Tear Jerker / Mare Internum

• Pretty much all of Mike's backstory. Sexually abused by his uncle while his neglectful parents failed to notice, ostracized from the only friend we see him with due to clearly unaddressed mental illness, all culminating in his suicide attempt in the comic's opening.
  • Mike's story in general hits hard for readers who have experienced similar trauma and depression, his struggle to see worth in himself and constant self-sabotage that leads him to lash out at people.
• In the early chapters, Mike and Bex talk about Bex's kids while getting to know each other. He asks if she's a good mother, and she shrugs off the question instead of answering. Turns out Bex left her husband and kids behind to become a permanent colonist in space, where they will likely never see her again. They haven't forgiven her.
  Mike: I thought you said you were a good mother!
  Bex: I never said that!
  • Bex breaks down in a flashback because she comes across a baby crib, which sparks her intense anxiety and dread about being a mother.
• Kallakore's species died out as Mars' oceans dried up, leaving her as the last remnant of a long-society.
• Kallakore's death at the hands of Bex, who thinks she's a hostile entity. It comes out of nowhere after a heartwarming sequence of her and Mike bonding and completely blindsides both Mike and the reader. (Though she gets better.)
• Bex must travel on her own through the dangerous underground corridors. She breaks down crying as the stress of the situation gets to her, all juxtaposed with LEVi's oblivious commentary (which inadvertently mirrors the things her husband said about her anxieties over having a child).
  LEVi: It's easy, right? For someone so driven?
• The Processor and Mike's exchange after Mare Internum collapses. They speculate if they're dead or not, and have a humorous exchange about having died before. Processor despairs, knowing it is the last remnant of Mars, and begs to go back, but Mike states it's impossible to do so, and the only way is forward even if the future is uncertain and terrifying. He reassures it, and together, they escape.
  Yes, I see... we do escape.
  Hold on, Kalla.
  Don't look back!
  • And ultimately, Mike comes out alive.