Mason Leufroid/beyond

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Before 2206
Beyond 2206
Gallery
Stories

In the year 2217, Mason Kiryll Leufroid is a thirty-five year old white tiger and cyborg businessman, who works for the most infamous and outlawed corporation in Cyberia. Very few people are knowledgeable about Mason's life prior to point in which he joined the company. The years before his 25th birthday have remained a mystery to the vast majority of the public ever since. Even the government struggles to identify not only his past, but his present self as well. Disregarding the blank spot in his life, those who have met Mason know him to be a rather open, if not somewhat smug person. Mason's loyalty lies with the Atsumichi and their cyborg insurrection; opposing the government and its anti-cybernetics persecution. It is for this reason that he carries his personal tachi everywhere he goes; a practical weapon as much as it is a symbol of his status and occupation, like many of his brothers.

Past Life

"Don't run, or your legs are next."

The true nature of Mason's being is enigmatic at best. Nearly nobody speaks of Mason's past before he joined the Atsumichi, since just about no one knows anything about him before then. It is a very well-kept secret that Mason was once a completely different person in body and mind, approximately ten years ago. At the lowest, most depressive point in his life, he went missing, and to this day very few people know that he wasn't really missing at all. Before his departure, his name was Jaydin Rayleigh Eversnow, a young snow leopard and conscript in Cyberia's state military. This past life of his was abruptly cut short and subsequently abandoned at the age of twenty-five, when he was targeted by, and forced to join the outlawed corporate brotherhood, known especially in the Japantown underground, as Atsumichi Cybernetics Inc.. Jaydin had been coerced to take on the life of someone who didn't even exist prior to his arrival. The Atsumichi administration saw to it that he had no choice but to leave his previous life behind. There is only Mason now, and with the undeniable fact that the life of Mason is much more grand and fulfilling, 'Jaydin' no longer exists. After a lengthy search and investigation, his disappearance was ultimately ruled a suicide.

Last Days

Around the year of 2206, the boy named Jaydin had been found guilty of speeding and reckless driving while joyriding in a stolen vehicle, all in the same night. After pouring through the evidence, a judge offered him the choice to either serve a lengthy prison sentence, or serve four years in the state military with derogatory marks put towards his name in said military. Jaydin ultimately chose the latter. Having accepted his fate, Jay was processed and scheduled for basic training. He willingly chose not to notify his mother, Sylvia, in advance, leading to some rather sorrowful texts and phone calls from her end when he stopped showing up at the apartment complex she owned.

Basic training was a mean challenge for Jaydin, however he managed to just pass the vigorous squeeze with not much more than natural ability and grit, though he never explicitly exercised in his life. Taking his criminal record into account, military authorities disallowed him from choosing exactly what job he would take on in the military. The criminal record record had excluded him from the vast majority of job fields. He was ultimately placed in a low-risk, low-impact throwaway position in Military Entrance and Processing (MEP). Jay was stationed near Ramiel CMB, regularly expected to commute further into the city, and given the relatively simple job of medical evaluation, where he would take various measurements on new recruits, test them for a number of ailments, and briefly interview them on a slew of potential past medical conditions.

Very early on, Jay showed more signs of misery than he used to feel before the military, stemming from having essentially abandoned his previous civilian lifestyle. The more Jaydin thought about what he had left behind; his friends, his apartment, all his belongings; the more depressed and detached he became. At some point, he even fell into the habit of smoking alone once a day at the least, in an attempt to stabilize his mood. This was soon compounded upon by the culture shock Jaydin experienced; the point at which he realized that he was being forced into a completely different lifestyle. As the early days went on, and all aspects of his military life were settled by higher ranks, he inevitably found himself reporting alongside a number of fellow convicted conscripts, as well as men who were charged with crimes while serving the military. In this unit, and many others like it, it was very common for the conscripts to be the subjects of severe hazing by ranks above their own, being made responsible for menial and undesirable tasks, and enduring consistent acts of bullying up to and including verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Jaydin was not spared from these acts, which led to a depressive spiral over the course of about a year, culminating in frequent and invasive suicidal thoughts.

For nearly his entire time spent as a conscript, Jaydin kept in close contact with his most closest of friends via instant messengers, only one friend of which was knowledgeable of his real ideation. Feeling deeply concerned for Jaydin, this friend of his elected to meet with him as soon as they could find time alone together. Jaydin agreed; however, after upon leaving his workplace for this meeting, he was never seen again.

New Life

The previous young man known as Jaydin did not exist anymore at this point. There was now only Mason; a white tiger hailing from the European continent and now working for the Atsumichi.

Little Brother

With the confirmation of his servitude having been made abundantly clear, Mason reluctantly accepted his fate as the newest member of the Atsumichi corporation. He started out his new life as a "Little Brother", the lowest in ranking of the infamous Atsumichi Men, and named so because they were essentially the least experienced out of the extended family that is the crime syndicate core of the Atsumichi corporation.

