Mason

Nadia (Sister)

Reed and Juniper (Brothers)

Gregor (Grandfather)

Raina (Niece)

Ashwood (Nephew)

## Application Sheet

Mason was a brown-furred wolf with deep maroon-colored eyes. He was born in Chandor to the pack's alpha pair, Aethelynda and Rowan, alongside siblings Nadia, Juniper, and Reed. He was separated from the pack when he was just a juvenile, after running away, and was believed to be dead by his family. However, he survived to adulthood, and returned to the Domain, ending up in Mhor during the Hive Wars. After reuniting with Nadia, filled with shame and guilt over his past, he fled to Xassa, where he stayed for a few moons. Ultimately, Mason couldn't find his place in the Domain, and disappeared, not being seen since. He was designed by MatrixPotato. Mason was originally owned by Idlethe, but they handed him over as a pup back to Matrix. He was only revived in the group several years later, created and RP'd in full by MatrixPotato.

## Personality

* ***Confident, Assuming, and Demanding.*** As a child, Mason was that one kid who relentlessly asked "Why?" over and over. He has a big mouth, and still does for the most part. He's learned to be a bit more respectful, but he likes to know how something happened, when it happened, where it happened, and who it happened to or with. He can become quite overbearing with his question asking. Even for all his question asking, he may not have all the information and can even begin to think of himself as an expert on the subject. This brings out the confidence in him, which can borderline on arrogance in his case.
* ***Impatient, Mischievous, and Inconsiderate**.* Mason is as impatient as he is demanding and it can be overwhelming for anyone around him. He also tends to be pretty inconsiderate and selfish; its not that he intends to be and subconsciously he just assumes everything revolves around him. He's also as mischievous as he is clever and since he's so attention seeking he'll drag anyone else around him into whatever mess he has thought up of just so his peers- or anyone else for that matter -will drop what they're dong for him.
* ***Intuitive and Prospecting, a Thinker.*** Mason's mind is constantly working. Although he can be assuming about a subject, he won't stop thinking about it until he feels like he's got it right. He's always searching for the truth, or perhaps more so, just answers in general, to things that happened/have happened/might happen. He's quite good at looking at a situation and figuring out what the best course of action could be as well, though he's not perfect and sometimes will get it wrong.

## Pre-Group History

Born to the alphas of Chandor, Aethelynda and Rowan, Mason was one of four pups; his two brothers, Reed and Juniper, and his only sister, Nadia. Mason and his siblings grew up to be very curious and adventurous, much like their mother. They lived a charmed life, being the alpha's children; they had the privilege to never worry about predators or starvation. All in all, Mason's childhood was happy, stress-free, and fun. He was born with the future of a great life paved before him.

As Mason grew, he became ever more inquisitive to the world around him. Life in Chandor was quickly becoming boring; nothing ever happened. It wasn't until he was a juvenile on an outing with his father one day that that quickly changed for the young wolf. Because of his inquisitive mind, Mason had always been intrigued by Rowan's lack of family in Chandor. The other children didn't seem to notice, but Mason was quick to understand; Rowan didn't have any siblings, cousins, or even distant relations in Chandor, unlike Aethelynda, his mother. It made him curious and so he asked about it. Rowan and Lyn gave each other a look before Rowan decided to take his son for a walk to discuss it. On this walk, Rowan explained to Mason that before finding Lyn, he had another mate and child. Rowan's previous mate, Quilla, had left him and taken their daughter, Freya, with her. He was in search of them when he met Lyn and fell in love with her. This news shocked Mason. He'd wanted adventure and drama, but not like this. Devastated by this news, Mason ran off, out of the territory. He needed to cool off, to think about what this news. He had another sister! A half sister!

For a few weeks, Mason wandered alone. He'd already learned how to hunt and so he never went hungry. The longer he was away from Chandor, the more he thought about looking for Freya, but there's no telling where she would be, and this world was so much bigger than he thought. Being outside of Chandor was both thrilling and terrifying. He entounered some animals he'd never seen before and even stumbled across a loner- thankfully, they were kind and didn't mind the young wolf's questions. After a while, Mason found that he enjoyed being out here, as much as he missed his family. Every time he thought about going home, Rowan's face when he told him about his previous mate and child came into his mind and he couldn't yet. However, even as he explored, Mason stayed close to the border of Chandor. He traveled around the mountains and after a month or two, found himself on the border of Aryn. He knew that Chandor was friendly with Aryn, so he helped himself right on in, ignoring the territory markers. Thankfully, a Courser noticed him before the Wardens did. Mason explained who he was and they allowed him to visit for a while. After about a week, Mason had made a couple friends in Aryn- of course, only after asking an awfully lot of questions about the pack and its inhabitants.

