AKHTS Jrep 🇫🇷💛🇺🇸

A comic featuring two character sipping from takeout cups with straws at a table. One is wearing an outfit with the colors of the French flag, and says: "You know, it's funny... Didn't expect it, but sometimes, there's things here that make me feel like I've gone back in time." The other character, wearing an outfit with the colors of the United States flag, asks: "Like what?" The French character responds: "Plastic straws."

California has recently banned plastic bags from stores and coming from France it feels like living through the same canon event 10 years apart. Kinda nuts.

#california #france #cultureshock #plastic

A comic depicting a character wearing an outfit with the colors of the aromantic flag, looking absent-mindedly into the distance. A narration box states: "I don't know if it's because I'm cynical, because I'm anxious about most things, or because I'm aromantic, but..." The character is revealed to be looking at two people getting married, together with her own spouse and an assembly. The narration continues: "I never understood how people can so confidently talk about their relationships like they're eternal." The bride getting married states: "We'll be happy together forever!" as the crowd, including the spouse of the aromantic character, exclaim: "Aaaaw!!" The aromantic character, still looking absent-minded, thinks to herself: "Huh... That's very extreme. I couldn't say that at our wedding..." The aromantic character is then seen in a different outfit, still with the aromantic flag colors, thinking to herself. The narration comments: "Incidentally, once in a while I have to remind myself that at the end of the day, romantic relationships are in about as much risk of ending someday as friendships are, so us aromantics aren't necessarily any less safe from loneliness than others. Romance is just put on such a pedestal of life investment and "foreverness" that sometimes I forget."

I guess "Till death do us part" still does a lot of heavy lifting today, huh.

I dunno. Random shower thoughts that kinda make me wonder where I stand in life sometimes. Don't know if any other aros can relate at all.

#aromantic #aromanticspectrumawarenessweek #aro

A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with French flag colors, going through several situations in the United States. A first titles states: "The U.S.:" Narration boxes state the following facts, accompanied with illustrations of the character demonstrating said facts: "Most cars are automatic. People typically bring whole foldable carts to markets to avoid having to carry bags. There's a drive-thru for everything." For the last sentence, the character is seen squinting at a drive-thru ATM, thinking: "OK, but this is overkill." A second title then adds: "Also the U.S.:" Once again, narration boxes state the following facts, accompanied with illustrations of the character demonstrating said facts: "Somehow can't make veggie cans without easy-open pull tabs, forcing you to buy an easily-breakable can opener to open them. Has laundromats you can only pay for with an app which charges you a "convenience fee" if you charge it a non-preset amount." For this sentence, the character is seen looking defeatedly at a blocked-out coin box on top of a washing machine, sighing: "Are you kidding me..." The last fact is: "Has people hand-file and calculate all of their taxes instead of having them pre-calculated by the government." The character, alongside her partner wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the U.S. flag, are tiredly looking at a computer screen. The French character asks: "How do you do it then?" The U.S. character replies: "We pay someone, usually." The French character concludes: "That's not "doing"."

...And how many of those inconvenient things are purely caused by greed at the end of the day gee I wonder

#unitedstates #cultureshock

A comic depicting a young character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic flag, talking to an adult. The young character says: "I'm aromantic. That means feeling little to no romantic attraction. And in my case, that's none at all. So no... I don't ever want to date anyone." The adult answers with a sorry smile: "Oh, but that's a pity, isn't it?" She then adds, in a speech bubble partially covered by a box: "I hope you [hidden words] someday." In the spot where the hidden words are, the covering box bears the following words instead: "go through exactly what you'd never want to go through", making the whole message "I hope you go through exactly what you'd never want to go through" someday. An arrow goes from the speech bubble to a narration line simply stating: "That's it. That's what this response feels like."

So recently I got an ask on Tumblr from a Mexican teen who shared some life experiences that put right back into perspective how brutal this kind of reaction is, even if it comes from people who feel they mean well.

#aromantic #aromanticspectrumawarenessweek

A comic depicting two characters: a tall one with a nondescript shirt, and a short one wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic flag. The short character asks: "Hey, have you seen that channel covering classic jazz standards from the 50s?" The tall character responds: "Nah... I don't really like jazz." The short character's eyes widen in shock as they ask: "Youj don't like jazz?! How can you not?! Everybody likes jazz! Enjoying jazz is key to elevating the human experience!" The tall character, confused, mumbles: "Uh... in what way?" The short character continues, acting puzzled: "So do you just... Not like music? Do you not like joy? Do you not want any art in your life altogether?" The tall character replies: "Of course I do! Why are we conflating the importance of a single music genre?"

