That Don’t Impress Me Much
Added 2024-09-29 22:33:08 +0000 UTCIn the tail end of the 1970s, vivacious Eleanor Noir attends community college in the hopes of kicking off a legal career in public defense. At a house party one night she meets the effortlessly magnetic mister Merry Meadowsweet…..aaaaaand shoots him down. Swing and a miss, Merry. Eleanor may be amused by you, but she ain’t impressed.
Merry was drawn to Eleanor precisely because she was everything he’d been told the ideal woman wasn’t. She was stubborn, opinionated, prideful. Someone that clearly couldn’t be won over with a bit of cheap flirting. This was gonna take finesse! >:O Incensed by the challenge of courting Ellie (and definitely not nursing a bruised ego), Merry, corny country boy that he is, does indeed try again. In fact, Merry puts so much hard work into romancing that cheeky dog woman that he ends up falling in love with her for real, whoops
Comments
Her mascara matchning the too has made me stop and zoom the picture at least 3 times the last couple of days while ive revisited your Patreon to read the coments. I LOVE it. Its so bold and fun and make me happy. :D
Toadboss Ida
2024-10-02 21:01:41 +0000 UTCHnggg Eleanor is absolutely gorgeousssss in her youth (and still is!) And Merry is... kinda handsome? Pretty gender thing going on his kiddos get.
Cerulean
2024-10-01 22:39:53 +0000 UTCShe left. Eleanor felt incredibly disrespected and didn't want to stick around the same space as her philandering no-good husband and that HUSSY with the strained smile. She didn't want people's pity, and she didn't want to share her side of the story so Merry's most loyal sheep could pick holes in it. Merry implies to his flock that Eleanor turned out to be a money-hungry bitch that hit him with a divorce out of nowhere so she could steal half his assets and snatch away his kids, and in his loneliness he just happened to find comfort in Maple. 🥺 Eleanor does not care to dispute this. She knows the truth, and some people do indeed leave the church out of loyalty to her. Many see through Merry's story, but don't dare dispute it to him....instead, they all glare down their noses at young Maple, who is hushedly labeled a homewrecker, a stupid little girl who can never hope to replace their true First Lady. A lot of Maple's anxieties come from knowing she is disliked and untrusted by many within the congregation, even after Honey is born. Eleanor leaves to take care of her children and gospel career solo...and on the way out the door, she brings in her heavy-hitting best friend/attorney, who proceeds to make the next couple months of Merry's life hell. Merry was lucky he managed to keep hold of the church in the divorce, because Eleanor took damn near everything else.
Lopoddity
2024-10-01 15:21:01 +0000 UTCThank you so much!! :D
Lopoddity
2024-10-01 13:00:18 +0000 UTCI know my last comment abt Merry was me meowing but like. Dude the way you write relationships and fit characters into scenarios is SO realistic. These two straight up remind me of my grandparents its uncanny. Your writing is !!! so good!!
Dean
2024-10-01 02:17:08 +0000 UTCSince Ellie was such a huge part of the building and success of the church, did she stay or leave after the affair? If she left, did others leave the church because of it? I know in the other drawing Don mentioned that people weren’t happy with the affair, but they didn’t say anything, but I gotta wonder how many people just silently slipped away to a different church. Thank you for sharing your stories!
TheTabbyBadger
2024-10-01 01:45:33 +0000 UTCWell, everyone has to start somewhere! I like that you never make things completely black and white or good and bad, it makes a lot of sense that Eleanor would be shaped by the environment she was a pillar of for so many years.
Mastodon
2024-10-01 01:00:58 +0000 UTCellie is so beautiful 😭
Sorceringingarts
2024-09-30 16:36:56 +0000 UTCNope. I think I'm going to disappoint some of y'all with Eleanor, because she is very much a flawed person. One does not stay married to Merry for 25 years without agreeing with at least a few of his more unpleasant beliefs. An important one being that Eleanor came to feel that public defense was a fool's mission, a woefully underpaid career for stupid bleeding hearts. She felt that even the very best, most dedicated public defender/teacher/social worker could only slap a bandage on the bullet hole of poverty, overpolicing, and underfunded schools. There can be no fixing a broken system from within. So why bother? Like Merry, Eleanor comes to believe that people are only poor or criminals because they're lazy, and must simply lack the unshakable faith and hard-working attitude that she and her husband share. Ellie wants a career that will make her lots of money, so that she and her children can grow up in the luxury that was denied to her for so long. She is a fairly successful gospel singer and makes good money independently of Merry, but she also has her paws in real estate and private investing. Waaaay later on, after she heals from the divorce and adopts a personal philosophy of compassion and empathy, she starts several non-profits that donate resources to poor and disabled students, and she establishes scholarships to send low-income kids to college. She is a biiiig benefactor in Toffee's church and does a TON of charity concerts. She'll also sing at any pride event for free, and runs a grant program for queer youth to apply for grants to pay for tuition, make art, or pay for medical services.
