Mason Evan McCoy, MD - Tess
Stats:
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Nature: Human
Occupation: Mason is a medical doctor, and board certified surgeon. He specializes in lycanthropes, but treats other preternaturals and humans with skill and compassion. He is a general practitioner and runs a clinic that has become a safe haven for lycanthropes and troubled kids.
Appearance: Mason is 5' 11" and sleekly muscled. He keeps his greying (brown) hair cut short, just a little longer than a military burr. His expression is often solemn, but the lines on his face show that he smiles quite often. When he does smile, his brown eyes light up and there's no doubt his expression is genuine.
He has an old, but noticeable scar on his left forearm. It looks like an animal bite scar. It is a bite scar, but the creature was no animal. Mason isn't ashamed or self-conscious about that scar. To him, it is an odd sort of treasured memento.
Personality: Mason is a peaceful man, whose deepest desire is to both live peace and spread it to others. Just because he has a serene nature, however, doesn't mean he is a pacifist. Mason is slow to anger, but when he is pushed to his limit, he will strike back. A strike that will be as powerful and ruthless as his patience was long. Among family and friends, Mason is a man prone to laughter, loving and intelligent. His career is his life, however, and while being one of the few doctors in a small rural hospital cuts severely into his social life, he made peace with that sacrifice years ago.
History: Mason is the only son of family that has had a long connection with the medical arts. There has been at least one Dr. McCoy in every generation, and many nurses and allied professionals. He was never pushed towards following in the footsteps of his ancestors, but the first book he carried around as a child learning to read was a first year anatomy textbook, so he does feel his future was rather preordained. He had a happy childhood in the upper middle class South. On graduating high school, he attended Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and served his residency there.
He became aware of shifters when he and his girlfriend took their relationship to a serious level. Meeting the parents was a rather more stressful experience, when he found out Cathy's dad could (and probably would) bite Mason's head off if he mistreated Daddy's little girl. Luckily, Mason behaved himself, mostly, Cathy was discreet, and Mason and Charlie eventually formed a close friendship that became truly parental after Mason decided he not only wanted to marry Cathy, but he wanted to also become fully part of the family in every way.
The night he proposed, Cathy got a diamond ring, and Mason got a dose of lycanthropy from his beloved's bite. Unfortunately, though the engagement was solid, he discovered on the next full moon that he was one of the 1% that are naturally immune to the virus. Mason was devastated, Cathy and her family were disappointed, but all of them knew that fur was a minor issue on the whole. The wedding went forward as planned.
After the honeymoon, Mason and Cathy moved into a home on the edge of her parents' rural property. They had a daughter and a son in quick succession, both of whom turned out to be Wolves. Sadly, when the children were in their mid-teens, Cathy went on a girls' weekend with her high school friends. It was their reunion, and the first time they'd all gotten together since graduation. One of them decided it would be fun to go out to the old abandoned quarry and go swimming, as they did when they were teens. Nobody considered how the recent drought might have lowered the water level, or what might have been dumped into the water in the intervening years. When Cathy dove in, she never came back up alive. She struck her head on illegally dumped demolition rubble, broke her neck, and died before her friends could pull her to the surface.
After her funeral, Mason devoted himself to his children, and to a refinement of his calling. He concentrated his efforts on unraveling the mysteries of the lycanthropy virus. Not as a search for a 'cure,' as he doesn't consider it is a disease, but as a way of easing the transformation process for those who are infected, and to more fully understand the people most considered mere myths or monsters.
Though he accepted Cathy's death as much as any bereaved husband could, after their children were off to college,Mason's life felt hollow and haunted, living in the empty home he'd shared with her and their children. He decided to take on a new challenge, as the Head Physician of a small, old-fashioned private hospital in an area of Georgia that was said to have more shifters per capita than anywhere else in the country: Stone Mountain.
Abilities: Mason has an almost intuitive grasp of what an ailing body needs to facilitate healing. He's also got a soothing bedside manner, and an ability to explain complicated issues in a way that's understandable, but not condescending. He's also a decent administrator, a skill he was forced to acquire after coming on board at Stone Mountain Hospital.
Weaknesses: Has a tendency to take people at their word, when he should really be more suspicious. He has to guard against this, to prevent pill-seekers and freeloaders from taking advantage of both him and the facility.
Mason has a very long fuse, but the downside is that when he blows, he blows high, wide and with a very big bang. He also has a hard time getting past his anger, and it takes sometimes a week or two before he's ready to make amends to the person who triggered his temper.
Quirks: Likes to chew gum when he's nervous, preferably green-apple bubblegum. And yes, he does blow bubbles when he's not with a patient or in the operating room.
Weapons: A quick wit and a soothing manner are Mason's preferred weapons, but when pushed to violence, he will use fists and anything else that comes to hand.
Family: An adult daughter, Cherie and son Charles, both married and living in upper New York state and Oregon, respectively. Mason has five grandchildren. The family can't get together often, but Skypes are a weekly thing, and Mason goes once a year to visit each set of grandchildren.
Charles and Judy Higdon, his in-laws.
John and Susan McCoy, his parents.
Vehicle: Mason drives an older SUV equipped as a first aide station.
Home: A small, two bedroom brick house in the far back corner of the hospital property, built for the hired hand when the hospital and property were a dairy farm in the early days of the 20th century.
