Marcel Gilneas[]
"For me, there's three things. My family and friends, my home, and the one signing my paycheck." -Marcel Gilneas
Full Name: Marcel Gilneas
Race: Human
Age: Presumably 18
Eyes: Usually blue, sometimes purple
Hair: Brownish red
Height: 4'11"
Weight: 117 lbs
Innate Element: Dark
Weapon of Choice: Whatever he can get his hands on, Daemons
Marcel has seen a lot for a teenager. He's lost his parents, found himself on the streets, and become a mercenary. And he's become a daemonbinder through a bit of luck. And on more than one occasion, Marcel has used this skill of his to save his life, along with the lives of several others. As a thief, Marcel has proven himself many times over. It is, after all, how he got by during his time on the street.
Though Marcel is not the most socially amiable person in Miranda, he does command quite a lot of friendship from many different people. He tries to stay amiable, at least as long as he does not feel that he or anyone for whom he cares is threatened. On the first meeting, though, he does tend to eyeball anything of particular worth. He is relatively trusting, but he is always ready in case someone insists on trying anything. More than once, he's exchanged harsh words and worse with Chameleon or Cima.
Marcel as a mercenary is also impressive. This is partly owing to his age, which is unusually young for a normal human to be a merc. Moreso than that, though, he has proven himself to be as capable as several of the adult mercenaries, and even moreso. As a fast learner, he has managed to get a grasp on many facets of the mercenary career. He can shoot quite well, pilot all manner of different vehicle, and is quite handy magically as well. However, despite all of his successes and riches, he still has that same old, bad tendency to be distracted by shiny things of worth (though not to the degree of ADHD or anything)
Marcel was orphaned years ago, and put through foster care. He didn't much like the families he was stuck with, so he abandoned it. After living on the streets for so long, he finally found the motherly love of Verlaine Gilneas, along with the care of her offspring, Valerie and Glenn. He also seems to have garnered the affections of both Princess Ivy of Miranda and Princess Liliath of De Midian, which seems to be giving him quite a dilemma deciding between the two.
History[]
The early life
Marcel started out with a decent lot in life. His parents were fairly well-off and even somewhat religious. He felt close to his parents and he wound up with a couple of close friends around town. He developed mentally decently, and he actually seemed to want to learn. He was also full of energy, like most kids of those ages.
Unfortunately, a happy, easy life did not manage to last for him. His parents both died in his fifth year of life. His mother was stricken with illness a few weeks before his fifth birthdy, and his father died mysteriously in the night a couple months later (there are several different rumors about what actually happened). This left Marcel alone, and, though he managed to inherit what did not go to debt collectors, it was not much and he got pushed by the government to an orphanage and, soon after, the foster system.
Delving in Darkness
Marcel, after getting put into the orphanage, ended up bullied for being a bit of a studious runt. He still tried to manage through school, though his slightly fractured mind proved to make this a bit more challenging than in the past. On top of this, many of his old friends moved away, some showing that young bigotry that comes for years, others worrying that he was the cause of his father's death. Though stressful, Marcel managed, largely with the help of his very few remaining friends, including Princess Ivy.
Marcel's mental scarring did not improve in the foster system. While he was free of the bullying for the most part, he was still having difficulties with his foster care families. The first one would be the one to make Marcel what he is today. He was given the bare necessities - 3 hots and a cot - but very little more than that. The father led a cult that intended to use him as a live sacrifice to a powerful daemon, which would have caused him a rather painful death (rumors that this cult was behind Marcel's father's death can be neither confirmed or denied). Instead, the spell was botched through simple human error and, though in a cruel manner, fate had given Marcel another chance. And, as an added bonus for him, he was given the ability to channel different daemons through himself in an art known as daemonbinding. However, his psyche was already suffering.
