Heartstring-tugging isn't only for the simply sweet. Add but a dash of bitter taste, and I promise to you, it shall be tugged anew.
Send the ship to the jagged reefs and see it sail into storm. If it comes out the other side in one piece, it will make for a more rounded story.
Yeah, good point. I was thinking "what cute things are left to happen?" when I should've been wondering "what can happen next?" Obviously, everything has gone well for them so far--Claire didn't punch Marten in the junk while yelling about Hitler, Marten didn't say or do anything stupid either--but that was all just setup. But last week we started getting signs that something is going to happen. The interns came with expiration dates when they were first introduced; unlike most of the other characters, Gabby and Emily and Claire had only a limited time in their roles before things would have to change. Gabby didn't make it (alas), but Claire and Emily did, and now their time as interns is coming to an end, meaning...what?
I don't see either of them getting written out of the strip, of course. Jeph likes both of them too much, and he wouldn't have spent
that much time setting up Claire and Marten just to pull the rug out from under us. But there's still the question about what they'll do next. I'm not sure if Emily will stay in the library, since she was only interning because she "likes books" and didn't seem as concerned about Tai's unprofessional evaluation as Claire was. The library is pretty well-staffed with Marten and Tai and Momo already (if Momo still works there--I suspect her absense is just oversight on Jeph's part), so adding both Emily and Claire would probably be unnecessary (although I could be wrong), and Emily would still have a link to the characters as Clinton's girlfriend. As for Claire, if she doesn't get hired there, I'll be very surprised. I won't speculate on whether she'll be an additional employee or replace Tai or Marten, since I want to talk about other things, but either is possible.
And Claire getting hired as a librarian and remaining in the cast does hint at a potential endgame. When he was dating Dora, Marten never seemed pressured to improve his lot in life. Despite dating someone slightly older than him, who had taken a different course in life after college and had gone on to start her own business, he seemed content to continue coasting along in his job and only halfheartedly working on his music. That's as far as we know, of course, but there was never any indication that Marten and Dora were concerned about their future together. If they were, Marten would probably have been inspired to actually make some goals and work towards achieving them.
But things feel different with Claire in the picture. Unlike Dora, who had already achieved her goals, Claire is still working on them. She's much closer to Marten in that respect--but unlike Marten, she has a much more solid plan in mind. And I don't think she's going to be satisfied having a partner who doesn't have a plan of his own. That's not to say she'll be the stereotypical harpy-who-wants-to-change-her-man, but I can't imagine she'll stay silent when it comes to Marten's career goals. Claire just might be the motivation Marten needs and didn't get with Dora. He's already feeling unsatisfied with just treading water, so it shouldn't be hard for her to start nudging him in a direction he wants to go--specifically, back to band practice, and eventually to his first show.
(Although the Patreon comic, if made canon, makes it clear that Amir is the one who sets things in motion--but Marten's probably going to need a bit of a confidence boost from time to time to stay motivated, hence Claire.)
Like I said, endgame. Or several moves before it. Third quarter, in sportsball terms. Questionable Content is still a slice-of-life story with no over-arching goal in mind, but it would be rather disheartening if Jeph ended the comic with Marten in the same rut he was stuck in in the beginning. I much prefer
BenRG's idea of Marten coming home from a job he loves, happy with the way his life is going, a reversed image of the first strip. Whether that happens after just one more year of comics or after another ten, and whether or not Claire is in the picture at that point, it still feels like QC is starting to turn in that direction, and I really feel that Marten's relationship with Claire is going to be a factor in that.