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Poll

Who would write the BEST cover letter?

Marten (Naturally)
- 13 (18.3%)
Hey New Friend/Spookybot
- 15 (21.1%)
Faye
- 0 (0%)
Dora
- 10 (14.1%)
Pintsize
- 7 (9.9%)
Bubbles
- 16 (22.5%)
Sven
- 10 (14.1%)

Total Members Voted: 35

Voting closed: 05 Oct 2020, 18:44


Pages: 1 [2] 3   Go Down

Author Topic: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)  (Read 19306 times)

St.Clair

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #50 on: 29 Sep 2020, 22:36 »

no, Marten himself will never go for anything (probably).  One day, after encouraging many others to go for it, he'll just kind of fall over, and people will eventually realize he's not getting back up.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #51 on: 29 Sep 2020, 23:36 »

Eh, I just kept my cover letters to the bare minimum and let my resume do the talking. All that they really want to know (unless they ask specifically for it) was "This is about your vacancy, yes I can do the job and I want to do so"!
There a couple of things to consider here. Firstly, Claire is still looking for a job and its' beginning to drag her down (I can empathise with that). However, also, Marten is an expert in raising her spirits. As much as Claire is trying to keep up her "This is serious business" policy, he's doing a good job at making her laugh! I do wonder if Marten is describing his own skill-set though...

Finally, I want to say again that I want Claire to get a job as the new assistant librarian for Miskatonic University. It's local and it basically writes the continuing arc for Claire just by existing. Cthulhu doesn't even need to turn up, just all the wonderfully weird people who would study or be on the faculty there would be enough!

Remember, we're on QC time here.  She received her grades maybe a week to ten days ago.

Wait, so you're saying there's a legit chance we might meet one of the other fruit sisters as either a professor or student there?

I like the idea of meeting Durian as a nutty/absent-mabsent-minded professor type or Pineapple as a linguistics student/professor. Though perhaps she'll go by 'Ananás'?

[Yes, that's the joke behind her being a linguist.]

EDIT: fixed quote attributions
« Last Edit: 30 Sep 2020, 09:33 by Gyrre »
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BenRG

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #52 on: 29 Sep 2020, 23:51 »

It's actually kind of an ironic and very revealing character moment for Marten, isn't it? Normally, he's this very high-inertia and 'keep the status-quo' sort of guy. He doesn't like change and he doesn't like taking risks until he absolutely has to. However, if he's learned anything in his life, as a rule, when he 'goes for it', it's always ultimately turned out well for him!

Wait a minute... Why is Claire blabbing that around? Given the fact that Clinton is still wrapping his mind around his attraction to Elliott, surely he'd want to keep it private for a while?

You're right about that. However, this is Claire we're talking about here and it is entirely in character for her to gossip about it and make assumptions about relationship status based on her own mental shipper fanfic. Jeph has had this blow up in her face a few times but not badly enough, or so it seems, to entirely cure her affliction.

This is the point, of course, where Claire goes full ahead to make it happen, just in time for Brun to ask Clinton out on a date (either 'for comparison to Millie' or because she wants support at the coffee shop whilst she makes sure Dan doesn't do anything to make Renee unhappy) and for Roko to have a breakdown in the street and Elliot has to help her get home (bridal carry, anyone). Claire is knocked flat that she seems to have got things that wrong; maybe she's even angry about it and causes a scene?

You know me, I like Claire but she does need to have reality to smack her in the face to remind her that real relationships are more complex than romantic fiction.
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shanejayell

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #53 on: 30 Sep 2020, 06:59 »

Clinton is lucky Claire is not following him to cheer him on the next time he sees Elliot.  :-D

Gnabberwocky

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #54 on: 30 Sep 2020, 08:25 »

You know me, I like Claire but she does need to have reality to smack her in the face to remind her that real relationships are more complex than romantic fiction.
That's already happened, and she actually seems to be showing more restraint this time, but by this point she should have learned to stay fully out of Clinton's relationships until they're solid, unbreakable canon.
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hedgie

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #55 on: 30 Sep 2020, 09:58 »

I do think that in some regards, her squeeing is a surrogate for the audience.
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Thrudd

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #56 on: 30 Sep 2020, 10:30 »

The thing with commercial recruiters and for the most part those HR departments in larger corporations that actually do it themselves, everything goes through electronically and filtered by key words. The filters may have gotten a bit more sophisticated but most part are still just dumb@$$ keyword searches that are easily foiled by anyone with a lick of savvy and knowledge of micro-print and hidden text. With either you can easily enter ALL the key words into both documents yet remain normal to the human eye. The caveat is that you WILL have to customize the cover letter with the keywords from the job placement notice to make it past the intern doing a manual sort before it even makes it to the HR person actually responsible for the interview process. At least now we don't waste as much resources on high end paper and postage.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #57 on: 30 Sep 2020, 19:20 »

Here's the comic.

