#i cannot with these companions

[metanarrates]

an artist is a director of audience reaction, not its dictator. if you know your craft well, you can make most of your cues hit, but in the end, interpretation of art is up to the viewer. you cannot guarantee that everyone viewing your work will react as you are trying to make them react. a good artist knows that this is what allows works to breathe. by definition, you cannot have art where the viewer brings nothing to the table. you do have to respect both the generative and interpretive ends of the process if you want your art to mean anything.

this is why you have to let go of the urge to plainly state in-text exactly how you think the work should be interpreted. that desire for control conveys disrespect for audience. if you have developed your storytelling skills well enough, the audience will understand what you are trying to communicate without needing you to intercede as authorial voice. sure, some won't get it, but it's better to be misinterpreted sometimes than to talk down to your audience. you won't even gain any control that way; people will still develop their opinions no matter what you do. just find a way to communicate your ideas and hope that it comes across well to your audience at some point

[arcane-gold]

(crawls out of the cc 4 hours later, covered in blood) here’s my rook, Rel Aldwir, veiljumper extraordinaire <3

[beetlethebug]

i am still thinking about rook choking emmrich and buying them jewelry for that purpose. but i am now ALSO thinking about an emmrich x rook x lucanis polycule. getting up to the same shenanigans.

lucanis has a line about spending four hours in the market because his cousin wanted to buy gloves to impress a woman. imagine these two spending hours wandering various markets looking for the perfect rings and bracelets to adorn rook's hands. the two of them bickering about style before realizing rook has two hands so they can each decorate one as they please. spite being very, very insistent that he gets to pick one. and since lucanis is annoyed about it, emmrich lets him pick a ring on his behalf for rook, too.

and while perhaps it started for rook, the two of them start buying jewelry for each other, too.

and while it starts with hands, i'm sure it evolves into necklaces and earrings and all sorts of accoutrement. lucanis buying emmrich an earring set stylized to like a wisp from the necropolis. rook buying the ugliest, chunkiest emerald ring because it reminded them of manfred's eyes. emmrich finds a piece that resembles all the bones in a person's hand and rook and lucanis get into a fight about who gets to wear it first. spite's picks in jewelry being surprisingly deep and meaningful. rook picking out jewelry with little pockets for poisons or stylized to look like wyvern's for lucanis. emmrich commissioning a skull pin similar to his but in the shape of a crow's for when lucanis has to do more formal work.

i am just. having many thoughts about jewelry as a love language.

emmrich has rook and lucanis' left hands, lucanis has the right for emmrich and rook, and rook gets one of each :)

[sp3akfromtheart]

doctor who writers have this horrible skill of being able to write the worst episodes of a show you've ever seen and simultaneously making you cry your eyes out x

[pizzacade]

Thanks to Big Finish for the cover for The Companion Chronicles: Solitaire, an Eighth Doctor puppet was created.

Yes, it's real, and NO ONE except possibly Big Finish knows where it is.

[grandadtwelve]

ive always held the belief that the doctor, upon making ashildr immortal, somehow managed to find one of the few beings in existence who would not and will not ever get along with jack harkness.

the ashildr and jack in my brain fucking HATE each other and I find it so fucking funny. jack and clara? besties, lovers, soulmates, have exchanged wedding rings. ashildr and clara? besties, partners in crime, unrequited childhood crush to closest friend and confidant. jack and ashildr? literally what is wrong with you you’re so annoying I hate you why the fuck am I stuck here with you of all goddamn people I wish you would die and stay dead thank god my memory doesn’t last forever so I don’t have to be tortured by every irritating thing you’ve ever done oh my god you’re so boring what did you get clara for her birthday are you coming early to the party to help set up yes okay great fuck you bye

[solasfenheral]

vg is a game that should be saturated in religion and faith and politics and yet - (I am yanked off stage by a comically large cane)

[theviewer]

Hey, wouldn't it be super creepy if Arthur's eyes -under John's control- kept moving after he got his abdomen opened up and died? Like

Imagine a corpse who can move one of it's forearms and had it's eyes scanning the surroundings as if in a panic

[ducks-love-peas]

Then you tell me that you want to do this. You look me in the eye and tell me.

[denebrye]

*confused in wild magic*

[marshymarge]

screaming crying puking shitting pissing why doesnt anybody love farkas why does everyone shit all over him why do they agree with his baseless self-deprecation why why why why why

[expectiations]

the Doctor: I do what I want! Nardole: I’m telling River. the Doctor: No, wait-

[starry-bi-sky]

Sketch dump! I havent done one of those in a while. These are all from June-July while I was on vacation.

