Archive of Our Own ^beta

Notes:

For annunziatina (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵), who requested the bar scenes with Isobel and Michael and later on with Maria and Alex. If anyone has a request for a scene with or without text, I’m happy to oblige.

(I made four and gave each one its own chapter because I like to give them titles)

Notes:

My friend sent me this link and so of course I had to make a graphic out of one of the MANY awesome things that Michael Vlamis and Tyler Blackburn had to say about their canon couple status and how it went for them filming the first season.

https://youtu.be/DiU_Pl35GIc
 
The text in this one is Michael’s response to the interviewer asking them how they feel about already having (and knowing!) the official shipper name Malex.

Well, Michael, if you say so, we’ll be only too happy to oblige ♥

Notes:

Happy Birthday annunziatina! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Notes:

I found more smiles!

Notes:

Snow day = Malex arting ♥

Notes:

For annunziatina, who’s feeling under the weather. Hope you feel better soon!╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

I named this one Laser Tag Night because it looks like they stopped to get their picture taken while enjoying a night out on the town.

Pssst! Some lovely Malex fan *coughbgncough* could write a little scene to go with this Polaroid... y’know... for something fun to do while we wait for Tuesday Roswell Day... just a thought. ;) <3

Notes:

Alex wasn’t in episode 4 😢, so this is how I’m coping 😉.

Notes:

♥ Words and image come from a journal entry by Tyler Blackburn entitled By Tyler: A Renewed Sense of Purpose

Notes:

♥ Words and image come from a journal entry by Tyler Blackburn entitled By Tyler: A Renewed Sense of Purpose

Notes:

Part one of my contribution to International Fanworks Day (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Part two of my contribution to International Fanworks Day (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Notes:

Just had to do something with this screenshot ♥

Notes:

Was supposed to be asleep an hour ago. Made this instead. Such a rebel.

Notes:

Lyrics are from Amazed by Lonestar.

Notes:

Chapter title comes from You Fill My Heart by Jason Walker.

Quote used is from the show.

Notes:

Alex is looking mighty fine in that silver jacket with that white shirt and leather tie. ♥

Things I noticed about this scene and therefore tried to incorporate into this graphic:
* when Alex exits the building to walk away from Kyle, he is walking towards where Michael and Max are standing, so they are over his right shoulder when he turns around to confront Kyle
* when Kyle makes his euphemism about tacos and hotdogs, it seems as though he might be looking over Alex’s right shoulder
* Kyle appears to be shorter than Alex as well as Max *snerk*
* when they start throwing punches, Michael races over to protect separate Alex from Kyle while Max just stands there doing his best stunned codfish impression
* Michael doesn’t let go until Alex moves out of reach to straighten up and wipe his mouth, all the while looking as though he’s trying to decipher a code hidden in Michael’s eyes
* Michael just waits him out, a lot of patience for a seventeen-year-old
* when Alex leaves, he brushes by so closely to Michael’s chest and shoulders that I couldn’t even get a still of him that wasn’t blurred by the camera, and yet Michael doesn’t move to get out of his way

Notes:

Couldn’t resist one more before bed ^^ is it just me or does Michael look reminiscent of a renaissance painting or marble statue in this pose?

Chapter title comes from First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes. Lyrics come from I’m The Only One by Melissa Etheridge.

Notes:

Happy Roswell Day! ♥

Notes:

had to do one more because I like this phrase

Notes:

For bgn (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Notes:

For bgn ☆彡

Notes:

For annunziatina ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Notes:

For annunziatina (=^ェ^=)

Notes:

A little Alex doodle <3

Title and lyrics from Jumper by Third Eye Blind.

Notes:

Title is from First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes. Quote is from the interwebs.

Notes:

For bgn ✿

Title and lyrics from It’s Been Awhile by Staind

Notes:

For annunziatina ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡, to whom I promised some graphics to accompany Michael’s song for Alex in her fic, “Skin”.

Chapter title and lyrics belong to Iris by Goo Goo Dolls

Notes:

Six times that Michael hasn’t looked away over the past ten years.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

I wanted to try my hand at writing a meta post! I've read lots of them over the years and thought this would be a fun one to do ^^.

I originally learned about blinking being related to certain cognitive processes from this Stucky post a few years ago when Captain America: The Winter Soldier came out. When I watched S1E7: I Saw the Sign, and we found out that Max already knew about Michael and Alex (ostensibly, I am told, from the look on Max's face during the prom scene when Michael separates Alex from Kyle. Although, the more gif sets I see where people have pointed out just how public the two of them have been, the more I get it), the gifs pasted below that I have borrowed from here and here reveal that Michael seems to have a very similar experience to the one Bucky had when he saw Steve on the bridge and was trying to figure out if he remembered him later.

Michael has just told Max that he and Isobel made the executive decision to send Liz away so that Max wouldn't cave and tell her their secret. Max fires back and hits Michael right where it hurts the most: his heart. What if it had been Alex Manes? In the first set of three gifs below, you see that Michael is speechless. The gifs are set to less than normal speed, so it's not super easy to tell, but he starts blinking rapidly (and you can see it more easily at normal speed when you watch the show). In the second set of three gifs below, Max digs the knife in a little deeper by asking What if the reason Alex left town that summer was me? Michael has looked down and away to his left (which I have often heard is where we look when we're trying to remember something; pretty sure it's to the left...) and when he finally manages to find his voice, he asks quietly, How long you known about that? and he's still blinking rapidly. Not until Max gives him his non-answer, which seems to solidify Michael's resolve to just raise his head high and own it, does Michael's blinking return to normal, and he answers Max's questions.

I find the science behind what happened in this scene to be quite fascinating. The quotes I'm using here are borrowed straight from the Stucky post I mentioned above, not from first-hand research, just FYI, so if anyone knows that any of this is erroneous, please tell me, I don't mind being corrected, as long as it's done politely.

Blinking (aside from its physical requirement of keeping the eye moist) is related to certain cognitive processes; most people punctuate their speech with blinking between phrases and at the ends of sentences. People also time blinking so as not to interfere with receiving new cognitive input (less blinking while they’re solving a problem, for instance, and then blinking more when they’re done). This regular blink rate is what we see when the characters are having normal everyday conversations.

A 1933 study showed that the rate of blinking was low during tasks requiring concentration and intense mental activity. However, “unfocused or rapidly changing internal states such as disorientation, emotional excitement, frustration, and anxiety seem to be associated with high rates of blinking.”Those descriptors "emotional excitement" and "anxiety" are the ones that I feel ramped up Michael's blinking as soon as Alex's name came off Max's lips. Not emotional excitement in a positive way, but more like an alarm sounded in Michael's head because he probably hadn't heard Max say his name in ten years, and certainly wasn't expecting it during this argument, so not only did it catch him off guard, but the anxiety of the context in which Alex's name was used just made his eyelids go a little crazy as his brain tripped over itself trying not to panic as to how Max knew about them. One of my favorite things about this scene is that Michael never denies his love for Alex, even in the face of what he's likely fearing from Max in the way of a negative reaction. Ugh, consider my heartstrings tugged.

Ok, last quote. “While searching one’s memory for a name, one tends not to blink; then, when the name is located, blinking occurs.” Michael makes his decision to admit that, with the shoe on the other foot, he would have hated Max for sending Alex away to war. He actually barely blinks for the rest of their scene. Solid eye contact. Michael tends to be very direct with his eye contact, I've noticed. Especially when he's talking to Alex.

And that's all she wrote! Intriguing meta is intriguing ^^.

Notes:

For bgn (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) who requested this song

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song Something Good from the musical The Sound of Music

Notes:

For bgn (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) for whom I am having way too much fun enabling her requesting habit

Lyrics belong to the song Hopelessly Devoted to You from the musical Grease.

Notes:

For annunziatina (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) who deserves ALL the hugs.

Chapter title comes from the movie Lilo & Stitch

Notes:

For stormy (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) who thought this would be a nice Malex song.

