Today I'll be doing one variation of Rachel from the Animorphs book series. The book series is aimed at young adults but is actually pretty mature in certain aspects while being childish in others. Rachel is one of the main characters. She is around 11-12 when she finds out about a secret alien invasion of Earth. Along with Jake, Cassie, Marco, Tobias, and eventually Ax she fights.
Rachel's main characteristics are polar opposites of each other. On one hand she is a girly girl that adores fashion and the mall. She loves finding a good deal on an outfit. On another hand she is the most bloodthirsty Animorph out there. She says 'let's do it' to any and all crazy ideas. On yet another hand she doubts herself and fears how much she loves the war. She is a complicated character like the majority of characters in the Animorphs series.
I'm not recreating any part of the Animorphs series in this HA, I'm merely taking a general idea for the character.
But ruining her being a perfectly normal teenager was the fact that she was a warrior. Marco liked to joke that she was Xena: Warrior Princess which she hated him saying. She, him, Tobias, Ax, Jake, and Cassie fought to keep the Yeerks from taking over Earth. They, except Ax, started fighting after finding a dying alien called Elfangor in an abandoned construction site. He warned them about the Yeerks and gave them a weapon, the power to morph, to fight the Yeerks until the Andalites could return. Eventually Ax, Elfangor's younger brother, joined them.
Rachel's friends thought of her as a fearless warrior. Jake turned to her when he needed something cruel done. But she wasn't fearless. She had nightmares like all the others. Nightmares that threatened to overwhelm her.
In some of these dreams she would see her city, her home, in flames. Snow littered the ground as Bug fighters, sort of like the Yeerk's fighter planes, flew overhead. The Yeerks were out in the open because they had won. Her and her friends hadn't stopped the invasion. How could they have? How could six teenagers really have hoped to stop an alien invasion?
She stood in a graveyard overlooking the city, and other times the graveyard would be in the city, just looking at all the loved ones she had lost. Worst of all were the ones not buried as they lived their lives as Controllers, hosts for the parasitic Yeerks.
Looking up, Rachel saw Tobias flying. He didn't seem to realize he was covered in flames and flew normally. He was her boyfriend. It was sad, really, that even her love life couldn't be normal. She couldn't exactly take him to the movies or cuddle in bed. They could never go on a date. A real date. She wanted him to morph human and stay that way over two hours. She told herself that was so he would feel better, but it was for more selfish reasons.
In one of her hands Rachel held the blue box. The morphing cube. The Escafil Device. Three names for such a good gift. For such a cursed power. The glowing blue box in her hand was what had given her and her friends the ability to fight the Yeerks. In her nightmare they hadn't succeeded.
Sparing a glance at her white dress, a dress that hadn't been affected at all by the chaos around her, she focused on her battle morph. She focused on the grizzly bear DNA that was now part of her. She didn't know why she was going to fight, fighting was useless as the Yeerks had won, but there was no other plan that she could think of.
Her hands changed first into deadly bear paws. She flexed them as her morph continued. Some grizzly bear fur was now covering the right side of her face. Soon she would be burning like Tobias was.
How I Designed This Human Avatar
Since I was able to not be limited by what I could actually buy for this, I had greater options than before. This was both a blessing and a curse. While I didn't have to buy everything, there was still the problem of finding which items would work.
Rachel was the best looking Animorph. Even Jake, her cousin, mentions her good looks. Though that has incest vibes to it, the odd remarks from him are probably due to reminding the reader of her physical characteristics. Since she looks good, I needed a good looking outfit. I went for simple. This was made easy once I found the dress.
I didn't want to put too many things on this particular HA as I wanted to focus on her beauty. Her unaltered, raw beauty.
To signify her morphing into a grizzly bear I had one item placed by her that blends into her face (which was a good accident) and a bear styled pair of gloves.
The glowing blue box was the closest I could find to an Escafil Device. I wanted that as the item is big in the series.
The hawk represents Tobias who is Rachel's boyfriend in the series. It was lucky that there was a hawk that was on fire to better pair with the bear.
For the background I originally wanted a mall setting as Rachel loved the mall, but I eventually went with a more desolate setting. This actually works better as no matter the background, the writing for this one was always going to center around Rachel's fears.
Items Used
I will be putting the items I used in two lists: Non-Custom Wearables and Custom Wearables.
Non-Custom Wearables are items made by Subeta. They can vary greatly in price as well as rarity. Some can be cheap while others you have to really work for.
Custom Wearables are items made by players. I am not too familiar about the rules for these items. There are site rules and then, like anything, there are also rules that players make. Don't expect to be able to buy every Custom Wearable I list.
Non-Custom Wearables: Hawk Fire Rock Totem, Tan Bear Paws, BrightEyes Blue Contacts, Bear Fire Rock Totem, Ominous Grave Markers, Lost Store Sign Letter
Custom Wearables: Hydrus Cube, Enduring Blonde Locks, Cotton Fabric Teddy Bears
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