“Uh, we had a slight relationship malfunction, but uh… everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?”
The breakup wasn’t THAT bad. There is still (remains) a possible ‘just friends’ or neutral status, these are TEENAGERS for christ’s sake. No pregnancies were involved, no heavy financial interties, no jointly held properties, just ‘dated, found out it didn’t work’ and go. (then again, when I was college age, I kinda didn’t have any feelings at all that way, I was far too involved with painting miniatures and laying down head-trips for my stoner friends at the game table, with dice…)
Yeah, it’s definitely possible to recover from this and still be friends or just neutral, but it’s literally the next day and that’s awkward. Going to take a bit of time to adjust
Heck, it was only nebulously a breakup at all. I wouldn’t put money on it, but “Hey, I was and am upset about things but still like you and want to see if we can work through it” is a theoretically plausible trajectory for these two. Very long odds, but weirder things have happened.
This is David Walkerton, he’s slightly less socially adept at eighteen than I was-and I had to learn my social skills in the Army because I didn’t HAVE any. that said, do you REALLY think he’s going to think of that, and not ‘what he’s doing at this very moment’?
‘cuz I don’t.
Ooooof, and on a Valentine’s Day strip of all times.
How ya’ll celebrating anyways?
Even if you don’t gotta partner to spend it with (I Know I don’t), ’tis a good day to practice self-love and treat yourself to something special regardless! <3
Mmmmm… ngl tho I more a French toast kinda girl :9
imma treat myself to home-made pot brownies for sure, followed by a medley of watching movies and retro game playthroughs, looking at spritesheets and nostalgic dinosaur stuff online, and coding a video game about dinosaurs because Dina 🥰🦖
Its awkward cause I got up this morning and she’s still on the 13th so we chatted before I had to go off to work. She’s prolly going to get up in an hour and we’ll chat some more before she has to go to work. And that’s most likely to be that. Distance relationships can suck in that way.
V-day was always kind of a strange day for me. The V-day after my partner passed I was in a super bad way.
Today I just took extra meds, read a bunch of funny memes online, hardly worked at all, wrote stories to send to a friend, and stuffed myself on chocolate and sushi. It was a sad day, but it’s almost over. And it’s also a day to feel grateful, in spite of everything.
2/14 will be a better day. I got my V-day sadness out of the way ahead of time. We’ll be all right.
🤝🫂🐈 Warm fuzziness to everyone who wants some, and respectful distance maintained for those who prefer to preserve their space.🪐
Chinese food, a big heart-shaped box full of Reese’s chocolates, ᵃᵍᵍʳᵉˢˢᶦᵛᵉ ˢᵉˣ, large doses of Delta-9, and a marathon of the entire live-action Resident Evil movie series. So basically a normal night but with more drugs.
The live action RE movies were my old guilty pleasure. Even made a point of watching the at the cinema.
then the final movie was bad enough that it went from “guilty pleasure” to “Jesus no, abandon ship, jump overboard”
Celebrating is a debatable term. I’ll be getting up and working all day… since I work in a restaurant, well, it’ll be a nonstop marathon hell-scape on what is normally my day off. On the up side, week off soon.
We celebrate Valentines day almost every year with me fixing us Chinese food in memory of the day some 30 years ago she invited me out for hamburger. Don’t ask.
I was recently working on a piece of digital art, a psychedelic train, to see if I could and she looked over my shoulder and said, I really like that one.” So she’s getting a matted print.
I’m going to hang out with my husband and watch him play The Quarry. We usually have a tradition of ordering a pizza but we hung out with hubby’s bff last night and had pizza. So I think I’ll make Mapo Tofu tonight. :3
A good question indeed. Everyone’s been talking like these two are already broken up but let’s be real they definitely haven’t figured that out yet. Prospects certainly don’t look good though.
It doesn’t matter if anything has actually happened. If it’s been even slightly hinted at as a possibility, people will leap on it like starving hyenas. Joyce’s autism diagnosis (didn’t happen), Walky and Lucy breaking up for certain (not quite yet), Booster having any appealing characteristics beyond the occasional kinda-nice outfit, whatever else.
Okay, but by narrative conventions, we can effectively know what the results are of Joyce’s diagnosis before it happens, because this is a story and not real life. Like, why bring it up, why make it a plot point, if the conclusion to the arc is just “Oh, no, you’re neurotypical, you just had a bad childhood”? A thing we already know, a thing that this does nothing to reiterate?
If the narrative actually focuses on the diagnostic process (which it probably never will), then the only satisfying conclusions are either “yes, she has autism”, or potentially “no, but she has OCD or some other neurodivergence instead (or in addition to).” And if we know that those are the narrative outcomes, and we know that the former is more likely than the latter, and we also know that the diagnostic process prolly won’t be shown because it’s narratively redundant, then readers can just safely assume that Joyce is autistic. That that was the point of bringing it up in the story.
What Taffy said is that since Joyce hasn’t been diagnosed yet it’s somehow jumping to conclusions to talk as though she’s autistic. Except it’s not, for the reasons stated. There’s no point bringing it up in story only for it to go nowhere. Everybody understands that but the two of you.
It can be ambiguous. esp with other diagnosis. That was already discussed, and can be the point. Plus one more need to unpack something post religious upbringing.
