Taka

WIP

some notes:

» personality:
• a total sweetheart! always has something good to say about everyone & loves his clan to death

• is an overall happy & relaxed guy

• can always be relied on to discreetly get his friends out of conversations that're making them uncomfortable if he's unable to veer the topic away from what's causing issues

• not one for gossip; unless there's hard evidence or a strong reason to believe a person is causing others harm, he doesn't want to hear or indulge in it

• treats everyone equally regardless of rank, element, gender/sexuality, breed, or rumors about their person

• incredibly patient which, combined with how sweet he is, makes him a very welcoming person to others looking for consolation. he's typically very happy to hear them out and offer advice or a shoulder to cry on as well

• polite but very casual to an almost troubling extent. it hasn't happened (yet), but he's at genuine risk of greeting deity-blessed royalty with a wave and a "hey man!"

» interests:
• very in-tune with his Water heritage; he swims daily and often, so much so that the oceanside is the first place his clanmates go when they can't find him at the clan. he especially adores rain and is always excited to swim while it's pouring if he isn't laying out on land to soak it all in

• his favorite sound is croaking frogs during or after the rain. he's lucky that he normally gets to hear them regardless due to living near several streams, but he thinks the sheer amount that pop up after a rainstorm is the coolest thing ever. he always makes sure to wave to them when he sees them

• loves butterflies and nature as a whole, kickstarted by how he was frequently compared to the former as a hatchling due to the pattern of his wings. Lotus flowers are his favorite flower!

• a big hobby of his is floriography, aka delving into the language of flowers. while he's certainly no florist, he does love flowers, diligently tending to the ones he's planted, and gifting meticulously gathered bouquets to his clanmates to mark celebrations or to cheer them up. knowing how much he loves floriography, his clanmates have picked up a few books on the subject, which they're quick to check any time they get flowers from him

• a lesser known hobby of his is painting, which he takes up on small scales when he needs to decompress. he was first introduced to it by his father when he was little; he was often sick and couldn't play with the other hatchlings or participate in his clan's activities, so painting was recommended due to its soothing, repetitive, and hopefully-low-enough-energy nature. painting with his father and little brother, who always stayed behind to be with him while he was sick, compromise the best memories of his childhood and became what he defaulted to every time he was feeling bad and needed a distraction, a behavior that lasted far past his time in his original clan

• loves outer space, the night, and everything that comes with it. he can never get enough of how beautiful and serene it is; the stars in full view, moonlight sparkling over the ocean. he enjoys stargazing before bed and doesn't mind if others join him, an offer taken by everyone in his clan at least once, often leading to deep late-night talks under the stars. in recent times he can be found stargazing with Dayo, his wing protectively wrapped around the Skydancer and rubbing soothing circles into his back as he tries to make progress on his fear of the night. he's improved so much since they first started stargazing together and Taka couldn't be prouder

• loves kids & desperately wants to be a father one day. if there's any dragon who can be expected to wave to little hatchlings and make silly faces to calm them down when they're crying, it's him. expect him to promptly get lost in his head about a future where he's got a few fluffy babies running around after every single instance like that one

• he knows he may be getting ahead of himself by thinking of starting a family when he isn't even in a relationship yet, but he acts similarly on that front: he can't wait to meet the person he'll fall in love with one day and is practically spilling over with excitement about finally getting into a relationship. he's gonna give them so many flowers (if they like them— they may not!), write them so many love letters, make them the absolute apple of his eye
- what will they be like? what element will they be? where'd they grow up? would they go swimming with him?? oh, how many hatchlings would they want? he's always had 3 in mind, but 1 or 2 would be perfect, too! maybe they could have more than that... maybe it wouldn't be a choice at all and their very first clutch would be of 4+ eggs! that'd be wonderful, too!! he can't wait 'til he gets to incubate his eggs— or maybe his partner will want to brood exclusively, which is fine too! he'll bring them all the food they could dream of instead. maybe he could bring back things to decorate the nest with too, maybe they'd like that? or maybe they'd want him to be the one to exclusively brood while they brought food and decorations! oh, how cool would that be!? or...

