HOLIDAY VOTING INCENTIVE IS LIVE!
I felt, in the spirit of the holidays, that I needed to celebrate a certain cola company that for all intents and purposes birthed the modern Santa. Or at least celebrate the Puck universe's off-brand equivalent. So here goes!
VOTE TO ROT YOUR TEETH WITH SUGARY JUNK!
As for this comic...
As stupid as Satan is, I gotta say that he knows when to start getting scared. But seriously, your partner saying, "I don't know how I feel about your behavior," is always WAY scarier than them just saying, "I'm angry at you for your behavior." In the latter case, the anger is strong, immediate, and has already taken form. In the former, it hangs over you like a spectral wraith of hostility. You do not yet know what form it will take, nor when it will assume physical form. And that ... that is true fear.
Puck 522
HOLIDAY VOTING INCENTIVE IS LIVE!
I felt, in the spirit of the holidays, that I needed to celebrate a certain cola company that for all intents and purposes birthed the modern Santa. Or at least celebrate the Puck universe's off-brand equivalent. So here goes!
VOTE TO ROT YOUR TEETH WITH SUGARY JUNK!
As for this comic...
As stupid as Satan is, I gotta say that he knows when to start getting scared. But seriously, your partner saying, "I don't know how I feel about your behavior," is always WAY scarier than them just saying, "I'm angry at you for your behavior." In the latter case, the anger is strong, immediate, and has already taken form. In the former, it hangs over you like a spectral wraith of hostility. You do not yet know what form it will take, nor when it will assume physical form. And that ... that is true fear.
KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN!!!
(What Tracee meant to say.) 😉
It’s shout-whispering.
Satan seems to be composing himself a bit, after all, he’s in his element, darkness. On the other hand, there is something to be said for the unsettling nature of psychological ambiguity and uncertainty, which Tracee seems to know how to use for her advantage.
Satan? Composed? Say it ain’t so!
@ChrisH
Agreed: Satan is in his element: Darkness -with some truly amazing mood-lighting.
Sometimes the auras EG applies seem ordinary, but this week they are spot-on.
The Greens, Mauves, Grays – WONDERFUL !
(the monkey-bears would approve – if they had internet to see)
Tho….
This weeks auras may have an alternate explanation.
Monkey-Bears may GLOW naturally.
They may have followed Satan home – and they are bent on revenge.
Nah, I’m just messin’
They really are camped out just above the rapids at Niagara Falls.
They much prefer locales that are wet and wild – like Hamilton’s Sewage Plant.
OMG
They actually DID follow Satan home. And they are already engaged in sweet, sweet revenge.
Despite my apparent prognostication, I simply did not anticipate my instinct would prove accurate.
Perhaps my visions may even encouraged a future that MAY have been, to actually BE.
Heavy.
I must be more cautious in the future.
Though we still are not sure if the MB’s GLOW.
Is anyone else starting to smell the rank aroma of breakup in this mood? Tracee is realizing a lot of things about herself taking care of Puck’s sprog. She’s been dating Satan for the money, the power, and the security of never having to go back to a life where she lives unsupported and in squalor. Yet after something like this, she seems to have realized that she’s running into something that isn’t good enough for her. Satan cares about her as a status symbol for her looks (and possibly for her venomous outer layer personality). He doesn’t know Tracee as a person at all, even after all this time dating.
She can totally go it alone, and if she wants to, find someone else who cares about EVERY facet of Tracee, including the Practical Schlub Tracee and not just the Tracee who thinks people who need an occasion to wear a dress are tragically poor and has stiletto heels in all the colors of the rainbow used to walk over the faces of the dozens of broken hearts and emptied bank accounts in her wake.
… Why do you have me sympathizing with TRACEE?! Darnit, we’re not supposed to like her!
Would you believe that when I started this story arc, I wasn’t even planning for it to go this way? I was just initially thinking that Miranda would torment Tracee and that we would all enjoy watching her suffer. Then … well, it didn’t go that way. I didn’t initially intend for us to sympathize with Tracee. Promise.
Eh, get her into a designer dress at a luxury resort in the Cote D’Azur and she’ll remember herself. But she and Puck may wind up closer than before.
Breakup, maybe. Or . . . marriage and children? Personally, the latter is terrifying. Yet strangely interesting. It’s the big red button that says ‘Don’t Push’ and you know you shouldn’t, but it’s right there, big, red, right there, pulling you in, hand and arm reaching out . . . .
