Too Soft

Kill them with kindness. Short story / visual poem exploring touch aversion. Brushes on themes of sexual trauma, eating disorders, and gender stuff. 

Have you ever wanted to run screaming from a room even when you knew you were loved, accepted, and perfectly safe? What does it mean to feel petrified? Do you freeze? Do you fawn? Do you ignore your boundaries to make the people around you happy? Do you feel like a liar? How do we cope when the human impulse to seek comfort through touch no longer works? How do the often messy and painful insecurities about our own bodies further complicate our relationship with touch?

Story for all my fellows with only sharp edges <3

Feedback welcome! This was an impulsively made experimental comic and has been left intentionally vague/open-ended. The focus was more on articulating/describing/visually capturing the physical body anxiety feeling and racing thoughts rather than providing narrative answers.  I would love to hear your interpretation of the piece, or how you relate to the subject it is attempting to explore. Questions, especially about artistic choices, are also welcome, though I may not always have answers :)

story still incomplete - haven't finished coloring ch5 (final chapter) yet.