As much as I want to see Carol’s reaction to Joyce’s potential bisexuality, I hope we never, ever see her again. Outright saying it’s okay for people to die if the Church deems it is enough for me.
My college experience is a bit dated, and in a somewhat conservative state, but male students used to do things like that pretty much all the time.
It is a testament to how homophobic (and/or biphobic) american college culture actually is (in a conservative place at least).
I could have put that last sentence in the past tense as I haven’t been in the US or a college in 15 years, but I am unfortunately not that hopeful.
Not as prevalent in my experience, though echoes are alive and well pretty much wherever you go.
Romesh Ranganathan has an excellent stand-up bit about this where he talks about the whole awful, ridiculous “no homo” thing homophobic people sometimes ‘jokingly’ say.
I learned early in life that acting in an effeminate way was an immediately punishable offense. That you could never let your guard down, not for a second.
People that are homophobic, I can figure out. People that are so sexist that they think you literally have to be a woman for walking a certain way, I can’t.
I don’t know, but I am baffled about how she would have managed to do either of those things. The bed seems to be too high to easily jump down off by Joyce’s feet and I would imagine the ceiling is too low to get over Joyce without and still get down without hitting her (you can’t stand and jump off).
If it was a dream, I don’t see the point of having Joyce note the depression in the mattress; it’s also hard to account for Joyce leaving that spot open as she sleeps.
My take is that Dorothy left very carefully, and Joyce is referring to the event as a dream because she was just wakened by an alarm, and it’s common to confuse dreaming and waking events in that state.
The very small, elbow-sized depression in the mattress? She’s just reacting to the unwelcome reminder of her weenus. She even drops it down below her eyeline in panel four, clearly unsettled by the sight.
I don’t know that it is good, but it is part of Dorothy’s routine, so doing so probably made her feel good this morning even if she is still freaking out on the inside.
Well she might still not be getting up as early as walky ended up doing but i imagine other than the occasional bad day joyce isn’t the type to sleep in for too long/prolly has plans with joe if it’s a weekend date versus class
i may have gotten carried away with my gay threesome caper the other day and turned this plotless fantasy into a full-blown story (for some definition of story) of which this is part 1. Part 2 may or may not follow in the near or distant future. This is, after all, happening in a galaxy far, far away, so like, what is time.
After a long, gruelling negotiation, Space Captain Julia Gray and President Doris Keener have finally gotten the three warring Space Vampires whose names i can’t keep straight to agree to peace. The warriors seal the deal with (obviously) a ceremonial orgy — under Captain Julia’s ever-watchful gaze. Only one small formality remains…
Image order is fine now. My phone does not like that site apparently. I have to refresh the page for every image. Which I did. Totally worth the effort 😜
(Also I may sneaky steal part of your story idea to write a short thing for my sci-fi loving lady friend if that’s okay with your lordship)
Everyone questioning what happened last night…I’m almost positive they were in Dorothy’s room and Joyce eventually left. It looked.like they were in a downstairs bunk bed, not a top one.
What miz says is true for double-occupancy rooms in Read Hall, which is where most of the characters live. Ruth and Carla have single-occupancy rooms with a normal bed and no loft. Forest Quad, where Lucy and Jennifer live, has double-occupancy rooms with two beds at normal height.
[These assertions are based on what I think I’ve seen in the comic; corrections welcome.]
nah, that’s accurate. i thought about mentioning the typical beds in the other hall but decided not to since we were talking in the context of dorothy and joyce, but you’re correct, also about the singles.
Based on dialogue (Malaya commenting on the lofted beds), it sounds like the beds are configurable. But Joyce’s came pre-lofted with a ladder. I think all the beds in doubles in Read are lofted, but there’s a chance that’s because the bare background images are re-usable.
as rotunda pointed out, malaya’s comment stems from the fact that forest quad, where she had just moved from, had standard beds, not that the lofts are configurable. i don’t really see how they could be; you can’t put a desk OVER a bed.
