I quite like the Phantom Canadian Family theory. Admittedly it doesn’t have quite the panache of the Phantom Time theory (you probably didn’t know this is really 1726) but still.
Can you please expand on the bit about 1726? I was aware of it being 12023 HE in the Holocene Calendar, but the phantime dilation effect is causing me some confusion re: the PTt.
Should’ve mentioned this yesterday, but I guess this confirms that Jocelyn probably realized she was trans before she went to college, rather than while she was there, which is something I’ve wondered about in the past.
I wonder if she knew /something/ was up, but didn’t have enough outer world experience to know she could be accepted and loved for being herself? But yeah, clearly she was feeling all sorts of ways seeing herself as a woman. 🤞 The penny isn’t too long in dropping for Joyce.
I feel like there’s the “I know there’s something“ realisation, and the “oh shit so that’s what that was this whole time and it’s (probably) okay” realisation for a lot of trans folk.
Like… probably most of us don’t jump straight to step two, and most of us probably have the two realisations years or decades apart.
I did have mental breakdown about it at age 7, thinking that I wasn’t a boy but didn’t want to become a girl either. At 7, I thought there was only 2 options. I decided to stay a boy and strangely, stopped thinking about it.
Until I was 25. Oh boy. Another breakdown but this time, people were speaking about it. I’m agender, plain and simple lol
I’m serious. I think Joe’s uncomfortable on the subject of physical intimacy towards Joyce. Like it would mean he was falling back into bad habits or something like that.
I hope you are incorrect for shipping sake, yet that might be kind of a fun storyline? Assuming it doesn’t simply throw the relationship into chaos and or a sad spiral of unmet needs, i think it would be cool to explore. Though “not ending in chaos and sadness” is a pretty high bar for this comic…
Joe’s been pretty cautious with Joyce, letting her take the lead most of the time. I wouldn’t guess it’s fear of falling back into bad habits, more like he’s sectioned off in his brain physical intimacy and emotional intimacy, and he’s not confident he can bring them together. There’s an episode of Taxi, where Danny DeVito starts dating Rhea Perlman, and he’s afraid to touch her because she’s a “good girl”. that’s kind of what I’m reading for Joe. Not exactly the same, but if we could bet somewhere Willis wouldn’t see, I’d put a fiver on Joe having performance anxiety when it was time.
I would bet a lot more on Willis when it comes time to draw the slip shine. The readership is REALLY invested in this.
On the other hand, Patreon membership will reach orbital velocity.
I get where you are coming from, but I think the angle so far has been that he just has never really savored any of the lead up, so to speak, in the past, like how Joyce is basically the first girl he’s held hands with and dated. So, this is exciting territory for him, and Joyce likes being the experienced one.
That all being said, I do think Joyce is going to want to have sex before Joe does, but whether that’s going to be a big to-do or not, we’ll see how it goes.
I expect it’s going to be closer to “Joe is going to be very cautious around making sure Joyce is as ready to have sex as she presents herself as being”, honestly.
For the US and Canada, we’d say “I’m going mad to see…”
It’s one of those little words things that usually don’t matter, except sometimes it is the opposite of what you mean. “I’m so mad at” means furious, and we can tell from the 🙏🙏 that’s not what you mean.
(to be honest, US English speakers usually use “crazy” instead of “mad”… probably because we often use “mad” to mean “angry”? “mad” in the crazy sense is pretty common in Britain, though.)
Kinda interesting to have a conversation about whether or not people can change as well as hiding their identity while going through the old belongings of someone who’s hiding their identity in real life (kinda).
o3o It’s been a long time since I’ve dated but if you’re into girls I just gotta say.
Touching girls is the best. Not like in a lewd way. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Being able to hug and cuddle was honestly one of my favorite parts of being in a couple.
