anytime I consume a new piece of media, I point my butchification beam at it. have you heard All I Ask Of You? it’s the ultimate butch/femme song. Phantom of the Opera is actually about lesbians and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
[Comic ID: A 4 page comic about Gerry from the Magnus Archives. Page 1: Gerry (a thin white goth person with eye tattoos on each joint) sits in front of a poetrait they are painting. His younger self (a pale child with choppy orange hair) stands at his side and says “Why are you doing that with the colours?” Gerry’s hand traces over the painting as they explain “It’s a part of light falloff. Where light fades, its colour changes before it disappears.” They smile softly down at Young Gerry. Young Gerry glares back and demands “Why are you being nice to me? Mum says not to trust nice people.” Gerry looks surprised by this before hesitantly saying “Nice can be good sometimes.” Young Gerry frowns in silence before pointing at the painting and asking, “Are they nice to you?” Gerry chuckles saying, “Yeah. In his way.”
Page 2: Gerry’s hand dips a paint brush into a mug. Underneath the mug is an envelope that has the NHS logo on it. Under the table, the shadows on the floor are pointed. Young Gerry says with some hesitation, “All the shadows… they look sharp.” Gerry paints on, not looking at his younger self. A brush with orange paint dips into water. Gerry says, “brightness fades fast”. Gerry continues painting as Young Gerry points at the colors. Young Gerry says, “Then it needs more lights” Gerry counters with, “It’ll still fade.” Young Gerry says, “What if there’s more places for light to sneak in?” The shadows are stark and long points across the floor. Gerry continues looking at the painting and says, “Better to use just one source so darkness comes fast and goes just as quickly. Cleaner that way.”
Page 3: A soft close up on the painting in which two hands rest together. Young Gerry says with some trepidation, “You said they’re nice, right? Wouldn’t they want it soft?” Gerry’s hand lies empty on the table. The NHS envelope reads “Private and Confidential: Important healthcare information enclosed”. Red paint has splattered on the envelope. Gerry hesitates, “I don’t know.” Young Gerry’s hand, now slightly translucent holds his. Young Gerry says without hesitation, “Well, I do.” Their other hand, also increasingly translucent, reaches to cup the other side of Gerry’s hand. Young Gerry continues confidently, “Let it be soft.” Gerry looks down and asks, “How are you so sure?” The ghost of Young Gerry (who has almost disappeared) looks distraught and says “Mum would want it sharp.” The shadows are pointed and gnashing behind them. Gerry’s eyes are wide as he softly says, “Fuck.”
Page 4: A full view of the painting Gerry has been working on. In it, Jon lays on Gerry’s lap and looks up at them with soft affection. Jon is a South Asian man with long, thick black and grey hair, a short beard, scars on his face, and bright eyes. The light falls softly across him and Gerry, who is in profile. Out of frame, Gerry says, “Jon… do you have a second to talk? I… I’m not doing well.” There are no sharp shadows. End ID]
It’s HERE. My piece for the @seasons-in-the-archives spring event! Mum said it was my turn to project onto a TMA character
It took a long time and a lot of effort from all the people involved, but we’ve finished it!! I’ve always wanted to do a MAP, and this is the first one I’ve hosted.
Please enjoy!! It’s a labour of love. ❤︎
it was so fun working on this project!! I got out of my comfort zone and learn a lot from all these amazing artists! enjoy ✨
i was asked about my second favorite joke and i have finally decided: it’s the exchange about the oranges, because holy shit is that a textbook example of a slyer, more character-informing sort of joke construction than the set-up/escalation of the crystals.
