27-05-14 Magnet bringing us closer

[Giz]

New strip! http://www.stickydillybuns.com/strips-s ... _us_closer

[brasca]

I wonder if Ruby is the first one to notice "Matt Dillon" or the first to narrate it like she's part of the audience... which she kind of is right now.

Now would be the best time to be a killjoy if she can overcome the massive amount of yaoi going on.

[Spidrift]

Readers have noted the "Matt Dillon" gag before. (It's mentioned on the TV Tropes page.) Nobody in-comic has mentioned it.

And I really get the impression now that Ruby's denial about her own libido is collapsing completely. She's not even trying to deny that she's interested in watching this live-action yaoi anymore. I somehow get the feeling that she won't be interrupting anything - though she might just kick herself into action next strip. She wants to see herself as strong-willed, after all. Alternatively, she may accidentally fall through the door while craning for a better look.

Close synching between here and Ma3 today, by the way.

[Bambikles]

But if Dillon and Matt go back together, it means Matt will be an addition to SDB and probably leave Mà3 for good. Somehow, I don't see this happening.

[Spidrift]

Matt is a (significant) secondary character in Ma3, but he's not usually needed over there - though I guess we may see more of Yuki's confrontation therapy for her phobia some day... He could show up in SDB for a few strips at a time without the plot of Ma3 crashing or burning.

Heck, Amber is currently jumping back and forth between the two comics with no trouble, and she's a fairly major character in SDB. There really aren't any great logical problems involved; both stories are set in the same city, and characters can show up in either without disappearing from the other. It's not like the Ma3/Sandra situation, where the characters are on whole different continents.

But, all of that said, I don't think that Matt and Dillon will be getting back together in the near future. Dillon just has too much other baggage to deal with just now. I do think that they may end up together in the long term, if and when these comics come to some kind of conclusion - because their relationship has that weird, can't-keep-away-from-each-other aspect that's often a flag for "grand romance".

On the other hand, if, as this strip hints, Dillon was yearning for Gary even when he was living with Matt, that suggests that their mutual attraction is more or less entirely physical - which makes the "predestined romance" theory much less solid.

[FlashD81]

Matt and Dillon just can't seem to keep their hands off each other. It's almost cute but the history they have is not going to allow a new relationship any time soon.

Ruby is very torn, and if you reversed the sexes and placed me in that situation, I'd have a hard time wanting to stop this. I can't blame her for wanting to see the show but if she considers Dillon to be a friend she might want to interrupt before things get too far.

The theory that Dillon breaks up with Jerzy before the end of the book might come true.

[Don Alexander]

Heh, I kinda called it, at least the aspect of Ruby telling herself to leave and not being able to do so.

And, yes, interesting interlocking with Ma3 going on here.

[Spidrift]

Ruby is very torn, and if you reversed the sexes and placed me in that situation, I'd have a hard time wanting to stop this. I can't blame her for wanting to see the show but if she considers Dillon to be a friend she might want to interrupt before things get too far.

Whether Ruby stops these two is really a less interesting question than why she does so, if she does.

Back when she first arrived in the comic, her instinctive response to (gay) sex was "that's disgusting, somebody ought to stop it" - and that became her excuse to herself for trying to spy on the men during the double date. But she's come a long way in just a few days. We haven't seen one "disgusting" from Rudy; all she initially thought she ought to be doing here was trying to get away (though in practice, she can hardly hope to do so without Dillon and Matt both noticing her).

If she steels herself and butts in now, there may be a little bit of the old Ruby involved, but it's probably more likely to be because, going by what Dillon said to her only a few minutes ago, she would be saving him from himself. She may not quite class him as a friend yet, but she's let herself become involved in his attempts to do the right thing by Jerzy; I imagine that she'd feel that it was a waste of effort if she let him make a fool of himself now.

[FlashD81]

I see your logic there Spid.

Watching her deal with this should be entertaining at any rate.

[TheEighth]

I admit, I was a bit irritated when Matt wouldn't take full responsibility for how his relationship with Dillon ended at first. But he did it when Dillon called him on it.

But what really caught me is that Matt said he always felt like Dillon's heart was someplace else....

Can it be true?