Girls are soft lol, after a reunion hugging my friend after the first time in a while the first thing i said was ‘i missed ur boobs’ lol tho they can’t get mad at me bc they’re taller and i’m basically boob height to anyone taller than me XD
Someone else is having a birthday too! One of my client’s cousins who I’m making a game for!!!! A dinosaur themed platformer for which I need to make a koopa-like enemy and a few player attack in a few hours! I hope to make their day wonderful too!
well she ‘always wanted a sister’ so other than not understanding the complications/nuances that comes with having a trans sibling versus a cis female sibling, i’m sure she could enjoy going shopping and picking out outfits together or so
Oh, I do think she will find a lot to love about it all, but we’ve also seen that Joyce had trouble with change. Of course, we’ve also seen that she has embraced a lot of change in a short time, and this is at the very least a much more pleasant change.
She in the past seemed completely oblivious about Carla’s situation, so I do wonder how much Joyce even knows about trans people as a general rule.
Not clocking a trans person doesn’t mean you’re oblivious or that you don’t know anything about trans people.
I’m sure she had the right-wing viewpoint from her church. I’m sure she got something more accurate from Leslie’s class. She seemed to accept Booster and Malaya well enough, if with some awkwardness.
Ah, correct about Booster and Malaya, plus the Carla stuff was I think early on, so she probably knows more these days, even if I expect it’s limited information.
♪♪♪
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch me there, where
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch me there, where
There, yeah
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
♪♪♪
“In today’s news, a campus dorm burned down. Investigations have yet to discover the cause of the conflagration that suddenly erupted in the women’s wing.”
It’s so sweet that Joe’s consent binary exists solely as permission for fucking, and now that he’s trying to be respectful of boundaries and gentle with his new girlfriend, he literally hasn’t even figured out the entire process of touching and cuddling and holding. He’s never had to learn!
It’s like Sal teaching Joyce how to dress in non-sweatervests, but in reverse!
Or Danny teaching Sal that it’s okay to have and express needs/emotions, come to think of it. Sal was all front, all the time because of Linda, and while I totally understand that, it made her relationship model as binary as Joe’s when it comes to emotions. Seeing them both learn to exist in the middle, and to embrace who they are, is so nice.
Yeah! Especially since it’s been such a long road of these characters slowly changing. Especially Sal getting over her habitual aggression, Joe’s fatalism, and Joyce’s judgmentalism. I just wanted to think of a non-feelings comparison, hah.
True story: I met Partner (and we’ve been together now for about 13 years) in college. At the time I was in the process of breaking up with my very toxic ex. I made friends with Partner and a lot of his friends, and we landed up going to a lot of parties (as friends) together.
At one point we were at a drinking party thrown by a mutual friend who had a very huge apartment downtown. Mutual friend was very careful to make sure everyone was always safe, so everyone was always welcome to crash if they had drunk too much/were too tired to get home. At one party partner and I landed up crashing on the same futon. At this point I had a HUGE crush on Partner and all night kept inching closer to him hoping that he’d snuggle me. He didn’t. There was a blizzard overnight so the college was closed and it wasn’t safe for anyone to go anywhere for a while. (The host woke everyone up with home-made banana pancakes!). Since we were stuck together in the apartment, we watched movies all day. Partner and I were still on the same futon together, and I kept subtlely (I hope) moving closer to him in hopes he’d hug me or put his arm around me. He didn’t. From this I assumed that he wasn’t interested in me as anything more than a friend.
After I totally dumped my toxic ex, Partner and I landed up hooking up. Eventually I told him about that party and how I was trying to get him to snuggle up to me. He said that he TOTALLY wanted to do so but misread my “signals” and thought that *I* wasn’t interested in him!
In short, I relate to this very cute strip SO MUCH. And now that Partner and I have been together so long, I have no qualms about demanding “Snuggles now, plz.” 😉
He might be one of those guys who are just TERRIBLE at reading non-verbal body language (I’m one of them XD), and yes, for people like us it’s best just come right out and say it, as dorky/awkward as it might sound.
