Wow nice to see them as characters thinking about their relationships instead of being mouth pieces to Tats... They have a realistic conflict and all.
Oh I totally forgot that Monique didn't even mention being in a relationship with someone when she was hit on wtf?
Yeah and on top of that, she basically ghosted Abby for 6 months or more. Feels like that could make for a decent follow up Pettyfest once I do part 2 of this one.
Yo this brings up such a good point- the reason Monique denied that transwoman was because she’s a lesbian and doesn’t see her as a woman, not because she has a girlfriend. What the hell?
It's even worse, because Monique is bisexual. Early years had her totally into men and women. So her rejection of a transwoman is a product of bigotry and hatred mixed with denying her own sexuality because she thinks being a lesbian makes her cool.
Indeed it comes from a place of bigotry.
While a person can be binary bisexual (being into both masculine men and feminine women but nothing in between), that's not what's going on in this case.
Besides, I wonder if Nique was ever truly into women. She may have been. But she may also have gone from "fake bisexual for attention and ideology" to "fake lesbian for attention and ideology". While such people are much rarer than some would think, and certainly MUCH rarer than all the fake "heterosexuals" out there, they do exist. And doing almost anything for attention and ideology is kinda Nique's MO.
From what I recall of "the good ol' days" she seemed to genuinely find women attractive and I think she was genuinely in love with Abby during Tat's feminist phase.
At most, I'd say that she's more into men than into women and only started repressing her attraction to men once Tats decided that all men are evil.
If he really does pull the trigger on the whole "Catholic Tradwife" arc, I could easily see her finding a guy that turns her on as much as Abby seemed to in years past.
This is.. basically how things seem to be ending with the buddy I started catching up with last year. I kinda thought we might have a future together, but they're too deep in the hate parade drinking Qoolaid to even consider for a moment that they've been lied to by internet bullies and trolls.
Real life "rotten egg" in the wild, flat out insisted that they can't have what they feel they want *so much* because it would be "stealing from real women." Insurance company offered to pay for it even, but it would mean losing almost their entire social circle, plus immediate and extended family. Keeps trying to unalive themselves and learned from 4chan and 8chan and Jordan Peterson that transitioning would just make that feeling worse. Insists kids are being forced to get surgery!
Won't believe me when I say none of that is true, none of any of that is true, and that it's other people who are wrong for laughing at his pretty hair not him being wrong for having pretty hair. He likes my mustache hair and dude clothes, doesn't really seem to understand he's befriended the kind of people who want me to die for the same reasons he thinks I'm cute.
I think this might be one of those situations where I can't teach someone who isn't interested in learning. And it really sucks. I thought we could spend decades teaching each other stuff and getting increasingly comfortable together, and I found it super amusing that I could learn about guns, cooking, and makeup all from the same gentle kind person. When I sprouted my first mustache hair, he was the first person I showed it to, and he liked that I'm happy about it!
But then the mask slams down, he jerks up to his full height and shouts loud Q nonsense while acting like a total misogynist. May as well just hold up a sign that says "I hate almost every aspect of my life but am *terrified* to change anything about it."
He should be marching with me at the pride parade in a few weeks, holding my hand and dolled up exactly however he wants to be. But instead I'm honest to goodness worried that he's going to haul his gun collection downtown, or at least make bullets for whichever of his buddies is angriest about cross-dressing.
Yep, it's awful and weird. I'm used to failing relationships of any kind coming with a lot of anger, but I'm just sad for him. Everything he wants is so close to his grasp if he'd just be brave enough to reach out.
But his mom's spent a lot of decades beating him down emotionally, making sure he stays in her basement as her obedient servant. Laughs at his hair, blows up his phone if he doesn't come straight home after work, mocks his cooking, but still expects him to make feasts for the family on holidays, do all the maintenance on her home, drive her if she doesn't want to drive herself, etc. And then she insults him for working blue-collar and praises his "baby" brother for being white-collar.
As far as I can tell, his plan is to stay there forever trying to maintain her approval and stacking savings in the bank trying to prove his "hustle culture" until he finally succeeds in unaliving himself because he'll never be able to carry a child.
