painted to look like the orderlies. He let his American accent drop for fun as he started walking away from her. " I do indeed, Isabel. " He didn't look back at her as he walked into the foyer. The receptionist's usual look of glee was gone now. The phone he had planted returned to his belt. There was nothing of use here in this asylum, this sanctuary for crazies.
He opened the golden door and turned back around for a brief moment. Isabel's look was classical confusion, even though it looked no different than any other face she made. Roland took his fake glasses off and put them in his pocket and spoke again in his native accent. He winked at Isabel and said "See you later, Miss Duskmoor."
It occurred to Roland that there was no explanation of the pool. Not that it needed one. Pit full of water. Jump in and swim. But still, the fact that Neena was engaging in conversation with him made him all the more confident that his aims were on course."Due to my mutation, I grow bored very easily, so my companions depend on my hobbies at the time." Roland always enjoyed watching doors opening. "It must be quite the mutation. Perhaps you haven't received the proper stimulus to keep you excited?" He left the look on his face should she turn to see it." It could also be your choice of companions. Maybe you haven't found the right one yet. What are your hobbies?"
They rounded the path to the basketball and tennis courts."That's one reason I love living and teaching here.Every day brings someone new or something different to experience and explore. Its fascinating!" Whether Neena was aware of it or not, Roland's mask was off and in his back pocket. The face regarding her as they walked was as true as it could be, Korean mutant surgery aside." Experience and exploration are necessities for an active and enriching life, Nehanda." He stopped walking, waiting for her to stop as well."Where should we start?"
With Neena's chuckle, she seemed to cement the fact that Roland was interested in her. Eyes shaded or not, he could tell she was glancing back at him. Since the cat was decidedly out of the bag and there had been no harm nor foul, there was no reason not to continue in his present course."No worries, m'friend, it's impossible to embarrass me."Well, that was good. It was also a challenge that he desperately wanted to aspire to at some point. But not embarrassing her necessarily, but rather to see her blush.
"Yes, I live on Campus. It's much more convenient that way, especially since we have a good number of nocturnal-oriented residents, myself included. Every now and then I'll wander away for a few nights, when I don't have any classes scheduled." Roland looked out at the pool as the approached it, seeing it becoming more a leaf catcher than a spot for recreation. He stepped a bit closer to her. Not close enough to be dangerous, just close enough to make an attempt." I see, I see. So when you wander away on these nights, is it always alone? Or do you generally have a companion?" Not very coy, definitely another bold attempt at information gathering. Roland felt though that this was a no nonsense woman, something he respected. There was no reason to avoid what he really wanted to know, yet also no reason not to remain dignified in his queries. Criminal or not, he was always a gentleman. Some things would never change.
"I'm sure you'll do fine, Mr. Hornbuckle. We girls aren't that difficult, really, despite what the parenting books and old friends say. Just give her the 'Birds and the Bees' talk now, so you won't have to deal with it when the emotions and hormones kick in." Roland smiled and nodded along with Neena's advice. He was wondering how Candy might find her imaginary unfortunate end, clearing the way for consolation and further relations with the goddess before him. His initial device placed, he felt satisfied to allow the rest of the tour to become leisurely and social. " Excellent advice. I suppose without my wife's perspective, many things aren't so obvious to me. I assume you have had to give this talk to many of the girls here, with their absentee parents leaving them here in your care." He gave the Library one last look as he found her looking at his shoes.
"Next is all outdoors. Got your walking shoes on?"
" Short of a trek into the mountains, I do believe I should be fine. Please, lead the way, Neena." As they continued on, again it was hard not to watch her move. She had natural grace, beauty, and excellent assets. He wondered if she was ever able to leave the Mansion, with her seemingly neverending duties. He hadn't seen too many other adults, regardless of the ratio she had mentioned earlier. Even then, these were more than likely teachers who went home or somewhere at the end of the day. Poor Neena probably had her own room here. Or maybe not?
" Pardon my intimacy, but do you live here on the campus? I assume you have a room in case of emergencies, but surely you do get out and do other things? I apologize for being too personal if I am. It just seems a waste for a young woman as yourself to dry up in here when there is a world of splendor outside the gates." Bold and forward. It was more of Roland's natural ways coming to the surface. It was becoming harder to suppress his true self to Neena, as her beautiful piercing gaze was disarming.