Not just for us, but in general. The only legally recognized consent to touch is an explicit (hehehe), “Yes!” Since we (homo sapiens) can’t know for sure without discourse if we’re dealing with someone who can read body language well or not, just mix in the verbal confirmation. It may sound dorky in a 3rd person description like now, but when it goes down in person it ends up just being really attractive and sexy.
Its not so much that Joe has changed, its that he has shown a willingness to grow and try to be a better person. That by itself shows more growth then so many other characters.
People forget that a lot of Joe’s horndog tendencies are because of his fear of being like his father.
He’s casual about sex and acts like a chud because he fears he’s inherited his father’s cheating asshole ways.
He thinks if he goes out of his way to show that every relationship is casual and not “real” he can’t hurt anyone like his father has hurt people, because he’s never led them into thinking it was a real relationship.
Even if he WANTED a real relationship, he thought he’d torpedo it because he has his father’s blood, and he’d rather suffer being alone, then breaking someone’s heart.
Which shows that he is, indeed, fixable. He’s got the right heart, just the totally wrong approach to it. Largely because he’s scared of what he can do to himself and to others, and yeah that’s extremely college-aged.
Just had a thought.
Probably not an original one.
But is Joyce and Joe’s relationship, not the characters themselves, but the relationship as it’s own thing, a foil for Lucy and Walky’s relationship?
The former has known each other longer with no doubt about their interest in each other physically/romantically, but their friendship started significantly later after several bumps in the road, but they bonded over some serious talks, and now they easily mesh (at least in this early honeymoon phase).
Meanwhile, the latter pair met later, but became friendly acquaintances then friends rather easily while simply hanging out, but any romantic or physical interest was both one-sided and kept close to the vest to the point that, even now that they’ve been dating over a week, it’s still not completely clear if the interest is still one sided or not.
Even on the subject of sex, both Joyce and Lucy are inexperienced, and both Joe and Walky are feeling the pressure, but Joe is feeling pressure not to rush her and is allowing her to make the move and show when she’s ready, taking it slow and seemingly enjoying the intimacy it brings.
Walky, on the other hand is being pressured by the arbitrary number of dates Lucy set up, and now things have to happen because it’s time instead of because this is the moment they’re both in the mood; even if they are both in the mood, the idea that this has to be special or significant instead of simply letting it feel that way as it happens has almost certainly got to be a factor when it comes time for them do some bedroom sparring.
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting when the idea came to me.
I think so. A lot of the situations they’re in are kind of parrellel. Like Goofus and Gallantless-Goofus. Although I kind of see Joyce and Walky as analogs, and Joe and Lucy.
Amber sent Joyce to Joe, Dorothy sent Walky to Lucy. But Amber left it to Joe to do the talking. Joe summoned up the nerve to tell Joyce how he felt, Lucy could not for months. Joyce and Joe are pretty open about how they feel, including acknowledging that Joe does have more intense feelings so far.
Joe and Joyce’s lunch/trial with Dorothy, Lucy and Walky’s lunch/trial with Lyle.
Becky and Dina’s full acceptance of Joe, Jennifer and crew’s superficial socializing / manipulation(?) breakfast.
Joe and Joyce standing up to Joyce’s mom, Lucy avoiding standing up to Walky’s mom and Walky doing shenanigans instead.
It feels like a (the?) major difference is communication. It’s annoying and painful to watch Walky and Lucy be bad at communication because it’s familiar.
Loading ...
🫣👈
is this SFW
This is SMUT WITHOUT WARNING, and I simply won’t stand for it!
(I’m sitting down)
PRE-MARITAL HANKY-PANKY!
Next thing you know, they’ll be *holding hands*.
YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH! That kind of conduct will not be tolerated around here. (at least, not by Sarah)
“I’m not touching yo–oh, wait.”
GASP! It’s happening!!! 😍🥹
*plays “Unforgetting” by Devon Church on hacked muzak*
Slipshine?!
Dotty wants Slipshiney material of Joyce? …I see nothing wrong here. ;D
“Third base!“
And then sarah comes in and has another fit lol
Wrong. If Joe is getting to ANY bases, Sarah would be having a field day breaking femurs.
