Cyrus Everard

[Cyrus Everard]

Cyrus is Ajax’ foil. He’s a bad guy and he’s essentially Ajax’ brother. I had allot of fun coming up with his powers, trying to do a sort of telepath but with powers working on a biological principle.

Player name: Mike

Contact Info: AIM (food with sauce) Yahoo (Mikesicles) MSN ([e-mail]) email (same as MSN) or just buzz me right here on the board, PM or open-thread, either or, I'm almost always on AIM too if you want to chat or need to ask anything.

Basic Character Information

Type: OC

Full name: Cyrus Everard

Goes by: Cyrus

Code name(s)/Alias(es): Cyrus

Gender: Male

Age/Birth date: 23 / 3rd April

Place of birth: Unknown

Hometown: New York, New York.

Height: 6'4

Weight: 320lbs

Hair: Black

Eyes: Blue

Education: Tertiary; Extensive.

Occupation: N/A

Family: Cyrus was fostered by one Michael and Rachel Everard while in the Tiamat Program and these have for all intents and purposed been his parents, though Cyrus came to learn later in his life that his biological mother is in fact Katherine Vircho, although his biological father remains unknown. Ajax Cleaver and Eris Dubough are essentially Cyrus’ foster-brother and foster-sister respectively, although each has different parents.

Criminal record/citizenship: None, US Citizen.

Affiliation: None

General Appearance: Cyrus’s superhuman development invests itself aesthetically through healthy skin, hair, nails and alert, clear eyes along with all the other visible indicators of superb health. From top to bottom his image is clean, athletically well-defined and statuesque however this has been effected without regard to vanity; in medical terms Cyrus’s appearance might well be considered perfect, but this is hardly so in social terms. Cyrus is a big guy, standing well over six feet tall, with a powerful, athletic frame, brown eyes and jet black hair; his physique is rather impressive and suggests that he weighs around two hundred pounds and trains often although the latter is quite untrue. One of the first things people tend to notice about Cyrus is the sense of poise and balance about him, he walks smoothly and never seems to stumble, trip or make any other kind of physical blunder; engaging in all manner of actions and interactions with absolute confidence and decisive efficiency. Cyrus stands straight at all times, with near-perfect posture giving him a sense of statuesque poise. There seem to be no hidden anxieties influencing his physical behaviour and he moves without fear or trepidation at all times. Regarding his physique Cyrus appears almost to be a smaller version of his ‘brother’ Ajax, though on closer inspection many differences are revealed. Cyrus is a little more slender, less muscular, with a build more like that of a distance runner or a trim, middle-weight prize-fighter; he is less top-heavy than his brother, his shoulders less broad and his arms less powerful and muscle-bound, but Cyrus is still noticeably fit and muscular; there is hardly an ounce of fat on him, thanks to his manufactured physique and his body is athletically well-defined both top and bottom. He tends to dress in a more formal fashion to his brother, and this serves to hide his bodies athletic qualities further making Cyrus seem almost normal next to Ajax.

His obviously Caucasian complexion is smooth and blemish free, although a little pale; suggesting, perhaps, that he does not get out much, or perhaps a Nordic or Slavic background. His face is, in some ways, fissured or gaunt with almost aristocratic, clearly defined features; a strong, aquiline nose, a high, pensive brow and good cheekbones, his brown eyes are fairly large and rather expressive, but usually fixed at some point with intense scrutiny. His jaw and chin are a little more refined, almost effeminate, than he would like, and he tends to let a few days growth linger over his face to obscure this, while his short, close-cropped hair gives him the look of a military man. All in all there is a certain handsomeness to his face, a pleasant symmetry and strength to his features, but it should be noted explicitly that this is usually lost in his characteristically neutral expressions. Cyrus does not smile often, though he looks better when he does, and there is little charm to his features, little in the way of expression. He tends to dress in a somewhat monotonous fashion in regards to colour, preferring dark blues, greys and blacks to anything more vibrant, although the nature of his clothing tends to have relatively pleasant, up-market, smart-casual quality. Fitted sports-coats, button down shirts and trousers are a common enough ensemble for Cyrus, with smart patent leather shoes being common for outings, but runners being more common in a more relaxed environment.

Due to the various intense skeletal and muscular modifications which have influenced his height and build Cyrus is an incredibly heavy person; very, very heavy in fact but it is through the artificially enhanced density of his bones and muscles that he sports such a monumentally heavy frame, and not through size alone. Where he a natural human, sporting the same size and build as he does, Cyrus would only weight a little more than two hundred pounds.

At times Cyrus engages his surroundings with the most intense scrutiny; these episodes are markedly difficult to overlook in that he engages in them with such fervour anyone present would need to be either incredibly absent minded or in some fashion distracted so as not to notice the intensity which Cyrus’ features take on during these spells. It’s not something he does for any particular reason, and can be difficult to predict, but usually Cyrus will engage in such analysis when curious about his surroundings, sometimes because he has found himself somewhere he has no been before, although this is no guarantee. Upon deciding to analyse his surroundings, or the people near to him, Cyrus’ jaw sets closed like chilled steel and his otherwise unremarkable brown eyes seem to take on an inhuman luminosity, much like a birds, and, indeed, he seems to resemble one during such spells as his brows tremble before pressing low to hood his eyes in the manner of a hawk. With his face set so Cyrus will jerk and twist his neck in short bursts to sweep and pin each subject of his interest with his gaze, before relaxing and assuming a more natural expression, his cheeks sometimes twitching once or twice as the tension bleeds out of his muscles.

Uniform: Cyrus’ uniform is adopted from the military clothes he wears while demonstrating for the Tiamat company. It consists of a pair of black fatigue-style trousers, albeit without camouflage print, and a tight fitting black tank-top along with a pair of high-top combat boots. The lower part of each pant-leg is bound about his ankle and lower calf so as to prevent the entry of foreign matter, and Cyrus wears fingerless utility gloves with sapper-sleeves and rubber grip-surfacing that are likewise bound with tape up to his mid-forearm so as to protect his arms from strain should he strike anything. Additionally Cyrus has stitched lengths of barbed-wire onto the knuckles of these gloves. He wears a black-cloth balaclava over his face, along with a pair of goggles designed to block UV rays and other hard-light flashes. Generally Cyrus carried with him a multi-tool, several flares, rations, a compass, a utility or survival knife (Generally a parang, machete or Gurka-Knife in blacked out steel) carried at the hip. He generally carries either a raider stiletto, trench knife or Fairbairn-Sykes combat knife sheathed under his left forearm as well. Regarding other weapons and equipment, Cyrus has access to a wide variety of such goods, but what he brings with him will depend on what he expects to face.