First we have Layal! The delightful Mother of Monsters, aka the Ghost Zone’s most evil mama bear AND my take on a fem!danyal dan! I like to imagine she could pummel Dan into the ground, but that stands true for any and all of my au Dans. Bc i am INCREDIBLY biased.

She mostly lives on her island in the Ghost Zone, taking in monsters of the Infinite Realms of all kind and raising them as her own. Surprisingly enough, she does genuinely love her children. That’s about where her love ends. She stole the minotaur, his name is Asterion.

Then we have Daini-Yel! He’s from an au i’ve never actually talked about on here. He’s literally just Danny for an Epic!-inspired au. He's an unknown entity in the newly released open-adventure, odyssesy-inspired game "Nautilus", and he is not a part of the game's code :). He showed up three months after the game's initial launch, and was discovered during a live when a streamer was on their way to fight a boss much similar to Circe and the streamer accidentally took a detour and found his pathway (of which did not previously exist).

He's very friendly! And offers you, the Captain, a strange liquid with even stranger powers called "Ektolai", in order to help you fight Circe. His whole vibe and creation is literally just the song "Wouldn't You Like" from Epic. If you run into him enough times at the start of the game, you can convince him to join you on your adventure as part of the crew. He's a powerful ally and a very good friend, despite his strange awareness of the world around him...

Oh, but be warned... just like the rest of your companions, your actions have consequences and what you do affects their opinion of you. Daini is no different! Your close allies can quickly become enemies.

[velmashaircut]

I played Caleb's route and myth a while ago and here are my thoughts/ theories/ predictions about him and the story (long af):

I reread my prediction post I made a month ago about Caleb, and I feel bad for painting him as some sort of villain. This man has been through the ringer, I thought the other LI's had it bad, Caleb somehow has it worse, he's been through so much and this is just in one lifetime. I both anticipate and dread his second myth, although the story will be good, it'll also be sad af

His main story branch update was the best of the main story in my opinion. I found it really engaging, not that the other chapters suck or anything. The same goes for his myth story; it felt like a continuation from the main story and the plot of the myth was enjoyable. If you want to understand Caleb and what's going on with him, read his myth! I would say his myth story is one of the best in the game.

MC's emotions and inner conflict were executed perfectly in this story branch. The emotion in MC’s voice when she’s face to face with Caleb was so touching, and the way she hugged him as soon as she could...it was sweet, her VA did a great job depicting her emotions! I really liked seeing MC so overjoyed to see an LI; in her initial meetings with LI’s she's either annoyed or neutral, so seeing her over the moon to be reunited with Caleb was refreshing and just solidified how deep their bond runs. Caleb naturally has an advantage compared to the other LI's in that sense, in this timeline, even if MC doesn't love Caleb, she'll always be warmer to him and he'll be her first choice.

Playing the main story and witnessing MC’s joy to be reunited with Caleb slowly turn into suspicion and eventually morph into frustration and anger was so good to read. The player and MC both bare witness to Caleb's transformation in character and it's heart wrenching to discover, both the MC and player don't fully understand what's going on to cause this switch in behaviour.

The ending for the main story was very solemn; MC failed her mission, Kevi was taken away and Mia died. Her short reunion with Caleb turns bittersweet. I thought that would be the end, but then it was revealed Caleb's been tangled in EVER's schemes and Caleb is making himself look like the perfect weapon to spare MC from this fate - he’s trading his life so she can keep hers. And his myth ending makes this all the more heart wrenching - the chip has taken away most of his memories, and he's doing whatever he can to preserve the memories he has of MC not only to keep his sense of self, but to still resist EVER's control of him.

Despite the lack of transparency and control Caleb exercised over MC’s life, I didn’t think he went too out of line. Caleb seems to believe he needs to amass power to protect MC and himself, Tainted Cuts seems to prove this ideology. Skyhaven is dangerous and Caleb knows it; despite being influential, he can't control over Skyhaven the way Sylus does with the N109 zone, he has to keep MC under lock and key to ensure she's out of harms way. He knows there are people after her, he works for them! He's not safe either. And in the end, Caleb was proven right to keep her under surveillances; MC nearly died twice in Skyhaven. When MC and Caleb get into an argument towards the end of the story, and she says she doesn't need his protection, instead of possession I think he felt more frenzied despair. He knows what lurks ahead, and he knows he can't hide her away forever and protect her from the danger.

...

In my theory post about Caleb, I suggested Caleb orchestrated the explosion, clearly that was not the case. I still think he wasn't clueless about what was going on behind the scenes though, his behaviour was still weird before the explosion. Unlike MC he remembers the past experimentation - I wouldn't be surprised if he was keeping tabs on EVER in case they made a reappearance in their lives. I used to think he didn't like the granny because of this, but I've changed my mind. He arranged for her to be moved to a nursing home that was remote and of good quality, he was remorseful when he told MC he couldn't save her in the explosion. Maybe he grew to forgive her for her past experimentation, or was just glad she gave them a roof over their heads.

