Let's remember two things,
vis the Marigold-Faye axis.
- Marigold had the whole 'unrequited crush' thing on Angus; she may have never forgiven Faye for taking him away from her;
- Angus has been Marigold's friend since college; irrespective of what Angus may or may not have told her about the break-up, Marigold may have come to her own conclusions and be less-than-charitably inclined to Faye at the moment.
On top of that, yes, she'd be more interested in the affect this would have on Dale anyway.
Good. No timeskip. I'm firmly in that camp, because I think that there's plenty of story to be told. I'm not sure we need to *see* the support group, but maybe we get to. But I'm very interested in Faye trying to keep herself busy outside of that, and also see development.
My view is, with the support group now likely to be a thing, a time-skip isn't likely until after the first meeting of the group that Faye attends and possible fall out of that. What fall-out? Well, if speculated in earlier threads, someone Faye knows is in the group or is its moderator, we might have a post-meeting one-on-one between them and Faye.
Another possible pre-skip plot is for Faye to trip over her feet and land in a new job (which does seem to be a common occurrance in QC). Something like this:
STRIP 1PANEL 1 (half): FAYE walking along the road
PANEL 2 (half): FAYE, half off the panel leaning back and looking at something with wide eyes
PANEL 3 (full): A sign for 'Carlisle & Son Custom and Coachworks' (a body-shop/garage). Below that is posted 'WANTED - Body Worker - Apply Within'.
FAYE (off-panel): "Fuck it! Why not?
PANEL 4 (full): FAYE is talking to a well-built middle-aged guy holding a spanner
SPANNER: "I dunno... Are you sure you can handle metalworking tools?"
FAYE: "Can I? I can show you my portfolio if you like!"
SPANNER: "Portfolio?!?"
PANEL 5 (full): SPANNER is looking over his shoulder at a younger man (who is covered in oil stains), who is looking at FAYE oddly
SPANNER: "Y'know... Let's do this quick. Pete! Check this pretty southern belle out. If she can handle the gear, let me know 'cause she's the new body guy... uh... gal!"
PETE: "Well... okay, I guess, dad!"
STRIP 2PANELS 1-4 (quarter-width): Montage of FAYE, stripped to the waist and wearing overalls is doing various metal working things
PANEL 5 (full): FAYE, SPANNER and PETE are looking at the side of a mini-van that has elegant sea swirls shaped into the side and door panels
SPANNER: "Well that's... elaborate! You're born for customisation work!"
FAYE: "Metals have always been how I did my art!"
PETE: "Sometimes we aren't doing art, just fixing cars!"
PANEL 6 (half-height): FAYE is looking at PETE in a condescending way
FAYE: "I
can do 'vanilla' too!"
SPANNER: "You'll have the chance. Hours are nine-to-six, three days to start at 35k per year. You in?"
PANEL 7 (half-height): FAYE is looking excited, PETE sceptical and SPANNER is grinning
FAYE: "I'm in!"
SPANNER: "Good! Give your details to my wife in the office for the payroll and we'll see you Monday!"
PETE: "Oh boy..."
Carlisle's turns out to be a family business - father and son in the body shop whilst mother and daughter run the gas pumps, attached store and car-wash. There is an older brother, but he's in the USAF and doesn't come home much (possible x-over with the Ellicott-Chatham space station if he turns out to be in Space Command). Pete slowly thaws out to Faye but it is somewhat like Faye's relationship with Raven with roles reversed (Pete as the straight-man feeding Faye lines for snappy replies). Their relationship would, in part, let Jeph explore gender-typing in jobs. Pete finds that Faye being as good as him with metals and engineering (better in some ways) is something of a culture shock.
There would be some follow-on episodes: Faye is bouncy all day and Dora has a dark afternoon because she decides she's been holding her back; Pete is a pure-blood 'build practical things' engineering personality and doesn't initially like Faye's commitment to aesthetics; Hannelore has a panic attack at the thought of Faye working with greasy machinery and around hydrocarbon fluids all day. Eventually, Faye would convince Spanner to let her use a bit of the garage for one of her articulated sculptures and that is what really pulls in Pete (who is a gadgeteer but doesn't have the time to follow up his ideas on his own).
Er... You can tell that I've been thinking about this scenario for a while, can't you?
Maybe I
should write this up as a fanfic?