Again Willis. I am fully expecting Toedad getting into a bloody shoot out with the police, a very swift, decisive, one-sided shoot out. during which his gun jams.
And Gore.
I will vastly disappointed if I do not see some 80’s hammer horror levels of it.
If that is in fact the Ruger Varminter that people in yesterday’s comments identified it as, it’s got a falling-block action, which is dead simple and highly unlikely to jam. On the bright side, it’s a single-shot weapon that needs a round manually inserted into the chamber between shots, so rate of fire will be slow.
As much as Mike is a pro-level troll, he has no real reason to confront someone else’s parent, especially without a point to make about it. He has doubly no reason to confront someone with a gun.
I feel like DOA Mike is a person best used when words are exchanged but has little use once the chase is on, or in the shootout in more extreme circumstances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0jq8p6Sjjs
Mike may have no reason to get involved. If he did, we know that he will through punches. Though either he was pulling his punches or he punches like a boy (it’s a dumbyverse thing), because Joe was not messed up at all considering how many times Mike hit him in the head.
yes, but to be fair an undesirable person on campus is enough reason to give warning, whether or not it’s immediately actionable–after all, there’s significant reason these days to ban people who have no business being on the premises
It’s been discussed, but in the previous strip, one of the people in the background noticed the gun..
I’m really hoping one of them will make the call, and that ToeDad isn’t agile enough to dart around the trees as well as Becky and Dina.
“My adult friend’s abusive dad is here and trying to kidnap her” would likely get better results. Hell, even just “her abusive dad has found her! Help!” would likely get a response, although I don’t think it would occur to Joyce the police could help.
Pretty sure Amazigirl told her that Dorothy always knows how to contact her. Since Joyce doesn’t know about the gun (because even rushing that’s too slow to be the best plan with immediate threats even if Amazigirl could face a gun), this would sort of make sense as a ‘I have to bite the bullet and face Dorothy’ moment.
I’m assuming now that even Becky didn’t notice the gun (this isn’t exactly the time to shelter Joyce’s sensibilities, and that’s a pretty relevant detail for the phone call)
It looked like he was reaching into his car in yesterday’s fourth panel while stating that Dina ALSO will be struck down by the hand of God. I think they might have seen it and Becky is just too panicked to think to mention the gun to Joyce.
Someone on yesterday’s strip (Boomwolf?) suggested that he might call his gun the ‘Hand of God’, and Becky’s reaction made me wonder if she might know as much.
Good point. While that would negate it being in reference to his gun specifically, the way Becky’s response to the situation changes right after he says it still suggests to me that she has a preexisting association of that phrase with violence.
That seems almost easier to misdial than 911 (which is irritating because our office has that stupid “dial 9 to get to an outside line” plus “011” is the bulk of our international prefixes…)
Because of the sheer number of American shows which mentioned 911, so many Australians have called 911 instead of 000 over the years that any 911 calls will be diverted to 000.
In Europe they have 311 or 211 or something. In some US areas the phone companies re-route all of those calls to 911. Probably for tourists who are panicking or something.
Actually, in the USA, “311” is the non-emergency police line. Like if you come home and find that someone threw a rock through a window, that would be a 311 instead of 911 call, since immediate police response is not needed.
It’s far more than just potholes (although I wouldn’t doubt that during the winter, it’s the highest volume of calls)
Chicago residents can now call 311 – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – to report service needs, check the status of previous service requests, obtain information regarding City programs or events and file police reports. http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/311.html
Actually in European Union (plus some other europeans country which aren’t in the EU, plus other countries out of Europe), it’s 112. But some countries still have other numbers in service, like in France where you dial (from a french phone) 17 for the police, 18 for the firemen, and 15 for a medical emergency… so not many people know the 112 number… 20% of the people in Europe only… it’s kinda sad taht more people know the number to vote for real-TV series….
Yeah, we (in the UK) traditionally use 999 for emergency services, however we also have the ability to call 112 to get through to the services – not that many people know about that. Apparently 999 will only go through to local services, but if they’re all busy, it’ll put the caller on hold, whereas 112 would patch them through to another less busy area immediately. (Not sure how that helps, but still…)
The UK also has 111 for non-emergency calls for an ambulance brigade, and 101 for non-emergency calls for the police force. (There’s no non-emergency number for the fire brigade though, as far as I know).
I wonder if there’s a number like that for non-emergency police services in Canada? As far as I and the phone book know, it’s just whatever the local number is.
Years ago, one evening, I was in a drive-through, idly watching a guy walking through a parking lot in my side-view mirror while I waited for my burger, when I saw him reach under a bush, pull out a pistol, and keep walking. In those days I only had a pager, not a cell phone (which dates this story considerably), so I said to the cashier in shock, “That guy back there has a gun! I don’t have a phone! Can you call the police?”
She replied something along the lines of, “Are you sure? Oh my god! Yes, of course!” and disappeared to tell her supervisor. When I got my burger I pulled over to the side to wait for the police while trying to keep an eye on him. No cops. No cops. He disappeared into the night. No cops.
So I went back to the cashier and asked how long ago they called them. “Oh, we haven’t yet,” she said, looking embarrassed. It’s been busy and we don’t have time to look up the number in the back.”
“HE HAS A GUN! THE NUMBER YOU CALL IS 911!”
“Oh.”
I went to the pay phone at the corner of the parking lot and called the cops my own damned self, which I could have done immediately if they had just told me straight off they were too busy to call. The cops showed up with alacrity, but of course the guy was long gone. All I could do was give a description and point them in the right direction.
–But if someone has a gun? THE NUMBER IS 911, IDIOT.
and 211 is reserved for a social services hotline. Where to find food support, emergency housing, and other things that Becky needs, but not as much as she needs police.
These days I think most phone networks redirect as many foreign emergency numbers as possible to the appropriate service. It’s easy enough to do, and potentially saves lives.
I know it’s 999 (and am Canadian); but I only know that from the book where Paddington Bear tries to dial a number beginning with 9 but gets his paw stuck and ends up dialing it three times before he can get it out. The police show up.
Back in the days of rotary phones “0” was the hardest digit to dial, which is probably why they picked “000”. Double tapping a key on the phone wasn’t a problem back then.
The call prefix to make international calls from Australia is “0011”, which I guess has the potential to make accidental emergency calls but I don’t know how common that is in practice.
Becky reaches Joyce at the fountain. They manage to exchange a few words before suddenly; they hear the CRACK of a gunshot. Horrible realization plays across Becky’s face as she looks over her shoulder and says some variant of ‘Dina,’ before dashing back into the woods to confront gun-toting toedad.
Let me tell you a story that might put things into context. I grew up in a quite conservative-religious community, as it appears Willis did also. Assembly of God elementary school, homeschooled for middle school, and a Christian high school. There was a certain nearby large university that, when it came time to look at colleges, I was forbidden to look at. The reason? A friend of my parents had a kid who came out of the closet while he was at that university. Now, I knew this kid in high school; not too well, but well enough to know that he was *obviously gay* already, even back in high school. But university was when he told his dad about it, and thus that particular university “turned him gay.” And thus my siblings and I were not allowed to even *think* about going there, for fear of catching the gay ourselves. Fundies think homosexuality is like a virus, that you can catch just from being around it too much.
Now, these people in this story were relatively well-educated, stable people, so badmouthing the university to anyone and everyone was as far as it went. Add a little crazy, though, and a lot of desperation (these people think that their children are *literally going to burn forever*, and if you accept that as a premise it’s not really that unreasonable to be really freaked out), and you could easily get extreme measures like this.
What I’m saying is that Toedad is going to go after Dina. He probably thinks she’s the one that “turned” Becky gay, and he may well consider going to prison to be an acceptable sacrifice toward the end of “saving” Becky from the gayness.
Someone had better freakin’ call the cops, is what I’m saying.
In addition to all this, consider a few other things:
1) We just had a great big chapter about Dina and how awesome she is. This is almost always a really bad sign in fiction.
2) Dina was the martyr character in the old universe.
3) We know there’s going to be a hospital scene sometime in the near future.
I’d say the one hope here is that Willis could be putting all these pieces into place to cause us to feel dread, as a misdirection. Because right now, it looks bad.
You know, a while back he said that his wife looked at the strip he was working on and said it was her favourite one yet, and that we’d love it. I marked the date down.
Today is that date.
Which makes me think that he got the date wrong a bit, but gives me hope for some amazingness shortly. Amazi-elbow to the back of Toe-Dad’s head? 😀 I await with baited breath.
–Also, you know, the last time Amber tangled with an abusive dad he ended up in hospital with several broken ribs, so perhaps that hospital preview is extremely promising? Anyways, we still have reason to hope.
That kid I knew in high school was also already gay before he went to that university. You’re expecting logic and common sense from a man who chases people down with a rifle because he doesn’t like his daughter being gay?
He’s probably got some giant conspiracy theory in his head about the “deceptress” traveling all over the state with the express purpose of corrupting his daughter.
Right but I think Derek’s point was that the kid you knew was still closeted before going to that university, so his family didn’t know. Becky’s dad knew, having heard it straight from the source. I’m surprised he accepted Andersen university saying his daughter corrupted Kaitlin than the other way around. I’m surprised he didn’t blame kaitlin, but maybe he did.
But I think you’re spot on that he’s got some giant conspiracy theory about Dina.
Conspiracy theory?! Dina’s the one who put him on that bus!
He’s PO’d at her for wasting his time, and *now* is the
temptress, to boot! He’s got her number… and it is up!
Doesn’t that always seem to be the case?
“So and so” comes out of the closet, and 90% of their classmates are less than surprised.
We had a great co-worker. One day at while out at lunch he makes a solemn announcement that he’s gay. Literally, the reaction is “no, really? And so what?”
This. All of this. The culture Toedad comes from views queerness as part virus, part recruitment campaign by literal demons that is intertwined with things like feminism and secular education. In his head, his daughter is not gay naturally. She’s not even someone who just happened to stumble on gayness. Instead, because he raised her “right” and kept her from “corrupting influences” then there is some gap in which Satan has taken root and recruited her as an attack on him personally. After all, he’s one of a handful of God’s chosen who has resisted the Antichrist’s charms and so taking his daughter from him would be a powerful blow to test his moral clarity.
And that is how he views it. His daughter has been taken from him as a personal slight and recruited by demons taking advantage of a moment’s weakness on his part where his dedication to enforcing the godless ways wavered. And now other demons are preying on her soul keeping her from finding her way back to the light as the “Godliest” are the greatest prize for demons.
Which all bleeds into a perfect headspace to fully justify pulling the trigger on an 18 year old Dina, because after all, it’s not killing a person, it’s killing a corrupting demon who is personally trying to hurt you.
And, I just want to keep her safe and not have her femurs shot by a delusional fuckweasel addicted to trying to control his daughter.
If you think about it, “the birds and the bees” is all about lesbian sex. Nearly everyone thinks (or at least I do) that “the birds” refers to eggs (i.e., females) and “the bees” refers to stingers (i.e., males), but nearly every bee you encounter is female, so, really, it’s about lesbians!
