With all due respect, Mr. Acier, Miel doesn’t need you to protect him. Stop trying to do the wrong stuff (taking him away from Arbeille) for the “right” reasons. Because work is NOT the only thing Miel is passionate about anymore, even if you can’t see it or relate to it.
This smells strongly of American ideals concerning work too… work comes first… friends, family, life, and health comes last …and people work themselves into an early grave. Don’t get me wrong, as I have worked hard on my career and I love my job, but family and loved ones should come first. I hope Miel listens to his heart and will find work-life balance.
By that same token, a brand new relationship has a way of taking over for a lot of people. In the poly communities, we call it NRE (new relationship energy) and it’s one of those things where you’re so excited and happy about a new relationship that everything else in life takes a backseat to it. Letting the excitement of someone new tank your career or your existing relationships or really anything important to you is something most people would agree isn’t a great idea.
If it’s a career like Jane Goodall’s, or choosing to be a monk, that makes sense to me. But, that is a rare individual. I think it is a matter of what one truly loves and what is socially responsible.
In the abstract, love of individual people is the most important thing to me, certainly. That is socially responsible. I would consider advancing within a corporation as not very socially responsible, in the abstract.
Abeille turning her life upside down to honor her sister is a beautiful thing, to me.
For me, love is not a trivial thing. Perhaps I read into the story how profoundly Miel loves Abeille. It would not be bad if he did place love of Abeille above his career, in terms of what is socially responsible and healthy. If they were to care for children, that would make it even more so a good thing to value their relationship, highly.
I’m certainly not suggesting love is a trivial thing. However, it is only one aspect of life. Friendships, family, a career, those things are all important too. Losing your job (if only for the ability to keep a roof over your head) because you allowed your relationship to spill over into your work isn’t a great idea and is something most people would eventually come to regret, especially if that career was one they invested a lot of time and energy into building and felt very passionately about. Sure, he might not be Jane Goodall, but from what I’ve seen, it seems like his work is important and something he takes pride in.
This led to some interesting thoughts for me. There is the terrible example of the wife who gives up her dreams while her husband does not. And, I had never thought about the idea that Abeille doesn’t appear to be pursuing a goal of the sort that I think you are referring to, before your topic.
Abeille is on a quest, I think, to honor her sister, which is very brave and admirable, to me. She’s not running away. She’s doing the right thing.
There was the part where she is startled awake thinking about her Ringette days. I’m not sure what to make of that now.
The story could lead to either Miel or Abeille giving up a dream and that would be awful. I kind of doubt it though.
Maybe Abeille will return to Pasque, and become a huge Ringette star. Then Mallow will offer Miel a position as taxonomist on Pasque despite Amaryllis being upset about it.
OH THANK FUDGE I WAS RIGHT! I knew Mr. Acier wasn’t a complete and total jerk…but he REALLY doesn’t GET Miel has other passions outside of his work. Which is fine, because he seems to be VERY receptive to his star protégé and cares very deeply for him professionally and personally. Let’s see what the response will be to Meil’s admission of his feelings for Abeilee
Feels manipulative to me. He hasn’t been thrilled by Miel’s relationship since the start, for reasons I continue to think are personal, and now he’s jumping on an opportunity to drive a wedge by playing on his fears and guilt.
That’s the feeling that I’m getting, too… I’m not sure how much I want to take this at face value. Especially saying ‘it would be naive to assume’ that anyone else would understand. Acier means ‘steel,’ after all: cold, stoic, immalleable. Miel knows for a fact that Poppy would understand, having literally done the same thing that happened (on a less grand scale, though). I’m very glad that Miel is being polite, but I hope he can see Acier for his tactic to only keep his best worker.
Yeah, Acier hasn’t passed the test for me. Seems like he’s using what happened as leverage to push what he wants from Miel.
1. The moment he saw Miel interested in Abeille he reassigned her so he couldn’t see her as often or as easily.
2. He called Abeille the ‘problem’ because he sees her as a barrier and trouble and continued his active behavior with trying to separate them.
3. He just literally used the situation as leverage to try to pressure him into doing what he has wanted him to do in the first place.
As much as there’s legit reason for him to be unhappy about the situation given the stir it caused, it was just as much his fault that scene was caused.
