Marcus Lacroix

Paternal half siblings

Marcus Lacroix is an unregistered metahuman club owner and businessman, located in the city of Miami. Marcus possesses numerous connections to the criminal underworld, with contacts all over the country who he exchanges favors with, primarily through the use of his incredibly potent mind control abilities.

## Biography

Marcus Beaumont was born in Chicago in 2003, to a Canadian named Sebastien Beaumont, and his American wife, Emily. When he was five years old, his father went on a cigarette run, and never returned, leaving Marcus to be raised by his mother alone. When he was old enough to understand what had happened, Marcus had already developed a deep resentment of his father for abandoning him.

Growing up, Marcus was a witty and charming boy who made friends easily. Possessed of a mischievous streak, he often got himself into trouble playing pranks, but could almost always talk his way out of it, especially as he got older. With his father absent, his mother tried the best she could to curb her son’s bad habits, but to little avail. Even she was powerless before her son’s words, and she never found the punishments she laid down on him sticking for very long.

Though he was intelligent, Marcus also had the habit of being very work avoidant. He constantly avoided doing homework and skipped class in high school, preferring to go out and smoke dope, pick pockets, and shoplift with some of the more disreputable kids from school, as well as some of the adults. His original mischief had risen to full on petty crime. Still, Marcus picked up numerous valuable skills, from how to pick a pocket, hotwire a car, pick locks, and most importantly, be a masterful bullshitter.

The first manifestation of Marcus’s power came when he was fifteen. He was in the midst of an argument with one of his classmates, and Marcus told him to kiss his ass. To his shock, the boy attempted to plant lips to cheeks, and pursued Marcus relentlessly through the school hallways until he had completed his directives. Following that strange experience, Marcus noticed that more and more, whenever he said something that remotely sounded like a command or suggestion, someone would carry it out.

Naturally, it was not long before he began abusing this ability. It started with pranks. Making people faceplant on the ground, or drop their pants, or say rude things to teachers. Steadily, Marcus began to take things from people, making them give him money and drugs, let him drive their cars, and even using the ability to solicit sexual favors.

As a result of these actions, Marcus began spending more and more time away from school, and constantly came home late at night, causing his mother to become increasingly worried and frustrated with him. Things escalated when he came home at two in the morning on a Wednesday night, to find his mother waiting for him. An argument began, as Marcus tried to brush his mother off and go to bed. Eventually, he grew so frustrated with her that he told her to “Go jump off a fucking bridge.”

His mother let him sleep, and the next day, he was informed that she had killed herself by jumping off a bridge. Just as he had said.

Distraught, Marcus dropped out of school entirely. Not knowing what else to do, and fearful that he might be outed as a meta, he got on a boat to Canada, to search for his father. Whilst visiting the French speaking parts of the country in search of him, Marcus discovered the first of several limitations to his ability: The fact that people needed to comprehend his orders to be compelled by them.

Eventually, Marcus managed to track down his father Sebastien in Quebec, where he discovered that his father had started a new family, marrying another woman and having three children with her. Distraught and angry, Marcus demanded that his father explain himself. Upon being informed that Sebastien simply had thought himself unready to be a father, with his young son being too much a burden on him, Marcus was driven into a bitter fury. He commanded his father to walk out on his new family, just like he had with Marcus and his own mother. Furthermore, he told his half-siblings that their father was a lying, uncaring piece of shit, and that was all that they should remember about him. In this event, Marcus found his compulsive powers altered memories and opinions as well, not only allowing him to issue commands. One month later, he learned that Sebastien Beaumont had committed suicide.

The next two years Marcus spent testing the limits of his powers and his body. Consuming copious amounts of drugs, Marcus rigged card games, altered memories, got ahold of expensive cars, and made people hold ridiculous poses for hours on end. He was brash, careless, and hedonistic, not considering the consequences of what he did to people.

Marcus got sloppy in New York City, drunkenly invading a crime lord’s nightclub in Harlem, making the occupants party with him, then having sex with one of the club’s strippers in the bed in the boss’s penthouse. Though he fell asleep in that bed, he woke up tied to a chair, bound, and gagged, clad in nothing but underwear. The gangsters, not exactly sure about what had happened the previous evening, but still very angry, spent several minutes torturing him, breaking three of his fingers, and burning a cigarette butt on his chest, leaving a scar which he bears today. Unable to speak, Marcus was unable to free himself, until he was finally ungagged. Panicked, pained, and angry, he ordered the gangsters to free him, then forced them all to turn their guns on each other. All except for one, who he used to take him to a hospital. It was the first time Marcus had willfully used his gift to kill.

