I know. Its sad that first love rarely ever lasts and I have a feeling that when they fall apart they are going to somehow crash and burn hard. Of course, the comic could always end first.
And … I just realized some of you are probably conflicted between Dina and Becky breaking up or Willis having a heart attack. You monsters.
I dunno about that. I’m similar to Dina in some ways (except it’s butterflies and fish instead of dinosaurs for me), and I like very much to let logic win over negative emotions. And in everyday life, that’s fairly easy. Hell, most of the time the hard part is noticing what emotions I’m having. But then, when negative emotions slap me in the face with the force a breakup has, when I know I’m not being rational *but there’s no way to stop it because the feelings are too strong to handle*, when I lose grip of my logical self and spiral into a space I have no experience in – that just makes it so much worse. To the point I almost want to never let myself get that close to anyone ever again.
Sometimes Willis will post on Twitter about a storyline and let people ask how many strips a character will appear in during that storyline, some of which they answer. So in this case, I guess the total number of Dina straps for this storyline is however many she’s already been in + 21.
Yeah just checked, she appears in 46 strips in this chapter, apparently.
There’s 28 strips left and Dina’s been in 26 of them, sooo that’s a lotta Dina. I guess Liz might end up coming back for a while, or she gets dropped off with a hook to come back. Even if all the remaining strips were about Sarah and Liz, they’d only have eight of them.
Meanwhile Walky and Lucy have three more appearances, Carla’s got two.
Yes????? Holy shit, I know we joke about The Straights not being okay or whatever, but like. Them not being okay is not actually normal or fine or whatever.
Agemegos gave one, but I would raise you ‘abso-bally-lutely’.
Bally, as a mild expletive equivalent to ‘bloody’, may only exist in a fictional accent from a single book series…. Or it might be a relatively common northern English dialect loan-word.
I haven’t a clue, but in either case it still falls into the category of English words.
Always hated when people put the fuck-word in a weird part of the other word. Un-fuckin’-believable flows better and doesn’t separate the base awkwardly. Incre-fuckin’-dible, you’d never say it that way.
Ah yes, the rules of expletive infixation. I actually learned about it in a class in college and then used it a few times as a teaching tool. It’s really cool (to my particular nerd brain, anyway).
I think so far Joyce hasn’t said “fuck.” Becky in many ways is a negative image of Joyce: Kept god and is actively cherrypicking what tenants she does and does not follow because she’s always known they were bullshit (she literally said she didn’t want to jump into bed with Dina yet because she felt she was changing too quickly, don’t fucking @ me on this), but is usually more self-conscious about her behavior. Joyce threw out everything, but a lot of her ways of thinking are the same, just pointing in different directions now, because she’s had less than six months at this point to process that her entire upbringing has been a lie.
Becky dropped her first “fuck” shortly after she moved to Bloomington (I’m pooping, it was when the two and Dorothy and Walky got sushi), and it wasn’t until Ross showed up after that that Joyce would even say “damn,” for a point of reference.
Sal and Danny can break up and Ethan/Danny is endgame if that’s where it’s planned to go, or if Willis is giving Sal/Danny a shot and then later thinks “nah, I’m not feeling it.” I very obviously do not want this because they are now my second Flag Ship and it took one entire chapter for me to concoct a million reasons for juicy drama (if it’s not clear by now, I only really like this series when it hurts me), but in an indefinite story like DoA the characters always have a chance at breaking up. Becky/Dina isn’t going to collapse like at any point, but it could, which makes me want to see them struggle and overcome to keep it going.
Or if Danny and Ethan just never actually happens and Ethan’s still gonna hook up with someone, then that necessitates a non-Danny character to hook him up with.
(like Arnold, or Sayid, or Asher in a triad with Amber ask me why)
I mean, we got the gist of it from the flashback. They were fooling around, the door was unlocked, they got caught. Kaitlin blamed Becky, Ross wanted to pull Becky out of school and ‘fix’ her, she ran to IU.
I actually wouldn’t mind seeing more on Kaitlin at some point. Not in any major way, just as a possible side story for Becky. Kaitlin was kind of a victim of that whole situation by the sounds of things. Gay on some level of the scale, and terrified of the consequences in a highly religious culture, she opted to rat Becky out to save herself. What she did was shitty but she she was in a shitty situation.
