Bittersweet Candy Bowl

oh Mike : ( lots of big feelings here

oof

Mike... :(

I swear if this kid spits in the face of Lucy's empathy I'm gonna cut that tree down myself

Made my day, lol

He’s literally just trying to make her feel sorry for him so he doesnt have to address or take responsibility for what he has done

Oh no- it feels like he's about to go off on everybody (Lucy) being smug abt being "right" about his relationship w Sandy, I don't love how this page ends...

Omg, not Mike trying to destroy HIMSELF before (he thinks) Lucy will

Like why automatically assume she going to say she told him so

I really respect Lucy’s reaction to him right now; she seems like she’s being very empathetic and not jumping to any particular emotional reaction immediately. This is a horrible thing to happen to someone and she knows how much Sandy meant to him. She’s become a lot more mature. Sweet girl :’(

I hope Mike doesn’t put his foot in his mouth and say something accidentally wildly offensive or upsetting to her. But I know it’s probably next to impossible for him to be rational and think too hard about anything other than how much it hurts at the moment.

We know how you feel Mike but try not to put yourself in similar situation that Lucy was in. I'm guessing he is finally coming to grips with all this after all this time, but I could be wrong.

Still the victim role?? I hope he properly apologizes, Lucy is feeling bad of course, but still, all the stuff he put her through? He must get on his knees and say loudly that he's sorry.

Still gonna see how this play itself.

Am i the only one feeling like Mike is exaggerating the conversation to get more sympathy? Just re-reading the last few pages that’s not what she said! She turned down the other guy but felt bad because she did like him. And her lack of communication was out of guilt not because she already started a relationship. And as much as i don’t like Sandy i hope she does make a return just to call Mike on it.

He’s definitely exaggerating but I don’t know if I’d say it’s to gain more sympathy, I think it’s more like that’s just how he feels. He’s very emotional rn and not thinking rationally of course. And to be fair he felt the same way that Sandy feels about Francis about Lucy before and was called a cheater for it and all that so I don’t think it’d be a stretch for him to feel what she’s doing is cheating too.

I wouldn't say he's exaggerating on purpose. He just got into a fight with Paulo (obviously one he started but still high emotions) he was already pretty emotionally starved/stressed due to lack of contact from a girl he put on a pedestal only for all that to come crashing down when he finds she's more or less been emotionally cheating on him. (She having feels for another guy and singing his praises while she neglects Mike.) So he probably feels like his whole world is crashing.

Sure it's exaggeration to us on the outside but in Mike's situation it's ....well it seems like A LOT. (Lol, that's what I got out of this anyway)

Right but at the same time this isn’t the first time he’s exaggerated just to get a reaction and later regretted it. Like when he told Lucy that everyone would abandon her for him? And then later when she recalled the same conversation he tried to change what he meant and couldn’t even come up with a good excuse for why he said it. Sooooooo maybe I’m a sadist and want to see Sandy come back into the picture be told what he said and have him once again be put in a position to explain what he “really” meant >.>

Admittedly it'd be fun to see.

But on the same subject it still doesn't seem to be a purposeful reaction. Mike has shown to be very emotional (albeit he doesn't let it out as much as say Paulo does who I would say is much more emotionally mature because he let's himself feel) . So when he's feeling something he's REALLY feeling it. So being a teen (what are they Jr year now?) He like everyone still hasn't figured out that filter when you're feeling something real hard. So he'll say the most intense thing, realize, wait thats not valid thats just how I feel, and have to back track cause he didn't think what he was saying.

Again could totally be off base but thats the impression I've gotten XD

Thank you!! I was thinking the same thing! She did the right thing and turned the guy down but still feels guilty over having feelings for him. He's her stylist so she sees him all the time. Sandy was definitely a coward though. What I gathered from their convo was that she thought she'd simply "Get over it" and then later figured if she distanced herself from Mike he'd do the breaking up for her and she didn't have to feel like the "bad guy". Really immature and selfish of her but Mike is totally exaggerating here.

