Vote over at TWC and you can see a rather ominous panel from tomorrow's page!
Well, I'd have more to say about today's page, but I've got a sinus infection and I'm still pretty messed up from it. Hooray! There's nothing like a summer cold.
Anyway, before I wander off to be sickly away from my computer, I should expand upon Narcissistic Abuse again for good measure. Connie is a narcissistic abuser. Not all narcissists are abusers, but there are certain patterns that show up with abuse by a narcissist. As I've said before, Connie is a bad person, but she's also COMMON. (Minus the ability to do magic.) I know a lot of narcissists. I have family who I think would qualify, I have a friend who's gotten treatment for narcissism, and I've been on the receiving end of narcissistic abuse. (Thankfully, I got the fuck away from that situation.) My point is, there are a lot of people who seem quite charming and normal until you dive into their fucked up personal lives and realize they have very weird ideas about what it means to truly love and care for someone. You guys don't really see the "normal and charming" side of Connie (though I've hinted at it) because she's way too far gone to be really relatable anymore, but if she weren't dying and angry, she would seem pretty okay.
So here's where I say that you don't have to like Connie, and yes she's done horrible things. BUT, I want you to understand that she's not uncommon, and she's based on a personality type that you will probably meet at some point in your life, whether you realize it right away or not. Connie is a
warning. And to really recognize someone who could hurt you, you have to recognize that narcissists are humans, and it takes time to realize that they aren't someone you'd hate immediately. In fact, the first step to most abuse is Love Bombing. Abusers, in general, can be quite good at reading people. You'll think you've met your best friend in the world, and it happened so fast! You're inseparable! And that's when you need to be careful, because if that person starts pushing your boundaries (when you like them so much!), and you realize you don't feel comfortable standing up to them, you need to find some distance.
On that note, I've set Ginger up as the Golden Child and Aubrey up as the Scapegoat. Typically, the Golden Child wouldn't get much in the way of abuse, but the one thing I have noticed in the people I know, is that the Golden Child is generally kept dependent on the abuser. They're babied to the point of not being able to do much without the abuser. You probably know someone who's almost kept helpless well into adulthood. I wasn't sure how better to make that clear, other than that Connie's been draining more energy off of Ginger than the rest of them, because that keeps Ginger more helpless than the others, and thus more childlike and dependent on Connie.
Oops, I had a lot to say I guess. Like I said, you don't have to like Connie. You shouldn't like Connie, because she's an asshole. But you do need to be able to recognize people like Connie, and they'll show up in your life looking like any other person.