Lucy: I think, in the spirit of kindness, we should beg off and find the nearest empty, private area for me to suck your dick in. It’s just the right thing to do.
She’s not so much considerate as she is being political. She’s got to think about whether Jennifer still has any power in her social group to decide how much she wants to piss Jennifer off.
Did anyone else go to the previous comic to see if he had his hand in her pocket then?
Cause I did. And he didn’t. They were holding hands.
So Jacob stuck his hand in her pocket during this comic. My guess? Between panel 2 and 3.
Yeah, Jennifer is a character I generally have very little sympathy for lol. She’s the human equivalent of that meme where someone puts a stick through the spokes of their own bicycle and falls over.
Like, her relationship was great until her boyfriend wore ONE SHIRT and she decided that was a hardline breaking point. I am self-sabotaging af and I know what goes through her head because I’ve lived that and I still don’t feel bad for her lol. Especially so almost.
When she was dating Asher and hanging out with Raidah, she saw it as a return to the natural hierarchy where she is on top and Walky is just a geek. When her new friends and boyfriend didn’t reinforce those ideas, she was angry. If Asher had looked down on Walky she wouldn’t have cared what he was wearing.
Speaking from experience, self sabotage generally comes from self-hatred. If you identify with Jennifer and you hate yourself too, then of course you would enjoy watching her suffer, just like you do to yourself. the benefit of it being a fictional character is that hating her doesn’t trigger the “I hate my self” -> “hating myself is bad”-> “I hate myself for hating myself” spiral.
yep, seems kinda fair.
i mean, nobody should be sad, but if it’s by your own choices, at least you can let it be a lesson to you.
and while she HAS to suffer the consequences of her self-sabotaging breakup, she *could* protect herself from having to walk directly behind them.
Other people can’t stop being happy and pause their lives just because someone else is not happy.
Felian
Then again, i just remembered Jennifer lives with Lucy. So that *is* harder to avoid because she’s getting sexiled.
(although i think it’d be fine to ask your roommate “hey, would you maybe fuck your new boytoy in *his* room so i am reminded of my breakup less?“ No guarantees but it’s a fair ask if there’s no reason against going to his place.)
thejeff
I mean, he’s got a roommate too, but at least last night, Ethan and Asher were in Amber’s bed, for reasons.
True, but it seems that Jennifer will look for anything to get attention
Needfuldoer
But it can’t look like she’s trying to get attention, because appearances or something.
DashWallkick
Head cheerleaders don’t *need* things, that’s for nerds. She’s fine the way she is. But also please validate me or I will literally die. I didn’t say that btw.
Not surprised to find Jennifer is in a slow spiral. However, as someone who loves characters making bad decisions, I’m zipping into the kitchen to make popcorn for when Raidah finds out Asher and Jennifer are done and cuts her out of the friend group. Guess what Billie! That thing Walky said at lunch happened! Rationalize this somehow!
thejeff
Not sure that would happen and it says even worse things about Raidah’s networking priorities than I expect. The Billingsworths have serious legal money. Asher’s relatives are mobsters. If Raidah’s only using Jennifer to get at Asher’s connections?
I do kind of hope Lucy gets to another Raidah get together and brings her new boy – all without mentioning names.
DashWallkick
If Jennifer is going to act like a spoiled child (because, you know, that’s what Billie *is*) then there’s no reason for Raidah to keep friendship with her. She’s cut Chan out for similar reasons. She probably thinks she can get along better by replacing her with Walky, who’s fun and easy to get along with, since he knows the dean and Roz’s political dynasty, which…now that I think about it is exactly the sort of plot turn that would cause Billie to have a total meltdown, so that can’t not be coming.
DashWallkick
Also, thing I typed out but forgot to include when revising — Raidah has shown deep contempt for Jennifer the whole time, she just hides it to keep good vibes and the group going. If she’s introducing drama for no reason (which, well, again, this is Billie we’re talking about) she’s going to run out of reasons to keep her.
thejeff
Oh she definitely doesn’t like Jennifer, but she’s keeping her around for some reason. I don’t think that reason changes based on Jennifer’s actions.
Raidah also doesn’t like “that stunted manchild”, so I don’t think she’ll switch to Walky because he’s “fun and easy to get along with”.
“Head cheerleaders don’t *need* things, that’s for nerds. She’s fine the way she is. But also please validate me or I will literally die. I didn’t say that btw.”
I smelled your rage from here. hahahah
It’s not Sarah nor Jennifer they have to watch out for.
It’s Raidah.
anon
well, raidah doesn’t have anything against lucy (unless she’s like “you’re only walky’s bf and since he’s not with us anymore/using his connections you’re out of our group”) but it’s not like she did anything esp underhanded when she hookedu pwith jacob
HueSatLight
Raidah doesn’t have anything for Lucy either. She was Walky’s plus one. The only time she said something to Lucy was when Raidah was redirecting the conversation to Walky.