Sorry, over-analyzing trivial concepts is how I deal with stress.
It’s a kamikaze. He knows he’ll be arrested for this, but he thinks he might be able to remove Becky’s gay-ifying influence (Dina) before that happens.
To him, Man’s laws don’t matter, only God’s. And God is not going to take kindly the fact that he let Satan steal his only remaining family without a fight. Remember, to him, all of the secular powers are corrupted by the Antichrist who may or may not be President Obama and so of course they would try and impede his holy God-driven task.
What will happen is Dina will use her camouflage dino powers to blend into the forest and save Becky with her paralyzing venom spit. Finally, she will spread her pterodactyl wings and feed him to her nest of younglings. That’s right everyone Dina is a single mother.
They hear the gunshot. Becky turns around. I’s Dina holding the gun toward her. Becky looks down and see’s blood puring onto her shirt. *Mmmm, whatcha say,
Mmmm, that you only meant well?
Well, of course you did
Mmmm, whatcha say (whatcha say)
Mmmm, that it’s all for the best?
Of course it is
Mmmm, whatcha say,
Mmmm, that you only meant well?
Well, of course you did
Mmmm, whatcha say (whatcha say)
Wha- wha- wha- wha- what did she say?* Becky falls on the ground
(Another gunshot.)
Mmmm, whatcha say
(Becky, lying on the floor, holds up a gun. Dina looks shocked.)
Mmmm, that you only meant well
(Dina looks at her hands, covered in blood)
Well, of course you did
Mmmm, whatcha say
(Dina looks over at Becky)
Mmmm, that it’s all for the best
(Dina and Becky exchange looks)
Of course it is
(Dina begins to fall in slow motion)
Mmmm, whatcha say
(Dina falls to the floor)
Mmmm, that it’s just what we need
And you decided this
Whatcha say
Mmmm, What did she say?
Same here. I’d say he’s less likely to go after his own daughter with a gun, and more likely to go after the “Deceptress” he sees as contributing to his daughter’s “corruption.”
My knee-jerk response to this was, “Hmmm, Becky didn’t mention the gun. That seems like an important detail to me.” Then I remembered that she had already started running when he pulled out his rifle and went, “Oh, right, she probably doesn’t know about that.”
Meanwhile, Dina is unarmed and alone in the woods, where there aren’t likely to be witnesses. If Becky and Dina had seen the gun, they may have been more inclined to run toward more public spaces.
Willis promised not to kill anyone off, but there’s a lot of damage that can be done to a person without actually killing said person. I am deeply worried for Dina right now.
Actually, if you look at panel 5 of yesterday’s strip Dina was actually in front of Becky, which means she either took off running long before Becky told her to. I just hope she keeps moving instead of trying to find a place to hide in the woods. That red top of hers is also rather prominent and readily visible in a sea of green.
Operator: 911, what’s your emergency?
Becky: My psycho dad is out to get me and my girlfriend. He’s got a rifle. He’s wearing white shirt, camo pants, and his head looks like a big toe.
Operator: You want your dad arrested?
Becky: Yes; he’s ruining my life.
What I meant was that Joyce recognises the incoming call in the first panel as from Dina, indicating that she probably had saved Dina’s number to her phone. Of course, it’s possible that they exchanged numbers after they both became involved in trying to protect Becky.
Silly sort of thing to comment on, I know, but it was one of the first things I noticed.
Given what’s been happening in the real world, I don’t think any cops — even Dumbiverse cops — facing someone with a gun are going to be shooting to wound.
That’s true, but campus cops are not trained to the same standard as regular cops and even they only hit their target in 1 out of 20 shots fired, so chances of actually getting killed in a firefight are pretty close to nil (0.45% per trigger pull). Most of the times people are killed by police they are unarmed and therefore unable to use suppressive fire to force LEO to fire wildly. Many times armed perps don’t even have to fire to get LEO to shoot wildly. It’s a sad state of affairs when you’re less likely to get killed by the cops when you shoot first instead of getting caught unarmed.
More than a few incidents in which police who start pulling the trigger continue to pull it so multiple policers = many-lots bullets. Sometimes they put many bullets in their target. Sometimes the hit bystanders &/or each other. One incident on the streets of Manhattan they wounded bystanders with concrete spalled off the landscape by their “misses”
And carrying a gun. Forget race, fight or flight kicks in and most police are geared toward fight, and since American cops always carry guns, you can see where this is going.
If you’ve been trained with a gun (and cops presumably have, though that may be optimistic), you don’t ever “shoot to wound”. If you’re firing a gun at someone, you’re trying to kill them. If you’re not trying to kill them, you shouldn’t be firing a gun at them.
Nevertheless, people do get merely wounded by gunfire, because the bullets don’t always go where the shooter wanted them to. (Which is also the reason that you don’t “shoot to wound”.) And with modern medical care, if a gunshot doesn’t kill you almost immediately, you’ll probably survive it.
It’s not fair, the new poll. Dina always tops out the list, and now she’s getting a boost from the “Please Don’t Be Murdered By A Terrible Fucking Person” sentiment, too.
But ignoring arguments about who did it first, doesn’t Willis, like GRR Martin, kill off popular characters? Isn’t this poll the most dangerous one to choose someone you like on it?
I’d say that’s still unlikely unless he wants to pretty much write off a character from the comic for good. Given how slow the passage of time is in the comic, the amount of time that would be needed to be spent in a coma/recovering from a major injury or coma would take years upon years.
Plus, Dina is a veeery popular character. I doubt this is the last we’ll see of her, regardless of what happens. Willis has had unexpected things before; maybe neither becky nor dina ends up in the hosplital.
Willis did say a while back that when his wife saw today’s strip she said it was her fave so far. I marked the date on my calendar. Maybe he miscalculated? I’m hoping it means an Amazi-smackdown is coming.
Outside of time skipping to months/years after a murder of one of the characters, the grief would pretty much consume the characters. Unlike the Walkyverse, I don’t think death really works with the timescale.
I would agree with you, but I would’ve said the same thing about having a gun toting crazed father on campus too, so I’m a bit more skeptical of writing off all possible outcomes.
This is too many nightmares to enjoy, drama or not. Seriously considering forgetting the comic exists for a few weeks. But it makes me happy in a twisted way.
Remember when Joyce’s mom was calling and asking about Becky? Maybe she was doing it to warn Joyce that Ross was becoming increasingly unstable about it. The only reason she didn’t tell her then was because Carol wasn’t sure that Joyce knew that Becky was missing, and didn’t want to cause undue stress.
Did… did Becky and Dina not see the part where he has the gun, because they had already turned and run into the trees when he took it out?
Oh geez. Oh geez oh geez. I can’t handle the 24 hours between updates. I’m wishing away my weekend because I need to know that Becky and Dina and Joyce and everyone are going to be okay and that Toe-Dad will get everything that’s coming to him and more.
Nope, they didn’t see anything. The pair probably got a good 30 feet before dad went in and took out his gun.
In fact, since Joyce has her phone out she will probably get a “crazy gunman alert” where as Becky with the phone won’t know how to work the phone or care since she is running so Joyce will have to tell her directly.
Note that Dina no longer has a phone (since she just gave it to Becky) and will have a hard time finding out about the gun. Dun dun dun.
Amber had the campus police alerts on her phone, so she should get
the notice, if the bystander in the background called!
A lot of campuses have texting alerts for bomb scares, etc.
I think a lot of people are assuming that she knows he owns a gun and would use it in this situation, and that it was a contributing factor to why they ran.
I hope Dina’s “Fit into the background” powers kick in and Toe Dad runs right pass her. As for Becky… if Autumn just happened all of a sudden that would be great.
I’m pretty sure this whole storyline is going to be serious. (It runs until late November). Maybe not every strip. But there’s quite a few long running conflicts that are bubbling to the surface here. We did just have a month and a half long storyline that was rather light hearted back in July/August though.
It’s been a long time since the strip has gotten this dark. I think the last comparable moment would be when we first learned about Becky’s circumstances.
“But there are causes worth dying for.”
“No, there aren’t! Because you’ve only got one life but you can pick up another five causes on any street corner!”
“Good grief, how can you live with a philosophy like that?”
Rincewind took a deep breath. “Continuously!”
Having been on the revieving end of what is being depicted, (only usually sans guns pulled and more then one assaliant, but still threat of death) it is anxiety inducing it might be better to just bookmark this page and then come back in a week or two.
*Accept Sympathy and gesture of support*
Cerberus and Screwball:
I’m sure caesaria82 appreciates, as I do the support.
The problem with the “idiots” is that they tend to congragate together and form a pack. And in between the “idiots” and the “nice” ones are those that are “nice”/good but think they can “fix” people, usually by converting them to their views. Those people can do great harm, while trying to do good. Just look at the Tuskegee experiments or conversion therapy, to name a few examples. Its not just the “idiots” sadly, and those “nice” people that do harm while, thinking their doing good/trying to do good, are by far scarier. One ended by a whistle blower, leading to changes in the law to protect patients, the other still occurs but has fallen out of mainstream acceptance.
Some of us have to find the courage to overcome fears/anxiety first and that is a battle that often has to be fought alone, others can be supportative, but the hardest parts are a solo affair. Its encouraging to see that some get that. No trying to fix, no judgements, just support, knowing perhaps hoping, that when ready, or able to, we’ll seek help, if we’re not already.
What bothers me is how instantly panicked she became.
I mean, if it was me, I would have probably simply started a shouting match in public, and my (Christian) parents did have the habit of using physical force to try and make me submit (which I never did, so it escalated).
So the fact that a young adult runs away from her father at full speed really rings some bells about why she fled from her house in the first place.
I mean, she’s an adult, she has the right to refuse any and everything he tells her to do. And yet, she flees. It really makes me wonder how many things she didn’t tell anyone.
They saw him get out of the car, but they might not have seen him pull out the gun before running in the opposite direction. It is fight or flight and she is no match for him tub of guts that he is.
As far as we know, Becky didn’t actually see the gun. She’s just running from her unarmed dad as far as she knows; if she’d seen the gun she would certainly have told Joyce about it, because gun.
So yes, absolutely flee from someone with a gun, but that’s not what Becky did as far as we know. Becky fled from her as-far-as-she-knew unarmed father (he brought out the gun after she started running) at top speed into concealing vegetation. It speaks ugly volumes abut her home life.
Or, you know, it’s still an authority figure she had to answer to for 18 years? And she’s still freshly adjusting to being an adult? And he might have a record of anger issues she might be well aware of, if he’s pulling out a gun?
I mean are you seriously trying to make Ross look better right now
I don’t know, I didn’t read that as making Ross look better. I read it as making him look worst. Like this may not be the -first- time he’s gone after someone with a gun. Or the first time violence was going to be brought into her upbringing. Hence “what else didn’t she tell anyone?”
I read that the same way as SmokedToast: worried speculation that life with Ross as a parent may have been even worse than already intimated. Maybe it’s so, maybe it’s not… but given that we’ve already seen Becky repress the hell out of her negative feelings (fear, pain, sadness) in favor of acting loud and fun and likable rather than being a “downer”, it is a worrying possibility.
