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Bubbles and the Zen of being an AnthroPC AI

Faye has weird existentialist dreams

The Overmind Speaks

Corpse Witch is God

Brun is an Alien AnthroPc AI

Brun is God

Analysis of Clinton continues

Mystical Spathe Ham with Pizza and Lattes

Ohm mani Padma Ohm

Only The Architect knows

Mystical Purple Monkey Dishwasher

Jeph is God

Jeph is Life

[blue5]

We'll see if Renee ever warms up to Clinton. Or maybe we won't; unless Brun saved the soggy phone number, or has the presence of mind to go ask for him at COD, they might not meet again. Of course, the fact that we're still seeing Brun suggests she'll eventually have more dealings with the main cast.

Hell, It would be hilarious to see Brunn hunting around town to find Clinton. Like in Cliched rom-com fashion. God, that would be funny

[Oenone]

I think that they might have met through the same life skills group. that'd explain why they're both into routines, Brun's patience with Renee's emotionality and Renee's over-protectiveness of Brun.

[Larm Hargraven]

Hello! Popping in again to give a conclusion on my end. I feel Renee is very much a friend unaware of their toxicity. In my experience, I found myself in Brun's position and it's not a lovely thing. The problem is you're half-aware, half in denial about the attitude because people in Brun's case may need someone to help guide them, but they definitely don't need someone to control them. The line if very, very fine and easily crossed without warning. You can see this as Renee relents on Brun's opinion of Clinton because Brun refuses to change her opinion of him. She then immediately sees the opportunity to give Brun a new schedule and life without hesitation because it's a new thing she can put into Brun's head.

Again, Renee might just be unaware of her attitude, but it's apparent that, yes, she is a manipulator at some degree. The real questions now are: How far does this go? Is Renee aware of the attitude? And will we perhaps see an arc where Renee will change her ways or stay like this?

Edit: I also want to specifically point out a HUGE example in today's comic that made me come to the conclusion, because I actually have heard this phrase. The phrase being "I don't wanna fight." This is a common phrase used to manipulate (again not saying Renee is intentional) because it plants the seed of thought that having a disagreement = fighting. For me it gave me years of self-doubt because I assumed saying 'No' to this person would mean I'm fighting with them. It's also a tell-tale sign because Renee is, at the same time, being physically affectionate with Brun, sending mixed signals that further drive the nail in.

Like always, I'm only able to speak from my experiences and to take my words with a grain of salt.

[blue5]

Hello! Popping in again to give a conclusion on my end. I feel Renee is very much a friend unaware of their toxicity. In my experience, I found myself in Brun's position and it's not a lovely thing. The problem is you're half-aware, half in denial about the attitude because people in Brun's case may need someone to help guide them, but they definitely don't need someone to control them. The line if very, very fine and easily crossed without warning. You can see this as Renee relents on Brun's opinion of Clinton because Brun refuses to change her opinion of him. She then immediately sees the opportunity to give Brun a new schedule and life without hesitation because it's a new thing she can put into Brun's head.

Again, Renee might just be unaware of her attitude, but it's apparent that, yes, she is a manipulator at some degree. The real questions now are: How far does this go? Is Renee aware of the attitude? And will we perhaps see an arc where Renee will change her ways or stay like this?

Edit: I also want to specifically point out a HUGE example in today's comic that made me come to the conclusion, because I actually have heard this phrase. The phrase being "I don't wanna fight." This is a common phrase used to manipulate (again not saying Renee is intentional) because it plants the seed of thought that having a disagreement = fighting. For me it gave me years of self-doubt because I assumed saying 'No' to this person would mean I'm fighting with them. It's also a tell-tale sign because Renee is, at the same time, being physically affectionate with Brun, sending mixed signals that further drive the nail in.

Like always, I'm only able to speak from my experiences and to take my words with a grain of salt.

