Marshall Booth

Marshall "Quark" Booth is an English born scientist, gunsmith and technologist who works as one of the leading lab techs for the Heels Agency. Quark is a middle-aged man who is considered a bit of a grump, whose excellent R&D skills and excessive time in the labs have left his social skills undeveloped. He is responsible for overseeing development of certain gadgets and weaponry, including Lara Croft's uniquely lightweight pistols.

Quark plays a minor role during the Mini-VN Agents of Heels: Croft and the Coveted Seal (AoH:CatCS). He is responsible for equipping Lara for her mission to China, explaining the design of her new pistols and further shedding light on the daily activities at Heels HQ.

The name Marshall Booth, as well as the nickname Quark, are an homage to the James Bond series character Q, as their roles are the same. His general look is also loosely based on the film representations.

Physical
Quark is a middle-aged man, around the age of mid-40's, with an almost completely bald head, pale green eyes and almost as pale white skin. He has no facial hair either, instead a thin stubble covers his chin and jaw. His face is marked by age lines, particularly around the forehead. He is a touch overweight, as is normal for a man his age, and lacking much muscle definition.

Personality
Quark is a mostly an inwardly facing kind of character, much more comfortable around science and tech than with people, especially woman. While at work he enjoys listening to audio books on subjects ranging from humor to politics, instead of discussing or engaging on those topics with actual people. He is a very intelligent and capable scientist, particularly specializing in handheld electronics and even more in firearm technology.

Thanks to his years spent tucked away in labs and on research projects, Quark has severely underdeveloped social skills. He blurts out things at times, including asking if he can feel Lara's tits right to her face when talking about the guns he released to her. He is also a mild hypochondriac, worried about his heart and the stress people like Natasha Romanov cause him when destroying equipment in the field.

Hobbies and Interests

 * Science and Weaponry
 * Audio Books

Dislikes

 * Stress, Surprises

Key Personal Relationships
As of now, Quark has no known key personal relationships that affect his character and his experiences in the beWilderverse.

Pre-Agency Life
Quark has been working as a part of Heels R&D for many years, but before that he was a researcher in a number of other places. Starting out during his time in university in his home of England, his doctorate thesis was on the topic of "handloading", the process of manually reassembling bullets and reusing them. His experiments proved that with some cheaply made equipment, the process could be refined to reduce the chances that damaged casings would misfire, allowing military barracks to make use of the idea and reduce ammunition requirements in warzones. The paper drew the attention of British gun manufacturers, who buried the research after taking him on as an in-house gun designer.

Quark worked for a few years in the private sector, focused on the science and engineering challenges of gun design and not caring much for the products themselves. He also experimented with small electronics, attempting to incorporate them into small arms he was designing, but ended up creating a series of shock grenades.

Eventually Quark gained the attentions of military organizations in the United States when he penned a theoretical paper on "Magic Bullets" without being solicited to do so. After listening to a podcast at work where a conspiracy theorist claimed JFK was killed by an Ice Bullet that left no evidence, Quark was perturbed at the stupidity of the idea and so disproved it definitively for those who'd believe it. In his testing he came to the conclusion that other kinds of bullets could theoretically be produced and go undetected, such as a biodegradable polymer slug. His paper was immediately classified and Quark was asked to come work for the US Government at the Pentagon, where he worked for a short time before being poached by General Miller for work within the secretive Heels Agency.

Agents of Heels: Croft and the Coveted Seal (AoH: CatCS)
Quark has a small role during the coarse of Croft and the Coveted Seal, acting in part as a comedic figure and also as a voice of science. Initially he is introduced by Natasha Romanov as she shows the inner workings of the day-to-day at Heels HQ to Lara Croft. Immediately they have sour words as Quark complains about her straining his heart and all the cars she destroys, while she playfully flirts back with him. After leaving Lara to deal with him, he explains the kind of work the lab people do, as well as his role as the leading gunsmith for the team. He gives Lara her iconic lightweight pistols to take out on a field test before scaring her way by asking to feel her up without realizing the faux pas.

Non-Canonical Content
Quark has yet to appear in any non-canonical content to date.

Canonical

 * Agents of Heels: Croft and the Coveted Seal (AoH: CatCS)