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.
The litany rushing through his head was not family-friendly or politically correct. It was desperate, rough, and timed with his breathing even if the only sound sneaking out of his teeth was his hoarse panting.
He didn't quite notice himself stumble, caught in the middle of a moment of blurred vision, but instinctively found his footing before he faceplanted.
Well, before he faceplanted that time. He tripped again going around the next corner, and slammed into the ground. He skidded a foot or two on his shoulder, shirt tearing and skin rubbed open to bleed freely, and it took him a moment to sroll to the side, head spinning and trying to figure out why he was looking at hands rather than paws.
The bag came free, and Adder ran. Damn did he run, holding the bag tight against his chest and constantly scanning the street ahead of him to plot his escape route.
Then came pounding footsteps behind him, and the scent of scorch. Adder pushed his legs harder, gritting his teeth against the general weariness that came with his hunger. He could make it away, he could outrun people -
the footsteps were close together, and growing closer to him. That was not good. That was really really really not good oh fffffff-
He couldn't go faster in this form. It was crowded, there were people and smells and sounds all around him, but he couldn't go faster in this form. Breathe, breathe, feel the hunger, feel the iron scent of blood, feel the need to run faster and farther than any human ever could hope to do.
He pushed the bag up and sank his teeth into it as he dropped to all fours midstride, a haze of white fur flowing across his body before he was suddenly all wolf. Not that he could think about being wolf. He had to just be wolf. He had to feel it, and not get tangled up in the pounding smells and the sounds and the sheer deluge of details.
Run, run, pant through the corners of his mouth as the bag pressed against his tongue and gums and chin. Run, with all the speed of a predator evolved to run prey to the ground.
Adder was pretty fast, in his humanoid form. As a wolf, he flashed down the sidewalk with his tail streaming like dust behind him.
As Adder neared the bag, his nostrils flared slightly. The scent of meat, real, fresh human-grade meat, was something he tended to detect from a distance, always out of reach, too expensive, too guarded, too high risk.
And then here it was, sitting innocently in a bag his fingers sank into, iron tang filling his nose and throat with its sticky heaviness, drawing saliva into his mouth and quickening his tired heartbeat.
He found his grip on the bag, and hauled with all his might as he sprinted away. He could feel his empty stomach more now, and fought to keep it from distracting him as he ran. He had to run hard and fast to keep this. He had to keep it. This would keep him alive.
so, after Aura fends off Mirror, will she go looking for Adder again, or should they meet a second time by chance? He's not too likely to stick around to see what happens with Mirror, but that is also possible.
Adder slipped the wallet out of sight in his own pocket, tucking it in safely and casually bringing his hand out again to keep attention away from his pocket. Unnoticed, unnoticed, he was moving away -
Then the shout, and his ears tucked against his skull. Had she just noticed that her wallet was gone, or had he been spotted? The question hung enough to keep him moving casually for a moment, but then he heard his target's foot press against the ground with more force. She was after him, and he instantly bolted forward in a dead sprint.
Adder could run very fast, but lack of nutrition kept his stamina limited. He had to manage his resources, and he didn't know what value the stolen wallet had yet. He couldn't find out until he was well away and no longer in pursuit.
That was his expectation, but then someone else stepped out, and alarm at the swirling colour pushed carefully hoarded adrenaline into his blood.
And then her words caught him off guard enough for him to stumble. His bare toes caught on a rough concrete edge in the sidewalk, skin not tearing but sliding when he expected it to grip.
He shifted his balance, redistributing his weight and correcting himself before he could fall, and inhaled sharply. He was more than close enough to separate the woman's scent from everything else, and hold onto it. She would seek him out after to claim her perceived favour, no doubt, and he didn't intend to be surprised.
He nodded briefly to her, still in the first recovering step, and then darted around the corner.
The twisted fist of empty stomach hanging below his lungs was tighter than the day before. He hadn't eaten then either, and the closest he'd come to nonconfrontational food was a rat earlier that morning.
The rat had outrun him, and had too many places to hide to be worth committing the energy into chasing. He was too hungry to catch food. That was... definitely not good.
It wasn't especially new, though. He'd been here before. It was winter; winter was hard. It was after the showiest and most concentrated holidays, parties for rich people who didn't understand hunger and never thought of it. The rich people didn't waste as much food at this time of year, but if he made it through until they paid their debts or whatever he'd be okay.
He just had to make it through this stretch. Right now, that meant eating even if it came with personal risk. He could spend resources healing if he picked the right target. Chasing rats risked wasting energy without any reward. Confrontational food, so to speak, risked being injured but really only if he succeeded in getting food.