As a little brother, Mason was unpaid and overworked, much like an intern; however, despite the continuous hard work and irregular schedule, Mason was provided a small studio apartment, and was always treated with a kind of familial respect as a member of the extended Atsumichi family. Mason was consistently tasked with supporting roles by any older brothers that needed some kind of assistance; essentially being an errand boy all day.

Being a part of the Atsumichi Men, Mason had also been invited to fancy dinners and other ceremonies, thanks to the lifestyle of mutual respect for the in-group. The strong sense of family within the Atsumichi began to make its mark on Mason here, where the acceptance and support he received resulted in him more readily absorbing the personality and ideals of the sophisticated gangsters he worked for.

Ascension

Over a relatively short length of time, Mason proved himself to be a reliable and forward-thinking man. Impressed with his willingness to work for his new family, the big brothers saw to it that Mason be given payment for the tasks he did for them as an little brother, out of their own pockets or otherwise.

A few of the big brothers, more specifically some administrators, took a liking to Mason, and they invited him to ride along with some of the bigger and bloodier jobs they worked on. Witnessing threats as well as acts of violence so commonly served to desensitize him from otherwise being hesitant to commit the threats and acts himself later down the line.

The administrators at some point began to train Mason as one of their own, having him further absorb their mannerisms. This is where he gained his skills in swordsmanship. CEO Sugarashi eventually caught wind of the administrators having been enjoying Mason's company, and offered the tiger a job as one of them. Later on, he was ceremoniously granted the official title and status of an Administrator within the company. With it, came heavy modification of his body, in that his other leg was replaced with synthetics, and both of his arms were too.

Big Brother

After spending a good while in a hospital recovering from quadruple limb replacement, Mason had been presented a ceremonial sword for him to maintain as a sign of his status in the Atsumichi family. Later, he was put right back to work with his like-minded brothers, but this time he was paid on a set schedule, paid much more than before, and scored extra money on top of that from finishing jobs the CEO himself needed done.

As an administrator in the Atsumichi, Mason raked in large sums of money and was respected highly among his peers, and by civilians of J-town. Mason used this money to pay for having both his natural eyes replaced with artificial ones capable of supercharging his visual cortex for the purposes of vastly increased detail in his otherwise normal field of view, and many other benefits.

Present Life

Artificial Body Parts

Up to the year of 2217, Mason has replaced several of his body parts with fully artificial ones; both his legs starting from the bottom of the hip, both his arms starting from the shoulders, and both his eyes including the optic nerves. This has resulted in a man whose speed, agility, endurance, and strength is unmatched by even an above-average person who has exercised all their lives; however, due to the fact that his synthetic limbs are attached at points that transition into natural bone and sinew, he has a somewhat defined upper limit to his abilities, and thus has to be conscious about not exceeding it too often.

Limbs

The first of his limbs to go was the right leg, after it had been completely amputated by an Atsumichi administrator prior to his induction into the Atsumichi Brotherhood. He was given a high-end model to replace it, which matched a mirror of his left leg well. Though it had no fur, it had completely synthetic muscle and metal bone.

Later on, when he became an administrator, Mason had all four of his existing limbs replaced, including the first artificial one. The ones he purchased were complete with luxurious no-maintenance fur, and were a step above the previous version in overall strength, hypermobility, dexterity, and decreased weight. They also had moderately increased sensitivity to touch and pressure sensation sensation, and do not transmit pain signals stronger than a certain level, at which those signals plateau.

His artificial limbs operate on very little maintenance, in contrast to natural limbs requiring tons of blood vessels, nerves, and ways to remove lactic acid to function properly. Mason's limbs only need a source of electrical power, which they get primarily from high-energy density batteries present the bones. Those batteries can be charged in two ways, either directly connecting them to power sources, or by consuming a special compound that can also serve as a secondary buffer beyond that of the batteries for the length of time that it stays in the blood stream. Mason's limbs only consume energy when they are in the process of contracting, but not when they hold their contraction in a still lock; a feat of energy efficiency.

With all four of his limbs having been replaced with synthetic fur, flesh, muscle, and bone, Mason experiences peak physical strength and agility, and beyond-peak longevity and endurance, all limited only by what forces his relatively unmodified torso can handle at the attachment points. For example, he would have little problem running a marathon at close to full sprint, nor would he have much problem lifting a weight of 1,102 lb (500 kg), so long as he does not lift the weight too quickly, as putting too much force into it will cause the attachment sites to begin to fail. Interestingly, all four of his limbs are technically able to be cleanly detached, however it requires skilled expert to remove them properly.

