But there’s plenty of siblings!
-Walky and Sal
-The DeSantoses
-Joyce’s brothers (looking up the names of characters has taken up enough time already, damn you Willis. <3)
Jonathan is John. (Goddammit, Brown, that’s not the proper short form of Jonathan!) Joc’s deadname was Joshua. The last sibling is Jordan, which is strangely non-Biblical.
The River Jordan is where Jesus was baptized by St John the Baptist.
Jordan strikes me as quite Biblical/Christian when combined with John/Jonathan and Joshua.
You could see Amber’s identity as Amazigirl as kinda like Spider-man’s Venom. A metaphor for hard drugs. Both make them feel powerful but dangerous aggressive and causes them to push people away. Then again taking that metaphor to its logical extreme would mean that all her fans are rooting for that one girl who does a lot of drugs.
I guess the way I see them is that they were good for each other, they just had the bad timing to date when Amber was starting to go through a mental health crisis.
Yes, because Dina and Becky have such a healthy relationship what with Becky rebounding in 0 seconds flat after being rejected by her crush of multiple years and Dina starting a relationship with the first person to ask her to talk about dinosaurs.
First, Becky did not rebound in 0 seconds flat, that’s Walky in the core universe. Becky was rejected the first evening flat out, and after that did not make any more moves or hints towards the idea of dating Joyce. By that evening she was already catching her boyfriend and demanding that he fuck her.
During the party, Becky and Dina had been talking all evening, Becky being the only person at the party to engage Dina at all after she hid her face. They hit it off perfectly, all of that specifically with Becky NOT ‘pulling any moves’ on Dina for the sake of Joyce feeling better.
Which is to say, Becky was specifically interested in personally Dina, and their relationship was not, on her end, in any way motivated by Becky trying to suppress or something her feelings about Joyce. It could just as easily have been just close friendship.
And Dina did not just start the relationship with ‘the first person to ask her about dinosaurs’. She started the relationship with the first person to see her as a full adult and a possible romantic target. She started the relationship after Becky publicly admitted out loud that she wanted said relationship.
That it also coincided with the first person who wanted to listen to her talk about dinosaurs… is not actually a coincidence, because the point is that Becky loves everything about Dina, does not think about any of it as inappropriate or a flaw, and derives joy from her special interest together with her.
They are 100% compatible, and they would have been best friends (well, second to Joyce for Becky and possibly second to Amber for Dina) if they hadn’t hit it off romantically.
Becky and Dina are kind of in a ‘honeymoon’ phase of a new relationship, where everything is new and exciting and wonderful. Compound that with the rush that was gotten from one trying to rescue the other one that needed rescuing from an abusive kidnapper to the mix.
While they may not last forever, it’s a far reach to say that they won’t. Becky may be rebounding, and Dina may be latching on to the first person to engage her as an adult, but outside of exploring the possibilities of intimacy neither have tried to push to that level yet. Being in a relationship is, at this point, going out to ‘fancy’ dinners, letting each other borrow the others’ things, and lip-pecking each other a whole hell of a lot.
Once they start seeing flaws in each other they may not immediately like, or relationship intimacy often evolves into more ‘interactive’ forms of contact, or the demands of college set in, they may fall apart. However, out of all the couples in this comic, I’d say when and if they do it will be relatively amicable and they could likely remain very close friends.
And if we get another moment where Dina gets assigned to stalk someone else (it was Jacob last time some chapters ago) we get to have “Stalking with Dina”.
As if we didn’t have enough proof that Dina doesn’t know how human interactions work.
Everyone knows throwing something is the preferred method of initiating courtship. How else will you demonstrate both your upper-body strength, and your follow through, the most important traits one seeks in a mate?
This is why monkeys throw poo. It’s also why dinosaurs died out; no one wants to mate with T-Rex, his stubby arms are lousy for pitching displays.
I’ve always been afraid to actually confirm this, but I’m reasonably certain
men in my family aren’t allowed to marry unless it’s to someone who can both out-drink them and thoroughly kick their ass, occasionally simultaneously.
I like your family already.
Though it stands to reason that if you can kick the whole family’s ass, possibly as a team with your fiance, then you can bypass the rule.
tl;dr: If you grow up with someone as little kids, you just won’t be attracted to them because your brain anti-incest routine as marked them as no-nos.
I think this is the idea that DS means. Note that it is a theory, not a iron-clad Truth.
….. okay, something’s wrong with the spellcheck dictionary on this comment board. It doesn’t think atrociraptor is a word. That’s a MAJOR design oversight.
Even if DoA takes place in 2010, your spell check does not. (Did browsers even have spell check in 2010?) Also, the spell check isn’t part of this board, it’s a feature of your browser (if it doesn’t work on some other places, it’s because not every website bothers to specify that they’re in English, and some browsers aren’t willing to guess)
Dumbing of Age takes place in present day. It has a sliding time scale. Remember the ‘Frozen’ reference, as a childhood movie that Becky and Joyce wished they got to watch?
I’m going to assume you just wanted to link them talking about it. Because teenage girls are hilariously controlled by a lot of fundie types, including, it seems, Willis’.
This is a good question. See, at first I was tempted to simply answer it with “Becky is holding Dina’s right hand outside of panel.”
The problem with this is that Dina was holding Becky with her left hand. And Becky swore she would superglue their hands together, and ever since then, their hands (Dina’s left and Becky’s right) does indeed appear to have been just that, superglued together!
This is now imperial headcanon. Anyone who objects by saying “Becky was just exaggerating, they would never do that for reals” is going against imperial headcanon, and will therefore lose their heads. The part where Becky said something that indicated said supergluing had not yet happened… Is just a shared hallucination. Do not trust shared hallucinations. Trust your emperor. Your emperor would never dig a deep hole that he could not get himself out of. That would be silly, and We are never silly! We are indeed as dignified as the King of All Cosmos.
Sorry Dina, he meant relationships in Dumbing of Age. You and Becky are clearly aliens from another comic if you have a relationship that involves talking and listening and nothing melodramatic
I kinda like how Walky tries to be like “hey I threw a toy at my crush, it’s cool”. Not the typical reaction when your friend admits to being tossed into a chair, but the effort to make Billy feel normal is sweet.
Depends on the level of violence, cause I know what you’re saying. My friend once broke a spatula on my ass because we were horsing around, and another friend chased me around the house with a knife because…knives are toys? I guess when the violence is added to a romantic relationship it sounds more abusive.
Horseplay is a normal behavior – it’s meant as a gentle way of pushing our envelopes, of acclimating ourselves to adrenaline and violence, at least on some level. Can it go too far? Of course. How far is up to whomever’s in charge.
The trick of being a sub is that, in many ways, they -are- in charge.
Now, to keep it nice and classy, I will use the “theme park” analogy here. A (healthy) normal couple will go to a theme park and try out rides. At first, they will probably start with the milder ones, and tend to ask each other what rides to take. Eventually as they take many rides together, they will gradually learn which are fun for both, and they will probably get an idea whenever they see a new ride, whether their partner will like that ride. Sometimes it might be a bit unclear, so they will ask. Sometimes the partner might try it once to see if it works, sometimes they just do not think it will.
A(n equally healthy) dom-sub, however, is slightly different. Before entering the park, the sub will tell the dom that the dom gets to choose the rides all the time… BUT, there are certain rides that are off-limit. Period. Maybe they hate rides that are all about super-spinning. Maybe they don’t like taking water-rides because the water is icky. And if the dom tries to take the sub on those rides, the sub will leave the theme park. Now, in between visits to the theme park, the sub might realise that they actually would not mind trying this or that ride because those rides will please the dom, and the dom is a respectful one that clearly does not push the boundaries… But that is their mind to change, not the dom’s.
So yeah, when it comes to deciding what is too far, it is in fact the sub that holds practically all the cards. At least in a healthy relationship.
“pigmy” atrociraptors? Now you’re just being ridiculous. The third atrociraptor is obviously feeding the other two directions via wireless communication. It’s how they make the human form exosuit known as Dina act so convincingly human.
There was actually a minor Marvel character whose thing was that no one noticed them. She was a teenaged girl who would just live in someone’s house, eat their food, even greet them at breakfast, and they would never register the intruder. For her birthday, she just walked into a jewelry store and took something.
Problem was she couldn’t turn it off, so she was utterly alone, just inserting herself into peoples’ lives and talking to them without being heard. She finally discovers that the protagonist can notice her, and latches on to him.
Shit, it’s been at least 10 years since I read this, I have no idea what book it was. I wanna say Agent X, so I’m guessing she was a Gail Simone creation.
Huh. Makes sense that Wildbow wouldn’t be the only one to come up with that power.
That’s pretty horrifying. At least Imp can suppress it if she focuses.
Sounds similar to another character, Forget-Me-Not. Everyone forgot about him the minute he stepped out of their line of sight. It was really, really sad, but he was well written.
I mean it’s a health center patient chair, at their best they still aren’t that comfortable, but yeah, I’m betting either Chloe or Billie got her into the pants and shoes and walked/drove her over and she’s just been dragged along as the bare minimum effort she can muster. Dina getting some surprise reflex out of Ruth is very good.
