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.
"Oof." Leo caught the basketball with his body as much as his hands. He had to take a couple steps back or risk landing flat on his behind. "The hedge packs a punch."
And apparently, the hedge ate shoes. "Toss the other one in. I mean, this is For Science!" And they needed the data. That was the first thing it hadn't sent rocketing back out. "Did you throw it softer?"
They had gathered pretty close to the entrance at this point, balls and pucks and other sports debris scattered far and wide. Leo sat his basketball down and attempted to step up onto the ball and balance.
Leo had crossed the threshold only as far as it took for the maze to reject the ball he'd kept under arm. He was willing to walk in slowly. Uh. After the bugs went in. Leo slipped and nearly ate it when he failed to balance on the basketball. "What do your bug eyes see?" What was that even like?
That... was a good point. Leo tried not to be offended that he'd been pegged as a first timer. Sure, in retrospect, it was a little obvious that he was a newby at hiring a mercenary. What 16 year old would even have experience in that realm?
'A mutant one.'
There was a world of implications that came with that thought and he didn't have time to pursue it.
"My name's Rhett." Well, his DnD character's name was Rhett anyway. Leo knew there were mutants that could tell truth from lies and Rhett wasn't exactly a lie. "Now you know me."
Simple, right? Sorta like a kid introducing himself to the bus driver on the first day of school so they wouldn't be strangers. This whole mercenary thing was just bizarr-o world. There were just too many points for Leo to correct from the heat elemental's argument.
"Your stipulation sounds fair. Let's go see it. Then you'll know what I bring to the table here." Not that he had a choice, really. But maintaining the illusion of control was as much for his benefit as for this guy's. Leo was confident that anyone would come to trust his information once they saw the detail of it all. This wasn't just public access stuff. He'd had to dig for a while and get more than a little help.
He spared a glance for the size comparison chart of the META bots when the man waved it at him. "METAbots? Yeah. They're pretty tough looking, actually." He'd gotten to see them in person when they'd paraded them around for the X's. Hadn't gotten to touch one yet, but he still had high hopes. "Check back a few pages. There's a little on the design composition. Nothing on the programming, unfortunately, but looks like the "anonymous donor" used like actual spider silk and carbotanium. That stuff's expensive, yo."
Leo-called-Rhett tugged at the neck of his hoodie as they stepped out of the foundry. The night air was blessedly frigid by comparison, but it had the side effect of instantly congealing all that accumulated sweat. It was a little bit of a walk to the nearest station. Gave Leo time to air out a bit.
"You got a rail pass?" Because Leo did. He could probably swipe his twice if he had to, but his mom wouldn't be happy about it if it happened too often.
Leo tried not to blurt out his disbelief. Was it really that easy? He was practically tripping over the glowing ember man's heels.
> "I want to see the place. Then I’ll take the job."
"That's a fair point. I, uh, have some schematics printed and there are a couple ways we can work it so hopefully we won't run into too many guards. I don't want casualties if it can be helped." Or at all. But he was trying to be realistic start out with an easy and achievable job. He was taking the liberty of inviting himself along so that he could see just how necessary any casualties might have been and change the next plan accordingly.
"Also, the money thing. I get the need for anonymity. I got the tech to make that happen." Leo put the phone away and started to rummage in his bag while the man fetched his coat. The kid had to be shining like a star at this point. He felt a trickle of sweat run in a long line down from his sideburns.
There! Leo pulled out a purple file folder and started to hand it to the guy, but paused. "Uhm. Do you...?" Well, there wasn't really a polite way to ask, was there? "Fahrenheit 451, right? You can hold paper okay?" The guy's jacket wasn't spontaneously combusting. So that as cool.
Wait. Hadn't he said he wanted to see the the place? Surely he didn't mean actually looking at the walls, right? "It's a train ride away, outside the city proper. And a bus to the station before that. And once you get close enough there's flood and spot lights, barbed wire, and cameras. Not to mention META bots. I assume they've got META on rotation where there are mutants, anyway. Conflicting reports at this point. Take the file, dude. It's all in there." He was nothing, if not thorough.
Leo cleared his throat. It would not do to surprise a man who had his hands inside a furnace.
Yeah. This was totally the right guy.
It had taken some time and a little luck. Leo tried to avoid the people of the area, he was only a kid and he didn't want to get jumped. This was a foolish enough idea without heaping on extra dangers.
Apparently, the guy had been thinking along the same lines because it was a back way blackened by soot where the teen had found a door with a blackened curl of a lock.
From there, he'd just tried to think like a heat-mancer.
