Maybe she is trying to be cool and grown up around him? Her whole relationship with Joe has been basically her pushing her boundaries in escalating sequence. In a sense, her being with Joe is about her growing up.
On the other hand, Sarah is kind of like an older sister to Joyce, so Joyce likely feels more comfortable around her and temporarily be more child-like or at least not push boundaries she is not comfortable with and frame events in a way that are less painful for her to deal with. Who can blame her? Being an adult is a stressful mess, take a break when you can.
Mr. Willis may yet pull a 180 on us and have the news be something like her grandfather has cancer or her one jerk brother got arrested for misappropriating church funds. It don’t think this is a likely outcome, but it would be a funny rug-pull, and who is Willis if not a cruel and capricious god?
I find it baffling that someone tells Joyce they have a secret and Joyce intuits she already knows the secret because she doesn’t know of any other secrets it could be, when the very concept of a secret is that she wouldn’t know about it.
“there’s nothing else it could be” Honey literally EVERYTHING ELSE it could be.
Ugh, don’t let my alternative health fanatic mother find out, she thinks I’ve been surviving on the dew of a single ginko leaf and the energy of the universe.
I prefer to separate the concepts of someone who just enjoy some anime and Anime Fans(™), mostly because I heavely dislike a lot of them and prefer to distance myself from them in my mind
Yeah, she doesn’t have a very good map of knowledge. The whole “known knowns”, “known unknowns”, “unknown knowns”, and “unknown unknowns” square, for a start.
Pretty sure she’s referring to the fact that that previous boyfriend she introduced “Joshua” to was, in fact, not ‘real’ in that Ethan only agreed to go out with her as cover because “maybe I just want to be Ethan instead of Ethan the gay guy for a little while”, and thus Ethan was “secretly gay” and Joyce’s evidence for Joe being hetero is that she just gave him a handy yesterday.
I believe it’s about the fact that her only other boyfriend here was Ethan who she knew was gay when she started dating him and they did zero adult hetero stuff together. Unsurprisingly.
Joyce, please repeat your penultimate line here slowly a couple times.
…Anyway I’m betting the news is not going to be Jocelyn coming out to her, but that will also end up happening somehow anyway. Possibly due to Ethan accidentally Danny’ing it up.
Skirt/dress, significantly longer hair (it’s been many months in-universe, right?), and sweater is my guess.
At least Joyce is actively coming to terms with trans people. I know how that kind of shock to world view where you now want to accept everyone you can, but there’s built-in programming you’re literally fighting against. That’s how it was for gay people initially with me.
It wasn’t even that I had a personal problem with gay people. I’ve always tried really hard to be nice to everyone, but there was always a…shield? Like an “ew gross” type of primal reaction that is hard to force down. But it ends. Your inherent instinctual disgust can turn to acceptance if you fight it enough.
Come on Joyce, the divorce is not even a secret. How is it going to be a secret when they’ve sold the house with all the kids’ stuff in it? How is it literally unthinkable that Josh may have anything going on you don’t know about? How hard is it to answer any texts?
Speaking from personal experience: I sure hope Jocelyne(?) has not shown up in full femme mode because, oh boy, family members do not enjoy having that sprung on them
Jocelyne is going to get about two sentences out, Joe is going to realize what’s happening, and Joyce will go “Why are you wearing a mumu?” and he’ll go “oh god I have to actually sort this out won’t I?”
The fact that Willis is ramping up the anticipation this much makes me wonder if the punchline will be something completely different from what we’re expecting.
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ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER NEWS CAN EVER HAPPEN
NEW RULE
Wow, I’ve never before been so early that there’s only one comment! lol
nice comment + avatar combo
If not for the volume titles all coming from characters’ actual dialog, we’d have a winner.
Well it’s always up to Willis, but if he wanted to steal a reader’s comment and use it as a comment, that would definitely be the one! 😀
I wish we could just draw an arbitrary line that says “nope, no more news today”…
Amen.
poor naive Joyce
would we call this hubris?
“Hubris is a religious thing, so it doesn’t apply to me any more!”
Nah, “hubris” would be thinking “my brother needs a gf” and already having procured an introduction to someone living on her floor.
THE SUSPENSE
We’re gonna cut away to something completely different for a page or two, aren’t we
Maybe to someone standing in a lobby!
It’s a good thing Joyce knows how to treat trans people now. Otherwise this meeting could be awkward.
yes awkward
She knows the correct thing to do is run up to them and yell about bathrooms.
foreplayshadowing
This is like watching a car crash happen in slow motion
Interesting that Joyce just calls it “divorce” around Joe but still has her ‘other’ words for it around Sarah.
Maybe she is trying to be cool and grown up around him? Her whole relationship with Joe has been basically her pushing her boundaries in escalating sequence. In a sense, her being with Joe is about her growing up.
On the other hand, Sarah is kind of like an older sister to Joyce, so Joyce likely feels more comfortable around her and temporarily be more child-like or at least not push boundaries she is not comfortable with and frame events in a way that are less painful for her to deal with. Who can blame her? Being an adult is a stressful mess, take a break when you can.
