#899 – it’s too bad

Folks, I'm going to be at TCAF this weekend! I can hardly believe it myself. Are you in and around Toronto, ON? Then come see me and get a copy of the new books!I will have Volumes 1-3 for sure, and the jury is still out on Volume 4 arriving in time to make its debut. Either way, it's the best comics show ever, so do check it out.

96 thoughts on “#899 – it’s too bad

  1. No. Just no!

  2. The happy moments in octopus pie are often of that free-floating, weightless kind that exists momentarily before gravity takes hold and plunges you down the cliff face.

  3. YOU FUCKING DICK

  4. Ooh, I know that face. The "did I hear what I think I head" face.

    Seems like this was not worth breaking the one week rule, eh?

  5. And there it is. The boy is a garbage boy.

    1. Or was just nervous about seeing Eve again, or unsure she'd even *want* to see him, or possibly simply has a life that does not revolve around informing an ex every time he's in town.

      1. Yeah! Only when he wants to hook up with her.

        1. To be fair, isn't that why *she* went out with *him*?

      2. yeah, he didn't wanna bone enough.

  6. I'm screencapping that last panel to be my "you wot" face for a while.

  7. Eve is like "…Wait, what?"

  8. This gon' be good.

  9. Did anyone else hear the glass shatter or was that just me?

    1. Ayep, I heard it too. Can't say I wasn't waiting for it though.

    2. That's Brilliant. 😀

    3. Mr. Potato Patato Von Spudsworth III

      It was a record scratch for me.

  10. Park: the human trash heap.

  11. still a better moment of closure than mar and will.

    1. You shut your mouth, dick puke was the king of closure.

    2. Its funny because now all I can think about is mar's warning to eve at the spa. Mar was right, jane was wrong.

  12. Eve I know you and Past Eve don't always see eye to eye but I think she hit this particular nail square on the head. NOPE.

  13. I can literally hear the penny dropping.

  14. Lashout in 3…2…1…

  15. "I've really missed you, Eve."
    Not as much as some plants, apparently

    1. She has him listed as "NOPE". He is under no obligation to inform her when he is in town.

      1. That's true, but then he should have not called her at all, or tried to at least keep some distance. Calling an ex to fuck around as an after-thought is not really nice.

  16. Schmuck has to check his smartphone to remember when he didn't tell his girlfriend that he was in town.

    1. (not his girlfriend)

  17. Ah! That moment when you visited home, didn't have time to see any of your old friends or exes, and then your old friend/ex finds out about it and takes it personally. 'But then, just WHY did you have time to go to the Botanical Gardens if you didn't have time to visit me'.

    1. thistemporarylifeblog

      I think you know that this is a different situation entirely.

      1. I'm not at all certain of that yet. Park's not a great character and I think that's leading to preemptive condemnation here. Let's wait and see how bad he really is, or isn't.

    2. We've all done that at some point, I suppose? But. I've never yet blurted it out afterwards in front of the people who weren't supposed to know and whose feelings might get hurt if they knew. And I tend to consider myself a fairly careless and self-centered kind of person.

    3. Its the fucking Botanical Gardens. Unless he had a bigly firm interview AT the gardens or was under duress to go there he clearly went to enjoy himself

    4. Weirdly if this were a real-life situation I would maybe consider giving him the benefit of the doubt (it's a thing that happens!) but tbh I don't know if it makes for great storytelling?

      Unless it reveals something about their characters/something wider about relationships, I'm not sure it fits with the tone of the arc so well. I may be totally wrong, though! But do feel like things have been set up the way they have for a reason, and an awkward misunderstanding/stereotypical overreaction might be a poor payoff: Eve is a (realistically) flawed character but reducing her to 'female character who just won't give the guy a break!' is unlikely.

      1. I feel like in this situation I'd give almost anyone else the benefit of the doubt, but this is so entirely in keeping with everything else I know about Park that it feels like it can't be anything but what it looks like.

      2. That was my way of thinking. A part of me doesn't even blame Park for waiting on the last day to see an ex he hasn't spoken to for forever, assuming it to be out of nervousness or fear. Hell, I wouldn't blame my ex for that, especially if I haven't gone out of the way to contact them, either. It'd be a big leap of faith to even see if they'd be down to hang out after so long, ya' know?

        However, this arc isn't set up in that way. This tidbit of information obviously hurts Eve, and the more I think about how much she's idolized him, how much she's morned over their breakup and relationship, how much she's thought about their relationship PERIOD, why wouldn't it?

