Hopechanger, the miracle

Name: Hopechanger, sometimes shortened to "Hope," although he would rather only close friends call him Hope. He thinks his full name distinguishes him from any other dragon named Hope.
Gender: Male
Type: Western Dragon
Species: Plumed Ripper
Age: 10
Date of Birth: August 12, making him a Leo.
Personality: Hopechanger is an optimistic kid who doesn't have a goal in life yet. He often punishes himself for not doing things "perfectly" and just wants to meet his own imaginary standards. Despite all that anxiety, he finds time to explore and learn new things- always sticking his snout in leaf litter to look at some beetle he found, or pestering every adult "what's this? How come it does that?" This dragonet has boundless energy, enough to make one's head spin. That energy contributes well to his determination, which... Well, lets say he spent 12 hours trying to come up with the answer to one of his father's riddles. Voidface tried to tell him the answer, but Hopechanger just jammed his talons in his ears. (He didn't actually find the answer, but he was pretty close.)
Hobbies: "Bug watching." Hopechanger says it's like birdwatching, but for bugs. He can't take any creepy crawlies home, so he's learned to be satisfied with just observing them. Ants are his favourite. Besides staring at anthills for hours on end, he'll also find some of his friends to wrestle with every so often. The rest of his time is spent studying, hunting, sleeping, and relaxing with the previously mentioned friends.
Likes: Psychology (or as he calls it, "dragonthink"), play fighting, history, and... Strawberries. He'd die for some strawberries.
Dislikes: Arts and crafts (too tedious for him), intimate contact, and anything slimy ("I fell asleep in the woods one time and woke up with a slug on my leg. It took a week for me to wash all the goo out of my scales!").
Fears: The dark. If he wasn't able to use his fire as a light source, this kid wouldn't leave his den. Even shadows that look just a little "too dark" will freak him out. Unknown dangers could lurk where you can't see. On top of a lack of light, Hopechanger will always be afraid of drowning. Not swimming, not water, just drowning. If he's underwater and the surface is obstructed by something, he will panic. Some of his friends say that since he's so good at holding his breath, he's unable to drown. He thinks they're wrong.




Place of Origin: A Shveki swamp, inside of a well-lit, hand-crafted den made by his parents.
Tribe: Valeterenne
Position: Pori
Language: Arretiz, learning Vlow and Universal
Home: Hopechanger, being a Pori, still lives with his parents. However, since his hatching, their den has moved closer to a more populated part of Valeterenne territory.
Parents: Fireflight (mother), Voidface (father)
Siblings: His 2 siblings either didn't hatch or passed away after hatching.
Relatives: As of now, no other relatives of his are important to his story. Although, Fireflight's side of his family consists of hot-tempered fighters, and Voidface comes from a family of scholars.
Mate: him's just a bab,, (no)
Offspring: just an itty bitty boi (also no)
History: Fireflight and Voidface had a clutch of 3 eggs during a time when a disease affecting eggs and newly-born hatchlings was rampant. One egg failed to hatch, and one hatchling developed heart failure and died a day after leaving the confines of it's egg. The only dragon who remained alive wasn't nearly as sick as the others. He spent weeks coughing and shaking, but managed to pull through. His parents named him Hopechanger accordingly. The rest of his history is in the making (aka this will be updated as I roleplay with him).




