"Did you know that in the 13th egyptian dynasty the common folk started to- Hey where are you going?!"

BASICS

Name: Michael, Steiner

Age: 16

Gender: Agender
(any pronouns, goes by he/him usually)

Date of Birth: March 13th

Nationality: German

Ethnicity: German-Egyptian

Height: 172cm / ~5'7''

Blood Type: O+

SCHOOL FILE

Ultimate Talent: Egyptologist

As an egyptologist, Michael studies the history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art of ancient Egypt.
While not doing excavations himself, he still discovers and translates unnoticed hieroglyphics on already located relics and finds new connections between information fragments.
He regularly writes articles for well-known egyptology newspapers where he shares his newfound knowledge with the whole community.
Because of his mind-blowing theories, he soon became one of the most talked-about egyptologists of all time.
His goal is to uncover the entirety of ancient Egypt, though he decided to focus on the pre- and post-death rituals and the associated religious beliefs for now.

Dangerousness Level: 1

Trial skill: Eye of Horus

Because he's used to paying close attention to tiny, hardly visible details on statues and stelae, he's able to notice even the smallest marks and hints left behind by a culprit. 

If Michael decides to investigate a certain place/room closely, he is sure to find an easily overlooked detail; if there happens to be one, that is. 

This can only be used once per investigation and will force him to spend his entire investigation time at this specific place.

Inventory: 

1) Heqa Staff (Crook)
A realistic replica of an ancient heqa staff that he made himself.
It's one of the well known features of Osiris - egyptian deity of the underworld - who's the deity that he studies the most.
It's furthermore a symbol of pharaonic authority and leadership.
Whenever Michael feels insecure and overwhelmed, he clasps the staff to collect himself and regain his confidence. 

2) Book
Its title translates to "Death and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt" and is entirely in German.
Micheal got this book from his mother and it was the first one he ever read about his favorite topic.
Even though he knows it by heart, he still cherishes it a lot and rereads it occasionally, just for the attached memories.

3) Osiris Statuette
A 20 cm / ~7.5'' high sitting statuette of Osiris, made out of light sandstone.
But wait, there seems to be a hidden flap on the bottom. I wonder what's inside?

4) Small Pouch of Sand
You never know when you'll need some sand. Better be prepared.

PERSONAL

Personality: 

  Logical Thinker

Michael read a lot of specialist books and his thinking style adapted to this.
This trait of his is a crucial part of his studying and uncovering process; Logic is his bread and butter.

  Focused
While doing any mental activity (thinking, reading, studying, investigating), Michael stays focused and disregards his surroundings.
He hardly notices when other people try to talk to him while he's in the zone and sometimes even forgets to eat for days because of this.
This concentrated state helps him to understand things as well as solve problems easier and quicker.

  Undemanding
He's used to not having a lot of resources and will be happy with receiving the bare minimum.
No matter what someone would gift him, he'd be grateful.

  Kind
He's not here to start a fight, but would rather be as nice as he can to everyone so that no one will be unnecessarily negative around him.
He's doing his best to be considerate and nice to everyone.
"Negativity is neither productive nor helpful, so cut it out please. Let's be friends."

Encouraging

Maybe he doesn't know what's going on, but if he notices that you're sad he'll try his best to comfort you and tell you to go on.
"There's so much knowledge that we wouldn't have today if our ancestors had stopped dreaming. Never stop dreaming! You can do it!"

  Excitable
If someone mentions something that reminds him of anything related to ancient Egypt, he'll get very excited very quickly.
He'll start to ramble about the topic until he's either actively interrupted or realizes that everyone else left the room.  
While rambling, his eyes light up and he seems far more confident and extroverted than usual.
If someone actually decides to listen to his rambling, this'll boost his self-esteem and overall happiness for the rest of the day at least!

Realist
Michael views things as they are.
There's no use tricking yourself into believing something other than reality.
"If you want to find the truth, you have to face it."

Introvert
As long as no one directly speaks to him, Michael will not start a conversation.
He's probably deep in thought and perfectly fine with this.
While he still enjoys a good conversation, there's nothing better than reading a good book in pure silence.

Quick to Change his Mind
If it comes to his attention that his previous statement or opinion is wrong, he'll be sure to alter and correct it.
"There's no progress if you decide to hold onto your past mistakes. Learn from them and get over it."