Personality: Beyond everything, the deceptions and trappings of society, the polite nothings of civil discourse, Cyrus is sheer brain, icy, cool, calculating and utterly ruthless. Like clockwork he runs on very simple mathematical principles and is exceedingly simple in his wants and needs, but few people will ever delve deeply enough into his psyche to discover this secret core, and of those who do manage to penetrate the origins of his psychological proclivities, it will forever be a chilling experience; the seemingly unfathomable Cyrus cannot be moved; being utterly impervious to reason, persuasion and new ideas which go against his nihilistic creed and he will not yield an inch in his position regardless of any emotional, logical or academic attempts to appeal. He is a mechanist at heart, and ascribes to the concepts of relativism and what amounts to a simple nihilistic philosophy; very little, in Cyrus’ opinion, actually matters. Cyrus is in fact the kind of person who’d take apart an alarm clock to see how it works, but he’s not the type to forget how to put it back together or loose parts of it, indeed, Cyrus would label each part once removed, and this speaks volumes about his love of knowledge and hands-on, practical experimentation. The problem is Cyrus doesn’t really understand that there’s a difference between taking apart an alarm clock, and taking apart a puppy. Being an utterly godless materialist; in Cyrus’ mind a puppy is just an alarm clock that barks and moves about on its own, they’re both made of the same stuff, fundamentally, everything is, and if you can’t grasp that essential fact he’s not going to waste his time explaining it to you, because he has to vivisect a cow this afternoon and, frankly, he doesn‘t have the time to enlighten you. You might think that live-vivisection is horrible, but that’s only because you happen to have invested moral importance or emotional significance into the subject, Cyrus hasn’t nor does he think it necessary to do so, in short if you want to make life hard for yourself by caring, it’s your problem. It’s not that he doesn’t believe you when you tell him the reasons why you think it’s wrong, he does, he believes implicitly that these things are true to you, but they’re not true to him, and for you to impose your belief onto him is a kind of moral fascism he won‘t accept. This is probably the most frustrating aspect of Cyrus’ personality, the fact that he’ll almost never directly disagree with anyone; he is incredibly open minded, incredibly passive, he very rarely gets angry; indeed his relativistic approach to morals and behaviour leaves Cyrus feeling that almost any form of ethics, restraint, or none at all, are perfectly valid so that he has no intellectual ‘bone’ to pick with anyone regardless of how they go about things, and will extend to them full licence to do as they wish without being subjected to external judgements. He essentially refuses to disagree with people, so that it is very hard to make him acknowledge the subject of any debate, impossible, in fact.

One might think that, having been through what he has been through, possessing the mental faculties that he does, and so on, that Cyrus is perhaps a little unhinged, mentally, but this is not in fact the case. Cyrus is perfectly sane; a madman would not be able to do the work he has done in his life; he has an innate understanding of reason, logic and even of the drives of human emotion that quite simply makes any accusation of madness ring completely hollow. On occasion the strings of thought and idea which lead him to do certain things are incomprehensible to most people of normal intelligence, and rarely can what he does and feel be grasped in terms of pathos due to the complexity of his mind so that Cyrus may indeed seem truly alien and even insane to some, but this is nevertheless a mistaken judgment. Cyrus is complex, he is brilliant beyond the grasp of most humans, but he is utterly sane. This is not to say however that he is well adjusted or that he is emotionally stable; that would be a lie. Cyrus, by any social standard, lacks ethics, morals, restraint, even the most basic customs are seen by him as something he can freely opt-out of; this is not to say he’s an anarchist of any sort, no, Cyrus knows that allot of the time being civil and obeying laws is a question of self-interest and so he does not always simply do as he wishes at all times; that would be to create difficulties in his life, he is not so foolish as to not understand this. He gets away with what he can however when he can, with absolutely no regret. Emotionally Cyrus is inhumanly unfeeling and detached; he tends to consider all things from an erudite, scholarly, academic or philosophical position, or even in mathematical terms, he rarely feels anything for anything, and even if he did he would not let it inhibit his actions.

Cyrus prefers to be alone for the most part, but he is able to work with others to an extent. He does not ‘make friends’ easily, as Cyrus does not think it a worthwhile pursuit, indeed he thinks most people are an order of magnitude beneath him and has no objection to saying so, but he does derive some pleasant experience from social settings. Cyrus likes to analyse peoples behaviour around one another and to think and experiment, he likes to watch people and occasionally he will weigh into the conversation so as to turn it one way or the other, but for the most part he is a passive observer. If someone amuses him, he may single them out and attempt to engage them so that they might amuse him further. By and large however people tend to resent Cyrus’ presence, as he is very patronising and condescending in his behaviour and attitude and most people do not like this; while it is true that Cyrus certainly is more intelligent than all but a handful of people on earth, most people will, nevertheless, be insulted by the insinuation that he is their superior, especially when he simply assumes it on the basis of simple and swift observation, stating his opinion as though it were holy writ. Further Cyrus tends to make people somewhat defensive in that he regards spiritually, morality and other social customs risible in what he sees as their essentially childish primitivism, he would react to being told someone believed in Jesus much as a normal person might react to being told an adult still believes in Santa Claus.

Cyrus lives to learn and can often be found studying, experimenting and so on, but more than this even he lives for challenge and so it is that his relationship with his fellow Tiamat subjects, his foster ‘siblings’ Ajax and Eris is so odd and dysfunctional. Cyrus actually feels a certain fondness for them, as he does for nobody else with perhaps the exception of Julian Drakj and Katherine Vircho, but he does not consider Ajax and Eris to be his equals as their enhancements have been primarily physical. Also it is important to note that in regards to world-view and morality, Ajax and Cyrus are almost polar-opposites, and Ajax feels somewhat responsible for Cyrus’ less moral behaviour. Cyrus lives to torment his siblings, feeling that they alone among all the world can provide him with a challenge which is up to the job of taxing him, and being worth engaging in so that despite his fondness for them, he often sets himself up as their foil in what he sees as a long and ongoing game.

Also it should be noted that possessing complete conscious control of his own sex-drive and sexual orientation as Cyrus does, he has essentially rendered it non-functional so as to conserve biological resources for other processes. His body does not produce an excess of any sexual hormone (it produces the correct amount to keep him biologically male, but no more) nor does he produce sperm. Being functionally infertile and without a sex drive, Cyrus does not feel compelled to seek out sex, sexual release or any related emotional goal.

Powers: Cyrus is not a mutant; it should be noted here that his powers reflect a series of tangible physical modification and they cannot be increased further via special training; they reflect extensive modifications and additions to his physiology which allow him to perform a number of superhuman feats. A large number of engineered genetic and surgical changes make him quite different to a normal human being, these processes themselves are described later, in full, in his history, but what these changes enable him to achieve is detailed here. It should also be noted as a non-mutant Cyrus cannot be detected by technologies developed to detect mutation.

