Questionable Content 14: "I Deserve A Fancy Butt Emblem."

[Willie the Duck]

Yeah, as much as I dislike Renee, there's nothing wrong with asking someone who you're letting crash on your couch to look for a more permanent living situation.

...aaannnddd apparently the permanent living situation is as roommates. Okay. Was not expecting that, not sure what I think of it, but it's better than indefinite couch-crasher.

[eee]

Oh God, they're going to wind up getting an apartment in the same building as Marten and Faye, or Roko and Melon, and then we'll be seeing them constantly!!

[Keltest]

...aaannnddd apparently the permanent living situation is as roommates. Okay. Was not expecting that, not sure what I think of it, but it's better than indefinite couch-crasher.

Is it alarming that this is now the second group who are going to move apartments to accommodate somebody whose previous place of living burned down under unusual circumstances?

[Mechalich]

Is it alarming that this is now the second group who are going to move apartments to accommodate somebody whose previous place of living burned down under unusual circumstances?

The overwhelming majority of the QC cast is defined by their generally inertia-based approach to life (Dora is the kinda-sorta exception). Characters with major life goals who embark on pursuing them tend to leave the cast. Exhibit A: Angus. Honestly, they kind of have to, the number of opportunities available in Northampton, MA to grow a business or advance a career are distinctly limited. So in order for the cast to stay together they have to remain stuck churning in place. This is actually a pretty common issue sitcom-y stories face, it's just that most sitcoms tend to be set in major cities so the options for up and downs without requiring geographic displacement are much greater.

As such, in order for significant events to happen to these people there has to be some kind of distinct stimulus forcing a change to occur. Since most of these characters lack any deep flaws beyond a sort of generalized 20-something malaise and underemployment, the author has to keep generating external events to force progression for anything not directly relationship-based. I mean, consider how long it took for Faye's alcoholism to finally reach the stage which it triggered actual changes in her life. It was like a 1500 strip process.

In terms of fires, specifically, well, a town like Northampton would have a lot of old buildings with old wiring and gas lines, so it would be more fire prone than most places, especially with everyone plugging in all these AIs now.

[John Cribati]

Seriously? The only two options are that her hanging around on Renee's couch isn't an inconvenience, and that Renee doesn't care if she's homeless?

I would like to understand how you got that interpretation from my post.

[Vinyadan]

In terms of fires, specifically, well, a town like Northampton would have a lot of old buildings with old wiring and gas lines, so it would be more fire prone than most places, especially with everyone plugging in all these AIs now.

So it's like the Little Paris of North America?

[Willie the Duck]

Is it alarming that this is now the second group who are going to move apartments to accommodate somebody whose previous place of living burned down under unusual circumstances?

If we find out that Fred MacMurray is the insurance agent in town, we'll know for sure.

I would like to understand how you got that interpretation from my post.

By reading it:

I mean, I'd personally find worrying about my autistic friend being homeless more stressful than paying a little more for food and utilities to have them around in their underwear around my random internet hookups.

You set up a comparator. Seriously, reread what you posted, pretending someone other than you wrote it, and see what you would surmise about what the person who wrote it was trying to do.

[Traab]

Northampton is in Western Mass, which is distinctively less developed than the Eastern half of the state - to the point that you can easily observe the difference on Google Maps. In many of the large towns/small cities in the area the population is lower or only slightly larger than it was decades ago due to the very long term industrial mill collapse. This has been alluded to in the comic: Coffee of Doom is located in a "hundred-year old building" for exactly this reason. As a result, the in-town rent is not especially high compared to the nationally quite high Massachusetts minimum wage (which also inflates earnings of the low-wage but not quite minimum wage jobs many of the cast members have), though it is a college town so certain nicer, newer apartments and those in immediate proximity to Smif (Smith) College will likely be substantially overpriced. Main Street, where Veronica purchased a place, is both close to Smif and in the heart of downtown, such as it is (this is like a three block stretch).

As far as rent and finances for much of the core cast goes, it has been fairly strongly implied throughout much of the comic's run that the various cast members are barely scraping by and are completely failing to accumulate any substantial savings. Most of them are presumably living paycheck-to-paycheck and only have a few hundred dollars in the bank. It may be quite difficult for any of them to scrape together the cash to move, especially on short notice. The almost certainly includes Brun, who incurred extra expenses having to replace various household items following the fire (and would need to acquire more if she had her own place, like towels and pots), and who works part-time as a bar-back, presumably making maybe a few dollars above minimum wage.

I suspect the next plotline will involve Brun needing to find a roommate in order to move off Renee's couch.

