Hm.. well, if you're gonna read this, I suppose you should settle in for story time.
I live in a rather...stressful.. environment. (One of my parents is very... um... angry and the other is on the other side of the planet for about half the year. Completely understandable, but it doesn't change the result.)
I was a really violent kid, and I've had basic combat training (Grampa tied an old knife to a broom handle and said "Here. Go play.") and some survival training and at some point, I realized that not only are most humans bigoted, egotistical, and incapable of objectivity, because of their species, they are also physically pathetic. Can't run, no fangs, no claws, no fur, no pawpads, little olefactory sense. Absolutely pathetic. At that point, not being killed was a pretty big priority, so in order to convince myself that I could withstand my environment (something which seemed pretty impossible), I started to believe that I wasn't human. Instead, I wanted to be a wolf. A wolf is social, but it's also very stoic. It upholds obligation to the pack the way I was expected to serve and obey my family, but it can also defend itself. It runs fast, has teeth, and it's smart. Furthermore, a wolf is stronger, smarter, and deadlier than a dog. I suppose that instead of really believing myself a wolf, I wanted to be the wolf version of what all the other human kids were, the better, wilder version.
I make full use of my sense of smell. As limited as it is, you can still get a lot of information if you pay attention instead of just separating the smells into 'bad' and 'good'. I started walking digitigrade and to this day, I have no idea why more people don't do it. It's physically possible, and my balance is a lot better for it, although I still wish I had a tail to even things out. I've been like this since I was 6 or so, and by now I'm instinctively on my toes when I'm sparring or playing DDR. I can't do it flatfooted. I'm lucky I have strong teeth because I started carrying things in my mouth and biting things to cut them. I figured out how my body relates to a canine body, so I'd be mobile on all fours. I spent summer vacation racing around the backyard harnessed to a sled and as many weights as I could find (sometimes other kids) and now I can walk, trot, pace, and gallop without much difficulty, although I never figured out how to canter. Thinking that I was a wolf made me quite strong, I think. I wanted to test myself, prove myself more durable than everyone else, since I had to meet expectations that were stricter than everyone else. If I was normal, I wouldn't have been able to do it. (Of course, I've since realized that the intelligence distribution is about the same in every species that hasn't been domesticated. Smart people are normal too, there's just a lot less of them. The same logic can be applied to gay people.)
Let's go back to the first sentence. I was a really violent kid with combat training and survival training. I also thought I was a wolf. Unarmed wolves are many times deadlier than unarmed humans. This was bad. First, I had no empathy for things that I did not consider members of my own species (this has since been altered to "people who are not at my level of functioning"). I wasn't afraid to kill, except that I'd get in a lot of trouble at home and Mr. Alpha Wolf (the teacher) wouldn't be very happy with me. Second, wolflike play is a lot more conducive to combat skills than human play. All that shuffling around on all fours, plus being digitigrade meant I had good footwork and I could wrestle. I knew how to use all of my limbs. Third, I had teeth. I had teeth and I wasn't afraid to use them. Teeth, as you probably know, are much more effective than punches. You don't have to hit a weak spot to draw blood. In fact, you can tear into someone's leg about as easily as you can eat a chicken drum. Blood usually scares the other kid, which means that I won. I seriously injured two kids (and then went home and got seriously injured until I figured out not to draw blood). To compound the problem, I read White Fang. After that, my goal switched to becoming an efficient and resilient fighting animal, and I figured being a wolf was the way to go with that. I suppose it doesn't help that the other kids would bait me because I was weird and violent, and I'd lock my neck forwards, snarl and bare my teeth, and they never got the message.
At that point, I wasn't really a furry at all. I suppose you could say I became wolf out of necessity, but I was definitely quad. In 6th grade, I lost my depth perception, discovered that I could draw, and realized how important my hands are. In 8th grade, I discovered anime and adopted the persona of a black 4 tailed fox (Still quad). A fox demon isn't very strong in the beginning, but it will grow. If it can stay alive for long enough, it will become one of the most powerful forces in mythology, powerful enough to rival dragon-gods. I suppose the idea was "You can hunt me and hurt me now and I'll wait. When I'm stronger I'll be able to annihilate you." directed, again, at the ...angry... parent. In 10th grade I discovered DA, and anthromorphism. It became my superhuman ideal, all the strength of a wolf, but with hands to continue my craft.
Home environment got crappier and more violent. I studied psychology and concluded that it's my fault because raising me is what made my parent crazy, but it's the parent's fault, because they very carefully planned my birth, life, and future income. (Yes, I am an investment. Unfortunately, I was born completely healthy and two months early, which means instead of being born right after graduation, I was born during final thesis paper-writing. Not good.) So its their fault I exist. Since the environment was so unstable, I became unstable, a shapeshifter. That's what I am now, without set gender, temperament, likes or dislikes beyond the general survival seeking tendancies of any mammal. I don't know if I'm furry, but what I know for sure is that I'm definitely not human. I'm not that weak, but I sometimes find it beneficial to pretend to be. As for form, the closest I can come is a wolf-dragon. Massive, powerful quad with thick fur, big fangs, antlers, and most importantly, hands. His paws are the perfect constructional blend of weight-bearing paw and dexterous hand, with foldable palm and an opposable thumb that is kept tucked away while running. I am not just a blend of traits, I have good original biological design. At the same time, my other type of likable personality needs to be accounted for, so I have a pet personality, a humanoid, small, cute, female thing with lots of optimism and little philosophical ability. To the rest of the world, it looks like she's in control because she's the human, but no. Big powerful Wolvendragon is the brains of the operation.
And there you have it. Complex menagerie of survival mechanisms = dynamic gloop of nothingness. Sometimes, I curse what I've become, but the rest of the time, I love the power rush. (Granted, I am an egotistical jerk, but I'm good at pretending I'm not.)
