Oooooh! Kellen said a bad woooord!
Well... for once, she's not wrong... XD
Although I wouldn't go so far as to say this redeems Kellen or anything, it IS pretty satisfying to see Chase sweat like that. I mean, that does confirm Emily's pregnancy status to him, while rendering him unable to contact her without going through his other exes. The guy's kinda screwed at the moment, but it's hard to feel bad for him. XD
By the by, I made an interesting little mistake that I'm surprised nobody caught (or nobody called me out on, at least). Through this whole arc with Rain and Emily visiting Aiken and Kellen, I'd completely forgotten about something. It turns out that Chase actually namedropped Emily to Aiken at one point, and that's never occurred to me (or Aiken) through this trip. Now, one could posit that he might very easily forget about that. At the time, it was a heated moment where Aiken was focused on a lot of other things besides a random common name he couldn't put a face to. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
But because of this revelation, I actually changed the art here. The script is identical, but originally, I was going to just have Aiken walk out of the room. Since rediscovering this old plot point, I decided to keep him in there. After all, memories have a funny way of coming back to people. You can see the gears turning in Aiken's head through this page, even without the dialogue.
But where does THIS bring us, exactly? What will Kellen, Aiken, and/or Chase do with the information they've all just learned in this very brief exchange?
As a final note, this was originally planned to be the last page of the chapter, but I switched the order of some scenes for what I think is a slightly better flow. That means there's just a little more of this chapter. It ends next week, but good news, I don't plan on doing a hiatus this time (maybe next time, but not this time). ^_^
I'm not going to get my hopes up on Kellen becoming redeemable. But you linking comic 298, did remind me that at one point Aiken was also an unlikable ass.
If they were kids, I could see Rain & Kellen getting past the hair bit. However, adult Kellen in her narcissism ('cause let's face it here, the entire weekend went to shit because Kellen was uncomfortable and tried to sledge hammer "Ryan" back into his peghole in her world view) did a childish, cowardly act. Rain acted as the mature one and walked away, but speaking from experience, there are few things quite so cold rage inducing as a trusted family member betraying you deliberately.
The deep emotional wounds always come from those we love. I can see Rain forgiving Kellen at some future date, but I can't see her ever trusting Kellen again.
Ha! "Sledgehammer" works well for two reasons. 1). She was trying to put a circle in a square hole like you said, but 2). Dream-Sequence Kellen used a giant hammer to fight Dream-Rain
I'm worried that Kellen just put Chase's feet on a road that will end with him figuring out that Rain was once known as Ryan... and that further he's a horrible enough person to out Rain.
Why would he out Rain? Just pure cussedness... or just possibly, he might try to blackmail Emily with the threat. I'm not sure what he might try to force Emily to do, but I'm pretty sure that if this happens it'll be bad.
I'm just wondering what the age of consent is in the Rain-verse. Is Chase just a "sick f-" or is he in legal trouble that just hasn't caught up with him yet?
Have we been told why Chase and Kellen broke up? Has Chase done anything particularly douchey other than date someone under 18? Honest question, I don't remember. People are talking about him blackmailing Rain for some reason but I don't recall anything suggesting that'd be likely, just that he's something of a womanizer who does have some unspecified concern that he got someone pregnant. Also that he was probably less transphobic than Aiken was.
All we technically know is that Chase and Kellen were together for two years, and then he dumped her. To fill in the blanks (because although it hasn't been said, it's not really a spoiler), yes, he is a womanizer. The idea is that he was cheating on her probably the whole time. And he no doubt cheated on Emily too. But he left Kellen basically because to him, she wasn't worth keeping around.
I don't know that he'd blackmail someone, but he's certainly not a good person.
to be honest, I do see him as someone who would use any means to get what he wants. so if he wants to see emily's child, or worse, emily, I see him taking extreme measures like blackmail. but it's all speculation. I'm not sure if jocelyn would ever write a character that evil ;-)
It was definitely enjoyable to see that sicko womanizer sweat like that. I'm just looking forward to them all finding out that certain people they know know other people and it's all tied together by Rain. This is getting exciting again.
I just noticed that when Aiken turns around it looks like he's looking at Kellen's speech bubble. Kinda gave me a giggle when I realized it, but... Was the fourth wall breaking intentional or unintentional?
I like the nuance of having Kellen react to this like a good person would, instead of just having her be a mustache twirling bad guy all the time. Maybe there are some folks out there who are just pure evil all the time, but a lot of them are more complicated than that. Rain and friends are pretty good kids but they are flawed. Kellen's a transphobe that I kinda want somebody to slap, but she does have SOME redeeming qualities too, and she is trying to do what she thinks is right. I think it'd be easy to have made this story as more of a black and white thing, but it wouldn't be as good. (I'd be lying if I said I didn't want Kellen to experience some sort of major consequences, though)
Oh and Chase is still a douche. Not big surprise.
The deep emotional wounds always come from those we love. I can see Rain forgiving Kellen at some future date, but I can't see her ever trusting Kellen again.
ROUND ONE, DING DING
...At least, that's what I thought, until Chase hung up like the arrogant jerk he is.
I'm sure Chase will remain a douche for indefinite time.
Why would he out Rain? Just pure cussedness... or just possibly, he might try to blackmail Emily with the threat. I'm not sure what he might try to force Emily to do, but I'm pretty sure that if this happens it'll be bad.
first step for kellens redemption: completed
I'm interested to see what chase will do now.
All we technically know is that Chase and Kellen were together for two years, and then he dumped her. To fill in the blanks (because although it hasn't been said, it's not really a spoiler), yes, he is a womanizer. The idea is that he was cheating on her probably the whole time. And he no doubt cheated on Emily too. But he left Kellen basically because to him, she wasn't worth keeping around.
I don't know that he'd blackmail someone, but he's certainly not a good person.
I agree, we have seen him being a jerk but he hasn't done anything to indicate that he would blackmail someone.
Still, I'd be more comfortable if he didn't know anything secret about Rain.