So recently, one of our Patreon supporters turned friend, Jayne, has been pitching me some comic ideas and we've been having fun just sort of scripting together, along with Pie, to come up with some fun stuff. Conversations with her had been the source of some of the ideas and themes that the latest comics were derived from, such as Phandom Thieves, Kitty Kornered, Beware Labels, Class Composition and today's comic as well. I wanted to bring it up because it's been an enjoyable experience as she's brought up ideas we would tweak together, so I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge her contribution <3 It's felt nice rather just to do some more collaborative stuff to toss around ideas and have some great conversations outside just the two of us ^o^

In today's comic, it kinda came about from this catty conversation Jayne and I were having about my gear in FFXIV in one of the endgame dungeons. I had recently reached 70 and, instead of equipping my sinfully ugly relic gear (yes, I could glam, but that was too much trouble at the time), I just kept the modest, substat-appropriate, gear that I had serendipitously acquired from a hodgepodge of places. She simply could not understand why I would elect to bypass clear upgrades and would poke fun at me for me decisions. I mean, I was under the min ilvl for the dungeons, but I felt like I was able to handle them just fine and I generally don't like getting caught up in worrying about my gear being optimal until I'm ready to take on savage or EX content. Plus, I *really* enjoy it when content is brutally hard...it makes it more fun and it keeps me on my game :3

I can get rather defensive about my choices because I end up spending a lot of time thinking about them and I like to experience the game a certain way. I mean, yea, maybe some of the runs I do might not go as smoothly as if I had the proper gear, but on the flip side, it's also reaaaally boring to me when you are just going through the motions in a very set and predictable way. The more chances there are for chaos and potential or actual disaster, the better >:D

Anywho, after our spirited conversations, she came back the next day and joked about Bear in our comic not even wanting the blessing from Hydaelyn, and thus this comic was born from that line of thinking X3