My dorm had configurable lofts. Each occupant had a desk, bed, and wardrobe, and a couple of short shelf units. The rooms were just big enough that you could have a desk, bed, and wardrobe on the floor down each side of the room. But you could also stack a bed on top of the shelf units to loft it over a desk. Or, with a set of steel pins inserted into the bedposts, you could stack one bed on top of the other and have bunk beds (though I don’t recall ever seeing anybody actually set them up that way).
My roommate and I generally had both beds lofted over the desks on one side of the room, with one of the wardrobes between them, and the other wardrobe in the corner on the other side, which left the rest of the other side for a couch, fridge, stereo, and his drafting table.
Of the three, I think Joyce seems the only one at all likely. (…very likely at this point, honestly.) Dorothy clearly cares about Joyce, but she seems to know where she stands, although granted the “laundry” circlejerk was a little weird. Joyce is the one who’s always seeing something there that maybe she doesn’t want to be seeing.
(Becky, of course, doesn’t even deserve a response.)
…oh. That… actually makes more sense. In that case, I just assume Dorothy and Becky already think so, but Dorothy doesn’t want to push her, and Becky doesn’t want to come off the wrong way, especially now that she’s with Dina.
Dorothy. There’s some evidence she has an inkling already, and is more likely to think critically about it and realize she’s bi, or at least straight with an exception, or a biromantic heterosexual, or whatever is actually going on with her.
Joyce will realize she’s bi about three seconds after Dorothy mentions being interested in her, if that ever happens, otherwise she will continue to assert being straight indefinitely regardless of the evidence.
Becky would sooner die than claim attraction to men. She will never realize anything because there’s nothing to realize, and she will go to her grave with the knowledge she is 100% lesbian.
Poor Joyce, she looks so disappointed. Maybe in the next strip she will think that dreams don’t leave their perfume on the bed, or something like that.
If she thinks Dorothy falling asleep watching cartoons was just a dream, I’m even more convinced that Dorothy jimmied Joyce’s lock and watched her sleep, two nights ago.
Ooooooh I completely forgot about that strip, honestly.
If that was only 2 nights ago, Joyce’s pre-emptive insistence that her dream was straight this time actually makes a lot more sense. Almost enough to make her look not horribly insecure in her sexuality! ALMOST.
Notice that Joyce is wearing different clothes than her previous appearance. This means she’s changed outfits between then and now. Which further means that there is a non-zero chance she changed in front of Dorothy, leading me to the very normal and reasonable conclusion that Joyce possibly treated Dorothy to the sight of full frontal nudity last night, maybe.
To quote Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man 2: “We don’t know for sure.”
So, are we good with saying that Joyce is, at this point, heterosexual but bi-romantic? She doesn’t necessarily want to engage in ‘hanky-panky’ with girls but she likes to have very close personal relationships and snuggle/cuddle?
And still with the possibility that she might continue to change…
Maybe there’s some gray area between the two, like “bi-intimate”? There’s obviously that scene in the laundry room, plus the way Joyce was getting really interested in Jennifer’s chest (as St. Yoto recently reminded us)
a polycule would be ideal, if sarah doesn’t end up saying something snarky that’d freak joyce out like “you know this is technically *emotional* cheating” (which i mean can kinda be nuanced/a loaded term, since while it’s good to lean on a partner about emotional stuff, spreading that stuff among your friends would be ideal as well so it all doesn’t go on one person depending on what it is)
Identity and sexuality are both complicated. It also makes sense that she wouldn’t have the hots for her childhood friend, even if she turns out to be bi-sexual. The Westermark effect applies.
Well, the laundry room was Dorothy trying her hand at Joe’s “We’re going to make this sexual whether you like it or not” behavior so I wouldn’t say it’s evidence of Joyce being bi-romantic.
I just love the tint on this one. it’s super pleasant to look at, it communicates the time of day instantly, and there’s a certain emotional tone that that soft rosey orange casts over proceedings. made me feel something about the funny comic strip
no stripes on the pillow. Joyce has slid into a different dumbiverse, and nobody else will remember Dorothy. Meanwhile, Dorothy has slid into a dumbiverse with no Joyce, and the pillow is no stripes the other way.
