About

Backstory

Marco had an overall good childhood, surrounded by friends and family both good and bad, and did his best to keep an optimistic attitude throughout life despite his sometimes turbulent home situation. In his youth, his father was often working long hours at a construction firm. Leaving before he went to school and coming back usually after the family had dinner, Marco’s father ended up oftentimes taking out his anger and his stress from the workplace on the family- Particularly Marco’s mother. Fighting, yelling, or unbearable silence for days at a time would often plague his household. Marco was frequently scared and unable to do anything for days at a time, but when things were quiet, as the only son and only child of the family, he did his best to lighten the mood and try to get them to reconcile as quickly as possible.

Despite his shaky relationship with his father, when his father was not angry and they could go out to eat as a family, or spend time together happily, Marco greatly treasured those moments. Wanting to hold onto them forever, a lot of his deepest memories stored away from long ago are of those warm family dinners. Yet his mother was a fleuros, and his father was only a regular human, and many fights ended up in Marco’s mother simply granting the wishes of her husband- at the expense of a portion of his father’s life.

By the time Marco entered middle school, his father was experiencing too many symptoms of old age despite his relatively younger legal age, and a mutual divorce agreement was reached. While Marco didn’t have the greatest relationship with his dad, it was still devastating to him as an 11 year old kid to essentially be told that he’d pretty much never see his father again. Even so, he was at the same time relieved that at least his mother wouldn’t have to continue to be verbally berated semi-frequently. Putting up a happy and smiling face around his mother, he hoped that by doing so she would be able to feel more at ease without having to worry about her son’s emotional well-being.

In school, despite having heard the “marco-polo” joke thousands of times, he was very open to both receiving and telling jokes. As somewhat of a ‘class clown’ type, Marco was a people pleaser and very much influenced by others- While also subconsciously influencing others. He continued to do things to get the attention of others around him, particularly good attention, and did the things he could to make both students and teachers alike laugh at his jokes, his antics, or even himself occasionally. Being slightly touch-starved at home, he’d also openly hug his friends or put an arm around his buddies when he could. All in all, he had a somewhat of a meme-y persona, yet it was a bit of a facade to hide some darker feelings inside of him.

Truthfully, Marco always viewed himself as somewhat of a coward who was unable to do anything but smile and laugh. He battled with severe episodes of depression and anxiety throughout middle and high school, internalizing some of the cruel things said to him by his father while also being unable to fully express his more negative feelings outwardly- Leading to a snowball of negative emotions inside of him. Unable to express this anywhere, he often would return home to his room, lock the room and cry quietly for hours at a time.

In his second year of high school, his mother remarried to a new man she was seeing. While it took Marco a little bit to get used to him, his step-father had 3 other children- all younger than him- and the home became much more lively. And while their family home was small and older, neither his mother or step-father making much money, a new feeling of home filled the space and the walls. And with a father figure that was supportive and encouraged him to talk out his emotions, Marco was finally able to relieve some of his pent up grief.

While he still struggles with some mental health issues, he was able to get by through high school (although without stellar grades) and began cooking with his mother and stepfather, and takes great joy in looking after and especially boasting to his younger step-siblings. His parents, on the other hand, ended up becoming successful in a joint business venture after helping to manage a commercial storage and warehouse facility with his uncle from his mother's side. Quickly expanding into a local chain, all of a sudden with the newfound wealth they began living a somewhat different life- While still maintaining a close family system.

Moving into a large Spanish style home for all of their family to live comfortably together, they also made sure to have extra room for his uncle's family, and any other relatives that might stay for holidays or birthdays.

Throughout high school, with a more supportive 'father figure' in his stepfather, as well as no more money concerns, Marco was able to bring up his grades a bit, managed to land a few scholarships, and got into a decent nearby university. While not an ivy league by any means, his parents were still proud of him nonetheless for his achievements.

Present Day

Marco is currently attending college for a 4 year program majoring in education, because he loves interacting with kids and hopes to one day make his classroom a fun and exciting place to learn. But even with such a good-intentioned reason to major in education, he still sometimes ends up gaming and not taking his major as seriously as he should…

In addition to gaming, he's also gotten into brand name clothes and shirts- Or at least the appearance of them. While his parents are much more wealthy now, he doesn't like spending thousands of dollars on a shirt, so he strongly prefers the more common sports brands- Just the higher quality versions of those.

Marco also learned to cook from his mother, and knows a lot of Mexican dishes, as well as some with a little bit of American influence. His older relatives might chasetize him whenever he goes to try more 'Americanized' versions of Mexican food, but even though he's proud of his Hispanic heritage he still ends up trying some bastardized versions of Mexican food sometimes. Whatever tastes good to him, he'll eat. "Don't knock till you try it!" is basically the motto he lives by.

He likes cooking for others because he gets great joy from helping others, and also seeing people enjoy the food he makes, which makes him pretty popular in the dorms (He himself doesn't dorm, but often visits friends who do). Although he hates cleaning up after cooking and dreads it greatly, but luckily the people who eat his food will usually try to repay his favor and help him with the cleaning.

Relationships

Ruolan [ friend ]

After meeting Ruolan in a cooking class, he'd often see her alone in some corner and wanted to make sure she felt included, so he'd often go up and chat with her. Finding her personality rather interesting, he enjoys her company quite a bit, and often gives her hugs since it looks like she needs it sometimes.

Yingjie [ friend ]

Initially introduced to him as "Ruolan's business partner from a marketing firm", Yingjie is a surprisingly calming guy to hang around with. If Marco ever feels overwhelmed by his younger siblings or family members, he knows he's welcome at Yingjie's place to play some videogames or just talk, which he greatly appreciates.

Arata [ acquaintance ]

A mysterious guy that seems to only appear if Yingjie's there, Marco's tried to be friendly with him only to feel intimidated or belittled most times. He's a little wary if not scared of Arata, but tries to get along with him for Yingjie's sake.

Character [ relationship ]

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