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.
He actually didn't protest at all which threw Leo's expectations completely out the window. Oh. So. He did want to know?
"Everybody's usually cool at any game shop. They're," he stopped and had to correct himself, "we're the lowest of social lows as far as humans go. So we can't afford to hate anybody more than we hate ourselves. Or. Maybe politicians? We can hate them the most."
He was ready to go, hand on the door when Alex had to get in one last jibe.
> "Fine, but since you seem to think it's so cool, you're getting a crash course in survival later."
Leo went white as a sheet.
"Then turn around and go home." It was mortifying to say, but he'd already tried it. Leo was no hero.
"I-I tried it. It didn't turn out well. I can't... I'm not... you. Okay? I don't have the same... I just... I don't want to be a damsel in distress. So I shouldn't put myself in those situations to start out. I'd do it again if it meant that much to you." Alex could help keep him safe, he was almost sure, but that was a hell of a lot to put on a friend's shoulders.
It'd be better if they just... didn't.
"It's probably too late for anybody cool to be there anyway. We can just go..."
Yes! He did a little fist pump in celebration. He hadn't expected resistance, but it was still a win. Hoo! That was the hard part done with, now to go find a METAbot to interview for the side-by-side.
"Awesome. Yeah. No. Right now it's a bunch of footage. ViewTube is an eventuality, but I was hoping to edit all the pieces and establish a narrative, y'know? Like. Some music and stuff and rain- well, not rainbows. But like The More You Know sort of stuff going on?"
Oh yeah. This was gonna be good. He could tell.
"Let's grab a bus into town and go find a META, yeah?" And since they were kind hanging out until they found one, he may as well ask. "Been on any hot dates lately?
"YOU ARE NOT DUMB!" He was shouting. They were both shouting, but Leo had a certain extra volume to his words which, once they were out there and he realized how very loud he'd been, he tried to reign it in, at least a little. "There is a difference between intelligence and being in the same godd***n echo chamber the rest of us are in! Left!" He directed Alex again, glad they were arguing because Alex apparently needed some FACTS hammered into his THICK SKULL.
"You feel like you're on the outside because you're missing experiences which are DUMB. PATENTLY DUMB." He was mad at facing death, but that's what movies and books and heroes and villains were all about. Normal people never had to learn what they were made of. "Normal people can hardly tell their days from their weeks from their years! They make up dumb stuff, in-jokes, to make sure they at least have something to talk about!"
Alex lamenting what amounted to a lack of dank memes was quite frankly the stupidest thing Leo'd ever heard come out of Alex's mouth.
He consulted his phone again for directions as he weathered Alex's last rant. "Turn here."
The ColdSteel stuff, he hadn't known. Leo wasn't exactly privvy to the intimate details of any of the X-men's lives.
"Look, I don't know about how to deal." The movies and the books, they only dealt with the interesting parts. That left him terribly unprepared for psychological counseling. "But I do know one thing. We're here."
Leo pointed to a neon "OPEN" sign across the intersection that pointed down to a basement establishment: Little Shop of Games.
Alex was gonna be so mad. "Do you want a crash course in culture?"
Oh. She was free. Cool. So. All he had to do was ask. Leo took a deep breath and prayed to Kanye West, patron saint of those who put their feet in their mouths.
"So, I was thinking... about you. And, well, I'd love it if you came with me to-" Her eyes were wide. Could robot eyes go that wide? Leo talked faster. "See, I'm making this movie thing." Yeah. Totally. Downplay the importance this had in his life so that if she blew him off it'd be not a big deal. "I thought it'd be cool, you know. If you were in it. We could go, like, compare anatomy between METAbots. I'd love your take, considering the way your power manifested."
"Hey. So I just want to stress that I'm not a creep." Leo practiced in front of his bathroom mirror because he wanted to sound less lame than he usually did.
Except that was totally lame. Uuuuuugh.