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“tummy wands may have been involved”
“still saying nothing”
12:12! =_=
12:12! = 1:11!
I suppose that to apply factorial to time you convert time to the smallest single unit, but I still don’t see how you got this.
it’s a ratio. divide both sides by 12 and you get 1 and 11!
I think it’s a ratio? Divide both sides by 12.
ah yes, checks out
Good. Don’t speak with your mouth full.
But, more importantly… I hope Dotty could recover the glasses safely, haha.
She’s currently wearing Joyce’s. She’s too bleary to notice.
This is what comes of starring at Dorothy’s crotch all evening in search of a Secret Weenus.
Joyce Brown: Secret Weenus Detective!
She’s only looking for inspiration for another door whiteboard spree!
I know “weenus” is being used as slang for “penis” in this context but I’m laughing my ass off imagining Dorothy somehow having a secret elbow.
… wait, so DOES Joyce know her crotch from her elbow?
When she arrived? Not a chance. These days? Amber’s slashfic filled her in (last three words regularly used in said slashfic).
I think it’s mostly hims getting filled in Amber’s fic.
Most straight people probably don’t have to reaffirm their straightness in the morning I assume.
It’s more common than you might think! But then again, my experience is only half-straight, so it might not be the best barometer…
As much as I want to see Carol’s reaction to Joyce’s potential bisexuality, I hope we never, ever see her again. Outright saying it’s okay for people to die if the Church deems it is enough for me.
My college experience is a bit dated, and in a somewhat conservative state, but male students used to do things like that pretty much all the time.
It is a testament to how homophobic (and/or biphobic) american college culture actually is (in a conservative place at least).
I could have put that last sentence in the past tense as I haven’t been in the US or a college in 15 years, but I am unfortunately not that hopeful.
Not as prevalent in my experience, though echoes are alive and well pretty much wherever you go.
Romesh Ranganathan has an excellent stand-up bit about this where he talks about the whole awful, ridiculous “no homo” thing homophobic people sometimes ‘jokingly’ say.
Eh, homophobic cultures can be pretty good at giving straight people massive insecurity about their own sexuality
I learned early in life that acting in an effeminate way was an immediately punishable offense. That you could never let your guard down, not for a second.
People that are homophobic, I can figure out. People that are so sexist that they think you literally have to be a woman for walking a certain way, I can’t.
Especially since they’re also transphobic.
*Judith Butler has entered the chat*
So Dorothy didn’t wake Joyce up when she went for her morning run? Or did she slip out of the room when no one is awake similar to one night stands?
I don’t know, but I am baffled about how she would have managed to do either of those things. The bed seems to be too high to easily jump down off by Joyce’s feet and I would imagine the ceiling is too low to get over Joyce without and still get down without hitting her (you can’t stand and jump off).
Maybe Joyce is just a heavy sleeper? Sometimes it’s the simple explanation that’s true.
The story needed her to, so she did.
the plot made her sleep?? that’s so contrived
most bunk beds i’ve slept on have had the end have sort of ladder rungs you climb down to get off.
Dorothy is the new Amazi-Girl confirmed.
It is likely she wished to spare Joyce the embarrassment of waking up in bed with her.
Or the whole binge-on-Dorothy business was the dream.
If it was a dream, I don’t see the point of having Joyce note the depression in the mattress; it’s also hard to account for Joyce leaving that spot open as she sleeps.
My take is that Dorothy left very carefully, and Joyce is referring to the event as a dream because she was just wakened by an alarm, and it’s common to confuse dreaming and waking events in that state.
The very small, elbow-sized depression in the mattress? She’s just reacting to the unwelcome reminder of her weenus. She even drops it down below her eyeline in panel four, clearly unsettled by the sight.
she can fly when she’s dreaming.
not without Horse though??
This broke me out in a fit of happy cackling
I guess Dorothy’s back to getting up at crazy hours, which is… good?
I don’t know that it is good, but it is part of Dorothy’s routine, so doing so probably made her feel good this morning even if she is still freaking out on the inside.
