cartercaptainofthemoon

the idea is that the eldritch thing here isn't the iron lung god, or the eel, it is literally the tree that exploded out at the end of the movie

it gained consciousness/became an interdimensional eldritch being (through handwavey fuckery, idk) the moment it exploded out and it killed the eel

also healed simon,, lizard style, he obv aint human anymoe

the reason it is so fond of simon is because they fused and it gained simons memories (and most prominently of his fond and reverent memories of the tree on eden that the tree came out of)

(also of him taking care of the tree in some way, whether its tending to the soil or spilling blood to it)

somewhere in that logic this giant interdimensional plant thought "ah yes this lump of flesh gave me life and my freedom and it yearns for freedom therefore i shall search for a suitable habitat"

then it spent a few moments and an eternity scrolling through universes where it believed its charge would be happiest, found poor grace, saw the same cinematic parallels tumblr saw and said "aight thats the one"

it connected them like,,, cosmically

(not really relevant to the plot but it infected and changed grace the moment he reached back to it in his dreams to become like simon bc the lifespan difference between ryland and rocky devastates me on a daily basis)

(i don't think anyone mentioned it in the comments of part 3 (or at least i didnt see anyone mentioning it) but one of my favorite little details i added is that the tree roots gradually wrap around graces arm and around his ring finger) (hell yea, symbolism) (so i gave the other end of the tether to simon now :) )

another reason for the interlude is i realized that everything i wrote down was in graces pov so i figured id add a bit of simon before i wrap things up (even if hes unconcious)

EXTRA NOTES:

sooo prologue is over! im gonna take a break for a bit so i can catch up on the work ive been putting to the wayside. not abandoning this, certainly not, but if i post an update within the next week you should yell at me

from now on the comic is gonna be a mix of bigger arcs like this prologue and more doodles/slice of life bits. just random fun interactions i think of

i do in fact have a timeline semi planned out for the plot of this comic. whenever i lose interest in this (which will likely take a while) ill post the timeline so people know what the story plan was. i always hate when a fan comic or fanfic ends abruptly and i dont know what was gonna happen

big thank you to everyone who's sent me asks, i just figured out how to open asks and so far everyone has been very kind and very cool. i appreciate them all a lot, but i havent responded to anyone because it scares me. just know im really really thankful for all the support and ive read every one of them <3

soooo Teegarden's Star C is a real planet. It's another "planet named after the star but with a letter next to it". The star it orbits (teegarden's star) is a cooler star. which makes it more red. which makes the planet also red. which was a wonderful coincidence because i picked teegarden's star because of it's placement in the path back to Erid from Tau Ceti (based on a kinda shitty map i found of the phm journey, which may be wrong??). WHY exactly the Hail Mary is in this system at all is to be answered in the story

also apology to anyone who hasn't seen phm or iron lung, that last page must be confusing as hell. anyway it'll only get more movie-lore based so good luck to anyone who hasn't seen/read those stories

should i post this on ao3?? i have an account, but i havent posted anything on there ever. an ask mentioned it might be nice to have the comic compiled into one spot like that. but yeah ive never posted anything on there

UPDATE: AO3 link is here