How do Sciona’s bangs get longer when her hair is down? Magic, probably. Don’t worry about it.

Deus sure gets a lot of mileage out of that “I’m going to be a jerk but it’s because I respect you so much” bit. He used it on Maxima, though I honestly couldn’t tell you what page that was. Ironically, the more intelligent the person is, the fewer times he could pull it off with them, even if he was being mostly sincere.

You know, if Sciona… sorry, if Escorpia really was a sicario/narcotraficante, she probably would have had a lot more tattoos than just the… temple tattoo? It’s more like a “mohawk negative space tattoo.” Not that I’m aware of any comprehensive audit of female merc/drug runner tattoo coverage. I guess Sciona lucked out that Escorpia was content with just the one on her skull. Presumably if she can permanently change her hair color and length with a spell, she could probably remove or at least hide tattoos. Really the only reason she still had the one on her head under the hair she was growing out was for you guys’ benefit. (guys’s?)

Sciona usually does not “take smug.” She’s murdered for a lot less than that. But Deus is too important of a potentially exploitable resource to her. He’s also pretty good in bed, which isn’t a deciding factor, but it is a factor. She knows that if she killed him, the Alari from the colony ship would almost definitely assume control of Galytn, which would probably be both good and bad for her plans, and Deus can more or less run interference for her regarding them.

Sciona’s original final line was “I am seriously reconsidering fucking you.” Which I think is more pithy than what I changed it to, (Actually the very first draft read “sleeping with you” but that didn’t feel right either) but the more I thought about it, the more it sounded like she was planning on sleeping with him for his sake, like some sort of transactional reward. I suppose for being good at it the last time, maybe? So not some selfless sacrifice on her part, certainly, but there was something vaguely “It’s a man’s world, and I’m very sexy, which is mostly for the benefit of men, and he deserves his prize” in the sentiment. Yes, it’s possible to over analyze these things, but it doesn’t hurt to occasionally step back and do a paradigm check. The comic is mostly female characters, and while I certainly can’t claim any special insight into the female mind, I do at least attempt to consider that perspective… Even if a lot of them do have fairly typically male behaviors and hobbies. But I write what I know, and would the comic would be any better if I did some deep dive into typically feminine hobbies so Sydney could launch into the occasional dissertation about… quilting? Not that women couldn’t be into literally any hobby, of course, but the point of all this would have been to “feminize” some of the female characters, and saying that Harem is into restoring vintage tractors doesn’t really accomplish that. Although… she was raised on a farm… Hmm.

Anyway, I edited Sciona’s lines mostly because I don’t want all the characters to sound the same, and my first draft felt more sit-commy, and less “sociopathic blood mage.”

I sort of feel guilty when I post a page with only 4 panels. I mean, not that guilty, but for all I gripe about cramming way too many panels on a page and having to draw tiny faces, when I get to the occasional page that just wouldn’t benefit from wedging three more panels in there, it does feel a bit… light? Oh well, I’ll get over it.

Sexy bodymod news lady Gail has a special one-on-one interview with Tournament Quarter finalist Saraviah Nightwing! And if you subscribe to Gail’s Space Patreon, (which, due to the vagaries of Earth and Gal-Net’s DNS servers, happens to be the same as the Grrl Power Patreon, go figure) you can see that same interview in the nude! Well, eventually. The nude part of the interview, as well as the version that includes shading will be coming soon. Of course, you can view the interview in the nude now if you take your own clothes off. You know. Technically. Just put a towel on your chair first.

Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.