Archive of Our Own

General notes:

• to be painted analog, in watercolor, with simple black outlines
• page format: roughly square, 30x30cm?
• dialogue typed on separate pieces of paper with a typewriter, different-colored ribbon for different characters. Busker black and Zair red?
• to be bound in a rough book-format. This means even-numbered pages on the left, and odd-numbered pages on the right. Page 1 is essentially a standalone, all other pages (except for the final one) are to be viewed in pairs.

Page 1:

• Panel 1
  • takes up most of the page
  • several snapshots of La Cage's crowds before the final confrontation
  • micro-panels potentially arranged in a shape that mirrors the Iron Cadence insignia -> total of 6?
  • ideas: 
    • independent crowd viewed from the front, lead by Zair
    • raised fists and weapons
    • Old Hussar's silhouette
    • Zoom into crowds to show the Busker OR: the tenement itself as a representation.
    • Maybe both: The Busker and the Tenement, possibly side-by-side?
    • everyone walking
• Panel 2
  • the barrel of a pointed gun, clearly aimed from the opposite direction that everyone shown has been moving -> implied aim at independent crowd
  • maybe integrated as one of the micropanels? if not: round border rather than square. maybe. Who knows.

Page 2:

• Panel 1:
  • Busker (bust shot) with "BANG" onomatopoeia laid out around and behind him, implying the sound entering and exiting his ears -> he heard the shot but it wasn't aimed at him. 
  • The panel is centered on the page, margins equal to the panel's height and width -> takes up 1/9th of the page (this will be important later compositionally)
  • The panel might not even have borders

Page 3:

• Panel 1:
  • Same format as Page 2 Panel 1
  • wound in Zair's stomach, one large blood stain in that atrocious pink-and-white striped button-up. (ignore the tie and pretend it has been moved to the side)
  • bonus points for the One Large Blood Stain calling to mind Zair's ace of hearts necklace (this will also be important later thematically)

Page 4:

• Panel 1:
  • Zair in Busker's arms, pietá, wide shot
  • focus on landscape, crowd silhouette in foreground with "lower opacity" (aka not painted in) where Zair and the Busker are at. 
  • Which btw location-wise is just behind where the front line was. So slightly behind the path (from the independentist POV)
• Panel 2:
  • Zair clinging to the Busker
  • Close-up
  • laid over top...
• Panel 2.5:
  • the crowds fighting
  • As in: 2.5 is below panel 1, landscape format. Part of it is obscured by Panel 2 laid overtop. Unlike with panel 1, it's not negative space but an actually defined panel.

Page 5:

• Panel 1: pigeon flock flying past clock tower
• Panel 2: empty black box near Union office (you know the one)
• Panel 3: empty Union/Iron Cadence office
• Panel 4: destroyed Kim family altar
• Panel 5: Iron Cadence propaganda poster, maybe. Further options:
  • graffiti wall
  • speaker's corner
  • ancestor tree
  • democracy room
  • clinic
  • cardboard poster wall
  • sweatshops getting destroyed
  • Unseen pinboard
  • Schwenk/La Rosa apartment (either one)
  • Maier apartment

Underlying idea to those panels: visions of La Cage (the Busker's organs) but specifically the locations that meant something to Zair.

Also, there's dialogue! Finally! Woo! The dialogue is laid overtop: typed on typewriter, cut out, and glued to the page. A / indicates something is said at the same time and placed at the same height on the page. Page breaks indicate new speech bubbles.

Zair: I'm sorry.

Busker / Zair: It's okay. / I'm so-

Busker: I love you. I'm here.

Zair: No.

Zair: Don't. Please.

Page 6:

• Panel 1: the aforementioned necklace in Zair's right (?) hand
• Panel 2: implied flashback to the breakup scene. The center staircase, 2nd floor. Zair stands at the top and looks down into the tunnel where the Busker is. 
• Panel 3: close-up on the Busker's hand taking Zair's left (?) hand

To do: figure out the hands situation. Whether Zair's inner or outer hand holds the necklace, and whether Busker touches it or not.

Busker: Don't you love me?

Zair: Of course. So much. But look at what I've done.

Zair: You don't want my love.

Busker: I heard you when you spoke to the crowd.

Busker: You lead them for la Cage.

Busker: For everyone.

Busker: For me.

Page 7:

No panels, just dialogue:

Zair: What do you want from me?

[A lot of negative space]

Busker: Do you want to stay?

Page 8:

• Panel 1:
  • Small, portrait format
  • Zair from Busker's POV, bust shot. He looks disdainfully to the side.
• Panel 2:
  • landscape format. The top left corner is overlapping (and below) the bottom right corner of Panel 1
  • slightly wider shot, encompassing Zair's entire torso. He's still bleeding. His face is empty. The chain of the necklace is wound hard against and around his hand. Where the wound in his stomach should be, there's instead an empty space.
  • The empty space has dialogue laid overtop.

