Before Fantasia this year, I got a semicolon tattoo. Cliché? Absolutely. Meaningful to me? You bet.

The semicolon tattoo is supposed to be a marker for those who have a number of mental health issues: depression, anxiety, ideation, you name it. It’s supposed to signify that what comes next is intrinsically connected to what came before, that both are crucial to understanding that your story could have ended but didn’t.

There’s a number of things that could’ve marked what the second clause of my life is. Films, perhaps? I do write for a site after all. But in actuality, I think that one of the best things for me has been connection. This world can be lonely, alienating even. It’s can be just a little bit less so if you have the opportunity to meaningfully connect with someone.

Largely, this is what Zach Clark’s latest The Becomers is about. This gonzo ride is nigh-impossible to describe. Here’s my best attempt at it: a pair of alien lovers stranded on Earth attempt to find each other amidst the chaos of this world. That’s my best attempt and none of it really gets at some of the other crazy touches: body-swapping, cults with their (literal) dicks out, flesh-melting, acid-ladden vomit, among others. I laughed, teared-up, the whole gambit of emotions.

Clark continues to explore the ideas of what makes us able to connect to each other, and what blocks us from this. Like how Little Sister used the 2008 election to question our belief that politics will save us, Clark utilizes real world signifiers as the crutch that they can be. Only we can save us; only we can be the other half of each other’s semicolons.