Any employer policy deeply frowns upon disclosing information about employees to people they don’t have permission to share information with, related or not. Acier may not have known how batsh*t crazy her mother was, but just as you wouldn’t hand out your employee’s schedule to a stranger, you don’t send them straight to an off duty employee either. Whether he was hoping Abeille would be pulled from Miel so he could convince him to go ahead and have those drinks he was unsuccessful in getting him to take or he legit wasn’t expecting her to immediately rush them doesn’t really matter at this point. He’s still using it to press a perceived advantage to get the outcome he wants. Whether his interest in Miel is due to some sort of protective mentor instinct and seeing a kindred spirit that loves his work or he wants Miel to remain with him for other reasons the evidence that he intends to get what he wants and have Miel join him is pretty damning. He’s not above manipulating the situation to remove barriers without consent, and he’s not above taking advantage of a bad situation to achieve his ends.
I thought there is some behind the scenes collaboration between Mr. Acier and Amaryllis https://lovenotfound.com/comic/ch18-p37/ So, something more sinister could be up.
I’m happy that Miel is not just jumping on the new opportunity.
“1. The moment he saw Miel interested in Abeille he reassigned her so he couldn’t see her as often or as easily.” He called her volunteering allotment to put her in childcare. I think he may have gotten an idea about her touch affinity already then, and if she’d show promise in that department, there’d be a lot more reason to put in a transfer request to Doublefleur than for a cafeteria worker.
It’s a generally unpopular job, so there is going to be a lot less trouble with seniority and other application hurdles if she can be interested or even enthused in that.
In short, I do see the potential of Acier being smart enough to make him deserve Miel’s loyalty. Even though it would mean that the Amaryllis drama would fly holding patterns instead of going away.
Yes, exactly. I’m willing to see if he has growth and I may be surprised, but so far I’ve been baffled by people who assume he has nothing but the best at heart for Miel. You summed it up very well. As for #1 in your points: also, he sent Abeille to the Nursery/ Childcare (whatever it is called). Not knowing that she is fine with touch, basically he sent her to something that would be an extremely humiliating experience for most people there. So he not only tried to make her unavailable to Miel (removing the “distraction”), but put her in a humiliating job as well. Possibly the equivalent here of sending someone to clean outhouses or something.
I didn’t read anyone thinking Mr. Acier has the best at heart. Just, not all good or all bad. I’m not waiting to damn this person or that. I want the best for Abeille and Miel and Verbena and Vine.
Yep. Chalk me up to another one who agrees with what you’ve said here. I don’t see the good intentions in Acier’s actions, only manipulative ones to get what he wants to happen.
Of course, Gina has the last word. To me it does not as much appear that Acier is being manipulative here as much as that he is sounding out Miel while presenting his own preferences and priorities. “The best and quickest solution” does not sound like he is not willing to entertain others.
Of course, the last thing you want to appear as when being manipulative is being manipulative. But Acier is not at all hiding his own preferences. So far, I’d call his approach rather being persuasive than manipulative. He puts his cards on the table and progresses from there. So far, it appears like he’s playing this straight and is effective in his communication.
Of course, it will all depend on how he reacts to the challenge of working with non-“best and quickest” solutions, or with integrating Abeille into his proposal. So really folks: give him a break. It doesn’t look like it needs to be a long one.
I’m on the fence with this one. I think Acier is being a bit manipulative, but not maliciously so. He saw in Miel someone who was like him, someone who’s just not interested in personal, intimate relationships. That can be hard to find, and he might feel like he’s just as much an outlier/outsider as Miel is for being in a relationship with physical touch.
So I think he’s both simultaneously scared of losing the one person he thought was like him, that he could relate to, and at the same time trying to protect Miel from isolation from his peers at work. I don’t think he’s approaching it in a healthy way at all, but I don’t think he wanted Abeille’s mom to find out about it anymore than Miel and Abeille did.
STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!! His supervisor is so petty to project his feelings onto Miel and it’s ENTIRELY unprofessional to use his position of power to try and strong arm him into doing what he wants… Guy needs a hard reality check that his fantasy of having Miel to himself is just that… a fantasy.
