"I am living in a nightmare, which from time to time I wake in sleep."
- Ursula K. Le Guin (The Lathe of Heaven)

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Design Notes

• She wears dark aviator sunglasses to hide most of the damage on the right side of her face, and the scar that runs vertically over her eye and down her cheek. Her eyes and face should not be visible behind the glasses.
• Her hair on the left side is white and straight, and on the right side black and wavy. Some strands of the black half nearest to the white portion (towards the middle) have white streaks through them.
• Part of her right eyebrow is missing along her scar.
• Wears black lipstick, eyeliner, and eyeshadow.
• Details on her outfits, such as the metal studs, do not need to be replicated exactly.
• Pieces of her outfit can be mixed and matched, such as swapping boots, jackets, etc.

Misc. Notes

• Generally carries herself with an aloof, "tough" attitude around other people. Her projected confidence is more of a wall than anything else.
• Wears her crest and tag on a necklace at all times, even if under her clothing.
• Roughly 5'4" and 105 lbs.

Trivia

• INFP personality type.
• The spikes on the tips of her boots are most definitley for kicking people who she feels deserve it.
• Her right eye usually appears as if squinting due to the damage around it.
• Not really self-concious about her scar, but more that she doesn't like it when people stare or ask her "what happened to her face."
• Wears almost exclusively black clothing (and besides, it's much easier to do the laundry when she doesn't have to sort out the darks and lights and colors.)

Origin

Even as a child, Neo was a loner who found solace in fantasy books and keeping detailed dream journals about strange visions that came in her sleep. Little did she know that one such recurring dream, of wandering through a strange Digital World, would eventually lead her to a parallel reality. Someone, she knew, was calling out to her in the dark--a creature she'd never seen nor heard of before in any book or bestiary--asking for her help. She had to find it, she sensed, but she did not know how, or why, or when. That dream would grow more real, more urgent, each night she experienced it, and she begun to see the voice take shapes in the darkness--a bird, a plane, a dragon...

At first, she didn't know what to make of it, and thought it was only her mind playing tricks on her. She never told anyone about the visions, opting instead to record them in her dream journals with every detail she could remember. Yearning to somehow find that magical place again, she begun to try to imagine it on her own, playing would-be adventurer and checking all those place that seem unsafe to a child: the dark woods, the abandoned alley, the closet, the crawl space under her bed. Eventually, during one such exploration, she crossed over somehow into that world from her dreams. Into a corner one second, into darkness the next. A tunnel, a cave, an opening into mountain air and a great wilderness.

Then the voice came again, in a way this time that seemed clearer and more distinct, giving her an actual direction to go. She went, the way children do when they set their mind on something, and found a mysterious egg and a small device she'd never seen before. Botamon hatched as soon as she touched it, and she knew, somehow, that she had finally found what she'd been looking for. They bonded immediately, having known each other from encounters in Neo's dreams, and have stayed together ever since.

Neo took Botamon back with her through that odd tunnel and into the human world, and would keep him close to her wherever she went. Usually, he would snuggle up in her backpack with her books and journals, which suited him just fine, as he was very shy and as a Fresh level Digimon, would simply spend his time napping when he wasn't playing together with Neo. A reference back to the visions of the dragon she remembered from the dreams of him, and for his star-like eyes, she nicknamed him Eltanin, after the brightest star in the Draco constellation.

Growing up, Neo had trouble making friends other than El, due to her more solitary and quiet demeanor, and tendencies to keep to herself. Other than dealing with her schoolwork, she really only played with El, finding strange little passageways into the Digital World to escape the human realm and all of life's troubles. One day, during one of their exploits, he Digivolved into Koromon and Neo once again saw a vision of the dragon from her dreams that night, convincing her that the two were somehow linked for sure.

