Summary

Full name: Dr. Finley of Vermillion Bay (his actual dolphin name is unpronounceable)
Sex & Gender: cis-male(he/him)
Birthyear: 2017
Height: 1.90m (6'3") in suit; Length: 1.41m (4'8")
Species: Dolphin (feral)
Occupation: deputy chief medical
Sexual identity: questioning
Character: extravert, playful, energetic, sociable, curious, driven, impatient, hyperfocussed
Likes: Swimming, Helping people, Learning new things, Games, Seafood, Singing
Dislikes: Being dependent on his robotic suit, Dry environments, Bright lights, Being alone, Being seen/treated like a "dumb animal"

Character

Finley was born in Vermillion Bay in the Caribean Sea as an ordinary dolphin like any other. He grew up among the local community of merpeople, who drew his curiosity ever since he was little. They treated him as a "wild pet" at first, but when they noticed he was showing more intelligent behaviour when he plays games with the other children following the rules of games they played, the started to see him as a member of the community itself. Ms. Clearwater, one of the local school teachers, decided to teach him their language, so he would be able to understand everyone. Even though Finley himself couldn't speak, he managed to communicate with his own "singing" and it was clear he was indeed picking up the language, as well as other more abstract concepts like reading and mathematics. What did catch her surprise is that Finley later seemed to be able to use very low level magic in order to speak with them in intelligible speech. It's from that point where he chose the name Finley for people to address him.

Armed with the ability to read, Finley's curiosity had a boundless hunger for more knowledge. Not only for everything in the sea, but more about the world out there on the surface. He read many things from the books he had available underwater about how life is like up there and all the marvels of cities they have over there. He was however jealous of the mers having the ability to survive on land and move around with a few mobility aids. He would be literally a "fish" out of water on land, and feared he would never be able to see the things he read in his books for himself. Even more so, having only fins and no hands made him very limited in what he could do. His mer peers promised that they would look for any way he could come with him on land. For a long time, it seemed he was out of luck, though he kept on studying with the hope he still had.

His efforts were not in vain, when one of his friends told him he made contact with a roboticist who wanted to take on the challenge to make Finley's wish come true. This roboticist, Sydney Dalton, had set up his lab near Vermillion Bay. Finley had to spend a few weeks in a pool, which he didn't like that much as it restricted his freedom and made him lonely, but Sydney was working hard, and regularly he got Finley to fit new components of his mobility device. At first, Finley had no idea how the random components he was testing would fit together, like a loose hand, or a fixture around his body. But it soon fell all together when Sydney shows the design drawings of what he was really planning to do: a full anthropomorphic suit, where his cetacean body would form its head. Finley was very enthusiastic about the idea: he would be free to move around on land like any land dweller. It made his stay in the pool more bearable, in anticipation to try out the suit for the first time. When the day came, and Sydney hoisted him in his new suit, the first thing he did was hugging the wolftaur who had become his friend now. Sydney told Finley he seemed to be destined for so much more.

Finley turned quite a few heads on land, but it didn't matter to him. He was finally seeing the world above the surface on his own, along with his wheelchair-bound mer-friends. It was a challenge for all of them to stay hydrated, but they managed to find some ways. Finley was very interested in biology, and he wanted to help others as they helped him. He decided he would study medicine. Although he had to face administrative issues because as a feral dolphin, he lacked any citizenship documentation, his friends and acquaintances were willing to help him get those things out of the way, and after he had passed the entry exam with flying colours, the university had no other option than to accept him. He was a very driven student. Sometimes too driven. His professors noticed that Finley can sometimes get consumed by his work and has a tendency to hyperfocus on tasks, forgetting about the rest of the world. He later became the first "animal" to ever graduate from university.

The young dolphin worked in a hospital in Baton Rouge for a few years before he found work at the Terran Fleet under the watchful eye of Dr Suzanne Gadovnik on the Pioneer. When he learned she had a similar condition, also dependent on a robotic suit to aid her mobility, the two quickly became friends. Finley got his own water tank, where he can take off the "headpiece" of his suit and go to sleep feeling "weightless" in the water. Finley really likes to play games, and some of his crew admire him for his ability to sing inhuman tones only a dolphin could during music night. He also likes zero G environments, where he can swim like he can in the ocean. But what Finley enjoys most of all is that his crew see him as a person, an equal. Not bad for a cetacean...

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A dolphin doctor? Sure, why the heck not! And before you ask, yes Hana by  WMDiscovery93 was definitely my main inspiration (always cite your sources!) I went for a dolphin, because that may be one of the few animal species in nature that may be intelligent enough to be at out level, so I totally leaned into that.

Drawn in InkScape