Sorry, that line struck a cord with me. I am not good with social ques and rules and one thing that had struck me over the years is how arbitrary many if the rules are. I try to compensate to a degree by having an attitude of “If I do anthing that upsets you let me know and I will stop, in turn if you do anything that upsets me I will let you know.” And then proceed to be open but try to treat people how I would generally want to be treated. The problem is that I find many people DON’T want to be treated how I’d want to be treated. And while I do not think this is what’s going on with Cyril. The comment about a lack of understanding of boundaries touched a nerve because while I do CARE a lot about other people’s boundaries and respect tgem, I have a great deal of trouble understanding them and unless they spell them out for me it’s something that I have trouble getting.

Sorry about this. Just the off topic (because again I don’t think any of this applies to Cyril, I am simply talking about why this comment touched a PERSONAL nerve) rantings of someone with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Do people tell him what their boundaries are? Not everyone picks up on these instinctively. That being said the blackmail part should be PRETTY OBVIOUS.

Well said Escadia, well said. 🙂

I still think Adam is as bad a person – the abuse he’s caused Caitlyn has been pretty direct. But yes, Cyril’s creepiness, both with the photography and with the blackmail, are every bit as bad. I think they’re both fundamentally undesirable and harmful people for the Olympian moms to spend time with. They just see that they don’t want to be around the ugly boy, and accept the cute one despite his actions.

That said, and the thing that really impresses me about your comic, is how REAL they all are. I’ve known people just like Cyril and Adam too, and they are both immensely interesting to read about (so I hope they don’t get kicked out of the group). And the ladies are all interesting, textured, vibrantly ALIVE characters. It would be easy for you to have made them either bland, or stereotypes. You have fallen into neither trap. These are all real and distinct characters who show complexities of emotion and style. Sure, there are things I’d still like to learn about them – but the way you’ve written the story, those things feel like they’re just waiting for the right time to be revealed. There aren’t any holes in the plot where you’ve move too fast. This is an awesome webcomic, and I’ll enjoy following it for years.

“2- He doesn’t seem to understand boundaries.”

Well said. It’s a terrible trait. It shows an utter lack of empathy and self absorption.

Another bit to remember is that Cyril’s first major time in the comic is following them around taking candid pictures of them. Yes, Adam hides his fetish but it’s out of confusion about his feelings about it and feeling shame in having such an unusual interest. He’s also showed concern for the girls while Cyril has only invented fantasies about not even who they are but only what they look like.

But seriously, stalking and snapping pictures of people on the sly isn’t cool and while they don’t know this is going on, the willingness (eagerly even) to commit such acts is hard to hide in your personality. Cyril is creepy and it’s shows.

As far as genuine-feeling characters go, thank you. I try to inject the characters with bits and pieces of personality from people I know and have known. Even Cyril.

I just really don’t like because of his lack of social skills and general creepiness, if he wasn’t creepy he’d just be a bit awkward and you’d feel sorry for the guy but because he can be such an ass and a creep you just can’t help but dislike him.

That and he reminds me of someone in real life, The resemblances are uncanny.