        I still have no idea how she's going to react (is she gonna blow up? Excuse herself and have a frantic pep talk to herself in the bathroom? Just swallow the pain and trudge through with the rest of the date?) but I don't think this is set up for a whacky Seinfeldian conversation. If anything, it's set up for Eve's slow-burning disillusionment of a person that once represented so much, and realizing that Park most definitely hasn't been sharing her same, recurring dream during the time they had lost contact.

        1. That last sentence! That's what I'm hoping for. Something where Eve is empowered to really make a decision to turn Park away rather than avoid making any decision at all.

        2. If Park felt fearful or nervous about seeing Eve again, I don't think he would have banged her right off the bat, ya know? I think he put off seeing Eve because he doesn't actually care that much about her. All he wanted was a (slightly nostalgic) one night stand.

      3. Yes, this. I think in real life this would be an emotional but ultimately meaningless moment. But for the sake of story telling drama we're expecting this to reveal horrible character traits. These stories can be so all over the place though and still be frank and real. I just don't think we've seen enough yet to tell if this is just Park casually looking to hook up with an ex in a semi-scumbag fashion, or if we're about to see that it means nothing other than Eve not being as emotionally put together as she's been appearing to be. Maybe the entire point is just that hooking up with exes you still care about is never a good idea. Hence the "NOPE" caller ID.

    5. Well, I would take it personally too if someone I was friends with was in town and DID have time to go to a garden but not to see me. This is not the same situation, but even in the lower-pressure, lower-stakes one you describe, while I wouldn't get "mad" per se I probably would mentally push them out a few circles on my orbit of friends, out closer to friendly acquaintances. I probably would not go out of my way to see them again myself though I wouldn't refuse a group invitation. I'd consider that to be the end of it unless they did get in touch. I would not make the effort, though.

      I don't think that's overkill. If you (generic you) don't have time to see everyone, you just don't, but if you DO have time and choose not to…that's fine but it means we're not quite the 'friends' maybe I thought we were.

  18. o. m. g.

  19. In recent news, the Big Apple was hit by Hurricane Everest, a category 5 super-storm. Several bystanders were injured, but so far only ONE casualty has been confirmed.

  20. Didn't even have the decency to look her in the face…

    1. And the "uh" totally betrays that he KNOWS that was a dick move.

    2. I read it as him checking his phone while he was talking to her (already rude) but that meant he was too distracted to catch his verbal slip-up before it was too late.

  21. And there it is.
    "I really missed you Eve… but not enough to call you for the last few years."
    "I really missed you Eve… but I'm absolutely going to dismiss your feelings by telling you I was in town last weekend and chose to not see you."
    "I really missed you Eve… but I'm a self-centered piece of garbage who only ever really cares about himself because your life is really just trivial silliness in my eyes."
    I hope that this is what Eve needed to finally let Park go once and for all.

  22. I've been reading the last few pages and the comments below thinking "Come on, Park is human too. He knows he was a dick in the past. Maybe he does want to do better. At least give him the benefit of the doubt." I want to believe in the good in fictional people.

    Yeah, I think I'm done with that now. You got some serious explaining to do, fuckboy.

    1. Yeah I think that's a totally reasonable reading given the information we had up to now! (And I'm sure that was totally intentional because it's what gives this page such impact.) But with this new context a lot of his actions are definitely reframed as inexcusable.

    2. thistemporarylifeblog

      Yeah, I've been pushing for people to take a step back because we don't have any information, but this isn't the greatest look.

  23. STOP HURTING MY HEART

  24. Aaa, Park you total asshole! I haven't been this worked up about a fictional relationship since Anders Loves Maria x_x

    1. oh god why did you remind me of that ;-;

      1. This whole Park drama is really borking up my week!

    2. Oh maaaaAAAAnnnn I forgot all about Anders Loves Maria T_T

    3. You know Anders Love Maria is being re-booted….

      1. hhhhWWWWHHHHAAAATTT???

  25. GOD DAMN IT PARK. WHY YOU GOTTA DO ME THIS WAY. I SUPPORTED YOU. GO SIT IN A CORNER AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUVE DONE

  26. EVES FACE SAYS "BITCH SAY WHAT?" AND THAT'S WHAT I'M GONNA WRITE
    BITCH, SAY WHAT? What an asshole!

  27. Man, i was actually going to accept that maybe it could work out. Y'know, break from the Eve-Will (which combines to make "Evil" strangely enough) bandwagon, but this ain't gonna work, and she's probably figuring that out now.

    All those conflicting feelings, weeks of mulling it over and over in her head, and Park just treats it like nothing.

    That sucks. Sorry Eve.