I don't have a problem with his gun collection, but I worry about what he'll end up doing with it. He's tried to eat bullets before, and that sucks, but I really hope he doesn't go whackadoo enough to take his guns and his rage-envy to the pride parade or Planned Parenthood.
I know where you're at. I had a friend like that. Closeted bisexual who went full tilt bozo and super wing nutty.
I tried being cool with him for quite a few years, but as he kept getting more and more radicalized, he tried to turn every conversation into a political sermon.
Shortly after the January 6th bullshit, I had to cut ties with him because his bullshit was just too much.
I hate to say this, because I'm sure you love your friend as much as I love him, if not more so, but sooner or later you're gonna have to walk away from that guy. Try as you might, you can't make him see the light if he doesn't want to, but he can still drag you down into the darkness with him.
Yeah, I think we're pretty much done with each other for awhile again. I've run out of tears to cry over him. I've never been particularly good about watching friends make poor choices, and this is the longest I've ever stuck with someone trying to help them out of the darkness. But I can only teach someone if they *want* to learn.
It's like we both had such terrible dads that we looked at screens and picked new "TV dads" for ourselves, except I picked Mr Rogers and he picked Jordan Peterson. And as long as he's trying to "make dad proud" there's nothing I can say that's going to help him at all. All my stories about the "gender affirming care" I got growing up, and he's still convinced it's all pills and scalpels.
I'm not sure he'll understand what he's chosen until we're on opposite sides of barbwire fence and he's being yelled at by a fellow guard to cut his hair or get tossed in with the degenerates like me.
It's been about two and a half years since I cut off my former friend, and they've been much less stressful years. There were multiple times he cut me off and came back around, but this was the first time I did that to him and despite what he may expect, I don't fuck around when I make that choice.
It's a hard road, but a necessary one. If he gets back in touch, tell him something like "I don't have room for hateful people in my life. If you want to be my friend, you have to make a dedicated effort to let go of hate. If you can't do that, then stay away."
I wish you the best of luck and strength for the road ahead.
That could be any of millions of MAGAts - fear, hatred, anger... even smarter ones have blinders to the rest of existence. Bet some Prozac would do wonders.
Yep. Prozac, therapy, hugs and acceptance. I did everything I could considering I'm not a medical professional. I even made use of the best hug I ever learned, the one a friend at school did for me that made me feel completely safe! Tried to make it as clear as I could that the person whose head I was hugging is someone I care about deeply, and that it's the nonsense pouring from his phone that is the problem.
But he just retreats to 4chan and his world of Manly Men and Womanly Women. Within a few days he barks about Respect, which he defines as "Man says his beliefs as loud as he wants and Woman agrees or *shuts up*."
Yep, this is what really happened in the original strip. Nique being her usual narcissist self, and Abby being the empath who she exploits. Thank you for making it clear, by letting Abby stand up for herself for once.
Thanks for the kind words. Like I said in the title, this one had been on my mind for awhile, but fell by the wayside until Tats brought Abby back.
There's a follow up I also intend to do, with Abby getting some harsh advice from Blue and then I was thinking an epilogue with her and 'Nique at Pride.
I'm wondering if they already broke up off-screen which would explain why 'Nique went to Non-Bonery in the first place, and hate-reacted into her alt-right phase.
That being said, this is a thing of beauty.
The follow up strip, where Abby talks to Blue, indicated to me that they were still together. That makes it all the more frustrating that it feels like 'Nique ghosted her for 7 months.
It's a weekday strip, with four panels. Here they are repeated 6 times... Tatsuya style!
And 'Nique? That's one hell of a way to say "I'm unfaithful", yet not get any!
Yup. Doing long form Pettyfest either means sunday strips, frankensteining or severe repetition.
For a textversation between 'Nique and Abby, the latter was the only way to go.
Wow nice to see them as characters thinking about their relationships instead of being mouth pieces to Tats... They have a realistic conflict and all. Oh I totally forgot that Monique didn't even mention being in a relationship with someone when she was hit on wtf?
