#This isn't a second chance; it's unexpected overtime

[msfcatlover]

I'm glad you like it! Both the design & the concept, because RH!Steph needs more love & attention.

I don't know if the purple cloak would work for my version of RH!Steph, but I'd definitely add more purple as her costume evolved and Death Mask became a little less of a performance and more of an established identity in the vigilante community.

From a purely Doyalist perspective, I can also see where a couple of redesigns basically have to happen. With the Outlaws, for example, she'd probably trade the shawl for a similarly designed scarf, because most superhero costumes are sleek & form-fitting, and she'd stand out like a sore thumb in the cloak I've given her rather than look like part of the team. Still wispy/ratty enough to evoke the cloak, but looks better in a lineup next to people like Kara. (Probably need to add some pauldrons for the armored sleeves to connect to.)

Post-reunion, you'd probably want to redesign her costume again to something a touch more casual, to show her increased comfort in Gotham now that she had the Batfam as potential backup again. Hmmm... probably recolor the skull to metallic copper, swap the shawl & armored sleeves for a dark purple leather jacket, make the belt copper, maybe swap the gauntlets for clawed leather gloves (like Selina sometimes has) with copper-capped knuckles, and definitely switch the boots to black knee-high lace-up motorcycle boots with purple laces. Looks more comfortable/casual, has more of Steph's own favorite color woven in to show Death Mask is more Steph than DM started out, has that subconscious nod to Damian in the boots (because Steph does still look up to her big brother, even if she'd deny it to hell & back.)

Death Mask Steph

Oh boy. This is the big one. I've agonized over this, and getting the design right has been... ugh. Nevermind. Here we go.

Death Mask needs to draw on Red Hood and Steph designs. (I would draw from Black Mask designs, but frankly Roman's designs are all kinda boring? He's a skull-head in a suit, and basically always has been; it's simple & effective, but there's not a lot to iterate on there.) Steph's suits tend to be armored one-pieces, but layering is so crucial to most Red Hood designs, that balancing the two has been... tricky.

(I've already shared the Stephanie Brown Costume History page. Unfortunately, the n52 designs page seems to be just descriptions with no pictures, and the page for her n52 appearances doesn't give you many good angles. So here's Steph's "Future's End" & "Future State" designs, as the stand-out missing designs, in my opinion.)

The absolute vital part of any Red Hood inspired design is, of course, the helmet. It's also been the biggest pain. Jason's had some good helmet designs and a lot of bad ones over the years, and (as I've previously stated) finding a full reference page for them is basically impossible. So here's what I'm going with.

Steph starts with a sleek, sculpted black metal base. Say something like this model of Jason's Injustice helmet. The primary difference would be that Steph's helmet opens up at the front rather than the back; the faceplate would be hinged at the top of the head, and it would swing up & forwards to reveal her face.

(Using the Injustice helmet as a base because it more than most looks like it really should open from the front. I'd also say the sides would also be able to open wider, so that it can still fit snug without being a pain to get in & out of. Not that anyone would ever bother to draw that detail, but I think it would look neat opening up in 3 directions all at once.)

Next, most of the face plate is covered by a sculpted skull. This is how she invokes the whole "Death Mask" idea, as well as purposefully stealing Roman's gimmick. Below the teeth are a couple understated tubs & valves, evoking a gasmask---something like this.

(Kinda a Red X look, I'm realizing now that I'm digging through my reference folders all at once... Anyway, this piece seems to be by Laura Sheridan, but her website seems to be down, you can only buy her art seemingly 2nd hand, and I can't find this picture listed anywhere but pinterest.)

The edges, mechanical bits, and any detail work added should be done in copper.

Within the eye sockets are two recessed glowing lenses, like Jason often has, though Steph's glow a dark magenta, casting light that borders on red.

(Obviously, these lenses change size & shape to show emotion through the mask, like you do. They're not designed to---in fact, logically all the bat-masks are designed like this in order to help hide the wearer's emotions---but that's comic logic for you.)

Below the helmet, Steph's suit is mainly made up of reinforced black leather motorcycle pants, a black undersuit, and an armored vest like this.

(But black. Obviously.)

However, she accessorizes. Steph has added a decorative metal ribcage to her armor, as well was plates mimicking a spine. The ribs should be copper-colored, while the spine can be either metallic or black.

(Depending on who's drawing them, the ribs could range from purely decorative to practically another layer of armor. And following the links from pinterest, both of those artists have apparently taken their rib-art down, which is once again very disappointing.)

Steph wears a chunky utility belt which sits crooked on her hips. I personally think it should be black (maybe brown?) with either copper, ivory, or dark magenta snaps/clasps holding the pouches shut (pick one for all pouches, not a mixture). She has a gun holstered on each hip, one on each thigh, a set of throwing knives (3-5) on the front of the belt, and wears her sickle-swords strapped criss-cross on her back.

The swords themselves are made from a copper-alloy, retaining their coppery color, and easily double her reach (are about as long as one arm.) They have a hilt not dissimilar to an Egyptian khopesh, but a completely different blade; Steph's swords have a much more exaggerated curve, and crucially, they're sharpened on the inside of the crescent, where a khopesh is sharpened on the outside. They legitimately look like a crescent moon sickle, stretched out to sword size.

