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Given that half the commentariat thinks he always was a a constructive asshat and that he’s established as hugely deceptive and manipulative, I’m going to need a lot more than his word that he’s turned over a new leaf.
It’s possible that’s his character arc, but we’ve got to go farther with it.
He may have turned over a new leaf but is it exchanging Nettles for Poison Ivy? Mind that is still an improvement compared to going the Gympie Gympie route.
Ehh, referring to the narrative while pretending to drop your omniscient viewpoint is for the birds. It’s pretty clear his arc will include him making a good faith effort. Whether he’ll succeed is anyone’s guess.
Note: I have basically never liked mike and expect I will still not.
Sometimes he can still be funny, but most of the time I want him to fuck off. I love most of the rest of the characters though, so yeah, more than made up for.
I’m with you, he’s long past “endearingly prickly” (that would be Sarah) and now firmly into “kicking supposed friends when they’re down”.
I’m all for him getting his own redemption/”new leaf” arc. Let’s see this, Mike, we know there’s a real person inside, now give them some screentime and put that awful persona away.
I could probably still find him funny if I wasn’t reading the comments.
The constant drumbeat of “Mike’s doing good by being an ass” really cuts into my enjoyment. If we could just let him be a jerk and a foil for the others, I wouldn’t have a problem.
Assholery usually fares better when it’s cartoonish assholery, or when (as in shortpacked) there was an endless flow of one-off douchebags who could alternate with the main characters as targets. This setting, which borders on realistic and where all the one-off douchebags have all been claimed by Amazi-girl, doesn’t show him off to his best.
It’s an interesting thought that he’s going to try to hurt people helpfully for real, and when it doesn’t work, then have to make a decision. Because if this is a more realistic setting, then it should, indeed, not work.
That’s intentional. He deliberately exposed himself to nuts like this to build up tolerance so he can survive more time on the Transformers action figure forums.
Four years of high school with these two, and now when someone gets mad about a toy being aimed at children, or calls every primary color “neon”, he barely bites through his desk
Also, gonna reiterate my late comment from yesterday:
Is it just me, or has Mike gotten hotter lately? Like, I don’t remember him being a super sexy character, but suddenly he’s super hot whenever he appears.
No, I think he has genuinely gotten better looking. He’s not my type, exactly, but I feel like he’s gotten better and better about translating to the art style of DoA versus Shortpacked, where obviously it was somewhat more cartoony.
I was going to say that his features seem softer somehow, like he’s being humanized. His facial expressions seem less hostile and more possibly empathetic or kind (for him – less glaring). I feel like based on the art change we are supposed to be taking him more seriously now as a character, instead of him being a very one dimensional presence that provides nothing but hateful comic relief. I think this started ever since the flashbacks and especially since he hooked up with Ethan. Very subtle windows into his vulnerability (through those softer facial expressions).
Maybe it’s because he’s strarting to act like a person and you are in fact turned on as much or even more by personality than by actual physical features?
I don’t think I’m demi, but I can safely say Mike has never been hot because he’s been an utter shitstain since his Walkyverse incarnation. Take a future baby crossed between Jacob, Ethan, Joyce, and Grace, and you’d still have a bottom five most unattractive character if they had Mike’s personality.
imo their friendship continues purely out of momentum/nostalgia, and the way neither Amber or Ethan has the self-esteem to bring themself to actually cut Mike out of their life entirely
I don’t think that’s quite true. They knew him before he was such an ass, and he shows a lot more of that side of himself with them than with anyone else. They’re genuinely friends, maybe just in an unusual way.
I think that might be part of it but I definitely feel like part might just be that neither of them has the heart/spine/self-esteem/whatever to cut mike out.
I don’t think so. I think that Amber gets rightfully pissed at him, but she also counts on his honesty, because she doesn’t let herself get too close to Danny out of guilt, and Ethan’s not going to confront her on things, so Mike is sometimes her wakeup call, even if it can be a cruel one, which I do think he was somewhat remorseful about in the previous strip, but I am not really sure with this guy sometimes.
