Name: Marcellus LaRue

Nicknames: Cellus, Marcel, Witch-Boy, Curses

Age: 21

Gender: Male (he/they; calls himself both male/man and enby/non-binary)

Sexuality: Homosexual

Species: Human (diluted vampire blood)

Looks:

(Faceclaim: @yth.anexe on Insta)
He's 5'11

Personality: The best way to describe Marcellus us edgy, grumpy, and sassy. He doesn't take shit from anyone, and he most certainly doesn't hold his punches in letting others know just how he feels about them. Marcellus is a very grumpy guy, usually alone or with a select group of people. When in places they don't wish to be or around people they don't wish to be around, Marcellus is grumpier than usual and less patient. He has little qualms about making his bad mood everyone else's problem, and he seems to be in a constant state of rebellion. It's almost like he enjoys making other people uncomfortable and he seems to thrive on that discomfort and strife. He actually does enjoy the company of certain people, even if he isn't quick to show it, and his bravado and big act of loathing everyone is definitely a bit exaggerated. In truth, Marcellus is insecure and fearful of finding out what other people would think about him, beyond what he presents to the public. What better way to prevent from getting hurt than by hurting other people first? Though not the best way to live life, it has been Marcellus's go-to for a while. Well-versed in the history of his pack, New Orleans, and Voodoo practices, he's good at setting traps and pranks up around the city - for tourists and for his packmates. He's definitely caused more than a few small issues with authorities, and he has been arrested for 'vandalizing' more than a few times. Perpetually bored, it takes a lot to get Marcellus's interest, and Voodoo and witchcraft has. It makes sense, considering he comes from the long witch line of The Occult, but he leans into it more heavily than many in his generation do. Marcellus may seem like an antagonistic guy - and he is - but that isn't who he is at his core. Big on family, big on blood sticking together, and big on loyalty and acceptance, Marcellus is just very selective with the people he likes and lets get close to him. Still a nervous, insecure, anxiety ridden young individual, they project confidence, bravado, and go out of their way to make people uneasy so that they are all on equal footing. Marcellus is very good at hiding the truth of their emotions, a master at having his mask in place, but in reality he'd be a great friend to those who earned it. Protective of his family, his friends, and his culture, Marcellus will cross any line needed to protect them. If it scares some people along the way, even better.

Likes: his family, his culture, his family history, his gifts, making others uneasy/uncomfortable, refusing to be passive, his city, his pack, walking downtown, work

Dislikes: prejudiced bigots, danger to his family and culture, when people catch onto his anxiety, idle acceptance of injustice, when people see right through his mask, his own vulnerability

Powers: Marcellus, like many in his family, actually does hold innate gifts; Marcellus's gift is that he can affect the fortune/misfortune of others and it is how he got the name 'Curses'