Yes, apart from the gun (which she didn’t see) this is not a surprise for Becky. She KNEW that when he found her it would result in him trying to get her in the car with violence.
This is not standing up to your parents any longer. Becky is way past that. This is avoiding an enemy that has targeted her for kidnapping and worse.
This is kind of like what I posted at the end of the comments. She should be 18 if she’s in college, and thus he has no control over her choices. However, if he endangers her or tries to kidnap her (both of which he is doing) her FATHER is BREAKING THE LAW. They just need to find the police.
Okay I’m not sure why so many people are convinced that Toedad will be targeting Dina specifically “for turning Becky gay” or whatever.
Literally before yesterday, the ONLY thing Toedad knew about Dina is that she inconvenienced him by putting him on a one-way non-stop bus. When he brought the gun, he was not thinking about the woman who bothered him with the bus, he was thinking of using that gun to get his daughter back by any means necessary. Ross did not bring that gun for Dina, he brought that gun for Becky.
Also Ross knew about Becky being gay before Becky even met Dina. Unless Ross thinks that Dina telegraphed her lesbianness from far away (…I guess he could potentially believe that…yikes), even in his twisted world Dina is not the reason Becky has gone astray.
Yes, Dina COULD potentially become the target now that her relationship has been outed (in fact it’s rather likely); but Dina is not the reason Ross brought the gun and she is not his primary concern.
The gun may just always go along in the car. There are people like that and he’s in the right demographic.
And now he’s had a day to fume about the “deceptress” tricking him.
I am familiar with the deceptress. She ALSO will be punished by the Hand of God.
Please note that the emphasis above is Willis’, not mine. This suggests to me that he had already decided to shoot Becky if she resisted him (hence having the gun within reach) and decided at that moment to include Dina as a second shooting victim. Hell, he might also be thinking of shooting Joyce for hiding Becky as well.
I guess maybe. We don’t see it until the last panel (for suspense), but I figured she saw it before us (we can’t see him below the non-neck in the middle panel, but I don’t think that means Becky couldn’t).
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD, LESBIAN PRAYERS, GET ON IT!!!! Instant autumn, Toedad tripping on a branch and loosing the gun and if you play a bit fast and loose with 70 million years of evolutionary history and he is attacked by raptors I promise not to ask to many questions about it.
If Dina happens to have trained a couple of falcons as pets and her parents decided to come over for a short visit today, he could still be attacked and ripped apart by raptors without plot holes.
I don’t think she is calling anyone just yet. I think that panicked look when she is looking at her phone is her seeing a text from IU’s emergency system about an armed gunman nearby (IU’s system will text, email, AND robocall you on all registered phones).
“Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-…..”
I’m pretty sure she knew Becky was meeting Joyce there, and might extrapolate that as a likely destination, in a low stress, thoughtful environment at least. This isn’t that.
Tiny detail, but I love the fact that Joyce has Dina’s number in her phone. They might have their differences, but that doesn’t mean they can’t exchange contact information.
Dina is Becky’s girlfriend: she at the same time deflects the awkward from Becky’s crush and make Becky feel better after having her world shaken. Joyce is candidly nice enough to be glad for both and pardon any paganism she could hear from Dina…
And since they were both involved in the most recent iteration of the ‘hide Becky from Toedad’ plan, it would also make sense for them to exchange numbers for coordination purposes alone.
Personal beliefs mean I don’t want anybody to get shot. I do want toedad tased sooo fucking hard, though. He’s a large man, no reason not to use multiple shots.
He won’t get tased. Police don’t respond with a lower level of force. They might try to talk him down. He’s white after all and hasn’t actually started shooting yet. But he has a gun out. If they use force at all, they’ll shoot.
If he loses the gun before the police show up, that’s a different story.
Spoiler alert. Danny gets shot. wakes up with Ethan next to him. amber straight up loses out and hunts down toe-dad (in this situation my empathy reaches out for amber bless her amazi-socks)
My personal theory is that Jason get shot. He is not a main character for now. He is not far from the fountain, but not in the same direction, so as they have split, still probable. He is an authority figure for some student (like Dina I thin). I think he is feeling bad to have let the Walkerton down, so could think to be able to reason someone with a gun. And as soon as his bow-tie and brit accent show up, Ross will think he’s gay and “spreading” it. If people hear he spreads anything to students, even if he hasn’t anything to do with Dina, it could be interesting enough to note that it could lead to a quiproquo about his relation to Sal. So, even if it’s not the easiest way to go, I ship Ross and Jason (is it not what a ship is? Oh my bad!)…
I think you definitely see ethan alive and well later. also Dina hasn’t taken her hat off, so you can assume she won’t be seriously injured. And becky hasn’t had enough “Life is beautiful” situations. Dreading Dorothy getting in the middle of this, but betting as soon as someone confronts toe-dad he’ll implode into a sobbing raging mess. psychotic people tend to generally apathetic, but he hasn’t shown detachment from reality like you would expect (at least I hope he hasn’t)
It’s Willis, someone has to die.
He’s been poking us with Ruth dying again, but that’s too easy and we expect it.
Becky’s an easier “She was just finding herself!, how can she be gone, is it our fault?!” Bomb like Ruth was, and Ethan’s the “Poor cinnamon roll, too good for this evil world” choice.
Willis has said no one will die in this Universe. Not for any human feelings, but because the in-universe grief would be a drag on the story thereafter. And both Becky and Ethan have characters that would mourn their death (Joyce and Dina for Becky, Amber and Danny for Ethan)
To be fair, Becky doesn’t know that her dad brought a weapon. She turned her back before he brought it out. The police would probably not prioritize this
Her dialog has already acknowledged the understanding: He has no right to pursue and harass her.
“My friend and I are being chased through the woods by father who is trying to take me against my will bye.”
They put-two-and-two-together for a living and she’d have used a cell phone.
They’d figure it out.
A ballistic shield would be the best thing to get.I think though in penitentiaries they have only riot shields,but from what i heard some riot shields can stop handgun and shotgun bullets.
Oh crap, she’s going to call Amazi-Girl via Dorothy, isn’t she? That’s entirely the wrong person to involve, and adds another name to the list of characters I suddenly have to be seriously worried about.
Anyone consider that Dina and Becky both end up heading for the fountain, and as Foedad tries to shoot Dina, Becky jumps in front of her to save her? Or Amazi-girl gets there just in time to do that. Or Joyce jumps in front of the gun to defend Becky. Or Sal tackles Foedad right when he shoots, making him hit Joyce?
Basically at this point my brain is running a million different scenarios and none of them end well.
On the bright-side, I pictured Becky jumping in front of Dina, Joyce in front of Becky and Amazi-girl in front of Joyce all at once, which would look kinda funny (right up until the point where someone gets shot).
The first thought I had was that Joyce was going to get caught in the cross-fire, mostly because it would cause her parents to show up again, and that it would be an opportunity for her to push back at them some more.
But the fact is that right now, there are so many balls in the air that literally any of the characters could wander in to the wrong place at the right time and get a fisting from the Hand of God. Willis is spoiled for choices, depending on which plot lines he wants to either initiate or push forward.
If the campus has an alert system, then Joyce and Becky should be receiving a text soon that there is a gunman on campus. Dina, however, has no phone at the moment.
So in Becky’s case for Dina right now….-AHEM-
“I’d give my liiiife, not for honooor, but fooor yooooou~ (Snake Eaaater~)
And I’m stiiiiiil in a dreeeeeeaam, Snake Eateeeeer~”
Just sayin’, I think Rebecca is 18 years old and legally an adult. He can’t choose to control her if she doesn’t want it, and it’s obvious she is not relying or depending on him to live her life anymore. Now that he is threatening bodily harm and kidnapping, the only place she should be running to is a police station where the law is on her side.
She hasn’t seen the gun. She’s eighteen. She’s running from an abusive authority figure that she’s been conditioned her whole life to think the actual authorities will support. Damn straight she isn’t running to the police. It’s really hard to convince abused kids that the law is on their side in a confrontation with the abuser. And sadly, it all too often isn’t.
And while she clearly knows there’s real danger both to herself and to Dina, the instant flight clearly shows that, it would be very hard to prove that or even convince the cops to take it seriously. Until the gun came out, of course. Which she doesn’t know about.
Runaway gay teens may reasonably not consider authority figures to be on their side. Ditto their friends. The bystanders will call LEO because of the gun. The super friends will try to handle this on their own, esp since they done know about the gun.
Why did Toedad feel the need to pull out a gun? Other than being an abusive, ultra-consertive, NRA …..
He knew that Joyce was the key to finding her. There is a saying, don’t draw a gun unless you are prepared to use it. Obviously he’s prepared to kill someone.
1) Toedad catches Becky and proceeds to drag her back to the car
2) Dina sees this, attempts to knock him out with a rock but misses, he points the gun at her
3) Police arrive in the nick of time, yell at him to drop the gun, he turns to face them and gets hit by multiple shots to his right ventricle, bleeding out and proceeding to Hell.
4) Being the next of kin, Becky inherits everything, and now has money to enroll at Indiana next semester.
His spouse would actually be next of kin. Or he could have a will that leaves everything to his fundie church and she gets nothing unless she wants to contest the will.
Has anyone considered the idea that Toedad might shoot himself? It would be an interesting twist and maybe add some nuance to a sorta one-dimensional villain.
Uh oh, Joyce may have made a tactical error. Look at her eyes in Panel 5 – yes, the image Willis posted early on Tumblr. She told Becky to come to the fountain, she can get help – but Joyce is still half-paralyzed with her own trauma. I don’t think she’s mentally capable of leaving that fountain, right now.
I think it is more likely that at that moment (panel 5) Joyce is receiving the emergency alert from the IU system that there is an active gunman situation on campus nearby. She went from looking concerned in the previous panels to fully panicked when she looked at her phone.
Hm. I think that would be made more explicit in the strip if it were the case; I think it’s a combination of the fact that she now HAS to call Dorothy, whilst being afraid of how the conversation might go, and a little freaked out by the situation (that they’re actively resisting Becky’s father, and calling in Amazi-Girl means it’ll likely get physical).
Fun fact – Most predators cannot see the difference between red and green, which is why there are bright red critters like foxes and chipmunks in the woods. Sadly, Toedad is red-green colorblind (so far as we know).
It’s not that they can not see the difference. Brown and auburn colors actually contrast with green just right so that they are just less noticible. Humans are also less likely to notice animals of those colors in the woods than other colors (black and grey also work well).
Now that I think about it, for all the talk of how no character deaths means no tension, it’s not like a gunman on campus hunting a defenseless woman is going to go unnoticed. I’d say it might even drastically alter the atmosphere of the place for a long time.
I found this comic like 4 or 5 days ago and i’m caught up now! Love this story so far. Joyce and Mike are my favorites lol for very different reasons obviously.
Welcome.
Just so you know this series is the third series made by this author. The other two series have the same characters, but the stories are completely different and not related (no backtracking needed). Check them out too if you want to.