Sarah’s locked in a trap of her own creation, she can’t interfere
According to xkcd it’s more center field … or right outer field, or whatever.
Put me in, Coach / I’m ready to play
I Don’t Know Who’s On Third Base!
No, no, no! Who is on first, What is on second, and I Don’t Know is on third!
I don’t give a damn!
He’s the shortstop.
From that classic comedy bit “Who’s On Me First?” by “GRAbbot and ACostello”.
COOTIES
Gravitar + Comment = Perfect Match
➕1️⃣
There’s an article about Grav Roulette on the Walkypedia.
This is my go to avatar
Alright, that’s a distraction. Revelations about the sister you don’t know you have successfully delayed
LEWD!
This is what we call sending signals.
GOD DAMMIT THEY’RE SO GOD DAMN CUTE
Cutest JoeJoyce moment thus far, by far.
Okay, yeah, Joe’s blush slew me.
Same. I will go down with this ship!!
Secret 7th Panel is of Dorothy and Sarah flying at Joe with a jump kick
Woah! Might be more scandalous than showing an ankle!
For everyone confused about yesterday, one of Joyce’s siblings is a trans woman who is still closeted. In private, she goes by Jocelyn. It’s her art.
That’s one theory. There is another that involves wormholes and time time travel.
There is also the evil clone theory
But which one’s the evil clone?
Carol.
Carol is just a Joyce clone that aged too quickly
And yet also never properly grew up.
Yes, she is.
I quite like the Phantom Canadian Family theory. Admittedly it doesn’t have quite the panache of the Phantom Time theory (you probably didn’t know this is really 1726) but still.
Can you please expand on the bit about 1726? I was aware of it being 12023 HE in the Holocene Calendar, but the phantime dilation effect is causing me some confusion re: the PTt.
Phantom Time is a conspiracy theory that several hundred years of human history were completely fabricated by the holy roman empire and the church.
Now, now, this isn’t Melonpool or SailorSun.
Smooth move, Joyce.
The height of flirting with your new boyfriend.
👨🏾🍳💋
She’s going to show an ankle next!
Let’s give Joe credit for the best possible response, too.
Should’ve mentioned this yesterday, but I guess this confirms that Jocelyn probably realized she was trans before she went to college, rather than while she was there, which is something I’ve wondered about in the past.
I wonder if she knew /something/ was up, but didn’t have enough outer world experience to know she could be accepted and loved for being herself? But yeah, clearly she was feeling all sorts of ways seeing herself as a woman. 🤞 The penny isn’t too long in dropping for Joyce.
Oh, I don’t know about that.
I started closet cross-dressing and drawing secret comics about boys turning into girls when I was around 9 or 10.
After 30 years of denial, I realized I was trans at age 40.
I feel like there’s the “I know there’s something“ realisation, and the “oh shit so that’s what that was this whole time and it’s (probably) okay” realisation for a lot of trans folk.
Like… probably most of us don’t jump straight to step two, and most of us probably have the two realisations years or decades apart.
I did have mental breakdown about it at age 7, thinking that I wasn’t a boy but didn’t want to become a girl either. At 7, I thought there was only 2 options. I decided to stay a boy and strangely, stopped thinking about it.
Until I was 25. Oh boy. Another breakdown but this time, people were speaking about it. I’m agender, plain and simple lol
Oh gosh this strip is so wholesome :3
Also, I hope Joyce and Jocelyn talk about things soon
I for one hope Joyce locks and braces the door!
This…. might be going somewhere uncomfortable.
You don’t mean…below the neck?
Scandalous!
I’m serious. I think Joe’s uncomfortable on the subject of physical intimacy towards Joyce. Like it would mean he was falling back into bad habits or something like that.
He looks pretty comfortable to me, blush and all.
