two nights in a row!
I got the Marcus backstory all typed up. Go me \o/ 923 words of where Marcus the white knight comes from.
Marcus, big guy, 6' 3”, buff but not bulky. Dark enough that his tattoos just show against his skin. Works in a shelter in one of the rougher parts of the city. Loves his job, even on the bad days.
He grew up in the projects, never knew his father and his mother had far better things to do than raise him after he stopped being a cute little baby to garner sympathy and attention and he could fend for himself. He tries to remember if he was upset when she died, but he really doesn't remember her at all.
Mostly it was the gang that raised him. As negligent as it was in retrospect, there was always some girl who wanted to play mama or just felt softhearted enough to look out for the little ones in their little corner of city housing. As he got bigger he started working for the gang, there was always need for a look out and if you were good enough and kept your mouth shut you could end up a runner and that brought in a little cash.
At 13 he was one of the ones softhearted enough to look after the little kids running round with no parents to care what they were up to. That all changed when he'd seen that spic banger shoot Jimmy right in the face. Once the cops got a hold of him child services got involved and damned if they hadn't tracked down an actual relative.
Gert lived on an honest to gods working farm about three hours from the city. She told him straight out she wasn't looking for a kid and he'd better pull his own weight. Only thing that kept him there at first was the fact he couldn't figure out a way back to the city and she hid the telephone cords so he couldn't make a single damn call. She came off like a hard ass, but she was there for him when he woke up from nightmares and when he was finally ready to talk she listened, really listened to him.
Eight months in, she made him go to school. He could barely read and if it weren't for Coach he's sure school wouldn't have done a damn thing for him. Total cliché he knows, but sports helped save him. That and figuring out boys were what did it for him.
And again he had Gert to thank. She'd found his porn and all she'd said was use condoms. Never treated him any different, and when he did get up the nerve to ask the school's only male cheerleader out on a date she let him use the car. The sports star always dates a cheerleader you know.
Gert may have been accepting, but the rest of the school hadn't been quite as much. Good thing he knew how to fight and how to fight dirty, although when the trips to the principals office started to threaten his place on the team he wised up in a hurry. He knew he wasn't getting anywhere without an education and sports was his way to at lest a Junior College.
He took to hiding out in the library, the domain of Mr. Fredricks, where no student dared put a foot out of place on pain of being banned. Like actually banned and the other teachers supported it. Without access to the library you had no access to the school computers and there went your access to the internet not to mention the access to the library research materials. And if you lived out on a farm, like most of the kids, you had no internet at home so the school library was it.
Needless to say, the library was a sanctuary. Marcus always figured it was because Mr. Fredricks was gay and it was his way of keeping the nasty redneck homophobia in check. He never could figure out for sure, but Mr. Fredricks did encourage him to ask Martin out.
He spent so much time there Mr. Fredricks put him to work, and when the teacher discovered Marcus had trouble reading, he tutored him. Learning to read properly was like opening a door for Marcus. It turned out he loved to learn. Loved to know the what and why of things. His grades were never spectacular, but his curiosity knew no bounds.
He graduated smack in the middle of his class, which he figured was a damn sight better than if he'd never seen poor Jimmy get shot. Hell, he'd probably been shot by now himself. Gert surprised the hell out of him by offering to adopt him as his graduation present. He accepted without a thought. For a woman who wasn't looking to have any kids, she'd done a fabulous job being there for him over the years.
He did manage to get into the local community college. He wanted to give other people some of what Gert had given him. Help them turn their lives around, be an ear to listen to all their troubles and bullshit. He majored in social work with an emphasis on trauma. It was hard work, but he loved it.
Using the schools placement center he managed to get a position in a shelter in the very neighborhood he'd left ten years before. Nothing but the faces had changed in all that time.
He settled into a routine that carried on for two years when he helped out a skinny white boy and another door opened.
And that's that. I have one other little piece that I might work in someplace, but this is now all I have of Marcus and Joe.