I kinda sympathize with Faye here? Like, I don't know if panromantic heterosexual falls under the "queer" blanket, or if that's really me at all, or what. I've put more than a little thought into it, but when push comes to shove, it isn't thought that matters.
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badbum61

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #58 on: 30 Sep 2020, 19:55 »

I suspect Faye's "identity" hinges on the question (which may have been discussed elsewhere, I dunno) of whether AIs are intrinsically gendered.   
We see the more humanoid bodies shaped along human gender lines, but is their inhabitant's presentation simply an aspect of their programming?   
And is Faye queer by virtue of being attracted to a female persona rather than male, or to an AI rather than a human?
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sitnspin

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #59 on: 30 Sep 2020, 20:30 »

Personally, I consider any attraction (romantic, sexual, whatever) outside of cishet to fall under the queer umbrella, but ultimately it is up to each individual how they define themselves.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #60 on: 30 Sep 2020, 20:30 »

Technically, they are, but they don't really think about that aspect of their relationship. And that's what's so beautiful: it's foremost person to person, not type-of-person to type-of-person or person to type-of-person.
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Dandi Andi

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #61 on: 30 Sep 2020, 21:33 »

I deeply sympathize with Faye. I'm AMAB nonbinary transfemme asexual panromantic. I definitely qualify as queer, but I don't feel like it. I haven't been in a relationship in years and, being ace, I haven't been sexually involved with anyone for even longer. I feel like a pretender in queer spaces.  Even my label alphabet soup there is all technically accurate but feels false; like I've adopted labels that don't require me to do anything to validate them. I'm panromantic, but I don't really date much, so am I really pan? That sort of thing. It can be a really shitty feeling.
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BenRG

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #62 on: 30 Sep 2020, 23:47 »

Amy Anderson, you say, Faye? Well, at 14 years old, Amy was running around the city every night fighting for her life against life-force-sucking Youma. So, yeah, that's the sort of thing that encourages the development of musculature!

My advice to Faye and Bubbles is this: Resist labels that only exist so that other people can stick you in neat categorisation pigeon-holes for their own psychological convenience. The point is that you are Faye and Bubbles and that is the only thing that really matters in this context.
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Zebediah

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #63 on: 01 Oct 2020, 06:45 »

Personally I don’t consider any person or orientation or consensual relationship to be “queer”. Yeah, I know society looks at it differently. Sure, I’m straight and cis and monogamous, and people call that “normal” and other things “not normal”, but is that really the case? Evidence suggests otherwise.

So you do you. Or have somebody else do you. It’s all good.
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MrNumbers

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #64 on: 01 Oct 2020, 18:16 »

May: "I'd hate to see how bad some of these t-shirts are"
Marigold: "Rude"
May: "It's fine do your worst"
Marigold: "You would not believe-"

Marigold pick a lane
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Zebediah

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #65 on: 01 Oct 2020, 18:16 »

Comic’s up.

I don’t think we’ve seen Marigold’s evil laugh before.
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Farideh

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #66 on: 01 Oct 2020, 18:19 »

At least now May will be able to enjoy clothes shopping. I wonder if the new chassis comes with some clothing store vouchers? This would likely be a common occurrence, where an AI ends up in a body that is a drastically different size from before. Happened to Momo and Winslow as well. Roko seemed to end up in one that was roughly the same size as her old one.
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beeawwb

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #67 on: 01 Oct 2020, 18:24 »

Whatever Marigold's "worst" is I, for one, hope to see it end up in the merch store.
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zisraelsen

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #68 on: 01 Oct 2020, 18:26 »

Jeph's text at the bottom is "Angry Birds Ahegao" and... can someone tell me that doesnt exist, please? I dont care if it's true.
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MrNumbers

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #69 on: 01 Oct 2020, 18:27 »

(click to show/hide)

I cannot tell a lie
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #70 on: 01 Oct 2020, 19:15 »

Marigold will get a plain shirt, paint "I HATE FIGHTER JETS" on it, and give it to May.