I also believe Caleb failed to save Grandma in the explosion because he instead chose to protect MC. That could explain why his necklace was left behind. I also think the explosion was meant to target all three of them, kill the granny and take MC and Caleb back to EVER headquarters, but Caleb somehow managed to prevent them from taking MC. Or they were after MC only and Caleb convinced the raincoats to take him instead. It tracks with Caleb's intentions to have EVER focus on him rather than MC.

My theory post was mainly wrong, but I was right about one thing; Caleb wants to return to a place where it felt as if it was only himself and MC in the world; the secret/ abandoned garden he visits (in his mind?) at the end of his myth. In my post, I speculated this may be a reference to the Garden of Eden due to commissioned fanart of the game representing MC and Caleb with the forbidden fruit. Now I'm not so sure; What does the apple represent for MC and Caleb, their blurring relationship? And what about the serpent? I think it's no coincidence we meet Viper in this branch, who is some sort of snake cyborg...

I've seen speculate that this timeline is the first lifetime Caleb and MC have shared with one another, and as much as I like the theory, I disagree with it. The main reason being this:

I think this is how Caleb dies in the end of his next myth... question is what the hell happened for this to occur.

As well as that, Caleb and MC have the whole Adam and Eve thing going on, 100 years, space/nebula's surrounding their characters... the scene in the main story in which they watch the shooting star...that must link to a different timeline somehow. I personally believe in another lifetime, Caleb was banished from somewhere, maybe the heavens, or was sentenced to death, and MC decided to go down with him. I think this is a nice parallel to their current relationship, MC wants to be in the loop, wants to stand alongside Caleb, but he won't allow her to do so for her own sake, and instead shoulders everything on his own. Maybe he doesn't want to be the reason for her demise again. Whatever it is, like Zayne, I don't think Caleb has any recollection of their shared past.

Also, I believe Caleb surviving multiple instances of near death is no coincidence. He claims its because of MC, he needs to persevere to return to her... a part of me thinks he's being literal. Maybe he's been afflicted with some sort of curse, and he cannot die until MC does, or they are each others life source or something crazy like that.

Last but not least I want to say this: I hate EVER for what they did to Caleb. They have been fucking up his life since day one. Putting that chip in him and making him lose a part of himself was toooo much. I just mourn for Caleb now; he just wanted to fly and protect his loved ones, he was so beloved by those around him, and now he's been turned into a war machine. Free Caleb! If the 6th LI is the EVER ceo I'm throwing hands.

[an-na-ko]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I lost my cat of 16 years a few weeks ago. He was a stray that gradually became OK with being a house cat, and he was so loved. I hadn't been able to cry for him (my meds make crying a near impossible thing) until I read your comic. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

(I hope you don't mind a masterpost of replies! I know pet loss is extremely difficult for a lot of people, and I didn't want to fill up people's dashes with each reply, but know that each message means so much to me. We all love in such profound ways and losing our little companions hurts to a degree that is immeasurable.)

For the anons above, thank you for such a heartfelt message! One of the things that helped me through the worst of my grief was seeing other people who talked about their pet loss too. It made me feel so much less alone, especially in thoughts that echoed mine, but it also helped me see things in perspectives I've never considered.

I posted this comic in hopes that someone out there who needed it would feel seen and understood, and that it would maybe help process their loss. So it really means a lot to me to see that my comic has helped, in whatever way it could. I'm so sorry that we all understand this feeling, but I hope you never feel alone in missing the little lives that mean so much to you.

For anon above, I can't imagine how difficult that is. Lyra was a surrender, but it was very obvious from how well-loved, affectionate, and well-looked-after she was that her previous family had loved her.

I hope you don't feel like you failed your girl; there are circumstances that no one can control no matter what. Cats (and most pets in general) have an amazing ability that, despite language barriers, seem to know how much you love them, just as easily as we know how much they love us even if they can't say it. Your girl knows you love her. I don't fully know her circumstances or yours, but I truly hope you find that closure. 🫂

I haven't met a lot of people with cats named Lyra! I hope it didn't bother you too much to read such a painful comic about a cat with the same name, haha. I hope your little Lyra is healthy and happy, and please give her a little kiss for me! 🤍

thank you anons for reading my comic despite the heavy content, for connecting with it the way you did, and for the kind words! 🫂 I truly wasn't sure if anyone would want to read such a painful, raw comic about loss, but these messages really brighten my day. I hope your days are bright as well.

[loumandivorce]

aziraphale really is a teenage girl ya protagonist