Prediction: it gets to be nighttime, Toedad is lurking through woods as Dina hides behind tree, suddenly there’s another male voice. He talks to Toedad about how the way Beck y turned out was due to his influence and how God is angry at him, motivating Toedad to turn the gun on himself, Dina, shaken and terrified runs, turning back once as she sees a familiar blonde with a permanent scowl looking down on Toedad.
I just noticed the surprise indicators over a silhouette’s head in yesterday’s comic so I’m really hoping that person called the police to warn them about a crazy man chasing 2 girls into the woods with a rifle
Loading ...
“Who should I call? Dorothy? Sal? Amazi-Girl? If only there was some easy-to-remember three-digit number I could call in an emergency!!”
(okay to be fair she doesn’t know he’s armed but AUGH)
So THIS is your avatar
Again Willis. I am fully expecting Toedad getting into a bloody shoot out with the police, a very swift, decisive, one-sided shoot out. during which his gun jams.
And Gore.
I will vastly disappointed if I do not see some 80’s hammer horror levels of it.
If that is in fact the Ruger Varminter that people in yesterday’s comments identified it as, it’s got a falling-block action, which is dead simple and highly unlikely to jam. On the bright side, it’s a single-shot weapon that needs a round manually inserted into the chamber between shots, so rate of fire will be slow.
And what would Al Gore be doing there?
Dumbing of Age: BUCKETS OF BLOOD
THIS. This is what I want to see.
How does it feel to finally have the context for your grav image?
legit sad it wasn’t more this even though I knew better
Nice one 🙂
She should call Mike,maybe he can exchange some words with Ross.
As much as Mike is a pro-level troll, he has no real reason to confront someone else’s parent, especially without a point to make about it. He has doubly no reason to confront someone with a gun.
I feel like DOA Mike is a person best used when words are exchanged but has little use once the chase is on, or in the shootout in more extreme circumstances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0jq8p6Sjjs
Mike may have no reason to get involved. If he did, we know that he will through punches. Though either he was pulling his punches or he punches like a boy (it’s a dumbyverse thing), because Joe was not messed up at all considering how many times Mike hit him in the head.
I’m not sure Joe is the best standard for “not messed up”.
yup, i was gonna say that the gun is a crucial detail, but i guess no one other than the bystander saw that, huh?
Mr Willis has said Toedad pulled the gun AFTER Becky & Dina ran, so they don’t know about it. Hopefully Random Passerby 1 is calling the Cops, while Random Passerby 2 is taking pics/recording video to help identify Toedad to the Cops…
Er, I don’t think Joyce has in-character reason to call 911. Becky and Dina didn’t know about the gun, so Joyce doesn’t know about the gun.
If you say “My friend’s dad is here and she doesn’t want to see him and is running away for… reasons…” the cops aren’t really gonna give it priority.
yes, but to be fair an undesirable person on campus is enough reason to give warning, whether or not it’s immediately actionable–after all, there’s significant reason these days to ban people who have no business being on the premises
Maybe. But keep in mind that Becky is on that list too. She doesn’t go to school there.
I don’t think Joyce has the presence of mind to call the cops on an obvious authority figure at this point in her life.
Let alone one she doesn’t know if they’re doing anything wrong or illegal.
It’s been discussed, but in the previous strip, one of the people in the background noticed the gun..
I’m really hoping one of them will make the call, and that ToeDad isn’t agile enough to dart around the trees as well as Becky and Dina.
“My adult friend’s abusive dad is here and trying to kidnap her” would likely get better results. Hell, even just “her abusive dad has found her! Help!” would likely get a response, although I don’t think it would occur to Joyce the police could help.
Or to consider Ross Babies MacIntyre “abusive”.
Honestly I think that if she doesn’t know he’s armed, her best option would be to call Ruth. If she has her number.
In her current state of mind… I’m not sure who she’d beeline for. Sarah? Ethan? Dorothy?
Pretty sure Amazigirl told her that Dorothy always knows how to contact her. Since Joyce doesn’t know about the gun (because even rushing that’s too slow to be the best plan with immediate threats even if Amazigirl could face a gun), this would sort of make sense as a ‘I have to bite the bullet and face Dorothy’ moment.
I’m assuming now that even Becky didn’t notice the gun (this isn’t exactly the time to shelter Joyce’s sensibilities, and that’s a pretty relevant detail for the phone call)
It looked like he was reaching into his car in yesterday’s fourth panel while stating that Dina ALSO will be struck down by the hand of God. I think they might have seen it and Becky is just too panicked to think to mention the gun to Joyce.
She did get spooked suddenly.
Defiant and standing her ground – “Hand of God” – “RUN!”
Someone on yesterday’s strip (Boomwolf?) suggested that he might call his gun the ‘Hand of God’, and Becky’s reaction made me wonder if she might know as much.
(Although I don’t buy the ‘Hand of God’ theory)
I’ll post this a few times in the comments for info, as I think it’s confused a lot of folks:
Word of God says he pulled the gun after they ran.
Good point. While that would negate it being in reference to his gun specifically, the way Becky’s response to the situation changes right after he says it still suggests to me that she has a preexisting association of that phrase with violence.
I saw that. It did seem plausible.
In Australia the emergency number to call is 000(Triple Zero).
That seems almost easier to misdial than 911 (which is irritating because our office has that stupid “dial 9 to get to an outside line” plus “011” is the bulk of our international prefixes…)
Because of the sheer number of American shows which mentioned 911, so many Australians have called 911 instead of 000 over the years that any 911 calls will be diverted to 000.
In Europe they have 311 or 211 or something. In some US areas the phone companies re-route all of those calls to 911. Probably for tourists who are panicking or something.
Actually, in the USA, “311” is the non-emergency police line. Like if you come home and find that someone threw a rock through a window, that would be a 311 instead of 911 call, since immediate police response is not needed.
In Chicago, 311 gets you to the pothole hotline.
It’s far more than just potholes (although I wouldn’t doubt that during the winter, it’s the highest volume of calls)
Chicago residents can now call 311 – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – to report service needs, check the status of previous service requests, obtain information regarding City programs or events and file police reports.
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/311.html
Actually in European Union (plus some other europeans country which aren’t in the EU, plus other countries out of Europe), it’s 112. But some countries still have other numbers in service, like in France where you dial (from a french phone) 17 for the police, 18 for the firemen, and 15 for a medical emergency… so not many people know the 112 number… 20% of the people in Europe only… it’s kinda sad taht more people know the number to vote for real-TV series….
Yeah, we (in the UK) traditionally use 999 for emergency services, however we also have the ability to call 112 to get through to the services – not that many people know about that. Apparently 999 will only go through to local services, but if they’re all busy, it’ll put the caller on hold, whereas 112 would patch them through to another less busy area immediately. (Not sure how that helps, but still…)
The UK also has 111 for non-emergency calls for an ambulance brigade, and 101 for non-emergency calls for the police force. (There’s no non-emergency number for the fire brigade though, as far as I know).
I wonder if there’s a number like that for non-emergency police services in Canada? As far as I and the phone book know, it’s just whatever the local number is.
Years ago, one evening, I was in a drive-through, idly watching a guy walking through a parking lot in my side-view mirror while I waited for my burger, when I saw him reach under a bush, pull out a pistol, and keep walking. In those days I only had a pager, not a cell phone (which dates this story considerably), so I said to the cashier in shock, “That guy back there has a gun! I don’t have a phone! Can you call the police?”
She replied something along the lines of, “Are you sure? Oh my god! Yes, of course!” and disappeared to tell her supervisor. When I got my burger I pulled over to the side to wait for the police while trying to keep an eye on him. No cops. No cops. He disappeared into the night. No cops.
So I went back to the cashier and asked how long ago they called them. “Oh, we haven’t yet,” she said, looking embarrassed. It’s been busy and we don’t have time to look up the number in the back.”
“HE HAS A GUN! THE NUMBER YOU CALL IS 911!”
“Oh.”
I went to the pay phone at the corner of the parking lot and called the cops my own damned self, which I could have done immediately if they had just told me straight off they were too busy to call. The cops showed up with alacrity, but of course the guy was long gone. All I could do was give a description and point them in the right direction.
–But if someone has a gun? THE NUMBER IS 911, IDIOT.
In Switzerland we’d dial 117.
No idea why they chose this number. I can’t seem to remember it at all (I had to *google it* right now).
It gets funnier: I’m the “voice” of the emergency announces on the national radio .-D
http://www.rsi.ch/temp/intrattenimento/pillole-info/Pillole-informative-2573314.html
and 211 is reserved for a social services hotline. Where to find food support, emergency housing, and other things that Becky needs, but not as much as she needs police.
These days I think most phone networks redirect as many foreign emergency numbers as possible to the appropriate service. It’s easy enough to do, and potentially saves lives.
The same problem happened in the UK (younger generation remembers 911 from American media). It’s 999 over there.
Now it’s
I thought it was 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3.
or an e-mail
I know it’s 999 (and am Canadian); but I only know that from the book where Paddington Bear tries to dial a number beginning with 9 but gets his paw stuck and ends up dialing it three times before he can get it out. The police show up.
Yay for popular media as an education system?
Anonymous, I love you.
Supposedly 112 works everywhere now on GSM phones (AT&T and T-Mobile in the US), though an emergency is not a time you would want to test the theory.
In an emergency call Mike at 666.
Back in the days of rotary phones “0” was the hardest digit to dial, which is probably why they picked “000”. Double tapping a key on the phone wasn’t a problem back then.
The call prefix to make international calls from Australia is “0011”, which I guess has the potential to make accidental emergency calls but I don’t know how common that is in practice.
How about the police? Let’s call 911! I mean, this isn’t that hard. Even if she didn’t see the gun, this should be a no-brainer.
I have a horrible thought . . .
Becky reaches Joyce at the fountain. They manage to exchange a few words before suddenly; they hear the CRACK of a gunshot. Horrible realization plays across Becky’s face as she looks over her shoulder and says some variant of ‘Dina,’ before dashing back into the woods to confront gun-toting toedad.
Dina is almost certainly the knee he’s going to go after.
*the one
At least she isn’t the femur?
I dunno, I feel in some strange way, knee works.
That’s what I get for writing on a smartphone. Stupid autocorrect
I have a feeling autocorrect might end up being prophetic on this one.
We kneed to know.
I’d prefer the knee to whatever else he might shoot!!
Dina was the perfect girlfriend… then she’ll take a bullet to the knee.
,,Dina is the perfect girlfriend…she managed to get my father to shoot himself in the knee.”
Dina was a world-renown paleontologist until she took an arrow to the knee.
Armed with imaginary weapons, as we used to chant on the playground:
RAH RAH REE
SHOOT HER IN THE KNEE.
RAH RAH RAZR
…
SHOOT HER IN THE OTHER KNEE.
The only kneecap-shooting religious guy I want to see is Shepherd Book.
+1
What?
Becky used to be adventurous until Dina got shot?