Sarah probably stated those exact same words when Dorothy was awkwardly leaving while Joyce was asleep.
Why are Joyce and Sarah both up at sunrise, they aren’t going to church are they?
Probably just getting up in time for breakfast. Skipping meals is wasting meal cards.
It’s January in Indiana, sunrise is at 8 AM.
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/bloomington-in?month=1
the many joys of winter
Well she might still not be getting up as early as walky ended up doing but i imagine other than the occasional bad day joyce isn’t the type to sleep in for too long/prolly has plans with joe if it’s a weekend date versus class
✨CUTIES BEWARE✨
much smutness awaits beyond the link.
i may have gotten carried away with my gay threesome caper the other day and turned this plotless fantasy into a full-blown story (for some definition of story) of which this is part 1. Part 2 may or may not follow in the near or distant future. This is, after all, happening in a galaxy far, far away, so like, what is time.
After a long, gruelling negotiation, Space Captain Julia Gray and President Doris Keener have finally gotten the three warring Space Vampires whose names i can’t keep straight to agree to peace. The warriors seal the deal with (obviously) a ceremonial orgy — under Captain Julia’s ever-watchful gaze. Only one small formality remains…
…woops the last image is supposed to be the first??? for some reason i can’t fix it??? 🤷♀️
Image order is fine now. My phone does not like that site apparently. I have to refresh the page for every image. Which I did. Totally worth the effort 😜
(Also I may sneaky steal part of your story idea to write a short thing for my sci-fi loving lady friend if that’s okay with your lordship)
oh hey it worked then. good! and please, use and abuse this premise
Wow I’m Blown away. So many characters. So much art. And really sexy. Just absolutely fantastic work. BRAVO.
haha thank you. ehh i may have work yet to reach your levels of sexy but, baby steps <3
re: alt-text,
Was there a voice telling you to get up, kill and eat?
isn’t that just like a god, to omit the oxford comma.
gals being pals
Dorothy Is ENDGAME!
She’s going to time-travel and help her past self get home from the Delta quadrant?
To those talking about Dorothy slipping out while Joy was asleep, note that Joy is in different clothes.
Or, yknow. She just put on some pyjamas while Dorothy was sleeping rather than going to sleep in a jumper and jeans.
I’d assume Joyce just changed into her pajamas and got back into bed last night while Dorothy was still asleep.
Sarah changed their clothes for them after they were asleep, and carried Dorothy back to her room and tucked her in? ok, I can see that.
I assume Dorothy’s dream is an infohazard that has infected Joyce.
Billie gets yoinked(NSFW)
A request of a follow up to this comic.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/gottagetoutof/
I actual forgot Ruth did that. No wonder Joyce was questioning her sexuality.
LOVE the look on Joyce’s face.
Any day where you draw Billie is immediately better, so just, yes, thank you, more of this please.
Just like a Leafs fan.
I forgot about that sequence! Nice job.
bahaha
thank you for your service <3
The faces are excellent. So are the boobs. You’re very good at both.
Everyone questioning what happened last night…I’m almost positive they were in Dorothy’s room and Joyce eventually left. It looked.like they were in a downstairs bunk bed, not a top one.
Nah, apart from the current lack of stripes on Joyce’s pillow, the two beds match up perfectly.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/01-everybodys-looking-for-nothing/mrmmrrmrmimo/
there are no “downstairs” bunk beds, in any of their dorms. the beds are all lofted above a desk.
What miz says is true for double-occupancy rooms in Read Hall, which is where most of the characters live. Ruth and Carla have single-occupancy rooms with a normal bed and no loft. Forest Quad, where Lucy and Jennifer live, has double-occupancy rooms with two beds at normal height.
[These assertions are based on what I think I’ve seen in the comic; corrections welcome.]
nah, that’s accurate. i thought about mentioning the typical beds in the other hall but decided not to since we were talking in the context of dorothy and joyce, but you’re correct, also about the singles.
also, even WITH those other types of beds, it’s STILL true that there’s no downstairs bunk beds anywhere, so ha!