Mason finally got the courage to ask to meet the Alpha of the pack. However, as his new friends were about to go introduce him, Athena herself emerged from her den and called all the wolves of Aryn to listen. She announced that she had grave news from Chandor; the alphess, Aethelynda, had been killed in an avalanche in Morrow Cross. She had been in search of her missing son. A few eyes snapped to Mason, who was stood stark still, eyes wide with shock. Wolves began to sob, and Mason's friends gathered around him, apologizing and saying words of condolences. But Mason didn't hear any of it. Suddenly, he took off, toward the border. He didn't stop until he made it to Morrow Cross, out of breath and exhausted from his trek. Sure enough, the path was blocked by boulders and rocks. Mason clambered over the rocks anyway, a few slipping out from under his feet. He made it to the other side, his worst fears playing in his mind that there would be a body- but there was nothing. Only a single flower place upon one of the boulders. He was gasping from the climb, but he tried his best to sniff around. There was an odd scent. Blood, but not the blood of prey. It was the blood of a wolf. Another faint scent of rosemary; his mother. Mason stumbled back away from the rocks, gasping again, but this time from shock and terror.

"Mason." A voice said behind the young wolf. He turned around to see his grandfather, Gregor, standing there. He looked even older now, tired- and very, very sad. Mason bombarded him with questions, to which the patient old wolf answered graciously. Lyn had indeed died looking for him. Gregor tried to console the young wolf but the guilt and shame that gripped Mason was too much and, for the second time, ran away from the fear. But this time, Mason didn't run to Aryn, didn't stay near the border. He just continued running until nothing was familiar. He only stopped when he nearly fell into a giant hole in the ground. It was perfectly round, like something huge had scooped out a part of the earth. Grass was groing inside the crater, but there was nothing at the bottom but dirt and mud. He noticed that there weren't any trees around the whole area, only some saplings and grass, a few bushes. Life seemed to stand still here and it forced Mason to stop as well. The realization that his mother was dead hit him hard, and he slid down into the middle of the crater, flopped down and began to sob. He coiled into a tight ball and stayed there for a few days. When his stomach began to grumble, Mason got up and wandered out of the crater to find food.

The young wolf wandered aimlessly for a little while. He felt so lost, so empty. He wanted so badly to go back to Chandor, to cry in his mothers arms, only to realize that she was gone and he couldn't do that anymore. He was emotionally drained, mentally taxed, spiritually broken. For a few years, Mason wandered alone. He did only what was needed to survive; hunt, feed, drink, sleep, repeat. The seasons passed him in a blur.

Suddenly, winter came and it forced him out of his daze. He was prepared for a normal winter- but this wasn't a normal winter. It was the harshest winter he'd ever seen; if it wasn't covered in snow, it was covered in ice. A freak blizzard blew through and Mason nearly froze to death. He'd been stupid and tried to climb a mountain after a goat. It was the only food he'd seen in a week and he was starving. The winds were strong and he tumbled down the mountain. He didn't know how long he was unconsious for, but when he awoke, the blizzard had gone, but he was not left unscathed. He must have hid his head, because there was blood on his face. Freezing and close to death, Mason tried his best to wait out the winter in a cave he'd found, picking off any food he could find when the wind wasn't biting at him or the snow hadn't frozen everything. By the time things began to thaw, Mason was practically just skin and bones. He was almost too weak to hunt for himself, but finally managed to find a deer that had frozen to death. He gnawed at it until he could get to the meat inside. Unbeknownst to him, he had found this deer in another packs territory. The wolves of Mhor found him and took pity on his skinny, malnourished form, and allowed him to stay with them for the spring season while he healed and regained his strength. While there, Mason healed physically, but his spiritual and mental health was still damaged.

When he was well enough to move on, the wolves of Mhor invited Mason to join the pack as an actual member. Mason thought about it; he didn't want to go home- he couldn't. So he decided to accept their invitation.

## Group History

Mason stumbled upon the borders of Mhor in a half-starved, near-crazed state. All he could think of was protecting the meal he had found, and reacted with hostility when Alderwen, Solune, and Deborah approached. Eventually, after allowing him to eat his meal and talking calmly to him, he was able to pull himself together and agreed to go with them to their pack. He was taken in by the Clerics for treatment, though recovering from near-starvation took a lot of effort, and he mostly slept and ate when food was brought to him.

As he started to recover, he went to collect flowers to thank Solune for treating him. Unfortunately, he wasn't a trained Cleric and couldn't identify poisonous flowers! What's more, he had no clue there were *two* Solunes - Solune and her twin sister, Twyla! He was baffled when he approached a very confused Twyla and offered her the flowers, and was quickly berated by Solune for getting out of his nest and handling plants he didn't know. Twyla tried to apologize, but Mason felt it better to not talk to anyone else for the time being.