A continuation of the comic shown on the previous image, depicting two characters: a tall one with a nondescript shirt, and a short one wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic flag. The short character is now shown showing a movie to the tall character, happily commenting: "What makes this movie great is that big jazz number the characters break into midway through... Isn't it great?" The tall character sighs: "Sure... Just like all the other movies you've shown me..." The short character and the tall character are then seen sitting at a table. The short character asks, smiling: "So? Have you taken a liking to jazz yet?" The tall character responds flatly: "Nope." The short character replies: "That's a shame... But you'll get there! Someday you'll see how great it is..." The short character is then seen talking to another character, keeping at a distance from the tall character. They say to the tall character with an apologetic smile: "It's not that we don't wanna talk to you... We're just having a great conversation about jazz again, and since you don't like jazz, well..." The tall character sighs: "Alright, I see what you're doing." Lastly, the short character is seen chasing the tall characters with headphones held up, happily pressing on: "Come on, I'm sure you'll like it if you give it a try!" The tall character, exasperated, exclaims: "You've made your point!"

Yeah, I know it's not a perfect metaphor, but I just wanna have my fun sometimes I guess.

Happy Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week!

#aromantic #aromanticspectrumawarenessweek

A one-panel comic in cartoony style featuring two people sitting at a café table outside, having coffee in paper cups, wearing purple shirts. A caption at the start says: "Another thing I love about my partner." The character on the left, representing the partner in question, says with a smile: "Oh hey, today's out first Valentine's Day together as roommates!" The character on the right, representing the narrator, responds, also smiling: "Oh yeah!" A caption at the bottom concludes: "How they default to "roommates" instead of "spouses" in conversations like these."

Just a thing my partner said this morning that I felt like sharing. Idk, it's nice.

#asexual #queerplatonic #queerplatonicrelationship

A comic titled "Suburbia is scary (3)". A character with a T-shirt colored with a French flag pattern is seen sleeping peacefully in a bed at night, surrounded by speech bubbles of sound effects and people shouting. A narration comments: "Back when I lived in the city, I was surrounded by human noise 24/7. Drunk people going home after parties, vehicles passing by quickly, parents with kids, people crying all night after getting dumped... I thought I could sleep to anything." The second panel then switches to the same character now in a bed next to another character wearing a T-shirt with a USA flag pattern. The multiple sounds are now completely gone, replaced with an overwhelming rumble shown in all caps and large characters in a red-colored speech bubble. The character with the French flag T-shirt is now wide awake, livid, with bloodshot eyes. The narration continues: "But clearly, I wasn't ready for suburban reefer trucks idling by the window all night."

A continuation of the comic in the previous image. The French character is sitting at her apartment complex's leasing office, talking to a representative. She says: "Reefer trucks keep idling all weekend under our window! It's clear noise disturbance! Can't you put up a sign?" The representative answers with an apologetic smile: "Sorry, it's out of our hands..." She then adds, looking more serious: "Besides, it could be worse, you know... You could have transients." The French person, surprised, goes: "Wha-? What does that have to do with-" The representative cuts in: "We had some here a couple years ago... Took forever to get rid of them." In a muffled voice, losing her composure a bit, the French character tries to answer: "But like... They're not physically capable of making as much noise as a reefer-" The representative cuts in again: "They kept going through the trash cans... Residents were terrified." The French person, now upset and panicking, tries to weigh in, in an increasingly small and shaky voice: "Well, people throw out a lot of thigns here... And they leave the trash cans open all the time... If they're worried-" The representative continues: "We were all so nervous about the rats they were gonna attract!" The comic then cuts to the French character loudly crying, seeking refuse in the arms of her partner (the person in the USA T-shirt from the previous image), who's trying to comfort her by petting her hair. Panicked, she cries on: "What just happened?! Seriously, what just happened?! I'm telling her about the reefer trucks and she starts being cruel to homeless people totally unprompted! What's wrong with people here?!"

Let's be clear: I'm not exemplary by any means when it comes to helping homeless people. But where I came from didn't prepare me for the sheer level of callousness for them I see here in the US.

#usa #cultureshock #aporophobia #classism

A comic titled "More things my spouse once said with little to no context". The spouse in question is shown in a simplified drawing style, talking to their spouse and emoting to the following lines, out of context: "I would drink your eyes." Then "I have a stomach." Then "You're like a popsicle... I love it. Are you alive though?" Then finally "A little stabbing never hurt anyone" (said in a harmless way).

