CH12.5 – PART 3 – Lease Bound

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06/02/2024, 8:15 PM

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Aww, yeah! Loving the sudden Nelly cameo, hating that this made me go “Is a guarantor the same as a co-signer?” and end up Googling it at 6:30 in the morning. (It’s not: “A co-signer is responsible for every payment that a borrower misses. However, a guarantor only assumes responsibility if the borrower falls into total default.”)

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rustyhearts
06/02/2024, 8:32 PM
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(You can expect to see more of Nelly in CH13 😎)

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Kory

06/03/2024, 12:01 AM

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Oh my god Ruth ToT She has such a big heart under her grumpy exterior ToT (i mean we knew it already but she really does everything she can to help and protect women around her ToT

And to think she was still the bouncer until Shez arrived, damn. Also Nellyyyyyyy <3 she's so cute !

Loyalty and trust are earned through actions, you bet Shez is gonna protect Yonique and extend her hand to struggling women like Jaden after the help she received from Ruth.

I know this epilogue is about Shez but it's giving us such an amazing insight into Ruth too !
Gosh it's just so beautiful and comforting to see how after such an isolated childhood, Shez found such a great surrounding of women around her to help her and her family.

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Norm L. Esbian

06/03/2024, 12:08 AM

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Oh Ruth. You’re just prickly with a heart of gold… 🥹

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rustyhearts
06/03/2024, 3:37 PM
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Awoman 🙏

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werewol

06/03/2024, 5:37 AM

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RUTHHHH ;-; i’m not crying, you’re crying. but for real, she’s such a good character + i love her helping shez <333333

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rustyhearts
06/03/2024, 3:36 PM
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Everyone has earned some warm and fuzzies after chapter 12 🫂🫂

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Mary

06/03/2024, 9:09 AM

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Nell is my fan fave so happy we’ll soon see more of her! I really want to see a flashback to the early days at some point! Or Ruth and Nell wrecking some scrotes in the current year, I’m not too picky.

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rustyhearts
06/03/2024, 3:36 PM
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Noted 🥰✍️

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Tenbelow

06/03/2024, 10:53 AM

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WOO HOO TIME FOR SOME RUTH POSTING. For a long time Ruth was my favorite. Now it’s not so easy to pick who the favorite is, and I can envision that getting more difficult to decide as we get to know the other characters even better.

She is so silly and so tsundere. Oh Ruth you don’t need to be like “I’M ONLY DOING THIS COS I DON’T LIKE HEARING YOU COMPLAIN V_V”. Though definitely a person gets the impression Ruth is the rougher one between herself and Naomi-Grace. Ruth is the one who choose to be the bouncer after-all. And it is SO COMPLETELY BONKERS that Ruth was STILL doing bouncer work… STILL???? Nelly has to be the most stressed person at Yonique. Or at least she had to have been before Ruth finally retired from that.

But you know, the fact Ruth was being a bouncer for SO LONG really gives more context as to why she hired Jaden on the spot. She definitely was feeling that Jaden was saying was like… Deeply sincere and deeply relatable, I suspect. She has to have a special spot in her heart for her bouncers.

I also almost wonder if the gruff demeanor is almost strategic. I have to think being at the center of a woman’s community is HARD and STRESSFUL work. Just from the way Ruth has talked in other scenes she’s been in, I think she has put up with a LOT of crap over the years. Lots of nasty people attacking her for dumb reasons. And probably of women who aren’t necessarily nasty, but want her help with different things.

I really do think it’s easy for Ruth to get a lot of responsibility piled on her. The more intimidating and off-putting personality means people are less likely to bother her about different stuff. I really think it was all a lot easier when Ruth had her other half with her. I bet they made a great team building Yonique together and handling all the different aspects of the business as well as the needs of the community around them. Noami-Grace no longer being around had to have been a huge loss for the community. In my local community we had an elder lesbian who was running a local gay organization and certain things really fell apart without her around. (Stuff I didn’t really know much about first-hand, a friend who’s older then me told me.) I kind of suspect that by working on LeaseBound you’ve been given some insights as to the things Ruth has had to deal with. What greater inspiration can there be for the eventual attack on Yonique more then the activists having tantrums over the comic itself?

Overall I am so glad we get this little epilogue. I really enjoy this cute art style you use for the extra bits of LB, always a delight to see. And I’m glad you have a way to show us extra information that doesn’t fit inside the story of the comic itself.