Chapter title and lyrics belong to The Reason by Hoobastank.

Notes:

For bgn (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) who requested this song and who also shared her find of TB’s lovely backside in her most recent chapter, which I thought was a rather apropos addition here so I borrowed it.

Chapter title and lyrics belong to the song Joker by Steve Miller Band.

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics belong to I’m Yours by Jason Mraz

The binary star system superimposed over Michael’s heart is R Aquarii. The comet and surrounding stars superimposed over the rest of the frame is Comet Iwamoto flying through the constellation Auriga the Charioteer.

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics belong to Shaking by Melissa Etheridge

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics belong to I Know You by Melissa Etheridge

Notes:

Lyrics come from the song Safe sung by Tyler Blackburn and Cheyenne Jackson in the musical Hello Again.

You can watch TB's two parts in the musical here.

Notes:

Chapter title comes from the song White Flag by Dido.

Notes:

Chapter title comes from the song In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel.

Notes:

Brain short-circuited
That mouth is a work of art
Lucky ice cream cone

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

My heart really went out to Alex in the finale. He’s trying to reconcile this huge turn of events in his life, and on a personal level he’s had a really hard time coming to terms with how Michael fits into his life after everything they’ve been through.

As sad as it was to see that Michael and Alex aren’t on the same page right now, which is understandable, the important takeaway for me was that Alex has declared that he wants to fight and win his own battles in his personal as well as his professional life and he even put on his own brand of armor to do it: a black biker jacket and beautiful red shirt underneath.

One of the battles he wants to win is Michael’s heart and he’s prepared to wait for Michael to come to his own terms about how Alex could fit into his life in a post-Sarge/past-nightmares world.

I hope we get to learn more about what Alex’s hopes and dreams are for his future and get to know who he is as a person more in Season Two. ♥♥

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics belong to Lay Me Down by Sam Smith.

I heard this song for the first time the other day and it, as most things do lately, reminded me of Malex ♥

Notes:

For Stormy (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵), who wanted some pretty things to look at while she's at work.

Notes:

annunziatina sent me these photos of Tyler because she's made of win and I colored them and then I realized that they could contribute to alexmanesweek2019 as slice-of-life pictures of Alex being his awesome self so ta-da! ♥

Notes:

The fabulous annunziatina and I have concocted some of our own Incorrect Roswell, New Mexico captions for your viewing pleasure (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)...

Notes:

Well this seems an apropos selection for my 69th chapter *snerk*

I have one graphical Incorrect Roswell New Mexico caption for that first bunker scene in 1x08 and one written one.

~*~

Alex has hacked into the computer system and a few minutes later “I kissed a boy and I liked it...” starts playing on repeat through the computer speakers. He gets up, grabs his backpack, mock-salutes Sarge, and starts heading out. He hears the slightly-panicked voice of Sarge calling out, “Alex!... Alex?... Son?!” but he just keeps on walking. The bunker door locks with a satisfying CLICK.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

And eleventy billion years later... more incorrect Roswell captions! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Chapter title comes from the song Complicated by Avril Lavigne.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Chapter title comes from the song To Make You Feel My Love by Mick McAuley and Winifred Horan

Notes:

For Stormy (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵).

Notes:

For my bestie, annunziatina (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵).

Lyrics come from the song Give Me The Night by Des Rocs.

Seriously, the D/s writes itself: these lyrics are from the song Michael is actually listening to on the radio as he drives up to his Airstream where Alex is putting up the eviction notice. So I just let the lyrics speak for themselves... <3

Notes:

Someone mentioned that Michael and Alex’s heads formed a heart shape during the reunion kiss so I took it upon myself to make an artistic inquiry.

Notes:

Happy Pride Month, Tyler! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Chapter title comes from the song Stay A Little Longer by bros Osborne.

Notes:

For bgn (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song Heard It In A Love Song by Marshall Tucker Band

Notes:

for bgn (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵), who requested this song, and a lovely one it is, too; I had fun picking out the images to go with the lyrics.

This chapter also serves as my post for Day 1 of Roswell New Mexico Week 2019. Edit prompt: Smells like Teen! Roswell New Mexico.

Chapter title and lyrics belong to the song Looking for Love by Johnny Lee

Notes:

For Roswell New Mexico Week 2019: Day 5 - Scenery Porn/RNM Locations

I love the grandeur of the wide open space in which Michael has been living when the show starts so I wanted to share these four frames of the beautiful scenery in the background... and the foreground (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵).

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics belong to I Don't Know by Celine Dion.

Notes:

For annunziatina (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵). She sent me a link to view these photos and this fluffy drabble was my only method of responding <3

Thanks to Lire_Casander for posting the complete photoset here

The sunset and Milky Way background images are courtesy of Google image search.

Notes:

This illustrated drabble, which is a continuation of the story from chapter 80 where Michael and Alex go away for the weekend, was inspired by this gif here.

Notes:

My contribution to Michael Guerin Week 2019 ♥

Title and lyrics come from the beautiful song, I Found by Amber Run. If you'd like to have a listen, the band did a rendition of their song with a group called London Contemporary Voices, using an old church for acoustics. They did a masterful job with voice control and harmonies as background to the Amber Run singers. The tension builds during the song and I had goosebumps by the end.

I feel that this song befits Michael well: it starts out quiet and understated, a cappella, and builds into a slow crescendo with background vocals, snapping, and stomping, the words carrying the weight of the song, of love traveling through time and space.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

The cast of RNM was at NYCC2019 today and I appreciate all of the lovely photos and videos that grá sonas shared with us, thank you! 🤗

The quote used below came from here and the original photo came from here.

Notes:

Screenshot was taken from this lovely little video interview at NYCC 2019.

Notes:

I saw this "I want a baby" meme in another fandom and thought it would be a fun thing to do for Flufftober here. I kept thinking of different responses for Michael and there's a bonus Mylex one at the end :).

The text-only version expanded to all of the RNM ships is here.

Notes:

Some photographs are iconic...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Next up in my Keep Calm series, this one was inspired by a sweet, interesting story called A Conversation Between Insignificant Others, by bellakitse.

Gifset from which I pulled the screenshots came from dailyalexmanes.

Notes:

I'm so tired but I can't sleep
Standin' on the edge of something much too deep
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but oh we can't be heard

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song I Will Remember You by Sarah McLachlan, which fits very nicely in the pantheon of 90's songs dedicated to the musical resonance of this show <3.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Playing around with all the photo-editing apps on my phone to make my version of abstract-ish fanart.

Notes:

🥺 Is it March yet? 👽❤️🤠

Chapter title comes from the movie Men in Black.

Photo Credits (in descending order of images below; all screenshots are by me):
Lightning Strikes Twice
Live Free or Die
Michael's Heartbeat (I made this gif, all by myself ^^)
Interstellar Traveler
You're My North Star
Total Eclipse of the Heart - I took this photo of the lunar eclipse back in January, a few days after the show premiered <3

Notes:

My headcanon for this chapter was inspired by the headcanon of an author who wrote a fic about the OG show many moons ago wherein the aliens can put their thoughts to paper in more ways than one.

☆彡

Michael and Alex have been in a healthy, communicative relationship for five years now and have weathered many a new storm and occasionally raised hell to keep old aches from causing new bruises. Michael has developed a few new tricks for his telekinesis and on Christmas morning he gifts Alex a pretty wooden picture frame.

When Alex asks why there’s nothing developed on the Polaroid paper he can see nestled inside, Michael winks at him and asks for Alex’s hand. With one of his own pressing those long, musical fingers securely over Michael’s heart, he spreads the palm of his other hand over the glass of the picture frame and bids Alex close his eyes.

They enter the dreamscape and Michael asks Alex to concentrate on a memory of their time together that he would like to see reflected in the photo frame to go side-by-side with one Michael will choose at the same time, but without peeking, so to speak. He’s interested to see which memory stands out to each of them.