I hope you are incorrect for shipping sake, yet that might be kind of a fun storyline? Assuming it doesn’t simply throw the relationship into chaos and or a sad spiral of unmet needs, i think it would be cool to explore. Though “not ending in chaos and sadness” is a pretty high bar for this comic…
Joe’s been pretty cautious with Joyce, letting her take the lead most of the time. I wouldn’t guess it’s fear of falling back into bad habits, more like he’s sectioned off in his brain physical intimacy and emotional intimacy, and he’s not confident he can bring them together. There’s an episode of Taxi, where Danny DeVito starts dating Rhea Perlman, and he’s afraid to touch her because she’s a “good girl”. that’s kind of what I’m reading for Joe. Not exactly the same, but if we could bet somewhere Willis wouldn’t see, I’d put a fiver on Joe having performance anxiety when it was time.
He remembers what happened with Liz.
I would bet a lot more on Willis when it comes time to draw the slip shine. The readership is REALLY invested in this.
On the other hand, Patreon membership will reach orbital velocity.
I get where you are coming from, but I think the angle so far has been that he just has never really savored any of the lead up, so to speak, in the past, like how Joyce is basically the first girl he’s held hands with and dated. So, this is exciting territory for him, and Joyce likes being the experienced one.
That all being said, I do think Joyce is going to want to have sex before Joe does, but whether that’s going to be a big to-do or not, we’ll see how it goes.
I expect it’s going to be closer to “Joe is going to be very cautious around making sure Joyce is as ready to have sex as she presents herself as being”, honestly.
Like the back of a Volkswagen?
Ahhhhhhhhh Mallrats
Indeed. The iron bar(TM) poking Joyce’s back can’t be comfortable to lean against.
I’m so mad to see Jocelyn’s storyline before anything… 🙏🙏
What do you mean?
I’m assuming it’s slang that means they’re actually really excited to. Like how ‘wicked’ can mean ‘awesome’.
For the US and Canada, we’d say “I’m going mad to see…”
It’s one of those little words things that usually don’t matter, except sometimes it is the opposite of what you mean. “I’m so mad at” means furious, and we can tell from the 🙏🙏 that’s not what you mean.
(to be honest, US English speakers usually use “crazy” instead of “mad”… probably because we often use “mad” to mean “angry”? “mad” in the crazy sense is pretty common in Britain, though.)
Little do they know, those who call me Mad.
I’m not Mad, I’m Furious.
John J. Furious at your service.
I’m not a Mad Scientist, just a Highly Annoyed Engineer.
Kinda interesting to have a conversation about whether or not people can change as well as hiding their identity while going through the old belongings of someone who’s hiding their identity in real life (kinda).
o3o It’s been a long time since I’ve dated but if you’re into girls I just gotta say.
Touching girls is the best. Not like in a lewd way. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Being able to hug and cuddle was honestly one of my favorite parts of being in a couple.
Carla: Girls are awesome, I should know i am one
Girls are soft lol, after a reunion hugging my friend after the first time in a while the first thing i said was ‘i missed ur boobs’ lol tho they can’t get mad at me bc they’re taller and i’m basically boob height to anyone taller than me XD
I’m not sure I’ve ever pictured Carla as “soft”, in any of the universes. Even here, where they are seemingly represented as human.
holding hands is so neat that you almost forget how weird hands are.
I’m an artist. I’ll never forget how weird hands are.
Amen.
“I mean, other parts of me have been trying to get your attention by poking you in the lower back.”
>:3 (obsessed with joyce’s faces in this strip! and joe’s!)
This. Joyce is flirting like a champ. Where did she learn how to do it? But that look on her face says she knows exactly what she’s doing. 😍
> Where did she learn how to do it?
The Maytag Repair Man may have some thoughts…
I mean, ya practically dared him, Joyce! XD
The yes I yelled came from a place so primal the other cavemen asked if they were under attack
SLIPSHINE SLIPSHINE SLIPSHINE
Magnificently wholesome.
Today on “The Liberation of Joyce Brown”
So I’m rooting for these two but honestly I’m rooting even moreso for Richard and Amber’s mom who’s name escapes me right now. Good old What’sherface.
They seem very sweet together.
