ANOTHER OCTOBER VOTING INCENTIVE IS HERE!
I put the vote to my top tier patrons on Patreon to find out what Halloween costume they'd like to see, and you can see their SECOND top choice by voting for Puck TWC! It's another 80's milestone. My generation speaks loud.
VOTE TO HAND OUT THE CANDY WITH STYLE!
As for this comic...
Daphne's plight here mirrors my own. I am generally good with words, and I'm fairly articulate in certain contexts, but in one-on-one conversations I tend to fall apart. I know what I want to say but never have the slightest clue how to say it. It's infuriating. That said, I am of the belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who stress out about how to properly say things and end up often not saying anything at all, and those who say their mind without a single thought as to how it will be received, sometimes leading to disastrous consequences. Out of the two choices, I guess I'm happy to be in the former camp? I guess?
Puck 517
ANOTHER OCTOBER VOTING INCENTIVE IS HERE!
I put the vote to my top tier patrons on Patreon to find out what Halloween costume they'd like to see, and you can see their SECOND top choice by voting for Puck TWC! It's another 80's milestone. My generation speaks loud.
VOTE TO HAND OUT THE CANDY WITH STYLE!
As for this comic...
Daphne's plight here mirrors my own. I am generally good with words, and I'm fairly articulate in certain contexts, but in one-on-one conversations I tend to fall apart. I know what I want to say but never have the slightest clue how to say it. It's infuriating. That said, I am of the belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who stress out about how to properly say things and end up often not saying anything at all, and those who say their mind without a single thought as to how it will be received, sometimes leading to disastrous consequences. Out of the two choices, I guess I'm happy to be in the former camp? I guess?
given that its difficult just to get that far and to be given the chance to say something….yea i can see that.
At least she got that far, cheers.
That’s the spirit!
Daffy must Die !
(channelling Susan again)
I suspect the plan was, ambush Tyler coming out of the bathroom, try to apologize, but get blown off by Tyler who is still pissed at her before she can get the words out, and spend the rest of the evening feeling righteously annoyed at Tyler for not even hearing her out.
She TRIED to apologize, but couldn’t because Tyler’s a dick, so it’s HIS fault.
…And of course, this whole plan was ruined by Tyler behaving more maturely than she is.
I don’t think it’s quite that planned on Daphne’s end, but I DO think that you’re on the right track. Daphne’s most comfortable when she’s in conflict: her primary communication mode is snarky passive aggression, so she needs something or someone to be in conflict with. When the other person doesn’t throw up some sort of defense, she’s in uncharted territory. So I don’t think she inherently wanted to fail here, but she was (by her very nature) expecting a fight.
well by not fighting he is in essence fighting her by not fighting….oww
Exactly.
oh tyler, you´ve been friends with daph for how long? you should be used to this level of weirdness by now…..and considering that phoebe is currently eating a crown in the main ballroom, everything that prevents your return into said room should be welcome 😉
Yeah, he certainly should be somewhat conditioned by now. Some people are slow learners.
At least Farmer Ted said more to Sam when they were parked in that disassembled car.
Google has shown me that this has something to do with Sixteen Candles. But having never seen Sixteen Candles, I can safely state that it went right over my head. (My Molly Ringwald movie knowledge is relatively limited; I’ve watched Pretty in Pink and about half of the Breakfast Club.)
Fancy your mentioning Molly; I know her dad.
Seriously? That’s, like… Something. I don’t really know what do with that. But it’s interesting.
Awesome!!
Real dad or movie dad?
Daphne is hoping to use her puppy dog eyes to win Tyler back.
@JJR
Sadly, Tyler is far too much of a gentleman to take advantage of a classic Prom Night opportunity.
She does have some really high quality puppy dog eyes.
She has high quality other stuff, too.
@ElectricGecko Her puppy dog eyes is how she “tricked” Puck.
@SalemCat Or Tyler is afraid of Daphne’s response if he tries.
@JJR
Oh, I think Tyler might be pleasantly surprised.
But like many young men, Tyler doesn’t understand the opposite sex very well.
Not yet, anyways.
My human pet Baldie still does not understand much – but enuff for his intense and porpoises.
yeah I’m defo in the latter category…at least online. IRL I can usually formulate what to say or at least how to say stuff.
I feel, though, that there are a number of people who are in the second category online and the first category IRL. Something about the interwebs just encourages people to write their unfiltered thoughts down without pause.
I fall into both camps. Sometimes hurting those I love and sometimes making them happy. And sometimes getting fired for telling the boss what I really feel; and then not being able to pay rent. It’s a cycle.
This seems relatively tragic. It’s like you should be able to apply for special conversational disability compensation or something.
I do both: first I consider 500 ways to say it, failing to pick any one of them, then I end up saying some on-the-fly not-thought-out words anyway. But I never really risk much doing this, I keep to easier, safer conversations with people whom I don’t already have foot-in-mouth-proof relationships with.
I think Daphne really does not need to worry about how she says this, what she says now and what is left to a later date. She can screw it up and get a second chance no problem.
Wow. You really aim for the worst of both worlds!
But yeah, I think Daphne might not stick the landing with this one. And I think that it’s one of those ‘at least she tried’ scenarios.
Yay! Tyler gets to have a different pose! You thought we hadn’t noticed. I thought it was effective, no complaints. 🙂
Back to the story, you know a gentleman could OFFER to go back to the washroom to give her another chance. But that isn’t him.
This is a good development.
A different pose? Compared to? I mean, he often has been striking the ‘arms crossed’ pose, but that’s primarily because I have a small number of shorthand poses that I use to convey attitudes, and low-level displeasure almost always gets the ‘arms crossed’ pose.