Yeah marten flat out states he makes around 20k a year with his original office job. So paycheck to paycheck sounds about right. I dont think we know what he makes as a librarian assistant at smif, but it helps he isnt living solo anymore. Honestly its amazing what a difference a room mate to split bills with makes. Even if his rent was only 600 a month cutting that in half is still a solid 300 bucks extra in his budget for the month, which makes a huge difference. Also, about dora, she is very much living along with inertia. She has her coffee shop, and she has her schedule. Remember how hard it was to convince her to stop working 80 hours a week? The very idea of changing how she does things now that she has a solid staff (Like twice as many people as she did at the start) so she doesnt have to be there open to close 7 days a week was shocking to her. She is also content with things. She isnt trying to push to expand, or start a franchise, or entertain an offer from starbucks to buy her out so she can retire or whatever. Just like pretty much everyone else, she is happyish where she is. Or at least content enough to not rock the boat.

[John Cribati]

You set up a comparator. Seriously, reread what you posted, pretending someone other than you wrote it, and see what you would surmise about what the person who wrote it was trying to do.

Yes. Because I was responding to someone who was asking how things weren't inconvenient from Renee's perspective, and posited that having her friend in her house was less stressful than the alternative- knowing her friend was homeless and not knowing where the hell she was. Thougy I suppose Brun is technically homeless, just "homeless, but crashing on a friend's couch" and not "homeless with a sign begging for change."

[Kish]

Yes. Because I was responding to someone who was asking how things weren't inconvenient from Renee's perspective, and posited that having her friend in her house was less stressful than the alternative- knowing her friend was homeless and not knowing where the hell she was. Thougy I suppose Brun is technically homeless, just "homeless, but crashing on a friend's couch" and not "homeless with a sign begging for change."

If you truly don't see how that indicates a dichotomy, and how the post I'm responding to now doubles down on that dichotomy, I can only suggest you put me on ignore, 'cause my posts are only going to go on raising your blood pressure.

You're the only person on this forum or in the comic who has brought up the idea of Brun being homeless.

[John Cribati]

Seriously? The only two options are that her hanging around on Renee's couch isn't an inconvenience, and that Renee doesn't care if she's homeless?

It's specifically this part of the alleged dichotomy that I take issue with. Because in both scenarios I suggested, it's pretty much explicit that Renee does, in fact care that Brun is homeless (which she was, given that she first called Renee from a stranger's phone (or the hotel phone? Can't remember but the end result is the same) but one case- the current one where Brun is crashing on her couch- Renee would be far less stressed than the other- one where Brun is living who-knows-where and Renee is constantly concerned for her.

[Ibrinar]

Yes. Because I was responding to someone who was asking how things weren't inconvenient from Renee's perspective, and posited that having her friend in her house was less stressful than the alternative- knowing her friend was homeless and not knowing where the hell she was. Thougy I suppose Brun is technically homeless, just "homeless, but crashing on a friend's couch" and not "homeless with a sign begging for change."

Which in turn was an answer to you saying it apparently isn't an inconvenience.
It went: Not an inconvenience=> someone stranded in your apartment is an inconvenience=> your post.

Your post is as far as I can tell intended as argument against the post you are replying to. The post you were replying to wasn't an argument to not take her in but one why one might want her out. You are presenting it as if she shouldn't be inconvenienced because the alternative would be worse and to do that of course you have to declare homelessness the alternative thereby creating a false dichotomy. In fact you are doing it again in this post "and posited that having her friend in her house was less stressful than the alternative-" but that isn't the only alternative and more importantly not the alternative being discussed. Since the comment in question was in the context about Renee asking her to search for a new apartment that is the relevant alternative. Hence the reply you got.

[georgie_leech]

Yes. Because I was responding to someone who was asking how things weren't inconvenient from Renee's perspective, and posited that having her friend in her house was less stressful than the alternative- knowing her friend was homeless and not knowing where the hell she was. Thougy I suppose Brun is technically homeless, just "homeless, but crashing on a friend's couch" and not "homeless with a sign begging for change."

If you want to communicate a possibility, you might want to avoid definite pronouns like "the" and stick to "an alternative" or "one alternative."

[John Cribati]

Okay, here are the options:

• Brun Immediately finds a new house and job after staying at the hotel for one day, Calls Renee and tells her. Renee is appeased, but even though this is likely to happen in QC-verse, it... clearly didn't happen.
• Brun stays with Clinton/Clinton's mother/one of the other workers at the bar, Calls Renee and tells her, Renee is stressed and worried, but is appeased after x amount of time when she's confident they're not going to take advantage of her.
• Brun stays in a homeless shelter, is able to call Renee and say as such. May not be able to call as often. Renee is stressed.
• Brun sleeps on the street. Can only call sporadically until her cell phone service shuts off. Renee is super stressed.

