Chapter 4: Trouble Every Day, page 72

Oh dear. Y’think maybe he’ll make her pay rent, now?

And than you to everyone who came to see me at the Chicago Comic Con! I hope I wasn’t too spacey, I’ve gotten a total of ten hours of sleep in the past three days.

46 thoughts on “Chapter 4: Trouble Every Day, page 72”

  1. That’s it, Scip! Burn with the fire of Righteous Indignation!

    Feel the burn…feels good!

    My sympathy for Pipi is running out like sands in an hourglass.

    1. ……Crap, now all I can think of is Scip being casted as Jules Winnfield.

      “And you will know my name is the LORD! When I lay my vengeance upon thee!”

      Hmm, maybe we’d get lucky and he’ll shoot Pippi in the face >:D

      1. He has a challenge. She may have been untruthful, but he’s still dealing with a human being. Did she just go to her room? What will he do next, wait to talk to her later? Throw her out completely (which I’d hate to see)? How is he going to treat her, and how will that response reflect on what kind of person he is? You can see how interesting this drama is becoming. Kudos on good writing that makes me react so much.

  2. Maybe it’s just me, but I think Scip on the warpath, backed up with cold hard merciless TRUTH would be utterly fucking terrifying. I don’t think I could manage Pippi’s hissyfit. I’d be on the floor whimpering.

    1. Maybe… unless Scip is wrong here. This seems like an absolutely awful thing to have jumped to the wrong conclusion about, if that’s the case.

      1. Even were it wrong, there should be a logical reason why it was wrong, and she failed to provide it. It’s definitely worth discussing, and her unwillingness, while possibly understandable, makes her seem more suspect than the alleged boyfriend.

        1. I don’t think she should have to prove she was raped. And there’s no contradiction between the guy raping her and her mum thinking she’s a slut.

  3. You know, I wonder if a male cartoonist could get away with writing a story line like this. There would be a strong assumption that Scip is drawing a wrong conclusion from whatever he read in that police report, and blaming the victim. Damn men, always sticking up for one another. But your Tweet suggests he’s really on the right track (although you could be misdirecting us) and the other commenters so far are assuming the same.

    In real life, these kind of he-said-she-said situations happen a lot, and rarely does anything get proved conclusively. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

    1. That, and she’s underage so the boyfriend was a predator anyway. Getting the shit beaten out of you sounds like a good reason to run off to me.

    2. That’s certainly an interesting and worthwhile question to ask.

      It’s entirely possible that Scip is grievously wrong, and in either case he’s going about this in a blunderingly ham-fisted way. But Pippi’s reaction seems to be pretty close to her regular, pedestrian “FUCK YOU MR. AUTHORITY” attitude that we’ve seen a few times already. It could be that she’s just reacting with her default indignation and that her story was a lie, but it’s also possible that her story is true and she simply doesn’t know how to react to things any other way.

    3. I’ve actually known girls like Pippi before — can’t live with the consequences of their actions so they skew the facts to make themselves look better. Like the girl a few years ago who accused my DH of fathering her child in a drunken frenzy to cover up that she’d done 3 guys in the same night – at the same time – and DH was firmly elsewhere on the night on question. ^_^

    4. Maybe. But then again we’ve gotten to know Scip over the last couple hundred pages, and he really doesn’t seem the type to assume the worst about anyone. If he’s come to this conclusion, the evidence must be pretty glaringly obvious.

  4. Poor Scip.

    He tries /so hard/, he just doesn’t know where to look. He deserves a cookie.

    Regardless, though, that’s the wrong way to approach someone in that situation, regardless of whether he did or she did or what happened – in some ways that doesn’t matter. What matters is that no-one thinks of themselves as the bad-guy – and if they do, there’s a reason for it. And that reason is invariably fear, pain, or the conviction that they have to be the bad guy to do the right thing. Everyone always has a reason for what they do. It’s unlikely that she /can/ admit that she’s wrong, right now she doesn’t have that kind of strength, and by asking that Scip’s just putting her between a rock and a hard place.

    I can already see how this’ going to crash and burn, and yet i’m going to keep reading. This is storytelling. Thank you, Spike, you’ve raised my estimation of you as a storywriter and as an artist.

