Neoptera

Belongs to Cassa. Please do not edit this page.
----
Appearance
Neo is a dragon built in a way that would be sturdy, if not for the thinness of her body. Every part of her is shaped like it was sculpted on wire frames, and the artist didn't pack enough clay together. She holds her head high, but there's still an awkward tension in her wings, a slight shake in her talons, that she can never seem to get rid of.
Her scales are a burnt red orange, with neat little rows of black dots along the sides of her face and her limbs. Black that gains an odd amber undertone on her belly. Her horns are dark red, a shade that matches the thin strip of scales lining her underbelly.
Neo's wings are clear, appearing startlingly fragile as they reflect the little light the veins catch. It's a sharp contrast against the cold, unsettling black of her eyes.
----
Personality
Neo is not particularly social, although not in the way an introvert or a shy person might be. She acts like a dragonet that has been burned too many times, and now avoids the cooking fire, and the food that comes with it. When she doesn't feel like conversing, she will often just ignore the other dragon until they leave.
She tends to handle everything by herself, and asking for help is something that happens so rarely that help has been forced upon her in the past. She takes everything life throws are her and drags herself through. 
She's almost obsessive in the way she tries to control every aspect of her life, staying within the limited confines of comfort to keep herself insulated from anything she might not know how to respond to.
She is not a nice dragon. Her temper is uneven at best, the years of practice pining it down and burying it in her mind only making it more volatile. On bad days she can snap on others seemingly out of nowhere, offering months of pent up anger before abruptly stopping. She never acknowledges those episodes.
If she ignores them, it won't happen again, right?
Although she wouldn't admit it to anyone, Neo is scared. She doesn't know who she is, or what she wants. She's always prided herself on independence but all that turned into was repressed emotions and a simmering resentment towards the world and herself. She drags herself through each day with spite, and despite the powerful motivator that is, it still eats away at her, drowning her in the anger she is still unequipped to process.
She's the barely held together remains of a dragonet that had to grow up too fast.
----
History
Neo's early life was not perfect by any means, but hindsight paints it in rosy tones. Both to Count Termite and Countess Ossarium, Neo's hatching was cloaked in the privilege of being a high class HiveWing. She was surrounded by servants that coddled her, and parents that doted on her. Their only dragonet, she was showered with all the attention and wealth her family could afford.
*first three years were nice, chill. privileged, even
*then velvet had an egg that was Definitely Not Termite's
:*dear clearsight, the arguing
:*anyway divorce happened
*neo blamed it all on the mystery dragonet in her head
*was pretty sure it was that kid's fault her parents separated
*got worse because velvet dedicated all her time to leitmotif and neo was left neglected to be taken care of by the silkwings
:*and she wasn't exactly. respectful towards them
*what do you do when you're a small child and furious about things beyond your control so you scapegoat your sister and blame aer for everything
*anyway outgrew that
*is now a librarian. it's nice. it's chill
Born 29 years after the Tree Wars into minor nobility, Neo's first three years were lived in relative comfort. She doesn't remember much, but those days were gentle and loving in her memories. 
Then her mother (Velvet) had an affair, had an egg, and that caused a lot of fights and a very messy divorce between her mother and father (Termite). Termite left, and Neo never found out where he went. Her mother immediately started focusing on this new dragonet (Leitmotif), and neglected Neo, leaving it to the SilkWing servants to take care of her. Neo wouldn't see Leitmotif until two years later, upon which she found out that the affair was with a SilkWing. She held a lot of resentment towards Leitmotif, because she sort of blamed the divorce and all the neglect on Leitmotif. That meant a lot of sharp words and general unpleasantness. Anyway, fast forward a few years, Neo went to Mantis Hive for a bit to pursue further education into history, and met a lot of new dragons. It helped her readjust herself, and process the effect of Velvet's neglect. Upon coming back home, she picked up a job as a librarian. She ended up confronting Velvet about how she felt, and they ended up getting into a big fight, and Neo ran off. She went to Leitmotif, who was at Tsetse Hive at the time, and apologized for being really rude when she was younger. The two managed to reconcile, and after going back to Jewel Hive Neo managed to get back to speaking terms with Velvet, too. She definitely hasn't repaired all these relationships yet, but she's trying. She still works as a librarian in Jewel Hive, her timeline is ~4 years before canon. 
----
Relationships
Count Termite: Her memories of him were warm and kind, awash hindsight of what she lost. Perhaps their relationship wasn't quite perfect, but she's long idolized the time before things went wrong. Remembering the fights still makes her tremble sometimes. She misses him and doesn't know where he went. She's not sure if he wants to see him again.
Countess Velvet: Her mother in only blood. The two are not on speaking terms anymore, and Neo likes it better that way. She still feels a certain level of upset over what Velvet did, an anger that will likely never go away. She still blames her for the neglect that followed. Neo's yet to forgive.
Festoon: The flamesilk SilkWing she barely knew had always beeen a good target for her anger. He's more a symbol of why everything went wrong than a real dragon to her. She hates him, hates the representation of him she imagines. She's trying to let go of that.
Leitmotif: Neo's half sibling, one that tugs at her thoughts in odd ways. She's trying hard to work past the resentment she held as a dragonet. Leitmotif was another easy target to blame, but Neo can recognize that it wasn't fair to aer. Ae's not a bad sibling, by any means. She's learning to appreciate aer.
----
Trivia
*Likes working with dragonets a lot more than she thought she would
**It's nice seeing them getting so excited over books
*Knows absolutely nothing about music but will hype up Leitmotif's work every single time
*Once tried to eat treestuff as a kid
----
Gallery
Neopteratiny.png|Mezepheles
NeopteraKestrelzz.png|Kestrelzz
Category:Characters
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Content (Mezepheles)
Category:Females
Category:HiveWings
Category:Occupation (Archivist)
Category:Status (Nobility)