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.
She listened to his side of the story quietly before deciding whether or not to be angry. In the end she wasn't, just sad all around. The both of them had been through some real @#%$ that night.
She reached up to wipe away that tear, and poked him square in the nose after. "None of that. How were we supposed to know he was planning something last night? We can't walk around on egg shells the rest of our lives, and you don't get to guilt trip yourself anymore for not being born psychic. Otherwise I get to beat myself up for not knowing you were walking into a trap."
She squeezed one of his hands to try and reassure him. "The baby and I are fine. And it looks like you've still got all your limbs. How the heck your face scruff always survives I'll never know."
He asked her about what happened and she pursed her lips, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling as she thought about how best to describe it.
"Well, I was asleep and then I woke up in a sack I think... got knocked on the head then woke up again in a room he had filled with various paintings of mine."
Her brows furrowed and she idly scratched the side of her belly as she continued. "He threatened the usual things. 'Going to eat your face, or feed your friends to you'... etcetera. Apparently he wanted me to paint him something. My 'swan song' he called it."
It was weird, reflecting back on all of it out loud for a third time. It felt like she had been desensitized to it already. It didn't feel normal.
"I did. Paint something that is." She focused back on Saph as she reached the end of her story. "Painted five really big, really angry versions of me and trapped him in the painting. They beat the @#$% out a him while I escaped and, well now we're here."
The moment the door burst open and Saph was wheeled in, she forgot all about what she had been pondering. Even from the brief glimpse she had gotten of him, she could tell he was worse off than she. She watched as he was pushed to the back, past another door and to the doctor who was waiting.
A handful of minutes later the large man came stumbling back out. He was healed as far as she could tell but still seemed a little out of it. Shelby let him cling, patting his shoulder slightly until he pulled back.
She wouldn't necessarily consider her self alright... but she supposed she was better off than it could have ended up. Her ankle was pretty messed up from the running leap she had taken, and the knot on her head was turning a deep blue and purple, which was nice because it matched the neat little black eye that appeared to be forming from the punch.
She resisted the urge to comment anything to him just yet, as the kindly old doctor had trailed Saph out of the room. The older man stopped beside her bed, gently asking her a few questions as he poked and prodded gently at her various injuries. Then, he laid his hands on her and went silent as he watched through a vision of how she had gotten those wounds.
The glowing of is hands eventually stopped, and with it went away her wounds. She prodded at her forehead as the Doctor patted Saph on the arm reassuringly. "There, right as rain now."
He angled a sweet smile Shelby's way, "Very brave what you did. I'm glad you two are okay."
"Thank you." She watched as the doctor saw himself out, before turning her attention back to Saph. She was happy that he was okay. She really, really was... but now that he was whole again seeing him wheeled in like that brought back her previous thoughts.
"... He told me he killed you." She searched his face for a moment, "Looks like he nearly did."
Her gaze shifted away, dropping to her hands in her lap. "I'm glad you're okay."
She had been home for approximately twenty minutes and in that time she had been ushered by a concerned friend straight to see the staff doctor at the school. Didn't even have time to change her clothes. She'd met him before a while ago after someone had mentioned that she didn't need to suffer through the healing process when a guy called Doc. Prof could literally heal you within a few minutes. She supposed it made sense, even if it was a weird concept for her to wrap her head around.
She sat perched on the edge of an examination bed, waiting to be seen by the kindy Doctor who was apparently on his way. After her trip to the hospital the previous night she had spent the rest of the night going over the incident with detectives, and then in protective custody when Roach hadn't been located at the scene. She'd been shocked to learn that he was gone and possibly still alive, but that had been quickly overshadowed by the news that Saph had been found. He was injured but alive and as far as she knew he spent the night in a hospital as well.
After she had more time to digest everything she was told, or unintentionally heard, she was trying to figure out if she should be mad at the x-man. He'd run off again without telling her he was planning on doing something dangerous. In fact, it appeared as if he had intentionally waited for her to fall asleep before leaving specifically so she wouldn't know.
That went against their no secrets pact, didn't it?
She turned her attention away from her bandaged ankle, wincing as she turned her head, toward the door as it swung open.
"Vegas is it then." She mentally started to take notes. She'd been there once a long time ago so she knew a few interesting places to go, and now that she had her finances in order she could afford one of those fancy hotels.
She had a feeling Saph would be impressed with rich-people-vegas hotel rooms.
