Setting Conditions

SHHHHHHH! That shit could get you demoted to level 3A. And me too for warning you!

Nash Wolfe

This is almost a healthy baseline for a relationship. What we need to see later is Dan freaking out about something and Renee being super calm and level-headed, which we know she can do with Brun. *That's* a healthy relationship, and it's how my wife and I function together most of the time. Seriously, there was a major psychological study on long-term marriage/relationship outcomes, and they found the #1 predictor of a long-term happy relationship was whether each of the members would become calmer if the other one was getting angry or emotionally upset, rather than getting wound up themselves. It has to go both ways to fully work.

Clifton Royston

Am married to a Chemical Engineer. Specifics matter, mostly. Dan is made of the most awesome laid-backness ever and I'm sailing this ship around the world.

Ruth Merriam

They really should release a special edition of Griffiths' Electrodynamics that is bound in skin and has a face on the cover

Am an engineer. I can confirm.

Nicolas Dao-Phan

It's my guess that Dan is one of those people who doesn't consider it a blood sacrifice unless it's someone else's blood. It's the only way it makes any sense. I mean, I've talked with some sanitation engineers, and I'm really unnerved by how much they indicated their profession is not an exception from this engineering rule.

Some Ed

The Rituals And Superstitions Involved In The Black Arts Of Electromagnetic Theory do not count. Now if you will excuse me, I must sacrifice an LM324 to the ESD gun before my next precertification trial.

JourneymanWizard

Heinleinology probably doesn't even count, it's just assumed.

Thomas A. Dennis

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

Yelling Bird

Sure but its important not to let past crappy relationships poison new ones before they start.

David Howe

Can you be truly invested in anything if there isn't the occasional blood sacrifice?

I'm an electrical engineer. Don't worry, it's our fault.

Danny insert meta joke here Roose

I love how most comments are "Ha-ha, engineering does seem like a cult! But, for real, who hadn't sacrificed some blood now and then in the process?"

Evgeniy Semyonov

Again, 'agree on', not 'unilaterally set a limit'.

Mark

Engineers! The bane of my existence. I'm an electrician.

To me, a lot of Renee's defensive/neurotic behaviours in this scene have screamed to me that she has had a LOT of bad hook-ups.

Ben Russell-Gough

Remember your static strap otherwise everything go *boom*!

David Durant

Does Dan wear his Iron ring? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring

Miyaa

Also, relationships in the armed forces have 'long-distance' sort of written into the terms of reference

Ben Russell-Gough

and agreeing on a minimum time spent each month playing magic the gathering. Don't forget that one.

Bagge

I was a Navy Chief. There were some cult-adjacent activities along the way.

Shane Wegner

Anyone that can use cult-adjacent in casual conversation is ok in my book.

Zain Redding

True, Academia's a blood sport.

C-Cubed

By 'blood sacrifice' he is referring to practical lessons in the tool shop.

Ben Russell-Gough

His school has clearly gone soft. We still did things the old fashioned way at mine.

Barty

Renee basically lives on that boundary. It's the reason some of us were uncomfortable with the kind of help she gave Brun after the fire.

Daryl Sawyer

I thought she was indeed looking for trouble last time questioning why he was being so cool, but calling him out for not denying cult membership is just being savvy.

Christopher Burke

I’m starting to feel a slight flux between Healthy Assertiveness and Pushy. It’s breaking out on the Healthy Assertion side though, as long as it doesn’t metastasize.

Shane Wegner

I was just thinking “Shitty Dan is definitely Mature and Reasonable Good Sport Dan”.

Shane Wegner

I'm really enjoying how 'Shitty Dan' has turned out to be one of the least shitty and nicest guys in the comic (so far at least)

Kurist Zero

On "Reasonable time to reply to text?" I suggest if it's time-critical YOU CALL. Nothing more annoying than being up to your elbows in a cursed machine and getting your chops busted for not immediately answering a text about "what do you want for dinner?" Dearheart,.. if you are feeding me I DON'T CARE BECAUSE YOUR COOKING IS ALL GOOD. (Sorry,... a flashback to a happier time,.... even her horrible, terrible, supposedly uneatable mistakes were good.)

Darnel D Cooper

LOL "Anymore" Well I for one am glad that they have come to the 21st Century. (Now if only they cut back on the summoning glyphs and programing circles,.... maybe stop praying to Finangle and Murphy,...)

