#shadowpuppets lmk

I read "Tiger Lily" and instantly thought about how Mayor would maybe give her a white tiger lily. Not necessarily because they care or feel bad but just because it would feel like an interesting resolution to their dynamic. Wether either of them remember or cared they did spend almost 2 years with each other. (even if one of them was posessed and the other deluded by adoration for the being that was posessing)

And also. Their dynamic is very interesting considering Mayor is the only one who could even remotely help her control the bone demon curse. There's just the paralelles between them and not to meNTION The lore of Mayor's past life!!

idk man something about both of them at some point begging Macaque to kill them. Baihe out of desperation and fear, and Mayor out of desperation and curiosity. It's also really interesting when you think about how Mayor has only ever outright said it to Macaque once, but actively harms themselves (wether out of curiosity or desperation, theys till do it), whereas Baihe has only ever hurt herself once, by accident, when she was freezing in the middle of the night, but asks Macaque to kill her multiple times.

Theres also their reactions to LBD being gone. Mayor is delusional for... quite some time. And it takes a whole manic episode for them to realize that this delusion is harming their relationship with Macaque. They start to understand life as something taht can be enjoyed, they allow themselves to get attached (without realizing they already were) and learning how to live with the little joys that he finds. Comapred to Baihe, who- after LBD disappears, is in a constant state of paranoia. She is terrified of how people will see her, how her parents will see her. She's scared of everyone, even the very heroes that saved her life. "Tiger Lily" Is about how she's lost her sense of self and what she was like before LBD. And it takes her a dose of therapy to understand that by not acknowledging the full extent of what she experience, she can't connect or talk to her parents and people who want to help her. She's learning, slowly what it's like to be "Baihe" again, and not "Lady Bone Demon's Host" the little things, like her clothes, and her cat, and also learning to live with the new parts, like her hair, and the scars.

AND!! they'RE BOTH DEPRESSED! (in different ways but still-)

Aight i'm done rambling about them in BAV now onto the thought process behind the comic.

I feel like this would happen sometime after Ch. 24 of WMSN (cus of all the flowers oh my lordd Baihe would probably be so on guard when they gave her this one single one, lest they start giving her one every time they meet! - which, isn't alot. BUT thats beside the point!!)

My goal for this was to kinda show their general dynamic but aslo some sort of wholesome shit cus i am a sucker for found family ;~;

I think it's special that they gave her a white tiger lily because she mentions in the story how her mom painted the tiger lilies and they're supposed represent bravery, and how she doesn't feel brave. but also. I really loved the interaction with the lil boy about tiger hair (i MIGHT draw it if i feel like it-) and it just reminded me of White tiger lilies, and how i think Baihe might look at them the same way she looks at a mess. Confused and frustrated. She doesn't understand what the Mayor was trying to achieve by giving her this, except for making her feel worse, because its meant to be a reflection of her, right? different compared to the regular tiger lillies.

The symbolism is important!!

White tiger lillies symbolise purity and rebirth and these are both seperate but important factors here!! ALSO it's important to note that Baihe and Mayor have different thought processes, they think the same word but take it differently!

The purity is supposed to represent Baihe as a child, her childhood and her innocence, that is partially the way the Mayor sees it, as a representation of Baihe's childhood and how she's again living that life (after LBD) but she herself takes it a different way. She's used to Mayor's antics and his torments and mocking so naturally she takes this as another way to push the appeal of his Lady onto her. (Hence why she looked so shocked in the drawing after Mayor starts explaining, because she hasn't really been around since Mayor had their existential breakdown, and is shocked to hear them talk about their lady as anything less than perfect) So she takes it as a jab at her morality. She herself knows who she is, but that paranoia that LBD left something within her, something harmful, something evil, is what makes her feel like she's not really "worthy" of the flower, because she's not pure, she's broken, cracked, and dangerous. She hurt people. And that is enough to tangle and shatter both their perceptions of purity.

The rebirth is also important! IN MANY WAYS!!! (some of those are subjective and underlying but they're there and they mean something!!!)