Plus its autobiographical, and diagnosis criteria probably changed in 20 years.
yeah other than letting everyone know or wanting some distance, walking to class together isn’t exactly a romantic thing in a group setting but even if they do walk together i assume they’re still gonna be in the same class, tho i imagine it’d be too late to change seats (unless it’s a first come first serve thing even if college tech doesn’t have seat assignments like some places, i imagine most ppl just ‘choose’ one themselves)
She said specifically, “See you at math tomorrow”. Which couldn’t really be avoided, since neither of them are going to drop the class, but also implies not before then and thus not walking there together.
And while walking to class together isn’t exactly romantic, it’s awkward as hell. At the start of a breakup, assuming that’s what this is, every contact is. But this is public, with friends, in a context where they’ll have to make small talk, but can’t actually hash out what’s going on between them.
If Lucy’s here to stake a claim on her place in the friend group, it’s a really aggressive move. It’s also possible she’s just going along with her routine, not realizing how awkward it’ll be. This is her first breakup, I believe.
There’s some uncertainty. “I need to be brave enough to know when I deserve better,” leans towards finality, but it’s still a little ambiguous.
He did not seem to be expecting her, and he did tell Sal they “kinda blew up”. And then he ran into Dorothy at karaoke.
I thought it was a breakup, but it may be that Lucy is waiting for Walky to make a move. She says “we’ll see”, which implies that she’s giving Walky a chance to prove that the relationship is important to him and not just inertia.
I didn’t consider the karaoke angle, though. I wonder if something happened with him an Dorothy, and that’s why he makes that face at the end?
Just like, 2 weeks ago, when Walky confronted his parents, he called the argument “the breaking point”. I think Walky considers the relationship over, at least.
I don’t doubt that this was bad enough to be a breaking point for them. But the last conversation had a lot of bad implications with not a single bit of actual confirmation about what is going on between them now.
It’s called the Internet, and I guess you’re new to it. I’m actually great at real life interactions, but these made up rules for online interactions aren’t worth learning. You’re all nothing but avatars and usernames to me.
In real life, if someone makes a joke and you explain why it’s not how things actually work, everyone says “excellent point, thank you for pointing it out”. It’s only the internet that has this made up rule that “this makes you look like you don’t know what a joke is”.
Also, LOL at “I guess you’re new to the internet, I don’t know how it works on purpose.”
Your fanfic could use some work. Keep trying and you might get there one day. Or don’t, the guys at work love hearing about you weirdos and your crusades during lunch.
Have you thought about not commenting anymore? You sound like you have a very unearned sense of superiority towards a bunch of strangers online. Maybe you should work on that.
I’m not sure what you’re asking but I think Walky and Lucy worked better as friends and it shouldn’t be too hard to get back to that point. They dated a week and ultimately didn’t do much that would alienate the other. The awkwardness will die down faster than their relationship did.
They were never friends. Lucy was angling to date him from basically the start. When a guy does that, it’s not friendship, same deal for girls. It’s dishonest.
I’d fictionally take that bet on account of the fact that that’s funny and if that was what we’d go for here that Willis would probably have made that the punchline to “this” strip if he were going that route.
I’d imagine it’d be like sarah staring for a few seconds, saying something snarky and just leaving the two awkwardly alone if not just watching their whole convo unfold
More like… Walentine’s Day. Even though the ‘Wal’ in Walky doesn’t rhyme with the ‘Val’ in Valentine’s and this would have worked much better with Sal.
Just remembered these are WALKY’S friends, not Lucy’s. Not sure what her goal is here but I’ll be damned if she tries to make him feel uncomfortable in his own friend group
Revenge for what exactly? She broke up with him, or at least told him “fuck you” which some consider not breaking up. Like she’s the initiator here. The ball’s in her court. She trying to make Walky pay for going along with her dumb plan to impress his racist parents?
She did more than just not complain. She actively helped create the plan and enthusiastically supported it. When she didn’t like the results yelled fuck you at Walky and blamed him for everything, completely ignoring her own excitement over it in the beginning.
Well, not completely ignoring it, just reframing it as “thing I did because I didn’t have enough self-respect to say ‘that’s messed up'”, rather than “thing I thought was a great idea for reasons that now escape me”.
Okay, as someone who is generally not fond of Lucy, overall, I’m going to try to paint this from her PoV:
Yes, she helped concoct a ridiculous plan–but that was because Walky had made it self-evident that he had no intention of confronting his parents (esp. his mother) directly about the issue, despite being fully aware of it. She regrets enabling him on this, rather than not starting out with a demand that he defend her more fully against the toxicity in the family dynamic.
Also, I don’t think she’s trying to get ‘revenge’, here. That would be counter to her self-image as ‘the nice one’. If anything, she’s hoping to prove Sarah wrong, by being friends with the group even after she’s broken off her relationship with Walky. If I’m right about this, then all I can add is, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see how it plays out for her.”
Trying to prove Sarah wrong, at least as much to herself as to Sarah. She has trouble making and keeping friends too, and she’s spent the last month or three trying to make friends with Walky’s friends.
