Until proven otherwise, I’m just going to assume the polycule in the dorm has been slowly adding new members in the background this whole time, and will eventually assimilate the entire cast.
Mind you, having just glanced back to reread the last few strips with him and Billie, she did everything she could to push him away, and he actively did make an effort to have her as a girlfriend.
I feel like maybe this was in response to someone else? Also yeah dating Jennifer does earn Asher some sympathy points but don’t fall for that! She was a bad girlfriend, but he still suspicious! You can be more than one thing.
I used to be really distrustful of Asher as a new reader in the early days of the timeskip, but at this point I’m really liking him and the distrust is pretty much gone for me. I could be proven wrong yet again, though.
I’m reading him as the type of gangster where he wants out, but these goddam circumstances keep conspiring to prevent that. Hopefully he won’t be in a situation where selling out his boyfriend’s best friend is his best path forward.
I’ve decided to take Asher at face value over the whole “wanted to get out of the game” thing. I’m probably wrong to do so, but I like Asher and it makes things more enjoyable for me.
I like Asher. He’s fun and charming as a character
I do not trust him. There is a reason we learned that Sal’s motorbike is gone because she was only allowed to have it because a parent pulled strings after it was shown that Asher suddenly had one
I think they meant the consistency of Willis drawing her carrying them every time she goes to shower. Not every artist would remember to include them every time, but he does.
I think it’s pretty cute that Carla made them for her and she’s still using them months later. Often DIY projects are just a novelty for a week or so, but she actually incorporated them into her routine.
Why does Ethan seem pissed at Joyce? Is this just him being flat affect or is he mad at her for some reason? Delayed resentment about the unhealthy nature of their relationship?
I doubt he’s pissed at her. Ethan can’t even give his oldest friend anything better than the minimum emotional effort. Even Joyce’s naturally cheerfulness won’t break his depression. He’s not mad at her. This is just who he is now.
Abruptly awakened by someone else, in a place he hadn’t meant to sleep and is now hurriedly vacating, after a night of drinking. I’d be no more than halfway present, under such circumstances.
To tell the truth, it is the first time that they meet again after everything that happened, I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like he is upset with her, although it is very likely that they will argue about it.
I don’t seen him being pissed? His expression looks pretty neutral. (This remind me how often my parents think I am mad because I have a “pissed off face” when I thought I was just not expressing anything).
I’ve been accused of this too. And yet – I’m used to a one-word “[Name]” address with a blank expression being a sign of hostility or at least coolness in visual fiction.
Real talk: I’m impressed that Joyce A) knows what a “polycule” is B) is sufficiently not-freaked out by the concept that she can actually say it out loud.
One of the Patreon bonus strips had Joyce asking Sierra et al about their “group thingy” and how they coordinated “snuggling”. When she said she’s fit 3 people into her dorm bed, they asked who was in her polycule.
To be fair to Jen there, that didn’t come out of the blue. Part of the Sexy Lesbian Suicide Pact was “Billie. Please don’t [leave me]. Ever. Not even if I get stupid and make you. Stay.”
That’s messed up in all sorts of ways, but different ones
This. I think people really misunderstood that Ruth basically coached Billie into not believing a breakup between them was real. That is not an indictment on how Jennifer treats every relationship. Ruth locked herself away from Billie because she expected Billie to fight for her, and even post breakup Ruth hypocritically wants to still resent Jennifer for not succeeding in keeping the relationship together in spite of her self sabotage. Ruth said all of this herself by the way. Somehow Jennifer is still the problem though.
They definitely both have problems. The SLSP was deeply problematic from the very start, but “Ruth had to break her own door handle with a freaking hammer!” or “Jennifer’s idea of “breaking up” is not really breaking up. She views it as a game” are not reasonable descriptions of those problems.
I’m gonna make a gamble here and say Jen will not care. Asher already told her point blank he made out with Ethan and she called him desperate. Jennifer has been hurt so badly by Ruth and maybe to a lesser extent Alice, that she is likely incapable of investing in anyone romantically. Raidah said get back together with him, his connections are good for my plans to control the world. Jen was like whatever.
Dating Asher was never anything more than a status move to show how much better she was doing and how totally over Ruth she definitely is. Asher having options will likely sting more than him actually being off the table to Jennifer.
The hurt definitely goes back before Ruth and even before Alice, basically to her parent’s emotional neglect. It’s hard to tell though how much she’s incapable of investing romantically and how much she’s incapable of admitting it. She was already incapable of recognizing what was really going on with Alice, from what little we’ve seen of the flashbacks.
Kind of wish we’d seen more of Asher and Jennifer together. We didn’t really get a look at how they interacted privately until they started to fall apart.
My two cents: she won’t care when she finds out they’re broken up. She’ll care some when she realizes he’s not coming back. She’ll care more when she finds out them breaking up evicts her from Raidah’s clique. Which would really say a lot about her priorities.
