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Free [redraw/revamp] — Description

[CW: contains decay-focused gore, blood, exposed bones]
Free was a lean tan cat with white feathered wings and eyes of luminous white and yellow. His neck was fastened tightly by a glowing white collar, bound with a short, broken chain. There was a vacancy in his gaze - from even before his true form was unleashed - as if it pained him to focus on anything around him for too long. As if just looking at the world chained him to it. He rarely looked anyone in the eye.
Free was cursed with freedom, gifted with flight and the uncanny ability to break free of any restraint… with the exception of PAIN itself. Compared to other curses it certainly wasn’t a bad deal. And while his permanent collar with broken chain served as symbolism of his newfound freedom, there was a certain irony in its manifestation as a tight collar he could never remove.
However, there was another side to Free’s curse. In the right heightening of emotion, Free’s collar would loosen. And once fully slack from his neck, it would reveal the lack of a neck entirely and take the form of a floating, rotating ring of eyes. From there, Free’s body would warp completely - pinprick red pupils, large wings in place of his limbs, pristine feathers blending through his fur tinted with pure, unstained light, and six ethereal floating hands tipped with deadly talons
This was Free’s “unleashed” form, a nigh unstoppable force with the ultimate freedom within its grasp; the freedom to kill whatever stood to constrain it. Extremely effective and emotionally blinding to its owner’s mind. And yet even it could make no move towards freedom from PAIN itself.
Not that Free truly had a chance to try it against THEM anyhow…
In fact, for most of Free’s time in PAIN he was blissfully unaware of this form. Upon entering PAIN he set off from the Heart immediately, revelling in his newfound ability to fly. What once was pitch black thicket quickly morphed into a sprawling field beneath him. Gentle, bright, endless blue sky and glimmering, golden grass on an even, breezy plain. It was so open, so peaceful, so calm…
Free did not intend on having followers - truly, he dreaded the responsibility that would come from it. Dreaded the weight of a judgemental gaze, sharp claws, desperate tears… being the center of all these emotions that he didn’t know how to respond to. Of being trusted, being the reason another cat lived or died, smiled or cried. It was too much to even imagine. No, as long as he was alone in the sky, he was free.
Yet the heavy chains of responsibility lurked patiently - incessantly - below him. Because cats would wander into his territory whether he wanted them or not and Free didn’t have the will to harm them or confront them, much less to change his territory from his ideal just to keep them out. So… decreed through his inaction; cats were allowed in Free’s territory as long as they didn’t interfere with Free and his flying.
And cats did gather. Those wanderers who didn’t want for Love’s manipulation, Fear’s bloodbath, Kill’s control, and even resistant to joining Bear’s gloomy collection - for those cats, Free’s territory was a godsend. A territory where they could be free… well, as free as PAIN would allow..
It wasn’t perfect, as Fear and Love followers would frequent the territory searching for easy targets. Rarely, even a Kill follower could be found skulking through the grass.
Gradually, time wore down Free’s freedom-feeling and the novelty of flight had long since exhausted when Free finally spoke to another cat - a cat named Weed who had taken a liking to Free’s territory. A mix of boredom, curiosity and something like desperation led Free down a long discussion - about the meaning of life, pain, rebirth and something about plant classifications - or was it flowers? (Aren’t those the same thing?) It was a conversation that never seemed to quite be over and led to Free realizing that interacting with another cat didn’t have to go as badly as he always feared.
And so, slowly and gently, Free fell into the chains of trust.
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[Edit: I feel bad for taking so long on Free's lore, so I'm putting some of what I've written (that I'm mostly happy with) here. Keep in mind it's not the full lore yet.]

Free's old reference is probably my least favorite out of all those old references, so I'm very pleased to have a much better reference for him now! Once again of his "post-Kill" appearance. I should probably draw how he looked before sometime.
Also he has a collar now, both to align with a certain other character but also because a collar with a broken chain fits his name well. I'm amazed I didn't think of it before now.

Uploading this one a bit earlier than usual because today's gonna be busy for me later.