Miles Okri | Runic Student

Miles Okri

Yes, Hate the magic *people* and Sneer at the machine *people* you lovable hypocrites!

His cheery disposition becomes him on the norm and as the outsider he might be seen as one entirely unaware of how sick Ethea is, but heed the term "outsider," for he is the willfully ignorant. Rare is the day upon which he can glance to the news and find himself entirely pleased, but what is he to do? He feels himself a rat on a sinking ship, and so he has resolved to make the best of it. He pursues what pleases him and tries to keep goodwill close to his heart at all times. He is quick to welcome a trustworthy face, quick to waste money when inspiration for a new dish comes to mind, and quick to smile. Make no mistake, this is not a traipsing fool, for his affairs are exceptionally well kept and his credit score, among other things, is desirable. Despite this, he chooses to live in the Park Blake complex of Pauvres Square, fond of it's welcoming people and the reminder of home they pose-plus their cooking amazes him. Potlucks are his favorite type of event, just shy above going to the pub and watching a good game. To see a home-run defy odds is just the most divine type of exhilaration.

An exhilaration he does not restrict to the screen, as he is happily diligent in his work, both scholarly and entrepreneurial. Neither good food nor good grades will make themselves and his clientele of hungry, busy souls and professors are impatient, but he keeps them pleased, very pleased. He makes a point of keeping them very pleased - he knows merit is his strongest card; and in a sinking ship, 'cards' matter.  Nonetheless, he views the proverbial 'perversion of power' as despicable, and naturally acts to be as just as possible, refusing to allow personal impression infect the observations with which he makes personal impressions. This has the unintended effect of making his judgments devoid of emotion yet soulful in the purpose behind them, a quality which might be plain weird to some.

And what a weird guy he might seem. Every little thing is taken to account and, when he feels particularly casual, often "overthunk" as he would say. He talks but has no real sense of how. He cannot carry a conversation much beyond his own personal interest, and tends to spiral every itty bitty observation for chat-fodder which often causes him to rant about nothing. Why? He values relationships and feels alone. Yes there is the communal family of Park Blake, but there is not the close friend, nor the key to his heart, is there? No. But how to keep a lover or a friend when there's so much to be done?

"Too much to be done, I'd wager," he might say, but he loves "Too much," it's engaging. Even more, he is doing what he loves, learning, creating, and exploring - no - playing with what he knows. Cooking is practical and fun, Chemistry is just plain fun, the History of the world is his own personal story book to explore, Runes are self-qualifying, and the social structure within his fish tank is a sluggish soap opera ("don't eat your babies Monty!") How could he ignore any of these things? They are all divine! And so he must listen to the radio, to the audio book, and to his mind as he watches the frying pan sizzle rather than buy some condoms, there is no other way.

And yet, one shouldn't mistake him as the lover of all, for his cheer, his drive, his goofiness, and his love of life stand atop the bitterly observant idealist within.

On his earlobes are holes which once housed earrings now removed due to the perceived threat of super-magnets. He is no paranoid, but does anyone really want to suffer the pain of getting metal yanked out of the flesh? He would not.

However, he does not come off as the fearful. Instead, he is a loose figure in the prime of his life, and carries his decent bulk with a fluidity that belongs to someone who's not quite sure if they're drunk, and treads between form and flow. His nose scrunches up at the sight of something unpleasant, and seems to have a specific angle for horrid food and the babble of 'nutritionists'. Of course, one is more likely to find the jovial smile painted across his chiseled face, painting him as a blubbering fool himself than anything more. This effect generally holds true, but on the respite of nothing his smile fades and he falls to thought, more inclined to ponder even nothing than chat with the random stranger, despite his brief glances to them all. Brown eyes gleam, ignoring his general confusion towards the notion of "eye reveals emotion" for anything below intense as they betray energy, never once appearing dull. Instead, they scan everything and anything, and he has received his fair share of dirty glances for it, more than once looking to a place where it is improper to look simply because his head moved before he could think for it.


He adores the duller variants of "90's fashion" and very well might be seen with his trademark pink scarf, shades, and cap among a red checkered shirt with a white underneath, or perhaps his pin covered denim jacket. However, this is the style he reserves for when it is proper, his average day. When not, he will dress accordingly for the situation, may it be for business, a stroll through the slums of Dagos, or maybe just a brief walk through the crisp night.

Parents:
Benjamin Okri [46] - A taxi driver who stalks the streets of Dagos, raised from the slums to take to the yellow car. He is quite fond of the radio and takes to the news as if it were his own entertaining soap opera. Despite this, he is a kind man, and well known in the neighborhood cafe' as one of it's story tellers, having seen plenty on the drives that earn his pay. He is of average build, faintly handsome, and has a dark complexion that marks his child. Also a Blue Sox fan. 

