Oh, crap. A happy comic? That means there’s some serious heartache and pain coming up. And with Billie and Ruth where we last left them, I’m not sure I’m ready.
Quite possibly nonchalant. I started gaming (GURPS, Yrth) at a Fundie school with full approval from the principal. I started playing D&D at my brother’s Christian College community center/game rooms.
I had the unfortunate circumstance of moving to a tiny redneck school, and being like the only nerd there, so there was no one to play D&D with. So I started hanging with the local goths, because they played Vampire: The Masquerade, which was the in thing at the time.
And then Columbine happened, and people started giving my goth friends the side-eye. The principal wanted a word, and I got the dubious honor of being the spokesman because I wore colors and had the usual number of holes in my head. So I got to explain to a fifty year old man that V:tM isn’t satanic, while he thumbed through a book full of people baring fangs and bleeding from the neck.
Somehow got through it okay, and we were allowed to keep playing.
Maybe it’s regional or generational, but D&D has definitely been considered satanic by some Christian fundamentalists. (e.g. upstate New York in the mid-1980’s.)
Maybe it’s not ironclad reasoning, but if “Delicious Taffy miraculously survived this tragic plane crash. The Lord clearly had a plan for them. [Seven different emojis]” was getting shared around wine moms’ feeds, I would absolutely hate my life. I don’t like when people use me as an example of something without my involvement, and that’s exactly what would happen.
But as long as you are alive, you have means to shape the narrative. For example, bring a sharpie. “Delicious Taffy miraculously survived this tragic plane crash covered with Satanic symbols”
This is known. Malaya is like “lukewarm agreement to feel her body next to me still constitutes agreement! I’LL TAKE IT”
What’s Malaya get out of this? Rebellion against Sal? Likes a few cuddles for their own sake? Trying it out just to see? Maybe Mal’s heart will grow a size.
That isn’t good. She would be the next one in the hospital and for an extended stay if it is really serious.
1. High blood pressure.
2. A leaky heart valve.
3. Inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis).
The more you know the less fun you are at parties.
I’m glad that Sal hasn’t lost Marcie, but I’m glad she’s also gained some solid friendships as well. She needed that.
Wonder if Carla and Joyce are hanging out with her proper, or just around while she studies with Danny. Kinda hard to say, but figuring they’re hanging around, since Carla was so tickled pink about Sal having the jacket and otherwise has warmed to her, and Joyce and Sal had their heart to heart.
I’m guessing it’s a math study group! Carla is there to “help” with her wild and wacky antics, totally not because she’s bored and lonely and her crush just hooked up with another one of her friends.
Well Joyce’s got moral fractions down. People can be part good. Then it’s moral algebra where things start off more complex and you have to work out if what’s happened is good or not. Moral geometry where it’s all about the relationships between the different people making more complex goodness like friendships and romance. Moral trigonometry where we start getting into people vacillating between good and bad, eventually getting a real sense of how weird infinite good is to think about. Then the moral calculus can really begin.
Cool? It’s a Prius that’s the better part of 20 years old, those haven’t hit AMC Gremlin “so bad they wrap back around to cool again” classic status yet.
The more I look at this, the more I’m convinced Malaya’s expression is fear. Fear of what? I don’t know. Fear of getting close to someone? Of letting down her chain-link-and-barbwire defenses? If so, what she’s doing is courageous.
At some point, Marcie is going to have to address how reluctant Malaya is to relax. Until then, though, I think that Sal can relax in the light and with the people that she’s finally allowing to admit to herself are her friends.
Meanwhile, Willis’s mouse-over text tells me that, tomorrow, we’re checking in with Blaine, Carol and Toedad.
I’m voting the Evil Parents Society having their first meeting with Carol and Ross proving that there’s nothing quite like an ultra-moralistic group for missing when their “new best friend” is an incorrigible criminal.
A nice strip. Sometimes it’s good to have something nice, while there are still at least two wobbly spinning plates ready to crash to earth. (Ruth’s ER visit, the League of Shitty Parents)
Yeah, I’ve noticed that most guys who wear hats don’t bother to take them off when they are indoors anymore, unless guilted about it. This is especially true for caps ( baseball, seed corn, etc. ).
Just start reminding folk that wearing a hat indoors is a studied insult to the owner of the building. You don’t trust them to keep rain and birdshyte off your head!
What are you supposed to do with your hat if you take it off? No place has hat racks anymore.
If it’s your home or your office, you probably have a place to put your hat. But if it’s a shared space, you can’t just put your hat on some table or counter, because people are using those surfaces. And carrying it around is just silly.
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Look at how upset Sal is by this development! Sure showed HER a thing or two!
Her work here is done.