Nah, too obvious.
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shanejayell

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #71 on: 01 Oct 2020, 19:29 »

I should NOT have clicked the spoiler.

 :-o

Farideh

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #72 on: 01 Oct 2020, 19:47 »

Ditto.

TIL what 'ahegao' means  :o
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Reaver

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #73 on: 01 Oct 2020, 19:58 »

"I'm not being mean"

Yeah, yeah you are May, maybe actually for once be decent to people that are more than willing to help you :I
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #74 on: 01 Oct 2020, 20:34 »

Excellent.  Marigold!  Still my favorite!
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #75 on: 01 Oct 2020, 20:56 »

I don’t think we’ve seen Marigold’s evil laugh before.
It seems to be similar to Brun's (which I can't now locate), as far as it's possible to tell.
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Gyrre

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #76 on: 01 Oct 2020, 21:30 »

Jeph's text at the bottom is "Angry Birds Ahegao" and... can someone tell me that doesnt exist, please? I dont care if it's true.
It doesn't exist.
[And I've no intention of finding out if the subscript that almost killed me is true or not.]
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #77 on: 01 Oct 2020, 21:59 »

May could win this challenge because her chassis looks good and she’s shameless.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #78 on: 01 Oct 2020, 22:38 »

Well now I'm curious as to what Mari has that would horrify May.
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BenRG

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #79 on: 01 Oct 2020, 23:21 »

Something that May clearly hasn't learned yet is not to walk head-first into situations like this. Worse still, not to do so after giving the prankster every motive to be extra mean! I'm thinking the Disney fairies or My Little Pony but even that may be too predictable. I've got the feeling that Momo's must have some shirts from some really obscure animé that will make May appear a peer to all the stranger people with whom she doesn't want to have a conversation!

Yes, May was being mean but not really intentionally so. She's just got this abrasive way of expressing herself that always comes across as being personally abusive. What she was saying was: "Marigold, you and I both know that you've got some weird t-shirts. So, I am genuinely curious which ones are so weird that even you would give them away!" The problem is that she either she doesn't know how or simply doesn't care to put it in a nicer way!
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #80 on: 02 Oct 2020, 00:03 »

Hehehehehe. Eeeeheee!

I love Mar's "You have no idea what you've just done to yourself" smirk. Given how crude and brutally direct May usually is, I have no doubt Marbear has no reservations whatsoever to deliver her worst here. But ar the same time this can be a bonding moment IMHO.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #81 on: 02 Oct 2020, 03:16 »

Something that May clearly hasn't learned yet is not to walk head-first into situations like this. Worse still, not to do so after giving the prankster every motive to be extra mean! I'm thinking the Disney fairies or My Little Pony but even that may be too predictable. I've got the feeling that Momo's must have some shirts from some really obscure animé that will make May appear a peer to all the stranger people with whom she doesn't want to have a conversation!

Yes, May was being mean but not really intentionally so. She's just got this abrasive way of expressing herself that always comes across as being personally abusive. What she was saying was: "Marigold, you and I both know that you've got some weird t-shirts. So, I am genuinely curious which ones are so weird that even you would give them away!" The problem is that she either she doesn't know how or simply doesn't care to put it in a nicer way!


Hot take: If you come off as abusive, you might be being abusive, no mattet what your intentions are.

Like holy justifying Mae’s behavior batman.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #82 on: 02 Oct 2020, 04:09 »

I liked seeing Marigold calmly stand up for herself in panel 2 here. It feels like a sign of growth for her that she doesn't take May's abrasive manner personally but she also doesn't let May continue to be insulting either. (Early Marigold would not have done that, I think). Marigold was trying to practice communicating better with Dale some time ago - it's nice to see that it seems like her efforts are paying off.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #83 on: 02 Oct 2020, 05:06 »

"He he he he he ..."
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #84 on: 02 Oct 2020, 08:57 »

At least now May will be able to enjoy clothes shopping. I wonder if the new chassis comes with some clothing store vouchers? This would likely be a common occurrence, where an AI ends up in a body that is a drastically different size from before. Happened to Momo and Winslow as well. Roko seemed to end up in one that was roughly the same size as her old one.

