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.
Her gloves weren't the best, but they were at least allowing her to keep a semi-solid grip on the Octopi skin as the long arm reached its full crest, and started coming back down. She'd unfortunately been down this road before, so she at least had a bit of an idea of how this temperamental ride would go.
On the way down though, she did have a moment to reflect on that tackle, and how for just a moment there she'd gotten a little thrill at the tense stare he'd leveled on her.
"I do what I waaaaAAHHHHNT!" With a monstrous splash, the tentacle she was riding hit the water and she was dragged under a good distance. Far enough to see him not too far off, right in front of one of the large creatures' huge glossy eyes.
Oof. Well, he probably had all of its attention now! That was good for her at least.
A surge of sucker-covered limbs came for him, intent on dragging him back up out of the water where he would presumably be devoured in as dramatic a fashion as possible. Really, sometimes the intentions people put into their work were just a biiiiiit too much. At least it hadn't been any other kind of tentacle art, though.
The thief snagged onto a different passing limb, held on tight, and soon she was out of the water as well. She started to stand to get her bearings, made sure the sword was still on her back, and then sought out the 'Thundergod' with her eyes.
"He's pretty mean, but if you don't let him get you in his beak you'll probably be fiiine!" She cupped her hands around her mouth to shout because she'd ended up on the other side of the huge octopus.
"Assuming you make it out of here alive, gimme a call sometime! This was pretty fun!"
She adjusted the string around her shoulders, gave him a little finger wiggle of a wave and an air kiss that absolutely had no intention of reaching him, and then burned her painted locket as a quick exit.
Pop!
---
It took her 20 minutes to get across town through frame portals to the spot where she was supposed to drop off the sword. That was five minutes over what she'd anticipated, which was due to this target being a bit more... complicated, than the last few.
A black short limo was waiting for her, or the sword rather. She sidled up to a back window and handed it over. A small clean case of money was given to her in return, and with a tired salute, she Popped back out of there as fast as possible. Kawaii Dorobo-chan needed a nap... and maybe a cold shower.
"Does that mean I made the list for both-" She had to cut herself off as he came charging at her again, and decided that she was going to have to end the game soon. He was pretty serious, and she wasn't capable of squaring off against people.
"Yakuza?" She grimaced. "Well THAT would have been nice to know before I accepted this job!" It was starting to become clear that someone had pulled the wool over her eyes a bit when handing her the offer. Did she get someone else's sloppy seconds because they didn't wanna do it??
She vanished again, figuring that now was time to make a break for it before he got even more riled up. All she had left to do was say goodbye.
She popped out next to a bench she had marked, already turned to face where she'd last seen him, only... he wasn't?
He full-on bodily tackled her and without even having to think about it she was sure this was it. The gig was up. He was gonna strangle her or shishkabob her on those swords and-
She squeaked in surprise and her fingers missed her placed mark. Instead they hit the mural that had been painted on the back of the bench.
Pop!
They hit water after a shortfall and separated in the chaos. Churning, fluid water made from spray paint in varying colors. She immediately started kicking to keep her head up. "Ah- cough #$%^, not this one again!"
She hated this painting. The stupid octopus was super aggressive.
They had a moment to tread the fake water, while she paddled as swiftly as she could away from Raijin until a very large body rose up under their feet. Giant green tentacles broke the surface of the churning water, flailing angrily. Shelby managed to snag ahold of one and was lifted out of the waves in a wide arch. She wasn't sure how long she'd be able to hold onto the semi slippery surface.
"Word to the wise; Don't drink the water! It's paint! You'll probably die!" Maybe. She'd never tested it.
Ancient sword that had killed a lot of people, and apparently might be her downfall too?
"Neat." She shifted on the branch she was currently on, one hand still over her painted tag. "But no thanks! I've got too many bills to pay to die anytime soon. Student loans and all that."
What was the name he'd just called her? Kawii- doro- She popped, stayed gone for just a moment so she could google her best guess at what he'd called her.
Pop!
"Cute thief? Daww!" It was a weird, very tense game of tag as she flitted about. Or maybe mutant whack-a-mole. That seemed more fitting, actually.
"Look. I'm sorry you ended up being my target and that this sword means a lot to you. You're making me feel bad over here with the cute nicknames and very morbid second chances and all... buuuut-"
She moved again, appearing back in the original tree with her hand on one of her tags.
"But if I back out of this one, my reputation as a thief is shot. Ya know? How's a girl supposed to get any more work around here if I buckle under the pressure of the first guy who threatens my life, or whatever."
Pop!
"I'll tell you what though. After I finish this job, if you realllly want, you could always hire me to steal it back for you!... I'm pretty sure that's how it works, anyway."