Assuming she actually considers them broken up, I’d go with the “wants to keep the friend group” idea. This is a lousy way to go about it, but this is also the first real breakup she’s had, iirc. She likely doesn’t have a good idea of the protocol.
I betcha she is just operating on wishful thinking, as usual. She just showed up assuming Walky’s friends will be her friends even now that she’s told him to f off.
I’m not sure I’d characterize Sarah and Joyce’s relationship as “friends”, exactly. Sarah’s more the big sister Joyce always wanted and didn’t think she had.
I’ll give you Dina. I remembered them eating together, content in the knowledge that they didn’t have to pretend to know how socializing works, after I posted, and didn’t feel like coming back to make an addendum.
I mean they do have the same class. This is interesting because Lucy did change her schedule specifically to get close to Walky and now that her romance has ran its course she’s still kind of stuck having to be in the same place at the same time with him and no real pretense to hangout with the rest of the group. Surely she’s not here because Sarah is good company and with no Sal or Joyce this is actually a kind of power move to wait for Walky. I’ve said it from the beginning that Lucy is not as innocent as she presents.
They have the same class, but aren’t coming from the same dorm, so don’t need to walk there together.
OTOH, it’s a large group that usually walks and she doesn’t have a reason to think that Sal’s already left and Joyce isn’t(?) coming today.
…I mean, keep in mind that Lucy just kind of assumed that she was automatically “best friends” with Jennifer the day that she transferred into her dorm. It’s entirely possible Lucy stopped thinking of them as “Walky’s friends” a while ago!
Whether it’s Quiet Storm for the lovebirds, Power Ballads for the ones celebrating Single Awareness Day, or shouting “Damn You Willis” all day for the astute considering today’s timing, we’ve got all the bangers this Valentine’s Day.
Esp. for those of us old enough that rating the students would feel a bit… wrong. (Seriously I could be these kids’ grand-pappy, if there was a mid-teens pregnancy along the way.)
First I’m going to note that we need more names. At the very least, Chloe should be on there (RMs might be more ‘staff’ than ‘faculty’, I suppose, but they’re still employees of the school).
And honestly, Chloe’s got that two-tone hair thing going, and I’ve got a weakness for that, esp. with the glasses.
Out of your list, though, I’d waffle a lot between Leslie and Robin, before finally settling on Leslie.
Where’s Dina, anyway? Sal’s already out, Walky and Lucy just got here, Joyce is… preoccupied? Jennifer’s probably going from her own dorm by herself. That just leaves Dina of the math group.
Objectively, I feel Sal is the hottest, as in she would push the buttons of the greatest variety of people (and the poll seems to support that).
But subjectively, it’s between Amber and Jennifer for me, as I generally lean towards the curvier the better.
That said, there’s something about Amber when she’s feeling like garbage and doesn’t care about doing the appropriate thing, but wants to indulge in her baser desires that really does it for me, so I have to choose her.
listen carefully. linda was pretty hot in walkyverse, like the absolute hottest, but not so much in dumbiverse. but shes not even an option, so that’s out. as a lesbian who primarily likes butch lesbians, there is simply not a recurring character who really comes close to encapsulating what i really find attractive AND is on the poll. except jason, who is not really meant to be seen as a butch lesbian i’m sure, but until one with presentation even remotely close to jason’s is actually introduced i am going to fully convince myself and play pretend that he the dapper he/him butch lesbian of my dreams. so by this metric, he’s obviously the hottest. the only way to fix this is if dorothy were butch. that kind of presentation doesn’t really seem her style, but it would be soooo hot.
Sarah blinks a moment, then sports an evil grin. “I vill break you.”
Walke has a nervous look, and hesitantly replies, “Yeah, I think you will. I should be running now. Part of me is screaming that I should. But another part just says, ‘yes, ma’am’.”
I reckon she’d probably approve of Danny and Sal if she actually thought about it for more than “lol he’s not immediately and obviously exciting” seconds
As far as college couples go, they’ve got a very solid foundation
I think it’s the angle from which Walky is looking down at them at the bottom of the steps. There’s no background for Lucy’s two panels where she’s looking at him, so the addition of the road when she looks away shakes the viewer a little bit.
Pretty late to make a comment, but! My theory is that Walky will tell Lucy that he had an argument with his mum about her racism. Lucy will call him an idiot for it becaue why would you do that when you’re financially dependent on them??? Walky gets mad and confused on why she’s angry because wasn’t this what she wanted?? Answer turns out no, at least not nessicarily, she wanted him to at least say something in her defence when his mum decides to make little congay comments about her. Sarah is on the sidelines egging them both on in the argument because the woman gets off on strife and misery.
Surprisingly, DoA has no characters I really find sexy. Which is wild! There are Slipshines and stuff! And they do nothing for me. I voted Sal bc she’s who I theoretically like the most, but Joe would be a close second if it was post-timeskip Joe.
For me, all of these characters are kids. They are literally younger than my kids. AND they are cartoons. So they have zero sexiness. Joyce’s mom dresses like a cougar with her push-up bra, inappropriately low-cut minidress, and bathrobe, but since she is a horrible person …! I just don’t even understand, maybe she has been sleeping with their pastor out of misplaced duty to god.
Hmmm… Amber’s mom and Joe’s dad are quite a lovely couple, I wish we could see more of them.