(no shade to the crystals, which i wrote about here: it is my favorite for a reason. it is maybe The Perfect Joke.)
that said, tiiiiiiiiime to over-analyze.
shoutout to the leadup, which lampshades lucius pulling absolutely acres of emotional weight for the people around him (and then makes it even better by stede just jumping in to do it himself and lucius not actually having to lift a finger, wooden or not) and the deadpan chorus of ‘it’s a rock’ in response to stede’s delusional glee.
secondary shoutout to how ed starts to clean off the orange despite verbally letting down stede easy— if stede’s superpower is being oblivious to reality and sometimes that makes him do things like run the fuck off without fully explaining himself, it’s also what makes him beautiful and so fucking ready to evolve.
stede is A Lot, but he’s family. his ability to look at the world and say ‘actually, i think it would be more fun if we did it this way and as such: i will be dragging those around me into my delusions that life and the world can be better than it currently is’ is fucking… i mean. what a gem, you know?
so ed says: it’s a rock, it’s a piece of shit, and he still rinses it off carefully anyway to answer this irrepressible ‘but what IF’ because just being around stede seems to allow people to assume these emotional risks, either through proximity to his privilege or his open-bedroom door management style (in a way stede can’t quite seem do for himself until he goes back to fix things with mary the writing on this SHOW my god) and then ed makes the best face when he realizes that once again, stede’s delusional belief in his ability to make things work has panned out: the rock is an orange.
like jim says: the old tree still had some fruit to give after all.
(sustenance frozen in time? a family legacy? jesus fuck if i start asking myself what is the orange, really, in specific relation to the tree itself i will not GET TO THE JOKE JESUS FUCK I HAVE NOT EVEN GOTTEN TO THE FUCKING THING YET. okay: the orange. like nana and stede and everybody else on this show, it’s a lot, but also it means a lot and i love it.
i cannot speak of the tree. the tree is this whole other insane post in the making. everything on this show means like six things at once on TOP of the actual plot and i’m mad at it. all the time, mad at it.)
finally: the actual joke.
I suppose you should have it. It’s your land.
It’s cool. Finders keepers.
Oh thank god! I didn’t want to give it to you. I think this is my new favorite thing!
jesus christ they do so much heavy fucking lifting with so few words on this show. all the time forever, they pack a whole essay into the words they use and how they use them.
okay: i’ll start on the surface, where it’s not even about words. stede is dressed for a cartoon safari. that outfit is calling up some very purposeful imagery, and it’s about one pit stop shy of him having on a literal pith helmet for no reason.
so just visually, we have stede looking like he’s ready to go discover someplace people have lived for centuries, literally digging shit up on jim’s ancestral land, and wanting to take it home with him.
stede: the new face of the british museum!!!!
(don’t @ me, i know i know be accurately mad. ‘the new face of the new zealand museum’ just didn’t have the right ring.)
because they’re really good at this shit they take that obvious visual gag and use it to show stede’s grown as a person since the party; he immediately sighs and tosses the orange off to jim. he knows the right thing to do here.
then we get jim getting to solidify/close a character arc chapter with tossing it back: they’re all good. they’ve got olu, they’ve got nana, and family isn’t something they need concrete evidence can exist for them anymore.
(plus: it’s very obvious stede wants it.)
this last part is where it gets very, very cool: stede’s response.
one of the rules for writing comedy (if you want to maximize storytelling alongside the jokes) is that your jokes need to inform character. ofmd is a fucking masterclass on that.
level one: stede is saying the quiet part loud. someone telling the truth in a socially inappropriate way is a staple in comedy: always has been, always will be. it’s just funny that he’s brightly like oh good!!!! i never wanted to share at all!!!! fuck you guys i want this orange, come to orange papa!!!!!
comedy math is comedy math.
it’s reminding us that stede is evolving, but he’s still stede: he pulled back the impulse to go full main character syndrome and ignore the part of his miraculous orange discovery where the orange didn’t belong to him just because he dug it up while jim asked him what the fuck he was doing, but he really goddamn wanted that orange!!!!
which takes me down to the next level: stede doesn’t just love nice things, he defines himself by his love for/ownership of them. the first part’s fine and good with the narrative, while it seems pretty solidly against the second.
sidenote: ed chucking stede’s generational wealth overboard is also ed giving them a space free of stede’s old life where they can figure their shit out together under the gaze of mary’s lighthouse, one day. i’m mad at the writers. VERY MAD.
if i had to guess where the show is going with this stede still loving/one day re-obtaining fancy pants and having plans to match won’t be an issue, so long as he knows who the fuck he is without those pants.