El would continue to grow much faster than Neo, and Digivolved soon again into his Rookie level, Jazamon. Having to find more and more creative ways to try to keep him hidden, and safe, Neo spent the bare minimum time she could at school, opting for online courses and cutting other extracurricular activities and ties, out of fear that someone would try to hurt El, or take him away from her. And though she kept high marks in her coursework, she had very little interest in making connections with other people, or having anything at the moment to do with human world problems. For while she felt invisible and powerless on Earth, it had become apparent through her trips to the Digital world that she and Elta had abilities that did not make "sense," by human standards--powers and traits that seemed more at home in her books of fiction and fairytales. There, she felt like she could, perhaps, make a bit of a difference.

Past

It did not take long for Neo and El to encounter other Digimon in the Digital World--very soon after she met him as Botamon, it became obvious that this parallel universe was inhabited by other strange creatures with similar properties. Immediately fascinated, and curious, Neo took great interest in finding out whatever she could about the Digital World. Quickly, her dream journals came to double also as field notes and records of observation, theories, and adventure logs, which only became more sophisticated as she aged.

Unfortunately, however, some of these Digimon were hostile. El first harnessed the power of Neo's Digivice and Dream crest to Digivolve to his Champion level, Jazardmon, in order to fend off an attack from a rampaging Digimon when he realized in his Rookie form, he could do nothing to save his partner, and desperately wanted to help her. The assault damaged one side of her face, which remains scarred to this day. Ever since, El became ever more cautious of the world around him, whether human or Digital, and took to scouting areas to try to locate any potential dangers before they could pose a threat.

Neo herself was left only with more questions about the powers of the Digivice, her crest, and El's capabilities, and frustrated that she couldn't yet find that many answers. Though eternally grateful, she still had no idea why she and El seemed so closely connected to one another, why she was able to enter this parallel universe, or why it was unknown to other humans at large. With each trip and further accumulation of notes, she began to realize that the Digital World, just like her own home, had issues of its own, and as she became older and wiser, grew to understand that it was not merely the "escape" mechanism she had so yearned for as a child. The scar on her face served as a permanent reminder of fear, pain, and suffering present in both realms. She'd meet or unfortunately have to fight many Digimon during her adventures, but saw first-hand also how some of the residents of the Digital Wold were in need of help, and began to formulate ideas for how she might be able to aid them.

She and El decided to start training and hone their combat skills and gather more knowledge about the Digital World and how it was linked to hers. El's new ability to fly in his Champion form made travel much easier, and it was thus Neo dedicated her time and energy to a whole new kind of research. Still, she lamented any occasion where she had to leave El in the Digital World on his own, and was finding it increasingly difficult to juggle her responsibilities in the human world with the responsibility she felt to her Digipartner and his universe. It was becoming increasingly clear to her that there were people, and Digimon, who were suffering at the end of oppression, abuses of power, and other atrocities. As a small child, she knew those evils in the morals of her fairytales, and with age, she only came to understand them first-hand. This upset her greatly, and would only fuel the desire to dream bigger, of a better future.

During one particular trip to the Digital World, El and Neo came across a badly wounded Digimon while scouting a new area. The two of them quickly decidied to take it in to try to help it. That Digimon turned out to be a LadyDevimon. Neo decided to bring her back to shelter in one of those old "caves" she had once traversed when she first found El's egg, and where she could easily escape back and forth to smuggle supplies. In addition to trying to care for her, Neo brought LadyDevimon things to occupy herself with while she recovered, such as books and films from the human world, while Elta stood guard to protect the place. While the LadyDevimon didn't seem at all interested in talking to either of them, Neo and Elta refused to give up on her, or the hope of her making a full recovery.