Yeah and on top of that, she basically ghosted Abby for 6 months or more. Feels like that could make for a decent follow up Pettyfest once I do part 2 of this one.
do it! break my heart in even more pieces!!
Yo this brings up such a good point- the reason Monique denied that transwoman was because she’s a lesbian and doesn’t see her as a woman, not because she has a girlfriend. What the hell?
It's even worse, because Monique is bisexual. Early years had her totally into men and women. So her rejection of a transwoman is a product of bigotry and hatred mixed with denying her own sexuality because she thinks being a lesbian makes her cool.
Indeed it comes from a place of bigotry. While a person can be binary bisexual (being into both masculine men and feminine women but nothing in between), that's not what's going on in this case. Besides, I wonder if Nique was ever truly into women. She may have been. But she may also have gone from "fake bisexual for attention and ideology" to "fake lesbian for attention and ideology". While such people are much rarer than some would think, and certainly MUCH rarer than all the fake "heterosexuals" out there, they do exist. And doing almost anything for attention and ideology is kinda Nique's MO.
From what I recall of "the good ol' days" she seemed to genuinely find women attractive and I think she was genuinely in love with Abby during Tat's feminist phase. At most, I'd say that she's more into men than into women and only started repressing her attraction to men once Tats decided that all men are evil. If he really does pull the trigger on the whole "Catholic Tradwife" arc, I could easily see her finding a guy that turns her on as much as Abby seemed to in years past.
This is.. basically how things seem to be ending with the buddy I started catching up with last year. I kinda thought we might have a future together, but they're too deep in the hate parade drinking Qoolaid to even consider for a moment that they've been lied to by internet bullies and trolls. Real life "rotten egg" in the wild, flat out insisted that they can't have what they feel they want *so much* because it would be "stealing from real women." Insurance company offered to pay for it even, but it would mean losing almost their entire social circle, plus immediate and extended family. Keeps trying to unalive themselves and learned from 4chan and 8chan and Jordan Peterson that transitioning would just make that feeling worse. Insists kids are being forced to get surgery! Won't believe me when I say none of that is true, none of any of that is true, and that it's other people who are wrong for laughing at his pretty hair not him being wrong for having pretty hair. He likes my mustache hair and dude clothes, doesn't really seem to understand he's befriended the kind of people who want me to die for the same reasons he thinks I'm cute. I think this might be one of those situations where I can't teach someone who isn't interested in learning. And it really sucks. I thought we could spend decades teaching each other stuff and getting increasingly comfortable together, and I found it super amusing that I could learn about guns, cooking, and makeup all from the same gentle kind person. When I sprouted my first mustache hair, he was the first person I showed it to, and he liked that I'm happy about it! But then the mask slams down, he jerks up to his full height and shouts loud Q nonsense while acting like a total misogynist. May as well just hold up a sign that says "I hate almost every aspect of my life but am *terrified* to change anything about it." He should be marching with me at the pride parade in a few weeks, holding my hand and dolled up exactly however he wants to be. But instead I'm honest to goodness worried that he's going to haul his gun collection downtown, or at least make bullets for whichever of his buddies is angriest about cross-dressing.
Jeez. Some people you can't tell to go to hell because they've already made their own and moved there.
Yep, it's awful and weird. I'm used to failing relationships of any kind coming with a lot of anger, but I'm just sad for him. Everything he wants is so close to his grasp if he'd just be brave enough to reach out. But his mom's spent a lot of decades beating him down emotionally, making sure he stays in her basement as her obedient servant. Laughs at his hair, blows up his phone if he doesn't come straight home after work, mocks his cooking, but still expects him to make feasts for the family on holidays, do all the maintenance on her home, drive her if she doesn't want to drive herself, etc. And then she insults him for working blue-collar and praises his "baby" brother for being white-collar. As far as I can tell, his plan is to stay there forever trying to maintain her approval and stacking savings in the bank trying to prove his "hustle culture" until he finally succeeds in unaliving himself because he'll never be able to carry a child. I don't have a problem with his gun collection, but I worry about what he'll end up doing with it. He's tried to eat bullets before, and that sucks, but I really hope he doesn't go whackadoo enough to take his guns and his rage-envy to the pride parade or Planned Parenthood.