And I think you’re giving Mike’s abuse credit for things Amber did on her own.
She doesn’t get too close to Danny because she thinks she’s poison and he’s better off. Mike repeatedly feeding her self hatred is not exactly something she seems at all grateful for
Amber called back something from Family Weekend (7 or 8 years ago IRL) that Mike said that was actually completely inexcusable. They are not friends with Mike, and they should not be. They tolerate his presence and he does theirs, except when he’s trying to hurt them.
Fuck Mike, I hope that Amber’s and Ethan’s self-esteem both upswing enough that they realize they don’t need to keep emotional abuse in their pocket.
I suspect Amber would have and that it’s mostly Ethan keeping them together. He regularly hangs out with Mike and Amber almost never does, except when Ethan brings them together.
Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now.
I believe that children are our future. And that terrifies me.
Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly stupid.
I am curious about Mike’s “new leaf” – whether this is Ethan-related (either realising that telling somebody you like you wanna mess around with them because bored is a bad way of building intimacy, or just the epiphany that even a friend he can Slipshine with thinks he’s a jerk who doesn’t care about anybody else) or if he realised he crossed a line telling Amber she was just like her father, or if he’s screwing with her about the whole thing – why…
In the comic strip Peanuts, every so often Lucy swears that this time she will hold the football for Charlie Brown to kick, and every time he falls for it, and every time she pulls the football up at the last instant and Charlie Brown falls on his butt.
Every time someone falls for Mike claiming he’s turned a new leaf, that person is going to fall on their butt.
I’m feeling sad about Mike toning down is Likeness, there was so many characters I wanted to see interact with his personality. For instance there was that one time Willis teased us with a Mike & Ruth interaction or Carla since I wanted her to be reminded of how much of a novice she is in being a professional asshole.
Carla is infinitely more skilled at being a professional asshole. Mike is emotionallg and verbally abusive and next time Joyce takes aim at his shins she should recenter and kick him in the face.
Isn’t “emotionally and verbally abusive” what you’re looking for in an asshole?
Carla isn’t good at it, because even though she tries to project that image, she keeps showing signs of caring about people and even helping them, despite all her denials. That’s what makes her a lousy asshole, but a much better person.
I’d rather want to see more of what constitutes the new leaf before saying that, because I’m not really convinced this is more than just ‘mike buying into his extradimensional hype’ yet.
Yes, it is; for the sake of her own peace-of-mind, Amber must not be present whilst Mike works his magic. Some things just should not be seen and heard.
Mike is going to do something awful that somehow will work. If you ask him to bring world peace, he would pull a Kiritsugu Emiya and cause a lot of damage for the greater good… now is that Mike or Walkyverse Sal?
See… I’ve never thought Mike was a good guy, or that his tactics were helpful. I think that maybe HE thought his tactics were NECESSARY – if, and this is a big if, we are to believe that he ever meant well. But I have never cared if he meant well; just that he caused harm.
With that said – sign me the [clap] FUCK [clap] UP for some Mike Redemption in the form of screwing over the Evil Dads Committee. They need to GO. And Mike needs to actually do something genuinely good for once in his life. Being woke is not the same thing as acting in the interest of others, and cynicism/pessimism doesn’t make you cool.
Gosh golly gee gamma graham goodies, I’ll be tickled pink if we get Good Guy Mike.
I’m not 100% sure of it. Walky needs a kick up the backside anyway and Mike may be the guy to do it. However, given what Ethan did to Mike (at Mike’s suggestion, let us not forget), he may be willing to approach life in a different way.
I think that we’re going to have to see where this goes before we render judgement.
I’m sure Ethan was a perfectly fine date. The whole “being gay” thing might have put a damper on any pants-down shenanigans, but I doubt he was unpleasant to her.