Wraithy2773
What does Raidah have to do with this?
I get that everyone hates her and thinks she’s worse than the devil, but her stance on Jacob was pretty clear when she was dating him: “If he cheats on me, fuck him, he’s not worth me”.
Raidah might have some lingering vengefulness towards Jacob, but honestly the biggest impact I see Lucy and Jacob’s relationship having there is Raidah immediately thinking less of Lucy for lowering herself to his level.
thejeff
People’s stated stances aren’t actually their real feelings.
During that whole sequence, while her opposition to Joyce was certainly justified, her approach was underhanded and manipulative
Bryy
Raidah created an entire villainous plan to isolate Joyce and Sarah because of the Jacob thing. She thinks Jacob BELONGS TO HER or at least OTHERS ARE NOT OBJECTIVELY WORTHY OF HIM. She has stated as much. This isn’t about JACOB. This is about HER. What SHE deserves.
I honestly don’t see how people can view Raidah’s behavior in context of the entire strip and conclude that she is a good person.
thejeff
People didn’t like Joyce going after Jacob and therefore decided that Raidah must be the good guy.
Bryy
Even the thing with Dana does not justify Raidah’s bullshit legion of doom plan.
well tehy did hookup pretty fast tho even if it’s tech a ‘rebound’ idk if lucy would want it to stay as a one night stand
plus hopefully this will be stable/normal/healthy for lucy to where even if they do break up in the long run she can move on more easily and find someone perfect for her lol
Thank you, Alt Text. I now have Meatloaf’s voice in my head singing, “Well let me sleep on it, baby baby, let me sleep on it. Let me sleep on it, I’ll give you an answer in the morning…” (“Paradise By The Dashboard Lights” for those who don’t know)
While I understand the “to be kind” thing in a conceptual level, I think it’s more unkind to expect people to act less happy when you’re in a bad mood. That’s just being a downer and dragging them under with you.
Upset people are known not the level-headed enough to be kind. When you ask someone who is upset to be kinder than those who are not upset, you’re basically asking someone with blistered feet to win a foot race against the two healthy people.
I mean they did not say upset people has to be kind. Just that the expectation of making yourself look less happy to be kind to someone upset is a bit unreasonable.
It rubs me the wrong way, maybe for what you’ve described. Is that what she expected from people a couple of days ago? And it feels kind of… ? showy? They’re demonstrating they’re sacrificing for her how? She’s feeling sour, she’s going to keep feeling sour. If she thought it was too much to be around, she can go another way, wait, or go in front. I get superficially what the kindness is supposed to be, but to be cynical it’s more like they’re using her as a prop to show each other how kind they are.
… which would annoy me less, if I were in Jennifer’s spot
166 thoughts on “Bad breakup”
Thag Simmons
Lucy’s considerate, but not that considerate.
EtchJetty
She’s considering it.
Sajuuk-Khar
Lucy: I think, in the spirit of kindness, we should beg off and find the nearest empty, private area for me to suck your dick in. It’s just the right thing to do.
Clif
She’s just being considerate of Jacob. It’s the warmest place around for his hand.
Needfuldoer
She’s a little considerate.
She’s consid.
Archieve
She just doesn’t want to it to be too obvious to Jennifer of course! so considerate Lucy is.
VicMortimer
She’s not so much considerate as she is being political. She’s got to think about whether Jennifer still has any power in her social group to decide how much she wants to piss Jennifer off.
pixiekhatt
A subtle butts disease joke?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Subtly is not generally a feature of butts disease.
Reltzik
Nor is it an asset of butts disease.
Xronium
though butts disease does have many ASSets
Amelie Wikström
He’s going to catch butt fingers disease. (It’s a variant of toe aids.)
shadowcell
“really it’s more billie’s problem than ours”
“and adversity builds character”
Rose by Any other Name
Did anyone else go to the previous comic to see if he had his hand in her pocket then?
Cause I did. And he didn’t. They were holding hands.
So Jacob stuck his hand in her pocket during this comic. My guess? Between panel 2 and 3.
NGPZ
Um you may wanna think fast Lucy.
The way Jennifer looks a pursuit seems imminent. XD
NGPZ
*plays “Face First” by The Paranoyds on hacked muzak*
Doctor_Who
Exit, pursued by a Billingsworth.
Jeremiah
Nah I think they should amp it up. Jennifer can learn to deal.
Bittersweet
Yeah, Jennifer is a character I generally have very little sympathy for lol. She’s the human equivalent of that meme where someone puts a stick through the spokes of their own bicycle and falls over.
