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Fourth-Wall Permissions Post
May. 5th, 2025 04:53 am Here's a weird permissions post - Marco is known to do countless pop culture references, but only in those that originated during the 90s time period and earlier. And when I mean popular culture, I mean mainstream media at the time, so if you are playing an obscure canon during that timeframe, he's likely not going to fourth wall it. He WON'T be fourth-walling anything that is past 2000.
With this in mind, I want no fourth-walling for Marco. He's probably think it's an Ellimist mind trip anyway so he's not going to believe you.
With this in mind, I want no fourth-walling for Marco. He's probably think it's an Ellimist mind trip anyway so he's not going to believe you.
Permissions for Acquiring DNA
May. 5th, 2015 05:02 amAnimorphs have this really important rule: never morph a sentient being's without their permission. IC-ly wise, Marco will usually respect this rule unless he doesn't. When he feels he will need to get the upper hand in any situation, he will take the DNA and morph into that particular person, permission or not.
That's where you come in. See, the neat thing about morphing is that it is purely DNA-based. For example, you have a character that is extremely scarred from war wounds. Marco acquires that person's DNA and morphs into that person, but without the scars as the scars are not something the character was born with. Basically: everything your character is born with, and if completely part of his/her DNA, then Marco will have it. Genetic memories, powers, everything.
So tell me if Marco can morph into your character and what he may or may not have while doing so! If you don't want him to turn into your character, we can find ways that Marco won't be ever having the need to do so.
That's where you come in. See, the neat thing about morphing is that it is purely DNA-based. For example, you have a character that is extremely scarred from war wounds. Marco acquires that person's DNA and morphs into that person, but without the scars as the scars are not something the character was born with. Basically: everything your character is born with, and if completely part of his/her DNA, then Marco will have it. Genetic memories, powers, everything.
So tell me if Marco can morph into your character and what he may or may not have while doing so! If you don't want him to turn into your character, we can find ways that Marco won't be ever having the need to do so.
IC Contact
Sep. 13th, 2014 08:26 am[ There's an obvious teenage boy's voice pretending to sound mechanical and dull, like a robot. ]
The Great Marco is not here. Leave a message.
The Great Marco is not here. Leave a message.
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Marco
CHARACTER AGE: Exact age unknown, but it's figured that throughout canon timeline he's been from fourteen at series' start to about eighteen at series' end. For his canon point, I'll settle for fourteen.
BACKGROUND: Marco was once the son of two proud parents Peter and Eva, who was, if Visser One was to believed, a very kind and gentle boy. All that changed, however, on one stormy night Eva had gone out to the dock and sailed out to sea on the family’s sailboat, with the storm still raging. The next day, the remains of the shattered boat were washed up. Eva was never found, and presumed to be dead. This took Peter spiraling down to a severe depression, which eventually resulted in quitting his computer engineering job and worked in various low-end jobs. This forced Marco to grow up far more quickly.
One day, Marco hang out with his best friend Jake to the local mall arcade where they usually hang out after school. They ran into Jake’s cousin Rachel, and her best friend Cassie, and eventually Tobias. Deciding to go home, they took a detour through an abandoned construction site.
As they passed through the construction sight, they noticed a light passing through the starry night quickly. This light was an alien spacecraft. The spacecraft crash landed in front of them, and the door opened to a dying alien from its wounds. The kids were frightened and kept their distance until Tobias and Cassie step up and try to heal its wounds. However, the alien dismiss their attempts and introduced himself as Elfangor, a warrior of the Andalite homeworld. He warned them of the Earth invasion of the Yeerk Empire: alien parasites that enter their hosts’ brains and control their motor functions and can access their memories. Already they have conquered three races and destroyed many more, and so far only the Andalites have the technology and power to resist the Yeerks. No one can tell between a normal human being nor an infested one.
However, Elfangor had one more trick up on his sleeve. With Andalite technology, he gave them the power to morph: to touch and acquire any living creature’s DNA and become that creature. However, there’s one drawback: they have to return back to their human forms less than two hours, or otherwise they will be stuck in that form forever.
At that moment, the Yeerks arrived. The gang of teenagers flee into hiding as they witnessed a variety of Controllers, alien and human, securing the Andalite and his ship. Soon another Andalite appeared as well, but Marco and the others soon realize it is not a normal Andalite, but another infested Controller. This Yeerk was named Visser Three, the third most powerful in the Yeerk Empire as a result of being the first Yeerk to ever obtain an Andalite body and consequently, has the ability to morph as well. As Visser Three taunted Elfangor with threats of infesting Elfangor’s family, Visser Three began to morph a massive monster he acquired its DNA from a far corner of the galaxy. He grabbed Elfangor and ate him alive. The teenagers took off and fled.
