Wearing the blood of her enemies would impress a man in any proper culture.
I bet if she presented Jacob with Ryan’s heart, he would accept it as sufficient dowry. They they could eat it at their wedding feast, and gain his strength.
Mind you, he’s a scrawny rapist who we’ve seen get taken down twice now, so it’s not a lot of strength, but enemy hearts are tough to come by.
I don’t think it’s that ‘Ryan’ was weak so much as that Joyce, Sarah, and Amber are all at least decently strong (plus Joyce kinda caught him off guard). I mean, he did escape from Sal and Amazi-Girl, so he’s at least somewhat physically capable, and a low-level Jager would probably be after his hat if he had one.
The situations were different, too. Regardless of his strength relative to Joyce, (who, as it has been mentioned, caught him off-guard) he had to beat a quick retreat, both because Sarah was attacking him with a baseball bat and because there’s very little chance of Sarah and/or the rest of the crowd letting him get away once their attention was back on him.
We never see exactly how his fight with Amber went, but presumably it was a “classic” one-on-one fight, so that’s a much better gauge of his fighting ability. Or, since he was hospitalized and Amber lacks any clear physical wounds, his lack thereof, especially since he started the fight armed.
Leaving aside Amber’s much greater experience at fighting, while Ryan has the advantage of height over Amber, she was at the top of the stairs and had that advantage. On top of which he clearly wasn’t expecting anyone to fight back – he came to attack, not to fight. Which I’d argue means that his fighting abilities or lack thereof remain unknown, mainly because he’s a moron who didn’t think things through.
I tried making that argument to the last woman who told me that, but she retorted that I had to make the 500-word minimum for that essay or I wouldn’t be able to pass that semester.
Because Velma was trying to keep Shaggy and the guy in the ascot from hitting on her, not knowing Shaggy was Ace and Fred was sapiosexual. He finally fell in love with a TV reporter after the original series ended. Shaggy ended up with Scooby and Scrappy and some girl from the animal shelter, Daphne ended up with a second-rate Ghostbuster, and I don’t remember who Velma ended up with. Maybe Mindy Cohn, who voiced Velma and wrote for the series in the 2000’s, knows who the character eventually settled down with.
I am of the group which maintains that Shaggy and Daphne are living together with an adopted child in THE THIRTEEN GHOSTS OF SCOOBY DOO. I always liked that ending since Fred was the Jock and a more mature Daphne saw Shaggy was the better match since, layabout or not, he was always loyal to a fault as well as supportive.
I hope this is foreshadowing to the entire cast being taken to international court for breaking the Geneva Accords. The only one who gets off is Mike. From your Mom. For a nickle.
*Dina appears from a hole in the space-time continuum*
“It appears that the fabric of reality has been weakened. I would recommend keeping any additional shenanigans, chicanery, tomfoolery, dramatic irony, wacky hijinx, or convoluted character mini-arcs to an absolute minimum.”
We veto your veto, and as Emperor of the Internet, Our veto is absolute and cannot be further vetoed.
Because man, I like Pablo’s pitch. All is -not- fair in love, and it’s about time we made a formal document signed by all the nations, most of which then promptly forgets about it!
What is that in your avatar picture? It looks like someone wearing the right rear fender of a car as a hat, with the rest of the car flowing off the back of her head.
It’s Kazuma from the second season of Konosuba! It’s a really good comedy anime that’s rumored to be getting a third season soon, and it’s based on a light novel series that to the best of my understanding is still ongoing. Also, he’s actually under a peculiar kind of Japanese furniture that he brought into a high-fantasy universe in order to start a successful business enterprise with an immortal demon he killed.
aaand now I have the theme song stuck in my head again. (but my brain keeps substituting “konosuba” as the first word of the song. it fits the tune so well!)
I’m surprised Billie hasn’t mentioned anything about the sweater being what Joyce was wearing that night, but she may have been too drunk then to remember details.
Bah. There are no laws about love that have forced Billie to move. There are laws about proper conduct RA conduct in the dormitory. Those rules are peripheral to love at best 😛
And a “Sarah called dibs” thing, and a “He’s dating Raidah” thing, although the fact that the former matters sort of makes it feel like the latter doesn’t.
But it’s probably also at least partially a race thing.
Also I doubt she knows that his (I don’t know for sure so I’m going to guess it’s either gray asexuality or demisexuality) is kind of a perfect fit for her religion-instilled sexual neuroses, so there is some information inequality/dramatic irony.
Don’t forget that, since she was traumatized, she was Not Looking, and managed to completely disbelieve several signals.
She may feel differently now. She IS wearing the sweater, so Ryan getting a measure of what he deserved has freed her somewhat from her trauma.
But also remember that humans can get a thought stuck in their head, and not revise their thoughts, plans, and expectations, even after new information has been made known.
She doesn’t know Raidah, except as Sarah’s nemesis.
She knows Sarah punched her, and she knows Sarah is her honorary big sister, so she’s inclined to not like Raidah in order to protect her positive feelings for Sarah.
I mean she may feel differently about her chemistry with Jacob.
That is, at the pizza dinner, she was unconsciously flirting with Jacob so much a blind man could see it, but it wasn’t ABOUT her. She wasn’t looking because of the trauma. She was there for Sarah.
Now that she’s managed to recover enough that the sweater doesn’t cause tension on sight, she may realize she wants Jacob for herself, rather than her roommate.
But, humans can be remarkably change-blind, even, especially, where preconceptions are concerns.
That’s an angle I hadn’t considered. I do wonder how a shift in her perception of Jacob could alter her perception of Raidah, and how that could impact her relationship with Sarah. The fallout for this could fuel sitcom drama (or genuine drama) for years to come.
Well, in Shortpacked, it was an interesting thing he had… Like, he was asexual because he was hypersexual.
It seems weird, but I can sort of relate. I don’t drink alcohol, and hasn’t done so since I was 18*. I was never addicted, and never drank excessively, but at the same time, I already knew about myself that things I really like doing is things I’ll end up doing too much of, so I figured it was best to just stop it while I still would not get tempted to continue.
*In Norway, beer and wine is allowed at 18, and booze at 20… And I certainly did -not- do anything before then because I grew up in a rural place
He started out chaste because he had addiction issues and sex was something he was addicted too.
