one cyrus cage, arc's father, was a major general in the republic army, and his father was a member of the babylon senate. their family line has been long and proliferate, with fingers in all aspects they could control and manipulate. at the age of 36, cyrus decided he needed a child, without the fuss of having to woo a bride. leanda tist, then only sixteen, was hand-chosen from a whorehouse in antillia and shuffled to babylon with the agreement that she would be given a proper life as long as she did what she was told and gave birth to the child cyrus so wanted.

two what cyrus didn't tell his child bride was that he wasn't leaving the matter of his child and successor to fate, or just simple biology. the moment a child was conceived, the genetic alterations began, ensuring that the son cyrus so wanted was going to be... superhuman. when the markers for neurogenics appeared, cyrus paid a great many people a great amount of people to keep arc off the registry - his son would be more use to him the more he was underestimated.

three born at the start of the year, arcturus cage was about as perfect as cyrus could have imagined. he was designed to be stronger, faster, more resilient, more intelligent than the mere human. he out-performed his peers consistently from the moment testing began, and cyrus cage was the proud father of a boy that was as close to an a.i. as a human could get. he wasn't schooled with regular children, cyrus telling the world that his son had been born sickly, unstable, and spent his childhood in the compound his father owned, far from the outskirts of the city. his days were filled with tutors and lessons, piling in his head everything from biochemistry to fencing, teaching him to pilot starships as well as sewing up his own clothes.

four what cyrus didn't take into consideration was he would not be able to control his son. arc knew early on that his father held no love for him, that his father wanted him only for what arc could bring to him. arc quietly learned everything he was taught, and more besides, with the help of one of his tutors. cassie lee had grown fond of the quiet little boy she was charged with teaching how to contorl his neurogenic powers to and had taken to telling him stories about life outside of his compound home, his planet. she left him with a tablet to access the world around him (strictly forbidden by his father) and when arc informed her of his plans to run away, she helped as much as she could.

five arc and cassie disappeared on the morning of his sixteenth birthday and were never found again. for all the connections cyrus cage had, he was always two steps behind the son he'd bought and made, underestimating exactly how intelligent his son was and how far he'd progressed.

six cassie west and her younger brother arc west boarded a ship in babylon and never looked back - arc using his superior intellect to pick up on the ins and outs of machinery. a good mechanic would get far, but an amazing mechanic could make his worn world, which is what arc set up to do. he kept quiet, slowly creating a reputation for himself as a good kid with a good head on his shoulders, magic fingers when it came into contact with the insides of a ship, who could keep to himself and didn't ask questions.

seven arc and cassie split up in antillia when she fell in love with a mercenary who promised to take good care of her. she was tired of hopping ships and never settling, while arc never felt comfortable in one place for too long. it was a sad but necessary goodbye, and not long after that arc actually found a crew aboard a ship he didn't mind sticking with.

eight arc joined the crew of the eidolon about six years ago, and he left his previous crew without much trouble. he couldn't explain why he felt he needed to move, but he did, and for all his brain smarts arc has never resisted his instincts. and so far so good - the eidolon has become a home for him in a way no other ship has, and he's content to putter and tinker about.

• offical background, if it were looked into: arc west, younger brother to cassila west. born on antillia to breen west and an undocumented mother. breen owned a mechanic shop, where arc learned most of his trade, until a fire burned down the shop and killed his father - after which arc and cassie decided to leave their home planet behind to seek their fortune elsewhere.

• as an unregistered neurogenic, arc's powers of control over his power is less then stellar. cassie, though a neurogenic herself, tried the best she could and he's done well for all that's considered, but arc has learned more to supress and hide than actual mastery of his powers. they tend to flare easily when his emotions are heightened (which is why arc's usual personality tends towards mild and "can't be bothered") and he suffers near constantly from migraines and headaches. it's also common for him to get light-headed, dizzy, and suffer nosebleeds when he handles anything much larger than the common tools he uses day to day.

• the results of being genetically altered: heightened senses (sight and hearing being the most advanced: he has perfect vision, and can hear up to about three times the distance a regular human could, with a comparable frequency range as a dog), improved stamina and endurance, and while not inhumanly strong he's stronger than people with comparable height and weight. he's also got superior intellect than most, being able to calculate and process faster than most people, which has him being very advanced when it comes to mathematics and science and relating fields. that said, he's not into literature or history and doesn't have much knowledge in the subjects because he hasn't seeked to learn about them. he also has what could be described as photography/eidetic memory and usually needs to learn or read through things once before he retains the information.

• here 9/30/2022

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