Several more foster families did not go very far, since most of them thought he was too disturbed for their care. Understandably so, as he had seen some rather impressive hell in his seven years of life. Still, eventually a family found him and took him in. A rather devout family cared about him greatly. However, Marcel seemed rather allergic to going to their services due to his daemonbinding giving him rather possessed-like issues, like illness on stepping on annointed ground. At first, the family attributed it to illness, though they quickly grew suspicious. It got to the point where they brought in a priest to exorcise him. Marcel again managed to find a small bit of luck in the darkness, and managed to get away. After all these difficulties with foster care and the orphanage, though, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He had access to his small inheritance and took to the streets.
His Own Man
Marcel quickly realized that, with no work, no welfare, and no family support, that his funds would never last. Never mind the fact that he was technically homeless now. After his funding ran dry, he found himself cutting off almost everything socially. There was only one he really kept in contact with, and that was Ivy. She helped him stay sane and relatively educated, by helping him "borrow" a couple of textbooks. He thought it strange that royalty would help her this way, but he didn't much care; he was keeping up his learning, even if it was even more of a struggle.
With no money, though, Marcel needed help. That is when he started thieving. He'd already had practice with it, finding some payback against some of the worse bullies at the orphanage, and he could run (and how!) for much the same reason. He quickly shook the rust off and found himself picking pockets to put some bread in his belly. He also quickly figured out how to camp on his own, following wild monsters and eating where they ate. He knew they probably weren't poisonous.
His skills quickly improved, and he started to build a small surplus of money. It was only a few silvers extra, but it was enough for some food if he had a bad day thieving. More than once he'd almost been caught either by child serviices or the police for his petty thievery. But he knew how to hide out, especially in the Rabite Forest north of Miranda's capital. It is there he met another runt of the litter, a nearly starving Drakslime who he befriended. Together, the two destitute, small lives began their work together, Marcel and his Drakslime, Josquin.
It wasn't all good, though. While they could separate and conquer, it also meant two mouths to feed. Marcel again began to eat into his savings and those were swiftly drained as well. Yes, he had a couple of rings and watches and other light jewelry, but it was hot and there wasn't any way to unload it. At least, not until the Hevaraz Mob decided to step in. He impressed them with his thieving, and they decided to act as a fence for him, provided he occasionally steal some useful goods for them. It was just barely, but he was making ends meet.
Acceptance
Marcel could make ends meet, but only just. Once again, fate just had to step in to change Marcel's life. The only differences were that it was definitely for the better, and it all affected a second life, too. While thieving one day, several years since abandoning the orphanage, foster care, and school, he attempted to steal from a martial artist, Kari Kazushige. He almost had it, too, when a strange, blue-haired woman intervened, who seemed to be Kari's friend. This woman was Verlaine Gilneas. Marcel grabbed what coins he could and fled. He nearly got away, too, which is no mean feat by any stretch of the imagination, at least not for one so young and small. Unfortunately, she caught him, but this proved to be a curveball.
Rather than punishing Marcel or something similar, she did something that served quite a different purpose. She fed him. A lot. Much more than he and Josquin could handle in one sitting. She seemed a lot nicer than he was expecting, with the circumstances of their meeting. More than that, she even gave him her old apartment and, on top of all of it, cleared his fines. This started him back on a bit more right of a path. Afterwards, he met several more of Verlaine's friends and family, and surprisingly, he could stand to be around most of them. For him, it was just nice to be around friends again.
Several of Marcel's new friends also were, conveniently enough, mercenaries. And in a bit of an effort to help Marcel further, they found him work at MOM. Though the benefits were not terribly great, it was great pay, and he needed every copper at first. It was during this time, too, that Marcel finally unlocked his potential as a daemonbinder, giving him better magic, and a nice last resort tactic. He started successful and was on the fast track to success, it seemed.
To Hell And Back
Not everything went perfectly, though. His record remains blemish-free, at least as a mercenary, but there was trouble in paradise. Verlaine, who asked Marcel to call her 'mom' long before the idea of adoption came up, went missing, ending up in Renalia. But before he found her, he and some of the rest of those close to Verlaine met up with a strange woman named Sjathrek. She looked rather similar to Verlaine, with many of the same characteristics. But she was most definitely not Verlaine. This worried him, since he was unaware of how Sjathrek came into being. But he lived, despite a couple of her attempts on his life. He, along with more of the group of those connected to Verlaine managed to, with some difficulty, rescue her from a Renalian lab.
