Chapter V: XXXIV – Work in Progress
#XXXIV might be inked and shaded before the end of the week. The usual hitches: there’s lots and lots of freelance work on my plate again this week–which is a good thing, in spite of it taking me away from the story! And, yes, as the number indicates, there’s one more comic to come in between the previous one and this. Can’t just leave Felix there in the palace surrounded by bears.
I know this is not finished but scenes like these show how young Iusta really is.
She may have matured and does have her mother’s strength but she still remembers the carefree teenager she once was and now is mourning that she cannot return to that.
Damon has hit the issue head-on: Iusta is now a matron, a lady. A teenager matron, but a matron nevertheless. She cannot go out on a lark. She has duties and worse there are some things that are expected of her. Including the fact that it is the service people who must come to her and not the other way around. She has her social standing to consider.
I due time other women will start knowing her and will judge her on her actions, her age notwithstanding. So she must say goodbye to Iusta, the carefree girl, and say hello to Iusta Petronia, Roman Lady.
That and she’s been shoved out of being Iusta, provincial maiden (small fish in a small town pond) and into being Iusta, Roman matron (still a small fish but in a much bigger and kinda of scary pond). Wandering casually around little Pompeii would be one thing; wandering casually around urban Rome? Whole ‘nother thing.
That’s a hell of a note for a very young woman who, as Larry points out, was just a small-town girl not very long ago…
I think she also misses Seianti, those two were sisters.
She is alone with no friends in a big city, and although she loves Felix, he has stuff to do and cannot remain with her all the time.
Good point. Bad enough to get thrown into the metropolis, but without a girlfriend or anyone else she can lean on..? Harsh.
Iusta’s a tough girl, though. And she’s gonna need every bit of steel inside her…
Great, now I’ve got Journey stuck in my head.
I dunno. I think my big concern would be Damon on the loose in Rome, unsupervised.
We might be looking at the cause of the Great Fire in Rome that happened not so long after Vesuvius….
I think my big concern would be Damon on the loose in Rome, unsupervised.
By the way, Sweetums’ descendant is in the Delaware Valley.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video/#!/news/local/Walking-Bear-Spotted-Again/363696551