I had one change to this page of Phil’s: “humorless bastards” was a little off. “Humorless corpses” much more clearly conveyed that Arfa’s complaint was their cheerlessness, not their ruthlessness.

The rest is just great. Arfa herself is easy enough to like, but she even makes the Don and Iver seem like they could be enjoyable company. They may be ruthless and frustrated by their failures to sabotage or influence Harky, but they know how to make merry when they’re properly reminded. They know that life is meant to be enjoyed, and, in this one brief moment, that’s all that really matters.

Even so, running this far over our original page count, we might’ve skipped this scene if it weren’t necessary to set up the next page’s development…