(…i did not intend that to be a sex thing but i stand by it now that i have made it so, your honor. tits AND ass, your honor: we want them both.)
stupid sex jokes aside, here’s where it gets really cool: this fucking miracle of a metaphor of an orange is now stede’s favoritething.
not his riches; not his fancy pants. not something he bought with money he lucked into and inherited from his shitty father, not a symbol of wealth or class or status.
a humble orange. (consider: the humble lighthouse orange. fuuuuuck this show.)
a humble orange he obtained through honest means: jim gave it to him because stede’s a lot, but he’s family, and because stede’s fuckup with the oranges gave jim their family back in the form of nana knowing who they really are and accepting them in, cake and all, but also in the form of olu basically professing eternal love in the most wonderful way possible.
if stede wasn’t a dumbass with a fancy ship who picked jim up and didn’t know why oranges were crucial and wasn’t desperate to impress ed and the treasure map didn’t burn up because lucius was busy watching his dads fall in love right in front of his snake, does jim ever get this closure (or stede this orange)?
probably not. they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the shore party, they did NOT think they’d find a welcome here.
and then: they did. nana had cake waiting, nana is more concerned about murder stats than pronouns, and nana absolutely loves olu. without this day trip, jim might have spent the rest of their life wondering if family was unconditional, or if family ends where honesty begins.
that orange is a gift; that orange is a thank you.
and now thanks to all those dominoes stede has this orange, granted to him because of the two sides of his habit of forgetting reality exists, not in spite of one of them, and because a lot of the time stede forgets the rules the world tells him he should care about are actually supposed to matter to him.
stede defines himself by things: he is entering the next part of this story with the orange that means family and love that embraces nuance instead of wanting to hide or smooth it over as his favorite thing.
Chloe’s wondrous day started when Adrien approached her and said, “I have a gift for you.”
She was over the moon to hear that.
Her dear Adrikins got hera gift!
Suck it, Marinette! Suck it, Adrien’s fangirls!
He got HER a gift!
No one else!
This just proves that Chloe was his favorite, as she should be.
And as delighted as she was, when Adrien presented her with a bluepeacock pin, Chloe faltered.
Adrien’s smile was expectant, looking happy, until she wasn’t taking it right away. “Do you not like it?” Adrien asked.
“No! No, it’s just… Do you have something in yellow?”
“Nope. Only this one.” After a moment of consideration, Adrien tried to appeal to her, offering, “It’ll go with your eyes.”
“Thanks, Adrien,” she said through her teeth, taking it reluctantly. It was semi worth it to see Adrien’s beam, but that offered smile she had fell when he turned and walked away, leaving her with the blue pin.
It didn’t have ANY yellow on it. Like, ok, yeah, maybe the blue would go with her eyes, but red gems on all nine feathers? Or where are those more… pink?
Chloe stuck her tongue out at it. Between the blue and the pink, this should be more Marinette’s thing? But as Adrien gifted this to Chloe, there was NO WAY Chloe was going to pass it off to another. Especially her! This was hers! Hers and hers alone!
But, she couldn’t be seen in public wearing this. This blue and pink against her yellow jacket? No way. Matching with her eyes wasn’t enough. This, she’ll humor Adrien and put it on at home. Try it there, and then it can sit in her closet and gather dust. Maybe she can give it to one of her and Adrien’s future kids.
Satisfied with her plan, she stuffed it deep in her bag and headed for the first period. It was a shame she couldn’t go and shove this gift in Marinette’s face, but it is what it is. At least she got to enjoy the fact that Adrien was thinking of her.
.
.
.
In front of her mirror, Chloe hesitated.
She wasn’t wearing the pin yet, it was just held over her jacket, with Chloe doing a little double take just to see it against her jacket and to be sure. And gosh, it clashed with her so much. And the worse fact? No matter how long she looked at it, it matched with Marinette so much more and Chloe hated it.
The blue of the pin matched with her hair, when that dark hair would shine blue in certain lighting. And the gems on this pin were more pink! And it matched the pink of Marinette’s stupid pink pants! And those stupid pink flowers that she has on her shirt!
