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CH12P52
Posted on 21 April 2024 by rustyhearts

50 thoughts on “CH12P52”

  1. rustyhearts

    Meriam’s bio is now available over on the 😊Cast Page. I’ll be adding Shez’s sisters with the last three pages to round out the chapter. Reply here to lemme know which sister you want to see next week!

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    1. hyperventilating

      Rocky roCKY ROCKY MA’AM ROCKY PLEASE !!!!!!!!

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    2. JJ

      Definitely Rocky!

      Also maybe a weird aside, but there’s something I kinda love about Rocky being a gnc straight woman. The very, very few gnc women we get in media are either lesbians or are gnc to show how rebellious they are and will start dressing more femininely later to show they’ve “matured”. Idk but again, there’s something I like about it

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      1. rustyhearts

        I’m glad!
        I really wanted to sell the attitudes and beliefs of the sisters, AND how they differ. Rocky being a tomboy, and closely resembling Shez felt like the best way to do that.
         
        Plus, you’re right. I think I’ve seen more tomboy straight women in media, but it is always as a device to set up her having a make over later (usually to get a guy). Bah!

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        1. Nonnie

          As a tomboy straight woman: thank you! And not only that, but each time there’s a tomboy woman, TIFs want to claim them as “another of us!”. Is almost like “You’re acting like a male to attract moids or be a moid, not yourself”.

          I know it sounds like “Old man yelling at cloud”.

          6

        2. SBD

          True… The only straight nonconforming woman who didnt get a femininity makeover i can recall is Brienne from GOT and apparently she got paired with some incestuous degenerate man. I didn’t watch the show to confirm cause somebody accidentally spoiled that fact for me and it really ruined any enthusiasm i had. Like really? if lesbian the masc dies and if straight its fem up or end up with scum? for real?? the crumbs are so bitter they could cause liver failure. Pure poison.

    3. One Nonna

      I can’t wait to see the rest of the bios, especially Rocky’s. Giving the girls different surnames was a very clever touch, but are their legal names still Crystal, Karissa and Christine? If not, why didn’t Meriam take the opportunity to erase Chris completely?

      1

      1. rustyhearts

        Good question! I’m thinking because by the time she would have been able to change them (not the top priority VS getting housing, food, income) even the youngest would likely be used to her first name. It might not have been something Meriam even thought of until it was time to get them birth certificates/identification to enrol in school.
         

        It could have created more problems getting them used to a new name in a school environment, the teacher and children calling them one thing but the girls being used to the name they’ve had for 5-6 years already.
         

  2. Antiyourwokehomophobia2

    Ever since you put Shezaden in my mind, I’ve been unable to unsee it. They’re actually super cute. Genuinely never thought about it until that unofficial panel you posted, but whoever you drew it for (I forgot, sorry !!) has the right idea fr 😭
     

    But anyway, back to reality: I really love how Shez doesn’t tolerate a single shred of Jaden being mean to herself. These two have such a wholesome relationship. Looking forward to more of them

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    1. rustyhearts

      Shezaden~ oooh. I’ve been calling them Shaden~
       
      It was to appease one of my guest page artist friends who says whenever she sees them “they should be kissing”😂. Glad you’re enjoying the ship potential too 🥰🥰
       
      And thank you! It has been a delight bringing them together in this chapter. Now that that barrier is broken, you can expect to see more playfulness like this between them.

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  3. Sunny

    Oh to be hanging out with Shez after Class, in her chokehold grip, illuminated by the setting sun while she tells me to let go of my insecurities …. Is that too much to wish for?? 😭
     

    Your Colors are, as always, so freaking beautiful! And Meriam leading a class is so heartwarming
     

    Beautiful page!!

    11

    1. rustyhearts

      Smh so greedy, you’ve ALREADY been embraced by Jaden this chapter, you gotta get in on the Shez embrace too? 😤😤 (of you asked I would draw it to you, breastie 😔❤️).
       
      Thank youuuu🫂🫂

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  4. Charly

    Aaaa what a beautiful page, love the use of the setting sun! I see Meriam is bisexual 👀 does she have a gf/wife?

    14

    1. rustyhearts

      Thank you!
      Meriam is single, however. I’ll mention significant others in bios when/if they exist.

      8

  5. Anita

    I love the detail that Jaden still doesn’t know enough about the topic to realize how you spell “trans” lmao
     

    And also the Meriam apparently leads self-defense groups sometimes now! Did she do a proper course in it along with Shez after they escaped? I’m so glad that doing this is something they share — with each other, but then also with all the women that come to the classes.

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    1. rustyhearts

      And she will stay that way 😎😎 She’s never seen it written, only spoken, after all 🤣
       
      Plus, she likely thinks it’s super niche based on her discussion with Riley about it.
       
