*waits for reenactment of American Psycho where the next panel shows the doorstop protruding from the back of a deadunconscious person at the bottom of the stairs*
Required impalement velocity unfortunately can’t be reached in this scenario. However, if the burrito were to hit Blaine in the forehead or throat, it would be enough to knock him over, smacking Toe Dad’s head into the railing with sufficient force to cause severe bleeding, and possibly make him fall back over onto Blaine and break a rib or two. And that’s a best case scenario.
As for the chances of that . . . I don’t know, what do you think I am, some kind of nerd?
I’ve never been to Taco Bell, would that burrito be more of a solid mass or a liquid at this point? I want to know what the probability is of a glorious burritosplosion.
It’s mostly the tortilla that hardens ime, so depending on how well it was folded we might be taliing brick or we might be talking a hard shell that opens and splats on impact like a meat-based hollow-point rifle bullet.
Have you ever microwaved cheese into gooey deliciousness, then waited too long so it congeals? Taco Bell somehow manages to up that effect by a factor of ten.
That IS bardic knowledge my friend. Its knowing just enough to bullshit the answer. He freely admits that he never had to try before. He’s like an INT 12 WIS 9 bard. Smart but never learned to study. Walky is totally a bard, probably of the Jester Ilk since the goofy stuff he does is how he charms people.
Wisdom seems a bit high, there. He has the occasional moment of insight, but they’re statistical bloops. And he’s got virtually no willpower at all. I’d put Wisdom at an 8.
Honestly I think the sea lion in that comic kinda has a point, considering it’s an analogy to internet arguments which aren’t the same as private discussions.
I don’t think they do. But that sea lion comic seems to me to be equating internet arguments which are open to everyone with private discussions in someone’s car or home. Which seems pretty silly to me.
The sea lion comic is pretty dumb. I can mostly see the actual intention but for a good while my impression was its point was “people being loudly racist in public really, really hate being called on their shit”. Metaphors are like that, I guess.
The sea lion is insisting that he’s somehow “owed” an argument. That’s the point. Or are you trying to ironically sealion the sea lion discussion and I’m just missing it? Because I do that sometimes.
I don’t see the part where everyone thinks the sea lion thinks it’s “owed an argument” or whatever. In the comic it seems to me that the humans said something bigoted about sea lions in a public place and then refused to defend their bigotry when the sea lion pressed them on it. And also the comic seems to be portraying the type of arguments that happen on the internet as if they’re private arguments in person at someone’s house.
I think “owed an argument” is implied by the sea lion following them home and interrupting them in bed and at breakfast to continue to argue.
And it’s not a “private argument in person at someone’s house”. It was a private discussion that the sea lion overheard and then followed home. It’s only happening at someone’s house because the sea lion is pursuing it there.
if you’re gonna talk shit, you absolutely are volunteering to back it up. not with violence, we’re not (all) children here, but by showing your calculations.
“they are the kind of assholes who will walk into your living room uninvited and unwelcome” isn’t a bad supporting argument, in this case. but in many real-world cases the OP wants to conceal inadequate argument to avoid feelings of embarrassment, and by no means does he retain that right.
I actually feel perfectly fine talking shit about Nazis and not feeling like I need to give them an argument back to satisfy them. I’m not “volunteering to back it up,” because that’s not actually what they’re looking for. They just want to waste my time and exhaust me so they can go murder more people. So no. I’m gonna talk shit about certain people. And I owe them nothing.
The entire point of sealions is that they’re not asking you to engage in good faith. They ask a lot of questions that sound reasonable but they don’t actually care about the answers too and they don’t tend to leave you alone. Offer them sources or explanations and they’ll basically ignore the answer and continue asking (or, sometimes switch to new questions). Sealions are bad faith actors.
Whoever is responsible for making the red panels vanish —
Amber and Walky are in the only staircase from the roof. Sal prefers windows to doors, but unless she is ready to go down six floors on the outside of the building, she’s going to have to walk into the stairwell. And then?
and then… best case, amber’s defused enough to take a deep breath and respond based on thought instead of ptsd. maybe she’ll still make an ass of herself but at least it’ll be by choice.
I agree. But I think it says something of the trust issues I have with this strip that I wrote an Eight page essay that it shall be short lived, in my best estimates.
oh i forgot about that. i guess i’m a bit disappointed just because, that would’ve been so wonderful if that was what his reaction was to discovering she’s amazi-girl.
I dunno. He already took that reveal in stride, and this is really sweet for its own reasons.
Think about this from Walky’s perspective. When Sal showed up, Amber became distressed and she ran off. Now he’s found her frustrated and upset, trying to throw her mask away. I doubt he could even come up with a guess about why she’s doing that, but his first instinct was perfect. No judgement, not even any questions. He just recognizes that for whatever reason she’d needed some kind of cathartic release and wasn’t getting it, so he offers a possible alternative.
He understands what she’s feeling, even if he doesn’t understand WHY she’s feeling that way.
He met her on the roof as AG for a while (I think even first potentially? It was a regular AG place before it became Garbage Roof,) and she revealed who she was in that space post-stabbing but pre-breakup. Walky had no idea who Amber was at that point, even though they had interacted a couple times before.
Yeah : ( . And it’s frustrating, because I feel like they’re showing that they can really make each other happy. It’s like they have the beginnings of a really healthy dynamic, but it’s too heavily based in how they don’t know enough about each other yet- mostly Amber’s issues (especially with Sal). And they don’t challenge each other, so I’m worried that that’s likely to remain the case.
But I’m going to be glad for them every time they have a moment like this!
I was about to joke ‘if nothing else, Sal’s presence will make thanksgiving awkward’ but I’m kidding myself. Sal’s not going to the Walkerton’s thanksgiving, let’s all be real.
And hopefully Sal can find better family, and break ties with her parents such that she never has to care what they think of her ever again. Doubtful that that would happen within the comic’s timeframe, but y’know. I figure that’d be a better outcome for her.
Well, first she needs to resolve the problem where half of her knows already they’re gonna treat her like shit because, well, that’s what her parents do, and the other half still wants them to love her and so she keeps trying. Thaaaat’s gonna be rough but I think she’ll get there eventually.
Also, hopefully she’ll make up with Marcie and continue getting closer to Danny so she won’t be totally stuck on her own while she does that.
31 and dealing with that first bit myself. It is a HARD thing to throw away. I hope Sal fares better with it than I have, if only because we’ll never see six years of therapy in comic!
Plus, six years of therapy requires her to, y’know, cooperate with a therapist. So. Yeah. Definitely that’s on the ‘if ever, very very far off’ list. I think she’ll figure it out eventually and I wish you the best of luck.
So are have the Walkerton’s gone from ‘possibly having internalized racism’ to ‘abusive monsters’ in this comment sections collective consciousness since the last time they were mentioned?
It’s pretty clear that Sal’s status as formal Unfavorite is beyond ‘treats her subtly different because of internalized racism’ and instead ‘actively shitty’ – see also Walky and Billie both getting tons of cookies in their care packages and Sal getting an Amazon gift card*. Add in Walky’s clear neuroses as Favorite because his mother is convinced he’ll be a doctor or lawyer regardless of his desires or aptitude – ‘it’s cute he thinks he has a choice’ or something to that effect – and yeah, no, they fucked their kids up but good.
And all of this before we get into Linda’s handling of things with Marcie (terrible) and the fact that Sal didn’t come home for summer and holidays, Walky never got to visit her, and who the fuck just leaves their 13-year-old child in another state like that. Yes, it was an alternative to juvenile detention, but as she wasn’t actually detained, even if she couldn’t come home for the summer they could have visited. Instead it seems more like they decided Billie was the daughter they wanted all along and left Sal to rot.
The treatment of Sal definitely constitutes emotional abuse and probably neglect, and even if we see very little of Charles he is at minimum complicit in all these actions. And what little we saw of him was contributory, so I don’t have hope of him being any better than her.
