(Photo credit to Gangler52)

Syr’Nj’s dialogue in panel 2 comes from me, and it fell into the category of things I wished I could actually say at the time I was writing it. One of my professional relationships (I was still juggling a fair bit at this point) put me in the position of accepting help from someone I no longer liked or trusted. A colleague had set up a deal with this party and all three of us were honoring it, and I couldn’t say much as long as he was holding up his end, but I worried about a nasty collapse like this one, fueled by frustrated narcissism. Didn’t happen, but I still think I dodged a bullet there.