Backstory: The LaRue family is one of the Original Families of The Occult. His family has been in charge of the human faction more than any other human family, including in the modern day - Marcellus is the child of Donatella LaRue, the Council Leader of the Human Faction. His mother is an absolute powerhouse of a woman and Marcellus is both deeply intimidated by her and deeply proud of her. Though he often gets in clashes with his mother, he loves her and his sister more than most anyone in the world. Though the LaRue family have always considered themselves witches or voodooists, it wasn't until a few centuries back that they actually gained power. One of his ancestors had children with a vampire, and gifts started being passed down with each generation. With those kids then having kids with humans or supernatural folk, the weight of power that the modern generation has is dependent on which LaRue ancestor they can trace their line through. Marcellus comes from one of the more powerful lines, where three different vampires passed down gifts. Though the blood is too diluted for Marcellus and his mother to be considered hybrids - as the past couple generations the LaRue partners have been human - they both contain some gifts passed from those vampires and their hybrid children. Marcellus considers himself very lucky and he genuinely loves his family, his history, and what he can do. Working in both his family's museum and apothecary, Marcellus truly loves his work. In the museum, he gives tours around the city - tours specific to the LaRue family, in most cases - and he helps find records and family trees of the widespread LaRue family - both in The Occult and not. In the apothecary, he helps make the product, and sells it on occasion, but he has proven more adept at concocting the goods than working with customers. Around town, he has always been a bit of a trouble maker, usually with the human authorities. Often skipping school, often setting up little traps and pranks, Marcellus was arrested for the first time at 16 and has only built up a record from there - though thanks to his mother and his own natural gifts, he's avoided jail time. With a very small circle of people who love him whom he also loves, Marcellus can get lonely at times, but also often doesn't want things to change. Terrified of change and that his life may not always be this way, but also dreading that his life may always be this way, Marcellus is caught in a limbo position. Doing small things to amuse himself - like going to his mother's dinner parties and telling her guests just what he thinks of their politics, or cursing bullies - Marcellus overall has a fairly monotonous life. Yes, he was bullied growing up. Yes, he did have it rough as a kid, but surely he's not that messed up from it, right? By "rough as a kid" that means seeing his father murdered in front of his very eyes by one of their packmates - a werewolf. Since, Marcellus has been cordial but cautious around werewolves. He was only 8 when it happened, and it was late one night. Marcellus had been helping out around the museum that day - he'd gotten pushed around pretty badly at school that day, so his father picked him up and brought him to work. It was one of the best days Marcellus had had in a while, his father always able to make things good. It was around 9pm when they were heading home - late, but his dad had been working on a new display with Marcellus's help. It wasn't even that late for partiers around the pack, but alas they had to walk past one of the bars on the way home. Usually it was a respectable bar, but that night it held an unrespectable patron. The guy was really drunk, rowdy, and had stumbled into Marcellus on his way out, knocking him to the ground. His father had helped him up and had simply planning to move on, saying "excuse us" when trying to walk around the guy. Marcellus doesn't remember much of what happened after that, only that he was shoved into the street and the werewolf was snarling and ripping into his father. Marcellus watched in mute horror before trying to run to help. The claws still scarred against his chest are proof enough of his attempt and failure and Marcellus ended up back in the street. His father was dead and the werewolf advanced on him until someone finally arrived - Maksim - and saved the day. Only, the day wasn't saved - his father was dead. Marcellus was taken home and the werewolf responsible was put on trial. Turns out, there werewolf was related to some power people, and was punished simply for 'self-defense.' Marcellus shouted out, screaming that that was wrong, that they'd been attacked, but was just pulled out of the court room. He watched his father's murderer walk free and had said, "I hope he lives a short, miserable life - I curse him in the name of all those before me." It was a play on things he'd heard his mother say and had read about in the museum. Only for Marcellus, it worked. The attacker was hit by a car as they all exited the building, and for a week was in agonizing pain as the silver extracts from the bumper worked through his system. He eventually succumbed to his injuries and Marcellus felt a cooling sensation in his chest - the telltale sign, he'd come to learn, of one of his curses taking affect. But yeah, surely that didn't mess him up at all, or affect how he ended up today. Not at all.

Other: Marcellus speaks Creole French and understands traditional French but can't really speak it
Marcellus barely graduated high school and has no plans to pursue higher education - it isn't that he isn't smart or capable, it's that he hated school so much because of how badly he was bullied
Now it is just his mom and his sister
Marcellus has caused more than a few issues for his mother's political career, but despite their clashing and differences, he knows she loves him
Marcellus was extremely close with his dad, and misses him every day
Marcellus is plagued with very realistic dreams and nightmares, but so have many in his family line - sometimes his dreams come true, sometimes not, though they hold no real power beyond their vividness
Marcellus does consider himself a witch and he doesn't practice Voodoo
Marcellus is very educated on his family history, pack history, Voodoo history, and witch history
Marcellus loves New Orleans and the variety it offers - it's his home and he will never leave his home, not permanently
Sometimes they wish it was easier to connect with others, but Marcellus has always been the weird kid - he's feared and bullied, but starting in his teens that edged a bit more into fear
Marcellus is quite powerful, but it doesn't mean his power works right away - it can take years and years for his curses to come into fruition, and some never take affect at all; it's worth reminding that Marcellus can also bring fortune, but he hardly does so
Marcellus does their best to write down every time they use their gift, writing down exactly what they said; when they feel that cooling sensation spread throughout his chest, he tries to find out what happens and crosses off the curse in different highlighter colors - green for complete curses, yellow for potential curses
Marcellus currently lives in a small, rundown apartment by himself - it's barely functioning, but it is his, and therefore he is proud of it
Marcellus practically runs the LaRue Museum himself, though does operate with other family members - he is a highly requested and favored tour guide and it's kinda the one time his off-putting nature works for him rather than against him
Marcellus doesn't fully remember the events of his father's death, blocking out the worst of it, but he often dreams of it
Only Marcellus and his mother and sister know he was the cause of the attacker's death
Pretty much all of Marcellus's piercings are silver - either pure silver or containing silver compounds - to protect himself; that said, he is cordial with werewolves, even having a very close friend by the name of Garnet Stokes
He has a nipple piercing on his left nipple only
He has a tongue piercing as well
Weird things have always happened around Marcellus - crows always seem to pop up near him, people would get bad luck over even small things, and over all things just seemed to go wrong; this was the case because he hadn't yet controlled his power, it just sort of leaked out of him - he didn't learn true control until he was about 10 or 11; crows and dead things still have a way of popping up around him, though