Based on dialogue (Malaya commenting on the lofted beds), it sounds like the beds are configurable. But Joyce’s came pre-lofted with a ladder. I think all the beds in doubles in Read are lofted, but there’s a chance that’s because the bare background images are re-usable.
as rotunda pointed out, malaya’s comment stems from the fact that forest quad, where she had just moved from, had standard beds, not that the lofts are configurable. i don’t really see how they could be; you can’t put a desk OVER a bed.
My dorm had configurable lofts. Each occupant had a desk, bed, and wardrobe, and a couple of short shelf units. The rooms were just big enough that you could have a desk, bed, and wardrobe on the floor down each side of the room. But you could also stack a bed on top of the shelf units to loft it over a desk. Or, with a set of steel pins inserted into the bedposts, you could stack one bed on top of the other and have bunk beds (though I don’t recall ever seeing anybody actually set them up that way).
My roommate and I generally had both beds lofted over the desks on one side of the room, with one of the wardrobes between them, and the other wardrobe in the corner on the other side, which left the rest of the other side for a couch, fridge, stereo, and his drafting table.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/smaller/ Malaya’s comment
Joyce you don’t gotta start no-homoing first thing in the morning
well, if you don’t, you turn into a homo???
i also take my yes homo pills in the morning
Yes, the incredibly straight dream had by and incredibly straight person.
i wonder who will realize she is bi first, joyce, dorothy, or becky?
Becky isn’t bi maybe?
Hmm, I can’t remember if Becky’s ever brought up her sexuality before. I don’t think there’s been any indications one way or another.
You mean, besides shouting it to all and sundry, so loudly it wound up on the cover of a book?
there were some minor hints, it’s open to interpretation
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/kinsey/
Yes, there is uncertainty between 24 or 25 on the Kinsey scale
Becky canonically is gay not bi, just ask her
Pretty sure the question meant who will realize *Joyce* is bi first. The answer is Sarah
Joyce being bisexual would be super interesting, given how she reacted to Ruth’s boyfriend.
Of the three, I think Joyce seems the only one at all likely. (…very likely at this point, honestly.) Dorothy clearly cares about Joyce, but she seems to know where she stands, although granted the “laundry” circlejerk was a little weird. Joyce is the one who’s always seeing something there that maybe she doesn’t want to be seeing.
(Becky, of course, doesn’t even deserve a response.)
ICBW, but I honestly read this as which of them will realise Joyce is bi first.
…oh. That… actually makes more sense. In that case, I just assume Dorothy and Becky already think so, but Dorothy doesn’t want to push her, and Becky doesn’t want to come off the wrong way, especially now that she’s with Dina.
you think Becky already suspects? i think she may go through a mini-heartbreak again when she realizes, Dina notwithstanding.
Sarah obviously knows, though.
Lucy knew after just one encounter with her.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/proselytize/
ah indeed that is a less bonkers resolution of this otherwise mystifying comment XD
did you mean someone other than becky? because becky will definitely not be doing that
How did only one person realize that this comment is talking about Joyce specifically. Obviously. No one thinks becky is bi.
Right? I’m so mystified by the lack pf reading comprehension.
Dorothy. There’s some evidence she has an inkling already, and is more likely to think critically about it and realize she’s bi, or at least straight with an exception, or a biromantic heterosexual, or whatever is actually going on with her.
Joyce will realize she’s bi about three seconds after Dorothy mentions being interested in her, if that ever happens, otherwise she will continue to assert being straight indefinitely regardless of the evidence.
Becky would sooner die than claim attraction to men. She will never realize anything because there’s nothing to realize, and she will go to her grave with the knowledge she is 100% lesbian.
Poor Joyce, she looks so disappointed. Maybe in the next strip she will think that dreams don’t leave their perfume on the bed, or something like that.
Sometimes the symbolism in dreams is just symbolism, sometimes it isn’t.
Most of the fun is working out which is which.
