October 2023

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scalierpepper:

An excerpt from the book Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, digitally illustrated as a series of comic pages. In this page, Camilla Hect and Palamedes Sextus stand back to back, holding hands. They each have a watch on their wrist. The background is a gradient from black to midnight blue. A speech bubble, above them, reads "I've loved you two." Five speech bubbles on either side of them say "Not well. Not even wholesomely. But I've loved you. You've been my agents...stand-ins for something I haven't had for longer than either of you can understand. Which is why I'm saying - don't do this. Please, don't do this."ALT
The background is a gradient from midnight blue to black. At the top of the page, two speech bubbles read "Understand that once you do this, you can't take it back. It's not love, what you're about to do. It's not beautiful and it's not powerful. It's a mistake." Underneath the speech bubbles, a puddle of water expands to the bottom of the page. Pre-lyctoral Pyrrha Dve and Gideon the First are reflected in the puddle, upside down, from their shoulders up. Behind them, also reflected in the puddle, is a starry sky. Over the top of the puddle, below the reflection of the characters, white text reads "we didn't even do it right...we were children - playing with the reflections of stars in a pool of water...". At the very bottom of the page, white text reads "...thinking it was space".ALT
Four panels: The background of the panels are a medium purple color. In the first, cropped to only show their hands, Palamedes (in the body of Naberius Tern), holds Pyrrha's wrist. Palamedes says "Whatever you think we're doing, we're not." The second panel is a shot of Pyrrha from the chest up. She looks tired and has subtle stubble on her chin and grazes up her arms, neck, and jaw. She says, "Whatever you think you're doing, you shouldn't". The third panel is a shot from above. On the left, Palamedes stands, wearing a white jacket with gold trim and and white pants. Pyrrha stands in the middle, wearing a white shirt and khaki cargo pants. On the right, Camilla is sitting in a wheelchair wearing grey pants and a grey jacket. She has a bandage around her midsection. They are lit from behind by a spotlight on the ground. Camilla says "Just watch us". The fourth panel is the same view as the first panel, except Pyrrha pulls her wrist out of Palamedes's grasp.ALT
Seven panels: The backgrounds of the panels vary from medium purple to dark, desaturated purple. The first panel is a view from the side, from the shoulders up, of Pyrrha and Camilla. Camilla is sitting in the wheelchair and Pyrrha is crouched to her level. They look at each other, and Pyrrha has her hand gently under Camilla's chin. The second panel is cropped to show only their eyes. Pyrrha and Camilla look at each other intently. They have bright highlights in their eyes. The third panel is the same view as panel one, and Pyrrha kisses Camilla's forehead. The fourth panel is slightly zoomed in, and Pyrrha kisses Camilla's mouth. In the fifth panel, Pyrrha and Palamedes are both standing in front of Camilla. It is cropped to be Cam's eye level, so you only see their waists. Camilla smiles subtly and says, "Could you try not to be such a chicken hawk, Pyrrha?". The sixth panel is of Pyrrha and Palamedes from the waist up. Pyrrha ruffles Pal's hair and he leans slighty forward, looking at Pyrrha to the side of him. The both have small, bittersweet smiles. In the seventh panel, Pyrrha turns to kiss Palamedes on the side of his mouth. Palamedes has his eyes closed and is smiling. He says, "You are an appalling old roué, Dve."ALT
Two panels: the first is in the top left, over the top of the second panel, which fills the entire page. The first panel is a close view of Pyrrha's face. She says "Call me if you need me". She looks sadly to the side, with her hand on her neck. The background of this panel is a saturated purple. The second panel is drawn as if you were looking out of the back of a truck. On the left of the page, in the background of the drawing, Palamedes stands next to Camilla, resting his hand on her shoulder. They are watching Pyrrha walk away. In the middle of the page, Pyrrha walks towards the truck, facing the viewer, but turning her head to look over her shoulder. She is in shadow and has a sorrowful facial expression. She says "Otherwise, see you around." On the right of the page, in the foreground of the drawing, Nona is sitting in the truck with her back to the viewer, leaning against the side of the truck. A few obscure, undetailed figures stand on either side of the main characters, not paying attention to them. All the characters are lit from behind by a spotlight on the ground.ALT

“Pyrrha crossed over to the truck, to Nona, and leant heavily into the interior; Nona could see that she was sweating, in exactly the same way she had sweated after the bottle of bleach. She mumbled ‘You knew this was happening. You knew this was happening months ago,’ and when Nona put her hand on Pyrrha’s, it was like Pyrrha hadn’t even noticed her.”