[ID: An 11-panel digital TMA comic focused on Jon, a thin, dark brown skinned person with greying curly black hair to his shoulders and dark brown eyes, and Martin, a fat, light-skinned person with freckles, red hair, and medium brown eyes. Both habitually wear glasses. The comic is overlaid with lyrics from Hozier’s Shrike.
Panel one: Martin stands by a bookcase, a statement in one hand, worriedly watching Jon, who is walking away with a suitcase in one hand and a boarding pass in the other. Text reads: “I couldn’t utter my love when it counted/Ah, but I’m singing like a bird about it now”.
Panel two: Jon, one hand reaching out, follows Martin into a darkened passageway. Martin is dressed in a three-piece suit with a tie pin in the shape of an anchor and coloured in a more washed-out palette. Jon’s hair is longer, he has more scars, and there are faint green eyes floating around him. Text reads: “I couldn’t whisper when you needed it shouted/Ah, but I’m singing like a bird about it now.”
Panels three and four: Panel three is a close-up of Jon accepting a plain white mug from Martin. Panel four is Martin and Jon sitting at a cafeteria table by a window on a clear day. Martin is gazing at Jon who is laughing, fiddling with a straw in one hand. Text reads: “The words hung above”
Panel five: Martin and Jon stand facing each other, both wearing sad expressions. Jon wears a duffel bag over one shoulder, the strap of which he is clasping with one hand. Behind them, Basira, Daisy, and Tim walk into a raging fire. Text reads: “But never would form”
Panel six: Jon and Martin lie dead in a field of grass. Jon’s regular scars are joined by extra bloodshot green eyeballs, but his expression is serene. Martin’s eyes are fixed vacantly ahead, and his shattered glasses stick into his head. There is a knife in Jon’s back and Martin’s right leg is bent at an odd angle, with bone and muscle exposed. Text reads: “Like a cry at the final breath that is drawn.”
Panel seven: Jon glares at Tim and Sasha who are leaning on a counter with their faces in their hands, looking admiringly at Martin who is sitting oblivious at a cafe table reading a book with a latte in front of him. A sign on the wall says The Serapeum Cafe. Text reads: “Remember me, love,”
Panels eight and nine: In panel eight, Martin, with longer hair, sits against a wall, one hand over his face, a tear rolling down his cheek. In panel nine, Jon leans over a balcony, smoking a cigarette. There is a cat sitting next to him.
Panel ten: Martin and Tim stand with beer bottles in their hands, Martin laughing and Tim singing. They have their arms around each other, and Tim’s other arm is around the shoulders of an unimpressed looking Jon. Behind them, a door bears a placard reading “Sasha James, Head Archivist”. Text reads: “When I’m reborn”
Panel eleven: Two images overlaid in alternating sections. One image is Jon and Martin’s kiss at the end of MAG 200, and the other is the two of them kissing in a field. Jon wears a deep red sherwani and Martin wears a blue three piece suit, a wedding ring visible on the fourth finger of his left hand. Text reads: “As a shrike to your sharp and glorious thorn.” End ID.]
y’all i am once again being very very normal and well-adjusted about them