At the end of the day, Joyce just always wished she had a big sister 🙂
Great news!
Around Joe, “the d-word” is something else.
It was Joe who walked her through it, no?
Girl needs to stop walking into punchlines like this.
HERE WE GO…. FINALLY…?
back up da popcorn truck right here
dont forget soda and soft pretzels! and a tent and marshmallows!!! ^^
Any snack is welcome at this moment.
what y’all bringing to this spectacular event? ^^
Rocket launcher
are you gonna fill it with popcorn like those aliens from Killer Klowns From Outer Space? ^o^
Nah, with rockets. It’s not a party if nothing blows up.
I’m going to all of Taffy’s parties. At least until a stray rocket takes me out.
Among my selection would be Pizza, Donuts, French fries.
PUMP UP THE SETUP
Can Joyce make any more confidently wrong proclamations before the shoe finally drops?
Oh, she has done SOME hetro stuff… just she’s done some non as well.
Go Go Gadget I like her teeth
Go Go Gadget piss myself XD
Oh…which brother will it be? Would Willis be this obvious?
It’s Jocelyne, hence the chapter title, but Joyce is currently unaware she’s trans so only knows Jocelyne by her deadname
sister, actually ^^ <3
It’s the one that’s not actually her brother, we’ve established this.
I really like this
Willis is really telegraphing the news her sibling has for her.
Subtlety is overrated.
I know authors who use subtext, and they are all cowards!
Mr. Willis may yet pull a 180 on us and have the news be something like her grandfather has cancer or her one jerk brother got arrested for misappropriating church funds. It don’t think this is a likely outcome, but it would be a funny rug-pull, and who is Willis if not a cruel and capricious god?
he’s only doing it so he can cut away to a scene somewhere else, and keep us all in the dark for a few more days XD
Right? It’s pretty obvious that Jordan heard about the divorce and is tentatively reestablishing contact.
I find it baffling that someone tells Joyce they have a secret and Joyce intuits she already knows the secret because she doesn’t know of any other secrets it could be, when the very concept of a secret is that she wouldn’t know about it.
“there’s nothing else it could be” Honey literally EVERYTHING ELSE it could be.
Jocelyn is gonna come out to Joyce as a Kingdom Hearts fan.
Worse, an anime fan
That’s basically the same as “a person who eats food”, nowadays.
Ugh, don’t let my alternative health fanatic mother find out, she thinks I’ve been surviving on the dew of a single ginko leaf and the energy of the universe.
Have some dew of the mountain once in a while.
I prefer to separate the concepts of someone who just enjoy some anime and Anime Fans(™), mostly because I heavely dislike a lot of them and prefer to distance myself from them in my mind
“A series of prompts our players have never seen before, isn’t that right, players?”
Brennan, a man after my own heart
“I keep telling you, I can’t actually tell you if I’ve seen them before or not until I see them!”
Yeah, she doesn’t have a very good map of knowledge. The whole “known knowns”, “known unknowns”, “unknown knowns”, and “unknown unknowns” square, for a start.
I feel like Joyce is kind of regressing to some kind of old family dynamic at the prospect of seeing her sibling?
I think Joyce needs to look up the definition of “random”.
A real adult…..well, let’s see how you react to this visit.
Finally see Jocelyn? :3
“Try to act surprised”? I expect full-on dull surprise.
Screw Panel 2, what kind of teasing did Joyce get in the past
Pretty sure she’s referring to the fact that that previous boyfriend she introduced “Joshua” to was, in fact, not ‘real’ in that Ethan only agreed to go out with her as cover because “maybe I just want to be Ethan instead of Ethan the gay guy for a little while”, and thus Ethan was “secretly gay” and Joyce’s evidence for Joe being hetero is that she just gave him a handy yesterday.
REAL ADULT HETERO STUFF, which is actually different to the REAL ADULT LESBIAN STUFF and I’m wondering if that’s actually happening in her brain.
really want Joyce to embrace this part of herself
like am i really supposed to believe this but some long-running comical gag?
i don’t think so XD <3
Yesss, I feel the wording of this is telling.
I believe it’s about the fact that her only other boyfriend here was Ethan who she knew was gay when she started dating him and they did zero adult hetero stuff together. Unsurprisingly.
Oh, Joyce.
Try not to act surprised, indeed!
It’s fun having knowledge that characters don’t.
It makes you anxious about how the fuck they’re going to react to things.
Nah. I’m anxious about how the fuck they’re going to react to things just fine even without dramatic irony.
(And by anxious, I mean barely restraining an evil grin of anticipatory glee and trying very, very hard not to cackle.)
Tomorrow’s comic will cut away to some other plotline isn’t it…
Willis confirmed in a Kotaku interview that tomorrow’s comic will feature both Jocelyne and Tracer.
I’ve been wracking my brain, I checked the archive tags, I even checked Walkypedia with no hits … who in the world is Tracer???
Google it.
