I will it that I've always felt a little bad for Matthew. He has the one friend it seems to be a system. His folks weren't the best and what he's tried for relationships hasn't been great. He needs folks, not just one, that can help guide him with patience and understanding. I hope this leads to something that's helpful for the fellow.

Just my opinion, of course.

Yeah, Matthew has always had it rough on the emotional side, and we never really got to see things from his perspective all that often. ;(

yup.

this, too, is about what i would expect.


at least, now, i have an "ation" (official) on why matthew wasn't ed for in these past couple of montages.




yes.

yes, i am quite cognizant that after mattie's stint of assholishness (for which, in my view, he seemed immediately-regretful), his showing up in class acting like nothing happened was pretty much precluded from the plate.

Yeah, it all makes sense now! 👀

indeed


so.
shall we get a chance to see things from matthew's perspective some time?



´doesn't even, necessarily, have to be a story which includes any sexual(ly explicit) material, or anything like that...
...i do find it interesting, such a major part of your universe, still hasn't been explored as deeply as i woulda imagined, in all these years, douglas!

👀

I can only illustrate these stories so fast. <XD

To be honest, I was glad Roberto sent Matthew away.... But I'm not so sure about that now. The important thing is that Matt doesn't do anything that could be a point of no return.

Yeah, it's concerning ;<

Naw, I’d tell her it’s not my problem he has self-esteem issues. Shoo.

Factos

THIS. Thank you. I'd do the exact same thing. As you said, it's not Roberto's problem. He already gave Matthew a chance to do right and look how he repaid him. I get he's going through some stuff, has self-esteem issues, and only has one friend/ system, but that's NO excuse to insult someone (who's done nothing but HELP you) or their sexuality and make that person feel even worse than they already did just because they're not on THAT same wavelength as you. Rob was right to block Matthew and forget about him, and he was finally moving on from that terrible chapter in his life and looking towards the future, but now Matthew is dragging him right back into his mess and now involving their mutual friend who wanted nothing to do with their beef and even agreed that he was an asshole to Rob. Matthew needs to LEAVE ROB ALONE and get PROFESSIONAL help.

^this exactly

I'd even go so far as to say part of it is manipulation tactics. There might be a genuine part of him that acted out immediately and he regrets it immensely, but it feels a little *too* convenient.

My thoughts exactly. It's understandable that he still wasn't in a good place (mentally) to handle Rob's asexual confession well, but even he knows that how he handled it and how he treated Rob after the fact was completely unforgivable, and he should feel bad about it. But using their mutual friend to reach out to him (after he's already healed and moved on) but not wanting to see HER (his BEST friend) IS *too* convenient and manipulative as you said.

I just hope Rob knows better this time, and not have any relationship with him (not even a friendship) after this if he does end up helping him. Rob has enough going on in his life, he doesn't need this added mess.

Sorry to just butt in
don't think real life is just black and white, it's all 50 shades of gray and more

i have seen countless handsome chubby people ( mostly guys ) in my life, but most of them were and are assholes, may be only few were nice people.

And if i think about it, it makes perfect sense, as for sure someone once said "Bad people are not born, they are made",
You create and influence people around you with your interactions.
So if you influence a person with hatred, mockery, insults and downplay them and their feelings , that is what they will become.
Especially if their surrounding and other people treat them the same, they will not know any better, return what have been given to them. Only thing they gonna know is how they were treated and act from this bad experience, expect everyone to treat them the same bad way.

Of course some don't see it that they treat others badly even they don't think it's bad, but they can't act nice if they never experienced it, it needs lot of self discovery, self reflection but mostly know there is other way to be treated and treat others.

Yeah most of them would definitely need a big slap in the face or some bare but spanking, but also a second chance especially if they want to apologize, when they learned and acknowledge that they treated someone bad and try to change on their own.

Sadly in real life seeing some bad person to try better them self, and their own bad actions, trying to change their self or apologize and mean it, is hard to find. As today's society sees apologizing as a 'weakness'. They see their own opinion as the 'ultimate truth' that shouldn't and can't be changed. Because changing owns opinion is also a 'fault'. Specially in today's Social Influence Age.

