New Public domain characters: Mystique (they/them) and Anomolis (she/her) Rosethorn!
This art, and the backstory below, are public domain, CC0, meaning they have no copyright protection whatsoever, and you are explicitly encouraged to download, share, and use them in any way you want, no permission required! The only thing you *can't* do is claim you own them!
[ID: Three versions of a digital drawing, showing the same background, but different fluffy cats with the same lineart. The background is a small, cat-sized grey hallway with a dark door in the background, and black slits in the walls for windows.
The first image, which is in its own row, shows a calico cat, Mystique, with a slightly transparent shadow showing Anomolis, a black cat with a skull marking on her face.
The second image is labeled, "Mystique, they/them", and shows the calico. They are drawn with a base of orange fur, with brown, white, and black splotches, with half their face white, and half brown, with orange above their eyes, and black underneath.
The last image is labeled, "Anomolis, she/her". Along with the cream colored skull marking on her face, her body is dark grey, with a black mane around her face, and a black belly. Her paws show yellow-white lines for her claws.
The second and third image are next to eachother, so that the doors in the background and the narrow windows combine to look like the eyes and nose of a skull. End ID.]
Mystique Rosethorn never had any reason to assume they were anything other than a normal cat.
Sure, their parents had been surprised by their birth, as they had been told that they would be having five kittens, not six, but midwives had to make mistakes sometimes, and they and their siblings were all fine, so the confusion was quickly overshadowed by other things.
They grew up in their village leading a pretty normal life. They made friends, figured out they were a mollytom and came out to their parents on their first birthday.
This cost them some should-have been friends, but also let them grw closer with others, and helped them gain new ones, once they started reaching out to the local Queer community. Their family was supportive, if a little confused sometimes, and things were going well.
But then came the day before their fourth birthday, when they woke up, and instead of finding themself in the field they'd fallen asleep in, where the birthday party was to take place, instead they were in a vast, alien spaceship, being poked awake by something...else.
It, or, as Mystique learned, she, looked like a cat, but wasn't, she was something else entirely, something from another world.
She was Anomolis, sent by the gods of another world to destroy this world, Mystique's world, to make way for the newest palace these gods wanted to build in its place.
Anomolis has no idea how Mystique found their way onto her spaceship, but there is no possible threat they could possibly pose to her, so she's happy to answer any of their questions, as an amusing distraction from the normal routine of things.
When they learn of the destruction Anomolis is bringing with her, Mystique tries to fight her off to stop her, but their claws and teeth just pass through her like she's not even there, because, really, she isn't, not fully.
Mystique is only seeing a projection of Anomolis' true form, shaped into something they can recognize and understand as a harbinger of destruction, because in order to interact with their world, Anomolis must take on characteristics of it, though this doesn't require actually allowing herself to be endangered.
Anomolis is amused by Mystique's actions, but not angry. She is immortal, after all, and is very, very patient, and this is pretty amusing.
Unable to physically stop Anomolis from destroying their world, Mystique tries a new approach: Persuasion. They tell Anomolis of the beauty of their world, how kind most people are, all the wonders and joys and everything good they can think of, to try and convince this alien to spare them.
And Anomolis is happy to listen, because she is immortal, she has all the time in the world. The gods she serve move at a mountain's pace, so spending a few minutes, hours, days, even weeks listening to one mortal isn't going to even remotely cause any problems. Heck, Mystique could spend years telling her their life story, and it still wouldn't disrupt the timeline.
And what she is hearing *is* interesting. It's not every epoch you get to learn about the mysterious, tiny lives of morals in a brand new world.
Mystique can see that Anomolis is interested in what they have to say, and, having come up with a fantastic idea, starts asking her questions instead. What are her powers? Is this form that they're looking at now the only one she can take on? Can she alter her own perception of things?
Anomolis replies that she can do things beyond Mystique's comprehension, changing her form takes no effort at all. To prove it, she becomes a mirror image of Mystique, then a bird, then some unnamed thing with twelve heads and 5 wings, then back to her harbinger cat form.
So Mystique offered her a deal: Temporarily erase your own memories, live your life as a normal, mortal cat, starting as a kitten, then, after a set amount of time, regain your memories as a harbinger, and decide if you still want to destroy this world.
Anomolis points out that she's just the harbinger of the gods, not their actual advisor. Whether or not she wants to destroy this world does not mean much, if anything, to the gods she serves.
Mystique insists that she should try it anyways, and if she decides she doesn't want this world destroyed, she can cross the bridge of deciding what to do about that, if she comes to it.
It's a very intriguing prospect, and Anomolis agrees, though she will says that she will insert herself into the world at a different time, so that Mystique cannot simply find her as a kitten and raise her to see things their way. She has to be given the opportunity to decide for herself whether this world is worth saving or not. She will give herself four years to live as a mortal, then she will regain her memories and make her decision.
Mystique agrees that this condition is completely fine by them, because they didn't really think they would get this far in the first place, and any chance at all is better than none.
Anomolis sends Mystique back to the field they'd originally gone to sleep in, still on the day before their fourth birthday, and Mystique thinks that will be the last time they ever hear from the harbinger, unless she decides to find them again in four years, or more, to tell them what she decided.
They can cross that bridge when they come to it.
Half wondering if it was all a dream, Mystique goes back to sleep.
When they wake up the next day, they are four years old, and suddenly...they can remember everything, and not just remember, Anomolis is there too, projecting herself again, the same person as Mystique, but separate. Now they both recognize eachother for who they are: themselves.
And neither of them want this world to be destroyed.
So now, very suddenly, the bridge of "how do we convince the gods not to destroy this world?", that they thought they would have so much time to prepare for, is looming straight ahead of them.
If you enjoy these characters or their art, for every $1 you donate to help Helmy Al-Masri and his family, you can request more characters like this!