Roland's plan was a hit with Isabel apparently , judging by the awash look of shock at his suggestion to record the droll details of every room. He wondered what was going on in that twisted mind behind the generally expressionless demeanor that Isabel wore so frequently. He stifled a grin at her shock, wondering if she ever expressed any genuine emotion or if there were little clockwork gears running inside of her, running her along in her measured formalities.
She looked down the corridor for a moment, again looking like a child who was thinking of how to shirk a chore."I'm sorry, Mister Fairweather, but a tour as thorough as that is reserved for prospective residents only." It seemed to him as if she was now tired of the little game and was ready to go play elsewhere. Having left one device on the premises and mulling over how detailed anything would be in the rest of the front, he put his little frown on. Mutants were so fickle, not nearly as easily put off as humans. "I can show you a few of the common rooms, like the Cafeteria, or the Rec Room, but that's about all I can allow." Yes, it certainly did appear his tour was over. At least this one.
" I see. Well, I suppose I have taken enough of your time up. Perhaps in the future I will call ahead to see if I can have a more gracious tour of the facilities. If you would be so kind as to lead me out, I'll take up no more of your precious time." Just a few verbal jabs. Perhaps out of spite or general meanness. Either way, he was tiring of her antics as much as she was tiring of his. He turned his back to her and waited to be let out.
Roland made the knife return to his utility belt as it was replaced with a high end digital camera phone. He grinned , zooming in as the boy, still somehow twitching, kept reaching for his foot. He gave him a swift kick, silencing him.He continued zooming in on the mutant pair as they maneuvered around the other thug. As the unicorn pointed at the thug, Roland took a picture, a lovely profile of him standing above the boy.
e smiled as the next picture came easily. The female mutant had her hand on the boy's neck, surely checking for a pulse. He took several shots before and after, hoping for something indistinct in motive. He was equally fortunate to take several shots of her raising him on a platform of water. He neglected, however, to take any of the victim being placed gently under the tree. Not as if he was going to wake up, anyway. He looked around and made sure he hadn't left anything behind, making his way down the trail.
He snapped one shot off as they walked away from yhe scene and then stood half hidden in the foliage, snapping pictures of the two as they walked away. " Not even a shred of concern for your alleged victim. How callous." He snickered to himself and then stood as close as he could to the boy while staying on a path, ensuring no footsteps were left nearby. He saw a nice, sizeable rock and moved it to three feet above the boy's head. Gravity did the rest. He could see some gurgling, so to make sure it was finished, he "dropped' it two more solid tiems from varying heights.
Roland had been watching from under his large black umbrella, a pair of low light binoculars pressed into his eyes. He had seen this woman in the rain before at the Park. The Park seemed to be an excellent place to look for people he could use. Mutants seemed to flock there, perhaps as a way to disappear from the bright lights and live in their own happy little world. He had the definite feeling she was a mutant from slight variations in the rain as it poured down on her.
The thugs had been easy enough to produce as there were originally three, two guys and a girl. They had decided to tax him first and now the girl was handcuffed to the bench, being good and quiet. The boys had simple instructions, to mug the woman pointed out, keep what they like and then return, where they could have their woman back. The instructions specified that the quality of the woman they returned to depended on their performances and that they were being watched. So off they went.
He watched them pat her down and brandish their weapons. The look on the woman's face was priceless , especially considering her yawn in the middle of it all. Everything seemed to be going to plan until a second party joined the fray. The horn on the man's head and the tail hanging from behind gave Roland an extra bit of delight as there were now two mutants to document. The thugs seemed to take the mutant's appearance badly, not to mention the effect of the rain acting against the one who was now laid out at their feet, sending the other screaming and panicking and now running back to Roland. He shook his head and made a 'tsk' sound. Amateur was running straight for him, not even doubling back. Good thing the mutants hadn't decided to give chase.
"Okay, man! We did your deed for you! Now let Lola go!" Roland smiled. "You did as well as could be expected. Did you get anything? Credit card? ID?" The fool brandished a knife and started waving it around at Roland."Man, screw you and your deal. We went down there, we keep what is ours. Now let Lola go, or I swear you'll be ---glllk!" Roland had stepped forward and stabbed the boy in the throat with his own knife. Lola didn't seem to mind, seeing how the wait had been too much to bear for her. The boy gurgled as blood freely ran and bubbled from the hole in his throat. "Nope, still not sorry"
