Melon

About the world they inhabit:

Their planet is very similar to Earth, both geographically and developmentally. Their social etiquette is also much the same. The most obvious difference is the population that's made up of anthropomorphic animals, and depending on their species, they can possess (often) magical abilities. Humans and animals like the ones we have on earth are not present (excluding fish and insects; they have those).

Some of the smaller differences are that their world is slightly more technologically advanced than ours is. Governments are run fairly similarly as well.

Every living being has a soul (excluding robots or artificial life). Rights are given to individuals depending on whether or not the soul is present. Inanimate objects (such as toys or stuffed animals) can come to life on rare occasions, and research shows that they do indeed have souls; though, it's unknown why this happens. In some cases, it seems more like possession occurs.

Abilities:

Melon and Cinnamon's species have the ability to breathe fire, just a little bit though. Melon doesn't really make use of this, and doesn't feel the need to. Sometimes he accidentally spits out some fire if he sneezes. 

They can also fly, however, because their wings are fairly small they can't get too far off of the ground. Melon prefers to walk. 

Personality: 

Melon is fairly laid back, usually not the most talkative guy, but more than anything, he's absolutely exhausted. His more eccentric friends (Cinnamon, Cotton, and Kelli) tend to drag him into their crazy shenanigans, and drain what little energy he has left. Not that he doesn't enjoy their company (if anything, he loves having them around), he just never got a break from the fast pace of life. The stress of it all often puts him in a bad place.

Another issue he has is that he feels he has a duty to give up his time and help anyone who asks for it (or simply needs it). This causes him to neglect his own needs and desires. He hardly gets any rest, and has barely any time for his hobby, which is art. He finds it relaxing and wishes he could do it more often.

Sometimes Melon neglects his needs a little too long and becomes frustrated with the people close to him. He's very patient, but his patience can only last for so long. This often leaves the people in his life confused and hurt, and Melon definitely beats himself up over it.

Biography:

Melon's childhood was as middle-of-the-road as you can get. His parents weren't great, but they weren't abusive either. His school life was pretty bland as well, aside from a few interesting friends he had, although his grades could look better. The classes he really excelled at had always been art and language.
He chose to go into the military when he was 18, not really understanding what it would entail. This was certainly the thing that shook up his life the most, and not in a good way. He left it absolutely traumatized, paranoid, and jumpy at the slightest of sounds. The one thing he could do that would ground and relax him was painting. If he had felt stressed and overwhelmed, painting abstractions of the cruel world around him, or even just serene environments, he felt significantly better. But he could never make a living with that, even if his skill was amazing, it was his only escape, turning it into a career would defeat the purpose entirely (for him, at least).

He didn't know what to do with himself. He had been 21 years old at this point, and the pressure of figuring things out was weighing heavily on him. Eventually, with some corrosion from his parents, he decided to help out their old friend's daughter, who was mute. His job would just be to act as a translator for her. One of the languages Melon was familiar with was sign language, so he was willing to try it out.

The first day of the job was strange. Cinnamon, the girl he had been translating for, was incredibly stubborn. Not letting him see what she was signing, walking off without him, gesturing for store clerks to pay no mind to him. She didn't seem to want his help (but her parents wanted her to have help), so it made doing his job very difficult. But he didn't really mind. The girl didn't seem like a threat; she just wanted to do things for herself.

The next day was basically the same, and so was the next week. Melon was now the one insisting on translating for her, mostly out of fascination. Sometimes he would just observe her as she did things on her own. She really didn't need his help for very many things, as pointing and playing charades with people who didn't know sign language still seemed to be fairly effective. But sometimes she needed to convey a very specific message, and so she'd huff and reluctantly ask Melon to come over and help her. He would always chuckle, but compliment her on her quick thinking and problem-solving skills. Cinnamon started to ease up, and even open up to Melon.

She was actually quite kind. She was excitable, loved to try new things whenever she got the opportunity, and seemed to start enjoying Melon for his company. She even called Melon to come to her parents' house and visit a few times. It seems that he was the first person to really "get" her, a friend that someone as socially isolated as her greatly needed.
He discovered that her parents were pushy and overprotective. They didn't allow her to do anything for herself, thinking that her disability made it so that the world would be dangerous for her. This felt restrictive and patronizing to Cinnamon, which Melon completely understood. He also found out that she was very passionate about baking. She had dreams of opening up her own store, but didn't know where to get started. After some thought, Melon decided he would try to help her.

On their own, the two couldn't afford to invest in their own business. So he decided to call an old high school friend of his, Primavera. Remembering that she had dreams of being a florist. The place could sell both flowers and baked goods, so then everyone could be happy; on top of that, they'd have a living space right above the store. Primavera said she'd think about it.
Melon didn't tell Cinnamon about any of this, not wanting to disappoint her if Primavera decided not to go through with it. But she came around, even saying that her partner would pitch in some money to help, as well as provide extra labor, and Melon was ecstatic. He delivered the news to a bewildered Cinnamon, who he had never seen SO excited (which was saying a lot, as she wasn't the hardest to excite). So "Flowers & Flour" was born.