The next day, everyone was still shaken up. Marco more so, realizing that if he decided to do anything about the situation, there’s a strong chance that he might be killed, and then his father will have no one. But despite his own concerns, he went along with Jake and others, specifically to find out more of their given ability and about the Yeerks. They discover out the location of the Yeerk Pool – an underground city where the human hosts go down every three days, their Yeerks temporarily leaving their minds in order to soak up ‘Kandrona’ rays as a source of nourishment for their own slug-like bodies.
In the process of gathering information about the Yeerks, they also find out that Jake’s older brother Tom is also infested, and is part of the front organization called “The Sharing” where the Yeerks drawn other unsuspecting humans to their club and infest them. The Animorphs decide to attack the Pool to rescue Tom. The mission was a failure, and worst, Tobias has passed the two hour limit and is stuck in the body of a red-tail hawk forever.
Eventually they find another stranded Andalite – Aximili, a young military cadet and little brother to Elfangor.
Marco’s opposition to the war quickly ended when he discovered that his mother was not dead, but alive as the host of Visser One, the spearhead of Yeerk invasion. While initially he never told anyone about this fact, fearing their pity, he then eventually admits to the team that his mother is a Controller as well. However, the Animorphs kept a close eye on Visser One whenever they can.
Animorphs continued fighting their own guerrilla war for three years, occasionally going in to space a few times (and in some instances, alternate dimensions and going back in time), and encountering many races. They have their low points, but they also gained victories. Marco’s father started to go back to work again. They had freed two Hork-Bajir and hidden them in a valley that eventually grew into a colony.
Somehow Visser One realized that one of the “Andalite bandits” (The Yeerks, and Visser Three in particular, assumed the resistance fighters were Andalites, as they were the only ones apart from Visser Three to have the ability to morph) was actually her own host’s son. During a trial for her life in front of the Council of Thirteen, in an attempt to discredit Visser One on VIsser Three's inability to dispose the "Andalite bandits", Visser Three set loose a starved tiger and bear as the “Andalite bandits”, and he successfully killed the bear and the tiger. Realizing her standing has become weakened because of this, Visser One sneaked a phone call to Marco, to tell him that his mother was in danger in execution. With some convincing, Marco and the rest of the Animorphs interrupted the trial by attacking it, exposing Visser Three for his manipulation. Eventually they retreated, taking Visser One with them.
They soon discover the reason why Visser One had taken a non-warfare tactic to the invasion of Earth: as being one of the two Yeerks who had discovered Earth, Visser One have two human children with a host’s and her partner’s, and developed feelings for them, and won't risk war for them. The Animorphs realized even if were the case, open warfare will still not be the best as they rely on underhanded tactics to slow down the invasion. They are still six of them and if the Yeerks started an all out war, then there was little the Animorphs can do to stop it. Marco allowed Visser One to live and continue infesting his mother for now.
Recently, Marco’s father remarried to another woman, much to Marco’s dismay. However, it didn’t last long – Peter have discovered advanced science, and the Yeerks decided to infest him. Realizing this, Marco called Rachel for back up and went after them and they saved Peter. Unfortunately, his father saw too much and it became too dangerous for him to go back and live normally. Marco told him everything about the invasion.
Marco faked both his and Peter's death and gone into hiding. The Animorphs learn that Visser One was slated for execution for failures by the Council of Thirteen. The Animorphs decided that they really had no choice but not to rescue Visser One, but rather his mother, who will be more valuable to the war effort than Visser One will be at this point, as Visser Three will obviously be getting her title and rank. So they invaded the Yeerk Pool once more and begun the mission of rescuing Eva. They killed Visser One, rescued Eva and escaped.
For a while, it is perfect for Marco: his dream for Eva and Peter's reunion came true, and while there is the problem of Marco's step-mother becoming a Controller and Marco unable (or unwilling) to do anything about it. Unfortunately, the Yeerks finally caught on to the idea that perhaps the Andalite bandits were not really Andalites, and started various blood drives and donations that collect many human samples of DNA as possible. Realizing the potential of their cover to be blown, the Animorphs invaded the bank and tried to delete and destroy any incriminating evidence - but they were caught in the act and there was a battle. All Animorphs escaped, but all of them gained enough wounds for blood to spill in battle, and soon enough, they were targeted. Rachel's, Cassie's, and Tobais's long lost mother were rescued and fled to the Hork-Bajir valley, but Jake's parents were taken.