It was still pretty traumatic to her when he came out – she was emotionally invested and suddenly finding the relationship wasn’t what she thought wasn’t easy. Not to mention that she then spent the rest of the summer helping him (and his family) accept it.
Man, it is so fun to see someone evenly matched with Mike – maybe because it occasionally puts him on his back foot, which gives his character some much-needed variety. Outside of the childhood flashback, this is his first interaction I can remember that hasn’t been “delivering sick burns” or “engineering suffering”.
Though … I guess his plot to break Ethan’s heart never panned out? Given that Ethan’s his other longtime “friend”, maybe that was the start of this character shift.
Having read back quite a few comics and found this comment thread, now I feel sad. I had a feeling this had something to do with Ethan but I didn’t put together that this is Mike trying to keep one of his only friends.
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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yeah, can’t say this sounds super consensual, Mike
“who said it was”
um
(sorry, idk how to joke about trauma bc it’s really not funny Mike)
You didn’t do as bad as some, I applaud you for being minimal creep
Walky needs a jolt to get him going for his own good. By this point Mike knows Walky’s weaknesses. Mike is definitely the man for the job.
You get good at it when you’ve been through trauma dw
To be fair, the act of waking someone up is never consensual in the moment.
idk, I love when cats do it
and by happy coincidence i have cats who love to do it. what is your mailing address, ana?
if your cats are like what I’m thinking instead of like my departed Gabey:
Abu Dhabi
“How traumatized will he be?”
“He will still put out.”
Awww, they’re longtime friends.
He knows her priorities.
“He will still put out.”
Criteria met. All is satisfactory.
No, no, Mike, you back off. You gotta prove those new leaf bonafides first before you can be trusted with not being a humongous asshat.
Oh, he’ll still be a humongous asshat regardless. The new leaf is him being a CONSTRUCTIVE asshat.
Pass. Give it to the dog.
I initially read your post as “a humorous asshat”.
…still an improvement.
Given that half the commentariat thinks he always was a a constructive asshat and that he’s established as hugely deceptive and manipulative, I’m going to need a lot more than his word that he’s turned over a new leaf.
It’s possible that’s his character arc, but we’ve got to go farther with it.
He may have turned over a new leaf but is it exchanging Nettles for Poison Ivy? Mind that is still an improvement compared to going the Gympie Gympie route.
Ehh, referring to the narrative while pretending to drop your omniscient viewpoint is for the birds. It’s pretty clear his arc will include him making a good faith effort. Whether he’ll succeed is anyone’s guess.
Note: I have basically never liked mike and expect I will still not.
If Mike wasn’t a humongous asshat, he wouldn’t be funny anymore.
Ass-on, Mike. Ass-on.
I don’t find a lot of his assholery funny anymore, so I’m afraid I can’t relate.
I’ve always thought of his assholery more as a plot device than funny.
I’m sorry you don’t enjoy Mike. Hopefully the other characters make up for it.
Sometimes he can still be funny, but most of the time I want him to fuck off. I love most of the rest of the characters though, so yeah, more than made up for.
I’m with you, he’s long past “endearingly prickly” (that would be Sarah) and now firmly into “kicking supposed friends when they’re down”.
I’m all for him getting his own redemption/”new leaf” arc. Let’s see this, Mike, we know there’s a real person inside, now give them some screentime and put that awful persona away.
Y’all need to learn the joy of schadenfreude.
I could probably still find him funny if I wasn’t reading the comments.
The constant drumbeat of “Mike’s doing good by being an ass” really cuts into my enjoyment. If we could just let him be a jerk and a foil for the others, I wouldn’t have a problem.
This.
I’ve never understood why the opinions of random people on the internet ever mattered to anyone enough to affect their enjoyment of a thing.