I agree. Just me wanting to see Mike suffer more. I feel like his friends really let him off easy with how he treated Lucy. Especially because when she came back you can tell that while she was the same ol Lucy she also has been to therapy and learned boundaries with healthy coping mechanisms. And even though no one really saw her as a parasite it was still obvious that she did some changing for the better. And Mike just got progressively worse

Feels bad but that doesn't mean you get to drag Lucy back in...go to someone else...

Based on the last thing he said, I don't think he expects to rekindle anything with Lucy. He expects her to hate him. He expects her to say I told you so. Just like all the friends he pushed away.

Lucy, having the most emotionally mature reaction to this of "wait it out, then decide on a response" and he's about to yell at her for it. Because he's gonna project his own "I told you so" self onto her.

Literally all the other characters have experienced emotional growth, but Mike. Mike has grown downwards - He is selfish, self-victimizing, and straight up showing abuser tendencies. I sincerely hope for Lucy's sake she has grown enough emotionally that she does not let him suck her into his trauma.

Mike bad? It may be more likely than you think

This made me laugh way harder than it should have

Boy oh boy does Mike need some fucking therapy. I know he wants comfort, but Lucy is the least obligated to give him that comfort-- and honestly, it's so bad for her mental health that he's put her in this position. And on one hand, she can't just walk away, he's in a bad place and needs someone, it just doesn't need to be HER.

It's shameful for him to play the victim role after all he's put her through. He still fails to accept responsibility for not conveying his needs to sandy earlier so the "relationship" would not have been gone as long as it did. Yes, what Sandy did is deplorable but she only was able to get away with it or brush it off easily because of Mike's inability to convey his feelings until it was far too late.

They BOTH deserve better.

Also, dunno why I had a weird idea of an alternative, but interesting view of the comic... Kind of a "What if" things were being done from an Inside Out perspective, but within the mind. Mike being himself, but various characters being various aspects of himself. Granted some represent more than others, but almost like the thought that drove this out there was with Lucy gone, and what he wanted (Sandy) around everything was good, but Lucy representing common sense. Common sense can be harsh and brings a wake up call to the reality. But then with December, in order to get closer to his dream, he pushed away his common sense worth of questioning things. But with common sense gone things got worse, never questioning why things are happening... but only everything coming back to a head once returning, once other aspects had pushed him to do what common sense had told him to do for so long.

Dunno, just strange thinking off of re-reading it after a nap, a very abstract idea of it, but damn would that be a twist if what was being seen was very much different like that :P

Now onto the comic page itself. Mike... *Channels the Kratos* BOY. Stop playing the victim to get sympathy from a victim of yours. For some reason you have a victim complex that nothing is the come-uppings for what you have done. You've denied that there were problems, and let it all fester until it became an ugly, and impossible to ignore problem... now you've ran into Lucy, someone you've pushed away so hard that you drove her to attempt suicide, burning that bridge twice for good measure... And trying to play the victim here to gain her sympathy. So I suppose with this mindset, your friends leaving you because of your sh*tty attitude and even blatant abuse to them was somehow them victimizing you? Grow up, grow a pair, and apologize to them, but first, you need to get your act together, wait for these emotions to calm, and apologize to Lucy. Then go down the list and apologize to each one personally.

Now then. *Channels Kratos voice* Boy, you're but a Boy, a teen, confused, no experience and everything. And it is so easy to want to run away, hide from the responsibilities of your own actions, somehow assign your blame to someone else, and play the victim. But you need to grow up *Channels Kratos voice* Boy. You first need to empathize and show compassion for others first before you really can be deserving of having it back from Lucy. Otherwise you're just here wallowing in it and wanting everyone to shower you in a pity party. Time for you to have a chance for character growth and become an adult *Channels Kratos voice* Boy.

Now... stupid ideas #73 for today... having Daisy's dad somehow being Kratos... and somehow having that Kratos "Boy" projection.... Well the only other that pops up more frequently and be fitting would be Paulo, but I think he might enjoy being that mental image too much...

This is ironic

Lucy: I told you so!

Mike: Aw, you said it anyway! (cries)

"awww dude, that sucks... okay bye!"

