#eyeliner is nice and pretty and neat and clean and fucking pristine

[frnkiebby]

Number eight!!!!!

i need frank to wear makeup again please~🎃

[iamnot-theboynextdoor]

okay but props to neil gaiman, miranda richardson and the costume, hair and make-up teams for creating two very distinct characters!

i love that madam tracy and shax look and sound SO different, and yet there's one thing they have in common: they're both huge fashionistas who always dress for the job they have. and underneath that layer, they're total opposites again. here's why:

the first time we see madam tracy, she's got these long girlish lashes and very pale shades of eyeshadow/lipstick on for her Intimate Relaxation gig. her eyes look so *round*. she's got her light curly blonde wig in an up-do, and her baby pink sheer negligee and sheer dressing gown (which is apparently called a peignoir- so fancy!) and it's all perfect for someone trying very hard to Be The Fantasy (read: look way younger than she is).

and for her Spirit Summoning gig, she's got much heavier lashes and darker lipstick, but her eyes are still the focus. they're shaped *less* round, but still *round*. her wig's coppery red, eye-catching, styled much shorter but very neat. she's wearing a long, flowy top in jewel tones - paired with the heavy lashes, you take a mere glance at her and go "ah, yes, fortune teller".

and when madam tracy dresses down for her lunch with and proposal to shadwell, her make-up is very light. she doesn't have *big* fake lashes on, but you can still see her coat of mascara. as marjorie, she looks like she's *really* trying to show shadwell that she's just a Normal Person too- not a Jezebel or an Occultist. but she's not wearing *no* make-up - marjorie's still going for a very feminine and pretty look. she's still wearing a bottle blonde wig, but it's down and tidy and not super styled like her other wigs, it looks simple, like she only ran a brush through it. her clothes are plain and comfortable looking - the thought i keep having for this look is it's very English Mum. it's just as curated as her other, way more ostentatious looks.

madam tracy dresses for the jobs she has, marjorie dresses for the life she wants. (she would be a fucking great LARPer. i'm just saying.)

conversely, the first time we see shax in her Undercover-As-Human look, her eyelashes are barely noticeable and the focus is on that heavy, perfectly straight winged eyeliner that could cut a bitch! it makes her eyes look small, narrow, *sharp*. her lipstick's colour-coordinated to her incredibly elegant outfit- this is a demon who went earthside for the first time and decided to fucking serve!

shax is going for glamour, mystery, slightly intimidating, and perfectly put-together... to compensate for the fact that she's a little bit lost in her new role. ("was it always this easy?") it looks like shax worked So Hard on this Human Disguise, only to make it topside and discover her job is mostly superfluous. she's still learning the ropes ("either make a phone call or appear mysteriously, don't do both") and under her mature look and low-profile, quiet voice, there's still a degree of naivety ("are you making fun of me?" "would you know if i was?").

(she doesn't have the winged eyeliner on in her battle outfit, but she also doesn't look Fucking Gross like the other demons. she went to all the effort to put badass Hell armour on, but her face is pristine.

maybe as the Earth Operative she's expected/allowed/tolerated to not look Fucking Gross - crowley never looked Fucking Gross (in a demonic way; period-accurate facial hairstyles aside, i say lovingly) and i think he would refuse to look more demon-y if told to - he's got the eyes and the tattoo, what more would you want? i don't know yet if shax Secretly Enjoys looking nice and clean for once, or she's just very dedicated to dressing professionally.)

it's all the perfect accent to miranda's brilliant acting. Madam Tracy The Sex Worker has this light, airy, faux-innocence voice (unless she's discussing details up-front- she drops the babygirl voice when telling newt it'll take her a while to squeeze into the leather pinny). Madam Tracy The Veil Parter is low-key and Fake Dramatic; she does her Little Colleen O'Leary bit and a terrible cold read- and then miranda goes absolutely hogwild and Real Dramatic as aziraphale (and then ron) possess madam tracy. and i could write a whole separate post on miranda-as-aziraphale (it's michael in the ADR booth, of course, but he has to match her performance and mouth movements). and as marjorie, while her Normal Person Outfit is so deliberate, she's not putting on a voice. she's relaxed, generous, making plans, and going after what she really wants (nothing like the world almost ending to give her some perspective!), and she's doing it as *herself*.

all of tracy/marjorie's voices (even when she speaks as herself) have this sort of breezy, upper register tone to them. but as shax, miranda drops the pitch of her voice right down. shax does not airily dance around vocally; shax sounds very mature (to match her outfit!). she's not monotone, though, just subdued and subtle. she knows crowley is persona non grata, but brings him his mail, feeds him information, hoping for some reciprocity (train me how to be an Earth Operative, maybe take on some of my assignments under the table, "hell doesn't care *how* it gets done", we could have our own Secret Arrangement *crowley is blatantly ignoring her, Arrangements are for his angel only*); even after a few years of trying to convince crowley, she hasn't seemed to notice that he's Not Interested.

madam tracy tries to sound young, innocent, entertaining, and heightened; but underneath it all, is quite sensible, knows she's Of Retirement Age, and is ready for it. she's done pretending to be ditzy; it's very emotionally mature of her. yay, character development!

and shax is the opposite; she tries to sound mature, knowledgeable, competant, and cool. but underneath it all, she's very much The Oblivious New Guy At Work. she doesn't get why it's redundant to have a face-to-face and phone conversation with the same person at the same time. she doesn't understand crowley's sarcasm, or pick up on him not caring to help her with her work (he'll gladly hear whatever information she's freely offering, though. shax, this is not an exchange, you are not slowly wheedling him into a business partnership, you are just doing favours for the *persona non grata*- which is quite nice of you, actually!)