No you son of a bongo don’t even fucking joke
Let me tell you a story that might put things into context. I grew up in a quite conservative-religious community, as it appears Willis did also. Assembly of God elementary school, homeschooled for middle school, and a Christian high school. There was a certain nearby large university that, when it came time to look at colleges, I was forbidden to look at. The reason? A friend of my parents had a kid who came out of the closet while he was at that university. Now, I knew this kid in high school; not too well, but well enough to know that he was *obviously gay* already, even back in high school. But university was when he told his dad about it, and thus that particular university “turned him gay.” And thus my siblings and I were not allowed to even *think* about going there, for fear of catching the gay ourselves. Fundies think homosexuality is like a virus, that you can catch just from being around it too much.
Now, these people in this story were relatively well-educated, stable people, so badmouthing the university to anyone and everyone was as far as it went. Add a little crazy, though, and a lot of desperation (these people think that their children are *literally going to burn forever*, and if you accept that as a premise it’s not really that unreasonable to be really freaked out), and you could easily get extreme measures like this.
What I’m saying is that Toedad is going to go after Dina. He probably thinks she’s the one that “turned” Becky gay, and he may well consider going to prison to be an acceptable sacrifice toward the end of “saving” Becky from the gayness.
Someone had better freakin’ call the cops, is what I’m saying.
In addition to all this, consider a few other things:
1) We just had a great big chapter about Dina and how awesome she is. This is almost always a really bad sign in fiction.
2) Dina was the martyr character in the old universe.
3) We know there’s going to be a hospital scene sometime in the near future.
I’d say the one hope here is that Willis could be putting all these pieces into place to cause us to feel dread, as a misdirection. Because right now, it looks bad.
or that’s what we get for looking at preview images
He knew what he was doing when he posted that on this tumblr.
You know, a while back he said that his wife looked at the strip he was working on and said it was her favourite one yet, and that we’d love it. I marked the date down.
Today is that date.
Which makes me think that he got the date wrong a bit, but gives me hope for some amazingness shortly. Amazi-elbow to the back of Toe-Dad’s head? 😀 I await with baited breath.
–Also, you know, the last time Amber tangled with an abusive dad he ended up in hospital with several broken ribs, so perhaps that hospital preview is extremely promising? Anyways, we still have reason to hope.
I don’t think any of these strips are my wife’s favorite! Not for a while.
Way to crush our dreams, Willis.
Maybe they’ll grow on her.
BUT.. We’re all voting to see more of Dina! That means Willis has to re-draw the archive.. right?
But Toedad knew Becky was gay before either of them met Dina. It would not make a lot of sense to blame Dina for Becky’s gayness.
Not that I’m expecting a lot of common sense from him but still…
That kid I knew in high school was also already gay before he went to that university. You’re expecting logic and common sense from a man who chases people down with a rifle because he doesn’t like his daughter being gay?
He’s probably got some giant conspiracy theory in his head about the “deceptress” traveling all over the state with the express purpose of corrupting his daughter.
Right but I think Derek’s point was that the kid you knew was still closeted before going to that university, so his family didn’t know. Becky’s dad knew, having heard it straight from the source. I’m surprised he accepted Andersen university saying his daughter corrupted Kaitlin than the other way around. I’m surprised he didn’t blame kaitlin, but maybe he did.
But I think you’re spot on that he’s got some giant conspiracy theory about Dina.
Conspiracy theory?! Dina’s the one who put him on that bus!
He’s PO’d at her for wasting his time, and *now* is the
temptress, to boot! He’s got her number… and it is up!
*stoopid spacing issues*
Doesn’t that always seem to be the case?
“So and so” comes out of the closet, and 90% of their classmates are less than surprised.
We had a great co-worker. One day at while out at lunch he makes a solemn announcement that he’s gay. Literally, the reaction is “no, really? And so what?”
This. All of this. The culture Toedad comes from views queerness as part virus, part recruitment campaign by literal demons that is intertwined with things like feminism and secular education. In his head, his daughter is not gay naturally. She’s not even someone who just happened to stumble on gayness. Instead, because he raised her “right” and kept her from “corrupting influences” then there is some gap in which Satan has taken root and recruited her as an attack on him personally. After all, he’s one of a handful of God’s chosen who has resisted the Antichrist’s charms and so taking his daughter from him would be a powerful blow to test his moral clarity.
And that is how he views it. His daughter has been taken from him as a personal slight and recruited by demons taking advantage of a moment’s weakness on his part where his dedication to enforcing the godless ways wavered. And now other demons are preying on her soul keeping her from finding her way back to the light as the “Godliest” are the greatest prize for demons.
Which all bleeds into a perfect headspace to fully justify pulling the trigger on an 18 year old Dina, because after all, it’s not killing a person, it’s killing a corrupting demon who is personally trying to hurt you.
And, I just want to keep her safe and not have her femurs shot by a delusional fuckweasel addicted to trying to control his daughter.
Why would he think Dina turned her gay instead of, you know, Kaitlin, if anyone?
Her last words will be “I’m sorry, this was the bes….”
D:< D:< D:<
‘I’m sorry, it was the bees’
Preferably, he would begin saying that, but be incapable of finishing the sentence, because his teeth would have become bees. Then his eyes.
And the birds?
If you think about it, “the birds and the bees” is all about lesbian sex. Nearly everyone thinks (or at least I do) that “the birds” refers to eggs (i.e., females) and “the bees” refers to stingers (i.e., males), but nearly every bee you encounter is female, so, really, it’s about lesbians!
Sorry, over-analyzing trivial concepts is how I deal with stress.
AND THE NIGHTMARE VAULT JUST KEEPS GETTING NEW ADDITIONS!!!
I WANT TO STOP BUT I CAN’T
Or alternatively, he arrives and kidnaps Joyce as he is worried she is being tainted, and believe he can at least save her if he cannot save Becky
Blaine at least somewhat recognizes when he’s in a losing battle in a public situation.
Question is, will Ross?
I mean he’s kinda screwed either way toting a rifle around in a public place, but it’s how much damage he’s willing to cause before then.
It’s a kamikaze. He knows he’ll be arrested for this, but he thinks he might be able to remove Becky’s gay-ifying influence (Dina) before that happens.
To him, Man’s laws don’t matter, only God’s. And God is not going to take kindly the fact that he let Satan steal his only remaining family without a fight. Remember, to him, all of the secular powers are corrupted by the Antichrist who may or may not be President Obama and so of course they would try and impede his holy God-driven task.
What will happen is Dina will use her camouflage dino powers to blend into the forest and save Becky with her paralyzing venom spit. Finally, she will spread her pterodactyl wings and feed him to her nest of younglings. That’s right everyone Dina is a single mother.
not single anymore
I have a feeling your right, i hope your not right.
Please that is really beyond horrible. Willis wouldn’t murder anyone really though…right?
Dina died in It’s Walky!, but I think The Willis is on record as saying that no one will die in DoA.
And Toedad is not a person, he is a giant toe. So hope springs eternal that the giant disembodied toe will die. Yaaaaaaaaay
While more disabled representation would be nice, this is not the way I want it to happen . . .
They hear the gunshot. Becky turns around. I’s Dina holding the gun toward her. Becky looks down and see’s blood puring onto her shirt. *Mmmm, whatcha say,
Mmmm, that you only meant well?
Well, of course you did
Mmmm, whatcha say (whatcha say)
Mmmm, that it’s all for the best?
Of course it is
Mmmm, whatcha say,
Mmmm, that you only meant well?
Well, of course you did
Mmmm, whatcha say (whatcha say)
Wha- wha- wha- wha- what did she say?* Becky falls on the ground
(Another gunshot.)
Mmmm, whatcha say
(Becky, lying on the floor, holds up a gun. Dina looks shocked.)
Mmmm, that you only meant well
(Dina looks at her hands, covered in blood)
Well, of course you did
Mmmm, whatcha say
(Dina looks over at Becky)
Mmmm, that it’s all for the best
(Dina and Becky exchange looks)
Of course it is
(Dina begins to fall in slow motion)
Mmmm, whatcha say
(Dina falls to the floor)
Mmmm, that it’s just what we need
And you decided this
Whatcha say
Mmmm, What did she say?
I… I wish this didn’t sound so plausible.
oh no
At this point, I’m not scared he catches Becky. I’m scared he’s chasing Dina.
As long as Dina can find an open door, she can hide from him.
An open door? She can open up a door herself, the clever girl.
I should have said unlocked instead of open.
Due to her size,she can hide in the bushes or climb in the tress if she can.
Same here. I’d say he’s less likely to go after his own daughter with a gun, and more likely to go after the “Deceptress” he sees as contributing to his daughter’s “corruption.”
My knee-jerk response to this was, “Hmmm, Becky didn’t mention the gun. That seems like an important detail to me.” Then I remembered that she had already started running when he pulled out his rifle and went, “Oh, right, she probably doesn’t know about that.”
Meanwhile, Dina is unarmed and alone in the woods, where there aren’t likely to be witnesses. If Becky and Dina had seen the gun, they may have been more inclined to run toward more public spaces.
Willis promised not to kill anyone off, but there’s a lot of damage that can be done to a person without actually killing said person. I am deeply worried for Dina right now.
“You’d be amazed what you can live through.”
Someone’s see the Disney Aladdin movies too…
…And in this context, not a very good line…
Actually, if you look at panel 5 of yesterday’s strip Dina was actually in front of Becky, which means she either took off running long before Becky told her to. I just hope she keeps moving instead of trying to find a place to hide in the woods. That red top of hers is also rather prominent and readily visible in a sea of green.
911 Becky!!!
Operator: 911, what’s your emergency?
Becky: My psycho dad is out to get me and my girlfriend. He’s got a rifle. He’s wearing white shirt, camo pants, and his head looks like a big toe.
Operator: You want your dad arrested?
Becky: Yes; he’s ruining my life.
I kinda doubt the answer to “he’s got a rifle” would be “you want him arrested ?”.
Where a ginger convention when you need one?
Oh man, the next 24 hours is gonna feel like six years!
That alt text though
Well, now we know Joyce has Dina’s number saved in her phone at this point.
We also know that Becky has Dina’s phone, and Dina doesn’t.
What I meant was that Joyce recognises the incoming call in the first panel as from Dina, indicating that she probably had saved Dina’s number to her phone. Of course, it’s possible that they exchanged numbers after they both became involved in trying to protect Becky.
Silly sort of thing to comment on, I know, but it was one of the first things I noticed.
AGH. THIS ISN’T BETTER. I WAS HOPING IT WOULD BE BETTER.
I still hope Toedad shoots himself in the foot while chasing them.
How about he shoots himself in the toe? By which I mean his head.
Or he chases them into a public area, a cop finds him and tells him to put his weapon down, he refuses, he is shot and hospitalized
Given what’s been happening in the real world, I don’t think any cops — even Dumbiverse cops — facing someone with a gun are going to be shooting to wound.
That’s true, but campus cops are not trained to the same standard as regular cops and even they only hit their target in 1 out of 20 shots fired, so chances of actually getting killed in a firefight are pretty close to nil (0.45% per trigger pull). Most of the times people are killed by police they are unarmed and therefore unable to use suppressive fire to force LEO to fire wildly. Many times armed perps don’t even have to fire to get LEO to shoot wildly. It’s a sad state of affairs when you’re less likely to get killed by the cops when you shoot first instead of getting caught unarmed.