Everyone’s covered the follow up since, but I forgot to finish that asterisk: Amazon gift cards are a perfectly fine gift and Sal got something great from it (the used 3DS) she wouldn’t have gotten otherwise but clearly enjoys, which is great. The problem is it’s clear Walky and Billie’s cookies were labors of love and attention, and Sal’s was an afterthought. It would have been easy to just divvy up the cookies three ways. If they’re different kinds and Walky’s and Billie’s favorites it still wouldn’t be great and excluding Sal, but it would be less blatantly ‘Linda does not give a shit about one of these children’. (Hell, if Linda cared she could have included a note saying ‘I wasn’t sure if your favorite’s changed, but you still liked these two, let me know for next time.’ There’s still a huge issue there in Linda not caring to visit or know her daughter for her entire adolescence, but it would at least demonstrate some awareness that there is a divide and an attempt at reaching out again. But Linda wouldn’t because that’s not the Linda we have. Linda Walkerton crossed past that line where she at all considers Sal’s feelings a good long time ago.)
The Walkertons are emotionally abusive and neglectful and that’s not a new thing. Also, when your internalized racism leads you to treat your daughter as worth less than your son, you don’t just have an internalized racism problem, you also have an abuse problem.
Frankly, I wonder how much is the internalised racism even present when they deal with other people than Sal. They seem to be just abusers. Or I’m forgetting stuff.
Linda called Marcie a ‘little vagabond’ who was going to end up robbing convenience stores to get her mother’s attention.
Apparently Sal’s takeaway from that was ‘knocking over convenience stores gets mommy’s attention’.
They also didn’t say shit when Sal’s principal said Marcie might be ‘illegal’ since she didn’t go to their school (not even to say ‘Woah, excuse me, there is more than one public school in this city, you are not the only place a little girl can go to school. Wanna back pedal on that?’)
Yes, they’re definitely shitty parents in a very stereotypical upper-middle-class way, conflating financial security and support with actual nurturing, but I don’t know how aware THEY are of this. I can’t seem to find any point where Sal made her grievances clear to them, and we don’t know much about their lives pre-robbery. Sal could have very well brooded away her issues without ever attempting to broach the subject with her parents, fallen into a bad crowd, and robbed a convenience store before they ever realized anything was REALLY wrong with her.
Walky, other than being over-pressured as the golden boy, and Billie both seem to have had positive interactions with the Walkertons, so it’s unlikely they are legitimately bad people on a one-to-one basis, and their treatment of Sal/her perception of them make be specific to her. Also, her and Walky are Twins, and, at least by their, once again, poor judgement, he turned out ‘just fine’, and they probably feel that they raised the two as alike as possible and thus can’t see Sal’s issues as being their fault, after all, why couldn’t she just be more like Walky?
I don’t think they’re beyond a redemption arc quite yet, we hardly ever see them as it is, and the flashbacks are of very specific and abnormal circumstance, and from Sal’s perspective. Also Marcie may very well actually be undocumented, and if that were the case, both her and her family are probably very thankful the incident was swept under the rug.
Uh, does it really matter or not if they’re aware of the ways in which they’re shitty? Would it be any better if they were conscious of the ways they treat Sal worse because she’s more obviously black than Walky, with possibly some subtle sexism to boot? And for the onus to be on Sal, who at the time of the robbery was only 13, to have to inform her parents on their parental and racial biases is incredibly unfair to her. It’s not Sal’s fault because she didn’t tell her parents they were unconsciously racist.
Because we see the favoritism in every bit of flashback, long before the robbery. Because Sal was 13 and having a rational discussion about your grievances with your parents isn’t really a viable option at or before that age. By every hint we’ve gotten they’re not just unobservant of Sal’s problems, but the actual cause of them.
I’m sure they feel all that, which is a good deal of the problem.
As I said before, they’re not actively abusive like Blaine, Ross or Clint, but they’re definitely in the second tier of bad parents.
I’m gonna straight up say it – it doesn’t matter if a shitty parent realizes they’re a shitty parent or not except in as far as it makes them stop. Impact matters more than intent does, imo. We have no indication Sal’s ever been anywhere near a bad crowd pre-robbery (the only time she indicates anything of the sort – ‘We’ve always both been terrible about picking the worst damn people, ain’t we been?’ – was in context of dating, which was probably AFTER the robbery). What we do know is Linda shouts at Sal when not yelling at Walky for the exact same thing, provides Walky opportunities she doesn’t give Sal, and makes racial comments about children Sal’s playing with. The only time we see Charles with Sal, he insults her to her face. Sal’s talked about how nothing she ever does is good enough for her parents, how she’s not listening to another lecture about how she’s a failure and that she most likely did not come home at all in five years while she was in another state, including time when her school was out, with no indication of them bothering to visit or even contact her much. No matter how well intentioned a parent thinks they are, that’s not a good look. Sal also says it’s started from when they were born and when Walky really thinks about it, he also finds examples from when they were young children.
First of all, Walky’s since had flashbacks of his own where he finds evidence Sal’s not making things up and Billie straight up says that being a mixed raced couple means squat and being mixed (like Charles) is not a get out of racism free card. She later declines to comment on whether Sal’s right, but it seems like it’s more that she doesn’t want to upset Walky than her actually not believing it – especially since Billie later tells Carla the reason she was sent cookies was because she was the suitably white passing daughter the Walkertons wanted. Billie and Walky get along with the Walkerton parents for the most part, but Billie doesn’t seem to have any illusions about them and Walky’s are rapidly disappearing.
Also, I’d argue Walky’s reactions are extreme even for a pressured golden child. He is afraid his mother will not love him anymore and treat him like he’s a worthless disappointment. Those ideas don’t come from nowhere. I’d say he absorbed more than he thought from watching how they handled Sal.
Walky’s flashback also showed instances of favouritism, and we saw Marcie after the incident. She was most certainly not happy it was swept under the rug, she just knew there was nothing that could really be done about it and Sal getting in a fight was likely to blow up the wrong way again. And that also ignores that Linda was making snotty comments about Marcie and her mother when Sal first MET Marcie. It’s possible they can change, but I’m not holding my breath and honestly, I think Sal’d be better off cutting her losses.
Also, it’s heavily implied Sal’s having a bit of a breakdown during the robbery – Ethan saw her pacing beforehand and thought she was having an anxiety attack.
Sal’s parents are ABUSIVE.
I’ll admit that this hits a very personal nerve for me. My parents were a cross between Sal’s mother and Ruth’s grandfather (not sure on names right now). I got the favouritism, the being ignored and being treated as inherently “less than” than my brother, but also being treated like less than a person in a way more similar to what we’ve seen is Ruth’s experiences than Sal’s (although I’m wondering if it was there for her too.)
Neglect is abuse. Emotional neglect is abuse. And being so blind to your child’s feelings and wellbeing that they reach the point Sal did is absolutely emotional neglect- and therefore abuse.
I’d say you’re welcome but this is not a happy topic. :/ They’re just the worst. The fact Sal tells Jason she’s going to pass the class she knows they’ll expect her to and then it still won’t be good enough for them makes me hate them so so much.
Anyway, I love them, but this strip has me wanting to see them going forward more as friends/maybe FWB. But that’s me going back and forth on shipping them, so really, if they keep interacting, I’ll be happy.
I really hope tomorrow is Amber maybe getting close to admitting things, or Sal arriving, but I will totally take this breather before inevitable further pain!
That would make sense. Of all the people she knows, only Walky is “garbage” enough for her to relate to at the level that opening up about what happened and how she feels about it would require.
This strip made me smile. I really hope that, whatever happens in terms of them being friends or dating or whatever, they keep this dynamic between them. Honestly, she needs to have people in her life that can draw this happiness out of her when, moments earlier, she was distraught. I’m not sure what kind of relationship I’d rather see them in, but I know I want them to be in each other’s lives as long as they keep making each other happy like this. (Idk, this is only barely coherent.)
The “doorstop” is a taco bell burrito from a few strips ago that Amber gave to Walky and he said they both knew after yoo long taco bell stops being food. So she said he could use it as a doorstop.
Depends on the type of apple. Honeycrisps are expensive fuckers, for example. ($1.50 based on online grocery ordering I just looked at; but a Fuji apple is only $0.50.)
At a grocery store, apples are weighed by pound instead of a per item, so yeah, you can get even some of the more expensive ones for a dollar or less. Just don’t get the giant honkin ones.
Yeah, online grocery delivery is always more expensive. Most varieties are usually a couple bucks a pound at the grocery store. We’re coming up on you-pick season at the orchards, too. They’re usually priced pretty well.