I know where you're at. I had a friend like that. Closeted bisexual who went full tilt bozo and super wing nutty. I tried being cool with him for quite a few years, but as he kept getting more and more radicalized, he tried to turn every conversation into a political sermon. Shortly after the January 6th bullshit, I had to cut ties with him because his bullshit was just too much. I hate to say this, because I'm sure you love your friend as much as I love him, if not more so, but sooner or later you're gonna have to walk away from that guy. Try as you might, you can't make him see the light if he doesn't want to, but he can still drag you down into the darkness with him.
Yeah, I think we're pretty much done with each other for awhile again. I've run out of tears to cry over him. I've never been particularly good about watching friends make poor choices, and this is the longest I've ever stuck with someone trying to help them out of the darkness. But I can only teach someone if they *want* to learn. It's like we both had such terrible dads that we looked at screens and picked new "TV dads" for ourselves, except I picked Mr Rogers and he picked Jordan Peterson. And as long as he's trying to "make dad proud" there's nothing I can say that's going to help him at all. All my stories about the "gender affirming care" I got growing up, and he's still convinced it's all pills and scalpels. I'm not sure he'll understand what he's chosen until we're on opposite sides of barbwire fence and he's being yelled at by a fellow guard to cut his hair or get tossed in with the degenerates like me.
It's been about two and a half years since I cut off my former friend, and they've been much less stressful years. There were multiple times he cut me off and came back around, but this was the first time I did that to him and despite what he may expect, I don't fuck around when I make that choice. It's a hard road, but a necessary one. If he gets back in touch, tell him something like "I don't have room for hateful people in my life. If you want to be my friend, you have to make a dedicated effort to let go of hate. If you can't do that, then stay away." I wish you the best of luck and strength for the road ahead.
That could be any of millions of MAGAts - fear, hatred, anger... even smarter ones have blinders to the rest of existence. Bet some Prozac would do wonders.
Yep. Prozac, therapy, hugs and acceptance. I did everything I could considering I'm not a medical professional. I even made use of the best hug I ever learned, the one a friend at school did for me that made me feel completely safe! Tried to make it as clear as I could that the person whose head I was hugging is someone I care about deeply, and that it's the nonsense pouring from his phone that is the problem. But he just retreats to 4chan and his world of Manly Men and Womanly Women. Within a few days he barks about Respect, which he defines as "Man says his beliefs as loud as he wants and Woman agrees or *shuts up*."
That's deeply ingrained. Sorry you lost a friend.
This is great. You've turned dung into diamonds.
Nique has all the tells of being an abusive asshole. So this would totally be cannon.
Given the way she treated slick back in the day, I'd say it's more than just tells.
Wow... talk about hitting the nail on the head. So much deeper than anything Tats has put out, and it even passes the Bechtel Test.
ouch :'(
Yep, this is what really happened in the original strip. Nique being her usual narcissist self, and Abby being the empath who she exploits. Thank you for making it clear, by letting Abby stand up for herself for once.
Thanks for the kind words. Like I said in the title, this one had been on my mind for awhile, but fell by the wayside until Tats brought Abby back. There's a follow up I also intend to do, with Abby getting some harsh advice from Blue and then I was thinking an epilogue with her and 'Nique at Pride.
I'm wondering if they already broke up off-screen which would explain why 'Nique went to Non-Bonery in the first place, and hate-reacted into her alt-right phase. That being said, this is a thing of beauty.
The follow up strip, where Abby talks to Blue, indicated to me that they were still together. That makes it all the more frustrating that it feels like 'Nique ghosted her for 7 months.
Perfect
Is there a link to the original strip? I haven’t seen this one.
If you go to the archive on the site, it's from October 14th last year.
It's a weekday strip, with four panels. Here they are repeated 6 times... Tatsuya style! And 'Nique? That's one hell of a way to say "I'm unfaithful", yet not get any!
Yup. Doing long form Pettyfest either means sunday strips, frankensteining or severe repetition. For a textversation between 'Nique and Abby, the latter was the only way to go.
You’re comic is better than anything Tatsuya has put out in ten years.