The Mayor sees Baihe's rebirth from their perspective. After they themselves have just recently discovered that life is worth living for the pursuit of happiness and joy, they're referreing to Baihe's new life. her life will undoubtedly, never be the same. But she'll live and she'll make the most of it. Baihe herself sees it pretty similarly, she knows she's struggles and will continue to struggle and some days, the cold will be unbearable and the whispers too loud, and her eyes too blue, but she has people now that she trusts and that will help and she wants to be brave. Like the Tiger. Like the Tiger Lily she was named after, she'll never be the same, the Lady Bone Demon has forever tainted her, but she'll learn to love herself again, and be brave, and be happy. BUT iT also represent both of them, in relation to Lady Bone Demon!! Because while it's been over a year since LBD died, they've both only recently come to terms with that fact. (the event of Tiger Lily happen during WMSN) This is important for both of them to grow and in some sense, "Be reborn". Because they're not Lady Bone's puppets anymore. The flower represents their indevidual but intertwined understanding of life, and living. Mayor still loves his Lady, they'll probably never stop, but they realize that she was wrong. That her perception was just that. Hers. not anyone else's. No one else wanted it, not even them. SO they're learning to live now. Baihe is the same, Instead of love, she still fears Lady Bone. Some part of her always will, but she has her body back and she's wearing pink again and she has Mao and she has her parents and she can relearn how to live again. BUT WAIT! Rebirth also represents their past lives!! Even if Mayor is the only one who knows about it, the fact is that it was real. Their lives have been tangled together since the very beginning. And rebirth is meant in a more literal sense, in the way that Baihe has been reborn as she is, as a host of Lady Bone Demon. As she was before, a pawn in her game. As the mayor was before, Ling was her pawn, Mayor was her thrall. Now they're both here. Baihe, and Gu Lan. stuck here for as long as they are, left with whatever they decide to make of the life they have now. Rebirth. Because they were both reborn in the image of the Lady Bone Demon. and Rebirth, in the sense that she is now gone, and they're left here on their own.

The flower itself is also an important part of the interaction. The reason the flower is white is supposed to represent what happened to them after LBD died. The white petals represent their hair turning white. The scars and cracks on their skin resembles the spots scattred across the petals. The souls and whispers they were/are surrounded with are the anthers, tethered to receptacle the same way souls were tethred to Lady Bone...

anyways. that was the thought process behind it. Now let me critique myself

I MADE A HORRIBLE MISTAKE- I forgot that teh mayor's suit doesnt have pockets but his pants do! AS I WAS DRAWING THE ARMS I REMEMBERED THAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO GO IN HIS PANT POCKETS NOT HIS NONEXISTENT SUIT POCKETS!!!

yep hate that.

anyways did y'all see the mistakes i patched up? that first "panel" (if yer wana call it that) with her face (the side profile one) was such a pain-

Do you guys wver scetch something out and go "Oh yeah that looks really nice :D" And then you start inking and then you're like "wHAT THE FUUCK DID I DOOOO!!?!??!!? D:"

that happened a bunch, you can see wehere i stuck pieces of paper on top of some spots and drew over them.

NO MAYOR DOES NOT HAVE A BEARD RAAAAHHH IM GONNA SMASH SOMETHING I HATE THAT!!! i was trying to go for like, and angled look- where he was looking down at Baihe- But now it just looks stupid and i want to die.

also like- halfway through i realized i fucked up because Mayor's pupils were meant to be blue and i made them all black so i stuck paper on evry indevidual pupil and drew over it.

eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh it feel so rushed thoooooo- i wish i could've portrayed and shown everything i said above in the comic itself but that shit was draining and i had to finish it or it woul've been abandoned.

literally my favorite part is that "-Rebirth" panel, where they both kinda just stare at each other. and for teh first time in a while, Lan shows them a genuine smile and yeah i think thats all. that and teh flower at the end it sjust pretty and the lil thank u is very lovely :3

All this started cus i red teh fic and wanted to draw a tiger lily, and when i did i just went "hol' up! What if I just-" *proceeds to scribble and scetch a comic strip in 2 hours* >:)

this is my first time actively drawing the same character from multiple angles. It was fun and i hated it. :/ Baihe had like 5 different expressions and it was fun but also frustrating to scetch-erase-scetch-erase-scetch-erase-repeat until i finally got the expression and placement i was hoping for.

I am proud of myself for drawing this! and the use fo colors and because i do not have white, i just kinda- pencild Baihe's hair and left stripes of white (I REALLY wanted to show the hair because its important for her and the story) but overall i'm really happy with it literally some of the best thing i feel like ive done in a while :D

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