Out of options, the Animorphs decided to take a big leap of faith and decided to create recruits out of young kids such as themselves who are handicapped or ill in some way, as the Yeerks will not consider them as suitable hosts, but they lost the morphing cube to the Yeerks.
Visser Three promoted to Visser One, and his first act was to infest the governor and all the political figureheads. Marco and the others managed to save the governor of the state they lived in, and created the first public warning against the Yeerks. Visser Three made the order of massive round-ups of non-Controllers and force them into the Yeerk Pool for infestation. In response, the Animorphs and their new morph-capable auxiliary troopers invaded the National Guard and took several thousand-pound bombs and shoved them into the Yeerk Pool. The resulting explosion not only took out the Pool and killed thousands, but also destroyed half the town.
The stakes risen, the Animorphs pulled the ultimate mission - infiltrate the Pool Ship: the flagship of the Yeerk Invasion and the only ship in the solar system that has the remaining Kandrona rays. In the end of the battle the Animorphs won, but they lost Rachel and the Auxiliary Animorphs in the fighting.
Marco became a huge celebrity in Hollywood and lived the highlife, if not hollowly. One day a group of Andalite ships was under attack from a Blade ship. Ax was taken, and the survivor of the attack returned to Earth and told Jake what has happened. Recruiting Marco and Tobias and two other human officers, they stole a captured Yeerk ship (which they christened The Rachel) and went out in search for their friend. Eventually they run across the ship that kidnapped Ax and realized that they are going into a pointless fight against the entity called The One.
The story of the Animorphs ended with Jake giving the order of The Rachel slamming into the Blade ship.
PERSONALITY:
Marco appears to be archetype of a class clown. He cracks jokes at everything and everyone, including himself. He’ll pull pranks once in a while, but he prefers witticisms and sarcasm. However, he describes himself as someone who is “allergic to pity”. He’ll confuse this with sympathy, but really, he just hates when people get up into personal boundaries and start asking him deep questions that he rather not have the answer for. He doesn’t like going back to the pain and grief of his mother’s “death”, and his father’s downward spiral to depression. He much rather locked that all away, so he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore, so when somebody asks him some deep and meaningful and really none of their business, he cracks a joke and laughs. He hides behind his laughter because that’s the only shield he has.
Marco has a sharp calculating mind. He reads people, and he uses it to his advantage. He is also good at tactics as well. One of the most dangerous aspects of Marco’s personality is that when he is angered, he can focused it to the point of complete and utter ruthlessness.
Despite Marco's ruthless attitude and his jokes, Marco is above all loyal. Before Elfangor, he was loyal only to his father and to Jake, his best friend. When he learn about the Yeerks, he was ready to jump ship just so he can stay alive for his father. It's only Marco's loyalty to Jake that he stayed as long as he could without breaking. Over time, his loyalty extends to the rest of the Animorphs.
But when he does notice there is a personal problem that will affect him and the Animorphs, he doesn't take the gentle, more manipulative route like Cassie does. He's blunt, telling what it is what it is, and takes maneuvers to ensure it won't be a problem. However, Marco's methods can be brutal and this can put a strain on his relationships with everyone. For him, emotions are second to the needs of many, which is why he is not a good leader but a great second-in-command.
Marco can see the clear bright line almost to the point of obsession. While he can see some moral objections to his plans and can act according to them, he just finds it easier to get it done with minimal fuss. After all, it was he who proposed the plan to manipulate Visser One and Visser Three into killing each other, despite the fact that he is also planning to kill his mother as well. The Animorphs knew this and became concerned and tried to talk him out of it, but he refused. Once he sees the bright line, there’s no stopping him.
But despite his jokes and his ruthless nature, the kid is also just one big dork underneath. Pop culture is his lifeline.