It’s sad that unhealthy garbage snacks are cheaper than fresh fruit, but I guess loading everything with high fructose corn syrup is just what happens when you subsidize corn production…
It wasn’t delivery, it was just online pricing. Anyway, I’m at a grocery store right now, because I’m over commited to this discussion, and the apple prices here are around (actually a little higher than) what I said before.
You know, they both have a long way to go in many aspects, and I did not have much confidence in this friendship/relationship at first but this was sweet. Seeing Amber be able to laugh and smile instead of need to hide after an episode like that is nice. Maybe they can do more for each other than be garbage on a roof, maybe they can help each other.
Granted, how this goes from here is the big question, what do they do outisde of garbage roof? And how will other people react?
I HAVE PLENTY OF TIME IN MY LIFE FOR ANOTHER WEBCOMIC, THANKS FOR SENDING ME TOWARDS ANOTHER WEBCOMIC, I’M SURE GLAD TO ARCHIVE BINGE ANOTHER WEBCOMIC!
(Seriously, it looks interesting, I’ll check it out 🙂 )
Ironic that a man who parted with is faith is himself the core of one- albiet one that believes in ships instead of an afterlife; and where the only key promise from it’s holy figure is that nobody gets hit by a truck
Dorothy: of course we are, why…why would you ask that?
Walky: I don’t know I just get the feeling we exist in a fanfiction that took so long to update that the canon had major changes.
Billie: Walky…that’s stupid.
Suddenly a large rumbling was heard and the cast went outside to witness a gigantic woman coming down the mountain with Danny on her shoulders.
Billie: Well he’s not dead.
Dorothy: Fuck me!
The giant woman placed Danny on the ground.
Danny: Hey guys, this is Skadi.
Dorothy: Wow Danny, you really rebounded from Amber.
Skadi: Who is this Amber?
Danny: Someone back home. Anyway, turns out we don’t know who placed us here, but whoever they are they are very powerful and very very bad news.
Joyce: Well that’s not good. Who do you think it is.
Askel: I believe I can answer that.
Joyce: How?
Askel grinned as fire started to form around him. Winds picked up as the snow pushed away and the ground started to rise.
Danny: You couldn’t be…
Askel: I am the beginning and the end, I am the center of this universe and all others.
Joyce: But your wife and daughter?
Askel: A simple memory manipulation and tossing of the real husband into the void.
Joyce: Bastard!
Joyce leaped up with her sword out and slashed downwards at the entity, but only hit empty air. Quickly she turned to see it reform.
Askel: do you really think a weapon like that would have the slightest chance of harming me?
Danny: But who are you?
Askel: I suppose you could call me The Center, or The Mad Dreamer, or God.
Joyce: You created the universe?
Askel: No but it wouldn’t exist without me, for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. So it stands that for every movement the multiverse makes, I must exist to provide balance, as the unmoved mover.
Billie: I don’t think that’s how science works.
Askel: Quiet.
Suddenly Billie was launched into a tree.
Dorothy: Billie!
Askel: I’ll be seeing you around. By the way due to my interference, your universe and this one are going to mash in about 30 days. So good luck with that.
I was super confused about the alt-text (and almost asked here for an explanation), until I vaguely remembered the Taco Bell riffing from last week’s strip.
With all the intervening drama and the gamut of emotions, I had forgotten all about Taco Bell. I thought Walky’s “doorstop” was a rock (or piece of concrete) at first! Cue the jokes about how a rock would do less damage to whatever it falls on…
I thought it was a literal doorstop that was presumably used to hold the door to garbage roof open and was like “wait, is Sal now locked out on the roof?”
This nails down for me that I think Amber and Walky are good together. He took her from mental breakdown to genuine laughter in like five seconds. Jesus.
The thing that most worries about these too isn’t that they AREN’T compatible. Is that they ARE.
Walky’s goof ball shinanigans, even if it has somewhat less healthy coping mechanisms like “garbage roof” (which, wow, Saying that out loud makes me really feel like shit for being in full hermit mode for months for similar questionable coping methods) could REALLY BE GOOD for Amber.
He’s a nerd, and so is she, and he kinda has the right things that would less amber’s stress. Not, “fix.” But he’s less up tight than Danny was and is. He could help Amber diffuse in a way, that even if Danny was a good “lois,” I don’t think he could.
I think it could even go the other way. Amber’s fucking STRESSED. But her stress is not something that reminds Walky of his “character flaw.” If Amber is an angry, abused, shy, nerd… Walky’s a happy go lucky, positive, goof ball.
I think he can better scratch an Amber has, that a “casual thing that becomes more serious” would be more GOOD for Amber as it was NOT for Dorothy.
Which is EXACTLY why, knowing Willis, this whole damn thing is MORE terrifying, not less. Even if Danny and Walky are not the same, and neither are Dorth and Amber… the relationships the four of them got into come from shared traits.
Having an Ex with a big mouth who’s easily distracted fall for an Angry vigilante nerd who has: stabbed a guy, fought her abuser, has DID has a history of hiding her problems behind her nerdy interests, AND traumatic experience with the guys TWIN SISTER … a Girl who happens to be her GOOD FRIEND who’s dated TWO of your exes, kinda, soon? After your break up?
Dorothy is going to run herself ragged over this, while struggling with other stuff, trying to figure out what to think. Walky’s goofiness may not have the maturity to help with some of Amber’s more serious problems, or it will make him face maybe some of the more intense emotions HE has buried, which he isn’t prepared for. Or Amber will enable HIS bad coping mechanisms because it helps HER be healthier. I get it, but maybe not good.
This isn’t even getting into… Does Amber notice Danny getting chummy with Sal? What would THAT do to through a wrench in this already layered cake, even if there was nothing there? ESPECIALLY If Sal, trying to protect her brother from self destructiveness, does this again? This strip shows us this is FAR from over, so? What happens if Sal steps in and Amber starts noticing Danny with Sal?
This isn’t even getting into how Joe fits into it, knowing both Danny and Dorothy. Or Ethan, knowing Danny and Amber. I could go own and on, but this one small ship storm is connected in some loose way to almost every formation/clique we have of the main, reoccuring cast. A group, or collection there of, that already have a web of stuff and drama that connects them and has built up even MORE at this point.
THAT may sound like I’m over exaggerating, but the threads that gave us this adorkable garbage ship have been twisting and turning since strip ONE. I mean, think about how BECKY is in terms of part of the cast, now? She and Joyce. Strip one.
To tell me this won’t have repercussions, or induce stress.
I JUST WANT THEM TO BE ADORABLE DORKS TOGETHER BUT I CAN’T BELIEVE WILLIS WOULD LET IT BE THAT SIMPLE. Its just not, Feasible. Not when he’s made this ENTIRE THING a pool table where these characters (the balls) keep smackin’ into each other, changing and interweaving in each other’s paths.
I don’t know if I made ANY sense there but, whatever.
TL;DR: They cute together but there is a fucking storm brewing and I am UN. EASY.
Oh ditto I’m here for the hurricane, other people’s chaos is like what makes the interpersonal drama in this comic so awesome, besides investigating social issues and epic chase scenes
I don’t entirely agree. Willis has a thing for getting characters to act a little more reasonable in order to conclude plot arcs. That’s why the title of the webcomic.
But these two… This is such a major plot point that I worry mainly about the fact that DoA is nowhere near finishing. Such stuff usually happens in the endgame. Now? At best we’ll get a surprisingly stable couple that will still go through all of the promised sitcom drama.
Walky, if you had any clue the sort of training Amber has given herself, you wouldn’t make that bet. As things stand, I have a feeling that you have lots of taco purchase in your immediate future!
Walky has a genius for finding the right absurd thing to say to snap Amber out of a reaction. That’s an awesome superpower, much more effective than trying to understand what going on in her mind because it switches the mind back to more normal processing. Explaining often just digs in deeper.
If this ship comes to pass, Amber will have dated Ethan, Danny, and Walky… all three of whom were Willis’ author avatar in his various earlier comics. Years ago, I mentioned in a couple comments that my name is coincidentally Amber O’Malley. I now think Willis is secretly hitting on me.
(This was a joke, by the way. I don’t actually think Willis is hitting on me. I know most of you got that, but I’ve lurked around this comments section long enough to know that 5-10% of you will need this disclaimer.)
I think, somehow, garbage ship has plugged the holes created by colliding with garbage island using pieces of garbage island?
… I broke my own metaphor.