This entry was originally posted at http://ranua.dreamwidth.org/176699.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Marcus, big guy, 6' 3”, buff but not bulky. Dark enough that his tattoos just show against his skin. Works in a shelter in one of the rougher parts of the city. Loves his job, even on the bad days.
He grew up in the projects, never knew his father and his mother had far better things to do than raise him after he stopped being a cute little baby to garner sympathy and attention and he could fend for himself. He tries to remember if he was upset when she died, but he really doesn't remember her at all.
Mostly it was the gang that raised him. As negligent as it was in retrospect, there was always some girl who wanted to play mama or just felt softhearted enough to look out for the little ones in their little corner of city housing. As he got bigger he started working for the gang, there was always need for a look out and if you were good enough and kept your mouth shut you could end up a runner and that brought in a little cash.
At 13 he was one of the ones softhearted enough to look after the little kids running round with no parents to care what they were up to. That all changed when he'd seen that spic banger shoot Jimmy right in the face. Once the cops got a hold of him child services got involved and damned if they hadn't tracked down an actual relative.
Gert lived on an honest to gods working farm about three hours from the city. She told him straight out she wasn't looking for a kid and he'd better pull his own weight. Only thing that kept him there at first was the fact he couldn't figure out a way back to the city and she hid the telephone cords so he couldn't make a single damn call. She came off like a hard ass, but she was there for him when he woke up from nightmares and when he was finally ready to talk she listened, really listened to him.
Eight months in, she made him go to school. He could barely read and if it weren't for Coach he's sure school wouldn't have done a damn thing for him. Total cliché he knows, but sports helped save him. That and figuring out boys were what did it for him.
And again he had Gert to thank. She'd found his porn and all she'd said was use condoms. Never treated him any different, and when he did get up the nerve to ask the school's only male cheerleader out on a date she let him use the car. The sports star always dates a cheerleader you know.
Gert may have been accepting, but the rest of the school hadn't been quite as much. Good thing he knew how to fight and how to fight dirty, although when the trips to the principals office started to threaten his place on the team he wised up in a hurry. He knew he wasn't getting anywhere without an education and sports was his way to at lest a Junior College.
He took to hiding out in the library, the domain of Mr. Fredricks, where no student dared put a foot out of place on pain of being banned. Like actually banned and the other teachers supported it. Without access to the library you had no access to the school computers and there went your access to the internet not to mention the access to the library research materials. And if you lived out on a farm, like most of the kids, you had no internet at home so the school library was it.
Needless to say, the library was a sanctuary. Marcus always figured it was because Mr. Fredricks was gay and it was his way of keeping the nasty redneck homophobia in check. He never could figure out for sure, but Mr. Fredricks did encourage him to ask Martin out.
He spent so much time there Mr. Fredricks put him to work, and when the teacher discovered Marcus had trouble reading, he tutored him. Learning to read properly was like opening a door for Marcus. It turned out he loved to learn. Loved to know the what and why of things. His grades were never spectacular, but his curiosity knew no bounds.
He graduated smack in the middle of his class, which he figured was a damn sight better than if he'd never seen poor Jimmy get shot. Hell, he'd probably been shot by now himself. Gert surprised the hell out of him by offering to adopt him as his graduation present. He accepted without a thought. For a woman who wasn't looking to have any kids, she'd done a fabulous job being there for him over the years.
He did manage to get into the local community college. He wanted to give other people some of what Gert had given him. Help them turn their lives around, be an ear to listen to all their troubles and bullshit. He majored in social work with an emphasis on trauma. It was hard work, but he loved it.
Using the schools placement center he managed to get a position in a shelter in the very neighborhood he'd left ten years before. Nothing but the faces had changed in all that time.
He settled into a routine that carried on for two years when he helped out a skinny white boy and another door opened.
And that's that. I have one other little piece that I might work in someplace, but this is now all I have of Marcus and Joe.
This entry was originally posted at http://ranua.dreamwidth.org/176699.html. Please comment there using OpenID.