Sterling

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 File:SterlingFR.png  ***Paragon of Justice***

*"You can do this Sterling. Just try your best, and the rest will fall into place."*

Sterling is a tall TempestWing and a tall dragon in general, with a wiry form like a greyhound - long-bodied and swift. His agile form is like most dragons of his species. In his skinniness is the slightest hint of muscle from when he used to dive in the ocean as a dragonet, and there is a toughness in his body like molten steel.

His scales are a dull, cold silver and grey as the sky before winter snow. He's decidedly average, except for the features that he's ashamed of. To Sterling, his muzzle is a bit too long, his ears are too slim and large; they look weird being tipped with black. His wingspan is so wide that when he spreads them he's bound to bump into someone. Not to mention his long dark-striped tail, which has knocked into about twenty vases, thirty glass cups, and hundreds of dragons.

The transitional stripes on his wings are a bright blue color, alternating between shades of sky and pale icy blue, and they flash brightly when he is excited or inspired. The jagged stripes on his wings are also the colors of frost.

He's usually stiffly straight, trying to appear formal and busy and in control of everything. Part of being a lawyer is looking the part. But all of that flies out the window since he's incredibly clumsy, and is bound to make one mistake or another.

His eyes are a manic and metallic blue-grey, always coming up with ideas and darting everywhere. In the dark, they glow incredibly brightly - earning him the nickname of Flashlight from his clawmates in the past. Sterling smiles a lot, and seems to see wonder in everything, even the mundane and average town where he grew up. Beneath his eyes are two dashed marks, the top one larger than the bottom one.

Across his body are various striped markings that are a darker grey, and on his left side are three large and dark squiggly markings that he can't help but frown at - what is this asymmetry? How can he fix it?

He wears a navy blue suit over a plain white workshirt, and never leaves the home without putting on his signature red tie. He has about a million things stuffed in his suit pocket, *just in case* anything goes wrong. One of them is a pen from his former best friend, a small throwing knife, and some pepper spray. Upon closer examination, you can see that his clothes are pretty cheap, but he moves too much for anyone to get a good look.

His voice is of a higher tenor than other dragons his size, trembling and on occasion, chirping. He hardly has the ideal news anchor's voice, or even a fame-worthy voice. When he's trying to sound tough, he tries to deepen his voice, but it only makes him look more ridiculous.

==Personality==

**Organization**

*"A tidy home is a tidy mind."*

Sterling is incredibly obssessive over organization. Just as his mother used to say, *everything has a proper place and time.* His scrolls are always alphabetized and laid in neat rows, his pens are parallel and straight on the table, his clock is tuned perfectly, his ties are laid out before he wears them, and whoever touches them **earns his wrath.** Organizing is something he does in his spare time to help him think, and is second to nature. After all, his mother always asked him to organize their home.

**Mathematics**

*"We can easily map this population growth with a logarithmic function...okay, I'll shut up now."*

If Sterling's dream didn't lie elsewhere, he would move to the Sand Kingdom and study mathematics. The perplexing secrets of numbers come easily to him, and he was always the top of his class during his early years during math. When he gets upset, he lists all of the prime numbers starting from 1 and breathes slowly to calm himself down.

**Temper**

*"I'm never talking to you again! Stop claiming your work as my own you f\*\*\*ing idiot!"*

Although he appears to be a perfectly kind and well-mannered individual, Sterling has a temper. And a bad one. He is naturally judgmental, but never expresses it to anyone but himself. Sterling truly values his image in the eyes of others. He has to look *capable and nice* because the world expects someone like him - an intelligent and educated dragon - to be closed off, insincere, to be rude. And there's nothing he wants more than to defy them.

**Optimism**

*"Look at this place, it's absolutely beautiful. Come and fly with me, please."*

Look outside right now.

What do you see?

A sky maybe, buildings, civilization...perhaps a field.

Sterling knows it's corny, but he feels that optimism is important - he feels joy at looking at the simple things sometimes, looking outside at nature for example. It's why he wakes up at dawn every morning and feels grateful that he's alive and awake and everything is wonderful. It's why he darts outside and flies, spreading his overly large wings and whooping. Some dragons say he's naive, some dragons even call him stupid. But he always tries to see the bright side in everything, even when it gets rough.

**Admiration / Disgust**

*"He's got the most amazing laugh and a charming smile. I would trade places with Phoenix in a second, saving the world from the onslaught of evil."*

Sterling has his heroes.

He believes in justice for all dragons, and gets upset at every cruelty he hears about. He's sensitive about issues, and always supports freedom-fighters and activists. He can never see the other side, and can be incredibly narrow-minded at times.

For him, he judges in shades of black and white.

Black is evil.

Black is the executioners, the dragons who support the underground labyrinth of criminal activity, the politicians, murders, abusers, the overly rich who spend on wasteful things instead of giving to the poor, the dragons who choose to **ignore** evils in the world, and the lazy.

White is good.

White is the falsely accused, the dragonets, those who steal and have no choice, all forced to do evil, and the normal everyday dragons who do good wherever they live.

But one hero reigns supreme.

His name is Phoenix, and he's the greatest dragon who ever lived. Phoenix, a dragon on the defense of behalf of the innocents, who helped solve cases and sentence the guilty who frame others. Phoenix...a lawyer.

Not the most popular kind of hero.

**Casual speech**

*"Ad hominem attacks are unnecessary, Prosecutor."*

Sterling actually talks casually most of the time, except for when he's engrossed in a case or testifying. He is aware that when he speaks eloquently it alienates others.