Avoids Getting Involved
When a fight breaks out or people are generally screaming at each other, Michael will hesitate to go in between.
He doesn't want to be associated with the negativity and just hopes that it'll solve itself and he can help out afterwards.
This is especially true in physical conflicts as he'd be at quite a disadvantage.
He's very slim and weak so he'll actually back away and keep his distance until it's over.

   Insecure
While he has no issue with being told that he's wrong, Michael struggles immensely with nonconstructive feedback and especially straight up insults.
Insults make him very agitated and close to crying. He doesn't know how to react to it at all.
This makes him hesitate and rethink his thought process multiple times before finally sharing his ideas and theories.
If someone previously insulted him, jokingly or not, he'll avoid them as often as possible and it'd take him a great deal of effort to talk to them.
He's wary of people who insult others or generally seem more aggressive.

  Struggles to Articulate Thoughts
Since English isn't his first language and his thoughts tend to be rather complex, he has issues with finding the right words to express his ideas, especially if he's excited about them.
He sometimes starts a sentence, forgets midway how it started, trips over his own words and forgets what he wanted to say all-together - All while generally not ending his sentences or constructing way too long ones.
This makes it hard for other people to comprehend what he's trying to say.

  Short Social Attention Span
While he's able to read nonstop for hours, conversations bore him very quickly and he drifts off if no one talks to him directly.
Even if the conversation should be important to him, it can still happen that he stops paying attention because he had an idea and is now thinking about that instead.

Oblivious
There are a lot of things that he knows nothing about, partially because he doesn't listen to people and
partially because he doesn't remember things for too long if he considers them irrelevant (even if they're not).

As such he ends up being quite oblivious about current events and, if he's deep in thought, even stuff that happened in the same room as him.

  Gullible
Whenever he doesn't know what happened, he just accepts the first thing that he's told as the truth provided it's somewhat plausible, because he doesn't want other people to notice that he has no idea what they're talking about.
As soon as someone explains that something else happened and their reasoning is more believable, he'll be quick to change his mind again.
As long as no one expresses their disbelief, he'll act as if he witnessed it himself and will be 100% sure that it happened.


Likes: 
1) Cats
He has a sphynx cat named Ramses and loves him a lot, even if he always throws down Michael's research papers.
Petting cats helps him think and their purring relaxes him.

2) Calm Music and the Sound of Rain
The next best thing after reading in pure silence is reading while listening to either the rain or calm music.
He especially enjoys quiet piano pieces and soft rock.

3) Riddles
Riddles allow him to use logic in a completely different way than usual which broadens his spectrum of techniques and they're very fun.
He loves the challenge and can't get enough of the feeling of figuring it out, even if the solution ends up being silly or mean.


Dislikes: 
1) Dogs
He can't focus if there's a dog in the same room as him. In his opinion, they're too demanding and have too much energy.
(He's also scared of the bigger ones...)

2) Time Pressure
Michael needs a lot of time to think and consider all possible options.
When he's pressured to act quick he's bound to make mistakes and he hates it.

3) People who think that Egyptology and Archaeology are the same
Because they're not. They're entirely different fields of study. Why would you think that?


Hobbies: 
1) Reading
Of course, his number 1 favorite thing to do when he's not spending time with Egyptian themes is reading.
He loves delving in fantastical stories and atmospheres and just losing himself in the beauty of written words.
His favorite genres are fantasy and historical dramas. He also has a collection of biographies of the most important historical egyptologists.
History, in general, is just so very fascinating to him.

2) Solving Jigsaw Puzzles
Just like with riddles, he loves the challenge and the satisfaction of finishing them, as well as how mesmerizing and relaxing it can be to lose yourself in the puzzle work.
He has a bunch of finished 1000+ pieces jigsaw puzzles laying around on the floor of his room. His favorite Egypt themed ones are even framed on the walls.

3) Crafting Replicas
Fairly recently, Michael started to get into the art of crafting replicas from ancient Egypt.
It would be impossible for him to have originals in his room, but he always wanted to hold a crook and flail or wear a pharaonic head crown.
Since he's still a beginner, he only managed to create a crook and a minimalistic head crown that's mimicking a winged sun.
While not being worn as a crown it was often times present at the top of stelae as symbol of divinity, royalty and power.
Although it technically could be seen as blasphemy for him - a mere mortal - to wear this, he enjoys the looks of it too much to not wear it occasionally.
And by occasionally it means he only takes it off when he's meeting other egyptologists who could criticize him for it.


