Alex

Name: Alexander Emmett Miller 

Age/Birthdate/Zodiac: 18/August 6/Leo

Occupation/School: Alex is a senior at Sunset City High School.  He makes his pocket money from a combination of allowance and a paper route.  He's not thrilled with it but it's the only job that fits in with his crazy schedule.

Usual Hang outs: the grounds of SCHS (especially the gym and football field), various parks, the mall especially the food court, the movies

Skills, Hobbies: wrestling and football (featuring so heavily in his life, these are practically occupations at this point and, frankly, he is damn good at both), weight lifting (generally many reps, low weight), excellent throwing arm, the ability to build impossibly tall sandwiches, riding his bike everywhere, excellent stamina and reaction time/reflexes, surprisingly flexible

Likes: girls, team sports, top 40 radio, cheap beer, people, hoodies, his idealized notion of what college will be like (hint: it's tragically inaccurate), sandwiches, pizza with the works, magazines, noise and excitement, sunflower seeds, wheat germ shakes

Dislikes: being alone, inaction, Utah (and being asked if he's Mormon, related to the Osmonds, etc.), essay questions, dairy products except cheese, books (not because he doesn't read but because they require too much time to read), quiet, sleeping in too late, cars

Timeline: 
* August 6, 1990 - Born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Candace and Edward Miller.  He is the second oldest child and the second boy.  His older brother Thomas, age 3, says he would rather a puppy.
* 1991 - Thomas gets his puppy now that Alex won't be chewing on its ears.  They name the poor border collie Barkley.
* 1992 - Sister Daniella born.  Alex swallows a toy dump truck.
* 1994 - Sister Grace born.  Alex falls off the swings and requires five stitches on his knee.
* 1996 - Sister Chloe born.  Alex joins Little League baseball and promptly loses a tooth.
* 1998 - Alex discovers PeeWee football and badgers until he is signed up.  Alex discovers wrestling and starts jumping off things in mimicry.  When he nearly concusses himself, his parents introduce him to Greco-Roman wrestling.  He teaches Daniella and Grace to ride bikes.
* 2000 - The Millers move to Sunset City, following a transfer/promotion at Edward's job.  Alex wipes out on his bike first day in town and spends the summer in a cast.
* 2002 - Grandpa Miller dies and Alex is heartbroken.  He spends most of the summer at the bottom of the pool, practicing holding his breath.  He keeps the pocket watch specifically willed to him on his person at all times.
* 2004 - Alex joins the wrestling team and teaches Chloe to ride a bike.  Alex discovers Girls.
* 2005 - Alex joins the football team and fights for the right to continue wrestling despite some overlap and arguments against possible injuries.
* 2006 - Alex makes the varsity team as a tight end and gets his driver's license.  October is a big month; Alex is named unofficial MVP and crashes his mom's car.  He renounces cars FOREVER.  Alex makes it to the varsity team in wrestling.
* 2007 - Alex and the team make it to states for wrestling.  He gets all the way to the finals of his division before he is knocked out of the running by a wrenched ankle.

--This Year (2008):
* Oblivious to what he really is, Alex ignores the way dust bunnies seem to follow him.  Seriously, no.  But he does ignore the sensation that he should be doing something and the skittering glimpses he keeps having of critters.  He is definitely paying more attention to certain girls he sees at school or around town, though.  They seem... Special.  He is currently putting it down to hormones and trying to figure out how to ask them out on dates.  Idiot.

Appearance: 

