Dressing Up for 500

And here we are: based on your votes [link] , the top 3 most liked Original Characters to appear in my gallery are (from left to right as seen above) Ursula, Rain and Priss. They are each depicted together in "Halloween costumes" fairly fitting of them.

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Ursula from Shangri-La was the second most voted character. It was close, in fact, she almost tied for first (which surprised me a little). I knew people liked her, but I was impressed by the extent. Perhaps it's because she is one of my most level-headed and down-to-earth characters (despite her fantasy setting), making her a bit more relatable than some of my other characters. Maybe it's just that fans of Shangri-La want to see more of her and mysterious tale. Or maybe people just think she's cute. Whatever the case may be, it's fine by me.

I decked her out in qipao (or is it cheongsam?) which is basically a very classy Chinese dress. Although it's a major point in her story that we don't KNOW where she's from, with hair that red and a name like "Ursula", we can only imagine she's probably not originally from anywhere in Asia, let alone China. Her normal outfit in Shangri-La is inspired by the same style of dress though, so even if she's not from there, she must really be into the style. Maybe the qipao isn't terribly "costumey" (although, I've seen girls wear these on Halloween), but it certainly suits her somehow. ^_^

Fun fact: this is actually the THIRD costume Ursula has worn in my gallery besides her normal outfit and the occasional swimsuit. She was also forced into a bunny suit once [link] and went as a Faerie for Halloween on a previous year [link] .

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Rain (uh, from Rain), was not surprisingly, the number one pick out of every single character from every story I've talked about on DA so far. I say it's not surprising because I can understand it probably being a safe choice, being the story most of you know best. I've been working on the comic for just shy of a year now (with no missed updates yet~!), so she's easily the most recognizable character in my gallery... even if you don't LIKE the comic. There were a lot of votes for other characters from Rain too (it was looking touch and go for a while that it almost could've been Maria or Rudy).

Rain's costume is directly pulled from canon as it is the very same costume she's wearing for the Halloween arc going on in the comic right now. The costume itself was chosen for a number of reasons, both symbolic and practical. I won't get into the symbolic reasons (though they should be fairly easy to pick up on if you're familiar with the comic), but practically-speaking, I've worn that very same costume for Halloween last year. As such, I know firsthand that a transgirl like her can pull off a look like that.

She's been an angel once before, but it was the more traditional kind back then [link] .

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Priss, from Idle Herald, was actually kind of an unexpected upset, just barely surpassing both of the Lavender Town girls [link] on the last day of voting. Unlike Ursula and Rain, Priss' story has never been told, even partly, anywhere on DA or anything. All she's really had on DA is a cameo as a contestant in the second OCSC, where we learned a few hints toward her story and presented her spunky, outgoing personality in a mock interview. I recall she was decidedly well-liked; after all, she DID win second place... but she won SECOND place. Interestingly, Corey [link] and Pandora [link] , the first place winners of the OCSC 1 and 2 respectively, only got one vote each. So, this choice was out of left field for me, but sometimes I like surprises. ^_^

Priss is a street performer in her story. Dancing, singing, telling jokes and stories, and more are all just in a day's work for her. But she loves her job. As such, I thought a showgirl costume would be kinda neat for her. The look borders on being a little gothic lolita-ish (double win!), but is inspired by a showgirl costume.

In the OCSC 2, Priss also appeared in a genie costume [link] .

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I hope you enjoyed this. You'll be seeing more of these three in the near future.

Also, thank you to everyone for your continued support. I wouldn't have ever reached FIVE HUNDRED deviations if I didn't have so many wonderful people appreciating my work and inspiring me to want to do more. So, thank you. Really.

Ursula - Shangri-La ©2009-2011 [link]
Rain Flaherty - Rain ©2004-2011 [link]
Priss - Idle Herald ©2006-2011 [link]

All characters and all other aspects of this piece are copyright material belonging to me.