Amber needs Walky the Goof right now. However, I can’t help wonder if he would be able to be Walky the Support or Walky the Carer if she ever needs that (and I think she might)?
I’m not expecting any sexy shenanigans but I am expecting the next chapter to end with a Walky-Amber-Sal group hug that earns an off-colour comment from Joe.
Amber’s room mate has asked for permission to bring over her girlfriend for some cuddling dinosaur discussions, and might thus be positive to the idea of Amber bringing over her cuddlebuddy, if nothing else to set a precedence.
It occurs to me that it is likely to be poor Joyce who has to deal with the resulting “I’m not angry or bitter or anything!” rants. She’s Dorothy’s closest friend on campus, after all.
I’m sure little miss “love is a gift from God and unanswered love must mean that God doesn’t want it enough” is well equipped to handle that conversation…
Myself, I hope Dorothy gets some time for boytalk with Billie or Roz.
So, when is the storyline involving Walky and Danny going to occur, where they both bond over being dumped by Dorothy, and then dating Amber/AmaziGirl?
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*waits for reenactment of American Psycho where the next panel shows the doorstop protruding from the back of a
deadunconscious person at the bottom of the stairs*Fine, as long as it isn’t Dorothy.
well obvs it shouldn’t be Dina or Becky or anything. I vote… hmmm…. Yeah, Mary deserves to be hit in the head with a depleted Taco projectile
It’s the same as depleted uranium, but denser, sadder, and more toxic.
Are you describing the burrito, or Mary?
… but does the poor ex-taco deserve the cruel fate of touching Mary?
It knows what it did.
What were the chances Blaine was breaking into the dorm at just that moment with Toe Dad riding on his shoulders?
And that the burrito would have the velocity needed to impale both on the way down?
Required impalement velocity unfortunately can’t be reached in this scenario. However, if the burrito were to hit Blaine in the forehead or throat, it would be enough to knock him over, smacking Toe Dad’s head into the railing with sufficient force to cause severe bleeding, and possibly make him fall back over onto Blaine and break a rib or two. And that’s a best case scenario.
As for the chances of that . . . I don’t know, what do you think I am, some kind of nerd?
The burrito lands squarely in Blaines mouth and he explodes like the death star. Toe dad is collateral.
Not so much like the Death Star [tm] but Mr Creosote.
see it can’t be the other way and land in Toedad’s mouth; because of course he doesn’t have one
I’ve never been to Taco Bell, would that burrito be more of a solid mass or a liquid at this point? I want to know what the probability is of a glorious burritosplosion.
I mean, it’s definitely gonna splat real good.
at this point i think it’s actually used in certain munitions, like depleted uranium but worse for you
Cold Taco Bell burritos harden into a sort or organic brick. You could probably build a sturdy house out of them
It’s mostly the tortilla that hardens ime, so depending on how well it was folded we might be taliing brick or we might be talking a hard shell that opens and splats on impact like a meat-based hollow-point rifle bullet.
And depending on the sauces used it could act like a non-Newtonian fluid on impact.
5 minutes have passed. It’s more a murder weapon at this point.
@Tacos These are the comments that make me want to have a Like Button
Have you ever microwaved cheese into gooey deliciousness, then waited too long so it congeals? Taco Bell somehow manages to up that effect by a factor of ten.
And yet, it’s still delicious.
I do have to wonder if Walky suspects she’s Sal’s alter-ego now.
Walky already knows Amber is Amazi-Girl.
When did he find that out?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/hunt/
To be fair, he might have forgotten. It is Walky.
holy shit Walky threw a toy at a girl and hooked up with her AGAIN
fucking pro flirt move right there
wait when did he throw a toy at amber, i’m drawing a blank and i must know
A couple of strips after the one linked above.
cheeze how’d I forget that
Yes, but he still believes her name is Agnes Marshmallow.
Dude this ship is so good
Yeah, they’re good for each other.
I’m glad this ship isn’t dead yet, and they are definitely adorable together.
Walky: Chaotic Good
Walky is a Chaotic Good Rogue with +15 to Charisma
I’d have said Bard.
Couldn’t be since Bard’s have Bardic knowledge as a class skill and as has been shown before he isn’t doing that well at the academics at the moment.
That IS bardic knowledge my friend. Its knowing just enough to bullshit the answer. He freely admits that he never had to try before. He’s like an INT 12 WIS 9 bard. Smart but never learned to study. Walky is totally a bard, probably of the Jester Ilk since the goofy stuff he does is how he charms people.
Str 13
Dex 12
Con 15 (got good abs)
Int 16
Wis 14
Cha 16
Wisdom seems a bit high, there. He has the occasional moment of insight, but they’re statistical bloops. And he’s got virtually no willpower at all. I’d put Wisdom at an 8.
Did Walky seriously just defuse Amber’s red panels? That’s incredible!
He is the chosen one!
Not to mention the similarities with the other ‘verse: https://shortpacked.com/comic/sealions
Don’t say that out loud!
Honestly I think the sea lion in that comic kinda has a point, considering it’s an analogy to internet arguments which aren’t the same as private discussions.
nobody owes you a discussion, keulen
I don’t think they do. But that sea lion comic seems to me to be equating internet arguments which are open to everyone with private discussions in someone’s car or home. Which seems pretty silly to me.
The sea lion comic is pretty dumb. I can mostly see the actual intention but for a good while my impression was its point was “people being loudly racist in public really, really hate being called on their shit”. Metaphors are like that, I guess.
The sea lion is insisting that he’s somehow “owed” an argument. That’s the point. Or are you trying to ironically sealion the sea lion discussion and I’m just missing it? Because I do that sometimes.
I don’t see the part where everyone thinks the sea lion thinks it’s “owed an argument” or whatever. In the comic it seems to me that the humans said something bigoted about sea lions in a public place and then refused to defend their bigotry when the sea lion pressed them on it. And also the comic seems to be portraying the type of arguments that happen on the internet as if they’re private arguments in person at someone’s house.
I think “owed an argument” is implied by the sea lion following them home and interrupting them in bed and at breakfast to continue to argue.
And it’s not a “private argument in person at someone’s house”. It was a private discussion that the sea lion overheard and then followed home. It’s only happening at someone’s house because the sea lion is pursuing it there.
http://wondermark.com/2014-errata/
The sea lion isn’t representing a race, its representing a type of behavior that it exemplifies throughout the rest of the strip.
if you’re gonna talk shit, you absolutely are volunteering to back it up. not with violence, we’re not (all) children here, but by showing your calculations.
“they are the kind of assholes who will walk into your living room uninvited and unwelcome” isn’t a bad supporting argument, in this case. but in many real-world cases the OP wants to conceal inadequate argument to avoid feelings of embarrassment, and by no means does he retain that right.
I actually feel perfectly fine talking shit about Nazis and not feeling like I need to give them an argument back to satisfy them. I’m not “volunteering to back it up,” because that’s not actually what they’re looking for. They just want to waste my time and exhaust me so they can go murder more people. So no. I’m gonna talk shit about certain people. And I owe them nothing.
The entire point of sealions is that they’re not asking you to engage in good faith. They ask a lot of questions that sound reasonable but they don’t actually care about the answers too and they don’t tend to leave you alone. Offer them sources or explanations and they’ll basically ignore the answer and continue asking (or, sometimes switch to new questions). Sealions are bad faith actors.
“nazis, SJWs and other racists”?
Am I missing something?
@thejeff: I don’t know, but now I definitely am.
@Yumi – a comment was deleted. Don’t worry.
Defused, turned it around, and made it give them pony rides.
Laughter is the best.
Yes.
Yes it is.
YAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA [naga]
*Korok Voice* Ya-ha-ha!
Amber fought off her red panels yesterday on her own. Today Walky helped her recover from the fight.
Whoever is responsible for making the red panels vanish —
Amber and Walky are in the only staircase from the roof. Sal prefers windows to doors, but unless she is ready to go down six floors on the outside of the building, she’s going to have to walk into the stairwell. And then?
and then… best case, amber’s defused enough to take a deep breath and respond based on thought instead of ptsd. maybe she’ll still make an ass of herself but at least it’ll be by choice.
but somehow I doubt it’ll go that well.
Nah, by the time Sal gives up on waiting for Amazigirl, Amber and Walky will have gone back to her room. Not Walky’s room because Mike.
How’s Sal going to get in? Walky took the door stop.