I would not call him asexual unless he chose that label for himself it seems really inaccurate.
I think what was meant with “growing up in rural area” in relation to not drinking underage: they simply couldn’t possibly get alcohol from anyone while underage because if they bought it, their parents would have immediately known.
Or a similar scenario.
I think it might unintentionally be a race thing. Outwardly, Joyce might say, “I’d totally marry a black guy, as long as he loves Jesus,” while inwardly she’s never even considered Jacob as a potential member of her dating pool. Meanwhile subconsciously (and to us readers’ great delight) she has a major crush on him.
Potential dialogue 37 comics from now (’cause webcomic time means that would be when we get to Sunday afternoon):
Becky: Didja go to church today?
Joyce: Yeah, I went to Jacob’s church. It was different… but nice. Yeah, let’s go with “nice”.
Becky: Ha! I knew it! Yer totally into Jacob!
Joyce: WHAAA? Me? And Jacob? I-I don’t like him that way… I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with him, he’s pretty great {dreamy sigh}, have you seen his… I mean–he’s dating Raidah, and Sarah kinda has dibs on him, and ohGodIshouldjustshutupalready.
Becky: Yer cute when ya get flustered like that!
Wait, did I just write fanfic? I think I technically did. Damn you, Willis!
At least it wasn’t a DoA/Harry Potter crossover. After all, after Harry and friends complete the year 7 that they missed, and graduate from Hogwarts, they’ll be the right age to be freshmen at IU. McGonagall can magically forge their transcripts and test scores. Unfortunately, they took no high-school-level math, science, English, or world history, so wacky hijinks ensue. Also Luna accidentally chugs a bottle of Felix Felicis and has a four-way with Grace, Mandy, and Sierra.
Over on the Dumblr of Age, there are preview panels of Joyce (top half only) wearing what appears to be the yellow dress that Billie bought her. I would swear that somewhere I’ve seen a preview panel of her in that dress with tights on underneath, but maybe I just hallucinated that.
But why wouldn’t Billie dress Joyce up in the dress Billie bought for her, to show off her legs? Apart from the fact that it’s October in Bloomington and probably getting cold.
But that means you also don’t get to see the best fanart. (Well, the best non-Yotomoe fanart.) And those previews are almost always posted on Willis’s twitter, too.
…Unless you also don’t read his twitter? All that just to avoid what are really just teasers?
I also predicted that Donald Trump would win the Presidential election, that Star Wars episode VIII would include a new version of ewoks, and that Monster Rats were humans all along, so I wouldn’t bet against me either.
My mom used to teach 1st and 2nd Grades and that song was how she taught them to read stop signs. It was super amazing to see a room full of multicultural six-year-olds putting their hearts into that song.
Less than an hour before this strip came up, I commented yesterday about Billie’s depression, talking about how she needs to be seen as the helper and not the help-ee; because being the latter is weak. That the one thing that makes her feel not worthless is when she’s a “success”; because while rejecting the more obvious horrors of her father’s behaviour, some of the more insidious stuff still settled in her to fester and grow…
Hello to today’s strip giving me confirmation on all these things!
I mean, can you see the immediate transformation in Billie as soon as there is something she can help with, as soon as there is something she can make right?
She had basically five things that defined her life in high school: Her sexuality (as in her sexual activeness, not necessarily the nature of her attractions), her popularity, alcohol, cheerleading, and being a busybody. Four of those are now to some degree or another obstructed. This is Billie clinging to the last shards of her old identity, and it is painful.
There is something to be said for pouring oneself into fixing solvable problems. Who knows how many socially beneficial solutions have happened because someone was avoiding their own personal problems?
But of course, sooner or later one runs of out motes in other people’s eyes, and is face-to-face with the terrifying possibility of having to confront the plank in one’s own eye.
Honestly, that’s a defining characteristic of Eleanor Roosevelt based on a number of biographies I’ve read. She threw herself into various causes, work, and the life of an activist to avoid a number of her own problems. According to the biography by Doris Kerns Goodwin, her periods of depression or melancholy were usually related to not knowing what to do next.
What I can’t decide is whether this means that Billie should be the politician instead of Dorothy (though she couldn’t actually get elected, because her past would br brought up immeidately), or if someone should suggest that she go into social work instead of journalism (though she might want to work on some of her own issues first).
Silly Billie! History and war crimes are both decided by the victor. Do what you must to win and you get to decide whether or not the Geneva Conventions apply.
I can’t imagine the US being stupid enough to use land mines on their own territory. You always use them in enemy territory where there wreak havoc years after your war has ended.
Or, well, I forgot about trump for a moment there…
Henry Kissinger is still not sitting in a dock in the Hague defending his complicity in the carpet bombing of Laos and Cambodia. John Yu and Alberto Gonzalez are still not sitting in a dock in the Hague explaining why “enhanced interrogation” isn’t actually torture torture.
Sliding timescale or no, I’m afraid Billie is more than a little bit behind the times with regard to the last panel.
Easy answer for that: The US doesn’t recognise the International Criminal Court and did in fact pass a law that allows the government to – in the worst case – outright invade the Netherlands, should a US citizen ever be “held captive”.
Reminds me that one line I once heard “US behaves like it doesn’t answer to International Community, Hell US behaves like it doesn’t answer to God either.”
The Old Testament God is at times kinder than the New Testament one. There’s enough “I’ll make everything right” and “I’ll burn everything down” in both parts (all parts?) of the bible to confuse everyone.
I kinda hope the next few strips are just other members of the cast redressing joyce to suit what they think she should wear to attract jacob. This would be twice now no?
This is going to end badly but it will be fun watching it explode, I just hope that Joe won’t be all like told-you-so-rub-it-in-her-face but more so feel bad for his friend Joyce
and then take her on a nice, friendly date for pizza
I was going to say “I so don’t want to see that” but actually I kind of do? It could be used to cement Joe’s character development, and in doing so provide a convenient bookend for his character arc. And I’m a sucker for bookends.
I see this ending in nothing but tears.
I dunno if Joyce’s, Sarah’s or Raidah’s, but someone will be crying.
SO ON OTHER MORE LIGHT HEARTED TOPICS:
Can someone please, PLEASE explain WTF is up with the soggies in the end of Shortpacked!? I didn’t even know what soggies were before that!