Miriam Okri [53] - A tailor who inherited her neighborhood shop from her father and the one before him. She is well known for her quality work and sagely advice, which places her in decent standing within the eyes of the community. She is a short woman of tan complexion and a dulled beauty. Through some odd twist of fate, she has been incredibly close to a few summonings of this god or that even though she herself knew nothing of their relatively inconsequential origin and effect. Would probably chuckle if she learned.

Siblings
None

Extended Family
Uncle | Rodger Okri | Deceased at [38] : A man who was always absorbed by his Hunter duties, a face whom Benjamin missed sorely and Miles knew little of. He was killed 5 years back in a "altercation" between himself, a dangerous Illusionist, and a member of the university. The details of their shared death are foggy, but beyond clear is how complicated the situation must have been. 

Uncle | Addai Fischer [42] : A doctor who operates from Felici and under some hospital affiliated with the good hunters. He adores his older sister and is a grumpy friend of Benjamin. Step-father to Asling, with whom he shares a comfortable relation. A meek and unremarkable man himself.

Aunt | Mave O'Sullivan | Deceased at [31] : Met and married Addai in their nurse years oh so long ago. Killed shortly after the genocides ended by the hands of a radical Fire Magi who, with his comrades, made it their mission to hunt down the doctors who mended the wounds of Hunter. She was burnt to a crisp. And yes, she had a teen pregnancy. 

Cousin | Aisling O'Sulivan [26] : A girl whose passion is only surmounted by her stubbornness which itself pales against her "earthy beauty" as one man put it. Already determined to become a Hunter, the death of her mother compelled her further without thought, and before long she was stepped deep in blood of 'beast'. She is not fond of Miles, but will tolerate him for she finds good company with her aunt and excellent food by his hand.

Comrades
Amazing Innovation! | Hotbox [Immortal] : The Hotbox! An amazing box of slick design and cheap cost which keeps any food within both fresh and to the temperature of it's controller's liking! These immaculate boxes are the foundation upon which "The Food Tree" was built! May it's path be fettered with trumpet doots! May it's children walk as kings! May it never be outdated! Long live the Hotbox! :D 

 

Of the Magi crisis a young Miles could tell you very little beyond his initial observation of "they want us to think they're bad," one spurred on by his mother, who urged him to "think for himself," and often debated away with friends in his presence. This alone would have lead him to believe that the "They" were not his very neighbors, but Benjamin was quick to teach his son that to support the Magi in any way was absolute idiocy. Thus, the boy came to the subconscious conclusion (whom he could not capture in words) that there was something inherently wrong with the term "terrorist." 

Of course, he was a child in Dagos, and so these things called "politic," "national affairs," and so on meant barely anything to him. He was perturbed no doubt, but he was a child, and these serious things were not his world. No, his was the imaginary and amazing jungle of Esfuerzo Hills, explored by him and many other children in their games. Alongside Esfuerzo's grand adventure was school, and only in the bleak horizon he could see did the other world boil. There were intersections between the three, but he still clung to his childish dream of fun and cheer. By that cheer he took to baseball, like his father, grew fond of The Blue Sox, like his father, and joined a Little League team which made a slight name for itself, like his father.

Infact, he might have made a real name for himself were it not for Miriam, who hosted a wide range of faces and an even wider range of conversation topics. Through them he was privy to the secret worlds from which they walked and was enriched by being allowed to sit in their presence while the communal coffee was drank and ideas traded. The sheer complexity (to his young mind) of what some said, Miriam included, was beyond his conception and impressive on its own, much like the imaginary world of the Hills once was. More and more he began to soak their words in and seek the origins of their meanings through the computer screen and the library door, and it was sometime around here that he began to seclude himself more and more. 

But the faces his mother brought did not just impress him by word alone, but by the food they brought too, so many, so varied, so tasty, and once again, so bizarre. His curious mind wanted to learn how, and so that too he began to teach himself, splitting his time between learning to think and learning the foods, which soon compelled him to begin 'cooking' out of a want to replicate the tasty tastes. With the praise of his parents at his back, 'cooking' soon became more than a casual interest, but a hobby, the good marks of his grade sheet meaning nothing beyond abstract numbers and letters that were faint ripples in the light of good food and something cool to think about. 

These lights paled the college grind down to nothing but that and soon, in his junior year, another came. He met her in some silly school club or another, and she met him there too. He doted on her, she doted on him, they skirted around love in their reverence of one another. They had a sweet thing going on for a suitably brief moment, the kind that was "too good to be true". Lo and behold, it was, for she was a young Zero Magi well versed in illusions as revealed by some pesky Hunter named Zach for whom this backstory could care less. As Miles might have been directly involved in her 'terrorist schemes,' (which he, to this date, will argue were only her attempts to get an education) her race and "intents" were revealed him by way of interrogation. Of course, he was deemed innocent, but the realization deeply affected him. He was constantly aware of the horrid state of Ethea, but her arrest and subsequent disappearance forced him to stare into the beast itself. No longer could he ride his infantile bliss of ignorance. The "worlds" had truly become one now, their foul odor piercing his haven of the Hills.