He debated just winging it. Gltich was pretty cool in the classes they had together. In fact, she was quite possibly, the most level-headed high schooler he'd ever met. Despite the fact that she talked as much as, if not more than Leo did, what she said was so often worth listening to. He figured she'd be cool with being in his documentary if he asked. He even had what he thought was a neat idea. He was still nervous, though. Nothing about this documentary had gone totally as expected.
Leo checked the battery on his hand-held camcorder. Saph still had his button and Leo wasn't about to go ask for it back. He'd borrowed his family's camera, which they really only broke out for Easter and Christmas anyway. So he had until one of those to get it back into his parent's closet before they noticed.
He had everything all planned out... except what he was going to say.
Catching up to Glitch after Biology with Ms. Dryad, Leo jogged to catch up in the hallway so that he and Glitch could walk side by side.
"Hey, Glitch. You got any more classes for today or are you done?"
She praised him and a sprig of pride sprouted in his chest which translated into a toothy grin.
"To be fair, I have experience. My pops is an podiatric surgeon who dictates his notes and then bribes his grandbabies to transcribe 'em for him. I could probably tell you all the bones in your foot too." He had a knack for auditory learning which was great in the classroom setting not to mention that it was great for memorizing movie quotes.
"This is a decent start. The rest of this we could knock out another day, if you are itching to be somewhere else." She'd looked nervous before when the library had started filling up. Maybe there was an ex-best friend or something. He was curious, but smart enough not to ask.
"I'll email what I got so far." And he leaned forward on the desk to use his thumbs to maximum efficiency just so he could do it right now.
He sounded... relieved? Maybe it was for the best that it was all out there and in the open, now.
> "So... You know. What do I do with you now?"
"You let me go because I have enough evidence to sink you and I'm not dumb enough to have it on me." But he was dumb enough to tell him about it. Leo eyed the hand that approached him with increasing alarm. 3T didn't exactly care about the sanctity of life.
But he only pat Leo on the shoulder. It seemed that the Masochist persona was the dominant one, after all. If he was a balloon, he would have deflated from sheer relief.
> "I'ma give a crazy kid a month of detention for recording me without my permission, and point and laugh at him for honestly thinking i'm Tank Top freaking Tiger."
Leo blinked and then despaired. A month!
"No. You totally don't get it. If you're not tank top, then you're somebody else, Mr. Saph. Even if you don't know it." Except... he did know it, right? He'd looked hella nervous when he'd gotten those notes. Mr. Saph did have a good point about the eyebrows. Frik. He'd overlooked that one. "Okay, well if not 3T," and not The Strange Doctor, "then you're the Punchinator. Say 'I'll be Bach' and then we'll all know it's you!"
> "How's community service sound?"
Noooo! He was losing him! He couldn't hide behind his mask of adult responsibility and the ruse of someone protecting him. Leo was not going to let him shrug this off. He did, however, let Saph confiscate his button camera. He would definitely check in on that badboy whenever Saph put it somewhere.
"Well, it's not like you could be RoboChop or The Judge, for obvious reasons." Obvious reasons that Leo neglected to share because his brain was on overdrive trying to think up who Mr. Saph could really be besides himself.
"I got it!" Leo snapped. "Your secret-secret identity is actually a rock star. You sing in a band, but you suck! I'll bet it's NickleFront."
And just as suddenly as this whole thing had started, Leo was standing outside the security office door.
Wow. If there was one thing he hadn't expected tonight, it was this. Alex was wound tight and in control of a 2 ton vehicle where Leo was just a passenger. And what he thought didn't matter. And his opinions didn't count.
If there were tears in Alex's eyes, Leo really only knew because he could hear the water in his voice. He was busy rubbing his forehead and very carefully not looking at anything.
"You've had a very different life up until this point. I know." And he cared. The whole point of him going to the Mansion was so that he could learn more and empathize better. But it didn't matter how much he cared. He had been told that in no uncertain terms. Still, it wasn't his feelings that were on trial here. Leo quashed his hurt down tight to deal with another day.