Lopoddity
2024-09-30 12:43:38 +0000 UTCSpot on analysis! Bravo! 👏
Lopoddity
2024-09-30 12:24:53 +0000 UTCAw thank you! ❤️ I took a few intro psychology classes for my degree, but I won't pretend they were remotely advanced. I do love reading about human psychology though, and religion has always been a special interest of mine. Humans are already capable of justifying giving in to our very worst impulses, and religion so often provides a convenient smokescreen to terminate critical thought, questioning of authority, and examination of how our own beliefs and actions may be harmful to others and ourselves. I mean that respectfully of course, even though I'm an atheist I do believe good things can come from religion. Also, it's important to note how humans are shaped by the world around us, and how things like poverty and trauma can heavily influence how we think and form relationships. ALSO, I really like reading and writing about tragic characters. :3
Lopoddity
2024-09-30 12:24:21 +0000 UTCA part of me thinks Maple would be/is equally crushed at this relationship she helped ruin :( even if it’s Merry’s growing ego that lit the match
Emily Lemur
2024-09-30 05:51:09 +0000 UTCOhh, I have to know, does Eleanor ever go back to her original dream of being a public defender?
Mastodon
2024-09-30 05:13:51 +0000 UTCHoly shit-- Okay in full seriousness, have you ever studied psychology or considered entering the mental health field before? Because you are just so damn GOOD at digging into your characters' psyches and motivations and reasons for doing what they do. Like god DAMN. My jaw is on the floor rn, feeling sympathy for Merry of all characters was Not on my 2024 bingo card
Lammergayier
2024-09-30 04:20:37 +0000 UTCGod. Merry, the fact that you fumbled the GODESS of a wife you had is the biggest L in your life. You've have MANY L's but this is a big one. Its truely sad and revealing that he couldn't accept the things he loved about her the moment they threatened his ego and sense of authroity. It feels that the more power he got in the Church the more he wanted a 'traditional' life/marriage, if only because he wanted to retain the feeling of 'patriarch' and the all knowing leader of both the Church and family, that he was respected and looked up to FIRST, and he just didnt have the emotional maturity to speak to his wife about the inferiority he was feeling. The fact that he pursued her out of an ego trip more then herself kinda reveals that hes also been up his own ass even when he was head over heels for her.
Saba Saeidi
2024-09-30 04:17:46 +0000 UTCMerry does indeed lay awake at night and kick himself for destroying his first marriage. But people cheat on partners they still find attractive. People cheat on partners they still love. Affairs happen because an emotional need is not being met. Merry loved Eleanor probably to the greatest extent he is capable of loving anyone, but this did not prevent the affair. The main reason he cheated-or at least the reason he's willing to admit to himself- is that he wanted to hurt Ellie. He didn't like how important she'd become in the church. When they first started, they were just two broke kids with a dream. A dream to make the world a better place through faith and music, to raise a family, to lead a congregation. Merry wanted to be a worship leader, powerful and respected, with a loving loyal wife by his side. Except Eleanor did not, and never has, STAYED at his side. She is not a submissive and gentle pastor's wife, she is a leader figure in her own right. She is the church's First Lady, she oversees many of its operations with or without Merry's approval. She is the one their congregation leans on, she is popular and respected, and though Merry is loathe to admit it, it was her powerful gospel singing that first put the church on the map to begin with. Merry feels outshone. And to add insult to injury, Eleanor's work keeps her busy, often leaving HIM to tackle domestic duties and deal with their frustrating mostly-grown children. So he slept with his assistant on a whim, to get back at Eleanor, to teach her that she isn't so successful he couldn't replace her, if he really wanted. This plan failed miserably. Eleanor knew their marriage had been rocky, but she was so wounded and disgusted at Merry's act of purposeful cruelty that it forever warped her perception of him. Merry's affair brings his proud, strong wife to tears. He's instantly seized with shame and guilt, but it's too late. Too late. There are other reasons for the affair, the ones Merry won't admit to. That he was afraid of how drastically their world had changed- afraid that he was getting older, that the kids were becoming people he no longer understood, that his wife was becoming a stranger. He missed the way things had been before, he missed Ellie, but he didn't know how to admit that to himself, let alone his wife. It made him feel small, vulnerable, pathetic, to admit he wanted to feel wanted. He saw Maple and her sweet, excitable ways stirred within him an old sense of nostalgia, an echo of his own lost youth. In sleeping with her, he hoped to feel the old rush of sexual conquest, to feel validated, young and alive again. This also failed, Merry is on an entirely different generational wavelength than Maple, the more he's around her, the older she makes him feel. His later marriage to her is done because he refuses to admit his horrible mistake, and he's grasping at straws, desperately trying to rub Eleanor's nose in the fact that he's trading her out for a younger woman. Merry's marriage to Maple, though superficially functional, has a deep undercurrent of resentment. Merry hates that he's stuck with her, and Maple quietly resents Merry for how he completely derailed her life. In an ironic twist, Merry is also greatly annoyed by how dependent stay-at-home wife Maple is on him. He thought he wanted a submissive wife that would happily defer to his leadership, but in reality it rankles him, makes him respect Maple less. Merry HATES Eleanor for leaving him, but he also hates himself. He cannot bear knowing he's to blame for shattering their marriage, for pushing his kids away, so he redirects all that anger and pain outward, blaming THEM for all of it. He has trouble keeping up the charade sometimes, and he lays awake at night with his chest aching, thinking about Eleanor looking impossibly beautiful in her thrift store wedding gown, Eleanor cradling teeny newborn Toffee and grinning through her exhaustion, Eleanor and toddler Topher surprising him with a lopsided birthday cake, Ellie rubbing his shoulders after a rough day, Ellie excitedly discussing scripture with him, Ellie singing in the shower, Ellie fixing his tie, Ellie. Ellie. Ellie.
