🍂 Acer 🍂
• 7+ DY • 
• LeafWing • Canyon Dweller 🍁
No, he is not named after the PC, but it won't stop me from making memes related to that.
🍁 Appearance
The colouring of Acer's scales greatly differentiate the LeafWing from his kind. Instead of being green like most leaves, Acer's scales are entirely dull shades of red with the exception of the tips of his wings. It's unsure how it came to this unusual rusty colour, which was not well received by the other LeafWings, and makes it rather hard to hide among a green forest. The scales become darker on the back, and he has some dark spots below his eyes, on his limbs, and splattered across the body. Some dark red spots form shapes that look similar to tiny talon prints, or maple leaves. His belly is a pale pinkish colour. Acer’s horns are long and thin, while the same could not be said about his squarish snout. He is more broadly built than most LeafWings, but his clunky body is not well fit for agile or long distance flight. His eyes are besides the wing tips the only green thing about this dragon. Acer wears golden rings on his horns and fingers. An earring hangs off his ears. It is presumably made of watermelon tourmaline, cut to look like a hot pepper.
🍁 Personality
In his entire life Acer had not experienced much love from others, being seen as an outcast, which clearly affected his future personality. Rather hostile towards others, and not someone who easily trusts, Acer doesn’t interact with the rest of the world, trying his best to stay away from other dragons. His intimidating and short tempered personality should deter everyone from further interacting with the red LeafWing. He can be polite, but he willingly chose to not be, as nobody would want to get close to a loud and rude dragon (in his eyes). Other dragons are none of his business, so he pretends to not care for their feelings and lives. Whatever he may say, Acer isn’t the type to just let someone die. No, he doesn’t do it for them, he does it, so he wouldn’t be plagued by regrets. At least according to himself. Assured that other dragons will always reject him for his off colouration, Acer will help lost wanderers only for as long as they need it, and disappear immediately afterwards.
His positives show more in the technical fields that don't involve other dragons. He is smart and has a great memory. He'll carefully plan ahead before doing anything, and won't solely rely on strength in a fight. Acer also likes it clean and ordered, which might not be the impression you might get from his own home. Acer also build his house himself, displaying good construction and learning skills.
🍁 Abilities
- Photosynthesis: Despite his red colouration Acer is perfectly able to perform photosynthesis just like other plants with red leaves. This allows him to not eat for a certain period of time, however he cannot live off of solely sunlight, water, and air.
🍁 Relationships
🌶️ Pepper
Though he does not have any draconic friends, Acer is not entirely friendless. For many years his only companion had been an animal, which he named Pepper for no other reason, but because he liked the name. The two had grown close over the years, as they kept company to each other, so they didn't have to live alone. |
🦋 Callicore
There haven't been many dragons, who wanted to become friends with Acer. Yeah, they didn't even want to go near him, in fear he might set them on fire, or some nonsense. However, there is this one SilkWing, who saw no issue with Acer. Maybe it was because she was a SilkWing, maybe it was something else. He wasn't sure, and he surely didn't like it. It annoyed him that someone was trying so hard to befriend him, when the only thing he wants is to be alone. But Cally seems to be determined to provide the LeafWing with something he never truly had experienced: Friendship. Eventually he gave up and followed along. |
🎇 Firefly
Oddly enough these two got along from the get go. It is probably their strong similarities, which made Firefly and Acer bond. However their relationship doesn't go much deeper than "good acquaintances". |
🎪 Parnassian
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| 🍃 Parents
Acer was the only one in the family, who had this unusual colouration. This probably made it easier for his already gullible parents to believe the convoluted stories of magic and curse that other dragons tried to explain the red scales with. The decision whether to keep the kid was not that hard either. If it endangered the forest then keeping Acer around was not a good idea, right? The dragonet had to survive on his own. He barely remembers his parents, but he is sure they were not good people. |
🍁 Synopsis
The story of Acer is not something impressive. Yeah, it is actually very stereotypical. But to the dragon it was anything but fun.
Hatched with a rare condition, Acer's colours were seen as a terrible omen rather than happy occasion. Others associated his rusty scale colour with fire, the red moon, and even blood. They were scared. Not that there was something to be scared of, but they were very superstitious.
The dragons weren't entirely heartless, so Acer was raised at the village for a short while. Long enough to learn how to properly survive. It wasn't long, after all dragons aged pretty fast, so Acer didn't really have the time to bond with anybody. Especially not his rather neglectful parents, who weren't even the ones that raised him. Even though his caretaker wanted to care just a little longer for him, the dragonet was soon exiled from the forest as nobody wanted to keep that "fire hazard" in their queendom, even when he hadn't even done anything in those few years he had been there.
Poor dragonet was left off to wander on his own. Living in the savannah was hard. The food was not an issue, no, and he also got water, but other dragons weren't so keen on having an odd looking dragonet walk around. Frankly Acer didn't like others walking around where he lived either, so he had to move on to a place where surely nobody lived. He went to the northern canyons.
🍁 Trivia
- Acer is my first and currently only pure LeafWing OC.
- Acer is named after the genus of maples as some varieties of the japanese maple (Acer palmatum) can have red leaves all year round.
- He got called many names, all usually referring to his red colour in a way.
- Acer is almost purely vegetarian. He doesn't like meat much, but would eat it if it were the only thing around. If he were to find a fresh corpse he'd possibly eat it too, so it doesn't get wasted.
- Fruits are his favourite meal. Particularly pomelos, oranges and other citrus fruits. However, it's pretty hard to obtain any of those where he lives.
- He peels his fruits.
- Acer collects whatever he finds cool. Shiny rock? Oddly shaped leaf? You know. All that stuff.
- The treehouse he lives in was entirely built by Acer himself.
- Because of his colour other LeafWings assumed he could spit fire. Obviously they associated that with being a hazard. Especially in a forest, which is where they were living. Even though their assumption was probably wrong, they kicked Acer out anyway.
- His condition could be compared to albinism. However instead of having little melanin, Acer doesn't have much of the green chlorophyl in his scales. Instead the red carotenoids dominate, giving Acer this colour. Plants with red leaves can still perform photosynthesis, and so does Acer.
- The condition is recessive, meaning that neither of the parents had to have red scales to get a child like Acer. That made the result much more confusing and scary to the parents and other LeafWings.
- There might be a collection of peels in his treehouse. Or maybe not
- It seems like Acer dislikes SilkWings more than the other tribes for unknown reasons. But well, he doesn't like anyone to be honest.
- If you asked what his happiest moment was, Acer would probably think of when he met his squirrel, who hadn't been afraid of him.
🍁 Gallery 🍁