Old cereal commercial. I wanna say Captain Crunch. They’re a metaphor for cereal that doesn’t stay crunchy in milk. And apparently also function as a metaphor for white supremacy.
I have enough combinations of caps and lowercase letters to get to the millions, I hope I don’t get that far (Also, yeah, Mod, you can delete most of these posts)
Willis doesn’t delete posts unless they’re legitimately hateful and not in a funny way (and he does block people so I wouldn’t recommend using this as a strategy)
also the spambot got a little overzealous at banning people who played grav roulette too much. hence me being stuck with the Mary avatar 😛
sooner or later I’ll start trying to get a non-awful one, but, I keep getting distracted debating a name change… it was the name-change attempt that was my first blocked comment, so now I have a bunch of irrational feelings about it, plus I was going to put both names in the name field for a while so people wouldn’t be confused, but, that makes more work for Willis – apparently name changes go to moderation – and I worry it might attract the spambot too…
I dunno, should I just change my name and get it over with? and maybe then if I just do one or two gravatar tests a day the spambot might not notice me…
You know, I set mine as a Gravatar so I could just stay Daisy, but I’m not loving the decision. I don’t really want to be Daisy other places, just here, but I guess it’s fine. So what I’m saying is I get why people would rather play grav roulette over getting a Gravatar. (Also, it’s kind of fun.)
me, I haven’t set a custom gravatar because anxiety’s being an ass about it, and I have more important things to spend my spoons on atm. (like making dinner, before I forget again… ooh, and unpacking my shiny new vacuum cleaner! 🙂 )
hrm. last night’s comment appears to still be in moderation? I hope this comment doesn’t get eaten… :/
instead of entering your email as username@gmail.com here, enter username+doa@gmail.com (or anything else after the +). Then go to gravatar’s site and set up a new gravatar for that address. 🙂
It’s “the heart wants what it wants”. Probably by Emily Dickinson, but most famously used by Woody Allen to explain/excuse falling in love with his girlfriend’s adopted daughter.
Good, Joyce is being (literally!) pushed towards accepting she has a crush on Jacob.
Now, knowing Willis, is something going to happen to the box Billie left unguarded?
Joyce is going to fail in her wooing because she’s going to end up trying too hard, dressing like Billie thinks she should, and overall not-being-Joyce.
Well, it’s beginning to look like there’s literally no-one in Read Hall who thinks that Raidah deserves Jacob!
I love moments like this from Joyce’s friends. She has a lot more of them than you would initially think. Because she tends to rub people up the wrong way with her irrepressible sunny personality, it isn’t until situations like this, when she really needs a little external advice and practical assistance, you realise that, actually, they really do like her! 🙂
I know Sarah despises Raidah, but I don’t recall Billie nursing a grudge against her. Maybe she doesn’t care one way or another and just wants to push Joyce into dating someone compatible and hot.
Raidah was mean to Joyce at a party which Billie attended. Billie is on mostly good terms with Joyce and Billie strikes me as the sort of person who would take that personally. Sticking a wrench into Raidah’s relationship with Jacob and helping Joyce possibly get lucky strikes me as the sort of things that an ex-Queen Bee high school cheerleader would think is an appropriate countermeasure.
Billie was also at the initial mall meeting between their gang and Raidah’s, which included some punching and the revelation of Sarah’s tragic backstory.
OTOH, I don’t recall any indication she’s given a moment’s thought to Raidah outside of those scenes – or even really then.
Which, in retrospect, can be interpreted as Billie being really, really good at emotional repression and quick to take the chance of revenge when it’s presented. Both of these would strike me as being in-character for her.
It could. Though I think we’d need a little more than we’ve seen yet to justify such an interpretation.
It’s also possible the mention of Raidah was just for identification and she’s just jumping at the chance to help hook Joyce up with such a hunk. Which would also be in character.
Well many of Billie’s life choices are kinda suspect. Also considering the social standing she was from (Cheerleader, top of the high school food chain) stabbing people you don’t care about in the face is a perfectly fine thing to do.
Here’s what I’m thinking: Joyce is going to be super-nervous in the Little Yellow Dress but Jacob is going to be the perfect gentleman with her. Perhaps he’ll compliment her but he won’t treat her as a sex-object or anything like that. The consequence is that she’s going to realise that a woman can make herself look good without</i. being a slut and that's going to be another important life-lesson that moves her away from being a clone of her mother.
What I’m looking forward to right now is Raidah’s reaction to all this effort. Probably bemusement, unsure if she should feel threatened, insulted or flattered by what’s being done because of her.
FWIW, I think that Joyce looks pretty attractive in almost anything she wears. She’s just got that talent, I guess.
I’m guessing (having never been one or known one close enough to make an IRL judgement) that this is supposed to be some inherent characteristic of a college age woman.
Oh yeah its going to blow up in her face but its also going to fun to watch, like a car accident in slow motion (a car accident where no one gets hurt of course)
Actually, she’s dressed perfectly to unmask Old Farmer Clark as the man imitating the Spirit of Ghostly Gulch. Traditionally (at least here in the UK), you add just a tiny little bit of formality to church wear.
I don’t know much about non-dress semi-formal wear for women, being a guy. A nice polo, dress shirt or sweater and khakis is formal enouvh for my synagogue
I meant to add in my comment that I wondered if she had looked up the dress expectations ahead of time, but I forgot where I was going with my comment as I wrote it. So. Yeah.
It’s been a loooong time since I’ve been to a church outside of a wedding or a funeral; but back in the day, going to our Anglican church in Canada, it was pretty much the thing for women for women to wear ideally a dress or at least a skirt; I don’t recall ever seeing a woman in pants at church, although it was like thirty years ago last time, and I don’t remember specifically looking.
But I do know that there is no way in hell my mum would have let me go in even dress pants. And my brother would *not* have been permitted jeans.
I adore that sweater, though! I want it. Somehow it feels like I had one like that myself when I was younger, although for the life of me I don’t otherwise remember it and suspect I’m just remembering Velma’s, ha ha.
That’s Agatha. She’s Mormon. Seems nice. Don’t know much else about her.
