my second art piece for the @penumbrabang! this time for @alexandenight’s fic beware of vacations. definitely give it a read if you’re a fan of angst/whump! this one was a challenge to draw (ew, cars) and i took some liberties from the canon scene to more just capture the Vibe instead but i’m pretty happy with how it turned out <3 they’re in love your honor.
(ID: a digital drawing of juno and nureyev. nureyev is lying on the ground, semi-conscious, next to an upside-down crashed car. juno is kneeling beside him, wearing a concerned expression. one of his hands is holding nureyev up, and the other is interlaced with nureyev’s fingers. they both look a little scuffed/beaten up, and there is a cut on nureyev’s forehead. the backdrop is an orange sky with smoke and sparks flying through it. there are three neon-colored bio-luminescent creatures floating around them, which resemble small puffballs with eyes. END ID)
[id: a digital illustration all in shades of brown and gold of Peter Nureyev and Juno Steel embracing, about to kiss. Juno is wearing an off-the-shoulder gold dress and gold jewelry; Nureyev is wearing a dark suit coat with gold trim and gold-tinged glasses. Their eyes are closed as Juno leans in with his hands on Nureyev’s chest. /end id]
[id: two digital illustrations of Juno Steel and Peter Nureyev, first as gifs, then as still images. Juno is lowering his head and firing his blaster across the image with a determined, cocky expression. He’s a Black person dressed in a long, fitted coat. A flash of pink spreads from one of his eyes. The image is all in shades of teal and pink. / Nureyev is raising a playing card in one hand and looking over his shoulder at the viewer as a spotlight moves across him. He’s an Asian man wearing a coat and slit skirt showing a knife in a thigh holster, as well as round glasses and earrings. The image is all in shades of purple and magenta. /end id]
[Image description: A four page comic of Juno Steel watching a video of himself and Jack Takano from his childhood. Full description under the cut. End description.]
They still ask for you Jack
Start Transcript
Page one:
A handful of people mill about a room decorated with streamers and balloons. Most of them are adults, but in the far background a black woman and her sleeping child are snuggled on a couch.
In the foreground there is a table set with snack and punch. Yellow text, like you’d see on a captioned video, appear at the bottom of the frame.
“Look, like,right there. Just wait for it.” says the camera holder.
A small dark hand pops into view from the other side of the table. One of the party goers, a man with graying hair, tan skin, and an oversized purple-grey sweater, takes notice of the figure trying to reach the table. The captions say “*snickers* oh my god.”
The man makes his way over to the table as the little hand waves frantically. He bends down to pick them up. The snickering continues, and the camera holder says “Oh, Jack, careful, he’ll getcha!”
Jack picks up the figure attached to the little waving hand- a black toddler with a short afro wearing a blue and yellow striped shirt and a pink skirt over yellow pants. He’s biting the knuckle of his thumb and looking down at the table of snacks.
“All right, what would you like, Juno?” asks Jack.
Juno points to a plate of cookies. “Those one,” He says.
“These ones?” Jack says, grabbing one, “Ah, you’re a young man of taste I see.”
Jack hands the cookie to Juno, “Here we are!”
“I need two,” Juno says, looking at Jack.
Page two:
Jack gives Juno the one cookie and puts the hand that is not holding Juno up on his hip. “Hmm, I think you should start with one, and we’ll ask your mother for seconds after, okay?”
“I need two for Benten,” Juno insists, holding his one cookie.
Jack picks up a second cookie from the plate, “oh, I see!” he says. He fixes Juno with a look. “Alright, but will you promise me that if I give you another, you will definitelygive it to Benzaiten and not just eat it yourself?”
Juno pouts and glares at Jack, clearly offended beyond belief. Jack snorts, trying to keep his composure, as the camera person laughs.
“Oh, the insult! Jack, you’ve wounded his honor!”
Jack gives Juno the second cookie and puts him back down.
“I am so very sorry, Juno. Do forgive me, I won’t make such a grievous mistake again.” Says jack, clearly more amused than apologetic. Juno glares at him, holding a cookie in each tiny hand. He runs off to the woman and child in the child in the background- his mother and Brother, Benzaiten.
