RttS: Sirawit (Patreon)

Much like Shyam, Sirawit does not appear in the book I'm currently writing and yet they have been on my mind. I've mucked around with their character a great deal since the last time I posted about them on tumblr. The two big changes are that they're now a hybrid avian, and cross species adoptee.

Flightless avians and skimmer avians are different species in the same genus. While they can can successfully hybridize, the resulting kids are generally sterile and have some odd proportions and health problems, being larger than either of the parents in the case of this combination. Being an obvious hybrid can also be a bit of a kick-me sign to other avians, as cross-species pairings are generally taboo. As an adult Sirawit mostly tries to pass as a flightless avian.

Sirawit grew up in a mixed human/avian biome planetary bubble and spent their early childhood with their flightless dunparent, not knowing who their brightparent was (actually pretty common for avians). Sirawit was eventually removed from their care by child protective services following mostly-true reports from neighbors of neglect and substance abuse. They were then left at a foster home mostly populated by older skimmer avian kids and were pretty heavily bullied. Around 8 years old they got adopted out by a human (the pictured turtleneck dad. name pending. he is the same dude from this comic, but with some design upgrades). Sirawit is still in amicable contact with their dunparent but it's a rocky relationship, to say the least.

I'm thinking of making Sirawit's dad a cross species adoptee with an avian dunparent, since I haven't explored the human raised by non-humans angle in RttS yet and avians are the other alien race that does parental care in a similar way to humans. He would be a good fit, I think! 

Sirawit's gigantism means that they have had difficulties fitting into buildings and using tools made for avians. They've got a lot to bond over with Talita, when the plot gets there.