It’s SOOOO nice to see this family no longer living in isolation and getting to mingle around with other women, to build a life through the new connections they are making. Overall I want to see these messages shown in more stories. A lot of the time there’s this sort of DO IT YOURSELF attitude that goes along with things, a person goes and makes their lives better by training alone in the mountains (or by doing heavy lifting with a bunch of boulders lol) and those stories can be great, but a lot of the time our best opportunities in life come from meeting and being supported by the right people. I love seeing this happen for Shez and Meriam. I love that Jaden is experiencing the same thing, too.

and now here’s a question you definitely don’t need to answer if you don’t feel like it… I’m trying to make my own little website, and of course I’m no web designer. I’ve seen you say that LB is built by wordpress plug-ins. Any chance you might be able to let me know which one lets you do that effect in the cast page where you can click their name and the text appears? Thanks a bunch if you can let me know. If you don’t want to, that’s totally fine. Thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask! 😀

As always thanks for sharing your creativity with us. Really great well thought out story, gorgeous art, always a delight to get an update here.

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rustyhearts
06/03/2024, 2:00 PM
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You have predicted correctly re: struggling to choose a favourite. It makes me so happy to see it already happening, and I believe the challenge is going to soar come CH13. I’m having so much fun with all the character interactions and am so fucken JAZZED for you gyns to see the pages.

Very keen to hear if anyone knocks Ruth of the top for you (or comes to share it with her). Please keep me posted 👀

Love your deductions about Ruth btw. Sheesh, always so on the ball, beloved 🩷
Ruth was absolutely the gruffer half, but Naomi-Grace was certainly no wilting flower. Ruth is blunt and rough around the edges, while Naomi-Grace was sharp and calculating. They got along because neither let themselves be pushed around. (Ya know ya girl loves complimentary opposites 🤗)

Love the parallels to Yonique vs the reception to LB too! It’s always crazy going back to my earlier scripts (when Jaden’s “transphobia” came to light much sooner). Compared with the way my detractors conduct themselves, it’s like looking at a check-list predicting the future lmao.

Re: do it yourself, Yes! Yes!!! That’s exactly what I hoped would come across with Shez sharing her story to Jaden. Jaden blames herself for not being able to handle being assaulted alone, and Shez shares that she couldn’t either. Meriam saved her life as much as Shez saved hers. They are stronger together.

Shez wanted Jaden to know, on top of not blaming herself for whatever actions kept her alive, that the Yoni team isn’t looking down on her. They showed up to help to give her the strength of numbers. They don’t want her to do it alone.

Same with Ruth finally stepping down. Shez is mid-twenties here, which would put Ruth in her late sixties when she was finally ready to acknowledge she couldn’t fo it alone. But it had to be the right woman.

Having bounced solo for so long herself, Ruth has immense respect for any woman willing to step up and do it. Jaden’s declaration definitely struck a chord with her. I really wanted to show that in how they interacted in CH4 too.

When Ruth told Jaden “dishonesty doesn’t suit you”, she was trying to lift Jaden up in her own gruff way. It doesn’t suit her because Ruth knows Jaden is a good, honest person. She could see Jaden was shaken by the incident, and likely knew first hand what Jaden was feeling. It just didn’t land very well, and instead came off more like scolding from Jaden’s POV.

But now that Shez has gotten through to her, the channels to connecting with other women have opened substantially.

Re website: omg exciting! Very happy to share (and email more detailed screenshots if you want them).
The Cast Page did not require any plugins iirc. When creating a regular page there’s usually a ‘+’ button that allows you to drop in ‘blocks’. So ‘paragraph text’, ‘heading text’, ‘table’, ‘image’ , ect, ect.

There’s also a search bar. Type ‘accordian’. That’s the one that allows you to expand and compress text.

The FAQ page does use a plugin called ACCORDIAN as well, which you can find under the Plugins>Add New tab on the left side of the dashboard. It works better with text based stuff, like the FAQ.

Again happy to send some screenshots if you get stuck 🥰

Thank YOU for leaving such a wonderful comment.

