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Warszawa's Raptor Form — Description
Character: Warszawa, velociraptor form (V. mongoliensis)
Media: Heavy drawing paper, pencil, Rapidographs, brush pen
Song: Tom Petty - "Last Dance with Mary Jane"

This is what broke the seal on my new Drawing pad. In an effort to keep my mind off recent events that have sort of thrown me for a loop, I sat down and concentrated - hard - on a drawing I could be proud of... this was the result.

Warszawa's most seen form (she's a shapeshifter, remember) - Velociraptor. Both dinosaurs and avians (birds) are revered by her tribe, and there are few youths who are permitted to take a dinosaurian form on a regular basis (avian forms are only allowed to be taken by spiritual guides); normally a ritual is endured once any Rak'la youth "comes of age" (around 20 years old) which gives them full permission to take on any form they wish - Warszawa herself is the daughter of a holy woman and considered to be a high spirit, so she bypassed this ritual (and is, in fact, often the one who leads the young ones in said ritual.)

When she's in town, she often takes a more human (your typical "anthro") form; but when she's with her people, this is the form she takes - a natural raptor. Granted it is a bit macro - she'll stand about 5'5" at the top of her head, more like a Utahraptor, but the anatomy is Velociraptor.

In any case - so here's 'zawa, with some of her ritual garb on. The armband and hair ornament signify her "rank" among the guides (three feathers on each; the highest spirits have five), the necklace is metallic beads with three coelorosaur teeth, and those are bells around her ankles. The culture she's from was developed from a bit of Native American, a bit of Meso American, and a bit of my own personal oddities - for the Rak'la, the bells are traditionally used in dance to get the spirits' attention. Warszawa's quite an animated dancer, and when she invites her friends to come join in ritual, Ripper often jokes "They don't need all the damn noise - if she ain't got their attention yet, they got NO hope!"

The collar and cuffs obviously aren't part of traditional wear; those are her own decoration, simply because she likes the way they look.

Yes, I know the tail is prehensile in this picture, and raptor's generally don't have prehensile tails - much like Kirsk's raptor form, she'll often choose a fully prehensile tail because it comes in handy. Or it did before the last few vertebrae were snapped - by her ex lover no less, DRAMARAMA... they never healed right, so she keeps that part of her tail bandaged; even when she chooses the standard rigid raptor tail, they never stay straight on their own.

Huzzah, background info.

I'll be coloring this with real media and adding some sort of pretty photo background.

Warszawa and all the LOL STORY (c) Shannon Mary