The entire event was a wake up call for him. What he had been doing was dangerous, stupid, and destructive. He was overweight, drunk or high more often than not, and had suffered from several STDs within the last few months. Fleeing New York, Marcus headed south. He ended up in Miami for a while, and though he continued partying, he had started to become much more careful about how he used his abilities. At one of the clubs he frequented, he met the grandson of a rich business tycoon. Finding him to be a complete prick, Marcus compelled him to introduce him to the rest of his family. Upon meeting his dying grandfather, Marcus forced him to cut the rest of his family out of his will, giving Marcus all their inheritance, before compelling the rest of the family to forget his existence, grant him their wealth, and thenceforth go live as monks and nuns. After some finangling with various financiers, and creating a new identity for himself under the surname Lacroix, Marcus got his new assets in order, and set about to begin his new life.

Over the next six years, Marcus straightened his lifestyle out. He bought himself a yacht, and a nightclub, which he named Le Déviant, a penthouse, and started collecting cars. Long having been a chubby drunk, he built himself a home gym, and got himself a personal trainer, and also began practicing martial arts and going to the shooting range, just in case his powers were somehow taken out of the equation and he needed to defend himself again. While he got involved in the local drug trade, mostly for the purpose of providing for his clientele, Marcus also began hiring language tutors, learning other languages as a hobby, and also just in case he ever encountered non-English speakers that he needed to control.

Steadily, Marcus began to build up connections, among businesses both legitimate and illegitimate. He used his power to perform favors for people, closing business deals, settling debts, and making partnerships. Among those indebted to him were several metahumans, many of whom he helped evade the authorities and has taken into his service. Marcus vaguely enjoyed using his gift for some sense of good, though most often the favors he performed had some measure of self interest involved. Having begun consuming a great deal of literature, Marcus encountered mention of Oberon, the king of the faeries. Like Oberon, people came to his court, asking for favors, and as such, he began using it as his alias.

## Physical Appearance

Marcus is a man in his mid twenties, standing at the average height of 5’9’’. As a result of many hours spent practicing martial arts, he is possessed of a lean and athletic physique. He has black hair, usually worn short, blue eyes, and rather attractive features.

## Personality

Marcus Lacroix comes off as suave, confident, and witty to those who first meet him. Very self assured due to his ability, Marcus knows that most often, he can always get his way in most every situation. Despite this, he prefers to not outright using his powers to get everything, enjoying the challenge of genuinely persuading people to get what he wants.

In conversation, Marcus is quite charming and well spoken, enjoying tossing all manner of witticisms into his speech. A fast thinker and fast talker, he is quite skilled at talking his way out of all manner of situations, taking it as a personal challenge to do so without simply compelling obedience.

While Marcus is a primarily self interested individual, always looking out for number one, performing favors for favors, but he is not entirely heartless, and occasionally does favors out of the goodness of his heart. Typically, this is only done for individuals who he is moved to pity.

## Powers

* Mind Compulsion: Marcus is possessed of an immensely potent form of psychic mind control. Any command he gives to anyone will be immediately carried out, no matter how drastic or opposed to it a subject might be. Marcus is able to make people do virtually anything with a word. Once an order has been given, a subject will not stop until they fulfill it, or until Marcus orders them to desist. Not only can he issue immediate commands, but Marcus can also issue orders which will not activate until certain conditions are met. In addition to commands, Marcus can also alter people’s moods, opinions, and memories, ordering them to forget events, telling them to remember things that have not happened, telling them that they are angry with someone or feeling horny. Any statement of fact that he makes will be taken as absolutely true, no matter how absurd, if it is phrased the right way. However, potent as these abilities are, they are not without limits. First and foremost, subjects must be able to hear Marcus’s voice, be it directly in person, or over the phone. Compulsions from him can only be issued in real time, and as such, recordings of his voice have no effect, though he can issue them through a speaker. Next, in order for his compulsions to take effect, the subject must be able to comprehend them. As such, if they do not speak the language the compulsions are issued in, there will be no effect. Marcus also cannot issue commands if he cannot speak, and anyone who cannot hear him will also be unaffected. Lastly, the effects of his compulsions are constantly active at all times. As such, Marcus must be extremely careful with any words he says, lest he accidentally issue compulsions to people.

## Skills

Marcus is skilled in many techniques common to low level criminals, and knows how to pick locks, hotwire cars, and pick pockets. He is also a very accomplished liar, and has potent persuasive skills, even without his powers. Due to his connections to businessmen and the criminal underworld, Marcus also possesses a strong understanding of finance, and is well familiar with various power brokers. Marcus is also a very competent driver, having been taking dangerous joyrides since he first discovered his powers.

Marcus is also multilingual, with learning languages being one of his favorite pastimes. In addition to his native English, he is also fluent in French, Spanish, Mandarin, and Russian. He also speaks passable Arabic, Japanese, German, and Swahili, and has basic skill in Italian, Hindi, Greek, and Korean.

Lastly, Marcus is also a proficient martial artist. He is highly skilled in Krav Maga and boxing, and is also well trained in Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu.

## Stats

**Threat Level:** Delta

**Mind Control:** Class 5 (Verbal)