Rain:39: Slight Overreaction

39: Slight Overreaction
Page	39
Chapter	Chapter 2 - Secrets and Lies (pages)
Published	24 February 2011
Characters	Rudy Strongwell Maria Strongwell Liriel Rain Bryer Norman Strongwell Donna Strongwell
Location	Outside St. Hallvard High School
Previous	38: A Real Couple
Next	40: Not So Secret
Page sorted as	Rain-02-0039-39: Slight Overreaction

Synopsis

Rudy talks about his attempted coming out.

Author Notes 

This section contains copyrighted content by Jocelyn Samara DiDomenick.

Flashbacks are in black and white. I established that back on page 1, remember? Rudy’s wristband however transcends monochrome. ^_^

I realize this a tricky sort of scene and something that may hit home pretty hard for some of my readers. My goal going into this page was to come up with both an absurdly over-the-top reaction (the father) and a painfully real reaction (the mother) and use both in the same context. I hoped I could portray this without detracting from the tongue-in-cheek humor of the one comment and the shudder-inducing gravity of the other. Did I succeed? 

And for those of you wondering where the explanation for Gavin and Maria is: keep your pants on, I’m getting to it. The actual reason is fairly simple, but it does require a little setup. You’ll know the answer next week. I promise. ^_^

Transcript 

This section contains copyrighted content by Jocelyn Samara DiDomenick.

Rudy Strongwell:

Orginally, the idea was that we'd come out together to make it easier, but she got nervous and backed out.

Rudy Strongwell:

So, I chose to go ahead and do it anyway, to show her it wouldn't be so bad.

Flashback:

Norman Strongwell:

Operator! I need an old priest and a young priest!

Donna Strongwell:

My baby's going to hell! How could I let this happen!?

Rudy Strongwell:

Well, they may have overreacted a little.

Rudy Strongwell:

Because of their reaction to me though, Maria never ended up coming out at all.

Rudy Strongwell:

In fact, she tries so hard to hide it that I don't think our parents suspect a thing.

Rudy Strongwell:

Either way, they ended up taking us both out of public school and sent us here instead.

Rudy Strongwell:

I guess they figured that the Catholic school environment would show us how "wrong" it is. Basically, they expect it to cure me and dissuade Maria from "making the wrong choice."

Liriel Rain Bryer:

Sounds like they're pretty closed-minded. It must be rough.

Rudy Strongwell:

Maria and I like the term "old-fashioned" for them.

Links and References

• Read this page on DeviantArt
• Read this page on SmackJeeves
• Read this page on Comic Fury

Related Topics

• coming out
• Homophobia
• The Strongwells