Challenged

If you saw this coming over the last few strips, you're a keen observer, but don't get a big head. Some readers saw it coming in 2004!

Smart money is on Wednesday's comic being NSFW.

99 thoughts on “Challenged

  1. Saw this coming xD
    Awesome

    1. now will we see Nate ‘coming’? 😉

      1. No, I think he’ll stay faithful to his new girl. Hey, he resisted Rose for a long time, Tracey shouldn’t be much of an issue.

        1. Well I would not bet my money on that. Tracy is like his nemesis, he might do her… You know, powerful emotions, like hatred between man and woman, can easily erupt into spontaneus monkey sex in the storage room 🙂

        2. Sounds like my kind of sex! lol This comic is so awesome! lol

        3. Didn’t they used to go out?

        4. To paraphrase Amber:

          “The most epic of hate-fucks.”

          On the far side of that, Mike hates.

        5. Yeah, but Rose atleast kept her bra on, whereas Tracy just threw hers’ at his face

        6. …which translates to: ADVANTAGE: TRACY.

        7. Rose was more than willing to take it all off: https://og.treadingground.com/?p=821 (NSFW)

        8. Resist the perfect grudge-f? Why? She is his manager, plus one, of age, plus one, purported to be a harlot, plus one (on the morality scale, he doesn’t have to care about a one time thing with someone who likes to sleep around), and has just ruined his evening. She also lords her rather low position over him, and has just spent the evening making fun of his ambition, his spine, and his sexual prowess… Why not take the effortless opportunity to make the evening end, dare I say it, with a bang?

        9. Well said, well said…

        10. Or, completely ignore Tracey, thereby crushing her ego that such a “spineless, ambitiousless” sexual weakling would turn her down.

    2. SHE WANTS HIS BABIES xD

  2. Pillows behind Nate’s head.

    Just sayin’.

    1. Looked at comic, lol’d, got excited for next trip.

      Read your comment.

      Went back to comic. Lol’d.

    2. They’re actually giant bags of rice, but they might make do in a pinch.

    3. I got a hunch, Nate’s LOOKING at a set of pillows right NOW! (Or as they’re known in some circles – blouse-puppies, fun-bags, water-wings … get it? got it? GOOD!)

      Now, we just need
      1. Their BOSS showing up {Who’s putting un-authorized O.T.?);
      2. Rose, running into Melinda and BOTH walking into the store with Boss;
      3. Tracey screaming “Sexual Harassment” – but the BETTER money would be on NATE screaming it the loudest!

      I gotta get me some POPCORN! – This is gonna be “interesting”!

  3. im all for him gettin some he needs it by now id just rather it not be with her tho i guess its better it happen now than have her lusting after him and messing anything decent up

  4. The nate face on the final panel is freaking hilarious

  5. It’s been my experience that the really…uh…FORTHRIGHT women generally like to sub, although if this leads to Tracy in dominatrix gear, I’m not one to complain… XD

  6. OH SWEET DAMN!!!

  7. You got to be fucking kidding. Perhaps Nate won’t accept this “offer”. I mean this is Tracy, mastery in Bitch 101, there’s bound to be some kind of catch.

  8. 5 bucks she’s a hetero

    1. It’s already been inferred she’s a SLUT – so heterosexual isn’t much of a stretch, it’s just a ‘step down’ on her evolutionary ladder!

    2. Hetero, like as in, Straight? I wonder what gave you that idea…

  9. All I can say to Tracy is Whaaachooooo cooooookin?

  10. Dr. Wonderfuk/Wonderful

    BOW CHICKA BOW WOW.

    Dr. wonderfuk got the Music
    and Dr. wonderful the beer/popcorn and videocamera.

  11. Seriously Nate. There may be TITS, but GTFO. You know that there’s going to be trouble otherwise. So run man! Run!

    1. I have to concur. o_o The sad part is, as messed-up as things will be if he accepts, she’ll be angry if he refuses her. It’s a no-win situation.

      1. Gentleman Pervert

        Not so! This is the perfect situation for Nate. The fact that she deliberately juggled the schedule to be alone with him is well documented, and her whoreishness is equally established. All he has to do at this point is take the bra, leave her hanging, and call corporate for harassment. She gets terminated, and as her second in command he becomes a natural to take her spot.

        Granted, it would make his liaison with Melinda equally taboo, but as those two had not even had a first date yet, that would be a small enough sacrifice for revenge plus a raise and promotion.