"If you have some time," Leo began, "I have a proposition for you." Actually. Yeah. Sneaky, dramatic entrance aside, the teen was stammering to get his idea heard because the man was glowing softly and had his hands in the coals for fun.
"T-there's a couple people being held wrongfully in a minimum security prison one train ride away." It was hot, that wasn't the only reason the kid was sweating. "I'd like for you to take me there, bust them out, and get us all the heck out again. I have a plan." Oh. And most importantly, "And money."
Leo fished around in his pocket for a tense moment until he could bring out his cell phone. He turned the cell around with Android Pay up on screen, ready to transfer wherever he wanted. The account was one the AX-men had set up for these little forays Leo wanted.
There was an adequate number of zeros involved for this amount of calculated risk.
"Half now, half after." Incentive to not let Leo die, that was.
He had almost all his ducks in a row, but was still missing the most important part: the muscle.
Leo packed his messenger bag and pulled up his least conspicuous hoodie pulling the strings tight. He had a Darth Vader mask and gloves in his bag that he'd don before they got into camera range. Did he need a real mask if he was going to be out in public doing good things? Maybe. Some of the X-men had secret identities.
He wasn't an X, though. Leo was human. That wasn't gonna stop him from making an impact. He just had to get more creative.
AudobonX had many sub forums. Through his contacts there, he'd gotten funding provided by a talented hacker named TechnoBabble. Thanks to the BirdWatchers in state, he'd found a suitable candidate that the teen intended to recruit tonight.
This was his first really illegal venture. Hopefully not his last. He'd survived visiting the Sanctuary, though, so facing down a couple walls should, in theory, be easier.
Leo took the 9 o'clock bus to the factory and warehouse district. His guy had been skulking around some boilers, at last mark. He wasn't known to be particularly violent and he was looking for work. Beyond that, Leo was just praying the money was enough. Plus, if he could find the guy before midnight, there was still time to take a train and do the job tonight.
Okay. Sooo not normal. But this was the Bird Cage. It was a Wonderland for abnormal. It would be disappointing if the mysterious hedge maze was normal. And just because normal was, like, a thing people often strove toward, didn't mean it was good or better or best.
It just meant that abnormal was, "Cool." Leo chimed. His logic-brain was in hyper drive. "What if we carry it in? Is it fundamentally opposed to balls or just the kicking?" Competition forgotten, Leo trotted after the ball and picked it up.
He dusted the pleather off and inspected a new greenish scrape that hadn't been there before. Maybe from bouncing off the hedge? Surely not from when Jiri made the goal.
Leo glanced at the other two. "I'm going in." This was the Bird Sanctuary. Not the actual Sanctuary where mutants actively tried to murderize humans. That meant that stuff here shouldn't actively want to kill him. In theory.
He tucked the ball under his arm and walked past the threshold to the maze. Only. The ball didn't go. It knocked right through the cradle of Leo's arm as if someone had hit it. The teen looked up at the other two from just inside the maze and went to grab the ball again. Some things, you just gotta confirm through repetition.
"Same... cage?" The way she talked it was almost like she was socially inept. Less socially aware than Leo if he was able to recognize the fact. That had to happen somehow and he wasn't guessing it was too much time in her room or on the internet.
"No." He cleared his throat. "No cages. Prison. Jail?" There was a differece between those words for some. He didn't know what that difference was, but Leo was betting that neither did Aura.
Well, maybe she was doing some kind of metaphor thing?
"I think there's different prisons for women and men. It should say where they're being held. I can track those locations down and cross reference who is where. I don't think any are in anything less than maximum security, though." And with that thought Leo started to feel uncomfortable. Especially after Aura casually mentioned the wholesale slaughter of every guard ever.
"This information? It comes with a price, Ms. Aura."
And that price was apparently $75,000. Like zero, zero, zero. "I didn't mean... I-" Dumbfounded, Leo had to process that for a minute. That was a heck of a lot of money. His tuition could be paid for, for all of high school, and he'd still have enough to buy the biggest, baddest gaming rig in the city. He could make an investment or two and get himself set up for college. He could-
"N-no." The word was tortured coming from his lips. "I want to give this information to you with the stipulation that you won't kill a single human unless it's self-defense." If he thought he could get more human lives out of it, he would haggle for it, but this was a dicey move in the first place.
Leo recognized a familiar soul in Jiri. And because of that grin on his face, Leo identified just a little of what might make some of his friends admit that they wanted to punch him.
"I heard the old groundskeeper actually looked like the movie Harry." Well, he hadn't heard it exactly. He had photo evidence of the guy. Youngish with a dorky hat and garden shears that were no doubt shink, shink, shinking away.
