Lucy doesn't want to be treated like a baby editionWebsite: https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/Booru: https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/candybooru/
>>150396844So why was this page supposed to trigger the thread again? Don't get me wrong, Lucy's magical appearance out of nowhere, somehow unnoticed until now, is pretty stupid. But it's also increasingly common--almost like a followup to the constant blushing and the plague of eyelessness. All examples of dramatic visual shorthand, and all overused because Taeshi can't add a new storytelling tool to her very limited set without spamming into irrelevance. And in any case, I for one am glad we didn't get a fourth page of nothing but Augustus shittalking Mike. At least with Lucy suddenly loaded into the server, stuff threatens to actually happen now.
>150396844Coming up: more of the same
>>150396966The most shocking thing about this page is the way Lucy's feet are drawn
>>150396844have to gaslight myself into thinking augustus is doing this for selfish reason because he's that fed up with lucy's pissy attitude
>>150396844She didn't want this.You might even say she never fucking wanted it.
>Literally minding how own fucking business >Didn't even know she was around and how could he when she teleports constantly >A literal open space>Mike isn't even attempting to look for her>"Until he leaves you alone"What do you MEAN?!
>>150397001Like flat elephant feet. It would be awkward for a biped to walk around on those.
>>150397002Gaslight? That's exactly what's happening, taeshi may have her faults and the comic has had some big fails lately, but she did write the entire comic, the majority of which is good. This is certainly how its being portrayed, I think she can handle this.
>>150396985Challenge mode: Tell Augustus to fuck off without defending Mike.Oh wait, that's not a challenge at all. Lucy just needs to hop up onto her soapbox and screech at Augustus that she is fine and doesn't need his help. As usual. This predictable drama quencher could be logically sidestepped if Augustus simply does not cave, so I assume real the outcome will be unnecessarily stupid.
>>150397083I see what you're trying to do there.
>>150397051Augustus has lost his mind because the plot demands it. Then again, he's been at Lucyspace ground zero for months now, so perhaps it would be stranger if his grip on reality was less tenuous.
So I'm going to guess what will happen here is that Augustus will spill the beans on the Lucy story, Mike will lose his shit and sperg before being successfully put back down and reminded he's not supposed to have a backbone. Being told the Lucy story and seeing Mike act like an angry sperg.wil turn James against Mike (likely with the help of David chiming in), which will sink Mike's compromised self esteem even lower. They will somehow broker a deal that Mike is allowed to go outside at recess in exchange for "letting" Lucy sit at the lunch table instead, but of course. This works for Lucy because she's pissed at Augustus and does not want to sit with him anymore (Augustus still can't be at the table because Daisy is there). Of course without James Mike no longer has a reason to go outside at lunch anymore so he just sits with the track team. Lucy will do nothing but act sullen and bitchy towards everyone involved through this whole thing.
>>150396844>until he leaves you the fuck alonehasn't Mike been actively avoiding Lucy for weeks at this point? The status quo holding pattern of this comic and the tectonic pace of the story has me forgetting how much time passes between events in this god forsaken town
>>150397190He went outside and Lucy might see him in the distance, and that's basically the same as harassing her.
Aren't we getting close to 2,500 pages? Will BCB have a special event/page to celebrate?
>>150397155>Augustus will spill the beans on the Lucy story, Mike will lose his shit and spergWhat's more likely is that Mike would feel even worse after being reminded of his so-called great sin, now spelled out with new details. Especially if James is upset with him because everyone is obligated to side with Lucy.>They will somehow broker a deal that Mike is allowed to go outsideThe only reason that Mike wants to go outside is because of James. If he's at the table, Mike would rather stay at the table. The fact that Mike ends up away from the table and ostracized from James suggests this is an exile situation. The spoiler dialogue could also imply that Mike is the one to reject James, nigh impossible as that sounds without a major spergout.>Augustus still can't be at the table because Daisy is thereLucy was fine with him sitting with her and Daisy at the Burgertron>Mike no longer has a reason to go outside at lunch anymore so he just sits with the track teamHe's not at the track team table in the preview pages>Lucy will do nothing but act sullen and bitchy towards everyone involved through this whole thingLucy did not look sullen in the preview pages, just her usual annoying self.Which is all to say that your outline has at least a 7/10 chance of happening anyway.
>>150396844oh fuck Tae surprised me wow, honestly did not even imagen Lucy showing up this page telling him to chill out.
>>150397190>>150397216Lucy's rightful safe space is an ever expanding bubble with no theoretical limit.
Why doesn't Taeshi just fucking say it out loud already?>If Mike was sorry and cared about Lucy he'd kill himself already
>>150396844please don't girlbossplease don't girlbossI beg you not to girlboss
BCB from the start now takes place in Noo Joisey, how do events change? must include:>December, whatever that was>How much more betrayal can Lucy take?>At least your mother wasn't a fucking hooa>James was... blowing.. the track team..>*Amaya refusing to talk to the feds*>MY SISTA'S CUNT>What, was he barkin?
>>150397287>What's more likely is that Mike would feel even worse after being reminded of his so-called great sin, now spelled out with new details. There's a preview panel of Mike getting really angry so it's gonna happen for some reason or another during this scene.>The fact that Mike ends up away from the table and ostracized from James suggests this is an exile situationWell yeah that's why the full thing I said was about Mike not being allowed to go to the table. I'm not imagining this as a deal that's fair to Mike, more like Augustus bullying him into agreeing to "If you want to be outside where Lucy eats so bad then fine, fuck off from the friend table forever so she feels comfortable to sit there." Despite as you said, Mike no longer even having a real reason to be outside. It's just meant to rub Mike's face in the dirt.>Lucy was fine with him sitting with her and Daisy at the BurgertronLucy has always been a hypocrite what's new. She'll enforce her rules on Augustus proportional to how much of a good boy he's being.>He's not at the track team table in the preview pagesYou are right I hallucinated him there. He's probably just found a corner to die in much like a real cat then.>Lucy did not look sullen in the preview pages, just her usual annoying self.I also said bitchy, this page probably falls into the latter. She looks pretty sullen at the table in the previews.>Which is all to say that your outline has at least a 7/10 chance of happening anyway.I'm sure whatever happens will be even stupider.
>>150396844If Mike got super angry and pummeled the starer, that would change something in Lucy. After witnessing him do violence like that, she'd be attracted to him. It's the only way!
>>150396844what is this comic? I keep seeing it posted and the expressions of the characters are as if they are always in some kind of mental turmoil. What exactly is the hook here?
>>150397457the comic is literally linked in the post you're responding to. go read it. it's not a bad way to spend an afternoon
>>150397457Why do you post this every thread,
>>150397413This entire situation is nigh perfectly set up for her to girlboss. She can tell Augustus to go pound sand while announcing she does not give a fuck about Mike. Lucy WILL come out of this smelling like roses while everyone else suffers, because Taeshi thinks she has been suffering too much lately. As wonderful as it would be for Lucy's high horse to buck her off, in public, it's just not going to happen. Because it NEVER happens.
>>150396844What makes this extra stupid is that Mike attends the same classes as her and walks the same road back home, if Mike backs down (he will) he's giving him permission to bother him until he moves because his idea of "bothering Lucy" seems just to be on her visual rangeAlso look at Lucy not clearing up the dreams are/aren't about him, because "NUANCE" IS GOOD
>>150397445Augustus with a Jersey accent chewing Lucy off after attempting suicide just seems super cursed
>>150397457>What exactly is the hook here?These days there isn't one unless you are a mentally ill womanchild or an insecure teenage girl who desires a vicarious power fantasy.
>>150397520those night terrors feel so forcedwtf happened, her mother stopped paying for therapy?
>>150397522For all we know, Lucy's dreams are about Mike but of course we haven't been shown how the fuck that is because ambiguity = good writing somehow.
>>150397457RUN ANON RUN LEAVE NOW NEVER COME BACK DONT TURN AROUND
>>150397573Bold of you to assume therapy could ever help Lucy. She's such a chore to deal with that I would not be surprised if the therapist gave up on her and warned the rest of their colleagues against trying.
>>150396844>>150396985Auggie you ain't Captain America. If Lucy's telling you to stop you better stop. Also holy shit, she's caring about Mike, or at least not wanting Augustus to escalate their already boiling division.>>150396966She teleport.>>150397001>>150397078Sauropod feet. Cool feet. Fleshy padding, vibration sensors.>>150397260I pray so.>>150397413She will, she's Lucy.>>150397457Yes, there is serious mental turmoil and heartbreak, worth the read.
I can't believe Mike is FORCING Augustus to be a weird asshole
>>150397542It still gets me how nonchalant he was about all this. Lucy's really desperate for male companionship if this is what got her so attached to him.
>>150396844Not perfect but I tried the art meme.
>>150397624Lucy cannot be held accountable for her actions, you see. There must always be someone else to blame, preferably Mike.
>>150397457Just so you are aware, it is a discord raid thread that serves an an advertisement for the comic and associated early access patreon (this is seen how they never participate in anything else on /co/ like the recent ms /co/ despite having a constant thread up with hundreds of posts) because the author is known to try self promoting everywhere like her or RedditThere is no real hook or reason to read
so does this comic have an actual plot or is it just deviantart melodrama
>>150397640Earnest question, here: Do you take anyone's critique on your art seriously, or do you ignore it as haters gonna hate?
>>150397664Wow, Suitcase must be pretty fucking shit at advertising, then, if these threads are the result. "Please don't buy our product, it is absolute dogshit!"
