[THE MEMBER]

Name/Pen Name: Drift
Age: 32
Other Characters: Reese Morgan, Grendel Parks, Damien Lasater

[THE CHARACTER: OVER VIEW]

Name: Marcus Ripley Beringer
Age:33
Gender: Male
School: N/A
Work: Teaches Biology at Saint Vincente's
Home Town: San Francisco, CA
Current Residence: Juno, CA
Registration: No
Magic: Flora
Family:

Marianne Beringer, 63, mother, lives in Juno (Flora)
Robert Beringer, father, deceased (Spirit)
Joleen Beringer-Nelson, sister, deceased (CC)
Kenneth Nelson, brother-in-law, deceased (CC)

Personality: Marcus is quite good at hiding his true thoughts behind what other people expect to see. At work and when he is out and about he is a very unassuming, friendly, and might even be considered a nice guy. His students generally like him, not because he's an 'easy' teacher but because he's very likable. He has a very disarming charm to him that few people can avoid getting suckered by.

But in many respects that isn't what he is really like at all. He's the next door neighbor who everyone says 'seemed like such a nice man' as the police are hauling him away at gunpoint raving and screaming. He carries around a huge grudge and a corrupted sense of morality which places himself, and others like him, above all others. Either you're with him or you're not and only those who are 'with him' are immune to his ire.

He's manipulative, always considering, weighing, calculating what his next move should be. His temper is actually very short when he's not wearing his 'public' face, a fact which often takes others by surprise. Part of it is that he places a tremendous amount of weight and significance upon 'the cause' and he feels that those who support the cause should stop at nothing to see it through. He preaches that in order to beat the oppressors it is necessary to be stronger, smarter and more vicious. The government does not listen to 'peaceful protest' or 'political rallying'... violence, bloodshed, all out war is the only answer.

He has developed an unhealthy obsession with poisons of late, mostly those derived from plant sources and grows a variety of exotic and deadly plants in his home and has been known to joke about paying a visit to the local water treatment plant. At times it is difficult to know whether he is actually joking. He sometimes takes plant samples to school with him to use campus resources to distill, alter, modify his noxious chemicals and so far no one is the wiser.

He can sometimes seem a little obsessive about things and he likes to call the shots, especially when he perceives that someone else is being indecisive. In his mind there is no room for indecisiveness when the world is against you. He does not handle criticism well.

[THE CHARACTER: APPEARANCE]

Height: 5'9
Build: Lean and strong. He believes he is at war and endeavors to keep himself in peak condition since he never knows when he'll be called upon to 'do his duty' for his fellow mankind (and he doesn't mean conventional citizens)
Eye Color: Pale blue
Hair: dark brown
Appearance: Marcus's most prominent feature is a high forehead with a deep widow's peak. His eyes are somewhat deep-set with his eyebrows arching close above. He wears a light beard on his chin and has a square jaw. His hair is straight and he often combs it back away from his face, and cropped short in the back.

At school he is the picture of responsibility, calm, even mannerisms and a stable human being. He wears light suits, and might well be considered one of the more respectable teachers by his peers for his gracious demeanor and extreme politeness. (They don't realize that much of the time he is mocking them all!)

He has a strong, attractive body, kept that way through an almost obsessive tendency to exercise. When he is deep in thought he often wants to exercise either lifting weights or running (or beating something or someone up). When not at school he will often dress completely differently in ragged t-shirts and old blue jeans. He'll usually wear a hat and sunglasses so that he will not be recognized or associated with his public self.

His natural form is unpleasant. His skin thickens to a woody consistency almost all over and he tends to grow leafy protrusions from his pores. While not entirely plant-like, he can blend in very well when surrounded by plant life so long as he is still. On the other hand some of the woody protrusions on his arms are somewhat spike-like and make for a crude weaponry if someone gets too close and Marcus definitely qualifies as someone who would not want to be taken alive.

[THE CHARACTER: BACK STORY]

Marcus's family was pretty normal except for the fact that both his mother and father were advantaged citizens but his older sister was not. This might not have been that big of a deal for the family except that they were unregistered with no intention of becoming registered. Marcus learned from his mother a great deal about Flora magic and she passed down to him a grim which had been in the family for at least a century. The grim was greatly treasured and the family kept it in a vault in their home.

They were a middle income family in San Francisco and would have been considered ordinary by most of the people who knew them. Marcus's father was a journalist though, and also something of a rebellious activist. He never would have turned to violence to get his message across though, and that is something that Marcus disagreed with. To this day he believes his father would still be alive if he had only been more willing to fight.

Marcus's sister got married when Marcus was still in his teens. It seemed like a happy marriage except to Marcus and his parents, her husband Kenneth Nelson seemed like he had bought the government line hook, line and sinker. He was not exactly the sort of person Marcus or his immediate family were comfortable discussing their magic with except at some point Marcus's sister Joleen had confided in him about her family being unregistered and their use of a grim. It got to the point where any time the family was together, Kenneth was full of questions. He would ask and ask until they all would stop talking and try to change the subject.

The last straw was drawn when Kenneth convinced Joleen to help him steal the grim from their house vault. He didn't tell Joleen that he was intending to use the book to expose them because he was worried that the skeletons in his wife's family's closet would interfere with his political aspirations.

What happened at that point is up to some speculation since Marcus has not been one to reveal the entire story to anyone. Officially Kenneth killed his father-in-law and wife in a murder-suicide and there was no mention of the grim. Unofficially Joleen and Kenneth Nelson qualified as the first two people that Marcus ever killed.

He never let the moment seem to shake him. He was stoic and cold through the funeral, though playing it off that he was being strong for his mother's sake. He went on to attend a reputable university and acquire a teaching certificate but there has always been a dangerous undercurrent to him. Kenneth and Joleen were by no means the last lives snuffed out by his hand. He has taken to leading this double life and become very practiced in telling people what they want to hear while secretly loathing them.

He views his public life as a necessity. It funds his supplies and provides him with the freedom to move about and pick his targets. His private life is where he plays out fantasies of freedom and cruel domination over the lesser beings so often labeled as conventional citizens. Like Raskolnikov, he is a superman and he believes that his kind should inherit the earth.