Alex, though well-versed in the quotidian use of Michael’s alien powers by now, has to take a couple of deep calming ohm breaths to contain his excitement at this new power so he can follow Michael’s instructions. A warm surge of images comes washing over them from both sides, sending up a tsunami of memories to crash upon the shore of Michael’s mind.

As the photographic tide rolls back out into the cosmic sea, two memories stick in the sand and sink down down down, unseen. Michael closes his eyes and concentrates on returning Alex to his body.

He re-opens them to focus in on the most beautiful sight in the world: Alex grinning back at him, gamely waiting for Michael to reorient himself on this plane before looking down.

On the count of three, they both look down and gasp in tandem at what they see...

Later that evening as they sip egg nog and watch the snow floating under the glow from the exterior cabin night light while listening to the light snores of Trixie chasing who-knows-what in her dreams, Alex describes what decorations he wants and Michael modifies the molecular structure of the chemicals in the Polaroid paper to a precise degree.

When they’re finished, the frame floats up to sit on the mantelpiece over the crackling fire, smiling down at them from the past, watching over their future together.

Notes:

For annunziatina ♥ who asked for snow and hand-holding. I made a moodboard of sorts, with lyrics from Dido's song Take My Hand which also feature in this chapter's title. Moodboards tell a story, right? I'm kind of new to moodboards, but that was my goal with this one, an AU of Michael and Alex's first time.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

It's time for more Incorrect RNM!

Chapter title is from the song The Run and Go by Twenty One Pilots, which happened to be playing at the precise moment I was trying to think of a title for this chapter... spooky.

Notes:

An Incorrect RNM for the reunion talk scene. (Read top to bottom then left to right)

Chapter title comes from the song Trouble - Stripped by Halsey, also playing while I was uploading this chapter. Hmmmm...

Notes:

Incorrect RNM for the Cosmic Conversation scene in 1x09. Inspiration for this one came from this cute Stucky post.

Chapter title comes from the song The Air that I Breathe by The Hollies.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Incorrect RNM - you know Michael was itching to say something else, this is where my gutter brain went ^^.

Notes:

Six-word stories, Part the First. Chapter title consists of the one-word prompts for each story below, respectively. This was fun to do. Feel free to drop a word or picture prompt in the comments if you like.

Notes:

Six word stories, Part the Second.

Notes:

Happy 100th chapter of beauteous Malex fanart, everyone! All my ♥ to my bestie annunziatina, bgn, didou180386, stormy, and everyone else who has left me kudos and comments.

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song 100 Years by Five for Fighting, courtesy of bgn's awesome taste in music.

Enjoy the S2 Premiere on Malex Monday! 👽❤️🤠

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

*rubs hands together gleefully* I am so happy to have new screencaps to play with you don't even KNOW, guys 😆.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song These Eyes by The Guess Who

 

These eyes, cry every night for you
These arms, long to hold you again

The hurting's on me, yeah
I will never be free, no, my baby, no no
You gave a promise to me, yeah
You broke it, and you broke it, oh no

These eyes, are crying
These eyes have seen a lot of loves
But they're never gonna see another one like I had with you

Notes:

I've been sitting on this song for months waiting for S2 to start up so I could use these lyrics :P

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song Talk Me Down by Troye Sivan.

Notes:

Screenshot of Vlamis lying on the floor in an airport for reasons known only to him comes from here.
Starry night amongst the trees background comes from here.

Notes:

For bgn, my haiku buddy 🤓

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Had to add this gem to our Keep Calm series 😜

Notes:

2x03 was a challenge for me as a graphic artist because the Malex scenes were shot inside a dark cave and at night next to a firepit, so please excuse the poor quality of the screencaps, I did the best I could trying to bring out some contrast 😅.

Background 1, Background 2, Background 3, Background 4; chapter title comes from the poem Starlight Night by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Notes:

I was listening to my favorite Sarah McLachlan album, Surfacing, this weekend et voilà. Chapter title and lyrics come from her song, I Love You.

Let me surround you
My sea to your shore
Let me be the calm you seek

Notes:

I would include the credit for this lovely bts photo of Vlamburn but I can't find it in my Likes and I can't go out onto the homefeed page right now because they're already posting gifs from tonight's episode, which I won't get to see until tomorrow morning, so! *insert credit here later* there we go. Maybe this will cure me of being a week behind with making graphics for each episode... Oh, and chapter title and lyrics come from one of my favorite 90's Disney movies, Aladdin.

Notes:

Chapter title comes from the eponymous song in the Disney animated feature Tarzan for which Phil Collins wrote all that awesome music <3.

The top one is silly because I ended up with a screenshot of Alex with his eyes closed and then noticed that Michael looked a little puzzled in the one after that and then Alex opened his eyes and looked expectantly at him and Michael gave him a deadpan 'just gotta rub it in dontcha' look and yeah. Poor Michael ;)

The bottom one is an excerpt of one of my favorite quotes, the entirety of which goes a little something like this:

If you love something let it go
If it comes back to you it's yours
If it doesn't it never was

Notes:

So many beauteous moments in this episode I felt that they deserved moodboard status so behold!

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song Monsters by Katie Sky. As soon as I saw this astrophotograph I knew I wanted to use it as a background because a) it has 'Malex stargazing up at it' written all over it and 2) it's just really flippin' cool <3.

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song BITE by Troye Sivan. This graphic set was a *joy* to stare at make.

Notes:

Forrest's poetry slam spoke to me but more in terms of Alex and where he is at this point in his life - a precipice, an open field, a thicket, a desert - he is the creator of his own path.

Words below are from the show.

Notes:

Here is the project I’ve been working on all week. It is a culmination of getting new filters to play with in my photo-editing app, wanting to use my desktop programs to utilize more fonts and effects, and researching the origins of a famous Irish love song from the early 19th century that I really like.

There are twelve photos here, one for each stanza (or when the POV changes), but only four rotating filters because I wanted to stick to backgrounds that reflected the pre-industrial time period of the song. The photos are all portraits of Tyler and Vlamis this time because this particular filter only works on faces and it’s rare for TV characters to look straight at the camera.

The song, made famous (in a modern sense) by Sinéad O’Connor, is called Her Mantle So Green, a lyric video of which can be watched here. I have changed the pronouns around and retitled it His Tunic So Green for the purposes of this chapter. I have also adapted the words, where necessary, to befit a 19th century Malex tale of romance; otherwise they are from the original song, which can be read here, along with an interesting tale of how supernatural elements play a part more in this particular song than in others of its time.

The original song has more stanzas and reads more like a complete poem than does Sinéad’s song, which is beautifully lyrical and has a repeating rhythm to it that I find very soothing. The original also keeps to a more defined pattern of 12-11-11-12 syllables, which I have maintained here.

I had a lot of fun adapting this song into a tale of love lost and found between a soldier and the lover he left behind to go fight in the Battle of Waterloo, which took place in 1815 near the eponymous village (in modern-day Belgium) where British and Prussian forces sounded the death knell for any hope Napoleon Bonaparte had of recouping his power. One guess as to who fits The Little Corporal’s bill in this song...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

For Stormy 😘

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song Demons by Imagine Dragons. This band is so cool and their songs have such verve. I have a Malex playlist and this plus a handful more of their songs are on it because a lot of their themes speak to our boys' struggles and joys.

When the days are cold and the cards all fold
And the saints we see are all made of gold
When your dreams all fail and the ones we hail
Are the worst of all, and the blood's run stale

I wanna hide the truth, I wanna shelter you
But with the beast inside, there's nowhere we can hide
No matter what we breed, we still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come, this is my kingdom come

When you feel my heat, look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide
Don't get too close; it's dark inside
It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide

At the curtain's call it's the last of all
When the lights fade out, all the sinners crawl
So they dug your grave and the masquerade
Will come calling out at the mess you've made

Don't wanna let you down, but I am hell-bound
Though this is all for you, don't wanna hide the truth
No matter what we breed, we still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come, this is my kingdom come

When you feel my heat, look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide
Don't get too close; it's dark inside
It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide

They say it's what you make, I say it's up to fate
It's woven in my soul, I need to let you go
Your eyes, they shine so bright, I wanna save that light
I can't escape this now, unless you show me how

When you feel my heat, look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide
Don't get too close; it's dark inside
It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide.