Ohhh that would be super clever, especially if the vouchers became a way to introduce the embodied AI to AI friendly stores, or stores owned by embodied AI.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #85 on: 02 Oct 2020, 08:59 »

Something that May clearly hasn't learned yet is not to walk head-first into situations like this. Worse still, not to do so after giving the prankster every motive to be extra mean! I'm thinking the Disney fairies or My Little Pony but even that may be too predictable. I've got the feeling that Momo's must have some shirts from some really obscure animé that will make May appear a peer to all the stranger people with whom she doesn't want to have a conversation!

Yes, May was being mean but not really intentionally so. She's just got this abrasive way of expressing herself that always comes across as being personally abusive. What she was saying was: "Marigold, you and I both know that you've got some weird t-shirts. So, I am genuinely curious which ones are so weird that even you would give them away!" The problem is that she either she doesn't know how or simply doesn't care to put it in a nicer way!

Disney Fairies are tbqh amazing. May would be LUCKY to befriend folks in our fandom!
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #86 on: 02 Oct 2020, 09:08 »

When May had a crappy chassis, at least she seemed to have a reason to be shitty and you kind of felt for her. Now, she's just being straight up awful. Hot May sucks.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #87 on: 02 Oct 2020, 10:21 »

She probably hasn’t even been in that chassis for 24 hours of coming time. We’ll have to see if it changes her once the “high” has worn off.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #88 on: 02 Oct 2020, 12:00 »

She probably hasn’t even been in that chassis for 24 hours of coming time. We’ll have to see if it changes her once the “high” has worn off.

mmmmneehhhhh, I don't buy it. Her immediate default response to something good happening is to be a bitch, to literally everyone around her who just spent LOTS OF MONEY to buy her that chassis. That sucks anyway you look at it.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #89 on: 02 Oct 2020, 14:16 »

Global Moderator Comment Lively debate about May's actions is all well and good, but please don't go throwing misogynist slurs on this forum.

I am always a bit aghast at how vociferously a subsection of folks in the WCDTs condemn almost everything May does. I have loathed her as a character for almost her entire existence, but she's also demonstrably a traumatised victim of the penal system.

I'm not saying May is or is not a nice person (mostly because I don't believe in that concept) but simply that... do you guys know anyone who has been traumatised? Who has been homeless? Who has been an addict? Who has been imprisoned? Who has been accused of being a sex offender, correctly or otherwise? Do you know what damage looks like?

I don't mean to imply that nobody could be so cruel about May, a fictional character, if they had met someone like her - if you have known people who have been through situations like the above and stand by this level of character judgement, then coolio, you do you, but we are different people.

Even removing the 'sentient being who has been through stuff' aspect of this, she has literally changed bodies. Changed her entire body. She is the same consciousness, but she is taller and a different shape and can do different things. I'm aware that as a sci-fi concept this is tremendously mundane, but take a second to consider what it might feel like if you reached to get something on a shelf and found that you had accidentally punched through the wall into your garden because your arms are six inches longer and five times stronger? That must be a headfuck and a half in a handbasket.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #90 on: 02 Oct 2020, 14:40 »

Global Moderator Comment We've heard from people with long records of not sweating the small stuff that seeing gendered insults make them feel less welcome.

May gave Dale her word that she would be nice to Marigold. I think less of her.
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Oenone

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #91 on: 02 Oct 2020, 15:34 »

What if this IS May being nice???  :psyduck:
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Tova

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #92 on: 02 Oct 2020, 18:12 »

This is May being nice. In fact, I think that they have become comfortable enough with each other that this is a bit of banter being exchanged.

I'm not sure if anyone's noticed, but May has again been offered charity, and it is a sign of her progress since being gifted a new body that she is still able to accept it, albeit with a crack about how much of a nerd Marigold is.

What's more, I don't think that panel two represents someone who has been hurt or upset by what's been said.

She is having fun with this.
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Yet the lies of Melkor, the mighty and the accursed, Morgoth Bauglir, the Power of Terror and of Hate, sowed in the hearts of Elves and Men are a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even unto the latest days. (Silmarillion 255)

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #93 on: 02 Oct 2020, 19:40 »

Lively debate about May's actions is all well and good, but please don't go throwing misogynist slurs on this forum.