Known Languages: 
1) German - native
His mother tongue. The language he grew up with.

2) Coptic - expert
This is more of an umbrella term for all the ancient Egyptian languages that he has to translate to and from in order to understand hieroglyphics.

3) English - expert
The world language.
Michael learned it in school and struggled first, but then continued to practice with English documentaries and articles that he found online.
Nowadays, he's fluent enough to provide an English version for all of his articles (which are usually in either German or French, depending on the newspaper he's publishing to and the context).

4) French - intermediate
First off, he doesn't like French.
But sadly, it's -next to German- one of the most important languages for egyptologists so he had to learn it to be able to read important articles and books that weren't translated.
Since he isn't really enthusiastic about French, he never got better at it than absolutely necessary, which includes being able to write articles in it.

5) Egyptian Arabic - basic
The modern Egyptian language.
He doesn't need it as urgent in his studies but it has proven itself useful when talking to Egyptian egyptologists and archaeologists on a banquet he attended.
They seemed to appreciate the effort he put into learning some simple sentences and a basic understanding of context.


Biography:
Because of the Tragedy, Egyptian statues and relics were destructed. Their culture was ripped apart by blind hatred and the concept of despair. Lost.
Lost? Not quite, it was just made harder to be seen. It was there, in the hot sands, to be rediscovered by brave man and women, archaeologists and egyptologists working hand in hand.
Brave people like Amalia Steiner - a keen and athletic German archaeologist - and Eshaq Nassar - a young and smart Egyptian egyptologist.

These two were put in the same team for an important excavation near the city of Luxor where they were supposed to find the remains of the well-known Colossi of Memnon.
These two 14 meter high statues were ripped down and broken into pieces by an angry mob and scattered across the desert plane.
This project was meant to only take two or three years, but time went on and by the fifth year, people started to give up. First only one, then two, then ten.
The theory spread that the destroyers intentionally removed some important pieces from Egypt all-together, just to screw with the future excavation teams that would do their best to restore what has been damaged.
It would be despair inducing, they said, and so it was deemed very likely and they all gave up.
Except two people. Amalia and Eshaq.
They didn't even think of giving up.
They had hope in their heart and these statues were important, so they decided that they would dedicate their life to finding every last piece if they had to.
And so they did.

Their work and daily life was rough, considering that they didn't get any payment for their work since the research lab abandoned the project.
They build up their own little farm and used the well from the uninhabited village nearby.
Their tools got used up and broke down, so they had to improvise.
The days were hot and the nights were cold but they stayed strong and powered through.
Year 5, year 6, year 7 passed and while they didn't find the last two head pieces that would complete their work, they did find each other and fell in love after all this time.
Life was rough but they had each other so there was nothing that could stop them. Or so they thought.

One day, Eshaq got a fever. This wasn't the first time that one of them had gotten sick, but this time it was different.
A rash spread over his body and after a few days he started coughing and struggling to breathe.
Amalia panicked and carried him into their car, driving him into the city as fast as she could, continuously telling him to focus on breathing and to calm down, they'd be there in no time she said.
When they arrived, she ran into a hospital to ask for immediate medical attention, but the receptionist insisted on seeing his card, which she didn't have on her.
No matter how much she begged, they didn't listen to her and so she ran out and back to the car, to check on Eshaq and drive to a different hospital.
Only to realize that he was no longer coughing. In fact, he was being awfully quiet as a whole.
He fell asleep, she thought, and tried to wake him up. But no matter how hard she shook him, he didn't wake up. He didn't wake up at all.

And thus, Amalia Steiner, the keen and optimistic archaeologist, was the last member of the excavation team.
She didn't stop. In fact, she threw herself into her work and swore herself that she wouldn't stop until she'd found these stupid last pieces.
She no longer cared about the historical meaning, just about the meaning that this project's end would've had to Eshaq.
But, only a few months later, it became obvious that she had never been alone at this site.
She was pregnant, with Michael Steiner.
And while she swore to find the pieces for Eshaqs sake, she knew that he would've wanted their child to have the best life possible.
Which definitely wouldn't be in the roaring sun in the Egyptian desert.
So with a heavy heart, she packed up and traveled back to Germany, where she came from, and settled there to work as a librarian.
She didn't earn much but, in comparison to her last seven years, more than enough.