I do wonder about that too. :/ As an ace, Dina will never be able to reciprocate Becky’s feelings on a physical level, and we know that this is a “Big Thing” for Becky. She’s shown hints so far that she desperately wants to know that her partner finds her sexually attractive and wants her as much as she wants them. That’s something she’ll never be able to get from Dina, as much as Dina is patient and understanding and is willing to engage in sexual activity purely to make Becky happy. That last bit, particularly, might slowly eat away at Becky over time. Knowing that your partner is doing something purely to make you happy, not because they too enjoy it, can slowly drive a wedge between you and your partner.
Dina, who is not sexually interested in Joe, would relentlessly experiment every single thing that makes him tick until the act of sex is completely drained of pleasure or he’s unable to do it with anyone else ever again because no one would be able to treat him the same way.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that sex to Dina isn’t necessarily for her in a “bang this hot person and have a messy orgasm” way, but she’s fine with exploring ideas and experimenting out of curiosity. Sex isn’t about the physical act of release, to her it’s a puzzle to be solved with thorough experimentation to see how to draw out the best outcome. She won’t have sex with Becky for the reason of “Becky is so absurdly sexy and I need to get up in that” the way Becky wants her, but she’d find joy and fulfillment in exploring what makes Becky tick, even beyond just that she wants to make Becky happy.
Moreover:
– Dina is grey-ace and does get Pants Feelings in some circumstances, mostly in relation to doing Science with Becky.
– In a scenario where the intended result was finding out what would make Dina horny for Becky, Dina just figured out that she enjoyed having Becky all to herself, completely under her control, where she gets to poke and prod at Becky however she wants to see what excites her most.
TLDR: Like most good stories, the thing Becky wants (a partner who fits this one, flawed definition of horny) isn’t what she needs, which is her rad dino girlfriend who will shatter Becky into a million pieces whenever she feels like it.
Yes, this, thank you. Asexuality isn’t just a one size fits all thing. Dina is capable of some attraction, that’s why they did this whole experiment in the first place. She’s interested in sex with Becky, she’s the one who said she wanted it in the first place at her birthday party, it’s just that she doesn’t NEED it to happen. When they have sex it won’t be purely to make Becky happy, it will be because both of them want to and think they’ll enjoy it. Just for different reasons.
When my grey ace partner and i have sex it’s not because he wants to make me happy, it’s because it’s something he wants to do and enjoys. I am also aspec and again, sex is something i do for the enjoyment of it. It’s physically fun and a good way to feel close with your partner if you’re both interested in it.
Becky could still have an issue with Dina not being super sexually attracted to her, but Dina also isn’t at the level of lack of attraction + interest being painted here. And it also gets a little tiring having to remind people “hey you can be ace and wanna ride a billion dicks it’s different for everyone”
Kinda reminds me of when I was fascinated by a girl. She looked really nice and all that, but what fascinated me was her color coordination. It all came together so well that I couldnt stop just admiring the color scheme.
I still haven’t figured out how to compliment that without sounding pretentious or weird 😛
“ Hey just wanted to let you know that you have a GREAT eye for color~ Wows me whenever I see your color combos~ Anyways my name is-insert name- I’ll see you around” ???
Just tell her you like the colours. “Hey, that’s a nice dress! Love the colours!” It’s always a good compliment when you compliment a choice that somebody made for themselves, instead of a thing they have no control over, like eye colour.
She’s in a couple bonus strips, hiding in the closet (in the interest of self-preservation) at Anderson.
Maybe since then she ran away to go live with her first crush / childhood best friend at Ball State! Sarah notices the parallels while they’re there. “Ah shit, here we go again…”
So it clicked that this chapter was called Trial and Sarah not because it was focusing on a lawyer story, but instead Trial and Error. I think the chapter might’ve been named better as Trial and Dina, though that doesn’t flow off the tongue as well 😛
I err. Also wish there had been a blanket NSFW warning for this chapter. There were a lot of topics/strips that uh. I’m glad I didn’t open in public. I tend to read this while working so this chapter was pretty awkward.