  5. What can Scipio possibly have found out that makes him so sure of himself ? So assertive ? This isn’t like him at all !

    And yes, even if Scip’s version of the story is true, that doesn’t mean that the boyfriend isn’t to blame. How old could Pippi have been ? And as for the mom… I guess she was beating on Pippi because the boyfriend was too strong for her ?

    1. “And yes, even if Scip’s version of the story is true, that doesn’t mean that the boyfriend isn’t to blame.”
      If (IF) Scip’s side of the story is right, then it takes two to tango. IF scip is right, then they’re BOTH to blame. Though depending on how old she was at the time, and IF she was below the age of consent (Whatever that is here in this fluxed up world of Templar) and IF she consented, that’s statutory rape either way, and apparently that doesn’t show as what is on the police records. Hrm, just thinking out loud now. On to the next page.

  6. Ahahaha Miss Spike, are you intending to turn into Mr. Siddell?

    I’d thought bursting out in laughter at the author’s comments was something only he was capable of prompting. Shame, shame. It’s 3 o’clock in the morning!

    I have to say that I am really really liking…or maybe interested is the better word…in this direction that Scip’s character is branching out towards.

  7. It’s also possible things are … confused. If Pippi was young, and attracted to the boyfriend, and flirted… Things could have started out with her intentions being to heavy pet or maybe even not KNOW what she wanted (and in which case, certainly the mom’s boyfriend is in the wrong if she was underage – adults are supposed to be the ADULT, regardless of provocation, let alone this was his girlfriend’s DAUGHTER), but certainly, that does make things a little greyer… but then if it got to the point where Pippi got to the point she was originally planning to get to, or got cold feet and said “stop” and he didn’t … it would still be rape even if she was over 16, and even if she started it. And it is not an uncommon (though reprehensible) reaction for a younger woman to blame the daughter trying to “steal” her boyfriend – rather than blame the boyfriend for straying, even if Pippi was completely unwilling. Whether if the power dynamics between the mother and daughter are such that she has SOME actual reason to supect the daughter of actually trying to steal the boyfriend – or none at all. Human beings are damn complicated creatures. The law is black and white, but the situations that have to be interpreted with it sometimes… aren’t, entirely.

    The boyfriend would still be in the wrong, legally and morally if he did not stop, when she got to the point where she didn’t want to go further, even if she agreed to, or even initiated something between them. And if she was underage, this would be true even if she were entirely willing. But note that Pippi did not testify against him to the police. So, she may have felt that she had enough “guilt” (whether legal or not) not to put a rape charge on him. But you can feel you are complicit enough in the event not to want to put someone in jail, while STILL feeling violated enough that it is not a lie to tell a family member or friend that you were raped. Especially if the mom reacted that way and beat her up and kicked her out.

    SO i guess i’m just saying… there are a lot of ways it could have gone down where the police report may have most of the facts, but Pippi not really be lying…

      1. Exactly. I still remember my first not-entirely-consensual act when I was a preteen. And you know what? I thought it was all my fault. That I caused it because I initiated it. I never told anyone about it. let alone reported it to the police, but I was still able to realise it was assault, even as I blamed myself.

        I was 9.

        I just developed a realllll strong dislike for Scip.

        1. I’m sorry hon.

          And I was lucky. Played doctor with my cousin, but we were both 5…ish? and then nothing untill I was 18/19 in college, drunk and stupid, but not too stupid to use condoms.

  8. Hmm, interesting. Whether or not Pippi is lying you have to feel slightly sorry for her because in either case she couldn’t go back home. But Scip is the type of person that if she had told him the truth he would have still have took her in, although he probably would’ve tried to address the reason she was there in the first place more. And I think Scip is taking a more aggressive approach to show Pippi she can’t lie, he didn’t want to do this which is shown by his attempt to show her she didn’t need to…but that fell flat on it’s face. I don’t thing this will change Scip too much. Maybe how he deals with Ben a little but it won’t be drastic. He’ll still be Scip…but what he’s doing now, is probably hurting him…Wow I’m too analytical…

  9. Wow.

    ChampionHyena, I think he’s already getting scary…

    Please don’t let Scip go to the dark side! At least, not permanently! Without him, where would Reagan be? Without Reagan and Scip, where would Ben be? Without Ben, where would the strip be??? ACK!!!