I can’t tell if you’re joking, but good one if you are.
Of course Sal prefers to go down from the outside.
I’m amazed how Walky is actually doing the right thing that works for Amber in this moment – by just being Walky.
It looks like Panel 1 Walky has a velociraptor claw. Velociraptors can’t actually open doors, Walky!
Dina will tell you.
Randall Munroe may not agree.
Dina will also tell you that Jurassic Park velociraptors aren’t real velociraptors. So there’s no reason they can’t open doors!
They don’t need to open doors. Windows are also a raptor entry point.
They can’t ope0 n doors, but that’s because the hands don’t actually face down like that. Maybe they could if they could get their foot up on it.
And, you know, if they didn’t all die 70 million years ago.
This strip.
I like this strip.
This is a very good strip. That is all.
I’d even say beautiful. 🙂
I agree. But I think it says something of the trust issues I have with this strip that I wrote an Eight page essay that it shall be short lived, in my best estimates.
*plays the Rolling Stones song of this title, now that it appears the speakers are back working again*
As long as Walky and Amber don’t Paint it Black.
Hopefully the door to the stairwell isn’t red.
Good Bye Ruby Tuesday
Who wants more Amber?
https://imgur.com/a/zRaQ0M0
Walky wants more Amber, as far as I can tell.
You spoil us and we appreciate you for it
“Who wants Billie banging Ruth?
Amber and Walky on the roof?
We do! We do!”
I want Billie banging Ruth on a roof. Because homophoneception
You’re a generous soul.
it’s been a while, I dont remember, does walky know she is amazi-girl?
I remember dorothy knew
Yes. She revealed it to him up on the roof while in costume
oh i forgot about that. i guess i’m a bit disappointed just because, that would’ve been so wonderful if that was what his reaction was to discovering she’s amazi-girl.
I dunno. He already took that reveal in stride, and this is really sweet for its own reasons.
Think about this from Walky’s perspective. When Sal showed up, Amber became distressed and she ran off. Now he’s found her frustrated and upset, trying to throw her mask away. I doubt he could even come up with a guess about why she’s doing that, but his first instinct was perfect. No judgement, not even any questions. He just recognizes that for whatever reason she’d needed some kind of cathartic release and wasn’t getting it, so he offers a possible alternative.
He understands what she’s feeling, even if he doesn’t understand WHY she’s feeling that way.
She was dressed as AG and revealed herself to him as Amber and he was like, “Wait, who are you?”
He knows who she is now, though.
I have no comment to make, but I just wanted to put “Agnes McMarshmallow” into the record again.
He met her on the roof as AG for a while (I think even first potentially? It was a regular AG place before it became Garbage Roof,) and she revealed who she was in that space post-stabbing but pre-breakup. Walky had no idea who Amber was at that point, even though they had interacted a couple times before.
I suspect Walky actually knew who she was and was just goofing around. It seems to be a thing he does.
Oh you kids are gonna explode and not in the good way, but this is so cute IDC. <3
Yeah : ( . And it’s frustrating, because I feel like they’re showing that they can really make each other happy. It’s like they have the beginnings of a really healthy dynamic, but it’s too heavily based in how they don’t know enough about each other yet- mostly Amber’s issues (especially with Sal). And they don’t challenge each other, so I’m worried that that’s likely to remain the case.
But I’m going to be glad for them every time they have a moment like this!
Well that, plus Walky’s issues.
I was about to joke ‘if nothing else, Sal’s presence will make thanksgiving awkward’ but I’m kidding myself. Sal’s not going to the Walkerton’s thanksgiving, let’s all be real.
Her parents will see to that, I’m sure.
Both their issues, yes.
And hopefully Sal can find better family, and break ties with her parents such that she never has to care what they think of her ever again. Doubtful that that would happen within the comic’s timeframe, but y’know. I figure that’d be a better outcome for her.
Well, first she needs to resolve the problem where half of her knows already they’re gonna treat her like shit because, well, that’s what her parents do, and the other half still wants them to love her and so she keeps trying. Thaaaat’s gonna be rough but I think she’ll get there eventually.
Also, hopefully she’ll make up with Marcie and continue getting closer to Danny so she won’t be totally stuck on her own while she does that.
31 and dealing with that first bit myself. It is a HARD thing to throw away. I hope Sal fares better with it than I have, if only because we’ll never see six years of therapy in comic!
Plus, six years of therapy requires her to, y’know, cooperate with a therapist. So. Yeah. Definitely that’s on the ‘if ever, very very far off’ list. I think she’ll figure it out eventually and I wish you the best of luck.
So are have the Walkerton’s gone from ‘possibly having internalized racism’ to ‘abusive monsters’ in this comment sections collective consciousness since the last time they were mentioned?
It’s pretty clear that Sal’s status as formal Unfavorite is beyond ‘treats her subtly different because of internalized racism’ and instead ‘actively shitty’ – see also Walky and Billie both getting tons of cookies in their care packages and Sal getting an Amazon gift card*. Add in Walky’s clear neuroses as Favorite because his mother is convinced he’ll be a doctor or lawyer regardless of his desires or aptitude – ‘it’s cute he thinks he has a choice’ or something to that effect – and yeah, no, they fucked their kids up but good.
And all of this before we get into Linda’s handling of things with Marcie (terrible) and the fact that Sal didn’t come home for summer and holidays, Walky never got to visit her, and who the fuck just leaves their 13-year-old child in another state like that. Yes, it was an alternative to juvenile detention, but as she wasn’t actually detained, even if she couldn’t come home for the summer they could have visited. Instead it seems more like they decided Billie was the daughter they wanted all along and left Sal to rot.
The treatment of Sal definitely constitutes emotional abuse and probably neglect, and even if we see very little of Charles he is at minimum complicit in all these actions. And what little we saw of him was contributory, so I don’t have hope of him being any better than her.
I mean, they’re not Blaine or Ross or Clint, but yeah, they’re not good.
Everyone’s covered the follow up since, but I forgot to finish that asterisk: Amazon gift cards are a perfectly fine gift and Sal got something great from it (the used 3DS) she wouldn’t have gotten otherwise but clearly enjoys, which is great. The problem is it’s clear Walky and Billie’s cookies were labors of love and attention, and Sal’s was an afterthought. It would have been easy to just divvy up the cookies three ways. If they’re different kinds and Walky’s and Billie’s favorites it still wouldn’t be great and excluding Sal, but it would be less blatantly ‘Linda does not give a shit about one of these children’. (Hell, if Linda cared she could have included a note saying ‘I wasn’t sure if your favorite’s changed, but you still liked these two, let me know for next time.’ There’s still a huge issue there in Linda not caring to visit or know her daughter for her entire adolescence, but it would at least demonstrate some awareness that there is a divide and an attempt at reaching out again. But Linda wouldn’t because that’s not the Linda we have. Linda Walkerton crossed past that line where she at all considers Sal’s feelings a good long time ago.)
The Walkertons are emotionally abusive and neglectful and that’s not a new thing. Also, when your internalized racism leads you to treat your daughter as worth less than your son, you don’t just have an internalized racism problem, you also have an abuse problem.
Frankly, I wonder how much is the internalised racism even present when they deal with other people than Sal. They seem to be just abusers. Or I’m forgetting stuff.
Linda called Marcie a ‘little vagabond’ who was going to end up robbing convenience stores to get her mother’s attention.
Apparently Sal’s takeaway from that was ‘knocking over convenience stores gets mommy’s attention’.
They also didn’t say shit when Sal’s principal said Marcie might be ‘illegal’ since she didn’t go to their school (not even to say ‘Woah, excuse me, there is more than one public school in this city, you are not the only place a little girl can go to school. Wanna back pedal on that?’)
Yes, they’re definitely shitty parents in a very stereotypical upper-middle-class way, conflating financial security and support with actual nurturing, but I don’t know how aware THEY are of this. I can’t seem to find any point where Sal made her grievances clear to them, and we don’t know much about their lives pre-robbery. Sal could have very well brooded away her issues without ever attempting to broach the subject with her parents, fallen into a bad crowd, and robbed a convenience store before they ever realized anything was REALLY wrong with her.
