(Character)

As a teen, Michael has no idea what he wants to do with his life. After completing some unsatisfactory courses at community college, and spending a few years volunteering - waiting for a paid position that never comes - he decides to take the advice of a friend and move to Tokotna, to work as a back office assistant at an animal sanctuary. He's a little unnerved by tokotas at first - they're large, noisy, and he's not sure how domesticated they really are, despite the reassurances of his new bosses. Still, he takes the job, and soon falls in love with these strange creatures.

 

After earning his Handler's License, he adopts Ravenous, a small, solidly built tawny with an appetite five times her size. Michael and Rav spend their days off exploring the foothills and mountains; Michael paints while Rav hunts. They make a good team. Over time, Michael's job shifts from paperwork and phone calls to a much more active role in training and caring for the sanctuary's tokotas.

 

Michael comes to enjoy life in Tokotna. He has a group of friends, and finds a comfortable balance between his modern conveniences, and traditional practices learned from the native people of the region. He has a lot of respect for the elders of Tokotna, and will take any opportunity to talk to them - and more importantly, to listen to them. He takes the opportunity to complete every tokota-related course open to him, and soon becomes highly certified for an outsider, and for his age.

 

However, after several successful years in Tokotna, illness strikes. No longer able to work in his physically demanding job at the Sanctuary, he finds himself seeking a new position. His bosses suggest he apply to the Knowledge Seeker research program, and put his fondness for lists, spreadsheets and studying to good use. As a former Pack Leader apprentice, he is initially uncertain how well his application will be recieved; but the Knowledge Seekers are happy to welcome anyone who can lend their skills to the project, and he is offered a job.

 

He now spends his days squirreled away in the various Knowledge Seeker research facilities throughout Tokotna, writing and sketching his observations, and generating reports from the team's field studies. Rav, and the other hairy friends he has picked up along the way, stay faithfully by his side, offering their assistance as best they can. Sometimes they hinder more than help, but it's the thought that counts.

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