Assholery usually fares better when it’s cartoonish assholery, or when (as in shortpacked) there was an endless flow of one-off douchebags who could alternate with the main characters as targets. This setting, which borders on realistic and where all the one-off douchebags have all been claimed by Amazi-girl, doesn’t show him off to his best.
It’s an interesting thought that he’s going to try to hurt people helpfully for real, and when it doesn’t work, then have to make a decision. Because if this is a more realistic setting, then it should, indeed, not work.
Stinging nettle and poison ivy are also leaves, but which is his new one?
Ethan is too soft a bean to have these two as best friends and not come out a little jaded with the world.
That’s intentional. He deliberately exposed himself to nuts like this to build up tolerance so he can survive more time on the Transformers action figure forums.
Four years of high school with these two, and now when someone gets mad about a toy being aimed at children, or calls every primary color “neon”, he barely bites through his desk
Ethan did avoid rooming with Mike.
Also, gonna reiterate my late comment from yesterday:
Is it just me, or has Mike gotten hotter lately? Like, I don’t remember him being a super sexy character, but suddenly he’s super hot whenever he appears.
He was always stated to be hot, so I guess this is just the art getting better?
Username does not check out?
I dunno. Maybe he combed his hair and decided to wear something besides black?
No, I think he has genuinely gotten better looking. He’s not my type, exactly, but I feel like he’s gotten better and better about translating to the art style of DoA versus Shortpacked, where obviously it was somewhat more cartoony.
I was going to say that his features seem softer somehow, like he’s being humanized. His facial expressions seem less hostile and more possibly empathetic or kind (for him – less glaring). I feel like based on the art change we are supposed to be taking him more seriously now as a character, instead of him being a very one dimensional presence that provides nothing but hateful comic relief. I think this started ever since the flashbacks and especially since he hooked up with Ethan. Very subtle windows into his vulnerability (through those softer facial expressions).
Insightful humanistic observation. Avatar checks out.
Maybe it’s because he’s strarting to act like a person and you are in fact turned on as much or even more by personality than by actual physical features?
It’s not really Mike. It’s his good twin.
Maybe he’s drunk
I don’t think I’m demi, but I can safely say Mike has never been hot because he’s been an utter shitstain since his Walkyverse incarnation. Take a future baby crossed between Jacob, Ethan, Joyce, and Grace, and you’d still have a bottom five most unattractive character if they had Mike’s personality.
Some people go for assholes, which is perfectly acceptable and can even be healthy as long as they know what they’re getting into.
Mike looks hot in the last panel
I know, right?
Mike is hot in every panel
*plays “Meat Man” on the hacked Muzak*
This was a DJ’s favorite on the station I used to listen to in Florida when I was a teenager.
The important measures of functionality, really.
. . .. I still can’t tell if these two are the best of friends or not. At the very least they have a very strong bond.
Their relationship is so fun to read.
imo their friendship continues purely out of momentum/nostalgia, and the way neither Amber or Ethan has the self-esteem to bring themself to actually cut Mike out of their life entirely
I don’t think that’s quite true. They knew him before he was such an ass, and he shows a lot more of that side of himself with them than with anyone else. They’re genuinely friends, maybe just in an unusual way.
I think that might be part of it but I definitely feel like part might just be that neither of them has the heart/spine/self-esteem/whatever to cut mike out.
I don’t think so. I think that Amber gets rightfully pissed at him, but she also counts on his honesty, because she doesn’t let herself get too close to Danny out of guilt, and Ethan’s not going to confront her on things, so Mike is sometimes her wakeup call, even if it can be a cruel one, which I do think he was somewhat remorseful about in the previous strip, but I am not really sure with this guy sometimes.
And I think you’re giving Mike’s abuse credit for things Amber did on her own.
She doesn’t get too close to Danny because she thinks she’s poison and he’s better off. Mike repeatedly feeding her self hatred is not exactly something she seems at all grateful for
Amber called back something from Family Weekend (7 or 8 years ago IRL) that Mike said that was actually completely inexcusable. They are not friends with Mike, and they should not be. They tolerate his presence and he does theirs, except when he’s trying to hurt them.