Hair: Alex's hair never went through the baby-blond stage, having been dark brown since he first greeted the world.  For all that he ignores it, it is fairly healthy when free of styling product.  However, it lacks any kind of definable style since Alex can't be bothered to hit the barber enough for proper upkeep.  What was once (possibly) a modified Caesar cut has run rampant, growing in the strange uneven way that his hair has.  The sides and back remain short but the top and front have grown out enough to be scruffy, giving him slightly shaggy bangs which he occasionally gels up into a little row of anti-gravity spikes.  When he awakens and his powers grow, his hair will become shot through with various shades of sandy blonde.  There is no rhyme or reason to the streaks; they fall where they do and give a sort of layered, sedimental look to his hair.
Face: Alex's face is rather square with a very definite jawline angling down to a blunt chin.  His forehead is high and clear, framed by a square hairline.  His mouth is thin and wide with a slightly heavier bottom lip and a very defined cupid's bow; this gives the unfortunate impression of a slight pout when he's not actively smiling.  When he does smile, however, it's free and easy and Little Boy Crooked - complete with a dimple on the right side of his mouth.  His nose is straight and narrow-bridged with a very slight upturn at the end, another element of boyishness that is at odds with the stolidness of his facial shape.  His eyebrows are very slightly arched and dark against his fair skin.  His eyes are primarily green with a hint of hazel around the iris.  They are narrow with sparse lashes and very little visible eyelids when open.  When he smiles full, they scrunch up nearly shut.  His ears are well-formed but rather small and set surprisingly close to his head.  His complexion reacts well to the sun and, during summer, he sports a warm, faintly honied tan.
Build: Though Alex stands at a perfectly acceptable 5'10", he gives the impression of being shorter through the effect his stockier build has on people.  He is broad-shouldered and has spent quite a bit of time on developing his muscle definition, especially in the areas of his chest and arms.  He has the promising beginnings of a six-pack stomach and clear sculpting to his pectorals and back.  He's put perhaps a bit too much effort into his arms, though, and their rest position is no longer fully flat to his body.  He isn't body-builder huge but it is clear that he was heading that way before someone reined him in and pointed out a more suitable goal for his talents and interests.  The boy has no butt whatsoever but more than nice legs with well-defined calves and thickly-muscled thighs.  He tends to stand wide-legged with his hands in his pockets, distending his omnipresent hoodies or yanking his jeans unfortunately downwards.
Clothes: Alex dresses in the classic cross of jock and prep; he is an Abercrombie boy through and through with deviations only into sports jerseys (of which he has far too many).  His jeans are pre-worn and just loose enough that he should wear a belt (but doesn't).  Thankfully, he wears his many T-shirts out and so spares the world the frequent inch of boxer-briefs that peek from beneath his pants.  He likes T-shirts with logos and sports franchises.  He deems polo shirts and short-sleeved button-ups to be dressy enough for most things and the only long sleeves he willingly wears belong to his wide range of zip-front hoodies.  He loves his hoodies something fierce and, even when the weather only offers a slight chance of it, he will tie one around his waist for Just In Case.  When he is feeling the need to impress, he has a pair of khakis.  They are in surprisingly good shape... Probably because they so rarely get use.  He owns exactly one pair of dress shoes for weddings and funerals and lives in sneakers that range from presentable to horrifying the rest of the time.
Misc.: Forbidden from the world of piercings due to his active lifestyle, Alex had been counting the days until he could get a tattoo.  He is now the proud owner of a very standard tribal design around his right bicep.  (He wants more.)  Alex has various small scars from his overactive childhood, including a fairly sizable one on his knee.  Alex hates wristwatches and keeps his grandfather's old pocket watch on a heavy chain clipped to his belt-loop.  It's picked up some scratches from being jammed into his pocket but, overall, he takes good care of it.

Personality:
*Virtues: generous, loyal, open-minded, friendly, vocally appreciative and supportive, social, optimistic and idealistic
*Neutrals: live in the moment, blunt, oblivious, tactile, fun-loving
*Vices: cocky, flat-line learning curve, thoughtless, underdeveloped sense of self-preservation, irresponsible, no sense of scale

Blurb:

To Alex, life is very simple - you have fun and you have people and you have yourself.  These add up to something so mind-blowingly exciting that it is a wonder he can manage to sleep.  Alex does not do things by halves.  He throws himself into things with huge levels of excitement, embracing new ideas and experiences in a manner that would remind most people of a golden retriever after a ball.  His optimism is clear in every part of his life and drives him forward constantly.  Invincible in the way that only 18 year olds can be, Alex actually believes that there is no such thing as "can't" and that life will not go bad if he keeps pushing.  Nothing can touch him and no amount of injuries will convince him otherwise, resulting in self-preservation skills just slightly better than a lemming's.  He believes in the moment and thinks you should, too.  In fact, he cannot understand why you wouldn't.  The moment is so very interesting, after all, and you will never ever have another one just like it.  This approach to things can be both a blessing and a curse for Alex, leading to both his greatest triumphs and worst mistakes.

Alex suffers from a special sort of thoughtlessness that translates into a flat-line learning curve.  There is nothing vindictive or deliberate in his obliviousness and he doesn't have a mean bone in his body but, tragically, he is about as self-aware as a shellfish.  He constantly says things without thinking, blurting out things that far too frequently come across as either idiotic or callous.  The boy just has next to no filter between mind and mouth and honestly believes that everyone wants nothing more than perfect honesty.  His parents considered testing him for something when he was younger, considering this habit paired with his seeming clumsiness, but finally decided that he was just That Kid.  You know, the one who tells the teacher that her butt looks big or tells everyone about Santa Claus not existing.  He is honest to the point of discomfort at points, really, but is saved by his equally large ability to admit his wrong-doing.  He has no apparant ego-ties between his confidence and a need to be right.  He knows he can be wrong, probably knows it better than you or anyone else.  If you tell him that he is being a jerk, he agrees and apologizes and behaves... Until he forgets and it happens all over again.  Alex is not the most retentive of souls and needs repeated reinforcement to correct his mistakes.  One has to have a certain level of patience to deal with Alex in a social context and especially in a working context.  He picks up instructions from his coaches readily enough but, when it comes to book-learning, he is a teacher's despair.