POWER: Marco has the ability to morph, which is also called shapeshifting. It is not a supernatural ability or something that even comes naturally, but rather it is highly advanced genetic technology that allows the user to touch a creature and absorb its DNA inside the user's body. At that point, the technology can allow the user the ability to turn into the exact replica of the creature. Naturally there are upsides to morphing:
1) Morphing allows a certain additional telepathic ability called thought-speak, indicated in brackets such < as this. > Thought-speak can be modified into a private one-on-one conversation or something public. It also functions like a radio, so it has a "reachable" radius, but it's not certain how far you have to be in order to listen to thought-speak.
2) Morphing is DNA-based, for both the user and the animal. If one is acquiring a sick or injured animal, then the morphed copy will not have those handicaps. The same goes for himself: if he is injured either as a human or in morph, all he has to do is simply morph/demorph and the wound will be gone.
3) Acquiring DNA comes with a trance to the animal and lasts only a few seconds. For dangerous animals, those few seconds mean the difference of life or death.
However, this power comes with its flaws:
1) He cannot stay in morph over two hours or he will be permanently stuck in that morph forever.
2) He cannot acquire a morph through someone else's morph, nor can he acquire a morph while in morph.
3) Marco cannot morph one form into the other, he has to resume to his natural human form before morphing into another animal. The process is mentally and physically exhausting.
4) He can only morph into any multicelluar animal; he cannot morph into a plant, bacterium, inanimate objects, or a dead animal.
5) There is a rare case called "morphing sickness" where the body will reject a certain DNA acquired by the morphing process. This will result in nausea and out of control morphing. There is a natural process where the body will completely reject the foreign DNA and be expelled from the individual's system, but the DNA will be recreated as the very animal, so depending on the animal this process can be extremely dangerous to the person with the allergy and to everyone around him or her.
6) There is a fundamental weakness with metal: if he is stabbed through a knife in the stomach in gorilla morph, he will have to pull it out and then morph back into human. If he morph backs into human with the knife still inside his gut, the wound will still be there.
7) While wounds are easy for Marco to bounce off from, disease and viruses are a little tricky. Being sick will sometimes affect Marco's capability to think clearly, such as the brief time when he was bit by a rabid dog and morphed in somebody else's home (that he broke into), despite assurances he would not. In other instances, morphing requires strength and concentration, so if Marco is extremely sick he could morph away the disease, but that will mean that he will have enough strength to even do so.
8) Thought speak acts like a radio with a small radius, so depending on the amount of distance or blockage (like underground or deep within a buildings' walls), it can be difficult to make it out.
Here is the list of morphs he has acquired over the course of his timeline in chronological order.
Gorilla (Big Jim)
Osprey
Flea
Wolf
Trout
Dolphin
Seagull
Lobster
Ant
Cockroach
Housefly
Great Horned Owl
Mouse
Termite
Skunk
Irish Setter
Wolf Spider
Bat
Spider Monkey (unusable: Sario Rip morph*)
Jaguar (unusable: Sario Rip morph*)
Llama
Horse
Parrot
Hammerhead Shark
Mole
^ At his canon point, these are the only morphs he has access too.
Mosquito
Leeran
Tyrannosaurus Rex (unusable: Sario Rip morph*)
Cobra (Spawn)
Rhinoceros
Anteater
Seal
Polar Bear (Nanook)
Giant Squid
Chimpanzee
Eel
Human (Mr. Grant)
Mountain Goat
* Sario Rip: a time flux that caused the Animorphs to go back in time. Due to timeline issues, they are unable to use these morphs once returned to their respectable timeline.
CHARACTER NAME: Marco
CHARACTER AGE: Exact age unknown, but it's figured that throughout canon timeline he's been from fourteen at series' start to about eighteen at series' end. For his canon point, I'll settle for fourteen.
BACKGROUND: Marco was once the son of two proud parents Peter and Eva, who was, if Visser One was to believed, a very kind and gentle boy. All that changed, however, on one stormy night Eva had gone out to the dock and sailed out to sea on the family’s sailboat, with the storm still raging. The next day, the remains of the shattered boat were washed up. Eva was never found, and presumed to be dead. This took Peter spiraling down to a severe depression, which eventually resulted in quitting his computer engineering job and worked in various low-end jobs. This forced Marco to grow up far more quickly.
One day, Marco hang out with his best friend Jake to the local mall arcade where they usually hang out after school. They ran into Jake’s cousin Rachel, and her best friend Cassie, and eventually Tobias. Deciding to go home, they took a detour through an abandoned construction site.
