Late 2000's comfort cartoons enjoyer

Doc is a Letiche, a native cryptid to Louisiana. He transforms progressively throughout his childhood until he looks goes from a normal baby to looking more gator than man. His heavily religious mother sheltered him from the outside world and eventually shipped him off to the bayou to stay with Lancaster when the rumours got too bad (Letiches are rumoured to be human children that got raised by alligators or infants cursed by being illegitimate and unbaptised).

Lancaster has a soft spot for him and essentially starts tutoring him, finding out that Doc has a secret love for maths and the sciences. He’s a bright and intelligent boy who wants to see the world. Lancaster still has his cryptid soldiers project ongoing and as Doc's condition progressively continues to disable him physically, he starts engineering his research to support Doc, with various experiments and gene therapy attempts.

When Doc is a teenager, he becomes aware of the cryptid super soldier research and though he knows that it's unethical, he and Lancaster start seeing it as a potential way to make Doc human again, especially as he continues to worsen. When a colleague threatens to leak their work, there is a split decision made to stop them that involves said colleague being put into the machine with Doc to reconstruct him a human body. No matter how guilty Doc feels about having a body that's not quite his own, he now has a human body again. He can go out into society, go to school, gets a place at a university upon lancaster's recommendation. he's greedy for experiencing life to the fullest and wants to distance himself from his past by making a name for himself in the scientific community so nobody suspects he's ever been anything else besides but a smart, successful man.

Doc's aspirations are flipped on their head when he meets Drew one night when he's out collecting samples in the forest not far from campus for his degree. In her werewolf form, caught in a bear trap.

Drew is a Faoladh, a legendary Irish type of werewolf/wolf creature. She is the last of a dying breed that was pretty much hunted to extinction when Ireland was colonised by the British and eradicated their cultural way of life out of fear of the supernatural. Her parents travelled the world to avoid staying in once place too long to keep their secret safe. She was still raised by the monks, who helped keep her secret safe. Unlike Doc, she loves her heritage and is keen to explore her cultural roots. She wants try and find her long lost brother and see if there are more of their kind out there (because having a Faoladh form is hereditary and she longs to have a new ‘pack’ now that she’s living in America far from the monks). She goes to the same university as Doc and was out on a nighttime prowl when she got caught in said trap. Doc doesn't realise she's a human at first but he's got a kind heart and he frees her. That only raises more questions when he notices that there's a girl in one of his classes that keeps looking at him funny and is nursing an injury on the same leg as that huge wolf creature had.

Doc, sympathetic to someone else who might be plagued by a monster form, confronts her about it. She's wary of him based on how people generally react to her beast form, but his reaction suggests that he's familiar with the supernatural. She invites him to her dorm and explains her heritage to him under the promise not to tell. He swears not to and she finds it very endearing although she gets very offended when he offers to help cure her. He's fascinated by the fact that she takes pride in being what he and regular people see as a 'monster' and she changes his perspective on things. He starts leaning more into her interests of zoology and archeology and they fall in love like the sappy couple they are in canon. However, he hides his own history from her, not because he thinks she would leave him for it, but because he thinks she'd hate him on account of what he did to get his humanity back.

Everything else for a bit happens canonically, they uncover the kur stone, help found the Secret Scientists, raid Weird World etc. When they find out that Drew is pregnant, Doc is both overjoyed and terrified thinking that their child might end up with the same problems he was plagued with as a child. Zak Saturday is born premature but mind-blowingly normal. Drew is very surprised that Zak isn't a Faoladh (because again, hereditary) but she doesn't love him any less. Doc still hasn't told her about being a Letiche.

Drew ends up finding out when the incident happens with Tsul Kalu. Rather than going blind when the lightning strikes him, the surge of energy partially reverses what Lancaster's machine did. One half of his upper body and the left side of his face take on a crocodilian appearance. Doc finally has to come clean about his past and practically begs for her forgiveness after admitting to everything. She's mad at him for a short while but she understands what he did, knowing that she was privileged enough to be able to shift out of her cryptid form as she pleased so that it didn't affect her being able to function in society.

Doc learns to be more accepting of himself with his wife and sons support, but he keeps parts of his body hidden from view around all but a few select people.

This post is already super super long so I’ll probably make a separate post about Faoladh Doyle. He had a rough upbringing in orphanages, being treated like an animal until he ran away and essentially lived wild until captured by poachers. He was bought by Van Rook on the black market (who’s still a mercenary but has no history with Drew). Because I want an anti hero Van Rook storyline, he find out Doyle is a teenager, bonds him against his better judgement and practically. Doyle is super loyal to him like the son he never had