We all inexorably move toward whatever story option is crazier. So…
C’mon, I wanna see some character development!!!
And you may. Character development is sometimes the craziest story option of all.
And 9 1/2 months later, Phoebe has a new mom AND a half sister and half brother.
I don’t think so. Maybe eventually. But I think that Tracee has come out of this experience with two realizations:
1) she is not as averse to babies and family creation as she previously thought, and…
2) she is more ambivalent to this trophy wife (without the wife part) existence than she previously thought.
Where do we go from here? WHERE, I SAY?
Tracee wakes up with amnesia and a bun in the oven,
AND everything has turned to black-and-white?
After I take a hiatus for seven years.
I take it back, I take it back.
@EG
Seven Year IRL, or seven years “Comic Time”.
’cause I’ll be dead if it’s the latter.
I would never have guessed… Tracee holds a master’s degree in Passive-Aggressive behavior.
how the hell does ANYONE respond to that?
Hard to respond. Really hard to respond. That’s why it’s such a great play.
Gee. I’m a little disappointed in Satan. Terrified by so little.
You ain’t married, are you? If she’s not mad, you’re cool, if she’s angry, you can make up for it, if she doesn’t know, it’s like being in the middle of a minefield filled with Bouncing Betty mines. One misstep and you’re liable to lose your dangly bits.
Jesse, you know this minefield. I see you’ve lost a toe or two. Respect, brother.
You have no idea. I’ve learned to start hunkering down, like for a hurricane, or something, if they “don’t know” if they’re angry. Like I said, anger is one thing, you weather it, then make up for it. If she don’t know, it simmers, and all you can do is sweat it out. It’s like a pressure cooker without a safety, the pressure builds until catastrophic consequences happen, and something minor, like leaving a sock on the floor, sets her off on an hours long rampage from which no one emerges unscathed, and every mistake and oversight for the last 20 years is brought out and examined, but people not even involved get drug into it, too. I said Bouncing Betty, but it’s really more of a crotch seeking nuke. I can tell you’ve experienced this, too. Maybe not the degree that I have, as I seem to get with mentally ill people, but still, nice to know I am not alone.
I must note that though I’ve experienced this too, it’s not as much in my domestic life. My wife is a straight shooter and a direct communicator. Rather, I’m more familiar with this through interactions with other women. In particular, I’ve always worked with a large number of women, and some of them are more inclined to this type of behaviour. And it’s perilous.
Interestingly, I once saw a documentary about The Bangles, the 80’s all-girl rock band, and the members blamed this very dynamic on why the band broke up so acrimoniously. Most women are socially conditioned, I think, to be avoidant of confrontation and don’t want to be seen as angry or difficult. And fair enough; our society is insanely judgemental of women and their behaviours and punish them in various ways. But the snag is that this tendency to ‘let it ride’ means that small grievances build and build until they become mountains of hostility. That’s what happened with the Bangles. They said that male bands would fight all the time, but ironically that fighting might have allowed them to keep together. Fighting offered a release valve on the tension. The Bangles didn’t fight that much – at least not openly – and that ended up being a real curse.
Marriages (and the like) are similar to cars and housecleaning: you can do frequent maintenance which is a chore at first but eventually because a habit, or you can neglect it until it blows up and you need to get another one.
Some of us learn the easy way, some of us learn the hard way, and some of us don’t learn at all.
Don’t forget that some of us are incapable of learning.
And God help you is she EVER says that she’s “fine”.
Kiss. Of. DEATH.
Dude, this is not little. If you’re not terrified by this, then you are either fearless or stupid.
It’s the “don’t know” part. If she was definitely angry at him, then that would be terrifying.
On the plus side. It means that it’s no too late to be a caring sensitive partner and be extra helpful in order to avoid wrath later.
Of course, in a case like this, that fear and subsequent toadying IS the punishment.
You know this dynamic well!
It’s almost like Satan doesn’t know what to do in this situation.
Almost!
Write the book, I’ll set it. We can get Tracee playing with Miranda for the cover.
Yes, not knowing is disorienting. You don’t know what to do. I’ve found acting normal pokes the volcano less, but it can still erupt.
Don’t do anything, including nothing!
What if Satan pulls out his Cell Phone and shows TRACEEE actual video of himself banishing the bears ?
Huh ? HUH ?
Monkey-Bears could be a real thing, right ?
(cut to monkey-bears, dejected and shivering, huddled about a tiny trash fire – with a rusty wheelchair and gnawed bones scattered about – victims of Robin’s continuing secret murder spree. And, BTW, Robin is keeping Daffy around simply to groom her as protégé.)