      More details on Meriam will be coming in future pages 🥰

      5

  6. Shiny

    Hah! Still saying trance aren’t yah Jaden?

    2

    1. rustyhearts

      Forgive her, she’s never seen the word written 😔😔 She’s just going by what she’s hearing (nobody tell her).

      5

  7. ✂️🍆

    MERIAM HAS A CLASS!!! YEEEEES! The thought of her learning to defend herself and her children in case Chris ever comes back fills me with so much joy, you have no idea.

    5

    1. rustyhearts

      🥰🥰🥰🥰 happy to provide !

      3

  8. Curious&Furious

    I love how the only reason Shez didn’t have to jump to get Jaden in a headlock is because Jaden was sitting down 😅

    3

    1. rustyhearts

      She would insist she could still do it if Jaden was standing, “no problem!!”
       
      But, for my own ease of drawing, I had her sitting down 🤣

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  9. Mary

    Meriam was TWENTY years old when she was abandoned alone pregnant in a foreign country. This woman should be president.

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    1. rustyhearts

      Or at the very least, heavily compensated 😔

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  10. b

    Question- how has Jaden never come across the concept of trans before? Has she never heard the acronym LGBT? No hate just curious

    1

    1. rustyhearts

      I think the events of chapter 10 cover Jaden’s ignorance of it pretty well. She was busy doing other stuff.
       
      Lots of people don’t know what the LGBT acronym is. I think people need to get over the idea that everyone just knows.
       
      I didn’t know it until I got tumblr in highschool and all the Americans were talking about it.
       
      I also learned what GSA (gay straight alliance??) was from tumblr. My high school had no such thing, nor had I ever heard of any high school with such a thing. The concept was laughable because you’d get ridiculed to hell for ever going. There were no out gay students.
       
      We had a nurse talk to us about safe sex when we were later HS years, the old put the condom on the phallic mold thing. She breifly mentioned that condoms are important for two guys having sex too, and nearly everyone made a noise of revulsion. The discussion ended. There was of course no mention of lesbian sex. This was 2012.
       
      Jaden graduated HS 2011. LB is not set in America, and it takes place in 2017. Lots of groups used to just be called gay/lesbian too.
       
      On a meta level: she’s doesn’t know about trans shit to demonstrate how trans identities require outside validation to be sustained. So what happens when someone who isn’t in the know, who hasn’t been guilted in how to behave, interacts without malice, but without capitulation (because she’s literally never heard of the BS before)? Bam, inciting incident with AGPgang.

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  11. Didi

    I love whenever you do pages with sunset palettes. You always make them look so pleasant and pretty, like candy I can reach in and pluck right off the panels to eat. 🍬

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    1. rustyhearts

      Omg thank you 🥺🥺🥺
      I think sunset is my favourite time of day, so I love getting to represent it in-comic 🥰

      4

  12. Shez Appreciator

    :talks shit about myself so that Shez will put me in a headlock:
    I love so many things about this page! Jaden getting the lifting-up she needs…return of the sunset pallette…Meriam also leads the self defence classes…yess YESSSS

    5

    1. Gaslit Gatekeep Gyat'socleverma'am 😲

      Um… so C-can we take turns on the armlock bait thing?? 👉👈 You can go first and take the left side, closer to her heart. I prommy

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  13. dlp

    Any ETA on when bonus pages on wed/thurs will be returning? Hope your health is good and all that

    1. rustyhearts

      Thanks for the concern. Updates are going to remain weekly for the foreseeable future 👍

      4

  14. Nonnie

    Is so curious how you feel more comfortable at the Younique self defense room than the QT trash valley. This really makes me want to get classes with Shez.

  15. Robin

    the lighting in this page and all the recent pages has been so gorgeous! Your art has improved so much since the beginning of the series, and it’s so wonderful to see 😀

    1. rustyhearts

      Thank you 🥰

  16. Recanning my worms

    MOMMA MERIAM IS…. ?! Awesum 🤐 I did not see that twist. Many lucky mature folxx out there. I wonder if she’s ever been to a Yonique event/party or prefers to stick to the classes and go different avenues for meeting… maybe go with her gal pals to a metal concert 🤘 headvanging to Ferrous Fibroids hehehe
     

    This page is…. wow ok this page kinda made me emotional bring me the DencoRub & blankie. I think I figured out why her interactions with blue hair lady and jaden are not just appealing to my core ’cause i like the characters or ’cause i like Shez the most of the whole cast, but because deep down it reflects a type of friendship I deeply craved when i was a teen and feeling like a grimy foreigner towards both sexes whether i was at home or outside (one group because i wasnt feminine and graceful and well ‘normal’ enough, and the other cause i wasn’t male).