Notes:

For annunziatina, who likes it when I Nintendo!Smash 🤓

I get inspired by the strangest things I'll tell ya. I was scrolling through Tumblr where I lurk like a lurking person who lurks and I came across this crazy-cool post about animals that glow under UV light. Down at the bottom of the post it turns out that humans also sport invisible stripes called Blaschko's Lines. It says these lines are formed as skin cells divide at the embryonic stage and can become visible to the naked eye when certain skin conditions follow these same lines.

The Nintendo!Smash part comes in when I opened one of my editing apps on my phone and started messing around with the screencap of Alex from 2x06 seen below. The only downside to this is I have no idea how I got this result or if I could replicate it 😅 but it's all good. He's pretty no matter how you slice him <3.

Notes:

This is a ship-and-let-ship 🙃 positive fanart space.

Chapter title comes from the song Into You by Ariana Grande because that's what I'm listening to right now and it feels appropriate ;)

I was having more fun with filters today:
* Panel 1 is Poster Edges which gives it a neat webcomic feel
* Panel 2 is Watercolor which gives it a cool underwater feel
* Panel 3 is Mosaic Tiles which gives it a textured brick feel

Notes:

Chapter title is a quote from Forrest and a lovely one at that. Alex is quick to assure him that's not the problem <3. I appreciate Forrest's chill. I feel like it's going to do wonders for Alex's anxieties surrounding this brave new world of stepping outside his closet, something that this time last year he probably would have considered impossible but is now something he can see on the horizon.

The beautiful space photo accompanying the first panel comes from here and is a protostar that is experiencing stellar outflow. In other words, it's a young star that is shining brighter as it grows, much like our captain here ♥

Notes:

I was so enamoured by this hopeful little Malex scene that after I finished screencapping it (I'll do another one with more caps in a bit) I completely forgot to screencap the conversation that followed it, hah. They are men of few words sometimes (maybe most times) but the words they do speak to each other carry a weight and settle in the other's stomachs, sticky and sweet. This moment felt like a turning point in their friendship. They're starting to reach out to each other when they need a shoulder to cry on and they're not blaming each other or themselves anymore as much for the travesties committed by/against their predecessors. I can't wait to see them start leaning on each other (more) for support so they can fight their battles together <3.

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song If You Want Me To by Ginny Owens, whose claim to fame regarding OG Roswell is the five seconds of instrumental music at the end of this song in the Blood Brother episode of season one. How's that for some trivia, huh? I'm actually listening to the OG soundtrack right now because Alex saying 'you asked me to' reminded me of this song and it gave me nostalgic feels. I tracked down a bunch of the songs from important moments during the episodes back in the day and this one came during the montage where Liz twisted her head to kiss Max over her shoulder where she was sitting in his lap during lunch at school. That was/is high romance for me, whoo boy.

Notes:

Panel 1: was fiddling with some brushes and made a coarse attempt at creating those corner holders for old photos; funnily enough all of the paintbrush groups are titled Kyle's Brushes
Panel 2: every now and again there'll be a frame of Michael and his curls that just need to be captured in nine different filters so that we can admire him and them in nine different ways ♥️

Notes:

Rather an apropos chapter title if you ask me, comes from the name of a movie from 1969.

I like what the filters did to the layers of light coming out of the lamp on the porch behind them. Such a quintessential cowboy look Michael has. And then there's Alex's smile. ♥

Notes:

You know what they say about good things coming in threes... 🥰

Photos come from here and here.

Notes:

This was a really sweet scene between Isobel and Michael! This is the I-would-have-your-baby-if-that's-what-you-need kind of best-friend relationship they have and look how cute Michael is here when Isobel pays him the biggest compliment a friend can give. Except that it's the other way around this time and Michael would *ahem* break out all the good stuff to help Isobel out if he could. Although we find out later in the episode that hybrid alien-human births are possible, the sentiment is still there 🤗.

Graphics-wise, I was having fun playing with splashes of the original color on a silver-tinted background so there's two layers to each of these screenshots.

Notes:

I hope we get to see more of Gregory Manes, I liked him. This was a really nice scene between two brothers who look like they'd enjoy catching up with each other, hopefully sometime soon.

Notes:

This is all Alex's fault. He had to go and purse his lips right when I was taking a screenshot which got me thinking of that classic Lauren Bacall line from the movie To Have and Have Not which then got me looking for other screenshots I'd already taken to see if I could incorporate a little story to go with it et voilà ♥ This scene was both very honest and very sad so I guess this was my way of trying to cheer myself up about it.

Chapter title belongs to the song "Give a Little Whistle" from the Disney movie Pinocchio

Notes:

Happy Pride Month 🌈 and Roswell Day!

These homemade alien pride icons are free for the taking, no credit necessary. If you have a custom request, just give me a holler!

Chapter title comes from the iconic song We Are Family by Sister Sledge.

Notes:

I would have posted these this weekend but I've been having connection issues :/

Anywho, I wanted to make a little homage post to the OG for 2x11 because of the cool scenes we got of Max and Kyle burying the old hatchet like they did in 1x13 - Blind Date during the first season of Roswell. 'Ships were born during that episode, folks! :) And I also liked the visual presentation of the opening scene of this episode so I thought these two panels would complement each other nicely.

And because Jason Behr and Nick Wechsler are both made of win, they reminisced about the very episode mentioned above and shared it with us! Behold the Nostalgic Feels ♥

Notes:

...like an alien lover scorned.

Oh, did I have fun making these panels or what. Michael's been waiting for ten years to defend Alex properly to Jesse Manes and this episode he got his chance. Michael is smarter than Jesse will ever be and he's also more human(e) than Jesse ever has been and that is what taking the high road looks like. I thought Vlamis did a superb job with that monologue, too. The chase scene where Michael catches up to Flint was pure BAMF awesomeness. Everyone else, take notes. Well, everyone except Alex since he wrote the book on being a BAMF ;)

Notes:

♥ Michael will always come for Alex ♥

Chapter title comes from the song of the same name in the musical Moulin Rouge.

Notes:

What if Isobel got her hands on some of Michael and Alex's clothes for a couple moments of levity? ;)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

For bgn <3 Well, this was certainly an interesting experiment! After several days of trial and error and ping-ponging around with the features of a couple of my photo-editing programs' latest updates, I present to you this animated gif of the Malex pilot kiss in front of a meteor shower background. One cool thing about the background is that I was able to superimpose it onto the screenshot of Michael and Alex, instead of the other way around, so it’s kind of like a green-screen effect. What is actually above them is a white background. Another cool thing is that the background came with the shooting stars and you can actually choose where they fall on the screen. There will be more to come with different effects as I get better at making these.

Chapter title comes from the song, Under Your Scars by Godsmack. Poetry belongs to Richard Siken.

Notes:

I've actually been sitting on this project for several months now, just waiting for the right visual inspiration to strike, I suppose, to accompany Vlamis' beautiful poems. I decided this week that a simple theme would best befit the lines he wrote that speak so frankly about the great experience he had working with Tyler this past season. I really like the ABCB rhyming scheme he uses here, subtle yet powerful.

Chapter title is a quote by Edgan Allan Poe, who was my favorite poet/author in high school.
Vlamis reciting 'A New Season'
Vlamis reciting 'Vulnerable Lover'
Vlamis being excited about left-hand placement

Notes:

Annnnnd two months later... finally took my 2x13 screencaps!

lookit, bgn, I used lyrics (for chapter title and below) from another Troye Sivan song :) This one is called Rager Teenager! and the stanza I used here really gave me Shed 2.0 vibes so I thought it was appropriate to incorporate a couple pics of their first time giving Uncle Tripp a free show, and then eleven years later, a different kind of show.