It was like a… reverse color coordination or whatever. Marinette did wear a lot more pink than blue, but it was undeniable that she did have those two colors as this pin did. It was almost like this pin had been made for her.
Did Adrien have this made?
Was he thinking of Marinette?
If it was more for her, why didn’t he have this pin be more yellow? Was it really intended for Marinette? Did she upset him so Chloe was getting this out of spite of her?
If so, Chloe didn’t know if she should be smug or irritated.
Irritation won, and just to be spiteful to the Marinette color coded pin, she put it on. Adrien gave it to her.Shewas the one wearing it now, not Marinette.
Only, as soon as the pin was in place, Chloe’s world seemed to turn on an axis and she felt dizzy and she felt disjointed. Shaking her head, she groaned as she grabbed her forehead. What had happened?
“Give it a few moments, you’ll get used to it,” Chloe heard her own voice say, startling her. She jerked up, looking up to see herself staring down at her with a gentle smile, though her eyes were pink instead of blue.
Chloe drew away in alarm, gaping. “Wha— what?!”
Her body just smiled, watching Chloe freak out before her.
“Wha-what is this?!” Chloe demanded. “Who are you! Some cheap copycat!”
“Chloe” chuckled. “Oh no, this is actually your body. It’s as true as can be.”
“My body?!” Chloe shrieked. Chloe paused then. If this was her body and something was in her body, then what was she? Chloe whipped towards her mirror and gasped. She wasn’t herself. She was some freaky looking toy that looked a little familiar but Chloe couldn’t entirely place what.
But she was light blue, had dark blue eyes against a black sclera, had white marks around her eyes, a yellow diamond on her forehead, and five long peacock-like tail feathers that had yellow and white eyespots on them. She had no idea what she was and she didn’t like it. She was so small. So alien. And just so…. Blue.
Chloe rounded on the body stealer, demanding, “I don’t know what you are! But you’ll give my body back this instant!”
“Ah, I can’t do that,” “Chloe” said, shaking her head. “You see, you are under the miraculous curse.”
Chloe frowned at that. Miraculous? Like, Ladybug and Chat Noir? “Did they curse me?!” she demanded.
“No. I did.”
“How?! Why?!”
“I am Duusu, and is my miraculous,” the body stealer revealed, lightly tapping the pin, which was now a platinum peacock with a gold tail and white diamond eyespots. “When you put it on, I got to see how terrible a person you were, and the miraculous cursed you instantly. You are now stuck as a kwami while I reside in your body.”
“That’s unfair!” Chloe snarled. “This is an attack! How dare you!”
“This is punishment,” Duusu said. “You are a terrible person. You’ve hurt people for your own amusement and gain. This is why you were transformed immediately.”
“Ridiculous!” Chloe spat. “Change me back!”
“Only you can change yourself back,” Duusu said.
“How?!”
“Redeem yourself,” Duusu answered. “Make it up to those you’ve hurt the most.” Duusu then paused and frowned thoughtfully. “But that’s a lot of people. Not even I know where you’d start.”
Chloe stared at her, trying to sort out Duusu’s words. “What do you mean make it up to?”
“Help out who you’ve hurt. Make an effort to be better. You don’t even need forgiveness, you just need an effort to be better.”
Chloe scoffed, “I don’t need forgiveness! Everyone loves me!”
“Marinette doesn’t,” Duusu revealed.
“Marinette’s stupid! And poor!”
Duusu hummed. “She’s decently wealthy. You don’t live across Notre Dame or own a whole building on a poor budget.”
“How would you know that?” Chloe asked, narrowing her eyes at her body.
“I have your memories,” Duusu revealed, “it allows me to live your life and be a better you, until you improve anyway.”
Chloe gasped. “You wouldn’t! You can’t do that!”
“I am and I will,” Duusu said, immediately going for Chloe’s phone. “And I’m going to start with the mess that is you and Sabrina. You two have a very messed up relationship.”
“Don’t you daremess up my slave!” Chloe cried out.