Like, her relationship was great until her boyfriend wore ONE SHIRT and she decided that was a hardline breaking point. I am self-sabotaging af and I know what goes through her head because I’ve lived that and I still don’t feel bad for her lol. Especially so almost.
Thag Simmons
I love her but I love her in the same way I love Wile E. Coyote, I am not rooting for things to work out for her.
Thag Simmons
I guess more accurately I’m rooting for things to go well enough for her that her misfortunes are funny rather than depressing.
Jeremiah
I am all for her misfortune to be depressing. I eat that drama up!
Cholma
AFAIK, I think the shirt was the last the last straw in a bad day for her. Too many comparisons to Walky, I think? If anyone can get under her skin on a GOOD day, “It’s Walky!”© 😀
Bash
When she was dating Asher and hanging out with Raidah, she saw it as a return to the natural hierarchy where she is on top and Walky is just a geek. When her new friends and boyfriend didn’t reinforce those ideas, she was angry. If Asher had looked down on Walky she wouldn’t have cared what he was wearing.
Regret
Speaking from experience, self sabotage generally comes from self-hatred. If you identify with Jennifer and you hate yourself too, then of course you would enjoy watching her suffer, just like you do to yourself. the benefit of it being a fictional character is that hating her doesn’t trigger the “I hate my self” -> “hating myself is bad”-> “I hate myself for hating myself” spiral.
Felian
yep, seems kinda fair.
i mean, nobody should be sad, but if it’s by your own choices, at least you can let it be a lesson to you.
and while she HAS to suffer the consequences of her self-sabotaging breakup, she *could* protect herself from having to walk directly behind them.
Other people can’t stop being happy and pause their lives just because someone else is not happy.
Felian
Then again, i just remembered Jennifer lives with Lucy. So that *is* harder to avoid because she’s getting sexiled.
(although i think it’d be fine to ask your roommate “hey, would you maybe fuck your new boytoy in *his* room so i am reminded of my breakup less?“ No guarantees but it’s a fair ask if there’s no reason against going to his place.)
thejeff
I mean, he’s got a roommate too, but at least last night, Ethan and Asher were in Amber’s bed, for reasons.
Reltzik
Or, you know, hustle past them so she doesn’t have to watch.
I mean really, no one’s FORCING her to follow three paces behind them.
Coatl
True, but it seems that Jennifer will look for anything to get attention
Needfuldoer
But it can’t look like she’s trying to get attention, because appearances or something.
DashWallkick
Head cheerleaders don’t *need* things, that’s for nerds. She’s fine the way she is. But also please validate me or I will literally die. I didn’t say that btw.
Not surprised to find Jennifer is in a slow spiral. However, as someone who loves characters making bad decisions, I’m zipping into the kitchen to make popcorn for when Raidah finds out Asher and Jennifer are done and cuts her out of the friend group. Guess what Billie! That thing Walky said at lunch happened! Rationalize this somehow!
thejeff
Not sure that would happen and it says even worse things about Raidah’s networking priorities than I expect. The Billingsworths have serious legal money. Asher’s relatives are mobsters. If Raidah’s only using Jennifer to get at Asher’s connections?
I do kind of hope Lucy gets to another Raidah get together and brings her new boy – all without mentioning names.
DashWallkick
If Jennifer is going to act like a spoiled child (because, you know, that’s what Billie *is*) then there’s no reason for Raidah to keep friendship with her. She’s cut Chan out for similar reasons. She probably thinks she can get along better by replacing her with Walky, who’s fun and easy to get along with, since he knows the dean and Roz’s political dynasty, which…now that I think about it is exactly the sort of plot turn that would cause Billie to have a total meltdown, so that can’t not be coming.
DashWallkick
Also, thing I typed out but forgot to include when revising — Raidah has shown deep contempt for Jennifer the whole time, she just hides it to keep good vibes and the group going. If she’s introducing drama for no reason (which, well, again, this is Billie we’re talking about) she’s going to run out of reasons to keep her.
thejeff
Oh she definitely doesn’t like Jennifer, but she’s keeping her around for some reason. I don’t think that reason changes based on Jennifer’s actions.
Raidah also doesn’t like “that stunted manchild”, so I don’t think she’ll switch to Walky because he’s “fun and easy to get along with”.
Amós Batista
“Head cheerleaders don’t *need* things, that’s for nerds. She’s fine the way she is. But also please validate me or I will literally die. I didn’t say that btw.”
I smelled your rage from here. hahahah
Envy
I think you could count all the good choices Jennifer has made on one hand. She ain’t gonna start now.
anon
feels like it could be a punchline if she tried to ‘powerwalk’ past them and slip on the snow
Coatl
Heh, with that expression in the third panel, it will be a big challenge. (Also Lucy took her out of the room)
Doctor_Who
Panel 3: Jennifer has never tried harder to see if she possesses command of The Force. And she tries a LOT.
brionl
I think they need to do A/B testing. Today, hands in pants, tomorrow, no hands, no pants.
