This is not exactly one of my best sketches, but it still gets somewhat close enough to what I had in mind in order for me to like it, *and* it features these two, who continue to be my heart and soul, so… 🥹 This little scene is inspired by and related to a little lore bit I wrote a few weeks ago, and which you can read below!
As much as Malcolm and Brandy were really, *really* the one for each other (and as much as I adore the wholesome and unhinged nature of their relationship 😭💖) their couple dynamic was not without its fair share of little bumps along the way. I mean, that’s the case with pretty much any human relation, so there’s nothing surprising in that fact alone, but the more I get to know the two (especially Brandy), the more I can see some particularities in what *they* had to face, beside your regular, innocent couple bickering.
Brandy was in a much better place in the mid-’80s, when she and Malcolm met, both in the way she related to herself and to the world around her. She was much bolder, much more self-assured, much more in charge of her own life, but she still had this tendency to become defensive and lash out when a situation or a circumstance got into her head enough to make her feel trapped, misunderstood and/or overwhelmed. Definitely not as often as it happened back when she was a teen, but enough times to still be a thing for her. That hot impulse that led her to run away from home all those years back would find ways to light itself up every now and then, telling her to do the same again. And even though she was past using that as her method of choice, there were still moments when Brandy found it a bit difficult to handle how she felt in a way that didn't involve *actually* running away from the thing/situation that made her feel that way. So, of course, all of this would inevitably slip into her and Malcolm’s relationship, too, one way or the other, which is something the two had to learn how to work out as a couple.
Also, here’s a thought that is semi-related to what I said above: there are times when I think about these two and I kinda wish they met in their teenage years, because they would’ve been glorious back then, too, but at the same time I am glad that they didn’t, because I have this strong feeling that if that actually happened, they might not have lasted the way they did. 🤣 They would've probably been fed up with each other by 1982 or so. 💀 🤣