Michael grew up only with his loving mother. She gave him everything that he wanted and read to him every night.
She would tell him the stories of her and his fathers adventures in Egypt and they were always his favorite part of the day.
He wouldn't sleep unless she told him another story and all of them ended with her hugging him tightly and turning the lights off to hide her tears.
Michael had a good childhood. He loved reading and joined the book club of his primary school.
He still didn't understand a lot when he read his first book about egyptology, a huge book about the "Death and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt".
He was amazed by the gorgeous imagery and the ideas and concepts that the ancient Egyptian people had about the afterlife.
They were so prepared, he thought, and so surely his dad was prepared too, right?

He missed his dad. He never met him, but he would've given anything to change this. He was his hero and he wanted to be just like him.
Michael became obsessed with the thought that his father had a plan for his afterlife and that this ancient culture could tell him where he was.
For his next birthday, he wished for a bunch of related books and his mother was more than happy to get them all for him.
She knew that Michael would be a great egyptologist, just like his dad, and she would support his every step.
And so he started reading, always writing down and mapping out what he was learning.
He taught himself how to read hieroglyphs and only a few years later, at the age of 12, wrote his first article about a theory concerning some very specific stelae that were, up until that point, never seen as being connected. But his young, fresh view uncovered a specific phrasing which would turn out to be the stepping stone for his career as the youngest renowned egyptologist.

It was hard for him, at first. The long-established old Egyptologist didn't take him seriously.
At the time that he published his first article, no one knew how young he was, since his mother did the actual contacting and publishing part for him.
When he was invited to his first event and showed up in his tiny suit, surrounded by men and women in his mothers age, he felt overwhelmed and wanted to run, but he couldn't.
His mother was continuously encouraging him, telling him how amazing his findings were and that he should be proud of himself.
And he was, but still, it was scary, standing around with people who knew about the same things as you, but always having to look up.
Some were mocking him. Insulting him. Telling him that children like him should be asleep and that he shouldn't interrupt the adults.
He was agitated. Wanted to speak for himself, but his body didn't function.
This evening was a torture for him that felt never ending.
After he was home again, he decided to not go to one of those events again, until he was older. More respected.
He wanted to go there again and show those old sacks how much more he knew, more than they thought. That they should respect everyone equally, young and old alike.

Those next years were spent in a frenzy of studying.
He learned and discovered and published several articles, becoming more and more respected in the community.
The next time he went to an event, people were greeting him cheerfully, inviting him into their midst and discussing his latest theories.
People were nice to him and he never felt more alive, even if he still struggled to find the right words sometimes.
This all was achieved with the cost of him abandoning his regular social contacts. He didn't make any friends in high school.
Only his mom was regularly talking to him, and some of the egyptologists, who were all far older than him.
But he didn't mind. He was in his element and couldn't miss something that he never really had.
His mother did mind though.
While she loved how much her son was glowing and becoming what they both could only have dreamed, she knew that he needed to have normal friends.
To be a normal teenager sometimes.

So when a letter from the very well-known Future Road's Academy appeared in their letter box, she thought this must've been a gift from the underworld.
It didn't take much to convince Michael that this would be a great opportunity for him.
He'd have the best resources possible for his studies and would be around other very exceptional students.
It would be perfect for him - and so he accepted.

Extras:
1) Michael is a Triple-A person: Agender Asexual Aromantic, but he doesn't care about this at all.
Since he was assigned male at birth and there's no neutral pronoun in German, he just went with he/him.
Whenever someone asks or straight up assumes, he always goes with male and shrugs it off.
It doesn't seem important to him that other people know about it.
If they'd care that much, they'd notice if they'd spend enough time with him.

2) His cat Ramses is named after Ramses II, who's sphynx was the first one he ever saw and Michael thought it looked hilarious.
When they picked up Ramses from the animal shelter, he immediately remembered that first impression and just had to do it for the amusement of it.

3) He wears those bandages around his neck because the neck piece is made out of actual metal and would cut him otherwise.
In fact, there are still some light scars visible underneath it, which is another reason for him to wear them.
(And, let's be real, he also really digs the mummy aesthetic.)

4) His favorite animal is the dung beatle (Scarabaeus Sacer). Guess why.

5) His favorite color is royal blue.