🔪 MASKY 🌹

CONTENT WARNING: Abuse, Mentioned Assault/Stalking, Implied Suicide/Suicide Idealation

Masky, as alluded to before, is incredibly charismatic. Masky’s tactical approach to social interactions is practically her most evident trait. The way she can charm or persuade basically anyone with a way of a few words is enviable, for sure. However, she is not manipulative with this ability. Masky’s main focus is on helping in some form, perhaps too much to her own detriment. She feels responsible to aid however she can, even to people she barely even knows. This intense need to rescue those in need stems partly from the guilt of her past. 

Masky’s track record hasn’t always been so clean, and she’s more than aware of that. Though she truly does have good intentions, it is evident they are only boosted by her need to make up for her wrongdoings in the past by being better in the present. Masky functions as not only the “leader”, but also as a guardian figure for most of the younger members of Masky Corp, especially for Bea and Eon. She feels she has to set a good example, and again, do better than what had been done to her growing up. And, more so, do better than what had happened to the person who used to be her best friend.

Masky’s past is…a rough one. Born into a First Generation Maskerettan village, her homelife was all focused around a sense of “unity”, as per tradition. Though Bea doesn’t remember much of their homelife, Masky however remembers it very vividly. As was common in their town, Masky and Bea’s family took the idea of unity as a way to silence any identity within their children. When Masky was a child, she was verbally reprimanded for not living up to her parents' desires, especially after she started exploring her identity as a young teenager. While Masky became more rebellious as she got older, no matter how hard she tried, she could never fight off the strict rules and pressures her family and town had on her. Masky always wanted to leave her hometown eventually, but after Bea was born, it became explicitly clear it was not only inevitable, but also necessary for either of them to survive.

So, a little after Masky’s 14th birthday, they decided to run away. Masky and Bea both decided to change their original birth names in order to avoid potential suspicion (something Masky had already been wanting to do anyways), then, after packing up what little they had once their parents had fallen asleep, they were gone.

However, this change wasn’t as easy as expected. Even at the start of their escape, Masky and Bea constantly ran into trouble. Considering Masky and Bea were still well, children, they didn’t have a lot of options for self-sustainability. Most good places wouldn’t legally risk hiring a young child with little to no heritage, so Masky found herself taking a lot of sketchy and even exploitative jobs in order just to keep them afloat. For a while, they lived in a tiny apartment near the edge of the city, with Masky barely trying to get by with the two jobs she had to take up for income. On top of all that, Masky and Bea still needed to get some sort of education, so Masky tried to admit Bea into a public school while she tried to do her studies online. Being forced to essentially be Bea’s parental figure was tough on Masky, who herself was already struggling immensely from the pressure on her shoulders. She wished for something, someone to come and make it all better. She wanted more than anything to finally have some stability, or at least something to be accomplished in. And unfortunately for her, she did get that wish.

One of the jobs Masky regularly worked at after escaping with Bea was being a cashier at a mattress store. However, one of those shifts changed her life forever in more ways than she could ever imagine. It was late at night, and Masky was stuck working alone. Masky was about to close for the night when a customer had finally walked into the store. A bit aggravated, she waited for the boy to make their purchase, however, out of the corner of Masky’s eye, she could notice he was trying to steal something. Sadly for the thief however, Masky wasn’t going to let them go without a fight. She was not letting herself get blamed for some random kids pick pocket. After she caught up with the boy, she demanded he return the money or else she’d call the police. The boy was frantic and panicked in Masky’s grasp, but quickly proposed a deal. The boy told Masky that if she let him go scot free, he would return the money and in fact, as repentance, help them gain funds of their own.

At first, Masky hesitated. Of course she desperately needed that money, that would be money for Bea’s education, for Bea’s clothes, for Bea’s food. But could she really trust a thief? She thought about it for a moment, then realized she couldn’t let such a chance go. Plus, the idea of having someone her age around for once wasn’t something she wanted to pass up on so easily. So, Masky went along with what this boy suddenly had offered her. She let him introduce her to all the sorts of “connections” she would need to finally get a proper start in this world.

That was the day Razz and Masky became friends.