"The cliche answer is that you wouldn't be the person you are today if you hadn't known those people and done those things." Leo cringed. He was sorry to say it, but it did have to be said.
"Look, if I could poof take away all your hurt, you'd be a dumb, sheltered puffmuffin like me an Jiri. I'm here because I'm your ally. I'm weak and stupid and I can only do the internet thing because I don't know anything else. I'm not a f***ing savior. I'm the biggest imposter there is!" One of the only humans at the Mansion. The chicken in the fox den. The only guy that had to be rescued when there were mutants around and people in danger. He wasn't an action hero. If anyone was a blobfish, it was him. But at least he was trying.
And it wasn't like Leo could tell him to stop attracting trouble. Most of it hadn't been his fault. He hadn't asked for it.
"Okay. Fine. So you're just going through the motions until you die? And, you're okay with that? Is your dad okay with that!? HOW IS EVERYONE OKAY WITH THAT!?" He was mad! Really mad!
"Turn here!" Leo pointed and then pulled out his phone. He was going to fix this. They were going to get Alex a freaking date.
Those three words... hurt. And Leo really wasn't sure why. He adjusted his seat belt so that he could more comfortably lean across the dividing console. He wasn't going anywhere just because Alex had started driving. In fact, he had half a mind to pop over and commandeer the brake pedal to make his friend stop and focus. This felt like an important conversation: more than just a botched pick up job or a bad day.
"The world might be uncaring." Darwinism, adaptation, mutation: none of those gave a flying flip how they affected people. "But the people in it aren't."
"How can you feel that way when there are so many people who care about you? You got a new dad who seems pretty cool." Pun intended. "You have friends who would fly across the world with you and stand shoulder to shoulder with you when the shi** hits the fan. You believe in stuff. You helped me believe in stuff! That's not pressure to be somebody, man. You already are somebody." At least, he was already somebody to Leo.
The human did finally flop back into his seat. Alex wanted to be happy with what drifted toward him? Like some blobfish? That wasn't even 'just keep swimming' talk any more! It was... it was... wrong! And he couldn't articulate why but it really felt terrible.
Did he want to know? Uh. Yeah. Leo raised his eyebrows and nodded to coax the words out of Alex's mouth.
And the words were so not what he was expecting.
One blink.
"That is some darkest timeline Dory sh** right there."
Had he seen Finding Dory? Leo was finding that Alex hadn't had a proper childhood and tried the best he could to fill in the holes. At least Finding Dory was newish still. Leo flopped back into his seat. And then he unflopped. No. This was not something he could just flop away.
"Do you really feel that way?" Leo leaned across the middle console to make sure he was seeing this eye-to-eye. There was no way, right? "That is no way to live, Alex."
"It was actually a complete failure." Alex didn't know the signs. He hadn't grown up on the internet like Leo had. This was friendzone 101. "She's probably in there blocking my username right now. She was just letting me down easy in case I was weird enough to say mean stuff to her face."
Ah so dumb. Leo felt like sinking into the deepest darkest hole. Instead he left his head leaning against the cool metal of the car for a little moment of self-reflection and self-pity.
"You're so... together." She picked himself up and glanced over the roof of the car at his friend. "How do you do it, Alex? You're doing the training and everything else and you keep it together just fine in front of everybody. Even the ladies." Suave. Cool. Calm. Jesus, he was damn near perfect by comparison.
He opened the car door and helped find a safe place for the snacks. "Teach me your ways." He was so not even kidding.
"Ahhgh!" Leo took his bop in stride, the manly strangle-scream cutting off his torrent of stupidity.
> "...you sound like a stalker."
@(&! Really? A quick mental review and... oh no. He totally did!
"No-I-just-think-you're-really-cool-and-I-want-to-get-to-know-you-know-you-and" Leo ducked expecting another swat when he'd started to panic spew all his words and had to stop in order to take a breath. He was screwing this up so baaaad!