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Nature: Human
Occupation: Mason is a medical doctor, and board certified surgeon. He specializes in lycanthropes, but treats other preternaturals and humans with skill and compassion. He is a general practitioner and runs a clinic that has become a safe haven for lycanthropes and troubled kids.
Appearance: Mason is 5' 11" and sleekly muscled. He keeps his greying (brown) hair cut short, just a little longer than a military burr. His expression is often solemn, but the lines on his face show that he smiles quite often. When he does smile, his brown eyes light up and there's no doubt his expression is genuine.
He has an old, but noticeable scar on his left forearm. It looks like an animal bite scar. It is a bite scar, but the creature was no animal. Mason isn't ashamed or self-conscious about that scar. To him, it is an odd sort of treasured memento.
Personality: Mason is a peaceful man, whose deepest desire is to both live peace and spread it to others. Just because he has a serene nature, however, doesn't mean he is a pacifist. Mason is slow to anger, but when he is pushed to his limit, he will strike back. A strike that will be as powerful and ruthless as his patience was long. Among family and friends, Mason is a man prone to laughter, loving and intelligent. His career is his life, however, and while being one of the few doctors in a small rural hospital cuts severely into his social life, he made peace with that sacrifice years ago.
History: Mason is the only son of family that has had a long connection with the medical arts. There has been at least one Dr. McCoy in every generation, and many nurses and allied professionals. He was never pushed towards following in the footsteps of his ancestors, but the first book he carried around as a child learning to read was a first year anatomy textbook, so he does feel his future was rather preordained. He had a happy childhood in the upper middle class South. On graduating high school, he attended Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and served his residency there.
He became aware of shifters when he and his girlfriend took their relationship to a serious level. Meeting the parents was a rather more stressful experience, when he found out Cathy's dad could (and probably would) bite Mason's head off if he mistreated Daddy's little girl. Luckily, Mason behaved himself, mostly, Cathy was discreet, and Mason and Charlie eventually formed a close friendship that became truly parental after Mason decided he not only wanted to marry Cathy, but he wanted to also become fully part of the family in every way.
The night he proposed, Cathy got a diamond ring, and Mason got a dose of lycanthropy from his beloved's bite. Unfortunately, though the engagement was solid, he discovered on the next full moon that he was one of the 1% that are naturally immune to the virus. Mason was devastated, Cathy and her family were disappointed, but all of them knew that fur was a minor issue on the whole. The wedding went forward as planned.
After the honeymoon, Mason and Cathy moved into a home on the edge of her parents' rural property. They had a daughter and a son in quick succession, both of whom turned out to be Wolves. Sadly, when the children were in their mid-teens, Cathy went on a girls' weekend with her high school friends. It was their reunion, and the first time they'd all gotten together since graduation. One of them decided it would be fun to go out to the old abandoned quarry and go swimming, as they did when they were teens. Nobody considered how the recent drought might have lowered the water level, or what might have been dumped into the water in the intervening years. When Cathy dove in, she never came back up alive. She struck her head on illegally dumped demolition rubble, broke her neck, and died before her friends could pull her to the surface.
After her funeral, Mason devoted himself to his children, and to a refinement of his calling. He concentrated his efforts on unraveling the mysteries of the lycanthropy virus. Not as a search for a 'cure,' as he doesn't consider it is a disease, but as a way of easing the transformation process for those who are infected, and to more fully understand the people most considered mere myths or monsters.
Though he accepted Cathy's death as much as any bereaved husband could, after their children were off to college,Mason's life felt hollow and haunted, living in the empty home he'd shared with her and their children. He decided to take on a new challenge, as the Head Physician of a small, old-fashioned private hospital in an area of Georgia that was said to have more shifters per capita than anywhere else in the country: Stone Mountain.
Abilities: Mason has an almost intuitive grasp of what an ailing body needs to facilitate healing. He's also got a soothing bedside manner, and an ability to explain complicated issues in a way that's understandable, but not condescending. He's also a decent administrator, a skill he was forced to acquire after coming on board at Stone Mountain Hospital.
Weaknesses: Has a tendency to take people at their word, when he should really be more suspicious. He has to guard against this, to prevent pill-seekers and freeloaders from taking advantage of both him and the facility.
Mason has a very long fuse, but the downside is that when he blows, he blows high, wide and with a very big bang. He also has a hard time getting past his anger, and it takes sometimes a week or two before he's ready to make amends to the person who triggered his temper.
Quirks: Likes to chew gum when he's nervous, preferably green-apple bubblegum. And yes, he does blow bubbles when he's not with a patient or in the operating room.
Weapons: A quick wit and a soothing manner are Mason's preferred weapons, but when pushed to violence, he will use fists and anything else that comes to hand.
Family: An adult daughter, Cherie and son Charles, both married and living in upper New York state and Oregon, respectively. Mason has five grandchildren. The family can't get together often, but Skypes are a weekly thing, and Mason goes once a year to visit each set of grandchildren.
Charles and Judy Higdon, his in-laws.
John and Susan McCoy, his parents.
Vehicle: Mason drives an older SUV equipped as a first aide station.
Home: A small, two bedroom brick house in the far back corner of the hospital property, built for the hired hand when the hospital and property were a dairy farm in the early days of the 20th century.