Questionable Content

I think she can't even face Faye right now. Like she's worried about her, she cares about how Faye's doing, probably even feels terrible about having to do this... but she feels like she has to protect her assets, and she feels like a real fuckin scumbag for going through with it, but the coffee shop is her baby and she has to protect it from harm. Even if it means firing a good friend.

Yeah, I agree that Dora probably can't face her right now. Not only because she is probably blaming herself for being the straw to break the camel's back, but because she can only offer that weak consolation prize. Faye is fired. Dora has to stand by that and it'll be hard to separate friend!Dora and boss!Dora. I feel for her. It's why you should never be your friend's boss. Because eventually something will compromise either the job or the friendship.

Keeping a distance and waiting for Faye to be in a better place (or to reach out to her) would be the way I reacted, too.

yeah I feel like people so easily calling for Dora's head have never a) had a shitty "friend" that really just took advantage their hospitality, and b) never had responsibility over something that they really believed was their present livelihood and future, eg a small business.

I've only had one and I can sympathize.

edited 30th Jan '15 12:15:38 AM by ch00beh

Put me in with 'Dora has no obligation to risk her livelihood to prop up an unstable alcoholic who desperately needs to hit rock bottom already."

I wouldn't say that Faye "needs to hit rock bottom already".

For one, she more or less has already hit rock bottom with her stay in the hospital. Second, she drinks and talks smack and exhibits her pricklier characteristics because she is not a very trusting person - probably stemming from her Cool Dad who she trusted a great deal shooting himself in front of her.

The reason she's been on such a downhill spiral is because the one man who she made an exception for and actually fell in love with, allowed herself to get super-close with - something she didn't do with Marten because she was afraid of ruining their awesome friendship and being a possible huge mess - left for New York, and she was so messed up about the thought of him leaving and broke up with him. She's had a really nice, stable thing going on, and she ended up ruining it because of her issues, and she probably knows all this.

She has hit rock bottom. She doesn't deserve more hard knocks right now. Dora's justified in protecting her assets, even if it's incredibly hard as a friend for both of them, but she doesn't deserve more suffering because of her instability. She deserves a healthy state of mind and a road to recovery, like anyone else.

edited 30th Jan '15 12:57:58 AM by MrMallard

That should have been 'desperately needed to hit rock bottom already'.

...Yeah, sorry for flying off the handle a bit. Webcomics are the few things that get me super worked up and argumentative.

It's not really that I have an issue, again, with her professional decisions.

I just think that she could balance both her boss obligation and her friend obligation. I mean she's Faye's friend, and Faye, now that's she's sober is the type to get that, because she's the first person to think she deserves to have bad things happen to her.

And right now Faye really needs all the friends she can get.

On the one hand, Dora might plausibly worry that Faye seeing her would bring back thoughts of the very things that sent Faye into this hole. And if Dora shows up at Faye's bedside and says she's still Faye's friend, Faye might well ask if or assume that she's un-fired, putting Dora in a crappy position.

And on the other hand - Dora's cutting Sven and then Dora out of her life has looked more than a little ruthless, but look at it from her point of view. She's had her own troubles in the past, but right now, she's got a pretty decent relationship with Tai, she's on civilised speaking terms with her most recent ex, and her business seems to be doing well. On her own terms, she's getting her life straight after years of screwing it up. I'd forgive her for not wanting to have to put up with things that might push this fragile improvement back into a downward spiral. If that means being ruthless, well, so be it.

That is one way to look at it- but just cutting people off when you're supposed to care about them isn't right.

Dora might not be in the wrong for cutting out Sven and not helping Faye- but she's not exactly a saint for doing it either, or the best sister/friend.

Even when caring about them is destroying your life?

And no, of course Dora isn't a saint.

See, Sven didn't even do anything Dora. He did a shitty thing to Faye but if it was just about her loyalty to her friend then where is that loyalty now? Sure I guess she still could have made this "toxic person" leap on her own- but she was also the person bugging Sven to do real romance/relationship stuff instead of sleeping around- a consequence of which is sometimes getting into unrequited love.

