crow

Cover page

Then a new dream sequence between pages 5-6

cover page: a deer and their (human) partner, sitting on the floor cuddled up in each other's arms, in a deep embrace. the background is bright yellow.

first page: the deer enters their and their partners bedroom, where their partner lays on the bed reading. the deer says "don't be mad, but i turned into a deer again". their partner responds "you're joking".

second page: the deer and their partner lay in bed together. the panels switch between closeups of each of their eyes. their partner looks at them, and says "you don't look like a deer to me". the deer squints at them, and replies in very small text "how can you even say that".

third page: their partner closes falls asleep, leaving the deer awake on their own. they get up, and gaze out the window at the night sky.

fourth page: narration reads "it isn't easy, being a deer" as the deer struggles to operate a phone with its nose. someone on the other end of the phone says "hello?", the deer replies in text stilted out over many speech bubbles "hi.. sorry.. i'm not really.. uh.. feeling myself.. can somebody cover my shifts this week?"

fifth page: narration continues "it's hard to leave the house", as the deer stares at a closed door then tentatively attempts to work the door knob with their snout, "i haven't been outside in days". "i don't know what to eat," they stare into an open fridge, illuminated by the fridge's light. the next panel shows the deer curled up in darkness, narration, but now in red text, "i'm worried there's something wrong with me".

sixth page: full page panel of the deer, suddenly standing in a dark forest. red, all caps narration, "who knows what waits in the forest".

seventh page: the deer runs through the forest. they run into the silhouette of a hunter with a gun. in red narration, "i feel like an animal". the deer veers away, charging towards a light, as the hunter yells "hey, wait!".

eighth page: the deer stops dead in the middle of a road, basked in light. they look into a cars headlights. they shut their eyes tight.

ninth page: they wake up, back in bed, mumbling "mmmph.. heey", to their partner opening the curtains to let in the morning light. their partner sits on the bed, "oh, my deer". the deer responds "ha.... ha.......". their partner smiles, and places a hand on the deers head. the deer closes their eyes, gently.

tenth page: a full page panel of the two walking down a street lined with houses in the early evening. they look to each other as they walking, chatting happily.

eleventh page: narration, back to its normal colour, "we go to a party", they stand at a closed front door. the deer looks up at their partner. the door is opened by a person with a big smile on their face to welcoming interior.

twelfth page: narration: "all my friends are there". the deer, relaxing on a sofa, and their partner are surrounded by their friends, all happy and talking to them. the panels show a close up of the deers face, and then their partner's. narration on the panel of their partner's happy, laughing face, concludes "it's nice."

experiencia previa:

Like "You have to venture into the scary insane asylum!" VS "You're a patient who was admitted by force to an asylum, and you are very clearly in real danger, but everyone is pretending that you're just deluded, and are essentially leaving you to die because they don't really see you as a person."

It's been interesting to see what media people are recommending based on the first post alone. A lot of recommendations for games/franchises like World of Darkness, Carrion, Kill All Humans, Among Us, etc. It's interesting because these are games that put you into the shoes of the violent other that has to infiltrate, without actually challenging the idea that the other is a threat. They actually parrot the ideas of the other as violent.

Funnily enough, the people recommending the comedy game Octodad understand the post much better than most of the people recommending horror media. A few mentions of Am I Nima, which isn't finished yet but does look like it could be what I am describing, so brownie points to the people recommending that.

But everyone saying stuff like "This is just being Trans/Autistic/Etc" really gets it, like really really gets it. Horror always communicates the fears and anxieties of the people who create it, this post was basically: "What if instead of communicating the fear of the other, we communicated the fears of the others, which are actually vastly more legitimate than the dominant groups fear of the other. We should recognise that it is overwhelmingly the others who are the ones who actually suffer and die, all for the perceived "saftey" and "comfort" of the dominant group."

This idea is about transphobia, it is about ableism, about anti-imigrant rhetoric and white supremacy, about queerphobia, it's about all of it. It is horror from the perspective of minority groups. It is the twisting of a trope built upon reactionary fears and narratives in order to critique them, it is a direct allegory for all those experiences you are describing.

being treated like a child should be a reassuring and secure thing, and the fact that it's not ever meant that way is really sad for children, to be honest.

si alguna vez pasan por la boca vayan!! es hermoso y la entrada vale dos pesos.