Stacy.
She’s got it goin’ on.
to be accurate to the song, Richard would have to break up with Stacy because he’s fallen for her motherYay I get adorableness for my birthday 😀
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday, may you enjoy your celebration, and have many more.
We have the same birthday. But do we have the same favorite Pokémon?
Happy Birthday Taffy and Lynzigraye!!!!
🥳 🪅 🎉 🎂 🎈 🎊 🎁
Happy multibirthdays!
Happy birthday to you as well! Weirdly I never managed to get into Pokemon but if I had to naively pick one I’d say Evee.
Happy birthdayyyy~!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday! 🎂
Birthday!!
May you be reminded always that you’re deserving of love, and feeling loved.
Thank you everyone! I hope each and every one of you are having wonderful days!
Someone else is having a birthday too! One of my client’s cousins who I’m making a game for!!!! A dinosaur themed platformer for which I need to make a koopa-like enemy and a few player attack in a few hours! I hope to make their day wonderful too!
Many Happy Birthdays!
Really damn cute.
I do wonder if this talk of whether or not people can change is kind of foreshadowing how Joyce is going to process this coming revelation.
well she ‘always wanted a sister’ so other than not understanding the complications/nuances that comes with having a trans sibling versus a cis female sibling, i’m sure she could enjoy going shopping and picking out outfits together or so
Oh, I do think she will find a lot to love about it all, but we’ve also seen that Joyce had trouble with change. Of course, we’ve also seen that she has embraced a lot of change in a short time, and this is at the very least a much more pleasant change.
She in the past seemed completely oblivious about Carla’s situation, so I do wonder how much Joyce even knows about trans people as a general rule.
Not clocking a trans person doesn’t mean you’re oblivious or that you don’t know anything about trans people.
I’m sure she had the right-wing viewpoint from her church. I’m sure she got something more accurate from Leslie’s class. She seemed to accept Booster and Malaya well enough, if with some awkwardness.
Ah, correct about Booster and Malaya, plus the Carla stuff was I think early on, so she probably knows more these days, even if I expect it’s limited information.
Never thought I’d see a strip of Joyce getting fingered
Oh please, you know there’s gonna be a Slipshine.
In like 10 years time maybe
“Joe and Joyce Perform a Touching”
Oh ye of little faith
at this point technically dorothy’s gone further 8D:
Joe has also had his hand held by Joyce. While we’re fairly sure she wasn’t on the edge of orgasm with Joe, we don’t know it. 😉
Hey! Have you all started getting your Book 12s in the mail? I wrote the introduction. Check it out, I thought it turned out kind of funny 🙂
What’s mail?
now kiss
I like her smile in the last panel. I like it a lot.
♪♪♪
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch me there, where
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch me there, where
There, yeah
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
♪♪♪
is this really what today’s music amounts to?
As of 50 years ago.
…today I found out that that song wasn’t originally by Joan Jett.
And now, knowing who it was actually by, I feel the need to vomit.
Only if ‘today’ is 1973 and includes a remake in the early 80s.
jesus christ there is no hope for us, is there?
https://youtu.be/IPTIAtqfyME?si=yxDaDx620Rft4oVW
Oooo it’s a brave person who posts Gary Glitter lyrics these days!
As far as I’m concerned, Joan Jett is the original artist.
(Seriously though, I forgot all about the Glitter version)
On the other hand, this discourse led me to discover the darkly hilarious tale of The Execution of Gary Glitter and his attempt to supress it.
someone loves playing with fire
okay that is cute
TIME TO GET SAUCY
Is that Consent I see!?
It’s not consent unless their balls touch.
Otherwise it’s just sparkling agreement.
Ooh, scanda–oh, goddammit, alt text!
The cuteness, i am slain
*snickers* You dorks.
But was this Joyce Lynn drawn in this dress
*checks the Patreon*
… bah gawd, what happened to the logo again 🫣
Yeah I haaate this new logo. The other one was so recognizable, now it’s just a blob
I swear everyone is just trying to completely lose their valuable brand recognition this year, between that and Apartheid Clyde’s Twitter shenanigans.