While Cyrus shares many implants with his ‘brother’ Ajax, he has not been augmented to the same level in regards to physical capability; Cyrus’ development, in fact, was almost exclusively directed toward enhancing his mental faculty and his brain requires far more blood, nutrients and cooling than that of a normal human; it is primarily for this reason that Cyrus has been given a series of implants to enhance his physical prowess, as without such implants he would be a frail weakling at best. Nevertheless the majority of these implants do not boost his physical abilities to a level which is distinctly super-human, save in a few instances; firstly regarding stamina, Cyrus’ catalepsian node allows him to operate under stressful conditions without sleep for days and he retains a powerful tolerance to most toxins and poisons. Further Cyrus’ bones are stronger and denser than those of a normal person, albeit nowhere near as strong as Ajax’ though he is still quite hard to harm physically; Cyrus bleeds slowly, his wounds close quickly and his bones are many times stronger than those of a normal human. His balance is aided by modifications to his inner ear which allow Cyrus to avoid disorientation and or dizziness and both his hearing and eye-sight have been enhanced.

His sense of smell has likewise been enhanced, but to a much greater degree than his sight or hearing through the implantation of a vomeronasal complex; a Jacobson’s organ which allows him to ‘taste’ scent upon the air by gaping, allowing him to track old scents, identify people by scent alone, and so on. Further, tied into these implants, and functioning as a part of Cyrus’ prenormal stomach is a very complex implant which is actually a part of Cyrus’ brain, allowing him to learn through eating; to break down and absorb genetic material present in biological tissue and to absorb from it experience as a function of memory.

Nevertheless the most noteworthy ability which Cyrus possesses, as it leads to many skills which he has developed as a matter of discipline, is the addition of adrenal duct implants in his brain which greatly accelerate its higher functions and give him a superhuman level of spatial awareness, much like Ajax, however in Cyrus’ case these implants are tied into his conscious thought patterns and he is able to take executive control of his sped-up brain function. This has the effect of greatly enhancing the his ‘right brain’ intelligence; his abilities regarding spatial analysis, mathematics, logistics, and other computations are vastly enhanced. He possesses an eidetic memory, the ability to process immense volumes of data at high-speed, and so on. Further Cyrus has complete control over his bodies ’autonomous’ functions, the ability to override or change such factors as the rapidity of his heart-beat and this allows Cyrus to use his most advanced implants with great efficiency.

These final implants (Stage 11 and 12) represent the summit of Tiamat bio-tech, giving Cyrus, perhaps, his most unbelievable ability; something the Surgeons and Technicians at Tiamat have come to regard as ‘Synaptic Piracy,’ which is to say that Cyrus’ can literally use his own neurons to directly interface with the nervous system, brain and or body of a third party, taking executive control not only of their conscious self, but of their normally autonomous bodily functions. Once he has established contact Cyrus can perform a range of functions, some are fairly innocuous and the victim is unlikely to notice them, but others are intrusive and can be resisted. An example of an innocuous effect would be for Cyrus to scan the person’s conscious or unconscious thoughts, to access their memory or other stored information in their brain. An example of intrusive contact would be for Cyrus to issue direct commands to their physiology, for example he could send a signal to their arm so as to make it move involuntarily, the victim is powerless to resist the initial signal. Regarding autonomous functions, unless for some reason the victim is able to control these (due to mutation or some other ability) they will not be able to resist Cyrus’ commands, and thus he can much more effectively control such aspects of their physiology.

Weaknesses: Cyrus is powerful, but his powers have defined limits and handicaps; the first and most noteworthy being that his brain, his enhanced nervous system and so on requires so much in the way of biological fuel to keep it functioning that Cyrus’ body scarcely has time, let alone sustenance, to develop anything else; it was for this fact that, despite his many physical implants, Cyrus did not develop anything like the superhuman strength, speed and toughness of Ajax. It is true his body is very well developed, compared to a normal human, and his implants do give him abilities which a human could not possess, for example Cyrus could probably take out a number of gold medals were he able to participate in the Olympics, but his mental faculties still come first, and combined with his bodies needs, Cyrus’ artificially developed body, with its great mass, and his hyper-developed brain and nervous system require a staggering amount of nutrients to remain hydrated and in good condition. To provide an example Cyrus must drink roughly twelve litres of water a day simply to keep hydrated; should he drink less he will show physical signs of dehydration and his mental abilities will begin to dull and fade immediately. Cyrus’ needs spike immensely whenever he has engaged in stressful activity, been injured or not maintained a correct diet for an extended time. Further his body also requires certain nutrients, vitamins, chemicals and so on not contained within a normal diet; this supplemental material must be provided for many of Cyrus’ enhancements to operate at their peak, or in some cases for them to operate at all, and the only people who can supply them are the Tiamat Doctors. In regards to order Cyrus’ brain and nervous system is always the first part of his body to receive the lions share of all he consumes, meaning his body will quickly break-down and become weaker if he cannot maintain his intake; with various ‘non-necessary’ implants (stage 4, stage 6, stage 7 and stage 10) shutting down so as to conserve energy.

Cyrus’ catalepsian node potentially allows him to operate under stressful conditions without sleep for days by resting different parts of his brain sequentially, but this does not have such a large effect on Cyrus as it does on Ajax. Ajax could operate in this fashion for roughly a week, but Cyrus could not; it is Cyrus’ brain which most-requires the rest of sleep, and while the catalepsian node does enable it some ‘down-time’ for every hour of sleep Cyrus looses his mental abilities will weaken. Only true sleep will properly refresh his mental faculties. Although the Catalepsian node does allow him to remain awake longer, and to rest his body, Cyrus must choose whether the advantage of going without sleep will outweigh the disadvantage of a weakened mental capacity. Cyrus bleeds slowly and his wounds close quickly with his bones being many times stronger than those of a normal human so that he is, indeed, difficult to inflict damage upon his reaction to damage is much more substantial than that of Ajax, Eris, or even a normal human, to some extent. This primarily regards blood loss; Cyrus’ body requires allot of it, primarily for his brain, and should he loose blood his mental abilities will suffer. A normal person can loose two or three pints of blood (some 30% of their total blood) with few ill effects; were Cyrus to loose 30% of his blood, he would probably be rendered unconscious.

While Cyrus can ‘learn by eating’ thanks to his pre-normal stomach implants by analysing the genetic material contained in formerly living tissue he cannot analyse the tissue of any life-form which was not self-aware, nor can he analyse more than one type of tissue belonging to one type of animal at a time. There are also limits to what he can learn through the consumption of dead tissue. Finally, as with Ajax, the unique nature of Cyrus’ body means that he must be administered medicines and surgery (in emergencies) by personnel who understand his implants and biology. If Cyrus were in an accident where he required emergency treatment and was seen by a conventional doctor or surgeon they could well do more harm than good.