As they passed through the construction sight, they noticed a light passing through the starry night quickly. This light was an alien spacecraft. The spacecraft crash landed in front of them, and the door opened to a dying alien from its wounds. The kids were frightened and kept their distance until Tobias and Cassie step up and try to heal its wounds. However, the alien dismiss their attempts and introduced himself as Elfangor, a warrior of the Andalite homeworld. He warned them of the Earth invasion of the Yeerk Empire: alien parasites that enter their hosts’ brains and control their motor functions and can access their memories. Already they have conquered three races and destroyed many more, and so far only the Andalites have the technology and power to resist the Yeerks. No one can tell between a normal human being nor an infested one.
However, Elfangor had one more trick up on his sleeve. With Andalite technology, he gave them the power to morph: to touch and acquire any living creature’s DNA and become that creature. However, there’s one drawback: they have to return back to their human forms less than two hours, or otherwise they will be stuck in that form forever.
At that moment, the Yeerks arrived. The gang of teenagers flee into hiding as they witnessed a variety of Controllers, alien and human, securing the Andalite and his ship. Soon another Andalite appeared as well, but Marco and the others soon realize it is not a normal Andalite, but another infested Controller. This Yeerk was named Visser Three, the third most powerful in the Yeerk Empire as a result of being the first Yeerk to ever obtain an Andalite body and consequently, has the ability to morph as well. As Visser Three taunted Elfangor with threats of infesting Elfangor’s family, Visser Three began to morph a massive monster he acquired its DNA from a far corner of the galaxy. He grabbed Elfangor and ate him alive. The teenagers took off and fled.
The next day, everyone was still shaken up. Marco more so, realizing that if he decided to do anything about the situation, there’s a strong chance that he might be killed, and then his father will have no one. But despite his own concerns, he went along with Jake and others, specifically to find out more of their given ability and about the Yeerks. They discover out the location of the Yeerk Pool – an underground city where the human hosts go down every three days, their Yeerks temporarily leaving their minds in order to soak up ‘Kandrona’ rays as a source of nourishment for their own slug-like bodies.
In the process of gathering information about the Yeerks, they also find out that Jake’s older brother Tom is also infested, and is part of the front organization called “The Sharing” where the Yeerks drawn other unsuspecting humans to their club and infest them. The Animorphs decide to attack the Pool to rescue Tom. The mission was a failure, and worst, Tobias has passed the two hour limit and is stuck in the body of a red-tail hawk forever.
Eventually they find another stranded Andalite – Aximili, a young military cadet and little brother to Elfangor.
Marco’s opposition to the war quickly ended when he discovered that his mother was not dead, but alive as the host of Visser One, the spearhead of Yeerk invasion. While initially he never told anyone about this fact, fearing their pity, he then eventually admits to the team that his mother is a Controller as well. However, the Animorphs kept a close eye on Visser One whenever they can.
Animorphs continued fighting their own guerrilla war for three years, occasionally going in to space a few times (and in some instances, alternate dimensions and going back in time), and encountering many races. They have their low points, but they also gained victories. Marco’s father started to go back to work again. They had freed two Hork-Bajir and hidden them in a valley that eventually grew into a colony.
Somehow Visser One realized that one of the “Andalite bandits” (The Yeerks, and Visser Three in particular, assumed the resistance fighters were Andalites, as they were the only ones apart from Visser Three to have the ability to morph) was actually her own host’s son. During a trial for her life in front of the Council of Thirteen, in an attempt to discredit Visser One on VIsser Three's inability to dispose the "Andalite bandits", Visser Three set loose a starved tiger and bear as the “Andalite bandits”, and he successfully killed the bear and the tiger. Realizing her standing has become weakened because of this, Visser One sneaked a phone call to Marco, to tell him that his mother was in danger in execution. With some convincing, Marco and the rest of the Animorphs interrupted the trial by attacking it, exposing Visser Three for his manipulation. Eventually they retreated, taking Visser One with them.
They soon discover the reason why Visser One had taken a non-warfare tactic to the invasion of Earth: as being one of the two Yeerks who had discovered Earth, Visser One have two human children with a host’s and her partner’s, and developed feelings for them, and won't risk war for them. The Animorphs realized even if were the case, open warfare will still not be the best as they rely on underhanded tactics to slow down the invasion. They are still six of them and if the Yeerks started an all out war, then there was little the Animorphs can do to stop it. Marco allowed Visser One to live and continue infesting his mother for now.