Today was my partner's birthday, so here. Here's more of those.

#sliceoflife #queerplatonicrelationship

A slice-of-life comic starting with the following narration: "When we were still long-distance, during one of my visits, my partner took me to Build-A-Bear so we could make bears with personal voice messages for each other." A panel shows the narrator and her partner in front of a Build-A-Bear recording machine. The machine speaks out in front of the partner: "Here's your message : 'Hey baby, it's me!'" The partner recoils in mild embarrassment. The narrator smiles a bit awkwardly, saying: "Guess they replay it to check, huh..." The narration continues into the second panel: "Of course, when it came time to pack my life away to move overseas, the bear my partner made for me ended up in one of the boxes." Here, the narrator is seen packing a bear who looks like her partner into a cardboard box. The narration continues: "But I guess I accidentally put it right in a corner, so when the movers came to pick up the boxes..." A panel then shows a mover lifting the box in question, now closed. From the movement, the voice message from the bear emits from one corner of the box; saying: "Hey baby, it's me!" again. The narrator, standing behind the mover, blushes, startled. The narration continues: "They kept hitting the voice box accidentally." The mover is now seen passing the box to a colleague, while the voice box keeps repeating: "Hey baby!" continuously in the middle of an otherwise noisy room. The narrator stands in a corner, still blushing, thinking to herself: "GOD I hope they don't notice..."

More random slice-of-lifey stuff I guess. Sorry for putting a lot of that out there TwT

#buildabear #sliceoflife #longdistance

A comic depicting a character wearing an outfit with the French flag colors, waiting to cross the street. A caption first reads: "Crossing the street in Paris: 1- Wait for your turn." The character is shown waiting as cars pass and the pedestrian crossing sign shows a red silhouette standing. The caption continues: "2- Cross." The pedestrian crossing sign has turned to a green silhouette walking, and the character is walking across the pedestrian crossing. The caption then resets to: "Crossing the street in California: 1- Press a button to ask for permission to cross." The character, now waiting to cross in front of a bigger, busier road, presses a button on the pedestrian crossing sign pole. The pedestrian crossing sign displays a red hand. A voice coming from the button shouts: "Wait!" The caption continues: "2- Wait." The character is shown waiting for 3 continued panels as the sign still displays the red hand, the road is still continuously busy with cars, and the "Wait!" voice repeats aggressively. Eventually, looking a bit defeated, the character thinks: "I wonder if I'll get to cross someday..."

A continuation of the comic in the previous image. After a long blank of waiting, the pedestrian crossing sign finally turns to a white silhouette walking, with a light chime ringing. The character, looking tired, starts crossing, thinking "finally"... In the next panel, immediately, the pedestrian crossing sign changes to a countdown starting from 20, with the chime now sounding aggressive, startling the character, who starts running as the countdown continues, thinking: "What do you mean, 20 seconds to cross? I had to wait, like, 4 minutes!"

I guess I should also mention it's lucky IF we get sidewalks and pedestrian crossing here in the first place huh...

How civilized was the US supposed to be again?

#carculture #suburbia #usvseurope

A comic starting with the caption: "Ever since I was a kid, I've always gravitated towards those typically same-sex, typically comic relief buddy duos always attached at the hip, in anything I read or watched." The comic shows a character wearing childish pigtails, sitting and reading a book. Floating heads of pop culture duos are shown around her, with captions pointing to who they are: counter-clockwise, Pinky and the Brain, those two guys from Osamu Tezuka's stories, Lumière and Cogsworth, and those two guys from Waiting for Godot. The next panel shows the same character putting the book down and thinking to herself. Captions continue: "But unlike a lot of people who liked them, I didn't exactly see them as gay couples. I could definitely understand shipping them, but them having side romances or whatever didn't ruin them for me. In my heart, they had a special bond anyway, and it didn't have to be romantic." Another caption opens the third and final panel: "For years I didn't fully know how to express something like that... So in hindsight, I guess it's no surprise that after my now-partner told me about queerplatonic relationships and I did some research on 'em, it opened up a lot of mental doors." The character, now grown up and wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aroace flag, is seen looking something up on her computer with a mindblown expression.

Just to be clear, I don't really SEE duos like this as examples of a #queerplatonicrelationship, per se. A lot of them are probably much sooner meant to be reminiscent of gay couples. I'm just saying they happened to scratch an itch I didn't fully realize I had back then. Been thinking about that.

