After a long Winter, it's finally time to start waking up and getting ready for Spring. A time I feel fitting to start advancing my project more boldly. I thought I'd start by posting an old pic introducing a handfull of my FC characters who appear most prominantly in my WIP fanfic, "Good Wilshire Hunting". WARNING: Spoilers ahead. ;)


#1: MOTHER NATURE (A.K.A. "OSTARA")
Pretty self-explanatory. To make a long story short, this woman is Nature itself. Every part of it. Not only that, she is also the head honcho of all the holiday worlds and the inhabitants therein, as well as the special council of magical figures, including the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Cupid, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, Lady Luck, Jack Frost and Old Man Winter, as well as The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse. (More about them later, another pic for another day..)
Alongside her is her husband, Father Time,( not included in this picture because I hadn't designed him at the time), who is at her side on the council, though she will always be the somewhat greater of the two. ..And of course, Baby New Year, their son.
Ostara has the ability to control any and all aspects of nature. That doesn't mean she always does, however. Her father, the one many call "God" set the laws of nature in motion, and gave her the task of keeping the nature of the world in balance. While often moody and temperamental and easily frustrated by the actions of humans/anthros, just as often she can be calm, benevolent, loving and maternal. And either way, she is not one to altogether give up on, or outright kill, them completely just because they may displease her. Not like her brother, Satan the Angel (..from "The Adventures Of Mark Twain").
Put simply, she alone knows that everything happens for a reason, even if that reason is not yet clear. Nonetheless, she is a highly misunderstood figure who finds herself easily blamed by others for the world's problems. Hence why, when not interacting with her fellow legendary figures or anybody else she can trust, she spends much of her time alone, tending to the Earth the best she can from her mysterious underground lair, a mystical place where she has access to, and the ability to effect anything going on from anywhere in the world.
Included in this pic because she actually does show up at some point in the story. Near the end, when Wilshire has just been through a big fight that renders him half-dead and into a hallucinatory dream, Mother Nature appears before him to commend him for learning to be less selfish and more loving, loyal and self-sacrificing, and restores him to life. (..She is also revealed to be the mysterious stranger who sent a bird into the courtroom on the day of Wilshire's release trial containing some "new evidence", earlier in the story)
Someday I'll do a piece giving more detail about her life, but that's another story, for another pic, for another day..



#2: DR. HANK LEPUS:
This old rabbit in the wheelchair is a now-retired (due to health reasons) former psychologist and Spike's old teacher, when Spike was but a wee med student studying psychology/psychiatry. This old guy trained him, taught him everything he knows. What's more, he was the only person who ever shared Spike's talent for perception and skill for being basically able to "see" right through to a person, and for that the two had the highest amount of respect for each other that a mentor and protege could have.
Even though Spike hasn't seen him in years, Hank shows up once during my fanfic, now a paraplegic due to multiple sclerosis, yet still sharp as a tack mentally, to help finally get the truth out of Spike about his feelings for Wilshire, which Spike has been in denial of ever since the pig's arrest the year before. Sometime later in the story, when Wilshire is out of prison and is living with Spike, Spike gets a phone call (interrupting what would have been the two's first kiss) telling him his mentor has finally passed away. At his funeral, Spike and Wilshire get the chance to talk some more..



#3: JUDGE ALEXIS AMPHIBIUS
This bullfrog lady judge is tasked with the duty of presiding over Wilshire's case. With her African-American voice and demeanor, she can be stern and harsh to those who act out in her courtroom (especially the jury members, who act up even more than Wilshire himself, who's surprisingly quiet and well-behaved during the hearing), but despite this, she has a warm heart inside, as well as an honorable sense of law and justice.
Also, she's the wife of the bulldog prison Warden, Jordan, whom Wilshire became quite acquainted with during his stay in the Big House.



#4: GORDO RAM
Wilshire's first cellmate and the antagonist of the story. This big, burly male sheep starts out speaking softly and pretending to be Wilshire's friend and "take him under his wing", when really he just wants someone to be his new whipping boy, making Wilshire do all his prison chores and getting laughed at and taunted, rather than raped and/or killed, in return. When Wilshire grows so tired of this that he stands up and dares to mouth off at Gordo for this, the ram becomes quite angry, and, instead of taking it out on Wilshire (whom he's begun to grow disturbingly "fond of"), he instead does so to another nearby inmate, who he "makes an example of" by beating and then murdering him right in front of a horrified Wilshire. This act gets Gordo put away in solitary and on death row, much to the relief of a traumatized Wilshire.
As it turns out, Gordo also harbors a grudge against Spike, (for reasons I'll explain next character) so it's not the last we see of him, as towards the end of the story, he escapes from jail and kidnaps Spike, whom he plans to kill, until Wilshire shows up to stop him, leading to the big climactic fight scene of Pig vs. Ram. I won't tell you how it ends, though.. ;)
Note: Gordo's name is actually derived from "Gordon Ramsey" because... I forget why. lol


#5: LUCY EWE
Gordo's wife, now deceased, the reasons for it are also the reasons for Gordo's hatred for Spike;
Many years ago Lucy was a sweet, gentle, but very naive female sheep. When her husband began to abuse her, she sought help from Dr. Spike Rabbit, who tried to persuade her to leave him for her own good. But she was hesitant and afraid, not to mention feeling unloved. As Spike began to find himself growing attracted to her, and she to him, the two began a short affair, as Spike's way of an incentive to leave her abusive husband, and also to make her feel loved.
As Lucy's feelings for Spike grew, one day she called him and left a message thanking him for such a wonderful time, telling him how special he made her feel, like nobody had ever done for her before, and that she could not wait to see him again, yadda yadda yadda.. Well, unbeknownst to Lucy, Gordo had been listening in the whole time. Long story short, it ended with him bashing his wife's head in, killing her.
As you can guess, Gordo was aghast at what he'd done. But rather than place the blame on himself where it belonged, he instead blamed Spike for his wife's death, and even in prison, he still carries the grudge against the rabbit doctor to this day for "ruining his life".
(..Oh, and did I mention her autopsy later revealed she was about a month or two pregnant at the time of her death, and that the fetus was so undeveloped that it was never clarified whether Gordo or Spike was the father?)
Despite it not truly being his fault, Spike nonetheless secretly carries tremendous guilt over Lucy's untimely demise. (..Possibly his reason for being hesitant at first about pursuing his feelings for Wilshire?)


#6 THE LOP-EARED INMATE
That's what he is simply known as. A young lop-eared rabbit inmate who is one of Gordo's prison lackeys, until he is beaten up and subsequently murdered by Gordo for something HE didn't even do wrong! Though he's a very minor character, I include him nonetheless because he is important in the sense that his tragic fate is the first real reality check for our porky protagonist, Wilshire, as the pig's eyes start to become open to the true horrors that come with a life of crime and violence..



Whew. Whoever's paying attention, I hope you find that as intense I did.