I think that we're starting a new medium-term arc at the moment - Faye's day after the night before. I'm expecting the next major sequence of strips to be Faye talking to Marten over breakfast about what has happened to her. Thinking about it, I'm fairly sure that Claire is still in Marten's bedroom, waiting for him to clear the minefield for her. I think that she and Pintsize will also be present during Faye's semi-monologue, both mostly to provide the bittersweet punchlines at the end of the strip.
After Marten and Claire leave for the library my feeling is that Hannelore will be around, at least in the morning, to help Faye out. I'm thinking of something like a semi-dark reprise of Marten and Claire's first date, with the two making wry observations about Faye's situation. This may include a visit to CoD and some kind of tentative contact with Dora.
When Hannelore has to start her shift at CoD, I'm still wondering if May may take over as Faye's minder. I really think that she has the right personality - unsympathetic, firm but, ultimately, fair that Faye would need. I'd love to have Marten to come home to find Faye and May rolling in laughter on the floor of the lounge because one or the other had said something that proved they have very, very similar sense of humour.
Naturally, there would also be the occasional one- or two-strip filler like Tai's response to Marten and Claire's new physical relationship and maybe Hannelore exchanging death-glares with Juicy when the woman ignorantly enters CoD.
A couple of things I'd like to see as the "Faye's Recovery" arc progresses:
- May keeps on saying that 'Dr Elicott-Chatham' had arranged for her to help with Faye. Everyone is wondering why Hanners' dad would even know about this situation until it comes out that Hannelore has doctorates in pure mathematics and geometry (earned when still in her late teens); Hanners just shrugs it off as unimportant - At some point after that, Faye acquires a "Doc Hanners" tee-shirt for Hannelore to wear;
- I'd love for Faye and Dora to have an afternoon together that starts from a mutual "I'm sorry" and progresses to a mutual brain-storming on where they'd gone wrong all their lives; at the end, Dora gives Faye Jim's 'phone number and tells her to tell him: "Dora says 'Everyone needs a second chance.'";
- I'd like for Dora and Sven to have an argument about whether Sven should try to approach Faye - Dora eventually convinces him to think about why he wants to do so and for whose benefit;
- I'd like for Faye to have at least one close brush with a relapse, maybe after arguing with someone over something silly; it would be interesting to have May of all people to talk her down.
Ultimately, I'm really feeling that we're starting a new 'growing up' phase of the strip with the characters moving away from 'post-college slackers' towards a more adult approach to their lives and relationships.
I actually think she's done this, although it wasn't remarked on much overtly as Jeph slowly mutated it from "running gag" to "actually a borderline domestic abuse situation". She hasn't laid a hand on him since 1818, and before that like 411 I think?
It's been toned down in most respects, but the threat of violence is still there when she takes exception to something. I think she still looks to deal with situations using fear and intimidation (even if she rarely follows through with any violent acts these days), so it seems like there are still some issues to be sorted out.
Over on the Subreddit, there is a border ad that describes Questionable Content as a Webcomic Soap Opera. I think that this is a fair description - The strip is progressively following a set of characters' lives through primarily character-driven drama, comedy, romance and heartbreak. There is very little or any hint of a long-running meta-plot beyond 'these characters are moving through life and this is what has happened this time'.
Regarding Faye's violent tendencies, initially, QC was not ment to be even sightly realistic. It was comedy and it was occasionally slapstick comedy. However, with time, the characters have developed, become more three-dimensional and their extremely exaggerated primary characteristics have been toned down quite considerably. I argue that this was a conscious choice on Jeph's part, mostly motivated by his desire to more real-world-like characters (starting with the rightly-infamous Strip 500) rather than just a strip-by-strip series of jokes.
Does Claire seem like the type of person that would get mad if people learned from Marten (perhaps in booty dance form, eh?) that they had the sex? She does embarrassed pretty easily.
She would be embarrassed but, if it was found out by someone inferring it from her and/or Marten's behaviour, I doubt she'd get mad at anyone. She might get
defensive until she realises that no-one is criticising her. Except Clinton, who doesn't matter.