Regarding his ability to engage in 'synaptic piracy' in order to do this Cyrus must make physical contact with whomever it is he wishes to interact with, and due to the complexity of the interaction he can only effect one person at a time, regardless of how many people he is in physical contact with, this contact is generally only effective when it can be made on a skin-to-skin basis, and although light materials or skin coverings will not impede his ability more durable or absolute obstacles will prevent the direct contact which he requires. Also note that when Cyrus sends a signal to someone’s body to effect motion or some other active effect which is normally controlled consciously, while his initial signal cannot be resisted the victim may send additional signals, for example if he had moved their arm, they could move their arm back, or stop it moving in the manner Cyrus wishes it to move; generally this leads to an impasse, whereby alternating, opposite commands are issued again and again, Cyrus cannot do much in these situations however the initial command, being irresistible, can allow him to take surprise-control over someone, forcing them to do something momentarily which may be useful to him.

Power Potential: Special training aside, conventional weight training would increase his strength in proportion due to his heightened muscle density and it would also improve his speed. Also it should be noted as a non-mutant Cyrus cannot be detected by technologies developed to detect mutation however cursory analysis can be used to determine that he is, in fact, not entirely human; Cyrus has two hearts, for example, so listening to his heart beat would provide this information, as would placing him upon a set of scales or subjecting him to an X-ray or ECG, along with any number of other types of tests, scans or probes which all could reveal the presence of his unconventional faculties.

Skills & Talents: Cyrus has had extensive military training; acting as a group NCO, he has been versed in several types of special-forces role from a command perspective including covert reconnaissance, special reconnaissance, reconnaissance of the deep battlespace, offensive operations in the deep battlespace, infrastructure disruption, capture of subjects of interest and human intelligence collection. In addition to this Cyrus is a somewhat proficient physician, though he is terrible at diagnosis, and his bedside manner leaves much to be desired. He has not studied Medicine, per say, but Cyrus had studied biology and is a skilled surgeon, particularly in regards to research. His experience, both theoretical and first-hand with the Tiamat program has left him with the surgical ability to perform many unusual feats upon mutants and humans alike. Cyrus requires some infrastructure and supply to use these talents however; he could not simply decide to perform major surgery without access to sophisticated equipment and supplies. Cyrus can, if the implants are available, augment humans or even mutants by way of Tiamat implants, but this is always a risky proposition; further he can partially isolate and extract the X-gene of any mutant and implant mutants or non-mutants with a foreign X-gene sequence; this does not have the effect of replicating the original supplicants mutant power however and the results, the power which it will imbue the patient with, vary wildly. Cyrus cannot ‘cure’ mutation; if he isolates and extracts a subjects X-gene sequence, it can never be more than a section of the sequence-itself, which will quickly re-write itself back into its original, full sequence, and Cyrus cannot stop this from occurring. In addition Cyrus can replicate, to some extent, mutant powers by way of much more conventional surgery; this is safer, but less dramatic in its effect. He could, for example, replicate the physical qualities of a particular mutant and surgically modify his patient to exhibit those same qualities, but there is a limit to how much he can change the human body, and this does not have the effect of transferring any non-physical ability from patient to patient, only static physical changes are replicated such as fangs or claws. Finally Cyrus is able to extract MGH from mutant subjects; this is probably the most simple of those procedures he does know, and relatively risk-free.

Some of these surgeries are highly complex, very risky and may subject their target to a great deal of biological and mental stress; for example, all but a few of the Tiamat implants and surgeries regarding the X-gene sequence cannot be performed with anaesthesia, and so the likelihood of the patient suffering shock-based cardiac arrest during the process is quite high. It is important to keep in mind that these procedures are highly experimental and the procedure varies greatly from individual to individual; what Cyrus might find simple on one person he may find impossible on another.

Cyrus’ ability to analyse complex vectors and trajectories, solve large spatial problems in a fraction of a second and overall greatly enhanced right-brain intelligence and processing speed leads to a number of more or less innate abilities. At all times he notices to a terrifying degree minutiae that others miss. When combined with his analytical abilities this enhanced perception enables Cyrus to divine things in an almost super-human fashion. Slight differences in air currents or the design of a room will allow the detection of hidden portals and spy holes; variations in a person's voice and tiny reactions allow him to deeply understand a person's emotional state, and potentially enables him to manipulate it; indeed he can often make others react with unconscious, yet deep anxiety, trust or revulsion to subtle, non-verbal cues which their conscious mind may not even be aware of. It is exceedingly difficult to deceive him; he is able to often detect whether someone is lying by analysing inflection and change in a subject's voice, observing and interpreting their body language and analysing physical signs like pulse and heart rate. Cyrus has developed peculiar physical abilities as a side effect of his vast intellect and ability to control otherwise unconscious bodily functions. He possesses full control over each muscle in his body; allowing him to, for example, bend the last joint in his little toe while otherwise remaining completely motionless. Thus Cyrus may exercise levels of flexibility and other physical feats that most would consider impossible, to put a remarkable amount of force behind a physical blow, or by way of enhanced perception; react, in physical terms, with near-presciently superhuman reflexes. This endows him with an unmatched level of intuition regarding balance, the ability to aim and dodge with absolute precision. In short Cyrus possesses the ability to intuitively commit physical feats which would take years of training for a normal person to perfect.

Physically Cyrus also has complete conscious control over the functions of his internal organs and body chemistry. He can completely control his breathing and heart rate to the degree that he can appear dead to most tests even after intense physical exertion. Control his need for food and water to the extremes of hunger and thirst, and even commit suicide at will by simply stopping his hearts. He is immune to most poisons, as he can simply change the chemical makeup of any harmful substance in his body and render it harmless. It should also be noted that if he wished to, Cyrus could slow his aging process dramatically, controlling every aspect of his metabolism, however as he is physically in his prime it is unlikely he will have recourse to use this ability.

Lastly Cyrus has the ability to, literally, make use of the simultaneous flow of several threads of consciousness at any given time; mental multitasking, as it were. This ability is generally employed for the means of planning and strategizing. Cyrus’ advanced cognitive abilities, eidetic memory and immense perception are the foundation for supra-logical hypothesizing; large volumes of data may be assimilated rapidly and used to devise concise analyses in a process that goes beyond mere logical deduction. Although Cyrus has never been exposed to mental intrusion by psychically powered persons his mental abilities will eventually enable him to develop powerful defensive mechanisms against psychic probes and other intrusive mental scans. To begin with, even if he were not resisting, a telepath would have a difficult task reading Cyrus’ mind due to the sheer speed and quantity of his thoughts and mental processes, it would be like reading a dozen normal persons at one time. Further were Cyrus to actively resist; having the ability to clog his mind with useless additional streams of conscious thought, greatly speed up his mental functions and sequentially turn off sections of his brain, it is likely a telepath, even if highly skilled, would find his defences highly frustrating.