It took Neo a while to earn LadyDevimon's trust. Even though she was still a child at the time, she got the sense that the Digimon had been hurt emotionally as well as physically, but was unable to get any more information from her. In her attempts to try to make a connection with her, Neo continued to bring books along with whatever other resoures she could manage to the Digital World, many of which were taken from her own personal collection, or borrowed from the library. She was very upset when she returned from school one day to see that the LadyDevimon had suddenly disappeared without a trace, Elta having been unable to stop or pursue her in his Rookie form. For the time being, Neo had to settle for the satisfaction of at least achieving their goal--of helping the Digimon recover her strength--it was only later that El could have sworn on one of his reconnaissance flights that he caught a glimpse of her once or twice, but had no way of knowing for certain.

His suspicions were confirmed when Neo noticed her watching them during a training session, and later in a skirmish against another rampaging Digimon. Their attempts to try to contact her failed, with her maintaining a clear distance from them or vanishing altogether.

But somewhat hopeful still, Neo continued to leave new copies of books and other reading materials in that same cave. Only to find that they would indeed mysteriously disappear... and reappear a few days later in the same location.

Neo's next contact with her came in the midst of another heated battle with yet another rampaging Digimon, when LadyDevimon swooped in to save her and El and dispatched the enemy all on her lonesome. It was after her insisting that she and Neo wer now "even" that Neo was finally able to hold a conversation with her. With time, Lady admitted she was at first sticking around them because she was interested in the strange power that seemed to come from Neo's crest and Digivice, which allowed El to rapidly progress through his various levels and engage in combat. But, of course, she ended up staying around and warmed up to them, eventually revealing to Neo that she had been abandoned by her flock and left to die on her own after being hurt. The three of them formed a new found-family after that, with Neo finally feeling that she truly had a place where she belonged.

Present

Continuing throughout her teenage years and into her adult life, Neo still stuck to her rather solitary lifestyle. She prefered always to keep to herself, and tends to be interpreted as standoffish or uninterested in interacting with other people. Even with the growing responsibilities, however, she still remained close with El and Lady, spending nearly all of her freetime with them and opting often to go into the Digital World, to train, research, and help Digimon in need. She prefers to let her achievements and actions speak for themsleves, rather than really go out of her way to promote herself or make contacts, which in some way managed to work out in the end.

She works primarily as a contract researcher for the aviation industry and has noticed a correlation between the increases in accidents in the human world, and incidents of rampaging Digimon in the Digital World. Though she's able to use her position to access certain documents and other information that would be otherwise unavailable to most, she still has yet to really figure out whether the two are connected. She has a suspicion that there's more to the strings of events than she can currently make sense of, but hasn't mentioned it to anyone, other than El and Lady, of course.

Having grown up as a bit of a social outcast, Neo's solitary habits have stuck with her into adulthood as well. She still hides her face behind her dark glasses, and quickly turns away or makes excuses to avoid socializing with people. She's perfectly content with her work-from-home arrangements, and is cautious still of other people, even those she may work with from time to time through her contracts. Though her persistence pays off in very detailed written work, on the other hand, her stubbornness has locked her out of even trying to grow other friendships or maintaining contacts, as she's firmly dedicated to what she does, and is always trying to play the perfectionist. Her priorities are in her research and in trying to figure out the mystery of these strange happenings in the human and Digital Worlds as of late, and of course preparing her team to continue to strengthen themselves as fighters for those who can't fight for themselves.

While in the Digital World, she and El and Lady will often put themselves on the frontlines of battle to protect others, in the human world, Neo takes a more back-seat approach to things, prefering to do her work through writing and researching for the hiring firms. She's refused a promotion or two out of fear of having to work "in the office" more often, which would prevent her from helping out in the Digital World as often as she'd like. Prefering to keep her head low and just do good work to keep the higher-ups off her back, she keeps her head level but her heart always wondering about how things could be better--for both humans and Digimon alike.

As of late, she's been experiencing recurring strings of nightmares, the details of which she can never remember after she wakes up. She's expressed concern to Elta and Lady, but neither of them have been able to figure out exactly what's going on. Neo's been rather nervous about it, given that her dreams first connected her to El and the Digital World when she was young, but for now, all she can do is try her best and keep up with her research and investigations.