MICHAEL BRODEROWSKI

• Species: Ferragon (dragon-ferret hybrid)
• Sex: ♂
• Orientation: Bisexual, female preference
• Age: Mid-to-late 20s
• Height: 6ft 2in in anthro form (not including horns); 50ft long in non-anthro form
• Weight: 135lbs
• Siblings: None
• Misc: Has an anthro form and a noodle-dragon form
• Profession: Scientist

Worldbuilding Notes

At around the same time Michael was born, a radio signal was detected coming from space. It was powerful, steady, and varied in frequency but was consistent in amplitude. The scientists of Michael's native planet researched it to learn more about it and eventually sought ways to make contact.

After much effort, a magitech portal was opened in the star system of the signal's origin. This star system was inhabited and they made contact with the civilization there. The civilization was a tribe who called themselves the Ghono'te (meaning "People of Ghono").

Ghono was a spirit that maintained and guided the tribe, an aspect of which was directly expressed in each member of the tribe.

The spirit of Ghono chooses any given member of the Ghono'te tribe's sexual partners. In addition to this, it may add extra individuals to the pairings it has made. Same-sex pairings are much more common than opposite-sex pairings.

Michael is a fursona, a ferret-dragon hybrid, and has two forms, one being an anthropomorphic one and the other being that of a noodle-dragon. He has Autistic Spectrum Disorder and has harnessed this to culture his organised, detail-orientated side. He is a scientist by profession and likes to work on collaborative projects to push the boundaries of what is possible in the sciences.

Trust & Confidence

Baby

Michael's parents were a studious pair and prepared for his birth by reading about parenthood and taking parenthood classes. By the time he hatched they were thoroughly ready to start looking after him.

As a hatchling (as opposed to a live-born creature) Michael was relatively independent from the moment he came out of the egg. This was a consequence of not being live-born thanks to his dragon heritage.

Granted, he was not completely independent and still needed to be looked after, but he had a fair degree of mobility and picked up speech very quickly. Even his pre-speech babbling was more effective than that of human infants.

Infanthood was therefore an easy time of life for Michael. His parents doted on him and he had an uneventful first few months of life, marked as it was with routine and the relatively carefree excitement of a set of parents who had already prepared themselves for the care of an infant.

Freedom & Self-Determination

Toddler

Changing from an infant to a toddler presented Michael with a whole new outlook on life. He became mobile, and this was even truer for him than it was for most toddlers. Michael was energetic from an early age. This was a natural consequence of him being half-ferret, and he proved to be quite a handful!

In spite of his energy however, he also liked routine and anything that conferred a reliable experience of life. He liked to hold on to and keep things, including physical objects, and (as he began to get to know other youngsters), relationships too.

As was routine for parents in Michael's part of the country, his parents took him for the standard series of check-ups throughout his early life, and one of them resulted in Michael being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when he was between two and three years old. They were shocked at first, but soon they adapted.

Not long after this they successfully adjusted their child-reading style and raised Michael in a way that suited him better.

Despite Michael's generous reserves of energy he also had a keen preference for order. If he did anything his parents didn't like, they would discipline him. This was never harsh, and his parents had the skills and attentiveness to keep a close eye on him to make sure he didn't get into any serious trouble, and to keep their disciplinary actions safe, as gentle as possible, and protective and supportive in nature. Michael responded well to this and developed his own keen eye on his own behaviour. Destructiveness and cruelty simply weren't a part of how he wanted to be in the world. If he made a bad decision and hurt or upset anyone else, he felt terrible about it. In fact, he could be more ruthlessly punitive towards himself than his parents would be to him.

As a toddler he soon recognised that he was able to make some choices of his own rather than wait for his parents to make them for him. This frequently proved to be a difficult experience for Mike as he liked to weigh up the options before committing himself, but didn't like having to commit to one choice or another. He disliked the idea that he might pick the 'lesser' of the two options (whatever that might mean at the time) and therefore make the 'wrong' choice or miss out in some way. As much as this implied that neither option could be that much worse than the other, he nevertheless found making choices difficult.

Given his pedigree, Michael matured a little bit faster than most other people in the sense that his critical thinking skills developed sooner. This led to him being a surprisingly analytical toddler and therefore keen to learn the things his parents taught him (primarily reading and writing at this early stage), and eager to get things right even as he explored the limits of what he was capable of. His parents' love, patience, and acceptance of him, gave him the support he needed to.

Ambition

Young childhood

Michael started going to primary school. He enjoyed being around his classmates and cherished the friendships he developed there.

He also appreciated the structure of the school environment. If anything was damaged or one of the other children found themselves in a difficult spot, he became upset. School, however informal it was at this time, gave him things to do that appealed to his eye for detail, and he deeply enjoyed learning. With that said, he often felt a certain amount of worry that he might miss an important detail so whenever he had a project to show others (including his teacher), he would be hesitant to submit it as complete in case he had forgotten a detail or missed something out. He would often continue to comb the project for errors or omissions even after showing it to another person.

Sometimes he would find himself in a group, whether for play or for some simple school task. When this happened he liked to be very active in the group and as a result of this often became the 'leader' of the group.