Honestly, I feel like at least half of the recent strips could have gone here and it would have been “perfectly timed for Valentine’s Day”.
Lucy and Walky breaking up? Karaoke date with the ex? Karaoke with all the exes? Dorothy’s romantic tribulations, including her evident confused lesbian crush on her best friend, while watching said best friend’s happy new relationship? Sarah blowing up her chances with Jacob with her Sarahness? Sarah’s efforts to cockblock Joyce and Joe? Jennifer and Asher’s dysfunctional relationship? Asher flirting with Ethan while still in said dysfunctional relationship?
One of these days, I should write short character examination thingies (what the fuck is the word for that) about each of these goofballs. Partly to help myself understand them, because I just kinda don’t get some of ’em at the moment, and partly as practice for this other idea I’ve had boiling for more complex characters.
Loading ...
“Uh, we had a slight relationship malfunction, but uh… everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?”
Boring conversation anyway. I think they’re going to have company.
I don’t care what you smell you big furry oaf, just get in there!
It’s not wise to upset a Walky.
I mean what the hell Lucy? You burnt that bridge with a napalm strike. There’s nothing for you here.
The breakup wasn’t THAT bad. There is still (remains) a possible ‘just friends’ or neutral status, these are TEENAGERS for christ’s sake. No pregnancies were involved, no heavy financial interties, no jointly held properties, just ‘dated, found out it didn’t work’ and go. (then again, when I was college age, I kinda didn’t have any feelings at all that way, I was far too involved with painting miniatures and laying down head-trips for my stoner friends at the game table, with dice…)
Yeah, it’s definitely possible to recover from this and still be friends or just neutral, but it’s literally the next day and that’s awkward. Going to take a bit of time to adjust
Heck, it was only nebulously a breakup at all. I wouldn’t put money on it, but “Hey, I was and am upset about things but still like you and want to see if we can work through it” is a theoretically plausible trajectory for these two. Very long odds, but weirder things have happened.
What’s he going to do? Eat chips about it?
Chips are delicious, but he might also lampoon you in his totally awesome webcomic Law-esome
i would’ve expected walky to be even later on purpose to avoid them. or at least send a courtesy text or so
This is David Walkerton, he’s slightly less socially adept at eighteen than I was-and I had to learn my social skills in the Army because I didn’t HAVE any. that said, do you REALLY think he’s going to think of that, and not ‘what he’s doing at this very moment’?
‘cuz I don’t.
Far more reasonable to expect Lucy to not show up. She’s the one coming from another dorm to meet them to walk to class.
Fine: Everything
The matter: Nothing
Who is this? What’s your operating number?
Ooooof, and on a Valentine’s Day strip of all times.
How ya’ll celebrating anyways?
Even if you don’t gotta partner to spend it with (I Know I don’t), ’tis a good day to practice self-love and treat yourself to something special regardless! <3
Going to a concert tonight.
Oooo! Who’s playing?
no, Who’s _attending_, they just SAID so
–Dave, manfully resisted the urge to answer “Yes!”
Tomorrow morning I think I shall have pancakes. I like pancakes. Are you doing anything special?
Mmmmm… ngl tho I more a French toast kinda girl :9
imma treat myself to home-made pot brownies for sure, followed by a medley of watching movies and retro game playthroughs, looking at spritesheets and nostalgic dinosaur stuff online, and coding a video game about dinosaurs because Dina 🥰🦖
I’mma try to get a random made up for Valentines Day Pokemon.
Its awkward cause I got up this morning and she’s still on the 13th so we chatted before I had to go off to work. She’s prolly going to get up in an hour and we’ll chat some more before she has to go to work. And that’s most likely to be that. Distance relationships can suck in that way.
LDRs suck, it’s like not being in a relationship at all, but without the freedom to pursue anyone (unless you’re in an open relationship I guess)
I was gonna spend it with my queerplatonic partner, but I’m sick so we might not
Hope you recover smoothly and thoroughly!
There has to be a catchier name for that.
I might bake some cookies from scratch for the second time.
Thanks, NG! Happy Pal-In-Time Day, Pals o’ Mine! 💌
V-day was always kind of a strange day for me. The V-day after my partner passed I was in a super bad way.
Today I just took extra meds, read a bunch of funny memes online, hardly worked at all, wrote stories to send to a friend, and stuffed myself on chocolate and sushi. It was a sad day, but it’s almost over. And it’s also a day to feel grateful, in spite of everything.
2/14 will be a better day. I got my V-day sadness out of the way ahead of time. We’ll be all right.
🤝🫂🐈 Warm fuzziness to everyone who wants some, and respectful distance maintained for those who prefer to preserve their space.🪐
To each according to their needs and wishes.
Valentine’s day is Persona Day for me.
Listen to Love Below and do annoying paperwork.
Chinese food, a big heart-shaped box full of Reese’s chocolates, ᵃᵍᵍʳᵉˢˢᶦᵛᵉ ˢᵉˣ, large doses of Delta-9, and a marathon of the entire live-action Resident Evil movie series. So basically a normal night but with more drugs.