Salt taken, but appreciated your experience and its a sad thing to see someone go through.

breaking the rules, which works? BrunTon or ClintBrun

[lawoot]

Just my two cents, seeing parallels:

Brun = Bubbles

Renee = CORPSE WITCH

[BlueFatima]

Just my two cents, seeing parallels:

Brun = Bubbles

Renee = CORPSE WITCH

Sorry, I don't see it. Brun has trouble socializing (at least on the communication end)—and is very self-protective—but doesn't seem to lose her temper in a violent way. Her personality strikes me as set more in stone. Bubbles can speak very well, but obviously has PTSD and comes off as someone who could change a lot (even physically if she becomes secure enough to take off her armor).

Renee comes off as a lot more chipper and kind than Corpse Witch—who seems to actually have her own agenda rather than simple boundary issues. I don't see Bubbles being good friends with Corpse Witch either—beyond an employee who's worked with her boss a few years, but Brun and Renee remind me of a lot of people who have been friends since childhood. There tends to be a little enmeshment those kinds of relationships (kind of like siblings) until the relationship is reconstructed as the friends grow up.

If Renee is a baker who gets up at 4 AM and Brun is a bartender, who will traditionally get off work at 4 AM (probably later) when do they hang out? 

Weekday early-to-late afternoons. They probably both worked on weekends. I used to be a yearbook photographer who would consider getting up at 5am to be "sleeping in," and I had relationship with a chef (who worked afternoons to evenings) for a year. Somehow we found time for each other.

[Kugai]

If Renee is the kind of controlling individual that she seems to be at this point, then the entry of Clinton and, by association, the CoD gang might just be the thing that Brun needs to break free of her friends subtle influence.

Whether or not Renee has anything more than Sisterly or, in the worst case. overly Motherly feelings for Brun is probably something that Jeph will make clear as time goes on.

In all fairness, I don't think Renee is trying to smother Brun, I just think she may be more aware of Bruns past and has concerns regarding something that may have happened in the past.

Then again, I could be wrong

[JimC]

If Renee is a baker who gets up at 4 AM and Brun is a bartender, who will traditionally get off work at 4 AM (probably later) when do they hang out? 

Weekday early-to-late afternoons.

Quite so. In any town there's a whole social circle for the folks who work in the odd hours trades. I used to work in a restaurant and do split shifts, and although my regular routine was do the lunch shift, play squash, afternoon tea at a nice place in town, then back to the kitchen for the evening shift, we'd also do matinees at the cinema, go rowing on the river or all sorts of stuff, and you knew other folks from different places...

[Aziraphale]

While you bring up a good point, and I think it's quite likely how Renee sees the situation. However, this whole point hinges on whether or not Brun can be trusted to make a value call as to Clinton's character, or indeed anyone's character. Renee's reaction is that no, Brun can not be trusted to make that decision on her own. That thought strips Brun's agency from her. It's basically saying "You can't be trusted how to judge people's character, someone else has to do it for you." And unless that is very true, it's an incredibly shitty thing to think of a friend, and it's a very controlling thing. Basically wanting to vet and new friends Brun makes, and automatically rejecting Clinton without ever having met him. At best this is a reaction to serious problems with people either in Renee's or Brun's past who have taking advantage of one of them. Or it's a sign of an abusive relationship where Renee has to have all the control... Which would ironically make Renee the kind of person she warns Brun to stay away from. Obviously, life is rarely one extreme or the other, and their relationship likely falls somewhere in the middle.

But what Renee is ignoring or doesn't want to see is that Clinton isn't just some random guy. Brun at first didn't articulate this well because she was still partly non-responsive from the stress of everything. But she's gone to bat for Clinton and shown how he has demonstrated at least apparently kindness and good will with no sign of trying to take advantage of Brun. But Renee has brushed off all of Brun's opinions and thoughts on the matter and basically swept the matter under the rug with a 'I'm right but I don't want to argue, so we'll just stop talking about it now' reasoning.

Thanks for putting what I was thinking much better than I managed.