I’m just wondering how going back to Ball State’s gonna wrap up if we’ve only got less than four weeks of strips left. Unless once we’re done here we cut back to Sarah and Liz and there’s a whole lotta plot and drama bombs set off in quick succession.
It could be that Sarah is the error here! That would be fun, if everything goes reasonably well for everyone except poor Sarah. And Liz escapes Ball State.
im very curious to see where dina and becky’s relationship goes. i can see it ending nicely for them but i can also see them realizing they want different things out of life but still remaining good friends.
It’s not necessarily solved in that, hypothetically, they could do this a few more times and eventually it’d lead Becky to think it’s never gonna happen. Remember, the endgoal isn’t having sex, it’s finding out what’s gonna turn Dina into a raging lust inferno that can’t stop obsessing over Becky’s giblets.
Which, that’d be pretty good dramatic irony. Becky, who is terrified of pre-marital hanky panky while wanting it to genuinely unhealthy levels, has a partner who will explore her boundaries as gently and informatively as possible, for the explicit purpose of gradually easing Becky into acts that Becky insists she wants but is too scared to act on, who came out of this experiment learning that she is intrigued by the idea of having Becky obey her every command when that’s probably Becky’s biggest kink, but Dina isn’t hopping up and down drooling about how much she wants to bang Dina, so actually it’s just never gonna work and she’s doomed to be alone and unfulfilled.
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Becky likes Dina’s top 😳
(Becky also likes that Dina’s a top)
Everyone likes Becky’s top and Dina’s bottom.
I prefer Dina’s top and Dina’s bottom. 😉
Can you blame her? I can’t think of many people that could overcome the power of that top.
it’s very powerful.
If Ethan wore Dina’s hat once… can we get Ethan in a similar top?
I love that you can nest your reply under King Daniel’s and it still fits perfectly.
Who doesn’t like Dina’s top?
She likes the whole Dina, but also the top.
AWE 😍
They’re so happy together!!! 🥲 😭
But stay tuned! Something tells me this scientific expedition is far from over….
*plays “The Sea” by Tomas Dvorak on Hacked Muzak*
I know. Its sad that first love rarely ever lasts and I have a feeling that when they fall apart they are going to somehow crash and burn hard. Of course, the comic could always end first.
And … I just realized some of you are probably conflicted between Dina and Becky breaking up or Willis having a heart attack. You monsters.
Becky maybe. I don’t see Dina having a seriously (or even slightly) maladaptive overreaction to a breakup.
I dunno about that. I’m similar to Dina in some ways (except it’s butterflies and fish instead of dinosaurs for me), and I like very much to let logic win over negative emotions. And in everyday life, that’s fairly easy. Hell, most of the time the hard part is noticing what emotions I’m having. But then, when negative emotions slap me in the face with the force a breakup has, when I know I’m not being rational *but there’s no way to stop it because the feelings are too strong to handle*, when I lose grip of my logical self and spiral into a space I have no experience in – that just makes it so much worse. To the point I almost want to never let myself get that close to anyone ever again.
I haven’t even been that close to anyone in my entire life, and I know EXACTLY how you feel 😢
Given that there’s 21 Dina strips left and one of them includes the upset Dina preview panel due this April, I’m actually kinda worried now.
I feel i’ve missed important information – what do you mean by 21 Dina strips left?! :s
Yeah, people keep counting down and idk why?
Sometimes Willis will post on Twitter about a storyline and let people ask how many strips a character will appear in during that storyline, some of which they answer. So in this case, I guess the total number of Dina straps for this storyline is however many she’s already been in + 21.
Yeah just checked, she appears in 46 strips in this chapter, apparently.
There’s 28 strips left and Dina’s been in 26 of them, sooo that’s a lotta Dina. I guess Liz might end up coming back for a while, or she gets dropped off with a hook to come back. Even if all the remaining strips were about Sarah and Liz, they’d only have eight of them.
Meanwhile Walky and Lucy have three more appearances, Carla’s got two.
Speaking of monsters….
Who’s in the mood for a sneak preview?
https://imgur.com/a/fFbUtuv
what if their breakup causes the next timeskip?