>>150397624kek
>>150397623I'm sure Lucy will make it abundantly clear in the next pages that she still hates Mike and gives no fucks about his well being. She's just pissy or Augustus whiteknighting without being told
>>150397457>what is this comic?A mentally ill woman coping with her emotional problems by drawing thousands of pages of sad cats who hate everyone and themselves>>150397475Go away Suitcase
>>150397475are you the one who makes the threads? stop linking the site
>>150397680>Suitcase must be pretty fucking shit at everythingI mean yeah
>>150397665The latter
I really do not see anything here that would goad Mike into flipping the fuck out. He's been cowering under Augustus' dweeby gaze and Lucy's presence sure as hell won't buoy his spirits any. Maybe if someone tore James down, but neither Wussy Edgelord nor Worst Cat have any reason to turn on him and Gay Twink ends up happy to sit with Lucy.
>>150397640There is no way you are not a troll for the WHOLE BCB readers
>>150397051>>150396844>>150397093Dude, I don't fucking get, why didn't Mike just say somethin like 'look back the fuck off man, I ain't doing nothing, I'm just outside, minding my own business, so please, do the same'. If the mofo insisted, then threaten the bastard with Daisy stuff.Shit's infuriating.
>>150397824could be something like augustus and lucy ganging up on him that sets his flight or fight response, james playing mediator or just something that makes him seem like he's siding with lucy and augustus and making a sensible and frustrated mike lash out on him
>>150397457Do not read this comic.
>>150397607No therapist would do that to anyone short of a serial killer for sure.>>150397624Ugh, Lucystans. But valid, Mike did go back on his word, which was a pretty reckless and unnecessary promise of staying off a public space.
>>150397930Because Mike has internalized his own alleged guilt so badly that going outside in the first place was a huge mental struggle. In the end he did so but had to keep justifying it to himself. Mike's resolve crumbled the moment Augustus insisted he was in the wrong. The stupid cat cannot get better until he feels absolved.
>>150397969Mike is in turbo self-blame mode, so everyone siding against him would just intensify the self-loathing.
>>150397624So basically Augustus got character assassinated but they can't deal with that and find a way to blame Mike instead.
>>150397824>>150397969Maybe the bottom panel is a flashback of sorts? Like they bringing back how he sperged out at a certain moment before or something, and the top panel is him at the present moment.Or maybe it is him getting so cornered that he gets pissed, decides to fight back, but as always it results in nothing and it comes to bite him in the ass soon after, like >>150397155 suggested.
>>150397667I'm open to and try to use constructive criticism as much as possible. Without doubt drawing is hard for me. Hatred is different which I ignore.>>150397665Yeah, there's a plot. Developed characters with complex, subjective moralities thrown into a pot of verbal turmoil and trying to find purpose and identity.>>150397708That's probable, I imagine she wants to stay away from and disassociate form Mike so Augustus isn't helping.
>>150398025>>150398071that's what I meant with the fight or flight response, something is gonna be said that he does a 180° and makes him snap and james and david are probably end up in the crossfire
>>150398071I dunno, the source commentary https://bsky.app/profile/taeshi.bcb.cat/post/3lp6pl74d7s2d makes me think it's no flashback.Anyway, Mike's two reactions are aimed at different subjects. It looks a lot more like he gets mad on someone else's behalf, or after someone convinces James to hate him.
>Augustus shits on Mike with the power of the narrative>Lucy comes in to say "But i didn't tell you to do this" so she can keep her moral superiority>But he's still right and mike deserves it of courselol
>>150398005What wil even make him feel absolved at this point?For me, the only way he gets some peace out of this whole thing:>he needs to grow a spine. don't sperg out, but don't take shit he doesn't deserve.>apologize sincerely but not pathetically to the people he feels like he needs to>cut ties with Lucy>break up and cut ties with Sandy>focus on his studies>get on a uni>forget about this whole shit. Find new friends, live a new life.
>>150397824Mike is just going to say something tardedhe does not win nothing opening his mouth, in fact the best move he can make is stay quiet and ignore Augustusbut he has to say something idiotic to make Lucy look good
>>150398097>I'm open to and try to use constructive criticism as much as possibleOkay, that's good. I notice that all works you have posted across the threads looks very similar and are either ignored or garner a negative reaction. Your commentary has implied that you are aware of their shortcomings. Is this correct?
>>150398199>What wil even make him feel absolved at this point?The only thing that makes sense to me is Lucy telling Mike point-blank that it's not his fault. Which is almost certainly something that Lucy does not actually believe. She certainly does not like to take personal responsibility outside of the most controlled circumstances.
>>150396844You know, I had been thinking that Augustus must be really confident he'd be able to make Mike give in within a single lunch period, because otherwise he'd be leaving Lucy completely alone at lunch for an unknown period of time. But no, lmao, the Lucy understander has decided that Ms. Abandonment Issues is going to be on her own whether she likes it or not until he can successfully bully Mike.Also it's really weird to me, this last batch of patreon comments is the least sympathetic to Mike in a while, yet it's also the one where Augustus just drops the act and admits his plan is to harass Mike every single day. I guess that's just what Lucy being visible does to a mf.
>>150398227I am yeah. I'm watching tutorials and using references but struggle with focus and efficient speed. I want to dedicate my life to making these look up to peak quality so we'll see.
>>150398275It's like I've been saying, any intelligence shown by the patrons is incidental and will always vanish before too long.
>>150398159>>150398176Yeah, makes sense, specially considering the 'breaking point' comment.He'll probably snap at some comment made by Augustus regarding either Sandy or Lucy. Those are the only two I can think of that would make him have that sort of response. Augustus will probably say it in the scrotest way possible, maybe in a passive agressive way, or some way to make it look like he has the moral high ground.
>>150398299Why do you think focus and speed are your main problems?
Bring me your stupidest theories on how the fuck James ends up hating Mike by the end of this chapter
>>150398299>efficient speedStop rushing things. Take an hour longer to fix your work instead of spamming this stuff out as fast as you can.>>150398330Lucy tells him "Mike made me sad" and that instantly makes him hate Mike
>>150396844That boy needs to get his ass kicked.
>>150398322It feels like I shouldn't struggle with them as much as I do with the actual drawing's anatomy and texture, but I do. Likely a result of anxiety and potential autistic burnout. So I'm mostly aiming to draw as much as I can in a short span of time, figuring that if my quality won't elevate I might as well make more.>>150398330James hears suicide and has no other critical thought, and David ends up being so horny for James that they just collectively agree to hate him. But that is stupid and I don't want Taeshi to write stupid stuff, but I also don't think she would.
>>150398320Why do people keep thinking that Mike is going to sperg out in defense of Sandy when it's been made pretty clear (for once) that he's over that shit? And why the fuck would Augustus gut Lucy of all people so hard that Mike goes nuts? Like the only way I see that happening is if Augustus somehow never noticed that he's just a Mike replacement and reacts VERY poorly to that little revelation.
>>150398343I'll try.>>150398349Better, ass fucked. Till sissy Auggie learns to stop disrespecting dom master Mike.Which is a stretch considering how depressed and why Mike is now.
>>150398330>Mike will get more and more cornered by Augustus>he reaches a braking point>spergs out, punches or physically threatens Augustus>Lucy panics, starts to shout a bunch of stuff against Mike>other people (either David or Augustus) join in>James' opinion shifts>Mike runs away.
>>150398330>Mike: "I hate you and Augustus so much, Lucy! You should've died!">James: "Mike... how can you say something like that?"
>>150398375I can tell you, in all earnestness, that your focus on speed is misplaced. That is not an area you need to be worried about and should probably avoid altogether for now. Otherwise you will just worsen your burnout. I don't really understand your reasoning regarding quantity > quality because--and this is coming from a place of honesty, not hostility--no one and I mean ABSOLUTELY NO ONE will value artistic quantity over quality at your current level. Believing otherwise is a mistake and you must abandon it immediately to focus on actual important areas.
>>150398424Okay this is actually great. Then Mike most likely goes unloved for weeks, jumps off a bridge.
>>150397624>Shoots Mike in the chest>How could Mike do this to him?!
>>150398389I included Sandy to give it a broader range of possibilities, but it might happen, since he might believe at this point that Sandy is all that he has left.Also regarding Lucy, I did not mean that Augustus would talk shit about Lucy, but rather that he would mention somthing involving Mike and Lucy's past (most likely hinting at the suicide or how he trated her before), and that could potentially make Mike have some reaction.
>>150398330Mike calls him a stupid slutty faggot who deserves to get AIDS, in those exact words. It'd be incredibly ooc and the comic is too whitewashed to ever allow such language.
>>150397708Of course, defending Mike would come as taking a side or deciding on her feelings, and Lucyspace can't work if we get even a glimpse of what she thinks about
>>150398450Juicy. I can imagine Mike would blurt that out of impulse without meaning it but it would be too damaging to take back. He's too self-degredaing to mean that, like he has this image that Lucy and everyone else for that matter has to matter more than him.>>150398452I get ya. I do value quality, I've just been trying to increase that and quantity at once since I consider them equally important, but have been unsuccessful. I hope to increase both as much as humanely possible.
>>150396844Oh, forgot I did this too.