Personally I had thought that Dillon's crush on Gary developed after Matt broke his heart, after he had a chance to get closer to Gary when he let him move back in. But....could Dillon have been lusting for Gary even when he was dating Matt? He did say he'd wait for Gary forever when he talked about going to jail.

Just think of it.

Didi calling out Gary's name while having sex him.
Dillon wanting Gary while dating him.
And don't even get me started on Kiley.

Before, I said Matt was going down...and now things are just setting up for the fall.

I'm just waiting for Ruby to come out and say how Dillon has a picture of Gary on his nightstand. Or better yet, for Gary to come in.

[Spidrift]

I admit, I was a bit irritated when Matt wouldn't take full responsibility for how his relationship with Dillon ended at first. But he did it when Dillon called him on it.

Nobody had asked him before, really.

Personally I had thought that Dillon's crush on Gary developed after Matt broke his heart, after he had a chance to get closer to Gary when he let him move back in.

Me too. But when I looked...

But....could Dillon have been lusting for Gary even when he was dating Matt? He did say he'd wait for Gary forever when he talked about going to jail.

...This.

Just think of it.

Didi calling out Gary's name while having sex him.
Dillon wanting Gary while dating him.
And don't even get me started on Kiley.

It's a merry-go-round. When the music stops, the comics end.

I'm just waiting for Ruby to come out and say how Dillon has a picture of Gary on his nightstand.

I don't actually think that Ruby is mean enough to pull that sort of stunt. She's a bit sanctimonious, but I suspect that Dillon got it right when he said that she tries to do the right thing, even when the other person doesn't seem to deserve it. She has a naive but genuine sort of morality.

[Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot]

But when I looked...

But....could Dillon have been lusting for Gary even when he was dating Matt? He did say he'd wait for Gary forever when he talked about going to jail.

...This.

Also this.

[TheEighth]

It could be that Dillon's attraction to Matt is more physical than romantic.
Whereas his attraction to Gary is equally romantic and physical considering the naked pictures.

When Didi called out Gary's name while having sex with Matt he appeared offended.

"But...Gary's so Gary"
"And I'm so...well...Look at me!"

I'm betting he was probably thinking something along the lines of "How could anyone be thinking of Gary when they're with me. How could anyone be thinking of the sexually inexperienced, geeky, patient, kind, sweet natured guy who puts others above himself when they're with me. The buff, macho, sexually practiced guy who can't hold onto a relationship to save his life because he won't stay faithful to his partner.

I wonder if Matt could wrap his mind around it, how he'd take it if someone just flat out told him that his looks and experience don't automatically put him above Gary in the "boyfriend material" department. Because Yuki, Dillon, and Kiley, the people who have a real romantic interest in Gary, genuinely like him for who he is. And for all his faults, or what Matt perceives as faults, he's still a genuinely good enough guy to charm his way into people's hearts just by being himself.

Matt really needs the ego deflation if he's going to better himself.

Quote removed. The DAMNed

[zaprzapb]

Eh, Ruby will interrupt this and save Dillon from certain temptation. And I see Matt is still Matt. He thinks Dillon's heart belongs to someone else and yet he himself doesn't want to let Dillon go. How petty. I hope they finally hit Matt with the Karma sledgehammer like they did with Zii but I'm not holding my breath. The writers might have decided that Matt will be the singular Karma Houdini in the comic because every comedy has to have at least one in order to create comedic tension within the story. Matt might lose Kiley but he'll bounce back with a threesome on the same night or something else.

[Spidrift]

Also this.

That looked like plain old lechery. On its own, it'd just prove that Dillon the collector of male pin-up pics found Gary as attractive as he finds thousands of other men. And I don't think that even Matt would deny that (he just thinks that Gary is hopelessly geeky, which is true but doesn't have the negative effects for everyone that it does for Matt); Zii, who's just as disdainful of Gary, agrees about his physical attractiveness in that very strip.

The "I'll wait for you" line was the one big bit of foreshadowing that we got, I think - and even that could pass as campy Dillon comedy on its own. If Matt sensed that Dillon's heart was elsewhere, he saw things that weren't shown to the readers. Though we know that Matt is a perceptive, empathetic guy.