Next week:
Robin: (whispering) “Daphne, would it please you if this evening Hannah disappeared, never to be seen again ?”
Daphne: “It would, mommie dearest, it would…”
Okay, don’t wait for that.
Well, wait for it. Next comic.
First Panel: At the Prom: Tyler looking about – confused.
Second Panel: At the Prom: Robin and Daphne looking slyly at each other.
Third Panel: At the base of Niagara Falls: Monkey Bears – smiling, satiated. Chewing on fresh, meaty bones. Background: A torn and bloodied prom gown – and a forlorn white cane.
Fourth Panel: none. Hey, this is fanfic after all !
(Jeez, I guess I am my mother’s son. It just has taken me a bit longer to drift to the Darkside than it did my sibling SalemKatte. I may just take him up on his offer to join him at the Brocken for Walpurgis this year.)
SalemCat, I admire the vividness of your imagination. I hope this webcomic is noir enough for you. 🙂
@ChrisH
I work for tuna.
It’s not. Obviously.
I want Tracee to spring “I want a baby” on him. Cliché, I know, but if she enjoyed taking care of a baby, well, just maybe…
And then she realizes the Hell of carrying a 30-40 pound bowling ball in her stomach for nine months.
Don’t you know the poem? First comes LOVE, then comes MARRIAGE, then comes BABY IN THE BABY CARRIAGE. I’m not sure we’ve even met the first requirement, and we definitely haven’t met the second yet.
We had an amazing ribald Limerick week with Susan during 2018.
So now we’re doing sing-song child doggerel ?
I’m game:
TRACEEE and Satan, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…..
FIRST COMES LUST,
THEY THEN DISPARAGE….
@ChrisH
😛
Someone being disappointed with you sucks too 🙁
It does.
I am curious to see if Traci would even consider having a child with Satan. I mean step back a moment; he is Satan.
There are worse life choices one could make. At least in my opinion.
Besides, Phoebe turned out all right, so genetics isn’t everything.
In the USA we are in the midst of the TURKEY-DAY FRENZY.
Half-Price Tuna, AK-47’s with the purchase of a Happy Meal, and so much more.
Now we all know Thanksgiving is not an official holiday in Hamilton, but does any the of madness leak past the northern borders ?
Curiouser and Curiouser
The internet has broken down the barrier a bit with the whole Black Friday madness. Online stores never shut up about their Black Friday deals, so lately Canadian retailers have had to adopt Black Friday sales just to keep up. Even fifteen years ago, most Canadians wouldn’t know what Black Friday was. But now it’s everywhere.
I try to keep clear of the stores around now.
I’m back on your Patreon list!
I left a while back because of pending doom, medical wise (I got turned into a newt! …I got better.)
Then, I heard Patreon went downhill with creator support so, I was worried.
HOWEVER!! I had my latest colonoscopy earlier this month and got my results back – I’M IN REMISSION!!!
w00t!
To celebrate, I’ve reinvested in a trust that pays (partially) to Paypal, which pays to Patreon, which pays to you!
You are now, indirectly, a Real Estate tycoon!
I noticed. And sent a private message of thanks. But here is my public message of thanks. And my public message of relief and happiness at the great medical news. As someone who has gotten news like that before, I know the feeling. Back pats, man. Big big back pats.
Thank you!
It was a long road.
It’s nice to be able to plan for the future, again.
Here’s to the future! May it shine brightly on all of us. And be full of egg nog. Or some other holiday treat.
@Mahnarch
I also have missed you.
Very pleased you are well and are back.
Who needs the stimulation of caffeine when you can have a nice Kroka-Noka yowza!!
I suppose here’s the best place to mention that the new voting incentive image is one of the few drawings I’ve made over the past year that I’m actually happy with. I like this one. I’m glad you do too.
And while you’re enjoying your Kroka Noka, how about a nice slab of good old fashioned CHEESECAKE?
(What’s that? Aw c’mon, have all you can, it’s the holidaze) 😉
You, sir, think like me, sir.
Baldie (my human pet) may be getting a CPAP for Christmas.
If it really ends his snoring, I’ll be disappointed.
The sound is a bit of a soporific.
Obstructive sleep apnea is NO JOKE. Good gift.
@EG
PULEEZE
Snoring Jokes have been a Comedy-Gold since Neanderthal Times.
I was in my 1st of 9 Lives at the time, and I do remember.