Reltzik
I think they did that test last night.
But it is important to reproduce results.
John Campbell
Nah, last night was hands, no pants.
Reltzik
But it wasn’t PRIMARILY hands.
Taffy
How’s that one work, again? Isn’t it:
A = Hands
a = No hands
B = Pants
b = No Pants
AB = Hands and Pants
Ab = Hands and No Pants
aB = No Hands and Pants
ab = No Hands and No Pants
Icalasari
Jacob and Lucy are good for each other
When is this going to go up in flames? Before or after the other healthy relationships burn?
anon
can’t wait for sarah’s reaction hopefully she won’t try to purposefully mess it up or so
Bryy
It’s not Sarah nor Jennifer they have to watch out for.
It’s Raidah.
anon
well, raidah doesn’t have anything against lucy (unless she’s like “you’re only walky’s bf and since he’s not with us anymore/using his connections you’re out of our group”) but it’s not like she did anything esp underhanded when she hookedu pwith jacob
HueSatLight
Raidah doesn’t have anything for Lucy either. She was Walky’s plus one. The only time she said something to Lucy was when Raidah was redirecting the conversation to Walky.
Wraithy2773
What does Raidah have to do with this?
I get that everyone hates her and thinks she’s worse than the devil, but her stance on Jacob was pretty clear when she was dating him: “If he cheats on me, fuck him, he’s not worth me”.
Raidah might have some lingering vengefulness towards Jacob, but honestly the biggest impact I see Lucy and Jacob’s relationship having there is Raidah immediately thinking less of Lucy for lowering herself to his level.
thejeff
People’s stated stances aren’t actually their real feelings.
During that whole sequence, while her opposition to Joyce was certainly justified, her approach was underhanded and manipulative
Bryy
Raidah created an entire villainous plan to isolate Joyce and Sarah because of the Jacob thing. She thinks Jacob BELONGS TO HER or at least OTHERS ARE NOT OBJECTIVELY WORTHY OF HIM. She has stated as much. This isn’t about JACOB. This is about HER. What SHE deserves.
I honestly don’t see how people can view Raidah’s behavior in context of the entire strip and conclude that she is a good person.
thejeff
People didn’t like Joyce going after Jacob and therefore decided that Raidah must be the good guy.
Bryy
Even the thing with Dana does not justify Raidah’s bullshit legion of doom plan.
Nono
Jennifer is actually behind them to get a better view of Jacob’s hands in her pants.
Nono
Also I guess they’re confirming themselves as a couple now instead of ‘that was a good night and now a walk’. They move fast.
RassilonTDavros
I mean, neither of them have ever really seemed interested in casual hook-ups. They both seem pretty firmly in the monogamous camp.
anon
well tehy did hookup pretty fast tho even if it’s tech a ‘rebound’ idk if lucy would want it to stay as a one night stand
plus hopefully this will be stable/normal/healthy for lucy to where even if they do break up in the long run she can move on more easily and find someone perfect for her lol
Bash
All that it really takes to become a couple is mutual intent. And they clearly both like each other a lot.
HueSatLight
She’ll be fine, let her be cranky, it’s morning. Plus she’s about to pass them anyways.
Clif
Um, why do you say that?
HueSatLight
She keeps getting closer.
Cholma
Thank you, Alt Text. I now have Meatloaf’s voice in my head singing, “Well let me sleep on it, baby baby, let me sleep on it. Let me sleep on it, I’ll give you an answer in the morning…” (“Paradise By The Dashboard Lights” for those who don’t know)
sultryglebe
I need to know right now!
Devin
Hmmmm, this comic could use more Phil Rizzuto in it…
Taffy
While I understand the “to be kind” thing in a conceptual level, I think it’s more unkind to expect people to act less happy when you’re in a bad mood. That’s just being a downer and dragging them under with you.
Regret
Upset people are known not the level-headed enough to be kind. When you ask someone who is upset to be kinder than those who are not upset, you’re basically asking someone with blistered feet to win a foot race against the two healthy people.
Jeremiah
I mean they did not say upset people has to be kind. Just that the expectation of making yourself look less happy to be kind to someone upset is a bit unreasonable.
HueSatLight
It rubs me the wrong way, maybe for what you’ve described. Is that what she expected from people a couple of days ago? And it feels kind of… ? showy? They’re demonstrating they’re sacrificing for her how? She’s feeling sour, she’s going to keep feeling sour. If she thought it was too much to be around, she can go another way, wait, or go in front. I get superficially what the kindness is supposed to be, but to be cynical it’s more like they’re using her as a prop to show each other how kind they are.
… which would annoy me less, if I were in Jennifer’s spot
Jeremiah