Sarah’s next step is to go and ask Walky, but only after handing him a card that is printed with the definition of “boyfriend” in several languages, some handy illustrations, and instructions to blink three times if he needs her to call the cops.
Sarah wouldn’t call the cops. She’d call Amber/AG and Sal instead, and then fetch her bat.
… er, wait, this is WALKY, not Joyce.
She’d text Sal about her bro, then shrug her shoulders, decide she’d done enough, and go back to her dorm to look for pictures of John Boyega on the internet and bickering with Joyce about whether her not doing this in the library meant she secretly wanted to be pestered by Joyce, which she obviously didn’t, baka.
I wanted to draw some Joyce/Joe stuff but I waited too long.
BUT if anyone’s got a sexy prompt for that ship I may whip up a little something something.
I’m reminded of a flashback from the text adventure game Counterfeit Monkey (I highly recommend) in which the raised-by-fundementalists-but-not-fundementalist-anymore protagonist recalls a time she was tied to her boyfriend’s bed and had him paint various words for “promiscuous woman” on her.
Oh and also, entanglement need not be quantum to be spooky or freaky. I also predict that many will be very reluctant to view this action at a distance!
Alternatively, after some research Joyce stumbles upon the “mushroom-shape tip to extract rivals’ semen” example of evolution of men’s body and requests a demo. For science.
“Joe, this is the fifth time you’ve tried to get away with not working on our bio homework together by being undressed when I come by, and you’re not getting away with it any more. I’m coming in and youooououoooorgleuh?”
Now that I think about it, that is mind of a stereotype, isn’t it? My favorite kind is from a company called Peets, but for all I know French Roast is an American thing. Kind of like “French” Fries, right? Also like I even want to guess what you put on your burgers…
Also, non-dairy creamer is pretty much the only thing I’ll have my coffee with, but what about you?
well, maybe calling french roast “French Roast” is an american thing, but regardless i’d never paid attention to how roasted exactly i like my coffee, though i suspect i prefer it a little greener and with a bit of a tang (french roast is about as roasted as it gets, apparently).
i drink my coffee one of 3 ways:
-french press (wink!), black
-italian coffemaker, black
-turkish, very sweet
i never add any cream or milk though, what i do add sometimes is a pinch of ground ginger, or a stick of cinnamon, or a few cardamom seeds (the last two only in turkish coffee).
while i don’t eat burgers very often (i practically never eat out, and homemade burgers is work) i normally use ketchup or barbecue sauce. not very exotic sorry =)
@milu Hmmmm….. my brothers always drank deeply roasted, very strong coffee, so I guess it’s just the kind I grew up with. Also, I’d never heard of ginger in coffee; I normally only put that stuff in my Yakisoba (the real kind, 100% buckwheat), but I might actually try it in my apparently super strong coffee and see what happens.
Also, that burger sounds delicious! I actually wasn’t expecting something too exotic. I mean come on, would I really expect every French person to be a stereotypical French chef? I was just wondering because apparently France is known to put alot of mustard on their burgers (according to 39 Clues, too much mustard for most Americans), and I was just checking on that possible misconception as well.
To contribute a little, last summer I started experimenting on the bbq and found that I really like to put mexican/taco seasoning on burgers. It also makes a pretty solid quick dip mixed with mayo for cut fresh veggies.
vegetarian too and I use mustard + ketchup.
In fact you can have almost any sauce on a burger here, since burger is proposed in roundly 3/4 of restaurants, not including fast food joint I guess since they’re not here considered as restaurants (except McDonalds who paid a bunch to get called such – but you won’t find anyone here seriously calling it a restaurant)
For roast, most of the stuff you find in France is induistrial flash roast (880°C for 90 seconds). Tastes have changed in biggest cities, especially since we have Starbucks, but usually the flavor is oriented toward light french roast, darker in the south, lighter near germany (where some factories roast around 200°C). Anyway, whatever the quality of the roast, most bars ends up burning it while cooking, it’s the romantic french experience: wait half an hour the waiter to insult you, another one to get a burnt coffee then get insulted some more by the nearby customer who despise you for talking too loud.
ahaha très instructif merci j’ai bien fait de revenir checker^^
…what do you mean bars burn the coffee, they normally use expresso machines. are they using them wrong? i’ve never really thought about it, but the coffee does taste completely different (…much better) in italy.
Oh, I’m more a beer kind of guy nowadays, but form my discussions with bartenders that weren’t on beer, I got that on professional machines you can adjust the extraction temperature, depending on the roast, je darker the roast, desto lower the temperature should be.