>>150397930The only time he stood up for himself after years of mistreatment the other person tried to kill herself, and he's been beating himself up about it because said person kept using that as a low blow against him to shut him up (but it's ok because she never wanted it), the person he went through all of this for fucking cheated on him and every friendship he has is so fairweather that the moment they can't get access to his dick they drop him off, and also suddenly his home life is a mess with his parents fighting, his sister disappearing and taking care of his baby brother. Dude has no self preservation or steem anymore, he's not falling only because he keeps using the momentum to put one feet in front of the other
It's so funny to me that Mike and Lucy are literally in the same classes and shit. Like how does that just get glossed over in all of this? Him existing outside at the same time as her with absolutely no interaction whatsoever is giving her PTSD, but she somehow manages to tank being in the same room with him for hours every day? I can't wait for Gus to blow the lid on Mike "going back on his word" so that we get to see the characters try to take this situation seriously.
>>150398650Teachers have a bet going that they're gonna fuck before one of them kills themselves
>>150398064Sometimes you have to remember this is a fucking cult, like how everyone was singing praises to Paulo for caring about Lucy and telling her he'd get rid of Mike for once if she so desired, and then instantly started burning effigies of him, writting scatting arguments about him being shit for assuming things and condemning him the moment Lucy told him to mind his own business
>>150398593Yeah, Mike now feels that there's no point in validating or prioritizing his own happiness cause it must not mean anything.>>150398650She likely has P.T.S.D more from the jump and Alejandro, it's probably not triggered by looking at Mike specifically.
>>150398587You definitely need to focus on making the faces more appealing. I suggest you study the basic theory behind that and adjust accordingly.
>>150398771Yeah, I struggle with them most.
>>150398482I just don't see why this version of Mike would get up in arms over either possibility.
>>150398593Poor bastard man. I feel bad for him, but at the same time I don't, because I know he sort of brought this upon himself.He had A FREE PASS to resolve all this shit (the talk with Sandy in which she said, after MONTHS without even showing a hint of interest in him, that she had cheated), but for no fucking reason he refused it, in the most artificial, nonsensical, absurd and unrealistic way possible, ON THE SAME DAY, no less.If he had broken up with her then and there, literally everything would've been fine now, even if he didn't have anything with Lucy. He'd have his inner peace, he'd be free from guilt, he'd be free to go after someone romantically or not, etc.
>>150398330>Gus accuses Mike of only hanging around James and David so that he can creep on Lucy>David points out that Mike has been weird about thirdwheeling with them>Mike can't articulate why he insists on hanging around James because it's complicated>James takes the bait and suddenly suspects the arcade incident was also a Lucy-stalking thing>the fact that Mike tried to get James and David to stay inside gets conveniently forgotten>James feels used and disgustedLocking in my guess
>>150398810You struggle in many areas but should focus on improving on just one for now since the everything at once approach has failed to produce noticable results.
>>150398389I don't think he'll come in defense of Sandy but using her as a way to hurt Mike, like making fun of him being chained to her because he's making her want to kill herself too, and turning it into some crude ribbing about how much hed love two have to girls killing themselves over someone pathetic abuser with sucky parents
>>150398866Okay.
>>150398825Same desu, but it is the only thing I could think of. What do you think it could be the reason?
>>150398877>sucky parentsNow that you mention it, I could maybe see Mike getting set off by Gus saying something about his family.
>>150398848That would be a fucking riot, Lucy becoming a gas and occupying the whole volume of the arcade was Mike creeping on her, priceless
>>150398848That's a plausible chain of events actually, well done.
>>150398924It's possible seeing as Lucy's mom is open to blabbing about Mike's home life it it'll make Lucy not hate her
>>150396844David's head is even bigger than usual holy shit.Also recess? I don't think I ever called my lunch break a recess in high school. It sounds so juvenile.
>>150399153>David's head is even bigger than usual holy shit.Oh damn, i didn't even notice, it's fucking massive.
>>150396844>"Until he leaves you alone"but he hasnt messed with her at all. He didn't know she was out there and it's an open space by the track, and he's a member of the track team. Augustus is trying to force someone to stay inside when that's high bullshit in the first place. Like, what is this nigga doing?>>150397624This one isn't even really on Lucy like that this time. As annoying as her problems are, this is literally all Augustus's doing. He's fucking it up himself. Mike went back on his word but the "Word" was incredibly fucking stupid in the first place. It only got as far as it did because Mike has had no spine for years in real time.
So will someone catch up to Mike before he jumps off the bridge, or will he manage to make an actual suicide attempt and wind up in a coma for 7 years realtime?
>>150398199>What wil even make him feel absolved at this point?Lucy "Forgiving" him for december and everything that came after. Which is really dumb because the whole reason December happened was because of how shitty a person she was. But this comic constantly decides that Lucy doesnt need to reflect on her bad actions and that everyone else should change for her.>>150399326Someone will stop him because if Mike attempts to kill himself then Taeshi can't have everyone in universe shit on him anymore. It would be too obvious that she's uneven on Mike and Lucy treatment even for her discord readers.
>>150397445December>"you're a fuckin' leech, always suckin' da blood from mah bawls"At least your mother wasn't a fucking hooa>"I swore I wasn' gonna be like my old man - but you're tempting me Paulo, you's tempting me!"Amaya refusing to talk to the feds>"One a ya's a snitch. It's either Amaya tightlips, or Daisy da squealer."Lucy having a "wonderful singin' voice" would also be a lot funnier contrasted with her speaking in jersey-accented shrieking.
>>150397664>this is seen how they never participate in anything else on /co/Personally, I DO participate in other threads, I just don't bring up my "favorite" shitty furry melodrama webcomic up in them, because I'm not retarded.
>>150398885I suppose it's not impossible that Mike could turn on Augustus once it's clear he's lost the Mandate of Heaven and has been bullshitting Mike to make him feel guilty as possible. Presumably after Lucy has girlbossed off with James and David in tow.
>>150398848I dislike how plausible this sounds.
>>150399326>wind up in a coma for 7 years realtimeTaeshi could not possibly restrain herself for that long. He'd be brought back out within a month's time so the torment could recommence.
>>150399790>Lucy can go visit him in the hospital and say what a selfish asshole he is for running away from his problems by trying to kill himself>he can't even try to explain himself or talk about what he's going through because he's in a coma>Sandy can go visit him and yammer uninterrupted like she already does so nothing is different between them>perfect unbreakable status quo
It would be based if the cast circled their wagons around Lucy and exile Mike because they think she is completely justified in blaming him for her suicide attempt. Then they find out she's only upset with him over the Sandy bullshit and realize Lucy is just fucking nuts.
>>150398199Story wise? He would need to either be forgiven put loud by Lucy and not have her take it back next day like Eternal flame, or him deciding he can never make up for it and giving up, possibly just moving out of Roseville with one of his parents after the divorce Meta wise? Nothing sort of dying will ever be enough, and then people will complain he was a coward and abuser for just killing himself and not talking things with Lucy instead
>>150399873Augustus was the most critical of Lucy and her problems, so you know what you can expect about that
>>150399850None of that would matter to Taeshi if Mike is not suffering. Besides, the nurses would keep having to pry Lucy off Mike every time she visits.
>>150399873>It would be based if the cast circled their wagons around Lucy and exile Mike because they think she is completely justified in blaming him for her suicide attempt. Then they find out she's only upset with him over the Sandy bullshit and realize Lucy is just fucking nuts.I think most people assumed a version of this would happen once she came back. Truth about the events leading up to her suicide attempt hit and the table exiles Mike. Left without a lightning rod for her bad traits, they all have to deal with Lucy like he did.But for some reason or another Taeshi won't address this. Most likely because she can't think of a way where Mike would be let back into the friend group that isn't forced even for her.
>>150398848>>150398944>>150399767It is so plausible that it is unlikely to be the case, considering this comic usual modus operandi.
>>150398848>>150398424Between these and all the girlbossing Lucy can be doing, I've got a specific addition for the scene with Mike snapping:He doesn't even get to lay Aug out, Lucy blocks the punch.
>>150397520It's kind of incredible how Taeshi's only method of gassing up a character/ship is to blow up other ones. Lucy shouldn't be hard to make sympathetic: she's clearly anxious, paranoid, and emotionally unstable. But Taeshi refuses to go the obvious route of acknowledging and showing Lucy being fucked up, trying to overcome her personal demons and not resent/fear her friends, etc., because that would make Lucy look "pathetic". So instead Lucy always gets the last word and everyone's forgiveness, which just makes her look like an asshole.>>150398221>picI appreciate the way the artist captured Lucy's random unprovoked hostility.
>>150399976You misunderstand. In BCB, reasonable outcomes are unlikely. This anon's idea is plausible because of how fucking stupid and contradictory it is.
Tldr haven't read bcb since Lucy was dreaming about the alleyway and just saw this at the top of the catalog, but is Taeshi STILL only able to make a reader sympathetic to a character by having another character shit on them?
>>150397445>BCB from the start now takes place in Noo Joisey, how do events change? Always has been anon.
>>150399952>Most likely because she can't think of a way where Mike would be let back into the friend group that isn't forced even for her.We've seen her force some absolute horseshit multiple times, so they only way that could happen is if Taeshi is too stupid to come up with literally anything.
>>150399988Ah geez... that'd very likely happen, yeah, though it'd be weird to see lucy blocking yet another punch directed towards augustus.
>>150400059No, that fails too. But she usually resorts to the would-be sympathetic character crying a lot instead.
>>150400091Yeah but it's like pottery or something. Definitely really lazy storytelling in which the same beats are recycled over and over again.
