Marcus a 13-year-old child sat at his desk, bored frustrated, and painting a Viking ship in rough seas. He was frustrated because he had his first erection the night before. His voice was starting to break, and he knew shortly his body would irreparably be a man. He suffered a condition he had no understanding of, and he had no name for. He was born male but knew he was female. On top of this, his father was the worst kind of man, he was an aggressive former US Marine, who was working in Films and TV as a Stuntman, and as a Diving instructor during the hiatus seasons.
His dad and mom were both also the loud and obnoxious type of Christians. His dad was also a very vocal Homophobe, ironically, he was also highly anti-Semitic even though his wife, Marcus’s mother was born Jewish.
To make matters worse for Marcus, his father was accidentally the gayest acting man he knew. Everyone thought his father was just a poorly closeted “Bear” homosexual.
Marcus on the other hand, did his best to never show his feminine side. It was a failed effort as his face was girly, and he always had a feminine hairstyle. Also, his long slender hands and fingernails always looked like he had a clear coat of nail polish, and they naturally always held a neatly manicured look. If he cut his nails short. The next morning they would be back in that shape and condition. Same with his toes, fortunately, no one sees your toes unless you are at a swimming pool. Sadly his dad insisted on him helping his dive classes at the local swimming pool. Most of his students just assumed Marcus was a girl with nonexistent breasts which allowed him to go topless.
Marcus wanted some way to be free of his gender identity curse, he didn’t want to be thought of as “gay”, not that he thought being gay was wrong, it was just he didn’t feel like “Gay” was the right word for what he was. Sure he was attracted to males, although if asked he would deny it, Marcus had dreams of becoming Kyle MacLachlan's lover or wife, he fell in love with him as the Character Paul Atreides in Frank Herberts Dune which had come out earlier that year. (note: this alternate universe Dune came out in the Spring of 1984 and did well at the box office. Unlike our universe where it came out in December and flopped financially.)
He studied art as an elective in school, as a way to channel his most feminine parts onto paper. It didn’t work nor did it help. Even if he tried to draw masculine subjects like cars airplanes, and warships. Somehow he had the ability to make them look feminine. The teachers loved his art style as it was highly unique and oftentimes almost as good as a photograph even though he mainly painted in watercolors.
Marcus was also enamored by the female fashion of the era, he loved the lace gloves and bold makeup that had been the post-punk fashion at that time. He wished he was able to dress like Cyndi Lauper who had been that year’s best vocalist in his mind. So whenever his art teachers would have the class draw and paint human subjects. Marcus would always do paintings of women in these fashions. He would ensure the best details could be seen.
He continued painting the ship when the teacher called out that class was ending and to name your art and to bring them up to the drying table and get ready for the bell. Marc hated this part of his art class because Lunch came next. He hoped that he would be able to get to his favorite hiding place before being confronted by the various bullies who always seemed to target him. Being smaller weaker and with a naturally feminine shape made it hard for him to pass unnoticed. But he tried.