Notes:

Alex finally won the battle and the war against his father.

I played around with the natural color gradations and edges that came up to the surface after applying a few filters and like the way it turned out. Gives Alex a proper BAMF background for his last look on the man who wouldn't love his own son for who he is nor whom he loves.

Notes:

Here's the rest of the final showdown of the Last Manes Man vs. two brothers and an alien cowboy.

Chapter title is the Spanish version of the idiomatic phrase "Better late than never" and refers to Gregory's confession to Alex that he should have stood up for him a long time ago. Well, I say he's done a bang-up job of stepping in to help Alex out recently and he remains my favorite new character of season two. That last panel in the lower right is really powerful.

Notes:

...we just forget it because those with power here deal in fear rather than love. — “The Princess Bride”

I went and looked for a cursive font that would look appropriate to the handwriting of Tripp’s generation and found this pretty one. That was such a cool parallel and a precedent for the (good) Manes men to fall in love with aliens, who seem to imprint on human kindness. Really makes you wonder if Nora could somehow sense that Alex was a Manes when Michael inadvertently introduced him to his mother at Caulfield. When they connected through the glass, she probably learned all she needed to know about Alex to know that Michael was in good and true hands ♥

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

...Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. - Emily Brontë

I was trying out some more features of my new photo-editing app and thought this one looked nice for the way Alex and Michael share one of their profound bond moments. It kind of resembles an impressionist painting, at least to me anyway. I thought that whole scene in the Crashdown was really well-done, and now that I think of it, it's an interesting crossroads of the OG relationship of Alex/Isabel and the RNM relationship of Alex/Michael. I'm glad we finally got some group scenes by the end of season two and hope we get to see some scenes of the group just hanging out in season three.

Notes:

...suddenly everything changed. - "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes

While I was gathering together screencaps for the Shed 2.0 graphic, I was caught up by the sudden recall of the Bright Eyes song that plays in the UFO museum during their first kiss so I decided to make a tribute to the stanza of the song that we hear when Michael "talks" to Alex but overlaying it on one of their kisses in the shed because I like how tenderly Alex holds Michael like he just can't quite believe he's really here with him reciprocating his feelings ♥

Oh, and my brain now officially thinks of Michael whenever I read or hear about 'rain' ☔️ so that's a happy thing. And I like the wavy-glass effect that this graphic has, like the way it might look in their memories.

Notes:

My reason for posting this today and not yesterday: Like it says on the tin (the tin being the chapter title) (it has nothing to do with me not organizing my time better) (none whatsoever)

I think Bob Ross was def on to something when he coined the phrase 'happy little accidents' because I was just tinkering with one of my photo-editing apps when I happened to create a visual transfer process from a 'before' picture to an 'after' picture (filters having been previously applied elsewhere) by sliding the opacity bar from one end to the other. Then I remembered that I have a screen recording option on my phone so I took a short video of this process and then noodled my way into making a gif out of it 🤓.

I thought it would make a nice little tribute to Bi Visibility Day for Michael Guerin Week et voilà 💗💜💙

Notes:

For MayGlenn ♥ who deserves all the Malexa goodness

Chapter title is from the song "Save Tonight" by Eagle-Eye Cherry

Okay so the third one is kind of large and unwieldy but I wanted to show you the details that made me want to share this with you guys :)

Notes:

I've recently been learning how to draw and I want to give a big thank-you hug to lychee_jelly for her many amazing artist tips and suggestions and cheerleading as I worked on this drawing! 🥰 I think I probably spent just as much time trying to color it in as I did drawing it but it was super fun and definitely makes me want to draw more 😊.

Chapter title comes from a Brazilian Portuguese word that Tasyfa shared with us a little bit ago meaning, "the act of running your fingers through your lover's hair" which lychee_jelly thought was apropos to this drawing and I quite agree.

I wrote a drabble to go with the drawing and gave it a Halloween theme because I love this time of year. Edgar Allan Poe is my favorite literature noir (yes, I just made up my own term, 🤫) author and it's not easy writing soft Malex while quoting from his works but I tried anyway 🙃. Works quoted are "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Raven", and "Annabel Lee".

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Here is the manip I made for MayGlenn a few months ago when we were chatting about what kinds of pets Malexa would have and which later inspired her Hobbit Bday fic to me, The Good Pet’s Guide to the Proper Care of Humans (with Addenda on the Proper Care of Aliens Passing As Humans) 😘.

Maria's pet is named Scout, a happy Husky-Malamut mix (aka Husky-Mala-mutt)
Michael's pet is named Tripod, a sassy three-legged black short-hair cat
Alex's pet is named Buffy, a grumpy Beagle

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

For the lovely Tasyfa ♥ who shared this poem with us which gave me Malex feels and prompted these graphics.

Chapter title and words below are by Margaret Atwood, from “Circle/Mud Poems”, Selected Poems: 1965-1975

Notes:

I was on a nostalgic Sarah McLachlan kick the other day and thought the lyrics below from her 1993 song "Possession" were apt for our boys. 1x03 and 1x12 spoke to me in particular about the yearning Michael and Alex went through from the moment they met again in the Pilot until Alex came to talk to him at the end of 1x02; and how later on Alex's words really did keep Michael alive at Caulfield as Michael didn't seem to be paying any attention to the self-destruct alarm because he just wanted to save that woman 🥺 and that was before he even found out she was his mom. Breaks my heart every time and is why I hope that Nora survived the blast somehow so she can come help them take on/down Beardy in S3, but more importantly, so Michael. Can. Finally. Have. His. Mom. Back. 💜

I was also experimenting with hand-writing the lyrics on top of the graphics so I still have a ways to go, but you gotta start somewhere as they say 🙃

Notes:

Whilst ruminating on the subject of giving thanks this week, these two scenes occurred to me to be good examples of same. Alex is thankful to still have a true brother in Gregory, who wants good things for him, who wants to make amends for not standing up for him more earlier in life. Michael is thankful to have unwittingly found a connection to his mother in Sanders, who wishes he could have done more for him to try and repay the kindness Nora had shown him early on in his life.

These scenes from 2x10 and 2x09, respectively, are beautiful character arc moments, and the lyrics used here are from the apropos song “Beside You ‘Til the End” by Josh Jackson, heard during the junkyard scene on the show.

Notes:

For the lovely ♥ and talented ♥ writing duo, haloud and MayGlenn, a visual tribute to Rosa's bass drum art in "Part 3: Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth- Chapter 5" of their fabulous HappyChildhood!AU series To Raise a Child.

Rosa was already getting dirt from the stage on her clothes as she lay on her side, touching up the huge rainbow rose she had painted on her drum kit, with “Alex + the Aliens” in graffiti print in the center. It was loud and abstract and impossible to read from far away, but Alex loved it, and Rosa was almost satisfied with it. “I’m almost done! And I brought a change of clothes. Unlike the rest of you, I actually get a workout doing this.”

This project was a really fun learning experience for me as I figured out how to use the watercolor brushes and different painting brushes and also discovered that I could create a virtual lightbox effect for tracing shapes like the rose and the graffiti letters. Big thanks go out to primalmusic for supplying the screenshot of Rosa's rose!

Chapter title is a quote by Twyla Tharp, and, in my humble opinion, particularly suitable to Rosa in this 'verse.

Notes:

📣 Hear ye, hear ye! For those of you who are interested, please click on the image below (my alien pride emojis got to be used in part of this event, I'm so excited 😁) to read all about the RNM Comment Bingo fandom event starting tomorrow, January 3rd and going on through the 17th. And just in case the image link doesn't work, please click here.

👽 "Do you read RNM fanfiction? Do you want to support the RNM fanfiction writers who got us through 2020? Participate in Roswell, New Mexico Comment Bingo this January, 2021! Comment on fics, fill out a bingo card, win prizes!" 👽

Notes:

This chapter comes with several happy announcements!

