Dearest Canis

Dearest Canis | Pages 1-7 out of 15

part one / 1 (current) / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

part three / 1 / 2

part four / 1 / 2 / 3 

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

Dearest Canis cover! (Except I've never properly formatted my doujinshi for printing so I could only hope, also the image is too big on tumblr...)

the Google Drive download is on archive!

part two drafts! this was a really long chapter lol, and then chapter 3 turned out to be much shorter!

The longer I held out with drawing, the more information came about Thoma and Ayato's backstory and it was perfect timing to include those in!

The picture of old design Ayato... I wanted him to have straight bangs...

Dearest Canis | part five preview

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

part three / 1 / 2

part four / 1 / 2 / 3

part five / 1 (current)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

part five drafts! + author's notes

Thank you very much for reading "dearest canis"! This is my first fancomic, been going long since 2021.

"dearest canis" started since seeing leaks for Thoma's release. Back when he was called "Tohma"/"Tohama". I first started with a short 7-page pilot story based on how Childe's "Letters to Home" and that Thoma might help him pick out some nice souvenirs from Inazuma!

Honestly, I'm not so sure looking back how the hell I thought of all this, since they have not canonically talked to each other? There literally is only a background picture of both of them sitting together!!! I was holding out for a Thoma story where we (Traveler) can take Thoma to visit Mondstadt again!!

I must be insane for just crumbs. But... there were a few specific things I wanted to draw, that was Ajax showing his vulnerable sides, and Thoma getting mad (which is very rare!!). I ended up not drawing Thoma getting mad in the final (LOL)...

Thoma has long expressed himself to be in gratitude for the Kamisato clan, being around to help the young heirs when their parents passed. It was Thoma's will to stay, he finally calls Inazuma his home after finding his family... To Ayato, Thoma has not yet openly expressed about being homesick, only talking of his memories with bittersweetness...

After Chapter 2, Act 3 of the Archon Quest, Ayato might think to bring Thoma back home at least once to visit, even if he might come off as very harsh, this ultimately was a way to protect him and Ayaka.

An image comes to mind with Thoma, where he is home alone cleaning as Ayaka and Ayato are out late with duties, not to return until days later. Thoma surrounds himself with the people of his housekeeping class. Other than that, who would Thoma go to when he thinks about home, when he has long decided that "Inazuma" is the place for him and that he should continue to give back to the clan?

As he ponders at the teahouse alone, his eyes wander to another "regular" he's seen pretty often.

Hearing that Childe must have seen Mondstadt for himself, Thoma must have been ecstatic that his friend has ties to his birthplace. The closest he has ever been to home was through Ajax, telling him about the stories of meeting Traveler and the busy city. A distant friend from Snezhnaya, who has travelled to both Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma, Ajax has many exciting stories to tell! Thoma didn't need to leave Inazuma at all, as long as Ajax is around...

But... Ajax leaves often without a farewell.

This has happened many times before, Ajax leaving when in actuality, he gets injured and can't meet Thoma's eyes. Thoma pretends not to know. This must be what he sacrifices for his dream to become a hero.

"Promise me you won't use the delusion again". Thoma never uses the words "your delusion".

Ajax fails in his mission. In the process, he betrays Thoma's promise. Under the loyalty and oath of Her Majesty, Ajax is against his morals, and personal values. In a split second, showing weakness to Thoma is the sliver of hope to save himself from his position of inner conflicts.

Ajax knows. Only a dream, could Thoma ever leave his homeplace here in Inazuma. There is no place for him.

Thank you so much for reading "dearest canis". This work means so much to me, I'm very thankful!

part four drafts!

In earlier drafts, Childe was much more willing to fight, to the point that Thoma had to yell to get his attention... I ended up not wanting to make them fight. (My heart can't take this abuse I set for myself)

I settled for a Childe that has given up on his mission.

There were a lot of blank spaces in the background. It ended up looking very empty.

part three drafts!

Originally, part three wasn't even a part. Well, there wasn't enough to be separated into a part three (it was with Chapter 4)

While writing Childe's POV, I wanted to include Childe's "Letters to Home". "dearest canis" was meant to have a few family mentions, since I was mad that Childe didn't hug Teucer (during his quest lol)

It was difficult to write it into the story especially, since taking the lines of Childe's letter out of context is... hm. Part Four has the leftover "Letters of Home" I didn't include from Part Three. c

Dearest Canis | Pages 79-85 out of 92

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

part three / 1 / 2

part four / 1 / 2 / 3 (current)

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

Dearest Canis | Pages 72-78 out of 92

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

part three / 1 / 2

part four / 1 / 2 (current) / 3 

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

note: page 68 is too large :(

Dearest Canis | Pages 65-71 out of 92

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

part three / 1 / 2

part four / 1 (current) / 2 / 3 

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

Dearest Canis | Pages 60-64 out of 64

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

part three / 1 / 2 (current)

part four / 1 / 2 / 3

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

Pilot comic! The original one I had posted to Twitter a while back as they had the manga template format lol. I figured to not use them in later redraws and to draw my own boxes.

I lost the original files sadly, so here are only snippets of some pages of the OG pilot.

note: couldn't upload page 58 since the file was too big. hope the link suffices. also shorter chapter.

Dearest Canis | Pages 53-59 out of 64

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

part three / 1 (current) / 2

part four / 1 / 2 / 3 

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

Dearest Canis | Pages 45-52 out of 52

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 (current)

part three / 1 / 2

part four / 1 / 2 / 3 

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

Dearest Canis | Pages 37-44 out of 52

part one / 1 / 2

part two / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 (current) / 5

part three / 1 / 2

part four / 1 / 2 / 3 

part five / 1 (preview)

rest of part four and five will be (read on AO3)

bonus content

pilot

part one

part two

part three

part four

note: i hope this links to the right page-

dearest canis draft 1 and 2, part one! part one actually used to be 8 pages!! now it's like 15!

The pilot had 7 pages HAHA. When Thoma was called Tohma/Tohama... ah, good old days.

The first draft had only 59 pages! Draft 2 had 70, and final has 107 total pages!!

I have two folders (or I guess three since there was a pilot one lol) of previously drawn chapters of Dearest Canis. The ending was set from the start, so not much changed between the drafts... I ended up drawing a lot more pages, the final version had much more spread out pages for the pacing and to fill in gaps!