Walky, other than being over-pressured as the golden boy, and Billie both seem to have had positive interactions with the Walkertons, so it’s unlikely they are legitimately bad people on a one-to-one basis, and their treatment of Sal/her perception of them make be specific to her. Also, her and Walky are Twins, and, at least by their, once again, poor judgement, he turned out ‘just fine’, and they probably feel that they raised the two as alike as possible and thus can’t see Sal’s issues as being their fault, after all, why couldn’t she just be more like Walky?
I don’t think they’re beyond a redemption arc quite yet, we hardly ever see them as it is, and the flashbacks are of very specific and abnormal circumstance, and from Sal’s perspective. Also Marcie may very well actually be undocumented, and if that were the case, both her and her family are probably very thankful the incident was swept under the rug.
Uh, does it really matter or not if they’re aware of the ways in which they’re shitty? Would it be any better if they were conscious of the ways they treat Sal worse because she’s more obviously black than Walky, with possibly some subtle sexism to boot? And for the onus to be on Sal, who at the time of the robbery was only 13, to have to inform her parents on their parental and racial biases is incredibly unfair to her. It’s not Sal’s fault because she didn’t tell her parents they were unconsciously racist.
Because we see the favoritism in every bit of flashback, long before the robbery. Because Sal was 13 and having a rational discussion about your grievances with your parents isn’t really a viable option at or before that age. By every hint we’ve gotten they’re not just unobservant of Sal’s problems, but the actual cause of them.
I’m sure they feel all that, which is a good deal of the problem.
As I said before, they’re not actively abusive like Blaine, Ross or Clint, but they’re definitely in the second tier of bad parents.
I’m gonna straight up say it – it doesn’t matter if a shitty parent realizes they’re a shitty parent or not except in as far as it makes them stop. Impact matters more than intent does, imo. We have no indication Sal’s ever been anywhere near a bad crowd pre-robbery (the only time she indicates anything of the sort – ‘We’ve always both been terrible about picking the worst damn people, ain’t we been?’ – was in context of dating, which was probably AFTER the robbery). What we do know is Linda shouts at Sal when not yelling at Walky for the exact same thing, provides Walky opportunities she doesn’t give Sal, and makes racial comments about children Sal’s playing with. The only time we see Charles with Sal, he insults her to her face. Sal’s talked about how nothing she ever does is good enough for her parents, how she’s not listening to another lecture about how she’s a failure and that she most likely did not come home at all in five years while she was in another state, including time when her school was out, with no indication of them bothering to visit or even contact her much. No matter how well intentioned a parent thinks they are, that’s not a good look. Sal also says it’s started from when they were born and when Walky really thinks about it, he also finds examples from when they were young children.
First of all, Walky’s since had flashbacks of his own where he finds evidence Sal’s not making things up and Billie straight up says that being a mixed raced couple means squat and being mixed (like Charles) is not a get out of racism free card. She later declines to comment on whether Sal’s right, but it seems like it’s more that she doesn’t want to upset Walky than her actually not believing it – especially since Billie later tells Carla the reason she was sent cookies was because she was the suitably white passing daughter the Walkertons wanted. Billie and Walky get along with the Walkerton parents for the most part, but Billie doesn’t seem to have any illusions about them and Walky’s are rapidly disappearing.
Also, I’d argue Walky’s reactions are extreme even for a pressured golden child. He is afraid his mother will not love him anymore and treat him like he’s a worthless disappointment. Those ideas don’t come from nowhere. I’d say he absorbed more than he thought from watching how they handled Sal.
Walky’s flashback also showed instances of favouritism, and we saw Marcie after the incident. She was most certainly not happy it was swept under the rug, she just knew there was nothing that could really be done about it and Sal getting in a fight was likely to blow up the wrong way again. And that also ignores that Linda was making snotty comments about Marcie and her mother when Sal first MET Marcie. It’s possible they can change, but I’m not holding my breath and honestly, I think Sal’d be better off cutting her losses.
Also, it’s heavily implied Sal’s having a bit of a breakdown during the robbery – Ethan saw her pacing beforehand and thought she was having an anxiety attack.
Sal’s parents are ABUSIVE.
I’ll admit that this hits a very personal nerve for me. My parents were a cross between Sal’s mother and Ruth’s grandfather (not sure on names right now). I got the favouritism, the being ignored and being treated as inherently “less than” than my brother, but also being treated like less than a person in a way more similar to what we’ve seen is Ruth’s experiences than Sal’s (although I’m wondering if it was there for her too.)
Neglect is abuse. Emotional neglect is abuse. And being so blind to your child’s feelings and wellbeing that they reach the point Sal did is absolutely emotional neglect- and therefore abuse.
Also, lecturing your daughter that she’s a failure and insulting her to her face is pretty squarely in emotional abuse territory.
I’m just gonna point out an observation I had a while ago – we’ve never seen Linda speak to Sal without yelling at her.
“Also, lecturing your daughter that she’s a failure and insulting her to her face is pretty squarely in emotional abuse territory.”
Thank you for reminding me of that. Every so often JerkBrain tries the “it wasn’t so bad” thing, and I forget little details like that.
I’d say you’re welcome but this is not a happy topic. :/ They’re just the worst. The fact Sal tells Jason she’s going to pass the class she knows they’ll expect her to and then it still won’t be good enough for them makes me hate them so so much.
Anyway, I love them, but this strip has me wanting to see them going forward more as friends/maybe FWB. But that’s me going back and forth on shipping them, so really, if they keep interacting, I’ll be happy.
This.
I couldn’t quite find the words – or I couldn’t prior to you posting – so I will just drop in a “this” and nod a lot.
yeah.
FWB is good for them. No serious relationship. Just making each other laugh and garbage roof sex.
Ah, so another “just-for-fun”, nothing serious relationship for Walky.
Somehow I doubt he’ll be pleased.
Same. All I want for these two is a stable friendship.
Aww, at least this helps the immediate problem!
I really hope tomorrow is Amber maybe getting close to admitting things, or Sal arriving, but I will totally take this breather before inevitable further pain!
That would make sense. Of all the people she knows, only Walky is “garbage” enough for her to relate to at the level that opening up about what happened and how she feels about it would require.
This strip made me smile. I really hope that, whatever happens in terms of them being friends or dating or whatever, they keep this dynamic between them. Honestly, she needs to have people in her life that can draw this happiness out of her when, moments earlier, she was distraught. I’m not sure what kind of relationship I’d rather see them in, but I know I want them to be in each other’s lives as long as they keep making each other happy like this. (Idk, this is only barely coherent.)
So if your words are barely coherent, how come they make perfect sense to me?
Also, I think I agree with you. 🙂
Well, I just bought my ticket for this ship. This is everything about my taste in relationships. Did I mention I’m single?
I’m not sure Walky can afford 50 burritos…
I don’t get it. Why’s that a burrito?
The “doorstop” is a taco bell burrito from a few strips ago that Amber gave to Walky and he said they both knew after yoo long taco bell stops being food. So she said he could use it as a doorstop.
the correct term is “food-like-substance better used as a doorstopper,”obvs
Why’s…the burrito…a burrito? Because it’s a burrito.
That’s what they’re holding and referring to as a doorstop.
And now I’m hearing this as a part of an alternate Marx Brothers routine.
“Why a burrito? Why-a no taco?”
“I don’t know why a no taco. I’m a stranger here myself.”
That’s 50 bucks on “rich parents’ favorite child” allowance.
…Wow, when you put it that way, it’s amazing how much I find this cute and STILL BE MAD.
They’re only a $1? I didn’t know how much Taco Bell burritos cost. Figured it be more.
Taco Bell has a decent dollar menu. Most of the burritos they sell are more, but you can get, say, a Beefy Fruits Burrito for $1.
that’s disturbing. I probably can’t get an *apple* for only $1 any more.
Depends on the type of apple. Honeycrisps are expensive fuckers, for example. ($1.50 based on online grocery ordering I just looked at; but a Fuji apple is only $0.50.)
Yes, doorstops are still cheap whether in rolled meat-product form or shiny red fruit-esque form.
At a grocery store, apples are weighed by pound instead of a per item, so yeah, you can get even some of the more expensive ones for a dollar or less. Just don’t get the giant honkin ones.
Yeah, online grocery delivery is always more expensive. Most varieties are usually a couple bucks a pound at the grocery store. We’re coming up on you-pick season at the orchards, too. They’re usually priced pretty well.
