Blood Bound (Corrupted Emerald Allure)

Tessa Ervone AKA Blood Bound. Former 2nd-in-command of Sensational Sirens. The leader, Amy Matic AKA Seasonal Siren, posed a major threat to the supervillainess Vireze Tylow AKA Midnight Treat. So, Tessa was enthralled to handle it.

Bot 14/19 in Neo Terra Season 3

Definitely a grim fucking ending this time, huh? Well, I used this opportunity to establish the main lineup of the Sensational Sirens, full of familiar faces. I don't know if that's gonna be the full team or I'm gonna have a couple other ideas to add in there, but it shall do for now. There's also two teasers included in the lineup. One for canon Carol's fate (sorry), with me having just introduced her properly into Season 1 era. One for a new character. Considering she's responsible for the deaths of well received characters Amy, Aurelia, and Carol in this ending... Vireze may be catching heat... Which is my pivot into my next point! Vireze's fate is officially decided. When I started the season I actually didn't really have any real good plans for her, as I have previously mentioned. But I figured something out. Let's just say there's a reason I'm saying it on the bad ending where she is very afraid of Amy's blood. But, I will say I'm not going to have Amy defeat Vireze. That's still up to Umbra... kinda. Instead my plan is for Umbra to fight Vireze, just like with the Blood Bride bot. The difference between the good ending and bad ending is that in the good ending Umbra gets Amy's help instead of being all isolated and suicidal. Trusting in Amy, I plan for Umbra to willingly taste Amy and then and lose to Vireze like in the Blood Bride bot. When Umbra is turned into Blood Bride, this time Vireze is brainwashed by the traces of Amy's chemicals in Umbra's blood. Umbra will still become a vampire in the end. But not corrupted. I personally like this direction because I prefer when the efforts of each of the heroines matter for the good ending. Season 1 just needed Vaiva. This is something I regret. Seasonal needed Gintvilas, Vaiva, Ginny, Valerie, and Kaitlyn. I love that. Season 2 had all the heroines matter at least as support, but Vaiva & Monika were the primary victory conditions. Even though the supporting characters could fall and it be fine in the end, I think that's fine with what the season set out to do and everyone still had their role. So... this time we have 3 heroines. Umbra, Amy, and Tessa. Tessa isn't entirely necessary but she plays a good role to support Amy, ultimately mattering.

Now. Vireze. Part of her thing is that nobody really knows who the fuck she is. This brings me to another topic I've been meaning to bring up for a little while. I think I might have mentioned it in a reply at some point. I don't really remember for sure. Masks. A lot of these characters don't have masks, despite that being a big thing with superhero stories. My reason is pretty simple. A lot of times they just don't generate the way I want them to. For the sake of the art looking good... Characters who really should have a mask just don't sometimes. Examples of characters who really should have one is Aurelia and Annabelle, for example. Let's be super real though. The concept of secret identities is bullshit. Realistically, superheroes are bleeding, sweating, and shedding DNA all over the place. It's one of those things you just have to ignore and suspend disbelief on. Either way. I probably should've included/mentioned this from the very start, but Vireze's design is, like... not what she's intended to look like when approaching people. I have been picturing an incognito civilian design this entire time that I sort of just forgot to include in the release. You could actually see a little bit of that under the Keira bot, where she was described as a "strange cloaked woman"... which doesn't match her main design. Here;