» relationships:
• in recent years, those close to him have witnessed his calm disposition and can-do attitude privately dissolve into a frazzled & disorganized overthinker, all for one reason evident to just about everyone but the subject of interest himself: he's developed a massive, paralyzing crush on Dayo.
- sure he's fancied people before, but this is his friend! his friend who very clearly has anxiety and would probably not react well to romantic advances!!! especially coming from someone who should be expected to not feel that way about him!
- and how would one even go about that anyway? he has no memory of Dayo ever even bringing up the topic of romance, let alone commenting on anyone in a romantic manner, so.. what if he isn't into men? is there even a way to "subtly" find that out without giving yourself away? and that's a strange thing to suddenly ask your friend, isn't it? what if he says no and then their relationship gets all awkward?
or worse, what if he says yes? then what? is he supposed to just.. ask him out? change the subject? walk away??? or even worse, what if he thought the question was weird or creepy and just never talked to him again?? and then he'd lose an amazing friend because he couldn't keep his mouth shut!
- he knows this is entirely unlike him and trust him, he's already embarrassed enough by it without needing someone else to point it out to him. but it's fine! he's cool, he's fine. when they're having a late-night talk while most of the clan is asleep and Dayo gets so comfy with him that he drifts off and ends up falling asleep leaning right into Taka's chest feathers? fine. no big deal! you wouldn't believe how unfazed he is, really!

• he's a very sappy romantic in spite of everything and does occasionally find himself smiling like a hatchling after getting lost in his daydreams about a domestic future with Dayo. Meira's clan is already their home, but it'd be an especially nice place to settle down in as a married man, wouldn't it? and it'd be such a lovely little area to raise a family in..

» misc.:
• his full name is Takahiro, but he's been going by Taka and introducing himself as such for so long that most people don't realize he goes by a nickname at all. likewise, it actually makes him uncomfortable when he's called by his full name and will always insist that they use his nickname instead. it's not that he hates his name, but "Takahiro" sounds so.. formal, and he just isn't that kind of guy

• can and has just. swallowed gigantic fish whole before. he's such a calm and gentle person that it's always at least somewhat disturbing when a clanmate of his first sees him rise from the water right before his throat literally bulges from the size of the catch he just swallowed. he knows its unsettling and does his best to do so out of sight from other people, but sometimes they catch him at the wrong time regardless. most of them have gotten used to it at this point, though
- reactions are similar when he's seen with blood on his mouth and claws after digging into some fish. he's especially aware of how disturbing this is and tries to clean up as quickly and thoroughly as possible if he's not ultra careful while eating in the first place. his clanmates insist that it's fine, but it's not fine to him! he feels bad!

• even though he loves rain, he's terrified of thunder & lightning. since he's typically seen as "the composed one", he gets very embarrassed when he gets scared around other people and tries his best to hold it together so he doesn't worry them, especially if they're already scared themselves

• has nightmares about storms and hurricanes from time to time; this occurrence rises to 100% if a storm is going on as he falls asleep or while he's already sleeping, the latter more unpleasant since he can't anticipate it

• he can hibernate! this fact was very unpleasantly discovered when his father, who had never reared a Water hatchling before, went to rouse his son and found him completely unresponsive to both sound and touch in the warm, barely claw-height puddle of water he left him in. he only found out what happened when the Water medics he summoned to his clan examined him and told him that his son was okay, but was so warm, exhausted, and stressed that he entered a light phase of hibernation. kept under close watch, he woke from his hibernation naturally, noticeably calmer and seemingly unaware of what happened

• was gifted his necklace from his father and treasures it deeply despite having a rather rocky relationship with him

» backstory:
• was washed away as an egg in a violent storm and taken in by a disorganized Plague clan, where he was adopted out of grief by a newly single soon-to-be father whose Water mate abandoned him and their unhatched son Edgar; hatched shortly before him and grew very close to his little brother, though he was essentially left to raise him due to their father not being in the right mental state to raise his children himself

• was viewed and treated as the perfect child throughout his life in comparison to his rowdy & impulsive little brother but consistently rejected the role in favor of defending him despite it rarely doing much good

• left his birth clan alongside Edgar once they turned 18 after Edgar mentioned wanting to seek out one more accepting of him; together they scavenged for their own food and took turns scouting for safe sleeping spots until they arrived in The Windswept Plateau and met Meira, who welcomed them with open wings and offered their weary bodies a safe place to rest before continuing on their travels, of which they accepted before deciding to take up residency in New Beginnings for good

• is the lost son of Ikaia and Kisa, both of whom have fallen deep into grief after losing him and spend year after year praying he at least made it out alive

• unbeknownst to him, he has very conflicting and seldom seen ancestry: both Tropical and Deep Sea ancestry is in his lineage, making him an exceedingly rare type of dragon whose existence was improbable to begin with, and whose sighting above water was even more unlikely.