Besides, most people didn't expect to be robbed of their groceries, and that surprise might let him escape unscathed. That was the ideal outcome. Food without injury.
Right now, he'd take food with injury. Another day like yesterday and he wouldn't be able to run more than a block. He'd been there, and only made it through by strange chance. Never again, never again, he'd take the risk.
It was a safer risk. He had to take the safer risk.
Adder padded along the sidewalk, barefoot and dirty, and approached the store as if he were passing by. He had somewhere to be, and of course that wasn't here. He was... he was heading 'home' to get cleaned up after a very strange night. That was it. That was something the rich people would understand and be distracted by.
There was someone burdened by something edible. It smelled warm. Warm? Warm food? Adder's ears perked, earning a less than thrilled glance from someone who clearly hadn't realized they were on a sidewalk with a mutant. Boohoo. Adder was more interested in warm food. He was aiming lower, for something basic that would fuel him enough to continue on. That didn't mean he wouldn't accept something better, or that the assumption of warm food didn't have him salivating as much as his current mild dehydration allowed.
As long as the implication of heat was the food and not the person, right? Adder drifted closer, still just walking, of course he was just a regular passerby, and then darted close to snatch the food-bag.
Cold streets, cold people, cold skies, cold limbs. Adder was used to it all, and he was familiar with it. It was what he expected, what he knew. He had found food once today, and though pizza crusts were a good find he was hardly going to stop looking now.
Adder took food as he found it, and fought for it when he couldn't find it. That was his habit and his tactic, and it had lasted for over a decade. The more he grew, though, the hungrier he became. The more food he needed to ease his stomach, the less easily he could swindle passersby for a meal.
That led to more wandering for Adder, more energy expended to find food, and often less food overall. He was quickly wearing through the reserves he'd built up during the past summer, and hunger lurked all around him again, eager with its sharp points and howling.
Well. He was still clean enough to walk a common street without feeling especially out of place; the scattered looks of discomfort and disgust he drew in his worn jacket and ragged jeans were things he was used to. Looks didn't bother him; it was words and actions that signalled true threat. Those were the things he watched for, eyeing the people around him. Most of them gave him lots of space, openly unwilling to risk brushing against a literally dirty visible mutant.
There were a few that didn’t, and Adder popped a wallet out of one such stranger’s pocket and into his own with only the slightest brush of pressure. Hopefully there’d be cash in it; plastic cards weren’t exactly easy for him to use.
HI I'm back, and Adder is new here. So he needs threads, lots of threads. Threads with all of the people. A L L O F T H E M.
Specifically I'm looking for threads that will encourage Adder to get off the streets (he really isn't doing that well there, after all, admirable as it is that he's done it so long) in one form or another. Try and get him to trust you? Go for it. Harass him and freak him out? Sweet. Random other things I haven't thought of at this particular morning moment? LET'S PLOT.
Character's full name: Andre Ilden Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Adder [only recognized name] Gender: Male Age: 18 Date of Birth: November 8, 1997 Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: New York City, NY, USA Nationality: American Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: unclear
Appearance
Hair color and style: Shaggy and roughly cut dull medium brown, about the colour of dried mud. Yes, it is cut by him with a knife to keep it out of his eyes Skin Tone: Faded grey-brown, dull like his hair but lighter in shade Eye Color: Yellow, leaning towards gold rather than green, with slightly narrowed pupils Height: 5’7” Build: Would be sleek and angular if he weren’t hanging around the edge of starvation Visible mutation: Pointed, mobile ears, eye colour, black lining his eyes and running along the sides of the bridge of his nose, canine teeth Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: Extensive scarring on all exposed skin from repeated minor injuries; old burn scars on his ankles and shoulders underneath all the other scars. Other features: Adder does not stand still unless he is absolutely focused on something, and is always slightly tensed and ready to move
Everyday clothing style: Whatever he’s scrounged but not worn through yet, usually loose and ragged jeans with a couple of layered shirts; if he’s wearing footwear, it is critically cold. He hates having things on his feet. Uniform: n/a Sleepwear: n/a Miscellaneous clothing: (if applicable)
Character
Personality: Adder doesn't show much of himself to strangers. He is suspicious of everyone, but rarely perceives them as real threats - and even more rarely expresses that he does. He bluffs and pretends to shrug things off like they don't affect him. Like he can just slip out of something's grasp regardless of what it is or whether or not he deserves it. In the past, he has been able to.
