Bringing Back A Key Trait

[nostalgicroxas]

So has anyone else had a character with a very unique physical trait that you've phased out in some manner?

Such as:

• One character's hair has turned from one color to another (not through the use of dye)
• A character's eye color has changed through magical means

How would you 1) remove the trait to change it, and 2) re-obtain it?

I ask this because I've done the prior with hair color, but eye-color seems to be harder. In this instance it was:
Natural hair color changed unnaturally, and was otherworldly restored to natural hair color. For the eye color, it was unnaturally changed through magic before the story begins, and through the story's events, it returns to it's natural color. Now I want to change this eye color back to the unnatural shade as something more permanent than just "borrowing magical power in small instances, which use of the magic causes the eye color to change".

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I have some example of appearrance-changing characters but most are spoiler. I hope these are what you meant

My character, Kôra was introduced with purple eyes.

It is revealed later that it might be not his true eye color. When he was out of his physical body his astral manifestation shows his true eye colors, as physical magic has no effect to it.

After he went back to his physical body, his eyes appeared both purple. My story have not reached the part where the details of why his real eye colors are concealed and how, yet it was implied that it involves magical means of modification.

Another example would be a person with brown hair color changed to white due to power awakening, yet said person simply just dye it back to prevent unnecessary attention. I can't tell it in details because it is spoiler.

[HGohwell]

A couple of my character have this (also slightly spoilery). Algeans hair colour is magically altered to reflect their status. Criminals have black or white hair. Theta goes from blond to red and then to white. It's supposedly irreversible but Theta get a some of his red restored simply because his red aura is that strong it can't be suppressed. Percy, Isaak and Chris all have varying eye designs that. Most noticeably Percy, who's odd eyes have been suppressed by magic to make them look normal, but it returns when that magic breaks.

[nostalgicroxas]

@kainatarma - Ooooh that's really cool how his eyes are different between a physical form and not. I didn't think of it, but one of my characters ends up with a sort of astral projection and it's essentially the entire hue of his hair color. Now I wonder if it would change if I changed the hair color? Hmmmm lol

@HGohwell - That's an interesting thought. Is their hair color shade and vibrancy different depending on how serious a crime is?
So Percy mindfully puts magic on his eyes to change his eye's color, and eventually something happens to break that magic? That sounds like it'd be more of a pain that when your roots start showing after you've dyed your hair- like the "3 days later roots" hahahahah

[HGohwell]

It's based on the four stages of Alchemy. Black hair for the most serious crimes, making them out as rock bottom and putrid, generally considered that these criminals have to be entirely broken down before there's any chance of be rehabilitated, and white for slightly less serious crimes or people who are more likely to be rehabilitated easily and are viewed as purifying themselves, while blond/gold is considered "normal person" and red is considered to have achieved "perfection".
Percy's eyes are a bit weirder than just an odd colour. He was very strange eye naturally. And he's entirely unaware of this. It was magically covered up when he was a child (because no one wants a child walking around with freaky eyes proving you've been doing highly illegal things). Naturally he's a bit freaked out when the magic breaks and his eyes are suddenly very strange.

[ar-ninetysix]

Yeah, actually. My characters, Haruka and Mugen, have both undergone a fair bit of torment and stress in their.. world, universe, whatever. Haruka in particular has an obvious case of Marie Antoinette syndrome. Her hair's supposed to be black, but it became mostly white as a result of some very extreme medicinal drug testing. This drug is kinda how my two characters get their "powers", so to speak. Mugen's change is very minimal though, he gained a dark grey streak in his bangs but that's it.

Haruka's hair transformation, if you wanna take a look~

It's not exact to how she does her hair, but I had fun with an avatar maker so

As for re-obtaining the original colors.. I dunno, I can see dyeing the hair back being the way to go, The thing about Marie Antoinette syndrome is that the hair doesn't grow back in black, from what I've looked up. (Not that I delved too deeply on the topic.)

