Neon

## Appearance

**Neon** is an Inkling boy with bright red hair to match his main ink color, and blue eyes to contrast. Of course, being an Inkling, he has a black mask-like marking that surrounds/"connects" both eyes, tentacles for "hair", and pointed ears. In addition to this, he has a set of freckles on both cheeks and two bandaged scrapes on both of his knees.

Neon wears a pair of mostly black goggles over his forehead, an open red jacket over a blank white t-shirt, and a brown tool belt with a small tool bag on the side. Under that, he wears a pair of black shorts and brown laced boots. In addition, he wears a pair of black gloves with red on the palms, and a blue bandana around his neck that’s tied up at the front.

## Personality

Neon is smart and observant. He’s a quick learner, being able to pick up on just about anything after maybe a few tries. His naturally observant nature also makes him quite resourceful, usually being able to make good use of whatever he’s given.

Neon’s fairly introverted. He’s usually pretty quiet, especially around people he’s unfamiliar with, and really only speaks if absolutely necessary or if the person comes to him first. He’s not exactly shy, just didn’t get out very much. While he’s alone, sometimes he talks to himself out loud. Despite his reserved nature, he does have an attitude. He likes to tease his friends/loved ones sometimes, mostly for the fun of it. The only time he’d ever flat out insult anyone is if he’s taking to a person he doesn’t like.

Although, it becomes a very different story when he talks to people he’s close to. In that scenario, he shows a very talkative side of himself. He loves to share his opinions on things that he’s discovered or become interested in at the time. With that said, he’s also a good listener. Neon likes to have discussions and hear people’s sides of a story. Neon can also be very friendly and be entertaining, often cracking jokes to make those people laugh. While he does care about those close to him, sometimes he struggles a bit with expressing that. Teasing them is his main way of doing so.

Neon’s not the best at dealing with super serious situations, but at the very least he knows there’s a place and time for everything. Regardless of what little experience he has with that, he always tries his best to be a source of comfort.

## Creation

Neon was originally created for the sake of being a self-insert in a Splatoon comic series JC wanted to make a few years back (roughly around 2018). While the comic never actually came to be, Neon continued to exist as a YouTube mascot and eventually the face of the Calamari Crew.

Funnily enough, the comic’s story revolved around androids re-emerging from below the sea to essentially overthrow the marine life that had subdued the earth and “reclaim” their position as ”the true successors to humanity”. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

## History

"Brief" Backstory/Bio:

From a very young age, the Octarians have always fascinated Neon. Despite how little he was taught of them in school, he was intrigued. He's always been particularly interested in their history with the Inklings, and especially their technology from the Great Turf War days. Their darker aesthetic and weird but surprisingly advanced mechanics have always captivated him. This mild obsession inspired Neon to begin tinkering with model weapons, such as Splattershots, Rollers, etc. While he never saw anything big coming out of that, it was still fun to mess around with the inner workings and see what made them tick. Eventually he would start looking up leaked Octarian blueprints to make his own (smaller scale) homemade replicas. The first replica he ever made was of an Octostamp. Now he keeps it on his night table as a memory of his first successful “invention” :]

After turning 15, his parents encouraged him to begin looking for activities to do outside of their house during the summer. More specifically, they wanted him to see the big city, Splatsville. At first, he figured he could try applying for a job at Ammo Knights, however when he went to apply, apparently their only slot was taken.

[^ still being worked on. this part ties into how he meets Florella btw]

## Relations and Affiliations

#### **Florella**

Neon's girlfriend! :D Since the two met, they've bonded over personal interest in each other's cultures/lifestyles. The moment Neon realized this was his big chance to learn about Octarians FROM an Octarian, he took a major interest in her. As time went on, though, he grew to really like Flo as a person. In his eyes they mesh together very well, being able to easily start hours long conversations with each other and just have fun messing around. One thing he always admired about Florella was her positive outlook on life. Her easygoing and fun loving spirit always lit up the room and made her fun to be around for him. He really likes her, but always tends to get really flustered whenever he tries to express his affection for her, and is always met with Florella teasing him about it, ironically for him lol. He always makes sure to remind Flo that he's there for her, much to her appreciation :)

#### **Xena**

teammate 🤯

(The last two will be updated later once their personalities are more fleshed out)

## Abilities and Weapons

By default, Neon can shoot ink that automatically sticks to all surfaces (excluding glass and grates). The ink itself manually evaporates from whatever it covered after 3 minutes. Neon is also capable of transforming into a squid. This primarily allows him to swim in his ink, which itself allows him to refill on any lost ammo and also hide from foes. In addition, while in squid form (or submerged in ink) he can also perform various techniques such as:

* **Super Jump** - Neon crouches down into his squid form, and then rockets straight into the sky after a brief charge up. Super Jumping is typically used as a method fast travel to different locations, however it can also be used to catch up with teammates/allies in battle

* **Squid Roll** - a basic technique where Neon leaps out of his ink while spiraling in squid form. This gives Neon an easy way to dodge projectile attacks, even being able to deflect incoming fire.
* **Squid Surge** - a basic technique that can only be used on walls. After a brief chargeup, Neon will go flying right up and off of the wall. This makes for a quick and convenient way to swim up walls.

Neon can also easily pass through grates while in squid form

Neon's weapon of choice is a special Octo Shot replica he dubs the “Octo Shot NEO”, a simple shooter weapon that fires ink in a (somewhat) straight line. The Octo Shot NEO provides Neon with both a Sub Weapon and Special Weapon. These are:

* **Sub Weapon** **- Splat Bombs**. A simple bomb projectile that creates an explosion of ink 2 seconds after it hits a surface. Neon always has access to his Sub Weapon, so long as he has enough ink for it
* **Special Weapon** **- Zipcaster**. Zipcaster allows Neon to grapple onto far away walls by stretching his arms and sticking to them, causing an explosion everytime he latches onto one. Using Zipcaster briefly changes Neon's appearance, coating him in his current ink color and giving him a "helmet" resembling the Inkling squid head and a "scarf" resembling a squid tentacle.

## Trivia

* Believe it or not, Neon didn’t actually get his name from the periodic table. He was actually named after a Sonic OC from YouTube creator, LucasRPDJ. The OC in question was a black hedgehog with glowing blue markings, also named Neon
* The Octo Shot NEO is actually a homemade Octo Shot replica that Neon made using leaked blueprints he found online and parts from different Splattershot models. He figured it'd be good practice before moving onto making his own original weapons, and plus the idea sounded fun
* Neon doesn't actually speak English, so just imagine that whenever he interacts with someone that doesn't speak his language he uses some kind of translator device
* Neon's favorite types of music are lofi and classical because both are very relaxing :)
* Neon is bi and trans :]
* Neon's last name is literally the word "neon" in Latin. However, in Latin "novum" also means "fresh", a term that is VERY commonly used in Splatoon to describe something cool :0
* Neon's signature red color is actually based on the main color of Persona 5. Before he was changed to red, he had two other colors: green (based on Agent 3) and blue (based on Sonic the Hedgehog)
* Neon using Zipcaster references when he used a grappling hook-like weapon, initially dubbed the "Splatling Hook".
* Neon is good at baking! This is because he used to bake a lot with him mom when he was younger :)