October_Bones!

No one is taking him away from you DAMN

More Tomtord art 🤩

I don’t even know what to say.

I wrote up a whole first draft of my raw reaction, and by some mistake it disappeared as I was typing it. I think that’s beautiful in some way, because I get to relive my first time reeling at this incredible work of art once more.

I’m stunned beyond belief. I am completely speechless. The way this is directed, the way you portray this scene — it’s so moving. I’m moved. This is exactly what I pictured was occurring in Tord’s mind when this scene was taking place. Words he wasn’t meaning to speak, feelings he had been trying to push away, and memories that were rising up far too quickly to the surface for him to handle without losing control of his tongue.

In this scene, I wanted to portray Tord as someone who doesn’t know that what he feels is love. I wanted to portray Tord as someone who was letting himself talk without thinking, his only fallback being that he’s speaking a language Tom can’t understand. He’s speaking to Tom, but the only translation he’s doing is for himself. His body translates what he’s feeling into Norwegian for his mind, and thus his mind is forced to grapple with whether or not to one day translate those feelings into English for Tom — or even how he’d begin.

To me, KNOWING and UNDERSTANDING a language are two very different things. The latter suggests that you can comprehend it, you can repeat the phrases you’ve learned can accurately portray how you feel. And the former suggests the language that means the most to you, the one you don’t pause to remember at all. Those words come naturally, when your feelings are in their most genuine form — you don’t have to give the corresponding learned reaction to another language’s words. You just feel them. You mean them most honestly. When you speak the foreign tongue, you feel it on your lips; when you speak your native tongue, you feel that in your heart.

You displayed that perfectly. You showcase exactly what he’s feeling, exactly what he’s thinking, and exactly why that means what it does to him. And you do it all without overexplaining, without showing too much.

I don’t even know where to begin with the shading, the art style, the use of color (or lack thereof), and the dual translation. I can’t even bring myself to put into words the amount of awe I’m in over the choices of memories you chose to place over the different parts of his monologue. I’m stunned. Utterly and honestly.

But I can’t even properly tell you how incredible of a choice you made to have them — in a scene where they’re laid bare and passionate — completely clothed. It contrasts the original scene so beautifully: whereas Tom and Tord’s physical walls are down, there is still a (language) barrier separating them, YOUR interpretation makes them out to be completely closed off, even in the throes of something intimate. As though they can’t stand to be raw with one another, be barren, and thus be vulnerable.

If you set two glasses of water next to one another, touching as they stand side-by-side, and then you break the glass, one container’s water will be indistinguishable from that of the other’s. They are too afraid of falling into one another, and thus becoming stronger — because it means that first, they would have to break the glass, and become vulnerable. How strange that only vulnerability can one day grant us invulnerability. How incredible that you portray that so well.

And one final thing: I cannot believe that as I came upon the first panel, I believed them to be fighting. I was caught between beliefs: part of me saying that they were fighting, and the other wondering if they were making love. I wrote the damn thing, and with every panel, I was surprised to find what came next. You had me in awe. You still do. I can’t believe it.

This is a dream come true. Thank you. It’s safe to say that this is the most impressed I’ve ever been. Beyond that. Bewildered? Flabbergasted? Stunned?

Totally head over heels for this. I cannot think you enough. I’m so happy that my work inspired you. You translated my words into your beautiful, utterly viscerally impactful work of art. This is a masterpiece. I mean that to the fullest extent.

oh I CERTAINLY have more coming don’t you worry! I might make a poll on what people would be most interested in seeing next actually…