Darnel D Cooper

Academia isn't a cult. Cults provide a sense of belonging.

Chris Gropp

Anymore.

Hugh Eckert

There's a reason they dubbed them "daemons" after all...

Hugh Eckert

Renee...! I too feel nervous about how involved this is all becoming and now I really really really really really really want to see them kiss again and just look happy for a second

David Jackson

If you don't reply to my text five minutes before I send it, then WE'RE DONE!

Alacrity Fitzhugh

I'm also not a fan of this level of dependency

Drazi

Sometimes the daemon needs something extra to prevent a complete system meltdown. That's what the goat is for. It's all about being prepared.

Alex Borders

Nah man, he's Cool Dan. He's just seeing how it goes. Although Renee, hon, a reasonable amount of time to return a text is "as soon as I can get to it". That's getting into controlling territory, and you only just started.

Jaron Mortimer

oof, if someone came at me with prescribing a reasonable amount of time to reply to a text, I'd be out right away. I have a life separate from my phone and I might not even see a text for hours if I'm in the middle of a project (and I can't hear the notification sound over some of the tools I use). I hate the idea of someone expecting me to be sitting on-call constantly.

Creepy Cat Lady

I keep thinking Renee and Dan might be the alternate story arc we didn't see with Faye and Angus.

That Blair Guy

One rule we had was we talk every night. And if we get into a fight we don’t go to bed. We talk through it until we’re ok. We had quite a few sleepless nights.

Timothy Mann

He's being unreasonably good about this.

MikeT

My wife and I started dating after our HS reunion. I was living about 6 hours away by car. I visited her about once every 4-6 weeks. But we could have really used these last few strips as a guide. (The relationship is on about 17 years, didn’t relocate until we married after 4 years.) Though she and I still don’t agree on what a reasonable time to reply to a text is...

Timothy Mann

A lot of organizations can be described as cult-adjacent.

KCkittysnores

No blood sacrifices? How did Shitty Dan get through engineering lab classes without blood sacrifices? Wait. Is Shitty Dan a "Sanitation Engineer"?

BobC

Just what kind of Engineer is he? ME, EE, ChE, CE, all shed blood at one time or another. Computer people... well... Abhayakara just 'splained that one. Oh, yeah, blood sacrifice is still required by the Engineering Gods.

Jason Zions

Mid-90s PC cases were just boxes of knives with a computer in the middle.

Simon Green

We never made blood sacrifices but we did put a lot of fingers on the line. 'What's the most expensive component on this circuit we just built? That one? OK' Put finger on expensive part and flip power switch. If finger begins to hurt, immediately flip power switch off again.

Simon Green

Eh, if he can't handle her at this level of freakout, she might as well find out now rather than later.

Brooks Moses

Back then, there was no "adjacent" about it.

Yonatan Zunger

I cut myself working on a PC once…

Abhayakara

You'll never get a good fortress foundation that way.

Captain Button

Renee is sooooooo nervous. It's cute! (To me, it's cute! If I were Dan I might be getting tetchy.) Luckily the actual Dan doesn't seem to be getting tetchy at all.

Vic or Vyxter

I love them so much. Dan's chill is a perfect complement to Renee's unchill.

Morgan

Yeah engineering schools aren't like they used to be in the 40's.

Michael

Renee!! Down!! He seems like a perfectly likeable guy, who is willing to meet you more than half way, set responsibilities for the two of you in a good faith attempt to make this work. OTOH, the cult adjacent stuff may be a teensy bit worrisome, but Dora got roped into something like that too, and she turned out okay.

Michael Boettger

I'm wondering why Renee hasn't been in a lot of relationships

TV4Fun

I'm so proud 😭😭😭

Erin Moriarty

Cult-adjacent seems like a really good description of most engineering programs.

Went to engineering school. i won't confirm or deny anything.

mooviies

Dan seems like a good boy.

Eric Sieck

It's going about as well as one can hope. Hooray!

Onedavewreckingcrew

Look, some exams just go better if you sacrifice some sanguine to them.

Thomas Halpin

If that's what a healthy baseline for a relationship looks like, I want one of those.

R L

C'mon girl, don't scare the poor boy

Niskara

"cult-adjacent" XD

Wynn Donivan