"You give me a list of who you want to come and I'll tell dad. We'll make a plan for when later after we can give it more thought."
She let herself relax into the hug, basking in the warmth. She'd definitely missed that a lot. When he kissed her and pulled back, she couldn't help but grin at him in response. From her basket came a folded up picnic blanket.
"Your aren't." She replied with a cheeky smile, "That's the point."
She reached out for his hand to put the ring on. "You are doomed to look back on this day and lament the fact that nothing you could possibly come up with will ever match my amazing awesomeness."
Then she turned and gazed up at her creation with him. "How would you wanna get married?" She asked, knowing he had a rocky past with the subject. "Wanna run off to Vegas for a bit? It'd be a good excuse for you to get out and see a few other states before Dad-life straps you down to home."
The artist watched silently as the figures moved, movements slow at first as they all tries leaning in at once and had to adjust to each others arms. She had no idea what Roach was going on about.... couldn't die? It seemed a little far fetched, but she supposed it might make some sense when compared with a lot of the reports of his activity over the years.
Still... she didn't think he would be surviving this encounter, and even if he did she doubted he would walk out of it in any shape to ever be a problem for anyone ever again.
She would have liked to think that it would have been hard to watch as he was smacked around. Normally she wasn't a fan of violence... but... this was a special case. She wasn't a good enough person not to want to ingrain this in her mind just as she had when she ruined his eye when he had attacked Saph.
"YouKGHnn... YOu BKHNnTCH.... YOughhn... Ruined mee KTCH"
Shelby smiled slightly. Small and empty. It was nice to finally hear those words. "Enjoy your time with the monsters you created, Roach."
She didn't know if he heard her, and it really didn't matter. They were more words for her anyway. When he vanished over the side of the stage she finally let her fingers connect with the exit painting.
--
The room was silent when she reappeared in it. An empty chair with an empty shackle sat in front of her. She was surrounded on all sides by various paintings she had created. Behind her was her swan song as the bug had called it. Her eyes searched the room for an exit, which took quite a few minutes as paintings had been hung from the back of the door making it hard to find.
Eventually she found her way outside, where a warm night breeze greeted her. It was dark and she appeared to be on an unfamiliar street, in a portion of the city she didn't recognize.
Great.
Fueled by a trembling kind of adrenaline over having both escaped and potentially forever solved her problem, she headed down one street toward a more well lit part of town. She just had to make it home in one piece... that was all. Avoid any other unsavory types, contact the police when she could get to a phone and send them back to the building she had escaped from to hopefully find Roach dead and gone.
--
After 45 minutes of limping around she managed to run into a patrolling cop car and flag him down. Instead of ending up at home, she was driven to the nearest hospital for a checkup, mostly for the baby's sake. She didn't mind as she got to spend most of the time resting on a bed, wrapped up warm and tight while being treated for a slight concussion, a sprained ankle and a bruised hip.
She flinched slightly as he moved, half terrified he would try to kill her before she could enact her plan.
"Complete? Your Swan song? It... It seems like it is missing something."
He touched her shoulder. She had to physically restrain herself from jerking away. He had no idea how right he was...
"The stage... Where is... Where is the focal point? Where is the performer? Is it the viewer? No... It's not from the point of view of the stage... What... This isn't finished! FINISH it!"
Ah, there he was. There was the monster she knew so well. "As you wish."
Her fingers curled around his hand on her shoulder. The other darted out and met with wet paint. A second later they were in an entirely different place. She stumbled only slightly before catching herself, having enough practice at that point not to fall flat on her face. Then , before he could adjust to the sudden movement (or the fact that she was no longer shackled to the chair) she turned and hurled herself off the side of the stage.
The exit painting hovered behind, just above a small patch of white in the darkness. A clear, barely visibly doorway framed the platform she aimed for. With a little luck and determination she landed on the solid patch, stumbling and falling. The artist ignored the pain though, instead focusing on hauling herself up and to the open door. She gripped it and slammed it shut. It sealed itself back into the rest of the barrier that encased the stage and figures, a bubble of impenetrable protection to keep her monster in.
Around Roach, the figures started to stir. Five bodies started to move slowly, writing with different movement as ten sets of bloodied eyes landed on the object of her worst nightmares. They were so large compared to the stage that the perspective seemed off... as if you were a bug looking up at something larger than yourself.
Shelby stood, nursing what was probably a sprained ankle as her hand hovered just in front of the exit painting.