[Oenone]

Tbh I'm really surprised that y'all are so skeptical of Renee. She's acting like the QC version of Pinkie Pie: slightly over protective, a baker, physically affectionate, etc.

[St.Clair]

Says someone with an animal in their avatar whose usual response to that sort of thing is to curl up in a little ball and say 'talk to the spines'.

[hedgie]

What did I do *now*?

And FYI, my avatar and nick are due to the phenomenon as the hedgehog's dilemma.

[Tova]

Sorry to be a broken record, but IMO it's a touch hasty to start applying labels like "toxic" based on a brief first impression, regardless of personal experience.

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself”
― Earl Nightingale

[Larm Hargraven]

Well it's a good thing I put my disclaimer in my post or this would be embarrassing.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Hedgehog's Dilemma?
What do RL hedgehogs do when it gets cold? They hibernate. Schopenhauer was an ass.

[Tova]

Well it's a good thing I put my disclaimer in my post or this would be embarrassing.

Well. Yes. But. Maybe if the post had opined "her behaviour appears to be toxic" (for example) rather than making a statement that appears to accept her toxicity as an obvious fact ("I feel Renee is very much a friend unaware of their toxicity"), I wouldn't have penned such a pointy post.

[hedgie]

Hedgehog's Dilemma?
What do RL hedgehogs do when it gets cold? They hibernate. Schopenhauer was an ass.

I seriously don't think that he was literally referring to what hedgehogs do.  The principle that he put forth certainly describes my life, tho'.  I want to get close to other people, but having been screwed and not in a fun way many times by people I trusted, I tend to live with spines exposed.

[Oenone]

Says someone with an animal in their avatar whose usual response to that sort of thing is to curl up in a little ball and say 'talk to the spines'.

What can I say? I'm a cuddly monster with aspirations of aloof prickliness, like most extroverted geeks.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Sympathy thru light Internet contact.

Reality as a simulation by a zombie AI:
"The beauty of flowers is not necessary. It is an extra. I have faith in the beauty of flowers."
Can't find the source now. Google Has Failed Me.

So for giggles, I searched "under denver international airport" -- and now the FBI wants to impound my browser history.

[Oenone]

And now, I reveal my truest self.

[jheartney]

Assuming this is Secret Bakery Renee, according to the Wiki she was dumped by Angus for belittling people, and Angus' roommates commemorated the breakup with a round of "Ding dong the witch is dead." So you all might be on to something that she's not just overprotective, but in fact is a toxic manipulator.

With that assumption in mind, where could the story be going? Perhaps once she gets a load of the 4am schedule and insistence on vetting all her social contacts, Brun may have a crisis and decide she can't take living with Renee anymore. So who else does she know and trust in town? Begins with "C" and ends with "ton?" Brunton shippers may be appeased yet. This will lead to hilarious hijinks as Renee loudly confronts Clinton, and Clinton has to plead with ClaireMom to keep the noise down with Chad while Brun stays in the guestroom.

[ankhtahr]

I could always relate to Brun until now, but as a keyboard collector I know this situation far too well, and the relatability is eery now.

[brasca]

I'm beginning to think Brun's apartment looked like Doc Brown's place in Back to the Future

[chaospersonified]

You folk saying Renee doesn't recognize that Climton isn't a random guy are forgetting that, to HER, he is. WE know better, Brun knows slightly better, but as far as Renee is concerned, The only objective fact is that Clinton's the guy who followed Brun to her hotel after the bar burned down.

This in mind, CAN YOU BLAME HER FOR BEING SUSPICIOUS?

Then, consider we mever met those friends of Angus who sang 'Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead.' Possibly, that's because they were douchebags. just saying. Stop taking their words as objective truth, especially Angus' subjective experiences.

I don't know if I like Renee yet, or not, but SHIT, you folk are burning months worth of calories, the number of conclusions you're jumping to.

