Marcus is irreverent. By far it is the one trait that he could most easily be caricatured. It stems from Marcus's lack of conscience towards other people and perspectives, rather than ignorance or a feeling of self-importance. As long as it isn't something he believes in, or isn't something he personally holds important, Marcus will always feel it is fair game to take a verbal punt at it to promote something that he does believe in. It's a waste of time rebuking Marcus about his jokes or comments being inappropriate for that very reason. He knew that before saying them and he said them all the same.

To go along with that, Marcus is very much a charlatan, in words and actions. When he speaks, even allies and friends naturally feel to analyse and be on guard about what he says. It's not that he just lies (though he might and will from time to time) but that he knows how to twist and spin things and direct attention when he speaks to divert it from a difficult issue or make loopholes to excuse himself or his actions with a rather devilish silver tongue. In his actions, this is very much mirrored. He is typically seen as a scoundrel. He is not cowardly, but is very dishonourable. He will cheat, quit and bail willingly, not because he is afraid, but because he typically lacks the honour and conviction to take legitimate risks for the sake of morals or ethics. He has them, and will agree with them, but is not willing to sacrifice to uphold them usually. However, because they are still there at the root of his character (somewhere), he will on extreme occasions be convicted by shame or morality to do the right thing even though it isn't the best choice for his own personal well being. When he knows that his soul is convicting him to act righteously when his heart is telling him to avoid the risk, he gets comically moody, throwing a tantrum over the fact he knows there's nothing in it for him other than good karma.

On the flip side, if Marcus can find a way to do the right thing without actually risking his own well being he will look for a to fake his sacrifice or at least hide the fact he's not really in any danger so that people will see him as heroic. Ironically, Marcus gets upset if he actually does the right thing just for the right cause sake and can't convince those around him that he took the high road, mainly because he didn't want to do it in the first place and can't even get recognition for it.

Marcus is neither violent nor a pacifist. He doesn't like challenging people head on, but also thinks it's pretty retarded not to throw a punch or two 'just cuz'. If he can sucker punch you while talking you out of punching him back at the same time he would. Since no sane person would fall something like that, Marcus settles for flipping intermittently between action and patience and will do so at the drop of a dime. All in all, Marcus is a good man's soul trapped in an evil man's habits. The main reason he gets the kind of remarks that he does is based on the fact those giving them to him know he has the potential to be better.

Marcus's first profession was as a thief. He was orphaned and moved from foster home to foster home, during which time the only consistency was his willingness and eagerness to pilfer anything he could get his hands on. Each time he was relocated, he kept trying to out do his last heist, getting more and more ridiculous until he would actively trying to steal something practically impossible. Every time MArcus was reallocated to a new family or home, he would continually up the ante on his schemes, starting small and almost inconspicuous and getting more and more obnoxious with his antics until he would be forcefully caught in the act by the sheer ridiculousness of what he was trying to do.

One police officer in particular kept tabs on the young boy after he happened to arrest him for one of his plots and Marcus ended up spending an entire night in a jail cell because no one came to claim him straight away. He saw the emptiness in the boy's eyes, realising that the boy was so distressed by his emotions that he couldn't find the energy to even be upset about being in a jail cell. Ever since, the police officer kept in Marcus's life, vouching for him at the station, taking over any cases that had to do with him even if he got relocated by the foster program. Eventually, the police officer fostered Marcus himself. He watched Marcus like a hawk, and now MArcus found even the smallest of his bad behaviour was being marked and noted. He understood what it was like to be significant to someone on a regular basis, for someone to have him in mind 24/7 even if he wasn't doing anything in particular. Worried that Marcus might not outgrow his cries for attention, the police officer enrolled Marcus in the police academy at 10 years old. All Marcus did for 5 years was attempt to escape through various means and schemes. The security at the academy was actually updated more than 10 times due to the weaknesses exposed by Marcus's escape attempts.

At 15 years old, Marcus found a way to escape for good. He put together a plan that he had to work through for nearly an entire year, practicing certain parts of the escape to match the routine of the security and also to procure all the things he needed for each level of security. During this year, the dean of the academy approached Marcus continually. Marcus was in the final year of the academy, after which he would have an opportunity towards higher education if he simply graduated. Being an old friend the the police officer who fostered Marcus, the dean made his own attempts to appeal to Marcus to simply wait out the year rather than escape.

As a last ditch attempt, the dean put together a record detailing all of the schemes Marcus had ever pulled and sent them on to an independent intelligence agency as a means of referral, noting that Marcus was likely to try and escape before graduation. On the day before graduation, Marcus made his escape, finally getting off School campus and onto the main road. He caught a late-night train, believing it would take him into the city. At the next stop a man in a black suit got on and sat down opposite Marcus. The man began to talk directly to Marcus, calling him by name and commending him on finally breaking the Police Academy security, noting that no one in the academy's history had managed to escape without trace before all the way till the next stop 10 minutes later. At the next stop, the train conductor announced the service would be terminating at this station, after which the man in the suit assured Marcus the announcement didn't apply to them. The train detoured from their, following unmarked rails that weren't leading to a station or even to an area of the city Marcus could recognise. Man in the suit explained that Marcus and had been honing exceptional skills this entire time without knowing. He explained that he would be able to offer Marcus the one thing he'd been searching for his whole life - a place to belong, a place he will be accepted for the talented young man that he was, but only on one condition. Praying on Marcus's insecurities, the teenager conceded, wanting to know what this man could offer him. The challenge was to break back into school to graduate the next day without anyone finding out. The train driver opened the door, with Marcus at least an hour's walk away from campus in a part of town he was not familiar with. Needless to say, Marcus figured out how to get back and managed to break into the academy to turn up for graduation the next day. His foster father arrived to see him graduate, but no one else came. Marcus packed up his stuff, wondering if he imagined the escapades of last night on the drive home from the academy. When they got home, there was a special package waiting for them, addressed to Marcus. It was a letter and a strange parcel of supplies, stating that he had been accepted to study at a university he'd never heard of with a full scholarship, and that a representative would visit their home the next day to confirm his enrollment.

The representative came, it being the suited man on the train he met the night before graduation. He explained that Marcus's test scores at the academy showed that Marcus had skills that the government could utilise in the highest form of civil service and that the government would be willing to pay Marcus's tuition to make him "mission ready" as soon as possible. Marcus and his dad agreed, and Marcus enrolled in Entrin University for a degree in Criminal Psychology. Marcus studied for the next 5 years, being mentored in secret to become an agent while earning his degree.