Recently, Marco’s father remarried to another woman, much to Marco’s dismay. However, it didn’t last long – Peter have discovered advanced science, and the Yeerks decided to infest him. Realizing this, Marco called Rachel for back up and went after them and they saved Peter. Unfortunately, his father saw too much and it became too dangerous for him to go back and live normally. Marco told him everything about the invasion.
Marco faked both his and Peter's death and gone into hiding. The Animorphs learn that Visser One was slated for execution for failures by the Council of Thirteen. The Animorphs decided that they really had no choice but not to rescue Visser One, but rather his mother, who will be more valuable to the war effort than Visser One will be at this point, as Visser Three will obviously be getting her title and rank. So they invaded the Yeerk Pool once more and begun the mission of rescuing Eva. They killed Visser One, rescued Eva and escaped.
For a while, it is perfect for Marco: his dream for Eva and Peter's reunion came true, and while there is the problem of Marco's step-mother becoming a Controller and Marco unable (or unwilling) to do anything about it. Unfortunately, the Yeerks finally caught on to the idea that perhaps the Andalite bandits were not really Andalites, and started various blood drives and donations that collect many human samples of DNA as possible. Realizing the potential of their cover to be blown, the Animorphs invaded the bank and tried to delete and destroy any incriminating evidence - but they were caught in the act and there was a battle. All Animorphs escaped, but all of them gained enough wounds for blood to spill in battle, and soon enough, they were targeted. Rachel's, Cassie's, and Tobais's long lost mother were rescued and fled to the Hork-Bajir valley, but Jake's parents were taken.
Out of options, the Animorphs decided to take a big leap of faith and decided to create recruits out of young kids such as themselves who are handicapped or ill in some way, as the Yeerks will not consider them as suitable hosts, but they lost the morphing cube to the Yeerks.
Visser Three promoted to Visser One, and his first act was to infest the governor and all the political figureheads. Marco and the others managed to save the governor of the state they lived in, and created the first public warning against the Yeerks. Visser Three made the order of massive round-ups of non-Controllers and force them into the Yeerk Pool for infestation. In response, the Animorphs and their new morph-capable auxiliary troopers invaded the National Guard and took several thousand-pound bombs and shoved them into the Yeerk Pool. The resulting explosion not only took out the Pool and killed thousands, but also destroyed half the town.
The stakes risen, the Animorphs pulled the ultimate mission - infiltrate the Pool Ship: the flagship of the Yeerk Invasion and the only ship in the solar system that has the remaining Kandrona rays. In the end of the battle the Animorphs won, but they lost Rachel and the Auxiliary Animorphs in the fighting.
Marco became a huge celebrity in Hollywood and lived the highlife, if not hollowly. One day a group of Andalite ships was under attack from a Blade ship. Ax was taken, and the survivor of the attack returned to Earth and told Jake what has happened. Recruiting Marco and Tobias and two other human officers, they stole a captured Yeerk ship (which they christened The Rachel) and went out in search for their friend. Eventually they run across the ship that kidnapped Ax and realized that they are going into a pointless fight against the entity called The One.
The story of the Animorphs ended with Jake giving the order of The Rachel slamming into the Blade ship.
PERSONALITY:
Marco appears to be archetype of a class clown. He cracks jokes at everything and everyone, including himself. He’ll pull pranks once in a while, but he prefers witticisms and sarcasm. However, he describes himself as someone who is “allergic to pity”. He’ll confuse this with sympathy, but really, he just hates when people get up into personal boundaries and start asking him deep questions that he rather not have the answer for. He doesn’t like going back to the pain and grief of his mother’s “death”, and his father’s downward spiral to depression. He much rather locked that all away, so he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore, so when somebody asks him some deep and meaningful and really none of their business, he cracks a joke and laughs. He hides behind his laughter because that’s the only shield he has.
Marco has a sharp calculating mind. He reads people, and he uses it to his advantage. He is also good at tactics as well. One of the most dangerous aspects of Marco’s personality is that when he is angered, he can focused it to the point of complete and utter ruthlessness.
Despite Marco's ruthless attitude and his jokes, Marco is above all loyal. Before Elfangor, he was loyal only to his father and to Jake, his best friend. When he learn about the Yeerks, he was ready to jump ship just so he can stay alive for his father. It's only Marco's loyalty to Jake that he stayed as long as he could without breaking. Over time, his loyalty extends to the rest of the Animorphs.
