Neonverse

Onion the Hyena

Bio:

Onion is a young hyena with aspirations of being like the greatest hero of the realm, Neon the Pegasus. A quest that leads her to discovering more about herself and the world than meets the eye.

After the events of Neon's adventure, the happy-go-lucky hyena, Onion appears to follow in her footsteps. She travels the land seeking a quest and purpose of her own, which leads her to following the guide of an equally energetic little dog she dubs Swoocey.

Following the mysterious pup (who oddly seems to be made of patchwork), Onion is led through maze of confusion and secrets that slowly tear the world apart at its seams. There's more to the realm than its fantastical landscapes and peoples, and even more mysterious forces at work than the mythical guardians from the heavens.

After a fateful encounter with these forces, secrets Onion had been keeping from herself become apparent. Such that endanger not just her but everything she knows.

Onion is defined by her optimism and adventurous spirit. At the beginning of her story it seems like every inch of the world is something new and breathtaking to her, but as the journey drags her to more unnerving places and people her resolve is tested. After her confrontation with the darkest secrets of the world she's left somewhat of an anxious wreck and becomes even more lost.

Despite it all, she is nothing if not determined to prove herself, and continues on her journey with Neon and Swoocey as companions, also curious to see how she'll take her fate into her own hands.

Origins & Inspirations

By the end of 2016, Neon had stopped really representing me as a sona, and I began developing a new one that would become Onion. Onion has meant a lot to me ever since as she's been able to represent me more in features than Neon's white coat and straight blue mane ever could, but she's been a great avatar spiritually too, having changed a lot with me over the years. The Onion of Neonverse is considered a separate character from the sona I still use today, she's sort of the version of her from the years the story is based on, frozen in time.

In 2017 as this fresh new yeen grew into her new role, I experienced quite a lot of turmoil that she shared rather intimately with me. And even as I de-constructed this inner world of Neonverse and built it back together in 2018, it was with her as my avatar, earning her the unquestionable leading role in the trilogy.

Onion's design came from a school project where we had to design masks based on those of west African cultures, and I was inspired by those representing hyenas. The hyena was chosen both because of wanting a connection to my African descent and features, as well as because of the iconic laugh, which at that time I thought was reflective of my bubbly and comedic personality. How ironic then that Onion would become my avatar for the more soul-crushing years of my life . . . That's a little melodramatic, but it's an irony that has stuck with the character and her sillier mannerisms in face of everything.

The color of her fur is based on that of my skin, and her little black poof of an afro from my hairstyle at the time, which now on the updated Sona Onion are my locs. But in order to keep a fantastic air to her design her eyes would be blue and pink to match the scheme of Neon, which would go on to be a motif of the divine in Neonverse. Besides that however, the rest of her design is meant to be more naturalistic, which was initially just so she could represent me more, but now helps to make her stand out subtly from the more magical coloration of the rest of the world.

Onion's inspiration comes from one my favorite archetypal victim of lost innocence - a bubbly, carefree scamp who eventually has to be brought down by the realities of the world. But Onion's character has always held a bit more of an element of hubris than a typical child character despite being one, because in her world she is meant to be completely empowered, transforming her downfall less into that of an innocent child, and more that of a vain, and at times deluded ruler. This change makes her more active as a character, as well as a healthier perspective on who I was at the time instead of a perfect victim.

I have a deep fondness for this characterization of her too because it's one I often only see reserved for male characters, as female characters are often pushed to be less clumsy and flawed, lest she looks incompetent. The sort of bumbling, full-of-themselves, doomed-by-the-narrative brat though is one I've related to since Onion's inception, and it fills me with some kind of euphoria to break that mold and play with that other silly typically masculine roles.