Anniversary pinups - Lenna, Games & Street Fashion (Patreon)

By: Leena

When Access asked me to dress up for the team’s anniversary, I immediately thought, “Great! I have a formal kimono given to me by a friend that they told me to save just for occasions such as this so as to not cheapen the meaning…”

THEN MELANIE GOT TO THE KIMONO FIRST!

So… you could imagine my frustration. Luckily, I was able to express myself in another way suitable to nerds like me: long black coats. 90’s kids, you know you love em.

This might not be the most formal getup, but I think I pull it off in a “street fashion” sort of way.

But regardless of my fashion woes, I just want to say I’m really happy to be here working as part of the Accessverse team. You have to realize I first became aware of Access’s art nearly 20 years ago, when I was still a kid in school, and I never in a million years thought that I would end up here writing, editing, localizing, and translating for my favorite kind of art.

I’ve had a lot of writing gigs over the years but this is the one I am most proud of. Yes, this one. The kinky mutant stuff. Look everyone has things that are important to them OK?

I suppose I should provide you some insight into my character design. The spider-girl design was originally going to be part of a homebrew tabletop game. I commissioned Access to work on it a long time ago and while major steps were made to eventually put the system together to a finalized product, the design team had a falling out and the design was just left collecting dust. When Access first asked if I wanted to be a lab girl during the Karin’s Absence plotline, I was so excited, but I couldn’t decide what I wanted my mutant form to be. I mean, there are so many different amazing types of mutants, how could I only choose one?

I decided the spider-girl design was too good to let go, and since Access had already drawn it once before, it was easy to convert into the design that I use as my Avatar today. It has changed over time to more accurately represent me in real life. She now wears clothes closer to me, speaks in dialogue that is closer to how I speak, is as freakishly tall as I am, and keeps her hair short like I do (though I’ve been letting it grow out recently and so has she… blame the pandemic.)

At this point there’s not a whole lot of difference between the Leena that Access draws and the Leena in real life… except for the mutant parts that is. Well, OK, if the character design was COMPLETELY accurate to real life, she’d probably wear more t-shirts with obscure geek references on them… but that’s a drawing for another day.

Looking forward to another five, no ten, no A HUNDRED MORE YEARS! ACCESSVERSE FOREVER! A HUNDRED YEARS! YOU HEAR THAT ACCESS! A HUNDRED YEARS!