Tess (left) and Mira (right)
"Tess is a professional working gorgon. She's responsible, organised, and would never do anything as ridiculous as agreeing to fake date a coworker. Except, somehow, she did?"
— Description on Webtoon
Seven Days in Silverglen
is a Girl's Love Webcomic written by walkingnorth (the author of Always Human). It is set in a world populated by creatures of myth, though separated somewhat from their powers and living in a civilized society. Tess, a gorgon, gets asked by her co-worker Mira, a dryad, to pretend to be her girlfriend so that her family doesn't try to "play matchmaker" when she goes home to celebrate the autumn equinox. Tess agrees, mostly because she has feelings for Mira. Cue slow-burn romance and plenty of pining.
Seven Days in Silverglen contains examples of:
- Animal Eyes: Tess has reptilian pupils and no irises.
- Color-Coded Eyes: Mira has green eyes and loves being outdoors and is very energetic. It also represents her connection to nature as a dryad.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Played for Drama between Tess and Mira. Tess is discriminated against so much that she thinks that it is normal and even jokes about it, and is proud of her efforts to hide her true self, which Mira finds abhorrent.
- Eating Optional: Downplayed, Tess not only has snake-like eyes, she also has the metabolism of a snake. If she doesn't feel like cooking that week, she can just eat a hunk of meat.
- Fake Relationship: What Tess and Mira are doing.
- Fantastic Racism: Tess gets repeatedly stared at when out in public. In Episode 13.4, Tess gets kicked out of a cafe by an elven staff member for "making everyone uncomfortable," and she justifies it by claiming that Gorgons are dangerous. Tess' mum explains in a flashback that most people simply haven't met a Gorgon.
- Hide Your Otherness: Tess uses glasses to hide her pink eyes and and puts her snakes up in a bun, which she covers with a beret.
- Inhuman Eye Concealers: Tess uses glasses to hide her reptilian pink eyes.
- Interspecies Romance: Tess is a gorgon and Mira is a dryad.
- Introverted Cat Person: Tess is an introvert and has a cat named Detective Vespur Nyx.
- Medusa: Tess is a gorgon. They don't seem to be able to petrify people at all; their snakes are just limbs that can feel and taste. It is later explained that the only other special ability that gorgons have is sensing the density and properties of stone.
- Good Parents: Tess speaks of her mother fondly and in flashbacks, she is seen to be very loving and gentle towards Tess.
- Lethal Harmless Powers: Mira points out that though elves can only summon a spark of flame, that is enough to set entire forests on fire.
- Official Couple: Tess and Mira, obviously.
- Our Nymphs Are Different: Mira is a dryad.
- Playing with Fire: Elves can summon a single spark of fire.
- Queer Colors: Averted, according to walkingnorth's Q&A, Tess and Mira's colour schemes aren't inspired by the bi and lesbian pride flags respectively. If the characters used our labels for sexualities, Tess would identify as lesbian and Mira would identify as bi or pan.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: This story's bread and butter. The author confirmed that Tess and Mira will eventually start dating for real.
- Self-Parody: In "A Completely Serious Recap", the author parodies the insanely slow-burn nature of the comic.Tess: I have a crush on a coworker but won't do a thing about it, because I'm a useless lesbian who has trauma.Mira: I need a fake date for the autumn equinox for mysterious and vague reasons. Maybe I also have trauma?
- Shrinking Violet: Tess fits this to a tee, including literally being the colour violet. She hates confrontation and is awkward towards anyone that isn't her cat or her nerdy friend circle.
- Shout-Out: The Q&A ends with a almost exact replica of the Lesbians Doing Makeup meme, complete with Tess blushing whilst Mira is kneeling over her doing makeup.
- Talking to Plants: Dryads have the ability to talk to plants, but if the plants listen to them is up to the plant.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Downplayed, Mira stands up to the barista who kicked Tess out, though her and Tess are just fake-dating. Her speech is one of the few times where Mira doesn't have flowers in her speech bubbles.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The most that gorgons can do with their powers is sense the depth and properties of stone, which tends to be so specific that it's practically useless in a modern setting.
- Willfully Weak: Gorgons have a culture of hiding their snakes away while in public, seeing it as unprofessional not to do so. Said snakes help a lot with seeing in the dark, and are basically extra scaly limbs.