Torso

Mason's torso has also been altered, but not nearly as extensively. Rather, it has been augmented, in that there are present multiple cables underneath the flesh, bone, and muscle of his back along the spine, four in total. These cables consist of multiple tiny twisted wire pairs that connect from his cervical vertebrae to the sites that attach his limbs. Specifically, the cables have been inserted underneath the atlas (C1), then travel along his spine to their respective artificial limbs, where they act as the primary nerves that allow movement and feeling through those limbs. These cables act as superior nerves to the natural ones already present in the body, in the sense that they serve to bring consistency to the greatly varied speeds at which the natural nerves transmit information, between 0.6 to 120 m/s (2.0 to 393.7 ft/s) depending on the type of nerve. The cables standardize the speeds of all extremity impulses to 80% the speed of light, at the least giving Mason a 1.27 second faster response to pain, and at best, they give him a 6 millisecond advantage in motor functions in his legs.

Eyes

His natural red and purple irised eyes were completely removed and replaced with outwardly realistic bionics that have golden irises, and synthetic muscles for movement. In the process of receiving his bionic eyes, his optic nerves were also augmented, as opposed to replaced, with biocompatible cables that worked in synchrony with the eyes to prime his otherwise organic brain for working with a number of enhancements. These enhancements included greatly increased clarity in sharpness and in true color across his field of view, the practical elimination of eye fatigue, immunity to flash blindness, and the ability to clearly focus on very near and far objects, but not "zoom in" on them. Mason's visual acuity is approximately 20/2 (6/1), in that he can see clear detail in objects 20 feet (6 m) away, where a normal person would only see the same level of detail at 2 feet (0.6 m) from the object.

In the context of "greatly increased clarity", the average, unmodified person can only see a sharp image in a small fraction of their total field of view, outside of which, it is actually quite blurry. In a single eye, the macula contributes a field of about 20° across of sharp visual acuity, within a full monocular field that is roughly 150° across from left to right. Similarly, due to the non-uniform density of cone cells across the retina, the accuracy of color vision is not consistent across the field of view of an unmodified person, however Mason's color vision is both quite accurate and consistent over the entire span of his field of view.

Fur Markings

In his previous life, Mason was a snow leopard with slightly off-white fur with sparse black circular markings. In the transition between lives, his entire coat of fur was permanently dyed a pure white with black tiger-like stripes for the purpose of fooling recognition.

Around the time he became an administrator, he had more of the permanent dye added to his fur, this time for cosmetic purposes. Altogether all the alterations ultimately ended up becoming like that of a full body tattoo, with both natural-looking markings and non-natural lines up and down his arms, torso, and legs.

Personality

I belong here. With my real family. [...] I've never felt happier, to be honest with you.
—Mason, expressing his loyalty to the Atsumichi.
Just like the rest of his brothers, Mason enjoys a lifestyle of openness, loyalty, and mutual respect with his extended family that is known as the Atsumichi Men. It is known within the family that he would indeed die for them if need be. Mason likes to attend expensive dinners and other ceremonies with this family, having become much more outgoing due to their positive influence. As he grew, the Atsumichi Men supported and helped him become a lot more confident and secure with himself, as well as more knowledgeable in his own strengths and weaknesses.
Look at it this way; either you get out of my sight, or I take yours.
—Mason, ready to act on his temper.
In the process of making his way towards the top of the Atsumichi corporation, Mason discovered a new section of his persona that enjoyed taking advantage of people who he had no lasting connection to. This formed a kind of forked personality, where he always shows genuine loyalty and respect for the Atsumichi, but then readily present a cocky, threatening, and condescending aura to any outsiders. This type of persona is common among administrators.
Consider it done, Boss.
—Mason, confident in his abilities.
Throughout his career in the Atsumichi corporation, Mason gained a penchant for always keeping his word, though he was conscious about not handing out his word too readily. Mason works contently as one of the direct subordinates to the company CEO, Sugarashi Atsumichi, earning a wealthy salary in such a high-class position, in exchange for fulfilling any task that is handed down to him, even if it involves spilling blood.
How do I look? Trick question, answer is 'better than you'.
—Mason, showing his vainglory.
As is also common for an administrator, Mason enjoys dressing in formal attire that has been neatly tailored to fit him personally. Oftentimes he is seen clad in polished shoes, fully black slacks, a heavy black suit, complete with a soft red shirt. Since Sugarashi's inheritance of the company, an administrator such as Mason carries a sword with him almost everywhere he goes, using it for the purposes of a sign of his status, a tool for psychological manipulation, as well as one for physical violence. It is considered quite a precious part of his uniform, and he sees no problem using it to seal the deal on someone.
You know, I've felt the pain of losing a leg. [...] But that won't stop me from taking yours.
—Mason, clearly not hesitant to dismember a person.
Within the family, Mason has earned himself the nickname "Kyller", through other members poking fun at his middle name and the fact that he doesn't hesitate with orders to kill. Though he enjoys the carrying out those orders, Mason readily acknowledges the fact that extending it to killing more than he has to would be the opposite of beneficial for both him and the syndicate.