“In today’s news, a campus dorm burned down. Investigations have yet to discover the cause of the conflagration that suddenly erupted in the women’s wing.”
Signs do point to the fire starting in the laundry room, first hand reports of a mechanical voice droning about cheating wenches.
It’s so sweet that Joe’s consent binary exists solely as permission for fucking, and now that he’s trying to be respectful of boundaries and gentle with his new girlfriend, he literally hasn’t even figured out the entire process of touching and cuddling and holding. He’s never had to learn!
It’s like Sal teaching Joyce how to dress in non-sweatervests, but in reverse!
Or Danny teaching Sal that it’s okay to have and express needs/emotions, come to think of it. Sal was all front, all the time because of Linda, and while I totally understand that, it made her relationship model as binary as Joe’s when it comes to emotions. Seeing them both learn to exist in the middle, and to embrace who they are, is so nice.
Yeah! Especially since it’s been such a long road of these characters slowly changing. Especially Sal getting over her habitual aggression, Joe’s fatalism, and Joyce’s judgmentalism. I just wanted to think of a non-feelings comparison, hah.
“SQUEEEE” is the only appropriate comment here.
as far as im concerned this is the lewdest thing ever. i am dying, do not send help
The mutual blush. So cute!
True story: I met Partner (and we’ve been together now for about 13 years) in college. At the time I was in the process of breaking up with my very toxic ex. I made friends with Partner and a lot of his friends, and we landed up going to a lot of parties (as friends) together.
At one point we were at a drinking party thrown by a mutual friend who had a very huge apartment downtown. Mutual friend was very careful to make sure everyone was always safe, so everyone was always welcome to crash if they had drunk too much/were too tired to get home. At one party partner and I landed up crashing on the same futon. At this point I had a HUGE crush on Partner and all night kept inching closer to him hoping that he’d snuggle me. He didn’t. There was a blizzard overnight so the college was closed and it wasn’t safe for anyone to go anywhere for a while. (The host woke everyone up with home-made banana pancakes!). Since we were stuck together in the apartment, we watched movies all day. Partner and I were still on the same futon together, and I kept subtlely (I hope) moving closer to him in hopes he’d hug me or put his arm around me. He didn’t. From this I assumed that he wasn’t interested in me as anything more than a friend.
After I totally dumped my toxic ex, Partner and I landed up hooking up. Eventually I told him about that party and how I was trying to get him to snuggle up to me. He said that he TOTALLY wanted to do so but misread my “signals” and thought that *I* wasn’t interested in him!
In short, I relate to this very cute strip SO MUCH. And now that Partner and I have been together so long, I have no qualms about demanding “Snuggles now, plz.” 😉
Very glad it worked out in the end!
He might be one of those guys who are just TERRIBLE at reading non-verbal body language (I’m one of them XD), and yes, for people like us it’s best just come right out and say it, as dorky/awkward as it might sound.
Not just for us, but in general. The only legally recognized consent to touch is an explicit (hehehe), “Yes!” Since we (homo sapiens) can’t know for sure without discourse if we’re dealing with someone who can read body language well or not, just mix in the verbal confirmation. It may sound dorky in a 3rd person description like now, but when it goes down in person it ends up just being really attractive and sexy.
Having been a male collegian I can say I missed my share of signals. Some of us guys are like that.
Loved your history. It’s so great when a relationship works well, even if a partner weren’t so reat in pick signals…
“Miss Brown… are you trying to seduce me…?”
“Yes, sir, I am!”
Sorry. I accidently false flagged this cause touch screen. 😒
Lol, took me a second to realize it wasn’t Becky false flagging herself
Dorks.
I love them.
“Clive, I can feel your boner”
Paul the Alien, to Nick Frost’s ‘Clive Gollings”
“PAUL” (Movie, 2011)
Joyce _might_ come to the realization about “Joyce Lynn”, but she’s currently pretty distracted by “Joyce Sin.”
