Markus Ebony

Markus Ebony is a main character in RWBY SFR: Beacon Days and regularly appears in other SFR stories. He is a huntsman, trained at Beacon Academy nine years before the tragic Fall of Beacon. Markus first appeared in Chapter 1 of Beacon Days, "The Shining Beacon" (SFR Version), as a nervous young man arriving at Beacon Academy. After becoming friends with Randy Grigio, they entered the Beacon initiation, and he was partnered with popular bully Emilia Steele.

After leading the fight against a rare twin tail Deathstalker, Markus was made leader of Team MERZ, which consists of himself, Emilia Steele, Randy Grigio and Zena Kobicha Aster. He never wanted to be leader and let the stress eat away at him as the first year continued on.

Over the course of the first year, he would battle with his fears and doubts; reaching its eventual climax during the "Onus". During "Testament to Perseverance", he'd begin to better himself after he had advice given to him by Randy, leading into his eventual recovery from his severe anxiety.

His second year was the course correction he needed as he took the advice to heart; acting more open and forthcoming around not only his team, but his new friends. His biggest obstacle in the second year was overcoming his fears completely by standing up to Zachary Stone, his bully and rival, which all came to a head after Emilia broke up with him and became the subject of cruel pranks.

Markus stepped up to lead the team, although he wasn't a perfect leader, he learned it was important to understand his team and how they act so that they could work together better than ever before. Markus became a close friend to Emilia during the third year, when she sought his help in her effort to be better. Markus and the team would eventually graduate, and Markus would go on to occasionally work with them, although working more on his own.

## Background

Markus Ebony is the son of Auburn Ebony and a currently unnamed woman, born and raised on the small island of Patch. Markus grew up as a socially anxious boy and only had two close friends in his childhood, Esmira Dolion, and Sam Báihuā.

As Markus grew up, Auburn became overprotective after he nearly lost his own life to Grimm, placing more restrictions that further impacted the boys social anxiety. Slowly, a rift grew between them as Markus became more uncontrollable.

He went through trial and error, studying for the tests to apply for Beacon and eventually, after years of study at Signal, he got accepted. Markus, after years of following the instructions of his father, decided to go to the academy against his wishes; further tearing them apart as he went on to become the thing he always wanted to be...

A huntsman.

## RWBY SFR: Beacon Days

### Arrival at Beacon

After having left his father and childhood friends to attend Beacon, Markus felt more isolated and anxious than ever before; which had made his pre-existing social anxiety worse. He spent most of the trip to the academy looking out the window and taking in the sights, trying to avoid interaction for the most part.

After the ship landed, Markus decided to wait and take his time as people disembarked from the airship. When he went to leave, he was knocked over on accident by Zena Aster, but he managed to save himself from a face plant into the boarding ramp. Markus would shrug this off and continue about his business, taking in the beautiful grounds of the academy courtyard. He would eventually run into Emilia Steele and her group of friends, being bullied and mocked for his tattered coat he had taken from his father; although he would be saved by Randy Grigio on accident during a failed attempt to hit on the ladies.

Markus and Randy talk for a minute as Randy makes his need to flirt with the ladies very clear, but don't realize they're late for the assembly in the amphitheater. The two do make it in time for Ozpin to talk and get to hear most of the important things; although they did miss the start the speech. The new arrivals are all sent to the ballroom for the night, where they take time to meet and interact with one another; although Markus tends to stick to the far side with Randy as they discuss a little about themselves. Although Markus was nervous, he was glad to have found friend; but Randy did make him question why he wanted to do this job.

## Trivia

* Markus, by far, is the only known OC or character in the RWBY, or even the Non-Canon, Universe to have had more than one weapon. Markus formerly had dual tantos 'Razor Dawn', but they were destroyed during the 37th Biennial Vytal Tournament. He later forged another weapon out of their shattered remains.
	+ The reason for this is that the tanto idea has been one that has stuck since the very beginning, but when the concept of 'Whiplash' came around, the option was too cool to ignore and has since become the weapon of Markus.
* Markus Ebony was created during September 2021 by Crescent\_177 on a holiday.