More hiatus art! For the March Hivetheme of "Style Swap", I wanted to imagine what Helene would look like if I designed her now, with all the skills in designing characters that I didn't have back when the comic started in 2014. I think the biggest issue with Helene's design is that she isn't recognizably a rat anthro, which is what she's supposed to be. So I wanted to emphasize her rodent-ness, as well as make her look more fashionable. I also got to bring back the blue eyeshadow, which was part of her design before I drew the comic, but one that didn't stick since I ended up gluing the top of Helene's eyes to her crown XD
OBVIOUSLY, I can't substitute this design in for Helene, and I won't retcon her into looking like this in future chapters. Helene will still look like what she has before. But it was a fun experiment!