become the part

Content Warning:

Animal death, blood.

[Long description:

A short comic. It opens with the battered body of a dead mourning dove (Zenaida macroura), laying among its own feathers. Dried blood cakes its eyes shut. In the next frame, someone picks up the dove’s cold, limp body.

The frame pulls out to show the cyborg MarkOS, kneeling down on mechanized legs. He wears a chunky respirator under his hooded robes, and goggles that blot out his eyes. He scoops up the dove in both hands, and cradles it close to his chest. Panes of light reveal that we’re actually looking at his reflection in a window. The glass is cracked, and the cracks distort MarkOS’ reflection somewhat, but the source of the damage is hidden somewhere off-screen.

MarkOS stands up. The fractured glass comes fully into view. It’s a mark of the dove’s fatal collision with the window, and it eclipses MarkOS’ profile like a halo of spidering stress fractures. Blood drips down from the raw edges of the glass, and his reflection becomes so distorted that it’s hard to make out.

He looks at his reflection—at the viewer. The shards of glass catch the light just right, and he catches a glimpse of his old self. It takes him back to a memory from another time…]

August 13, 2022

◆

And it feels different
And it feels the same

(checks my pulse) no yeah I’m still on one. Post-Killswitch ruminations. TYPHOON is full of pathos and so is MarkOS.

With gratitude to Archaii for sharing these broken glass resources. I love rendering glass and reflections, but for some reason, drawing believable-looking cracked glass is something that takes me 8 years. And I very much needed to get this out of my system Quickly.

Anyway!

[Long description: Another short comic. MarkOS presents the dead body of the mourning dove to the Doc, who is a tall, inscrutable something-or-other. She wears thick robes that resemble MarkOS’, but are somewhat fancier. They conceal her whole body from toe to tip, and her face is hidden behind a mask that looks like some sort of bird skull.

She glances over at MarkOS’ strange offering, and one has to imagine that she makes a face at it.

“That isn’t what I asked for,” She says.

MarkOS insists. He raises the dove as high as he can for her to look at it. The Doc throws her head back indignantly.

“It’s dead,” she says, waving her talons at it dismissively.

MarkOS just stands there, holding the dove up.

The Doc puts her hands on her hips and examines him, instead. “What’s wrong with you? Did one of your semantic cables come loose?”

Her lab assistant, Reyes, is off in the background repairing a doorway. Reyes looks over at the two of them, and says “Think he wants you to fix it, boss.”]