Another bit of off-the-books trouble came with Valerie, Verlaine's daughter and his sister-to-be, as well as Valerie's love interest, Ripper. Through a bit of effort, Chameleon and Verlaine convinced Marcel to try and keep them from seeing each other, though he was also asked to be discreet. That went over like a lead balloon with him, but he did somehow manage to keep at least Valerie and Ripper from going too over the top with their antics. And he seems to be succeeding rather well.
It didn't take long for Marcel to be considered for a promotion, which was great for him, since it was better pay. But it would still be a bit longer before he would manage to get said promotion. The thing that precipitated it was the Paramis War's start. Several mercs and UCI members were tasked with investigating the mysterious Fell's Point asylum. This proved a bad idea, as the group was stuck there for about a month with little way out, and the occasional blackout. It took work, but the team escaped (barely). Just before the escape, though, the Paramisians fired their new superweapon, devastating Miranda, and Verlaine found out just what she was. This was a lot for her, and it caused her to seek refuge in Raxis.
Unfortunately, this was about the time a patrol belonging to Tal was running their routes. This ended up making Chameleon spaz out, and Marcel worry. Work still pressed on, and he was given his promotion mission. The only pay he would get from it would be from what he looted and later sold. The task was not so simple, either: blow up a Paramisian oil rig. Or, at the very least, prepare it for an airstrike. This assignment was given by none other than Brooke herself. He was happy to help, and pulled off the task with relative aplomb, managing to secure himself a better title, bigger paycheck, and a bit more respect from the queen.
Sinner's Folly
This success, sadly, did not bring Verlaine back. What's worse, Chameleon decided to go off on his own to find her. And so, a double-rescue assignment seemed in order. Several people went out to Raxis, hunting for Verlaine and Chameleon. Marcel was among them, acting as one of the group's survival experts and, as always, their scout.
Once again, they met up with Sjathrek. Openly taunting Marcel got him to give chase, both with himself and Josquin. Josquin did not fair so well, getting a rather rough punch to the wall. Unfortunately, all of Marcel's rage was focused on Sjathrek. She escaped in a cloud of ink from a grenade, and he returned to the rest, to find Josquin in critical condition. This made Marcel quite aware of the shortcomings of his own, sinful nature.
On returning home, Chameleon in tow (and with a bad case of amnesia), Marcel felt terrible. He was tempted to give up, but his care for Verlaine made him stick with his career, at the very least until they got her back. And even after, he decided not to quit; he'd learned something about himself, so he could be more ready for it, were it to ever happen again.
A Mage's Pain
Since Marcel had found friends, he started back with classes at the Mage Academy, with some light suggesting from Ivy, and a friend of his named Sarina. Sarina, though, in a previous incident, had one of her arms corrupted by daemonic energy. He travelled with her, Duga, and Kari to try to get it fixed by Duga's Tribe's Chieftain, but to no avail. Little was found in the Sigilian Grand Library, either, save a rather large epiphany about the situation by Sarina herself.
After meeting with her parents to find out more about what was going on (and saving Sarina's mother), he found Sarina had gone missing several hours after his return. And it was up to him and a select group of allies to rescue her from the clutches of this daemon. As it turned out, it was the same daemon Marcel was to be sacrificed to many years before. After several rather difficult encounters (including the daemon and Sarina herself, though corrupted further and controlled), Sarina was rescued and returned. And, while the corruption seems to be staying, it does not seem to be getting worse. As an added bonus, the curse on Sarina's whole family was lifted through Rana's doing.
Trivia:[]
- Like his adoptive mother, Marcel did not initially have a last name, and adopted it when he became part of the family.
- Marcel has the highest number of successful vehicle hijacks of any character. The only other character remotely close is Chameleon.
- Marcel once stole Hyperion's police car and led him on a lengthy chase with it.