He’s encouraging Miel to run, basically. That’s irresponsible for someone who is in a responsible position. I think he’s crushing on Miel, and want Abeille out of the way, so he’s being selfish and opportunistic as well.
He is correct that he might be facing difficulty at work due to work politics, but it’s up to Miel, and Abeille. Well, let’s see what happens next…
I think Acier is a good boss. I mean, he obviously thinks Miel is as dedicated to his job as he is cause he used to be. Since he’s gotten more serious with Abeille he’s seemed to have changed his priorities, but Acier isn’t a mind reader. It’s unfair to blame him for making an assumption based on his previous interactions with Miel.
Now, if Miel tells him “No, she’s more important to me than my work now and I want to be with her even if society says it’s wrong” and Acier says anything besides “Ok, I understand and support you even if I don’t agree” THEN he would be a bad boss.
Also, reminding Miel that he’s about to be thrown to the sharks when he goes back to work isn’t manipulative, it’s telling him the truth. This is a world where holding hands is gross/icky/super perverted and he was caught doing much “worse” with Abeille. He’s not abusing his position of power, he’s reminding him what this world is like and what consequences he will be facing. In Acier’s eyes, Miel is throwing everything he worked so hard for away.
This all comes off to me as a boss who is worried about the choices one of his favorite employees is making. At the end of the day, is all Miel’s decision, but I actually think it’s sweet that Acier is at least trying to “help” him. He obviously cares, if he didn’t he would have just fired him for doing a “perverted” act at a company sponsored event. It honestly would probably be easier for him to just fire Miel and Abeille and place 100% of the blame on them and not have to deal with answering why “perverted” acts were allowed to be done in public at his company’s sponsored event.
“We’re kindred spirits” sounds very much like Acier wants Miel, but I’ve been wrong before. As long as he has him close, he’s fine, but the moment he’s found a relationship with someone else…
Best f***ing boss ever!
I am gonna have to disagree on that one. Acier’s behavior has been very manipulative.
Gonna have to agree. His answer to Miel’s last statement there will really determine whether he’s an butthole or not.
Jac, agreed…
With all due respect, Mr. Acier, Miel doesn’t need you to protect him. Stop trying to do the wrong stuff (taking him away from Arbeille) for the “right” reasons. Because work is NOT the only thing Miel is passionate about anymore, even if you can’t see it or relate to it.
This smells strongly of American ideals concerning work too… work comes first… friends, family, life, and health comes last …and people work themselves into an early grave. Don’t get me wrong, as I have worked hard on my career and I love my job, but family and loved ones should come first. I hope Miel listens to his heart and will find work-life balance.
By that same token, a brand new relationship has a way of taking over for a lot of people. In the poly communities, we call it NRE (new relationship energy) and it’s one of those things where you’re so excited and happy about a new relationship that everything else in life takes a backseat to it. Letting the excitement of someone new tank your career or your existing relationships or really anything important to you is something most people would agree isn’t a great idea.
If it’s a career like Jane Goodall’s, or choosing to be a monk, that makes sense to me. But, that is a rare individual. I think it is a matter of what one truly loves and what is socially responsible.
In the abstract, love of individual people is the most important thing to me, certainly. That is socially responsible. I would consider advancing within a corporation as not very socially responsible, in the abstract.
Abeille turning her life upside down to honor her sister is a beautiful thing, to me.
For me, love is not a trivial thing. Perhaps I read into the story how profoundly Miel loves Abeille. It would not be bad if he did place love of Abeille above his career, in terms of what is socially responsible and healthy. If they were to care for children, that would make it even more so a good thing to value their relationship, highly.
I’m certainly not suggesting love is a trivial thing. However, it is only one aspect of life. Friendships, family, a career, those things are all important too. Losing your job (if only for the ability to keep a roof over your head) because you allowed your relationship to spill over into your work isn’t a great idea and is something most people would eventually come to regret, especially if that career was one they invested a lot of time and energy into building and felt very passionately about. Sure, he might not be Jane Goodall, but from what I’ve seen, it seems like his work is important and something he takes pride in.
This led to some interesting thoughts for me. There is the terrible example of the wife who gives up her dreams while her husband does not. And, I had never thought about the idea that Abeille doesn’t appear to be pursuing a goal of the sort that I think you are referring to, before your topic.