A comic depicting two characters, one wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag (thereafter known as the French character) and one wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the US flag (thereafter known as the US character). They are sitting in a leasing office, talking to a representative also wearing a sweater with the colors of the US flag. The leasing representative says: "Thank you for coming. We've received noise complaints from your downstairs neighbor... Could you please be more careful in the future?" The French character replies: "We'll try, but I'm not sure what makes us so noisy..." The US character adds: "We hardly ever have guests, we're usually in bed early... We walk and talk normally as well, so..." The leasing representative smiles sympathetically and replies: "Oh, I believe you... It's just that sound travels easily in this building. It was built in the 60s, so I guess it's an issue of it being old." The French character smiles cynically, thinking to herself: "Right... "Old"." An arrow points to them with the following caption: "Previously lived in a city building built in the 1900s; had upstairs and downstairs neighbors; never received a noise complaint in 7 years."

Sorry I'm sharing this here so late... I started a new job and it's kept me busy TwT

Anyhoo. While I'm venting about stupidly light stuff, might as well also say, congrats to the US for doing an imperialism again last week I guess. Yeesh.

#usa #france #housing

(Updated version)
My online shop akhtsjrep.myshopify.com (which includes a printed compilation of my #asexual / #aromantic comics among other things) is now back in business! See 2 images shared here for details^^

A comic titled "Two ace partners in married life (baking for friends and family)". Two characters wearing purple-colored clothes are seen looking at a pie. Character A, holding a sugar bag, says: "Now we gotta sprinkle it with sugar!" Character B, holding a spoon, responds: "I'll use a spoon." Character B starts hovering the spoon over the pie, while character A starts singing: "Just a spoonful of sugar..." Character B continues: "Brings the enemies down." Character A, looking confused then amused, asks: "Wait... What??" Character B shrugs, saying: "Listen, I don't remember the lyrics." Character A comments: "I have the weirdest mental image now."

I'm very late atp but I hope you guys are having a good end of your year TwT

#marypoppins #sliceoflife

A comic titled "Immigration is fun (2)". Two married characters, one wearing clothes with the USA flag as a motif and the other with the French flag, are looking up information on a phone. The USA character comments: "Says here that to prepare for the green card interview, we should gather evidence of a bona fide marriage, such as a joint bank account." The French character responds: "Oh, OK... So we should go open one!" Cut to the two characters sitting at a desk in front of a nondescript character carrying the description: "Bank". The Bank character says: "A joint bank account? Sure! I'll just need both of your social security numbers." The French character responds: "Well, I don't have one." The Bank character replies: "Oh? Well... I suppose your green card would be enough." The USA character responds: "Well, she doesn't have one either... Yet..." The French character adds: "See, I have to apply for one, and the joint bank account is supposed to help with that." The Bank character replies: "Not to worry! I hear ya. In that case, we'd just need a document with both of your names and your address, as proof that you live together." The USA character responds: "Oh, we have a joint lease!"

A continuation of the comic on the previous image. The Bank character responds: "Oh, I'm so sorry... A joint lease is the one thing we can't accept." Both the French character (dejected) and the USA character (surprised) reply: "Oh." The Bank character adds: "A joint electricity or phone bill with both your names would work, though!" The USA character responds: "Well, we don't have one right now, but we can see with our phone plan provider and come back when we have one?" The Bank character replies: "That'd be great!" Cut to the French character and the USA character sitting at a desk in front of a nondescript character bearing the descriptor: "Phone plan". The Phone plan character, pointing at a tablet on the desk, says: "All set! Your wife's name is now added to the plan." The USA character responds: "Amazing, thank you! So, both of our names will appear on our bills from now on?" The Phone plan character replies: "Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have the clearange to show more than one name on our bills..." The USA character, confused, just reponds: "Wha...?" The French character, looking defeated, mumbles: "This is gonna be a long one, huh..."

I'm glad that part's over, but yeah, it was definitely a ride while it lasted.

#bureaucracy #usa

A comic titled "Suburbia is scary (2)". Narration starts: "Where I come from, it's common for housing near amenities like shops, third places or public transportation to be more expensive. And I get why. It's convenient." A character wearing a hoodie with the French flag colors is shown smiling and standing next to a house covered in dollar signs, surrounded by a tram, a bar, a movie theater, shops and trees. The narration continues: "But from what I've seen at least in this corner of California, housing in the suburbs, where there's none of that around, is about as expensive if not more. And it seems that's because..." The character is now looking confused, seen with the house only, the rest having vanished. The narration continues: "It's close to a road, and apparently that's what people care about the most." A road covered in cars is revealed behind the house. The character, looking defeated, sighs: "Oh boy."