An actual sock. Some penis-havers like to whip on onto their dongus right as they’re finishing up a J.O. session, for easy clean-up. It’s mostly a convenience thing, and if you do it, you better be cleaning the damn sock, or you’re fucking nasty and need to reevaluate certain aspects of your life.
It’s important to ease that old thing in, though, and really accept its nuances. Trying to process it all at once could lead to a mishap. With your laundry.
I might be wrong but her most recent reaction seemed to be “Well I don’t need no man to be popular and successful!” after Raidah told her to get her man under control.
She told him he wasn’t her boyfriend, and is now waiting for him to “fix himself and come back”. So she has absolutely no reason not to know it’s over, but doesn’t anyway.
Asher obviously not prepared to blurt out “AMAZI-GIRL IS REALLY AMBER” yet.
Which given so many people already know, I have to think might not be useful
It’s not like we didn’t already know it, but holy cow does Joyce look like her sister when her hair’s pulled back like that. I was looking towards the left side of my screen when the strip loaded and even with the different glasses for a second was fully thinking “Wait, was the title of the next chapter a lie and now is when Jocelyne returns?”
It’s an emotional response that you prepare. Hope this helps. (Seriously though, I heard some other autistic call something similar “scripting” when you kind of practice an interaction in your head so you are sure what you will say or respond to a specific situation)
This, I’d also go so far as to say making sure your face is making an expression of an appropriate type can be part of that preparation too. If you’re overly processing everything in that moment you might well forget.
You can use my “prepared emotional response”, Joyce. Which is usually nothing and involves me being there not responding emotionally, or on my way to anywhere else not responding emotionally. Look, some of us had a dumbing of age and did not fix it over the next 20 years.
‘didn’t have prepared responses’ mood lol, although surprised she would bring it up to begin with if so (although it’s not like she hasnt’ seen other throuples before; i guess if she considers herself friends with jen it’d affect her more even if she hadn’t been gushing to joyce about how much she liked asher)
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>:D Polylylylylylylylyy….
Does jennifer know
I suspect she’s going to find out shortly.
This conversation is going to be fun, considering Jennifer doesn’t respect boundaries and actually thinks that is how you flirt.
Jennifer: Really? Hmph. He’s just trying to make me jealous. He’ll come crawling back soon, You’ll see.
*30 years later*
Old maid Jennifer: Any day now… You’ll see…
48 is “old maid”?
I’m pretty firmly spinsterized at 44, so maybe? (Of course, that’s 100% intentional so maybe I’m not a useful statistic)
Given that she caused it? Probably not.
finally, they’re over!
[ Strong Bad voice ]
IT’S OVERRR!
‘Tis ne’er ‘e’er o’er, m’lo’er o’ ‘clo’er
(I probably misspelled that here and there, oh well!)
*Geoffrey Rush voice* Ye’d best start formulatin’ emotional responses to polycule things, Miss Brown…
Until proven otherwise, I’m just going to assume the polycule in the dorm has been slowly adding new members in the background this whole time, and will eventually assimilate the entire cast.
Obligatory XKCD
I was SO sure it was going to be this one”!! But I was wrong.
Me too
Resistance is futile
Ooohh I just watched him deliver that line tonight! Barbosa
You’re in one
Everyone decided not to trust Asher yesterday but I’m here to say I was distrusting of him back before it was cool!
Mind you, having just glanced back to reread the last few strips with him and Billie, she did everything she could to push him away, and he actively did make an effort to have her as a girlfriend.
She’s an idiot.
I feel like maybe this was in response to someone else? Also yeah dating Jennifer does earn Asher some sympathy points but don’t fall for that! She was a bad girlfriend, but he still suspicious! You can be more than one thing.
I don’t anyone has ever accused Jennifer of being a super genius
I used to be really distrustful of Asher as a new reader in the early days of the timeskip, but at this point I’m really liking him and the distrust is pretty much gone for me. I could be proven wrong yet again, though.
I’m reading him as the type of gangster where he wants out, but these goddam circumstances keep conspiring to prevent that. Hopefully he won’t be in a situation where selling out his boyfriend’s best friend is his best path forward.
I’ve decided to take Asher at face value over the whole “wanted to get out of the game” thing. I’m probably wrong to do so, but I like Asher and it makes things more enjoyable for me.
asher rules and im happy to be ahead of the curve on liking him
Agreed and seconded. I like him and idc what other people say.
Same. Asher Stan since he first showed up as an adult. Slay king, get that education
I like Asher. He’s fun and charming as a character
I do not trust him. There is a reason we learned that Sal’s motorbike is gone because she was only allowed to have it because a parent pulled strings after it was shown that Asher suddenly had one
You hipster, you.