There’s now way to to sit or lay comfortably on that piece of medical furniture. I’ve tried. Somehow it’s not sized right in any way for human beings. I’ve wondered if that’s intentional.
Because the comic had only been up for about 60 seconds?
Looks to me like she’s trying to figure out how Dina appeared. Understandable, given that I don’t see a door next to her.
Did, did Walky just admit to some form of character growth? And furthermore, did Dina just help him get his foot out of his mouth by running interference? What did I do to get us this, cause I will gladly do it again.
Unfortunately no. I’m currently in the endless process of trying to pay off student debt, so much so that I’ve resorted to cancelling my one magazine subscription (Gameinformer) and switching back to my college days “milk, potatoes, and peanut butter banana” to save as much money as possible. I mean, if I think I can if I cut the amount of milk and or bananas I buy in half, but I’m not quite sure. Bright side is, I dropped ten pounds in a month, so now I’m no longer overweight BMI wise.
Yeah, I know the feel of not being able to support all the freebies I get online. I know I’m not HURTING the artists, and maybe even helping them a tiny bit with my ad views, but I still wish I could give.
Um…. recommending the comic to others? Helping create a comments section that gives people an added incentive to come back?
That is pretty much exactly what happened with Us.
And it is a good thing We did too. Because man did Walky put both his feet in his mouth at once yesterday. If We hadn’t seen today’s strip, I would have punched the screen. True, We still want to punch it a bit, but at least it is mitigated by showing that Walky stepped in it with good intentions, and that he then realised that it was still bad after only one shout, instead of needing to be spoonfed the whole thing.
Makes sense. Of all of them, she’s likely the only one to have studied it, both as a paleontologist and as someone unsure how to pursue her relationship with Becky.
Actually, Dina, you got Becky’s attention by having an information overload breakdown, stealing Ethan’s sweater straight off of his back, and wearing it over your head for half the night.
That does leave me with the hilarious mental image of Danny trying to pull a dom routine.
“Um… okay, get on the bed… if you want to I mean you, uh, bad girl. No you’re not bad I think you’re wonderful oh god I’m sorry”
Also, Palamdrome, I don’t know what you’ve gone through and I’m sorry that you did, it’s obviously caused you a lot of pain, but I hope you can learn to move past what you’ve been saying here. It is flat out misogynistic and altogether really creepy.
Ok, I love you, Walky, but unless the next words out of your mouth are going to be “I’m here for you; now what can I do to help?” or “I’m thinkin’ of grabbin’ some food at the dining hall, want me to bring you somethin’?”, you need to stop talking.
Also, Panel 4 and Panel 5 – I’m really glad to see that Ruth is still at least somewhat responsive to her surroundings.
That works; honestly, I’m more annoyed by what he is saying than by what he’s not saying (as you said, it can remain unsaid). Maybe it’s just that I’m looking at this through me-tinted goggles, but “every relationship is kind of screwed up, don’t worry” feels uncomfortably close to a trivialization of Ruth’s and Billie’s issues.
He means well, but Walky isn’t suicidal, and he’s always lived a bit of a privileged, immature life. He’s not prepared for dealing with this sort of thing, no matter how much he wants to do the right thing.
I figure if Billie actually wants him gone, she’ll just tell him. And if it’s just for a break, to go grab food or something for them. Her personality seems strong/aggressive/non-gendered compliment on being forthcoming as well as their relationship for her to just tell him that sort of thing.
So now one can speculate. Is Walky not walking away because he’s getting too obsessed with succeeding in his mission to actually listen to Billie? Is he staying because the tone she said it in (which sadly, even with facial expression, is rather difficult to discern properly) indicated that she was not really telling him? I mean, he knows her pretty well, I am sure he has gotten his fair share “Go away, Walky” from Billie in a hundred different tones, and possibly he knows which ones to ignore.
His hardest still isn’t all that great, but it certainly isn’t his fault the Billie/Ruth foundations are somehow even less healthy than the sexy bisexual suicide pact part. And the ‘hey Dorothy and I are fine and I was an awkward mess there too’ is a valiant effort. Good try there, Walky.
BUT TOMORROW THE REALLY GOOD STUFF STARTS. BRING ON AWKWARD JOYCE AND SUPER-PANICKED BECKY AND… Who really knows what Hank’s going to say about all this, but he is Being Supportive and tonight when the inevitable Carol confrontation begins he can say, ‘Joyce is needed there.’
You’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel to avoid giving me a Walky, aren’t you? I had to do a tag-search on Ken to even find his name. He’s only been in two strips. No speaking parts. No character at all. No role save onlooker and stand-in-line-person.
Back in SP!, he had exactly 17 appearances. He was Ken and Malaya’s roommate. He had a bored, “I’m calling bullshit but I really don’t care so stop bothering me” type of attitude. He never had a plot arc and… wasn’t even a foil. Just a straight man and audience to a few of the cast’s antics.
Admit it, the day you find and settle on a good grav (y’know, after the inevitable reset once you find them again the first time) you’ll miss doing character analysis of bit roles.
Won’t really work, because (as I’m sure butts already knows, and is why they did not do it themselves) the butt is in fact on the bottom of the panels as it is, and trying to cut it out to make it stick out more will probably just make it look less obvious that it is a butt. And you won’t get the finger pointing to it, which I think is quite important.
Maybe if it was a chapter break, but I don’t buy that the strips immediately after that would work as the beginning of a new book. It’d be a very abrupt beginning, if nothing else.
Except skimming through it…. Sal and Dina explain to Joyce what happened to Ruth and Billie and where they are…. A new plot arc with Danny, Ethan, and Mike starts up. It’s not as unnatural a transition as I initially thought.
Chapters are definitely a day. I’d have to check to be 100% sure, but I don’t think books are a week – They’re all less then 7 chapters and I don’t think we’ve had enough time jumps for that.
Man, I know Walky’s been a bit of a tool lately but this is just so sweet and adorable right here. What a great friend, trying to help Billie and Ruth feel more normal. Expressing interest in his friend’s new partner instead of making a big deal about the booze or the depression or the secret lesbian relationship. I mean sure he’s a bit clumsy in his Walky way but overall he’s not doing half bad.
Honest question- what did Billie and Ruth do to make them deserving of going to the nurse’s office? Some suicidal ideation doesn’t hurt anyone and it’s… Fine… I mean it’s not like Ruth made an attempt – is it alchohol usage?
i guess regardless of whether it’s alchohol usage or just ideation it makes me uncomfortable that Billie and Ruth are being held.
I think they could leave if they wanted to. I don’t think they’re being “held”, as in being in custody. I don’t know if Ruth is capable of leaving right now if she wanted to, and Billie is probably there for her as much as for herself.
Why do you think they are being ‘held’? Going to the health center is not a punishment, it’s them finally getting help. Once the cat is out of the bag to Ruth’s management, there isn’t a reason for her to keep denying it to herself, and Billie would definitely be all for that.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ruth at least is being held – not punishment, but for medical reasons. Kept overnight for observation, at least. Depends partly on whether she’s talked to the doctors or at least Chloe or if she’s stayed unresponsive. And of course on what she’s said. We haven’t seen her say anything since she freaked Carla out.
Mind you, they’d probably ask her to stay and only
Yes, this. I guess “held” to me has a punitive connotation, and Quiet Heatran’s comment made it seem as if Ruth and Billie’s rights were being violated.
Yeah, I doubt there’s any punitive intent here. If they showed enough volition to try to leave, they’d probably get a bunch of arguments from the doctors as to why they should stay. If they insisted, they’d get some paperwork to sign acknowledging they were checking out “against medical advice” and possibly, depending on the circumstances and how concerned the doctors were, held at least overnight anyway.
Given that Ruth apparently hasn’t been capable of speech or independent movement, I doubt she’s going to be kicking up a fuss about getting out and that pretty much gives them ground to keep her.
In Ruth’s case being totally unresponsive to outside stimuli (Chloe trying to talk to her) to the point where the word ‘catatonia’ starts entering the conversation. In Billie’s case, its more of a case of not being able to detach her from Ruth with anything less than hydraulic bolt-cutters.
I would imagine they’d be strongly encouraged to get help before Ruth made an attempt (i would argue giving up on everything, to the point of not bathing, not eating (inference on my part since she’d have to leave her room) consistutes an attempt.)
Ruth’s suicidal ideation goes beyond the casual self distructive “what if I jumped off a bridge” thought most people have. I called it “suicide by inaction” when I went through it. Strictly speaking, I never made an attempt like cutting or pills but I stopped doing the things required for life. I shut down which would have lead to the destruction of my life as sure as any traditional attempt. Fortunately, I got help.
Ruth consistantly wants to die, in spite of good things in her life (Billie, school, succeedding at her job by all appearences (according to Residence Manager). She abuses alcohol, makes plans (sexy lesbian suicide pact) and cut herself off from everyone around her. She absolutely needs to be in the health center and I’m glad Chloe and Billie got her there.
I don’t think this is a case of being “held” as it is a classic example of the University doing something — anything — to cover their own ass if anything bad happens later, just like any other large institution/organization in today’s highly litigious society.