Zair: I deserve this.

Page 9:

• Panel 1: the Busker is crying. Good look drawing any face well, let alone someone who's crying. Also, the Busker will have doffed that gorgeous french revolution plumed bicorne by now.
• Panel 2: actually, let there be a Panel 2 for layout variety. The Busker's gorgeous french revolution plumed bicorne on the ground.
  • Panel 1 and Panel 2 are next to each other and above Panel 3
• Panel 3:
  • the battle from Busker's POV.The front line has moved to the speaker's corner. The independentists are getting their ass kicked.
  • The back of Busker's head is a small silhouette at the bottom.
  • The crowds are a gray mass. The Collector's silhouette is highlighted in brown towards the left. The Doomsayer's silhouette is highlighted in purple towards the right.
  • Landscape format.

Page 10:

• Panel 1: The Collector looks over their right shoulder towards the viewer (aka Busker)
• Panel 2: Ditto with the Doomsayer, but the left shoulder.
  • Both P1 and P2 are at the respective top corners of the page
• Panel 3, 4, 5: triptych
  • Panel 3:
    • Doomsayer whispers into Jaydon Maier's ear
    • idk what Jaydon is doing at the time, whether he's still fighting, or menacingly marching towards someone, or lying in a corner with all his bones broken by a well-deserved migrant bat. Maybe the latter
  • Panel 4: Jaydon tosses his necklace (Ace of Spades btw) to the side
  • Panel 5: closeup of the Doomsayer's hand picking up the necklace. You can totally tell it's the Doomsayer because of the black and the Shakespearean lace ruff.

Page 11:

• Panel 1: The Doomsayer joins Busker with Zair and the Collector, and hands Jaydon's necklace over to the collector. The Busker remains focused on Zair. Wide shot. Landscape format.
• Panel 2: The Busker kisses Zair's forehead (maybe his hand instead?). Closeup. Portrait format.

Busker: I'm going to take something off of you, okay?

Page 12:

• Panel 1: the two necklaces (ace of hearts, ace of spades) side by side.
• Panel 2: flashback. Final convo between Zair and Jaydon about the necklace.
• Panel 3: flashback. Zhen Kim painting in the art room by herself on Saturday morning.
• Panel 4: the two necklaces on opposite sides of the panel, separated

From here on out unless stated otherwise, all panels are square. Also, up until Page 17, everything is a flashback unless stated otherwise.

The panels on Page 12 are arranged in an evenly spaced 2x2 grid.

Page 13:

• Panel 1: Frankie doubled over from paint fumes before the sweatshop
• Panel 2: Ardor getting arrested
• Panel 3: Zair leaning against Ardor's knee from exhaustion at the von Bergen nostalgia club when the empty coffin was opened.
• Panel 4: Zair getting hugged by Sterling on Saturday and not hugging back.

The panels on Page 13 are slightly smaller, and the distance between them is a little bigger than the page margins, as if they were moving towards the corners.

Page 14:

• Panel 1: Zair and Joan booping each other's noses at the intermezzo
• Panel 2: the workers presenting their banners on day 1
• Panel 3: Zair and Jaydon and Tony in the culture room with that bullshit soccer ball. (A soccer ball that was actually not round. It was a pyramid.)
• Panel 4: Barb adjudicating the wrestling match between Zair and Ardor during the intermezzo
• Panel 5: no panel.
• Panel 6: Zhen Kim's letter on Saturday stomped-on, in the mud
• Panel 7: Zair making art for the suizerainist sevenfold sun party OR Zair tripping balls next to Barb in the club
• Panel 8: Zair winding up to hit Joan
• Panel 9: Zair walking into the Union office to find Ardor looking at him from behind the desk.

The panels are arranged in an evenly spaced 3x3 grid. The space in the middle where panel 5 would be is empty. 

Page 15:

• Panel 1: Zair screaming at the crowds during his speech before the march
• Panel 2: empty
• Panel 3: empty
• Panel 4: empty
• Panel 5: Zair and the Busker dancing together in the Black Box
• Panel 6: empty
• Panel 7: empty
• Panel 8: empty
• Panel 9: Jaydon calling Zair over on day 3 (maybe. Or maybe again, the flashback to the Busker breakup?)

The panels 2-4 and 6-8 have their borders, but nothing is drawn in.

Page 16:

• Panel 1:
  • Portrait format, takes up most of the page.
  • still Zair and the Busker dancing together, maybe in a different pose
  • They're relatively small compared to the overall composition, only really visible in silhouette in the center.
• Panel 2: 
  • very small, on top of Panel 1's top left corner
  • Zair and the crowds, still, but small silhouette -> Panel 1 from Page 15
• Panel 3:
  • like Panel 2 but at the bottom right corner
  • And containing Panel 3 from Page 15

Layout reminiscent of ace of hearts of course!