The coldness that had settled in the pit of her stomach tripled. There was ice in her veins, and she followed his gestures with her eyes. He threatened her dad. To eat her face. Her glasses appeared. How thoughtful.
A little voice in the back of her mind, past the panicked wailing and seething hatred she wasn't able to show, commented on the fact that he really needed to get new material. Threatening to eat her all the time had really lost its edge with time. Unblinking, she turned back to the canvas with robotic, jerky movements. One of her eyes was twitching slightly... from what she didn't know. Maybe from how hard it was to keep herself from crying.
She reached for the spectacles, slipping them on with trembling fingers, and spoke not a single word in reply. Blue eyes traced empty, white. Her mind struggling at first with what to put there. Unbidden, she couldn't help a few stray tears that crept through her walls when her moms face came to mind.
She took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to calm down like she had been taught to do. Try to focus on what you are feeling... Identify each sensation.
Pain.
Physical pain. The artist opened her eyes again and focused on the white. Her mind set about forming shapes from it.... a silhouette... Teeth bared in agony. Red, red blood.
Sadness
Overwhelming sorrow. Tears on cheeks. Eyebrows squished together painfully tight. Hollow, helpless feeling in the chest. Crushing.
Anger
Rage, really. Burning hot and barely contained. Fingers curled... fists clenched. Teeth clacking as they snap shut.
Fear
Pinpricks for pupils. Sweat sliding from the brow. Trembling knees knocking together.
Her hands set to work as an image formed in her mind. She had an idea... but needed to be careful as she wasn't going to be given a chance to test it out first.
With brush in hand she began to paint. Slowly, methodically, the painting started to form. First, in the center the shape of a feminine body appeared. She focused on outlines before anything else, moving from one to the next as fast as her brain would let her. Eventually she lost track of time, and didn't notice that hours had passed until the muscles in her arms and back protested from being in one position for too long.
She sat back in her stiff chair, brush slipping from her fingers to the floor as she took in the final form of what she had painted.
In total five figures had been painted in. They stood from the waist up in a half circle around a circular, well lit stage. The light painted from above cast deep shadows upon the bodies, focusing down on the empty space that sat between them. The edges of the stage faded off into darkness. She intended for there to be only empty space there... save for a single square of white set near the very bottom of the canvas.
Each body was a copy of the next, with only a few minute differences. The expressions and gestures changed from one to the next. One appeared as if it was roaring in anger. Another looked trapped in the deepest depression. Every single version of her shared the same hair color, as well as the same bloody eyes. Rivers of red were painted down cheeks, spilling over collar bone and chest all the way past the stage and out of sight. The eyes themselves were red. White replaced with deep crimson, surrounding baby blue.
The one thing that stood out above all else was the fact that each had a mop of pink hair painted in different lights. They were representations of the artist herself, as best as she could do from memory. And, if one looked closely enough, they could spot what appeared to be a very thin circle of white that encased the bodies and the stage... and well as what looked like a small painted door just in front of the small white square at the bottom.
Shelby studied her art with a nervous eye. She really, really hoped her idea would work.
Now all she needed was Roach to get within touching range and she would put her plan into action, and hopefully save her hide while she was at it.
The shifting of the sheets didn't wake her right aft first. She would have figured it was Saph anyway, had her meds not been strong enough for her to ignore them. It wasn't until the sheets were jerked together and she woke with that awful falling out of bed feeling that she really came too.
It took only a moment to figure out that it was not a nightmare, but very real. But, alas, she didn't have much time to make a fuss before something hard clocked her across the noggin and she blacked out again.
--
Her head was pounding when she woke back up. With a soft groan, she lifted a hand and felt the giant knot that had formed above one temple. Next, she jolted into alertness and pressed a hand to her belly in a panic. It was fine... the baby was fine. Roaches voice jolted her out of her panic, and into sheer terror... enough so she didn't really hear much of what he said right at first, not before he outright threatened her and her unborn child.
Her very blood chilled in her veins and she found herself watching him with wide eyes, slightly unfocused because her glasses were probably still sitting on her nightstand at the school. Or, maybe that was from the bump on the head. She couldn't tell.
He rambled on, something about everyone she loved, and started digging out painting supplies. She could feel her heartbeat in her hands and feel, it was pounding so hard. This was it, wasn't it? He had finally gotten tired of his own demented game and he was going to get rid of her. What was he gonna do with the easel? Paint with her blood?
""I need one last work... Something... Amazing. Something that reflects how this moment makes you feel. Oh, how rude of me... Let me give you some light!"
