Michael Fischer Jr

[General Goose]

Name: Michael Fischer Jr.
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Aurora High
Hobbies and Interests: Bass guitar, the Marines, medicine, soccer.

Appearance: Michael is not a small guy, standing at 6'0" and weighing 170lb, with most of his weight being muscle, and relatively little of it being fat. His legs are slightly shorter than average for someone his height (with his torso being a bit taller to compensate), but not significantly so. In terms of clothing, he normally goes for jeans and a shirt (occasionally a band shirt). He tends to prioritise appearance over practicality when it comes to clothing, but he wouldn't wear something significantly impractical or uncomfortable.

Michael is considered by most to be rather attractive; his most distinctive facial features are his strong, chiselled jaw, his ears (in his opinion, his ugliest feature; they are slightly larger than average and stick out a small bit) and his eyebrows (while not big, bushy or extremely thick, they are prominent), which sit above his light brown eyes. Michael is clean-shaven, and his natural hair colour is light ash brown. However, he has currently dyed it black. The hair on top of his head is normally spiked up into small spikes with gel, but when not styled looks slightly curly.

Biography: Michael Fischer Sr. likes to think of himself as a shining example of the American Dream. Growing up in a less-than-affluent family in a Brooklyn slum, his parents were both children of Austrian or German refugees who had been lucky enough to be able to flee their homelands around the time of the Anschluss (for different reasons; his maternal grandparents had fled because of their socialist views, his paternal grandparents had fled because of their Jewish heritage). Despite growing up in a troubled family frequently struggling with financial problems and losing a brother in Vietnam, he was able to not only work up the funds to attend university, but, working with a friend Fred Reeves, was also able to start a small company in Seattle. Fischer and Reeves Engines started off as little more than a garage that, at most, repaired broken engines, but Reeves, an inventive fellow, eventually was able to create a new method of manufacturing engines, and the business grew from there.

Within ten years, thanks to the business savvy and charm of Michael and the innovation and intelligence of Fred, Fischer and Reeves Engines were internationally renowned engine manufacturers, used by luxury car makers, militaries and other well-paying customers throughout the world. Thanks to this and other investments, Michael was able to build up a sizeable fortune, amassing a net worth of millions. In the process, he built up a reputation as a respected philanthropist and a leader in Washington's Republican Party (which he joined not because he felt it best matched his moderate views on many issues, but mainly because it "had the shortest queue.")

At the age of 36, Michael decided to settle down and have a family, having spent most of his years before that being somewhat promiscuous. He married his girlfriend of two years, 37-year old veterinarian Lydia Carmichael, one of the most successful and well-known veterinarians in the Western United States. The two were seen by many as a good match; they were both highly ambitious, highly demanding, and extremely intelligent individuals, both well-intentioned and friendly, yet neither the type to back down from an argument. Lydia already had one son, Eric (now 24 years old and serving in the Marines in Afghanistan) from a previous marriage.

Shortly after getting married, Lydia gave birth to a son, christening him Michael Fischer Jr. For most of his childhood, he was known by his family as "Junior". The couple would go on to have two more children, Christopher (now 16) and Paul (now 14). All three of the children went to prestigious private schools, and even there they were by far some of the richest and most privileged students. They lived in a large, spacious mansion in Auburn, Washington. In 2002, Michael Fischer Sr, up against a scandal-ridden incumbent and able to invest a large amount of his own money in the race, was the successful Republican candidate in the State Senate district around Auburn. He has represented the district ever since.

When he was 15, Michael's parents divorced. Their relationship had been strained for years, due to increasing differences in personalities, parental styles, and politics, yet the straw that broke the camel's back was his father's ill-fated decision to invest a large chunk of the family's fortunes in a series of properties in Dubai. While for most of his adult life Michael Fischer Sr. had been cautious with his money, avoiding several bad investments that brought down several of his friends and successfully being vigilant against fraudsters and the like, this turned out to be a momentous mistake.

While far from the only financial mistake the Fischers made, this incredibly poor investment choice was not only a bad investment, but also resulted in the Fischers being the victims of a well-planned credit card fraud scheme and meant, within a few months, the Fischer fortune had mostly disappeared. Their net worth remained considerably above average, but they had gone from millionaires to merely "rich" almost overnight. Investigators quickly admitted that, due to the highly organised nature of the scheme, the destination of the majority of the money would be difficult to trace, and almost impossible to return. The financial strain and turmoil over the next few months turned out to be the final straw for the couple. Neither of them contested the divorce, and they were able to agree on the terms of the divorce, including the custody of the children and ownership of the property. Lydia, Eric, Michael and Paul moved to Seattle; Christopher opted to stay with his father.

Michael never had a good relationship with his father, so the decision to go with his mother (even though that meant slightly less financial security as his father still retained a considerable source of income in the "safer" stocks and shares he owned, and ultimately resulted in Michael's transition to public schools for his high school years) was an easy one to make. When Michael was young, his father was rarely around. While both of his parents had demanding jobs, Michael's mother's job didn't require her to frequently travel around the nation or the world; his father's job, on the other hand, did, meaning he was away for not only large parts of Michael's childhood, but also large parts of Chris's and Paul's.