[Tova]

I don't know if I like Renee yet, or not, but SHIT, you folk are burning months worth of calories, the number of conclusions you're jumping to.

This is now what I wish I had posted. 

[aliensporebomb]

Wow.  Brun collects cuckoo clocks.  Part fascination with beautiful old world craftsmanship or a reflection on the transcience of life?
Or both.  I get the idea she's deeper than we think.


And whoever mention Brun walking around town trying to find him I just got a funny image in my mind of Brun holding a poster "have you seen this man?" with a funny drawing of Clinton.

[hedgie]

And now, I reveal my truest self.

Just be glad that the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.  Just ask Nanny Ogg.

[Oenone]

Wouldn't it be great if the same friends who celebrated Renee's departure were the same mutual friends of Angus and Marigold who bullied her and were obsessed with the idea she was a cam girl?

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1617
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1534

Maybe they were happy because she rode hard in defense of the socially awkward flower we've come to know and love.

[SubaruStephen]

Wow.  Brun collects cuckoo clocks.  Part fascination with beautiful old world craftsmanship or a reflection on the transcience of life?
Or both.  I get the idea she's deeper than we think.

Knowing what time it is is sorta important to a routine.

[jheartney]

Leaving aside the burning question of whether/how much we should look down on Renee, here are some Brun observations from today's comic:

• Brun didn't just latch on to the clock from the bar; she's a clock collector. Many of her clocks seem to be the wind-up variety, meaning she likes to interact with them rather than just looking at them.

• Brun's interest in clocks is not merely functional. She has a developed aesthetic concerning what makes a worthwhile alarm clock.

• She seems to have a fascination with the measured passage of time (she kept alerting Clinton to departing buses, albeit after the fact). Perhaps this love of counting could help her form a bond with Hanners, who likes drumming for the same reason.

• Being friends with Brun would require a thick skin, as she's quite brutal with the honesty. The good news is she takes criticism in the same spirit as she does doling it out. When Clinton pointed out that she'd been failing in her basic duty to make him feel welcome, she simply agreed without becoming offended.

• Insisting on taking the couch rather than the bed suggests Brun understands the pitfall of becoming too indebted to Renee. I think she's quite determined that her stay at Renee's will be as short as possible.

[Penquin47]

Wait a minute.  Brun's place burned down, and now she's sleeping on Renee's couch?  Are we sure Renee isn't Alt-Verse Marten?

[Zastie]

In light to it now being multiple clocks, and this is a huge assumption leap, but I wonder if they were gifts - and that's why Brun views them as important. For someone like her, someone pretty hard to read w/o getting to know really well, it becomes hard to gift-give. I've seen time and time again (possible clock pun?) someone get a gift of one kind, and then everyone who knows this person gives gifts along this same theme because it went well one time. For instance, my eldest brother keeps getting my mum owl-related items for things like B-day and Mother's day kind of just based on one time.. and she's actually not super into owls (actually kinda dislikes them TBH). This was also caused by being kinda hard to read in terms of likes/dislikes. Brun doesn't strike me as a heavily materialistic individual, so maybe the reason why she prizes these clocks is because they were gifts from friends and she holds onto them because they mean friendship to her. Or, leaping even further, lost (not nessicarily dead, perhaps moved away) loved ones.

Huge assumption jump aside.. Brun in the final panel looks like Rin's sprite from Katawa Shoujo.. which is kinda funny given some personality similarities.

[Mad Cat]

Since Brün's a clock aficionado, does that mean that no matter what favour you ask of her, she'll always have… the time? 

[Aziraphale]

<snippage>
With that assumption in mind, where could the story be going? Perhaps once she gets a load of the 4am schedule and insistence on vetting all her social contacts, Brun may have a crisis and decide she can't take living with Renee anymore. So who else does she know and trust in town? Begins with "C" and ends with "ton?" Brunton shippers may be appeased yet. This will lead to hilarious hijinks as Renee loudly confronts Clinton, and Clinton has to plead with ClaireMom to keep the noise down with Chad while Brun stays in the guestroom.