...I dunno, I somehow don't see the point in treating the thing you stay on for a long while that supposedly gets you to the most desirable places AS the most desirable place... But who knows maybe there's something I'm not getting about the secret charm of roads or something

#usa #cultureshock

A humoristic comic featuring a character with a hoodie with asexual flag colors, and a character with a sprout on his head. It is titled: "Talking way after the fact about "hear me out" cakes." Panel 1: Asexual flag character: "What confuses me the most is... Aren't more people into supposedly outlandish things than one would think anyway? Like... How is it a "hear me out" if everyone is in on it?" Panel 2: Sprout character: "Look, I'll try to explain this as simply as I can..." Panel 3: Sprout character: "The joke is sex." Asexual hoodie character, looking defeated: "Yeah, that's why I don't get it, isn't it..."

Arguably sharing this conversation just for the conclusion but yeah

#asexual #hearmeoutcake #sexrepulsed #ace

A comic titled "Suburbia is scary (1)". It starts with narration as follows: "Before I arrived, my partner (who lived with their parents then) did the hard work of looking for a place for us." A character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag is seen videochatting through a laptop with their partner. The partner is saying from the screen: "I found another interesting apartment listing! Lemme show it to you!" The French character replies: "Oh?", before crossing her fingers and thinking to herself: "Please not this time, please not this time, please not this time." The partner then declares: "Ah, there it is!" We don't yet see what the French character sees on the screen, but she screams "NO!" in despair. It is revealed that the apartment listing opens with the picture of a pool. The French character asks in a panicked tone: "Why do they all come with a pool?! It's just inflating rent for nothing!" The partner interjects: "That's just how it goes, I guess..." The French person responds: "It's not like we're gonna use it! I don't wanna swim with my neighbors!" The narration concludes: "So yeah, alas, we now live somewhere with a pool."

...Yeah I don't think I'll ever understand apartment complex pools.

#usa #france #california #cultureshock

A comic in simplified cartoony style, starting with the caption: "Applying for a marriage-based green card as an aromantic asexual feels weird." A character wearing a hoodie with the aromantic and asexual flag is seen sitting in curled-up position, thinking nervously: "What if we're not 'convincing enough' since our relationship isn't romantic or sexual in nature? What will the interview questions be like? My socials have been shared with immigration officers too and it's not like I'm not vocal about my orientation... What if we're misunderstood and it fucks us over?" A caption continues: "Until you remember that: a) Most people see queer platonic relationships as romance anyway." The character from before, now wearing a purple hoodie, is happily holding hands with her spouse, a character wearing a purple T-shirt. A nondescript observer thinks to themselves: "Ah... So they're in love." Another caption continues: "b) If you're aspec, a lot of people are gonna see you as gay anyway." The two characters are now seen talking to someone on the phone, who tells them: "You never know what kind of officer you'll get. It probably won't happen, but just in case... Expect possible homophobia." The spouse, looking a bit uncomfortable, simply says: "Oh". The character from the beginning, with the same expression, adds: "So the usual, I guess."

A continuation of the comic started in the previous image. A caption continues: "c) Most things can be seen as romantic in nature if you squint hard enough (and most people don't even need to squint that hard)." The two characters are now shown attending their green card interview. The officer first asks: "What did you do the last time you went out?" The character from the beginning thinks to herself, pleasantly surprised: "Oh... A very normal question..." The officer then asks: "When was the last time you had an argument?" The character, even more surprised, thinks: "Ooh... Very normal again..." A caption concludes: "So... Yeah, the same misunderstandings as usual will happen, but instead of making life more difficult, they're ironically pretty useful this time." The character from the beginning, now wearing the aromantic-asexual-flag-colored hoodie again, smiles to herself, going: "Huh".

...Dunno where I was going with this exactly

...Anyway, stray thoughts

...Maybe it's some weird karma or something idek

#aromantic #asexual #aroace

A comic titled "Immigration is fun (1)", featuring a character wearing an outfit with the French flag colors (which will from now on be described as the French character). Panel 1: Narration: "Prepping for fiance visa interview with the attorney." The French character is shown speaking on the phone, hastily agreeing with a voice coming from the phone giving rapid-fire advice as follows: "Learn your partner's phone number, zip code and address by heart! Dress formally! Speak the truth, but keep it snappy and simplify the facts if needed! And don't look nervous!" Panel 2: Narration: "Showing up for the interview." The French character is seen dressed formally, shivering in anxiety. She's holding two heavy-looking folders, described by a caption as "two full folders of evidence of our identities and relationship", and one bag with more papers in it, described as "photo album of 50 pictures of times spent together in different places". Panel 3: Narration: "How the interview actually went." The French character, still holding the folders and bag, is speaking to an American agent. The agent asks: "How many times have you met up physically?" The French person replies: "Eight. I have copies of our plane tickets if..." The agent interrupts: "That's fine. You're approved." A closing caption concludes with: "It lasted 5 minutes."