He actually hadn't been photographed lately. Maybe because Leo had reduced the point-value of photographs taken at the Bird Sanctuary. Or maybe it was because he'd been swallowed by the maze and still endeavored to cut his way out. Leo had slowed his trot while his brain worked overtime, but now that that mental image was cemented into his brainpan complete with sound effects thank you, Jiri, Leo put his nervous energy to work.
"Man, if one of us is going in, we may as well all go in, right?"
Leo jogged to catch up and tried to make himself an easy target for passes.
Maybe there were actual minotaurs? It was so far outside the realm of Leo's experience that now he sorta wanted to lose. On an academic level, at least.
"Doesn't mean that somebody won't go first, though!"
On a practical level, he maybe had a bit of over excitement that led to an over-application of speed that resulted in a minor collision with Jiri. Just a minor one, when the other boy had let down his helping-Alex guard. Because now Leo was helping better. He was clearing the field for the new guy. Yeah. Had nothing to do with the joke about sending in the human. Not. At. All.
> "Humanity as a species knows their time is done and that we will eventually replace them."
"Ha. Yeah." His voice was reedy. It was hard to be brave in the face of potential pink death. "You see, I'm not sure-uh. Maybe not every human is ready to be replaced, you know?" He clung to his messenger bag. It was the reason he had come and hopefully the reason he would leave again.
God. Leo could tell he was going to rehash every breath of this later. Maybe for the rest of his life. He had to make himself proud.
"I agree. This isn't the place." He followed Aura deeper into the bowels of what felt like a real life dungeon crawl. Everything could kill him here. Leo took a seat in the small room and set his bag in his lap.
"Me? Oh, I'm Leo. Nice to meet you." Kind of. He'd said it out of habit and now he was skating past that in hopes he hadn't somehow offended Aura. "I'm just a kid, but I'm pretty good at computers. It's actually how I got this." He took the opportunity to pull his stack of papers out of his bag. Leo spread the folders carefully in front of him.
Jamaal Brown. Henry Nedinnger. Stacy Coleman. Raavi Srivastav. Frank Smith. He had a whole bag of these files, but he spread only 5 on the top of the table for now. The ones he knew were worst off and definitely, indisputably deserved to get out.
"This one. Henry." Leo grabbed the file. "He was an EMT. I couldn't even figure out his power, but someone got diag... uhh figured out they were a mutant after taking a ride in the back of an ambulance with Henry. Like. He thinks he caught it from him. Henry's 62 years old now. Even if he pukes biohazards, I can't find a reason for him to be in jail right now." Not that he had to make an argument to Aura. All he had to say was X-gene and surely she would circle the wagons.
"You guys are lucky. Lottery roommates is... I mean, I've heard anyway it can be cruddy." Maybe he would get a cool roomie, though. "Though I have to admit most of the people I've met so far are pretty cool." And pretty. Was it just him or were a lot of mutants real pretty? Couldn't ask that.
And while he was dithering, Jiri stole the ball! Leo was absolutely scandalized because he wanted to steal it back, but they were being friendly and helpful and Jiri had helpfully put the ball at Alex's feet.
Well. He would just have to help better.
He took off at a jog in the general direction of what was maybe possibly the maze. It felt good to jog. He'd mostly been hiding in his room answering his mother's frantic texts and emails. Was he getting along with others? Was he getting enough sun? Enough to eat? Started school yet? Where there girls? A pool? In fact, the buzzing in his pocket now was either response to his post about more AMAs on their way or his mother. Again.
His money was on his mother. And yet, he didn't dare complain. The whole privilege thing was still throwing him.
"So I'm curious about the maze." Was it silly to ask? He was going to ask. "It's like Harry Potter full of spiders and death traps, right? I mean, is that crazy to ask? I feel like that's not outside the realm of possibility."
This false over-politness was funny. Jiri's struggle with the door was funny. Leo glanced at Alex, ready to poke fun but- Oh. Okay. Not that funny. Leo wasn't all that good at reading the mood of people or whatever, but even he could tell these guys were buddies and he was the interloper. Roommates, he remembered. They were roommates and buddies. That wasn't a bad way to be.
"I don't have a roomie yet. How long did it take for you guys to get paired up?"
>"Head's up!"
Leo caught the ball with his chest, popped a knee up to arrest its momentum, and let it fall to the ground between his feet. He could have caught it, true, but the no-hands thing was pretty strongly ingrained.
"Dude. Not the hair!" His overly scandalized tone and grin were enough to let the guys know he was joking.
