Dragon No.1412

Here's me trying to interpret how Danny's hazmat suit would look like if it were more realistic, based on my experience with biohazard PPE.

[part 1] [part 2]

"I hope you won't mind if I think of you as a friend."

Rocky: "why Grace so 🎶🎶🎶 stupid. Question."

Grace: "Excuse me buddy?"

Rocky: "...🎶🎶🎶 stupid. Hmm. Need word."

Grace: "...what does it mean?"

Rocky: "Meant add strength to word. But some Eridians think also .....rude"

Grace: "So a swear word. I'm not giving you the human word for that."

Rocky: "Why not. Question."

Grace: "Because this human thinks they are rude too."

White lies 🐝 (please read under the cut <3)

So we know Scratch and co arrived in late 1999, and Ragatha in late 2008, with probably around a 1-year period where Kinger was entirely alone (long enough to develop dissociative tendencies, but not so long that he couldn't still pull himself together for Ragatha). This means almost the entire original group didn't last more than 6 years in the circus, while characters like Ragatha have managed to last at-least a decade. I think there's some major reasons as to why that is:

1. They understood the true nature of their prison

Unlike everyone from Ragatha onwards, the original cast were all developers who understood on a deeper level what the circus was, and more importantly what THEY were. As it's been all-but-confirmed that the characters within the circus are digital mind scans with no bodies to return to, they started out understanding there was no escape and nobody was coming for them. The knowledge that they were nothing by artificial copies would have been existentially damaging, and made relinquishing their humanity all the easier.

2. They were real-world colleagues and friends

Now you'd THINK this would have been an enormous boon for their mental longevity, since they all already had bonds even before entering the circus, but I think it was actually a huge detriment. They could actually remember and remind one another of their pre-circus lives, which only reinforced how trapped they felt. Additionally, this shared experience would have made them SO tight-knit that the loss of a single member would have been emotionally devastating to the rest, likely leading to cascading abstractions.

3. Scratch's Abstraction

Despite what I said above, the original cast's bonds PROBABLY would have helped in the long run... had Scratch not abstracted when Caine tried editing his mind files (presumably trying to "cure" the cognitive impairment from his brain tumour). Witnessing someone they all knew and looked up to devolve into a monster would have been awful enough, but I'd argue the true horror would have been their collective realization that there was no cure. Before the cellar protocol was introduced, they probably spent a LOT of time trying to "fix" Scratch, with the repeated failures only compounding their feelings of hopelessness. Had they been able to accept that Scratch was gone in the same way the modern cast holds a funeral for Kaufmo, they could've grieved and moved on. Instead all they could tell was that their friend trapped in a form of perpetual, violent distress, and nothing they did could pull him out of it. The grief, frustration, and hopelessness of that is likely what caused the next abstraction, which only would have made things even worse.

4. They thought they were alone

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

He can’t at the daycare but he does know aerial silks