💜 - Happy Birthday, annunziatina! I've decided that each season I'm going to make you new graphics set to the lyrics of Iris
💜 - This is my 150th chapter and my 352nd graphic dedicated to RNM
💜 - Roswell New Mexico has been renewed for a fourth season!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

If you're interested, today is the day that the Perseverance rover attempts to land on Mars, autonomously, and the following 5-minute video link explains why the descent into the Martian atmosphere is called Seven Minutes of Terror. It's a really well-done video, I've watched it several times now 🤓 You can watch the Mars Landing livestream here on NASA's site, starting at 11:15AM PST.

I made a graphic of Michael hangin' out with the Opportunity rover in Perseverance Valley in the Endeavor Crater on Mars for the occasion 💜

Notes:

A tad bit belated, but I finally got a chance to sit down today and post these two cover arts that I made earlier this year for a couple of really fun events.

The first cover art was the prize for Podcath, winner of Regular Bingo in the RNM Comment Bingo event. She asked for cover art to go with the podfic she recorded of DaughterofElros' awesome story "In the Desert, Where Almost Nothing Grows" for the Michael is a Grower writing prompt event.

The second cover art was in collaboration with DrLemurr's beautiful hand-lettering for the Maria DeLuca Healing Crystals Celebration writing prompt event.

Notes:

Happened to catch this lovely shot of Alex smiling at Maria on their way to investigate Mimi's fancy cowboy boots and had fun button-smashing a retrolux filter for it. Hope we get to see more of his smiles in season three <3

Chapter title comes from Elton John's beautiful composition of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King, which as it turns out, is pretty apropos for this episode ♥

Notes:

A plot bunny came to visit me this week and asked What If... during the pilot reunion scene, Alex and Michael said what they were feeling instead, since they're Not So Good with the Words? And thus, I made this graphic set and had fun playing with hiding some of the text behind the characters' faces because Photoshop has phenomenal selection powers now :)

A big ol' hug goes to techieturnover for totally getting the vibe I was going for when I asked for betaing assistance and for supplying some of the phrases used below <3

Another big ol' hug goes to annunziatina for selecting a pretty font for me to use (since I can't always be counted on to pick legible ones hehehe) <3

Chapter title comes from the song "Sedona" by Houndstooth, and is what's playing in the background during this part of the reunion scene.

Notes:

For annunziatina 💜

The cuddly camping photos which inspired this little double drabble come from here.

Scene Set-up: High School AU wherein the boys go camping instead of going to the shed (and Rosa stays with Maria at the Pony). Graphic no.1 is their first night together. Graphic no.2 is the next morning.

Notes:

I wanted to draw the beacon and I also wanted to fill in a page of my Magic Dots coloring book for artists so I found a page that had a geometric dot design and away I went! I spent some quality time with a ballpoint pen and a ruler. Then I took a photo and sent it to my computer and colored it in Illustrator, which I'm trying to get better at using. I like the way it came out :)

HAPPY RNM DAY! 💜👽🤠

Notes:

I was inspired recently to create a simple animated gif that cycles through different adjectives to describe Alex because I thought it would be fun. I crowdsourced the adjectives and nox, Tasyfa, Myrmidryad, Atacama, and JoCarthage supplied me with the excellent words you see below. Thanks, folks! 💜

Notes:

Decided to try my hand at making my own version of the Season Three poster. Many thanks to SaadieStuff for providing me with the link to the poster ♥

Chapter title comes from the classic song "Amy Hit the Atmosphere" by Counting Crows which is an awesomely-placed shoutout to the OG and Max doing similar moping about Liz and his life.

Notes:

Chapter title and lyrics below come from the song "Drawing Pins" by Nothing but Thieves.

Our poor alien cowboy needs a hug...

Notes:

Happy Roswell Day!

It's so nice to be back in the saddle making graphics of new scenes from our show ♥ I was deep in my podsquad feels for this episode because just lookit how happy Isobel and Michael and Max (sorta-kinda) are in the s3 premiere compared to the previous two seasons! Still getting myself organized though so hopefully I'll be able to post graphics for 3x02 a little earlier this week than I am for 3x01...

Okay, this is an en masse post because it is so late in the (episode-watching) week, but here are some short notes about each one, from top to bottom:
* the podsquad!feels were strong in this one because Michael actually thinks Max is being fun, which tells you how much Michael's missed his bro and is a sweet shoutout to the flashbacks of their highschool days, plus I really liked the "who, us?" innocent look Izzy and Michael were pulling in the lower-right quadrant
* Michael and his finger guns <3 and I just love Isobel's sass
* Isobel really shined in this scene, looking serene and happy, Michael's enjoying himself, and poor Max is trying to I suppose
* If I'd had time I would have found some fun Incorrect!RNM quote to put above Kyle pulling Max over in an actual ambulance, but alas I did not, so insert your own snark here
* I like how this one of Alex and Forrest turned out, the screenshot captured the frame in the middle of changing POV's and it gives the scene a certain double-sided mirror effect, like Forrest is simultaneously looking in on his conversation with Alex from the outside while trying to keep him away from peering into Deep Sky. The rainbow light flare is there because, Alex <3
* Many thanks to angrycowboy for providing me with the gif of Alex's reaction to Forrest's question from which this still was made; the lyrics for this (and the chapter title) come from the episode title's music namesake, "Hands" by Jewel; once I realized there was a theme afoot, it was fun pulling these images together
* the last two are just screenshots that I thought were so pretty they deserved to stand alone and be admired ♥

Notes:

Um, so I had time to make one graphic this week, and this is what I made, because I'm still deep in my MichaelNeedsAHug!Feels 🥺

Chapter title comes from a quote by Jones in 3x02. I looked up the wording in SaadieStuff's fantabulous RNM Episode Guide 💜

Notes:

To the surprise of no one, I'm still deep in my MichaelNeedsAHug!Feels 🥺 and I've been learning a lot from reading the Genius lyrics that show up on Spotify for songs played on the show, so I decided to stare at them until I found suitable images to accompany this interestingly sad song.

Chapter title and lyrics below come from the song "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden. Fly into the heart of Messier 87 to see where scientists have captured the first-ever image of a black hole (used below in the third panel).

Notes:

Et voilà! Stick a fork in me, I am done (it's also 2am here hehehe) but I spent all day working on this, my contribution to Maria Weekend, so I hope you enjoy this musical tribute to our favorite BAMF mercenary 💜

Chapter title and lyrics come from the song "You Learn" by the kickass Alanis Morissette

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Maria_DeLuca_Weekend_2021

Notes:

For techieturnover 💜 - I told you I was going to make something artsy to celebrate this wonderfully soft Malex fic you wrote, dude! and it only took me a whole month ahahaha

If you haven't read it yet, please go check out Bring On the Rain, there's talking! in the rain! and FEELS! and then more talking!

Chapter title and quotes below all belong to the story mentioned above.

Notes:

SaadieStuff shared this link of Jeanine providing us with an Echo/Malex parallel photo for Season Three so of course I had to go all Nintendobutton!Smash on it and make some graphics 🤓

Chapter title is a quote by Alex from 3x03; first image quote is from "Lay Me Down" by Sam Smith; second quote is from "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz; third quote is from "Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane" by Gang of Youths; fourth quote is by Alex in 3x08

Notes:

Quote below comes from the Disney movie, Road to El Dorado 😊

I made the bi flag and hand-lettered the quote, go me 🤓

If Michael had gone looking for Alex today, this could have been his under-undershirt 😋

Notes:

I was feeling collage-y this week and just generally enjoying all the Malex softness A. Lot. 🥰

Chapter title and lyrics in second panel are from the song “Feel It Coming On” by Contessa; lyrics in first panel are from “Something I Need” by One Republic; quotes in third panel are from 3x10 and 2x02. Photo credit: Red Square Nebula. I chose this one because it reminds me of Michael’s part of the triad symbol, and also because it’s a mysterious square-shaped nebula and no one knows why.

