Thanks to all who participated in my poll. Honestly, I wasn't expecting such an overwhelming show of support and patience, so thank you. That is so very kind of you all. And to the few who weren't so supportive, I understand your impatience and frustration. I feel it against myself just as much.

Quite a few pointed out that I didn't word the options very well and that the last two were basically the same. Which, when I re-read them, turns out to be true. Haha.

What I was trying to ask was: when I finally start updating, do you prefer a schedule or not?

But, as many others of you pointed out, this question should be answered by me. So I did. And it turns out, I prefer a schedule.

So, I'm making the tentative plan of starting monthly updates on August 6th. I currently have two pages nearly all done (they require the last step which is adding in the dialogue, doing last minute touch-ups, then formatting it for the web) and many others in various stages of completion. Despite still crawling at a snail space emotionally while doing art, I think I can reasonably expect to get five pages done this year. *knocks on wood just in case the universe is gleefully waiting to throw me another curveball*

I'm really hoping to get more than five done, but I'm trying not to set too high of a bar. And, for my anxiety levels, I have to say that come 2025, I reserve the right to re-evaluate and change things.

Hopefully, however, all goes well and I can start reliably sharing Kleya's story again. I mean, we're finally getting to a juicy bit with the Dude, Danni, and Jane! And I had this big plan to do something cool with my amazing subscribers after a certain event happens in the story and we're so close to it (though, at a monthly update, it's going to take years...). So I DO want to continue. And I hope you'll hang on with me as I fight my way to my goal.

Thanks.

*gasp* Color!

Yeah, I know it's only one panel, but it's progress! Enough that I'm considering starting up the comic again. I won't be fast though. Comic-creating still triggers the grieving process, but I'm finding ways to manage it. I won't be able to handle a weekly update, though. I'm not even sure if I can do a monthly update. But I want to try.

My goal is to get at least two pages completed before the end of the year. I'm almost up to one at the moment but there's the holidays and all that grieving mess, so who knows if I'll make it.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your input on what I should do for next year with a very simple poll:

Thank you!

PS: Some of you noticed that the site went down the first couple of days of November and worried I had disappeared. Thanks to all who reached out to make sure I was okay. It was just a problem with my hosting service but I was able to get it resolved. It did cause this update to be late, though. Sorry for worrying you!

Inking is starting to happen. I'm still terrified of coloring since I had always found that step to be tedious. Adding in grief is probably not going to be a good combo, especially since I was in the coloring phase when my sister died...

Yeah, that's going to be a mess.

But, at least the inking is starting to come along. And Danni didn't turn out too bad. Or at least, I like to think so. If you don't agree, don't tell me, lol. Let me live in my delusion that my inking skills are still okay XD

I seem to fair better at every-other-month updates instead of monthly.

And hey, look at that, a whole page of sketches. I took out the middle panel because it could be spoilerific, but the other ones should be safe enough.

I still struggle with inking and I haven't even touched coloring, but at least the sketching has become easier.

I missed March because I still have the same problem: I don't know what to say.

But at least no one died. Or got cancer. Yay!

Here's a sketch from one of the pages. I'm so out of practice that I keep hating whatever I draw which is likely not helping with all the grief issues I still have. But I keep trying cause I know, with practice, that problem will go away. It's one of the easier things to fix >_<

Fluffy stories: Many of you have expressed an interest in seeing those. I'm thinking about it. There's one, in particular, you might all enjoy as much as I did. It cracks me up whenever I think about it. I think I just really like the main character's voice. She's fearless and finds zest in everything even when she shouldn't. But I only wrote the fun parts and skipped the rest (that's how I usually write stories when I'm just writing them for myself) so it could be very confusing to someone that does not have access to my head.

But maybe I'll sit down and flesh it out. Or maybe I'll see if I can play with the new AI art stuff and make a webcomic out of it. It would be like D making his own story. Except he has very little concept about plot so his version would be awful. And very short.

Still, it's a thought.

I don't know what to say.

That's pretty much why I haven't posted in so long. I kept hoping I'd have good news so I'd push it off, waiting for the good news to happen.

But I've mainly been getting bad news.

We had several more people in my family pass. One was a fun cousin who was a big fan of mine. He'd been having health problems of late so we weren't too surprised, but we didn't expect him to pass so fast. And it was too close to my sister's death.

So I didn't take it well.

And then I had a great aunt pass. In some other year, I doubt I would have been affected much. I barely knew her and would have been sad for her immediate family, but would have moved on easily enough.

But I just sobbed and sobbed.

My two closest friends then lost someone, each very dear to them. So I sobbed some more.

Then my drawing computer died. I guess it was feeling left out. And I basically gave up. I turned to other creative pursuits, writing stories that were overly light and fluffy. I desperately needed an outlet and those helped.

Yet, my love for NAV didn't cease. It kept calling to me.

So I bought a new drawing computer and tried to get back into drawing. I had a goal to post something on NAV's birthday. I even told some of you of that goal. I was excited to get back into the thick of things.

But then my dad found out he had cancer.

Yeah...

Needless to say, my creative psyche didn't take that too well. It was still bleeding from all the others. So I gave up again and turned to the fluffy stories instead. Creativity is how I process stuff and I desperately needed to process all the grief. And NAV and all its sadness and grief was too close to home now. I just couldn't handle it.

There is some good news, though. My dad has been declared cancer-free. We know it has a high chance of returning (that was how his sister died), but at least we get a reprieve.

And I'm trying to get back into drawing.

I can't offer anything solid. My creative psyche is unfortunately too fragile. I still cry whenever I try to draw. I'm rather embarrassed about that but you don't really know where grief will manifest and it apparently has decided the comic is one of its homes. I'm hoping more time will help, though. I've really appreciated everyone who has mentioned their struggle with grief and being unable to work on something they used to love for a long time. It's given me hope I can overcome this eventually.

In the meantime, I think I'll try to post something once a month on the first Tuesday (this update is going to count for February even if it's not the first Tuesday; just pretend it is). Something from one of the pages I'm working on (like the one above). Or maybe a simple drawing if I'm really struggling. I might miss some months, I'll be honest. Especially if more bad news shows up. But I'm going to try to not go radio silence again.

I do appreciate all the comments and emails, though. Yes, I get them all. The comments show up directly in my email, telling me I have a comment to moderate. I just didn't have the heart to log in and approve them. I did it today and found over one thousand spam comments waiting for me as well. Yuck.

Still, thanks for staying with me. I never expected to fall apart when I started this comic. But I guess we never really expect the hard times that are in front of us. At least I have a lot more empathy for everyone in the comic now. Their pain is a lot more real. Which is probably why it hurts so much to work on it.

But I'm going to keep trying.