Mal Marks

[Tiggs]

Human Stuff
Name: Malcolm “Mal” Marks
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Appearance: Marks has a very boyish face, with cropped blonde hair that is almost always tangled and mussed tangle. The smattering of freckles across his cheeks is fairly swallowed by tan, and his face is almost always marked with dirt or soot. He sports a very lean build, with strong arms, slim waist and longer-than-proportioned legs. He’s always found dressed in flannel shirts, vest, jeans and boots. He almost always has his akubra pulled low to shadow his grey-blue eyes. He looks young for a wrangler, and he gets a little teasing from the other men about his young voice and stubble-less chin.
Personality: Quiet and shy, Marks is a diligent worker and keeps to himself a lot of the time. He has an affinity with horses that many of the men seem to lack. He can calm the most ornery colt and sooth the flightiest filly. His patience comes in droves for the animals, but not so much for the men. While he will never become angry – it’s unlikely he has a sour bone in his body – he can become frustrated and stressed when the men are acting up and getting too boisterous. He is never social with them, never drinks or smokes, and is always somewhat of an outcast, but he gets the job done and that’s what matters.
History: Oh, did I forget to mention Marks is actually a woman named Molly who impersonates a young man so she can escape the past that haunts her? My bad...
Her mother, Annabelle Marks, died in childbirth and so she was raised somewhat by her cattle-ranching father, John Marks, but most of the time by his half-caste servants. Molly was a keen horse-rider, and she would dismay her father by ruining her pretty dresses out in the stables, or riding her pony around the station and getting into all kinds of mess.
After years of this malarkey, her father realised she was never going to be the little princess most fathers expect, so he relented to her wishes and let her work the cattle farm.
She was a hard worker, and her father came to trust her with all manner of jobs, leaving her to run the farm while he went to the city to sell cattle. It was on one of these excursions that a group of men came to the homestead looking for her father. When she told them he would not be back for another week, the men forced their way inside and proceeded to loot the house of all the valuable possessions they could carry.
Molly tried to stop the bushrangers, even pulling her father’s shotgun on them, but they simply overpowered her. Molly refuses to tell anyone what happened next, but when her father returned, her daughter was not the same cheerful creature he had left behind. She was shy and nervous, and though there was not a scratch on her, the scars of that assault were embedded deeply in her mind.
Unable to feel safe in the homestead, Molly assumed the appearance of a young man and fled to the High Country. She is surrounded by men daily but while she trusts none of them, she knows she is safer here where there is always somewhere to escape to.
Extra Comments: Slightly reinvented from her last incarnation! So if you met her before, that never happened.

Hut Stuff
Hut to Join: Dead Horse Hut
Occupation: Cattlerancher

Animal Stuff
Name: Moya
Gender: Mare
Age: 6
Species: Horse
Breed: Brumby x Stockhorse
Appearance: Moya is a stocky mare, not particularly beautiful in conformation but she has a kind face and stamina to match any gelding. She’s a dappled grey, with a white sock on her left fore- and right hind hoof and a slim pink snip between her nostrils.
Personality: Docile and willing, Moya will take direction from any man (or woman) without question. She’s friendly with everyone and everything, including the dogs. She’d probably try and make friends with a wombat if one happened to amble up to her. When she’s not working, she likes to eat, and Marks has to keep an eye on her weight.