The live action RE movies were my old guilty pleasure. Even made a point of watching the at the cinema.
then the final movie was bad enough that it went from “guilty pleasure” to “Jesus no, abandon ship, jump overboard”
Yeesh, was this ever premature.
Haha!
Celebrating is a debatable term. I’ll be getting up and working all day… since I work in a restaurant, well, it’ll be a nonstop marathon hell-scape on what is normally my day off. On the up side, week off soon.
We celebrate Valentines day almost every year with me fixing us Chinese food in memory of the day some 30 years ago she invited me out for hamburger. Don’t ask.
I was recently working on a piece of digital art, a psychedelic train, to see if I could and she looked over my shoulder and said, I really like that one.” So she’s getting a matted print.
That is so sweet.
Good luck!
My love is in hospital in another country. 💔 I’ll be spending the day with my kids to show them they’re loved and deserve feeling loved.
Sending hopes for you and your loved ones.
🕯🫖❤️🩹
My youngest (in middle school) is planning to wear all green. I approve.
treating myself to a doctors appointment for prescription refill and what steps to take on possible tendonitis or carpal tunnel of the wrists.
yay!
Rolling out at 05:30 to do a database migration.
I’m going to hang out with my husband and watch him play The Quarry. We usually have a tradition of ordering a pizza but we hung out with hubby’s bff last night and had pizza. So I think I’ll make Mapo Tofu tonight. :3
Telling myself I love me in my favorite way: a large amount of turkey.
It’s not exactly a healthy relationship, but my heart’s in the right place.
Well, nobody’s yelling yet. Let’s call that a promising start
Yeah, it’s better for everyone if they just fume in silence.
Perfect Valentine’s Day strip, you’ve done it again.
He’s a genius.
Sarah already starting to feel better as she senses the emotional blood in the water.
A good question indeed. Everyone’s been talking like these two are already broken up but let’s be real they definitely haven’t figured that out yet. Prospects certainly don’t look good though.
With THIS strip on THIS day, they DUN sir
I mean it’s theoretically possible, but I don’t think it’s happening.
It doesn’t matter if anything has actually happened. If it’s been even slightly hinted at as a possibility, people will leap on it like starving hyenas. Joyce’s autism diagnosis (didn’t happen), Walky and Lucy breaking up for certain (not quite yet), Booster having any appealing characteristics beyond the occasional kinda-nice outfit, whatever else.
But it had already been clarified in previous strips that it was a possible autism, a diagnosis was never given to prove that Joyce had it.
I only speak English.
Oh goddamn it. This is the wrong website entirely, I have to stop commenting when I’m smashed.
In celebration of this Valentines day, I will henceforth answer random comments with the phrase, “I only speak English. “
You would, too.
Please do, I think it make you sound like an asshole.
Okay, but by narrative conventions, we can effectively know what the results are of Joyce’s diagnosis before it happens, because this is a story and not real life. Like, why bring it up, why make it a plot point, if the conclusion to the arc is just “Oh, no, you’re neurotypical, you just had a bad childhood”? A thing we already know, a thing that this does nothing to reiterate?
If the narrative actually focuses on the diagnostic process (which it probably never will), then the only satisfying conclusions are either “yes, she has autism”, or potentially “no, but she has OCD or some other neurodivergence instead (or in addition to).” And if we know that those are the narrative outcomes, and we know that the former is more likely than the latter, and we also know that the diagnostic process prolly won’t be shown because it’s narratively redundant, then readers can just safely assume that Joyce is autistic. That that was the point of bringing it up in the story.
what the hell Oracle? “homophobe”? also, misgendering. stay classy 👍
What Taffy said is that since Joyce hasn’t been diagnosed yet it’s somehow jumping to conclusions to talk as though she’s autistic. Except it’s not, for the reasons stated. There’s no point bringing it up in story only for it to go nowhere. Everybody understands that but the two of you.
Checkov’s diagnosis?
Pretty much?
It can be ambiguous. esp with other diagnosis. That was already discussed, and can be the point. Plus one more need to unpack something post religious upbringing.
Plus its autobiographical, and diagnosis criteria probably changed in 20 years.
Well, first of all, she said “see you tomorrow.”
The day has already started and she shows disinterest….and that already scared Walky.
With everything that happened, I think that at least he should show his face.
yeah other than letting everyone know or wanting some distance, walking to class together isn’t exactly a romantic thing in a group setting but even if they do walk together i assume they’re still gonna be in the same class, tho i imagine it’d be too late to change seats (unless it’s a first come first serve thing even if college tech doesn’t have seat assignments like some places, i imagine most ppl just ‘choose’ one themselves)
She said specifically, “See you at math tomorrow”. Which couldn’t really be avoided, since neither of them are going to drop the class, but also implies not before then and thus not walking there together.
And while walking to class together isn’t exactly romantic, it’s awkward as hell. At the start of a breakup, assuming that’s what this is, every contact is. But this is public, with friends, in a context where they’ll have to make small talk, but can’t actually hash out what’s going on between them.
If Lucy’s here to stake a claim on her place in the friend group, it’s a really aggressive move. It’s also possible she’s just going along with her routine, not realizing how awkward it’ll be. This is her first breakup, I believe.
There’s some uncertainty. “I need to be brave enough to know when I deserve better,” leans towards finality, but it’s still a little ambiguous.