Again- it's not a bad thing necessarily what she's doing, but it should be a worrying trend.

edited 30th Jan '15 3:14:43 AM by LMage

Oh yeah, it feels like Dora's getting a bit crazy as well. Sven did a dick move, but to cut him out of her life? Either they had more baggage than was shown which came back to Dora in a wave of panic and anger, or Sven's been shitting in Melville's litter-box while Dora's at work.

I don't usually like to do what I'm about to do, because while Webcomic Time might be a few months in-story the characters inevitably get a decade's worth of character development in that time, but... well, even with Dora dating Tai and getting her life back on track, she still had a hard-ass time moving from her old apartment into Marten's place (losing Melville for a while, I think?) and that break-up was really tough on both of them. The story's taken like an in-verse year to get to this point, I think? Some of that baggage and heavy stuff from 2011/a couple months ago could have added to her mental load, and made her less willing to deal with things that are jeopardizing her life.

That's just my , though.

If the comic page proper gives you a broken image icon, go to the home page on QC.

See, the thing is, I don't even think Dora is wrong for firing Faye, friend or not. I do think she's wrong for doing it on the spot, with no discussion (again, friend or not). Just as a decent human being, she's watching someone with serious mental issues going through a shitty period and making huge mistakes. If Dora said "go home, get sober, we'll talk" and then fired Faye? I'd be 500% on her side. Because then she's addressing the issue rather than piling onto Faye's problems.

Honestly, she should feel a little guilty. Even if it were a random employee and not her (arguably) best friend, Dora didn't handle the situation well. She was in no obligation to do more, I understand, but a real Benevolent Boss would've at least considered her employee's well-being, even if she is a soon to be ex-employee.

But again, as dissatisfied as I am for Dora's behavior when firing Faye, I am happy she's sticking with it. Taking such an extreme stand and then going back on it when nothing had been done to really address the issues would've been bad.

Dora has always been shown as having serious issues with Sven, albeit as much through jealousy of his (perceived) easy life as through anything he actively did. You could say that he also seems to play the pretty decent brother to her a lot of the time, or that her reaction to his treatment of Faye was disproportionate to the offense, but that's just not how she feels it in her bones.

at what point do you just give up on helping someone if they continually refuse to be helped, though? Especially when all they've given back to you is grief?

edited 30th Jan '15 9:51:18 AM by ch00beh

I feel like you're making Faye out to be worse than she is. Overall, Dora and Faye have had a mutually beneficial friendship. And Faye's overall been a positive effect on COD, and on a personal level, to Dora (it's Faye that got Dora to finally see a therapist, after all).

Don't get me wrong, Faye's probably my least favorite female in the cast (actually, I like Tai less, but I'm no Faye-fan), and I'm not really on her side on this, but I just don't approve of Dora's actions.

.*interjects on behalf of time line stuff*

This implies that Marteen has been working at the library least a year. Assuming it's still the same summer (which it might not be) I think that would make mean QC has all taken place over 2-3 years.

edited 31st Jan '15 2:44:03 PM by LMage

I just think Dora was too angry at that moment to consider all these smart and sensitive ways she could have gotten Faye off the premises without hurting her feelings. Faye damn well knows Dora has everything riding on her small business, and that Dora could very well end up bankrupt if her assistant manager does something really fucking stupid because she's drunk off her arse. So at some point Dora expects that her best friend would respect that enough - fuck, respect her enough as a boss and friend not to show up wasted and then proceed to drink more at work.

Wait, 'until the insurance company pays for this'? Is that how it works in the States? Over here, the insurance company fronts everything, and you have to pay them back if the costs weren't covered by your policy.

She means that she won't "officially" fire Faye until her insurance pays out because if she doesn't have a job then she won't have any insurance.

Most people get health insurance through their employers/work in the state.

Hehe, booby traps in the underwear drawer

The hospital bills your insurance company, and then the insurance company says "you need to knock some of the price off of these items before we pay for them, and these items we won't pay for, and these items we might pay for, depending on our assessment of the situation".