Back to the backstory!
What had happened with Elrek may not be clear in this chopped up version, so here’s the full explanation. When a person becomes the host for the Guardian, the memories of their lives as humans are removed and replaced by the Guardian’s memories. There is, however, a brief moment of transition before the human memories are completely gone. And for Elrek, that moment was when Lyall ran up and grabbed his arm. Having Lyall right there, demanding his attention, needing him, caused him to keep hold of those memories and not let them leave.
…so Elrek remembers everything and remembering two lives at once is driving him mad.
And on that happy note, thanks for reading! I’ll see you next week!
(Also, I know the blue of the Leviathan’s speech bubbles are kind of bright, but these pages aren’t actually black and white, they’re monochromatic of a grey-blue, so I feel like I can get away with it, since they’re still blue. Bwah ha ha)
You… come up with such wonderfully terrible ideas. Poor Elrek. It makes prefect sense why he’s going insane now. Two COMPLETELY separate memories and emotions running through his head… how… awful. To remember the fear and sadness of loosing your family, but ALSO remembering killing them even if it wasn’t truly ‘you’. I’m glad he didn’t loose his human memories.. but still tragic. I take is whatever creature he’s bonded too (just like Ry’s Phoenix) has a mind of it’s own. Hm… I can’t wait to see more.
-correction- apparently he’s bound to a leviathan… hmm… how that’ll be interesting. lol
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D.Rena Reply:
February 11th, 2014 at 9:08 am
Yeah, as bad as what happened to Ry was, Elrek probably had it worse…and it’s not over yet. 🙁
The leviathan has popped up before, though not as concretely as the phoenix did. Chaerius mentioned it when he was explaining how the guardians were created and it made an appearance to fight off the phoenix, though it was only a projection. I suppose if Elrek had anything at all going for him, it was that he had the leviathan in his head rather than the phoenix. The leviathan is much more level-headed and helpful. The phoenix probably would’ve been like “we should burn them all!”
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squeeeee! ok. first off, he art here is fabulous! The emotion and the dialogue are synced up flawlessly. I love the the gray scale is poignant and vivid to emphasize the memories. second off. I love the fact that Elrek has been given more depth as a character. I enjoy seeing what more you will let us discover.
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D.Rena Reply:
February 11th, 2014 at 9:12 am
Thanks! You may regret that before the chapter is through, though, haha!
Certainly this all will add new context to everything we’ve seen him do. It was certainly in my mind as I wrote those scenes. (Though I’m pretty glad I waited until now to portray it, it wouldn’t have come across as well if I did it earlier, I don’t think.)
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