Ohjeez! He could climb fast! She burned another ring popping out of there, and vanished long enough that he was able to text her.
Shelby cringed at it. Soooo dramatic!
She reappeared in a different tree fifty feet away from one of her pre-prepared tags. "Deathwish? No, not really! More like a wo- EEP!"
Pop!
She reappeared somewhere else, a ways away from him. "....Work order." She finished lamely.
"What's so important about this sword that you'd skewer someone who took it?" She was genuinely curious. She'd never met someone who so obviously wanted to murder her right in the face before.
"... Although now I know where the 'Intimidating' bit came from..."
She'd keep vanishing whenever close, sticking to the tags she's left around for the most part, but occasionally dropping a new ring here and there.
It started out with a kiss, it was only a kiss, how did it end up like this~?
He pulled her in. She went willingly. After all, a kiss was an easy gift in return for what he was about to give her. Lips met, she offered an energy-filled, passionate kiss back. Shelby pulled away a moment later as if to take a breath and for just a moment all of the stars aligned in perfect symmetry. His grip on her lifted for a moment, and her fingers curled lightly around the hilt of his largest sword.
Pop!
She vanished from his lap, and with her so did his blade. A little quarter machine ring fell into his lap, with a small painted image on the inside of the band.
pop! "Wow, this thing heavier than it looks, huh?" She was suddenly high up in the branches of the tree he was leaning against, with his sword in her hands. She didn't dilly around for long, drawing out a length of cord from somewhere, and set about trying the blade to her back. She didn't wanna lose it after all.
"Looks like my time is up! She mock saluted him from her vantage point with an impish grin. "What a shame, too! That was a pretty good kiss!"
She didn't have fine handwriting. Her's was blocky and purposeful, maybe a bit hurried. She tended to focus on getting ideas out of her head as quickly as possible before she forgot them, versus making her notes pretty on the eyes.
"Not gonna lie, a philosophy like that has me a bit jealous... I can work on a painting for hours and still feel like it's not done." Her number was there, scrawled on his skin with a little zany doodle face under it. She capped her marker and tucked it away again, and then met his eyes.
"Oh? Wanna tell me what they are? I have some time still."
She was a bit closer now, and while he didn't seem as guarded as he had before, she didn't get the impression he'd dropped his guard all the way. She leaned in a little, not letting go of his hand just yet.
"Oh... so it is your birthday, then? Why didn't you say so sooner!" Now she could give him a 'Happy Birthday!' and mean it. "Happy Birthday! Though, unfortunately, looks like I don't have any gifts on me." She made a little show of pointing out her woeful lack of pockets. The costume she had on simply didn't leave any room for them.
"You weren't? What's all this, then? I figured it was the practice or something." She wasn't playing part, either. She'd literally thought he was doing some fancy stuff when she'd snuck up being him. "So you didn't do these, then?" She pointed a gloved finger at some of the scrolls, very careful not to actually touch. She might moonlight as a thief, but she still had hefty respect for how delicate art could be in all forms.
The word he'd drawn apparently meant 'Mysterious' or something like that. She took it when offered and was honest to goodness thrilled with it. Oh, this was so going on her wall at home!
"I can honestly say that's the first time I've gotten 'Mysterious'... usually it's 'Peculiar' or 'Enigmatic'." She folded it carefully, and since she didn't have any pockets she tucked the paper into one of the cups of her bra. Which, considering he was asking for her number, she didn't feel the need to be bashful about.
"I suppose that'd be a fair trade, and I do still owe you a present, too." She hemmed and hawed a little, pretending to ponder over what to do when she very much already had a plan. A hastily thrown-together plan, but a plan all the same.
.... eehhhhhh, what not?
She pulled a little marker out from the other boob cup, uncapped it with her teeth, and reached for one of his hands. Yes, she was going to try and write the phone number for her most recent burner on his hand. Who cared if he had paper?
She grinned and the little fake whiskers painted on her cheeks with eyeliner flexed upwards. "How will I find out if it's your birthday or not? Hm. That sounds like more of a thing you'd have to explain. It's not like I'm psychic."
"My intentions? I wanted to see what you were drawing, of course! Art tends to attract other artists." She watched him as he got to draw, attention focused on where the ink met the paper. The scroll thing was still a kicker, but she liked it. You didn't see students rocking around with scrolls on campuses these days. Had it's own flare.
"Also I'm an art thief." She paused as he held his work up and out, and then added, "Not for any of this, though! It's nice, but I've got bigger fish to fry sooooon..." She pretended to check the little watch on her wrist, "-Ish... and you're in my hidey spot."
And then, she carried on like normal and blinked at him. "So what's it mean?"