But if I were to come up with some other solution, I'd probably have like.. Okay, the whole thing about the syndrome is that the hair turns because of emotional distress, right? I'd make up some new thing based on that that's kind of the opposite. Like, some kind of overwhelming emotional or spiritual happiness would gradually turn the hair back to its original color.

[nostalgicroxas]

@HGohwell - omg that sounds pretty freaky!! To suddenly have different eye colors!! Your poor baby!! I hope that makes for some good drama Percy can overcome

@ar-ninetysix - Hmmmm spiritual happiness could work, or some form of... Not mind over matter, but like some sort of perhaps meditation process? If the hair was altered through drugs, you could make a case that if they get to a stage where they don't need their powers really anymore, or a way to control them, could be taking another off-market test drug. That because it's altering the powers and use of them, would by extension affect the hair color? Maybe not back to the original, but change it from white?

[ar-ninetysix]

Oh, no, I mean like, the testing of the drug was like painful as hell to the point of her becoming severely stressed, which is how the hair started turning white. Not that the drug directly turns it white. With it being in testing, the side effects were wild, and she endured more pain than she needed to.

The drug's what gives them their powers, and activating them is the stressful part of it all. Mugen got the drug after the testing was finished and refined it which is why it had little effect on him and barely changed his hair at all. The refining drew back initial pain and the stress as a result. In other words, the hair colors changing isn't related to the drug directly, but rather indirectly as it was their bodies' reaction to it. Afterwards, the bodies are adjusted to it, and the hair won't change any further.

[racarter]

For me, and I do both eyes and hair, color changes are symbolic of magical power output.

For example, in chapter one Roxanne’s hair is brown at the root but gradually becomes lighter to an orangey color at the ends. Normally, when not using magic her hair is brown. Her eyes are also brown.

When she uses her powers for the first time, her hair becomes more blonde and glowy. Her eyes change into yellow stars and they also glow.

Once her magical power levels out, her hair returns to brown-orange and her eyes lose the star shape but they remain yellow. They remain yellow to show she is more powerful now, thanks to accessing her power. Once the “Witching Hour” is up, she returns to her normal state and has brown hair and eyes again.

With Cassandra, in her first appearance her hair is all black, implying that at this point in time she’s not putting forth any effort in generating magic. However in chapter 2 you see her hair has some orange in it and it glows at one point. This, plus Roxanne’s case, is meant to show magical power is linked to emotions - Cassandra’s hair started glowing because she was angry. Roxanne unlocked her power, and glowing hair, because she instinctively wanted to protect her friend.

That said it’s not always this case. Priscilla has green eyes when you first see her, but her eyes are really blue. Her hair remains blonde in both cases, implying she’s already unlocked her powers but isn’t generating much output enough to change her hair. With Hazel, her eyes are pink (while her natural eye color has yet to be shown) and she has brown hair with pink streaks. Hazel is very emotional so the eyes show she’s unlocked her power while her hair shows her always generating some magical output because she’s so emotional.

Annika is an odd case. Her eyes are naturally light blue, but the underside of her hair, and the hair halo / light streaks, are a light purple and is otherwise black. In Annika’s case she actively suppresses her magical power for spoilery reasons. So her hair shows she’s generating magical power but even tho she’s already unlocked her abilities her eyes remain blue - they should be purple.

Realistically her hair is mostly done for my aesthetic reasons, which was inspired by a character from Kampfer. But still.

Eventually I’ll show that hair magic hair color isn’t always tied to emotion and that the more experienced a witch gets the more they can control it. And for reasons hair color changes can also be a warning sign like in nature when some animals display themselves. Like how poisonous animals can be bright and colorful, you know? When a witch starts glowing or their hair changes, it’s like a cobra displaying their hood to intimidate or display that they will attack.

There’s a reason for that but spoilers.

Regardless they always revert to their original non-magic colors when they can’t maintain their magical forms anymore.

Yeah I put a lot of thought into the color display of witches. But also sometimes you can’t tell with some witches cuz their natural hair color matches their magic one. Like Melanie has black hair normally and her magic color is black. Her secondary color is red so I could use that but probably not.