Ruka | Magnum Spy

BASICS
FULL NAME: Ruka
NICKNAMES: N/A

AGE: 1 ½ years
GENDER: Male
SEXUALITY: Uhh

AFFILIATION: Mercurior
RANK: Magnum Spy

APPEARANCE
Ruka has a small, shapely build with an abnormally lengthy set of legs, small paws, and a lack of hard angles despite of inherent thinness. The peculiar “S” curve throughout his body gives him an elegant silhouette, dramatized by spiky ridges of fur along his back and exaggerated proportions, namely a deep chest, “deer” neck, tapered waist, and arched loins. It may appear as though he lacks muscle but he has good depth where it counts, mostly his thighs. His head is considerably narrow while his ears are tall and the tips wispy. With a soft but defined face, he is androgynous-looking, and the way he carries himself is very delicate, walking with a stealthy, serpentine sway. Sable in color with desaturated red and grey markings, his fur is short and disheveled in areas where it thickens. The fur along his nape is longest and most wiry and flares up when he raises his neck. His wide, almond eyes are his most striking feature, colored a soft orange that pop against his dark fur. The vibrant red of the Mercurior insignia marks his left wrist, right above his dew claw, in the shape of three simple lines.

• HEALTH: Alive, good
• HEIGHT: 25 in (73 cm)
• WEIGHT: 70 lb (31 kg)

PERSONALITY
A needle amongst knives, it’s almost always wallflower hour around Ruka, and though he lacks the finesse to be effective in many social situations, he has an intrinsic desire for the company of others. Forsaken by a lineage he knows nothing of and wants nothing to do with, he is a product of a lonely environment, but has managed to channel this loneliness into self-education and survivalism — two facets of his life he is immensely proud of, and two reasons he continues to fight for what he holds close. Hailing in isolation, there is not much he does hold close, other than an ever-growing repertoire of street smarts that has kept him able to see another sunrise. Where brawn falls short he may compensate with words and attempts at humor that can range dramatically depending on who he is around. He is inherently ungainly, a will to be close to others constantly sabotaged by a mind that blanks among crowds. However, despite his vices, he retains a raw, rustic charm about him, probably due to having never been influenced by parents or siblings… or being unable to keep a seal on his emotions.

He is not much more than a vessel moving forward, guided by ridges of the water. Not gripped by any strong desire to live as lavishly as his capabilities enable him, but also not desiring death by any means, Ruka is directionless in life, simply changing with the ebb and flow. He has come to realize that where he may be unable to give himself a tether to hold on to, others can. Others give him direction; a cause, a reason, something he is too lost on to find himself.

He is met with a vital defect in his search for purpose: in the grand scheme of things, he is but an outsider looking in. Pack life is foreign to him, as are the many intricacies that make it unique. Tradition, solidarity, and the collaborative realization of goals are exotic to him, as he is more inclined to believe a pack is less of a family and more of a group of individuals forced together by circumstance. Being in a group that strongly promotes individual freedom may also further his skewed perception. He is far from defiant but where he fails to see the logic or personal relevance in an order, he may veer off the beaten path to find his own means to an end. The shortest avenue is generally the best, in Ruka’s experience, so he will opt for the least complicated course of action and this bias is likely to reflect in his handiwork. A rift grows deeper in his conscience as he spends time in groups, where feelings of unfulfillment, alienation, and a fear that he is contributing nothing of substance festers. Ruka desperately longs to have the stability of a place to call home; an understanding of pack life—to see it as it is—but it clashes with a deep cynical instinct to keep everyone at arm’s length, as a result of indignation for having been abandoned, and self-inflicted suspicion that he is unworthy of companionship.

Ruka is convinced he was born unfortunate. Whether it is a bad habit of being at the wrong place at the wrong time or he was simply destined to a life of misfortunate, bad luck comes calling. Deep down, though, he grapples with the unpleasant reality that there is no higher force ruling his life; he forges his own path to failure. A lack of overall refinement and social competence leads him to self-sabotage and he struggles greatly to remedy these inadequacies on his own. Above all else, what may be Ruka’s catalyst to ruin is his absence of self-identity. Faced with voided origins and the certainty that he has been and always will be forced into solitude, his judgment is nothing if not malleable. He can become very jealous around those more experienced or better put together, at least on the surface. Yet, he has not a conniving bone in his body, thus lacking the desire to obtain (or eliminate) the sources of his envy, as it stems more from a place of wonderment and a childish inability to understand the decisions or hardship that may have led them down that path. That isn't to say he is unable to sympathize with others, it's quite the opposite, but his own lack of life experience has become a blockade to understanding what others may more easily grasp in social situations.

If there is anything to glean from the feelings of jealousy or self-longing, it is that he is motivated to move forward despite his inadequacies and improve despite what he may not know. Ruka is a doer, a fighter, who will blindly leap over the ledge and burn his bridges halfway across it.

As a Magnum Spy, Ruka has learned to weaponize his absence of self-identity and use it to his advantage. His own haphazardly shaped but generally well-meaning ethics usually don't interfere with the mission or his obligations, since his main objective is to gather intel. He has no issue acting in accord with other packs and donning a refurbished identity due to his blank slate disposition, which only facilitates his ability to follow a foreign ruler's rule.

• KEY TRAITS: Graceless, unfortunate, persevering, sociable, detached, jealous
• ALIGNMENT: here
• MBTI: here
• LIKES: Socializing and being around others
• DISLIKES: here

RELATIONSHIPS

HISTORY
Much of Ruka’s early months are null due to having been blocked out, because life back then, for him, was troubled. Biological parents, siblings, or even a childhood friend have no place in his memory. Since he could first understand the meaning of true fear, he has been alone. Though, in the very recesses of his mind hide very faded, nebulous feelings that someone once laid at his side when he was young, breathing the same rhythm, embracing each other’s warmth. Was it a parent? A sibling? He does not remember. He only feels the ghostly traces of what was once possibly there, and often those feelings are replaced by forced assertions that they are all some false memory he subconsciously conjured.

Had it not been for a kindly, elderly woman who took young Ruka into her care, he would have not made it on his own. He fosters faint memories of her but can rest assured knowing that she at least existed. With only the label "mama" to remember her by, and gentle eyes, she passed away around the time he cusped half a year old, parting onto him her sincerest wishes for him to keep on fighting for survival. And that is what Ruka has continued to do, through trial and error, coming and going between groups, barely braving the unkind wild on precariously acquired skills and knowledge. He has been with countless individuals, played his part only to be pushed away by his aberrations and own insecurities.

He finds himself in a similar situation even now, as a member of the Mercurior guild in a land that is just as foreign.

Staff Tag: Cheshire