(the wording ain’t the best, but i went with the rhyming.)
Who needs slipshine, this is the real scandalous stuff
Elsewhere in the webcomics universe, Caliban is sweating profusely and he doesn’t know why.
D’awwwwww….
Its not so much that Joe has changed, its that he has shown a willingness to grow and try to be a better person. That by itself shows more growth then so many other characters.
People forget that a lot of Joe’s horndog tendencies are because of his fear of being like his father.
He’s casual about sex and acts like a chud because he fears he’s inherited his father’s cheating asshole ways.
He thinks if he goes out of his way to show that every relationship is casual and not “real” he can’t hurt anyone like his father has hurt people, because he’s never led them into thinking it was a real relationship.
Even if he WANTED a real relationship, he thought he’d torpedo it because he has his father’s blood, and he’d rather suffer being alone, then breaking someone’s heart.
Which shows that he is, indeed, fixable. He’s got the right heart, just the totally wrong approach to it. Largely because he’s scared of what he can do to himself and to others, and yeah that’s extremely college-aged.
well, Joyce has HIS number.
*poke*
“There, I touched you. Now go away!”
doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
POKIN’ ON ON ON
doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
POKIN’ ON ON ON
*plays “Pokemon Dance Mix” from 2 B.A. Master CD*
*sniff*
Dammit, who left all these invisible onions here??
“Scandalous” 😀
I’m crying this is so cute ♥
All I can say here is that the expressions on those two in the last panel are perfect.
My money is that Joyce Lynn might be her “brother” who may have a secret to share eventually
Just had a thought.
Probably not an original one.
But is Joyce and Joe’s relationship, not the characters themselves, but the relationship as it’s own thing, a foil for Lucy and Walky’s relationship?
The former has known each other longer with no doubt about their interest in each other physically/romantically, but their friendship started significantly later after several bumps in the road, but they bonded over some serious talks, and now they easily mesh (at least in this early honeymoon phase).
Meanwhile, the latter pair met later, but became friendly acquaintances then friends rather easily while simply hanging out, but any romantic or physical interest was both one-sided and kept close to the vest to the point that, even now that they’ve been dating over a week, it’s still not completely clear if the interest is still one sided or not.
Even on the subject of sex, both Joyce and Lucy are inexperienced, and both Joe and Walky are feeling the pressure, but Joe is feeling pressure not to rush her and is allowing her to make the move and show when she’s ready, taking it slow and seemingly enjoying the intimacy it brings.
Walky, on the other hand is being pressured by the arbitrary number of dates Lucy set up, and now things have to happen because it’s time instead of because this is the moment they’re both in the mood; even if they are both in the mood, the idea that this has to be special or significant instead of simply letting it feel that way as it happens has almost certainly got to be a factor when it comes time for them do some bedroom sparring.
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting when the idea came to me.
I think so. A lot of the situations they’re in are kind of parrellel. Like Goofus and
Gallantless-Goofus. Although I kind of see Joyce and Walky as analogs, and Joe and Lucy.Amber sent Joyce to Joe, Dorothy sent Walky to Lucy. But Amber left it to Joe to do the talking. Joe summoned up the nerve to tell Joyce how he felt, Lucy could not for months. Joyce and Joe are pretty open about how they feel, including acknowledging that Joe does have more intense feelings so far.
Joe and Joyce’s lunch/trial with Dorothy, Lucy and Walky’s lunch/trial with Lyle.
Becky and Dina’s full acceptance of Joe, Jennifer and crew’s superficial socializing / manipulation(?) breakfast.
Joe and Joyce standing up to Joyce’s mom, Lucy avoiding standing up to Walky’s mom and Walky doing shenanigans instead.
It feels like a (the?) major difference is communication. It’s annoying and painful to watch Walky and Lucy be bad at communication because it’s familiar.
Aww. So cute. She deserves happiness.
I dunno, like 15 minutes ago in canon he was stripping to try and sex up Sarah. Not very different to me