Also other factors: shite water (Paris, I’m looking at you, but mainly: Suez I’m looking at you and you should run), has the machine been washed after a long time without being used, usw….
I think Lucy and Sarah get along. Like, yeah, she’s more bubbly than Sarah, but Lucy is an academic and Sarah respects that. Note she also tends to be a bit less prickly with Dorothy.
The question came up with regard to the morality of flirting with someone who was dating someone else. My position was that in the absence of going steady or a similar agreement, that it was perfectly okay on both sides. As I now remember it, it was intimated that people went steady back in the 30’s and that I was old.
To be fair, I never went steady before I was engaged, which first happened in the 1970’s and reoccurred several times depending on how you count it. The first time, I was drafted and she was raped and other stuff happened. The second time, it didn’t survive the first major disagreement. The third time I actually wound up married, and the fourth time a miracle happened and I finally got it right.
So for all I know, kids don’t go steady nowdays, but when I went to high school it was a thing.
Basically. It’s also not always a formal agreement, but an implicit expectation – which can lead to confusion, but rarely does, except when someone is being deliberately misleading.
The rules are less formal and the customs less strict, but the feelings are still the same.
Aww, Lucy and Sarah are a fun dynamic I didn’t know I could use some of tonight.
I know Walky was presumably joking, even if darkly, but he did bring up a good point on saying Linda’s going to be pissed he’s dating a black girl. I don’t know if it’s going to be quite like *that*, but, it’s going to be interesting watching Walky and Lucy navigate that minefield eventually. Linda Walkerton is a lot.
At least it gave Lucy a fair warning of what she could expect if/when she met the parents. Like, “hey I’m cool with dating you but fair warning my mom is crazy.”
I’ve never had that happen to me before, usually I fail to catch on that a woman’s interested and it never even gets to a relationship. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I did end up in a relationship without realizing it in the future, because I am very oblivious about such things.
Not quite a relationship at that point but I set up a date for a guy I was interested in- on Feb 14th, to try to send a strong message. Spent the entire day with him getting incredibly mixed messages, until finally I was like “I WANT TO KISS YOU IS THAT OKAY” because he was genuinely veering between making me think he was very into it and making me think he was very not.
It turns out he had NO IDEA that me setting up a date, on Valentines Day, acting all date-like, flirting etc actually meant anything.
Anyway we’ve been together for over ten years now, married for six of them, so it worked out!
Oh hey Brain. We had a question a couple days back. Were you intentionally _not_ taking over the world on purpose? Every day you were going to “try to take over the world” instead of actually just doing it. My guess was because you wanted to preserve the excitement of the attempt. Do you have an oppinion to share about it? Given your inevitable success, are you accepting citizenship applications ?
First time I noticed that Lucy and Sarah have such a fun dynamic. Something like Big Sister/Little Sister. I like it! Sarah will ask Walky if he knows he has a girlfriend now.
I think it’s that Sarah has an inherent “big-sisterness” to her, and Lucy has the same “little-sisterness”as Joyce does. Someone should inform Joyce that she now has two sisters.
It would be rude to out Jocelyne before she’s ready so we can’t tell Joyce she has three sisters yet.
One Sister, ah ah ah!
Two. Two Sisters, ah ah ah!
Three. Joyce has three sisters, ah ah ah!
…
Oh, I mean two. Two sisters, ah ah ah. (side thumbs up and wink to Jocelyn.)
Honestly, I don’t think she’s being too hasty. Walky does seem to be a pretty monogamous dude, anyway, and he already has observed that they more or less were already spending a lot of time together even before it was dating proper.
I think they are indeed official, especially since if you compare it to Walky and Amber’s fling, he never really went on a date with her properly, I think they mostly hung out on garbage roof.
I can think of several other webcomics, to be honest, I thought webcomics are generally made by more marginalized people, so they get a lot of lgbtq+ and poc rep…
Stereotypes in popular fiction? Probably not really any more true of boys than of anyone else.
Walky here is established as particularly obtuse in this matter. I don’t think any of the boys match the stereotype. Maybe Jacob not realizing what was going on with Joyce, but I think that had different roots.
This letter is to inform and remind you that, as of today, you now have a girlfriend. Who is me. Lucy. So, to be clear, if anyone asks you who the lovely young lady on your arm is, you tell them ‘this is my girlfriend, Lucy’, instead of ‘this is my friend, Lucy’. And if anyone asks you if you have a girlfriend, you say ‘yes, her name is Lucy’, instead of ‘no’. And if an amorous ex-girlfriend latches onto you at a party, you say, ‘sorry, I have a girlfriend’, instead of, ‘sweet, let’s make out!’.