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1. Tenbelow
  
  06/04/2024, 9:58 AM
  
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  “Shez wanted Jaden to know, on top of not blaming herself for whatever actions kept her alive, that the Yoni team isn’t looking down on her. They showed up to help to give her the strength of numbers. They don’t want her to do it alone. Same with Ruth finally stepping down. Shez is mid-twenties here, which would put Ruth in her late sixties when she was finally ready to acknowledge she couldn’t do it alone.”
  
  screaming and crying etc. I love that. Jaden EVERYONE at Yonique gets the support even YOU everyone is HAPPY to help you not BURDENED by helping you AAA it’s going to be such a great moment when Jaden REALLY understands. She keeps having these HUH.. These Women Do Care About Me Huh… moments but I’m not sure it’s really fully set in for her yet HA. It’s made so clear from the beginning that the women at Yonique are a family and it’s going to be so wonderful to see that becoming even more clear. I REALLY want to see more of everyone at Yonique more then anything. OH but I really need to see more RILEY stuff too…. But yeah I’m so interested to see the growing contrast between Yonique and the QT club, the women who support each other and their authentic selves vs the women who want to make sure the others follow all the Proper Rules or Else Get Kicked Out Forever. I actually had a concept for a LeaseBound OC who was nerdy quiet and anxcious, looking for friends and ended up part of the gendie club… But ends up defecting to Yonique because she finds Yonique to be a more supportive environment. (I was thinking about this before we got to actually meet the QT club now I think that anxcious OC would be too stressed by these people to stay) Like hearing “OH THEY’RE SO EVIL AT THAT BAR” then going to the bar and being like “wait a min this isn’t evil this is actually a nice place”. I actually hope that happens for Martha or Clancy LOL. I would love there to be one traitor gendie who decides to go hang out with and even help Yonique instead.
  
  (finally admitting I was thinking about making an oc COUGH now you will be made aware I’ve thought about this comic a lot in my free time ha ha ha)
  
  ANYWAY… Ruth was my fav for a long time, but then you introduced ALEX… As i’ve said in previous comments, I think I said this anyway, but you really did a phenomenal job of packing so much character into her for the short time we had her around. You really knew what you were doing. For most of the characters off LeaseBound I’m like hmmm… she could be a fav but I still like I haven’t gotten to see her really shine yet but Alex was made so lovable so quickly, she stole the hearts of a lot of people who read this comic I’m pretty sure. WE KNOW HOW YOU FEEL JADEN. I feel like Riley could end up a fav too because I relate to her people-pleasing and she’s a cat lover. Parniya I remain very intrigued by, you can just tell she has a lot going on, and I really can’t wait to see her goofier side. We’re all hyped for Nelly as well I’m sure. But right now it’s Ruth and Alex who hold my Fav Spot, again, I know it’ll get harder as it goes. Ruth doesn’t have to do much to fascinate me, I’m just so happy you’re including women of multiple age ranges and making this comic more inter-generational. I just get so tired when every story only has teens or 20somethings in it. I feel like for lesbian and bisexual women it’s important we stay connected to women who are older then us, learn from them, know our history etc. otherwise you get gender people who make up fake lgbT history….
  
  I knew I could trust you to not make Naomi-Grace follow that weird like… Dead Wife Trope. Oh She Was So Nice. Oh She Was So Self-Sacrificing. Oh She Had No Personality Other Then Supporting ME, The Protagonist. You saying she was very sharp makes me wonder if running away from the life of being a nun was her idea. Did you scheme, Naomi-Grace? I would love to hear your schemes. Yet another character to be excited for whenever we finally get to see more of her!
  
  Thanks so much for the website advice. That doesn’t sound too hard to do. Just as long as I know what it’s called I imagine I’ll be able to find it!
  
  3
  
  rustyhearts
  
  06/09/2024, 7:29 AM
  
  CH13 is going to be perfect for you! You’ll be meeting all the Yonique staff, seeing more Riley AND they’ll all be in the same place 😎
  
  I loooooove that you made an LB OC omg 🥺🥺🥺. Flattered to have you thinking about my story so much ❤️❤️
  
  And your predictions. Interesting. Verrrrry interesting👀👀👀
  
  Taking note of your faves for the record ✍️✍️
  
  And yes! I have some small flashback scene ideas for Naomi-Grace. It’s all about just figuring out the best places to slot them in >:3. No withering, perfect wife. Your guesses about her being the one to leave the nunnery are, mwah. Chef’s kiss. (Spot on).
  
  Best of luck with the website too!