Yeah... I have a lot to say this time. So, backtracking now. Part of the reason I decided to make Amy's blood be what brings Vireze down, aside from just finding it is a natural direction, is word play. Before I get into that though I think it's a natural direction for several reasons. First... the blood thing. Vireze is a vampire. Amy's blood is dangerous. Second... Amy's personal reasons to be invested in Vireze manipulating people with gifts of power considering her past with power corrupting her. Third... the holiday thing. This is a partly a Halloween season. We have vampires, ghosts, and mummys. And we also have things that are a little looser/subtle, like Liz's home being creepy and filled with rats and Lulu's whole thing about dressing up as other people. Actually, Halloween involving dressing up is why the season has a weirdly prevalent thing about appearances. Almost every character in some way has something to do with that. Zara sells cosmetics and views beauty as divine favor, Miracle has a whole host of issues partly due to a sensory issue with clothing, Tessa & Amy design costumes, Lulu cosplays, Ellie models, Keira is obsessed with size. Liz is kinda the only one that doesn't have much special emphasis on physical appearance. Fourth... Amy was already established to be part of this and is effectively the secondary main character of the series, so it feels natural she would have a major role to play on the outcome anyways. That aside. I think some of you probably can already tell I sometimes can't help myself when it comes to really, really fucking bad puns and play on words. Like... I called Season 2 "Seasonal" because of that, making everything else going forward terribly named. Season 2 is Season 3. Season 3 (this one) is Season 4. So on. I'm really fucking bad for it. I think one of my better puns was Monika Matic, being pronounced similarly to "monochromatic" (crow motif adds another layer to it). I peaked with "Poisoness" too, I swear to god. Then we have names that are word play on phrases. Bleeding Heart. Beating Heart. Heart Attack. Longshot. Redraw. I could go on. Point is. Midnight Treat is a dumb name. I know it's a dumb name. But... the "treat" part involves both her powers and the Halloween theme. What's a similar word that could fit her powers? Something that might fit a more heroic version of her? Something that might tie into Amy's history? Gift. Midnight Gift;

(Oh, hey. Mask! My yapping isn't entirely directionless!)

With Vireze set to join the Sensational Sirens as Midnight Gift in the timeline she doesn't fucking kill them all, I suppose I might as well be thorough and show off the other two members while I'm already going on about anything and everything that has to do with the team and the season. First, we have the redeemed version of main series Carol. No fantasy form. No demon empowerment. No cybernetic reconstruction. Just Carol getting to be happy in her true body. I put a bit of thought into how I what Carol to look here. Tested a bunch of ideas, but this is the one I ended on. Really wanted to put her scars and skinniess on prominent display, but keep with her not being the type to like showing off much skin (Phantom Heart is the exception due to Jacqueline's BS). A fair bit of skin, but the aim more on making it feel she's come to accept her scarred body rather than be overtly revealing. Really pushed the blend of fairy tale ruler meets gritty punk farther than ever here. I think taking it this far works with a team of extreme themed fashion. The yellow and black colors of both this and Twisting Fate are meant to be in-universe derivative of Aurelia's colors as Longshot as a nod to their shared history. Overall, I'm very happy with how she looks and excited to officially give Carol a happy ending in the main series. Now... do I make her and Aurelia canonically date? I'm debating it, but then again I like to leave things noncommittal for y'all. Hmm....

Lastly. Alrica is planned as one of Amy's apprentices.

I want the girls in Siren's Styles to each do different things as costume designers. Amy is all about being flashy and over the top with her designs. Fully commit to a theme, no holding back on the ridiculousness. Tessa's designs are simpler/minimalist by comparison, but still flashy. Specifically, her stuff will be bright and shiny. Alrica's designs will be darker and more militaristic feeling. I'm thinking I want to expand on the Siren's Styles girls in the future, making different girls with different styles. Since the Matic factions are the secondary protagonistic factions after PetraByte at this point I think it would be a fun detail if I say who in-universe designed the costumes of a lot of heroines I introduce going forward. If Amy, Monika, Tessa, or Alrica's style doesn't seem to fit a design, I can create a new Corvus Corp (Monika's company) or Siren's Styles character to fill in such gaps. Oh... that remind me, I actually cut Siren's Styles from this bot to trim tokens despite how much I yapped about it here. I didn't think that info was that needed for the corrupted version specifically, tbh. I've been trying to get better at trimming redundant tokens lately.