She was moderately surprised when the man offered his drink to her and asked her a question. "I dunno... is it? If it is I'll have to wish you a Happy Birthday, then." She accepted the drink nonetheless, and once sat she took a sip. Ooo! Good quality stuff! "Yum! It's sweet. Thanks!"
Shelby handed it back and got to dissecting his work with her eyeballs. The lines were clean. Not shaky, or uncertain. Smooth rounded edges when needed, sharp points when not. He was obviously well-practiced. Also, who was she? "Voleur d'art!" She wasn't well versed in other languages, like... at all but ever since she had chosen that name in a panic she'd made sure she could at least say it right. The french rolled off her tongue with practiced ease and she offered a cheeky smile in greeting. "Nice meet you!"
It didn't escape her that he'd rested one hand on his swords, but she forced herself not to stare. She already knew which one was the target based on blurry pictures that had been sent along with the work order.
"I don't understand a lick of it... buuuut I can tell you've put a lot of work into the practice. Could I see you write a few lines?" She mimicked a brush on paper with her fingers, "An explanation would be wonderful, too! I love art~"
The stage was set. The pawn was in place, and she was ready. She felt more than thoroughly prepared this time, which was a good feeling and also a first. Most of her previous jobs left her feeling like she was still struggling to keep her head above water. Especially whenever OIAM inevitably showed up.
"Oooh, is that Sake?" She was peering around the trunk of the tree at him, already in costume and with her mask affixed to her face. She was starting to wonder when people were going to start recognizing her, if at all. "Isn't it illegal to drink out in the open?"
She had on a bubblegum pink wig, which was longer and curlier than her natural hair. Green contacts in, with big lashes and winged liner behind her domino mask. Her costume looked ridiculous to outside eyes but suited her needs just fine. Little gloves to keep her prints off of stuff, and to hide the variety of rings she had on her fingers. The cat-eared headband could have been cuter, but meh... win some, lose some.
"Wassat?" She spied what the man was working on. Scrolls? Ink brush? Calligraphy? In a park?? That was... kinda neat, actually. A little antiquated, but neat.
She couldn't read a lick of it though. Japanese if she was going to guess, from some of the shapes and line work.
"Mind if I look?" She came out from behind the tree fully and squatted down in front of him with her arms wrapped around her knees.
Shelby didn't know the first thing about swords. Her lane was art, with a sprinkle of history and a healthy slathering of space facts. But... when someone contacted you and offered an exorbant about of money for you to get your hands on a currently owned item, which was apparently rare and expensive, and they dumbed just a butt load of zero's on the end of the offered reward?
She was suddenly very interested in swords.
A basic description was given of the man she needed to find, with more detailed information about the item she was to procure.
She picked out a costume and a wig and settled in for a few days of scouring the web for information on her target. As it were a lot of people online had seen him, or someone matching his description quite well. There were a host of Karen's complaining about how he was a vulgar womanizer who loitered in parks to prey on unsuspecting females- Some kind of big bad wolf characterization...
Also a smattering of people posting about the 'cool guy' who liked to sit and write poems. Apparently he was kind of intimidating, so not many of the MyFace users wanted to get close to him. There were a few blurry pictures posted alongside all of the words. Obviously taken from a distance.... and some through what looked like leaves of bushes.
Geez... how intimidating could one guy be?
She was able to compile all of that information together to come up with a pattern of sorts based on the days people had posted about him, and a place based on the things she could see in the pictures.
Shelby visited the park he apparently liked to frequent, found the tree he apparently liked to sit under, and broke out her paints. A little two inch by two inch picture was quickly and delicately painted onto the bark of the tree, with the intention of a quick escape behind it.
"... There." She muttered to herself, under the cover of darkness. "Now only thirty more to go!"
The artist spent a night going around painting identical small circles on trees, bushes, and benches in a direct path out of the park. It stretched all the way to the street. Once done, she returned to her apartment and crashed in a pile on her couch, almost instantly out.
Only time would tell if all of her sleuthing would end up putting that sword in her hands... and she would have to wait until the date she'd circled in red on her calendar.
She didn't know what house was supposedly his. ...Theirs.
But, when she spotted the familiar figure of her dad, quite a bit grayer in the hair maybe, standing out front with a baby on one hip, her heart jumped into her throat, and tears formed in her eyes instantly. That was her daddy!
She waited anxiously for the Prius to stop. Her dad finally spotted her and carefully set the toddler down on the grass in the front yard.
"Dad!" She practically ran out of the car and into his wide-open waiting arms.
"Shelby!" He captured her in a crushing hug, lifting and spinning her and she cried all over him immediately. It had been a little more than a year since she had last spoken to him, in her time at least.