“God, his little face! He was so mad!” Says the camera person. JAck turns his head to look at them. “I know, they’re both ridiculously ador-”
jack is cut off by more laughter as attention turns back to Juno, who has reached the couch and is pointing at his brother and mother while glaring daggers at Jack. He’s given both of them a cookie. Sarah holds hers up towards Jack, as if asking what’s going on. Jack, the camera person, and several other party goers are laughing to hard to respond.
Page three:
The camera has zoomed in on Juno as he points to his family, so his outrage can be seen more clearly. Someone starts to say “Oh my god, he looks just like Sa-” when a thumb appears over the screen, pausing the video.
Huh,” says the current Juno, non-plussed
A much older Juno with a patch over one eye is sitting in the dark of a plain apartment, illuminated only by the screen of his comms. Two boxes, a big one full of papers and a smaller one full of chips, are sitting around him as he leans back against a his couch on the floor.
Juno takes a small memory chip out of the side of his coms as the screen goes dark. “Ramses, you sap,” he says.
He looks down at the little chip in his hands, the room now completely dark.
“Hanging on to this all these years…”
Page four:
His hands start shaking. “…Like it meant anything to you.”
Juno sniffs, staring at the chip in the dark as a tear travels down his cheek. Then turns on his comms again and slots the chip back in.
He settles with his back against the couch. The video begins to replay-
[Image descriptions: A coloured Drawing of Juno Steel, a nonbinary black person with a futuristic cyborg eye. He has a scar across his nose and is wearing a trench coat over a turtle neck. His hair is short and partially braided. End description.]
Tryna practice some colouring with the dear detective
ID: A digital drawing of two characters from the penumbra podcast, shown from the waist up, with their backs turned to the viewer. The colouring is very stylized with a strong gold/purple scheme, with a purple/gold gradient in a box behind the figures as a background element.
On the left is Slip Jackson, a lean teenager wearing simple clothes with freckles and curly hair that flops in his face. He’s holding a pair of tickets behind his back. He’s coloured in shades of yellow/gold, but the tickets are purple.
Above Slip’s head is Nureyev’s purple speech bubble, which reads, “Hyperion city isn’t the safest place for you at the moment, is it?”
On the right is Peter Nureyev as Rex Glass, wearing a trench coat and sunglasses. He’s writing a note behind his back while handcuffed. He’s coloured in shades of purple, but the note is yellow/gold.
Above Nureyev’s head is Slips’ golden speech bubble, which reads, “What would you say if I told you I could show you the sky again?” End ID.
Sometimes the best way to save someone is to take them far, far away…
Image description: a coloured drawing of Juno and Nureyev from the Penumbra Podcast. Juno is a stocky, black nonbinary person with dreads, wearing a plunging yellow shirt and a cropped blue jacket, a choker decorated with pearls, and a pair of gold glasses whos right frame has been replaced with embroidered flowers. He is talking on his comms.
Behind him is Nureyev, a thin asian man with long hair tied up wearing a sleeveless tailcoat with a rose pattern, opera length fingerless gloves, and glasses. He right hand is on Juno’s waist, and his left is held across his body to grasp Juno’s right hand as he gesticulates on the call.
Nureyev says, “Why nervous? I love you, dear detective.”
Juno replies, blushing, “I love you too, now shut up.”
End description.
This episode gave us only the smallest crumb of Them but it was enough to ensorcell my brain and force my beleaguered hands to draw Date Night Outfits
[Image description: A two-panel comic of Juno Steel and Diamond Hijikata from the Penumbra Podcast. Juno is a black non-binary person with a scar across his nose wearing a lavender turtleneck and a cropped jacket. Diamond is a tan Asian woman with long silver hair shaved at the sides wearing a blue dress.
Diamond cups Juno’s face as he’s sitting at a restaurant table. She says “There aren’t many places I’d rather be than sitting next to this tough broad and his blaster.” Juno replies, “We’re in a restaurant, Diamond, I didn’t bring my blaster -mph! ”
Diamond shuts Juno up by pulling him into a kiss, gently cradling his face and resting one hand on the back of his neck. End description.]
Unfortunately, them cute
(also if you noticed the spelling mistakes, no you didn’t)
[Image description: The first image is a gif showing a bust portrait of Juno Steel, a black non-binary person with half braided hair wearing a purple turtleneck sweater, gold hoop earrings, and gold-framed glasses. The right frame of the glasses cycles through six different styles.