Oh, I think she seemed to support Billie and Ruth, which I thought was nice considering the views of the LDS’s.
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Billie knows what’s up
though if she understood war, she’d know that sweater’s JUST FINE
Wearing the blood of her enemies would impress a man in any proper culture.
I bet if she presented Jacob with Ryan’s heart, he would accept it as sufficient dowry. They they could eat it at their wedding feast, and gain his strength.
Mind you, he’s a scrawny rapist who we’ve seen get taken down twice now, so it’s not a lot of strength, but enemy hearts are tough to come by.
I don’t think it’s that ‘Ryan’ was weak so much as that Joyce, Sarah, and Amber are all at least decently strong (plus Joyce kinda caught him off guard). I mean, he did escape from Sal and Amazi-Girl, so he’s at least somewhat physically capable, and a low-level Jager would probably be after his hat if he had one.
To be fair, he escaped by motor vehicle. Amazi-Girl only ever caught one car, and that was with vehicular assistance *after* “Ryan’s” escape.
My point is that Joyce should feel proud of her accomplishment, not that Ryan is in any way actually superior to Amazi-Girl. That said, fair enough
The situations were different, too. Regardless of his strength relative to Joyce, (who, as it has been mentioned, caught him off-guard) he had to beat a quick retreat, both because Sarah was attacking him with a baseball bat and because there’s very little chance of Sarah and/or the rest of the crowd letting him get away once their attention was back on him.
We never see exactly how his fight with Amber went, but presumably it was a “classic” one-on-one fight, so that’s a much better gauge of his fighting ability. Or, since he was hospitalized and Amber lacks any clear physical wounds, his lack thereof, especially since he started the fight armed.
Leaving aside Amber’s much greater experience at fighting, while Ryan has the advantage of height over Amber, she was at the top of the stairs and had that advantage. On top of which he clearly wasn’t expecting anyone to fight back – he came to attack, not to fight. Which I’d argue means that his fighting abilities or lack thereof remain unknown, mainly because he’s a moron who didn’t think things through.
It’s not the size that matters…or so we are told by the ladies
I tried making that argument to the last woman who told me that, but she retorted that I had to make the 500-word minimum for that essay or I wouldn’t be able to pass that semester.
Well, wrong course. In mathematics, a PhD thesis can be 4 pages + references. But those 4 pages then need to be good, like major breakthrough good.
Very high bar, quite unlikely to clear. But then try that in literary sciences.
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/shortest-known-paper-in-a-serious-math-journal.html
It can even be two lines.
That’s a paper, but it wouldn’t be enough for a Ph.D. thesis.
There exists a math Ph.D. Thesis with 7 pages of math, 1 page of references, and 4 pages of front and back matter (title, abstract, table of contents, and biographical notes). https://mathoverflow.net/questions/54775/what-is-the-shortest-ph-d-thesis
Some famous theses are very short. Landau’s thesis is 13 pages long, and John “A Beautiful Mind” Nash had a 26-page thesis.
Well, if you had his heart, that would probably mean he is dead, so there wouldn’t be a whole lot of strength there.
Billie is obviously not a fan of Velma. (she’s probably more of a Daphne fan for some reason)
You don’t think Billie likes freckled girls with glasses who might be into chicks?
Can’t say I agree with that assessment.
Well, why else would she call that sweater frumpy?!
Maybe she’s just overcompensating.
Because Velma was trying to keep Shaggy and the guy in the ascot from hitting on her, not knowing Shaggy was Ace and Fred was sapiosexual. He finally fell in love with a TV reporter after the original series ended. Shaggy ended up with Scooby and Scrappy and some girl from the animal shelter, Daphne ended up with a second-rate Ghostbuster, and I don’t remember who Velma ended up with. Maybe Mindy Cohn, who voiced Velma and wrote for the series in the 2000’s, knows who the character eventually settled down with.
Velma + Hot Dog Water 4EVAR
Excuse the question, but what does “Shaggy was Ace” mean in this context?
I believe that Opus is of the opinion that Norville “Shaggy” Jones is asexual.
That was crossed messaging. I know what “asexual” means, and was guessing that what was what “Ace” was. Sorry
Asexual?
I am of the group which maintains that Shaggy and Daphne are living together with an adopted child in THE THIRTEEN GHOSTS OF SCOOBY DOO. I always liked that ending since Fred was the Jock and a more mature Daphne saw Shaggy was the better match since, layabout or not, he was always loyal to a fault as well as supportive.
Oh Dear Lord, I just wrote fanfic!
I can’t accept any version in which Daphne and Velma are not endgame.
Yes
if you read “Ace-X.U.L.” out loud, the person you’re talking to will probably be confused
To this entire thread, I have nothing to say but this: https://web.archive.org/web/20061113110233/http://www.evilkid.com/comics/EKearly/pages/fred.html
Jennifer “War Crimes” Billingsworth
I hope this is foreshadowing to the entire cast being taken to international court for breaking the Geneva Accords. The only one who gets off is Mike. From your Mom. For a nickle.
Could a fifty-shenanigan pile-up be in our future?
Shenanigeddon approaches.
*Dina appears from a hole in the space-time continuum*
“It appears that the fabric of reality has been weakened. I would recommend keeping any additional shenanigans, chicanery, tomfoolery, dramatic irony, wacky hijinx, or convoluted character mini-arcs to an absolute minimum.”
But isn’t metahumor a form of wacky hijinx?
Yup… that means only one thing.
soggies will rule.Dina’s appearance would be the minimum amount of shenanigans.
Startup pitch: The Geneva Convention, but for dating
I’m just gonna veto that right now.
We veto your veto, and as Emperor of the Internet, Our veto is absolute and cannot be further vetoed.
Because man, I like Pablo’s pitch. All is -not- fair in love, and it’s about time we made a formal document signed by all the nations, most of which then promptly forgets about it!
I read that first sentence in King Candy’s voice.
Does that mean neither of em get Camilla?
I predict trouble. Of course, this is a Willis strip, so trouble is inevitable, we just don’t know WHEN
The only accurate prediction is “SOON. Maybe. Eventually.”
No one expects … DAMN YOU WILLIS!
So pesky.
*plays This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars on the hacked muzak*
What is that in your avatar picture? It looks like someone wearing the right rear fender of a car as a hat, with the rest of the car flowing off the back of her head.