>>150400077I think she could come up with something incredibly forced but just due to the situation her fanbase would go nuclear because Mike can't really be redeemed in their eyes.December and the Sperg era have ruined him in the eyes of old and new readers even if the reasons slightly differ.
>>150398199>What wil even make him feel absolved at this point?Lucy telling him everything isn't his fault. In any sane, structured narrative that would be the obvious endpoint.
>>150400120Since when has what he fanbase thinks ever stopped Taeshi from writing anything? She might put out some poorly conceived "added context" later but look at how she's refused to actually fix Eternal Flame.
>>150400146>In any sane, structured narrative that would be the obvious endpoint.That'd be a pretty shit ending. Both of them are clearly far from okay and there is no climax.
>>150400146>All that shit that was definitely your fault uhhh it wasn't actuallyThat's absolutely going to happen because Taeshi's desperately retconning the first four volumes to save MxL
>>150400210It looks more like she's just been ignoring them for the most part. Blatantly changing up the aftermath of Lucy's suicide attempt is the big exception.
>>150400210>All that shit that was definitely your faultYeah man he basically shoved her off the rood
>>150400175Not the literal end of the story but the turning point for his neverending guilt-powered self-destruction loop
Why DID Lucy jump again in the first place if Mike apologized to her?Was it too late and the damage was already done? or was it something else?
>>150400277That makes more sense. I don't think Mike should be able to turn on a dime unless something breaks in the process, though. He's been far too deep in the self-loathing for some time now.
>>150396844Well faggot you can't "do this all recess" now because you've lost the subtlety, everyone knows you're literally just harassing Mike over stupid shit.
>>150400405Basically "oh noes I finally have a chance to get back with Mike but already agreed to move away I don't want to live and also I suck and nobody would want me anyway boo hoo"
>>150400429That could actually have potential because You'd have James telling the track team and David possibly telling Paulo, if not James telling both about what Augustus is really trying to do.Not sure about everyone else but as the other track team members are currently written, they would keep it and mind, and Paulo at this point might not stand for it and might even go to confront Augustus on his own.
>>150396844This agustus guy seems crazy
>>150397542>You'd be doing me a favorI still don't understand what he meant by this
>>150400405Abandonment issues, her family was sending her away because it's easier than doing literally anything else.
>>150400406It'd be a good place to start, at least.
>>150399952That did kind of START to happen. Lucy snapped at Paulo, Sue, and Daisy, with them each noticing and noting Lucy's hostility. But the focus was always on Mike suffering instead of Lucy alienating herself, and the comic got decisively put on to Mike Must Die Mode sometime around {Witch Hunt}.
>>150400563The problem is that, per the very comic you posted, both would happily ignore their ongoing problems after paying lipservice to them and try to go on as if nothing happened.
>>150400405One, she was moving so she couldn't really start over with Mike which probably put her on a bad place, two, she received that peace offering right after she had just shagged (allegedly) Paulo because there was no point anymore, and three, who fucking knows
>>150397542How did this attempt leave her with no negative side effects physically?She just...got better. No scars or lifestyle changes in terms of what she can and cant do.>>150397633It could be assumed he was the only one that she thought would tolerate her because she didn't want to be near the table group at all and she needed a security blanket.But since she didn't know he was still there, it just begs the question of why she came back in the first place...again.
>>150400533Alejandro had Augustus spy on them so one day he can enact his petty revenge and his personal lackey has dirt on Augustus that would have him killed if he refused to, so Lucy dying would get him off his back
>>150400604The Paulo sex is unintentionally funny for a number of reasons. One of those is how it did not factor into her suicidal thoughts at all.
>>150400533It reads like Augustus finding Lucy so fucking tiresome that he'd almost rather she go and die.
>>150400568Lucy ended up absolved of sin every single time. I don't think there was ever a serious push to alienate her from the table.
>>150400563I fucking hate that AU chapter for trying to frame Mike and Lucy falling back in to the same dynamic that made them hate each other in the first place as a "good ending".The only possible stable result of them adopting the exact same habits is a repeating cycle of attract-collapse-explode, with Mike and Lucy coming to resent each other again and exploding, then missing each other and making up again, then hate, then making up, ad infinitum.
>>150400533He wouldn't need to spy on her for Alejandro anymore if she just disappeared into mental hospitals for the rest of her life
>>150400736>The only possible stable result of them adopting the exact same habits is a repeating cycle of attract-collapse-explodeNot if Taeshi is right there with Lucy in thinking the only real problem between them was Sandy. That once Vapid Whore is out of the way, everything between Mike and Lucy will magically work out.
>>150400560Her family has handled her mental issues badly and the one time her mom had a point on her, lucy shouted her down with bullshit and they turned to shitting on Mike
>>150400774Logically, the family only caves to Lucy because they think she's super delicate and could go off the deep end again at the drop of a hat. A real shame the comic won't explore that even after Mike is exiled from the table and all of Lucy's dysfunctions should become impossible to hide.
>>150400568Considering that Paulo, the one most fucked up by being Lucy's friend, keeps forgetting and forgiving and batting for her every time you can see how little that actually matters
>>150400693I wouldn't say Lucy's sins were "absolved" so much as just ignored. Lucy exploded at Paulo/Daisy/Sue, and they never explicitly forgave her, but the focus always shifted from Lucy's relationships with other characters over to Mike being sad/mad/bad. In both those 3 chapters and other examples like Double Down, Lucy just leaves stage right and the chapter ends on Mike being lonely and miserable.
>>150400736>>150400765I would take the stupid, petty "Sandy was the problem all along" timeline over the hellscape we've been stuck in for the past five years. At least there'd be some two-sided attraction between some characters (besides Paisy which is so flavorless it may as well not exist).
>>150400840Taeshi is trying to trick people with the previews into thinking that Paulo will finally side with Mike over Lucy. But since the comic is now 85% about torturing Mike, that would last all of one chapter, max.
>>150400879Come Witch Hunt, Paulo explicitly forgave Lucy the moment she showed a little regret Sue was desperate to hang out with Lucy. The only one who never forgave Lucy was Daisy because she mocked Worst Cat behind her back.
>>150400881I'd only take it if the comic promptly ended thereafter. Otherwise it would just be another example of forced horseshit.
>>150400882If Paulo turns on Mike after what we've seen in the spoilers I'll drop the comic
>>150400935Daisy DID explode at Mike for being annoyed with Lucy, which was very OOC for fat cat, she might not actually like Lucy but she's follows the groupthink too much to go against her
>>150397296OF COURSE she fucking did. Taeshi needs her fursona to swoop in and save the day! So she has to throw Augustus under the bus and make him a total ass that is acting out of character for her to do it.Remember when Augustus was suppose to be on his "best behavior" lest he gets kicked out of Lucy's house?God this shit is so fucking stupid.It'd make more sense for Mike to constantly rant and spread rumors about Lucy out of bitterness then Augustus to tell him to stop then Lucy to come in or whatever the fuck.
>>150401168Daisy definitely does not like Lucy unless the plot demands it. Usually she's just jealous. The only thing that makes sense is that Daisy exploded on Mike because Lucy had just called out Daisy's boy craziness and Mike was stuck in sperg mode.
>>150398305He who bases his hopes upon the continued logic of retards is pissing in a whirlwind and expecting to stay clean.
Sometimes I wish this was a fantasy comic because then you could at least hope that Mike's endless suffering would eventually cause his Soul Gem to turn into a Grief Seed and something exciting would finally happen
>>150401419Mike needs an Isekai truck, stat.
>>150399076Is this another one of those volume exclusive chapters?
>>150400527>Not sure about everyone else but as the other track team members are currently written, they would keep it and mindFinn would put two bullets in Augustus for fucking up the headgame of one of his star runners.
>>150396844Oh fuck off someone kick the shit out of this fag already.
>>150401167Same. Other than few spergouts, Mike has been a good friend to Paulo, loyal and true no matter how much of a dick Paulo was, and for Paulo to repay that with treachery and betrayal will enrage me beyond words.
>>150401167They should kiss.And yeah I'd be pissed too.>>150401419The grounded tone generates its own conflict, a fantasy would elevate stakes but diminish the grounded conflict, it would be nice if it could compound them though especially with the risk of violence in survival scenarios.
>>150401629I also just think it's really cute that Paulo, who historically is a big stupid horny philanderer, gets completely paralyzed by his feelings for Mike. If he can suddenly just turn them off then that's fucking stupid.
>>150400935>Come Witch Hunt, Paulo explicitly forgave LucyYou're right. I was thinking of the other OTHER time Lucy exploded at Paulo, where she and Daisy showed up at the burgertron and Paulo was all "Oh hi Lucy, please leave me alone" and then that was immediately and totally ignored.>Sue was desperate to hang out with Lucy.True, but she never explicitly forgave Lucy, and definitely notices and feels awkward about Lucy's constant unprovoked hostility (pic related). But, Sue is willing to ignore all that and write it off as 'friendly banter' because she wants to be a good friend to Lucy out of guilt since apparently she always knew Lucy tried to kill herself (I'm still not over that stupid blatant nonsense retcon).
>>150397640This is the exact sort of autism I picture unironic BCB fans having, spot on
>>150398593Why is he reacting so negatively to being touched in that image?
>>150401994Wouldn't you balk under the gaze of an insane demiurge who hates you personally?
>>150399850>>Lucy can go visit him in the hospital and say what a selfish asshole he is for running away from his problems by trying to kill himself.Thanks for the ragebait. I am heated.
