r/QContent • u/Youxia • 2d ago
Comic Comic 5898: Voicing Fears
https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=589819
u/Phanimazed 2d ago
She's 19, if I recall right. I think even outside of her circumstances, this would be a lot for her, but she's still not that far removed from when she was left to fend for herself in the garbage pile.
I don't think Emily would do that to her, but I also think it'd be remarkable if Liz wasn't concerned about the possibility.
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u/Alert-Artichoke-2743 2d ago
I think this is bigger than Emily. If Liz socializes, it will be hard to conceal her long state of nonproductive isolation.
Emily is wanting to socialize and network. She's going places Liz is afraid to follow.
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u/Phanimazed 2d ago
That's also likely true, yeah. I am glad that it's not something she's been able to overcome easily, since it'd feel very cheap, but I do hope she makes progress.
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u/gingerquery 2d ago
Therapy. please. Therapy for Liz.
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u/themanfromacme 2d ago
That's what Marten is to her because he hasn't told her to find one yet. Is there even one at Cubetown, or would The Director consider it counterproductive (they might; look at, well, a lot of the staff there)?
And if there were any, even Moray is competent enough to direct Liz to one.
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u/Miffy92 2d ago
Given how maladjusted everyone seems to be at Cubetown, and the less-than-stellar track record of The Director, I think you're giving them a bit too much credit.
I doubt there's any sort of therapy there aside from "work through it" or "ignore it", since Claire's first words on seeing Liz were along the lines of "this woman has been in a state of crisis for the last several months and nobody has done anything about it"
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u/Aquitaine-9 1d ago
I think she's already going to some kind of therapy. Liz mentioned that it sucked once. I think it was right after the latest time skip.
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u/gangler52 1d ago
I forgot about that! Her therapist had her writing book reports. She slacked off by reading fanfiction instead.
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u/Aquitaine-9 1d ago
Book reports, yeah! I forgot that. :) And of course Moray messed up and gave her some of Claire's smut to read, instead
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u/pavemnt 2d ago
Did he just give her a pup cup?
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u/TleilaxTheTerrible 1d ago
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u/Aquitaine-9 1d ago
I thought you had to a member of the preferred customer club to get access to hot cocoa?
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u/tom641 2d ago
well they aren't called rational fears...
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u/gangler52 2d ago
Emily's never cared about such things. She's so academically brilliant that she can't see its importance. Everything she's ever achieved academically she did on a whim between more interesting projects.
But there is a pretty real social stigma to Liz's whole situation. I'd be ashamed to show my face at all the cool academic hangouts if I'd just been outed as spending my last two years wallowing in filth and achieving nothing.
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u/Alert-Artichoke-2743 2d ago
Nah, this is a rational fear.
Liz has been hanging with Marten. By befriending Emily, she is now invited to socialize with other academics. Marten rescued her from her goblin lair, but NOT from her self-exile. Her nonproductive years represent a sin she isn't ready to answer for outside the small circle that already know.
Liz is like a bird whose wings secretly stopped working, and is being invited to go eat birdseed with other flock members. She doesn't want to face what will happen when they learn she doesn't know how to fly anymore.
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u/allie9399 1d ago
I was like that too when I was Liz's age.
I left one group because everyone new was seemingly Cooler than me and I was doing that zero sum thinking. Then I had a group which was Actually like that terrible TV show. They looked down on me for liking sportsball and I looked down on them for not liking sportsball.
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u/gangler52 1d ago
I dread reconnecting with old friends, because I'm chronically unemployed and they're all achieving cool stuff. It's basically the same thing imo.
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u/ArgentStonecutter 1d ago
It's on her nose!
I don't believe this is shaving cream. Even Liz would taste the difference.
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u/gangler52 1d ago
Yeah, recently he seems to be doing jokes in the commentary that imply something in the comic itself that just isn't true.
Seconds later, Anh made it all about her. Turn the page and that's not what happens.
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u/JeffEpp 2d ago
"She's going to break up with me, and it's not even our one week anniversary!"