More than a few incidents in which police who start pulling the trigger continue to pull it so multiple policers = many-lots bullets. Sometimes they put many bullets in their target. Sometimes the hit bystanders &/or each other. One incident on the streets of Manhattan they wounded bystanders with concrete spalled off the landscape by their “misses”
I dunno, Bicycle Bill…
They might not even fire. He -is- White, after all.
And carrying a gun. Forget race, fight or flight kicks in and most police are geared toward fight, and since American cops always carry guns, you can see where this is going.
Nope. White people can shoot DIRECTLY AT the police and still be taken in uninjured. It’s one of the most blatant examples of our privilege.
It’s not like that always happens. There certainly are stories of unarmed white guys being killed by cops, if you know where to look.
Nothing’s 100%. Maybe white people get “lucky” in this regard more often, but his survival if he runs into some cops certainly isn’t guaranteed.
If you’ve been trained with a gun (and cops presumably have, though that may be optimistic), you don’t ever “shoot to wound”. If you’re firing a gun at someone, you’re trying to kill them. If you’re not trying to kill them, you shouldn’t be firing a gun at them.
Nevertheless, people do get merely wounded by gunfire, because the bullets don’t always go where the shooter wanted them to. (Which is also the reason that you don’t “shoot to wound”.) And with modern medical care, if a gunshot doesn’t kill you almost immediately, you’ll probably survive it.
They might shoot to wound in this case – Toedad is white.
Police (and soldiers) are taught to shoot at centre of mass, there is no such thing as shoot to wound.
Curse you leaves, and your inabilty to change color on demand!
Be careful what you wish for. I suspect some leaves will turn red soon.
first of all how dare you
You creative monster.
I’m fairly certain that the phone is going to upgrade before the leaves change.
If this was El Goonish Shiver Becky might be able to change haircolor to blend in with her backgroynd.
If she had enough magic to be able to burn out, even the slightest amount, this situation would be significantly less worrying.
Global Warming and its extended summers is the real villain of this piece.
Turns out the entire moral behind Becky’s story arc was about environmentalism.
Who you gonna call, Joyce?
Hrmr, I assumed they saw it before running.Ghost Busters.
uh, 2 comments mashup. weird.
Anyway, she’s ddefinitly calling the Ghost Busters.
It’s not fair, the new poll. Dina always tops out the list, and now she’s getting a boost from the “Please Don’t Be Murdered By A Terrible Fucking Person” sentiment, too.
I’voting Malaya anyway XD
Me too!
But ignoring arguments about who did it first, doesn’t Willis, like GRR Martin, kill off popular characters? Isn’t this poll the most dangerous one to choose someone you like on it?
*plays Rick Astley’s “Cry For Help”–followed by Simply Red’s “Come To My Aid”–on the hacked Muzak*
I’m hoping for Rick Astley’s never gonna give you up soon.
I’m thinking Real Life – Send Me An Angel rather appropriate at the moment, considering they’re running from a religious nutter…
I might not know people that well, but I know a fanatic when I see 1…
Meanwhile, everyone who has read the Walkyverse is quaking in fear about Dina.
I’m hoping that Willis will rather not repeat certain plot points like Dina’s death.
pretty sure he confirmed no deaths earlier in the story
sadly, that doesn’t rule out major injuries and/or coma
I’d say that’s still unlikely unless he wants to pretty much write off a character from the comic for good. Given how slow the passage of time is in the comic, the amount of time that would be needed to be spent in a coma/recovering from a major injury or coma would take years upon years.
Plus, Dina is a veeery popular character. I doubt this is the last we’ll see of her, regardless of what happens. Willis has had unexpected things before; maybe neither becky nor dina ends up in the hosplital.
Willis did say a while back that when his wife saw today’s strip she said it was her fave so far. I marked the date on my calendar. Maybe he miscalculated? I’m hoping it means an Amazi-smackdown is coming.
Speaking of which, did Amber’s dad ever get better?
Outside of time skipping to months/years after a murder of one of the characters, the grief would pretty much consume the characters. Unlike the Walkyverse, I don’t think death really works with the timescale.
I would agree with you, but I would’ve said the same thing about having a gun toting crazed father on campus too, so I’m a bit more skeptical of writing off all possible outcomes.
You know, he did make a twitter post a while back about a weeklong time skip.
I’m guessing it involves Becky or Dina being hospitalized.
The moment Toedad pulls out a bomb as well, we’ll all have heart attacks.
“I’m sorry… this was the best… Deja Vu…”
This is too many nightmares to enjoy, drama or not. Seriously considering forgetting the comic exists for a few weeks. But it makes me happy in a twisted way.
Oh, and for every fucking asshole who wants to bongo about how this is totally a thing muslims are worse at, , my parents are fucking Christians.
Random thought:
Remember when Joyce’s mom was calling and asking about Becky? Maybe she was doing it to warn Joyce that Ross was becoming increasingly unstable about it. The only reason she didn’t tell her then was because Carol wasn’t sure that Joyce knew that Becky was missing, and didn’t want to cause undue stress.
At least, that’s the hopeful interpretation.
Thaaaaaaat…. makes a disturbing amount of sense.
That would make Joyce’s mom a better person, This would make a interesting canon
Did… did Becky and Dina not see the part where he has the gun, because they had already turned and run into the trees when he took it out?
Oh geez. Oh geez oh geez. I can’t handle the 24 hours between updates. I’m wishing away my weekend because I need to know that Becky and Dina and Joyce and everyone are going to be okay and that Toe-Dad will get everything that’s coming to him and more.
Oh geez. I didn’t think about that part. Although I suppose that’s better than Becky not being surprised enough to be scared by it.
Nope, they didn’t see anything. The pair probably got a good 30 feet before dad went in and took out his gun.
In fact, since Joyce has her phone out she will probably get a “crazy gunman alert” where as Becky with the phone won’t know how to work the phone or care since she is running so Joyce will have to tell her directly.
Note that Dina no longer has a phone (since she just gave it to Becky) and will have a hard time finding out about the gun. Dun dun dun.
Confirmed, Toedad pulled the gun out AFTER the girls turned & ran…
Possible there are speakers outside to broadcast the gunman on campus alert?
Unlikely.
I have been to 5 campus colleges and none of them have loudspeakers.
Not that it would matter since the pair are in the woods.
Mine had tornado sirens, but I don’t think they could do voice.
Amber had the campus police alerts on her phone, so she should get
the notice, if the bystander in the background called!
A lot of campuses have texting alerts for bomb scares, etc.
Becky, I realize you’re kinda panicked, but maybe you should tell your friend about the freaking gun.
My reaction exactly XD
She didn’t see him with the gun,she and Dina were running in the forest when he pulled the gun out.
She probably didn’t see the gun. He got it out after they ran.
They might have started running away before he pulled out the rifle.
Becky and Dina were already running into the woods by the time the gun came out. She might legitimately not have realized that it’s there, yet.
I’ll post this a few times in the comments for info, as I think it’s confused a lot of folks:
Word of God says he pulled the gun after they ran.
I’m glad he clarified.
Seems someone else found that bit too, thanks. Was thinking of putting a link to it in this chain, but I’d literally just posted 1 right above it…
I think a lot of people are assuming that she knows he owns a gun and would use it in this situation, and that it was a contributing factor to why they ran.
That’s a lot of conversation while running for one’s life.
Joyce should call Ethan. He has the most bulk of people she knows well.
That, and 9-11.
I hope Dina’s “Fit into the background” powers kick in and Toe Dad runs right pass her. As for Becky… if Autumn just happened all of a sudden that would be great.
Seriously now would be a great time for a door to appear.
… Love is an open door?
That or a 60′ British police box.
Well, Dina’s head’s green at least.
I’m so scared. No one had better die. This will not turn into the Walkyverse with their full graveyard.
I think Willis likes having readers, tho
In special those that trash talk in the comments,supporting guys like Ross.
correction: Willis likes having readers who eventually buy the merch
trolls can sod off
I really hope this strip lays off the super serious stuff for a while, after this. It’s been one thing after another for a while now, it seems like.
I’m pretty sure this whole storyline is going to be serious. (It runs until late November). Maybe not every strip. But there’s quite a few long running conflicts that are bubbling to the surface here. We did just have a month and a half long storyline that was rather light hearted back in July/August though.
It’s been a long time since the strip has gotten this dark. I think the last comparable moment would be when we first learned about Becky’s circumstances.
Actually that’s a good idea it cowardly idea but it’s a good one, all you need to do in this chase is use a huge crowd to separate him from you.
People tend to use the word “Cowardly” for smart plans alot huh
The smart plans Alot? That’s an Alot I didn’t know about.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
It’s the sort of Alot Rincewind approves of.
“But there are causes worth dying for.”
“No, there aren’t! Because you’ve only got one life but you can pick up another five causes on any street corner!”
“Good grief, how can you live with a philosophy like that?”
Rincewind took a deep breath. “Continuously!”
Asshole dad, won’t you come~ and wash away the raaaain~
He didn’t wash that Dirty Sanchez on his lip,so….no.
I keep telling people, it’s actually a Batarang!
It is shaped right… O_O
I don’t know if I can take such drawn-out tension. *shudder*
Why in God’s name did Becky waste all that goddam time playing word games about hiding in the words and just flat out say:
“My Dads chasing me and Dina with a gun call the cops-we ran into the woods?????????”
I’m a red head. My first thought after RUN would be pull the back of my shirt up over my head to hide the hair. (if I thought about the hair).
Oh shit oh shit oh shit…..Joyce’s number may be first she thought of but ….
maybe Joyce will call the cops and scream for Sal.
Sigh, this arch is just really so bad. Never got this caught up in anything like it. Kudos Mr. Willis, and Damn you too.
They don’t know about the gun yet. If they’re panicking now, it’ll be doubly so when they see the boomstick.
It’s been said above, but the panel sequence in yesterday’s strip makes it clear that they were running before they saw the gun.
Word OF Willis confirms it…
http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/130927548682/did-becky-see-toedad-pull-out-his-gun-or-did-she
Ross looks out of shape. Maybe he’ll have a heart attack while chasing them.
One can only hope.
From your mouth to Willis’s ear.
Did Becky’s speech bubbles change colour to pink salmon?
They were white a couple a secs ago before i refreshed.
The off color is the voice coming over the phone. It’s there for Joice over the phone as well and is easy to miss on a first read.
I see it to
This strip, nay this entire arc, is making my anxieties flare up big time.
Having been on the revieving end of what is being depicted, (only usually sans guns pulled and more then one assaliant, but still threat of death) it is anxiety inducing it might be better to just bookmark this page and then come back in a week or two.
*Appropriate gesture of support* That is rough.
*Sympathy via virtual light physical contact*
Bugger. most people on this mudball are nice people, pity the idiots spoil it despite lower numbers…
*Accept Sympathy and gesture of support*
Cerberus and Screwball:
I’m sure caesaria82 appreciates, as I do the support.