I am always a bit aghast at how vociferously a subsection of folks in the WCDTs condemn almost everything May does. I have loathed her as a character for almost her entire existence, but she's also demonstrably a traumatised victim of the penal system.

I'm not saying May is or is not a nice person (mostly because I don't believe in that concept) but simply that... do you guys know anyone who has been traumatised? Who has been homeless? Who has been an addict? Who has been imprisoned? Who has been accused of being a sex offender, correctly or otherwise? Do you know what damage looks like?

I don't mean to imply that nobody could be so cruel about May, a fictional character, if they had met someone like her - if you have known people who have been through situations like the above and stand by this level of character judgement, then coolio, you do you, but we are different people.

Even removing the 'sentient being who has been through stuff' aspect of this, she has literally changed bodies. Changed her entire body. She is the same consciousness, but she is taller and a different shape and can do different things. I'm aware that as a sci-fi concept this is tremendously mundane, but take a second to consider what it might feel like if you reached to get something on a shelf and found that you had accidentally punched through the wall into your garden because your arms are six inches longer and five times stronger? That must be a headfuck and a half in a handbasket.

Yes I've met people like that, though they typically don't react to people who helped them with "Move shorty cakes" and "Can't wait to see your trash reject bin clothing"

IMO your experiences in life..do not justify you being a massive ahole to people that try to help you, if your frequent response to a kind offer to help is to sneer at someone and say you can't wait to see what reject clothing they've offered you, maybe you should re evaluate how you treat people that are kind to you.

I'm in an area strongly affected by the fires, people have lost their homes, pets, and even family members, and when I've helped them, none of them have back handed my kindness into my face nearly as much as May is being doing to people who genuinely care about her.

And  TBH... Marigold said she was being mean, so she was being mean  and hurt Marigold's feelings, especially after promising to be nicer to her :/
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #94 on: 02 Oct 2020, 19:43 »

This is May being nice. In fact, I think that they have become comfortable enough with each other that this is a bit of banter being exchanged.

I'm not sure if anyone's noticed, but May has again been offered charity, and it is a sign of her progress since being gifted a new body that she is still able to accept it, albeit with a crack about how much of a nerd Marigold is.

What's more, I don't think that panel two represents someone who has been hurt or upset by what's been said.

She is having fun with this.

...You don't think "If you are going to be mean to me, I am not going to give you anything"  is Marigold being upset and represented as upset, despite the words literally coming out of her mouth are "If you're going to be mean"????? Just because May's response is "No I'm not, I'm just so hot I can rock any shitty clothing you have"

Like her default assumption after getting a nice new body is to assume that Marigold is going to give her crappy shit that she won't like or want?????

May just needs to work on not being so harsh and mean to people she's promised to be nicer to.
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Dandi Andi

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #95 on: 02 Oct 2020, 21:28 »

Today's comic was absolutely fantastic. There's a lot of really subtle character growth for May and Marigold both here. I love it.

Thrillo makes the excellent point that May has been through some heavy trauma. She has clearly developed some very unhealthy behaviors to deal with that. She's got a whole lot of baggage and that shit takes time to put down, no matter how nice people are to you. There is no magical switch for May to flip to go from being abrasive and rude to being kind and considerate. You don't just decide "I'm going to be nice from now on" and then suddenly you are. Behavior doesn't work that way. It takes time and practice. We have seen moments with May where that time and practice has paid off. This, believe it or not, is one of those times.

May's relationship with Dale is a complex and difficult one. What Dale is offering May is effectively a holding space. May has a lot of trauma to work through and it is going to take time. Her behavior isn't going to change quickly and Dale recognizes that. He's OK with that. He's not OK with being abused, but he understands that he's going to have to regularly assert his boundaries and that May is going to cross them sometimes. As long as May is willing to respect his boundaries and correct herself when she crosses them, he's willing to forgive her and give her the space she needs to practice being a more respectful person. That's how their relationship began. Dale established boundaries and refused to let May disrespect them. When she agreed to respect those boundaries, he turned the glasses back on and let her have space. It's a delicate balancing act of offering both forgiveness and accountability. It's space for someone to make mistakes, but they have to own them and fix them.

