Markell Lafayette

Markell Lafayette is a seventeen year old Etruscan Demigod son of Turan and Leonardo Lafayette. He came to camp at fourteen years old

## Basic Stuff

### Alias

Mark, Turan, Lover Boy, Markie, French Boy

### Residence

Camp Olympia (Currently)Strasbourg, France (Formerly)

## Family

### Biological Family

* Turan (Mother)
* Leonardo (Father)
* Max Palacios-Balcazar, Angelica Charity, Damon Argos (Greek half-siblings)
* Primrose White and Vanessa Palacios-Balcazar (Roman Half-siblings)
* Malcolm Bellerose (Aztec half-brother)
* Luciana Madrigal (Mayan half-sister)

## Appearance

### Outfit

* Normally pink/pastel colors
* Pink and white striped
* Blue jeans
* Pink and gray sneakers

**TW: Mentions of suicide**

## History

### Early Life

Markell Lafayette was born to Turan, Goddess of beauty, love, desire, passion, sexuality, pleasure, and fertility and Leonardo Lafayette on May 4, 2004 in Strasbourg, France. Leonardo Lafayette was a man that many people called a womanizer. He never wanted to settle, nor ever found a reason to do so. He was an acclaimed French fashion model who traveled the world, took many women to bed with him, and in the morning, he’d be on a plane flying to another fashion show halfway across the world. No woman ever stood out to him, he had seen Italians, Polish, Americans, Russians, French, but none of them ever stuck out to him as much as when he landed in Greece for a photo shoot. She said her name was Taylor. She was gorgeous, her radiance created some sort of magnetism that Leonardo couldn’t get out of his head. Her beauty was unmatched by any woman that he had ever seen. Beautiful brown locks, crystal blue eyes that stared through his soul, leaving him absolutely speechless. He had stopped her after finishing the photo shoot, rushing after her in the streets, stopping her and asking her if she felt any desire to grab a drink with him. Luckily for Leonardo, she accepted.

One thing led to another, Leonardo woke up in a hotel room alone. This was something he had never experienced, he was usually the one to do this. While he couldn’t get this woman’s face out of his head, he had deemed her a waste of time as she felt the need to leave him. No one left Leonardo Lafayette. Except for the mysterious woman he found on the streets of Greece. Leonardo continued with his modeling career, stopping in France for fashion week. He was staying in a brilliantly expensive French hotel, a hotel situated dead center in Strasbourg, overlooking the beauties of the women who walked around the streets. The night prior to the beginning of fashion week, Leonardo had been preparing to go out for the night, hopefully finding a woman at a club to take back to his lavish hotel room. That all changed when a dainty knock graced his hotel door. Leonarfo had thought it to be some sort of housekeeper and had shooed them away. Another knock at the door, this time just slightly more forceful. He ignored it once more, up until the knock pounded and the whole room seemingly shook. He turned and stormed towards the door, preparing to criticize whoever was knocking with the wrath only an the French would understand. He swung the door open and was greeted with nothing but a basket. A basket holding a baby boy.

Leonardo didn't want anything to do with the child. He was in his prime, why would he want to take care of some sort of irritating newborn. He closed the door on the child, and he must’ve done it rather hard as the child began crying. It wasn’t just a gentle cry, the child began sobbing. Even though he would rather be partying and getting drunk and waking up in the morning with no recollection of the night prior, he took the child into the room. He cradled the child, the same way he had once cradled his baby brother when he was newly born. It brought a weird feeling of nostalgia back into Leonardo's mind when life was simpler. When his life wasn’t plagued with drugs, alcohol, airplanes, fittings, and dozens of things he simply couldn’t even remember. Taking the child from the basket revealed a letter, a letter from the Greek woman who Leonardo had believed to be Taylor. However, her name wasn’t Taylor, and she wasn’t some simple Greek woman he had the chance to sleep with. Her name was Turan, and she was a goddess. She would never see the child again, but she wasn’t going to leave him on the streets, and she wanted to give him to Leonardo. Even though Leonardo wanted absolutely nothing to do with the child, he had an obligation. He was obliged to raise this child, for the simple reason as there was no one else who could. Leonardo knew what it was like to live without a reliable father figure, and he needed to clean himself up if he wanted to assure his son lived a good life. With the money that Leonardo had made, he bought a rather expensive loft in France. He needed to give himself a good life, but needed to make sure his Markell lived a good life as well.

