#nedarians

I'm so sad that this is over, but it's been so much fun! Here is a sleepy Ayran for free day. This is how I feel. I am tired and I don't want to go to school next week.

Part of this drawing is invisible because, at the last minute, I decided I wanted to draw Ayran's wife, but my theories as to her identity all come from Patreon! So you can't see her but she is there, leaning on Ayran's drawing board and smiling at him.

I’ll be posting them on Fridays until I run out, which won’t be for a couple months.

Also I have some shippy TSE boards I’ll be posting on Valentines and the week before.

This week is Ayran Greenway, everyone’s favorite well dressed hermit

That scene always reminded me of this from Agents of shield lol

She works really hard on the comic and even has some extra things too, like a patreon account with bonus content, giveaways, a yearly calendar, an Etsy site, spotify playlists for the characters, and currently there's a secret santa even going on and it seems to be really fun. I'm planning on joining it next year :3

www.thesilvereye.com

Note that I am, for the most part, leaving out Chara’s interactions with Enel. While compassion definitely plays a significant role in some of their interactions, I want to leave aside anything that could be argued from a romantic interest in the story. I have also laid out examples chronologically (I couldn’t figure out how to hyperlink photos in this format, but links are generally in the first word of the sentence(s) describing each scene), but this isn’t an exhaustive list - I’m pretty sure I’ll publish this and then remember I missed something really obvious.

To be clear, let’s start out with a definition of compassion. I looked up a few definitions, and Merriam-Webster’s fit well: “sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it“. Webster’s 1959 edition of the New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language also has a good definition in “sorrow for the distress or misfortunes of another, with a desire to help“ (no link; this is a massive two-volume set that has resided on my family’s shelves for a couple of generations).

Chronologically, the earliest scene with the Alvarados is when they’re picking flowers near the Deadlands. Chara’s introduction is her calling for help for Ansam. Joe has to physically stop her from hopping the fence into the Deadlands to rescue Ansam, and explain to her why her compassion has to be weighted by safety/practicality. Yes, ultimately Berlyne is the one who jumps the fence and initiates Ansam’s (and Apen’s) rescue - but she only has the opportunity because a) Chara notices and seeks to help and b) Joe is too busy stopping Chara to notice Berlyne until it’s too late (ahh, the benefit of having a sister).

Berlyne (and Joe) understandably gets the focus on trying to alleviate Apen’s intense distress during the first few months he’s in Gallitan, but it’s worth noting that Chara - when she does come up - is also attempting. Berlyne phrases the trip into Greenway as a joint decision, and Chara - not knowing his past with libraries - tells him he’ll love the library (which, given what we know about Apen and his love of knowledge and history, should be true).

Until they get underway on the Novalog, most of Chara’s compassion is expended on Enel. I will mention that Chara immediately reassures Apen they’re going with him, though I don’t know that can be argued directly as compassion. Once they reach the ocean, the first instance of Chara’s compassion comes up with relation to Marcus. In stark contrast to Enel’s obliviousness and devouring of the meat sticks, as soon as Noah gets up to read Pigeondove’s message, Chara is in the bag and handing Marcus not one (as everyone but Enel received) but TWO meat sticks.

When they reach Ethelinda’s and Noah begins his horribly-executed plan to keep Idony and Enel below deck, Chara is horrified at Noah’s declaration that Idony is helpless. Notice Chara is the one who starts to call Noah out on it. I can’t quite tell, but it looks like Berlyne may be holding her back from getting in Noah’s face about it. Later, Chara is the one alleviating Idony’s (and Enel’s, to the extent he has it) emotional distress by giving them work to do and reassuring Idony especially of her value and abilities.

Chara comforting and encouraging Berlyne while she’s in the water with the Weaver attacking is a wonderful moment for many reasons. But Chara demonstrates compassion here by reducing Berlyne’s emotional distress and allowing her to refocus (and try to save Goatface). As soon as Berlyne gets on board, Chara allows Joe to be the one to comfort Berlyne (which also alleviates Joe’s emotional distress) and uses the Silver Eye to complete their getaway - but not before quickly putting a hand on Berlyne’s shoulder as she grabs the Silver Eye. A hand on a shoulder is a typical comforting gesture, but is something Chara specifically uses in a number of instances.

During the next instance of the Weavers showing up, Chara deliberately taps on the window and gives Berlyne a thumbs up to reassure her that there is nothing to fear from the Weaver going over.

After the...I think this is the fifth Weaver incident now, Chara is the one asking Berlyne how badly hurt she is; note the hand on her shoulder.

When Berlyne asks where Idony and Enel are, Chara immediately turns and looks at Noah with sympathy and sorrow on her face. As he collapses in shock, she takes over steering - and puts her hand on his shoulder.

After Enel and Idony have been brought on board and Noah has fixed Enel’s nose, Chara is the one who delays Noah’s pounding of Apen by reminding him Berlyne still needs help. When Noah asks Chara if her hands are steady, she hesitates - but threads the needle and hands it back to Noah with some encouraging words. She also gently stops him from scratching his arm - between the physical and verbal reassurance, she pulls him out of his Syllor-angst spiral. Not pictured and probably tangential, but I wanted to note she doesn’t rise to Berlyne’s words about her being useless with blood and stitching; those are fighting words (sisters...), but Chara doesn’t seem to let them get to her, maybe partially because she knows Berlyne is in pain. It may be a bit of a stretch, but it’s also worth noting that - after Chara’s encouragement - Noah in turn tries to comfort Berlyne by explaining her wounds aren’t as bad as they look as he stitches them up.

Finally, when Noah is nearing the end of his seizures, Chara moves from her earlier position of being comforted by Joe to a position of comforting Idony. It’s in the background, but she’s got her hands on Idony’s shoulder. As noted, hand on shoulder is a particular gesture of Chara’s, yes - but also probably especially compassionate for Idony (whose love language, per Laura Hollingsworth, is touch).

In conclusion, Chara is incredibly compassionate, something that everybody in the crew has explicitly benefited from (with the possible exception of Joe and Apen, but they have almost certainly benefited from it in the past).

Hello, fellow Nedarians! Mark your calendars! We are hosting an appreciation week for The Silver Eye July 31st-August 5th. This will be a great way to show your love for TSE. Plus, it overlaps with Laura's art competition, so if you were wanting to do something for that it would be a great way to prepare some drafts and play around with ideas. Prompts:

July 31st 1A ) Green Space 1B) Favorite Character August 1st 2A) Tickled Pink 2B) Favorite Ship August 2nd 3A) Seeing Red 3B) Favorite BROTP

Finishing up the magic-y characters, here’s Aetius

TSE Week 2020 - Day 4, Words: A wordsearch, anyone? Hopefully it’s doable from images... @tseappreciationweek

(The Silver Eye by Laura Hollingsworth.)