“See, that can’t fly anymore,” Duusu said, calling Sabrina. As Chloe moved to demand that she stop, a finger was pressed to her lips, silencing her. In a perfect Chloe fashion, Duusu said into the phone, “Hey, Sabrina. You got my homework sheet, right? Did you do it yet?”
“No,” Chloe breathed.
“Don’t work on it. Give it to me tomorrow. I want to do my own homework.”
“No!”
Duusu scoffed loudly. “No! This isn’t punishment, geez, get over yourself Sabrina. I just want to prove my own brilliance, I can do that much, can’t I?” Duusu paused, listening to Sabrina’s stammer, quick to flatter and promise. “I’m glad you see it my way. See you tomorrow.”
Duusu barely ended the call when Chloe shrieked, “You can’t make my body do homework! That’s peasant work!”
“It’s part of your current education system; does that mean you think yourself beneath an education? You do know that you need a good education if you want to get into politics and be the next mayor. You can’t always buy your way through school. And Sabrina won’t always be by your side.”
Duusu moved away from Chloe before the girl turned kwami could respond. Growling, she followed, snapping, “You can’t pretend to be me! You even have pink eyes! People will see straight through you!”
“Good thing you always wear sunglasses,” Duusu said, flashing her a grin as she brought them down.
“Bustier won’t allow it!”
“Bustier is your biggest enabler. She’ll allow it.”
Growling, she darted in front of Duusu’s face, tail feathers spread out angrily. “Fine! Who do I go to first to start helping them so I can get my body and life back?!”
Humming, Duusu answered, “I guess that’s who you hurt the most.”
“Fine. I’ll go to Sabrina.” She’ll help Chloe too. Maybe the key is getting that pin back.
“Hm. Not sure Sabrina is the right choice,” Duusu murmured, more to herself. “You have twisted things up a lot, but she doesn’t regard herself as being hurt by you too often.”
“Who would you recommend,” Chloe snapped, crossing her arms unhappily.
“Probably Marinette.”
“No!”
‘You were very close to breaking her. And that hurt has lingered despite her newfound courage. Mindful, yuo do have a whole class to choose from, but Marinette was your main target. She’d be the one you’d have to make it up to most.”
“No way am I ever going to help her!”
“Then pick one of your classmates, or help the city. You purposely upsetting people led to akumas, which did hurt the city.”
“How can I help the city like this?!” Chloe gestured to this tiny weirdo body.
Duusu just gave her a secretive smile. “I’m not under obligation to explain how a kwami body works and what comes with it. You’ll have to figure that out on your own. I’m just here to tell you why you’re punished and what you can do to get out of it.”
“How helpful,” Chloe grumbled.
“I always try to be!” Duusu chirped, her smile irritating Chloe all the more.
What does reaching Affiliate mean? Well, that means I’ll be able to provide channel emotes for your use, and any support I receive from subs, bits, or tips goes directly to improving the stream and future illustrative works! It’s kind of like Patreon, but for frequent live content and direct interactions with the me, the artist!
That said, I’m planning on moving forward with my creative process by committing to an art/gaming stream: I’ll be playing a game I’ve never played before once through and then drawing a piece of fanart for that game! Typically I don’t let people see my works in progress, but this way you’ll be able to actually watch how I illustrate from start to finish and enjoy some laughs along the way c:
Originally when I started streaming I wasn’t planning on striving for Affiliate and was just streaming to help me focus on art, but I’m really quite close to achieving Affiliate now, which is a big surprise for me! I’m so happy people are enjoying my content and sticking around to chat and have fun.
Please help me out by giving my Twitch channel a follow; I’m 10 followers again from hitting Affiliate, so it would mean the world to me to hit this goal As always, I really appreciate your continued support, and am really excited to start a new path on my creative journey as an artist c:
I made this in response to a sketch from @legaltaboo on her Twitter account
I absolutely love love LOVE how you drew their expressions Julith be like, I took care of your little problem and Julian is so happy?!? This is such a wholesome outcome I can’t not look at it at least once twice thrice a day✨