### Childhood

In the loft in France, Markell grew up a normal life. Leonardo continued his modeling and fashion career, but stayed situated in surrounding areas and no longer wanted to travel the world. The letter that was from Turan revealed everything. However, it didn’t reveal the purpose of the small diamond necklace that laid trapped between the blankets of the basket. Was it a gift from her? Was it an accident? He had no idea, but he had assumed it was a gift to Markell, and had gifted it to him on his first birthday, and told him never to take it off. Markell, watching his father’s passion, grew a keen eye to fashion growing up. Not just fashion, but the concept of beauty. The idea of modeling, the idea of looking great from all angles. It was something that plagued Markell's everyday life. Markell had been gifted with his father’s looks, but also his mother’s. Even as a young child, people always complimented Markell's looks. Older women, agencies that worked with Leonardo, everyone was fascinated with the aura that Markell gave off.

Leonardo enlisted Markell in an esteemed all-boys private school in France, which was both expensive, and highly regarded. Leonardo wanted Markell to garner a good education. However, what seemed like a great life from the outside-looking-in was far from that. Leonardo was hiding a liver cancer diagnosis from everyone. The over-abundance of alcohol drinking had gotten to Leonardo, and he didn’t know how much longer he had left. No piece of him wanted his son to see him like this, nor did he want the world to see him wither and decay from the man he once was. While Leonardo was struggling with a hidden disease, Markell was dealing with bullying. Bullying from his fellow classmates as Markell began to discover his inner feelings. Slurs that Markell had never even experienced were being thrown at him, some making fun of his looks, others being his sexuality. Markell experienced this bullying up until the 8th grade until the biggest moment of an unnatural life happened.

### First Monster Attack

Markell was walking home from school, wiping a tear as it dripped from his eye as the snow began falling from the sky. It was cold, he was wearing a thin jacket over his uniform. He heard snickering behind him and had assumed it was the boys who had teased him earlier in the day. He couldn’t bother to listen and took a quick shortcut down an alleyway to escape from them. This would later prove to be a bad idea. He continued walking down an intricate series of alleyways, each seemingly getting him deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of garbage-smelling, dark, and quiet brick walls. He was getting lost, and getting nervous. He looked towards the snowy gray sky and saw a creature dart across the rooftops. He had assumed it was a pigeon due to the quick flight but wasn’t too sure. He continued walking and saw the creature again. Slightly larger than a pigeon, but still small. It had seemed like it was following him though, which gave him a weird sense of uneasiness. He walked a little faster and could hear the clattering of wings above him, seemingly going at the same speed he was. He began running, and suddenly heard a swoop of wings behind him. He turned to see a large bird come racing towards him. He ducked, the bird’s claws snagging on to his backpack and ripping the whole thing open, causing papers and folders to go flying everywhere. He was absolutely terrified and went sprinting back in the direction he came from, the bird following him. He was getting out of breath and had taken a wrong turn along the way, leading him into a dead-end of a fire escape, a garbage can, and three brick walls. He jumped onto the ladder of the fire escape and began climbing as fast as he could, the bird constantly dive-bombing at him.

Markell couldn’t go anywhere else. If he continued to climb the fire escape, he was simply going to end up on the top floor. There was nowhere to go once he got there. He sat against the iron staircase, tears streaming down his face. He clutched the necklace, and he could hear the bird come swooping down once again. Suddenly, the necklace in his hands became much larger and a large squak filled the air. He opened his eyes to see the bird, a Stymphalian bird, impaled on the edge of a bronze Misericorde dagger. The bird tried clawing at Markell once more, but it eventually dissipated into a cloud of dust and disappeared. The dagger transformed back into the necklace in his hands. He scrambled down the fire escape and ran back towards his home, not even bothering with grabbing the now shredded backpack he left in the alleyway. Elio was too scared to admit to his father what had happened and had confessed to himself that his father probably wouldn’t believe the story, and would’ve pushed it off as some sort of childhood fantastical imagination. He kept that secret hidden for many years, continued to attend school, continued to not worry about the constant bullying, and had no idea what was going on in his father’s life.

Leonardo was dying. Plain and simple, and he did not have much time left. Yet, he still did not want to confess this to his son. This concept of dying frightened him, he couldn’t imagine how much it was going to frighten his young son. He just couldn’t admit to his son what was going on, he just couldn’t. Yet, his son was harboring many other secrets. He was bisexual. He had been attacked by a Greek mythological bird. His necklace was also a dagger. What else could be stranger than THAT? However, he just had to continue on his usual schedule. Be the son that was the good one. Don’t cause any issues. Don’t bring things up to Dad that he’s not going to understand. Don’t be deemed crazy by talking about ancient birds and transforming necklaces. He could keep all that hidden. He could keep these secrets. However, he just couldn’t when it happened again. Walking home from school on his fifteenth birthday, he decided to take a detour. Enjoy a walk through Times Square, enjoy the nice weather outside. That was until he heard a sniffing and a deep growling rasp. It wasn’t human. It wasn't an animal. It was beastly. He looked and saw a set of piercing red eyes staring at him through the legs of passersby.