I’m pretty sure Ruth was beyond ideaton. She was basically letting herself die, because she no longer had the will to do anything. Putting her under a psychiatric hold would seem a reasonable measure to me, although I don’t think they actually do that unless a patient deemed a danger to themself or others actually wants to leave. They can only hold you for so long, so they don’t want to start that clock until they have to.
When Ruth is revived enough to try to leave, there’s also a risk that she might take more direct action, so if Billie can’t convince her to stay, they should definitely place a hold on her, since that might buy the time she needs to be able to accept help.
I totally understand why the idea of doctors being able to do that would make you uncomfortable though. It feels weird that a private citizen would have that kind of power, but it’s something that definitely saves lives
I don’t think they’re being held per se. That said, Ruth is definitely displaying a lot more symptoms than just suicidal ideation. She’s in a depressive state so severe that it’s left her completely unable to function. I’m not even sure she’s eaten in the past few days. I mean, those cookies are still right there by the bed.
I’d really like to know what is going on in Ruth’s head right now. Assuming that she’s able to respond (or even is aware of) external stimuli, the need to laugh must be overwhelming! Of course, that’s Walky’s real skill, isn’t it? He’s really a jester in many ways; making people laugh is his innate talent!
Let’s be brutal, a romantic start of a relationship for most of the characters in this strip is a bit much to ask. They’ve all got far too many issues.
Have you ever accidentally opened a whole bunch of folders/files at once? I mean like 200+? What’s going on in Ruth’s head is sorta like that, except that instead of random files and folders it’s just all variations on “this sucks, I want to not be here”. What’s going on around her is just part of the noise.
And it’s all running slowly and the lights are too bright and now she’s wearing pants and the best suggestion she heard all day was death but even that wasn’t that specific…
The little detail of Ruth looking over at Billie when Billie admits they first met by her throwing her into a chair, is pretty depressing as Ruth hasn’t reacted to anything else so far, but this negative reminder of how unhealthy their relationship was, even right at the beginning, is something that’s really not going to help right now.
Dina and Becky I can’t see being helpful either. Dina is already sticking her foot in it by saying how amazing their first meeting was and Ruth doesn’t even know Becky so I doubt she’ll listen to anything she has to say. I really can’t see how anything anyone does right now will be enough to get Ruth out of the state she’s in, hopefully Billie will be able to have a heart to heart with her when the two get some privacy
Well, Ruth is reacting to things now. That’s… better, I hope. Walky seems to have realized how out of his depth he is, but he’s still trying anyway, because he cares.
Why is Dina’s relationship with Becky the most healthy relationship in this comic, that’s just weird.
What’s weird about two cute lesbians being the healthiest relationship?
Also, they’ve both got a lot on their plates outside of the relationship, with Dina’s neurodivergence and Becky’s whole ‘homeless’ deal, it makes sense narratively that Willis doesn’t need to also add (real) problems in there.
It’s weird because ‘healthy relationship’ is something that is rare enough in this comic. When you consider the scale of the emotional trauma from which Becky suffers and Dina’s social developmental issues, then they are beating the odds to an even more extreme degree!
Dina isn’t a lesbian. Apart from being romantically involved with two guys in the Walkyverse, she tells Joyce that she’s unsure if gender expression matters to her.
So probably pan, maaaayyybe bi if Dina doesn’t know about genderfluidity.
Speaking as a nonbinary bisexual, bisexuality does not discount either of these things. The whole ‘bi means two’ thing is not an argument put forward by the actual bi community. One of the most frequently quoted definitions is this, by Robyn Ochs:
“I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.”
Yep, for me, bisexual means “people who are my gender, and people who aren’t”. Not just M/F. Pansexual might be a better label for me technically, but I feel doofy saying it, since it often needs to be explained, whereas people get that bisexual means I like all sorts of people.
It didn’t. Yes, Becky was still reeling from Joyce, but her liking Dina had nothing to do with it – like, the opposite of anything to do with it, considering she put flirting with Dina on hold for the evening because she was thinking about Joyce’s feelings.
Joyce: You have to choose, Becky. Get salvation from the Lord by loving me and my heavenly body, or eternal damnation from going down on the heathen evil-utionist!
Dina: First of all, I am not heathen, as that refers to old Norse religions, and I do not worship them. Secondly, I do not like to be called evil simply for following the scientific consensus. Also, I am not sure what “going down” means, but if it is a reference to my height, I cannot help how my genetic make-up made me this tall.
Becky: Oh man, this is hard, this is hard…
Dina: I acquired a matching dinosaur hoodie for you to wear when we are in proximity of each other. That is “second base”, right?
For me, it’s weird because Dina has trouble with social interaction, and Becky has her issues (usually well-hidden behind jokes and cheerfulness) with her family and homelessness. For all other relationships in DoA, the issues that both characters have cause conflict in the relationship, yet somehow despite their issues Becky and Dina have not had any fights so far.
I suspected I was asexual, got married, they stole $30,000 from me, got divorced, did research about asexuality, confined I’m asexual… now living the happiest I’ve ever been, humans and their relationships are just silly. Living vicariously through stories and books is so much better than trusting filthy greedy humans
I like how both Ruth and Billie’s facial expressions just go “wait, what? tell me more about this ‘healthy relationship’ thing” at Dina’s intervention.
Walky, you just stepped in a bear trap. Dina likely is tiny and softspoken. This coupled with choosing words carefully is a magical invisibility cloak (experience bias here). Ugh, I really want to see Ruth and Billie be less depressed.
There’s a difference between harassing Joyce over how super gay she is and spending time with his oldest and dearest friend after a doctor let him in the room to keep and eye on her because she’s suicidal.
Fair enough. Walky will keep them from digging around in the examination room as I have been known to do. But in these four frames he’s made assumptions and minimized their experience. I guess they’ve known each other long enough to know he’s trying.
Suicide-watch is pretty informal where they are. I’ve been in ER situations before and it seems to me that, even if you were the health-proxy of the person who happens to be in with the person actually under treatment, you’d be asked out of the room by the second time you were told to go away.
Let alone admitting people wandering into the room to natter about dinosaurs. After all, the stresses of RAing are basically why Ruth is there. “But I’m from the dorm” is not a reason to be let in. The hospital staff, remember, don’t know any of these people from Mitochondrial Eve, and “Restricted visitors, only” is how we keep (for instance) Mary from putting on concern-face, coming in and making things worse.
Presumably, Joyce, Mr Brown and Becky are tied up getting allowed in, and Dina just slipped past by not being noticed, but still.
That was a hard poll to choose from, by the way, even if we were only to focus on mainly their physical appearance.
Eventually, I went with Amber (she is -fit-), Sierra (she has that kind of open, friendly smile that, if she’d flashed it to me, would turn me into a puddle of happy goo) and Billie (Like Joyce, I could just snuggle into her boobs and be comfortable forever).
Leslie, Carla, and Becky were my runner-ups. What can I say, sassy is hot.
For some reason I want Billie to finally end her pseudo-friendship with Walky only to realize that she actually like having him around and tries to make amends but Walky refuses.
He can try to talk to Sal but if she doesn’t want him, he’ll live. He’ll dump Dorothy over pajama jeans and stonewall any attempt at talking to her about feelings. Billie? Billie is probably the person he’s closest to more than anybody.
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DINA YOU WEIRD OUTLIER
YEAH, STOP BEING WEIRD AND JOIN IN THE GROUP OF TERRIBLY MADE RELATIONSHIPS.
THE COMIC IS NOT CALLED “SENSIBLING OF AGE”, GET WITH THE PROGRAM.
Sans-siblings of age ?
But there’s plenty of siblings!
-Walky and Sal
-The DeSantoses
-Joyce’s brothers (looking up the names of characters has taken up enough time already, damn you Willis. <3)
Joyce’s siblings are John, Jocelyn, and… I forget the other one, but he’s the prodigal son.
Jordan.
Is it Jonathan? Or was that Jocelyn’s deadname?
Jonathan is John. (Goddammit, Brown, that’s not the proper short form of Jonathan!) Joc’s deadname was Joshua. The last sibling is Jordan, which is strangely non-Biblical.
Well, there’s the Jordan River in the Holy Land.
The River Jordan is where Jesus was baptized by St John the Baptist.
Jordan strikes me as quite Biblical/Christian when combined with John/Jonathan and Joshua.
To be fair, she *is* kinda a rebound off of Joyce.
…Again.
dina is the outlier for having a normal relationship. that is a weird thought
I just realized that Amber and Danny would be normal if not for the vigilante thing, which is a biggie.
You could see Amber’s identity as Amazigirl as kinda like Spider-man’s Venom. A metaphor for hard drugs. Both make them feel powerful but dangerous aggressive and causes them to push people away. Then again taking that metaphor to its logical extreme would mean that all her fans are rooting for that one girl who does a lot of drugs.
Amazi-Girl makes a lot more sense if you’ve read It’s Walky! as she is, essentially, a more grounded version of Anti-Joyce.
The whole Anti-Joyce thing ended well for Joyce…
I meant that, much like how Anti-Joyce was representative of Joyce’s sexual repression, Amazi-Girl is Amber’s rage given a name and purpose.
It’s just that we don’t have a duplomatic in DoA, so that manifests instead as Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Not sure if that is better or worse.
