So in the original draft of the story, this is where Roka was going to pull rank and we’d get a funny moment with Bocce. Yes, Bocce came to their rescue and saved them, but in the process, he also damaged a very expensive lift sled, a concern of Roka’s that was set up back in The Big Snow Job #2, Page 2. As punishment, I thought it would be funny to have Roka order Bocce to retrieve all the Crush from the yaks, so that he’d be the one having to put his arm down their throats and dealing with all the yak puke.
The problem was that the last scene with Bocce was a very intense and vicious fight with the Kaagan-Vas that ended with Bocce in a very dark place. It seemed really weird to suddenly switch tone and flip Bocce immediately back into whipping-boy mode for the sake of a laugh. So I decided not to use the scene with Roka punishing Bocce, as much as I would have loved to do it.
Good decision not to switch tones.
I guess that’s also why Cember hasn’t been in his funny mode and Ril hasn’t made any wisecracks.
It demonstrates your writing abilities.