Those last three options all fall under the "Renee is stressed out because she isn't completely sure Brun is safe" as opposed to "Renee is mildly to moderately inconvenienced, but at least she knows Brun is safe."

That is the actual dichotomy in my post, if you can even call it that.

[Kish]

It's specifically this part of the alleged dichotomy that I take issue with.

And you brought it in.

I mean, I'd personally find worrying about my autistic friend being homeless more stressful than paying a little more for food and utilities to have them around in their underwear around my random internet hookups.

If that wasn't meant to sarcastically suggest that anyone who dared to point out it was inconvenient to Renee for Brun to be spending the rest of her life on Renee's couch, was saying Renee didn't care about Brun being HOMELESS OMG, I can only suggest you drop this angle and start over.

[Ibrinar]

Okay, here are the options:

• Brun Immediately finds a new house and job after staying at the hotel for one day, Calls Renee and tells her. Renee is appeased, but even though this is likely to happen in QC-verse, it... clearly didn't happen.
• Brun stays with Clinton/Clinton's mother/one of the other workers at the bar, Calls Renee and tells her, Renee is stressed and worried, but is appeased after x amount of time when she's confident they're not going to take advantage of her.
• Brun stays in a homeless shelter, is able to call Renee and say as such. May not be able to call as often. Renee is stressed.
• Brun sleeps on the street. Can only call sporadically until her cell phone service shuts off. Renee is super stressed.

Those last three options all fall under the "Renee is stressed out because she isn't completely sure Brun is safe" as opposed to "Renee is mildly to moderately inconvenienced, but at least she knows Brun is safe."

That is the actual dichotomy in my post, if you can even call it that.

Why are you so insistent on ignoring the actual other alternative, the one I explicitly mentioned in my last post? Brun stays with her but while doing so searches for somewhere else to live. That alternative.

[John Cribati]

See, I think you're the one who needs to reconsider those angles. I suppose 'stressful' isn't one-to-one synonymous with 'inconvenient,' that's still quite a bad faith interpretation of what I said, because nowhere in my post did I suggest that she wasn't inconvenienced. Unless the rules of English have changed recently, the fact that I said "less stressful" should still indicate that I'd consider both options stressful.

[Kish]

The rules of English do not say anything that will make "Brun is homeless" an idea someone other than you brought in.

Have fun with that.

[John Cribati]

The rules of English do not say anything that will make "Brun is homeless" an idea someone other than you brought in.

Have fun with that.

The comic brought it in. Because od the part where her house and job burned down. And then the subsequent part where Brun has been sleeping on Renee's couch since, except for the one night she spent in a hotel. And then theres the part where all she has to her name are some changes of clothes and a single clock from her collection.

Shes currently in a house, yes, but she is functionally homeless.

[Willie the Duck]

Tell you what, John, when you're done digging yourself even deeper, I'll let you in on how you could have fixed this back in post #425.

[John Cribati]

Or we can just drop it because clearly there's some disconnect between the words I'm typing and the words everyone else is reading.

[dps]

How is Renee affording what looks like a fairly nice one-bedroom apartment in the city on a bakery paycheck, anyway?

....

Wait, how are any of the characters able to afford their apartments?

L

Keep in mind that even in areas with high average rents, roughly half of renters will be paying less than average (if we go by median rather than average, it will be exactly half). When my wife and I lived in Charleston, WV, the average local rent was probably close to $1000 a month for a decent apartment, but we managed to find a perfectly good 2-bedroom for $350 a month.

[eee]

Oh. My. God. That's... incredibly... adorable. O_O

[Fawkes]

I don't like Elliott anymore.

[Mith]

I don't like Elliott anymore.

I mean eating off of the mixing spoon he is WORKING with? Such a terrible thing to do!

[tomandtish]

I mean eating off of the mixing spoon he is WORKING with? Such a terrible thing to do!

Since we don't see him put it back in the bowl, he may be done working with it.

[Kato]

I mean eating off of the mixing spoon he is WORKING with? Such a terrible thing to do!

Eh, whatever gross things might live on his tongue, they're going to die in the oven anyway. It might look disgusting but it's hardly a health hazard.

Also.. Whelp, Jeph got me there. I guess I'm also trash.

[Wraith]

Renee, you can't tell Elliot to stop having thoughts while staring at his pecs. His eyes are up here, lady! Have some respect!

[Vinyadan]

Renee, you can't tell Elliot to stop having thoughts while staring at his pecs. His eyes are up here, lady! Have some respecs!

Fixed that for you.

[Traab]

I cant say I blame elliot, that is one cute cat girl.