He did not seem to be expecting her, and he did tell Sal they “kinda blew up”. And then he ran into Dorothy at karaoke.
Damn, now that you mention the karaoke thing, I’m curious to know what happened next.
Because to be honest, it could have been the perfect opportunity for Walky to see Dorothy from a new perspective.
I thought it was a breakup, but it may be that Lucy is waiting for Walky to make a move. She says “we’ll see”, which implies that she’s giving Walky a chance to prove that the relationship is important to him and not just inertia.
I didn’t consider the karaoke angle, though. I wonder if something happened with him an Dorothy, and that’s why he makes that face at the end?
Just like, 2 weeks ago, when Walky confronted his parents, he called the argument “the breaking point”. I think Walky considers the relationship over, at least.
I don’t doubt that this was bad enough to be a breaking point for them. But the last conversation had a lot of bad implications with not a single bit of actual confirmation about what is going on between them now.
Confirmation is for simps. If you’re not sure if the relationship is still going, it’s not and you should move on.
Geez. You don’t gotta be awkward.
They’ve heard the thundering chorus of commenters insisting that they broke up, and now they’re wondering if it’s true. That’s gotta be awkward.
That’s not how fiction works.
It’s called a joke. Do yourself a solid and read a book on basic human interactions.
It’s called the Internet, and I guess you’re new to it. I’m actually great at real life interactions, but these made up rules for online interactions aren’t worth learning. You’re all nothing but avatars and usernames to me.
In real life, if someone makes a joke and you explain why it’s not how things actually work, everyone says “excellent point, thank you for pointing it out”. It’s only the internet that has this made up rule that “this makes you look like you don’t know what a joke is”.
Also, LOL at “I guess you’re new to the internet, I don’t know how it works on purpose.”
Your fanfic could use some work. Keep trying and you might get there one day. Or don’t, the guys at work love hearing about you weirdos and your crusades during lunch.
No they don’t. They’re just humoring you, if they really exist at all.
Have you thought about not commenting anymore? You sound like you have a very unearned sense of superiority towards a bunch of strangers online. Maybe you should work on that.
Have you thought about brushing your teeth once in a while?
Wahaha ask not for whom the bell tolls
I mean, you can ask for them, but they’re probably dead and not going to be able to get back to you for awhile
Where is anyone looking?
I only speak English.
Lucy is Walky are looking each other.
“Camera” has swtched to each one face. It was hard to figure out today.
I’ll say this, at least Willis didn’t draw them looking at the “camera”. That always weirds me out.
Excellent Valentine’s Day strip! Perfect amount of awkward.
So.
Is there any good point to this? Rational point? Point beyond high-scoring the break up?
I’m not sure what you’re asking but I think Walky and Lucy worked better as friends and it shouldn’t be too hard to get back to that point. They dated a week and ultimately didn’t do much that would alienate the other. The awkwardness will die down faster than their relationship did.
The chemistry of friends was more evident, since with everything they went through, they can at least make an attempt to talk.
They were never friends. Lucy was angling to date him from basically the start. When a guy does that, it’s not friendship, same deal for girls. It’s dishonest.
And now she wants to steal his friends.
If her feelings of friendship were built entirely on her crush, then it might fizzle too.
She might give him another chance if he shows that genuinely wants to date her and wasn’t just railroaded into it.
Ten bucks says Walky at least tries the “slowly close door and hope no one actually saw” response
I’d fictionally take that bet on account of the fact that that’s funny and if that was what we’d go for here that Willis would probably have made that the punchline to “this” strip if he were going that route.
I’d imagine it’d be like sarah staring for a few seconds, saying something snarky and just leaving the two awkwardly alone if not just watching their whole convo unfold
slowly he turns
inch by inch
step by step
–Dave, then flees liek bun-ny
More like… Walentine’s Day. Even though the ‘Wal’ in Walky doesn’t rhyme with the ‘Val’ in Valentine’s and this would have worked much better with Sal.
Just remembered these are WALKY’S friends, not Lucy’s. Not sure what her goal is here but I’ll be damned if she tries to make him feel uncomfortable in his own friend group
Maybe we are about to see a hidden side of Lucy as a sign of revenge.
True, what is she even doing here?
Wasting panel space that could have gone to Waluigi.
Revenge for what exactly? She broke up with him, or at least told him “fuck you” which some consider not breaking up. Like she’s the initiator here. The ball’s in her court. She trying to make Walky pay for going along with her dumb plan to impress his racist parents?
She didn’t complain about the plan, but maybe she took Linda’s comment personally or she already had an incident of that type.
She did more than just not complain. She actively helped create the plan and enthusiastically supported it. When she didn’t like the results yelled fuck you at Walky and blamed him for everything, completely ignoring her own excitement over it in the beginning.
Indeed
Well, not completely ignoring it, just reframing it as “thing I did because I didn’t have enough self-respect to say ‘that’s messed up'”, rather than “thing I thought was a great idea for reasons that now escape me”.
Okay, as someone who is generally not fond of Lucy, overall, I’m going to try to paint this from her PoV:
Yes, she helped concoct a ridiculous plan–but that was because Walky had made it self-evident that he had no intention of confronting his parents (esp. his mother) directly about the issue, despite being fully aware of it. She regrets enabling him on this, rather than not starting out with a demand that he defend her more fully against the toxicity in the family dynamic.