The last three strips he’s been in, he’s stood exactly the same way only he was looking in different directions. It was amusing. I’d thought it was because the focus of the narative was on Hanna, Daph and Puck.
True. They were fresh pics each time, though. I never reuse drawings of characters.
Never ever ever.
NEVER. Backgrounds are always reused. But never character drawings. I feel that’s what makes my webcomic a little different: you are looking at actual drawings done with pen and ink, not reused ‘elements’ that are assembled into a rough approximation of a comic. It’s foolish and Quixotic of me to do so, given the fact that it makes the creation process of my comic take twelve hours instead of one hour, but no one ever said I worked smart.
You sound like a kindred spirit with this guy.
http://www.the-whiteboard.com/misc/af04.html
Something like that guy. Something very like.
Well, Tyler aka Taylor, if you’ve gotta go, it’s never too late to run back into the bathroom.
Hey, if you gotta go, you gotta go. That’s ensconced in law.
After an incident in third-grade, I built my entire life around that philosophy. Of course, I’ve learned to hold it better.
Stand your ground, Tyler. If you duck back in now, she’ll just follow you.
Could things get more awkward? Obviously they could.
This is why I’m a writer and not a conversationalist: endless revision to ensure correct communication before hitting publish.
@RoyanRannedos
PLUS … when writing on the internet, no one need to be wearing pants.
IT’S A SIMPLE MATTER OF COMFORT, PEOPLE !
I’m with you. Spoken language sucks.
Tyler, this would be a really good time to tell Daphne how nice she looks tonite.
Even if you don’t have – um – “motives” to do so.
She has been your best friend for fifty years.
It’s only twenty years that they’ve been friends. Which is pretty impressive for a couple of teens.
Tyler . . . it was too late the moment you first met Daphne.
This … is true.
Time to turn on the feminine wiles.
Not sure she has any to turn on. Maybe the fuse is blown.
Oh noes, this is so sad! Of course Daphne should have said, “Congratulations Tyler on becoming Prom King. I’m so happy for your!” What a missed opportunity!
@ChrisH
That would be a good line coning from a sincere friend, or an insincere one looking to set Tyler up for a fall.
Yet Daffy remained incoherent – a truly vulnerable stance.
It’s always the worst possible outcome in this comic!
Hmmmm….this is a distressingly familiar conversation from my teen and young adult years….but I never actually figured out the right thing to say from either end of the conversation.
If Tyler were older and wiser, he would never tell a woman to say it. That puts her in the space of “thinking” and she’s already mentally confused. It would be better to ask her what she is “feeling” …. and for that matter to ask himself the same.
But …. youth is the time for making mistakes, while you have time to recover.
And to regret haha
@rewinn
Yes, there is so much time for regrets later. For some, those regrets can end up occupying most available time !
So much so, one begins to wonder if there was anything positive ever accomplished. Perhaps not.
“was anything positive ever accomplished”/
Yes – I learned “don’t do that, try something else”.
This is a very useful lesson – better learned from someone ELSE’s mistakes if possible – but THAT’s a lesson that takes a LONG time to learn!
Youth is the time for making mistakes. And for whatever reason, mistakes are more entertaining to watch. That’s why so few romantic comedies focus on the relationship drama of older people – not (I’d like to believe) just because of our society’s fascination with youth, but because the inherent drama and miscommunication needed for these stories just happens far less frequently when you’ve got a handful of decades under your belt.
Perhaps when youth has a communications problem, it’s cute because it’s so understandable; we’ve all been there.
When old age has a communications problem, it’s annoying because at this point they should have learned better.
Yeah, when you meet a 40+ adult who has a persistent problem communicating like an adult, it is no longer a skill that needs learning: it is a personality flaw.
She is SO Puck’s daughter. 🙂
Indeed.
It’s frightening to think that all of Puck’s children may turn out like Daphne. This doesn’t bode well for Miranda. I still hope that Daphne will grow out of her teen angst and both she and miranda will benefit from Phoebe’s positive influence.
Auntie Tracee will help!!!
Perish the thought!
@rewinn
Miranda’s brief (so far) interaction with TRACEEE is a positive experience that both will treasure for the rest of their lives.
All is not lost. I still hold out hope. Not much, but a tiny little shred.
Oh no, is the teenage girl being forced to be…gasp…honest with her feelings? Is she actually going to tell the boy she’s crushing on something real?
Yeah, I remember that too. I didn’t have the guts to actually ask the girl I had been crushing on for years out either, and I regret it to this day.
When one only communicates with snarky sarcasm, the hardest thing in the world to manage is … sincerity.
@Sean L. Akins
Yes, that is one thing young men CAN learn.
That the pain of rejection can never compare to the pain of NEVER BEING REJECTED – because they never asked at all.
I can sympathize. They don’t understand me when I say: “Gud-urble diggle dargle miggle fargle nibble nay”
They obviously don’t appreciate clear communication.
Reaching wa-a-a-a-ay back to the cancer episode – IIRC it was based on your experience – perhaps you might contribute to this:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/graphicmedicine/collection-2.html
Not only do they not seem to have anything on testicular cancer, they also don’t have pointy-ears so it’s a double win on diversity.
Interesting, certainly. I think they’re looking for more “indie” styled stuff, but that is really cool.
I like how Daph’s literally in a spotlight (like light) in pannel 3. Great blocking!
Sometimes I accidentally do things right.
Well, sometimes you have to let your actors do their thing. But not too often. That’s when things go weird.