Just to clear up any confusion!
Your girlfriend,
Lucy”
Walky (finished reading letter): Wow, thanks, Lucy! This is really helpful!
Sure this is satirical, but frankly this level of communication (provided it isn’t intended to be hurtful/insulting) is actually a really good idea. We generally make too many assumptions of what we think the people around us think.
10 years from now Lucy will sit Walky down and explain the kids he’s been babysitting all this time are in fact his own children and that this is their wedding anniversary.
Loading ...
“WE GOT IT NOTARIZED”
…
“YOU CAN BUY THE NFT”
NO SHUT UP.
People on the internets go crazy for non-fungible thingies
NFT = None Fungible Thingie?
non-fungible tokens, but I have to admit, I prefer your version.
ok but does he know though
Do you mean academically, or biblically?
por que no los dos
Yes to the former, Lucy is working on the latter.
Given that she’s feeling Biblical in her Christianity, she seems hesitant to work on the latter.
Memory suggests that as a Christian woman she feels compelled to follow the guidance of the Sermon on the Mount and wait till the third date.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/04-hompk/chill/
Yup, she’s hesitating by three dates. And she’s hesitating about hesitating only three dates.
Sarah’s next step is to go and ask Walky, but only after handing him a card that is printed with the definition of “boyfriend” in several languages, some handy illustrations, and instructions to blink three times if he needs her to call the cops.
Sarah wouldn’t call the cops. She’d call Amber/AG and Sal instead, and then fetch her bat.
… er, wait, this is WALKY, not Joyce.
She’d text Sal about her bro, then shrug her shoulders, decide she’d done enough, and go back to her dorm to look for pictures of John Boyega on the internet and bickering with Joyce about whether her not doing this in the library meant she secretly wanted to be pestered by Joyce, which she obviously didn’t, baka.
I wonder if she bought an Other John…
I wanted to draw some Joyce/Joe stuff but I waited too long.
BUT if anyone’s got a sexy prompt for that ship I may whip up a little something something.
“every time you soothe my intellectual doubt due to propaganda being fed to me since birth, i take an item of clothing off”
I dunno. How about you try for a less mainstream subgenre? Could get interesting…
…can you elaborate?
I was thinking along the lines of… oh, I don’t know. Tickling or something? If you need something relatively easy to draw, maybe vacuum suits?
It’s just good to experiment, you know?
I’m reminded of a flashback from the text adventure game Counterfeit Monkey (I highly recommend) in which the raised-by-fundementalists-but-not-fundementalist-anymore protagonist recalls a time she was tied to her boyfriend’s bed and had him paint various words for “promiscuous woman” on her.
Oh, I know!
How about the most diabical Hasbro game ever created?
MOVE OVER OUIJA BOARD!
Those with weak constitutions may want to grow a spine leave the auditorium!!!
As for the rest of you, prepare for the magnificent, unspeakable evil that is…
TWISTER!!!!
Speaking of quantum entanglement, I reacted, maybe over-reacted, to your mention of Bells Theorem in yesterday’s comment section.
That’s alright. At least your understanding of it is better than that of Sandra and Woo.
Besides, constructive criticism, besides informing, is one of the most important duties of a scientist! Thank you!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/05-as-long-as-its-free/speciallymade/#comment-1553333
and about 15 comments down.
Oh and also, entanglement need not be quantum to be spooky or freaky. I also predict that many will be very reluctant to view this action at a distance!
Of course. We want to view this action up close, in the splash zone.
It takes an unexpectedly wholesome turn because Joe uses a bunch of synonyms for “meaningful” instead. Just to tie it in with yesterday’s strip.
Alternatively, after some research Joyce stumbles upon the “mushroom-shape tip to extract rivals’ semen” example of evolution of men’s body and requests a demo. For science.
I realize that from the cradle up I have been like the rest of the species — never quite sane in the night.
What is that a quite from?
@Clif Night Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens
With variation presumably by Monsieur Wagstaff
I mean… I’m sure we’ll be back to Joyce and Joe soon. You could just work on that some…
“Joe, this is the fifth time you’ve tried to get away with not working on our bio homework together by being undressed when I come by, and you’re not getting away with it any more. I’m coming in and youooououoooorgleuh?”
Joyce puts on monkey ears and tail, goes searching for Joe’s banana
OOk? OOK OOK?!