Abeille is on a quest, I think, to honor her sister, which is very brave and admirable, to me. She’s not running away. She’s doing the right thing.
There was the part where she is startled awake thinking about her Ringette days. I’m not sure what to make of that now.
The story could lead to either Miel or Abeille giving up a dream and that would be awful. I kind of doubt it though.
Maybe Abeille will return to Pasque, and become a huge Ringette star. Then Mallow will offer Miel a position as taxonomist on Pasque despite Amaryllis being upset about it.
OH THANK FUDGE I WAS RIGHT! I knew Mr. Acier wasn’t a complete and total jerk…but he REALLY doesn’t GET Miel has other passions outside of his work. Which is fine, because he seems to be VERY receptive to his star protégé and cares very deeply for him professionally and personally. Let’s see what the response will be to Meil’s admission of his feelings for Abeilee
Feels manipulative to me. He hasn’t been thrilled by Miel’s relationship since the start, for reasons I continue to think are personal, and now he’s jumping on an opportunity to drive a wedge by playing on his fears and guilt.
That’s the feeling that I’m getting, too… I’m not sure how much I want to take this at face value. Especially saying ‘it would be naive to assume’ that anyone else would understand. Acier means ‘steel,’ after all: cold, stoic, immalleable. Miel knows for a fact that Poppy would understand, having literally done the same thing that happened (on a less grand scale, though). I’m very glad that Miel is being polite, but I hope he can see Acier for his tactic to only keep his best worker.
Yeah, Acier hasn’t passed the test for me. Seems like he’s using what happened as leverage to push what he wants from Miel.
1. The moment he saw Miel interested in Abeille he reassigned her so he couldn’t see her as often or as easily.
2. He called Abeille the ‘problem’ because he sees her as a barrier and trouble and continued his active behavior with trying to separate them.
3. He just literally used the situation as leverage to try to pressure him into doing what he has wanted him to do in the first place.
As much as there’s legit reason for him to be unhappy about the situation given the stir it caused, it was just as much his fault that scene was caused.
Any employer policy deeply frowns upon disclosing information about employees to people they don’t have permission to share information with, related or not. Acier may not have known how batsh*t crazy her mother was, but just as you wouldn’t hand out your employee’s schedule to a stranger, you don’t send them straight to an off duty employee either. Whether he was hoping Abeille would be pulled from Miel so he could convince him to go ahead and have those drinks he was unsuccessful in getting him to take or he legit wasn’t expecting her to immediately rush them doesn’t really matter at this point. He’s still using it to press a perceived advantage to get the outcome he wants. Whether his interest in Miel is due to some sort of protective mentor instinct and seeing a kindred spirit that loves his work or he wants Miel to remain with him for other reasons the evidence that he intends to get what he wants and have Miel join him is pretty damning. He’s not above manipulating the situation to remove barriers without consent, and he’s not above taking advantage of a bad situation to achieve his ends.
This pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter as well. Well written 🙂
YES exactly! Extremely well-said. <3
I thought there is some behind the scenes collaboration between Mr. Acier and Amaryllis https://lovenotfound.com/comic/ch18-p37/ So, something more sinister could be up.
I’m happy that Miel is not just jumping on the new opportunity.
Hmm. Actually, I think Amaryllis simply overheard about the job offer. https://lovenotfound.com/comic/ch17-p45/
Another thing I didn’t remember from that page: Miel tries to tell Abeille almost immediately.
“1. The moment he saw Miel interested in Abeille he reassigned her so he couldn’t see her as often or as easily.” He called her volunteering allotment to put her in childcare. I think he may have gotten an idea about her touch affinity already then, and if she’d show promise in that department, there’d be a lot more reason to put in a transfer request to Doublefleur than for a cafeteria worker.
It’s a generally unpopular job, so there is going to be a lot less trouble with seniority and other application hurdles if she can be interested or even enthused in that.
In short, I do see the potential of Acier being smart enough to make him deserve Miel’s loyalty. Even though it would mean that the Amaryllis drama would fly holding patterns instead of going away.