The problem with the “idiots” is that they tend to congragate together and form a pack. And in between the “idiots” and the “nice” ones are those that are “nice”/good but think they can “fix” people, usually by converting them to their views. Those people can do great harm, while trying to do good. Just look at the Tuskegee experiments or conversion therapy, to name a few examples. Its not just the “idiots” sadly, and those “nice” people that do harm while, thinking their doing good/trying to do good, are by far scarier. One ended by a whistle blower, leading to changes in the law to protect patients, the other still occurs but has fallen out of mainstream acceptance.
Some of us have to find the courage to overcome fears/anxiety first and that is a battle that often has to be fought alone, others can be supportative, but the hardest parts are a solo affair. Its encouraging to see that some get that. No trying to fix, no judgements, just support, knowing perhaps hoping, that when ready, or able to, we’ll seek help, if we’re not already.
So thank you both for that.
For the record, if you’re chasing your daughter through the woods like a deer, then you need to reevaluate your parenting strategy.
You need to reevaluate the notion that you are a parent.
PROTIP: Treating your children like property isn’t what a parent does.
You may also need to reevaluate you hunting strategy. Daughters are almost never in season.
What bothers me is how instantly panicked she became.
I mean, if it was me, I would have probably simply started a shouting match in public, and my (Christian) parents did have the habit of using physical force to try and make me submit (which I never did, so it escalated).
So the fact that a young adult runs away from her father at full speed really rings some bells about why she fled from her house in the first place.
I mean, she’s an adult, she has the right to refuse any and everything he tells her to do. And yet, she flees. It really makes me wonder how many things she didn’t tell anyone.
HE HAD A GUN.
Are you really saying ‘don’t flee from someone with a gun’?
They saw him get out of the car, but they might not have seen him pull out the gun before running in the opposite direction. It is fight or flight and she is no match for him tub of guts that he is.
I’ll post this a few times in the comments for info, as I think it’s confused a lot of folks:
Word of God says he pulled the gun after they ran.
As far as we know, Becky didn’t actually see the gun. She’s just running from her unarmed dad as far as she knows; if she’d seen the gun she would certainly have told Joyce about it, because gun.
So yes, absolutely flee from someone with a gun, but that’s not what Becky did as far as we know. Becky fled from her as-far-as-she-knew unarmed father (he brought out the gun after she started running) at top speed into concealing vegetation. It speaks ugly volumes abut her home life.
Is she an adult? What are the laws in Indiana? Toe-Dad might be able to legally force her to come home.
Nope. Doesn’t change his ability to physically force her to come home.
For someone with no neck, he does seem rather physically capable…
Or, you know, it’s still an authority figure she had to answer to for 18 years? And she’s still freshly adjusting to being an adult? And he might have a record of anger issues she might be well aware of, if he’s pulling out a gun?
I mean are you seriously trying to make Ross look better right now
I don’t know, I didn’t read that as making Ross look better. I read it as making him look worst. Like this may not be the -first- time he’s gone after someone with a gun. Or the first time violence was going to be brought into her upbringing. Hence “what else didn’t she tell anyone?”
She doesn’t want to complain. After all, she’s no “Debbie Downer”.
I read that the same way as SmokedToast: worried speculation that life with Ross as a parent may have been even worse than already intimated. Maybe it’s so, maybe it’s not… but given that we’ve already seen Becky repress the hell out of her negative feelings (fear, pain, sadness) in favor of acting loud and fun and likable rather than being a “downer”, it is a worrying possibility.
She’s an adult and yet, she flees. Because she knows exactly what Ross can do.
(Pretty sure, even though she didn’t see the gun, she’d figure he brought it with him. I mean, I’m assuming he always has one in the car.)
Tho we don’t know much about him, considering how Religious-Fanatic he seems to be, it is possible he could equip himself similar to this guy…
Not everybody is apparently so blessed with a lack of fear response as you are.
That’s an interesting point of view, although I might not call that a blessing.
Yes, apart from the gun (which she didn’t see) this is not a surprise for Becky. She KNEW that when he found her it would result in him trying to get her in the car with violence.
This is not standing up to your parents any longer. Becky is way past that. This is avoiding an enemy that has targeted her for kidnapping and worse.
He did say “I know what she needs, and I will rehabilitate her through any means necessary”. Considering how much of a Religious Fanatic vibe he’s giving off right now (Yeah, even find them on Cybertron), and that he did say he was going to “fix” her, she’s got good reason to legs it good & proper…
This is kind of like what I posted at the end of the comments. She should be 18 if she’s in college, and thus he has no control over her choices. However, if he endangers her or tries to kidnap her (both of which he is doing) her FATHER is BREAKING THE LAW. They just need to find the police.
…and survive the next ten minutes.
Okay I’m not sure why so many people are convinced that Toedad will be targeting Dina specifically “for turning Becky gay” or whatever.
Literally before yesterday, the ONLY thing Toedad knew about Dina is that she inconvenienced him by putting him on a one-way non-stop bus. When he brought the gun, he was not thinking about the woman who bothered him with the bus, he was thinking of using that gun to get his daughter back by any means necessary. Ross did not bring that gun for Dina, he brought that gun for Becky.
Also Ross knew about Becky being gay before Becky even met Dina. Unless Ross thinks that Dina telegraphed her lesbianness from far away (…I guess he could potentially believe that…yikes), even in his twisted world Dina is not the reason Becky has gone astray.
Yes, Dina COULD potentially become the target now that her relationship has been outed (in fact it’s rather likely); but Dina is not the reason Ross brought the gun and she is not his primary concern.
He called her ‘deceptress’ and said she would be ‘punished by God as well’ as he pulled out his gun.
That’s a pretty threatening thing to say and do.
Oh I’m not saying he’s not threatening Dina, in fact she’s in grave danger. But he brought the got along before he knew about Dina at all.
The gun may just always go along in the car. There are people like that and he’s in the right demographic.
And now he’s had a day to fume about the “deceptress” tricking him.
brought the **GUN
To quote Toe-dad:
I am familiar with the deceptress. She ALSO will be punished by the Hand of God.
Please note that the emphasis above is Willis’, not mine. This suggests to me that he had already decided to shoot Becky if she resisted him (hence having the gun within reach) and decided at that moment to include Dina as a second shooting victim. Hell, he might also be thinking of shooting Joyce for hiding Becky as well.
MAYBE MENTION THE GUN??!??!?!?!
I know I know, you forget common sense when you’re panicked.
I don’t think she even saw it.
I guess maybe. We don’t see it until the last panel (for suspense), but I figured she saw it before us (we can’t see him below the non-neck in the middle panel, but I don’t think that means Becky couldn’t).
I’ll post this a few times in the comments for info, as I think it’s confused a lot of folks:
Word of God says he pulled the gun after they ran.
BECKY YOU FORGOT A WORD
IT’S KIND OF AN IMPORTANT WORD
HINT: IT’S SHORT
YOU MAY WANT TO SAY THE WORD
“police”?
(inb4 “gun”: see like A MILLION other comments on this page)
If it’s gun, then she’s not forgetting the word, she doesn’t know there’s a gun. She ran before Ross pulled it out.
At the mention od Dina being “punished by the hand of God”
Doesn’t mean she knows that a gun is involved.
I have a pretty strong hunch that the person who gets shot is Amber/Amazi-Girl.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD, LESBIAN PRAYERS, GET ON IT!!!! Instant autumn, Toedad tripping on a branch and loosing the gun and if you play a bit fast and loose with 70 million years of evolutionary history and he is attacked by raptors I promise not to ask to many questions about it.
If Dina happens to have trained a couple of falcons as pets and her parents decided to come over for a short visit today, he could still be attacked and ripped apart by raptors without plot holes.
Is she calling Amazi-Girl? That’s be sweet.
Ruth. Blood and Femurs.
Blood and Femurs.
Nice motto for the House Lessick!
I don’t think she is calling anyone just yet. I think that panicked look when she is looking at her phone is her seeing a text from IU’s emergency system about an armed gunman nearby (IU’s system will text, email, AND robocall you on all registered phones).
Even here, even now, Becky finds it in herself to make jokes. God bless you Becky, you don’t deserve a tenth of the shit you have been given.
Yes, Joyce. It is up to you know. It’s up to you to save your best friend.
People rarely do.
Sal, you are our only hope!
“Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-Help me Salbewan Kenobe, you’re our only help-…..”
Sal sees him, and rides up…plants a wicked side kick, while passing him.
So this is where the chain of Becky > Joyce > Dorothy > Amber comes into play, right?
Hey guys. I have a sense of impending dread. How about you?
Nope~
DUDE THE GOD DAMN TENSION OH MY GOD
Quick, run to campus! It’s a Gun Free Zone, and his firearm nor his bad intentions will be permitted there!
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/10/08/report-conservative-medias-gun-free-zone-myth-i/206037
A new level of tastelessness has been achieved!
Well, I got sick yesterday and still am. I must have caught Angstanus.
Could have swore I hit the reply button. It was a reply to Clif.
The scary part about this chase is that Dina doesn’t have a phone on her now. And she doesn’t know that Becky is headed towards the fountain.
I’m pretty sure she knew Becky was meeting Joyce there, and might extrapolate that as a likely destination, in a low stress, thoughtful environment at least. This isn’t that.
Tiny detail, but I love the fact that Joyce has Dina’s number in her phone. They might have their differences, but that doesn’t mean they can’t exchange contact information.
Dina is Becky’s girlfriend: she at the same time deflects the awkward from Becky’s crush and make Becky feel better after having her world shaken. Joyce is candidly nice enough to be glad for both and pardon any paganism she could hear from Dina…
And since they were both involved in the most recent iteration of the ‘hide Becky from Toedad’ plan, it would also make sense for them to exchange numbers for coordination purposes alone.
And toedad is killed by a raptor.
CNN interview with a paleontologist. “Dunno, we haven’t seen anything like it in 70 million years. Durrr….”
“Despite the reports, due to the escape of a cassowary from a nearby zoo, we are sure the creature was not anomalous in any way.”
Seriously, toedad looks like a pile of dead meat already. Pigeons are dinosaurs. If he gets eaten by pigeons, it wouldn’t be that weird.
Yeah, but pigeons aren’t raptors. Peregrine falcons, though….
The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a frickin’ dinosaur.
Ah yes, the humblest of all god’s creatures, the tyrannosaurus rex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxln3a7GyfI
Oh man, she doesn’t know her dad is packing heat. This is getting progressively worse.
I really want her dad to get shot by campus police
Personal beliefs mean I don’t want anybody to get shot. I do want toedad tased sooo fucking hard, though. He’s a large man, no reason not to use multiple shots.
He won’t get tased. Police don’t respond with a lower level of force. They might try to talk him down. He’s white after all and hasn’t actually started shooting yet. But he has a gun out. If they use force at all, they’ll shoot.
If he loses the gun before the police show up, that’s a different story.
Yeah, I know, I just want to watch him suffer while maintaining the moral high ground.
Run (through the) Forest, Run!
I’ll see my self out.