As time progressed, Masky and Razz developed a very deep bond. Essentially becoming best friends (and literal partners in crime), the two climbed up their criminal organizations ranks together and found companionship in the process. They were both criminal informants, essentially more focused on relaying info and deals rather than carrying out violent crimes (though for Razz especially this began to change). They both often got into mischief together, such as the heinous Wrecking of Anastasia Belova’s car incident the two caused, and other assorted pranks around the place, and even a few small petty crimes here and there.

They were there for each other through and through, and nothing would change that. Despite the rose colored glasses they wore about the situation, though, as time passed, the requests from their criminal overlords started demanding more and more of the two…but they weren’t going to worry about that for now! They were doing what they had to do, and so what if they had a little fun? Isn’t that what life was about?

Obviously, Razz and Masky’s bond became so close it was impossible to keep Masky’s younger sister, Bea from knowing of his existence. Though Bea wanted to trust Masky that Razz was good, she couldn’t help but find herself feeling that something was incredibly wrong whenever he was around, especially as the two got closer and closer. And for that, she wasn’t wrong.

Razz and Masky’s bond was close, yes, but it was quickly torpedoing to an unhealthy state. Because of the fact Razz grew up with instability (and especially loneliness) and never really having a place to call home, and his lack of any other kids to really bond with, he began to latch onto Masky’s friendship hard. Masky was essentially the only thing grounding him in any sort of morality or compassion as things got more and more tense as they got higher in the ranks, but even that was wavering as Masky found herself giving into greed and wrath. 

As mentioned before, Masky herself began to change as she continued to work as a criminal informant. She started disappearing more often, talking less to Bea as her bosses (and Razz’s) demands grew more and more intense. Masky began putting on a mask (ha) of ignorance, turning a blind eye to the atrocities around her. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t care, it was more so she had been told there wasn’t a reason to. Her job did require doing some bad things sometimes, yes, but she was doing it for a good cause! Wasn’t she? She was told she was helping take down the worst contenders in the world. And besides, as long as she was getting paid, why should she complain? She was only doing what she had to, for her family, of course! That was the whole reason she started this in the first place. 

However, despite this attitude, when Masky began to rise in popularity, she let her ego start to get the best of her. She started to become reckless, doing much more dangerous and “out of line” things thinking she was invincible. The immense amount of pride she was gaining from essentially becoming untouchable was lending her in more danger. As time went on though, the fear and especially the guilt started to seep into her extravagant persona. Though she was trying to hide it, as time went on Masky started to realize things were only getting worse around her, especially with how Razz later develops.

Although Masky was slipping into darker patterns, she did have Bea to at least keep her from going completely off the rails. Bea’s support, although becoming limited, was enough to keep Masky aware of the real consequence and the real world around her. Razz however had nobody keeping him from slipping into complete depravity. And slip into depravity he did. Razz slowly started to become more and more immoral and absolutely indifferent to the horrors happening around him. His humanity started to leave him as he began viewing people as props more than living beings. The once mischievous, but well meaning boy out to fend for himself was slowly starting to die and was being replaced with a husk of who he used to be. Unfortunately for Masky though, she couldn’t keep up with this change until it was far, far too late.

Masky and Razz’s friendship became…turbulent to say the least. As Masky rose above Razz in popularity, he was often pitted against her, causing a form of jealousy to fester within him among other conflicting emotions. That and Razz’s new form lack of morals led to him becoming much more manipulative and vindictive, now lashing out at Masky and tearing into her whenever she seemed to tick him off in any capacity. Along with the new found anger, Masky also started to note the passive aggressive cold nature Razz began to develop as well. When he wasn’t lashing out, he was ignoring her for days on end, pretending as if she didn't exist, then coming back as if nothing had happened. Razz had also begun to exhibit incredibly violent outbursts, often destroying the things around him whenever he was dissatisfied (especially with himself).

Masky couldn’t come to terms with this troubling new onset of behavior, however. She was convinced that because Razz was her friend, because he cared about them, that he couldn’t hurt her. She convinced herself she was going crazy, Razz would never hurt her. Would he? She had to believe that he wouldn’t. However, it wouldn’t be Masky’s own doing that gave her the reality check of the situation at hand, but rather, it would be because of Bea.

Specifically, the fact Bea had found out about what Masky had been doing.