The light stung her eyes. It took a moment to adjust, and when she did she found herself surrounded in a room full of macabre paintings, both of her own volition and ones that had been requested of her. She'd known that Roach had been the one buying a lot of her work... but she hadn't thought that he was actually keeping it. She swallowed thickly as he continued on.
"I love your work. Every time I hurt you it develops even more! Yes... These are your works of art, but I really must say... You are my art... My greatest work yet. Take your time. No one is coming. Saphirus is dead, Megan is broken, and doesn't know this safe house... All you have left is this. Your swan song... Make it your best!"
There were a lot of things that came to mind right then.
First, there was no way he had managed to kill Saph... no way, right? He'd been right there when she had gone to.... sleep. Shelby slowly connected some dots internally, trying not to let her worry show on her face. Saph had been right next to her when she had gone to sleep. Where was he now? Had he left? Had he been in a different area of the school? No... no he would have created too much of a fuss for Roach to get in and out unscathed, let alone with Shelby.
What if something had happened to him?
She tried not to think of that and turned to her second realization. Roach didn't know about her power. Either that, or he didn't think there was anything she could do with it that would possibly interrupt his plan. She stared around her at the numerous paintings she had created. Would any of them work with her power? She hadn't been able to test a whole lot of her older paintings.
Would she even want to attempt to use them? The last time she had traversed into a painting with an intentionally hostile creature as the subject, she'd barely made it back out with all of her limbs still attached. No... she would need a new one. Something she could mold to her needs. But first...
"...If you've already killed Saph, and no one else is coming for me... and you are going to kill me anyway, why should I do what you want? How can I put any faith in you not killing anyone else I care about after I am gone?"
Her voice trembled, but she had to keep it up. It always seemed to drive him mad when she spoke back to him or went against what he wanted. Meanwhile, she stared straight ahead at the white canvas, trying to envision what she would paint there. What would be most effective for her to use against him?
The poor artist that had been mentioned many times tonight was blissfully unaware of what had happened to saph, or who was literally coming for her. Why? Because she was four months pregnant and dead to the world with exhaustion. It didn't help that she woke up at god awful hours in the morning to puke her guts out if she so much as dreamed about the wrong kind of food.
Earlier that night she had taken her midwife approved sleep aid, dozed off with Saph still in the room with her, and had yet to even stir. While the school was being passive aggressively invaded for a second time because of her, she was snuggled up in the blankets of Saph's bed, as comfortable as she could get in a tank-top and sweats, with calming music quietly droning away in the background.
She was dreaming about kittens too. Giant, bobbly headed kittens chasing after her and saph in hilarious Flintstones style car, down some kind of mountain terrain in the middle of nowhere.
"Because people might colonize it one day." She answered simply. "It's got a lot of potential... so when Earth dies, Mars might be where we all live." Well... the rich ones, at least. She was enough of a cynic to fully believe that the poor would get left behind on Earth to try and survive. Poor long-in-the-future sods.
The closer they got, the bigger it started too look. She'd put a lot of effort into how this planet would look, from the sandy texture down to the jagged rocks, and heck, maybe even a few of those questionable rock formations people kept insisting were faces or aliens.
Little particles of painted dust kicked up when they landed, and when she looked skyward the sight was spectacular. From where she landed if you looked straight up you could see all of the planets in a scattered line. Far away her Earth sat glittering like a blue marble. She settled the basket in front of her, clutching it with one hand while the other drummed nervously on the lid.
"Mars kind of represents a hopeful future. Bright possibilities.... and when you are here and looking back, it makes it harder to view the past in a bad light. She turned and look at him again, "When I look to the future, I see you in it. I see us together... I see us happy, with a little family."
One hand ducked into the basket, fumbling around for the little black box crammed all the way at the bottom. She withdrew it, opened it, and turned it toward him.
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Saph." Inside the box sat a gleaming golden ring. She'd stayed up late a while ago to sneak a measurement off his ring finger, so it was the right size, even.
She blew a raspberry at him for his criticism of her joke and started to gather up the dishes they had used. "Ha ha. Figures a butthead like you would make great anus jokes."
After she had repacked the basket and closed it up, she pondered on his words. "I mean... yeah, I feel like I'm ready. I don't get much sleep anyway and I don't have a regular 9 to 5 job... so i'll have plenty of time to focus on him." She'd decided a while ago she wanted a little boy... she wasn't sure who the little life inside her would end up being yet, but she could dream.