A clear frame showing a scarred eye
A tinted frame
A tinted frame with a pink, pixelated eye that winks
Golden shutters completely replacing the lens
A golden lens with a rose etched into the outer bottom corner
A cloth lens embroidered with roses and dahlias
The next six images are the individual frames of the gif, in order.
End description]
I was looking up post-enucleation treatment out of curiosity and apparently, it’s recommended that you wear glasses to protect the remaining eye, which got me thinking, firstly, “Hey I should draw Juno with glasses” but also, “Oh, I should do something cool with the other lens”
[Image description: A six-page black and white comic of Peter Nureyev and Juno Steel from the Penumbra podcast. Nureyev is an East Asian man with long dark hair and fang-like incisors wearing a tunic, a necklace with a pendant, and a pair of glasses on a chain. Juno is a black non-binary lady with one eye and stubble. He’s wearing a t-shirt, lacy boxer shorts, and a sleeping bonnet. The comic is about Nureyev getting his pendant stuck on his incisor and being flustered and embarrassed while Juno tries to help. The full description is under the read more. End description]
Local Thief Submits to the Mortifying Ordeal of Being a Huge Dork in Front of his Boyfriend
Thanks to @seratlantisite and The People’s Accessibility server for helping with the full description under the cut!
Full ID:
Nureyev is seated at a cluttered desk in Juno’s room, studying some holographic blueprints and fidgeting while he works. Tapping on the desk, rolling a ring, playing with a makeup brush, his glasses chain, his hair, and his necklace in succession.
As he fiddles with the necklace pendant- a studded circle with a circular hole and an attached, elongated trapezoid- he absentmindedly sticks the circular part in his mouth.
Suddenly his eyes widen, and he stifles a startled “Urk!” the pendant still hanging from his mouth. Behind him on the bed, Juno sits up and asks “ ‘Reyev? you okay?”
Nureyev doesn’t turn around; hands over his mouth and slurring veryheavily, he says, “I’m fine, dear- ah…”
Realizing how garbled he sounds but unable to stop, he starts making excuses for why he should leave for the night “… I think I might retire to my own room for the evening, I, uh- I’m just, it’s late and I would really try to memorize this by tomorrow…”
As he goes on, Juno frowns, clearly suspicious. He gets out of bed and approaches Nureyev saying “Okay, stop, what the hell is wrong with your mouth?”
“Nothing!” Nureyev lies, still slurred, turning away in his chair with a hand over his mouth.
“Liar! Lemme see- hey!” Juno snaps, ending in a shout as Nureyev spins his chair away again, nearly knocking Juno off balance. “I said it’s nothing!” Nureyev insists.
Nureyev hunches over in his chair, hiding his face as Juno stands behind him, frustrated.
“What is wrong with you? You won’t even look at me! Like two seconds ago you were fine! What the hell, Nureyev!?”
Nureyev hesitates for a beat, then turns to Juno with his eyes squeezed shut in embarrassment. One of his sharp incisors is jammed in the hole in the pendant. It dangles from his tooth even without any support from Nureyev’s hands.
“It’sstuck” Nureyev snaps.
Juno looks stunned for a moment, but quickly he breaks into a fond smile and chuckles.
And then Juno starts to laugh much harder. “Juno!” Nureyev snaps. “It is not that funny!”
Juno spins the chair around so Nureyev is facing him.
“Hey, humour’s subjective,” Juno says, smiling. “I think plenty of the family’d agree with me. Now,” he leans into Nureyev’s space, tilting his chin up, “ Open up and hold still so we don’t have to ask Vespa to prove me right.” Nureyev quickly melts from furious to deeplyembarrassed.
With a bit of fiddling Juno gets the necklace free from Nureyev’s incisor. “There. was that so hard?” he says, holding up the freed pendant teasingly.
