it's always going to be weird to me when an artist gets fixated on some character from something then they end up drawing them for so long and tweaking the qualities of them so far that there ends up being absolutely nothing of the character left. you can just make your own characters! like if you're going to spend your year doing a fanwork set in an AU that deviates extensively from the original source just make a new thing!
if you're just gonna have princess bubblegum be and upper-middle-level manager and marceline is gonna be a chubby UPS driver or whatever then you already have some new characters! why build your entire identity as an artist around a property someone can slap out of your hand at any moment?