Aww… I guess.
I don’t have anything particularly insightful or amusing to say today. So instead, have one of my favorite(and nsfw) pictures.
https://i.imgur.com/Q906697.webp
Dina’s shirt is a cure all.
A pancea. Though for Becky its closer to a ‘Pants, See Ya.’
That pun warrants a thumbs up.
‘Thank ya, Thank you very much’ – Elvis Presely
Mmm, that’s some delicious morally-unambiguous homosexuality. Just pure unfiltered gayness, right from the spring.
I mean, I’m not sure homosexuality itself can really have any moral position associated with it, good or bad.
You can have homosexual relationships that are morally wrong, but it’s always for reasons separate from the homosexuality.
That was inherent to my point. I’m saying there’s no dilemma or “who’s worse” to be bothered with, here. Only gay thoughts.
Then you need to date more men.
Know any True Neutral heterosexual relationships? totally tepid?
Could you kindly not try to stir shit under a pleasant comment?
Yes????? Holy shit, I know we joke about The Straights not being okay or whatever, but like. Them not being okay is not actually normal or fine or whatever.
They know that.
It’s just Adam Black doing what he do. I knew there was a reason i flinched when i saw he was back
this is actually incorrect, as homosexuality does have a moral position associated with it (it’s good)
I’m going to have to borrow “anyfuckingthing”.
Maybe it’s the apostrophe there that really sets it off.
“-Fucking-” is English’s only known interfix! like a prefix or suffix, but it goes in the middle of a word!
Like “abso-fucking-lutely” or “un-fucking-believable”
Tmesis? Diacope? Tumba-bloody-rumba shootin’ kanga-bloody-roos?
Agemegos gave one, but I would raise you ‘abso-bally-lutely’.
Bally, as a mild expletive equivalent to ‘bloody’, may only exist in a fictional accent from a single book series…. Or it might be a relatively common northern English dialect loan-word.
I haven’t a clue, but in either case it still falls into the category of English words.
Fan-damn-tastic.
Haven’t run across that one before, but fan-fucking-tastic has been around for a while.
I have only see that as Unbe-fucking-lievable. But then only limited experience with college students.
Always hated when people put the fuck-word in a weird part of the other word. Un-fuckin’-believable flows better and doesn’t separate the base awkwardly. Incre-fuckin’-dible, you’d never say it that way.
Ah yes, the rules of expletive infixation. I actually learned about it in a class in college and then used it a few times as a teaching tool. It’s really cool (to my particular nerd brain, anyway).
I think it’s relevant that Becky uses that insert here. Has she said it before? Seems she’s several steps ahead of Joyce in these matters.
I think so far Joyce hasn’t said “fuck.” Becky in many ways is a negative image of Joyce: Kept god and is actively cherrypicking what tenants she does and does not follow because she’s always known they were bullshit (she literally said she didn’t want to jump into bed with Dina yet because she felt she was changing too quickly, don’t fucking @ me on this), but is usually more self-conscious about her behavior. Joyce threw out everything, but a lot of her ways of thinking are the same, just pointing in different directions now, because she’s had less than six months at this point to process that her entire upbringing has been a lie.
Becky dropped her first “fuck” shortly after she moved to Bloomington (I’m pooping, it was when the two and Dorothy and Walky got sushi), and it wasn’t until Ross showed up after that that Joyce would even say “damn,” for a point of reference.
Only had to jump through it cause… The door wasn’t locked.
Head empty, only Dina
I’m a straight dude but I’m starting to relate to Becky quite a lot.
I wanted to be Becky in this picture….
with Old Ethan & Danny getting to be happy together for a brief window.
After Trump. After the pandemic we couldnt just have that?
Because this is a comic that wants to have drama?
Well, look at it this way.
Sal and Danny can break up and Ethan/Danny is endgame if that’s where it’s planned to go, or if Willis is giving Sal/Danny a shot and then later thinks “nah, I’m not feeling it.” I very obviously do not want this because they are now my second Flag Ship and it took one entire chapter for me to concoct a million reasons for juicy drama (if it’s not clear by now, I only really like this series when it hurts me), but in an indefinite story like DoA the characters always have a chance at breaking up. Becky/Dina isn’t going to collapse like at any point, but it could, which makes me want to see them struggle and overcome to keep it going.