>>150400529He thinks he is some sorta anime character
>>150400831>think she's super delicate and could go off the deep end again at the drop of a hat. Lucy literally deteriorated mentally because of her relationship with Mike falling apart, she was fairly fragile before. The fact that she now has a guardian for 90% of her time mean she is crazy as hell and the night terrors mean even that mental state can get worse.
The way Lucy always seeks male validation... I can't picture her as anything but a boy's mom, always letting her son go with everything because "boys will be boys"You KNOW the first words of Lucy's son (and maybe even daughter) is going to be some misogynistic slur or smth
>>150400650I dunno, it's possible that's what pushed her over the edge.>Lucy decides to be extra nice to her friends, tries to give Mike his space, and gives Paulo some pity sex before she leaves.>Afterwards, Mike apologizes and offers to start over. None of her friends are mad at her, and Sue even thanked her.>Maybe she doesn't have to completely cut ties. Maybe she can stay in touch until next year, and still be friends with everyone when she comes back!>Wait, if she does that, then when she comes back Paulo will expect more awful sex.>Fuck it, suicide it is then.
>>150401419It would likely just result in Mike constantly transforming painfully, anon. Alongside an impressive regeneration ability.The or she would put Mai-chan's Daily Life ro shame.
>>150402196Very nice comic, anon. What even prompted Lucy's son to yell slurs at MikeXStacy's daughter?And who is the little monster's father?
>>150402196Ha, that's hilarious. Is that Liam's son?
>>150402257Mike as well. Lucy lured him out for drinks under the guise of "mending fences and burying the hatcher" and roofied him in the hopes of baby trapping him.
>>150402257Who knows, maybe she dared to have the same green eyes! >>150402260Yup! The one and only, whom Augustus fails to emulate
>>150402358Ha! The more things change the more they remain the same
>>150402392Cute. Probably spent a lot of time around Augustus and Madison.>>150402406Kizunanon nailed Penny's design. So heartwarming.
>>150396985This is the next page
>>150397457Comedy derailed into teenager drama, then it became darker, more retarded, more victimist, more insane, and more mentally AND morally questionable as the author romantic life, along with her sanity went to hell.
>>150402432I'm more fond of "Mike marries Amaya and all his daughters live with them
>>150398848Ah man, I really don't like that at all.
>>150402539Including incest baby of course
>>150402196Is the woman Stacy's talking with an adult Madison?
Holy shit dude it's been like 8 years of this singular plotline with lucy still being mad at greycat it will take them literally 20 years to finish at this rate.
>>150402799Finish? Sir, this is the only thing funding Suitcase and Taeshi's life besides their parents' money, this comic ain't ending till they're both in the ground or too invalid to make anymore.
>>150402539Oh I adore that universe. That's one of the more wholesome fanfic headcanons, I have an ambitious but promising concept where Porsche and Luna are iin college and they come home for Mike to dominate and fuck them just for getting lower grades.
>>150402680I actually based Penny's design after FamilyAnon's drawing of the incest girl
Do it. Do it right in front of all of them.
>>150403100There can be no greater act of rebellion against one's spiteful god than to cut the strings that they need to puppet you with.
>>150401552And I'm back to fantasizing about the rest of the track team beating the living shit out of everyone else...
>>150401640>>150401167Just a reminder if we get more Maulo baiting again it's just going to be dozens of updates leaving us like this with no payoff:
>>150397623>worth the read.Anon... when has it ever been worth the read?
>>150402939Nice, and you're a huge inspiration by the way, I look forward to more of your stories. I also hope we get LucyxJordan and Pauloxhalf-sister stories one day.>>150403330At least we have cute fanfics and art of Maulo.>>150403338Every chapter especially since Volume 2 stuck with me.
>>150402196Lucy would 1000% be a boy mom
>>150402682Thought that was a background character.
>>150403370I wasn't able to work on anything in the past few months.End of the year is around the corner and things get chaotic.
>>150403338I would just ignore him. That's our resident retard/troll, and it's a telling sign of how shit the comic's gotten that even he can't help but throw out jabs pretty often despite trying to maintain the pretense that he thinks it's a masterpiece.
>>150403428Oh shit didn't even notice the tripcode lol
>>150396844Forced melodrama so Lucy can be teh hero now she's on her splitting-episode with Mike. I sure do love how the creator and by proxy comic world constantly and mercilessly shits on one character until it randomly decides he's "suffered enough" and is insta-blorbo'd. You can really see the real-time mental illness at work here!
>>150397001Taeshi draws retarded ass Sonic feet because 1) she's a fucking sonic-fag and 2) because she feels paws will make the comic too 'furry' and she and Suit are deeply in the closet about being furries.
>>150403532Who would have the softest paws?
someone spoiler the next page
>>150396844>i'm not bullying him>one page later>I'M BULLYING HIM IN FRONT OF HIS FRIENDS FOR YOU
>>150402196Very cute, anon. I love your art
>>150403843We haven't gotten a new spoileranon since the prophecy one was slain by Suitcase I'm afraid.
>>150397001They look like mushroom stalks.
>>150404238i miss spoileranons...
>>150404389I miss the creative writing exercise that coming up with the quests I underwent to get the spoilers was.
>>150404238are we even sure, no way suitcase got them with just descriptions of what was about to happen, I don't think he even repeated the dialogue
>>150403420Mood. I have a lot of free time but set high expectations that I fail miserably to uphold, it sucks and I dread how chaotic it can get in the future. I have an entire schedule and routine where I know what I'm supposed to be doing and just can't. Even when I try a task it's underwhelming and disappointing. At the moment I can't write tens of thousands of words per day and I can't draw dozens of artworks every day. I know it's not impossible cause others do it. But it's better to try making it work in the present than hold it off.>>150403391I'm currently worried she'd be a toxic and dysfunctional parent but maybe she'll develop. But yeah she'd totally be a boy mom, and I forsee Mike as a girl dad. My headcanon has Porsche and Luna across The Candyverse being deeply attached to him, for Porsche mostly cause Sandy isn't around. >>150403428I do love the story, it is a masterpiece. I just sometimes sarcastically poke fun at the character's flaws.>>150403641Hmm that's hard. I'll say Sandy just for being the least athletic. Less calus probably. The softest silkiest fur goes to Sandy and Daisy.
>>150403428He's only "our" resident troll because he got banned from everywhere else and the standards of quality on 4chan are nonexistent.>>150403641Either Amaya, on account of being the lightest and smallest, or Sue, on account of having glass bones and paper skin.
>>150404508Literally me
>>150404508Ah, so this comic was indeed made specifically for him/bcb, I thought it fit the bill in both accounts too well to be non-specific
>>150402682Background character / cheerleader
Oh Mike, too submissive and breedable for your own good.
>>150402196>>150402392>Lucy and LiamWell, that explains the random sexist outbursts.
>>150403428>>150403451Completely brain broken
>>150404458i miss that too...
>>150404504>I'm currently worried she'd be a toxic and dysfunctional parent but maybe she'll develop. But yeah she'd totally be a boy mom, and I forsee Mike as a girl dad. My headcanon has Porsche and Luna across The Candyverse being deeply attached to him, for Porsche mostly cause Sandy isn't around.That's some good headcanon, and it'd be very in character desu. I see Mike more readily connecting to a daughter. He'd be sweet but a bit too lenient.
>>150404480Well, somebody blocked me from accessing the pages, so if it wasn't him it was Taeshi.
>>150406268yeah it was suitcase, just wondering fucking how
>>150403641meeee
>>150406291Suitcase tends to go scorched earth when it comes to get rid of spoiler anons, it's not the first time he gets rid of a bunch of patrons until he hits the actual one, it happened at least twice during eternal flame despite both text only paraphrasing and badly drawn artistic recreations being done when it became obvious he was using actual fucking forensic software of sorts to sort pages
>>150406420>The only thing Suitcase does worth a damn is keep people from spoiling/pirating patreon content.Sounds about right.
>>150406445Imagine having to encode your fucking shitty furry cat highschool melodrama comic done by your insane wife so that anons wouldn't know that Lucy and/or Mike was being a bitch in the next page.GEE, I WONDER - who the fuck is gonna scream and act like a soggy bitch?? Wow, such spoilers!
>>150406420>>150406445Imagine having such an adversarial relationship with your fans that you resort to amateur cryptography and mass purges in order to prevent spoilers/piracy.
>>150406506>>150406565What's laughable is that all this effort and massive punishment of readers was for the "magnum opus" that was Eternal flame, a chapter so divisive and infuriating that made them bleed patrons for months and got Taeshi mad at suitcase because leaving the phone call out of the actual chapter was his idea
Next Page it's just Augustus giving jabs and recalling what Mike did to her
>>150406767Mike literally just existing outdoors not saying anything while Augustus works himself into a frothing rage, amazing.
>>150406677>leaving the phone call out of the actual chapter was his ideaIt really is retarded to leave it out, the fact that Mike didn't immediately fold and actually put up a decent resistance only to falter in the face of Sandy hitting pretty much every one of his sensitive areas would have helped his reputation among her patrons massively.
Amaya continues to be the best character
>>150402196Excellent>>150403641Jasmine, she seems to take care of herself the best
>>150406677>>150406867Including the phone call would have helped a bit, but EF being dumb bullshit was overdetermined. It was a massive multi-layer fuckup of a chapter, and any ONE of its issues was enough to derail the plot and wreck multiple characters.I still want to hear Taeshi try to explain Lucy being outside, alone, at night, near the anniversary of her suicide attempt, just hanging out underneath the local tree on a hill. Because Lucy literally teleporting in when Mike got close is the LESS idiotic explanation.
