Jesse Marshall

Orphans of Infamy

**Jesse Marshall**, known more famously as **Belvidere** is a veteran as well as a former member of Exodus. He betrayed them to join the Orphans of Infamy after learning that he and many of his friends within the organization were considered 'disposable assets'. His powers of teleportation allow him to control the battlefield, and to turn enemy's attacks back at them.

## Appearance

Jesse Marshall is a somewhat tall and lanky fellow, and while only in his early 30s the deep-set lines in his face and grey in his hair tell a story of a life filled with strife and struggle. Traditional American tattoos cover his entire body, the most noteworthy of which is a massive eagle that stretches from shoulder to shoulder, a banner coiled in its talons reads "23RD ANCHORAGE ANTI-MEMORIAL DIVISION". The left half of his face is a scarred ruin, marking his betrayal of Exodus. Two of his incisors are left exposed by the scar, which coils along his cheek and ends in the empty socket where his eye once lay.

His hair is a dark orange, heavily veined with grey. Usually kept to around shoulder length, Jesse keeps it in a ponytail and out of the way most times. A strong chevron moustache rounds out the look, and combined with his scars makes Belvidere appear like some vengeful ghost of the west. While out of combat Jesse wears a beaten gray gambler hat with his US dog tags wrapped around it. His most common attire for shoes is a pair of kangaroo leather cowboy boots given to him by his ex-wife, the exotic skin having worn the test of time well. To round out his non-combat apparel, an oilskin jacket usually covers a black embroidered dress shirt bedecked in delicate rattlesnake patterns.

## Personality

If nothing else, Jesse's personality can best be described as colorful. While a selfish and deeply flawed man, he shows a fierce loyalty to his comrades in arms and will put his life on the line to save theirs. Jesse revels in the thrill of combat, an addiction found in Alaska that has stuck with him to the present day. As somewhat of an adrenaline junky he favors risky plays and last minute strategies. His language is a beautiful range of aggressively western slang, all capped off with a Texan accent that makes Jesse come across as an actor fallen out of some 1960s cowboy film.

Morals fade in times of war, and more often than not they don't return, with Belvidere being no exception. In Alaska he came to learn that good and evil by humanity's definition is an inherently flawed thing, and in the years following his dishonorable discharge he came to develop his own code of ethics. If it means aiding or avenging his fellow soldier he will do it without question, and ponder the morals later in nightmare-infused bouts of fitful sleep. Somewhat easily spited, Jesse is quick to jump to blows in spite of having the charisma to avoid them in most circumstances.

## Background

Born to a homeless couple on the streets of San Antonio, Jesse was traded as a baby to the owner of Down & Out Ink (one Mr. Anton Dunbar) for a few baggies of cocaine. The artist felt that he was doing the child a favor, rescuing him from the hands of addicts that would only led him down a dark path in life. Jesse would spend the next decade of his life under the roof of Mr. Dunbar, believing the man to be his genuine father. During these years he'd spend much of his time working his way through the old man's collection of western novels and films, developing a deep obsession with cowboy culture.

At the age of 12 Jesse's powers would surface, his usual game of Cowboys & Indians suddenly interrupted when his finger guns fired off a bolt of energy into one of his friends. The child was teleported several dozen feet into the air and broke most of his bones, only barely surviving. This event would lead to Marshall being ostracized and heavily bullied in his neighborhood, as Supers were (and still are) well-hated within San Antonio. At school he would often get into fights and regularly be suspended, and spent most of his free time practicing with his new powers.

By the time he was 14, Jesse had become quite proficient with his abilities and regularly engaged in petty acts of crime. Having learned that Anton Dunbar was not his actual father, he felt utterly alone and abandoned in the world and sought out friendship where he could. He began courting a local gang of Supers lead by one 'Mulligan Brown', an old right-wing extremist more obsessed with the idea of the old west than even Jesse Marshall. Committing a string of arson and vandalism, he was issued the task of killing a '*Belvidere*'. In old west slang, a Belvidere is a handsome smooth-talker, but to M. Brown and his crew of down-and-outs, it meant any independent super-criminal on their turf.