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

[Kato]

Ho Claire, you sweet summer child.
They're obviously having some celebratory sexing.

Or they've been fighting and are having make-up sex.
But it's definitely sex.

[Keltest]

Red alert, red alert!

[Willie the Duck]

Red alert, obvious straightforward solution actively avoided! Brace for wacky sitcom solution instead!

[Rodin]

Red alert, obvious straightforward solution actively avoided! Brace for wacky sitcom solution instead!

Honestly? This is something that I have absolutely done. Well, not exactly, because I don't have a drinking problem. But the scenario is very familiar to me. I'm having a mental problem, refuse to discuss it and pretend everything's okay just so that I don't cause people to worry*, and blow off freely offered help because I feel like I'm "strong enough" even though I'm really not.

In fact, Faye talking to Bubbles here is a step above where I normally get. So I'm gonna withhold judgement here until we see whether it devolves into sitcom wackiness or whether it's treated seriously.

*even though they're worrying anyway because I won't talk to them about it.

[Kato]

Honestly? This is something that I have absolutely done. Well, not exactly, because I don't have a drinking problem. But the scenario is very familiar to me. I'm having a mental problem, refuse to discuss it and pretend everything's okay just so that I don't cause people to worry*, and blow off freely offered help because I feel like I'm "strong enough" even though I'm really not.

In fact, Faye talking to Bubbles here is a step above where I normally get. So I'm gonna withhold judgement here until we see whether it devolves into sitcom wackiness or whether it's treated seriously.

*even though they're worrying anyway because I won't talk to them about it.

Goddamnit, stop being so effing real. I'm here to snark about webcomics, not reflect on my own behavior.

[georgie_leech]

Honestly? This is something that I have absolutely done. Well, not exactly, because I don't have a drinking problem. But the scenario is very familiar to me. I'm having a mental problem, refuse to discuss it and pretend everything's okay just so that I don't cause people to worry*, and blow off freely offered help because I feel like I'm "strong enough" even though I'm really not.

In fact, Faye talking to Bubbles here is a step above where I normally get. So I'm gonna withhold judgement here until we see whether it devolves into sitcom wackiness or whether it's treated seriously.

*even though they're worrying anyway because I won't talk to them about it.

Also the thought of "It's my problem to deal with, I can't let it mess up their plans, because then I'm making it their problem." Which is not a super helpful way to try and take responsibility for my issues, but here we are

[Willie the Duck]

Honestly? This is something that I have absolutely done. Well, not exactly, because I don't have a drinking problem. But the scenario is very familiar to me. I'm having a mental problem, refuse to discuss it and pretend everything's okay just so that I don't cause people to worry*, and blow off freely offered help because I feel like I'm "strong enough" even though I'm really not.

In fact, Faye talking to Bubbles here is a step above where I normally get. So I'm gonna withhold judgement here until we see whether it devolves into sitcom wackiness or whether it's treated seriously.

*even though they're worrying anyway because I won't talk to them about it.

I do have a drinking problem (15 years sober, but it is still an active disease), and this also feels very real to me. I think we're already getting some sitcom treatment with the burrito response (at least Jeph is looking for the humor in it). You are right, we shall see if there will be a side order of seriousness.

[Shadow of the Sun]

I do have a drinking problem (15 years sober, but it is still an active disease), and this also feels very real to me. I think we're already getting some sitcom treatment with the burrito response (at least Jeph is looking for the humor in it). You are right, we shall see if there will be a side order of seriousness.

Alcohol issues in QC are usually treated reasonable realistically these days. Mainly because Jeph is himself a recovering alcoholic.

[Kato]

Alcohol issues in QC are usually treated reasonable realistically these days.

Casual use of signal flares however is not. Does Bubbles think those are toys?

I hope this goes well and we don't get another depressing arc.

[Shogo]

Hmm. Is it weird if I'm looking at this build up and thinking Dora said no? I mean, she probably said yes, but I'm still getting a vibe of Tai wanting people to comfort her by getting ****faced with her at a bar or something.

[Rodin]

Casual use of signal flares however is not. Does Bubbles think those are toys?

I hope this goes well and we don't get another depressing arc.

Treating it seriously-yet-comedically is what I'm hoping for. Faye going with a chaperone to make sure she stays good? Sensible, realistic thing to do. Faye firing the signal flare and setting the bar on fire for hilarious hijinks? Oh, I so very much hope that happens.

[Vinyadan]

Treating it seriously-yet-comedically is what I'm hoping for. Faye going with a chaperone to make sure she stays good? Sensible, realistic thing to do. Faye firing the signal flare and setting the bar on fire for hilarious hijinks? Oh, I so very much hope that happens.

I don't, unless there's Brun in it, because it's the only way I can think of that joke could be funny again.

[Wraith]

Casual use of signal flares however is not. Does Bubbles think those are toys?

When you have flame-retardant skin, bones with a melting point of ~1,600 degrees, can bench-press an SUV and inherently modular/disposable body parts, most things can be employed as toys if you want to.

[Vinyadan]

When you have flame-retardant skin, bones with a melting point of ~1,600 degrees, can bench-press an SUV and inherently modular/disposable body parts, most things can be employed as toys if you want to.

I'd enjoy a Bubbles-Celia crossover personality (Bubbles not knowing human limits), but I fear it would end very badly for Faye.

[Lethologica]

Given Bubbles' prior profession, I rather imagine she is thoroughly familiar with human limits.

[Vinyadan]

Given Bubbles' prior profession, I rather imagine she is thoroughly familiar with human limits.