Notes:

For haloud 💜

I was inspired to make fanart of their wing!fic, hood and jesses, which you should definitely go read if you like such things; the fanart below isn't spoilery, just a picture to go with the thousand lovely words laid together in this story.

Chapter title and quote below belong to the story mentioned above. Photo credits: beneath the Milky Way and Mars; red-shouldered hawk

Notes:

for JoCarthage 💜

I was inspired to make fanart for this deliciously soft&sexy Malex fic she wrote, We’ll put on our masks and we’ll walk into the flood // with our arms around each other, we’ll keep our eyes wide shut, that is a peek into a Saturday they have all to themselves a little ways out past the end of season three.

Chapter title and quote below come from the story mentioned above. Photo credit: flowers blooming in a meadow in Indonesia

Notes:

For annunziatina 😘

You know how sometimes you're just bopping along to some music minding your own business when a song you've never heard before comes on and just steamrolls you? And it wasn't even the original version of the song; the one I listened to is an acoustic piano version by Boyce Avenue, cover band extraordinaire, of the song "You Say" (lyrics) by Lauren Daigle.

Anywho, the more I listened to it the more I realized the first verse and chorus reminded me of Malex's path down the Yellow Brick Road of Communication 🥰 during season three, so I thought it would be apropos to post for the RNM Week prompt of "this song reminds me of you".

Much 💜 to DrLemurr for the visual beta of my lettering! I'm learning how to use Procreate and thought it would be a fun way to practice by writing out the words I wanted to emphasize.

Notes:

For bgn, who deserves all the things 💜 Happy Holidays, dude!

Posted for Malex Week 2021 - Free Day

Big thanks 🥰 to MayGlenn and haloud for reassuring me that the dialogue was appropriately snickery

I’ve had the icon on Alex’s shirt saved in my pics folder for many moons now and it randomly occurred to me the other day that Michael would find it particularly funny and true so I decided to play around with the idea that Deep Sky seems to have a way more casual dress code than anywhere Alex has ever worked, because our boy deserves to have a positive work environment for once 😘

Notes:

DaughterofElros shared this awesome 👽🎅🏻 sweater pic - thank you! - and I asked if I could affix it to whichever RNM characters I could get a clean shot of and here are the results! (are we surprised they turned out to be Malex? No, no we are not 😘)

Michael is wearing the long-sleeve version and Alex is wearing the short-sleeve version because I couldn't get his sleeves to cooperate 😋

Notes:

Cath asked if I could make cover art for her podfic of ladynox and beautifulcheat's beautiful Star Trek Fusion AU, Crossed Wires, as a present for JoCarthage during the ITPE2021 event. I had a wonderful, giggly time using the neural filters in Photoshop Mix to give Alex Vulcan eyebrows and pointy ears 🖖🏽 and I dunno man, there's just something about the look on Michael's face in this season two promo poster that is kind of mesmerizing. I also got more practice in with my handwriting in Procreate designing the title and author lines.

And infp_obsessing_over_everything won an RNM Comment Bingo prize of cover art for her wonderfully sweet What If Michael Had Grown Up at Deep Sky? AU, Hygge. This story was so flipping cute that I just had to ask 'lil Michael and 'lil Kyle if I could borrow their drawings to make this cover art 😘 and they were happy to oblige.

Photo credits: Crossed Wires- Alex; Michael; USS Enterprise; desert background. Hygge- paper background

Notes:

Inspired by a 3x09 gif set that Tasyfa shared wherein I was scrolling (horizontally) between one gif and the next and caught them looking at each other at the edges of their frames and so I took a screenshot of it with the gap showing in between the frames because I liked the look of it. They're trying so hard to just be there for each other and it's palpable in their body language 💜

Notes:

For Lambourn during Rosa Weekend in tribute to her fic, don't want no other shade of blue (but you) 😘

Image credits: car; astronaut; asexualien; starfield; ace of hearts.

Notes:

Some Miluca love for MayGlenn because she deserves nice things 🥰

🙏🏽 to Tasyfa for the poem inspiration

Notes:

For aislynnmarie, who was inspired to think up the words for this scene based off a "prompt by autocorrect" moment when it tried really hard to turn the word amore into s'more 😋

Chapter title belongs to the eponymous song by Marvin Gaye.

Happy Roswell Premiere Day, Everyone! 👽🥳🫂🥰💜

Notes:

for haloud.

I had way too much fun taking these screencaps and adding a sunlit glow to Michael's beautiful face in his scenes with Alex in 4x01; then fitting them to the words from this lovely song that haloud introduced to me that i keep finding ways to incorporate into my fics and art because it's just so quintessentially poignant to Michael's character arc 💜

Chapter title and lyrics below belong to the song "Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane" by Gang of Youths. (I tweaked the lyrics in a couple of places to fit them to Malex's relationship)

Notes:

The subtitle for this chapter is Fun with Filters! Double Exposure filters to be exact. Sometimes you can get pretty cool effects from stacking screencaps on top of each other (panels 1-3). Shoutout to haloud's 4x02 fic port, starboard in the last panel below wherein I borrowed one of my favorite lines from the story to accompany a screencap that I Nintendo-controller-smashed with filters. Any line referencing Malex and astronomy is going to be of interest to me <3

Chapter title lyrics come from the song "Fly" by Sugar Ray, which is also the episode title for 4x02.

Notes:

I made some collages for the After Dark event! And a fun discovery I made was that Malex and Miluca's first kisses both follow the same pattern so I dunno if that's just the effect Michael has on people or what but I thought it was pretty cool 👽 🤠 💜 I also found some different angles to use of Milexa's first kiss, so yay for keyboard smash screencapping!

Chapter title and lyrics below belong to the song "Into You" by Ariana Grande.

Notes:

In case anyone was wondering, I'm still here 😅 RL has been keeping me busy, and I'm almost done writing my coda series for this season, but I have a cunning plan to post more graphics of our lovely duo as winter approaches and things calm down so I look forward to sharing them with you 😊

First things first, here they are on their wedding day, driving off into the night on their first big adventure together: to honeymoon under the stars on a road trip in their favorite home away from home 💜

Chapter title comes from the song "Follow your Arrow" by Kacey Musgraves.

Photo credits: Milky Way over Monument Valley, Utah; highway winding through Monument Valley, Utah; car headlights

Notes:

This chapter was for Maria DeLuca Weekend wherein I paid tribute to her kickass fashion style and had lots of fun breaking in the new photo-editing program I got editing photographs of these gorgeous gowns that DaughterofElros came across into her wardrobe. The designer of the gowns is unknown, but they are shown here first in their original state and then edited onto screencaps from the show that I took for this chapter. I chose one scene from each season 😊

Chapter title comes from the song "You Learn" by Alanis Morissette that Maria sings in 1x09.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

Chapter title comes from the eponymous prompt for Day One of Michael Guerin Week 2022.

I'm a wee bit late for Michael Guerin Week 💜 but anywho, I had a fun idea for this prompt wherein Isobel pesters Michael to take lots of photos while he's on vacation with Alex to Oasis for their first anniversary. Michael is not much of a picture-taker so he decides to be a little shit and duly takes a handful of Polaroids using his TK as a tripod every time he and Alex go out sightseeing. He even labels them so Isobel will know where they went each day because that's just the kind of caring brother he is. When he and Alex get back from their vacation and visit Kyle and Isobel at her place, she is positively brimming with excitement... until she sits down on the couch and opens the manila envelope full of Polaroids. Kyle gives Michael his best 'we are not amused' face but Michael is proudly unrepentant and Alex just sits there snickering when Isobel isn't busy glaring at the two of them. "Is that how you wanted this to go?" Michael asks sweetly. Isobel doesn't ask him for photos next year when they go away on their second anniversary vacation...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

For aislynnmarie 🥰 who wanted to see some Malex soulmates fanart.

