I love the way you have shadowed his face, Rusty! Really adds to the ominous and untrustworthy vibe.

There’s something alarming about the sunset-like palette of Shez’s backstory reveal, and I think I’d feel that way even if there weren’t numerous implications that Meriam and Shez survived DV.

It’s kind of like a sepia filter, but also very vivid and red in all the “wrong” places. Like you’d expect it to be nostalgic, like childhood should be, but you know something painful and wrong is about to happen.

Insightful readers are already pointing out Chris’s many red flags, but I like that we’re seeing them from the perspective of Shez and Meriam, who (at least at first) think he is a goodhearted man rescuing them. I feel like a lot of the general population (especially men, not the readers here) has a very narrow idea of how to recognize when a woman is being abused. There are so many people who ask “why didn’t she see the red flags?” when, say, a female celebrity opens up about a man who hurt her.

 
And I think this illustrates how the man in question tries to make those flags look less red – he “helps” with the string attached that she only depends on him, he takes her from her difficult situation into a seemingly easier one, and he obscures the similarity between “not having to provide for yourself” and “depending on the man for everything s she has no one else”.

He knows what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. It’s not her fault she didn’t see through it; it’s his.

In agreement with above comments, this palett looks like a sepia filter in horror. So many red flags, the color bled all over the screen.

Given how exhausted Meriam looks in the last panel, I assume Chris wanted a “traditional” household, where the woman does all the housework and child-rearing.

At least Shez lucked out to get sisters…

Rusty, your attention to detail in creating this is impressive as always – noticing the subtle changes in Meriam’s appearance makes me worry about the expectations Chris is placing upon her, and also, noticing the fact that both of Shez’s younger sisters have names very similar to Chris feels like a highly possessive move on his part.

And let me guess, it’s somehow Meriams fault for not “giving” him a son 🙁

Part of me wants HorseBlaire to come galloping through that forest, kick the soul out of Chris and rescue Meriam and her daughters before the poop hits the fan but part of me wants Shez to be the hero so like, clawing the seat clenching my teeth seeing the progression 😬 trying to stay normal *sniff* it’s gonna be okay…
 
Seeing Meriam wearing makeup on the last panels reminded me of a woman who used to be a neighbour of mine. In her 40s, Divorced in her 20s, Straight in orientation but androgynous in terms of fashion and had a mannish fade haircut. I liked her quirky independent vibe and how she was one of the few women i had ever talked to who didnt feel insecure or ashamed of being almost flat chested. Then one day She met a man and suddenly grew out her hair and dyed it, started wearing more obvious makeup, now carried purses and wore earrings, and wore dresses more often. I kind of grieved her change tbh but never said anything because it was obviously rude and selfish, it was once again this gutted feeling of “woww not even her could escape it” (the general pressure to conform to gender stereotypes). They dated for a year, then married. and then separated 5 months later, according to her he was ‘exhausting’ and she had been accustomed to living alone too much to handle the extra stress so she pushed for the divorce. It remains unknown to me whether the sudden feminization was a pressure coming from him or she just did it on her own to try to be more appealing and “proper GF material” but either way i saw her again a month ago and now she’s back to her vibrant androgynous shorthaired self.
 
We can’t see it here cause of the panels only showing torsos but gut feeling tells me Meriam also picked up shaving/waxing her body now that she’s with this man.
 
Young tomboy Shez looks so so adorable, loving her whole style you picked. I like the contrast between her and Riley, cause almost always the stereotypical or gender conforming people tend to have a ‘linear’ progression as they age both in media and in real life, but gnc people do not. it’s gc kid to gnc adult, or gnc teen to gc adult, or gc kid to gnc kid and teen to gc adult and elder, it’s u-turns and zig-zags instead of a straight line. Riley is a clear example of this in the story (I think Ruth too). So it makes me happy to see Shez be actually allowed to have that same obvious linear trajectory that gc people tend to have where there wasnt conflict or lack of acceptance at home (inb4 i spoke too soon and some of the next pages will have Chris trying to press Shez through Meriam to change herself because he wants a normal family image and she’s getting too old so it’s not acceptable anymore in his eyes and it causes a fissure between mom and daughter 💀💀 Either way pls do NOT spoil or hint author, i prepped for the sucker punches dw, i prefer the surprise)
 
Ahh december arrived, time flies. I’m not big on it (grinch adjacent soul here lol) but hope you get many cool Xmas fanarts author 🤗

I, as the token gay man, refuse to accept this man-hating. Not all men are like this!!
(This is sarcastic. Horseblaire pls hold your fire)
 

But what is interesting to me is that Rusty gets so much sh*t for not having non-lesbians when here we have a straight (or at least bi) woman represented as hardworking, loyal, and loving. Almost as if the problem isn’t someone being straight.
 

And on the “bigotry/closemindedness” point, while I’m not convinced of the “women should never partner with men” stance, i’ve never felt like I needed to hide that amongst the strong willed women/people here, unlike how I had to hide views back in my gender-affirmation days. It’s almost as if I trust “the bigots” here to be reasonable and not demonise others for disagreements.