V3 (Current)

Designed by my girlfriends Juniper and Nowa, who you can find over at https://twitter.com/WinAndNowa .

This one is the culmination of a LOT of careful consideration about what kinds of things felt validating, and ultimately represents a middle ground between the modes of "hot sultry girl" and "comforting, soft cuddle machine" that didn't require compromises to either vibe. We're talking, I had a google doc MANY pages long just full of saved visuals and lists of characters, both annotated to explain the nuances of what parts felt right and what parts felt wrong. I couldn't be more thankful to the two of them for sifting through it all with me, and for tolerating all the nitpicks.

A few of the inspirations:

• My own OCs, Eleanor and Lyra, who I fixated on for like two years before realizing it was GENDER ENVY you DUMMY
  
• Toriel and Isabelle, for the nurturing and caring vibes, as well as the size and stature in the case of the former
  
• Sable Able and a number of other characters, for the more difficult-to-approach but still motherly sort of vibe
  

• The note about the "metallic" fur on the original reference is a play on golden fleece. In a similar way to the bleached mane of my first sona, I wanted to give artists some wiggle room, and I like to justify an inconsistent, stripey pattern as the wool catching the light differently in any given piece.
  
• The style of horns, while incredibly gender, are also funny for their inspiration by a species of sheep that bears my deadname.
  
• The decision to go for hooves instead of paws was based both on the idea of clicking like I'm wearing high heels when I walk, and on the idea of the sort of cartoony proportions of Animal Crossing characters (whose limbs all end with a cute little stump).
  
• Constant whore eyes. Amplified by the heart pupils instead of ovine rectangular or feline slit pupils. They glow! Whether that does anything special is up to whether you want them to.
  
• The whiskers <3