Not A Flu

A bad person doesn't need to suffer in order to 'earn' empathy, someone doesn't need to be punished in order to be more than just one thing, compassion isn't a transactional process.

A story that asks you to see someone's humanity and pain isn't the same as condoning the behavior, there is no punishment quota that needs to be met before someone can be empathized with.

Jax wasn't a good person but that doesn't automatically make her experience as an abuse survivor null and void. She perpetuated that cycle and was awful to those around her, but she was still victim to that cycle, and those two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Everyone you think is unlovable to their core has someone who cares about them.

Everyone you think is undeserving of love has someone who can't live without them.

“His hand grasped at the nearby rocky wall, and tightly gripped the handle of an umbrella in the other. His mind shouted in need of stability. All of it was frightening, this maddening emotion, the woman…”

Illustration 6/? for @stmartyr's Pathological Obsession and this was actually the first piece I finished for this project. I kind of feel like you can tell this was the first by looking at it, still very proud of it, but I think I’ve since become more comfortable and confident in drawing people and poses.