Lopoddity
2024-09-30 04:10:40 +0000 UTCEleanor believed in the church! She believed in Merry's dream of building a better world. Not only did she help him grow the church, she was a core part of WHY it even took off in the first place (her gospel singing). Sure, Merry does lose sight of his dream in pursuit of money and power, but she found his ambition attractive and enjoyed the perks their newfound wealth and status brought them. Sadly Merry's chiseled chest is lost to a sedentary lifestyle and he has to trade out his too-tight shirts for proper fitted suits
Lopoddity
2024-09-30 04:10:09 +0000 UTCif i first married THIS man and later he told me we were gonna open a CHURCH... well i'd say i'd hightail it out of there but considering my immediate thought upon seeing the first young merry drawing you posted was "I could save him" I Get why eleanor stuck it out. I Get It. i'd hold on too if i had any tiny glimmer of hope that one day i'd see those pecs in a slightly-too-small raglan tshirt again.
Shield
2024-09-30 03:42:27 +0000 UTCThis is, perhaps, the single greatest fumble I have ever witnessed in my life like IDK how Merry sleeps at night because if I were him I would simply Die if I even Thought about cheating on someone like Ellie
Lammergayier
2024-09-30 02:53:57 +0000 UTCI like to think she had a really long and awkward adolescence, she was tall and gangly-lanky like Toffee with big shiny braces and frumpy clothes because her parents wouldn't let her dress fashionably. So the SECOND she moves out she flips the bad bitch switch. Eleanor puts a lot of work into her appearance, she KNOWS she looks good, Merry's compliment has no impact~
Lopoddity
2024-09-30 00:55:41 +0000 UTCThis has only fuelled my love for Eleanor. She is gorgeous omfgggg
Calypso
2024-09-30 00:18:59 +0000 UTCA shift to conservatism often follows with a sudden increase in wealth and power, because conservative policies (eg. tax breaks, enforcement of unjust social hierarchies) often allow one to protect and consolidate said wealth and power. Also, being straight-laced and “traditional” netted him more followers (with deeper pockets) than being a groovy party pastor. Merry is a typical former hippie turned cranky boomer. As for education, it’s mostly Merry just ticking a box on what he feels is expected for raising proper children (overpriced degrees from exclusive private universities), and partly him wanting them to be educated enough to be fully independent (not stupid burdens that want to spend all his money). Merry doesn’t put a whole lot of stock in education beyond this, and enjoys pointing out that he is a much more successful church leader than Toffee, who has a Ph.D (secretly he’s just jealous Toffee can call himself “Dr Reverend” and Merry can’t
Lopoddity
2024-09-29 23:47:33 +0000 UTCFascinating the expectations he puts on his own kids despite not taking his own education majorly seriously. I’m also fascinated in the make love not war, disco dancing, drug fuelled pipeline to ridged, straight laced, conservative coded pastor Although with his affair, I guess old habits die hard
Angsty Ram
2024-09-29 23:26:11 +0000 UTCFrfr
SketchyBug
2024-09-29 23:22:57 +0000 UTCI like both! Both is good~
Lopoddity
2024-09-29 23:22:26 +0000 UTCA PORSCHE?! Queen
Lammergayier
2024-09-29 23:18:56 +0000 UTCDon, stepping in: Is this guy bothering you queen Eleanor: *pulls a tiny can of raid out of her pocket and sprays him in the eyes*
Lopoddity
2024-09-29 23:13:51 +0000 UTCSeeing this I can't help to feel so much sadness for their future, especially for Eleonor. They weren't perfect, but for what I read they really loved each other. She give him everything, love, children, home, they were a family and he throw all that away... why? For a moment of "fun"? What was the reason? Was he and Eleanor having troubles that couldn't be resolved with talking? Or his ego was so big that he, like an asshole, believe that if the "punish" his wife with the idea that he was going to leave her for a young pretty thing Eleonor would be "put herself together and change her character"? 🤨 Sometimes I wonder what would happen if maybe just maybe Merry would just... Try to understand and let go. Like what if tried to understand his children and their queerness? What if he instead of cheating talked to his wife? What if instead of marrieng Honey's mom he just leave her enough money to life by herself and try to fix things with his Eleonor? What if after obtain certain amount of money he stop it before it was to late, before the bad type of greed started to take over? But would have Eleonor be the understanding ally mom their sons needed? If the marriage never was broken, would she have this change?.... Ahhh I'm sorry I'm just so nostalgic is so heartbreaking seeing the past version of people and knowing what id going to happen. Also that they ended up hurting their kids even if they wanted to be better.