Masky had kept her criminal affairs a secret from Bea for ages, and after Bea found the money Masky had been collecting from her activities, well, let’s just say she had a lot of questions to ask. When Masky got home the day Bea had found Masky’s money, she was not merciful in interrogating her sister with questions. Masky was shocked, and initially tried to convince Bea it wasn’t what she thought and if she could just explain she would understand. Bea was obviously not having that though, not happy after essentially having this hidden under her nose for who knows how long. Eventually, Masky elaborated and explained everything to Bea.

Masky had already been conflicted morally for some time. After witnessing Razz’s fall, she couldn’t help but start to wonder her place, her real place in all of this. Masky started to look closer at what her bosses were really up to, and what she found really wasn’t pretty. The sudden truth of the matter was beginning to unravel around her, this wasn’t a game for her to win anymore, these were real lives she was inadvertently ruining by helping these people. She couldn’t stand to be a part of it any longer. It didn’t matter if she’d have to start from scratch, she wasn’t going to let herself end up like them, and she was going to do everything in her power to save Razz from that fate too. Bea finding out was the last straw in trying to get her to escape and gave her a chance to start a positive change in her life, and although she was happy to hear Masky’s want to change, she didn’t know if she could even trust Masky on her word for that anymore. Masky reassured her that by tomorrow, she would end things and start to fix everything she had done, she promised. Bea could only hope that she was telling the truth.

The next day, Masky already had acted off. A lot of her peers got suspicious when she showed up late, and especially when she immediately demanded to talk to her superiors. The way Masky framed it was that she would be gone for a while on “personal business” (with really, no plans to return), however most people began to catch on and rumors began to spread. Eventually, those rumors hit Razz who couldn’t help but take the resignation personally. Masky planned to confront him about it privately, but quickly found Razz had gotten to her before she expected.

Masky tried to explain her side of everything. She tried everything she could to convince Razz there was another way, that she knew better now, that they had to be better. They couldn’t let this continue anymore, Masky couldn’t sit back and let herself hurt anyone any longer. She had already done enough damage, she hoped Razz would understand and come with her…

But Razz was too far gone for that now. Having grown apathetic and uncaring in the face of actual monstrosities, he did not understand why Masky was "giving up" on what could be a breakout success. And much more evidently so, was outraged at her quickness to destroy the friendship that had been years in the making. Razz felt Masky owed him after essentially starting the path of all of these opportunities for her, yet here she was, throwing it all away. But wasn’t going to let himself get discarded anymore.

Razz and Masky got into a fight, an extremely heinous one, both physically and verbally. Though the graphic details aren’t needed (and also SPOILERS), it ended with the wound that later became the scar on the corner of Razz’s right eye, and the large heart shaped scar on Masky’s back, now a constant reminder of the separation between the two.

Masky was heavily injured from the fight (again, cite the giant heart shaped scar in her back) and basically came back in shambles emotionally and physically after it all had unfolded. Masky’s best friend had basically turned his back on her for people who could care less about his or the well being of others. The Razz Masky knew was long, long gone. Whoever he was now couldn’t even compare. And she only had herself to blame. She let him become like this, if she had only seen the signs, if she’d only done something sooner…


Guilt became a horrible burden for Masky. Not only did she have to deal with the guilt of letting her best friend lose himself, she also had the guilt of not only helping criminals potentially ruin lives, but also the guilt of worrying her sister and losing her trust completely. Though she had been given a chance to change…did she really deserve it? How could she fix what she had done? 

So, she did the only thing she could think of and started to work backwards. She began looking through and finding as many people as she could that were affected by the deals and information she passed. Not wanting to risk endangering those folks with what was essentially her blood money, Masky ended up taking out of her own pocket to try and pay back whatever she needed, even offering her own services to make up for whatever she could. It wasn’t perfect, she couldn’t fix it just by doing that, but it was better than doing nothing. Masky ended up burning all of her criminal earnings, she didn’t feel good hanging onto that money and it was a surefire way to get her past tormentors chasing her and Bea again, so she got rid of it. Masky was lucky her new name wasn’t on any records and that her old bosses were so quick to replace her with Razz, because otherwise she’d have a lot more trouble to deal with.

