WaywardInsecticon on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/waywardinsecticon/art/Harbourmaster-041-034-654201575WaywardInsecticon

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Harbourmaster 041-034

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For someone trying to coexist, Kema is determined to remind Tal that it's a monster.

Start from the beginning of this arc.
Start from the beginning.
Patreon, because what else do you expect from a tourist town?
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almightyhat's avatar
This is a very interesting page.

The longing-for but denial-of trust, or at least cross-species trust, is one of the things making Kema into a very tragic figure, but I think maybe so is its fundamental misunderstanding of the speed of human healing-- mental and emotional more than physical.

Tal might develop PTSD from this, yes.  It's certainly traumatic enough.  He might get shaky around slender dark-haired people wearing red, or dissociate when he sees morphing special effects, or have to ask any Yogzarthu of his acquaintance to please not shift to or from human-normal flesh tones in front of him (with or without clothes).  But he's also probably going to be okay.  Tal has well-established coping mechanisms and an alarming capacity to forgive people for hurting him.

And I don't think Kema expects Tal to really heal, psychologically.  I think it expects Tal to always be stuck in that hyper-vigilant, over-sensitized, hair-trigger place, and doesn't quite get that humans don't (can't) sustain that.

Which might just be a Yogzarthu understanding of the natural human healing process (so slow they may as well not be healing, by Yogzarthu standards), or it might be saying something about the Yogzarthu ability to bounce back from psychological trauma.  Or maybe Kema's just trying to use fear to manipulate Tal, despite Gilou just telling it that the Kemites aren't the Kemites out of fear.  I'm intrigued to see which it is.