It’s sliiiightly less true these days (okay, nevermind, it’s still incredibly true), but there was a time where I created characters as a sharp reflex to a piece of fiction I’d read about/watched/heard/whatever. The character was often a very thinly veiled construct who basically matched that piece of fiction beat by beat, but then I’d go ahead and add in some weird shrinking quirk and species to, y’know, make the idea my own.

So I saw the Ocean’s 11-style crime comedic-drama Leverage, and, of course, thought the unhinged wildcard thief Parker was amazing and wonderful. So with images of her (and, maybe, subtle influences of, uh, older French cartoons about spies in body-suits) I set out to make a character that fit this mold; I wanted a spy/thief who dressed primarily in skin-tight suits, was acrobatic and extremely athletic, and was also something of a spy-for-hire on the side of her otherwise very mundane school life.

Enter Syrria, who fit all of these aspects.

A cheetah who balances her college life with offers to go steal ‘X’ information from ‘Y’ target for ‘Z’ client for a great deal of money on the side, while using kind of already stolen technology, a little box on her toolbelt affectionally called ‘Dr. Device’ that has the ability to reduce her body (and most importantly, all of her little spy-tools) down to a size better equipped for infiltrating a building through any sort of little ventilation port/pipe structure/crack in the wall.

She was intended to be kind of energetic and sassy, and to embody the fun kind of ‘phantom thief’ that, in retrospect, I’d assume Persona 5 would’ve given me the same sort of influence to make. She was intended to be -extremely- micro-capable, using little grappling hooks, micro-sized stun guns, and tiny hacking devices to get whatever data she needed. And she was also intended, much like Parker, to ultimately, despite having no qualms with helping herself, supposed to do these things for the greater good.

And, also, her little box was…of course, a malfunctioning prototype. Dr. Device was intended to still be a little…extra shrinky. She’d wear it everywhere, even in public (albeit hidden), just in case she ever needed to slip out of sight of any inquisitive or prying eyes trying to figure out her identity. As such, she’d have a huge excuse to wind up super small during inopportune times, mid-conversation with a friend, or…y’know, wherever! And it could be hacked and forced to shrink her, or not -always- shrink her with all of her necessary equipment…yeah, it was basically an excuse to have a shrinking cheetah character. >.>

Anyway, in this day and age…maybe she’s due for a comeback? To be completely honest, I had a lot of fun writing about her just now, and the idea of a shrinking thief is so appealing that I totally stole it when I later wrote Kuni to be more fantasy-themed…

I feel bad for posting this one, as the original artist drew it for me as a gift, but it was so long ago that I admittedly forget who they were! Do you recognize this cheetah? Lemme know and I’ll add your details to this for sure!