     

    IDK if anybody can relate but still to this day sometimes when i walk near or into a crowd and look around and notice there’s no visibly gnc women I just get this pang of sadness and like sorta nauseous-sorta-anxious disbelief. Like i;m going insane looking for a ghost or somebody kidnapped, but nobody else wonders about the ghost and nobody cares and the day goes on each step feels heavier like you’re navigating quicksand and and…

     

    It’s quite hard to put into words to be honest but like yeah it bruises me and so this page shook and rattled me until i got misty eyed and the color effect is absolutely gorgeous and thank you so much for watering our emotional crops with these depictions and mini-curse to Jaden cause she’s lucky AF right now ha

     

    What else?? Oh regarding ur Q for next pages it’s not a surprise at this point but of the sisters bios reveal I wanna see Ms Blond Sis first of course!!! Give us the tomboyyyyy (the Tomman? the Gyn-tleman? asdfq) please 😍🙈 I’m thinking mayyybe she’s gonna be a desister (former nonbinary or ftm) so Shez has another very personal reason to feel off about gender identity stuff besides (metaphorically i hope) headbutting with random AGP types over the years.

     

    Or maybe she’ll just be a chill “Sandlerette” who works at the aussie zoo Steve/Terri/Bindy Irwin style caring for the koalas and kangaroos and goofing around with kids! Or both. Both is good.jpeg lol

     

    Or none of that and something even better idk surprise us. Anyway artist ma’am thanks for the lovely page now if you excuse me i’m gonna tack on the Rub cause my body is ACHING after those hits

    2

    1. rustyhearts

      I know exactly what you’re talking about re: feeling like you don’t belong because so many women perform femininity, and men don’t treat you as human (you’re just either fuckable or unfuckable). I see you 🫂
       
      One of the many reasons I take great pleasure in creating so many gnc female characters while making feminine women the outliers who look out of place.
       
      Also love your guesses about Crystal. Interesting you mentioned working with animals, I’ll say that 👀
       
      Unfortunately she doesn’t work at Australia Zoo.


      It would be quite the daily commute 🤣

      4

      1. Norm L. Esbian

        rusty this image single handedly made me realize that due to how maps warp size, my american ass had no clue about how big australia is. Size jumpscare.

        1. rustyhearts

          Luckily for you, one of my favourite passtimes is jumpscaring my American friends 🥰🥰
           
          Here is Texas inside of Australia:

           
          I think our population size doesn’t help with the deception. America has capital cities with comparable populations to us as a whole. Latest stats I checked say we sit in the 27millions, for the entire country.
           

          So big area for the amount of people. (Why it would be so difficult to find Alexis in all of Queensland- that top right, triangle-y state. Lotta places she could be u-u)

          1

      2. Holy Guac

        Pretty much. To be honest even if they threat you as human, with varying frequency (depends on the group) they still want to do/talk stuff only around their own and so they dont invite you to XYZ or wait till you arent around cause at the end of the day you arent a male and thats just how it is. I thoroughly respect that desire for same sex privacy on either case (fem girls do their own version too) but i cant deny it stung and still stings when you dont have your own group of GNC women and always feel like the awkward gremlin that is making the normal people side eye each other and grind their teeth for ‘breaking’ their cohesion. They dont have to hate you to make you feel lesser and out of place.

        22 HOURS OH JEEEEZ long distance indeed 💀 thanks for the ref. it does help with perspective…. hmmm what if she rode an Emu/Ostrich to work tho?? that must save hours. Just imagine how beautiful and cool that’d be.

        Back to reality, there is only 1 zoo in AU??

        1. rustyhearts

          “Emu/Ostritch”

          You’re killing me breastie 😭😭
           
          Australia Zoo is definitely not the only zoo, but since you mentioned the Irwin family I assumed you meant the one they own/are associated with 😅😅

          1

  17. Norm L. Esbian

    ok actually the texas helped to understand size LMFAOOOOO. the true american measurement system.

    1

  18. Norm L. Esbian

    sorry to leave a reddit link for the image, but it had me wonder bc looking at the image you had, i thought “man, australia may be the same length as the US” and went to try to find them superimposed. it turns out it just about is? https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/anxtyc/the_size_of_australia_compared_to_the_usa_mainland/
    it also helps to reframe that being 22 hours having it lined up, lol.

    1. rustyhearts

      Oh damn! There you go!!
      I didn’t realize we were taller than the US! Very cool info thank you

  19. andy

    it pains me that meriam can’t pass her own name (or even a different one) to her daughters in the malaysian tradition. i totally understand why, i assume “smith” and “jones” are about as generic as you can get in australia. so much she’s given up to protect her children from men.