Nureyev clears his throat. “No…” he says self-consciously, not meeting Juno’s eye. “Well, thank you, dear detective, but I probably should head out for the night anyway, I have quite a lot of work that needs doing and I’ve been enough of a strain on your patience-”
Juno tunes out Nureyev’s continued postering, unimpressed. He presses a kiss on his boyfriend’s forehead. “You’re a ridiculous man, Peter Nureyev,” he says heading back into bed. “Now turn off the damn comms and come to bed - I’ve got something a little softer for you to sink your teeth into.” The innuendo leaves Nureyev looking flustered and stunned, gripping the newly freed pendant.
The final page is a single panel, focussing on the necklace abandoned on the cluttered desk- the blueprints have been turned off and Nureyev’s shirt is draped over the chair.
In light of the TPP crew openly asking for online engagement, it’s crucial to remember that it’s fundamentally detrimental to Black, Asian, trans, and disabled communities to openly support and promote the Penumbra Podcast.
To recap: the TPP crew hired Ellison Estephan, an illustrator with history of having racist caricatures in their works, to be their official artist for Junoverse. Said illustrator had created offensive designs for both Junoverse and Second Citadel characters and dismissed criticisms from fans of color. (A detailed explanation of how their works perpetrate harmful stereotypes here. ) When fans petitioned for the removal of Estephan, both Kevin Vibert and Harley Takagi Kaner pushed back against these complaints, Takagi Kaner especially equated the fans’ criticisms as bullying. This led to massive amounts of fans of color exiting the fandom and costing the TPP production over USD$2000 of Patreon support.
While I understand certain fans’ adoration of the show’s queer representation and depiction of mental illnesses, I’d like to point out that publicly endorsing the show is willfully ignoring the harm the production has and still is doing to Black, Asian, trans, and disabled communities. The #penumbraparty event shifts the focus away from legitimate criticisms of the show and lend platforms to an unapologetically racist content creator and those who enabled their behaviors. The fact that this takes place at the very start of Black History Month only adds insult to the injury.
I do not condemn the people who continue to engage with TPP contents with a critical eye, but I hope that those who choose to interact with this show publicly to reconsider what their endorsement means to the communities negatively affected by the creators’ decisions.
absolutely OBSESSED with how much we’re on all the same page about Rita’s fashion sense I honestly included B3 for the express purpose of drawing Rita in it so this is exactly what I was hoping for!
Thx so much for these requests! Even though these outfits have been done for other characters, I just had to do them bc they fit SO well, also I was really excited to draw Jet and Vespa
These outfit suggestions are BOMB and I decided to combine them bc, jupeter I let my gf fill in by picking out some extra accessories! It was super fun tp draw them in smth I wouldn’t normally think of for them
Requests are still open, btw! I’m kind of a slow drawer but I’ll get to them all eventually!
[image ID: the first image is a digital drawing of juno steel. juno is black, has dark hair, and has scars on his nose, cheek, and lip. his right eye is brown and his left is a bright, unnatural, blue. he has dark eyebags. he is facing forward and has a neutral expression. above him is the text “a PI with heterophobia in his eyes ❤”. the second is a picture of a cat with heterochromia and the caption “a cat with homophobia in its eyes ❤” end ID]
i got some watercolours and tried them out with juno, i wasn’t gonna post it but i like how it came out !
[image ID: a watercolour painting of juno steel. he is a black non binary person with black hair in twists. he is wearing a long jacket over a black turtle neck. he has an eye patch and his visible eye is brown. he has a scar over his nose and on his upper lip. he is leaning back and smirking. end ID]
[image ID: a redraw of the airplanes are like shooting stars meme with juno steel and peter nureyev. juno is on the left. he is leaning forward and looking up. his mouth is open and he is crying. peter is on the left. he is sitting and looking down with his eyes closed. his mouth is also open and he’s also crying. above juno has the text “can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?” above him. peter has the text “i could really use a wish right now. wish right now. wish right now.” end ID]
[image ID: a digital drawing of rita. she is a black woman with light pink hair styled in bantu knots. she is smiling widely and winking. she is holding up a peace sign. she is wearing a pink cardigan over a blue v neck shirt. she has multiple piercings on her ears and bottom lip, some of which are shaped like hearts. she is wearing three necklaces. end ID]
cecil “we are not history yet. we are happening now. how miraculous is that?” gershwin palmer vs buddy “we are not legends either. we’re better. a legend is an old story, a dead thing, frozen forever. and we are very much alive” aurinko