To this day I still don't know if that's par for the course or if I just happened to be really lucky. Probably the latter.

(Also reminder that I have a comic called "A Parisian In Cali" that I post on Webtoon and Tapas on Thursdays now! And this is part of it 🙈)

#immigration #france #usa

Page 1 of a comic featuring a character wearing a hoodie with the French flag colors, which will from now on being referred to as "the French person". Panel 1: Narration: "So here's something I've been getting a lot." A speech bubble coming from several people is addressed to the French person, as follows: "You sure chose the worst time to move to the US!" Panel 2: The French person cracks a cynical smile, thinking: "Right. Chose." This panel triggers a flashback which continues until the end of the full comic. Panel 3: Time card: "2017." Narration: "Started a long-distance queerplatonic relationship with a friend from California met online a year prior." The French person is seen talking with the Californian person in question via video call on a computer. Narration: "They're amazing. It's amazing." Panel 4: Time card: "2018." The French person and the Californian person are seen hugging. Narration: "I visit California and we meet IRL for the first time. It's great. We plan to meet again some time in 2020, to give me time to save the money to travel this far again. (Money got twice as tight in Europe post-2008.)"

Page 2 of the comic started in the previous image. Panel 1: Time card: "2020-2021." The Californian person and the French person are seen trying to communicate through a paper cup phone, but the line has been cut with scissors left on the floor. Both are tearing up. Narration: "In reaction to Covid, the US government banned travelers from several countries, including France, from entering the US, with only spouses and immediate relatives of citizens exempt. The ban lasts 605 days. By spring 2021, I snap and spend 3 months' salary on a 2-week trip to a non-banned country, so I can finally get to visit again. By late 2021, with still no end to the travel ban in sight, I'm thinking of ending things." Panel 2: The Californian person and the French person are seen exchanging rings in front of the Eiffel tower, shedding happy tears. Narration: "In fall 2021, my partner traveled overseas alone for the first time to see me. They got us promise rings. So that a travel ban could never separate us again, if it were to happen again, we decided to get married, but not until four years later, so as to get our lives together a bit more and save some money for those plans.

Page 3 of the comic started in the two previous images. Panel 1: Time card: "2022." Narration: "Due to my partner not speaking French, and due to the US having more of the geopolitical power to possibly put up another travel ban in the future, we concluded it'd be best for me to be the one to move to the US." The Californian person and the French person are seen looking at a graph, with concern. The graph shows two lines, a short one and a long one. The short line is captioned: "Immigration timeline pre-pandemic." The long one, which is 4 times longer than the short one, is captioned "Immigration timeline post-pandemic." Narration: "Tricky part: the pandemic-related travel bans and lockdowns created a backlog in immigration cases, making the immigration process go from a few months to possibly years. Panel 2: Time card: "2024." Narration: "Since we figured it'd take a while, I proposed during a visit in January, and we got to work." The French person and the Californian person are seen holding hands, sharing a decided look. The French person says "Let's do this!", and the Californian person nods in approval. Panel 3: Narration: "In April, after months of paperwork and trying to get a hold of the immigration attorney my partner found, our fiance-based immigration case is sent to US immigration services." The French person is seen holding a phone to their ear, sighing in relief, saying: "Finally!"

Page 4 of the comic started in the three previous images. Last page of said comic. Panel 1: Narration: "In June, our case is approved to move forward, and I panic a little, 'cus ironically it's moving faster than I thought and the impending huge life change hits hard." The French person is seen sitting curled up on the floor, looking scared and pensive. Panel 2: Narration: "In October, our case has been transferred to the visa center. After weeks of paperwork and trying to get a hold of the immigration attorney, I can finally schedule a visa interview." The French person is seen with a panicked look on their face. An arrow pointing to them adds the following caption: "I panic again 'cus the interview day is after our supposed case deadline." Panel 3: Narration: "In December 2024, I'm granted a fiance visa. It expires less than 6 months later, which means I have until May 2025 to move to the US." The French person is putting their firsts up in the air in celebration, shouting: "Holy crap! It took forever, but we can get married next year like we wanted! USA, here I come..." Panel 4: Before they can finish their last sentence, the French person turns to a map-like depiction of the USA, showing the country up in flames. They give it a puzzled look, commenting: "Wow, what the hell?"