This kind of relationship is hard. It takes a lot of emotional work from everyone involved. Not everyone is prepared to offer that space to people and nobody is obligated to. Dale is in a place emotionally where he can. He's very comfortable establishing and defending his boundaries. But that's a skill that Marigold did not have when May first entered their lives. That's why Dale was so adamant that May be kind to her. Marigold wasn't in a place emotionally to hold space for a recovering bully. Dale was willing to take on that emotional work himself, but wasn't going to impose it on Marigold. But we can see Marigold demonstrating an ability to assert her boundaries with May here in panel 2. May made a mean spirited joke and Marigold confidently shut that shit down. May doubles back in panel 3 asserting that she wasn't being malicious and makes the joke again from another angle without the disparagement. I think it's pretty clear in the change in Marigold's demeanor that this time the joke was accepted as intended. He reaction went from "Don't insult my interests" to "Why yes, I DO have some really tacky nerd shit to subject you to" in the span of a panel. That's because May's joke changed from "Your tacky nerd shit is worthy of derision" to "I can pull off whatever look to throw my way". Now, leading panel 3 with a simple "sorry" would have vastly changed the tone of this strip, but May is still a work in progress.

It's perfectly fine to dislike May. I sure do. It's also OK to be critical of her behavior. I think everybody is. Dale and Marigold definitely are. But this is also an opportunity to recognize May's growth and to practice empathy. Fiction is wonderful for that. With zero stakes, it's an opportunity to see vastly different people and, if not relate, at least understand. I think we can all give May the same space the cast has done and be critical of her behavior while showing her empathy and giving her room to grow.
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Tova

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #96 on: 02 Oct 2020, 21:46 »

...You don't think "If you are going to be mean to me, I am not going to give you anything"  is Marigold being upset and represented as upset, despite the words literally coming out of her mouth are "If you're going to be mean"?????

Correct. Because inherent to the word "banter" is the idea that the words coming out of your mouth are not to be taken literally.

It's entirely possible that it was not banter. I'm just offering up another interpretation.

At least two people have commented on the tonal shift from panel two to panel three. However, if you look at the whole comic through the lens of friendly poking/banter, then the shift between those panels is a lot less incongruous.

Edit: I also recognise that the line between banter and bullying is very fine. Both sides have to be positively engaged with it to qualify as banter. There used to be a lot of "banter" at Coffee of Doom, but those incidents have been reintepreted as bullying more recently. That probably reflects on Jeph's evolving attitude towards that kind of joking around (and society's more broadly).
« Last Edit: 02 Oct 2020, 21:55 by Tova »
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Yet the lies of Melkor, the mighty and the accursed, Morgoth Bauglir, the Power of Terror and of Hate, sowed in the hearts of Elves and Men are a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even unto the latest days. (Silmarillion 255)

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #97 on: 02 Oct 2020, 22:02 »

That's because May's joke changed from "Your tacky nerd shit is worthy of derision" to "I can pull off whatever look to throw my way". Now, leading panel 3 with a simple "sorry" would have vastly changed the tone of this strip, but May is still a work in progress.

Sorry to double post, but I wanted to add that this is a good point. In the early days of that kind of joking around, it's advisable to make sure that both people are comfy with it. And a simple "sorry" followed by carefully watching Marigold's reaction would have told May a lot.

I dunno if May's social skills are quite up to that yet, though.
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Yet the lies of Melkor, the mighty and the accursed, Morgoth Bauglir, the Power of Terror and of Hate, sowed in the hearts of Elves and Men are a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even unto the latest days. (Silmarillion 255)

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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #98 on: 02 Oct 2020, 23:35 »

Now, leading panel 3 with a simple "sorry" would have vastly changed the tone of this strip, but May is still a work in progress.
Just the word "sorry" can turn any conversation around. I know far too many people who say something rude, get called on it, and instead of apologizing, cling desperately to the opinion that what they did was okay rather than admit any wrongdoing.

You could argue that what May did in that third panel was worse than saying nothing. She said something rude, Marigold called her on it, but instead of apologizing, she essentially twisted the conversation to make it seem like Marigold got riled up over nothing. It would have been an equally acceptable response for Marigold to tell her that yes, actually what she said was mean, and she needs to realize that.
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Re: WCDT strips 4361-4365 (Sep 28th to Oct 2nd 2020)
« Reply #99 on: 03 Oct 2020, 00:40 »

She probably hasn’t even been in that chassis for 24 hours of coming time. We’ll have to see if it changes her once the “high” has worn off.
I'm guessing whatever Marigold produces, it'll knock May for a loo-loo and kick her out of jerk-mode.
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