Page 17:

• Panel 1:
  • same size and placement as panel 5 on page 15
  • The Busker takes the necklace from Zair

Page 18:

• 8 empty panels surrounding Zair and Busker dancing (flashback)

Page 19:

• 8 empty panels surrounding Zair and Busker dancing (in a different pose from Page 18, or otherwise slightly different)

Maybe: add one more pair of pages with nothing but 9 empty panels on each?

Page 20:

• Panel 1:
  • The Busker hands the ace of hearts necklace to the Collector.
  • On the collector's ear, we see a new earring in the shape of a metal ace of spades playing card.
  • Wide shot, landscape format.
• Panel 2:
  • The Busker looks down at Zair. Zair is dead.
  • Pietá perspective again, square/landscape format
• Panel 3:
  • close-up on Zair's face. Eyes closed, head falling to the side, very clearly dead.
  • overlap with Panel 2.
• Panel 4: The Busker pulls Zair's dead, limp body close and embraces it.

Page 21:

• Panel 1: The Unseen are gone. Zair's body lies on the ground. Same POV as Panel 2 or Panel 3 on Page 20.

Page 22:

• Panel 1: Zair's dead body lies on the ground, but zoomed out slightly
• Panel 2: The zoom-out continues, as if one was standing at the final window of apartment block A, before one would turn and go up the stairs towards the Union office and the black box.

The panels are placed diagonally on the page. Top left/bottom right corner

Page 23:

• Panel 1: The zoom-out continues. Zair's body is no longer visible due to the distance and the tree obscuring it. The scene is now very clearly viewed through a window
• Panel 2: the doorframe leading to the Union Office/black box crossroads antechamber
• Panel 3: the closed/almost closed door to the black box. Blue light and fog filters through the gap between the door and the floor.

Page 24:

• Panel 1: the Dancer's shoes, on tiptoes, ankles crossed
• Panel 2: delicately posed hands
• Panel 3: the Dancer's tilted neck, shoulder, chin from the POV of an imaginary follower to the Dancer. Pose: cf. slow foxtrot, ballroom dancing
• Panel 4: full-body of the Dancer

Collage-/scrap-book like layout.

((end of the comic))

The Dancer:

Suddenly, with a light foot and a flick of a finger, the Dancer stepped into La Cage. They knew whose shoulder to place a hand on, whose head was better gracefully bowed and whose should remain upright, atop a straightened spine. Often, they wouldn't even whisper to whoever had caught their interest; they'd adjust the person's posture, instead, and offer guidance through the body. This is how they would be found, more often than not: in the middle of a graceful turn, practicing over and over with a partner who was either invisible, or had never existed in the first place. 

The Dancer's domain is tied to the tension or harmony between Leading and Following. To dedication to a cause (any cause), to loyalty and devotion, care and affection. To the body as art. To partnerships, to keeping up appearances. And to dichotomies as a whole. If gender norms where subject to play in 97 Poets, they could have also been very much involved in gender themes and gender fuckery.

Potential assigned denizens of La Cage: Quinn Villon, Sterling Schwenk, Jean Vojtek, Nuri Kim, A. Buttle, Paris von Bergen, Addison von Bergen, Joan von Bergen, Kiran Kim, An Knezhynskyi, Valja Krot, Idili Maraire, Kosmo Kranovski, Konrad Nielsen, Faustin Verhoog, Jacqueline Baciu

Character design:

• Physical appearance:
  • well, much like Zair.
  • White, freckles
  • Brown hair, slightly curled; maybe cut into a bob with a fringe? or maybe 1960s Brigitte Bardot
• Clothing for regular day:
  • main inspiration: male figure skater outfits, particularly Yuzuru Hanyu (example 1; example 2)
  • tight-fitting black blouse
    • rhinestones hinting at
      • epaulets 
      • military-style button stand
      • smaller rhinestones create that typical cowboy fringe jacket triangle, maybe. Or else those typical swirly patterns
    • sorta turtleneck
    • sleeves are either fringed, flounces, or tight-fitting and covering the back of the Dancer's hand, with a loop around the middle finger to hold them in place
  • somewhat tight-fitting purple trousers with strongly flounced bell bottoms (example)
  • latin dance shoes with a slight heel
  • some jewelry
    • either white, or maybe dual-toned. 
• Clothing for Occasions (e.g. intermezzos or final climactic battles tearing apart communities):
  • main inspiration: Lucile dresses. (example 1; example 2; example 3)
  • Full 1910s/1920s
  • flapper headpiece
  • pointe ballet shoes
  • Zair's normal outfit colors superimposed onto a Lucille dress. Some green and white in the skirt, some blue and white in the top half, some white and pink and yellow and purple as accents.