Amber’s fics have her prepared for this eventually. And her next load of laundry.
I kinda like Asher. I think he’s good for ethan
i love the consistency of her bringing the jugshoes with her, it’s adorable
Yeah, like… she returns from the shower. It’s pretty consistent of her to bring back what she brought there.
I think they meant the consistency of Willis drawing her carrying them every time she goes to shower. Not every artist would remember to include them every time, but he does.
Willis is adorable for his consistency. Got it.
Be fair. Willis is probably adorable in other ways as well.
I think it’s pretty cute that Carla made them for her and she’s still using them months later. Often DIY projects are just a novelty for a week or so, but she actually incorporated them into her routine.
I suspect that the shower floors haven’t gotten any better.
Yuch. I do NOT want to think about the shower floors. And now I can’t get them out of my mind.
I’ve gone camping at campgrounds where there is a wooden slat platform on top of the shower floor and the campground can’t be bothered to clean them.
Methinks Carla’s constructed works have durability.
When Carla makes something it will be durable and eternal so that Carla will be noticed, observed and appreciated.
The Carla is a Goddess and WILL be worshipped. (In the eyes of the Carla.)
She wouldn’t want to associate her name with shoddy craftsmanship.
(And she designed them so the plastic jug parts could be easily replaced when they wore out.)
Why does Ethan seem pissed at Joyce? Is this just him being flat affect or is he mad at her for some reason? Delayed resentment about the unhealthy nature of their relationship?
I doubt he’s pissed at her. Ethan can’t even give his oldest friend anything better than the minimum emotional effort. Even Joyce’s naturally cheerfulness won’t break his depression. He’s not mad at her. This is just who he is now.
I think it’s just flat affect. Also Joyce being cheery at him when he’s just woken up, maybe.
Abruptly awakened by someone else, in a place he hadn’t meant to sleep and is now hurriedly vacating, after a night of drinking. I’d be no more than halfway present, under such circumstances.
To tell the truth, it is the first time that they meet again after everything that happened, I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like he is upset with her, although it is very likely that they will argue about it.
he’s just a downer now
He seems like his usual self to me. Well the usual self he is now.
I don’t seen him being pissed? His expression looks pretty neutral. (This remind me how often my parents think I am mad because I have a “pissed off face” when I thought I was just not expressing anything).
I’ve been accused of this too. And yet – I’m used to a one-word “[Name]” address with a blank expression being a sign of hostility or at least coolness in visual fiction.
Real talk: I’m impressed that Joyce A) knows what a “polycule” is B) is sufficiently not-freaked out by the concept that she can actually say it out loud.
I mean she already encountered a poly relationship with Mandy/Grace/Sierra.
Well she does know about Sierra dm the other two girls whose names escape me right now, so it isn’t an entirely new thing for her.
One of the Patreon bonus strips had Joyce asking Sierra et al about their “group thingy” and how they coordinated “snuggling”. When she said she’s fit 3 people into her dorm bed, they asked who was in her polycule.
Dang, it sounds like I’m missing out not being on the Patreon.
Not to mention, Joyce said that she wanted to watch Dorothy and Walky have sex, which kind of teeters on ethical non-monogamy.
Hey, lots of Bible folks had multiple wives
Jennifer does knows they broke up, she is just also expecting that he comes to win her back eventually. She is in for quite a shock.
I wonder what kind of reaction she would manifest?
it will be interesting
Let’s be honest: Jennifer’s idea of “breaking up” is not really breaking up. She views it as a game.
Ruth had to break her own door handle with a freaking hammer!
To be fair to Jen there, that didn’t come out of the blue. Part of the Sexy Lesbian Suicide Pact was “Billie. Please don’t [leave me]. Ever. Not even if I get stupid and make you. Stay.”
That’s messed up in all sorts of ways, but different ones
This. I think people really misunderstood that Ruth basically coached Billie into not believing a breakup between them was real. That is not an indictment on how Jennifer treats every relationship. Ruth locked herself away from Billie because she expected Billie to fight for her, and even post breakup Ruth hypocritically wants to still resent Jennifer for not succeeding in keeping the relationship together in spite of her self sabotage. Ruth said all of this herself by the way. Somehow Jennifer is still the problem though.
“[Jennifer] has trouble expressing love in ways that isn’t buying stuff for people.”
— alt text of a pre-timeskip comic
They can both be the problem.
They definitely both have problems. The SLSP was deeply problematic from the very start, but “Ruth had to break her own door handle with a freaking hammer!” or “Jennifer’s idea of “breaking up” is not really breaking up. She views it as a game” are not reasonable descriptions of those problems.