Markell began sprinting. He didn’t stop, and he could hear the pounding steps of the hound behind him. Gaining on him, closer and closer. He continued sprinting, not even knowing where he was going, but knowing he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop running or he was going to end up in this beast’s stomach. The steps behind him never seemed to cease, and he broke away from the seemingly endless crowd, as to where his arm was snagged by a tan-skinned man with locks of curly hair. The man claimed to be a satyr, and to what had been going on in Markell's life, he didn’t seem to doubt it. The man showed him a hoof for proof, and Markell was sold. There wasn’t much else he could doubt anymore, so why now. The satyr told Markell that it was a hell hound chasing after Markell after smelling him, and soon enough, it would catch up. Markell prepared and broke away into a back alley, waiting for the creature to arrive. Once it did, Markell was terrified. This beast could kill Markell easily with a simple scratch or bite. Markell climbed on top of a dumpster, as the beast pounced, Markell snatched his necklace off, transforming it into his celestial bronze Misericorde dagger. The beast’s jaws opened, and in what seemed like slow motion, Markell took his dagger and shoved it deep into the stomach of the beast. It whimpered like a dying dog, and though injured, was ready to attack once more. Markell ducked out of the way, jumped off the dumpster, and as the beast prepared to strike again, Markell stuck his dagger and shoved it right between the hound’s eyes, finishing it off for good. The satyr introduced himself as Davis and told him that he needed to go to camp, unless he wanted to be attacked by more and more oncoming waves of creatures out for his blood.

### The Death of His father

Markell was dumbfounded by this idea of camp. What camp? Where? Davis said that his father would most likely know more about it, and that he needed to get home, grab his belongings and get on the road. Markell raced home with Davis at his side, getting to the loft as soon as possible. Running through the streets, rain began to pour. Stormy clouds took over the sky of France. Markell raced to the loft doors, burst open the door and to his utter shock, couldn’t believe what the inside of the loft revealed. His father hanging. A dining room chair kicked out from underneath his feet slammed against the hardwood floors. At his feet, a letter. Two letters. One written from the mother he had never met, the other from his father. He erupted into tears, Davis tried helping, but Markell was so distraught. The letter from his mother was the letter that he had written to his father many years ago. The one from his father revealed his Stage 4 liver cancer diagnosis, and the fact that even though his expertise as a father might’ve not been the best, he wanted Markell to know that his love for him was relentless and never-ending. He never wanted Markell to see him suffer, nor did he want Markell to feel the burden of having to take care of him.

Through sobs, Markell packed his things up, while Davis took down the father’s body and wrapped him in the bedroom sheet. With nothing but a duffel bag to his name, he took off with Davis towards a mysterious camp he had never heard of, but a place Davis had acclaimed was a home for all sorts of kids like him. There was nothing. Markell had nothing. He had Davis and this promise of a camp. Regardless, where else could he go? No home, no family, no friends, it would be like nothing changed in the eyes of everyone in his life. The bullies would have one less target to worry about, which gave Markell some deep-down relief about the situation. Yet, an endless sorrow plagued him. It was an expedition to camp, flying from France to California. Four more hell hounds had attacked on the way to camp, the first time being around eight hours into the trek with two of the four. The second being less than thirty minutes away from the camp. With Davis’ help, they had managed to kill the beasts. Through Davis, Markell found some relief. Some sort of happiness despite the fact that everything was crumbling to the ground around him. Yet when Markell finally saw the campgrounds', the white tee-shirted teens, the beautiful cabins and with a single tear rolling down his cheek, he smiled.