It’s Kazuma from the second season of Konosuba! It’s a really good comedy anime that’s rumored to be getting a third season soon, and it’s based on a light novel series that to the best of my understanding is still ongoing. Also, he’s actually under a peculiar kind of Japanese furniture that he brought into a high-fantasy universe in order to start a successful business enterprise with an immortal demon he killed.
(It’s a really weird show.)
aaand now I have the theme song stuck in my head again. (but my brain keeps substituting “konosuba” as the first word of the song. it fits the tune so well!)
And now it’s Oumae from Hibike! Euphonium
What’ll it take to get you to join us, Joyce? Money? Fame? Jacob?
I didn’t think this universe had any magic, but look at you, turning black people into trophies. Got some racist alchemy up in here.
He just looks like a very sexy black man!
So, before Joyce starts a full-on race war…
SOA abridged, nice.
I’m surprised Billie hasn’t mentioned anything about the sweater being what Joyce was wearing that night, but she may have been too drunk then to remember details.
Unless it’s super awesome or super awful she probably wouldn’t remember, specially if it’s something Joyce would normally wear. I suppose
I won’t recall what typical clothes somebody else wore to a party, weeks ago. I’m lucky to recall what I wore yesterday.
Billie’s moving cuz of school regulations, not laws.
What about school bylaws?
Bah. There are no laws about love that have forced Billie to move. There are laws about proper conduct RA conduct in the dormitory. Those rules are peripheral to love at best 😛
They say a forbidden love is the strongest…
Love will also be corrected and organized into fair/unfair categories in the upcoming Stockholm Convention.
I hear they’re going to force everyone to stay until they all get along.
If this gambit pileup goes as badly as it could, we’ll have a Bloodbath of Stockhom on our hands.
They’ll be forced to stay at first, but then they’ll start identifying with and defending their captors.
I love how Joyce doesn’t realize that she and Jacob would be perfect for each other.
…is it a race thing? I feel like it’s a race thing.
And a “Sarah called dibs” thing, and a “He’s dating Raidah” thing, although the fact that the former matters sort of makes it feel like the latter doesn’t.
But it’s probably also at least partially a race thing.
Also I doubt she knows that his (I don’t know for sure so I’m going to guess it’s either gray asexuality or demisexuality) is kind of a perfect fit for her religion-instilled sexual neuroses, so there is some information inequality/dramatic irony.
Don’t forget that, since she was traumatized, she was Not Looking, and managed to completely disbelieve several signals.
She may feel differently now. She IS wearing the sweater, so Ryan getting a measure of what he deserved has freed her somewhat from her trauma.
But also remember that humans can get a thought stuck in their head, and not revise their thoughts, plans, and expectations, even after new information has been made known.
She doesn’t know Raidah, except as Sarah’s nemesis.
She knows Sarah punched her, and she knows Sarah is her honorary big sister, so she’s inclined to not like Raidah in order to protect her positive feelings for Sarah.
I mean she may feel differently about her chemistry with Jacob.
That is, at the pizza dinner, she was unconsciously flirting with Jacob so much a blind man could see it, but it wasn’t ABOUT her. She wasn’t looking because of the trauma. She was there for Sarah.
Now that she’s managed to recover enough that the sweater doesn’t cause tension on sight, she may realize she wants Jacob for herself, rather than her roommate.
But, humans can be remarkably change-blind, even, especially, where preconceptions are concerns.
That’s an angle I hadn’t considered. I do wonder how a shift in her perception of Jacob could alter her perception of Raidah, and how that could impact her relationship with Sarah. The fallout for this could fuel sitcom drama (or genuine drama) for years to come.
Well, in Shortpacked, it was an interesting thing he had… Like, he was asexual because he was hypersexual.
It seems weird, but I can sort of relate. I don’t drink alcohol, and hasn’t done so since I was 18*. I was never addicted, and never drank excessively, but at the same time, I already knew about myself that things I really like doing is things I’ll end up doing too much of, so I figured it was best to just stop it while I still would not get tempted to continue.
*In Norway, beer and wine is allowed at 18, and booze at 20… And I certainly did -not- do anything before then because I grew up in a rural place
I haven’t read Shortpacked, but from what I’ve read in comics here, it seems that Jacob there was celibate rather than asexual.
Hmm, probably a better way of describing it, yes.
*in comments
Best Willis comic ever! What are you waiting for?
He started out chaste because he had addiction issues and sex was something he was addicted too.
I would not call him asexual unless he chose that label for himself it seems really inaccurate.
Sorry Yumi already said this.
I feel you there, I do things in excess or no things at all as well.
What does living in a rural area have to do with not drinking?
Coming from a rural part of Canada, I’d say “Not a hell of a lot.”
I think what was meant with “growing up in rural area” in relation to not drinking underage: they simply couldn’t possibly get alcohol from anyone while underage because if they bought it, their parents would have immediately known.
Or a similar scenario.
Norway must be completely different from any rural area I’ve ever known. Or heard of.
I think it might unintentionally be a race thing. Outwardly, Joyce might say, “I’d totally marry a black guy, as long as he loves Jesus,” while inwardly she’s never even considered Jacob as a potential member of her dating pool. Meanwhile subconsciously (and to us readers’ great delight) she has a major crush on him.
Potential dialogue 37 comics from now (’cause webcomic time means that would be when we get to Sunday afternoon):
Becky: Didja go to church today?
Joyce: Yeah, I went to Jacob’s church. It was different… but nice. Yeah, let’s go with “nice”.
Becky: Ha! I knew it! Yer totally into Jacob!
Joyce: WHAAA? Me? And Jacob? I-I don’t like him that way… I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with him, he’s pretty great {dreamy sigh}, have you seen his… I mean–he’s dating Raidah, and Sarah kinda has dibs on him, and ohGodIshouldjustshutupalready.
Becky: Yer cute when ya get flustered like that!
Wait, did I just write fanfic? I think I technically did. Damn you, Willis!
At least it wasn’t a DoA/Harry Potter crossover. After all, after Harry and friends complete the year 7 that they missed, and graduate from Hogwarts, they’ll be the right age to be freshmen at IU. McGonagall can magically forge their transcripts and test scores. Unfortunately, they took no high-school-level math, science, English, or world history, so wacky hijinks ensue. Also Luna accidentally chugs a bottle of Felix Felicis and has a four-way with Grace, Mandy, and Sierra.