Sorry it took me forever to share this one here TwT And sorry it's so wordy. But yeah, hopefully that can be informative.

#usimmigration #immigration #france

A comic depicting a character dressed in a neutral outfit, having a friendly chat with another character dressed in a purple T-shirt, to symbolize their asexuality. The character in a neutral outfit says: "Y'know, I keep hearing that asexuals will often read or write the kinkiest stuff out there..." The character in a purple T-shirt smiles and replies: "Ye, it's just a lot of fun to explore!" A voice from a character off-screen interrupts with: "I don't..." The second panel of the comic pans the camera to reveal another character wearing a purple top, giving a cynical grin to the other two as they say: "I'm one of the bad ones." A narration line concludes at the end of the comic with the following sentence: "So I've realized we can now play 'good ace bad ace' with my spouse."

...No one asked me probably, but y'know... Gotta still live by the horror allegations somehow /hj

#asexual #ace

A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag. A narration box states: "A couple months ago." The character is thinking to herself: "Now that I've made it from France to the US and I'm in immigration limbo, I could draw comics to show what the paperwork, the processes and the culture shock are like." She then interrupts herself, thinking: "Ah, nah... Nah, wait a sec. Might be a good idea to wait until you're OUT of immigration limbo before venting. Just in case." A final narration box explains: "US immigration fun fact #1: The government keeps track of your social media as evidence until your green card is approved."

...Well, mostly, the main reason why it took me so long to draw this is that I'm a lazy procrastinator who takes forever to get started...

This is the start of a new series of comics I'm making called "A Parisian in Cali", also available on Webtoon and Tapas! We'll see how that goes

#usimmigration

A cartoon-style drawing of 2 ghosts sitting on tree stumps, roasting marshmallows on tree sticks over a campfire at night. One of the ghosts is wearing a cowboy hat and carries a pink toy gun in a holster. The other, slightly taller than the first, is wearing a scarecrow hat with fabric patches.

Happy Halloween 🔥 (Sorry I got kinda lazy on that one TwT)

#halloween #ghost

A comic titled "Two ace partners in married life (again)". Two characters wearing purple T-shirts (one wearing a T-shirt and glasses, the other wearing a hoodie) are browsing through a bookshop while the shopkeeper watches over them. The character with the glasses asks, "Got everything you need, beloved?", and the one wearing the hoodie nods. The shopkeeper happily interjects: "Aah! I knew I remembered you guys! You call her "beloved"! It's so sweet!" The character with the glasses looks surprised but amused, and concedes: "Guess I'm a bit old-fashioned like that..." A closing narration bubble concludes: "So I guess we count as regulars at the local bookshop now."

A comic following the previous image, with the same two main characters. The first row of the comic shows them lying on the ground deep in thought. A narration bubble explains: "Shortly after our wedding, we were taking things in and thinking about the gifts we got." The character with the glasses asks: "What are we gonna do with all the champagne?" then facepalms distressedly, screaming: "Aaah!" in despair. The character with the hoodie laughs and comments: "Saying it like it's such a bad thing to have..." Another narration bubble concludes: "My spouse isn't a heavy drinker." The second row of the comic shows the character with the glasses holding the other's hands and commenting: "Ooh! Your hands are so cold!" They then place the other character's two hands on their face, saying: "I want it on my face. Give." Shortly after, they push them away, stating: "...OK, now they're too warm, I don't want it anymore", prompting a laugh from the other character.

A comic following the two previous ones, this time titled "Things my spouse once said with little to no context." The character with the glasses is show stating the following in order: "I just wanna smooch you like a little guy!" "You have cute bones." "What, you don't do things at night?" "I'm a young adult. I can have cookies now."

Kinda random slice-of-lifey, and I'm a bit late by now, but I wanted to wrap up ace week by sharing a lil bit more of my married life with my queerplatonic partner, so there we go.

Hope you guys had a good one^^

#asexual #queerplatonicrelationship

The first page of a comic depicting 4 characters. One is wearing the asexual flag as a bandana, one is wearing the aromantic flag as a hoodie, and the other two are nondescript. Asexual character: Guys! It's amazing! Aromantic character: This character's canonically asexual / aromantic ! Nondescript character A: Awh, bummer... (Asexual character and aromantic character look confused.) Nondescript character B: I mean, they won't have sex nor be involved in romance, so, y'know... There won't be anything interesting about 'em... Asexual character: OK, first of all, ouch. Second, that's a reductive view. Asexuality and aromanticism don't imply one another, and also, they're spectrums. Some asexuals aren't OK with having sex, others are. Same with romance for aromantics. The main common denominator is pretty much not needing it as much as– Nondescript character A, cutting them off: Whoa, whoa, hold up.