  28. OH

    I mean, yes? It's kinda good? It has to hurt to fucking end the delusions of comfort in nostalgia?

    It'll be the last tug to tear off that reaaally old, smelly band-aid that stuck to your arm and first you would't get rid of because you'd peel off arm hair and you were afraid it'd hurt, and then, eventually, you found yourself getting used to it and fondly considering part of you. Out with it, Ning. Showeth your righteous fury!

    (Please?)

    This said, fuuuck. Jeez. This arc has made me go all the way back and seen Eve's character development and it's made me fall in love with her again. She used to get mad a lot. I used to think that it was because she is happier now, but reading it all in one go, I wonder if it's also a sign of complacency, and not fighting for herself anymore.

    Also, talk about nostalgia, reading back reminds me of the moment I was in my life when Eve's trips and falls and milestones related to my own, to this day. And notice again how well many of those indescribable moments and feelings, so specific to certain events like rejection, loneliness, or just growing up or fucking up are rendered through something as mundane as a trend.

    TL:DR, gushing.

    I've said it before, but Meredith, you are a wonder at story telling and this webcomic is bloody brilliant and you're amazing and so tenacious and oh. As soon as I get next month's pay I'm getting me a book.

    1. I'm with you here. I had the exact experience where I idealized an ex who was never the right fit anyway. When he walked back into my life this interaction happened pretty much note for note and it shattered it all. He wasn't the person i was imagining, he wasn't even the person I had remembered. I looked back over all of our interrelations with new eyes and found all the cracks. It was only then I could move on.

  29. I take back all the rationalizing I exerted just for Park's sake of the benefit of a doubt in previous comment threads.

    PARK GO FUCK YOURSELF

    1. No. No more fucking for Park. Even self-fucking. Park has already had more of the fucking than he deserves.

      1. He can go fuck some plants, he loves visiting those.

  30. I remember someone commented that the receipt left on the hotel floor indicated that Park had checked out, indicating that he just wanted a last-minute hook-up. Nail on the head there, but I find myself wondering why Eve looks so surprised. Didn't she know this was a "Hey let's meet up and bang" thing before, or was that just apparent to us as the audience and being able to see the whole picture?

    I've sort of been mentally defending Park by defending Eve's choice to see him, thinking that if she wanted to have an old nostalgic bangin' with her ex, then so be it. Maybe it was because I had already assumed that Park had been there for awhile and that he decided to call Eve on the last day. At least that's what I would have assume from an ex I hadn't seen in a long time, anyways, especially if he was leaving that day. I hadn't thought about if Eve had assumed the same at all.

    Of course, this can be opening up to a revelation that Park had probably been to the city waaaaay more times than he let on, which I would be pissed about. "In the 6 years we haven't seen each other, you didn't bother to mention that your regular business trips requires you to stop by three blocks from where I live!?"

    I'm actually very tempted to visit old pages and see if Mer sneaked Park into the background at any time while Eve and co. were distracted and looking the other way, not noticing the other was there. It would marvelous as it would be heartwrenching.

  31. My guess is park just broke up with someone. This is the sort of thing you do when youre newly single. You retread old territory and go for "What could have been" even if you didnt really want that very much anyway. I can't pretend i havent done the same thing. There are just people you sometimes have on reserve in the back of your mind, just in case it all doesn't work out. Its shitty, but I'm pretty sure thats whats going on with park. Something ended and he thought "well i guess ill hit up eve now that I don't have any strings anymore. I'm sure shed be up for it"

    1. This is kinda what I'm thinking too, though I think a lot of people are forgetting too that Eve sort of did the dumping last time in that she didn't want to move out there.

      Like, to be fair to Park, Eve told him not to pressure her and that she wouldn't commit to him which probably hurt Park a lot. Why would he try to keep in contact then?
      And Eve hasn't reached out, wasn't that interested in his life or what was going on.

      I don't think it's so harsh as "Pretty sure she's DTF" but maybe more like an accumulation of nostalgia, opportunity and gambling that leads up to contacting an ex you're still fond of over a great deal of time. He was the one that called…

      I'm actually wondering if he's the one that was hoping for long term out of this and Eve will balk… That the reality is that she doesn't want him back.

      1. Not following your beau all around the world is not a one directional dumping. He made the move, he took the action. There are whole stacks of ethics discussions about whether an inaction is as culpable as an action, but he made the choice and she was left with an ultimatum- that's more on him than it is on her

        1. I'm not saying it was anything but mutual differences in direction, similar to one person not wanting kids. It's how it shook out. She told him not to pressure her, he didn't pressure her. She didn't insist that he stay, he didn't stay. They missed each other off and on for years but never made an effort to stay in touch. They have probably both had many other relationships in the span of time between them.