I DON'T think the real world is just black and white, but since when should it be the victims' responsibility of helping the person who hurt them, though? I get that Matthew had a lot of self-esteem issues and damage done to him prior to the story, but you're not taking Rob's feelings into here. In fact, I could take everything you said here (that I assume was meant to defend Matthew) and say the exact same thing to defend Rob. Despite everything Rob did for Matthew and the kindness he's shown him, Matthew still ended up saying what he said and making Rob (the person who HELPED him AND gave him a new friend) feel like something was wrong with him about his asexuality just because he was a horse and the stereotypes that fell under it. Even after it started off as confusion on Matthew's end, he was still quick to dismiss Rob's feelings after the fact because what Rob said wasn't what Matthew wanted to hear and not what he was expecting from a horse (again stereotyping), insulting Rob then downplaying his feelings when he left. I get that Rob was Matthew's first gay male friend, and he may have had a lot of pent-up sexual tension that he wanted Rob to help him with, but he was putting WAY too many expectations on Rob as a person and didn't take his feelings into , only thinking about himself. Because of that, Rob actually felt like something WAS wrong with him and broke down HARD, as anyone in his situation would. If Rob didn't already have JJ and the others, he would've probably ended up a wreck like Matthew was. Matthew was dragging Rob down in the same pit of depression and self-loathing he himself was in, whether he intended to or not. Sure, it may be true that people don't know how to act nice if they've never experienced it for themselves, but the fact that he already had Jane in his life doesn't give him that excuse because he HAD someone who treated him nice, ed him, and who WANTED to be there for him, even if they weren't a gay male like he was.

At the end of the day, it's Rob's choice to decide whether or not he wants to give Matthew a THIRD chance and let him apologize, and knowing the kind of person he is, I know that's almost definitely gonna happen.
We were saying how WE would've handled the situation. That's OUR decisions and how WE feel about the matter. Not everyone is deserving of a second (or in Matthew's case, third) chance, and if I was in Rob's shoes, as sympathetic as I may feel for the guy, I would've refused to reach out to Matthew, plain and simple, because A) he hurt me on a deeply personal and emotional level, B) keeping him around in my life wouldn't be good for me as I have my own problems to deal with, C) he and his feelings are NOT my responsibility, and D) because just saying "sorry" won't fix the damage he did; if it did, then Rob wouldn't have kept him blocked after he healed. But that's just my take on it, and no amount of empathy I may still have for Matthew is going to change that; if someone ever treated me like that after I went out of my way to help them (like Rob did), I'm done with them PERIOD because it won't be good for my mental health keeping them around. End of story.

Apologizing is NOT a "weakness" and changing your own opinions is NOT a "fault" (and today's society and social influence age are a JOKE in those regards), but if someone has done something to you that (you feel) an apology can't fix, then you have a choice and a right to not want to associate with them anymore. That your choice (and no one else's) at the end of the day.

Damn man! Harsh! 👀

suspicious....

Right? P;<

a bit of guilt-tripping indeed but she has reasons.
you can say that Mattew was shock at that moment...

It's a complicated situation!

"That's really unfortunate. You should probably check on him, since he's your friend."

Right!? XD

Hmm...that is a worrying way of coping with things, Matthew. i can understand why his friend would come to Robert for this. It'll be up to Robert what to do. He gave him a chance before and that went down badly for him, though maybe our big hearted Roberto may want to extend some help once more. Well, we've got plot to go through and see what happens. Good work on this page

Yeah, Rob's too kind for his own good

Oh no.
I'm starting to theorize again!!

Theories!

I know she only means well, but I do how things went last time she tried to play match-maker.

Hopefully she learned a few things as well

excellent story and art , thank you very much Doug for sharing that with us

Of course, friendo! <3

hmmm it does sound pretty serious, but it seems like the guy really doesnt have a system. Asking for a little help isn't a bad idea but damn after the things he did I would have a hard time unblocking him.