As I sit here about to dive in on this topic, my heart feels heavy. With my love for Chasity Grace Novelo ((future Mrs. Rose))!

God, I remember the day I thought her up for the first time! Fun fact: I was originally going to use Chas for a completely different fanfiction under a completely different name, with a completely different band. I'm so happy I didn't. She was destined for Axl :)

In my head, before I discovered Mädchen Amick, Chas was pretty vague??? Like I knew her personality, how she was supposed to be, but I wasn't set on certain looks for her yet, besides being a white woman with brown hair. I believe that I had already written the very first chapter of Viperous way back when, in like 2015 when I went on a wild goose chase for a person to essentially be chas's vessel.

For me as a writer and a reader, I love to have a physical person for reference when it comes to books. I don't know why, but my brain will refuse to create a mental image or a voice for a character if there's just a worded description of them. Plus, with Viperous, I had allll these people to go off of completely, Axl, Izzy, Duff, etc. And a plethora of content for them (pictures, videos, interviews, articles, stories, etc.) So when it came to Chas, I was desperate to find somebody to be her, but not only that, PERFECTLY be her.

I spent HOURS on google, Tumblr, everywhere searching for a girl. One who, in my head, looks like Chas should.

I feel the need to describe Chasity, so I will.

Chasity is, as I said, a white woman with brown hair, but to delve deeper than that, she's had a specific look in my eyes. Her hair is really big, it's been wavy and frizzy her whole life and the ends are kinda curly, like ringlets. It's a chocolate brown, not a dark brown. She has big eyes, they're a clear light blue, a little grey. Her skin is pale but it tans nicely in the summer and it can be temperamental. Chasity isn't a makeup artist and it's the 80s, all she has is Maybelline and Noxema, so she gets small breakouts and redness. And her body is a little awkard, honestly. She's got long arms and legs, too much for her to know what to do with, especially at the current time we are in the story, where she's still a teenage girl. She's developed what I guess we can call a womanly figure, but her butt and bust are on the smaller side at this time in the story as well. All her life she's been on the skinnier side with a fast metabolism that allows her to consume so much ice cream. Chas also comes from Italian heritage, she's a second generation American. Her looks are modeled off of this somewhat although unintentionally, especially when it comes to her dark hair (I know not all Italians look this way, I'm Italian, y'all.)

So, with that said, in comes Mädchen Amick.

Pretty damn close, right?

That's because I built up a lot of those details around Mädchen LOL! Remember how I said I have a hard time developing a look for a fictional character whether they're my creation or not without something to go off of? Well, when I stumbled across those two pictures above on Tumblr late at night, I nearly cried tears of joy as I shouted "That's Chas!"

It's history after that. The stars and Universe practically aligned as I saw more of Mädchen. Her voice is very soft and gentle, it's exactly what I wanted for Chas. Not to mention, it turns out that Mädchen modeled in the 90s, which down the road of the first version of Viperous and Serene becomes very important as I actually had content of Mädchen in professional model shoots to help be visual aids for Chasity's modeling.

Before I found Mädchen though, it was very important for me to cast a girl who was actually from the 90s or 80s, because I feel like people today look very different from how people used to, if that even makes sense? So because Mädchen in the 90s embodies Chasity perfectly, it made me really happy to have every single box I wanted ticked off with Mädchen as her. The voice, her appearance, pictures to use, etc.

Not to mention, one final box: age ambiguity. 

Because the story is essentially about us watching the trials and tribulations of a girl growing up amidst fame and fortune, and everything that comes along with being close to Guns N' Roses, I really, really wanted to pick someone who ages very gracefully! Like, to the point you can't guess her age. I personally don't even know how old Mädchen is in the pictures above! Eighteen? Twenty-two? I don't know, you guys. That's good! THAT'S Chas.

In my head, even when Chasity is twenty in the story, I'll still be imagining her face to look how it does in those pictures of Mädchen, or pretty much every. single. picture. of Mädchen in the late 80s and all of the 90s, because I swear, she doesn't age. That's another reason why she's the perfect Chas.

In the story, Chasity's age ambiguity/general youthfulness is a big component, even if it doesn't stick out, or you didn't even realize it. I feel that it somewhat matches her personality, because although so many parts of her are still very teenager-y/young adult-ish, other parts of her are full of wisdom and advice from lives she hasn't even lived yet. One minute she's being obnoxious with Michelle, ten minutes later she's consoling rockstar men who are years older than her. Giving them advice for problems beyond her, and they take it, and it works. Then she goes back to reading Cosmo and painting Michelle's nails like they're hanging out after a long day of eighth grade again. That's part of why she's able to be with Axl, even though they're seven years apart. Chasity is still very much so a young girl manuvering her way through becoming an adult as well as be mature and able to understand other people. Call her an empath, if you will. Maybe grown up too quickly? That could also work too in some instances.

You're probably laughing or cringing or confused now, but I just hope I'm making sense! It's hard for me to articulate all this! Chasity is so layered, probably because I've had half a decade to curate her and learn so much about her. And honestly, I owe a lot to Mädchen Amick for existing, because I can't look at or hear her without thinking "Chas" instantly, and I hope you all are the same way!

And lastly, there's one final reason why I think Mädchen is the perfect Chas: she is  e x a c t l y Axl's type. Yes, you read that right. AXL HAS A TYPE AND I'M SO CALLING HIM OUT ON IT!

Axl loves pale girls with long brown brown hair. There is no denying that Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour shared physical features, and surely some personality traits and quirks that drew Axl in and made him love them.

Because Mädchen just so happens to be Axl's type, this again, creates another perfect coincidence. It creates for a level of realism to this outlandish, ridiculous fanfic, and we all know I'm a sucker for there being touches of reality in the book. I like things to make sense, and Mädchen as Chas does when it comes to a real life instance I've said before, and will say again, right now: If Mädchen hadn't had a boyfriend, and had known Axl in the 90s, they probably could've dated or at least had something of the sort because there is no doubt in my mind he would've been attracted to her. Or if you want to say that if Chas was real and looked like Mädchen, then we would've had a real life scenario of Viperous, that works too. And I love knowing that! That Chasity's appearance works, in the sense of her being compatible with Axl's likes, and his with hers, obviously.

But overall, I feel like Chasity is much more modeled after Erin Everly than Stephanie. Plus, Sweet Child was written after Erin, and in Viperous we know that Axl's written it about Chas, which still works because of them being similar. Personally, I hold a soft spot in my heart for Erin, and I see bits of Chas in her. I think about Erin and Axl's relationship a lot when I think about Viperous. I once almost wrote a story about Axl and Erin, but decided against it because I felt it wasn't my place, because I truly don't know hardly any of the facts or details between them. But their relationship intrigues me to no end, and is a topic for another day. TDLR; Chas/Mädchen is my own version of Axl's dream woman.

That pretty much wraps up this first little piece of what goes on behind the scenes of Viperous. I hope you found it interesting! I know no one really asked for this, but I just felt like sharing it. I love Viperous & Serene, they're like my kids, and I have a lot going on in my head about them constantly, so why not get it out there instead of just keeping it to myself? Maybe this will help someone else evaulate what they're looking for when it comes to putting a face to their own OC. If it does, let me know!

Thank you again ❤ If you have any thoughts, let me know!

Sorry for any typos or grammar mistakes, I'm not going to edit this lol