I’m not sure how to understand Sal’s comment here:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/prove/
Is how Amazi-Girl does it (as opposed to why) and what fuels her some drug?
I read it as ‘rage’ or something of its ilk.
Rage at perceived impotence, fear of inadequacy, something to prove…For Sal, it was not being born “white enough” and for Amber it’s her dad’s abuse.
Sal was motivated by past neglect to do something stupid and violent when she was a child.
Amber now spends most of her time doing stupid violent stuff in order to deal with how she was abused and her trauma relating to Sal.
Sal and Amber are going through much of the same journey, it’s just that Sal’s started earlier.
I guess the way I see them is that they were good for each other, they just had the bad timing to date when Amber was starting to go through a mental health crisis.
Outliers exist to screw with statisticians.
So, Becky’s now looking at becoming a Stats major? ^_^
Kinky.
Plays West Side Story – Cool on the hacked potato radio.
*snap-snap*
Keep it cool….
Keep it…
Cool…
If it wasn’t Dina, I’d interpret that as bragging. :’P
..especially given most Walkyverse relationships :X
..and in my experience, they’re less screwed up than RL ones >.>
Saruyama Dina, who knows 10,000 dinosaur facts, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.
Yes, because Dina and Becky have such a healthy relationship what with Becky rebounding in 0 seconds flat after being rejected by her crush of multiple years and Dina starting a relationship with the first person to ask her to talk about dinosaurs.
First, Becky did not rebound in 0 seconds flat, that’s Walky in the core universe. Becky was rejected the first evening flat out, and after that did not make any more moves or hints towards the idea of dating Joyce. By that evening she was already catching her boyfriend and demanding that he fuck her.
During the party, Becky and Dina had been talking all evening, Becky being the only person at the party to engage Dina at all after she hid her face. They hit it off perfectly, all of that specifically with Becky NOT ‘pulling any moves’ on Dina for the sake of Joyce feeling better.
Which is to say, Becky was specifically interested in personally Dina, and their relationship was not, on her end, in any way motivated by Becky trying to suppress or something her feelings about Joyce. It could just as easily have been just close friendship.
And Dina did not just start the relationship with ‘the first person to ask her about dinosaurs’. She started the relationship with the first person to see her as a full adult and a possible romantic target. She started the relationship after Becky publicly admitted out loud that she wanted said relationship.
That it also coincided with the first person who wanted to listen to her talk about dinosaurs… is not actually a coincidence, because the point is that Becky loves everything about Dina, does not think about any of it as inappropriate or a flaw, and derives joy from her special interest together with her.
They are 100% compatible, and they would have been best friends (well, second to Joyce for Becky and possibly second to Amber for Dina) if they hadn’t hit it off romantically.
Becky and Dina are kind of in a ‘honeymoon’ phase of a new relationship, where everything is new and exciting and wonderful. Compound that with the rush that was gotten from one trying to rescue the other one that needed rescuing from an abusive kidnapper to the mix.
While they may not last forever, it’s a far reach to say that they won’t. Becky may be rebounding, and Dina may be latching on to the first person to engage her as an adult, but outside of exploring the possibilities of intimacy neither have tried to push to that level yet. Being in a relationship is, at this point, going out to ‘fancy’ dinners, letting each other borrow the others’ things, and lip-pecking each other a whole hell of a lot.
Once they start seeing flaws in each other they may not immediately like, or relationship intimacy often evolves into more ‘interactive’ forms of contact, or the demands of college set in, they may fall apart. However, out of all the couples in this comic, I’d say when and if they do it will be relatively amicable and they could likely remain very close friends.
Yes.
They also seem to have a really high chance of NOT falling apart compared to their peers.
Yes, if you look at it from the most optimistic point of view possible, it looks pretty good.
“Department of Congruity, Miss. Any outliers to report?”
…why do You ask ?
“Father Abaddon, have you been drinking?”
“I’ve never stopped”
“Blast it, too soon!”
Dina has never lied once about weirding out. Shame on you.
Oh. Oh wait. I think I heard that wrong. Which is weird cause I was reading it and shouldn’t have gotten it confused. Huh.
Walky and Dina are going to be best friends one day, mark my words!
Walky and Becky are already new besties, so they may spend a fair amount of time in close proximity soon.
previously: ‘walking with dina’
soon: ‘walky with dina’
And if we get another moment where Dina gets assigned to stalk someone else (it was Jacob last time some chapters ago) we get to have “Stalking with Dina”.
HEHEHE, I’ve shipped it since It’s Walky.
Dina, making friends with a non-canonical dinosaur????
She has higher standards than that.
(which is a pity because they have lots of interests in common)
As if we didn’t have enough proof that Dina doesn’t know how human interactions work.
Everyone knows throwing something is the preferred method of initiating courtship. How else will you demonstrate both your upper-body strength, and your follow through, the most important traits one seeks in a mate?
This is why monkeys throw poo. It’s also why dinosaurs died out; no one wants to mate with T-Rex, his stubby arms are lousy for pitching displays.
It’s called ‘pitching woo’ for a REASON, people!
I think in their case it was more about plumage displays.
Lovely plumage, the velociraptor.
The plumage don’t enter into it; it’s dead!
It’s just sleeping.
I’ve always been afraid to actually confirm this, but I’m reasonably certain
men in my family aren’t allowed to marry unless it’s to someone who can both out-drink them and thoroughly kick their ass, occasionally simultaneously.
I like your family already.
Though it stands to reason that if you can kick the whole family’s ass, possibly as a team with your fiance, then you can bypass the rule.
…I cannot deny the possibility of something like that having ever happened.
Died out? No, they mostly just got more fancy, eventually resulting in the fanciest of all dinosaurs, the peacock.
Foursome?
Ew, no. That’d be like incest.
Unless you meant kicking Walky out now that the Terrible Lizbians are here.
But none of them are related.
Also, I expected Joe to come in.
Walky and Billie aren’t biologically siblings, but for all intents and purposes they’re brother and sister.
Pleez, that’s the FIRST thing to get thrown out in most ‘family loving’ porn.
“But, you’re my brother…”
“We’re not blood, so what’s the harm in it?”
I… read about it. In a magazine.
Isn’t that more for stepsiblings than close childhood friends?
The term to google here is “Westermarck effect”.
tl;dr: If you grow up with someone as little kids, you just won’t be attracted to them because your brain anti-incest routine as marked them as no-nos.
I think this is the idea that DS means. Note that it is a theory, not a iron-clad Truth.
Becky + 3 atrociraptors, you mean?
….. okay, something’s wrong with the spellcheck dictionary on this comment board. It doesn’t think atrociraptor is a word. That’s a MAJOR design oversight.
‘Brontosaurus,’ on the other hand, is totally acceptable. Whut.
Brontosaurus was re-legitimized last year.
But, but DoA takes place in 2010. Right?
Right?
(no)
Even if DoA takes place in 2010, your spell check does not. (Did browsers even have spell check in 2010?) Also, the spell check isn’t part of this board, it’s a feature of your browser (if it doesn’t work on some other places, it’s because not every website bothers to specify that they’re in English, and some browsers aren’t willing to guess)
Dumbing of Age takes place in present day. It has a sliding time scale. Remember the ‘Frozen’ reference, as a childhood movie that Becky and Joyce wished they got to watch?
Frozen was a teenage movie. It’s only 3 years old.
But it promotes a culture of thinking your parents can be wrong about what they think is best for you!
I’m going to assume you just wanted to link them talking about it. Because teenage girls are hilariously controlled by a lot of fundie types, including, it seems, Willis’.
Yay! Brontosaurus was always my favorite dino!
That spellchecker is part of your web browser, not this site. So, you’ll need to add atrociraptor to its dictionary.
Wait, I’M responsible for something here? That’s an even MORE major design flaw!
Make a design idiot-proof, and they’re gonna invent better idiots
I’ll be Raptor ‘Round Your Finger…
Biting it’s own tail?
…now I’ll hear you lyrics if I ever hear that sappy Police song again.
Ouro-raptor-ous?
Deeper down the uncomfortable rabbit hole we go.
If it’s a rabbit hole that goes to infinite uncomfortableness-depth, are we truly any deeper now than we were before?
What’s Dina’s excuse for being in here?
Nobody saw her come in.
She is the Wind.
She is vengeance. She is the night.
Also, the entire point of a door is to have two sides, and Dina is behind whichever side she needs to be.
So, Dina is the opposite of a cat.
But similarly stealthy.
The answer is, of course, “because she can”. How do you stop the invisible girl?
But where’s Becky? Shouldn’t she still be holding Dina’s hand? So obviously Becky sent Dina in to gather information.
This is a good question. See, at first I was tempted to simply answer it with “Becky is holding Dina’s right hand outside of panel.”
The problem with this is that Dina was holding Becky with her left hand. And Becky swore she would superglue their hands together, and ever since then, their hands (Dina’s left and Becky’s right) does indeed appear to have been just that, superglued together!
This is now imperial headcanon. Anyone who objects by saying “Becky was just exaggerating, they would never do that for reals” is going against imperial headcanon, and will therefore lose their heads. The part where Becky said something that indicated said supergluing had not yet happened… Is just a shared hallucination. Do not trust shared hallucinations. Trust your emperor. Your emperor would never dig a deep hole that he could not get himself out of. That would be silly, and We are never silly! We are indeed as dignified as the King of All Cosmos.