He finds it humiliating when he lapses back to his very informal speech patterns from "the boonies" while he's in the city however.

**Birthmarks**

*"I could be a leopard in disguise, really momma!"*

When he was young, and after he learned about the colors of the rainbow of course, Sterling strangely enough nicknamed the three obvious birthmarks on his side Roy G Biv. He still laughs over it.

**Nervous tics**

*"I hhave my resume right, uhh, right here. You can look at it!"*

When Sterling is anxious, he does a variety of things:

* talon tapping in the pattern of a song
* pulls on his ears or horns very roughly
* twirls his tie over and over
* speaks very quickly to get it over with
* palms sweat until he's even more clumsy and drops something

**Not a gentleman**

*"Sorry miss, but I'm not who you think I am."*

He tries to look like a serious meaning lawyer, which is why he always wears a suit and a tie, and even though he tries to help others whenever he can, and likes to hold the door, doesn't mean he's a completely perfect gentleman.

**Kindhearted...more-or-less**

*"I want them to like me. Dragons like kind dragons. So if I'm kind, more dragons will like me. Simple."*

Although he's usually stingy with coin, Sterling is usually easily duped by a sob story, and has unknowingly been scammed more than once - even giving away 1,000 hard-earned coins to a fake charity (much to his outrage). He likes to help dragons, not for the sake of it, but because he wants to be well-liked and famous for being nice.

**Energetic**

*"Coffee, check. Now it's time for the magic to happen."*

Sterling is hyperactive, and the world is his playground. Everything is an opportunity for doing, and each criminal case is a puzzle worth solving. With the ideals of justice, he has faith that he can solve the puzzles that no one else dares to touch, and defend the normal people of the world. Watch them laugh, he's their secret hero - with the tenacity of a whirlwind.

**Defensive**

*"Fighting isn't the life I want for myself."*

Sterling is easily offended when TempestWings, eg. his mother and his father, question his career choices. He knows that the TempestWings are a war-like tribe, a tribe that values combat over the pen. But he doesn't regret any of his decisions, mostly because he pushes away his doubts.

==Abilities==

*Runic***-**

Like most TempestWings, his first language was the ancient language of Runic. He knows it much better than the commonly spoken language of Draconic due to his parents believing deeply in the existence of the gods and their sacred words. After one year, he then learned the basic tongue.

*Enhanced senses-*

His parents trained him to be a skilled hunter for all of his dragonet years, and as such, he is very good at using electrical currents to determine the location of hidden prey and enemies. These abilities are especially utilized whenever he feels anxious. He has no storm sense or abnormal capabilities, but has honed his regular hearing and sight to higher levels. They have waned since he doesn't train them as much anymore, but are still better than average.

However, tracking using electricity in the city often stresses him more, as he finds it hard to track an organism's electrical impulses when surrounded by many others.

*Charging-*

When he lived on the outskirts of the territory and could catch aquatic prey every day, Sterling was often charged sufficiently and could easily discharge electricity. When he moved inland however, he ended up being frequently undercharged, and usually suffers from anxiety, dizziness and weakness.

When he becomes frail enough, Sterling steals away for a period of time. He flies further away from the city to take off his garments and rest upon the ground; it allows him to siphon natural electricity flowing through the earth. He took multiple trips to Woodglow Forest in the past, and has his own special spot where the electricity seems to call out to him the most. However, he sees his need to charge as less important than his day-to-day work- and in the past has experienced blackouts due to stubbornly not charging.

When he is fully charged, Sterling's mind works like a machine - deadly efficient and calculating, and he feels aware of every small movement that dragons' make.

*Flying and Swimming-*

While he's gawkish on the ground and feels too awkward wherever he is, Sterling's wiry body is perfect at withstanding the elements. He has large wings and an aerodynamic frame, enabling him to glide for long periods of time without tiring or needing to flap his wings. His spines also fold inwards to minimize air resistance.

In the sea, Sterling isn't as graceful but slices through the water like a knife, able to hold his breath long enough to wrestle large prey to submission. He can't see as well in the water but uses the sensitive skin of his talons to avoid larger rock formations.

*Move in heavy armor-*

Despite not using it, Sterling was always reminded by his parents to polish and clean his coat of armor. It was inherited from his mother and his grandmother, a relic passed down through generations of his family. The brass tide force armor, engraved with the words *Pro patria mori* is a source of pride for them; as such, he was taught to be able to move quickly while wearing it.

*Tide Force weaponry-*

Due to his heritage, Sterling has also experienced pressure to train to use the weapons that his mother and grandmother had used in their glory days, and has trained with the trident ever since he was little. The trident has grown tarnished a bit due to its age, but still works as an effective weapon.

*Understand legal documents-*

Due to his years of tutelage beneath experts in navigating the newly established court system, Sterling is aware of how to read the fine print and understand the complex arguments of dragons his caliber.

==History==

A comical grin spreads across his face, a plastered smile like one you'd see in a magazine, with teeth that are perfectly arranged and nearly white. His palms are clasp together and sweat terribly, and as he checks in his pocket-mirror, his ears are regrettably already drooping - from exhaustion and his metallic eyes already look too bright and too fake for his taste.

Relationships

Trivia

* Sterling is ambidextrous, but favors his left-talon more.
* Sterling never wears the same red tie twice, and has a collection of ties in different shades of red.
* His favorite flavor of everything is vanilla.

Gallery

*Sometimes you fall and sometimes you fly.*

Sterling aesthetic.png