History

Cyrus was born of his mother’s scientific desire to create what she thought would be a biological singularity; a kind of supreme being. If this sounds a little bit insane it is because Cyrus’ mother wasn’t exactly normal. Far from it, but they do say there is a fine line between genius and madness, and for most of her life Katherine was treading on the genius side of that line. It was her unique position as the head of the Tiamat project which allowed her to coerce its chief beneficiary, Julian Drakj, to allow her to enter her own child into the procedure. Katherine chose her time well, enacting this coupe during the period when the Project had moved off-shore and Julian’s directorship over it was highly compromised. There was simply no replacement for Katherine, so when she demanded her child be admitted and swore she would leave if not permitted to do this, Julian had no choice but to acquiesce to her request; much to his chagrin. The project had been moved off-shore strictly to prevent this sort of thing from occurring in the first place.

The Tiamat Project

A man named Julian Drakj was the driving force behind the program, offering the facilities and finance as well as a certain level of disregard for laws and ethics, but it was not Julian who conceived the program itself in terms of the medical and scientific theory behind it, although Julian was the man who made it possible, not only by working out how it could be done legally, financing it, but also be working out how to turn it into a money-making enterprise. In the very beginning Julian was approached by a woman named Katherine Vircho who had, a few years prior, been the chief scientist working for his company in their studies on mutation. She presented various procedures and ideas to him as a potential means by which one could physically enhance humans so as to give them superhuman abilities comparable to those which mutants had shown. Where others had denied it on account of the ethical and legal barriers Julian accepted the idea and within months construction and hiring processes had been put into effect. Katherine was placed in charge of the project; her skills being practical as well as theoretical and she had expertise in many fields. Everything involved with the Tiamat project was off the record. Those employed were legally considered to be working for Julian in another capacity. The research crew itself was small and they were receiving indescribably vast amounts of money for their work and for their silence. Construction and things of that nature were all privately arranged and as with his employees everything was off the record. The laboratories were constructed in an off-shore location outside of the US.

The initial stages of the project were all concerned with culturing fabricated organs and keeping these safe in a highly stable environment. This took some time, it took years in fact, and the expenses were vast; requiring the construction of environments known as ‘Zero Rooms‘ which would maintain absolute atmospheric stability. During that time Julian had already started contacting various military and medical organizations about purchasing the finished product although none of these pitches were carried out in an official sense and most of it took place in discrete phone calls and other forms of correspondence. Julian kept well away from the project itself for fear that those he dealt with might discover its location and choose to close it in an official capacity, while in the same motion seizing the information and theory behind it for their own benefit, free of cost. He had trouble communicating with his scientists during this period because of this, but things went smoothly until the early stages were finished.

The central theory of the project was to use implants (cultured zygote-organs genetically engineered from scratch) to enhance the subjects in various theatres or to change their physiological and hormonal processes. These implants were extremely complex and because many of them would only work properly when another implant was present the removal or mutation of one organ could violently effect the exact functioning of the others. For these reasons the implants were constantly monitored, the initial subject had to undergo corrective surgery and chemical therapy to re-balance his metabolisms during the process as their body rejected the fabricated organs. Since the process of culturing implants from zygotes had taken years to finish and it was known they would be violently rejected by the body due to their artificial nature the scientists of project Tiamat had to force the naturalization process, and so the projects namesake (Tiamat Glands) were developed; there are two of these glands, one situated in the neck, the other deep within the chest cavity. Each grows within the subject, absorbing hormonal stimuli and genetic material from the other implants. Once matured each gland contains something designated a ‘progenitor code’ corresponding to each zygote implanted into the recipient. These mature codes could be used to produce a second generation of zygotes-organs who’s makeup corresponded to that of the organs after their forced naturalization through drug therapy; a generation of ‘naturally’ coded strings that could be used to create new implants through a simple process. This led to their first generation subject, Alpha; a special subject to bear the enormous physiological strain of implantation and chemo-therapy that would force the naturalization of its synthetic organs, and so Alpha was created, a bottle-bred, constantly comatose human. An egg treated for genetic superiority was fertilized by sperm similarly treated; using the Bokanovsky process 96 identical twins were created from the same egg and Alpha was chosen from the most genetically robust. The rest were destroyed. He was treated pre-natally with protein poisons to ensure that he would be born a mental vegetable before being subjected to the entire implantation and chemo-therapy procedure: given over thirty five new organs, glands and implants; destabilizing him to the point where if his coma were to break he would immediately die. As soon as his Tiamat glands had matured their progenitor code was retrieved and the project continued.

Julian knew that the creation of Alpha was only the first stage, for if the Tiamat Project were ever to become something he could sell it would need to be possible to implant adult humans with zygote-organs which could begin taking effect immediately, rather than implanting them into children; he knew that more generations of patients would need to be created, with each new generation providing a more naturalized progenitor-code until they eventually reached the point where the development of surgical procedures and the nature of the implants were so advanced that a person of any age could have any number of them implanted. Nevertheless Julian also knew that he would require demonstrable examples of what those so implanted could achieve, and so his first generation of genuine patients were created with two goals in mind. The first was for them to occupy a link in the chain of naturalization; to be implanted, for their progenitor codes to mature and then be implanted into a new generation, and so on, but more important than this Julian wanted subjects who could demonstrate their superior physiology, to show people what the Tiamat Project was capable of achieving by way of its implants. Ajax, Eris and Cyrus were among those destined to become this ‘model generation,’ each undergoing the implantation of only a part of the total number of organs available to the project to maximize the stability of their physiology and chance of success in integrating the now naturalized organs into their bodies, in addition the implants that they were given were chosen specifically for their effects when combined so that each would represent one variety of enhanced subject; Ajax would demonstrate brute strength, great durability, survivability and aptitude for physical combat, Cyrus would demonstrate superior mental faculties, information gathering and data analysis, leadership and strategic/tactical skills and Eris would represent speed, reflexes, stealth, information gathering, data retrieval and other skills useful to a lone-agent, a thief or saboteur.