Fuck Mike, I hope that Amber’s and Ethan’s self-esteem both upswing enough that they realize they don’t need to keep emotional abuse in their pocket.
I suspect Amber would have and that it’s mostly Ethan keeping them together. He regularly hangs out with Mike and Amber almost never does, except when Ethan brings them together.
And even Ethan isn’t sure they’re friends.
I am reminded of a Seventies-era poster: “We’ve been through so much together…and most of it was your fault.”
Demotivational posters at https://despair.com/collections/posters. Yes, that’s a real thing and they’re hilarious.
Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now.
I believe that children are our future. And that terrifies me.
Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly stupid.
#Priorities
I am curious about Mike’s “new leaf” – whether this is Ethan-related (either realising that telling somebody you like you wanna mess around with them because bored is a bad way of building intimacy, or just the epiphany that even a friend he can Slipshine with thinks he’s a jerk who doesn’t care about anybody else) or if he realised he crossed a line telling Amber she was just like her father, or if he’s screwing with her about the whole thing – why…
In the comic strip Peanuts, every so often Lucy swears that this time she will hold the football for Charlie Brown to kick, and every time he falls for it, and every time she pulls the football up at the last instant and Charlie Brown falls on his butt.
Every time someone falls for Mike claiming he’s turned a new leaf, that person is going to fall on their butt.
Then Charlie Brown goes right back to Lucy for advise and psychological help, for which she charges him a nickel.
Mike is Lucy Van Pelt confirmed?
Did you ever see this one, Marsh?
Has he ever claimed he was though (genuine question, shitty memory)
First time I remember. He’s lied about other stuff though.
My money is on he’s started drinking
I’m feeling sad about Mike toning down is Likeness, there was so many characters I wanted to see interact with his personality. For instance there was that one time Willis teased us with a Mike & Ruth interaction or Carla since I wanted her to be reminded of how much of a novice she is in being a professional asshole.
True, but he probably would have broken them. They’re tough on the outside but Ruth at least is squishy on the inside
Carla is infinitely more skilled at being a professional asshole. Mike is emotionallg and verbally abusive and next time Joyce takes aim at his shins she should recenter and kick him in the face.
Isn’t “emotionally and verbally abusive” what you’re looking for in an asshole?
Carla isn’t good at it, because even though she tries to project that image, she keeps showing signs of caring about people and even helping them, despite all her denials. That’s what makes her a lousy asshole, but a much better person.
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens
Mike don’t care; he’s not going to miss his shot.
Mike is non stop, and Amber is waiting to see which way the wind will blow. Meanwhile, Joyce is writing slash porn of Hamilton and Laurens.
Uh….I’m on S9, anyone else not able to pull up the alt text?
I’m on the Note9 using Chrome and I can see it fine. Maybe you clicked the wrong spot?
Either way, it says “how the sausage gets made”
Which in this context might very well be a penis euphemism.
I’m both curious what Mike’s gonna do and worried for Walky at the same time.
I hope this (relatively) new leaf from Mike lasts. I’ve never been able to stand Mike.
same
I’d rather want to see more of what constitutes the new leaf before saying that, because I’m not really convinced this is more than just ‘mike buying into his extradimensional hype’ yet.
I’m torn between not wanting this to happen for the sake of Walky’s pysche and wanting it to happen very much for the car crash.
at least her plan 1 is not hacking the student reckord this time.
Mike vs more hacking. Hard choice
I predict this will go well.
Of course it’s going to go well. At least, as far as Mike is concerned.
Is the shoving strictly necessary?
He is the pusher robot, and he is here to protect you! (Do not trust the shover robot!)
Space has a terrible power.
Do you have stairs in your house?
Im not sure it’s shoving exactly, I took it simply as him moving Amber aside.
