I had to make a page with lots of words to counteract the awful ones with hardly any. Maybe someday I’ll try a page of just words. What is it they call that? A book!
I think Alex may have made a similar comment to John at one point but I can’t remember. At some point I’m sure one of the characters have compared themselves to Betty or Veronica from Archie Comics before. Alex makes more sense as Veronica since she comes from wealth as does Veronica Lodge. It’s doubly amusing to me since Reggie is named in honor of Reggie Mantle and serves the same function in the comic. Not so much now as in the early days, but he’s still got an edge to him that the other characters rarely exhibit. Of course, as I’ve stated before, Reggie was going to be the star of his own comic at one point called That Bastard Reggie. It would have functionally be the same basic idea as Reggie’s personal arc has been in this comic so I didn’t need to actually make a whole other comic. Of course Alex was also supposed to be the star of her own comic called Alexandria Of The Library. That was meant to be an outlet for my furry fetish nonsense but it turned out that she was such a lovely character that I couldn’t leave her to languish in some side project that people would mock me relentlessly for for decades. After all I had this perfectly good, established, webcomic that people already mocked me relentlessly over. Why not just combine it all and get all the ire dumped in one easy place? Alex and her crew fit so easily into the story that it almost seemed preordained. If you don’t care for the idea of the almighty meddling in the affairs of man you could just call it a happy accident. Regardless, I never regretted adding her or Reggie to Between Failures. I love writing both of them and have loved tormenting people with the will they won’t they of the love triangle.
In the days of Archie Comics it was common for people to date many people to see who would be a good fit to start a family with. This had already fallen out of favor in the real world when I was young and got more and more uncommon as time began. Innocent love triangles are messier when you’re allowed to have sex whenever and with whoever you like at the drop of a pants, with no societal ramifications. Or at least so little as makes no nevermind. Of course there are a lot of very complex relationships in reality that have more points than a triangle and a lot of messy problems. I knew a set of people who had sort of a love triangle many, many, years ago. One man had broken off the relationship with the woman, but they stayed close. He did not care for her boyfriend because he knew said boyfriend was something of a lothario. He was right, but she made her choices as is her right as an adult. When I lost contact with that group of people things were already deteriorating badly. My guess is that it has only compounded over time. I wonder now if I should have interfered in the affair. I would absolutely have lost at least one of them as a friend, but that basically happened anyway. If I had stuck my nose where it didn’t belong it might have saved a lot of misery for all of them though. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. I chose to forever hold my peace. I try not to let my fictional world get quite that messy, but the fact is Alex and Reggie have had sex and that means something to them. It may have been done flippantly, or in the heat of the moment, but I know that it’s not just a meaningless gesture to them. At some point that reality in their world will have to come to a point of inflection. John is only tolerating the situation because he’s never had a situation where he didn’t essentially get what he wanted, or someone he connected with in quite the way he did with Alex. At least not that you know of. Of the three Reggie is the most direct. He saw someone he liked and went directly after her. Alex danced around with John because she didn’t think she was really worthy of him. John didn’t take her seriously because he hadn’t thought about how he felt about her and he held all the power in their relationship. Until he suddenly didn’t. Alex is basically drunk on the idea that she has qualities that could attract people to her that she finds attractive. Something she really didn’t believe before. Speaking from experience it’s a very strange feeling when you see nothing worthwhile in yourself and then someone else does.

Anyway, it’s very close to posting time, so I’ll stop rambling. Those of you who delve into the blog will have a little extra insight into my process, which you can consider a gift or a curse according to your own estimations. In any case, if you have enjoyed my work I urge you to consider supporting it via the various links available above, or scattered abut the website. On Monday I will return with more page. I hope you have a pleasant weekend. Until next we meet, store in a cool, dry, place.

2964 The Veronica.

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