Starting a business was hard. But with three others involved, it was significantly easier. Setting up only took a couple of days, and all the connections the four of them had to the locals helped to spread the word and get buyers coming in. As long as they kept up good service and provided good products, they could surely have loyal customers. That part would be easy though, with how passionate Primavera and Cinnamon were, and how kind and patient Cotton and Melon were.

By now, Cinnamon and Melon were basically best friends. And running the store only brought them closer. Primavera being in his life again was also nice, and as odd as her girlfriend was, he couldn't say she didn't spice up the lives of everyone around her.
They also got friendly with the store next door, a game shop run by a sentient teddy bear named Tags, and a robotic dog named Kelli.

Kelli was a lot like Cinnamon in many regards, easily excitable and passionate about the things she loved, although she seemed a lot less self aware than Cinnamon was, oddly enough. She didn't seem to understand she was a robot, which nobody seemed comfortable telling her. She also had a shorter range of emotion than someone like Cinnamon has, which is to be expected.
Tags was... Something. He was quiet, and seemingly gentle. He liked to sew and craft things, but had freakouts and destructive tendencies. He would damage himself and objects around him, which was concerning to say the least. Kelli seemed supportive of him through hard times, but no one really seemed to get him on the right track.

Melon was a lot closer to Tags than Cinnamon and Cotton were, they tended to prefer Kelli's company. He and Tags could relate in terms of being tired artists, and even in terms of their traumatic experiences.
For a while, things were great. Exhausting, but pretty good. Cinnamon would always be dragging Melon somewhere to try or see something new with her, when they weren't working. Primavera often went to him for advice, and Tags did too. Kelli and Cotton would always update him on their weird interests. Someone was always trying to get his attention. Living with three other people made alone time practically impossible anyway, but his life remained surprisingly quiet despite that. Melon was happy.

A few years of this went by.

He slept in late one day, which was surprising. Usually Cinnamon would've woken him up to do something on the weekends. So despite being well rested, something felt off. He went into the kitchen, his friends sat at the table, solemn looks on all their faces. He was anxious waiting for what they were going to tell him, but he wouldn't have been able to anticipate it. Tags was missing, and Kelli was found destroyed. Melon was in disbelief.

Patience then became a lot harder for him. He was more prone to snap than he used to be, shouting when too much was asked of him. He was more tired than ever, yet simultaneously felt restless. He felt stressed, unnerved, and overwhelmed by just about everything. He'd even snapped at a few of the store's customers. Cinnamon stopped asking to go out, Melon finally had time to himself, but all he could do was pace around.
Thinking about the loss of Kelli was upsetting, as was people's lack of empathy about it. Then he'd think about Tags. He needed to find him before they had two losses on their hands.

He started taking walks early in the morning, in an attempt to search for Tags. On weekends, he'd search for the day. Tirelessly walking, and walking, and walking. He wasn't going to let up.
But it payed off. After months of searching, he finally found Tags in an alleyway, dirtied and covered in mismatched patches messily sewn to his body. He looked awful, to put it lightly. He was slumped against a brick wall, but panicked at the sight of Melon, and fearfully backed himself in a corner. Melon was in a state of disbelief, but slowly and calmly walked up to Tags.
He kneeled down, and tried to comfort him, the guy was a babbling mess, profusely apologizing and begging. Tags broke down into tears, and not knowing what to do, Melon went in and hugged him. It lasted for what felt like ages. Tags wasn't someone that seemed to like hugs, but the hug seemed to calm him down.

Melon eventually convinced Tags to come home. The video game store he previously lived at had long since shut down, so Melon offered for him to live in his room.
This relieved a lot of his stress, but it didn't cure it. And with the help of Cotton (who had been helping everyone through their grieving), he soon realized that he had work on himself that he needed to do. He started learning how to do things for himself more, how to tell others no, how to relax. It wasn't always easy, but Cinnamon and the others were more understanding than he thought they'd be. Especially Cinnamon, she seemed to slow down her life entirely, making it possible for Melon to keep up. He got more rest, more time to be artistic. Tags seemed to be slowly improving alongside him too, keeping his destructive habits in check, and coping with the deep regret and loss he had been facing.

Melon would still go out with Cinnamon to try new things, just at his own pace. Primavera seemed more emotionally vulnerable than ever, and Cotton was less obsessive as she used to be.
He and Tags had grown closer since the incident, sometimes he'd even invite him to tag along with him and Cinnamon. And the shop was doing better than ever. 

Life seemed to be looking up for everyone.