Yes, it is; for the sake of her own peace-of-mind, Amber must not be present whilst Mike works his magic. Some things just should not be seen and heard.
Mike is going to do something awful that somehow will work. If you ask him to bring world peace, he would pull a Kiritsugu Emiya and cause a lot of damage for the greater good… now is that Mike or Walkyverse Sal?
A similar story to Dina and her triceratops hoodie:
https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/2209493001
“You can wear anything you want for the wedding, as long as it’s black.”
Hah! Nice.
I’m trying to pinpoint the two leftmost outfits – RBG, I think and ???
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Marlene Dietrich, Darth Vader, and Audrey Hepburn?
“My sister is awesome and I genuinely was not kidding when I said she could wear whatever she wanted.”
That’s a good story.
Could Mike’s destiny be to become the English-speaking world’s most unique motivational speaker?
See… I’ve never thought Mike was a good guy, or that his tactics were helpful. I think that maybe HE thought his tactics were NECESSARY – if, and this is a big if, we are to believe that he ever meant well. But I have never cared if he meant well; just that he caused harm.
With that said – sign me the [clap] FUCK [clap] UP for some Mike Redemption in the form of screwing over the Evil Dads Committee. They need to GO. And Mike needs to actually do something genuinely good for once in his life. Being woke is not the same thing as acting in the interest of others, and cynicism/pessimism doesn’t make you cool.
Gosh golly gee gamma graham goodies, I’ll be tickled pink if we get Good Guy Mike.
Yes! Yes to all of this!
Panel 5: To quote Walkyverse Mike, “Stand aside, pansies.” http://www.itswalky.com/comic/whoa-boy-down-boy/
He’s a hetero teenage boy, of course he will still put out as long as he’s conscious.
Can we not?
Please don’t set yourself up for punchlines like that.
Amber, no. That’s the deal with the devil you are signing.
I’m not 100% sure of it. Walky needs a kick up the backside anyway and Mike may be the guy to do it. However, given what Ethan did to Mike (at Mike’s suggestion, let us not forget), he may be willing to approach life in a different way.
I think that we’re going to have to see where this goes before we render judgement.
Well I’ll stay in my bunker for a while longer and see how this plays out.
That was uncalled for, Mike. Amber’s done worse? Who are you referring to? Ethan? Danny? They’re not bad people, you know.
99.9% of what Mike says is uncalled for.
Ethan’s gay, so when it comes to dating Amber, he’s actually worse than Walky.
I’m sure Ethan was a perfectly fine date. The whole “being gay” thing might have put a damper on any pants-down shenanigans, but I doubt he was unpleasant to her.
It was still pretty traumatic to her when he came out – she was emotionally invested and suddenly finding the relationship wasn’t what she thought wasn’t easy. Not to mention that she then spent the rest of the summer helping him (and his family) accept it.
Man, it is so fun to see someone evenly matched with Mike – maybe because it occasionally puts him on his back foot, which gives his character some much-needed variety. Outside of the childhood flashback, this is his first interaction I can remember that hasn’t been “delivering sick burns” or “engineering suffering”.
Though … I guess his plot to break Ethan’s heart never panned out? Given that Ethan’s his other longtime “friend”, maybe that was the start of this character shift.
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but GO MIKE!
Huh! Somebody check for flying pigs.
Having read back quite a few comics and found this comment thread, now I feel sad. I had a feeling this had something to do with Ethan but I didn’t put together that this is Mike trying to keep one of his only friends.
Mike chose his fate without realising it. Now, we’re going to find out if he has what it takes to change it.
I’m still not sure I believe the sudden magical Mike transformation…
Any bets on when he’s back to his normal abusive self?
Independently about the reasons of this new life thing, truth or not… Mike really, really dislikes Danny, doesn’t he?
New leaf, new leaf… uh.
priorities are on point
I’ve turned over so many new leaves I had to flip an entire forest