"Look," Libby began slowly, using the excuse of ringing up their snacks to take her time. "I just... if you want to get to know me. Send me a DM. You seem like an okay kid. Like a you have a good friend. Good friends don't just hang out with weirdos, right?" She beseeched Alex. Good, friendly Alex.
But it was too late. She'd hammered her point home all too well. 'Kid' and 'Friend.' adding the word 'good' to friend did not make it in any way sting less.
"Yeah. DM. Sure." He hated that little tiny flame of hope. It was dumb.
Payment was made, but Leo was shell shocked. He hadn't had a game plan at all. That was his problem, he decided.
When they were back at the car he let his head fall into the car frame and just sighed away a few dreams where he and Libby had been a happy couple.
Leo watched it happen and his anxiety ratcheted up. The computer was slow to reboot. Everyone'd been dismissing that popup asking to install updates forever, as far as Leo knew. The system was down. There was no one, but his button to keep a record of what was going on right now.
He turned back to Saphirus, AKA Tank Top Tiger, and watched his eyes grow hard and angry. Was this how it happened? Was a slow slide between personas? Was he in trouble now? Leo glanced at the closed office door. It may as well have been ten miles instead of ten inches away.
> "You'll have to be more specific... You see... I don't know what the #$%^ you're talking about."
Cursing. Bad sign number 364. He was ready to come clean now, but Mr. Saph wasn't done.
>"It's illegal to record people in this state without their permission. That's what you're doin, ain't it?"
"Yes, sir. I'd turn it off if I could, but I'm afraid for my life right now, and I'd like my parents to know what happened if, uh... you know." Well, that was seeming like a more real possibility now than when he'd originally reasoned that out. Leo swallowed. Hard.
"You want me to be specific," Leo frowned. He had wanted Mr. Saph to be specific. He wanted to get him to admit it. And he didn't. That was why they were both still tapdancing around all the important words.
"Look. I don't especially want you to be in trouble. I want you to get help." And he could get some trust if he turned off the camera, right? Leo pulled the button off of his shirt and set it on the counter next to the computer keyboard. It was still sending video (of the ceiling, but whatever) and even if it got smashed, the audio was really being recorded by the phone in his pocket.
So. Here goes clear...
"Mister Saphirus, I have some pretty compelling evidence that you have a persona too violent to show even to the X-men. He's hurt people. He's even... killed people for his own brand of justice."
It was coming together in Leo's head that he was not a smart man to be telling this to the man who'd done all that.
"He calls himself..."
Leo waited half a beat just in case Saph wanted to help him out. No such luck.
Emily zeroed in on the newcomers. They weren't gross or weirder than anyone else in this kookie, crazy madhouse so either the problem was a personal grudge or a power problem. Either way it was no skin offa Leo's nose.
"Yeah. No. Half an hour should be a solid start."
And if there was one thing Leo was good for, it was transcribing. His pops used to give him quarters for transcribing his verbal medical notes and dollars for translating them. It wasn't until much, much later that Leo realized he'd been providing a valuable service at an unbelievably low cost.
Leo honed in on Emily's voice and let the rest of everything fall away. Where he was a cat meandering in the garden before, now there was no space in his head for anything else. When there was work to get done, he did the work.
Friend. Brother. Wingman. Leo had all the love for Alex right now. He nearly shed a metaphorical tear. Nearly.
"Here." Leo passed his wallet to Alex. The man had more than earned his trust. Libby and Leo were moseying back up to the register with talk of forums and their favorite posters and powers. She was everything he'd hoped she'd be in person and she didn't even get too mad when he explained that he was LionOfTruth.
He certainly hadn't abused his moderator powers to get there. He'd just abused the metadata tags and zoomed in on her high definition photos. So. Explaining that to her should have gotten him brownie points, really. 'Cause now she knew that she should scrub them. And what could be done with them. And... well, he didn't really understand why the conversation was tanking, but she was mad now.