Eh, Lucy is damn good at this chapter.

It's a little weird that people expect Mike to behave appropriately and apologize to Lucy right now. Still, it is worth making a discount on his condition.

I don't think people are expecting Mike to apologize, more that they are saying that he needs to before he has the right to try to use Lucy as a shoulder to cry on. That doesn't mean he is going to or that we expect it.

Hmm, sounds reasonable. Honestly, I would also like him to start with an apology.

You reap what you Sow, little one.

I think my favorite part of this comic is reading how viscerally angry people get about teenage cats. Like Mike and Lucy both suck, that’s the point, they’re teenagers, teenagers are melodramatic jerks.

Seriously guys, these kids are still what, Sophomore or Junior year? Sure, some are more mature than others, but look at how far most of them came to get to that point. Every turning point for almost every character in the comic so far has been prefaced with that character's actions coming back to bite them. Now it's Mike's turn, and though some people might think this chapter isn't enough karma for him... it hadn't been just this chapter. Mike has been suffering for practically a YEAR in universe by this point, with everything getting progressively worse for him right up until this, the straw that broke thw camel's back. He's not over-reacting or exaggerating, he's seeing a relationship spanning over a decade, one that sent him in a downward spiral to try and maintain hope of it working out, causing him heaps of stress, which he even cut out Lucy to maintain, (which, mind you, SANDY prompted by feeding Mike how awful Lucy was, saying he shouldn't be friends with her anymore. People conveniently seem to forget THAT little detail when blaming Mike alone for the awful things he said) only to unintentionally be the one responsible for her attempt on her own life, then pushing everyone close to him away as they start questioning his relationship so he can hang onto to his childhood fantasy and delusion, and then... poof. One call, one sentence, and now everything crumbles down around him. He pushed Lucy to attempt to end her life for nothing, he was flat-out awful to his friends when they turned out to be right, and basically wasted his entire childhood fantasizing about a relationship that led him nowhere but down into a depressed solitude.

Is Mike instnatly redeemed because of his suffering? Of course not. He DEFINITELY needs to start confronting his own actions, figure himself out, and apologizing, REALLY apologizing, to basically every single one of his friends, not a single one of which is obligated to accept Mike's apology, least of all Lucy. But odds are most of them would because... well, they've matured. But desiring even MORE suffering for a late teen that currently feels like their entire world is collapsing around them because all the consequences of his words and actions over the course of a year suddenly caught up to him in the span of a few minutes? Seems like it would be a bit overkill at this point, no? There's plenty of time to spend on Mike being forced to make up for specific transgressions, he doesn't need to suffer much more before we reach that point.

I felt you on this. They are still teens and pretty much you said right. Mike just have to like legit reflect on himself. So far he's pushing people cast to the side and pretty much not acknowledge it til it's biting him badly. So to that Mike like I said before sit it out. He can state what he have and pretty.much reflect how Sandy push him to do the damage control. So I agree with you 100%.

I just want to clarify that Sandy never wanted Mike and Lucy to stop being friends. She even tried to encourage Mike to talk to her and make amends. She just didn't like that Lucy was being so physical with Mike that she was literally giving him nosebleeds! That's totally fair! Mike was the one saying things like "Maybe it'll be fixed if she just died" and Sandy instantly replied, "No! Bad!". I know a lot of people dislike Sandy, and that's fine, but it's unfair to say that she told him that they shouldn't be friends anymore.

Fair point, but it's also incorrect to say she had nothing to do with Mike's shifting attitude towards Lucy. So again, much like Mike never intended to drive Lucy to attempted suicide, Sandy never intended to drive Mike to hate Lucy. Both of them are just teens, and are realizing that their words can have serious consequences. Makes me wonder if part of Sandy's initial silence was her realizing that everything she said was being taken by Mike and extrapolated into things she never intended because of Mike's obsession with her, so she just stopped giving Mike anything he COULD extrapolate that would cause him to push more of his friends away. (which, if that is the case, obviously backfired hard, not that Sandy could have known since Mike hadn't really communicated his problems with it until this chapter)