Height: 3'4" at the shoulder.
Length: 13'9" (~4 meters)
Wingspan: 39'4 (12 meters)
Scale/Fur/Feathers: For the most part, Hopechanger's body is covered in scales that overlap each other and vary in size. small and pebble-shaped where his anatomy calls for flexibility, but large, thick plates where vulnerable areas need protection (like the belly, for example). The main colours of his scales are a muddy, dark shade of red, dark grey, and black, with the latter reserved for the plate-like scales. Along the sides of his neck and tail, as well as his shoulders, hips, and the area behind his eyes are gold diamond patterns. Atop his head as well as down his neck are a display of feathers coloured sunset-orange. The tips of the large crest feathers are gold. Instead of traditional, webbed wings that many dragons have, Hopechanger (and all other Plumed Rippers) shows off a mighty pair of bird wings. The feathers are the same black as the rest of his scales. The secondary and primary feathers are orange like his crest, and his primaries are even tipped with the same colour of gold as if he had dipped them into the setting sun.
Eyes: As with all Plumed Rippers, the "whites" of his eyes aren't actually white, but rather black. His pupils are yellow and his iris like that of a snake.
Accessories: Sometimes he brings a satchel when he goes exploring, but that's all the apparel he bothers to wear.
Armor: He likes to pretend he's a warrior clad in inpenetrable steel. Maybe when he's older, he can actually get some armour.
Horns/Spikes: Hopechanger inherited all his "totally menacing and cool horns" from Voidface. There's the tiny spike above his nostrils, the spikes attached to his cheekbones, and the set of horns atop his head that split into two points. All of these totally menacing and cool horns are black.
Overall Appearance: The following image will be replaced by some actual art... If I ever get around to that.





Abilities: Hopechanger gets his fire-breathing prowess from Fireflight. The heat can reach up to 610C/1125F and he can spew flames for a straight ten minutes! ...If he was fully grown. Right now, the heat is only 300C/560F, and he can breath fire for only a minute before having to stop.
Strengths: His immune system is far stronger than most dragons, as evidenced by his survival of an illness that killed his siblings. Hopechanger very rarely gets sick, and most diseases will barely affect him if he does manage to catch it. A flu for him is the common cold for someone else. As for more obvious trait, Hopechanger's ability to learn is... Really good, as it's probably the effect of having really good memory. ("Remember that time you choked on an apple six years ago?") Now, on another note, remember how he liked to wrestle with other dragonets? He does that so often because he's good at it. As an adult, he'd be on the "crazy strong" side of the spectrum, alongside his crazy good stamina and crazy fast flight speed. If it requires muscle power, he's got it covered.
Weaknesses: The previously-mentioned nyctophobia is a pretty big handicap. If he's ever on hot pursuit of prey, but they dart into a long, dark cave, he won't follow. Sure, he can briefly light the way with his flame breath, but only briefly. Unless there's a light source, he will NOT go into the dark. Hopechanger is also very gullible and distractable, often falling victim to "made you look!" jokes. Now, imagine this: You're a dragon hunting a deer with this kid. You tell him to stay low and quiet. Too bad for you, because Hopechanger's the type of person who will not listen to anything you say if he has a plan of his own. So, he lunges at the deer but misses. Any normal person would accept that it's too late to catch it now and move on. Not Hopechanger! He'll run after that thing for miles, thinking he can still get it. He's gotten into so much trouble because he's so stubborn like that. He's already a handful as is, but he also holds grudges, and he keeps them. Someone could offer him life-saving healing, but he won't accept it because "oh, you're the guy who was mean to mom." ...Is he done being a flawed pile of bouncy garbage? 'Course not. A strong immune system comes with negative drawbacks, like autoimmune disorders and more severre alergic reactions. So if you like playing dirty, throw a rat at him and send him into a fit of not being able to see through his puffy, watering eyes and also barely being able to breathe.
Fighting Style: Should he get into a real fight, he plays fair- no poisons, traps, or throwing sand into his opponent's eyes. He uses every weapon at his disposal his full advantage- never forgetting to breathe fire, smacking foes with his tail and wings, performing alligator-esque death rolls, and hooking his talons under scales. He's fairly adept at terrestrial and airial combat, but not so much for aquatic scuffles.
Magic: He can't use any sort of magic, although he hopes to learn it someday.

1/2 approved, but make sure to mention just how fast you can go.

Also, in other news, FINALLY! A NEW VALETERRENE! <3

2/2 Approved?