No one can conceive of a place where Dina should not be, so it never even occurs to them to deny her access
Dina’s not really easy to miss, she’s just capable of being wherever she wants to be at any given moment.
Dina’s invented the Infinite Improbability Drive!? She passes simultaneously through all points in the universe.
Watch out for falling whales!
Sort of. So far she can only get it to put her behind open doors.
She was behind the door the whole time.
What do you mean “but she was in the dorm like two strips ago”? Don’t you know that level 10 dinosaur geeks get time travel as a bonus feat?
Same as being at the lake. A crowd went by, and there she was.
It’s pretty much been established that Dina Is Immune To Doors.
She can come and go as she pleases, Invincible, Invulnerable, Invisible!
(+5 Internets if you can remember what that’s from…)
“Won’t be Invisible ’til Tuesday”
Sorry Dina, he meant relationships in Dumbing of Age. You and Becky are clearly aliens from another comic if you have a relationship that involves talking and listening and nothing melodramatic
It’s seeming fine. It’s foreign to us here.
Don’t worry. The rest of their lives make up for it. It’s only that relationship that’s not melodramatic.
Nothing beside her GF’s dad hunting them through a forest with a rifle.
“Mine likes to beat me up.”
Yeah, that’s pretty normal.
“Mine gets excited by beating up criminals.”
Yep, normal.
“Mine like having illicit sex in semi-public places.”
Norms-ville.
“Mine likes talking to me and sharing in my interests.”
FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!!!
I kinda like how Walky tries to be like “hey I threw a toy at my crush, it’s cool”. Not the typical reaction when your friend admits to being tossed into a chair, but the effort to make Billy feel normal is sweet.
i have a friend who kicked me in the balls because i used a nickname she apparently didnt like. isn’t violence just normal?
Depends on the level of violence, cause I know what you’re saying. My friend once broke a spatula on my ass because we were horsing around, and another friend chased me around the house with a knife because…knives are toys? I guess when the violence is added to a romantic relationship it sounds more abusive.
Horseplay is a normal behavior – it’s meant as a gentle way of pushing our envelopes, of acclimating ourselves to adrenaline and violence, at least on some level. Can it go too far? Of course. How far is up to whomever’s in charge.
so a submissive would never get to decide what is to far?
The trick of being a sub is that, in many ways, they -are- in charge.
Now, to keep it nice and classy, I will use the “theme park” analogy here. A (healthy) normal couple will go to a theme park and try out rides. At first, they will probably start with the milder ones, and tend to ask each other what rides to take. Eventually as they take many rides together, they will gradually learn which are fun for both, and they will probably get an idea whenever they see a new ride, whether their partner will like that ride. Sometimes it might be a bit unclear, so they will ask. Sometimes the partner might try it once to see if it works, sometimes they just do not think it will.
A(n equally healthy) dom-sub, however, is slightly different. Before entering the park, the sub will tell the dom that the dom gets to choose the rides all the time… BUT, there are certain rides that are off-limit. Period. Maybe they hate rides that are all about super-spinning. Maybe they don’t like taking water-rides because the water is icky. And if the dom tries to take the sub on those rides, the sub will leave the theme park. Now, in between visits to the theme park, the sub might realise that they actually would not mind trying this or that ride because those rides will please the dom, and the dom is a respectful one that clearly does not push the boundaries… But that is their mind to change, not the dom’s.
So yeah, when it comes to deciding what is too far, it is in fact the sub that holds practically all the cards. At least in a healthy relationship.
Dina’s actually three actrociraptors wearing a very convincing human girl disguise confirmed.
They must be inside an animatronic exosuit because her legs would be way too short otherwise.
Which means it’s probably only two atrociraptors, because the suit itself has to be of non-negligible weight.
That or three pigmy atrociraptors.
She’s actually four atrociraptors.
Here’s an example of how she does it.
“pigmy” atrociraptors? Now you’re just being ridiculous. The third atrociraptor is obviously feeding the other two directions via wireless communication. It’s how they make the human form exosuit known as Dina act so convincingly human.
…. by running it via a committee of voices in her head?
I’ve said for years that if you unscrew that hat, there’s a little glass dome with a tiny dinosaur pulling levers.
I challenge Willis to prove otherwise.
She’s a Chinger?
link fail: http://io9.gizmodo.com/crowdfund-a-feature-length-adaptation-of-harry-harrison-458627832
There was a pretty Godawful comics adaptation of it, too. Judging from the art, I don’t think the adaptors realized the book is comic satire.
What does that mean for Ethan who wore the hat for a while? Are there tiny dinosaurs under all that hair now?
Well, at least Ruth’s reacting to others now. Baby steps…
Indeed.
btw, stupid delay.
The way Ruth is sitting looks super uncomfortable.
I’d ask how Dina got in the room but the way people don’t notice her borders on being a super power.
Dina is a Door Lord.
There was actually a minor Marvel character whose thing was that no one noticed them. She was a teenaged girl who would just live in someone’s house, eat their food, even greet them at breakfast, and they would never register the intruder. For her birthday, she just walked into a jewelry store and took something.
Problem was she couldn’t turn it off, so she was utterly alone, just inserting herself into peoples’ lives and talking to them without being heard. She finally discovers that the protagonist can notice her, and latches on to him.
Shit, it’s been at least 10 years since I read this, I have no idea what book it was. I wanna say Agent X, so I’m guessing she was a Gail Simone creation.
Huh. Makes sense that Wildbow wouldn’t be the only one to come up with that power.
That’s pretty horrifying. At least Imp can suppress it if she focuses.
Found her!
Does this mean that she has the exact opposite of Mary Sue powers?
Sounds inspired by a Larry Niven short.
Was her power tested over distance? like on the phone or something?
Niven novel actually, A Gift From Earth (1968).
Good novel in general, but the female characters aren’t handled well, even by sixties standards.
Sounds similar to another character, Forget-Me-Not. Everyone forgot about him the minute he stepped out of their line of sight. It was really, really sad, but he was well written.
It’s kind of sad that I thought ‘Mary Zero, she was in Deadpool’ before I even finished reading your comment.
I mean it’s a health center patient chair, at their best they still aren’t that comfortable, but yeah, I’m betting either Chloe or Billie got her into the pants and shoes and walked/drove her over and she’s just been dragged along as the bare minimum effort she can muster. Dina getting some surprise reflex out of Ruth is very good.
Dina is very good at getting surprise reactions out of anyone. In a nice way.
There’s now way to to sit or lay comfortably on that piece of medical furniture. I’ve tried. Somehow it’s not sized right in any way for human beings. I’ve wondered if that’s intentional.
I wonder if it’s also intentional that the staff has you attemot to sot on that thing for at least 10 minutes before taking your blood pressure.
That is because your blood pressure would be higher if they took it the moment you came in.
Ruth’s reacting. Why isn’t anyone commenting on this?
Because the comic had only been up for about 60 seconds?
Looks to me like she’s trying to figure out how Dina appeared. Understandable, given that I don’t see a door next to her.
She also glanced left at Billie’s comment about being thrown into a chair.
I think they meant no one was reacting in the comic?
I think Disloyal got it.
Ruth’s face is doing things. That’s a good sign, right?
Depends on the things. But most of the things it can be doing, and is doing, are better than than the previous state.
She’s reacting to Dina! Only happy things can result from that
I hope so!
If Dina is 3 atrociraptors, what’s Walky?
5 free gay pizza boxes?
12 caramel bars?
.5 Monkey Masters?
Mostly Mcnuggets and Nachitos.
Sixty McNuggets in a caramel shell.
With a Pajama!Pants wrapper.
Sounds like McDonalds horning in on Burger King’s gross territory.
40lbs of McNuggets and enough Mountain Dew cause total renal failure.
I thought Dew was Dina’s thing.
He might be something like THIS!
Blocked in the United States on copyright grounds.
Bugger, I know I hate it when I cannot watch a video for the same dumb reason.
It’s been happening a lot lately, so I’m more resigned than frustrated.
Somewhere on the road between junk food and tweeted turds.
…. actually, I think he IS the road between those two.
28 pairs of pajama jeans.
wouldn’t Walky weigh 5 tons if he was .5 of Monkey Master?
How doesn’t he with all the stuff he eats?
Wait… what are Ruth and Billie?
80 breathalizers?
2.5 cheerleaders?
120 pairs of glasses?
.2 Sexy Lesbian Death Cults?
…hmm.
DW’s twitter just now has me realizing how much these two look like Velma and HDW.
Did, did Walky just admit to some form of character growth? And furthermore, did Dina just help him get his foot out of his mouth by running interference? What did I do to get us this, cause I will gladly do it again.
“Did, did Walky just admit to some form of character growth?”
It was an accident, I swear.
You…. supported Willis on Patreon, so he could keep drawing comics?
Unfortunately no. I’m currently in the endless process of trying to pay off student debt, so much so that I’ve resorted to cancelling my one magazine subscription (Gameinformer) and switching back to my college days “milk, potatoes, and peanut butter banana” to save as much money as possible. I mean, if I think I can if I cut the amount of milk and or bananas I buy in half, but I’m not quite sure. Bright side is, I dropped ten pounds in a month, so now I’m no longer overweight BMI wise.