Even worse was Aisling's reaction, never forgiving her cousin for "sleeping with Magi," even to this date, the death of her mother still deep in her mind. Miles, depressed by losing what, he felt, might have been the love of his life and being practically disowned by a cousin he loved dearly, shut himself in even more. The books and their thought he abandoned and the food he made, refining his style and selling away what he didn't need. Benjamin was concerned, naturally, but Miriam showed none if there was any, playing an open and calm embrace for her child. He didn't want to think, he refused to see almost childishly, admitting himself into a restaurant and quickly gaining the title of chef just, to, do. Summer came and he did do, but on the Zero Magi, Fae, his thoughts lingered.

On each twilit nights he stared into the dark, slowly coming to make peace with his sadness. He saw her smile on pictures and smiled himself, but looked to the future too. Peace came. But on those twilit dreams thenceforth it was revealed to him that her face sulked in darkness nursing the stub that was her arm in a hall of agony. Moans echoed, footsteps clacked against nothing, there was dark. There was dark, his eyes opened, there was his room. His breath shivered and he fell back into sleep. Nothing. He awoke and back to work he went. Back to sleep he went, the dream of horrible pain, this was a problem, what was he seeing? Again it came, and slowly, they drained her away to nothing (her last thoughts of him, the human who loved) then another came with their sufferings and they too died away And another died in hysterics, eyes dug out And another died of AIDS left unnoticed or touched without care And another was striped clean of every useful part of his self till his soul was devoured by you-know-who And another died taunted by thoughts of a dream uncompleted And another was killed, shot down like the *escaping dog* she was ("That label was not my creation...") And Another, a degenerate ally of the dog, beat many dead before being subdued by death And then a human joined the ranks of those who withered away, And she went mad. What was he seeing? These dreams were infrequently ordered but they felt like a cohesive unit nibbling away at him, driving pins where they should not be. The soft utterances of Ahanu soon came. Nip nip snip they chimed from behind a foggy distance. What? This was something he could tolerate no longer and so to the therapist he went, whose calm word and medication soon banished these dreams to the fog whence they came. Before long he needed no pill to be himself fully. He was soon was back to Miles as he was before, scarred by the experience, but his head out of the clouds. 

The timing, fortuitous, for he came to see an an advert for a cooking competition, the rewards being scholarships and what-have-you. With the uncomfortable thoughts of those dreams possibly being more than that at his side, he joined willingly, taking up the challenge with ease. He proved himself to be exceptionally talented, and climbed past most of the competition. While registered as second place, he was soon bumped up to first by way of technicality, as apparently, first had been cheating through means unknown to him (but well known to Kupiec). Nonetheless, while no victor on paper, he was given the victor's banquet, a scholarship which could grant him pass to any door he wished combined with his pleasing record and a little green. Senior year was thereby reduced to a relaxing stroll in which he could recover and explore himself, learn what it was that the thing named "Miles Okri" wanted.

His first thoughts were to go to a culinary school, to make his hobby a profession, but he realized that he didn't need any of that to be an excellent cook, and so chose against it. This left his future an ambiguous hole. He always had his cooking skills, which would never dull, to fall back on, so what to do? He thought on this for a while, and eventually resolved to apply for the Runic University, intrigued by the concept of a "Rune" and more than pleased with the courses of History and Chemistry (among many) it offered on the side, both subjects he enjoyed. Of course, he had absolutely no practical reason to apply, but figured that "going to college" for just a decent job was stupid anyway. All one needed for that was some common sense.

And so, with his decision made, he let the rest of Senior year pass by, spending the time refining his skills, studying for the entrance exam, and enjoying more than a few good books. His application was soon sent, the school year ended, and in the wait, he rekindled his interest in Baseball and The Blue Sox, taking to exercise and jovial games played with other enthusiasts. 

A letter came. He was accepted. Preparations were made, and soon, the farewells as well. Even Aisling showed signs of care, which he appreciated dearly. He clutched the memories of Dagos close on the ride, and soon beheld the "Great" University, of whom he'd heard and read many "great" things - greatly perturbing, greatly heroic. This duality aside, the University was simply a tool, a tool whose use he became well-versed. So well versed that he even created, for himself, a small business centered around providing meals for the busy, "The Food Tree" he called it. Business went well, as did his abstract grades. Thus became Miles Okri, the Runic Student and character of The Great Mufasa.

Runic Magic Novice: You're a starting student for the art of Runic Magic. Runes are a kind of magic that can only be learned, you are not born with this ability. It is the writing of ancient symbols in an ancient long-since-dead language that enacts certain spells. You are able to complete Novice level Runic Magic.


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Cowboy Bebop's Miles guest-starring as Miles Okri