  10. This is the first time we’ve seen him swear, isn’t it?

    I honestly don’t know what to think. Fact is, teenage girls do some stupid shit, but… Pippi’s expression in the third panel could be seen as panic because she’s being confronted, but it could also be shock and genuine outrage. Maybe she told the police the truth and lied to Scip because she was afraid of what he’d think of her. Or maybe she told Scip the truth because she trusted him and now it’s backfiring on her. I really can’t blame him for being as angry as he is, because there’s a lie in there SOMEwhere, and she’s making it hard to figure out what it is. I’ve been in his position with the exact same lie. Either way, I don’t think they’re going to trust each other anymore.

    Reagan doesn’t like Pippi. I wonder what her reaction to this is going to be.

  11. Gotta say I agree with Kerinbot. Maybe the boyfriend forced her, maybe he just took her friendliness the wrong way, either way as the adult he had a responsibility to say “no” and make sure things stopped. Lots of young girls don’t report being raped by older friends/family members because they are afraid they’ll be treated like the guilty one, just like Scip is doing to Pippi in this page. That fear then gets twisted by others who find out; they try to make it a tacit admission of guilt. “She must have done something wrong if she didn’t go to the cops.” Very touchy subject.

  12. I’m just shocked Scip said the word “shit”. I dunno why, he seems like a very clean-language type, and while “shit” isn’t the worst thing one could say it seems very Not-Scip.

  13. I’m glad you were able to finishing inking the page despite us being so selfish and talking to you for so long yesterday! I’m also glad I didn’t try to look at it too closely and spoil it for myself!

  14. It’d be interesting if she stayed on the streets awhile, and as a result, met the Elliots. That would be something to see.

  15. It seems in this case, as in most others, two camps immediately set out to make the girl either a villain or a victim.

    I have a hard time not siding with Reagan on this one-her every action paints her as a leech expecting Scip to take care of her because he’s been enough of a pushover for her to get away with it.

    “Boys will be boys” is no longer tolerated in the most of society today for stupid, cruel or thoughtless actions carried out. Why should variations of the same excuse be considered acceptable? Above all, why should the manipulator be coddled from the protests of those they use?

  16. Wow, I didn’t think anything could make me not like Scip, but this scene is getting there. Whether Pippi lied about how things went down — we’re still talking about an underage girl having sex with/being forced to have sex with her mom’s boyfriend. Who, according to Scip, had “done some sex stuff” previously. And then being beaten up for it. And thrown out/forced to run away. And then Scip shows her police record to her friend and confronts her like this about it? Yeah, I don’t feel like it’s Pippi who is betraying trust here.

    Spike said she’d make us feel sorry for Pippi. And I really, really do right now.

    1. I have a really hard time feeling sorry for Pippi because — yeah, I’ve known people who came from shitty places, sexual assault included — and while they definitely had their issues, they certainly weren’t as manipulative and self-centered as she is.

      But while I’m inclined to believe Scip’s hypothesis ANYWAY, I’d agree with you that he’s definitely out of line. Twice now. These past few pages have shown us that the guy has a fundamental disconnect when it comes to dealing with other people’s dirty laundry, and a part of me is convinced that at least SOME of it can be chalked up to his own hubris. (That would be keen as hell.)

      He’s probably gonna end up regretting this confrontation when he’s less pissed.

  17. I can’t understand how so many people can consider it acceptable to lie about something so important… or somehow bad to call out someone who is living their life on a lie they tell themselves and others. False accusations can poison a life.

    Note that I’m not prejudging based on the evidence shown (the police report, which may or may not be accurate) but commenting on the number of people who either automatically assume the evidence is false (because a known unreliable source says it is) or who say that even if the evidence is accurate Scip should keep on acting as if he ISN’T being played… because there must be something else wrong.

  18. Holy…what-Scip-said. I am -so- on both sides here. Even if Pippi did what Scip says she did…why is that an excuse to hurt her like that? If this isn’t hurting Scip now, it certainly will when he calms down and realizes what he did. And as for Pippi…I don’t see any way this will end well. With her problems and attitude Scip has given her -no- way to react that will not include explosion, either external or internal. And I get the feeling that Pippi doesn’t -do- internal. Someone said that Scips tirade would have them cowering on the floor, whimpering? I’m almost there just from reading about it, watching it.