MiyaTheGoldenFlower
2024-09-29 23:13:19 +0000 UTCHonestly not sure which look I like more. The kinky curls or the straight and relaxed.
SketchyBug
2024-09-29 23:10:42 +0000 UTCHe really did. 😔 But for like the first….ehhh, 15 years or so of their marriage, before the church and Merry’s ego got TOO big, he was VERY much wrapped around Eleanor’s paw. Merry was a wife guy, because….look at his fucking wife. How could he not be. Toffee learned the “puppy-dog eyes” trick from Eleanor cuz she once used it to get Merry to buy her a fucking porsche
Lopoddity
2024-09-29 23:09:55 +0000 UTCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's so beautiful!!!!
pookaWOODS
2024-09-29 23:08:13 +0000 UTCGod Elenor is a bombshell
Rumpeltyltskyn
2024-09-29 22:57:18 +0000 UTCEleanor didn’t need to abandon her nature to become a proper lady within the church. In fact, her confidence and vision made her a natural leader figure within it, in some ways more competent and popular than Merry. At first Merry is smitten with this, but over the years, especially as the church grows, his feelings corrode into resentment and jealousy, aaaand he cheats with Maple in the hopes of putting Eleanor in her place, so to speak.
Lopoddity
2024-09-29 22:57:07 +0000 UTCThat's so adorable 🥹 I'd love to see more Eleanor x Mal interaction
Azure
2024-09-29 22:52:21 +0000 UTCIt’s more that Mal grew up with parents that didn’t know/bother to learn how to take care of her natural hair. She later meets Eleanor, who teaches her how to style it
Lopoddity
2024-09-29 22:51:27 +0000 UTChis ass was NOT studying Merry went to college to study business, but really went to party/hook up with girls/do drugs. He drops out within a year when he stumbles into a leadership role at a small local church, and Eleanor follows suite soon after, because 1.) Merry offers her the church as her stage to explore her colossal talent at singing gospel, and 2.) they get married
Lopoddity
2024-09-29 22:48:28 +0000 UTCI said it before and I'll say it again. MERRY FUMBLED
SketchyBug
2024-09-29 22:46:50 +0000 UTCSomebody pointed out young Ellie has the same hair as Mal and I wonder if Topher ever looks at his mom's younger pictures and someone jokes he had an Oedipus complex or something lmao
Azure
2024-09-29 22:46:31 +0000 UTCWelp I can't blame Merry for falling for Eleanor. She seems like quite a woman. Can't wait to see more of her!
forthehonor-ofgayskull
2024-09-29 22:43:26 +0000 UTCI really really am curious on how Merry got Ellie to go from proud, stubborn and loud to more of what a proper lady ready for Sunday service would be considered, unless; and this is more my assumption given what’s been shown. He didn’t.
Imogen
2024-09-29 22:39:27 +0000 UTCOh my bi heart is doing some flips right now. I just don’t know how Merry could have fumbled this up so bad What was Merry studying for anyhow? (If he was of course)
Angsty Ram
2024-09-29 22:39:20 +0000 UTCOH NO THEY’RE HOT
Rice_inthevoid
2024-09-29 22:37:22 +0000 UTCLEAVE HER ALONE>:0
CardstockBroth
2024-09-29 22:36:30 +0000 UTCI wish I could reply with an image to express how absolutely utterly ready I am for this. LETS GOOO
Imogen
2024-09-29 22:35:50 +0000 UTCI loved Eleanor in her older years already but MY GOD WAS SHE GORGEOUS WHEN SHE WAS YOUNG dAMN LADY
Azure
2024-09-29 22:35:43 +0000 UTCAwww she has the same hair…ears, that Mal does ^^
Doglover502
2024-09-29 22:35:14 +0000 UTC