It’s sad that unhealthy garbage snacks are cheaper than fresh fruit, but I guess loading everything with high fructose corn syrup is just what happens when you subsidize corn production…
Nothing matters in garbage snacks.
The first rule of garbage snacks is you don’t mention garbage snacks.
(Etc.)
It also helps if it has a shelf life of 2 years rather than 2 months. And transports easy without bruising.
It wasn’t delivery, it was just online pricing. Anyway, I’m at a grocery store right now, because I’m over commited to this discussion, and the apple prices here are around (actually a little higher than) what I said before.
Beefy Fruits? I’m guessing that got auto-corrected from Fritos?
No, it’s a new menu item.
(Okay, it was autocorrect.)
and here I thought beefy fruits was your nickname for beans.
Beans, beans, the musical fruit…
“We raised our voices in the night,
crying to heaven!
And will our voices be heard,
or will they break like the wind?”
These are Taco Bell. That’s couch cushion money.
The heck kinda couch has at least 50 bucks between the cushions? I would love a couch like that.
You know, they both have a long way to go in many aspects, and I did not have much confidence in this friendship/relationship at first but this was sweet. Seeing Amber be able to laugh and smile instead of need to hide after an episode like that is nice. Maybe they can do more for each other than be garbage on a roof, maybe they can help each other.
Granted, how this goes from here is the big question, what do they do outisde of garbage roof? And how will other people react?
Where to go from here, I honestly don’t know but I guess they’ll just have to go with the flow.
Flawed people making unlikely connections that make them both better – the comic.
I love it.
Do you read Between Failures? IMO that’s one of its main themes.
I HAVE PLENTY OF TIME IN MY LIFE FOR ANOTHER WEBCOMIC, THANKS FOR SENDING ME TOWARDS ANOTHER WEBCOMIC, I’M SURE GLAD TO ARCHIVE BINGE ANOTHER WEBCOMIC!
(Seriously, it looks interesting, I’ll check it out 🙂 )
Unsolicited advice: Do it
Don’t complain, I have over 200 in my favourites list, with nearly 50 in the current priority rotation.
That’s always a mean time.
Walky, you magnificent wacky goofball. I so ship this now
Oh, Walky. So you have definitely been taking some lessons from Billie. Like the “Buy people’s friendship” ones.
Eh, could be worse.
I really don’t think that’s what’s happening.
It’s like a joking bet.
Well, obviously. It’s not like Walky could buy 50 Taco Bell items and let them last long enough to become doorstops. Witness the 50 McNuggets.
I love this ship! Thank you Willis!
Walky’s got a knack for talking someone down from a stress blowup, gotta say.
One of his big assets with both Dorothy and Amber.
willis, you have answered my prayers like an atheist god: via pure coincidence, but never the less the pleasingly
Careful – the Willis is a fickle and wrathful god. The Willis giveth and the Willis taketh away.
Ironic that a man who parted with is faith is himself the core of one- albiet one that believes in ships instead of an afterlife; and where the only key promise from it’s holy figure is that nobody gets hit by a truck
Better than an afterlife. Eternal life. No one will ever die. 🙂
Well, yes. At 60:1 time ratio, even to grow old would take a few thousand years of our time. So we’ll never see it.
… huh.
Walky’s chill is helpful here.
Maybe not for him later, but definitely for Amber.
The levity and Solace is strong in that one.
The Ship is Alive! ATTENTION PEOPLE! THE SHIP IS STILL ALIVE!! YEESSS!!!
And also stronger than ever now the biggest obstacle is sorta out of the way.
I’m all in for this (friend)ship.
Dungeons and Dumbing part 22 (I hope)
Billie: I wonder how Danny’s doing?
Walky: He’s probably dead.
Dorothy: WALKY! Danny is not dead!
Joyce: I mean, he could be.
Dorothy: Joyce!
Joyce: Sorry, sorry.
Walky: Hey Dorothy are we still dating?
Dorothy: of course we are, why…why would you ask that?
Walky: I don’t know I just get the feeling we exist in a fanfiction that took so long to update that the canon had major changes.
Billie: Walky…that’s stupid.
Suddenly a large rumbling was heard and the cast went outside to witness a gigantic woman coming down the mountain with Danny on her shoulders.
Billie: Well he’s not dead.
Dorothy: Fuck me!
The giant woman placed Danny on the ground.
Danny: Hey guys, this is Skadi.
Dorothy: Wow Danny, you really rebounded from Amber.
Skadi: Who is this Amber?
Danny: Someone back home. Anyway, turns out we don’t know who placed us here, but whoever they are they are very powerful and very very bad news.
Joyce: Well that’s not good. Who do you think it is.
Askel: I believe I can answer that.
Joyce: How?
Askel grinned as fire started to form around him. Winds picked up as the snow pushed away and the ground started to rise.
Danny: You couldn’t be…
Askel: I am the beginning and the end, I am the center of this universe and all others.
Joyce: But your wife and daughter?
Askel: A simple memory manipulation and tossing of the real husband into the void.
Joyce: Bastard!
Joyce leaped up with her sword out and slashed downwards at the entity, but only hit empty air. Quickly she turned to see it reform.
Askel: do you really think a weapon like that would have the slightest chance of harming me?
Danny: But who are you?
Askel: I suppose you could call me The Center, or The Mad Dreamer, or God.
Joyce: You created the universe?
Askel: No but it wouldn’t exist without me, for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. So it stands that for every movement the multiverse makes, I must exist to provide balance, as the unmoved mover.
Billie: I don’t think that’s how science works.
Askel: Quiet.
Suddenly Billie was launched into a tree.
Dorothy: Billie!
Askel: I’ll be seeing you around. By the way due to my interference, your universe and this one are going to mash in about 30 days. So good luck with that.
Joyce: You aren’t getting away!
Askel: Bye bye!
Suddenly he vanished into the mist.
Hey guys I’m back.
Yay!
Thos tacobell “tacos” should be used as ammunition to throw at fascists, creationists and EA games producers.
“This taco enfeebles fascists.”
“Why would a loving and all-powerfull God allow Taco Bell to exist in the universe?” kind of thing?
I wasn’t thinking so deeply. I just want to throw food at jerks.
Anti-vaxxers… Russian government trolls… ICE apologists…
I was super confused about the alt-text (and almost asked here for an explanation), until I vaguely remembered the Taco Bell riffing from last week’s strip.
With all the intervening drama and the gamut of emotions, I had forgotten all about Taco Bell. I thought Walky’s “doorstop” was a rock (or piece of concrete) at first! Cue the jokes about how a rock would do less damage to whatever it falls on…
I thought it was a literal doorstop that was presumably used to hold the door to garbage roof open and was like “wait, is Sal now locked out on the roof?”
That was my first thought too and I rushed to the comments for an explanation. Luckily there was a more astute and remembered reader than I.
Nah fuck it I’m onboard now
A mood
God,I am STILL at a point where every fucking thing Amber does makes me nervous.
Thank you willis
I was on this ship before it was cool damnit.
Glad you got your Happy Claire back.
^.^ With this ship why wouldn’t she be happy?
…but Willis is probably going to do something soon to make her snap back to angry.
Memo to Amber, Walky: Get You Some, Aw Yiss
This nails down for me that I think Amber and Walky are good together. He took her from mental breakdown to genuine laughter in like five seconds. Jesus.
The thing that most worries about these too isn’t that they AREN’T compatible. Is that they ARE.
Walky’s goof ball shinanigans, even if it has somewhat less healthy coping mechanisms like “garbage roof” (which, wow, Saying that out loud makes me really feel like shit for being in full hermit mode for months for similar questionable coping methods) could REALLY BE GOOD for Amber.
He’s a nerd, and so is she, and he kinda has the right things that would less amber’s stress. Not, “fix.” But he’s less up tight than Danny was and is. He could help Amber diffuse in a way, that even if Danny was a good “lois,” I don’t think he could.
I think it could even go the other way. Amber’s fucking STRESSED. But her stress is not something that reminds Walky of his “character flaw.” If Amber is an angry, abused, shy, nerd… Walky’s a happy go lucky, positive, goof ball.
I think he can better scratch an Amber has, that a “casual thing that becomes more serious” would be more GOOD for Amber as it was NOT for Dorothy.
Which is EXACTLY why, knowing Willis, this whole damn thing is MORE terrifying, not less. Even if Danny and Walky are not the same, and neither are Dorth and Amber… the relationships the four of them got into come from shared traits.
