Intermission 10 Page 3
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“What happened to her?”
“It’s a drider transformation. The Goddess of Spiders’ ultimate punishment.”
“It’s supposed to involve a complete physical AND mental transformation, but the fact that she isn’t attempting to consume us indicates that something unusual has occurred.”
“She just… looks different!”
“She’s still the same old Lara on the inside.”
“…”
“Lara, do you want some dinner?”
“Okay, yeah, she does this now. But it’s just a metabolism thing!”
“Look at how many extra legs she has now!”
“She needs a lot of food!”
For the people who have trouble reading coloured text…
LOHK (actually caring): “What happened to her?”
AMADEUSZ (with a dry tone of a mad scientist who’s marvelling at a potentially deadly substance that he can unleash on the world): “It’s a drider transformation. The Goddess of Spiders’ ultimate punishment.”
“It’s supposed to involve a complete physical AND mental transformation, but the fact that she isn’t attempting to consume us indicates that something unusual has occurred.”
RICKI (confident that she’s NOT in a toxic relationship): “She just… looks different!”
“She’s still the same old Lara on the inside.”
KAMAU (ever the gentleman): “…”
“Lara, do you want some dinner?”
RICKI (slightly embarassed by her girlfriend’s eating habits): “Okay, yeah, she does this now. But it’s just a metabolism thing!”
“Look at how many extra legs she has now!”
“She needs a lot of food!”
Toxic, like that green goo on Lara’s lips a couple of pages ago?
Trying to feed a massive body with a human-size mouth is rough. The liquid diet might be helpful just to avoid the chewing.
Have you read Dungeon Meshi? You’re reminding me of it. There was a similar issue as a plot point.
If not, you totally should ^^ or an anime is coming out soon, if you prefer.
Yep, that was why it came to mind. Time for curry!
This is going to take some getting used to.
Also, according to DnD, driders are still capable of speech. We might not be able to fully restore her, but maybe she can still learn to talk again? At least she doesn’t need to drink blood.
I think the trick to making it easier to help Lara get used to her new body is to give her some dignity. Ironically, we do this by embracing the spider form. We own it. Driders are powerful and intimidating, but there’s also a sort of elegance to them. I feel like you can lean heavily into a dark matriarch vibe with the right outfit. The clothes she’s currently wearing hold sentimental value, but we can still imbue sentimental value into something new that hasn’t been torn–especially given that the clothes in question were torn in a rather traumatic situation. We make new memories with a new outfit.
Don’t hide the new eyes, accentuate them with eyeliner. Inscribe runes and arabesque designs on her shell-like spider body. Give her a circlet or some sort of headpiece. Purple colors make a lot of sense, but Lara likes bright colors, so maybe we meet in the middle with lilac. Make her beautiful and devastating. Dark, mysterious, dangerous. Radiating with terrifying charisma. Spiders aren’t disgusting, oh no. They’re gorgeous, and they weave gleaming, delicate silken masterpieces that shine with dewdrops in the morning sun. Patterns and spirals. Oh, you’re afraid. But you’re also completely enthralled–hypnotized by the dizzying charm of the spider.
That’s what you convey. That’s how you restore confidence.
See this is why we have people who know about style.
I would have just suggested a poncho.
Amadeusz calls out here that a complete mental transformation is expected. These aren’t Lolth driders, which kept their languages and mind aside from suicidal tendencies.
Makeup is nice, but keep in mind this is basically a stick figure comic. The more details on a character design, the less they’re getting drawn. LSN called out in the dungeon wrap up that any panel with all those legs is time consuming, and in general it’s preferable to show people from the waist up.