Masky tried to pick up her life again, trying to make amends wherever she could, whilst still trying to keep Bea and her afloat. The impact was tough though, admittedly. Masky couldn’t help but feel as if she was right back to where she started. All of that work she’d put in, completely gone to waste, all for nothing. She thought she wanted to support her and Bea, but now they were doing worse than they had before. Masky couldn’t go into certain parts of town for safety, and had to be hypervigilant at all times when out with Bea. Her existence had become, well, exhausting, constantly having to live on edge while pretending everything was fine and that she'd have it all figured out. Always making empty promises that it’s going to get “better”, but how on earth could she believe that when things had already gotten this bad?

Eventually, the horrendous guilt started to catch up to Masky. No amount of good work she’d do would be enough. She could attempt to repay, reimburse, even redo all of those soured lives over and over, but in the end her effect was clear. Masky started to fall into complete despair, how could she even call herself human for letting herself stoop so low? She was the reason Razz was ruined, that Bea was going to grow up without a real parent. 

All of this was her fault.

Masky walked into an alleyway in the shady side of town to smoke, expecting to get what was coming to her. She didn’t even care about the risk anymore. She knew it was irresponsible, but if all she was doing was ruining peoples lives, why should she care about her own? Bea would find a better home if she were gone, she would grow up happier with a better sister than her. Deep down, she hoped she’d see Razz there, maybe then he could tell her how much she ruined his life. Maybe then she’d get what she deserved. But that chance didn’t come to her. In fact…

As Masky sighed, looking up at the dark sky, she heard a young woman yell out for help. Masky was scared, and a bit hesitant at first, she didn’t know if she should run or if she should go check it out. But as the voices got louder and louder in the distance, and the figures got more clear, it became obvious the young lady was being robbed and physically assaulted. For a brief moment, Masky began to think.

She had spent her whole life running, spent her whole life making mistakes, being ignorant to everything horrible around her.

If she was going to die, she wanted to die doing something good for once. It wouldn’t make up for anything, but it’d at least mean something, wouldn’t it? She wanted to make things right.

So she ran ahead.

Using the knowledge she’d gained from previous combat, she kicked the aggressor in the ribs and helped the young woman escape as fast as she could. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she tried to carry her to safety. Masky and the woman stopped at a nearby bus station as it began to rain. Masky didn’t have much on her, but she used the few bandages she did have to patch up some of the lady's wounds.

She tried to make some small talk, trying to get some information on the situation. She couldn’t help it, in all honesty, it was a habit of hers to try and weasel all the details out of people. The lady explained to Masky that she had been stalked by that man for some time. Masky wasn’t surprised hearing that, sadly. As the two began to talk, Masky asked for the lady’s name.

“My name?” The lady responded. “Ah, I’m Kana. Kana Aikawa.”

“Kana Aikawa…” Masky chuckled. “It’s a pretty name…” She swore she’d heard that name before, but she wasn’t quite sure where. 

Kana thanked her briefly, before sitting to think.

“Something on your mind?” Masky asked.

Kana paused again. “Your reflexes, they’re quite good-”

Masky shrugged. “Well, you know, always gotta be prepared for the worst…” Masky continued tugging on the bandages, securing them around Kana’s arms. “You never know what type of crowd you’ll find out there, trust me.”

Kana placed her finger on her chin. “I suppose so…”

Masky tensed up for a moment. “Is there something wrong with it-?”

“No, no. It just made me think…” Kana looked to the side. “Would you by chance be interested in a job as a bodyguard?”

This was Masky’s chance.

“Huh…I mean it wouldn’t hurt to try.” Masky continued tending to Kana’s wounds. “Wouldn’t hurt to put my self-defense stuff to use.”

Kana laughed. “Well then, would you like to come to my home for dinner? Unless…you have other plans-”

Maksy got up. “No- no…dinner sounds great…” Masky smiled as she helped Kana up.

Kana looked at her for a moment before smiling herself. “Thank you, really.” She looked up at the night sky. “I don’t know what would’ve happened if you weren’t here tonight.”

That comment alone solidified this was the person Masky wanted to be.

If one small deed like that, even if risky, could better someone's life that much, maybe it was worth it. Maybe, the repentance she’d been looking for, was to help as many people as that she had hurt. Maybe she can’t fix everything, but she can make new, better futures for people if she tries. She had to try. 

This was her branch into her new life. This was what she had to do to change.

Suddenly, the stars shone a lot brighter that night.