Oh, crap. A happy comic? That means there’s some serious heartache and pain coming up. And with Billie and Ruth where we last left them, I’m not sure I’m ready.
My money is on, given Ruth is going to a hospital, the return of Sir.
oh dear god no…but if he does return, I hope he gets what he deserves like Toe Dad did…
And don’t forget about Blaine and Toedad teaming up. The trio could form the League of Extraordinarily Shitty Legal Guardians.
She could be an evil genius due to that plan…except she’s neither evil nor a genius.
Malaya successfully manipulated Sal’s emotions!
Playing D&D!
I would love to see Joyce’s reaction to that.
Quite possibly nonchalant. I started gaming (GURPS, Yrth) at a Fundie school with full approval from the principal. I started playing D&D at my brother’s Christian College community center/game rooms.
I had the unfortunate circumstance of moving to a tiny redneck school, and being like the only nerd there, so there was no one to play D&D with. So I started hanging with the local goths, because they played Vampire: The Masquerade, which was the in thing at the time.
And then Columbine happened, and people started giving my goth friends the side-eye. The principal wanted a word, and I got the dubious honor of being the spokesman because I wore colors and had the usual number of holes in my head. So I got to explain to a fifty year old man that V:tM isn’t satanic, while he thumbed through a book full of people baring fangs and bleeding from the neck.
Somehow got through it okay, and we were allowed to keep playing.
We thank you for your service, genuinely. A lot of someones had to do that job and probably none of them wanted to do it, but it was worth doing.
We did have a line at one point where Joyce explicitly told Carla that D&D was against her religion. Then again, Joyce has changed since then.
Maybe it’s regional or generational, but D&D has definitely been considered satanic by some Christian fundamentalists. (e.g. upstate New York in the mid-1980’s.)
That was artificially engineered by like two specific people.
She’s rolling up a Sorcerer. Unicorn bloodline, of course.
Good choice. She can be the party healer without having to worship a pagan god.
Instead she can be Queen of the Ponies, like her god always intended!
Carla is a barbarian, and Danny is the bard (because of course he is).
“Y’all start in th’ quad of th’ adventurers school. Ya’ll have been charged with a quest…”
Mike’s the rogue. Don’t know about chaotic good, but definitely chaotic.
Huh? is she playing DnD? I thought she was on her math tutoring?
Gonna need that college-level math to calculate your damage, skill checks, and experience points
With what dice?
Dice app.
This is so fucking cute and the hovertext gives me anxiety.
I know, I was so happy for so brief a time.
the penultimate strip of last storyline was Joyce faking a fundie aversion to Halloween so Sarah could have her pumpkins
remember how that ended
you tell me
The chapter title is “Vote for Robin”, so I don’t think it’s over yet.
If you mean Willis is foreboding . . . Well, yes of course. That’s what he does
I think “Vote for Robin” was in reference to Dina’s raptor plushie (campaign slogan embroidered on the butt)
I was feeling good about this strip until I read the hovertext.
How do I view hovertext on an Android phone?
No probs on my laptop (Linux, Chromium browser), but no success on my POS Samsung.
Tap the space below the comic to the side of the navigation buttons.
tomorrow is Ross, Carol, Blaine, Landrum, and Powers isn’t it
Spoiler alert: They are all in a plane crash tomorrow. Unfortunately, they all survive.
Honestly, I’d rather die if my plane crashed. I would hate to show up on people’s Facebook feeds as some feel-good survival story.
That… doesn’t seem like a very strong reason for preferring death. Appropriate expression of sympathy if I’m reading this right.
Personally, I’d be happy to live. “Atheist survives plane crash, remains unconverted.”
“Man survives plane crash, demands beer he paid for before impact”
Always wanted to see that headline.
Maybe it’s not ironclad reasoning, but if “Delicious Taffy miraculously survived this tragic plane crash. The Lord clearly had a plan for them. [Seven different emojis]” was getting shared around wine moms’ feeds, I would absolutely hate my life. I don’t like when people use me as an example of something without my involvement, and that’s exactly what would happen.
But as long as you are alive, you have means to shape the narrative. For example, bring a sharpie. “Delicious Taffy miraculously survived this tragic plane crash covered with Satanic symbols”
Shit, you’re right.
This is absolutely brilliant. Even if you don’t have a sharpie, say you get interviewed by some fundie news network or whatever.
“I mean, it just goes to show, the Lord is truly great, right?”
“Oh, no, I was praying to Satan the whole time. I’m so blessed to have Him looking out for me.”
Or if you don’t want to bring Satan into it, just point out that meant the Lord wanted everyone else on board to die.
Damn straight.
Derber Or Nothing
What happened to Lucy? Thought Carla would be buzzing around her.
….Malaya wants to bone Sal.