For someone who seems to think he's invincible, though, Adder sleeps a lot. When he's asleep, things are different. His skin might still be tensed against attack or intrusion, prepared for opportunity, but he dreams. He dreams of things he's never seen, like open fields and dark forests. He can smell things he's only scented from people, never from their source. Pine needles, crisp and green and caked with just-melting ice. Sandy soil streaked with clay beneath the surface, torn free from a net of grass roots and the tangy sweetness of the torn plants.
Adder isn't looking to be tamed, but he is lonely. It isn't something he can admit, or even recognize - he has always been alone, and lonely, and has a history of running into trouble when he made the mistake of trying to get closer to people. It doesn't help that he doesn't know how to interact with people beyond assessing them for immediate threat and opportunity. Adder is a thief and has lived on city streets for his entire life. He will take things that support his own survival. He will not apologize for it, or for hurting people in order to survive himself.
When he isn't actively hungry or injured or exhausted or anything else directly tied to survival, Adder is curious and likes sticking his nose into places it doesn't seem to belong. He wants to know how things work, what things do, what things are. He wants to be clean and sleep in the sun on something soft. He wants to sit on a rooftop and watch the stars set and not worry about being yelled at. He wants to be able to touch people without trying to hurt them.
He doesn't want to huddle through nightmares in the dark. He doesn't want to wonder if he's going to die of starvation or murder first, or if some injury is going to get infected and slowly rot him from the inside out. He doesn't like domestic dogs, and they rarely like him. Horses are worse; they can smell the wolf in him. He's actually been on pretty good terms with some cats, mostly street cats who know their territory. He understands territories and resources and shelter. He understands living on the streets, living in someone else's world and just trying to get by without being noticed too much.
Hobbies/ Interests: …surviving Job or part time job and description: he has acquired money from people in forms other than theft, but only ever in one-off no-strings-attached situations Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Adder has nightmares about being trapped in fire, Special talents: Very light-fingered, agile, and dextrous; can pick things up with his feet very well; can and will eat things that would make a civilized stomach very unhappy.
Morality
Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: Neutral; is very focused on his own survival, and will do bad things in order to stay alive, but has no especial desire to cause harm and does have a very strong protective drive for those he is close to. He is exploitable by a range of motivations and moral drives.
Mutations
Mutation description:
City Wolf
How do you know a wolf is a wolf when it doesn't wear a pelt? For Adder, that's harder to define than the differences between his body and someone else's. Those differences are primarily passive in nature, and very much in line with an instinctive perspective. Furthermore, the abilities and talents that are most obvious to Adder are not those that are most obvious to others.
Adder is most aware of his ability to identify individuals well beyond say, the shape of their face and the sound of their voice. His nose is sensitive to people's souls, rather than simply their flesh, and he can get a bit of a feel of their temperament through scent; souls tend to smell like associated things, at least to him, so a very steady, unyielding stubbornness may come across with the scent of stone or solid tree species. His nose is pretty good overall, though there are definitely people with more sensitive sniffers out there and much of his mundane-scent-detection ability is simply a matter of practice and inclination. His ability to scent people's souls depends on: the air currents in the area, much like regular scenting; contact between the soul and solid objects; and the vibrancy and size of the soul. It is entirely possible to hide a soul from him - even a drastic change in mood is enough to make his identification uncertain, and experienced individuals with excellent self-control can often shield themselves from him as well.
Adder has increased sensitivity to strong scents and loud noises, and has strong senses of smell and sound but still within the biological range for humans - in his normal form. He also has the ability to collect his wolfness, so to speak, and wrap himself in it.
And transform, from nearly human to clearly not. His wolf form is proportionate to his human form, were limb lengths and such to be compared, and has paws nearly as large as the spread of each of his hands. His fur is white (when clean) with golden markings across his face, as well as on his lower back and upper tail. His eyes do not change colour. In this form, he gains considerable strength and agility, able to strike slightly faster than the average human eye can see, but thanks to the change in joints loses his ability to climb well and do such things as turn doorknobs. His senses also gain a significant boost, especially his nose and ears. Unfortunately, this boost can cross into “too much information” territory extremely easily, and that overload triggers severe, lingering headaches.
Strengths: Adder is very difficult to sneak up on, especially when paired with his instinctive suspicion and wariness, and has some ability to defend himself beyond the options available to humans. He can also identify individuals more accurately (usually), and can track people who have passed by. His wolflike eyes also have improved night vision, though it is not perfect.
Weaknesses and Limitations: Headaches. Lots of headaches. His identification skills are also not really that reliable, and his shifted form is not especially powerful.