>>150407114At this point Lucy just being able to teleport is canon>Loading in front of the empty tree in eternal flame>Occupying EVERY arcade machine when Mike and James visited, she was on literally every single one>Grabbing Augustus from the other side of the track like she's from Smash bros If I didn't know better I'd think she's actually a figment of Mike's imagination at this point
>>150407145Mike being schizophrenic was established even before EF revealed he has large chunks of missing time, paranoid delusions, and doesn't feel in control of his own actions.
>>150407114Lucy's parents trust her now
>>150406767More like taking Lucy's place in Decembering Mike so she doesn't soil her dainty little paws.
>>150407305
Lucy totally wouldn't mind being the other woman, maybe Mike should just use her to cheat on Sandy
>>150406872Amaya is playing the long con. She wants the Korat cock but knows that if she, a lifelong voicelet flatty tries to go for him when his confidence is too high she'll be given the forehead kiss and sent on her way. The benefit of being a mutician movie clerk is that you perfectly blend into the background in spite of being a named character. She's in the corner of every panel, biding her time, waiting for Mike to be at his lowest, then she'll sliiiide in from the right with a bucket of caramel popcorn, and understanding smile, and a mouth with Dyson levels of cock suction. She'll lead him into her dad's cinema late at night, use her employee keys to let themselves in after closing, throw on a dubbed anime movie and then suck that sad little Korats balls so dry he forgets his own name, she'll blow any memory or Lucy or Sandy clean out of his mind, Mike won't be able to hear the movie over the near jet engine sound of Amaya sucking his soul out from his dick. When she's done Mike will have UOAHd so loud he'll have lost his voice and when the credits are rolling the only thing either of them will be hearing is the cure yet forceful panting from Amaya as she pushes mike onto the sticky cinema floor and bites his neck, pins his arms above his head and mounts his fat blue grey dick. Any resistance will be met with a mute fury as she subjugates Mike and makes him her creamy little cum kitty. Mike will wander home afterwards, the smell of amayas sweat, saliva and pussy thick on his fur and scarf. He will have been so enraptured and dominated that he will have left his phone behind. Amaya will send Sandy a picture of her face smiling whilst she dribbles cum into her palm, the message under it will read "You lose. The quiet kitty gets the cream." Before she throws the phone into the trash and begins planning their 2nd date to the drive in theatre where she'll try to make the car extra hot on the way there so she can lick the sweat off mikes face whilst she fucks him
Soon...
>>150407305Why was she even angry in the first panel why the grudge??
>>150408212She's not mad she just has resting bitch face
>>150405820Too bad Mikie can't be bred. Augustus is probably going to harvest his "milk" anyway. Not sure what else he could do with the "needy slut".>>150406214Agreed. Spouses like Lucy, Haley, and Sue would be strict, Daisy and Sandy have potential to be too permissive. Interestingly I want to adapt that art where he tries dragging Luna away but he fails and reflects. He'd also be a passionate worker but I wouldn't mind a universe where he lets a partner like Sandy or Paulo be breadwinner while he stays home showering his kids with love and attention. There won't be a dull moment with aunt Haley and uncle Chris around too.
>>150407312Lucy should get cucked by Mike and Sandy, maybe she won't mind. Her breed also probably has curiosity, attention, and attachment deeply rooted in their genetics.>>150407398I'd love this. Ha, "quiet kitty gets the cream".
>>150403338>fucking around at work years ago, browsing on phone>see ads for some comic, two cats being cute together and shit, all ads seem to promise lighthearted hijinks>'alright sure, I am a complete sucker for romcom nonsense' follow link>comic is in the peak of suicide fallout, maximum world-ending drama, no cute hijinks anywhereI don't know what I expected>
>>150406677Sad cause I've always loved Eternal Flame.
>>150406872>Amaya wins by doing nothing.
>>150406677This. It didn't make them bleed patrons because Suitcase convinced her to drop that bullshit explanation as to why Mike got back with Sandy just hours after admitting to cheating on him, they bled patrons because having Mike rebound to Lucy then back to Sandy in the span of a few pages was the mask coming off that Taeshi is just milking this bullshit and thinks her misery porn filler is worth constantly moving the now-awful goalpost that is Mucy.>>150407145The theory that Lucy is in a coma and imagining scenarios where the world revolves around her explains so much. She can't actually imagine Mike and her working out so they can't be together, but she can't let go of him either so she just wants to punish him.
>>150408940Yeah, I was also hooked by the damn ads. It was many years ago, the ad was something like a picture of Lucy as if it was a date sim, with a few options for dialogue, and the cursor on top of the 'wrong' answer. it then showed Mike on his computer clicking on the wrong answer with a sad face.nvm found it
>>150409350>Yeah, I was also hooked by the damn ads.Me too, kind of, it was advertised in mspa a lot back in the day and I clicked on it from time to time because for some reason I really liked the bcb site layout. I couldn't get into the comics though, the scribbles and childish humor just wasn't doing it for me. Only thing I remember reading was that one comic where paulo and lucy had sex and lucy takes a pregnancy test. I think that's a bci comic now.
>>150406677>What's laughable is that all this effort and massive punishment of readers was for the "magnum opus" that was Eternal flame,Eternal Flam being her magnum opus is....that sure is something.Does anyone outside of her husband give her advice on her work?
>>150410258Everyone else besides her ever shrinking number of patrons and Suitcase rightfully tears into her for her poor art, meandering story, abysmal pacing,and the awful glorification of suicide in a comic primarily aimed at a teenage audience
>>150396844why only one of them got clothes on
>>150396844jesus this comic is so bitterwhen does the sweet happen?this isnt a bittersweet candy bowl, this is the one house you avoid because he gives out old people candy
>>150410513For a while now it's 95% bitterness to tell an emotional story, followed by cathartic 5% sweet and hopefully that'll increase later.
>>150410306he's an edgelord if you couldn't tell.david needs to inject his optimism into all these mopey boy cats via his dick.
shot in the dark does anyone have the ''library of bcb'' zip file?
>>150410513What's the matter anon? Don't you enjoy the suffering of the same character over and over by the hand of the author forcing her first on him? She finds that sweet, why don't you?
>The deterioration of her art style continuesHow does she do it?
So which is the worst chapter: EF or Participation Trophy? EF has more plotholes and nonsense overall, whereas PT has one MASSIVE plot hole with "Everyone knew about Lucy's suicide attempt the day after".Follow up: which takes 3rd place at the bottom, Witch Hunt or Rain Check? Witch Hunt is ridiculously OOC and blatantly indulgent, but Rain Check has Paisy.>>150408419Lucy's going to age like milk if she keeps that up.
>>150410825Got a friend who gave it to me.>>150410855Although paradoxal suffering and torture breed conflict and emotional weight so it's worth developing a character by writing them,
>>150410148I started reading around chapter 55 or something, Ever since them I only read sporadically. I was too lazy to go back and read the whole thing, but I sort of skimmed through and got the general idea.I want out.>>150410513Yeah, my thoughts exactly. There hasn't been a genuinely good, enduring sweet moment in a while, at least not one that wasn't immediately superseded by something bitter.Paulo and Daisy getting together don't count, nobody even cared about it.
>>150410961>which is the worst chapter: EF or Participation Trophy?Eternal Flame for me. It was the single chapter that made me rage the most, and still does to this day. Most nonsensical chapter ever, and the fact that it was hyped as something grand and stuff only make it worse.3rd place is Witch Hunt for me, for the reason you said. Just talking about those chapters is already making me a bit pissed.
>>150410961Eternal Flame accomplished next to nothing and yet somehow worsened an already terrible comic by leaps and bounds. Participation Trophy is sort of its mentally and temporally retarded cousin; a would-be inconsequential Sue and diversity squad drama bellyflop that introduced a baffling, messy retcon for a trivial reason. The impact of the retcon (if any) has yet to be seen, so at the moment it's hard to judge. Witch Hunt was largely emblematic of the Sperg Mike era and doesn't stand out for me. Yes yes, Mike sucks, Lucy gets her ass kissed no matter what she does, we know the drill Taeshi. To me, WH proved no more or less insufferable than its immediate predecessors. Rain Check was such a chore to read. I didn't care about Paisy even back when it had a small smidgen of potential to become interesting. Daisy's endless pining over Paulo got old fast because none of the deeper implications got explored. We'd known since forever that Paulo saw Daisy as off limits because she was too good for him and this was even played out in a then-recent BCI. Now the two might have shared all the chemistry of two noble gasses and Daisy's obsession with Paulo only made sense as a boy-crazed delusion, but that aversion on Paulo's part maintained just the tiniest crumb of dramatic potential. So of course Taeshi had to flush it right down the toilet. So Paisy went from an almost totally worthless slog to a complete and utter waste of everyone's time.Which is all to say, for the time being:>gold medalEternal Flame>silver medalParticipation Trophy>bronze medalRain Check>try again next yearWitch Hunt
>>150410825I think the anon that's over those (or done a bit of those) is playing the long game and waiting till either Nov. or Dec. to put out a new version.