This is known. Malaya is like “lukewarm agreement to feel her body next to me still constitutes agreement! I’LL TAKE IT”
What’s Malaya get out of this? Rebellion against Sal? Likes a few cuddles for their own sake? Trying it out just to see? Maybe Mal’s heart will grow a size.
That isn’t good. She would be the next one in the hospital and for an extended stay if it is really serious.
1. High blood pressure.
2. A leaky heart valve.
3. Inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis).
The more you know the less fun you are at parties.
Sure, if you only go to parties with willful ignorance as an implied rule.
Hm.
Ruth? No she went home and was perfectly fine STORYLINE OVER
Obviously willis was talking about Becky getting sued for campaign finance reform
Due to Becky, all political campaigns are now required to purchase a giant plush dinosaur.
*violation, my bad
Awwww, everyone is so happy here! And Sal and all her friends she never thought she’d make. I’m so hap –
*reads hover text*
I feel the need for a pre-emptive Damn You Willis here.
I would join you but I’m running low on Damn You Willises after the last few strips with Billie and Ruth.
Here, I have a basket full for such occasions.
Yeah, it’s good to be prepared.
I’m glad that Sal hasn’t lost Marcie, but I’m glad she’s also gained some solid friendships as well. She needed that.
Wonder if Carla and Joyce are hanging out with her proper, or just around while she studies with Danny. Kinda hard to say, but figuring they’re hanging around, since Carla was so tickled pink about Sal having the jacket and otherwise has warmed to her, and Joyce and Sal had their heart to heart.
I’m guessing it’s a math study group! Carla is there to “help” with her wild and wacky antics, totally not because she’s bored and lonely and her crush just hooked up with another one of her friends.
It looks like Sal is reading something from the book to them.
And everybody was happy and content and nothing could possibly **EVER** go wrong.
“And I am Marie of Romania!”
Walky still has to learn calculus. Oh, and Becky moral calculus
Well Joyce’s got moral fractions down. People can be part good. Then it’s moral algebra where things start off more complex and you have to work out if what’s happened is good or not. Moral geometry where it’s all about the relationships between the different people making more complex goodness like friendships and romance. Moral trigonometry where we start getting into people vacillating between good and bad, eventually getting a real sense of how weird infinite good is to think about. Then the moral calculus can really begin.
Her parents taught her about moral limits, but she’s having to figure out integration and differentiation for herself.
Just remember, Joyce, when you get to moral differential equations, they’re inherently unsolvable.
I think Joyce’s problem is she was only taught |absolute values|.
Willis, Sydney Yus demands you continue to write Sydney Yus’s adventures, immediately!
Are you sure this is what you wish for?
FOOOOOL! This is Sydney Yus’s comic, and that vermouth of inestimable follicles David Willis only lives atop it!
Encourage Sydney for the next bonus strip.
See where she goes in her cool car.
Cool? It’s a Prius that’s the better part of 20 years old, those haven’t hit AMC Gremlin “so bad they wrap back around to cool again” classic status yet.
AND THAT WILL BE YOUR UNDOING!!!
Malaya is still looking away, and it doesn’t look as if she has put her arm around Marcie. So this is still a very one-sided attraction.
Malaya clearly doesn’t know what she wants. We may hope that being in this situation will help her figure it out. Marcie is keen to help.
I think Malaya doesn’t want to want people and she certainly doesn’t want to look like she wants people because that’s showing vulnerability.
Everything is happy and pleasant at the moment. So why am I so uneasy?
You’re have been reading Willis comics for awhile?
Aw, look at Sal and all her friends!
Aha! In the end, Sal’s plan worked! Long con for the win, baby!
No, wait, the plan was stupid and went terribly. Honesty and communication for the win! … Relatively speaking!
It’s unsettling seeing this many happy people in the last panel of the strip. You’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It bothers me that Malaya is looking everywhere but at Marcie.
Yeah. She’s not really into this, and Marcie is getting no more than she said she wanted. 🙁
maybe, but feigning disinterest in someone she actually likes is also somewhat on brand for Malaya imo, so could go either way
Malaya doesn’t strike me as the type who would stick around if she wasn’t interested.
She DOES strike me as the type who would feign disinterest because cool and aloof is her style.
And yes, hypocrisy is also her style.
“If certain girls don’t look at you
It means that they like you a lot
If other girls don’t look at you
It just means they’re ignoring you”
–Dan Bern
The more I look at this, the more I’m convinced Malaya’s expression is fear. Fear of what? I don’t know. Fear of getting close to someone? Of letting down her chain-link-and-barbwire defenses? If so, what she’s doing is courageous.
Maybe she’s introspecting. Or maybe she’s looking away from herself. The opposite of introspecting.
and then they banged.
