Alien Romance, the daily comic strip
Jan. 5th, 2026 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gs_silva
"So, you wanna... get a beer later?" Alex asks Ren as they continue walking through campus from yesterday.
"I don't drink," Ren replies, frowning. He's a self-proclaimed teetotaler. That's a whole story. "Sorry, Alex."
"No problem. We could go for coffee," says Alex.
"I don't dr--" Ren hesitates and kinda grins at Alex, realizing how difficult he sounds and trying a more agreeable tack. "How 'bout pizza? Trattoria is near my digs."
"Pizza? Already?!" Alex looks doubtful. "Kinda moving fast."
"Just a suggestion," Ren says.
"Let's do it! See you at, 6 maybe?" Alex is moving down another path now, turning around to shout his decision at Ren.
Ren grins over his shoulder. "Sure!" And then smirks slightly to himself as he hears Alex exclaim, "Haha! Wow!" behind him.
***
Ren is in for a couple of surprises, I think! But don't worry; I won't be following any tired old tropes. You know me and tropes! While I'm not afraid of them, I like to play with them. I don't follow tropes; tropes follow me.
***
Should I go into the teetotaler thing here? We've recently learned that Ren and his family are Quakers. That's not strictly true. They have a family history of being Quakers, and if anyone asks Ren while he's in the mood to talk about it, he'll claim to be one presently. But they've had some drama with the Quaker community in their area. Among the problems that came up was that Ren's brother Sig, who is 17 years older than Ren, enlisted in the US Army and didn't put 'Society of Friends' on his papers, so he got sent into combat. Their parents were furious, but Sig held his ground, and later came back with PTSD. And developed first a drinking habit, then a heroin habit. In fact, he brought the heroin market to the community.
We only catch a glimpse of Sig in the graphic novel; he's in the background at Ren's house at Christmas. We spend more time with Sig's son Jordan, who is close in age to Ren and who even comes to France for the wedding later. So there's been a lot of healing, rehab, and mending fences by then. It's not perfect. Sig appears a lot more in the flashback scenes I've done, because he was a looming presence in Ren and Maurice's childhood.
And that's why Ren doesn't drink.
That doesn't cover the coffee problem, though. That's not so dramatic. Ren just doesn't like coffee.
Thoughts
Date: 2026-01-06 06:51 pm (UTC)O_O
>>And that's why Ren doesn't drink.
That doesn't cover the coffee problem, though. That's not so dramatic. Ren just doesn't like coffee.<<
It would give you a chance for a more nuanced development than "All X are Y."
Over in Peculiar Obligations, we talk a lot about what "peace" and "nonviolence" mean to the Friends in that setting. They don't all make the same choices.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-01-06 07:14 pm (UTC)I don't think I'll join just yet; my online social footprint is about as big as I can handle. But not because I'm not interested. If any highlights come up and you feel like sharing them, you're welcome to!
The theme definitely shapes Ren's character development, but I doubt I'll spend a lot more time on Sig unless for some reason I decide to write a prequel. In my case, I think I've mentioned before, it has shades of family history that I'm trying to process by myself, because the family members who were involved personally had very subjective opinions about the situation, and they're all gone now. I only have a cousin left, and I can say in all confidence that his opinions are very subjective! Maybe insightful too. It's been a journey, to be sure.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-01-06 07:19 pm (UTC)It's a poetic series I'm writing, rather than a separate platform. I'm hoping to get a landing page for it on my author site, which doesn't require membership to read.
>>The theme definitely shapes Ren's character development, but I doubt I'll spend a lot more time on Sig unless for some reason I decide to write a prequel.<<
It doesn't require a lot of detail, just something like:
"You don't drink? Is it a religious thing?"
"Eh, sort of, but more like a family history thing I don't want to get into."
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-01-06 07:31 pm (UTC)That, plus Ren's newfound fascination with the straightedge X! He might come back to that sometime, too.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-01-06 08:03 pm (UTC)There are some in the Holiday Poetry Sale. I'll announce the landing page when we get that done.
Today's the Poetry Fishbowl on "Short Forms" if you want to come play. :D
>>That, plus Ren's newfound fascination with the straightedge X! He might come back to that sometime, too.<<
It sounds worth exploring.