Tygressa

Physical Description
Tygressa is a female Longwing with cyan wave-like patterns down her spine and a singular sweeping wave marking over her eyes. She has five 'spikes' on the ruff on her head. Her horns are the average length, wavy like most females. Her eyes are a piercing green not usually seen in Longwings.

Tyg is built on the thin side; she is not very muscular and unconditioned for long-distance journeys. She is capable of bursts of speed and is agile compared to average dragons, but has nothing that truly sticks out as above average. Due to living in the Dragon Empire her entire life, she has had almost no experience in flight excluding the few weeks of flight training she received when her wings grew to the size needed to support her as a juvenile.

Biography
Tygressa was born into an average lower middle-class Longwing family. Her mother and father were - and still are - very caring and loving. They tried to raise Tygressa in the way that all Longwings in the Dragon Empire are - to believe they are greater and Sparkclaws are lesser. They were rather unsuccessful. At the young age of eight, Tygressa was happily mingling with both the Longwing and Sparkclaw crowds. As she grew older, the Longwings started to dislike her for her race-blind choice of friends and began to pick on her and disown her. Throughout her juvenile school years, Tygressa was constantly picked on and ridiculed for her friend choice, and later, her beliefs of equality. Rather than let herself be brought down by the insulting and anger from her peers, Tygressa drew courage and inspiration from it. As she grew into an older juvenile, bordering on young adult, she made it her sole goal to see that every racial dispute is solved fairly and that all Sparkclaws and Longwings she meets are treated the same. Due to this, she never qualified for the Longwing enlightenment process, much to the disappointment of her parents, who both made it through most of the tests before being disqualified. To the further dismay of her parents, Tygressa took this rejection as a personal compliment. She was glad that she never qualified for what she believed to be a racist and unfair program and often talked it down when she could.

Despite the anger from her discriminatory peers and teachers, Tygressa made it through the general schooling at the top of her classes. She displayed excellent cognitive ability and forward thinking skills, solving problems with ease that most other students couldn't match. Unlike the other Dragons at her age, though, she never accepted spars or play-brawls as a test of strength - she had nothing against them, but rather feared severe personal injury due to the bottled-up anger from her classmates. Her physical ability was, therefore, never really tested, but she believes herself to be on the weak side. What she lacks in brawns she makes up for in mind.

While most of her classmates were hateful towards her, in her younger years Tygressa met a Sparkclaw named Ruskaer. She discovered him being cornered by a few bigger, more brutish Longwings threatening to claw his scales off if he ever thought to lay paw on a Longwing dragoness again. (Later, Tygressa learned that Rusk did nothing more than tap the Longwing's shoulder but shy out of asking for help from her. Others took the act in the complete opposite direction of innocent nervousness.) Tygressa, despite the brutes, stood beside Ruskaer and rested a wing on him, as if daring the bullies to try to get to Ruskaer now that he's "touched" another Longwing dragoness. The drakes decided it was probably not the best idea to try to start a two-on-two fight and stalked off, threatening Ruskaer that they'll get him later. They never did get him later, however. Tygressa formed an unbreakable bond with the young Sparkclaw from that day on, the drake forever in her debt for saving him from what may have been a crippling beating. Tyg kept a protective watch over the Sparkclaw for years on, even when the two had to go their seperate ways in school due to Ruskaer's need to support his family through smithing.

The interracial bond between the two proved troublesome for Tygressa, however. Her parents often tried to convince her to leave him on his own and not speak to him anymore, as Longwings should not interract with Sparkclaws. Both races in her classes often scoffed at her for having such a friendship, insisting that a friendship like such can only ever turn into an illegal mateship and therefore illegal mixed-race clutches. Tyg kept her head high through the constant flow of verbal pushes and shoves. A dragoness of high moral standards and even higher self-esteem, it was - and still is - near impossible to sway her.

Tygressa sometimes ends up taking care of Ruskaer when he feels unsafe or unwelcome in his own home due to his mother. The two will find some abandoned side cave to sleep in nose-tip to tail-tip in a racial yin-yang, protecting each others' backs from the ridicule that follows them across the city. She would gladly harbor him in her own home, but unfortunately Ruskaer cannot enter without being immediately kicked out by her parents or other Longwings in the area.

Presently, as a young adult, Tygressa continues to cling to her friendship with Ruskaer, who she now considers her only true friend. She has taken him under her wing as a younger brother, forming a sibling-like bond nearly as strong as blood. He ends up being dragged along with her when she decides to make trouble in the Empire through her attempts at equalizing the races. There have been times where she's only barely dodged the law, worming her way through loopholes and with carefully-placed words. Currently, Tyg still lives with her parents as she works on higher schooling. Her school days are rather short, though, and only every other day, so she spends most of her days exploring the many tunnels of the Empire.

Personality
Tygressa is a very headstrong dragoness who believes in pursuing anything that you can see yourself laying your paws on. She believes that if you pursue what is right, there is nothing wrong that you can do. It's nearly impossible to win an argument with her as she will continually insist her point with a myriad of facts and opinions that she's gathered over the years, generally leading the argument partner to give in in frustration. Even if she's wrong, Tyg still loves to insist her point until she's at wit's end.

Tyg also has a lot of book smarts, but lacks in street smarts. She graduated top of her class in the average schooling and is currently near the top of her continued, advanced schooling. She works hard to achieve what she wants and will not stop until she solves whatever problem she has run into. She's great at strategizing and planning ahead, but she's rather clumsy when it comes to very simple things. This can cause her to end up in some awkward situations.

While usually cool- and level-headed, Tygressa can easily snap on a dime into a flurry of anger without warning, but then cool down a short second after, leaving whoever she was speaking to rather stunned. She, personally, dislikes these moments and tries to control them, but sometimes she really just cannot control her temper. Her temper has never lead her to physically attacking someone, though, nor has it ever lead to her running into trouble with the law.

Overall, those who look at her in an unbiased light see a calm, friendly dragoness who is eager to make friends and share her knowledge with them. She's extremely loyal to those she considers friends. She has a knack for seeing the good in people rather than the bad, but usually refuses to acknowledge it if said person has never proven themselves worthy of it.

Comic Appearances
Tygressa is one of the two main characters of Breakthrough, featured throughout the entire story with brief disappearances.