We still can’t confirm he knows 100%. Maybe in a few years if it lasts that long we can be sure.
we can check at the wedding
APPROPRIATE GRAVATAR IS APPROPRIATE
All three above me are
Last one is not. Nothing is above Carla!
Third Question; Does Walky KNOW?!!
We know that he’s at least aware he got Taco Bell with a female. Beyond that, it’s hard to say
They held hands and everything!
Do any of us really know anything, or do we simply grasp at rough facsimiles of information without truly comprehending the underlying truth?
Yes.
Plato’s Man-Cave
*coffee all over this comment box*
Oooo! Was it French Roast? That’s my favorite!
i had to look that up ^^ so… maybe? idk? lol. i’ll pay more attention next time i buy coffee and inform you.
Now that I think about it, that is mind of a stereotype, isn’t it? My favorite kind is from a company called Peets, but for all I know French Roast is an American thing. Kind of like “French” Fries, right? Also like I even want to guess what you put on your burgers…
Also, non-dairy creamer is pretty much the only thing I’ll have my coffee with, but what about you?
well, maybe calling french roast “French Roast” is an american thing, but regardless i’d never paid attention to how roasted exactly i like my coffee, though i suspect i prefer it a little greener and with a bit of a tang (french roast is about as roasted as it gets, apparently).
i drink my coffee one of 3 ways:
-french press (wink!), black
-italian coffemaker, black
-turkish, very sweet
i never add any cream or milk though, what i do add sometimes is a pinch of ground ginger, or a stick of cinnamon, or a few cardamom seeds (the last two only in turkish coffee).
while i don’t eat burgers very often (i practically never eat out, and homemade burgers is work) i normally use ketchup or barbecue sauce. not very exotic sorry =)
If you use hickory flavored barbecue sauce, there is hope for you yet.
@milu Hmmmm….. my brothers always drank deeply roasted, very strong coffee, so I guess it’s just the kind I grew up with. Also, I’d never heard of ginger in coffee; I normally only put that stuff in my Yakisoba (the real kind, 100% buckwheat), but I might actually try it in my apparently super strong coffee and see what happens.
Also, that burger sounds delicious! I actually wasn’t expecting something too exotic. I mean come on, would I really expect every French person to be a stereotypical French chef? I was just wondering because apparently France is known to put alot of mustard on their burgers (according to 39 Clues, too much mustard for most Americans), and I was just checking on that possible misconception as well.
To contribute a little, last summer I started experimenting on the bbq and found that I really like to put mexican/taco seasoning on burgers. It also makes a pretty solid quick dip mixed with mayo for cut fresh veggies.
@Clif @Demoted i have no idea what all your weird american condiments are ^^
@Wagstaff haha, no mustard. then again mustard is strongly associated with meat around here and i don’t eat meat, so.
i got into seasoning my coffee with cinammon and cardamom when living in Greece, and picked up the ginger thing from a Sudanese friend =)
vegetarian too and I use mustard + ketchup.
In fact you can have almost any sauce on a burger here, since burger is proposed in roundly 3/4 of restaurants, not including fast food joint I guess since they’re not here considered as restaurants (except McDonalds who paid a bunch to get called such – but you won’t find anyone here seriously calling it a restaurant)
For roast, most of the stuff you find in France is induistrial flash roast (880°C for 90 seconds). Tastes have changed in biggest cities, especially since we have Starbucks, but usually the flavor is oriented toward light french roast, darker in the south, lighter near germany (where some factories roast around 200°C). Anyway, whatever the quality of the roast, most bars ends up burning it while cooking, it’s the romantic french experience: wait half an hour the waiter to insult you, another one to get a burnt coffee then get insulted some more by the nearby customer who despise you for talking too loud.
ahaha très instructif merci j’ai bien fait de revenir checker^^
…what do you mean bars burn the coffee, they normally use expresso machines. are they using them wrong? i’ve never really thought about it, but the coffee does taste completely different (…much better) in italy.
Oh, I’m more a beer kind of guy nowadays, but form my discussions with bartenders that weren’t on beer, I got that on professional machines you can adjust the extraction temperature, depending on the roast, je darker the roast, desto lower the temperature should be.
Also other factors: shite water (Paris, I’m looking at you, but mainly: Suez I’m looking at you and you should run), has the machine been washed after a long time without being used, usw….
ha ha ha it’s funny because Walky is clueless ha ha ha
surprised sarah didnt just say “eh” when lucy started speaking
Nah, Lucy gave Sarah a chance for some trenchant observations and deflationary skepticism, and that usually gets Sarah out of her shell.