## Personality

Markell isn't as much of a ladies man as one might commonly associate with Aphrodite children. Whilst, yes, it is true that he enjoys flirting with people, he is for the most part loyal and monogamous with a dislike of cheating. Although some just pin this down to him being a great guy, thinks it's more down to the fact that he saw his father and step-mother have a close relationship that caused him to have a desire to emulate it the best he could. Markell continues to break the stereotype mold further because, although looking and doing things like a stereotypical jock would do, Markell acts the opposite and is known to be rather sensitive and not have thick skin. Albeit most of the time Jayden is dismissive with his feelings, some things do hurt him deep down and subsequently he has been known to hold grudges and cut people out of his life should he find them toxic. Markell is also known to be chaotic and loud like most of his friends, but he means well most of the time. He's known to be both brave and impulsive, always willing to do anything for his friends and often leaps before he looks. He's also really nice and really kind and he is really fashionable, given his mother is the goddess of beauty herself. is a fun loving guy, with confidence, a giving nature, and a slight bit of jealousy. Now some people may see Russet and know him as only these traits, but if you took time to understand him he does have his own likes, dislikes, and a personality. He has confidence that never goes over his head. He makes sure his choices don't get influenced by his dad and the Royals (or as he says spoiled brats). He believes he makes all his choices without interference. He is actually currently avoiding his father all at once at the moment. He was very confident in his choice to be a Rebel and won't change it for anyone. He won't change his hair or style no matter how much you would beg him. However, he hopes his confidence doesn't stop him from changing wrong choices. This is possible because he is not the shading image of a perfect guy. In this case if he were to make a wrong choice he could be too stubborn to change his mind. He is a very exciting guy as well. He likes hanging with Frank with whom he does stunts and fun exciting things with. He goes out and does some crazy stunt, one of them gets injured or loses their voice from yelling: " EXTREEEEME!!!!" on a non stop narrative. He laughs then does it again and again ( this continues for a while). He normally goes to the dance floor and breaks dances to a bit of hip hop and parties for the night. He does this action secretly so he doesn't receive hate from it. Markell is a bit of a flirt but doesn't do it till it gets creepy. He actually does it briefly when you don't realize it till he walks away. He will only flirt with you at all if you aren't in a relationship, and he doesn't feel it would bother you. Now if you want to become a friend of Markell you must know the following: Markell HATES people who brag. Like deeply it is his worst pet peeve beside his father. Bragging is something he cannot stand because he really has nothing to brag about and if he did surely wouldn't do it. If bragging is something you do he would not like you very much at all. His life isn't perfect so he hates people who brag about their amazing ones. So he is unhappy when they do. Markell is also a gift giver. He gives gifts, all kinds, any gift you can imagine. Markell loves the look on peoples faces once they have one. The look of love, thankfulness, and heart. He never got to give this look. He didn't have anything so he gave everything. Now some people believe this action is stealing. But no, Markell has lots of money, however none of this was provided by his dad. It was provided from dancing. People pay him (though he says not to) as if he were a street performer and because he dances in front of the school he gets a lot. He gets jealous of people with good lives since his, well it sucks. He wishes he were better though, there's really nothing he can do about it. His jealousy makes him seem like a mean jealous guy so it's not a nice way to meet him. When someone is friendly and around Markell some try to make him jealous so the friend leaves. In this case it is hard to make friends in his position. Markell also gets bad grades, mostly Cs and Ds because he doesn't try very hard. He cannot understand things and his teachers don't exactly help. Markell's reason for having trouble understanding things is because he has dyslexia. People don't know why but suspect it had something to do with his father. His father was a good person, but Markell doesn't seem to talk out him much. So in his town of people they almost all believe the tragic accident was his fathers fathers fault. Markell is not a liar at all. He is a honest person, but is easily lied to. Tricked into doing something funny or wrong is something that happens to him. People take advantage of him being so gullible. His honesty is something some don't trust but he is a truthful guy. They think he lies but he truly doesn't.

### Fatal flaw

Markell's fatal flaw is Loyalty. He would do anything for his friends, even if meant death

## Appearance

Markell, as the son of the goddess of Beauty is described as a very handsome seventeen year old boy from France, and is noted to be bi-racial meaning he is half-black, half white. Markell has honey brown eyes, dark tanned skin, and short curly brown hair. Markell is often seen wearing a pink and white tee shirt, blue jeans, pink and gray sneakers