✨ Happy New Year! ✨

I got a small Wacom drawing tablet for Christmas and wanted to practice with some of the handwriting brushes. It's quite fun so far! The words here are kind of bouncy because there's a stabilizer tool that smoothes your line as you draw and for some reason there's a delay built-in for when it starts drawing so you have to make exaggerated lines to get your letters to show up where you want them to 😋 And the cute little designs on the left were drawn with a multibrush tool that lets you make geometric designs!

Chapter title comes from 1x09. I don't recall if the quote used below is the exact wording but I was inspired by this concept that was discussed on the really interesting philosophical tv show "The Good Place". Michael and Alex certainly did work to make their soulmate connection strong and enduring 💜

Notes:

For my bestie annunziatina 💜 who was really taken with Max and Liz's final scene in the finale and for whom I said I would make a graphics set... and it only took me five months to finish it 😆 hope you like it, dude! 😘

Chapter title and the lyrics quoted below come from the really pretty Irish folk song "Send Me A Song" (musical track YT video) by Celtic Woman and this verse in particular just fit really well with Max and Liz's farewell, I thought, plus there's also the theme of them being separated by a body of (intergalactic) water with the hope that they'll get to go visit the ocean together when Max returns from Oasis.

Notes:

For mander3_swish, thanks for sharing this awesome photo with us! 👽 🛸

Photo credit: flying saucer cloud over Tucumcari, NM. Quotes and screencaps used belong to their respective creators.

Notes:

Happy Pride Month! 🤎❤️💛💚💙💜🤍👽🖤

Chapter title and following lyrics come from the song "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash (my favorite version is the one Jimmy Cliff covered for the Cool Runnings soundtrack, one of my favorite childhood movies <3 ) Here's the YouTube video of the song if you wanna watch it, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face :)

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone

All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day

Look all around, there's nothin' but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day

It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

For haloud 💜

I'm practicing with a couple different multimedia art styles in anticipation of participation in this year's RNM Big Bang as an artist, and I just got caught up on haloud's wonderful "it feels like you're reading a bonafide sci-fi novel, but with Malex!" fic, straight on til morning, et voilà 😊

Many thanks to lychee_jelly 💜 for her helpful suggestions regarding the handwritten portion of the first illustration. Photo credit: guy in a hoodie

Both quotes used below come from haloud's fic.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

I am proud to present the fanart I made to accompany SunTomato's 💜 kickass Malex Firefly AU for the RNM Big Bang 2023! Big thanks to the mods for organizing such a cool event. If you want to look at the art as part of the story, please go check it out here: Can't Take the Sky, it's a super cool look at how Alex gathers his found family together as the captain of a Firefly class spaceship!

If you want to look at the art separately, just keep scrolling 😊 I had SO MUCH FUN picking out scenes to illustrate and letting each chapter tell me which art style it wanted to be hehehe. Hope you enjoy <3

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

I watched the 1984 version as a kid, read the book years ago, and watched the 2021 version of "Dune" on Thanksgiving (both movie versions made for a really nice homage to the book, I thought) in between football games wherein this visual plot bunny made a cozy little den in my head until I made this graphic. And then I proceeded to stare at them it for a while because it's an intriguing premise.

On a more technical-geek note, I had the best time adapting the filt-plug to fit Michael and Alex! It's amazing what a high-res image and powerful filters will allow you to create if you tinker with stuff enough times <333 If you click on the photo credit link, you can see what the original filt-plug looks like and how short it is in the image.

Photo credits: filt-plug; "Dune" background; screencaps belong to RNM.

Notes:

Inspired by permanence/impermanence by redtoblack 💜

Chapter title and lyrics below belong to the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.

Notes:

For infp_obssessing_over_everything 🥰 I saw this quote in a video and thought of your love for Echo.

Chapter title and quote below comes from the YouTube video The mysterious case of the "lost positive" (queued up to the spot mentioned as follows). I can see Max watching this RobWords video and being the sort of word nerd to be enamored by the way writer Jack Winter spun this amusing story about how he met his wife in a 1994 issue of The New Yorker Magazine. He changed the words in fanciful script from their usual spelling to mean the opposite (chalant instead of nonchalant, gruntled instead of disgruntled, etc.) and it just struck me as something about which Max would wax poetic, especially if he had been the one at that party in LA at Genoryx to see Liz standing out on that balcony in her pretty red dress.

A big hug to lychee_jelly for helping me find the best screencap for this graphic! <333

Notes:

I just finished catching up on Malzysaur's epic Malex porn industry AU, Sex and Stardust, and felt inspired to make this cover art 🥰 It's such a fun, sexy, and interesting story, go check it out if you're curious!

A big thanks to haloud 🌺 for helping me pick the scene that was used inside the letters, to lychee_jelly 🌸 for helping me art-beta the hand-drawn letters until they were legible, and to the Slow Mo Guys on YouTube for providing the pretty "stardust" background (which is actually fiery steel wool being spun around whilst attached to a shop fan hehehe).

Notes:

I asked redtoblack to podfic my 4x01 fix-it fic, I'm gonna make this place your home and in an art exchange I made this graphics set for a ✨cinematic✨moment that takes place in their vamp!Alex fic series, sand and sons and seams 😁

It was SUPER fun coming up with the visual arrangement for these panels after reading (and re-re-re-reading) the scene in question at the end of Chapter Two. I hope this matches up somewhat with the vision in your head of those "windblown, warm desert evening colors, this moment of stillness where they're both focused on each other". Thanks for recording my story and Happy Hatch Day, redtoblack! 👽

Photo credits: silent film text card; cave mouth; sunset; cave interior

Notes:

For haloud 🏒 who described Michael's sweater as an NHL hockey player for the New Mexico Sting in such awesome detail that I was inspired to create a visual reference for it from their wonderful hockey!AU, once it's engraved, it will never be forgotten

And once I had the hockey sweater visualized, of course I had to ask the amazing lychee_jelly to draw Michael's biggest fan wearing his jersey and looking dayum fine in it, too, I might add 😘

Photo credits: I spent many happy, relaxing hours zoomed into 2000% (actually not hyperbole!) coloring in this hockey jersey template and bending this New Mexico state flag around the shoulders; NHL patch; scorpion

Notes:

I am happy to share the fanart I made for morganaDW's lovely fic Plans and Promises, an 18k look into the shenanigans and loyalties involved in planning Michael and Alex's wedding in a post-series AU which you should go read 🥰

I’ve always liked collages so when I read this story and saw how certain Oasian wedding planners were thinking things should go, I had fun pulling together screenshots for the fic banner and photo-album/scrap-book type backgrounds on which to place "Polaroids" of the cast from the series finale promo shots 😁

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Notes:

I made these for Kyle Valenti Weekend, which was celebrated last weekend (deadlines? they're more like guidelines anyway 😅) and decided to make three odes to Kyle "Good Bro" Valenti and the snark wisdom he shares with Michael, Alex, and Rosa respectively 🥰

Shoutout to lychee_jelly 🌺 for the suggestion of the Rosa scene when I asked for a third ode idea, and SaadieStuff's 🌺 episode transcripts for all the quotes.

screencap credits: 1x09 bunker scene part one and part two

Notes:

Happy Belated Birthday Fic and Art, aydann! 🫶🏽🥳🧁

aislynnmarie and I wanted to surprise you with something short and sweet for your birthday so, surprise! 🎉 I made cover art and picked a scene from the ficlet that she wrote to illustrate graphically, hope you enjoy it, and hope you had a fun time on your birthday! 💜

Here's the ficlet that goes with this art, isn't that just the best title EVAH 😂: Vacation Time Shouldn't Require Threats and Blindfolds by aislynnmarie

Notes:

I am a big fan of random creative inspiration and that is just what happened earlier this week when I was tinkering with new and improved features in one of my photo-editing apps, and suddenly, I knew what to do with the screencaps I was editing.

If you haven't already, you should definitely go read haloud's Malex space bounty hunter AU series, a star to steer her by, it's a beautiful story 💜

Big hugs to lychee_jelly for the art beta 🌺

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)