<further snippage>

• Brun didn't just latch on to the clock from the bar; she's a clock collector. Many of her clocks seem to be the wind-up variety, meaning she likes to interact with them rather than just looking at them.

• Brun's interest in clocks is not merely functional. She has a developed aesthetic concerning what makes a worthwhile alarm clock.

• She seems to have a fascination with the measured passage of time (she kept alerting Clinton to departing buses, albeit after the fact). Perhaps this love of counting could help her form a bond with Hanners, who likes drumming for the same reason.

• Being friends with Brun would require a thick skin, as she's quite brutal with the honesty. The good news is she takes criticism in the same spirit as she does doling it out. When Clinton pointed out that she'd been failing in her basic duty to make him feel welcome, she simply agreed without becoming offended.

• Insisting on taking the couch rather than the bed suggests Brun understands the pitfall of becoming too indebted to Renee. I think she's quite determined that her stay at Renee's will be as short as possible.

I could see her as a roommate to Hanners before I could see her rooming/shacking up with Clinton. Brun's clocks would seem to speak to a need for regularity and patterns. Might that make her a potential roommate to someone whose life also revolves around routine and order? In some ways, they seem as though they might complement each other well.

[Carl-E]

The one in the middle looks more like a metronome case; albeit a windup, clockwork type metronome. 


I have four wind-up antique mantle clocks. 


I only have one mantle. 




Make of that what you will...

[Zastie]

Also, kind of side-note.

@People saying Brun&Hannelore would make great roommates: I think as a story that might not be the best avenue for character development. In a story that's basically whole focus is the maturing of various characters and their relational situations, having Brun room with someone who isn't like her very much would offer more situations for change. Be it for Brun or whoever she bunks with. Sticking two similar characters together won't bring about a whole lot of change as they'll just perpetuate their own characteristics. This is, of course, viewing it from a character-building and story-writing perspective, not exactly who would actually be safer for Brun to stay with.

[Kugai]

I wonder if she lost a couple of Grandfather style clocks in the fire

And Brun definitely doesn't hold back does she.

[improvnerd]

Apparently, some autistic people really like clocks.

https://autismandoughtisms.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/for-the-love-of-clocks/

[Smallest]

But then we find out that in Clinton's mom's attic, there is his grandfather's neat clocks and metronomes collection, which has been taking up space, but they didn't want to just send to a thrift store, not knowing if the cherished clocks would get the care grandpa wanted.

Or more likely, Clint finds out later and gives her a clock, maybe from a thrift or antique store, probably like a year in real life time from now. It's nothing super special, but she doesn't have any clocks that fill that niche yet, and it's not quite so mediocre as Renee's alarm at least.
 
edit- this (above) was a direct reply to today's page, not this thread.

that said, I think Brun and Hannelore could be interesting as roommates (in the unlikely scenario where they meet and quickly become well enough acquainted to do it). At the very least there's the split of 'most minimal furniture possible' and 'so many clocks,' although I don't think it ends there. I think they could be good 'similar but actually really, really different'-style foils.

[BenRG]

We've learned two things about Brun today:

• She collects mechanical time pieces;
• She has the skill of making you feel bad about things that you didn't even know you could feel bad about!

Meanwhile, I'm wondering if Renee is going to find that small doses of Brun are easier to take than continual exposure!

Wait a minute.  Brun's place burned down, and now she's sleeping on Renee's couch?  Are we sure Renee isn't Alt-Verse Marten?

No, she's alternate Faye - gets a new roommate as a result of a fire. If this becomes permanent, then the comparison will be set in stone.

FWIW, a few WCDTs ago, I posted a proposal for how Jeph could write Brun and Clinton as a distorted mirror of Marten and Claire.

[Zastie]

I think smaller doses of people are easier to take no matter the person, just kind of feels like a general thing to me.