This has more of a QC flow than a DoA
I feel like Jacob would LIKE the sweater. He did like that she stood up to her attackers, after all.
Regardless, I can’t wait to see what Billie puts her in.
I’m actually gonna call the long shot and say Joyce will end up wearing that sweater.
Over on the Dumblr of Age, there are preview panels of Joyce (top half only) wearing what appears to be the yellow dress that Billie bought her. I would swear that somewhere I’ve seen a preview panel of her in that dress with tights on underneath, but maybe I just hallucinated that.
But why wouldn’t Billie dress Joyce up in the dress Billie bought for her, to show off her legs? Apart from the fact that it’s October in Bloomington and probably getting cold.
Some of us don’t follow that particular tumblr precisely because we don’t want to see those previews…
But that means you also don’t get to see the best fanart. (Well, the best non-Yotomoe fanart.) And those previews are almost always posted on Willis’s twitter, too.
…Unless you also don’t read his twitter? All that just to avoid what are really just teasers?
Thanks to the preview panels on Willis’ Tumblr, we already know what she ends up wearing
This is why I don’t gamble
Hmm, note to self, whatever Pablo360 calls, bet the other way. I will be rich in no time.
I also predicted that Donald Trump would win the Presidential election, that Star Wars episode VIII would include a new version of ewoks, and that Monster Rats were humans all along, so I wouldn’t bet against me either.
I actually wondered about why and when Joyce changed when I looked at the previews on tumblr yesterday.
Officer Diana Ross made great advancements in the enforcement of love-related laws.
My mom used to teach 1st and 2nd Grades and that song was how she taught them to read stop signs. It was super amazing to see a room full of multicultural six-year-olds putting their hearts into that song.
Less than an hour before this strip came up, I commented yesterday about Billie’s depression, talking about how she needs to be seen as the helper and not the help-ee; because being the latter is weak. That the one thing that makes her feel not worthless is when she’s a “success”; because while rejecting the more obvious horrors of her father’s behaviour, some of the more insidious stuff still settled in her to fester and grow…
Hello to today’s strip giving me confirmation on all these things!
I mean, can you see the immediate transformation in Billie as soon as there is something she can help with, as soon as there is something she can make right?
This is what Billie lives for.
This is literally what Billie lives for.
And that’s the scary part.
And now I wish I’d put the “This is what Billie lives for” on the top of my comment.
She had basically five things that defined her life in high school: Her sexuality (as in her sexual activeness, not necessarily the nature of her attractions), her popularity, alcohol, cheerleading, and being a busybody. Four of those are now to some degree or another obstructed. This is Billie clinging to the last shards of her old identity, and it is painful.
Head cheerleader, problem solver.
There is something to be said for pouring oneself into fixing solvable problems. Who knows how many socially beneficial solutions have happened because someone was avoiding their own personal problems?
But of course, sooner or later one runs of out motes in other people’s eyes, and is face-to-face with the terrifying possibility of having to confront the plank in one’s own eye.
*whistles innocently*
That is the only comment that has ever been helped by a Mary grav.
Your choice of username has absolutely nothing to do with why you’re whistling innocently, does it?
No, I thought not.
Honestly, that’s a defining characteristic of Eleanor Roosevelt based on a number of biographies I’ve read. She threw herself into various causes, work, and the life of an activist to avoid a number of her own problems. According to the biography by Doris Kerns Goodwin, her periods of depression or melancholy were usually related to not knowing what to do next.
Hey, my grandma met Eleanor Roosevelt! I know that really has nothing to do with anything, but I think it’s pretty cool.
It is!
What I can’t decide is whether this means that Billie should be the politician instead of Dorothy (though she couldn’t actually get elected, because her past would br brought up immeidately), or if someone should suggest that she go into social work instead of journalism (though she might want to work on some of her own issues first).
Silly Billie! History and war crimes are both decided by the victor. Do what you must to win and you get to decide whether or not the Geneva Conventions apply.
Sad but true.
Besides no one is actually going to follow the Geneva conventions if they get invaded.
For instance if China invaded the USA, the USA would use land mines, Geneva Convention be damned.
I can’t imagine the US being stupid enough to use land mines on their own territory. You always use them in enemy territory where there wreak havoc years after your war has ended.
Or, well, I forgot about trump for a moment there…
I thought if the US was invaded by China, we’d be saved by a bunch if high school kids yelling about wolverines.
I wasn’t aware that the Geneva Convention said anything about landmines.
They don’t. It’s the Ottawa Treaty (from 1999), which bans landmines. The US didn’t sign it.
…Now I want to know what war-related activities Billie used to enjoy doing but can’t anymore since that pesky Geneva Convention.
I think she forced her POWs to watch five seasons straight of “Paradise Hotel”.
I….I like paradise hotel…
My first instinct was to say all the Michael Bay Transformers movies, but I didn’t want to get banned from this comment field.
But what if Jacob LIKES the tattered flesh of her vanquished enemies?
Nah, Jacob’s more cerebral. Joyce needs the splattered BRAINS of her vanquished enemies.
Well, it WAS cerebral blood. The blood left his body via a newly-introduced gash to this face.
True, true.
Henry Kissinger is still not sitting in a dock in the Hague defending his complicity in the carpet bombing of Laos and Cambodia. John Yu and Alberto Gonzalez are still not sitting in a dock in the Hague explaining why “enhanced interrogation” isn’t actually torture torture.
Sliding timescale or no, I’m afraid Billie is more than a little bit behind the times with regard to the last panel.
Easy answer for that: The US doesn’t recognise the International Criminal Court and did in fact pass a law that allows the government to – in the worst case – outright invade the Netherlands, should a US citizen ever be “held captive”.
Reminds me that one line I once heard “US behaves like it doesn’t answer to International Community, Hell US behaves like it doesn’t answer to God either.”
Depends on your definition of “God”.
I’d go with the Christian merciful, loving and peaceful one for the sake of this argument.
As opposed to the Christian vengeful, jealous and picky one.
I think that’s the Old Testament one. Frankly I’m not even sure how it is between the two of them.