Or if Danny and Ethan just never actually happens and Ethan’s still gonna hook up with someone, then that necessitates a non-Danny character to hook him up with.
(like Arnold, or Sayid, or Asher in a triad with Amber ask me why)
Head empty, just Dinatop thoughts.
Becky has the right idea, and I’d been wondering about the circumstances of the makeouts that got her kicked out of her previous college.
I really like that both of them are figuring out aspects of themselves. Their journey of self-discovery isn’t over yet by a longshot, I’m guessing.
I mean, we got the gist of it from the flashback. They were fooling around, the door was unlocked, they got caught. Kaitlin blamed Becky, Ross wanted to pull Becky out of school and ‘fix’ her, she ran to IU.
Yeah, but how did the fooling around come about? That’s the intriguing part.
Well, they WERE roommates.
Oh my god, they were roommates
Congratulations, you made me laugh really hard
I actually wouldn’t mind seeing more on Kaitlin at some point. Not in any major way, just as a possible side story for Becky. Kaitlin was kind of a victim of that whole situation by the sounds of things. Gay on some level of the scale, and terrified of the consequences in a highly religious culture, she opted to rat Becky out to save herself. What she did was shitty but she she was in a shitty situation.
Yeah. There’s stuff we don’t know, mainly about Kaitlin, but it’s pretty unlikely she’ll come up again
Read in my best Zoidberg accent: “Not with a betrayal like that she won’t. At least — not on our planet.”
I still wonder if Becky’s really ok with this in the long run or if she just finds it a safe way to be as she works through things.
I do wonder about that too. :/ As an ace, Dina will never be able to reciprocate Becky’s feelings on a physical level, and we know that this is a “Big Thing” for Becky. She’s shown hints so far that she desperately wants to know that her partner finds her sexually attractive and wants her as much as she wants them. That’s something she’ll never be able to get from Dina, as much as Dina is patient and understanding and is willing to engage in sexual activity purely to make Becky happy. That last bit, particularly, might slowly eat away at Becky over time. Knowing that your partner is doing something purely to make you happy, not because they too enjoy it, can slowly drive a wedge between you and your partner.
Well, think of what she said wrt Joe.
Dina, who is not sexually interested in Joe, would relentlessly experiment every single thing that makes him tick until the act of sex is completely drained of pleasure or he’s unable to do it with anyone else ever again because no one would be able to treat him the same way.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that sex to Dina isn’t necessarily for her in a “bang this hot person and have a messy orgasm” way, but she’s fine with exploring ideas and experimenting out of curiosity. Sex isn’t about the physical act of release, to her it’s a puzzle to be solved with thorough experimentation to see how to draw out the best outcome. She won’t have sex with Becky for the reason of “Becky is so absurdly sexy and I need to get up in that” the way Becky wants her, but she’d find joy and fulfillment in exploring what makes Becky tick, even beyond just that she wants to make Becky happy.
Moreover:
– Dina is grey-ace and does get Pants Feelings in some circumstances, mostly in relation to doing Science with Becky.
– In a scenario where the intended result was finding out what would make Dina horny for Becky, Dina just figured out that she enjoyed having Becky all to herself, completely under her control, where she gets to poke and prod at Becky however she wants to see what excites her most.
TLDR: Like most good stories, the thing Becky wants (a partner who fits this one, flawed definition of horny) isn’t what she needs, which is her rad dino girlfriend who will shatter Becky into a million pieces whenever she feels like it.
(my original reply got destroyed oops)
Yes, this, thank you. Asexuality isn’t just a one size fits all thing. Dina is capable of some attraction, that’s why they did this whole experiment in the first place. She’s interested in sex with Becky, she’s the one who said she wanted it in the first place at her birthday party, it’s just that she doesn’t NEED it to happen. When they have sex it won’t be purely to make Becky happy, it will be because both of them want to and think they’ll enjoy it. Just for different reasons.
