Maria was often criticized for her childish ways and lack of maturity, especially from her projecting mother who herself never felt like a grown woman. We're however forced to see that the line between mother and daughter was always blurred between those two. Every time Rosa lashes out, she apologies after like a child who made a mistake, she begs to be forgiven, she begs to not be hated. And like a child, she is terrified of punishment and does everything to avoid it, therefore never actually thinks about her own actions.
Maria grew up understanding her mother was someone to be soothed and managed, and all her life she did just that. Maria is fine because if she was not Mama would be distressed. Mama is sensitive. Mama is lost, she can't care for herself. Rosa doesn't control the witch inside her unlike Maria who could teach her. Maria finds solutions for her own pain to appease her mother's. Maria forgives her every single time because her mother is scared and needs to be reminded she will be loved no matter what. Maria cared for Rosa but not only, she comforted Battler, she comforted Beatrice, she loved and cared until she died and even after she then became Ange's guide. Like a parent should, she understood and forgave all those children, they don't know any better.
This was my first time working with leather because I got a burning desire for a bag shaped like a horseshoe crab. It has two zippered compartments, and an adjustable strap so it can be worn at my side as a cross-body bag or on my back more like a backpack.
if this comic resonated with you, please consider donating to this palestinian escape fund (vetted by @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein) as it is less than $7,000 away from it's goal.
i turn 24 today. To celebrate, I made this comic to be a spiritual successor to lead balloon, a comic in which I talked about the darkest period of my life so far.
A lot has changed since my 23rd birthday and this one. My priorities have shifted a lot, in ways that I think are mostly good. But i think the best part about today is that suicide has gone back to being a far away notion. I'm really lucky, and I'm grateful for that.