When Masky arrived at Kana’s home, she noticed how…large her house was. Practically a mansion, when she arrived inside, the slow realization creeped up on her that the reason she recognized her name to begin with…was because she had seen her before. On a movie poster, no less. It turned out, Kana was an up and coming indie actor, and her family was trying to support her financially through her endeavors. Of course, with the potential rise to stardom, a lot of weird crowds are bound to come creeping in, so having a bodyguard to accompany and keep her safe made sense at the time.

So, Masky started to work as a bodyguard for Kana. The (finally) decent salary from it was enough for Masky to be able to quit her other jobs and generally start to be easier on herself. The new financial support allowed her to have more time with Bea, and the new lesson she had learned had given her hope to go on. Perhaps she wasn’t irredeemable after all, if she can help people like she helped Kana, maybe, just maybe, there was a chance.

And that’s what she started to do. A few months later when traveling down the street, she ran into another unemployed woman who was having trouble living up to her family name. Coincidentally also a bodyguard, Masky set her up with Kana as additional support. That woman, being Honey, eventually not only ended up becoming Kana’s main bodyguard, but also her girlfriend. 

Not long after that, Masky finally had enough money to move out of the awful city she had been essentially hiding in with Bea and were able to buy a place elsewhere. What used to be an abandoned hotel was renovated by Masky and Bea into not only their new home, but the official center of Masky’s new business affairs.

Masky didn’t know why, but for some reason she felt as if establishing a business for her services just made sense. If someone needed someone to keep watch? To guard a station? To negotiate a deal? She was their guy. It was also partly something she could actually build that she could be proud of. Plus, it was something Bea could be a part of too, no more secrets, she wasn’t letting that fly anymore. The name of her business…well…wasn’t the most original, but it was Bea’s idea, and she couldn’t help to turn it down. That day, “Masky Corp” officially began.

As time went on, Masky found herself running into groups of folks. A woman as hopeless as she used to be on a city rooftop became the lead of Masky Corp’s tech department. A bright scientist turned on by her best friend and her admittedly off-putting sister became the brain and brawn of the company. A demonkind boy who reminded her all too much of her old best friend and a maskerettan boy who’s upbringing mimicked her’s joined to be part of the creative department alongside Bea, it was nice for her to finally have some company her age. Even their lead medic joined after Masky saved their little brother from falling debris.

All of these people essentially owed their lives to Masky in a way. She became not only a friend, but a leader to all these people. Masky couldn’t let all this admiration get to her head again, though. She always had to drill it into everyone’s heads that she was just about the same as everyone else. To the adults, she told them stories of her past, talking about the fact she used to be associated with a bad crowd. She didn’t shy from the fact she wasn’t always the most pure of person, yet, somehow, people still didn’t turn away. 

Even with Uni, the only person who came expecting to see through her facade, found herself emphasizing with Masky’s struggles. Despite being the only member she could tell (even vaguely) about Razz, Uni didn’t run away. She had to believe that meant something, at least. She had to believe that meant she was making good choices. Her life was finally starting to look good for once in her life. Perhaps this city’s name meant “Change” for a reason. Maybe she had made something right after all. Change doesn’t stop coming however. And that was especially proven when Masky was met with her hardest challenge yet.

One day, after some bickering from the younger members, Masky sent in Yuni to deal with the matter. When she returned however, their soon to be newest member was right in front of their eyes. A boy whose origins were about as peculiar as his species. The boy with a blue monitor, white cat ears and tail. The boy who Masky couldn’t help but see bits of every person she loved in.

The boy, Eon Break, changed Masky Corp forever.

Masky always liked to mark how she met each member of Masky Corp with a certain event or emotion she was feeling at the time. A pretentious gesture, maybe, but a sentimental one as well. Pan had been hopelessness, like she felt after leaving her criminal life, Yuni had been betrayal, like how she felt after being abandoned by Razz.

When Masky met Eon for the first time, it became clear in an instant what he represented.

Meeting Eon, to her, represented change. The change she had finally wanted to have after so long.

Maybe she was stupid for thinking that, but she couldn’t care less. From here onwards, it had to get better. And if it didn’t? She’d know how to pick herself back up. She’d gone through this much.

She still had flaws, problems, and plenty of issues to sort out. But for now, change was coming.

And for once, she couldn’t wait for it.