When my grey ace partner and i have sex it’s not because he wants to make me happy, it’s because it’s something he wants to do and enjoys. I am also aspec and again, sex is something i do for the enjoyment of it. It’s physically fun and a good way to feel close with your partner if you’re both interested in it.
Becky could still have an issue with Dina not being super sexually attracted to her, but Dina also isn’t at the level of lack of attraction + interest being painted here. And it also gets a little tiring having to remind people “hey you can be ace and wanna ride a billion dicks it’s different for everyone”
Kinda reminds me of when I was fascinated by a girl. She looked really nice and all that, but what fascinated me was her color coordination. It all came together so well that I couldnt stop just admiring the color scheme.
I still haven’t figured out how to compliment that without sounding pretentious or weird 😛
“ Hey just wanted to let you know that you have a GREAT eye for color~ Wows me whenever I see your color combos~ Anyways my name is-insert name- I’ll see you around” ???
Just tell her you like the colours. “Hey, that’s a nice dress! Love the colours!” It’s always a good compliment when you compliment a choice that somebody made for themselves, instead of a thing they have no control over, like eye colour.
There’s always room for chicken nuggets.
Always.
Yeah, definitely, what about chicken nuggs.
Oh hey it me.
I’m grey-ace.
I did that.
Head empty, only gay
Re: The Alt Text
Chicken Nuggs are stored in the stomach, not the head, so Becky has plenty of room.
I feel like that Alt Text should be followed by a scary organ “dun, dun, duuuun”
What happened to Kaitlin anyway? Is there another story about some poor girl forced through conversion herapy or something we didn’t see?
All we know about her is that her parents wanted her moved to another room, and she told people Becky was a bad influence or something like that. So hopefully she’s doing ok, but who knows?
She’s in a couple bonus strips, hiding in the closet (in the interest of self-preservation) at Anderson.
Maybe since then she ran away to go live with her first crush / childhood best friend at Ball State! Sarah notices the parallels while they’re there. “Ah shit, here we go again…”
And since Liz is Not-Joyce, we find out that she was friends with Kaitlin in high school after her mom divorced Sarah’s dad
😭
Same.
So it clicked that this chapter was called Trial and Sarah not because it was focusing on a lawyer story, but instead Trial and Error. I think the chapter might’ve been named better as Trial and Dina, though that doesn’t flow off the tongue as well 😛
I err. Also wish there had been a blanket NSFW warning for this chapter. There were a lot of topics/strips that uh. I’m glad I didn’t open in public. I tend to read this while working so this chapter was pretty awkward.
I’m just wondering how going back to Ball State’s gonna wrap up if we’ve only got less than four weeks of strips left. Unless once we’re done here we cut back to Sarah and Liz and there’s a whole lotta plot and drama bombs set off in quick succession.
It could be that Sarah is the error here! That would be fun, if everything goes reasonably well for everyone except poor Sarah. And Liz escapes Ball State.
I think it’s (Trial and Error) + (Tegan and (Sara+h))
im very curious to see where dina and becky’s relationship goes. i can see it ending nicely for them but i can also see them realizing they want different things out of life but still remaining good friends.
I went back to see all the strips where Becky expresses doubt and insecurity that Dina does not find her sexually attractive and honestly the change of mind in this strip seems kinda sudden
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/doomed/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/04-hompk/ladylust/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/rockypatch/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/shape/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/willin/
It’s not necessarily solved in that, hypothetically, they could do this a few more times and eventually it’d lead Becky to think it’s never gonna happen. Remember, the endgoal isn’t having sex, it’s finding out what’s gonna turn Dina into a raging lust inferno that can’t stop obsessing over Becky’s giblets.
Which, that’d be pretty good dramatic irony. Becky, who is terrified of pre-marital hanky panky while wanting it to genuinely unhealthy levels, has a partner who will explore her boundaries as gently and informatively as possible, for the explicit purpose of gradually easing Becky into acts that Becky insists she wants but is too scared to act on, who came out of this experiment learning that she is intrigued by the idea of having Becky obey her every command when that’s probably Becky’s biggest kink, but Dina isn’t hopping up and down drooling about how much she wants to bang Dina, so actually it’s just never gonna work and she’s doomed to be alone and unfulfilled.