in the Sea of a Thousand Currents, it's quickest to divide the natives into two major groups: Tropic(al) People and Deep Sea People.
leaning towards semiaquaticism and often living on the beach, the Tropical natives are the most visible and well-known residents of the Sea. frequently travelling between land and sea, longer-term residence in the ocean is predominantly by expectant parents who've nested in shallow waters and are guarding their nests. often in the water during the day both for enjoyment and to dive for food, young Tropical natives tend to hatch into water with the immediate ability to breathe under it, and may or may not be transferred to smaller pools of water for improved safety after hatching, assuming their parents didn't nest in a small pool of water on land to begin with.
Tropical natives are further distinguished by their bright colors, shimmering fins, strong communities, and shared traditions.

in contrast, Deep Sea natives are exactly as their name suggests: they live so deep wiithin the ocean that they're very rarely seen at the depths the Tropical natives travel to, and almost all of them lack the biological adaptations necessary for survival on land. as a fully aquatic race, they've had centuries to adapt to the low-to-absent light, cold temperatures, and isolation of the depths they wander.
in stark contrast to their Tropical counterparts, they're much bigger, often darker-colored, sport larger and often ragged fins, and have great anatomical variance: more teeth, varying presence of eyes, varying numbers and shapes of limbs (arms/tails/legs, if present at all), sharper claws, and uncountable adaptations for camouflage, attracting prey, or both.
there's also a language barrier separating them from their Tropical counterparts, and customs can vary wildly from native to native due to the vast space of the ocean allowing their lineages to develop largely uncontacted by most other Deep Sea natives.

the two very, very rarely come across one another, and meetings often occur when one is dying and has been displaced from their usual spot of residence due to weakness and disorientation. due to the language barrier and greater anatomical differences between them, coupling between them is exceedingly improbable and unlikely to result in viable offspring.

but it isn't impossible, and Taka's bio father Ikaia is testament to that; he's a half-Deep Sea, half-Tropic native raised among the Tropic communiry with his siblings. it's here where he met Kisa, a Tropical woman, with whom he had Taka.

due to dragons with Deep Sea ancestry seldom existing or being seen on land, information about them is missing from modern medical research. the situation is only mildly better among the Tropical medical communities, but their information is largely inferred and potentially outdated and unable to account for the great variance of Deep Sea peoples' anatomy. the inquiries these dragons have about their bodies remain unanswered unless they have a living, present parent of either race to direct their questions at, and even doctors from their own flight struggle to properly care for them, not knowing whether a trait of theirs is healthy variance or considered to be a disorder.

for someone who doesn't even know they have Deep Sea ancestry and therefore can't relay that context to their medics, it's an even harder reality to navigate, feeling that they're different and not knowing why.

an exceedingly rare trait Taka has is Simultaneous Hermaphroditism, a deep sea adaptation commonplace in both men and women as a workaround to how isolated they live and how unlikely it is to come across another one of their kind, especially one compatible for reproduction.

[...] in their natural habitat, the childbearing parent seldom stops moving in search of food for themselves and a proper nest for their egg, favoring heated rocks, corals, and vents that allow for incubation without their physical presence. they never travel far from their egg during this period, only distancing themselves when searching for food or, more rarely, defending their territory.
upon hatching, their hatchling can immediately see, hear, and consume small portions of prey fed to them by their parent. though they may remain near the nest in peaceful conditions, their parent often immediately guides their hatchling, whom instinctively swims after them, to a new location as a precaution. it's on this long journey that their parent teaches them how to survive on their own, forging a deep relationship with their child, who matures much slower than their Tropic counterpart and wholly relies on them for protection and survival[...]

[...] due to Tropic natives being incapable of surviving at the depths that Deep Sea natives live, all known couplings have involved a Deep Sea native rising and encountering a Tropic native, helping to incubate their egg to the best of their ability (as Deep Sea eggs are much more difficult to hatch than Tropic eggs), and typically retreating back to their depths, leaving their partner to raise their hatchling among Tropic society, battling with traits and instincts they don't understand.
it's because of this that the truth of their ancestry can even be hidden from the hatchling themselves, unintentionally misleading them from finding out any information about their behavior [...]

• • • • • •


vibes

Satin Violets

Plant

The petals of this flower are super soft!

17

2

Stardust Sap Lamp

Trinkets

A specialized lamp that uses sap from birch trees in the Starwood Strand. It emits an eerie blue flame.

41

Nocturnal Dust

Trinkets

This lonely pile of glittering dust is all that remains of a Strange Chest.

45

Madame Snapdragon

Plant

A common myth about this flower is that it sings at midnight and those who consume it are said to be bestowed the gift of a beautiful voice. Most of the time it simply results in terrible indigestion.

40

4

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