A lot of Christians’ New Testament God seems to be like that tooo.
Mhm yeah that too.
A lot of Christians are really bad at the Christ part, and only mildly good at the Ian part.
The Old Testament God is at times kinder than the New Testament one. There’s enough “I’ll make everything right” and “I’ll burn everything down” in both parts (all parts?) of the bible to confuse everyone.
sorry, don’t know how I managed to do that
Sweaters can be pretty hot at times.
😉
I kinda hope the next few strips are just other members of the cast redressing joyce to suit what they think she should wear to attract jacob. This would be twice now no?
This is going to end badly but it will be fun watching it explode, I just hope that Joe won’t be all like told-you-so-rub-it-in-her-face but more so feel bad for his friend Joyce
and then take her on a nice, friendly date for pizza
I was going to say “I so don’t want to see that” but actually I kind of do? It could be used to cement Joe’s character development, and in doing so provide a convenient bookend for his character arc. And I’m a sucker for bookends.
I see this ending in nothing but tears.
I dunno if Joyce’s, Sarah’s or Raidah’s, but someone will be crying.
SO ON OTHER MORE LIGHT HEARTED TOPICS:
Can someone please, PLEASE explain WTF is up with the soggies in the end of Shortpacked!? I didn’t even know what soggies were before that!
Old cereal commercial. I wanna say Captain Crunch. They’re a metaphor for cereal that doesn’t stay crunchy in milk. And apparently also function as a metaphor for white supremacy.
Jacob’s. This whole situation is pretty much perfectly set up to cause him distress.
Also, re-rolling my grav because, being MR D, I need a different Grav.
Dammit, who IS that?
Raidah. And THAT’S Grace. And Kazuma desu.
I have enough combinations of caps and lowercase letters to get to the millions, I hope I don’t get that far (Also, yeah, Mod, you can delete most of these posts)
Hmm. Attempt number 4
This means you win.
Eh, A face is a face.
Willis doesn’t delete posts unless they’re legitimately hateful and not in a funny way (and he does block people so I wouldn’t recommend using this as a strategy)
also the spambot got a little overzealous at banning people who played grav roulette too much. hence me being stuck with the Mary avatar 😛
sooner or later I’ll start trying to get a non-awful one, but, I keep getting distracted debating a name change… it was the name-change attempt that was my first blocked comment, so now I have a bunch of irrational feelings about it, plus I was going to put both names in the name field for a while so people wouldn’t be confused, but, that makes more work for Willis – apparently name changes go to moderation – and I worry it might attract the spambot too…
I dunno, should I just change my name and get it over with? and maybe then if I just do one or two gravatar tests a day the spambot might not notice me…
Fuck it, name change. bam. (please don’t be mary…)
yaay, I’m not mary any more! 🙂 thanks Willis 🙂
Just get a gravatar. Then you can have whatever face you wish! (Mine is a default Joyce that I edited in MS Paint so it would look like me.)
You know, I set mine as a Gravatar so I could just stay Daisy, but I’m not loving the decision. I don’t really want to be Daisy other places, just here, but I guess it’s fine. So what I’m saying is I get why people would rather play grav roulette over getting a Gravatar. (Also, it’s kind of fun.)
True! In that case, hooray for fun.
if you’re using gmail, you could set a separate gravatar for username+doa@gmail.com 🙂
me, I haven’t set a custom gravatar because anxiety’s being an ass about it, and I have more important things to spend my spoons on atm. (like making dinner, before I forget again… ooh, and unpacking my shiny new vacuum cleaner! 🙂 )
hrm. last night’s comment appears to still be in moderation? I hope this comment doesn’t get eaten… :/
That seems like a really cool tip, but I’m not sure exactly how to go about it? Would you mind explaining a bit more?
(If you have the spoons, no worries if you don’t.)
instead of entering your email as username@gmail.com here, enter username+doa@gmail.com (or anything else after the +). Then go to gravatar’s site and set up a new gravatar for that address. 🙂
heh. apparently email addresses count as urls to the mod filter, so the instructions might take a while to show up. 🙂
Thanks, I think I managed to do it.
Well I’m talkative today. I’m sure it has nothing to do with that empty frappuccino bottle sitting on my desk.
Oh yeah, the old saying that’s practically on par with “The heart wants what the heart wants”.
It’s “the heart wants what it wants”. Probably by Emily Dickinson, but most famously used by Woody Allen to explain/excuse falling in love with his girlfriend’s adopted daughter.
Soooo….. Billie helps prep Joyce for her church-date with a christian hunk…
It took some turns, but both of them have reached their goals from the beginning of the comic.
See? Billie cares…in her own direct way.
“And I would be gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you pesky kids and your Geneva Convention!”
Show some respect, Billie. She permanently frumped up a motherfrumper’s face in that sweater.
Thank you for making me smile
Colour me surprised that Billie cares about the Geneva convention XD
Billie is a good friend 🙂 in her way.
Good, Joyce is being (literally!) pushed towards accepting she has a crush on Jacob.
Now, knowing Willis, is something going to happen to the box Billie left unguarded?
It will spontaneously sprout an entirely unexpected banana cream pie.
Joyce is going to fail in her wooing because she’s going to end up trying too hard, dressing like Billie thinks she should, and overall not-being-Joyce.
Yes, good. *steeples fingers* This pleases me.
Oh boy oh boy. Only good things can come of this!
Well, it’s beginning to look like there’s literally no-one in Read Hall who thinks that Raidah deserves Jacob!
I love moments like this from Joyce’s friends. She has a lot more of them than you would initially think. Because she tends to rub people up the wrong way with her irrepressible sunny personality, it isn’t until situations like this, when she really needs a little external advice and practical assistance, you realise that, actually, they really do like her! 🙂
Or…
Maybe they are just using her to further their ends…
To whit – Break up Jason and Raidha.
(Not saying she doesn’t have friends, but she’s being grade A manipulated by at least two of them right now)
Mhmm nothing says “Good christian ” Like seducing someone elses man away from them just because you don’t think they deserve them <3
Don’t just leave your box out in the open like that, Billie! Someone might snatch it!