It’s a motorbike. “The TRACER 9 features the world-renowned crossplane crankshaft 890cc CP3 engine”.
Or you could be an adult and use your words.
I used exactly the words I intended to. Be an adult and accept that you don’t always get your own way.
The surprise is that Jocelyne is the one who bought Sal’s motorbike.
Pretty sure the implication is Tracer, the Overwatch video game character is implied because Kotaku is a gaming website lol
Mental blue screen in 5… 4…
Prepare for MASSIVE Joyce Face in 3, 2, …
ABSOLUTELY.
Willis is ABSOLUTELY trolling us!
It’s Jocelyn but hasn’t transitioned yet. He just bought a ferret as a pet and wants to surprise her with it.
*She. My bad.
Maybe consider practicing not fainting.
So is Jocelyn just here to tell Joyce or is she gonna show up already in the process of transitioning?
Oh. you TEASE!
Time to find out if Joyce is a hypocrite or not.
I really, really want her to react positively. I want that for Jocelyne. I do not want her to get hurt.
In my experience: even if she reacts in the worst possible way there’s still a chance she’ll come around later
Okay, just how stylish is Jocelyne’s dress going to turn out to be?
Good thing she dipped her toes at interacting with trans people with Carla?
Joyce, please repeat your penultimate line here slowly a couple times.
…Anyway I’m betting the news is not going to be Jocelyn coming out to her, but that will also end up happening somehow anyway. Possibly due to Ethan accidentally Danny’ing it up.
I think Jocelyne shows up in Girl Mode!
Like, in a dress, with hair slightly grown out.
Mainly because this is what I want to see, but also because it seems like we’re leading to a visual reveal.
Btw I think she’d wear something modestly casual, to communicate that she’s a girl, but not making a big high-femme fuss about it.
I almost want to draw it, but I’ll feel weird if I’m too far from her style.
Skirt/dress, significantly longer hair (it’s been many months in-universe, right?), and sweater is my guess.
At least Joyce is actively coming to terms with trans people. I know how that kind of shock to world view where you now want to accept everyone you can, but there’s built-in programming you’re literally fighting against. That’s how it was for gay people initially with me.
It wasn’t even that I had a personal problem with gay people. I’ve always tried really hard to be nice to everyone, but there was always a…shield? Like an “ew gross” type of primal reaction that is hard to force down. But it ends. Your inherent instinctual disgust can turn to acceptance if you fight it enough.
dun dun duuuuuuuuun…?
Cut to: Walky shenanigans or Arnold telling Ken about his window conversation yesterday.
Do I want to briefly subscribe to Patreon just for this arc or should I hold out?
Questions…
Based on a thread from yesterday’s comment section regarding mac n cheese. https://imgur.com/J0yfZr0 SFW, but still in poor taste 😉
I might color it properly eventually but probably not.
Joyce should help Dorothy get cleaned up. Maybe accompany her to the laundromat.
Well there’s only one way to clean that!
It would be a shame to waste all that by-the-instructions mac and cheese.
How long can Willis delay this meeting?
How many episodes did Dragon Ball fights last?
I’m at the edge of my seat. Tomorrow’s strip can’t come soon enough.
Knowing Willis Joyce won’t realize until Monday
She’s going to be fully dressed as a woman and everything, isn’t she?
It’s the worst possible way to do it so, yeah, probably
Why is that the worst way?
Come on Joyce, the divorce is not even a secret. How is it going to be a secret when they’ve sold the house with all the kids’ stuff in it? How is it literally unthinkable that Josh may have anything going on you don’t know about? How hard is it to answer any texts?
Famous last words.
That made me laught. It’s good to laugh despite impeding doom.
Yea no surprises whatsoever this is just gonna be a Regular Normal Time
Speaking from personal experience: I sure hope Jocelyne(?) has not shown up in full femme mode because, oh boy, family members do not enjoy having that sprung on them
Good news is I don’t think that’ll require much acting.
Are those share buttons under the comic new? If they are, keeping the real Twitter logo is a nice touch. (Almost as nice as putting it after Bluesky.)
If the reunion with Joyce and Jocelyne won’t have more than 1000 comments, like here, I’ll be disappointed.
Oh good Joe will be there to mitigate Joyce
Jocelyne is going to get about two sentences out, Joe is going to realize what’s happening, and Joyce will go “Why are you wearing a mumu?” and he’ll go “oh god I have to actually sort this out won’t I?”
My real question is how much like her mother will Jocelyn look? Will she be a prettier younger mom, or a dad in drag?
Would love for Joyce to turn into a Sci-Fi Nerd for a second
“Young Mom!? Did you Time Travel!?”
definitely wasn’t allowed to watch this sort of things at home
The fact that Willis is ramping up the anticipation this much makes me wonder if the punchline will be something completely different from what we’re expecting.
It’s gonna take them three whole months to get to the lobby isn’t it.
*gets popcorn ready*
Good golly. If tomorrow’s storyline was telegraphed any harder, give co-writing credit to Samuel Morse.