Luckily, Alex has enough pragmatism to him to know that bad grades = off the team and his sports are vitally important to him.  So he studies and has no qualms in getting help from his little sister Daniella.  When it comes to his intellect, Alex has no delusions or pride.  In the area of his own body and his sports prowess, however, you will be hard pressed to find someone with a more rock-solid ego.  In fact, he comes across as downright cocky when free reign.  He knows he has talent and counts on it to help him through life and to impress you.  He manages to avoid outright vanity but it is a close call, grounded only by the fact that Alex is not afraid to do the hard work necessary to maintain his body and hone his talents.  He believes most of it is God-given but God could always use some help in getting things Just Right.  Not that he's religious; that would require more thinking about the future and moral codes than Alex is generally capable of handling.

Generous and friendly, Alex is a social creature and actually becomes fretful and cranky when left in solitary.  When around people again, he needs to touch and be touched for affirmation of his reality; Alex is not properly Alex unless there is an accompanying crowd.  He is not at all comfortable with his own thoughts and company but lacks the emotional maturity and introspection to deal with that yet.  He thrives on movement and buzz and finds people to be the only thing cooler than sports.  To this end, he makes free with his support and compliments which, owing to his unabashed honesty, you can always trust as being genuine.  If Alex likes you, you know about it and you can rest assured that, short of some war crime, he will continue to like you and offer his broad shoulder for support.  Alex doesn't give up friends easily and his football and wrestling teams are like additional family members.  Again with the golden-retriever parallel, right?


Elemental Control: Earth: Dust

Totem: Prairie Dog.  Utah Prairie Dog, no less.  (and he will not be happy about it until girls coo over the cuteness)  Alex's eyes go ink-black from corner to corner with no discernible iris or pupil or white.  His skin darkens to a dusty cinnamon, coated with a fine layer of short fur.  The fur lengthens in gradations from mid-forearm back and up along the underside of his forearm and upper arm until it's a good few inches and noticeable.  The tip of his nose flattens out a bit and darkens to black while his ears shift closer to his head until they are almost unseen when looking at him head-on.  His eyebrows appear to grow heavier and darker to form thick "eyebrows" in the lighter fur.  The markings stretch from above the inner corner of his eyes out to his temples.  His nails darken, harden, and sharpen slightly; they are not terribly effective in battle but prove more than useful should he ever get into a flaily cat-fight.  Last but not least, poor Alex sprouts a wee cinnamon-colored tail from the base of his tailbone.  It is only about six inches long and the same cinnamon color except for the very tip which is white.  As a neat party trick, he can also make an uncanny, high-pitched barking noise that instinctively puts everyone who hears it on alert.

Abilities: Sadly, Alex is on the low side of sensing Hunters and daemons - even for a Knight.  Whether this is inherent to his ability or just a symptom of his personality remains to be seen but it is telling that he can sniff out Hunters (aka potential Friends) ever so slightly better than he can daemons (aka party-killers).  When it comes to his element, however, he has an uncanny, instinctive knack for where/what/how dust goes.

Pig Pen - In a less than attractive use of his element, Alex can generate his own personal dust storm.  It's an area effect that tends to be present at all times to some degree or another; he will always look just the slightest bit dusty when in his guardian state.  With panic or the desire to protect, the cloud increases and expands to provide very nifty coverage.  This is most likely the result of his inherent powers combined with his possession of his grandfather's watch, a summoner relic.

Second Skin - Even as the dust surrounds him, Alex can draw it closer to his body until it forms a protective coating, matting his new fur down and half-solidifying around him.  While this is not an effective protection against most things, it can soften some blows.  It also lends additional strength to his limbs and, when he punches, provides a most unfortunate sand-paper effect in addition to the blow.  As his powers grow, this will increase until the dust becomes thicker and of a heavier, coarser nature in addition to solidifying further.

Type of Hunter: Knight

Relic: Unknown to Alex, the battered pocket watch he inherited from his grandfather is actually a summoner relic, passed down through the family.  Grandpa Miller was a long-retired Hunter, having lost a leg back in the 1940's war.  The pocket watch is a very simple design - a coppery-gold circle with no detail other than the initials EJM (Emmett James Miller) and the date August 6, 1939 etched into the inside of the lid.  It has some scratches and bangs from use but it is holding up surprisingly well.  When Alex holds it, he feels calmer and warmer.  

Band: Guardians, eventually.