Thats the stereotype joke right?
Joyce/Sal forever!
Yes, but no
This is so beautiful…
No I’m not crying you are I’m a grown woman I don’t cry
This seems too good… are the league of evil christian parents going to interrupt this? Is Blaine going to car crash Sydney’s car to kill Ruth?!
Don’t smile Sal! If Malaya finds out she’ll break up with Marcie! For the benefit of her best friend Sal can never smile again!!
That alt text is…threatening.
I’ve been ninjaed!
*adds a crack of thunder to go along with the hover text*
Somehow the mouseover strikes me as a threat.
There are a large number of villains in this story. I’m guessing Willis means we’re checking in with them next.
I’m guessing she’s more into it than she’s willing to admit.
That was supposed to be in reply to Agemegos.
I hope you’re right, but I’m afraid that Malaya has issues with gender and orientation that are going to take her a long while to figure out.
Oh look a good thing happened
…
THE FINAL ATTACK IS COMING
Welp, Malarcie is for real now.
Savor this malarkey-sounding portmanteau while they’re still together.
It’s pronounced like “malarkey”, right?
In my head it’s “Mah-lar-SEE”.
Damn you Sunny, I was going to say that.
REVENGE!
Or tacos. Either or.
For Sal “friends” has always been deifned as singular.
To see her surrounded by the friends she thought she would never make is very powerful
At some point, Marcie is going to have to address how reluctant Malaya is to relax. Until then, though, I think that Sal can relax in the light and with the people that she’s finally allowing to admit to herself are her friends.
Meanwhile, Willis’s mouse-over text tells me that, tomorrow, we’re checking in with Blaine, Carol and Toedad.
I love Today.
I’m afraid of Tomorrow.
Cause it’s Willis… :O
DO NOT TRUST ALT-TEXT
alt text makes me feel like it’s time to see blaine and/or toe, if its not just something simple like some (more) heartrending ruth/billie drama
cool beans. see y’all tomorrow.
I’m voting the Evil Parents Society having their first meeting with Carol and Ross proving that there’s nothing quite like an ultra-moralistic group for missing when their “new best friend” is an incorrigible criminal.
Malaya looking away…
Could be (for want of a better word) shyness…
But I also got the feeling she was watching Sal, as Sal was watching them.
But no… this is the end!
(right…?)
A nice strip. Sometimes it’s good to have something nice, while there are still at least two wobbly spinning plates ready to crash to earth. (Ruth’s ER visit, the League of Shitty Parents)
Danny is wearing a hat indoors.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that most guys who wear hats don’t bother to take them off when they are indoors anymore, unless guilted about it. This is especially true for caps ( baseball, seed corn, etc. ).
Just start reminding folk that wearing a hat indoors is a studied insult to the owner of the building. You don’t trust them to keep rain and birdshyte off your head!
What are you supposed to do with your hat if you take it off? No place has hat racks anymore.
If it’s your home or your office, you probably have a place to put your hat. But if it’s a shared space, you can’t just put your hat on some table or counter, because people are using those surfaces. And carrying it around is just silly.
Carrying it around is normal. If it’s a cap, you tuck the soft end under your belt in back.
Just carry it around on your head.
Well, I try to act like a gentleman. I’m probably not fooling anyone, but I try.
Guilting people to remove hats indoors is discriminatory against the bald and balding 😛
*Does not apply to Danny’s full head of hair
But if he’s not wearing his hat, how will people know he’s a Good Egg?
So? Taking hats off inside is an arbitrary social rule. Keeping it on hurts no one. 😛
It may be arbitrary, but it has that “social” to back it up.
So, it’s a new beginning (almost) for everyone? I love it!
They’ve come a long way, all of them
Why can’t this be the final of this comic. Now I have to worry about the Evil Dad Team Up looming on the horizon.
Yeah, there was the temptation to say “Well, it’s been a great run. A few dangling plotlines, but a good place to end.” 🙂
Man, with all the crazy shit happening to Billie and Ruth right now, it’s nice to see something good happening to a few people here.
Anyone else feels like Malaya is a Psychopath who wants to steal Sal’s life?
Uhhhhhhh….. no????????
I like the energy you’re bringin’, except I hate it and let’s don’t keep it up
I don’t think so. There is a profound difference between enjoying being an annoying twit and being a psychopath.
Sal smiled, don’t see that often. And I see she has gathered her harem/fan club in the last panel.
Um… circle of friends?
Sal is studying for midterm but… Walky… is making out with Amber instead I guess.
You have to have your priorities straight.
I love this last panel! So happy Danny’s there <3
First of all, Daw!
I think Marcie will come to regret it, but Daw anyway.
(Reads alt-tex) Oh-oh.
ALL THE FEELS <3