GUILTY PLEASURE

"THE FUTURE-SEEING CEPHALOPUNCH"
SHE/HER, TRANS WOMAN
HADALOID

-Creative user of future-vision
-Always getting Duly out of close scrapes
-Fed up at this pointDRIVEN, SINGLE-MINDED, RECKLESS, TEMPERAMENTAL

DULY NOTED

"PERCEIVER OF THE PAST"
HE/HIM
HADALOID

-Rare ability of past-vision
-Studies history
-An "eccentric" (self proclaimed)NAIVE, TRUSTING, SELFLESS, CALM

FIRST SIGHT

"RESIDENT SNARKY LEADER"
HE/HIM, TRANS MAN
HADALOID

-Lead singer of Full Fathom Five
-Captain of the good ship Alec
-Messy gay iconCOCKY, HOT-HEADED, INSECURE, STUBBORN

SECOND CHANCE

"ONE-ARMED, RIGHT-HAND MAN"
HE/HIM, TRANS MAN
HADALOID

-A Salvage Foundation experiment turned loose
-Drummer of Full Fathom Five
-Perpetually about to cryJUMPY, LOYAL, OVERTHINKER, DEFERENTIAL

THIRD DEGREE

"PH.D IN SARCASM"
SHE/HER, TRANSFEM
HADALOID

-Horn player of Full Fathom Five
-Ship doctor and engineer
-Quit her job at the Salvage FoundationBLUNT, RESULT-FOCUSED, METHODICAL, RELIABLE

FOURTH WALL

"LAST KNOWN HUMAN"
HE/HIM
HUMAN (ANTHROPOCENIC)

-Original name: Wallace X
-Former tech billionaire
-Cryogenically froze self, "awoke" in a new ageSILENT, OBEDIENT, PHYSICALLY STRONG, SENTIENT (?)

MORAL COMPASS

"CHEERIEST BRAIN CLONE EVER"
SHE/HER
HADALOID (AIA)

-Separated from Sight's mind via surgery
-Sent off in an escape pod
-Just kind of does whateverOPTIMISTIC, DITZY, LONELY, EMPATHETIC

ARTIST STATEMENT

In the distant future, long after humans took to the stars, fish-like aliens explore the vast universe and battle for power. Two such aliens are Guilty Pleasure and Duly Noted, siblings with the abilities to see into the future and past, respectively. When Duly is kidnapped by a ragtag band of vagabonds, it's a high-speed space chase to find out if Guilty can save her brother- or if the ruffians will pull him under into their dark machinations.Whalefall is an avenue for me to tell a story about complex topics – OCD, grief, identity, love – through a marriage of art and narrative. It's my way of speaking to you, the viewer, even if we've never met. As you travel the world of Whalefall in your own space vessel, keep in mind this connection we now share – it's bonds like this that fill our stories, and Guilty's, with vibrance and heart.

ARTIST

Abby Mesarch is a Maryland-based queer illustrator exploring new ways of making and storytelling. She currently lives and works in Annapolis after graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2023 with a BFA in Illustration. Her work – digital pieces that incorporate traditional elements - is informed by her strong background in narrative practices, as well as her own identity and her passion for human connections. She follows a key principle in her practice of creating stories that she herself would want to see, hoping to reach and foster community with an often underrepresented audience that feels the same way.

CONTACT

Main Website: amesarch-art.com
Email: whtablum.art@gmail.com
Phone: 410-271-7380
Instagram: @wht.ablum

INTRO TO HADALOIDS

Hardy, adventurous, and diverse, Hadaloids are the sentient, humanoid "collective species" that inherited the vast universe and overflowed into its every corner. They are the descendants of the long-gone "predecessor species," a term that includes humans and anywhere from 20 to 200 other species that coalesced at the outset of the Starlight Leap, or the universe's first space age. These predecessor species worked and traveled together, intermingled, and fell in love – and from millennia of this love came the Hadaloids, who combine both physical and cultural aspects of their ancestors.
Hadaloids vary drastically in height and body plan, but they do share certain common traits: they are typically bipedal, with two primary arms and legs (with digits on each hand or foot ranging from four to none), two eyes, and a mouth, as well as at least some physical features reminiscent of deep-ocean creatures from ancient Earth. This can range anywhere from fins, to scales, to even specialized adaptations such as bioluminescence or poisonous spines. Some Hadaloids are almost entirely "human" in appearance, save for a tail, while still others resemble giant fish affixed with limbs. However, it is entirely possible to find Hadaloids that break one or more of these "rules" entirely; very little about this curious species stands up to standardization – that it is classified at all is more a testament to the fact that its difference from its predecessors has become greater than individuals' difference between each other.

INTRO TO POWERS

Under extreme duress, Hadaloids have an inherent potential to manifest what are essentially superpowers. There are no known cases of these powers occurring from birth – rather, they are jostled awake when the outer layer of a Hadaloid's body is disturbed, through a physical wound, surgery, or otherwise. Its immune system treats this as an invasion, and a power manifests as a response, although there's no predicting what it will be. Documented powers vary widely, from the physical to the abstract, and research on the phenomenon is ongoing, having become the primary objective of the Salvage Foundation.

SALVAGE FOUNDATION

The Salvage Foundation, or SalvFo, as it is often abbreviated, began as many such corporations do: with good intentions. As the Starlight Leap commenced, ambassador doctors from each predecessor species came together to pool their knowledge, working night and day to cure potentially genocidal diseases involved in interspecies space contact before they even happened. SalvFo grew larger and larger with each subsequent age, becoming a combination mega-hospital and scientific research center, the closest and only thing the universe has to a system of government. But with power comes corruption, and SalvFo’s mission statement – “to advance scientific and medical knowledge through any means necessary” – holds a much more sinister weight to Hadaloids of the modern age.