I’m gonna make a gamble here and say Jen will not care. Asher already told her point blank he made out with Ethan and she called him desperate. Jennifer has been hurt so badly by Ruth and maybe to a lesser extent Alice, that she is likely incapable of investing in anyone romantically. Raidah said get back together with him, his connections are good for my plans to control the world. Jen was like whatever.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-14/04-for-me-it-was-tuesday/slipaway/
Dating Asher was never anything more than a status move to show how much better she was doing and how totally over Ruth she definitely is. Asher having options will likely sting more than him actually being off the table to Jennifer.
The hurt definitely goes back before Ruth and even before Alice, basically to her parent’s emotional neglect. It’s hard to tell though how much she’s incapable of investing romantically and how much she’s incapable of admitting it. She was already incapable of recognizing what was really going on with Alice, from what little we’ve seen of the flashbacks.
Kind of wish we’d seen more of Asher and Jennifer together. We didn’t really get a look at how they interacted privately until they started to fall apart.
My two cents: she won’t care when she finds out they’re broken up. She’ll care some when she realizes he’s not coming back. She’ll care more when she finds out them breaking up evicts her from Raidah’s clique. Which would really say a lot about her priorities.
Don’t look now but “a sock” is winning
Is that like an actual sock, or is this just earthling slang of which of which i am not familiar?
An actual sock, yes.
An actual sock. Some penis-havers like to whip on onto their dongus right as they’re finishing up a J.O. session, for easy clean-up. It’s mostly a convenience thing, and if you do it, you better be cleaning the damn sock, or you’re fucking nasty and need to reevaluate certain aspects of your life.
Ah, one goes on the dick, the other on the doorknob. THAT’S why they come in pairs!
Don’t cum on your doorknob.
What are you, a cop?
“Remember, licking doorknobs is illegal on other planets.”
Lucy to the sock: Do what you must, Argyle-kun. I’ve already won.
Better let Jennifer know.
Bah, she knows that he’s just playing hard to get! /s
Well at least one of them knows it’s over.
rough morning for Joyce
I mean it’s a hangover, of course it’s gonna suck
Joyce can only take so many new things in one morning
Fortunately Joe’s thing isn’t new. It’s as old as he is.
Did you have to? really?
Thankyou fopr inventing a nonsensical aversion I am going to keep thinking about basically forever.
It’s important to ease that old thing in, though, and really accept its nuances. Trying to process it all at once could lead to a mishap. With your laundry.
(I don’t apologize at all.)
Joyce has made good progress and we’re all very proud of her and I hope she knows that
She’s changed a lot over the course of 14 years. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t read the comic.
does Jennifer know that it’s over?
My understanding is that she has been informed but she does not believe it.
I might be wrong but her most recent reaction seemed to be “Well I don’t need no man to be popular and successful!” after Raidah told her to get her man under control.
Yep, Jennifer is not very big on seeing things as they are
She told him he wasn’t her boyfriend, and is now waiting for him to “fix himself and come back”. So she has absolutely no reason not to know it’s over, but doesn’t anyway.
Joyce has the soul of a natural shipper, but she hasn’t yet studied any organic polycule chemistry.
“See, without a prepared emotional response for a situation, I default to one of my freak-out faces. You wouldn’t want that.”
Asher obviously not prepared to blurt out “AMAZI-GIRL IS REALLY AMBER” yet.
Which given so many people already know, I have to think might not be useful
I’m expecting the breakup news to spread like wildfire, or at the very least a controlled blaze in Jennifer’s dorm given her fanbase.
Maybe after Jennifer hears about her breakup from fifteen different people she’ll figure out it happened. Should be fun, for us.
It’s not like we didn’t already know it, but holy cow does Joyce look like her sister when her hair’s pulled back like that. I was looking towards the left side of my screen when the strip loaded and even with the different glasses for a second was fully thinking “Wait, was the title of the next chapter a lie and now is when Jocelyne returns?”
What the heck is a “prepared emotional response”?
Do you attempt to prepare an emotion so you can feel it at the right time?
It’s an emotional response that you prepare. Hope this helps. (Seriously though, I heard some other autistic call something similar “scripting” when you kind of practice an interaction in your head so you are sure what you will say or respond to a specific situation)
Sounds like how wizards have to prepare daily spells every morning in DnD.
Autistic wizards unite!
This, I’d also go so far as to say making sure your face is making an expression of an appropriate type can be part of that preparation too. If you’re overly processing everything in that moment you might well forget.
You can use my “prepared emotional response”, Joyce. Which is usually nothing and involves me being there not responding emotionally, or on my way to anywhere else not responding emotionally. Look, some of us had a dumbing of age and did not fix it over the next 20 years.
‘didn’t have prepared responses’ mood lol, although surprised she would bring it up to begin with if so (although it’s not like she hasnt’ seen other throuples before; i guess if she considers herself friends with jen it’d affect her more even if she hadn’t been gushing to joyce about how much she liked asher)