Spoiler alert. Danny gets shot. wakes up with Ethan next to him. amber straight up loses out and hunts down toe-dad (in this situation my empathy reaches out for amber bless her amazi-socks)
My personal theory is that Jason get shot. He is not a main character for now. He is not far from the fountain, but not in the same direction, so as they have split, still probable. He is an authority figure for some student (like Dina I thin). I think he is feeling bad to have let the Walkerton down, so could think to be able to reason someone with a gun. And as soon as his bow-tie and brit accent show up, Ross will think he’s gay and “spreading” it. If people hear he spreads anything to students, even if he hasn’t anything to do with Dina, it could be interesting enough to note that it could lead to a quiproquo about his relation to Sal. So, even if it’s not the easiest way to go, I ship Ross and Jason (is it not what a ship is? Oh my bad!)…
among student, not to. English language, I’m sorry for the mess I leave, I do what I can.
Burying the lede a bit there, huh Becky? “Also, he is literally hunting Dina and me for sport.”
She probably didn’t see the gun. He might not have pulled it into view before she ran.
Red leaves eh?
It’s gonna be Becky or Ethan. Everyone else who would get shot are either not going to hit everyone hard, or have already died at least once.
I think you definitely see ethan alive and well later. also Dina hasn’t taken her hat off, so you can assume she won’t be seriously injured. And becky hasn’t had enough “Life is beautiful” situations. Dreading Dorothy getting in the middle of this, but betting as soon as someone confronts toe-dad he’ll implode into a sobbing raging mess. psychotic people tend to generally apathetic, but he hasn’t shown detachment from reality like you would expect (at least I hope he hasn’t)
It’s Willis, someone has to die.
He’s been poking us with Ruth dying again, but that’s too easy and we expect it.
Becky’s an easier “She was just finding herself!, how can she be gone, is it our fault?!” Bomb like Ruth was, and Ethan’s the “Poor cinnamon roll, too good for this evil world” choice.
Again, he has said repeatedly nobody dies in DoA. Not just main characters, nobody.
Willis has said no one will die in this Universe. Not for any human feelings, but because the in-universe grief would be a drag on the story thereafter. And both Becky and Ethan have characters that would mourn their death (Joyce and Dina for Becky, Amber and Danny for Ethan)
ToeDad doesn’t, though.
I meant that Becky and Ethan HAVE people who would care if they died.
And he did say the no death thing?
Eh… Well, that sucks the drama right out of this then.
Might as well have had him pull out a giant bible on a stick to smack her with.
Guns can also maim.
This is going to turn into a bloody campus shooting, isn’t it?
It already has.
“Bloody” as in “covered in blood”, not “bloody” as in “the mild British swear word”
Yep. Not keepin’ it together; Even if she didn’t SEE Ross get out of the car, it was bad to call Joyce instead of the police.
Beck’s moves are all slightly off-perfect.
To be fair, Becky doesn’t know that her dad brought a weapon. She turned her back before he brought it out. The police would probably not prioritize this
Her dialog has already acknowledged the understanding: He has no right to pursue and harass her.
“My friend and I are being chased through the woods by father who is trying to take me against my will bye.”
They put-two-and-two-together for a living and she’d have used a cell phone.
They’d figure it out.
Becky doesn’t have a great record of trust of autority figures.
Break into a penitentiary and grab a jumpsuit! Nobody would see you in that sea of orange.
A ballistic shield would be the best thing to get.I think though in penitentiaries they have only riot shields,but from what i heard some riot shields can stop handgun and shotgun bullets.
Clever girl time.
Oh crap, she’s going to call Amazi-Girl via Dorothy, isn’t she? That’s entirely the wrong person to involve, and adds another name to the list of characters I suddenly have to be seriously worried about.
Anyone consider that Dina and Becky both end up heading for the fountain, and as Foedad tries to shoot Dina, Becky jumps in front of her to save her? Or Amazi-girl gets there just in time to do that. Or Joyce jumps in front of the gun to defend Becky. Or Sal tackles Foedad right when he shoots, making him hit Joyce?
Basically at this point my brain is running a million different scenarios and none of them end well.
On the bright-side, I pictured Becky jumping in front of Dina, Joyce in front of Becky and Amazi-girl in front of Joyce all at once, which would look kinda funny (right up until the point where someone gets shot).
The first thought I had was that Joyce was going to get caught in the cross-fire, mostly because it would cause her parents to show up again, and that it would be an opportunity for her to push back at them some more.
But the fact is that right now, there are so many balls in the air that literally any of the characters could wander in to the wrong place at the right time and get a fisting from the Hand of God. Willis is spoiled for choices, depending on which plot lines he wants to either initiate or push forward.
In the not too-distant future?:
A one-panel comic, with Dina lying in a hospital bed with Becky by her side and maybe one or two others nearby.
Dina will be hat-less for the first time in the comic.
That, or the first time we see Dina sans hat will be in the panel where/just after she gets shot.
She died already though. it lacks punch if you kill them more then once.
If the campus has an alert system, then Joyce and Becky should be receiving a text soon that there is a gunman on campus. Dina, however, has no phone at the moment.
I am betting that is what Joyce is looking at in panel 5.
So in Becky’s case for Dina right now….-AHEM-
“I’d give my liiiife, not for honooor, but fooor yooooou~ (Snake Eaaater~)
And I’m stiiiiiil in a dreeeeeeaam, Snake Eateeeeer~”
“I will dive into the fire
Spilling the blood of my desire
The very last tiiiiiime
My name scorched intooooooo the skyyyyyyy
When heavens divide”
Dammit, I’m gone for two days and it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire.
So, do either know there is a gun now involved?
No.
Just sayin’, I think Rebecca is 18 years old and legally an adult. He can’t choose to control her if she doesn’t want it, and it’s obvious she is not relying or depending on him to live her life anymore. Now that he is threatening bodily harm and kidnapping, the only place she should be running to is a police station where the law is on her side.
Maybe she isn’t thinking very clearly.
She hasn’t seen the gun. She’s eighteen. She’s running from an abusive authority figure that she’s been conditioned her whole life to think the actual authorities will support. Damn straight she isn’t running to the police. It’s really hard to convince abused kids that the law is on their side in a confrontation with the abuser. And sadly, it all too often isn’t.
And while she clearly knows there’s real danger both to herself and to Dina, the instant flight clearly shows that, it would be very hard to prove that or even convince the cops to take it seriously. Until the gun came out, of course. Which she doesn’t know about.
Prediction:
Sal will kick his ass and be hailed nationally as a hero.
Amazi-Girl screams internally.
Or a possible Amazigirl/Sal team up? Though that is a lot of awesome in one place.
Runaway gay teens may reasonably not consider authority figures to be on their side. Ditto their friends. The bystanders will call LEO because of the gun. The super friends will try to handle this on their own, esp since they done know about the gun.
Why did Toedad feel the need to pull out a gun? Other than being an abusive, ultra-consertive, NRA …..
He knew that Joyce was the key to finding her. There is a saying, don’t draw a gun unless you are prepared to use it. Obviously he’s prepared to kill someone.
Whoa… Never have I been this legit scared reading this comic. Run, Becky. Run, damn it!
Being armed probably would have been a good thing to mention….
He pulled the gun AFTER she and Dina started running for it. She probably doesn’t know he brought it yet.
So my idea for a feel good ending to this is:
1) Toedad catches Becky and proceeds to drag her back to the car
2) Dina sees this, attempts to knock him out with a rock but misses, he points the gun at her
3) Police arrive in the nick of time, yell at him to drop the gun, he turns to face them and gets hit by multiple shots to his right ventricle, bleeding out and proceeding to Hell.
4) Being the next of kin, Becky inherits everything, and now has money to enroll at Indiana next semester.
What do you think?
Willis doesn’t really do ‘feel good’. When he does, it’s usually just a preamble to slam-dunking your face into a steaming pile of despair.
His spouse would actually be next of kin. Or he could have a will that leaves everything to his fundie church and she gets nothing unless she wants to contest the will.
Becky’s mother died last year.
Has anyone considered the idea that Toedad might shoot himself? It would be an interesting twist and maybe add some nuance to a sorta one-dimensional villain.
What.
David, why do you insist on killing a redhead in every college setting you conjure up?
Leave his personal life out of this!
Act with integrity?
Uh oh, Joyce may have made a tactical error. Look at her eyes in Panel 5 – yes, the image Willis posted early on Tumblr. She told Becky to come to the fountain, she can get help – but Joyce is still half-paralyzed with her own trauma. I don’t think she’s mentally capable of leaving that fountain, right now.
I thought she was panicking while scrolling through her contact list and deciding whom to call.
Why would she necessarily have to leave? She has a cell phone.
Personally, I had interpreted that look as either indecision or panic over the over plan A to protect Becky falling through.
I could definitely see Joyce try to push herself like that for a friend, though.
I think it is more likely that at that moment (panel 5) Joyce is receiving the emergency alert from the IU system that there is an active gunman situation on campus nearby. She went from looking concerned in the previous panels to fully panicked when she looked at her phone.
Hm. I think that would be made more explicit in the strip if it were the case; I think it’s a combination of the fact that she now HAS to call Dorothy, whilst being afraid of how the conversation might go, and a little freaked out by the situation (that they’re actively resisting Becky’s father, and calling in Amazi-Girl means it’ll likely get physical).
Fun fact – Most predators cannot see the difference between red and green, which is why there are bright red critters like foxes and chipmunks in the woods. Sadly, Toedad is red-green colorblind (so far as we know).
It’s not that they can not see the difference. Brown and auburn colors actually contrast with green just right so that they are just less noticible. Humans are also less likely to notice animals of those colors in the woods than other colors (black and grey also work well).
You can’t fool us, Willis!!! I know whoever wins the current poll is who is getting shot!
Quick. Vote for Mary.
Re-read the Dina-Becky strips. Good times.
Now that I think about it, for all the talk of how no character deaths means no tension, it’s not like a gunman on campus hunting a defenseless woman is going to go unnoticed. I’d say it might even drastically alter the atmosphere of the place for a long time.
I’m not sure if Becky saying “The gig is up” instead of “the jig is up” is a mistake on her part or Willis’s.
It’s been changed. Guess that answers that.
I found this comic like 4 or 5 days ago and i’m caught up now! Love this story so far. Joyce and Mike are my favorites lol for very different reasons obviously.
Hopefully no one gets shot
Welcome.
Just so you know this series is the third series made by this author. The other two series have the same characters, but the stories are completely different and not related (no backtracking needed). Check them out too if you want to.
After searching the Dumblr of Age, I now believe the true proof of Mr. Willis’ evil nature is how carefully he chooses what preview images to post.
Prediction: it gets to be nighttime, Toedad is lurking through woods as Dina hides behind tree, suddenly there’s another male voice. He talks to Toedad about how the way Beck y turned out was due to his influence and how God is angry at him, motivating Toedad to turn the gun on himself, Dina, shaken and terrified runs, turning back once as she sees a familiar blonde with a permanent scowl looking down on Toedad.
This would be a REALLY good time for a Green Lantern ring to choose Becky.
Just sayin’
I really feel like she should have mentioned her dad has a gun that’s really important???????
I just noticed the surprise indicators over a silhouette’s head in yesterday’s comic so I’m really hoping that person called the police to warn them about a crazy man chasing 2 girls into the woods with a rifle