Also, I don’t think she’s trying to get ‘revenge’, here. That would be counter to her self-image as ‘the nice one’. If anything, she’s hoping to prove Sarah wrong, by being friends with the group even after she’s broken off her relationship with Walky. If I’m right about this, then all I can add is, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see how it plays out for her.”
Trying to prove Sarah wrong, at least as much to herself as to Sarah. She has trouble making and keeping friends too, and she’s spent the last month or three trying to make friends with Walky’s friends.
Assuming she actually considers them broken up, I’d go with the “wants to keep the friend group” idea. This is a lousy way to go about it, but this is also the first real breakup she’s had, iirc. She likely doesn’t have a good idea of the protocol.
I betcha she is just operating on wishful thinking, as usual. She just showed up assuming Walky’s friends will be her friends even now that she’s told him to f off.
If somebody breaks up with you by saying “fuck you”, that is a clear indication that they consider themselves the wronged party.
I only speak English.
I only speak English. ?
Backstore Villian lore. Yeah!!!
Is Sarah Walky’s friend?
Does Sarah even have any friends?
No but she’s more not-lucys-friend than she is not-walkys-friend
Sarah tolerates his presence, which I think is about as close to friendship as she gets.
again, very feline.
Does Walky have any friends?
He has exactly the amount of friends people like him deserve, so at least the comic is realistic in one way.
They have a special bond. And it’s made out of duct tape when they were almost murdered together. She’s friends with Joyce and Dina, though.
I’m not sure I’d characterize Sarah and Joyce’s relationship as “friends”, exactly. Sarah’s more the big sister Joyce always wanted and didn’t think she had.
I’ll give you Dina. I remembered them eating together, content in the knowledge that they didn’t have to pretend to know how socializing works, after I posted, and didn’t feel like coming back to make an addendum.
Bechdel test, but it’s Joyce’s friends talking about something other than Joyce, when Joyce isn’t around.
I mean they do have the same class. This is interesting because Lucy did change her schedule specifically to get close to Walky and now that her romance has ran its course she’s still kind of stuck having to be in the same place at the same time with him and no real pretense to hangout with the rest of the group. Surely she’s not here because Sarah is good company and with no Sal or Joyce this is actually a kind of power move to wait for Walky. I’ve said it from the beginning that Lucy is not as innocent as she presents.
They have the same class, but aren’t coming from the same dorm, so don’t need to walk there together.
OTOH, it’s a large group that usually walks and she doesn’t have a reason to think that Sal’s already left and Joyce isn’t(?) coming today.
Depends how long it takes for Joyce to come today.
…I mean, keep in mind that Lucy just kind of assumed that she was automatically “best friends” with Jennifer the day that she transferred into her dorm. It’s entirely possible Lucy stopped thinking of them as “Walky’s friends” a while ago!
Damn you Willis
well duh
–Dave, we knew _somethin’_ wuz comin’
The camera cuts a close-up of her eyes and there’s a booming, ominous sound effect as she averts her gaze.
Whether it’s Quiet Storm for the lovebirds, Power Ballads for the ones celebrating Single Awareness Day, or shouting “Damn You Willis” all day for the astute considering today’s timing, we’ve got all the bangers this Valentine’s Day.
The love math isn’t mathing.
Awkaaaaaard
Need a separate poll for faculty.
Alan
Alex
Hyde
Kellan
Leslie
Robin
Vivian
Not being able to indulge my ill-conceived crush on Robin made the poll much more difficult
…I really should have played grav roulette for that comment
Esp. for those of us old enough that rating the students would feel a bit… wrong. (Seriously I could be these kids’ grand-pappy, if there was a mid-teens pregnancy along the way.)
First I’m going to note that we need more names. At the very least, Chloe should be on there (RMs might be more ‘staff’ than ‘faculty’, I suppose, but they’re still employees of the school).
And honestly, Chloe’s got that two-tone hair thing going, and I’ve got a weakness for that, esp. with the glasses.
Out of your list, though, I’d waffle a lot between Leslie and Robin, before finally settling on Leslie.
Where’s Dina, anyway? Sal’s already out, Walky and Lucy just got here, Joyce is… preoccupied? Jennifer’s probably going from her own dorm by herself. That just leaves Dina of the math group.
I’m relatively sure that Dina wasn’t part of the morning math group walk.
Sarah, Joyce, Sal, Walky, and Lucy are the typical walking group (Jennifer is also in the math class but arrives separately)
But usually with Asher and that might not be happening.
awk-waaaaaaaaaaaaard
Objectively, I feel Sal is the hottest, as in she would push the buttons of the greatest variety of people (and the poll seems to support that).
But subjectively, it’s between Amber and Jennifer for me, as I generally lean towards the curvier the better.
That said, there’s something about Amber when she’s feeling like garbage and doesn’t care about doing the appropriate thing, but wants to indulge in her baser desires that really does it for me, so I have to choose her.
There are a lot of choices in this poll!
