Single Dad Robert, finds a box in his complex's dumpster area. Someone had a baby and dumped them, he hops in after hearing the crying (he really hoped he didn't hit a baby with a trash bag...) and finds and lo and behold-
It a Honduran bat! He wonders if the hybrid nature alone is why the baby was abandoned, but he doesn't think twice about climbing in, fishing them out, and immediately texting Mandy that he needs a cover for the day.
Z-team are confused, and they all decide (with Mandy and Chase in tow) to check up on the guy since Robert never gave any details. And they pop in to see Robert with baby bat in swaddle and him on the phone with the fifth hybrid info support line that day just so he can be extra certain the formula he was giving her wasn't going to rupture her belly.
Her name is Maisy. It means pearl, he calls her his little pearl.
help there's an evil little pretty princess in my house get her out of here 😨
I was going to make this a part of a larger post on hornet's inventions and creations and critters in Wulfmaiden but this design took me so long to figure out that I got too tired to make that whole post!! so behold!
Wulfmaiden!Lace indeed almost immediately begins undergoing changes upon being taken into hornet's care full-time, and, what's more, hornet herself has just become massively in tune with her weaver background, and that mirrors back into lace's weavings. Each time threads are sewn back into her body and her internal spools are maintained, she grows a little more spidery, a little more in resemblance to her queen. She eventually starts to hover on an appearance that looks something like this, fit with the mandibles, eyes, arms (don't mind that I forgot to include her second pair in the tiny doodle!!!), and even the distinct middle marking which denotes the mask of weaver.
Her feelings on the situation are mixed and change over time. Originally, she found the whole ordeal confusing and upsetting, and found her slow transformation into something that looked more like her rival not just distasteful, but an offense to her attempts to create an individuality for herself. Between this being an act 2 lace and not an act 3 lace, hornet absorbing gms, lace having to vie for attention in the Halls, and now her physical changes, this is all a perfect cocktail for lace to be in a BAD state of mind.
Thankfully, as a bit of time progresses, she gets more used to her body and begins to establish her own form of tiny rebellions. Whereas it took her quite some time to begin making acts against her original creator, lace is more familiar with pestering hornet and now knows what revolt tastes like, so she begins testing the Wulfmaiden's patience and greatly growing her confidence nigh immediately.
The MOMENT she began to realize that her clothes, especially in the main section of her body, were beginning to resemble traditional weaver garb, the first thing she did was tear it right down the middle. Now she's got a sort of fuzzy, frayed midriff look going on (and she's fluffy now! she's the jumping spider to hornet's tarantula) that she's pretty satisfied with, and otherwise enjoys the ways other parts of her are shaping up. Additionally, once reaching this more static, established appearance, she can also begin trying outfit changes without having to fundamentally alter the way she's been woven, and this also helps her sense of self flourish (i.e., this is her default, but I might draw her in whatever!) Oh, also, stealing hornet's cowl once it no longer fit her higher form gave her an ego boost she sorely needed.
In terms of the way her character has changed beyond her putting the pieces back together of her already fragmented selfhood, she still has a long at to go. She remains a jealous creature of whims, feeling that any in hornet's good graces are a direct attack to her, a wrong she needs to right. Additionally, being sort of an unusual case - neither patrol nor priesthood, warrior nor bishop, but one of the most highly ranking residents of the Hall of Herrah nonetheless - tends to get her really anything she wants. She gets the first seat at feasts, the best lodgings, the finest down pillows. When hornet isn't looking, she helps herself to bossing others around whenever the chance presents itself, creating for herself a position of authority and establishing a reputation among the Halls, and she can't always resist putting her foot down even when the Pale Maiden has her eyes on her. Thankfully, it seems the Grand Huntress's mercy knows no bounds when it comes to her... well, people don't know what Lace is. Her plaything? Her heir? Her advisor?
Some other things to take note that don't really fit anywhere:
It should go without saying imo but Lace is NOT an actual child. I originally had a longer rant but that's what's important.
Further, the dynamic Hornet and Lace have in game and in Wulfmaiden is super rich and complex and not limited to just shipping them & whatever, but even for all those other aspects of their relationship, I want the first point to be so clear.
I call her a woman elsewhere because that's how she is treated in-game, but while designing and thinking about Lace I personally saw her as someone a little more genderfluid, or at the very least nonbinary with, especially in her costume design here, a femme lean. I may or may not switch up pronouns for Wulfmaiden!Lace on occasion but I figured I would call attention to it here.
Also hornet doesn't always have time to fully 100% maintain lace, and lace herself also likes being a little more independent at times, so as her body gets a little weaker her pin will sometimes double as a cane!!!
I don't want to over meme her because she's honestly a super tragic character and I don't want to be flippant with her story when I've been as serious as I have with hornet's so far. that said it is so fun to make silly doodles