But when he does notice there is a personal problem that will affect him and the Animorphs, he doesn't take the gentle, more manipulative route like Cassie does. He's blunt, telling what it is what it is, and takes maneuvers to ensure it won't be a problem. However, Marco's methods can be brutal and this can put a strain on his relationships with everyone. For him, emotions are second to the needs of many, which is why he is not a good leader but a great second-in-command.
Marco can see the clear bright line almost to the point of obsession. While he can see some moral objections to his plans and can act according to them, he just finds it easier to get it done with minimal fuss. After all, it was he who proposed the plan to manipulate Visser One and Visser Three into killing each other, despite the fact that he is also planning to kill his mother as well. The Animorphs knew this and became concerned and tried to talk him out of it, but he refused. Once he sees the bright line, there’s no stopping him.
But despite his jokes and his ruthless nature, the kid is also just one big dork underneath. Pop culture is his lifeline.
POWER: Marco has the ability to morph, which is also called shapeshifting. It is not a supernatural ability or something that even comes naturally, but rather it is highly advanced genetic technology that allows the user to touch a creature and absorb its DNA inside the user's body. At that point, the technology can allow the user the ability to turn into the exact replica of the creature. Naturally there are upsides to morphing:
1) Morphing allows a certain additional telepathic ability called thought-speak, indicated in brackets such < as this. > Thought-speak can be modified into a private one-on-one conversation or something public. It also functions like a radio, so it has a "reachable" radius, but it's not certain how far you have to be in order to listen to thought-speak.
2) Morphing is DNA-based, for both the user and the animal. If one is acquiring a sick or injured animal, then the morphed copy will not have those handicaps. The same goes for himself: if he is injured either as a human or in morph, all he has to do is simply morph/demorph and the wound will be gone.
3) Acquiring DNA comes with a trance to the animal and lasts only a few seconds. For dangerous animals, those few seconds mean the difference of life or death.
However, this power comes with its flaws:
1) He cannot stay in morph over two hours or he will be permanently stuck in that morph forever.
2) He cannot acquire a morph through someone else's morph, nor can he acquire a morph while in morph.
3) Marco cannot morph one form into the other, he has to resume to his natural human form before morphing into another animal. The process is mentally and physically exhausting.
4) He can only morph into any multicelluar animal; he cannot morph into a plant, bacterium, inanimate objects, or a dead animal.
5) There is a rare case called "morphing sickness" where the body will reject a certain DNA acquired by the morphing process. This will result in nausea and out of control morphing. There is a natural process where the body will completely reject the foreign DNA and be expelled from the individual's system, but the DNA will be recreated as the very animal, so depending on the animal this process can be extremely dangerous to the person with the allergy and to everyone around him or her.
6) There is a fundamental weakness with metal: if he is stabbed through a knife in the stomach in gorilla morph, he will have to pull it out and then morph back into human. If he morph backs into human with the knife still inside his gut, the wound will still be there.
7) While wounds are easy for Marco to bounce off from, disease and viruses are a little tricky. Being sick will sometimes affect Marco's capability to think clearly, such as the brief time when he was bit by a rabid dog and morphed in somebody else's home (that he broke into), despite assurances he would not. In other instances, morphing requires strength and concentration, so if Marco is extremely sick he could morph away the disease, but that will mean that he will have enough strength to even do so.
8) Thought speak acts like a radio with a small radius, so depending on the amount of distance or blockage (like underground or deep within a buildings' walls), it can be difficult to make it out.
Here is the list of morphs he has acquired over the course of his timeline in chronological order.
Gorilla (Big Jim)
Osprey
Flea
Wolf
Trout
Dolphin
Seagull
Lobster
Ant
Cockroach
Housefly
Great Horned Owl
Mouse
Termite
Skunk
Irish Setter
Wolf Spider
Bat
Spider Monkey (unusable: Sario Rip morph*)
Jaguar (unusable: Sario Rip morph*)
Llama
Horse
Parrot
Hammerhead Shark
Mole
^ At his canon point, these are the only morphs he has access too.
Mosquito
Leeran
Tyrannosaurus Rex (unusable: Sario Rip morph*)
Cobra (Spawn)
Rhinoceros
Anteater
Seal
Polar Bear (Nanook)
Giant Squid
Chimpanzee
Eel
Human (Mr. Grant)
Mountain Goat
* Sario Rip: a time flux that caused the Animorphs to go back in time. Due to timeline issues, they are unable to use these morphs once returned to their respectable timeline.