        1. The fact that she changed the schedule is documented, yes. But how is he going to prove that’s her bra or that she harassed him? Besides, consider cultural bias: if a woman accuses a man of sexual harassment, people are much more likely to believe her than if a man accuses a woman of the same. Claims of Tracy’s promiscuity would likely be consider slander, used to back up Nate’s claim of harassment, and as such has little chance of being believed.

          Yes, I know Nate’s co-workers might stand up for him, but let’s face it: they’re a bunch of slackers. Their support might actually hurt Nate more than help him, if it comes down to a confrontation with upper management.

          In closing: Nate isn’t much of a fighter. He tends to avoid difficult confrontations.

        2. eh not so much in the retail business. I know plenty of women who have been terminated because of sexual harassment. it’s not the same as being accused of the same outside of the job. The call is \ anonymous so they wouldn’t necessarily need to know it was nate and the lawsuit generally occurs after they have been handed the two week notice. Also, depending on the company, she may win the lawsuit but still not be allowed to work at that particular store, or they might just fire them both for having sexual relations.

  12. didn’t see it coming, but honestly too busy anticipating Wednesday’s comic to be surprised

    1. (â—‹)(â—‹)

      There, surprise ruined.

      1. you did it wrong it’s : (oYo) d(o.o)b

  13. now who would do the queen of hell??? for starters me!

  14. For God’s sake RUN!!!

    She does not want you to do that nice Deli Woman.

  15. Well, what the hell. If he goes for it, he has one hell of a piece of leverage with HR if Tracy ever gets out of line again. XD

    1. But Tracy can also easily blackmail him this way. So if I were him I’d get the hell out of there. Simply because you just can’t trust a woman like her. They find ways the make things go in their favor. They’re manipulative that way.

      1. She cant black mail him at work with it, Because she would instantly lose her job too if she brought it up, and being a manager, she has allot more to lose, now she COULD blackmail him socially with it, by telling the nice deli lady about their liaison, however, then the nice deli lady could file sexual harassment charges as well, tracy would lose her job, and if not, if the deli lady had any kind of penalty levied against her by the company or tracy ,and the company did nothing to make it right again, she could sue for ALLOT of money.

  16. A violet bra? WTF?

    Advent hasn’t even started yet!

  17. I get the feeling there could be hate sex involved…..

    1. Angry sex is a definite possibility I’d say. I wonder if Melinda will somehow walk in on them should they actually get it on. Time will tell but I’m positive there will be boobage.

  18. I saw it coming ever since I saw that banner ad. 🙂

    1. I saw it coming since “Greetings, harlot”. I win! ^^

  19. Got my Jiffy-Pop (thanx to the micro-wave) … comfy chair … let the SIDE SHOW beGIN!

  20. Did not read this in 2004 but I’ve called this ALMOST as long as I’ve know her as a character.

  21. What if he takes up her offer and fails to perform? The irony. So many story twist possibilities!

  22. Remember the description of the last strip…

    “Don’t forget to tuck in Purvous on your way out. He gets chilly.”

    My guess is he sleeps in the store, and no one knows about it. Nate is going to go for it, and Purvous will most likely be the one to interrupt.

    1. Normally I’m content to let people run with this type of theorizing, but yeah, that was totally a joke. Purvous works short shifts and goes back to The Home every day.

      Imagine the insurance liability involved in having an employee sleep in the store!

    2. How about stuck in the freezer? Sleeping there (regularly) sounds highly unlikely because the home he lives in would notice. I really don’t expect Purvous to live on his own.

  23. ewwww. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

  24. Purvous ineteruptus?

    1. Bwahahaha!
      Brilliant!

      1. An even more appropriate use of the term than when I originally coined it.

  25. As Dr Samuel “Sam” Beckett would say… “Oh boy”… It’s either going to be the biggest trap of all traps, or it’s going to be the thing he really needs. Let’s watch and find out, shall we?

  26. as a common internet meme would say:
    “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”

  27. OOooooh your evil XD!!! Well you seem to have done what everybody wanted. Nice comic though mate your an inspiration

  28. It’s looping! Head for the hills!

  29. I can’t shake the feeling she is just screwing with Nate here….

    oh well, we’ll find out WEDNESDAY!

  30. And she takes off her bra….
    and imediately shouts out….
    ‘AHA! FUCK YOU DUDE! IM A MAN!’
    as he reveals that in fact her ‘tits’ were a bunch of beanbags hidden in a bra and that he was stufing his cock between his legs…
    4 hours of hot homosexual sex ensues in which Nate reptures a spleen and ends up in a hospital and needs a replacement spleen. But just when he’s about to die Steve walks in and offers his spleen. After the operation Steve looks into Nate’s eyes and ever so softly speaks into his ear ‘I love you man!’