I'm having a Crystal flashback. Lots of gnomes with tiny heads -- fun to crush -- won't run out

[Keltest]

Thank you Jeph, for sparing us that particular potential source of drama. I dearly hope he doesn't cause this development to crash and burn. Just let somebody have a happy relationship that stays happy.

[otakuryoga]

this may be the perfectest 4 panel ever
each one is spot on

1) announcement! now fawn over us

2) relief we were wrong to be thinking the worst

3) Really?

4) well..as he himself says..good recoveries

[Wraith]

this may be the perfectest 4 panel ever
each one is spot on

1) announcement! now fawn over us

3) Really?

Two people formally applying for tax exemptions really isn't all THAT interesting... (Source: I'm doing it next year, it's tedious as hell)

I hope Jimbo turns up at some point, though. They're in a bar, so there's a reasonable chance that he's already there somewhere, and I enjoy his anecdotes. It might also have been nice if Dora had invited Penny, and Raven, and Cosette, and Dale... Y'know, the people she spends all day with and some of whom were stood in the room with her at the time it was announced...

[VoxRationis]

Two people formally applying for tax exemptions really isn't all THAT interesting... (Source: I'm doing it next year, it's tedious as hell)

I'm inclined to agree with you. Our cultural emphasis on the significance of marriage is a relic of an earlier time in which it was both the definitive endpoint of one's romantic life, with divorce being rare and something of a taboo, and marriage being the only situation under which cohabitation was acceptable (at least to the majority of society). Neither fact is the case anymore, but comedies which use marriage as a convenient shorthand to denote a permanent and successful ending and a heavy amount of marketing from the purveyors of overpriced white party materiel keep the notion alive. Two people getting married is far less significant (aside from the financial cost) than their being able to stay married over a long period of time, or even than their becoming romantically involved in the first place.

[Wraith]

I mean, if anyone out there is deeply in romantic love with another person and are intending on formally binding themselves together forever in the near future, I'm not here to crap on your dreams. Go be happy, I implore you.

That being said... Dora and Tai are in the early-mid-to-mid 20's, they have been together for a few years now and last time they were seen, one of them was down on one knee in mid-proposal. "We're engaged!" really isn't so much of a bombshell that each and every one of your closest friends - including the one who witnessed the proposal - should be shocked and amazed by it?

Although to be fair, I could say the same thing about Dora killing and eating Tai in a fit of neurotic self-doubt. I don't even know how that would work, but it'd still be more "shocking" that it would be "surprising"....

[Max_Killjoy]

I'm inclined to agree with you. Our cultural emphasis on the significance of marriage is a relic of an earlier time in which it was both the definitive endpoint of one's romantic life, with divorce being rare and something of a taboo, and marriage being the only situation under which cohabitation was acceptable (at least to the majority of society). Neither fact is the case anymore, but comedies which use marriage as a convenient shorthand to denote a permanent and successful ending and a heavy amount of marketing from the purveyors of overpriced white party materiel keep the notion alive. Two people getting married is far less significant (aside from the financial cost) than their being able to stay married over a long period of time, or even than their becoming romantically involved in the first place.

1) A lot of people still care about getting married for reasons that have nothing to do with tax breaks or being manipulated by marketing.

2) The status of a big official marriage with all the leadup and rigamarole in the past is somewhat overstated depending on the time and place and social "rung" in question, based, ironically, on a somewhat artificial presentation of the long past during the more recent past.

[Mith]

Ack! They are one of those couples! I, for one, appreciate Jeph's choice of camera angles.

[Beelzebub1111]

See, Faye. It's fine. No one is going to force you to drink if you go to a bar. What did she expect, the bartender to threaten her wirh a deadly weapon if she ordered a water? Could you imagine?

[Wraith]

Marten, take a hint when it hits you between the eyes with a crowbar.

Which do you think is more likely? That your mentally exhausted girlfriend has, within the space of an hour or two, scoured the entire 50 mile radius around your house for wedding venues, cross-referenced all of their pertinent details and alphabetised them in a convenient spreadsheet...

...or that she already had said spreadsheet ready and waiting? For "reasons"?

[georgie_leech]

Marten, take a hint when it hits you between the eyes with a crowbar.

Which do you think is more likely? That your mentally exhausted girlfriend has, within the space of an hour or two, scoured the entire 50 mile radius around your house for wedding venues, cross-referenced all of their pertinent details and alphabetised them in a convenient spreadsheet...

...or that she already had said spreadsheet ready and waiting? For "reasons"?

She's a known shipper. Said reason could very easily be just "Tai and Dora would be adorable together as a married couple and I need to.be prepared"

[Traab]

She's a known shipper. Said reason could very easily be just "Tai and Dora would be adorable together as a married couple and I need to.be prepared"

Dont forget she is also kinda squeeing over faye and bubbles as well. And even without the shipping virus some girls are really big into planning their perfect wedding so it wouldnt shock me if she has been updating this list ever since she first transitioned. All that said, yes its also possible that she is wistfully thinking about her and marten getting together permanently. Its just not the only explanation.

[Mordokai]

All things considered, my opinion of Bubbles just dropped considerably. Never was all that high to begin with, but it now bombed.

I mean, yes, there are better beers than IPAs. Porters and stouts come readily to mind, especially their imperial version.

But c'mon! You do not mock IPA! They are some of the finest nectars I've had a privilege to sample.

[Shadow of the Sun]

IPAs are okay but some brewers do need to learn that more hops doesn't automatically mean better.

[Morquard]

Bubbles description of beer pretty much is how I describe it.