Yeah, I know the feel of not being able to support all the freebies I get online. I know I’m not HURTING the artists, and maybe even helping them a tiny bit with my ad views, but I still wish I could give.
Um…. recommending the comic to others? Helping create a comments section that gives people an added incentive to come back?
Probably those last two? At least, I hope I’m contributing to that last one. I don’t know for certain though.
Then yes, you helped to get us this, and you can keep doing it.
….
But by the same light you also got us depressed-Ruth-in-a-murder cave. YOU MONSTER.
Wait, Walky’s eyes can DO that?!
Shocked the hell out of me, too.
I’m getting whiplash from how this one is paced. Emotions are up and down without much breathing room.
LOOK AT RUTH’S LITTLE PROTO-EXPRESSIONS! ON HER FACE! FACE EXPRESSIONS! :O
Obligatory FAAAAAAACE.
In this case, I think it’d be more like ‘faaaaace’.
….. ironic juxtaposition with gravatar is ironic.
Ah. Yes. My gravatar— my ‘face’, metaphorically speaking— is, in fact, a picture of Amber’s butt. A ‘butt face,’ if you will. How droll.
(…butts’ face is a butt face)
And you said that all apparently without cracking a smile.
…well played.
That takes a LOT of cheek.
Also, Walky has eyes in the first panel. Non-black circle eyes.
Oh, and has a similar scene, but with possibly different characters, but in a similar arrangement, happen before? Asking for, headache.
I’ve seen it, once… in the last month (our time)
The eyes, or scene in a hospital like above?
It’s the eyes, isn’t it?
Oh, sorry! The eyes.
Yeah, trying to avoid looking at the comic now.
The first panel is even better if you haven’t read yesterday’s strip. You’re just left to assume that Walky pulled a Walky.
That is pretty much exactly what happened with Us.
And it is a good thing We did too. Because man did Walky put both his feet in his mouth at once yesterday. If We hadn’t seen today’s strip, I would have punched the screen. True, We still want to punch it a bit, but at least it is mitigated by showing that Walky stepped in it with good intentions, and that he then realised that it was still bad after only one shout, instead of needing to be spoonfed the whole thing.
Look at Dina. Schooling these people in courtship etiquette.
Makes sense. Of all of them, she’s likely the only one to have studied it, both as a paleontologist and as someone unsure how to pursue her relationship with Becky.
Dina has read alllllll the Internet relationship guides.
…just like FAZ OH GOG NO
They have already interacted. Dina was not impressed.
And quickly wanted to get rid of him.
Boy, boy, crazy, boy. Stay cool, boy!
Headcanon: Dina has been in the room this whole time and they only just noticed her.
Probably just plain canon.
Actually, Dina, you got Becky’s attention by having an information overload breakdown, stealing Ethan’s sweater straight off of his back, and wearing it over your head for half the night.
Perhaps, but that’s not how Becky got hers.
…and Dina bit Becky’s asshole father in the face.
Billie: Hmmmm. Worth a shot. Where does your grandfather live, Ruth?
I read this very incorrectly the first time
I got up to “and Dina bit Becky’s asshole” and stopped. Because really, what more do you need?
Billie: “I used to take down abusive boyfriends. I guess it was inevitable I’d work my way up to abusive parents and guardians.”
That’s why Danny keeps getting dumped, he is afraid of being in control.
And that’s two in a row.
That does leave me with the hilarious mental image of Danny trying to pull a dom routine.
“Um… okay, get on the bed… if you want to I mean you, uh, bad girl. No you’re not bad I think you’re wonderful oh god I’m sorry”
Also, Palamdrome, I don’t know what you’ve gone through and I’m sorry that you did, it’s obviously caused you a lot of pain, but I hope you can learn to move past what you’ve been saying here. It is flat out misogynistic and altogether really creepy.
Really creepy, but I can believe ‘not being man enough’ being a reason for breakups.
As a recovering Danny, let me tell you, that is absolutely not what his problem is.
Of course Dina can just pop right in there.
Questing of Age
Jocelyn stares John down.
Jocelyn: You two get out of here.
Amber, Ethan and Sarah jump in.
Jocelyn: you five get out of here.
Amber: But we just got here!
Jocelyn: Trust me, you’re going to want to be as far away as possible.
Dorothy: C’mon guys!
Dorothy, Walky, Sarah, Amber, and Ethan leap away.
John: Are we done talking yet.
Jocelyn: As done as were going to be.
John fires an energy blast at Jocelyn, who quickly dodges, john fires of a series of smaller blasts, which Jocelyn continues to dodge.
Jocelyn runs up and kicks John in the neck. John grabs Jocelyn’s foot and tosses her into the air. Jocelyn kicks down on John’s head and leaps away.
Dorothy and the rest look down on the battle.
Dorothy: Walky can you track them?
Walky: Barely.
Dorothy: Who’s winning?
Walky: I think John has the upper hand but it’s hard to tell…
Jocelyn gets tossed through the building they’re on.
Amber: SHIT!
John: You’re holding back…what? Afraid to hit your own brother!?
Jocelyn: Asshole!
John: Don’t you want to know what happened to Joyce?
Jocelyn: What are you talking about?
John: Our dear mother has her!
Dorothy: NO!
Walky: Shit.
Amber: Dammit.
Sarah: Damn.
Ethan: Aw hell.
Jocelyn: We need to leave.
Walky: But you can beat him!
Jocelyn: It’s not just him, our mother commands an army, I doubt he’s the only enemy around.
Dorothy: We say Mary earlier.
Jocelyn: That’s bad, look I have a location we can hide out in (hands Dorothy a note) meet me there.
Walky: What are you going to do.
Jocelyn: I’ll distract him! RUN!
Jocelyn leaps down and slams into John.
John: So, you’re finally ready to fight again!
Jocelyn fires an energy beam down at the ground, causing a smoke shield.
John waits for the smoke to clear, only to find that Jocelyn has disappeared.
John: Coward.
Jocelyn looks down on John from a building
Jocelyn: Idiot. Now to train those guys, we all need to get stronger if we want any shot against my mother.
“You two get out of here.”
[others show up]
“You five get out of here.”
LOL
…
Aw, shit, Carol’s coming.
I’m hoping for some Hank backup.
But are the three atrociraptors in a trench coat?
Also, haha, Walky’s coping mechanisms. They hurt me.
Ok, I love you, Walky, but unless the next words out of your mouth are going to be “I’m here for you; now what can I do to help?” or “I’m thinkin’ of grabbin’ some food at the dining hall, want me to bring you somethin’?”, you need to stop talking.
Also, Panel 4 and Panel 5 – I’m really glad to see that Ruth is still at least somewhat responsive to her surroundings.
Billie knows he’s there for her. It can remain unsaid.
That works; honestly, I’m more annoyed by what he is saying than by what he’s not saying (as you said, it can remain unsaid). Maybe it’s just that I’m looking at this through me-tinted goggles, but “every relationship is kind of screwed up, don’t worry” feels uncomfortably close to a trivialization of Ruth’s and Billie’s issues.
It is, and I think Walky knows that too. He’s just trying to make her feel better instead of saying “oh god that’s atrocious.”
And then Dina pops in and reminds these nerds to step up their game.
He means well, but Walky isn’t suicidal, and he’s always lived a bit of a privileged, immature life. He’s not prepared for dealing with this sort of thing, no matter how much he wants to do the right thing.
I figure if Billie actually wants him gone, she’ll just tell him. And if it’s just for a break, to go grab food or something for them. Her personality seems
strong/aggressive/non-gendered compliment on being forthcoming as well as their relationship for her to just tell him that sort of thing.Gods damn it I thought I closed that off.
Well, she does tell him to go away.
Indeed she does.
And then she responds by answering his question.
So now one can speculate. Is Walky not walking away because he’s getting too obsessed with succeeding in his mission to actually listen to Billie? Is he staying because the tone she said it in (which sadly, even with facial expression, is rather difficult to discern properly) indicated that she was not really telling him? I mean, he knows her pretty well, I am sure he has gotten his fair share “Go away, Walky” from Billie in a hundred different tones, and possibly he knows which ones to ignore.
I took it as ‘Being all alone with Ruth didn’t really help, so maybe being open with someone about us could help’.
Billie looks less frazzled and helpless there, so he’s gotta be doing something right.
He’s giving her something to react to besides Ruth’s depression.
Walky had feels so hard it brought the white into his eyes for a sec.
It weirded me out I thought he was a new character.
Never underestimate the power of human emotion.
Romantic? How about Neuromantic instead?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrmAjXrN1wk
I missread that as “Necromantic” and I thought of the “Corpse bride”. Going to make a coffee ASAP.
Aww, Walky really is trying his hardest.
His hardest still isn’t all that great, but it certainly isn’t his fault the Billie/Ruth foundations are somehow even less healthy than the sexy bisexual suicide pact part. And the ‘hey Dorothy and I are fine and I was an awkward mess there too’ is a valiant effort. Good try there, Walky.
