man some of the encounters and descriptions of things in look outside are giving me feelings I don't know how to describe beyond, like
gender euphoria
Sam!
Its so genuinely thoughtful and caring about what it is to exist in a state that is perceived as monstrous, to lose control of your body and how you are perceived by others and the threat of losing your identity. Its not all great, some people keep getting further lost but.. man, Joel.
There is such a genuine affection both for some of the changed, for their state and still held by them toward others. Examining Audrey's current state of being, her fangs, her eyes, her "nose" after she's been skittish in hopes to find something to help felt genuinely very tender. Almost intimate.
oh and I guess this reaffirms my sense of gender identity is "abstract, potentially full on body/cosmic horror" but that just makes me feel happy.
one day I pray I'll be in the right body uwu
"I got stuck" comic except I was supposed to be a series of weird eyes, wide mouths and an unreasonable amount of appendages holding pencils, brushes and tablet pens, drawing in every direction.
I NEED to get art of this so bad
Just a little bit of care and concern and kindness and you can make all the difference in the world for Joel. It seems like it locks the descent into nightmarish forms and stops them getting worse. Instead, he gets stronger in different ways.
He doesn't revert, but he does grow.
After the earliest encounters, I haven't encountered much in the way of "fixing" the afflicted. Some of the more hostile ones you try to survive and will fight but a lot of them you just... try to accommodate. Make them feel more comfortable. There's no changing this but you can help transform it.
