Hellooooo, I'm writing this from the distant paaaasssst. Meaning yessssterdaaaaay. Because I have work in the morning and I refuse to get up earlier than I have to. Okay, so first thing I'm gonna bust is yes, in the fourth panel, there aren't many trees. It might be super obvious that some deer that are maybe a liiiiittle bit sparkly are headed towards your house. I wanted to add more trees, friends, but then you wouldn't see the house. And for visual clarity, you gotta kind of see the house. You see my dilemma? So don't ask why Connie's not showing up and freaking out. Connie's probably super aware that Charlene's out there. Charlene doesn't give a shit because she's Charlene, and when she says small spell, she means, like, a whole herd of deer, because Charlene doesn't really do things on a small scale. Connie's got reasons she's staying put and I know what they are. I guess I should add, just to make things more interesting, you've now officially met all the relevant characters leading up to the end of the first arc of this story. I never actually set out to make a story with very much intrigue, since it's mostly about a werewolf who sucks at werewolfing. (Alternatively, a story about a woman dealing with mental health issues overcoming her insecurities and embracing adulthood, but the whole werewolf thing is a metaphor anyway.) But hey, I'm realizing how freaking weird it is as the writer that everyone else doesn't know how this all gets put together. To me it's super obvious! Because I came up with it! Maybe that's why George R.R. Martin is dicking around instead of writing. "You guys already know everything! Go to hell!" Like, I don't blame him. Worth noting, I guess, Marisa's magic is blue. Charlene's magic is primarily pink. That doesn't mean you can always tell (like the horde of scary blobs she called up in the forest were probably not um, magenta or whatever), but that's the color of her raw magic. You can see in the last panel that as the spell breaks up, the deer is mostly pink whereas before they were more brown. There's no significance to the colors, I just think magic looks neater when it's a pretty color. Also Charlene's a bad ass, so I like the idea that she likes pink. Charlene also has visions, which was brought up in chapter 4. Just file that away because her ability to see things will be important eventually. Not much life news, because hey, it's still um, Tuesday for me. I got to spend some time with my elementary school friend who I haven't seen in 10 years, and man, it was really fun! I forgot how much he and I are on the same wavelength. Also, my dog Mabel was getting along very well with his two nieces, one is 3 and one is...one. Buuuut, the one year old stepped on her tail or something and Mabel whipped her head around and did a bark-growl and scared her. Well, and everyone yelling at my dog probably scared her more. My friend laughed it off and said it's not like these kids are ever around dogs ever (because they live in Saudi Arabia O_o, which doesn't have dogs???) but I still felt bad. Mabel's never bit anyone, including me. She's gotten into growling fights with a couple dogs in the last three years I've had her, but only dogs that wanna start shit, and she's never bitten another dog either. She doesn't react to almost anything, but that doesn't mean I can keep her from reacting to everything. A little girl ran up to her while we were on a walk a few years ago, just came out of nowhere, and started rather aggressively petting Mabel. And before I could even talk to her (and remind her not to do that to strange dogs!), she ran off again. Mabel didn't react to any of it. She just sat there happy as a clam. So, I have history to prove to myself that my dog is generally very, very good around kids. But still, it's weird knowing that you can never know. My last dog was fairly obviously aggressive about other dogs and certain people, and her signs were clear. It was almost easier having a dog whose triggers I understood than a dog that's calm about everything 95% of the time! Okay, time for bed. One of my coworkers at my retail job is out due to a family emergency, and I have the most flexible schedule, so I'm being called in to cover. I don't want to :p. Thinking this job, which I've had as my steady part time side gig for 5+ years now, is probably gonna be over before the holidays. I can't take another Black Friday. Or another Christmas season. Juuuuust can't. I'm at the point where every person trying to start shit with me over prices being off by fifty cents or sales that are over that they still want me to honor is just...on my last nerve. Humanity is dumb as hell, friends. So dumb. And I can normally laugh it off and keep the stories for party entertainment later, but maybe not anymore :p.