[DSL]

Reality as a simulation by a zombie AI:
"The beauty of flowers is not necessary. It is an extra. I have faith in the beauty of flowers."
Can't find the source now. Google Has Failed Me.

Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty." A.C. Doyle, etc.

[Corsair]

You folk saying Renee doesn't recognize that Climton isn't a random guy are forgetting that, to HER, he is. WE know better, Brun knows slightly better, but as far as Renee is concerned, The only objective fact is that Clinton's the guy who followed Brun to her hotel after the bar burned down.

This in mind, CAN YOU BLAME HER FOR BEING SUSPICIOUS?

Then, consider we mever met those friends of Angus who sang 'Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead.' Possibly, that's because they were douchebags. just saying. Stop taking their words as objective truth, especially Angus' subjective experiences.

I don't know if I like Renee yet, or not, but SHIT, you folk are burning months worth of calories, the number of conclusions you're jumping to.

I'll take Angus - a guy who proved himself to be a generally honorable, decent sort - at his word. That's not jumping to conclusions at all. Renee was previously stated by a trustworthy individual to be a thoroughly unpleasant individual, and every appearance of her has done nothing to make me want to change my opinion. The idea that his friends were douchebags is far greater speculation than "Renee's kind of being an asshole, maybe she's an asshole!" The other referenced quotes, that Marigold was bullied and that one of Angus' acquaintances was creepily in lust with her really have no relevance, considering there is no evidence in the referenced comics that Angus or his friends were involved in the bullying of Marigold - quite the opposite, actually, Marigold is surprised Angus was even aware of her presence, not the reaction you would have to an old bully, or someone who was buddies with your old bullies.

[gopher]

Can see some parallel between Claire's manipulation of people and Renee's apparently controlling nature, hope fully she will get called on it like Claire was.

[snubnose]

My alarm clocks are AWESOME. They're (a) cheap and (b) they work. Whow ! Cant think of any third condition they would have to manage. Can you ?

I'll never get these people who pay tens of thousands for a Rolex. I mean Porsche 911, sure, I get it, mobility and driving fun. Hasselblad camera, sure, high quality images. But a mere MECHANICAL WATCH ?!? What the heck ?

[bhtooefr]

Mechanical watches are really about "someone spent years of their life learning how to make this, and then made this", combined with the sheer complexity of the mechanism without going into the electronic domain (where that level of complexity is hard).

[Tova]

I've decided that I must be worse than Brun at evaluating people, because I'm not seeing what everyone else here is seeing. I suppose I'll just have to endure the torrent of "I told you so"s when they come. 

[BenRG]

I'll never get these people who pay tens of thousands for a Rolex. I mean Porsche 911, sure, I get it, mobility and driving fun. Hasselblad camera, sure, high quality images. But a mere MECHANICAL WATCH ?!? What the heck ?

You actually hit the reason solidly on the head and missed that fact. You don't buy a $10k Rolex to tell the time any more than you will buy a Porsche 911 because you need a car; you buy a $10k Rolex to be seen wearing it. It's a status symbol; a way to say 'I am rich enough to blow a month's rent on a wristwatch'.

That said, people collect the strangest things. Frankly, a collection of mechanical clocks where the design, aesthetic or functionality fascinate you is quite a mainstream thing for Brun to do, really. I actually found the (probably unintentional) conceit of her telling Renee that her (likely $10) bedside alarm clock is 'nothing special' to be quite funny!

[Gyrre]

Ah, 4 o'clock in the morning.  Or, as we irresponsible people refer to it, "Stumble Home Drunk O'clock".

Or "I can't have been playing minecraft that long".

[Gyrre]

I've managed 5am for years, but yeah, you do have to be in bed ridiculously early (for a young'un). Sucks if you live with other people. Finishing work at lunchtime is the reward, though. You may wake in darkness, but you always get to see daylight, even in winter.

4am can fuck right off, though. That's the devil's dancing hour.

I generally go to bed between 4 and 7 am.