>>150410961It has to be Eternal flame, it has everything that makes BCB the abomination it is>Paulo, the captain of Lucy's fan club and simp #1 telling Mike that the table taking her side is all in his head>Sandy saying the person she's cheating on Mike with is the VICTIM and that Mike is being too mean to him, maybe if Mike made a bigger effort in being there for Sandy despite being ghosted by her she wouldn't feel so alone>Displays of Mike being a pathetic crybaby by going berserk on his room (pulling on the curtains and bedsheets, that's all)>Lucy.exe lagging on the three>Master of retcons: The balls to have Lucy say she doesn't like to see him suffer, despite using her suicide attempt to torture and shut him up, Mike bringing up the scarf line being forced as fuck>Taeshi's mantra of "don't show don't tell ;)">Taeshi not knowing when the author should not be making ironic jokes for an audience that takes everything literally >The convoluted management of the story to return to status quo within the same chapter, we don't even get a buildup to disappoint the readers, it just happens>Want to know what happened in the part I didn't show? Want to know what would happen if Mike did the logical thing? Join my Patreon and find out!>The fact that SUPPOSEDLY they forgave each other and now Mike owes her something for some reason and you as the reader should be asking for his head on a pike
>>150410961EF is way worse because it could have been a potential end to so much bullshit. But because Taeshi and her husband are bad at writing, we just got a reset.To many, at least here, EF was a sign that things are never going to move forward. BCB is a eternal loop.
>>150411997Eternal flame was a blessing for some in the sense that it gave them the needed beating to say "no more" and stop reading this comic. Many drawings lost to it, may they be in a better place now
>>150411997Agreed. EF was the opportunity to end so much crap, and at first it seemed like it was going somewhere. But ultimately not only didn't, but it shat on the comic even harder, harder than anyone would've ever imagine as being possible. It reset AND worsened the status quo.Contrary to what Taeshi or Suitcase may believe, it wasn't something artistic or deep, it was stupid, it felt artificial, and it made no sense on the context. It really felt like it was a decision purely made in order to extend the comic's lifetime unnecessarily further.
>>150411686EF was SPECTACULAR in it's stupidity. Practically every page from the start through to the end introduced new nonsense.That said, I do think that the sheer gravity of the plothole singularity formed by PT will consume everything eventually. We simply have yet to feel the full shockwave of its formation.I do think Rain Check takes third place, not just because Paisy sucks but also because the chapter is riddled with really basic art and continuity errors, like when Paulo says "Hey, can I go work the back?" because he wants to avoid Lucy & Daisy, then he gets teleported next to Lucy/Daisy's table anyways. It's the dumbest shit.
>>150412113A good chunk of early to mid EF's page count was wasted on empty mood setting panels. Or at least that's how it felt until Mike finally started backtalking Sandy.
>>150411686I read a few fanfics that I thought were poor, and I genuinely felt some of the B.C.Is aren't good but don't dislike any of the main timeline chapters. Least best but none bad. December and Eternal Flame were both cathartic and tearjerking.
This is the most frustrating comic I think I've ever read and yet I can't walk away
>>150411951With regard to your second point, I don't think it justifies cheating, but Mike IS unreasonably clingy towards Sandy. Taeshi clearly means Sandy to be this vapid villain who's totally abusing Mike's good will, but what she's written is:>Mike starts to get depressed if Sandy hasn't messaged him within the last few days>Sandy's scheduled two trips to visit Mike over breaks>Sandy picks up and responds pretty much instantly whenever called (As seen in Witch Hunt and Eternal Flame)>Sandy calls Mike at the end of the Lucy's Birthday chapter and sends him a bunch of pictures before the chapter where Sue's leg snaps like a cookie>The very next time we see Mike is Eternal Flame, where he's melting down and crying about how Sandy "NEVER calls, [he] always has to be the one to call"So because Taeshi's idea of a "healthy relationship" is insane, clingy, codependent, and super needy, she's created a dynamic where Sandy is the "villain" for not devoting her entire energy and wellbeing into her relationship. Meanwhile Mike is supposed to be "such a nice guy" BECAUSE he's attention-hungry and obsessive to the point of tying himself in anxious knots and being unable to muster up the courage to call his girlfriend. I think that's why Taeshi decided that Sandy had to cheat; it's the only way to give Mike an excuse to break up with her that isn't just him being an asshole.
>>150412660>Sandy's scheduled two trips to visit Mike over breaksDifferent anon, but Sandy had routinely failed to make good on her promises to visit by canceling on Mike up until Model Girlfriend. Mike certainly kept putting faith in her but really shouldn't have.>Sandy picks up and responds pretty much instantly whenever called (As seen in Witch Hunt and Eternal Flame)She only picked up and responded immediately after Paulo left her an insulting message and ignored Mike until then. Likewise, she responded in Eternal Flame because Mike's call woke her up early in the morning. We are shown repeatedly that he texts her and usually gets no reply. The whole reason he threw his phone across the room and cracked the screen is because she once again failed to bother texting back even when he really needed to hear from her. The instances when Sandy does bother to interact with Mike are clearly portrayed as little oases of attention in a desert of indifference. Taeshi, for once, did not fail to portray a point.
>>150412758>Different anon, but Sandy had routinely failed to make good on her promises to visit by canceling on Mike up until Model GirlfriendHow is it "failing to make good on her promises" when she DID show up in Model Girlfriend? And besides, rescheduling or no rescheduling, that's still two trips she's made that took her way out of her way, which is more effort than Mike's made. >She only picked up and responded immediately after Paulo left her an insulting message and ignored Mike until then. Likewise, she responded in Eternal Flame because Mike's call woke her up early in the morning.Doesn't matter, those are the only two times we've seen her receive a call and she picked up both times. The problem is that Mike doesn't call because he doesn't want to "bother" Sandy - that's been outright stated. But that's Mike being too anxious to maintain a LDR, not anything Sandy did.You're falling for Taeshi's heavy-handed tone and framing of "Sandy BAD. Mike SAD." rather than looking at the events as they actually happen. Again, Taeshi's idea of a "healthy relationship" is fucked; look at the way she writes Paisy, or the fact she still thinks MikeXLucy is in any way viable. By Taeshi's standards, any couple who aren't in a honeymoon phase where they're tied at the hip are "not putting effort into the relationship".
>>150396844Why some characters are naked and other have clothes?
>>150412966>How is it "failing to make good on her promises" when she DID show up in Model Girlfriend?By making promises and then reneging on them.>And besides, rescheduling or no rescheduling, that's still two trips she's made that took her way out of her way, which is more effort than Mike's made.Mike has no budget whereas she is actively making money. The two times she was in the local area, Mike made every effort to come visit her.>Doesn't matterOf course it does because the context for both calls is obvious. Multiple characters point out that Sandy is outright ignoring Mike despite all his efforts to connect and it's the main thing that ends up getting under his skin.>The problem is that Mike doesn't call because he doesn't want to "bother" Sandy - that's been outright stated. But that's Mike being too anxious to maintain a LDR, not anything Sandy did.He texts her time and time again and she doesn't even bother to text back. With a pattern like that, what exactly makes you think she isn't letting most of her calls go to voicemail? And don't tell me he's overloading her with texts, because that's the exact opposite of not putting in enough effort.
>>150413084Because the artist is a deep-in-the-closet furry pervert.
>>150412660I gotta agree with >>150412758. As far as I remember, Sandy didn't really care much about Mike on some of the chapters prior to EF; the story says at that point she barely responded to his messages, and when she did, she wasn't very much into it.Even when she visited she didn't seem to care about Mike much, personally it felt more like she was just getting rid of an obligation more than anything. Perhaps it was at that moment that she saw their lifestyles weren't a good match, and that made her distance herself more.But it is weird to see this development on her, because she was always shown as being a kind and caring person, but then it was like all of a sudden something snapped on her and turned her into a villain.Also, I agree that this excessively clingy behavior isn't good, but I imagine the psychology behind it is that Mike feels bad due to the whole Lucy situation, so he wants constant confirmation that he is loved by someone.
>>150396844Not perfect but I tried.
>>150413084It's an in-universe norm which makes drawing them easier sometimes. You're suppsoed to assume that their dicks, pussies, and nipples are just hidden under layers of fur unless they have sex, which they do in canon and fanfics.
>>150413192So we have a working frame of reference, you should post an example of what you consider to be perfect.
>>150413084Taeshi devoted a small amount of brainpower to that question back in the day but no longer bothers, so neither should you.
>>150413117>what exactly makes you think she isn't letting most of her calls go to voicemail?The fact that we don't ever see Mike calling her, we DO see Sandy calling him, it's explicitly mentioned that Mike doesn't call out of anxiety, and the only two times we see a call made from his phone to hers she picks up immediately. I'm not going off implications or vibes, this is all shown in the comic.>>150413143>As far as I remember, Sandy didn't really care much about Mike on some of the chapters prior to EF; the story says at that point she barely responded to his messages, and when she did, she wasn't very much into it.We see Mike looking forlornly at his unreplied messages several times, but every time Paulo tells him to call Sandy and tell her he'd like to talk more Mike goes all "I can't, she's busy, that'd be unreasonable!". Paulo is an asshole and a dipshit, but it's fairly clear that Mike's "solution" to Sandy not texting him as frequently is just to keep sending her the same kind of "love you" texts and hope she starts up again.And yeah, Taeshi clearly decided Sandy needed to just be a villain and dropped all her prior characterization. But I do think the way Taeshi writes Sandy, contrasted with the way she writes her favorite ships, reveals that her idea of a "good" relationship is one where two people have literally no obligations or interests other than each other.
>>150413260>I'm not going off implications or vibes, this is all shown in the comicAnd I'm going off the neglect pointed out and triple underlined in the comic. There's no sane reason to believe that a call instead of a text is the key to solving everything when Sandy won't even bother with a thumbs up emoji. Everyone can see that Sandy just does not care that much.