Sometimes he had difficulties expressing his emotions as a result of his ASD, and it was arranged for him to have training to help him to learn the necessary skills. He learned these well, however he had an ongoing feeling that he did not have enough control over himself and the training never quite managed to rid him of this. With that said, whenever an authority figure stepped in he found it easy to acquiesce to them, and this served as a helpful alternative when he felt unable to control himself to his own satisfaction.

His tendency to self-flagellate over his own mistakes persisted, and he continued to be his own harshest critic. Whenever his friends or teachers noticed him doing this they would get him to snap out of it.

Michael's appetite for life meant that he had some big ambitions from the start, and they too were coloured by his ASD inspired analytical mind and advanced critical thinking skills: he wanted to be a successful, super-genius scientist! Some people said that this was a very high aim (and may have even gone so far as to suggest that it was too high) but Michael was not deterred.

Productivity

Older childhood

Michael continued to attend training and ASD support groups to improve his social skills with neurotypicals, and they continued to be effective.

School became more structured, and that included the extent to which the pupils' behaviour was controlled, the length of classes, and the material taught. For the first time Michael started to feel that his environment was too controlled. He found himself bored easily during classes and he struggled to focus for the entire duration of a class.

By the end of any given school day he was often relieved to return home where the atmosphere was more relaxed.

Although he disliked the overbearing structure of classes, Michael continued to enjoy teamwork and group projects, and he engaged enthusiastically in these. Just like during his younger childhood he contributed and made suggestions to the point that he could easily take the leader role in most groups. Whenever he wasn't the one in charge he still engaged well. For Michael, being in charge felt natural. He didn't specifically desire power, status, or rewards; being half-dragon meant that being 'on top' came naturally.

Sometimes Michael found that others were curious about him for being a ferragon. His particular hybrid mix was very rare and this encouraged a lot of interest from others. Usually this was friendly or neutral interest however, and was rarely accompanied with any sense of antagonism or discrimination.

Michael never lost his desire to be a scientist. As he learned of the different branches of science he refined this ambition into something more specific that he could aim for.

Child to Adult Transition

Adolescence

Michael's inclusive attitude, focus, and enthusiasm for work made him an a generally-liked pupil in high school. He was not very picky when it came to friends; if he liked a person and they were pleasant towards him, he considered them a friend. By contrast, if he didn't like a person then he would avoid them, but didn't focus on this enough to consider anybody an 'enemy'.

Overall, he was not possessive of his group of friends, and if somebody happened to drift out of regular contact with him, he didn't particularly focus on this.

He had a few role models including his most competent teachers, especially those in the sciences. As he understood it, these were the people best-placed to help him realise his goal to become a scientist.

He liked to have a set routine each day, right down to eating the same lunch, as this appealed to his preference for a reliable schedule.

Michael dated occasionally during his teens. He preferred other rare species or those who stood out from the crowd for other reasons, such as their appearance or personality. However, he was not prone to getting highly attached to them.

Closeness in Relationships

Young adulthood

Michael's training eventually led to him becoming a chemist. He was very keen to contribute to the world and as a result, collaborated with a notable company on a number of major projects, including a world-famous project.

The aim of this project was to combine the best understanding of multiple scientific disciplines, including (but not limited to) chemistry, biology, and psychology, to create a "mega-project". The end result was the creation of an artificial life form, the likes of which had never been seen before. Among other characteristics it was intelligent, and gooey to the touch.

Unsurprisingly he made for an excellent team-mate or collaboration partner in these projects, and overall was liked and respected for it. He was keen to contribute, not only to the workload but also by offering advice to other members of the team if they needed it.

He had a number of sexual relationships, however as with his school dating habits he didn't become too emotionally close to his partners and generally had 'friends with benefits' relationships with them. The people he developed these relationships with were generally quite open about sex.

Despite this, soon enough he fell into a more sustained relationship with two women named Gamba’tsurami and Talan’goroma, both from the Ghono'te, and both chefs by trade.

As stated in the worldbuilding notes above, one of the ways in which Ghono guided its people was by choosing the partners they would take for life. In Gamba and Tala's cases, it chose Michael. When it became clear that they were destined to be together, Gamba and Tala both scheduled a trip through the portal to meet up with him. They set up a restaurant on Michael's world where they could both work together.

Michael had two children with Gamba’tsurami and Talan’goroma, one with each of them, at the age of around 30. He plays a fairly active role in looking after them.

Passing on Responsibility

Middle age

Michael has not yet reached this stage of his life.

He is not particularly interested in the idea of his children following in his footsteps. Neither is he interested in mentoring anybody to take over his role in the science community. As far as he is concerned, somebody will take over from him eventually with or without his input. However he actively encourages his childrens' dreams and goals (after all, he once had a big dream of his own).

End of Life

Old age

Reincarnation is a regularly accepted feature of the world in which Michael lives, and Michael himself believes in it. He is, in equal measures, nervous and excited to discover what he will be in his next life. His only anxiety on this score is that he hopes he will be able to reconnect with the reincarnations of his closest friends, if possible.