Eventually, though, he would grow stronger, and could meet wolves beyond the Hollow. He started to explore Mhor's territory, bumping into a rather unusual she-wolf named Aurith. At least she was friendly, though! She invited him to go with her to the beach; he'd never seen the ocean before. He also tried to thank Alderwen for helping him when he first stumbled across the borders, and offered the red-furred male an opossum he caught. Alderwen chided him for being out alone, and explained the scourge of the Hive that caused everyone to be on edge and not permit wolves to wander the territory solo. Mason realized then why everyone was so uptight, and thanked Alderwen again for saving him.

He did his best to settle into the pack, but often found himself awake at night, watching the moon. It was hard settling into a pack that was so on edge all the time. He tried to befriend his packmates, but there was a distance between them and himself that he couldn't quite seem to breach. He was bored by the strict rules of Mhor, the limitations placed on him and the bustling nature of his packmates. Aislin offered some advice, suggesting he try finding a task and feeling more at home in the pack. He would consider it.

The tranquility of his new life would soon be shattered, though, with a single announcement, a single word, from Archqueen Rowena. "**In less than a moon’s time, Chandor will be joining us with their strongest and fittest warriors."** *Chandor?* No, he couldn't - he couldn't face them, could he? His nightmares became more frequent.

He didn't have long to dwell. The Hive, perhaps anticipating this, or perhaps simply acting out of their own aggression, launched an attack as Chandor approached the territory with a war party. Mason heard that Archqueen Rowena and the alpha of Chandor were in the fray. His heart lurched. *The alpha of Chandor - Rowan, his father.* He couldn't save his mother, but he was determined to save Rowan. He rushed to battle.

Only...it wasn't Rowan. Instead, he watched as Nadia, his sister, killed one of the white beasts, and the two fixed eyes on each other. Mason could only manage to croak out the question of where Rowan was, and Nadia reported that he was not around anymore. Mason realized Rowan was dead, from those words, and he found himself spiraling. He turned his back on Nadia and ran.

He fled. He ran - from Nadia, from Chandor, from *Mhor.* He secluded himself while the world waged war around him. His father was dead. His mother was dead. It was *his fault.*

And thus, Mason the Mhorian became Mason the loner. He was traumatized, wrought with guilt, haunted by what little he had seen of the war and the horrors of realizing what had become of his family. While living as a loner, he had to come face-to-face with his feelings of guilt and shame. He took on the additional shame of destroying a bird's nest and crushing her egg while running through the woods. The bird, a dove, cursed him for killing her unborn, saying, over and over again, **"How could you?!"**

He imagined his packmates saying that. How could he have left them? Caused Aethelynda's death? Been so *selfish?* Unable to cope with the emotions, he fled the scene, leaving the mother bird behind.

After wandering for a few moons as a loner, coming to terms with himself and the choices he'd made, he tried to find directions to Chandor. While looking hopelessly for his pack, he found himself at the border of another pack: Xassa. He was face-to-face with an angry bison, and tried to persuade it not to hurt him: he would have been gored if a Xassan hadn't approached. This was Renae, one of Xassa's finest fighters. He thanked her for scaring the bison off, and asked to join Xassa, practically begging her to take him to the pack. Renae was dismissive, but he pled his case enough that she agreed to take him to see Cyrus Nineveh.

Grateful, Mason agreed, and followed her back to the Tell. He tried to introduce himself, but she wasn't interested in chatting. She didn't even want to tell him her name, but he ultimately learned it when a passing Mekhit shouted a "Hi, Renae!" as she passed by. Mason was quite bemused!

Ultimately, though he would join the pack, Mason remained an omega for the duration of his time there. He tried fitting in amongst the Xassans, but would leave Xassa after just a few moons, and hasn't been seen there, or anywhere in the Domain, ever since.

## Trivia

* Mason's mother Aethelynda died searching for him.

## Quotes

* "It *is* my fault! She went looking *for me!* How can it not be my fault!? You blame me, don't you? You do! Everyone will! How could they not? Because of me, she's *dead!"* (blaming himself for Aethelynda's death, to Gregor, *It's My Fault*)
* “I’ve been looking all over for you! I meant to thank you for what you did for me- for saving me, you know. And I know that I can’t really ever repay you, but you’re a heal- uh, cleric, right? So uh, I got you these - and maybe you could use them in your...cleric...stuff?” (offering flowers to Twyla, thinking her Solune, *The Bane*)
* “I know you don’t have any reason to let me [stay], but I have nowhere else to go and I just...I just want to belong somewhere.” (to Renae, *Facing the Bull*)

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* MatrixPotato's deviantART Gallery