#317 – i’ll be fine

This was the first page in part of an experiment I did for a while, where OP was updated in chunks rather than 3x a week, Monday Wednesday Friday. I did this for the next few story arcs while I played with the question of whether anyone really cared when a webcomic updates. These days, regularity seemingly isn't as prized as consistency, which can either be more or less work, depending on what an audience is trained to expect. People definitely responded strongly to the change, mostly positively, but I needed more of a short-term routine in my life again, and I think my pages are just better when I make them one at a time. Cooking in batches meant meddling with tiny details endlessly, never being truly done with anything. To be done, one... must post.

11 thoughts on “#317 – i’ll be fine

  1. Am I reading this correctly? The problem is that the burden is falling solely on Eve's shoulders, regardless of choice? She either has to walk home alone or stay and wake up early. She's inconvenienced in either case, while Park never is.

    Or is it that she wanted Park to say "yes, please stay" rather than that weak "whatever you want"?

    1. It begs the question, why don’t they have keys to each other’s apartments?

    2. Park seems totally fine here, haha. I think Eve's expressions are just general annoyance at him cause of past actions (including her own w/ Will). Eve is amazing, but she isn't always in the right, either. This page helps explain why she's even with him in the first place, to me.

    3. She wants him to ask her to stay over – that would be romantic! But also impractical, and also he doesn't know exactly if that's what she wants him to ask, and if she stays over and they fuck he will get less sleep and be more tired, when he has to get up in the morning early, and she'll have got up early for no reason, so they probably will both have a bad day tomorrow.

      I have been on both sides of this conversation and I hate it.

    4. Yeah, I suppose I never really got this either. I'd ask the same way if I wanted someone to stay, but knew it could be a hassle for them. Like "I want you to stay, but I don't want to push you." …Or maybe she's just annoyed at the thought of getting up early.

    5. Well, he's about to move to Chicago, and she's not sure she's serious enough about him to go, so deciding not to spend the night might foreshadow her eventual decision – which would be an uncomfortable thought.

      But I think the other reason for all her facial expressions on this page is that she's a little afraid to walk home alone at night, but doesn't want it to rule her life.

    6. If I recall correctly, it's a metaphor for staying with Park and not doing what she wants or going it alone and that being scary.

      Or that's how I interpreted the shadows that followed her this arc.

    7. It feels like a general conflict of multiple layers of uncertainty, both present and impending, resulting in "eh, I should just go."

  2. I've always read this as Eve not wanting to be sucked into co-habitation just because it would give her an easy out from the stuff she's afraid of. She knows that staying at Park's WOULD make her feel safe…and that's a kind of dependence she can't abide. Which is something that's magnified later on when he asks her to come to Chicago with him. She doesn't want to be with someone so she doesn't have to be afraid of being alone; she wants to be unafraid on her own, so that she can be with someone.

  3. Park doesn’t even attempt to kiss her goodbye.

  4. Park is pretty ambivalent here, which could be hinting that even he isn’t sure if he wants Eve to come to Chicago with him.

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