BUT TOMORROW THE REALLY GOOD STUFF STARTS. BRING ON AWKWARD JOYCE AND SUPER-PANICKED BECKY AND… Who really knows what Hank’s going to say about all this, but he is Being Supportive and tonight when the inevitable Carol confrontation begins he can say, ‘Joyce is needed there.’
Hank is gonna listen and smile a lot.
Wow, Grav Roulette. You went and made me Arnold.
ARNOLD.
You’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel to avoid giving me a Walky, aren’t you? I had to do a tag-search on Ken to even find his name. He’s only been in two strips. No speaking parts. No character at all. No role save onlooker and stand-in-line-person.
Back in SP!, he had exactly 17 appearances. He was Ken and Malaya’s roommate. He had a bored, “I’m calling bullshit but I really don’t care so stop bothering me” type of attitude. He never had a plot arc and… wasn’t even a foil. Just a straight man and audience to a few of the cast’s antics.
In short, he’s a bit part.
…. wait, it’s too late to say in short?
Tough, I’m saying it. In short, he’s a bit part.
Admit it, the day you find and settle on a good grav (y’know, after the inevitable reset once you find them again the first time) you’ll miss doing character analysis of bit roles.
Or you could do what I did and just grab yourself the best gravatar.
that is amazing!
It’d be the end of gravs everywhere.
Imagine it, Reltzik. A comments thread… filled with nothing but this most glorious of derrières.
I think that many examples of a majestic of butt in one combined endeavor of mischievousness would be assking for trouble.
Some classic butts
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/sharks/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/fault/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/wow-2/
If you’d be interested, I can cut out the surrounding parts to make her butt stick out more.
Which comic was this from?
Won’t really work, because (as I’m sure butts already knows, and is why they did not do it themselves) the butt is in fact on the bottom of the panels as it is, and trying to cut it out to make it stick out more will probably just make it look less obvious that it is a butt. And you won’t get the finger pointing to it, which I think is quite important.
But here is the link anyway, because the whole panel is a really good Amber moment: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/gorilla/
That is awesome, but I’m not convinced it quite beats Kernanator’s gravatar.
Joyce is just so very cheesed that a ding-dong strapped has been to her head, its too perfect.
I admit nothing! NOTHING!
All this bongoing about avatars makes me (almost) sorry I’m using my custom-created one.
Forgot about the bytch-filter.
I’m sure all the regulars here, without even realizing it, mentally undo the filter while reading. It makes talking about bongo drums kind of awkward.
I’m fine with my awesome ‘vatar, thankyouverymuch.
I’m rather fine with mine as well. Mayhap the Grav Roulette is trying to tell you something today? I, however, look forward to your critiques.
Wait, are we in a new book already?! I thought the last chapter of every book always ended with the cast in their beds. The system is broken, people!
That seems like an odd place to end the book. My guess is it’s an error.
I checked back, must be an error.
Assuming it’s not an error, maybe Willis didn’t want to leave Ruth’s medical status hanging for readers of the physical book 6.
But it also makes this kind of an awkward place to start book 7 with Walky saying he’s sorry for something he in the previous book.
Did he allude to this on Twitter while these strips were being drawn?
That or the book was supposed to end with Billie and Ruth in bed together and Chloe walking in? That seems like a reasonable spot, maybe.
Maybe if it was a chapter break, but I don’t buy that the strips immediately after that would work as the beginning of a new book. It’d be a very abrupt beginning, if nothing else.
Except skimming through it…. Sal and Dina explain to Joyce what happened to Ruth and Billie and where they are…. A new plot arc with Danny, Ethan, and Mike starts up. It’s not as unnatural a transition as I initially thought.
It’s not the end of the chapter unless everyone’s in bed and angsting.
Ruth and Billie gotta share that around.
From what I recall aren’t chapters a ‘day’ long and the book a ‘week’ long? As such, books end at end of day on Sunday? We’re almost there.
Chapters are definitely a day. I’d have to check to be 100% sure, but I don’t think books are a week – They’re all less then 7 chapters and I don’t think we’ve had enough time jumps for that.
Yeah, I can only recall two skips. One where Walky got his PJ jeans, and then after Ross was arrested.
I mean, I’m so, SO sorry, but Ruth and Billie were in bed…
And it looked like Willis fixed it and we’re now officially back in chapter 4 of the… current?… book.
Yep, it’s all fixed. Phew.
clearly the three atrociraptors’ relationship is superior to all you weak dinosaurs
Man, I know Walky’s been a bit of a tool lately but this is just so sweet and adorable right here. What a great friend, trying to help Billie and Ruth feel more normal. Expressing interest in his friend’s new partner instead of making a big deal about the booze or the depression or the secret lesbian relationship. I mean sure he’s a bit clumsy in his Walky way but overall he’s not doing half bad.
Yep <3
Honest question- what did Billie and Ruth do to make them deserving of going to the nurse’s office? Some suicidal ideation doesn’t hurt anyone and it’s… Fine… I mean it’s not like Ruth made an attempt – is it alchohol usage?
i guess regardless of whether it’s alchohol usage or just ideation it makes me uncomfortable that Billie and Ruth are being held.
probably just a therapy or psycho-analysis thing but im w/ you 110%
I think they could leave if they wanted to. I don’t think they’re being “held”, as in being in custody. I don’t know if Ruth is capable of leaving right now if she wanted to, and Billie is probably there for her as much as for herself.
Why do you think they are being ‘held’? Going to the health center is not a punishment, it’s them finally getting help. Once the cat is out of the bag to Ruth’s management, there isn’t a reason for her to keep denying it to herself, and Billie would definitely be all for that.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ruth at least is being held – not punishment, but for medical reasons. Kept overnight for observation, at least. Depends partly on whether she’s talked to the doctors or at least Chloe or if she’s stayed unresponsive. And of course on what she’s said. We haven’t seen her say anything since she freaked Carla out.
Mind you, they’d probably ask her to stay and only
Yes, this. I guess “held” to me has a punitive connotation, and Quiet Heatran’s comment made it seem as if Ruth and Billie’s rights were being violated.
Yeah, I doubt there’s any punitive intent here. If they showed enough volition to try to leave, they’d probably get a bunch of arguments from the doctors as to why they should stay. If they insisted, they’d get some paperwork to sign acknowledging they were checking out “against medical advice” and possibly, depending on the circumstances and how concerned the doctors were, held at least overnight anyway.
Given that Ruth apparently hasn’t been capable of speech or independent movement, I doubt she’s going to be kicking up a fuss about getting out and that pretty much gives them ground to keep her.
In Ruth’s case being totally unresponsive to outside stimuli (Chloe trying to talk to her) to the point where the word ‘catatonia’ starts entering the conversation. In Billie’s case, its more of a case of not being able to detach her from Ruth with anything less than hydraulic bolt-cutters.
I would imagine they’d be strongly encouraged to get help before Ruth made an attempt (i would argue giving up on everything, to the point of not bathing, not eating (inference on my part since she’d have to leave her room) consistutes an attempt.)
Ruth’s suicidal ideation goes beyond the casual self distructive “what if I jumped off a bridge” thought most people have. I called it “suicide by inaction” when I went through it. Strictly speaking, I never made an attempt like cutting or pills but I stopped doing the things required for life. I shut down which would have lead to the destruction of my life as sure as any traditional attempt. Fortunately, I got help.
Ruth consistantly wants to die, in spite of good things in her life (Billie, school, succeedding at her job by all appearences (according to Residence Manager). She abuses alcohol, makes plans (sexy lesbian suicide pact) and cut herself off from everyone around her. She absolutely needs to be in the health center and I’m glad Chloe and Billie got her there.
I don’t think this is a case of being “held” as it is a classic example of the University doing something — anything — to cover their own ass if anything bad happens later, just like any other large institution/organization in today’s highly litigious society.
I believe it was also theorized that it’s to check for consumption of things like pill or chemicals.
I’m pretty sure Ruth was beyond ideaton. She was basically letting herself die, because she no longer had the will to do anything. Putting her under a psychiatric hold would seem a reasonable measure to me, although I don’t think they actually do that unless a patient deemed a danger to themself or others actually wants to leave. They can only hold you for so long, so they don’t want to start that clock until they have to.
When Ruth is revived enough to try to leave, there’s also a risk that she might take more direct action, so if Billie can’t convince her to stay, they should definitely place a hold on her, since that might buy the time she needs to be able to accept help.
I totally understand why the idea of doctors being able to do that would make you uncomfortable though. It feels weird that a private citizen would have that kind of power, but it’s something that definitely saves lives
I don’t think they’re being held per se. That said, Ruth is definitely displaying a lot more symptoms than just suicidal ideation. She’s in a depressive state so severe that it’s left her completely unable to function. I’m not even sure she’s eaten in the past few days. I mean, those cookies are still right there by the bed.
Well I mean at least Dina got Ruth’s attention.
I’d really like to know what is going on in Ruth’s head right now. Assuming that she’s able to respond (or even is aware of) external stimuli, the need to laugh must be overwhelming! Of course, that’s Walky’s real skill, isn’t it? He’s really a jester in many ways; making people laugh is his innate talent!
Let’s be brutal, a romantic start of a relationship for most of the characters in this strip is a bit much to ask. They’ve all got far too many issues.