I really want to say Sal, I do, but I can’t lie: Joyce is much more my type.
listen carefully. linda was pretty hot in walkyverse, like the absolute hottest, but not so much in dumbiverse. but shes not even an option, so that’s out. as a lesbian who primarily likes butch lesbians, there is simply not a recurring character who really comes close to encapsulating what i really find attractive AND is on the poll. except jason, who is not really meant to be seen as a butch lesbian i’m sure, but until one with presentation even remotely close to jason’s is actually introduced i am going to fully convince myself and play pretend that he the dapper he/him butch lesbian of my dreams. so by this metric, he’s obviously the hottest. the only way to fix this is if dorothy were butch. that kind of presentation doesn’t really seem her style, but it would be soooo hot.
Great, now you’ve got me wanting Dorothy to steal Jason’s style and start dating Ruth.
“You know what, you can have him?”
Sarah blinks a moment, then sports an evil grin. “I vill break you.”
Walke has a nervous look, and hesitantly replies, “Yeah, I think you will. I should be running now. Part of me is screaming that I should. But another part just says, ‘yes, ma’am’.”
Walky’s very good at cowering when faced with authority, he’s had a lifetime of practice!
Carla is by far the hottest, she said so, so it must be true.
You do make a compelling argument.
Lucy suddenly went all bear-puppet-meme…
sarah’s just touring various couples she doesn’t approve of today, huh
Are there any she’s does approve of? Maybe Dina and Becky, but that might be it 😅
If anyone ever took Sarah’s approval into account when they want to date somebody, everyone would be single. Her approval is worth less than nothing.
I reckon she’d probably approve of Danny and Sal if she actually thought about it for more than “lol he’s not immediately and obviously exciting” seconds
As far as college couples go, they’ve got a very solid foundation
Willis once posted a Rachel pic and mentioned his wife called it the hottest woman he’s ever done (clothed, at least).
Daisy’s not on the list?
You did that with that gravatar on purpose.
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. That’s what that means. That’s what this phrase is exactly about.
The perspective in panel 6 seems unusual. Like Walky is experiencing some minor vertigo.
I think it’s the angle from which Walky is looking down at them at the bottom of the steps. There’s no background for Lucy’s two panels where she’s looking at him, so the addition of the road when she looks away shakes the viewer a little bit.
I like the effect it has.
Pretty late to make a comment, but! My theory is that Walky will tell Lucy that he had an argument with his mum about her racism. Lucy will call him an idiot for it becaue why would you do that when you’re financially dependent on them??? Walky gets mad and confused on why she’s angry because wasn’t this what she wanted?? Answer turns out no, at least not nessicarily, she wanted him to at least say something in her defence when his mum decides to make little congay comments about her. Sarah is on the sidelines egging them both on in the argument because the woman gets off on strife and misery.
Before noon the day the comic is posted isn’t “late” at all.
Surprisingly, DoA has no characters I really find sexy. Which is wild! There are Slipshines and stuff! And they do nothing for me. I voted Sal bc she’s who I theoretically like the most, but Joe would be a close second if it was post-timeskip Joe.
For me, all of these characters are kids. They are literally younger than my kids. AND they are cartoons. So they have zero sexiness. Joyce’s mom dresses like a cougar with her push-up bra, inappropriately low-cut minidress, and bathrobe, but since she is a horrible person …! I just don’t even understand, maybe she has been sleeping with their pastor out of misplaced duty to god.
Hmmm… Amber’s mom and Joe’s dad are quite a lovely couple, I wish we could see more of them.
What are you talking about? She never wore that.
Damn you, Willis! (RE: alt-text)
He got us good.
Good talk.
Never expected Lucy walking away after see Walky like their fight.
If they have broken up or not, she’s so calm and chill in this scene.
Scary. I loved this improvement of her, but it’s still scare.
I wonder if Sarah will say something. Maybe she will take the role of the crab and starts singing “Kiss the boy” behind Lucy.
I swear these strips are always perfectly timed for Valentines Day.
It’s very on purpose.
Honestly, I feel like at least half of the recent strips could have gone here and it would have been “perfectly timed for Valentine’s Day”.
Lucy and Walky breaking up? Karaoke date with the ex? Karaoke with all the exes? Dorothy’s romantic tribulations, including her evident confused lesbian crush on her best friend, while watching said best friend’s happy new relationship? Sarah blowing up her chances with Jacob with her Sarahness? Sarah’s efforts to cockblock Joyce and Joe? Jennifer and Asher’s dysfunctional relationship? Asher flirting with Ethan while still in said dysfunctional relationship?
it was pretty easy this year, yeah
not only happy valentine’s day but even happy black history month
One of these days, I should write short character examination thingies (what the fuck is the word for that) about each of these goofballs. Partly to help myself understand them, because I just kinda don’t get some of ’em at the moment, and partly as practice for this other idea I’ve had boiling for more complex characters.
Profiles? Biographies?
Biographiles, I think. Fuck it, that’s the title.
Clearly the chilliest thing in this strip is not the weather!
i mean Joe was the obviousest answer that ever obvioused, for me
but yes, Sal is objectively the hottest amongst them
Professor Brock snubbed for the poll nomination ☹️
What is willis building to, that will come to a head in a few years when dumbiverse hits valentines day?
Mmmm villain Lucy, sweet and bad for you.