"Oh, Hunny, where have you been?" He set her down and his large hands gripped the sides of her face. He took a good long look at her and that's exactly when the realization hit him.
"...what... happened to you?" He was not looking at his daughter as she had left him. He was looking at his daughter, much younger, and with all of the fine little wrinkles that had been settling onto her face suddenly gone. She looked ten years younger!
Colin looked up to Saph, clearly confused and unable, or unwilling, to form the connections at the moment.
A little warm hand on her leg caught her attention and she looked away from her dad, down to the toddler who was standing and sucking on a binky. The little cogs in his developing brain were clearly working on overtime as he slapped her leg a few more times, and then lifted up hands up in a clear request for her to pick him up.
"Uppauppa!"
Oh, that was just adorable, but.... she hesitated.
Colin hopped in, placing a hand on her shoulder, as Saph joined them.
"How about we all go inside and sit down? I'm sure you've had a heck of a day... both of you."
In the span of an hour she'd gone from kinda figuring that she was once more permanently 21, to meeting him and finding out that there was a chance she'd suddenly poof back into being a full-grown woman again, and now was back to... square one.
The syringe in her leg.
Permanently younger.
This knowledge didn't help anything at all really.
"So... I'm.. just like this forever? I'll never get those memories back? I'll never get that life back?" The idea that she was going to have to keep living in her own shadow forever, the shadow of what felt like a dead woman to her, was... horrifying.
Suddenly everything hurt. It all hurt and she couldn't muster up the energy to figure out why. His rejection hurt. Her lost life hurt. Her new life hurt. The idea that none of it would ever come back, always be out of her reach, hurt.
She somehow managed to suck the tears threatening to fall back in, and her expression went flat.
"...It's fine." She shifted from panic and pain to plotting and planning in a heartbeat and started chewing on her lip again. Started pacing as well.
"It'll be fine. I just have to... study. research. I'll learn it all again." Her phone chimed in her pocket, she ignored it.
"I vaguely remembered what your car looked like, I think... it must all still be there. I just have to unlock it."[/color]
Unbeknownst to her, she was emulating almost exactly the same behaviors she had slipped into when her older self had first met him. In the face of extreme mental trauma, she had slipped into work mode then, too. Did her own research in an attempt to track down Roach, and had been fairly successful at it. Not that it had mattered much.
She tried to steel herself, shaking her hands out lest they start to cramp from clenching them.
"I wanna meet Jr." She turned back, facing him, too caught up in her thoughts to offer any sympathy to him at that moment.
"...I think I need to meet him."
She went to get into the car, regardless of if he was still leaning against it. Sat, buckled herself in and looked straight ahead.
Did he look like an idiot? Yes, he was certainly starting too. He could drive without his eyes mostly? What did that even mean?!
And then he laid into her. Really, really laid into her. Her hands dropped to her sides from her hair and she stared at him, mutely for a moment, before her face went red with an angry blush.
"Well I'm so sorry to disappoint, she's not here right now. You're gonna have to @#$%ing wait for her to show back up!"
Did it sting? ... Yes. It certainly did. She was Shelby. She'd known no other version of herself, but here, in this future world to her, she wasn't wanted. She'd woken up in someone else's clothes, someone else's life, and with someone else's expectations stapled into her skin and she just couldn't get away from it all!
He ordered, or maybe requested, that she get back in the car and she stubbornly refused to budge.
"What for? So I can get dragged somewhere else to be even more of a disappointment to someone else?"
She sniffled. @#$%, her eyes were welling up. This sucked!
"This was a bad idea. You should just wait until your Wife is back. Nobody there wants to meet me."
A series of things happened that she wasn't even going to pretend to understand. They absolutely started to crash because of course they did his eyes were @#$%ing closed!
She'd never been in a car crash before, not even a relatively minor one, so her reaction was to just kinda lock up in preparation for... whatever was to come.
Only it didn't play out like she thought it would have. A strange sense or, like... nothing? overcame her. His hand went out and stuff related directly to her just stopped. She didn't know how to handle that.
The airbag deployed. His hand dropped and she lurched away, pressing herself into the door behind her while her brain scrambled to connect the dots and figure out what had just happened. He'd... done something, that much she was sure of. Her chest was rising and falling with deep, quick breaths.
.... and then the anger returned.
"What in the hell do you- What did I do that for!?" She slapped around blindly for the window button and started rolling it down.
"You were driving with your EYES CLOSED? What in the @#$% was that about!?"
It took a moment to clamber out of the now open window.
"Look, I know you are upset. I @#$%ing am too, but that is NO reason to pull some stupid stunt like that and just- RRGH!" She fisted her hands in her hair and ground her teeth together.