"Okay. So." Leo tapped the ball with the inside front part of his foot to direct it out of the shed and into the open where they could show Alex the ropes. "You wanna try to kick it here." Leo lifted his foot and pat his shoe appropriately. "If you kick it straight on with your toe, you might jam something. Even through your shoe. Don't worry about anything fancy. Everybody ready?" He would try not to get competitive. That just wasn't cool when there was someone learning.
The secretary lady tapped away. Yeah, she'd asked him to wait, but Leo was almost sure she'd forgotten him since she paid him absolutely no mind after they had exchanged words.
Leo's heart may have skipped a beat when he saw the young woman walking down the hall.
Aura.
Just thinking the name made him break out into a cold sweat.
He was hoping he would get someone more reasonable or, barring reason, at least someone a little less prone to murdering and maiming. Leo had a little too much information on this front and his imagination was running wild. He was gonna be sick.
"I- uh." He licked his dry lips with his even dryer tongue. "I was hoping to share some information with someone here. Uhm. See, I- uh. I like to follow mutant affairs. Some mutants..." deserved to be locked up. Like Aura. Leo was smart enough to stop that train of thought before it came out of his mouth.
"Some mutants," he tried again, "were clearly not given a fair trial. Sort of like the weed thing and Colorado. Now that it's not illegal, drug charges are being re-evaluated. I think there are those that are locked away that need... re-evaluation."
Okay. So far, no stabbing. Time to go for broke. "I tried contacting a lawyer and couldn't get them to take me seriously. If you're interested, I would like to show you what I know." Did he want to go deeper into the depths of the Sanctuary? No. He wanted to live. But he also wanted to help free those that didn't deserve to be put away just because they were born different.
Some awareness, huh? Leo chewed on that. Not like he'd been asking for a handout. He'd wanted a scholarship. Like earn money in exchange for good grades. That was standard school modus operandi usually and there was nothing wrong with asking. Maybe Alex was saying he should shut his facehole about the complaining. He did seem to be rather sympathetic to the adults. He's just more mature, his sisters would say.
Leo frowned more in an attempt not to roll his eyes. He didn't want to be taken the wrong way because the points Alex made were legit. The eye rolling was a habit from years of being swamped with sisters who were more responsible, knew better, wanted him to be aware of their superiority. No need to make Alex or Jiri feel he was devaluing their opinions. Because he wasn't. He just didn't know what to do with them.
Was he supposed to apologize for growing up and wishing with every fiber of his being that he could be somebody special? Do something special? He would gladly trade the phone and the gaggle of judgy sisters for that kind of special treatment. Maybe not the internet, though...
"Definitely too much thinking." Jiri was feeling it too. They had to work through this ooky weirdness. Leo, at least, started walking again. He was glad to see Jiri stepping up next to him. So he hadn't alienated them both yet. Probably only because Jiri, too, had a little foot-in-mouth-itis.
The shed was at the edge of the basketball court which normally wouldn't have been that far a walk, but they'd taken the hella long way around. No lock. Who would be stupid enough to steal from the Bird Sanctuary, though?
Somehow there was less to see than he'd originally thought. Rooms made up a big portion and those were private. There were only so many classrooms they could see. Classrooms all generally looked similar anyway. He was glad that he got to see as much as he did. At least he was here trying.
Ms. T grilled him again. What? Did she think he would change his mind? It'd been a long road to get there before he ever even got his rejection letter.
He gave her eye contact. Adults liked that kind of thing. Helped them know how serious he was.
"I want to go here." He was serious down to his toes. He would learn to cook for himself. He would try not to get maimed. He would go to bed before the lawn turrets got him. He would be a good little student as far as the schooling went because he could care less about the actual schooling part of the school here.
He was here for the people. Which were not a part of the tour and not a part of any other school in numbers like this one.
"Oh." That was actually kinda cool. "My mom's always complaining that kids these days don't learn how to take care of themselves." She would actually like that part. He was gonna have to learn to cook. She would be so proud.
She would also really like that they had a mutant healer on call. "Uh. I guess he reports in on what he sees, huh?" Her tone implied as much. He didn't blame the guy. The doctor just had snitchy powers. Poor guy probably didn't have a choice because of policies this Amazon put in place. Yes. That sounded about right. Still, he had a feeling that he and the doctor might become well acquainted.
"As cool a name as Danger Room is, it doesn't exactly sound like a safe place for me." He would have to get permission to watch or something, but he knew the reality of the situation. He wasn't a mutant. He wasn't about to go where unstable mutants went to practice.