    1

    1. rustyhearts

      Yeah 🙁
      And yes, Smith is the most common surname in Aus, Jones is 2nd, and Taylor the 6th.
       
      It didn’t make it into the flashback, but I had also originally drafted a scene where Chris forbade Meriam and Shez from speaking Malay. It was in the same draft where they has multiple close calls, and Chris was getting more and more suspicious. Ultimately I cut it to streamline the narrative, but it definitely still occurred.
       
      So while Shez can at the very least speak it (probably didn’t see it written) enough to hold a conversation and plenty enough to understand others speaking it, her younger sisters likely know a lot less, if any at all.
       
      Their safety obviously comes first, but you’re right. Meriam had to give up a lot to maintain it for them.

      2

  20. woman who didn't read the webcomic

    I have a bit of a complaint, why is it you have to make practically every other comic page about being a transphobe? Do trans people REALLY live in your head rent-free? 🥺🥺 Like you can somehow understand that clothing has no gender BUT everyone MUST stay their born at birth gender. You’d think as a lesbian you know how that concept is ridiculous… Like for some reason all your characters are stupidly unaware? Like popquiz…whats the *T* in LGBT stand for? Why do you think trans people are apart of our community??

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    4

  21. curious

    Unrelated to the page but have you seen this analysis of Blaire?

    1

    1. rustyhearts

      (I’m keeping the link available, please do not harass the poster).
       
      Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Obviously, I don’t agree with a lot of her assessments, especially regarding what qualified as “autism coding”. Honestly seems like pretty reductive criteria, almost to the point of infantilisation. But, the way the post is written, I can see how its writer came to her conclusions if she used her criteria for an austistic character as a jumping off point. I really liked the format, utilising pages to clearly evidence her perspective and also breaking up different areas of discussion.
       
      It’s cool that Blaire’s someone’s “I hate the rest of the story she’s forced to be in but by god I gotta keep reading for her!” character. Reading an in-depth look at her through someone else’s eyes was really fun.
       
      Would love to see more readers (lovers or haters of the work) do stuff like this in the future!

      1

  22. Tenbelow

    I can be such a simple person sometimes but I love the TRANCE thing so much. It is sooo funny to me. I love saying “trance”, and typing out “trance”, though sometimes I really have to hold myself back because not everyone in the world has read LeaseBound (ALAS!) and they do not get the reference. I assume most people think I’m making a typo. but it’s funny. it cracks me up.

     

    The trance movement really do got so much of the world in a trance don’t they. Jaden doesn’t even know. She doesn’t even know how clever she’s being. And no one around her knows either. Words sound similar enough that they JUST DON’T KNOW. When will the women learn about the greatness of TRANCE? I love it Jaden, I love you. but. point is. It’s clever on your part to realize that Shez isn’t going to be like “wait… TRANCE?”… this is just one of those cool comic effects, where the readers get to see a silly that no one in the comic world can….

     

    I hope maybe someday some of them learn about it. because it’s great. it brings me joy. An abnormal amount of joy? It’s normal. Humans sometimes think weird stuff is funny and delightful.
     
    I’m with everyone else who compliments your use of color. This page feels even stronger after seeing the next page, too. The way the next page becomes darker with the passage of time as well as the conversation turning darker.

     

    Working in a visual comic medium it’s easy to gush about the art but your planning is so good too. “Okay this scene is at sunset, and once they talk about Chris things are even darker”. Like? Little things like that really build up to make a cool masterwork of art and story-telling.

     

    And some people have entire teams to come up with the best possible story and visual to make a really cool piece of art. YOU’RE DOING THIS ALL YOUR DANG SELF… You’re keeping track of so many spinning wheels and spinning parts with this comic. You have characters interesting and fully-fleshed enough to where they could be protagonists of their own stories and spin-off series.

     

    I always love it when a creator manages that, every character has depth and thought. Has to be a real struggle to manage to fit everything you want to in this story
     
    It’s wild the contrasts that Jaden and Riley have. Jaden has so much support, she’s found a home for herself at this WOMEN ONLY CLUB filled with LESBIANS AND BISEXUALS WHO LOVE HER. And even if Josie is misguided sometimes (feels like putting it lightly there lol), Josie still LOVES and SUPPORTS Jaden. and then meanwhile riley…. who does riley got… the… blair? oof.

     

    I hope Riley has a few work friends who are decent. If not, its all a big old circle. Jaden with Alex crying because she realizes she doesn’t have friends… She has them now, and hopefully she can absorb Riley in and help Riley have more Real True Friends. it’s wild because I do feel like Riley can be very sociable and charming, and very good at appealing to people, but she just seems to have been from a cultish religious environment where real connection was made impossible….

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