(Khopesh hilt, and genuinely the best crescent sickle sword I can find for what I'm picturing. Steph's would be in much better shape, obviously.)

Steph keeps it understated-but-still-stated with knee-high, buckle-up, black leather motorcycle boots.

(These are mid-calf, but it's the closest I can find that aren't completely over the top. Also, any artist who figured out how to make the laces work without losing the straps would win my unending love for the symbolism of Steph clearly still mimicking her big brother but trying so hard to hide it.)

Steph’s sleeves are armored in black metal plates, ending in sharpened black gauntlets. I don't care much about the specific structure, I just really want that clawed look.

(Shorter would be more practical for finesse work, while longer claws could be worked into her fighting style. I am going back & forth on whether this should be both arms or just one of them, because I’m a sucker for asymmetric designs, but I think it might be a bit too much with all the other details.)

Finally, over top of it all, Steph wears an uneven ivory-colored hooded shawl made of layers of thin, wispy fabric. It hangs down her back to her waist, but bunches up in the front over her collarbones. It's purposefully designed to look tangled & messy, hiding her body shape with all its bulk & fly-aways, and is flimsy enough that grabbing hold of basically any part of it will just leave you with a fist full of torn fabric.

This is the hardest to find examples for, but... okay, so it's shaped roughly like this:

(If anyone can find the non-pinterest source for this one, I'd hugely appreciate it; all I'm getting is a dead twitter link.)

It's layered like these:

And it's made from material like this:

(This definitely gets swapped out for either a white scarf or a brown trench coat pretty regularly, just because those are easier to wrap your head around/draw. I think both could work & be cool, but Steph is trying to give off “undead vibes” with this original costume, and this gives her a more ghostly look which… okay, is heavily inspired by this Jason design.)

Also, Steph's hair is still long, but she ties it up in either a french or dutch braid before going out most of the time. Dutch is for going out in public or to the gym, where she'll lift it off her neck in a ponytail, french then gets coiled into a bun inside of her helmet.

(I am undecided on whether or not she also has an undercut.)

[funkymbtifiction]

I am confusion

I asked about Ne vs Ni predictions because I was just watching a video on Ni ,and if focused a lot on how Ni is this future reading function. It even called them prophets. I was typed as ENFP by you almost a year ago (here's the post, btw), so after reading your answer I'm wondering, do I use Ni instead?

I don't know; maybe it's time to buy my book and read the first-person narratives to find out. There's only so much I can tell you from a distance. From reading what I said in response to a 4,000 word post it seems like I was pretty confident of my typing for you. *shrug*

To me life is all about patterns: things tend to repeat themselves over time (just look at human history: Time/society is cyclical), and people seldom really change or are that surprising. So as long as you know who/what you're looking at, there's a good chance you can predict what's gonna happen. It's Ne and Si, you can't separate them. The issue is when you're dealing with someone/something for the first time, 'cuz there's no precedent. Then there's all this possible scenarios playing out in your mind at the same time. And like Charity said, either Te or Ti would also play into it, that's the probability calculator. I think people who have the "anything is possible" mentality don't have really developed logic, because limitations are very much a real thing one has to take in consideration in order to succeed.

You are correct, anything is not possible. It's more about who you know than the level of your talent, and it's all about your work ethic and ability to roll with the punches, not necessarily your dreams. Life is about being realistic and reaching for what's achievable for you.

How my intuition works is that when I am thinking about something, or problem-solving, or doing anything, my mind generates possibilities -- and I pick one and operate off that assumption, until it's proven or disproven; being an ENP, I don't stick to anything that isn't working out of sentiment, the second I recognize this is the wrong idea / conclusion / approach, I switch to a different mental track and try something else. It's effortless for me, whether it's deciding to take a different route home from work because there's unexpected delays or dumping 40,000 words in the trash and starting over from scratch because that plot twist took me straight to a dead end. I don't formulate things specifically inside my mind and weed them down to One Right Path (Ni), so much as I work through them in "real time" (Ne).

I think Enneagram plays into that, a 7 might not want to try and predict the future because it might ruin a prospect for them, or might have their sometimes excessive optimism make them overestimate the chances of something happening. A 6 might feel the need to predict what's gonna happen to deal with their anxiety etc. As a 3 with an 8 fix  I don't really like surprises, they put me in situations I can't be sure I can competently deal with, and it takes away my autonomy. So predicting things is not just a hobby applied to tv shows and book series(though I really enjoy theorizing about those), but something I naturally developed overtime and it's always in the back of my mind.

I have to disagree here; 7s are always trying to predict an optimistic future full of fun. They are always making "plans" so that they don't miss out on anything (fear of missing out is huge for them). 6s try to predict how things are going to play out, so they can be prepared for them (thinking ahead, in other words). I also hate surprises, as a sp6, because I have no time to get in the right mental space to react to them, and I can't adapt quickly to a situation until I've had time to mentally process it. I "think" my way through life, I don't just feel things or do them.