I think Lucy and Sarah get along. Like, yeah, she’s more bubbly than Sarah, but Lucy is an academic and Sarah respects that. Note she also tends to be a bit less prickly with Dorothy.
“It’s complicated”
But does Walky know that Lucy knows that he knows what he knows?
There are some things that Walky doesn’t know that he knows, but few that he knows he doesn’t know.
To be fair sometimes it is hard to figure out when the line has been crossed from hanging out to dating.
And the other line from casual dating to “going steady”, I suppose.
I believe I was told in this very forum, not that long ago, that going steady was not a thing people did any more.
I’m calling horsefeathers on that, if you’ve got got 2+ people with an exclusive partner that’s “going steady.”
The question came up with regard to the morality of flirting with someone who was dating someone else. My position was that in the absence of going steady or a similar agreement, that it was perfectly okay on both sides. As I now remember it, it was intimated that people went steady back in the 30’s and that I was old.
To be fair, I never went steady before I was engaged, which first happened in the 1970’s and reoccurred several times depending on how you count it. The first time, I was drafted and she was raped and other stuff happened. The second time, it didn’t survive the first major disagreement. The third time I actually wound up married, and the fourth time a miracle happened and I finally got it right.
So for all I know, kids don’t go steady nowdays, but when I went to high school it was a thing.
The term “going steady” isn’t used anymore. That’s all.
Basically. It’s also not always a formal agreement, but an implicit expectation – which can lead to confusion, but rarely does, except when someone is being deliberately misleading.
The rules are less formal and the customs less strict, but the feelings are still the same.
oh hey, i’m enjoying the sprinkles of your life story =)
I can’t view source in this browser so no comment link. But yeah. Clif you said “…going steady…” and got two replies shooting down the term:
—-
October 5, 2019 at 2:14 pm
Has “steady” made a comeback? I associate with 50’s slang, not modern
October 5, 2019 at 2:48 pm
Going steady isn’t really something I’ve heard
—-
You maybe older sir, but your memory is fine!
and it’s not like walky is an expert with social nuance
Yeah, or situations where it is stated to not be a relationship, but then you realize, “Ah, crap, feelings are thoroughly caught.”
Personally, I don’t make a distinction. The categories are completely arbitrary.
I’ll wait for the press release.
To Know Know Kno~ow Him
Is to love love lo~ove him…
I’m glad we got the time skip because I don’t think I could have taken 10 years of real time of Lucy fawning over Walky and not making a move.
Willis will do a Halloween flashback, but it will be entirely about Lucy fawning over Walky and not making a move.
Meanwhile, QC Steve will eat cereal for a month and not know why.
I’m still annoyed that we missed Halloween and other stuff, but that is one good thing about the time skip.
Okay, Walky knows you have a boyfriend, does he know that it’s him?
And does he know you are his girlfriend?
Aww, Lucy and Sarah are a fun dynamic I didn’t know I could use some of tonight.
I know Walky was presumably joking, even if darkly, but he did bring up a good point on saying Linda’s going to be pissed he’s dating a black girl. I don’t know if it’s going to be quite like *that*, but, it’s going to be interesting watching Walky and Lucy navigate that minefield eventually. Linda Walkerton is a lot.
At least it gave Lucy a fair warning of what she could expect if/when she met the parents. Like, “hey I’m cool with dating you but fair warning my mom is crazy.”
OK. Alright.
Walky “knows”.
But is he “in the know”?
Walky has been notified.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Walky”
MUGS AT CAMERA
[Dorothy whips her door open and yells at her]
“I SAID NO MUGGING FOR AN IMAGINARY AUDIENCE!”
Glad to see Lucy survived the homphking (sp).
And also the homphqueen.
Actually, we don’t know for sure that she survived the homphqueen. For all we know. the homphqueen may have left nothing but an empty Lucy simulacrum.
When did it get the extra ‘h’?
You know what? Been there. Being updated on the situation of being in a relationship. I am not a very observant person.
I’ve never had that happen to me before, usually I fail to catch on that a woman’s interested and it never even gets to a relationship. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I did end up in a relationship without realizing it in the future, because I am very oblivious about such things.
Not quite a relationship at that point but I set up a date for a guy I was interested in- on Feb 14th, to try to send a strong message. Spent the entire day with him getting incredibly mixed messages, until finally I was like “I WANT TO KISS YOU IS THAT OKAY” because he was genuinely veering between making me think he was very into it and making me think he was very not.