Nevertheless this second generation would still be subjected to a somewhat touch and go procedure. A sub-stage of Project Tiamat was developed (referred to as Project Hubur) where the subjects underwent intensive chemical therapy in an effort to balance their metabolism so as to better integrate the coming implants. They underwent forced development of a hyper-immune system to counter the toxins in the many drugs used to assimilate the implants into their physiological makeup, and this process was arduous and long. The extensive testing, genetic manipulation and drugs turning each subject into a living, breathing experiment. At first results from tests were assessed to determine which alterations would be most suitable for each subject. After that the real experiments started.

The constant redevelopment of the Hubur project led to the creation of a special program of genetics, bio-implants and chemical boosters to enhance the subject’s body far beyond what a normal human could achieve. Without this the constant administration of toxic chemicals and drugs would have been fatal. Restructuring their stamina and aerobic performance (through implanting a second heart; a process so successful it was later integrated into the Tiamat Project itself) to strengthen the body against constant barrage of tranquillization and hyperactivity caused by the drugs. Adrenal ducts were implanted to speed up the brain’s higher functions so the subjects mental development could match their enhanced physical development. Glandular implants that naturally produced and constantly fed the necessary drugs and antidotes into the bloodstream were employed. Further actions were undertaken to bring balance to the subjects when their chemical therapy was complete. Their metabolic rates were forcibly slowed and they were drugged into a semi coherent, almost comatose, state. Their enhanced mental faculty was essentially wired in to their autonomous bodily functions and made able to retune their metabolism. Their dependence on drugs was lessened. Once implanted Ajax, Eris and Cyrus were brought up by surrogate parents within a company-owned facility. They were trained to act as models for the process, able to demonstrate the changes and enhancement to an audience of potential buyers. Aside from the discipline often required of them, the medical procedures and the relative isolation the three where given as normal an upbringing as possible to encourage stable mental development; they were tutored, schooled normally, played sports, etc. Their upbringing was not cruel, though perhaps a little cold nevertheless they were provided for generously, given the very best. Cyrus was given the following implants in these stages:

Stage 1 - The simplest and most self sufficient implant. The secondary heart is capable of augmenting the blood supply or maintaining full life functions even with the removal or destruction of the recipient's natural heart.

Stage 2 - A heart shaped organ designed to improves and modify the subjects circulatory system. It is vital to the function of the other implants, functioning as, essentially, a third kidney; designed to filter the subjects blood with great efficiency and able to break-down the various compounds and natural drugs which are secreted into the subjects body to stabilize their metabolism. If this implant is removed or damaged the results will be catastrophic, with the patient quickly succumbing to the harmful toxins and drugs produced naturally by their own body; as such is it protected by implantation deep within the abdomen of the patient shielded by the pelvis and surrounded in a pericardial sac similarly to the heart, the sack being composed of fatty layers wedged between muscular sheets and within it the organ is suspended in an inert plasma designed to absorb shock; it is further protected by a cartilaginous shell within the first layer of the pericardium.

Stage 3 - A long tubular shaped organ is implanted which remains completely dormant until the inclusion of the stage five implant. Once activated though it monitors and secretes hormones to effect the epiphiseal fusion and ossification of the subjects skeleton. This implant hardens and strengthens the skeleton; particularly the long bones, and increases the overall size of the recipients skeleton as well as its strength by allowing the integration of complex protein structures into the tissue composing the subjects bone requiring a modified diet during their developmental years. This organ only functions through the developmental stages and afterwards becomes dormant before eventually being cannibalised by the recipients body.

Stage 4 - This gland is implanted into the chest cavity and though it is small its effects are quite impressive. Through the secretion of altered growth hormones and anabolic compounds it stimulates muscular hypertrophy throughout the body as well as altering the growth patterns and design of the subject musculature to make it more efficient, like the stage four implant it is dependent on the stage five implant, and only truly effects the body through its developmental stages however unlike the stage four implant it is not cannibalised when the body reaches full development but instead continues to function in a limited capacity so that muscle which is damaged or removed grows back in the same modified pattern.

Stage 5 - This implant allows both the stage five and four implants to function correctly. It is implanted into a main blood vessel where it serves its dual purpose. As well as keeping the phase three and four implants in check, this organ also alters the constituent make-up of the recipient's blood to making it much more efficient at carrying oxygen. The increased haemoglobin content of the subjects blood plasma means that arterial bleeding marked by a more vivid, brighter red than that of a normal human, and a substantial increase in the quantity of blood lost (though quantity in proportion lost is, indeed, substantially lower)

Stage 6 - In conjunction with the secondary heart this implant allows the subject to filter his blood very quickly, rendering him immune to most poisons. This action comes at a price, however, as this emergency detoxification renders the subject unconscious while his blood is circulated at high speed. The organ's everyday function is to monitor the entire circulatory system and allow other organs to function effectively.

Stage 7 - This implant is inserted into the back of the skull via a hole drilled into the occipital bone. A tiny implant; it influences the circadian rhythms of sleep and the body's response to sleep deprivation. Normally the subject sleeps like any normal human, but if deprived of sleep this implant kicks in. A person implanted with this node is capable of sleeping and remaining awake at the same time by switching off areas of the brain sequentially. This process cannot replace normal sleep entirely but increases the subjects survivability by allowing for limited perception of the environment while resting in hazardous circumstances or limited rest while active to slow down the effects of fatigue.

Stage 8 - This small slug-like organ sits at the base of the brain. It provides the hormonal and genetic stimuli which enable the subjects eyes to respond to optic-therapy. The organ does not itself improve eyesight, but it allows technicians to make adjustments to the growth patterns of the eye and the light-receptive retinal cells. An adult who had been implanted with this organ has far better eyesight than a normal human, and can see in low light conditions almost as well as in daylight.

Stage 9 - This implant enables the subject to consciously enhance and even filter certain types of background noise. Not only is hearing improved, but they cannot become dizzy or nauseous as a result of extreme disorientation.

Stage 10 - This complex organ allows the subject to 'learn by eating'. It is situated in the spinal cord but is actually part of the brain, and grows to form a second stomach. Four nerve bundles are implanted connecting the spine and the second stomach wall. When something is consumed by the subject it may be ’swallowed’ into the second stomach, where the tissue is broken down into its component parts and genetic material then analysed by this organ so as to enable it to ‘read’ or absorb the life-experience of the animal or person to whom the tissue belonged. This implant transmits the gained information to the subjects brain as a set of memories or experiences. Note however that this organ can only ‘read’ tissue which belonged to a conscious or self-aware animal, and that is does not translate conscious thoughts but rather innate experience or ‘genetic memory’ thus, the subject could not literally remember the creatures life through its eyes, but may for example be provided with useful information regarding survival in the creatures natural environment. When used to analyse tissue from more complex, intelligent animals, such as humans, however this implant takes a great deal of time to break down the complex genetic material contained within their tissue but as a result it gleans much more useful information. The most readily broken down substance, containing the most useful data, is usually pure blood-plasma, or brain tissue, though other parts of the nervous system can also provide useful information. The second stomach can only break-down and absorb one kind of tissue, belonging to one kind of animal, at a time, although it may be consciously ‘flushed out’, sending the partly broken-down tissue into the normal digestive tract to be broken down normally at any time.