Being in one form or another doesn’t have any inherent effects on Adder in terms of exhaustion, but the sensory overload in his wolf form severely limits its long-term viability. If in a quiet, uncrowded place, he can easily maintain the form, but crowds, strong smells, or loud noise will all stress him severely. Sudden, sharp noise loud enough to make a human’s ears rings will instantly give him sufficient pain to force him out of his wolf form on the spot, while other forms of overload take more time to build up.
Adder’s soul-scenting sub power is affected by all factors that affect physical scent, with the modification of traces being left by soul contact rather than physical contact; he will not smell a soulless individual, but a disembodied soul will leave traces.
Shifting between forms takes less than a second. Shifting to wolf can be triggered by will (mostly in theory) or by instinct, should he be feeling wolfish enough. Shifting to human can be triggered by sensory overload (as an escape mechanism), by will, or by feeling especially human. The shift can be cancelled by distracting him mid-shift, though it is quick, and with his usual level of suspicion and stress even touching him lightly while fur swirls across his body will negate the shift.
Physical Abilities
General Physical Capabilities: Decent strength limited by nutritional status; very quick, especially in wolf form; excellent physical reflexes; excellent potential stamina but limited by nutritional status; more dextrous than flexible (no yoga here) Fighting Style: Vicious, unmerciful, and usually desperate. He’d rather not fight since fighting usually costs more resources than it gains. Fighting Style Pros/Cons: Difficult to defend against completely, but disorganized and raw.
History Of Your Character Adder's parents died when he was barely five. He hid in the closet while strangers forced their way into the apartment. He hid while they screamed, and while they burned.
He ran out through the flames, fast enough to keep his flesh from melting in the heat but not fast enough to get out entirely unharmed. There were people waiting in the street. Waiting to be sure no one made it out alive? They recoiled at the sight of him, trailing smoke and streaked with soot like he was born from hellfire, and he saw their fear.
Adder's first real injuries and the foundation for his distrust of everyone came in the same night. He took the panicked words, the quick steps away, the heavy stench that clung even through the ash, and he took it close to heart. People were not to be trusted. People were a risk.
As a child, Adder had had difficulty pronouncing his given name. His parents called him 'Addy.' That quickly morphed to 'Adder' as he grew, surviving on the streets with a feral viciousness, an absolute need that rivalled the worst of the dogs that roamed the alleys. He competed with the dogs even more than the people on the streets, and nearly had his throat ripped out by a massive shepherd at ten.
He ate dog for the next two days. It was the first time he'd had leftovers since his parents had been killed.
His next seven long years continued in much the same haze, really. Kill or be killed. Steal or starve. Survive in a world that didn't want him to exist. Move from one neighbourhood to another, know the law enforcement and how to handle each when they were alone or in a group. Always escape, never stay with anyone else. Stay alone, stay safe, stay unbound. Know how different groups of individuals reacted with different individuals present, with different situations, with different moods. Adder was smart. That was how he survived.
He always chose himself, when there was a conflict between his needs and someone else’s. He had to. It was the only choice that had kept him alive, and he desperately wanted to survive.
Besides, he didn’t really have anyone else to choose. There was just him. Him against a world that skirted around him and averted their eyes.
Roleplay Where did you learn about this site?: previous player Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: long since inactive Sample RP: Cold streets, cold people, cold skies, cold limbs. Adder was used to it all, and he was familiar with it. It was what he expected, what he knew. He had found food once today, and though pizza crusts were a good find he was hardly going to stop looking now.
Adder took food as he found it, and fought for it when he couldn't find it. That was his habit and his tactic, and it had lasted for over a decade. The more he grew, though, the hungrier he became. The more food he needed to ease his stomach, the less easily he could swindle passersby for a meal.
That led to more wandering for Adder, more energy expended to find food, and often less food overall. He was quickly wearing through the reserves he'd built up during the past summer, and hunger lurked all around him again, eager with its sharp points and howling.
Well. He was still clean enough to walk a common street without feeling especially out of place; the scattered looks of discomfort and disgust he drew in his worn jacket and ragged jeans were things he was used to. Looks didn't bother him; it was words and actions that signalled true threat. Those were the things he watched for, eyeing the people around him. Most of them gave him lots of space, openly unwilling to risk brushing against a literally dirty visible mutant.
There were a few that didn’t, and Adder popped a wallet out of one such stranger’s pocket and into his own with only the slightest brush of pressure. Hopefully there’d be cash in it; plastic cards weren’t exactly easy for him to use.