It turns out he had NO IDEA that me setting up a date, on Valentines Day, acting all date-like, flirting etc actually meant anything.
Anyway we’ve been together for over ten years now, married for six of them, so it worked out!
Oh hey Brain. We had a question a couple days back. Were you intentionally _not_ taking over the world on purpose? Every day you were going to “try to take over the world” instead of actually just doing it. My guess was because you wanted to preserve the excitement of the attempt. Do you have an oppinion to share about it? Given your inevitable success, are you accepting citizenship applications ?
I love the way that Lucy doesn’t argue, she just rolls with it.
she’s like, “i don’t like these questions, but also, fair”
First time I noticed that Lucy and Sarah have such a fun dynamic. Something like Big Sister/Little Sister. I like it! Sarah will ask Walky if he knows he has a girlfriend now.
I think it’s that Sarah has an inherent “big-sisterness” to her, and Lucy has the same “little-sisterness”as Joyce does. Someone should inform Joyce that she now has two sisters.
It would be rude to out Jocelyne before she’s ready so we can’t tell Joyce she has three sisters yet.
Joyce and Lucy: Yay Double the Sister count!
Sarah: Oh no, Double the Headache…
Sarah will never admit it. But she’s really happy about this♡.
One Sister, ah ah ah!
Two. Two Sisters, ah ah ah!
Three. Joyce has three sisters, ah ah ah!
…
Oh, I mean two. Two sisters, ah ah ah. (side thumbs up and wink to Jocelyn.)
The one-sided relationship/date (aka, the animé stalker-crush). That staple of modern entertainment for younger people.
ok boomer
Lucy you have had one date, kind of early to call him a boyfriend honestly.
He’s a boy. He’s a friend. His bod’s sculpted of caramel. Nuf said.
Honestly, I don’t think she’s being too hasty. Walky does seem to be a pretty monogamous dude, anyway, and he already has observed that they more or less were already spending a lot of time together even before it was dating proper.
I think they are indeed official, especially since if you compare it to Walky and Amber’s fling, he never really went on a date with her properly, I think they mostly hung out on garbage roof.
Till Holloween.
DoA Book 11: Does Walky Know?
DoA Book 11: It Is Walky!
confusing XD
Valid question
Sad truth: This is one of the rare ocassions in all of web fiction where two black women are discussing something.
Did they also pass the Bechtel test?
They’re talking about Lucy’s relationship with Walky, so no.
The rule[1]: At least (1) two women (2) who talk to each other (3) about something besides a man.
[1] Bechdel-Wallace Test
I can think of several other webcomics, to be honest, I thought webcomics are generally made by more marginalized people, so they get a lot of lgbtq+ and poc rep…
If you think this is rare in webcomics, I think you need to expand your horizons beyond the ones written by us white folks.
Shhh, you’re spoiling my proclamation we need more representation!
🙂
But yes, you are correct, there are many awesome diverse comics that need more attention.
Dude.
Come on! Try my soapbox! You can see a foot further!
Those were valid questions
Why boys are so slow in dating matters?…
Enforced social norms that stunt your ability to be emotional with the people around you are a helluva drug.
Also fear of rejection and embarrassing yourself.
Stereotypes in popular fiction? Probably not really any more true of boys than of anyone else.
Walky here is established as particularly obtuse in this matter. I don’t think any of the boys match the stereotype. Maybe Jacob not realizing what was going on with Joyce, but I think that had different roots.
“Dear Walky,
This letter is to inform and remind you that, as of today, you now have a girlfriend. Who is me. Lucy. So, to be clear, if anyone asks you who the lovely young lady on your arm is, you tell them ‘this is my girlfriend, Lucy’, instead of ‘this is my friend, Lucy’. And if anyone asks you if you have a girlfriend, you say ‘yes, her name is Lucy’, instead of ‘no’. And if an amorous ex-girlfriend latches onto you at a party, you say, ‘sorry, I have a girlfriend’, instead of, ‘sweet, let’s make out!’.
Just to clear up any confusion!
Your girlfriend,
Lucy”
Walky (finished reading letter): Wow, thanks, Lucy! This is really helpful!
Lucy: No problem!
Sure this is satirical, but frankly this level of communication (provided it isn’t intended to be hurtful/insulting) is actually a really good idea. We generally make too many assumptions of what we think the people around us think.
XD
10 years from now Lucy will sit Walky down and explain the kids he’s been babysitting all this time are in fact his own children and that this is their wedding anniversary.
Lucy, you have some ‘splainin’ to do!