    Now that that’s said…not that it hasn’t been said before, but wow, Spike. You just gave me an inadequacy in my story-telling place. Good work once again.

  19. I see a lot of people going back and forth between the two polar sides of this notion, but there’s a whole different side and people blithely ignore it. A few friends of mine were in Scip’s position and if you haven’t been, maybe you have trouble understanding. There was a troubled girl in our circle, who claimed to have been raped at a party. The story was solid, at first, and we ran the entire gauntlet, looking for these two guys. She’d never expected the amount of attention she got, I’m sure. It began to unravel. Things didn’t line up, we found the men’s names in mundane places at her place of work. Lunch orders, etc. That’s where she’d gotten their names. A female friend going into nursing determined that the bruising was self-inflicted. The angles and what not were all wrong, and said bruising didn’t line up with an attacker of the described size. Finally, she tried to make the whole thing go away, and wound up burying herself. It was all a lie, from A to Z. Eventually it was figured out that the entire story was made up to cover for the fact that she’d found out at a clinic that she’d contracted herpes. Her own sister confessed what was going on, so upset at watching all of us up in arms, talking to the police, looking for fictious rapists. Chasing ghosts.
    As a man who loves women, there was an injury dealt, in having such an intimate fear so grossly exploited that affects my ability to trust anyone to this very day, though the event in question was about five years ago.
    Being a victim does not excuse a person from their responsibilities as a human. Whatever conventional law says, being a minor doesn’t, either. We’ve all been children. Would you honestly say you wouldn’t have held yourself responsible for your actions until your eighteenth birthday?
    Thank you, Spike, for tackling such an enormous issue, at least for me. I said before in here that I had a Scipio in my life. He was the principle victim in the whole debacle, and the one truly innocent victim in all that transpired. Like Scipio, he handled the situation with less than perfect grace, but I think we can pardon people for being human.

  20. I just think it’s all sad, is all, what Pippi’s gotten into with her life and Scipio losing a hold on that Buddhist grace he reveres. Demonstrative, of course, of the mild and tempered philosophy Scip so loves — that to live truly forgiving and charitable is to live with unimaginable pain every day you are human.

  21. I saw this comic in the making at Chicago Comic-Con! Was really cool to meet you there and I’m officially caught up on the archives.

  22. I know that Scip has been set up as the most “good” character in this strip so it’s tempting to hold him up to ideal behaviour at all times but I think this strip shows his humanity. He’s angry that Pippi lied to him and manipulated him (and proved Reagan right) and he’s confronting her aggressively.

    Give Scip a break, folks. Even he’s gotta have a breaking point.

    Giver her hell, Scip.

    1. i’m willing to entertain the possibility that Scip is wrong, it wouldnt be the first time that the police have had something wrong…………………………….but they usually dont. regardless, pippi is clearly a LIAR. nothing about her rings true, everything comes off as complete BS. to quote han solo ” I must have hit her pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that.” If she was raped…………..fine, that is inexcusable, but she is not the first woman it has happened to. using it it as an excuse for EVERYTHING is not o.k. Get counciling, get a job, find religion, etc. or anything that helps people deal. i’m not excusing the (alleged) rapist. people who would commit such an act should be dragged into the street and shot. but that does not give her the right to be a sponge on everyone around her. she is using the “raped” thing as a crutch, as if it were drugs or alcohol or some other vice people use intsead of dealing with their problems. everyone has problems, everyone needs some help with them from time to time, many have much worse problems than her (last i checked, she can walk, talk, has all her limbs, and can see). Scip should have torn her a new one a long time ago. that he is helping the girl is great, but she shouldn’t let her just be a miscreant and a lay-about. I’m not saying he should throw her out in the street, or stop caring…………..but sometimes people need to be set straight ( I know i have). While it’s true he could have used more tact, he is human (as many have already pointed out) and has certainly put up with enough of her BS, and is clearly hurt by her abusing his good nature.

  23. I looked out for someone and tried to comfort them too much to the point where I was basically doing her homework for her.
    It ended very much like this.

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