## Powers and Abilities

### Turan Kid Powers

* Because Turan is often depicted with wings, Markell can summon white dove wings to fly with
* He has the power of "charm speak", or the ability to make people do what he wants just by using his voice
* He can change his appearance at will
* He can also control makeup, clothes, perfume, jewelry, and other makeup products (hairbrushes, combs, curlers, straighteners, etc)
* He has the power of amokinesis or love manipulation
* He can communicate with doves and swans
* He can tell what a person's sexuality is, and has high social abilities and awareness
* When eating salads, he often hears a high-pitched noise; the sound of the lettuce screaming as it is eaten. He has this special connection because it’s his mother’s sacred plant.
* He can create a large plume of dense perfume or make-up which obscures them and begins to suffocate anyone else within it. This can give him a chance to attack.
* He has the ability to fire razor sharp scallop shells at high speed which can be shot fast enough that they could pierce the skin on impact. The shells would materialize and fire from his palms, so the size of them depends on him.
* He can cause people of any gender to lose all desire to attack him for a short time. Out of an artificial love, the love isn’t necessarily romantic and could be like sibling love. If he attacks while this is in effect, it will automatically wear off.
* He has the ability to entrap an enemy in a large scallop shell, similar to the one his mother emerged from at birth. Once closed, the clam is extremely difficult to escape from. It is highly durable and cannot be teleported out of, after a short time the clam will fade from existence. The target cannot be attacked while they are inside the clam, so the power is purely defensive. It can only be summoned twice in the same fight.
* He causes anyone who possesses a sexual orientation towards him to be at least slightly, attracted to him.
* He the ability to be able to resist charm speak, and charming touch etc. to an extent.
* He has the innate ability to be able to resist the effects of pheromones to an extent.
* He can alter his appearance (including clothes and make-up) for short periods of time, the more he alter shis appearance, and the longer he maintains the appearance, the more energy it drains.
* He can curse someone to feel like they're completely hated and unloved, they’ll feel like they’re ugly and will sink into self-pity for a short time. This gives him a chance to attack or flee.
* He can control the clothing of others, create and transform it at will (not armor). He can turn a girl’s prom dress into a red bikini, create a scarf around someone’s neck and command it to strangle someone etc. Commands and transformations only last for a short time and the target’s clothes revert to normal.
* He is powerful enough to transform an area into a maze of mirrors for a moderate period of time, as one of his mother’s attributes was a mirror. Whilst in the maze, his target can become disoriented and confused as all they can see is their own appearance, however, the glass is somewhat durable and cannot be broken easily. He can move about while the maze is in place, and the sight of his own beautiful reflection empowers him a little. He innately knows his way through the maze, as he created it, but he cannot change the layout of the maze once it is in place. The size of the maze depends on how large he would like it; he can range in size up to that of a battle arena, however, the larger it is the more the user is drained. After dismantling the maze, the user is significantly drained and may not be able to move for a moderate period of time.

### General Abilities

* ADHD: Like most demigods, he possesses inborn supernatural battle reflexes and senses that he uses to analyze the fighting style of his opponent.
* Dyslexia: His brain is "hard-wired" for reading Tyrsenian languages instead of mortal languages
* Marksmanship: Markell is skilled with using a shotgun as his main weapons
* Fighting skills: Markell is very good at fighting in battle
* Speed: Markell is very fast and is very good running
* Superhuman Durability: Being a demigod, Markell is more durable than a regular human
* Superhuman Strength: Being a demigod, Markell is stronger than the average mortal
* Superhuman Reflexes: Markell has incredible reflexes, which is proven throughout his life
* Superhuman Agility: Being a demigod, Markell has shown countless times his amazing agility

## Relationships

### Friends

#### Pollux Mulligan

Markell and Pollux are very good friends with each other. Both love to hang out with each other and sometimes Markell helps out with Pollux's creations. Markell also sticks up for Pollux whenever someone tells him to shut up

### Family

#### Turan (Mother)

Markell is pretty close with his mother, and he definitely loves her, but he does wish she was apart of his life more. He and his siblings do share a sense of embaressment whenever Turan/Aphrodite/Venus/Ixchel/Xōchiquetzal does something wrong or is flirting with people whenever they're there

#### Leonardo (Father)

Markell loved his father very much, but he wished his father was honest about his medical problems. He is slightly scared at seeing his father's hanging body from his old home...

## Etymology

Markell is a masculine name emboldened with surprising ferocity for its elegant sound. Emerging from the Latin name Marcus, Markell shares its meaning **"warlike"** in reference to the Roman god of war, Mars. Yet Mars was much more than a militant deity thirsty for battle.

Lafayette or La Fayette, is originally a surname or a toponym coming from the Occitan words la faieta and that designates **a beech forest.**

## Trivia

1. Markell's middle name is Milos, meaning **"lover of glory"**
2. He is a Taurus
3. Strangely, the name Turan is very similar to Taurus
4. He is Bisexual
5. He doesn't seem like his home country a lot
6. He is 5'7
7. He is the only known Aphrodite kid who can summon wings
8. He likes to ride horses