‘Walking with Ruth’ may be a bit too much for some people. I’m compulsed to know everything, and I’m good there.
Have you ever accidentally opened a whole bunch of folders/files at once? I mean like 200+? What’s going on in Ruth’s head is sorta like that, except that instead of random files and folders it’s just all variations on “this sucks, I want to not be here”. What’s going on around her is just part of the noise.
And it’s all running slowly and the lights are too bright and now she’s wearing pants and the best suggestion she heard all day was death but even that wasn’t that specific…
I think Ruth’s reaction is to Dina. Dina does have a way of getting reactions out of people, mostly surprised ones. And Ruth almost looks surprised.
I don’t think Ruth, even when in top form, would pay much attention to Walky one way or the other ;).
Walky is trying so hard. He just is over his head, I think I would be also. But, at least he is there. That counts.
THEY ARE ADORABLE
all of them
The little detail of Ruth looking over at Billie when Billie admits they first met by her throwing her into a chair, is pretty depressing as Ruth hasn’t reacted to anything else so far, but this negative reminder of how unhealthy their relationship was, even right at the beginning, is something that’s really not going to help right now.
Dina and Becky I can’t see being helpful either. Dina is already sticking her foot in it by saying how amazing their first meeting was and Ruth doesn’t even know Becky so I doubt she’ll listen to anything she has to say. I really can’t see how anything anyone does right now will be enough to get Ruth out of the state she’s in, hopefully Billie will be able to have a heart to heart with her when the two get some privacy
Becky wacking it up might just achieve what Walky’s trying to do: distract them and lighten up the mood.
Alternatively, she’ll just be there for them silently, which is also a very important part to do.
Well, Ruth is reacting to things now. That’s… better, I hope. Walky seems to have realized how out of his depth he is, but he’s still trying anyway, because he cares.
Why is Dina’s relationship with Becky the most healthy relationship in this comic, that’s just weird.
What’s weird about two cute lesbians being the healthiest relationship?
Also, they’ve both got a lot on their plates outside of the relationship, with Dina’s neurodivergence and Becky’s whole ‘homeless’ deal, it makes sense narratively that Willis doesn’t need to also add (real) problems in there.
It’s weird because ‘healthy relationship’ is something that is rare enough in this comic. When you consider the scale of the emotional trauma from which Becky suffers and Dina’s social developmental issues, then they are beating the odds to an even more extreme degree!
Dina isn’t a lesbian. Apart from being romantically involved with two guys in the Walkyverse, she tells Joyce that she’s unsure if gender expression matters to her.
So probably pan, maaaayyybe bi if Dina doesn’t know about genderfluidity.
Or other nonbinary genders.
Speaking as a nonbinary bisexual, bisexuality does not discount either of these things. The whole ‘bi means two’ thing is not an argument put forward by the actual bi community. One of the most frequently quoted definitions is this, by Robyn Ochs:
“I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.”
Bisexual did kinda go out the door upon the reveal of non-binary genders.
Speaking as another nonbinary bisexual, it really doesn’t.
er, didn’t*.
Yep, for me, bisexual means “people who are my gender, and people who aren’t”. Not just M/F. Pansexual might be a better label for me technically, but I feel doofy saying it, since it often needs to be explained, whereas people get that bisexual means I like all sorts of people.
wat
I think I lost something there between thinking and writing it.
I know that, just couldn’t think if a good way to phrase it.
Oof, yeah, sorry. I mixed up genderfluidity as a label for all NB gender identities.
My bad, seriously.
Because it started as a rebound relationship. In any other comic, that would be the one with the most likelihood of being unhealthy.
It didn’t. Yes, Becky was still reeling from Joyce, but her liking Dina had nothing to do with it – like, the opposite of anything to do with it, considering she put flirting with Dina on hold for the evening because she was thinking about Joyce’s feelings.
Now picturing the alternate universe where Joyce did return Becky’s love, but Becky likes Dina too and drama ensues.
Joyce: You have to choose, Becky. Get salvation from the Lord by loving me and my heavenly body, or eternal damnation from going down on the heathen evil-utionist!
Dina: First of all, I am not heathen, as that refers to old Norse religions, and I do not worship them. Secondly, I do not like to be called evil simply for following the scientific consensus. Also, I am not sure what “going down” means, but if it is a reference to my height, I cannot help how my genetic make-up made me this tall.
Becky: Oh man, this is hard, this is hard…
Dina: I acquired a matching dinosaur hoodie for you to wear when we are in proximity of each other. That is “second base”, right?
Becky: Dina it is!
+1 Internet (where available)
We are the Emperor of the Internet. We already have all the pluses We can possibly need.
For me, it’s weird because Dina has trouble with social interaction, and Becky has her issues (usually well-hidden behind jokes and cheerfulness) with her family and homelessness. For all other relationships in DoA, the issues that both characters have cause conflict in the relationship, yet somehow despite their issues Becky and Dina have not had any fights so far.
Is Becky still attached to Dina’s other hand? Did they shadow-walk together?
I’m pretty sure that Becky backed off the ‘superglue’ thing out of fear of Joyce’s glare.
More likely just to let Dina do her ninja thing.
I don’t think Joyce’s glare would make her back down. And I don’t think Joyce would glare.
I suspected I was asexual, got married, they stole $30,000 from me, got divorced, did research about asexuality, confined I’m asexual… now living the happiest I’ve ever been, humans and their relationships are just silly. Living vicariously through stories and books is so much better than trusting filthy greedy humans
I’m both happy and sad for you. Is that wrong? I now wonder. Why am I still typing?
I like how both Ruth and Billie’s facial expressions just go “wait, what? tell me more about this ‘healthy relationship’ thing” at Dina’s intervention.
Or is that just “Where did she come from?”
She was behind the door the entire time.
Walky, you just stepped in a bear trap. Dina likely is tiny and softspoken. This coupled with choosing words carefully is a magical invisibility cloak (experience bias here). Ugh, I really want to see Ruth and Billie be less depressed.
Walky is forgetting Sal’s rule of ‘What to do when a girl says leave her alone’
There’s a difference between harassing Joyce over how super gay she is and spending time with his oldest and dearest friend after a doctor let him in the room to keep and eye on her because she’s suicidal.
Yeah, there are definitely time when “No, I won’t leave you alone” is the proper answer. The key is telling the difference.
Fair enough. Walky will keep them from digging around in the examination room as I have been known to do. But in these four frames he’s made assumptions and minimized their experience. I guess they’ve known each other long enough to know he’s trying.
Suicide-watch is pretty informal where they are. I’ve been in ER situations before and it seems to me that, even if you were the health-proxy of the person who happens to be in with the person actually under treatment, you’d be asked out of the room by the second time you were told to go away.
Let alone admitting people wandering into the room to natter about dinosaurs. After all, the stresses of RAing are basically why Ruth is there. “But I’m from the dorm” is not a reason to be let in. The hospital staff, remember, don’t know any of these people from Mitochondrial Eve, and “Restricted visitors, only” is how we keep (for instance) Mary from putting on concern-face, coming in and making things worse.
Presumably, Joyce, Mr Brown and Becky are tied up getting allowed in, and Dina just slipped past by not being noticed, but still.
Not being noticed IS one of Dina’s primary skills, after all.
Indeed.
Walky should be out of there trying not to get chucked out of college.
I thought they “admitted” both Ruth and Billie and were watching both. Hence Billie gets visitors too.
We know Walky blagged his way in via reception so I’m not sure about Billie or Ruth being able to officially receive anyone yet.
So Becky is the normal one here…
I’m surprised.
…I am not.
All of Walky’s eyes are appropriate.
Penny’s not in the poll? Did she not make the cut, or was that an oversight?
That was a hard poll to choose from, by the way, even if we were only to focus on mainly their physical appearance.
Eventually, I went with Amber (she is -fit-), Sierra (she has that kind of open, friendly smile that, if she’d flashed it to me, would turn me into a puddle of happy goo) and Billie (Like Joyce, I could just snuggle into her boobs and be comfortable forever).
Leslie, Carla, and Becky were my runner-ups. What can I say, sassy is hot.
I picked Joyce, Becky, and Billie.
One unabashed lesbian; one professional virgin; and one who still isn’t quite sure where she falls on the Kinsey scale.
As usual, I picked the ones I thought were least likely to win.
I tend to favor folks who’ve appeared recently. Which is why Daisy was out and Jocelyne was in.
I find it incredibly appropriate that Daisy gets left out of being grouped with a bunch of hot women.
Walky can have human, non-Pikachu eyes ? Wow.
Three? That’s atrocious!
…I’ll just… show myself out.
As a man currently trying to sail a relationship, this speaks to me.
Are Walky and Dina officially friends now? They have good comedic chemistry.
For some reason I want Billie to finally end her pseudo-friendship with Walky only to realize that she actually like having him around and tries to make amends but Walky refuses.
Meh, a guy can dream.
Billie is the one person Walky can’t turn away.
He can try to talk to Sal but if she doesn’t want him, he’ll live. He’ll dump Dorothy over pajama jeans and stonewall any attempt at talking to her about feelings. Billie? Billie is probably the person he’s closest to more than anybody.