    Nate discovers his love for Steve and realises that he is a raving poofter! They both get married and get killed by right wing christian extremists!

    THE END!

    1. DUDE YOU TOTALLY SPOILED IT :-(((

    2. We’ve seen her tits before, and they are definitely tits, so no.

      1. ITS A HALLUCINATION YOU FOOL! JUST LIKE IN YU + ME! ITS A METAPHOR FOR HIS COLLAPSING SEXUALITY!

        1. LancealotVangelis

          I am a random passer-by and I agree with comment 1 and 4!

  31. Well played Tracy… well played…

  32. So am I the only fan left of Rose and Nate getting together?

    1. no, not the only fan, but at the same time id almost be slightly disappointed cause it would be so cliche… where as so far, this comic has actually been fairly realistic, and has resisted the cliche formulaic crap that makes most other webcomics/tv shows/ movies kinda boring.

      1. I was just a fan because I was 16 when I got with my man (he was 21) so they reminded me of us but the difference is, we didn’t self sabotage and I didn’t slut it up.

        But I got attached to the idea now.

  33. 😀 How much money can we put on Wednesday comic? 😉

  34. so starts the angry hate sex lol

  35. And the stakes in this exciting manhood challenge have been upped! What will our hero do?

  36. Nick, about my Tracy fanart. My draft is shaping up nicely, but I wonder… is generous amounts of skin and breast/nipples a-okay? No explicit stuff of course.

    1. Should be fine. We’ve already been there in the comic, after all.

  37. I just want everyone to look at Tracy withOUT observing her personality, and realize something. She is actually pretty damn hot.

    As one said before me, there is indeed a fine line between love and hate, and also, there’s always some sort of sexual tension between rivals of opposite gender(hell, more often than not, with rivals of the SAME gender too)

    Gentlemen, I rest my statement with the following motion: Nate and Tracy are gonna get FREAKY DEEKY DUTCH,BAYBEH!!!!

    1. Regardless if she is hot she’s still got the personality of a wet cat. So Nate is not going to fall for this. At least I hope not, because there has got to be some kind of catch to this. Women play this sort of game all the time!

      1. I prefer my “cats” wet, its more enjoyable for everyone involved that way.

  38. Normally, when a challenge is offered, a glove is thrown either upon the floor, or the person being challenged is struck upon the face with it…

    So, I guess bras are the new gloves?

  39. Is it me or does Tracy ALWAYS have her ponytail hung over her right shoulder?

    1. Yeah, who does that?? Lilah in Ctrl-Alt-Del does it too. Tracy looks just like my missus and says if she turns her head it’ll just end up behind her back anyway.

  40. This will be interesting 😀

    Still, though, I hold out on Nate resisting the lure. While I understand that there’s a fine line between love and hate (at least hate on this petty level), he’s already shown considerable resistance to these kinds of attacks. IF he could withstand Rose, I’m pretty sure he can withstand Tracy.

    I don’t really oppose either turn of events, however 😛

  41. I just hope he comes away saying, “I can never look at a salami the same way again…” or something to that effect.

  42. Pretty sure this won’t end well. Haven’t we seen this before?

  43. instant love triangle, just add water!

    1. wait no… instant drama, just add love triangle… there we go.
      Of course this isn’t exactly love… but I bet he is still going to go out with that other girl (whatshername?)

  44. Looking at how Nate has acted so far, I doubt he is going to take the bait

    1. If he does, I’ll be both disappointed and happy for him.

  45. Well who didn’t see this coming? LOLZ

    Although I must say, thank you Mr. Wright. This page especially brought back fond memories as I was in a very similar situation.

    While working fast food in my mid-teen purgatory(i.e old enough for responsibility, but not old enough to do anything of notable fun…legally) there was one of the managers that gave me such a hard time that I wanted to scream at her on many an occasion. Unfortunately car insurance doesn’t pay itself and neither does gas.

    However on her last day there, after she graduated from the local Community College, her and I had closing duties and something very similar to the above scene happened. Despite the four year age difference, we started dating and eventually married once I turned 18.

    1. Still together? If so, congrats

  46. now i know where the pic under the face book icon came from

  47. Last few strips, hell, I saw it coming the first time they met. I had the same kind of relationship with a manager just like her at my first job.

  48. RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAW!

  49. Nate… Take a shit in the left cup and throw it back at her.

    We do NOT reward abuse with positive attention!

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