I know Sarah despises Raidah, but I don’t recall Billie nursing a grudge against her. Maybe she doesn’t care one way or another and just wants to push Joyce into dating someone compatible and hot.
Raidah was mean to Joyce at a party which Billie attended. Billie is on mostly good terms with Joyce and Billie strikes me as the sort of person who would take that personally. Sticking a wrench into Raidah’s relationship with Jacob and helping Joyce possibly get lucky strikes me as the sort of things that an ex-Queen Bee high school cheerleader would think is an appropriate countermeasure.
Billie was also at the initial mall meeting between their gang and Raidah’s, which included some punching and the revelation of Sarah’s tragic backstory.
OTOH, I don’t recall any indication she’s given a moment’s thought to Raidah outside of those scenes – or even really then.
Which, in retrospect, can be interpreted as Billie being really, really good at emotional repression and quick to take the chance of revenge when it’s presented. Both of these would strike me as being in-character for her.
It could. Though I think we’d need a little more than we’ve seen yet to justify such an interpretation.
It’s also possible the mention of Raidah was just for identification and she’s just jumping at the chance to help hook Joyce up with such a hunk. Which would also be in character.
Well many of Billie’s life choices are kinda suspect. Also considering the social standing she was from (Cheerleader, top of the high school food chain) stabbing people you don’t care about in the face is a perfectly fine thing to do.
There should be some Love Convention too… Love often feels like a mental illness to me…
Wait, wasn’t Love Convention like an Eighties prog-rock band or something? O.o
Joyce’s smile in panel 4 is just a bit little…bashful? And hella adorable.
This is Joyce we’re talking about. There are few scenarios where she wouldn’t be adorable, even when punching out bad guys!
To be totally fair, the laws Billie ran afoul of actually doesn’t care about love, only sexy-making. So all’s probably still fair in love.
But… Billie… the sweater. It’s THE sweater. You’re missing key information!!!
Here’s what I’m thinking: Joyce is going to be super-nervous in the Little Yellow Dress but Jacob is going to be the perfect gentleman with her. Perhaps he’ll compliment her but he won’t treat her as a sex-object or anything like that. The consequence is that she’s going to realise that a woman can make herself look good without</i. being a slut and that's going to be another important life-lesson that moves her away from being a clone of her mother.
I don’t think Joyce was ever a clone of her mother, nor is there a chance of that still happening.
The point that I’m trying to make is that Carol wanted Joyce to be her ‘clone’ (thinking like her and acting like her).
Don’t worry about the pesky Geneva conventions, Billie. The US didn’t ratify that one. American exceptionalism at work.
We did ratify the initial Geneva Conventions, just not the later Protocols.
That is true.
What I’m looking forward to right now is Raidah’s reaction to all this effort. Probably bemusement, unsure if she should feel threatened, insulted or flattered by what’s being done because of her.
FWIW, I think that Joyce looks pretty attractive in almost anything she wears. She’s just got that talent, I guess.
And here we have Billie practicing the same kind of lack of consent matchmaking we’ve criticized Joyce for.
I’m guessing (having never been one or known one close enough to make an IRL judgement) that this is supposed to be some inherent characteristic of a college age woman.
It’s kinda…skeevy, that they’re both, deliberately, trying to break up someone else’s relationship.
We may not like Raidah, but we’ve seen no indication that she is unhealthy for Jacob.
This is just…erg. Not inducing any pride here, Billie and Joyce.
Oh yeah its going to blow up in her face but its also going to fun to watch, like a car accident in slow motion (a car accident where no one gets hurt of course)
First Dina ( http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/sinproofed/ ), now Billie.
Who will be next? And wouldn’t Joyce would be easier to move if she were on wheels of some sort? (If she weren’t so lawful, perhaps skates.)
How about AmaziGirl’s magical rollerskates? Perfect for when you mostly walk, but sometimes get pushed around!
But of course!
Please, please please no, Billy. She’s dressed perfectly for church.
Actually, she’s dressed perfectly to unmask Old Farmer Clark as the man imitating the Spirit of Ghostly Gulch. Traditionally (at least here in the UK), you add just a tiny little bit of formality to church wear.
I don’t know much about non-dress semi-formal wear for women, being a guy. A nice polo, dress shirt or sweater and khakis is formal enouvh for my synagogue
Polo, dress shirt, or other nice shirt plus a nice skirt (knee length) or pants is usually good enough for semi-formal. Joyce….is not wearing that.
Churches do differ in expectations of dress, from “casual is fine! Whatever you’d normally wear shopping!” to “Sunday Best.”
Oh, yeah, I meant that what Joyce is wearing is not semi-formal. Which might be fine! Her church might not be.
I meant to add in my comment that I wondered if she had looked up the dress expectations ahead of time, but I forgot where I was going with my comment as I wrote it. So. Yeah.
Since she’s going to a hippie church, I’m sure they’ll be OK with Joyce’s current outfit.
As long as she does not tell them about the blood of her enemies.
They probably would be, but Billie does not care.
Or you could always just put a strategically placed Dr. Pepper so God can’t see your navel.
It’s been a loooong time since I’ve been to a church outside of a wedding or a funeral; but back in the day, going to our Anglican church in Canada, it was pretty much the thing for women for women to wear ideally a dress or at least a skirt; I don’t recall ever seeing a woman in pants at church, although it was like thirty years ago last time, and I don’t remember specifically looking.
But I do know that there is no way in hell my mum would have let me go in even dress pants. And my brother would *not* have been permitted jeans.
I adore that sweater, though! I want it. Somehow it feels like I had one like that myself when I was younger, although for the life of me I don’t otherwise remember it and suspect I’m just remembering Velma’s, ha ha.
I stop checking the comments for a couple of years and suddenly all the gravatars are minor characters? When did this happen? (Who will I be?)
There is nothing minor about Sierra!
Or Marcie, for that matter!
Or Jessica
or whoever this avatar is going to be!
i… don’t remember who this is
That’s Agatha. She’s Mormon. Seems nice. Don’t know much else about her.
Oh, I think she seemed to support Billie and Ruth, which I thought was nice considering the views of the LDS’s.
It’s a very common name.
(also, *points to own Ruth gravatar)
In those last two panels, it looks rather like Joyce is wheeled luggage, which made me laugh.
Heelies. That’s what Joyce needs.