Yeah, “a dream”
Darned if you are, Joyce, and darned if you ain’t
Joyce has Dorothy’s glasses, Dorothy has Joyce’s glasses
“For the record, your girlfriend left an hour ago, your laptop screen is cracked, and I stepped on your glasses.”
How the hell is she this adorable first thing in the morning?
afterglow.
BA DUM TSS
If she thinks Dorothy falling asleep watching cartoons was just a dream, I’m even more convinced that Dorothy jimmied Joyce’s lock and watched her sleep, two nights ago.
Oh yeah, that absolutely did happen.
If Dorothy will break into Ruth’s murder cave, she will absolutely check up on Joyce in the middle of a sleepless night.
Ooooooh I completely forgot about that strip, honestly.
If that was only 2 nights ago, Joyce’s pre-emptive insistence that her dream was straight this time actually makes a lot more sense. Almost enough to make her look not horribly insecure in her sexuality! ALMOST.
I think the dent on the bedding may disagree with your assessment Joyce
oh jeez, Jason? alright time to play with the case in my email
okay cool back to Joyce with only once change, much better
just two galpals having a platonic besties sleepover ;P
Notice that Joyce is wearing different clothes than her previous appearance. This means she’s changed outfits between then and now. Which further means that there is a non-zero chance she changed in front of Dorothy, leading me to the very normal and reasonable conclusion that Joyce possibly treated Dorothy to the sight of full frontal nudity last night, maybe.
To quote Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man 2: “We don’t know for sure.”
Dorothy peeked, then she felt guilty and promised herself not to do it again, maybe. Like a Judy Blume book.
So, are we good with saying that Joyce is, at this point, heterosexual but bi-romantic? She doesn’t necessarily want to engage in ‘hanky-panky’ with girls but she likes to have very close personal relationships and snuggle/cuddle?
And still with the possibility that she might continue to change…
Maybe there’s some gray area between the two, like “bi-intimate”? There’s obviously that scene in the laundry room, plus the way Joyce was getting really interested in Jennifer’s chest (as St. Yoto recently reminded us)
Aww, Joyce is in as much denial as I once was!
Dammit didn’t notice I replied instead of posted
Plus side, my god the avatar choice
a polycule would be ideal, if sarah doesn’t end up saying something snarky that’d freak joyce out like “you know this is technically *emotional* cheating” (which i mean can kinda be nuanced/a loaded term, since while it’s good to lean on a partner about emotional stuff, spreading that stuff among your friends would be ideal as well so it all doesn’t go on one person depending on what it is)
Identity and sexuality are both complicated. It also makes sense that she wouldn’t have the hots for her childhood friend, even if she turns out to be bi-sexual. The Westermark effect applies.
You know, it’d be the funniest thing in the world if she starts to genuinely question when Hank just figures she has a girlfriend now.
Well, the laundry room was Dorothy trying her hand at Joe’s “We’re going to make this sexual whether you like it or not” behavior so I wouldn’t say it’s evidence of Joyce being bi-romantic.
And before anyone says anything stupid, here is Dorothy and Joyce’s last interaction before “I’m going to teach you how to masturbate.”
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/slutshamey/
Followed by Dorothy blowing past a sexual assault victim’s boundaries.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/gopee/
So please, continue to ignore all context of that night.
Was she interested in Jennifer’s chest? I thought it was Carla’s!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/curiosity/
took a little digging. the following strip seems to further suggest things
I just love the tint on this one. it’s super pleasant to look at, it communicates the time of day instantly, and there’s a certain emotional tone that that soft rosey orange casts over proceedings. made me feel something about the funny comic strip
Excited for her very straight wet dream about Dorothy in her bed
no stripes on the pillow. Joyce has slid into a different dumbiverse, and nobody else will remember Dorothy. Meanwhile, Dorothy has slid into a dumbiverse with no Joyce, and the pillow is no stripes the other way.
Dorothy swapped out the pillow case so she could smell the striped one in the privacy of her own room
oh, that makes more sense. A sudden introduction of sci-fi wackiness so soon after some heavy drama would be quite a mood whiplash.
the bisexual bisleptual