FaD strip: heart-to-art, part 2 (+ full comic)

i'm tired, so i can't write up a huge commentary for the second part. this took forever, but it was a breath of fresh air to return to drake and xyr One Wish after working with the protagonist of idletry, who is like, the polar fucking opposite of xem.

a couple little factoids...
1) when pinning drake, dupe mentions that they knew xe would be averse to this prying, because if the emotion xe is based on were easy to resolve, there would've been no need to make a character for it -- this was removed for pacing and space.
2) drake watches the phone hurtle into oblivion because xe is afraid of heights, and it probably disturbed xem more to see something actually breach the "invisible barrier" holding them both up.
3) dupe is talking about sugar when they say they "already have another character [who chooses to suffer]."
4) dupe specifically uses the phrase "radically accept" to refer to dialectical behavioral therapy because drake has had extensive therapy.
5) there was a section never drawn about how the dragon represents perfection. drake suggests that dupe simply erase dragons from ever existing, so xe can't want to be one, and dupe says that xe would only want to be something else in place of it. they define perfection as inherently unachievable because it is produced in the part of the brain that fabricates and craves things that don't currently -- wanting food that isn't in front of you, improving efficiency that a machine doesn't need, imagining a different body, thinking about what others would say, etc. in order to want, there must first be a lack of something, and an understanding that the lack can be different from this state in the future. they suggest that that's why you can pick away at perceived imperfections, yet if you ever got rid of all of the ones you insist would make it perfect, it still ends up disappointing and "not perfect," and also why people can have different definitions of perfect and what makes an object or person flawless. still, the tormented brain meant only to want more instead of being satisfied provides the insight necessary to possibly create an identity outside of the barrage of chemicals. drake's OCPD, which primarily revolves around an obsession with perfection, isn't unintentional.
6) i redrew the sketch of drake in the notebook in this strip:

this is the body that drake has "on the inside."

this strip is what inspired idletry after poring over it again and again to think about its themes. i found playing with dupe's "god powers" here pretty fun, and a story that messed with that more sounded fun while also able to tackle some themes related to imagination.