Uh oh, Life did math. D:

Not an easy thing to do. Especially for a yinglet. <^\/^>

now is the red cracks actual manifestation of power or just a reference of his psych cracking?

psyche is cracking. Or is cracked and is causing effects.

They're in reference to his psyche. <^\/^>

Life, like most yinglets, is a bit slow on the uptake.

To be fair, he's been mostly focused on Drift. <^\/^>

Yinglets need to invent therapy. Poor Drift clearly needs it.
But then again, imagine being the first ever Yinglet clear-headed enough to be a therapist.. You'll have work for life, that's for sure! xD

is anyone ever truly completely clear-headed? I think anyone who achieves that tends to wind up in an Asylum :/

depends on the how one would define clear, my wrench says im perfectly fine.

Listen to the wrench. <^\/^>

I'd imagine it would be a short lived job as it would probably drive you insane. <^\/^>

To be fair, a vast majority of Yinglets could probably be "cured" by distracting them with cat toys until they forget why they were upset, haha.

Ah, Yinglets. Supernaturally awkward, but they get to the point eventually.

Most of the time. <^\/^>

I like the empty spaces in the cracked background with the repeating "Alive?!" It seems that the cracks in Little Fo... Drift's worldview is starting to grow. Hopefully, he won't go into a meltdown and suffer a psychotic break before going all stab-happy on LIfe. Otherwise, he may end up with another see-through buddy to spend his days with. Oh, just imagine the conversations that Life and Slayer can have then. Poor Drift might never get peace again.

Ooh, I'm glad you pointed that out, I hadn't noticed before! Also... Does that crack-cluster have eyes now?

Indeed, there are eyes faintly visible in the cracks. I would say the walls that Drift has built to cope with the events of that day are breaking down. He's essentially been lying to himself about what happened since then. And now being faced with the truth, he's gonna be forced to remember and face those events. This also explains why he reacted so harshly when Life referred to him as Little Foot. He probably suffers from a fair amount of guilt, being himself e.g. Little Foot, was weak and couldn't help Slayer. He may even see Little Foot as the cause of the incident. Unable to deal with this trauma, the persona of Little Foot was subsumed by the persona of Drift. Drift is strong and capable, Drift survived all these years. I guess you could think of it as being something similar to the character of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, just without the blatant evil.

But in dealing with something so traumatizing can be dangerous, for both the individual and those around them. Some are never able to deal with the trauma and can react quite violently against those who would stand in contradiction to their views. That's why Life needs to be careful how he deals with this, lest Drift may go on the defensive and attack out of fear of the truth.

I've been avoiding thinking about that possibility, Not entirely sure I could cope if that happened.

Although, on the positive side, outright violence isn't something Drift has ever shown signs of resorting to at any point. I'm not saying he couldn't go that way, but I'm hoping very much that it doesn't.

Another point though, and much darker one. Drift does feel guilt and responsibility for Slayer's death, because he failed to save him. That's a very different thing from trying to bury the guilt of actually having murdered a member of your family - even under extenuating circumstances - . Right now Drift is broken, I think that would utterly destroy him.

Again though, Drift always seems to default to flight rather than fight. Eelock - run away. Truth about Slayer - his mind ran away. It's a Yinglet thing I think. Either way he has a lot to deal with and the time has clearly come...

I love the conversations this sparks among everyone!

Well, I would agree that Little Foot does feel guilt about what happened to Slayer. However, Drift does not as from his point of view, nothing has happened to Slayer. To Drift, nothing happened. Slayer is perfectly fine and has been with him the entire time in the wilderness. For Drift to feel guilt, he first has to acknowledge that something has happened. By him seeing his transparent companion, he is denying any guilt, forcing himself to see what he wants to see.

We've seen Little Foot and he, indeed, doesn't seem the violent sort. But we haven't seen much of Drift and while he hasn't shown to be violent snd while it's true that escape seems to be the more often chosen option over fight. You can never how an individual will react when pressed into a corner. Even Yinglets have shown to be capable of intense violence if given the right reasoning. In the main canon of Out of Placers, we've seen some like Brakka and his gang who are capable of it, and some like Patriarch Kattajak who seem to revel in it.

Right now, Drift would seem to be slowly being backed into said corner. Gotta remember here, they are essentially two individuals and Drift has done more in the ways of violent action than Little Foot in his bid to survive. Hopefully, he won't resort to such actions in the bid to sort out his mental dysphoria.

I have a feeling that Life knows his kind well enough to figure how to deal with a 'broken ying' such as Drift presently is. Now that Life is slowing down and realizing the situation, he will hopefully proceed more carefully with the poor lad.

I agree. I love seeing the conversations that people have on these. <^\/^>

Ooh, semantically skulls! One on both shoulders! <^\/^>

Slayer is the only one having fun (maybe Noisy boy too)
They really need to lighten up; take example on Slayer: he is so lightened up he is translucent

Noisy Boy is always having fun! <^\/^>

ohh boy

Oh Noisy Boy! <^\/^>

I hope she takes it well and doesn't let it get worse

She? <^\/^">

Patriarch I think the name is the one with gray and white hair

look and feel like a female to me somehow

Oh, heh. Fair enough. But Life is Drift's father. It might be the ear hair maybe? <^\/^>

ya life, how can you not see slayer, thats so rude

Right!? <^\/^>

Oh boy he is cracking up

Only the normal amount. <^\/^>

That "mental cracking" has eyes now. That's very much not a good sign... I hope poor Drift gets through this okay and gets some help, hopefully Life gets the hint that he needs to be reeeeeally diplomatic right now. ^.^;;

thats slayers eyes looks like possibly the trauma barrier or ptsd block from his death

Life, uh-uh-uh, finds a way. <^\/^>

Poor life, just realizing at the end there that Slayer is dead, after thinking he was alive. Shes also probably starting to get an idea that poor Drift is not all there at the momant.
Oddly enough, a break might help him, oddly enough its pretty common to break recruits in the military, but, they also build them up again afterwords. Drift has been 'broken' sense Slayer died, the ghost slayer is his way of dealing with it, but, dealing with others, well, it kinda makes it hard to keep things going.

Quick note, I noticed you said she? Patriarch Life is definitely a He.
The giveaway is the tail, Male Yinglets' tails end in a point. Female Yinglets' tails have a furry Poof on the end.
Please trust me on this, I really don't feel the need to go checking any closer.

I like to call the poof a 'baloobius' (hey, if Larson can coin 'thagomizer' Henson can coin 'baloobius').

Life's certainly in a situation. As is Drift... also the others that are on there way. <^\/^>

No, Slayer is not alive. But somehow he seems to be thoroughly enjoying this situation!

Dare I hope for a happy resolution? After Drift overcomes his illusions shattering.
Shard has caught me out before!

Hope is always there. Even when its not. <^\/^>

'That explains a lot.'

Indeed. <^\/^>

Hoo hoo, skull's outta the bag

Hey, who put Slayer in a bag? <^\/^>

I should like to suggest that, in addition to "Prev | First | Next" you include a "Latest" link? Elsewise folk must either click through the entire story to reach the current-most item, or attempt to look it up in the gallery.
This is quite the story, thus far. By all means, continue! 8{)}

I'm not actually sure how to incorporate latest into that Previous |First| Next, also woof going through all of them to add that lol. I'll keep it in mind abs if I figure out how to, I'll do so though... probably, no promises. <^\/^">