The second page of a comic depicting 4 characters. One is wearing the asexual flag as a bandana, one is wearing the aromantic flag as a hoodie, and the other two are nondescript. Nondescript character A: So you're saying... Asexuals can have sex? Nondescript character B: And aromantics can have romance? Asexual character: Some, yes. Nondescript character A, happily: So that means... Nondescript character B, also happily: They CAN be relatable! All we have to do is not focus on the parts of them that are different from us... Nondescript character A: ...And ship 'em like everyone else using the parts that interest us!! Asexual character: Wha- Wait, that's not... Nondescription characters A and B cheer: "It's a spectrum!" in the background, while the asexual and the aromantic character look dejected. Asexual characters: Should I just have said nothing? Aromantic character: Nah, that was fair... We just can't win is all.

The first page of a comic depicting 4 characters. One is wearing the asexual flag as a bandana, one is wearing the aromantic flag as a hoodie, and the other two are nondescript. Asexual character: Guys! It's amazing! Aromantic character: This character's canonically asexual / aromantic! Nondescript character A: ...That pretty much passes for straight puritan, right? Nondescript character B: Yeah... So I'm gonna write them as gay instead. Makes for better representation. Nondescript character A: It's only fair.

Day 3 of #aceweek and day I-don't-know-how-many of me trying to best articulate the issues I have with how asexual and aromantic characters are treated in fandom, forever hoping to get the point across

#asexual #aromantic #shipping

A comic showing a character wearing the aromantic-asexual flag, deep in thought. Narration bubbles read as follows: "Queer reading is often conflated with homosexual reading, which is fair enough I guess." The character then breaks the fourth wall, looking at the audience. The narration bubbles continue: "But please consider that for some of us, queer reading can also mean characters not needing romance or sex for their journeys to be complete, and friendship or personal passions being enough." The character the looks unamused. The narration continues: "Oh, and before anyone's tempted to conflate THAT with homophobia, that reading applies just as much to opposite-gender pairings. So... Nah."

Of course personally I don't even let myself partake in queer reading from an ace lens because my hopes are that down the drain to begin with...

Anyway happy first day of #aceweek

#asexual #aromantic

A comic in 2 panels. The first panel starts with the caption: "Perks of being married to another ace person – now people can't look at me and think:" Three people are seen looking at the first-person character, who's walking around wearing an aromantic-asexual-flag-colored outfit. They are shown thinking the following in speech bubbles: "Guess she's up for grabs, huh. Her life must be so lonely and sad. Someone should fix her." The second panel starts with the caption: "Risks of being married to another ace person – now people may look at us and think:" The same three people are seen looking at the first-person character walking hand-in-hand with their spouse (pointed out as being non-binary), both wearing a queer-platonic-flag-colored outfit. They are shown thinking the following in speech bubbles: "Guess they were lesbians all along, huh. Her life is finally in order. Oh, good, someone fixed her." In between parenthesis under the second panel, a caption says: "The perks still outweigh the risks, but you know."

–People should mind their own business anyway.

–But they never do, do they.

#asexual #queerplatonic #qpr #aroace

A blue monochromatic drawing of a short character wearing a traditional Breton hat and playing a celtic harp.

A drawing of an original character cosplaying as Kasane Teto in the outfit she wears in JamieP's "Birdbrain" music video.

Some OC art made over last summer (Yeah I modeled my own appearance in my comics over an OC of mine and not the other way around, go fig huh)

#harp #birdbrain #breton #ocart #originalcharacter

A drawing of two people embracing and crying happily, with a green background and the caption "I got my green card".

A comic following up on the previous image, depicting one of the character involved in the hug. It starts with a caption stating: "I texted my partner the news while they were at work." The character is holding their phone which displays the following message: "Hell yeah, beloved! Have some celebratory walking-on-fall-leaves noises!" A video seems to be attached to the message. The next panel show the character listening to "crunch" noises playing from their phone, looking very happy.

So yeah!! Now I'm in the fumbling-to-get-a-social-security-number and jobseeking phases, which I both dread a little bit, but by golly they're necessary, it's gonna help to be able to secure more funds TwT