And now is when things get REALLY weird.
I really hope no readers are getting too annoyed at this chapter getting its head stuck up its own ass. Part of what I’m going for is…all four doctors were being attacked in their weakest points. Sarin, master of shapeshifting, gets her whole body vaporized. Kili works spiritually and can sense violent intent so the demons mind controlled someone she trusted into attacking her physically. Goro’s clever but prefers brute force, and is now trapped in a cage that can’t be escaped from by brute force. And now Mori, the rational core of the group, is having her entire reality destroyed at its most basic level.
…. well… this is a surprising turn to say the least
I was about to complain about how the plot had been derailed by this weird metafiction chapter, but then I read your description and realized that actually does make a lot of sense. I still have no idea what’s coming next or how you intend to tie it together with everything else, but now I’m significantly less nevous that you know what you’re doing. I’ve always loved this comic and think you’re a brilliant writer, this chapter has just thrown me through a loop. Then again, I have no idea what your plans are and I’ve been completely blown away before so do what you want.
My uninformed advice, scrap this new villain at the end of the chapter. This story has always been about how great life is and what we can do with it, so having a Cosmic Horror Story villain seems REALLY counterproductive to that. Have nihilism proven wrong, like always, and get back to the more down to earth dangers. I always thought Carey was the perfect villain for the Doctors, who constantly prove how much good comes from being part of a greater whole, since she’s a pure narcissist who cares about nothing but herself.
So the Incubus and Sucubus are NOT the ones in charge after all. Cary’s been rebelling against the wrong people, at best, she’s just been treating the symptoms, not the disease, and in a manner where the cure is far worse!
Oh crap.
*gasp!* h-how long has that banner been like that??
Hmm interesting. Over all it calls into effect the levels of reality the character of Mori knows. She’s being exposed to the fact that she’s a fictional character in a story, not something that most beings could take. But at the same time it almost feels like this assault on Mori is an attack on us the readers, not in a negative way mind. It’s an assault because right now Mori only has what was given to Us by the story. The rest of her life, her favorite foods, her private history. The attack is so strong that’s making her a blank slate in story, and altering the banner here in the medium we view it.
But the thing is that Mori can’t see what we do, that she is real. Within the story of the Dragon Doctors she’s completely real, because they exist because of her. She isn’t weak or hollow, she just hasn’t had a chance to show Us everything. And it doesn’t matter what author put her in the story, the story moved and lived with her. We’re the readers, all we can do is root for the characters. So that’s what I’m going to do here. I’m going to root for Mori to realize this. To fight back. To win. Rage Against The Heavens. Against The Author. Because that’s what we do, because we know there’s more than we’ve been shown.
Not the direction I’d expected things to go, nor the direction that, given my own choice, I would have had things go. But, I continue to enjoy reading, and plan to continue to do so.
Ok, you’ve done similar stories with the crax, it will be interesting how you handle this one.
The opponent’s philosophy appears to be… irrationality? A lack of meaning. A hole in thought. But if this is solely to destroy Mori, then perhaps the enemy doesn’t actually believe in these concepts.
Reality does make sense, though. The thing is, if something doesn’t make sense, it just means you don’t have enough information. So… what don’t we know? Other than the obvious?
What this entity is. It has enough information in, in a metafictional way, to know what we were never told and weaponize it. It’s using illusion and doubt to make it so it’s taking over Mori’s existance. And those eyes are the same yellow as the being that killed Smith. Mori might be dealing with either a spirit or concept that’s of the universes “fictional” and twisting things to take on her role. After all if the actor doesn’t have enough say can they really fight against someone pretending to be the director?
Heads up, next comic is in the pipe but it’ll be Friday EVENING because of work-related exhaustion issues. Sorry.
I LOVE metafiction. So far, this is WAY more enjoyable for me than simple “set right what went wrong” time travel would have been.