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New strip! http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/dinner-with-me/

Ouch. Well I guess we all needed that affirmation about where Peggy sits on their relationship.

Gary's relationship with Peggy is perhaps the most rewarding, certainly most functional (in terms of the person and communication), which he has ever experienced, so can't fault him for taking Zii's words to heart; honestly, they seem fine as they are for now, which is some stability both had lacked for a while.

James and Tracy can both "buzz off." I'm glad Gary seems to be ignoring them for now - one panel isn't enough evidence to confirm this, however, his internal monologue occurred while he avoided eye contact with either of them.
Whether the dim duo actually care for Gary or if it is simply fulfilling their cuckold kink, Gary (and the audience) would be better off without them - as influences on the plot, anyway.
I do enjoy the *honesty* in Gary's expression, though.
... I hope he doesn't take one or both of them, or they follow him, to the restaurant Peggy's dinner date is at. Her mentioning it seems like such a set-up; Gary's ownership of a spine may also add some more impulsive decisions, too, thus adding a complication that would be more frustrating than amusing. Conjecture, but remains a concern.

Unrelated to this update, I really like the artwork of the upcoming volume 9 (even if the wrestling thing still feels like it should've been a spin-off miniseries or something), as well as the line art for the Sci-fi bonus story.

I think Tracy is one of the characters that had great potential that was wasted.

Tracy still has potential—she just needs to get out of this "half of bi-duo competing for Gary" rut, which has removed her from showing her cleverer side.

The stars are beginning to align. Still to early to see who will wind up with whom, and whether Cthulhu will rise from the depths.

I am both saddened and optimistic after reading this strip.

On the one hand, Peggy declined Gary's dinner invitation. Sure, it was a spur of the moment decision for Gary. We don't know how long Peggy had her previous dinner engagement planned or who her other guest(s) may be. It might not be a 'Peggy seeing someone behind Gary's back' thing. Their agreed upon relationship doesn't have much in the way of boundaries, so she is cool. What makes me sad is that she turned him down, but as I said, she's not really at fault. I'd have liked for the two of them to develop something beyond casual sex and friendship/roommates. Gary actually put his foot out and took the initiative and was (politely) rebuffed. He deserves to feel a little saddened, but perhaps the (minor) shock will do him some good.

On that point, he was declined. It is a good lesson for him, and us who have shipped Peggy/Gary (being one of them myself). Gary has been dumped or been declined in the past, but most of that occurred before he met Zii (pre-comic history). Once he got his magic tongue, the world of women became his. Even when losing a partner, another one came magically to him... sometimes two or more! And while he got his rocks off (or got beaten up, or any other form of comedy antic) he wasn't satisfied truly. His talk with Zii wasn't just therapeutic for Zii, but for himself as well in retrospect. Despite Zii being in a rut, she is still observant. And while Zii's comment about Peggy & Gary's relationship status meant one thing to her, Gary had to prove if *his* definition of a relationship was the same as Zii's. It isn't. To each their own, though. One can learn from their failures more than from their successes. Gary shouldn't get depressed due to Peggy giving him a rain check. Instead, he should use this as a means to get out of his complacency. Maybe he should give Yuki a call, and help mend the bridge between Zii & her. Or at the same time, he could catch up with her and have an open and honest dialogue if their relationship can be rekindled and be dick-punch free. Or, give Zii a call and set that porn-viewing date and order in.

Maybe Peggy is having dinner with her nurse friend. It’ll be interesting to see who she is out with and what comes of it.

If Gary is feeling lonely and doesn’t feel like binge porn watching with Zii, maybe he could grab dinner with Jungan or Dillon.

EvilSnack wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:47 pm

The stars are beginning to align. Still to early to see who will wind up with whom, and whether Cthulhu will rise from the depths.

Fthagn.

Okay, there's a general plot point here; Gary has developed a bit of spine - that is, a little bit of moral courage and decisiveness, a willingness to speak his mind, and the realisation that he can and should decide what he wants for himself and then pursue it in reasonable ways. Great. But now he needs to actually do something with this. He's been coasting recently - perfectly understandably, his life's pretty good and the thing with Peggy is clearly fun - but this can't last forever, and the thing with Peggy isn't currently defined to be serious or permanent. So step 2 of the "Gary grows a spine for the end game" process starts now. He might see if he could get somewhere more serious with Peggy, but the stars don't seem right for that, so perhaps, yes, we see him deliberately bringing Yuki back into play or something. Or maybe he realises that he has unresolved tensions with Zii. That would seem to him to require going up against DiDi, though, which might seem like a challenge too far.

Or he could exercise some negative capability and get Tracy and James off his neck. James needs to be persuaded that he either needs to work out this latent gay thing with someone more appropriate than Gary, or put it back in the box; Tracy needs to be told that "dating" really needs to mean something other than "use as camshow kink model". Or, hey, maybe she doesn't; the neat resolution for our newly vertebrate and emotionally literate hero might be to get these two back together, thereby getting them off his neck and returning them to the status of fairly likable workplace friends - and if that means blowing Tracy's secret to James and promoting the latter to the newly vacant NCO slot, then heh, that might be a fun plot arc.

(Except of course that trailing round after Gary as he wraps his life up in a nice bow means yet more delays before we get the Dillon and Ruby resolutions. Hey ho fucking tiddly pom.)

Important things that we learned today:

1) Gary STILL hasn't banged Tracy. They were supposed to be going out (as per the tripartite agreement Gary reached with James & Tracy) but it's plain and obvious now that every single time Gary goes to her place she just uses him as a prop for her webcam show. "Right, Corporal?" Sigh.

2) Peggy, you cheating, two-timing... ahem, sorry, let my mouth run a bit too wild there. Anyway, it seems Peggy has someone else in her life. I demand that the next batch of strips take place at Le Filet, and that we find exactly who Peggy is having dinner with!

Ah, poor Gary. He shouldn’t give up hope with Peggy as she said she has a “dinner date” which to me sounds as though she’s having dinner with a friend. If it was more than a social get together, I would like to believe she would have said something like “I’m going on a date”.

Sure, logically, nothing says that this has to be more than a very brief setback to any attempt to make the relationship more serious. And Gary has developed enough now that he shouldn’t just fold at the first temporary setback. But — four-panel comic. Plot stuff tends to come highly compressed. I suspect that we can take this as a symbolic shorthand for “nope, not goin’ nowhere”.

There's something y'all should remember.
The last time it was Peggy who asked Gary out to a movie and dinner. Gary said yes, then cancelled a few hours later. Peggy went to watch the movie by herself (no sense wasting the ticket) and found Gary in the theater with a big-boobed blonde bimbo on his arm. 'Why, Gary, you cancelled our date... and came see the same movie with another woman?' 'Uh, yeah.' Then, when they returned home, Gary took the blonde to his room and they had sex so crazy frantic he ended up in the hospital.

Peggy has no reason at all to believe Gary takes their relationship seriously.

What Rosa said. Peggy has no reason to consider Gary anything more than a friend with benefits. It'll be up to Gary to change that impression.

Rosa wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:45 pm

The last time it was Peggy who asked Gary out to a movie and dinner. Gary said yes, then cancelled a few hours later. Peggy went to watch the movie by herself (no sense wasting the ticket) and found Gary in the theater with a big-boobed blonde bimbo on his arm.

That's a good point. Mind you, characters in this comic tend to have the memories of goldfish, so specific incidents may or may not influence them.