While getting into politics meant much less travel (aside from frequent visits to Olympia) and thus more time with his father, even then the two Michael Fischers had a poor relationship; son accusing father of being a heartless, selfish, short-tempered career politician, father accusing son of laziness and ignorance. They argued regularly, and to this day, Michael still has an extremely bitter relationship with his father. His parents still see each other regularly, both because they have remained friends and to see their children who live with the other spouse; despite his father attempting to use these moments to make amends, they invariably just lead to more opportunities for friction between father and son. Despite this, he gets on well with most of his paternal relatives. Michael's response to the divorce was complex; while the rapid change in his life was not easy for him to deal with, he did not particularly mind the thought of not living under the same roof with his father. This attitude initially put him at odds with most of his relatives, including all his brothers.

His relationship with his mother is not exceptional; they frequently argue, and Michael, in part, blames her for his poor relationship with his father (not doing enough to make him a good parent.) While he has adjusted to public school well, he also partially blames his mother, and her role in the family's financial problems, for forcing the change from private to public in the first place. Initially, he found the change very distressing, and privately had the attitude that he was too good to be in a public school. Since then, his attitude has changed drastically, and, thanks to the friends he has acquired and the experiences he's had, he now often says the change to public school is one of the best things to happen to him. Although they are still firmly upper middle class, Michael still misses the luxuries and frequent holidays of when they were rich, and to an extent blames his mother for that. However, especially in comparison to his relationship with his father, their relationship is not bad. He gets on well with his siblings and half-brother Eric, although his relationship with his brother Christopher is strained by the latter's decision to stay with his father.

In large part due to Eric serving in Afghanistan, one of the careers Michael is considering is serving in the Marines. As such, he has developed a strong interest in the Marines, having read a lot about them, and asks Eric further questions about them whenever he can. While he has never fired a gun before, he does have above-average knowledge of how to work a gun, meaning he wouldn't be completely useless if given one. The other career he is considering is medicine, and while he is focusing hard on the school subjects necessary to do well there, he has not devoted into it the same level of attention and passion that he has other interests, so his medical knowledge is not much more than the average knowledge of someone Michael's age.

From his birth, due to his parent's wealth and influence, everything Michael needed (and a good chunk of the stuff he wanted) was given to him. Any subject he struggled with and wanted to get passing grades in (foreign languages being a frequent example), he was able to get access to a tutor. Any hobby he wanted to try, his parents obliged. This upbringing has made Michael somewhat spoiled. Despite the token efforts of both of his parents to give him a work ethic (mainly by requiring him to do chores or attempt an extracurricular activity) and an understanding of how the real world functions, he has grown lazy, and would be completely lost if put into the real world. That's not to say he's lived a life completely isolated from hardship or sadness and that he has no practical skills whatsoever, but being thrown into a situation where assistance is not at hand will be completely disconcerting for him.

Michael is well-known and fairly popular around the school, and he is a very friendly, outgoing guy, but he has a reputation as being somewhat arrogant; many are unsure as to whether his frequent comments about his desire to not work hard in most school subjects and his regular boasting about his intelligence, his strength, his talents and his skill in bed are meant to be taken seriously or not. Two of his defining character traits are his large ego (for which his upbringing, filled with praise, is partially responsible for) and his near-complete lack of tact and sensitivity; he has no problems with making offensive or immature jokes, and is known for using profanity on a regular basis. Michael, who is straight, has had a couple of relationships before, but is currently single.

Although if asked he will bluntly state he has no interest in school and doesn't really work hard at all, this is not true for all subjects. While certainly true for some (he was considered a pain in the neck by most teachers in English, humanities and languages), he takes subjects relating to maths and science seriously. This is not because he enjoys them, but because he feels they will be important later on in life, especially if he decides to go for a career in medicine. He is known as a hard worker by teachers in those subjects, and although he is not naturally gifted in them, he routinely gets As and the occasional B in them. While previously he was able to maintain Bs and Cs in most other subjects, they have since fallen to Cs and Ds, with the rare B, as he has gotten older and has stopped asking his parents for tutors.

In part because he is considering joining the Marines when older, Michael tries his best to be physically fit, and works out on a regular basis. He also plays soccer and is quite good at the sport, having originally gotten into it when he was around 11. He normally takes a midfielder position, but is sometimes a defender depending on who he is playing with. Since the age of 12, Michael has played the bass guitar; he now has moderate skill with the instrument, and while he isn't in a band, he has uploaded a few videos online of him covering songs he likes. While he listens to a broad variety of metal and rock, his favourite genre is industrial metal.

Many people, upon hearing his father is such a prominent politician, think he also has a strong interest in politics. This couldn't be further from the truth, and anyone who meets Michael by making such an assumption will invariably make a bad impression. Michael has no interest whatsoever in politics, and while he has picked up a bit of knowledge about state politics from overhearing conversations his father has had, the only political knowledge he will admit to is knowing who the President is. Michael was raised as an Episcopalian, but currently identifies as an agnostic.

In the previous year, he spent a couple of months at the school newspaper, at the request of his mother, who thought the experience would not only look good on his CV, but also expand Michael's interests and give him new skills. However, he was extraordinarily lazy and did little work in his two months there, and while he eventually left, some of the more hard-working individuals on the school newspaper may still have a low opinion of Michael.

Advantages: Michael is physically fit (playing soccer and working out regularly having given him decent strength and stamina), has limited knowledge about how to work a gun (although he has no practical experience with guns) and is reasonably popular.
Disadvantages: Michael, in part because of his privileged upbringing and in part because of his personality, can be described as lazy, over-reliant on others, and lacking practical real-world experience. The most suffering he's ever endured is going from being the son of millionaires to the son of a firmly upper middle class single parent. Despite mostly being a good person at making friends, his ego, his attitude and his lack of tact has rubbed some people the wrong way, and he makes enemies almost as easily as he makes friends.