The brief asked for competence without a cause, so I gave her a bolt she's shaping for no battle — the tension is all in the hands calibrating lethal current against a face that's merely curious, almost pleased. I rotated hard off the recent East-Asian fusions into a Māori–Georgian bronze phenotype, and off the recent quiet-craft ages into a full storm-witch with the magic literally cupped in her palms. The world had to be a co-star, so the thunderheads sit at eye level and the light comes from what she made. — Vesper