Stage 11 - Stage 11 consists of extensive augmentation and modification to the Adrenal Ducts implanted in the subjects brain during project Hubur. These ducts are essentially epinephrine generators designed to ensure the brain is supplied with massive quantities of glucose, oxygen amphetamine derived psycho-stimulants and other hormones and drugs to stimulate rapid dopaminergic transmission. Normally these ducts function in an autonomous capacity meaning that the rapid speed at which the subject’s higher brain functions can operate are undertaken unconsciously as an aid to balance and other instinctual factors, but through intense hypnotherapy and psychoactive treatment these modified stage 11 implants are controlled entirely by conscious will. This has the effect of greatly enhancing the subjects intelligence; their abilities regarding spatial analysis, mathematics, logistics, and other computations are vastly enhanced. The subject will possess an eidetic memory, the ability to process immense volumes of data at high-speed, and so on. Further the subject has complete control over their bodies normally autonomous functions, and the ability to override or change such factors as the rapidity of their heart-beat.

Stage 12 - An immensely complex implant; the stage 12 implant is dependant upon both the stage 11 and stage 13 implants to function correctly. It takes the form of a large cluster of nervous tissue and synaptic relays placed in the chest cavity structured almost like a second brain. It has three primary functions. The first, left-side of this implant is essentially a somewhat novel extrusion designed to interact with the pericardial sacs of the subjects twin hearts, generating a small static-electric charge as a result of its interaction with the beating of both hearts. This small charge is used to boost the potency of neurons sent as a result of elective, or executive brain-function (which in the subject’s case, due to the sage 11 implant controls all bodily functions including those which are normally autonomously maintained) these boosted neurons can then be sent to the stage 13 implant.

Stage 13 - The stage 13 implants are essentially a miniaturized versions of the stage 12 implant, one in each palm. These small synaptic relay-stations of sorts are attached to tiny hair-follicles which extent from the palm of the hand and fingers; these sharp, invisibly tiny hairs are inhabited each by a microscopically nerve-structures allowing the neurons to be sent along them, and when the hairs are penetrating another persons skin the neurons may be sent into another persons body. This allows the subject to engage in what the Tiamat doctors have referred to as ‘synaptic piracy’, or the ability to send their own neurons into another persons body to take executive control of another persons nervous system, or to glean information or knowledge from another persons memory or brain. Due to the stage 11 implant the subject may even administer commands to the otherwise autonomously controlled parts of the effected persons body.

Stage 14 - A liver shaped, dark, fleshy organ about the size of a golf ball. It is implanted into the chest cavity along with a complicated array of blood vessels. The organ generates and stores special cells. If the recipient is wounded, these cells are released into the blood stream. They latch onto leucocytes in the blood and are transported to the site of a wound. Once in contact with air, the cells form a skin substitute of instant scar tissue, staunching the flow of blood and protecting any exposed wound area.

Stage 15 - There are two of these glands, one situated in the neck and the other within the chest cavity. These take time (2 years in the first case, 5 in the latter) to mature into new progenitor glands. These allow the subjects ‘naturalized’ organs to be regrown for a new generation of patients. Each gland provides the genetic material to create between forty and one-hundred new series of implants identical to those with which the patient has been implanted. Cyrus has already had his neck glands removed. The chest glands cannot be removed without killing the patient and serve only as an emergency backup; Cyrus’ chest glands are intact, matured and functioning correctly.

Continued In Next Post

[Cyrus Everard]

Continued From Last Post

History (Continued)

It was obvious from the start than Cyrus was going to be different to the other Tiamat subjects in his generation; it went without saying. For starters the sheer complexity of Cyrus’ implants, and the surgery require to implant them meant he was effectively conscious for a number of surgeries, and he underwent more of these than his siblings; Ajax and Eris were largely done with surgery by the end of their second year, for Cyrus corrective procedures and other requirements saw him going under the knife again and again until the age of seven. There was quite simply no way this wouldn’t effect him personally as he grew; no matter how ‘normal’ the project attempted to make him. There were other concerns as well. For one Cyrus’ mother was the head of the Tiamat project, though she was forbidden from telling Cyrus she was his mother for some time, this obviously effected her behaviour in regards to him and to the other subjects. For one, Cyrus was the only mentally-enhanced subject to survive the procedures, in fact of all the children they had brought in to implant, Ajax, Eris and Cyrus were the only survivors. This was not unusual in Ajax and Eris’ case, as only a few children had been brought in for physical implantation, but in Cyrus case there had been a dozen backup subjects, all of whom died under the surgical watch of Katherine Vircho. Julian never trusted his chief surgeon again wholly after this and her earlier blackmail in having Cyrus admitted to the project in the first place, and it was generally felt that she had sabotaged the other subjects somehow, but for what purpose; nobody knew. It was often wondered, as well, who Cyrus’ biological father had been, as Katherine was not married, but she would tell no one, and some doubted she knew herself; it was rumoured at one point she had somehow manufactured artificial sperm in order to impregnate herself, though how she managed this, nobody could tell. Katherine had essentially come up with the Tiamat project on her own, her abilities at a biologist and surgeon were seemingly inhuman; few doubted she could do it, as it was felt among those who had worked with her that she could do practically anything she wished. The truth was never discovered although Katherine did at last admit to Julian, with whom she had long been friends, that Cyrus was her legacy; she felt his enhancements would make him a biological singularity, and professed to the desire to mother such a being.

During his life as a child in the semi-confined environment in which he was raised Cyrus, despite being the same age, seemed to have come to accept Ajax as his older brother. Ajax was happy to look out for Cyrus and always quite protective of him and Eris, with the later having a rather mischievous influence on him, often leading he and Cyrus into trouble despite their better judgement. On the surface things seemed well, but Cyrus was showing his differences once more, on a deeper level. All of the Tiamat subjects underwent indoctrination, hypnotherapy and so on as part of their basic education. They were taught to be loyal to the company, to feel fondly towards it; with Ajax and Eris this worked superbly. Cyrus however resisted all efforts to indoctrinate him, even when the ante was raised and stronger methods were applied; sophisticated subliminal messaging, brainwashing and so on, all proved useless. On the surface Cyrus seemed content and, indeed, loyal, but his guardians were disturbed by the fact that he simply could not be controlled. Yes, he responded with loyalty to their generous treatment, but there were no guarantees, no way to fix his loyalty or set it as an issue beyond question.

