[hider=Marcus Chen]Name: Marcus Chen
Age (Prior): 22
Appearance (Former): Standing at a good 5'11", Marcus' height stands out due to his relatively wiry frame (weighing in at only 140 pounds!) due to a lack of activity during his lifetime. His black fair, often left uncombed and unruly, is kept at medium length due to semi-regular maintenance. The bangs on his forehead, too, are kept trimmed just enough to keep them from getting in his dark brown eyes. Through his years of college, Marcus has also acquired a light tan, which is strange, considering how one would have expected four years in California to have done more than just that.
Appearance (Current): Surprisingly enough, he looks exactly the same as he did back on Earth.
Race: Human
Personality: Dedicated and hardworking for all the wrong reasons, Marcus often becomes motivated in order to one-up people; in that regard, he's a very petty person who is willing to give it his all just to prove someone else wrong. Marcus' controlled upbringing has also left him with a need for constant action, be it roaming about aimlessly, reading a book, or even just simple talking. Though his initial actions may make him seem standoffish and, at times, quite confrontational, Marcus is actually a lot more logical and calm than his facade leads others to believe him to be, and, as such, will back down whenever he deems it to be necessary. There remains another side to Marcus, though, that he has since buried under all of his memories: a person who dreamed of what could be, who knew how to truly laugh and smile. 
Skills: As stated prior, Marcus has determination and stubbornness rivaling those of a bull when he commits to something; instead of simply venting his frustration, he instead channels it to increase his own productivity. Marcus is also quite proficient at memorizing things, be they lines from a play, names of famous war heroes, or even random trivia. The more noteworthy events he has committed to memory; most of the rest, though, have been forgotten. Due to his upbringing, Marcus has also gained a penchant for haggling and bargaining, which may or may not be a good thing. His experience in acting has given him plrnty of experience faking emotions and given him plenty of opportunities to tell half-truths and lies as well, but his own moral standards usually cause him to refrain from lying unless he deems it to be necessary.
History: A first-generation American citizen, Marcus, as most Asian-American citizens have been in the past, was forced to bear the brunt of his parents' dreams and hopes for the future. Being the first son, obviously enough, only served to aggravate the situation even further, especially given how deeply rooted the importance of 'first sons' generally was back in China. Made to attend prep classes at an early age, Marcus found the constant training and preparation for the future to be little more than a hassle; after all, everyone else around him seemed to be able to relax, slack off, and have fun; why couldn't he?
The first decade or so of his life went fairly normally; violin lessons, a private tutor, and everything else his parents could think of were piled on, one on top of the other, as if to carefully trim him to look acceptable for the rest of the world. His only escape, reading, was what kept him going. Stories of both the infinite future and the mysterious past kept him enthralled in the little place he called home, though he himself knew that those were simply dreams that would never come true. The years passed him by, never once yearning to give him a break. This was the path that his life had set him up for, it seemed.
Marcus' teen years, however, gave him a glimpse of the freedom he so greatly desired. Though middle school had remained as ironbound as his elementary school years had been, his entry into high school gave him opportunities left and right to break out of that which had held him captive for so long. No longer limited to just books, Marcus joined clubs left and right, eventually finding himself at home in just two: the Acting Club and the Literature Club. Here, he found himself very valuable supports for the future: in the former, a place to explore the minds of others, and in the latter, a place to continue his avid love for books. Granted, they were both forms of escapism, but for him it didn't matter. Here, he could make choices. Here, he could be free.
As the years of Marcus' high school flew by, he also found one more interesting thing about himself: he had a knack for memorization, which, in turn, made him quite proficient in the STEM courses of the school. His parents were thrilled, of course; their son actually had a legitimate chance to make it big as a doctor!
But he didn't want that sort of life, of course. He didn't want to be constrained by the constant patients, having to remember all those obscure drugs and treatments and whatnot. He had had more than enough of that lifestyle; here, he would take his stand. As his final year of his high school career came to a close, he had made his choice: a college across the country, all the way in California. Though his goodbyes seemed to be heartfelt and teary, in truth, they were nothing more than crocodile tears and rehearsed sorrow. Finally, a complete escape from these chains that seemed to be binding him!
At college, Marcus... Well, he didn't quite 'let loose'; he had enough common sense to stand by his parents' and teachers' warnings about living on his own. His rebellion was a bit more subtle, though; rather than taking medical science as his parents had expected, Marcus went in pursuit of a career of anthropology and archaeology. Here, he believed, he could immerse himself enough in the past to not have to worry about the future. Learning history, too, had been like traveling through the pages of a novel, so he was more than pleased with his choice. His parents... Not so much.
Marcus' parents were disappointed in him, to say the least, but Marcus didn't mind as he whiled away his years at college with this course of action in mind. He was finally free to carve his own path in life, and, though bound by the constructs of society, he had found what he felt was a worthy path to pursue for years to come. If he was going to regret something in the future, so be it. He would have time for self-pity later.
Other: Only watched cooking shows on TV. Reality TV, cartoons, and all that other stuff didn't really interest him. At all.[/hider]