>>150413220I think this is the best S.F.W one that I made with no help cause the ones I had help with look better.
>>150413363So these are all internal comparisons and not to anyone else's art?
>>150413395I have several art inspirations but can't do what they do.
>>150413433I suggest you stop using terms like "not perfect" when describing your art. No one would assume you are using a strictly internal standard based on a particular piece which is--and again, this is coming from someone who wants to see you improve--far from the outskirts of what any random person might consider "perfect." There are many fundamental problems you need to address before implying otherwise.
>>150413260>her idea of a "good" relationship is one where two people have literally no obligations or interests other than each other.I'm trying to think of any relationships on the comic that wouldn't fall into that mold.Paulo and Jasmine's was sort of chill, wasn't it? I don't remember them being too all over each other, but then again, it didn't go too far.In a theoretical relationship between Mike and Lucy (now, after all the shit that happened), I can see them being reserved with each other at first, but since the both of them are so damn needy, it'd develop into a super clingy sgary relationship, where the both of them would pratically be joined by the hips. The comic would indeed probably portray this as an ideal thing, though.At the end of the day, people have their preferences to what they think an ideal relationship is or isn't I guess. Personally, I think it just needs to be something genuine, as in, the two need to really love, care and support each other when needed, but indeed it doesn't need to be a clingy thing. Both people just need to feel loved and respected.
>>150413260>And yeah, Taeshi clearly decided Sandy needed to just be a villain and dropped all her prior characterization.which is most likely why we never see how her life goes on her end.The less Sandy appears, the easier it is to make her a bad person without fans questioning it. In the future she's probably going to reveal that Sandy never stopped cheating, and nobody is going to be surprised despite taeshi possibly making it a huge reveal.
>>150403884Honestly the bullying might be possible to enjoy if it was like Venus Puts Fur on Me Manga but it's just boring. Grade schoolers got more fight in them.
>>150413473Okay. I do want to nail anatomy sooner than later, I hope to make them detailed to the point of realistic proportions but not being photorealistic. Shows like Invincible and Vox Machina are big art style inspirations.
>>150414062It's also that the bullying is stupid because everything Augustus is using to push Mike down are false statements and stupid comparisons that only work because Mike is borderline suicidal at the moment. Imagine calling Lucy's punching bag an "abusive husband"
>>150414513True but Ausgustus is a gaslighting bastard. Also the kid who nearly raped someone should not be talking so much shit, especially when he continues his shit behavior.>Lucy's punching bag an "abusive husband"I wish this was during sperg Mike so he would try and punch him like he slammed Paulo. Some rage would have been completely justified right now. Augustus has said he plans to not make this a regular occurrence.
>>150410961I am definitely in the minority here but I actually didn't start disliking EF until about 5-10 chapters later. It was horribly frustrating to read but I thought Mike taking Sandy back was actually pretty realistic and that Lucy being out at the tree wasn't too much of a stretch. I mean its a place thats important to both of them and their past was probably on Lucy's mind considering that it was around the 1 year anniversary of her ketchup disaster. Also, they live in the same neighborhood and we don't see much of what Lucy does alone, so for all we know she goes out there often. Did i hate what happened? I woke up the next morning feeling frustrated at mike before i even opened my eyes, but i still wanted to see where it went after that. I think post-EF has been the worst part of the comic thus far, every consequence of EF has been pretty badly done and all the new stuff NOT related to it has been pretty shit. I should also specify that by the time I read it the comic was already pretty well past EF, i think reading it real time would have been way worse. Still, i can't get behind the idea that EF is some singularly comic-ruining chapter, I think it was just a really big story decision that they utterly failed to follow up in an interesting or satisfying way.
>>150414727My mistake, I meant he plans to make this a regular occurrence but I also realized something. Mike woukd take it till he doesnt do to fight or flight. So either he will try and attempt suicide or he will beat Augustus unconscious. Ausgustus us also a massive pussy.
>>150414730I figured that Lucy coming out there and kicking the tree to feel better was just another example of her Sandymalding.
>>150413500>I'm trying to think of any relationships on the comic that wouldn't fall into that mold.Both Tess and Jasmine had other stuff going on, but that was portrayed as a bad thing that meant they had to break up with Paulo. Sue and McCain were a pretty good couple, but Taeshi decided to get rid of McCain out of spite over him being the most popular character.>At the end of the day, people have their preferences to what they think an ideal relationship is or isn't I guess.I suppose that's true, there isn't anything inherently wrong with a super clingy relationship where they do everything together. But to me it seems like it'd be unsustainable. Most people need time to themselves, and opportunities to pursue interests or ideas of their own, or they start to feel suffocated. Paulo, Mike, Lucy, and Daisy all seem like they'd be fucking exhausting even just as friends, because they're super clingy, jealous, and have a tendency to push ALL their emotional chips onto whoever they're talking to.>>150413511That's the funny part; because Taeshi sucks at writing sympathetic characters, the most likable ones are the ones who appear the least and she doesn't intend to be sympathetic. Sure, the likability of Sandy/Stacy/McCain/Amaya is mostly a matter of headcanon, but that's still better than the MAIN characters, who's every canonical appearance reiterates that they're the worst. Sandy may be a slutty ditz and Stacy may be a bad friend, but I can think of excuses for them. Any such excuses for Mike or Lucy have been explicitly ruled out.To be clear, I know Sandy is meant to be a vapid cheating villain, and Taeshi will continue to double and triple down on that until everyone gets it. I only say she's a benighted heroine facetiously, out of spite and disdain for Taeshi and her authorial intent.
>>150415532>Taeshi sucks at writing sympathetic charactersProbably because she has only a vague idea of what it means to be sympathetic and what we are witnessing is how she wished it worked.
>>150415520That still makes Lucy profoundly insane, and begs the question of why her family and Augustus would be fine with her wandering off at night near the anniversary of her suicide attempt.Jordan going "No, you can't walk home alone" was AFTER Eternal Flame. So the only way to explain Jordan being fine with it before is if Augustus told him "hey Jordan, Lucy came back late last night and tried to rape me then started sobbing about how she wanted to die, I think we should keep a closer eye on her".
>>150416025>That still makes Lucy profoundly insane, and begs the question of why her family and Augustus would be fine with her wandering off at night near the anniversary of her suicide attempt.Logically they shouldn't. They are still worried about Lucy and in-universe, it hasn't been too long since her attempt. No one should want her wandering around alone.
>>150414730>I thought Mike taking Sandy back was actually pretty realisticIn what kinda fucked up world would that be considered realistic? it literally only works if Mike has braind damage and a cuck fetish.>dude literally just discovered he was cheated on>after months with his gf barely showing interest>Sandy showed no remorse at first (poorly retconned later)>she actually said how she liked being with the dude she cheated Mike with (how he was there for her, etc.)>Mike then finds Lucy, the girl who he cares about and feels great guilt for believing he caused her harm>harbors intense feelings despite their complicated backstory>Lucy acts reluctant at first, but becomes supportive>they share a romantic, heart-to-heart moment>kiss and part ways>later that day, sandy give a half-assed apology and excuse>on the very next day, Mike acts like a happy retard and takes Sandy back as if nothing had happened, both regarding Sandy or LucyShit makes absolute no sense, no sane person with any amount of wit and/or self-respect would behave like that. It was an utterly ridiculous chapter, through and through.
>>150416175My guess is if they tried, Lucy would just yell them down. She can yell anyone down for some reason.
>>150417140>In what kinda fucked up world would that be considered realistic? it literally only works if Mike has brain damageMike did get the back of his skull stomped on by a grown man, and I don't think he ever got that checked, see>>150411951. That or the time he nearly died saving Lucy.When is the last time the comic had one of the teens in danger again?
this comic would improve a lot if we gave the author some drugs...I'd say salvia or dmt would do fine.a potent trip with shrooms may even do the trick and break the stagnation.
>>150417257I think the last real danger was with Alejandro
>>150406420Maybe we'll get insanely lucky and that spoiler with James being pissy at Mike and Lucy being back at the table was just a leaker-trap...
>>150418304Wasnt that from Taeshi bluesky
>>150418613I think it was discord? also I never saw this preview, is this a flashback or is the stripped scarf making a comeback?
>>150416025It's almost like Taeshi forces dumb illogical shit to happen whenever she needs to further the plot or something. Anyway, I didn't mean to imply Lucy isn't nuts, just that it makes sense for her character.
>>150418731I can only imagine it's a flashback because Sandy took the striped scarf when she gave him the second blue one. If Mike magically found a replacement, I don't know why he'd wear it. Judging from the pic, it wouldn't symbolize any kind of independence or emotional maturation. He'd just be the same old sad cat.
>>150418841>Sandy took the striped scarf That bitch!
>>150418841but he wasn't crying when she took it, unless she's giving it back after the double date lmfao
>>150418906>unless she's giving it back after the double dateThat'd be kind of sad, in that it would symbolize Sandy giving up on her childhood innocence and romance.But it would also be very funny, in that it would also mean Mike never displays any initiative or agency, and neither he nor Lucy ever "win" except by default.TOTAL SANDY SWEEEEP
>>150418731It's a BCI, so it'll be a stupid what-if
>>150419156You're right, the line weight makes it obvious. Bit of a shame, I had started hoping for a breakdown hallucination.
>>150398330Is this an actual future page? Because it's depressing as hell...