          I mean, that's it.
          I'm not even a fan of them as a couple, but I think that they're on pretty even footing.

          I just think it's a disservice to the writing to render black and white what is a very interesting and nuanced evolution of characters and relationships.

          Personally, I don't think Eve needs to end up with anyone… Will or Park…
          maybe she meets someone totally new!

        2. I don't think she needs to end up with anyone either but it would good to know if her being still in love with the ghost of park is what has held her back from taking will seriously.It wasnt till I let go of my park-like ex (years later mind you) that I could really be with the person in front of me.

        3. I just disagreed with 'eve did the dumping'. All the rest- the nuance, the actions or inactions of both, eve not needing to find a prince- on board, fo sho.
          Although – eve hasn't had a significant other since Park, no.

  32. ??? ? ?(°-°?)

  33. I empathize with this so well.

    My Ex and I broke up because she needed to move out of state for a job. We'd only been together six months, and she said the only way she'd stay is if we were going to get married. I couldn't do it, so we broke it off. Found out a few months later that she cheated on me with several other guys while we were together, including with a close friend. A year later, she texts that she wants to meet up. I agreed. She didn't know that I found out. We spent the day together. She told me how much she missed me, and that it wasn't the same. That I was the best boyfriend ever, and then she accidentally revealed moved back a month before meeting because the job was too much. "Really?" was all I could think. I had already forgiven her, and I wanted to talk about the cheating, but after that I already had my answer. I got you, Eve. Hope this story helps anyone who's dealt with that type of situation.

  34. Park is trash confirmed. Sic 'im Eve.

  35. So a part of me want Eve to just like, viciously chew him out on what a garbage fuckboy Park is. Just like, WRECK him!

    But, I more so want Eve to just stand up and leave. She can deal with the emotions later. I don't even want Park to have the privilege of Eve emoting around him. He deserves none of her time and none of her energy.

    1. EXACTLY. GRRRR.

  36. oh ive seen that fuckboi look before, he tries to play it cool but he knows hes so busted, hopefully this is just a final eye opener for eve that this is not someone who makes her feel better about herself, and as a final nail in ex-coffin

    ill just grab my bag of smartfood and refresh the comments until nexts comics

  37. Where will you be when Diarrhea Strikes?

    1. This comment needs more attention.

  38. Park iiiiiiis Matthew Cunliffe

  39. Dude talks about "biglaw" and boutique firms in one bubble. Doesn't ask her about herself but happy to talk about himself. I could tell he's a douche before he even dropped that insensitive BS bomb – WHILE LOOKING AT HIS PHONE.

    1. Yeah that part really struck me, especially how he just assumes Eve won't know what he's talking about, because she is so beneath him so he has to explain it to her. (GJ Eve for interrupting that BS!)

      There are so many little things Park does that show how little (both in time and importance) he thinks of Eve. Hopefully she'll finally notice and finally move on from him.

  40. Oh, hi Park. There you are.

    It's so horribly, depressingly unsurprising to see you.

  41. Well, I didn't think that comic #900 was going to involve Eve murdering Park and everyone in the restaurant, yet here we are.

  42. Eve, get on out of there. It's not your job to prove yourself to some dumb shit who could never see your value before, and apparently still can't consider it now. What. A. Blowhard.

    Park, go do whatever you do, but quit messin' with our Eve. She probably had heart palpitations from that damn phone call and now her blood pressure's gonna blow through the roof with the final realization that this is never going to work.

    I guess I don't want to demonize Park either… he probably has problems of his own, yes like maybe a breakup or something that pushed him to contact Eve, but to not face them and instead use Eve, either as a way to assuage his own sadness or boredom or uncertainty in life? THAT is when I don't like him. Go talk to your friends or something, Park. Don't go digging up old girlfriends who you probably know still have feelings for you, only to throw them away once your confidence/ego/whatever has been raised a little. Don't. Do. That!

    Blargh. But of course this is why op is so good.. every character is so flawed and human :'(

  43. BOMB. DROPPED.

  44. Really love the colour in this one

  45. TOLD YOU NING

  46. what. WHAT. park you tool!!

  47. That fourth panel is genius. :'D Just the way it's framed, capturing Eve gazing at Park but you can't see her eyes (so what is she really looking at?) and Park's eyes looking away from Eve, down towards his cellphone/himself… just so much told within a frame without words. Meredith, you're my hero. <3

  48. Well, if anyone was on the fence before, I'm guessing this is like the bulldozer coming to tear the fence down.

  49. Wha-? o.0

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