(=^ • ω • ^=)

to give her a wilder appearance i changed her hair to be curly and kinda unwashed! her horns are closer to the handmaid's than the original, and i think they match the hair. also i made her bigger! i have a huge bias for plus size aradia, and i think unique silhouettes are good for these designs. part of me really wanted her bone accessories to be made of *real bone*, not just gothy little plastic charms. so i made her hair clips way bigger, and exchanged the fake skulls for a dead fish and a femur. i think the dead fish just looks cool, but it also works with the fishnets on her arms and legs and invokes the idea of a rotten fish or a 'rotten girl' (fujoshi)! i didnt really like the placement of the aries symbol smack dab in the middle of her skirt, so i made it part of the shape of her sweetheart neckline instead (covered a little by her book). i also think the ripped/torn layered texture on the overskirt was a really good reference to aradia's ghost self, but hard to see in the original. i threw on a collar and finally i gave her leg warmers and big chunky heels to resemble goat hooves!! BONUS (her effortlessly rizzing up the helpsman)

i love speculating about the bancestors, so it was cool getting 'canon' versions! i imagined very different characters, but character concept is not what im focusing on. as a lover of the original ancestors dramatic looks, some of the designs were underwhelming. they need more drama! more exaggeration! more FLAIR! for the gardener, my beloved, i made her cape longer, gave her long hair (optional, just one of my favorite adult kanaya hcs and to match the dolorosa), added more red into her design (like in her skirt and gloves), and reworked her hat. now instead of random vines and a veil, it's a sun hat with a net for working outdoors, and a swirling green print that resembles both vines AND her symbol virgo. i already loved her clippers shaped like her horns tbh, and the corset and mantle over her shoulders. iconic this is how i'll be drawing her in the future. what do you think? :D ROSEGARDEN BONUS (alpha!rose and alpha!kanaya long distance yuri) :

ok these drawings arent fully canon accurate but these are my all-time favorite outfits for both of them!! i just love nepeta in all-black + feferi in uniform. i think their maritime roleplay as commanding officers in the navy is GUARANTEED to be peak

BONUS:

i love these guys theyre so silly

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infodump time. OKAY so of course swapping the Condesce for a human is insanity. Unlike many other characters, she also affects the *world*. Without her, who runs Alternia anymore?

... Nanna. Yeah, let's say it's Nanna. I kind of want to lean into the fact that the swap affects the entire species dynamic between humans and trolls, I think it's cool. We're also working in a single universe instead of restructuring the plot involving SBURB!

I decided that for this AU the baroness of Crockercorp has effectively become the corporate empress of Earth. She took humanity to the stars and now all spaceships have Crocker logos on them and they are attempting to conquer the Alternian homeworld to acquisition the resources of a very old society, colonize the trolls and become a PROPER hypercapitalist space empire. (Avatar style)

While this troll empire is less militant than the Alternian one, this still isn't easy. There's a level of diplomacy involved, not outright war but subterfuge, which is how Betty meets The Coronel.

The Coronel is one of the oldest highbloods still left alive, so old his hair has gone white. He is the Hierophant of a religion he himself founded, with the The Daunting text of Practical Japery and Magical Frivolity as its holy script. Gamzee's religion is one of the denominations/obscure cults within this larger faith, centered around concepts of moral karma, absurdism, magical miracles and messiahs. One of his titles is Honkifex- this is a Psycholonials reference because of all the fun overlap with Jubilitism. He is one step above the Grand Highblood in authority and is basically the troll pope. I made his name Coronel to distinguish from Colonel. The first spelling has older roots in Spanish!

Trivia: He's 12 feet tall as a reference to Mark Twain! That pseudonym refers to the second mark while fishing, which is a depth of 12 feet in the water.

More Trivia: His sign is Capricorn rotated 90°. This is because it kind of spells out 'cS', his initials. You can also find his initials in the shape of his horns!

While he was once the most devout Pranksterist alive, the Coronel now thinks it's all a bunch of claptrap. His Ultimate Prank is making a world follow a doctrine he doesn't even believe in! He finds this situation hilarious, and barely cares about his job but he's keeping up the ruse to push the institution further into absurdity. The worst thing that came with age was boredom and apathy.

Much like my version of Colonel Sassacre, the Coronel is a traitor to his species. He may be a big intimidating troll, but he's no less a wifeguy for his wonderful alien ladylove. He instantly falls in love with Betty and her wicked wiles, and together they destroy and dismantle the trolls internal defenses.