"And you have a pretty flexible schedule too. So... yeah. I think we'll be fine."
They were scheduled for parenting classes in the coming weeks with her midwife. It was supposed to cover basic things and common questions. She was looking forward to it.
"Whelp, i'm ready to move on if you are." The artist took a moment, and probably some help, getting to her feet. It was harder nowadays with her center of balance continually moving further out, and the gentle rotation of the rings wasn't helping. After she was stable, she pushed off gently from the planet and headed in the direction of the next.
Neptune was next... the second to last stop on their journey. It was a large deep blue planet. Dark hues of cobalt and sapphire swirled around as a large storm raged along the surface. She let herself float to a stop a few arms lengths away, watching her work in silent wonder. After a few moments, she spoke.
"You create this wonderful storm inside me. All of these wonderful feelings swirling around, battling for control. I don't ever want that to stop."
She didn't look at him yet, because off in the distance she could see Mars. A beautiful bright red jewel just a short fly away. The basket on her arm felt ten times heavier than normal. Was this what conventional men went though when proposing?
"Come on... I saved Mars for last."
She headed them off in that direction, swallowing some of her nerves along the way.
"Ya don't have to do anything but bask in the praise in about to shower you with." She wiggled her fingers like raindrops falling from the sky and chuckled.
While he sat back and contemplated things, she idly finished her lunch. It wasn't much... simple things without much flavor. Morning sickness really sucked.
When he dropped his own joke, she chuckled along heartily. "Oh ho ho! Don't think you can one up me!"
A moment of pondering later, and she had a comeback. "Everybody loves to make memes about Uranus."
"So... uh... You're sayin a lot... and I gotcha, but this isn't a one way thing... I like to see you smile. I seen you get so much stronger as a person, and I've seen you overcome so much... I'm glad you are still here with me. I dunno if I coulda made it this far without you..."
She chuckled and popped a grape in her mouth. "It's never been a one-way thing... but I don't think you get this kinda attention nearly as much as you deserve. I've seen first hand how much you care for people and much much you put into what you do, even when you aren't wearing your spanx. Why shouldn't I spoil you for a bit?"
She reached back into one of the other rings, letting her fingers sift through the moving dust. "What is one painting and a handful of compliments when compared to everything you've done for me?"
Shelby resumed eating after dusting off her hands and smiled. "You don't have to say anything... I already know how much you love me."
After a bit, she pointed off toward where a lonely looking Uranus sat in the distance. "Hey, look! Uranus! Didja know that 63 Earths can fit inside Uranus?" She paused for a beat, chewing up another grape.
She came to Mercury next. It was much smaller in comparison to all of her other planets. This one was the size of a large beach ball. She gathered it up toward her, letting it rotate gently between her stretched out hands. A blazing sun was off to her left and at a distance. The light caught the spinning planet and sparkled like it was encrusted with diamonds.
"Mercury is the smallest planet and closest to the sun. It's a tiny, burning ball that's shrinking more and more as time goes on." She passed the sparkling ball toward him, watching as it floated his way like a glittery disco ball.
She watched his expression, a smile still on her lips. "I love seeing you smile. I always want to be able to make you smile." Really, she did. The way his whole face lit up when he smiled was one of her favorite things.
She fell back a little, playing in her mock zero gravity. It was nice this time... The last time she'd accidentally catapulted herself across a painting for thirty minutes with an unintentionally hash planetary gravity.
"... When I showed you the stars before you said no one had ever done something like that before." A simulated asteroid belt suddenly curled past, swirling around them elegantly like water through a drain. It passed only a moment later, vanishing back into the blackness from whence it came.
"I made up my mind then that I wouldn't let that be the last time."
She turned, pink hair aloft behind her in weightless tendrils, and offered her hand.
The next planet sat just bit away. It took a little kicking and maneuvering around other bright star clusters to get there. She reached out to show him that he could touch them and pick them up. They shined like tiny suns in her hands.
Finally, Saturn appeared. A larger planet with slowly rotating rings. Shelby floated herself on down to one of the outer rings. It moved on its own, sinning her along with it like a carnival ride. Here, midway through her painting, she sat down her basket an dug out their lunches. Saph's favorite, her dad's mac n' cheese, came out from within, as well as a mug of piping hot black coffee in an insulated tumbler.
She had her own treats to nibble on, but she passed him his first.
She didn't need him rummaging around in the basket.