Yes, exactly. I’m willing to see if he has growth and I may be surprised, but so far I’ve been baffled by people who assume he has nothing but the best at heart for Miel. You summed it up very well. As for #1 in your points: also, he sent Abeille to the Nursery/ Childcare (whatever it is called). Not knowing that she is fine with touch, basically he sent her to something that would be an extremely humiliating experience for most people there. So he not only tried to make her unavailable to Miel (removing the “distraction”), but put her in a humiliating job as well. Possibly the equivalent here of sending someone to clean outhouses or something.
I didn’t read anyone thinking Mr. Acier has the best at heart. Just, not all good or all bad. I’m not waiting to damn this person or that. I want the best for Abeille and Miel and Verbena and Vine.
Yep. Chalk me up to another one who agrees with what you’ve said here. I don’t see the good intentions in Acier’s actions, only manipulative ones to get what he wants to happen.
Wow, Boss, thats a pretty manipulative way of phrasing all of that.
Of course, Gina has the last word. To me it does not as much appear that Acier is being manipulative here as much as that he is sounding out Miel while presenting his own preferences and priorities. “The best and quickest solution” does not sound like he is not willing to entertain others.
Of course, the last thing you want to appear as when being manipulative is being manipulative. But Acier is not at all hiding his own preferences. So far, I’d call his approach rather being persuasive than manipulative. He puts his cards on the table and progresses from there. So far, it appears like he’s playing this straight and is effective in his communication.
Of course, it will all depend on how he reacts to the challenge of working with non-“best and quickest” solutions, or with integrating Abeille into his proposal. So really folks: give him a break. It doesn’t look like it needs to be a long one.
I’m on the fence with this one. I think Acier is being a bit manipulative, but not maliciously so. He saw in Miel someone who was like him, someone who’s just not interested in personal, intimate relationships. That can be hard to find, and he might feel like he’s just as much an outlier/outsider as Miel is for being in a relationship with physical touch.
So I think he’s both simultaneously scared of losing the one person he thought was like him, that he could relate to, and at the same time trying to protect Miel from isolation from his peers at work. I don’t think he’s approaching it in a healthy way at all, but I don’t think he wanted Abeille’s mom to find out about it anymore than Miel and Abeille did.
STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!! His supervisor is so petty to project his feelings onto Miel and it’s ENTIRELY unprofessional to use his position of power to try and strong arm him into doing what he wants… Guy needs a hard reality check that his fantasy of having Miel to himself is just that… a fantasy.
He’s encouraging Miel to run, basically. That’s irresponsible for someone who is in a responsible position. I think he’s crushing on Miel, and want Abeille out of the way, so he’s being selfish and opportunistic as well.
He is correct that he might be facing difficulty at work due to work politics, but it’s up to Miel, and Abeille. Well, let’s see what happens next…
I think Acier is a good boss. I mean, he obviously thinks Miel is as dedicated to his job as he is cause he used to be. Since he’s gotten more serious with Abeille he’s seemed to have changed his priorities, but Acier isn’t a mind reader. It’s unfair to blame him for making an assumption based on his previous interactions with Miel.
Now, if Miel tells him “No, she’s more important to me than my work now and I want to be with her even if society says it’s wrong” and Acier says anything besides “Ok, I understand and support you even if I don’t agree” THEN he would be a bad boss.
Also, reminding Miel that he’s about to be thrown to the sharks when he goes back to work isn’t manipulative, it’s telling him the truth. This is a world where holding hands is gross/icky/super perverted and he was caught doing much “worse” with Abeille. He’s not abusing his position of power, he’s reminding him what this world is like and what consequences he will be facing. In Acier’s eyes, Miel is throwing everything he worked so hard for away.
This all comes off to me as a boss who is worried about the choices one of his favorite employees is making. At the end of the day, is all Miel’s decision, but I actually think it’s sweet that Acier is at least trying to “help” him. He obviously cares, if he didn’t he would have just fired him for doing a “perverted” act at a company sponsored event. It honestly would probably be easier for him to just fire Miel and Abeille and place 100% of the blame on them and not have to deal with answering why “perverted” acts were allowed to be done in public at his company’s sponsored event.
“We’re kindred spirits” sounds very much like Acier wants Miel, but I’ve been wrong before. As long as he has him close, he’s fine, but the moment he’s found a relationship with someone else…
He just wants Miel for himself