Cyrus began to withdraw from his siblings shortly after this. It was inevitable; he could see the effect upon them which the indoctrination had achieved and knew he was unaffected himself, it made him feel singled out and different, and more, as at this point more differences were becoming plain. The three subjects all attended school with tutors and were taught the same curricula as normal children were, literacy, numeracy as well as other more advanced studies and electives from which they were free to choose. Cyrus and his surrogate siblings were educated and looked after by people who understood their business and he had affection, company, entertainment and discipline, but there was not much in the way of love. For Ajax and Eris this lack of warmth caused them to draw more closely together with each other, and they attempted to do the same with Cyrus, but he felt no lack, he was not concerned. Further in regards to his education, by his tenth year Cyrus had exceeded Eris and Ajax by far, he was studying at a tertiary level; this only made him feel like more of an outsider, but he was beginning to enjoy that status, the feeling of being different and set-apart from all others. It was not so bad yet however as to eliminate all common ground between him and his siblings. That would come later.

Cyrus’ caretakers were sure to socialize him. They did this at first only in safe environments until he grew older and the physical differences between him and people his age became less dramatic and at this point his freedoms were increased further. He, Ajax and Eris would often go out together, and the three had allot of fun, but it was not to last. At the age of thirteen Eris elected to leave in order to pursue company business in Europe and although Ajax was upset by this Cyrus did not care; nor did he understand why Ajax did. For some time Cyrus had been developing odd habits, certain unusual traits of character, and his brother was quite inconsolable over this, he felt powerless to help, but Cyrus resented deeply the fact that Ajax felt there was something wrong with him and so his attempts to help were dismissed initially, and met with hostility when they continued. Far from feeling as though he needed help Cyrus felt he was improving himself immensely, outwardly however he had become cold, emotionally detached from others and apathetic about life in general. As Cyrus saw it his coldness was neutrality, a strength which allowed him to analyse without emotional investment, his isolation from others was a matter of his own superiority; Cyrus knew normal people could not keep up with him, they had nothing to offer, his apathy was a development which coincided with the first tenuous grasps at the nihilistic attitude which would come to dominate Cyrus’ academic life. He continued to excel with his education, and as Cyrus learned more his hunger for knowledge became more voracious; one by one his passions became less wholesome, he gave up many of his former pastimes, seeing them now as little more than childish diversions, and those which he replaced them with, at least to his brother Ajax, seemed quite disturbing though Cyrus felt they were natural, indeed, the inevitable result of him coming into his own. Cyrus was now ghoulishly interested in vivisection, autopsies, and other morbid studies. He talked of wanting to ‘take apart’ mutants, to see what made them tick, and he talked further even of cutting himself open to learn more about his implants. Ajax, now desperate, eventually went to Cyrus foster parents for help; much to Cyrus’ own dissatisfaction. A result of Ajax’ plea for help eventually saw Cyrus taken under the wing of Dr. Katherine Vircho, to be her apprentice. Ajax was did not like this though and thought it would only make things worse. He was right.

Although he resented him for meddling, Cyrus was no longer concerned with Ajax; their association being largely complete in his view. Cyrus felt he had outgrown his siblings, and being beyond them he did not think it meet that they go about together, having nothing to offer each other and little common ground. He thought in similar terms regarding his foster-parents, and, indeed, had it not been for Katherine Cyrus might have been similarly disposed toward the company itself, but while she had things to teach him he was content to affiliate himself with it. It was made known to Cyrus at this time that Katherine Vircho was his biological mother, though he hardly thought it an important revelation. Cyrus had become her apprentice, after a fashion, using his newly acquired knowledge of biology and other areas to work in concert with her on the remaining elements of the Tiamat Project. At the same time Cyrus was charged to maintain his physical state and to train in various fashions so as to stay in good condition and keep on top of the skills which the Tiamat Reps believed best suited his enhanced body. Often he was led to display his unique skills and tolerances before a small audience of potential investors or buyers, but there was, of course, more to his affiliation with the company than only this.

Cyrus readily absorbed everything Dr. Vircho had to teach him, and in many areas his proficiency and learning began to exceed hers, and within a few years of being her apprentice Cyrus hit a metaphorical wall regarding his studies in that there was simply nobody left to teach him. All of those pioneering geneticists, doctors and surgeons with whom he associated were no longer his superiors, having no more to teach him, indeed they were no longer even his peers; Cyrus had exhausted every viable channel in his quest for knowledge and now he had no choice but to pursue his own studies and to teach himself. Many in the company professed to a certain doubt regarding what they had created now; Cyrus had never really been under their control, but so long as they had things to teach him he was content to do as he was told for the most part, but now, there was nothing binding Cyrus to the company, no guarantee he would use his vast intellect for their benefit. Under Dr. Vircho’s tutelage Cyrus had always regarded medical ethics and other legal concerns are mere technicalities, and had largely done as he wished, and now that he struck out on his own he began to show an almost reckless disregard for any authority, any concern, any principle; Cyrus became a ghoul of the most disturbing sort, obsessed with getting his hands on bodies, living or dead, human or animal, to subject to various tests and experiments. It was in his search for black-market material that Cyrus fell in with the mutant underground in New York.

For some time there had been a burgeoning black-market for various services and so on, regarding mutants and mutation, particularly so in larger cities; New York being one example of an area with a particularly robust market, this was nominally controlled by various criminal groups, and provided mutant-to-flatscan services and so on, and it was in his quest for mutant subjects for the purposes of experimentation that Cyrus fell in with one of these groups, at first providing services in exchange for various illicit material and later forming a more close bond. He collected MGH from mutant subjects, performed surgeries, and so on. Cyrus continued, nominally, to serve the company during this period, but his affiliation with them became more loose. When the group for whom he was working came under the attention of the authorities Cyrus was whisked away from New York so as to protect him from investigation; he was set up in a small town nearby, Bayville, and was told to lay low for a time.

The fact is however Cyrus is no good at laying low, and it is only a matter of time until his ghoulish proclivities get the better of his common sense. He does not know, either, that his brother Ajax is living in the same town of Bayville, indeed, their mutual habitation there is a matter of sheer coincidence.

Other: Just as with other Tiamat models; Cyrus must deal with certain legalities surrounding his work and condition. One of those is the confidence of his employers, that is, he is under contract to maintain a certain amount of discretion and not to share particular details about his work and nature at the risk of loosing company support and his stipend.

Sample RP: No

Activity: Frequent.

[Ogre]

It's an extensive and impressive bio, as usual with you. But I wouldn't mind knowing more about his synaptic piracy, I'm not entirely sure what he's capable of with it, for how long, on how many people, how effectively etc.