Having an Ex with a big mouth who’s easily distracted fall for an Angry vigilante nerd who has: stabbed a guy, fought her abuser, has DID has a history of hiding her problems behind her nerdy interests, AND traumatic experience with the guys TWIN SISTER … a Girl who happens to be her GOOD FRIEND who’s dated TWO of your exes, kinda, soon? After your break up?
Dorothy is going to run herself ragged over this, while struggling with other stuff, trying to figure out what to think. Walky’s goofiness may not have the maturity to help with some of Amber’s more serious problems, or it will make him face maybe some of the more intense emotions HE has buried, which he isn’t prepared for. Or Amber will enable HIS bad coping mechanisms because it helps HER be healthier. I get it, but maybe not good.
This isn’t even getting into… Does Amber notice Danny getting chummy with Sal? What would THAT do to through a wrench in this already layered cake, even if there was nothing there? ESPECIALLY If Sal, trying to protect her brother from self destructiveness, does this again? This strip shows us this is FAR from over, so? What happens if Sal steps in and Amber starts noticing Danny with Sal?
This isn’t even getting into how Joe fits into it, knowing both Danny and Dorothy. Or Ethan, knowing Danny and Amber. I could go own and on, but this one small ship storm is connected in some loose way to almost every formation/clique we have of the main, reoccuring cast. A group, or collection there of, that already have a web of stuff and drama that connects them and has built up even MORE at this point.
THAT may sound like I’m over exaggerating, but the threads that gave us this adorkable garbage ship have been twisting and turning since strip ONE. I mean, think about how BECKY is in terms of part of the cast, now? She and Joyce. Strip one.
To tell me this won’t have repercussions, or induce stress.
I JUST WANT THEM TO BE ADORABLE DORKS TOGETHER BUT I CAN’T BELIEVE WILLIS WOULD LET IT BE THAT SIMPLE. Its just not, Feasible. Not when he’s made this ENTIRE THING a pool table where these characters (the balls) keep smackin’ into each other, changing and interweaving in each other’s paths.
I don’t know if I made ANY sense there but, whatever.
TL;DR: They cute together but there is a fucking storm brewing and I am UN. EASY.
an itch* Amber has
Having read the long version I’d say you’re on point, but the main thing I’m taking from this is that I should make some popcorn.
Oh ditto I’m here for the hurricane, other people’s chaos is like what makes the interpersonal drama in this comic so awesome, besides investigating social issues and epic chase scenes
I mean I’m stressed but I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t also right
I don’t entirely agree. Willis has a thing for getting characters to act a little more reasonable in order to conclude plot arcs. That’s why the title of the webcomic.
But these two… This is such a major plot point that I worry mainly about the fact that DoA is nowhere near finishing. Such stuff usually happens in the endgame. Now? At best we’ll get a surprisingly stable couple that will still go through all of the promised sitcom drama.
Walky, if you had any clue the sort of training Amber has given herself, you wouldn’t make that bet. As things stand, I have a feeling that you have lots of taco purchase in your immediate future!
Or, as it’s also called, a date.
The best kind of date.
You can’t afford that Walky
but its fine. She’ll take it out of your hide.
gotta divert that energy
Walky has a genius for finding the right absurd thing to say to snap Amber out of a reaction. That’s an awesome superpower, much more effective than trying to understand what going on in her mind because it switches the mind back to more normal processing. Explaining often just digs in deeper.
If this ship comes to pass, Amber will have dated Ethan, Danny, and Walky… all three of whom were Willis’ author avatar in his various earlier comics. Years ago, I mentioned in a couple comments that my name is coincidentally Amber O’Malley. I now think Willis is secretly hitting on me.
(This was a joke, by the way. I don’t actually think Willis is hitting on me. I know most of you got that, but I’ve lurked around this comments section long enough to know that 5-10% of you will need this disclaimer.)
Willis isn’t hitting on you
What is this, Twitter?
the power of boning, pulling us out of our little weird psychosis’s
And they’ve only had a smooch or two, so far, so you know the sex is gonna work wonders.
That was my first thought too and I rushed to the comments for an explanation. Luckily there was a more astute and remembered reader than I.
For some reason that posted twice… once attached to the comment once not. I don’t know. Ignore this one. Or don’t.
… I think this is about the healthiest we had any right to expect this update to be.
I think, somehow, garbage ship has plugged the holes created by colliding with garbage island using pieces of garbage island?
… I broke my own metaphor.
Amber needs Walky the Goof right now. However, I can’t help wonder if he would be able to be Walky the Support or Walky the Carer if she ever needs that (and I think she might)?
Well i mean, supporting each other is kinda against the rules of garbage roof
He’s shown himself able to do that before. Walky can step up when he has to, he’s just more comfortable as the goofball.
He’s still got no idea what he’s getting into here though.
yes he can, but he shouldnt.
He held back because he knew Dorothy was temporary
( and she proved that right )
Amber is lilkely even more temporary. But he doesnt know that.
So he’s likely to expose himself more than he did with Dorothy
Who’s getting invited to whose bed for the night, that’s what I wanna know. These kids need time and privacy for extensive smooching.
Whoa Whoa slow it down guys things are already moving at mach 5. Let’s savor the romance just a little more before we go to straight fucking.
Like they could just go back to where they left off before Sal interrupted though hopefully.
Who said anything about fucking? Smooches and cuddles, sure, maybe a fondle here and there, that’s what I’m on about.
Sorry, jumped to conclusions after the first sentence.
I’m not expecting any sexy shenanigans but I am expecting the next chapter to end with a Walky-Amber-Sal group hug that earns an off-colour comment from Joe.
Joe isn’t invited to the makeout party. Neither is Sal, because that’s weird.
I didn’t say anything about ‘make out’. IMO, neither Amber nor Walky are emotionally in the right place for something like that.
Well, let’s see.
Amber’s room mate has asked for permission to bring over her girlfriend for some
cuddlingdinosaur discussions, and might thus be positive to the idea of Amber bringing over her cuddlebuddy, if nothing else to set a precedence.Walky’s room mate is Mike.
Although… come to think of it, Amber shares a halfbath with Dorothy.
My, I’m SURE this won’t get awkward down the line or anything.
It occurs to me that it is likely to be poor Joyce who has to deal with the resulting “I’m not angry or bitter or anything!” rants. She’s Dorothy’s closest friend on campus, after all.
I’m sure little miss “love is a gift from God and unanswered love must mean that God doesn’t want it enough” is well equipped to handle that conversation…
Myself, I hope Dorothy gets some time for boytalk with Billie or Roz.
Billie is probably not the right person for that conversation either considering who the guy in question is.
also let’s be real, their choices are “room next to dorothy” Or “room with Mike”… so, the one next to Dorothy.
They simply have to stay on the roof.
Sal is on the roof waiting for Amazigirl.
I ship this so hard.
I kinda feel like they need each others as close friends.
That was my feeling with Amber and Danny.
This time though… I think they would be good for each other as romantic partners.
OH no they look so cute together oh no oh no oh nooo
D’awwwww. That is all.
So who’s gonna clean up the mess you two make chucking a burrito down a stairwell?
Yeah, that thing might break the floor tiles.
It’s a college. It is not the worst thing to be chucked down a stairwell.
At least this time no body fluids are involved.
Ethan’s RA – because in my headcanon he gets all the thankless jobs at this university.
And they are going to end up hitting someone with that thing.
This may be the sweetest, most caring strip yet!
Am I the only one seeing this as similar to kicking Walky’s shoes down the hall?
Wow… no, you are completely right. This is a perfect parallel to that.
….I concede. This ship wins. *steps off sinking DottyxWalky* This shit is adorable *hops in new ship*
Why leave one when you can join us in multi shipping hell? 😀
Heathens
Yeah, I’m in!
…meant as an answer to Jay
What. Healthy reactions all around. I don’t even, is DoA gonna end?
Pffft, no, this is gonna go down in flames sooner or later.
I’m figuring later as we wait for the other shoe to drop.
And by “later” you mean “one week of comic time”, right? At most two weeks.
So, when is the storyline involving Walky and Danny going to occur, where they both bond over being dumped by Dorothy, and then dating Amber/AmaziGirl?
Dunno. When in the story line are Dorothy and Amber going to bond over dumping Danny and Walky and then dating Askel?