There are two types of people. 1) Those who have read Discworld and get that reference. 2) Those who haven’t read Discworld yet and will get it soon enough.
Ffft I’ve only read the first story, so I don’t get it. I have 95% percent of a mind to abandon wuthering heights and get back into discworld, AP English Literature be damned.
She looks like she’s saying it differently now, more like a fond memory, based on her expression. On the other hand, I don’t think it bodes well that people in this hall actually think cheerleaders are cool.
…yeah, i think you’re right about that. hopefully that affects her positively, though–having people clearly on her side from the get-go might prevent her from ending up in the same place again.
Agreed. It comes across much less as something she’s trying to cling to and define herself by than before. I hope the change of location is good for her.
–oh yeah, the comic has set up that cheerleaders and nerds are Not Friends. It’s probably that, and Lucy could well have some bad high school memories of her own.
Billie’s moved on from the ‘popular cheerleader clique’ mindset, though. I think that’s why Lucy looks a little relieved in the next panel after Billie tells her it’s not a big deal. (That or she’s just putting the facade back up.)
I mean, she seems perfectly happy about it in panel 1, if her specific hangup was cheerleaders you’d expect that emotion to show up there to start with.
(as an aside, although I know it’s a stereotype in tv/comics/whatever, and I’m not from the States, I’ve actually never met anyone who thought cheerleaders were cool, except people who are cheerleaders)
I’m guessing by the third panel that Lucy is this floor’s problem solver, and she’s sad that she’s going to do the neighborly thing and let Billie be it now
Hm, my first thought with that panel was that Lucy doesn’t actually think of someone being a cheerleader and go “!!!!” about it. Like maybe the head cheerleader at her high school bullied her or something, though that’s purely spec.
I kind of get the opposite vibe. This group has so far seen Billy as cool, including regarding being a cheerleader, which makes me think Lucy might feel not cool enough, especially since her last roommate didn’t like her.
Totally agree… whatever Lucy is being right now, it just doesn’t seem real. Like she’s secretly worried or scared or insecure and is trying to make up for it by being the best roommate ever.
I was SOO looking forward to seeing more Lucy, because I loved her character the most in Shortpacked!. But this doesn’t seem to be the same Lucy, personality-wise.
Oh yeah, totally agree. I mean, from what she said last page I think there’s definitely some insecurities and/or anxieties.
I really liked Lucy too and I hope we can see this Lucy grow and develop, and I feel confident about our odds there. It feels like Billie moving is expanding the regular cast rather than minimising her interactions to solely with the existing cast.
This Lucy has none of the cynicism of SP! Lucy. I’ve been speculating on the reasons to myself (better fandom experiences, younger age, author deciding DoA has enough cynical characters, NOT WORKING RETAIL…). I like that this personality feels to me like a natural fit because the first thing we ever learned about any universe’s Lucy is that she identifies with Starfire.
Dropping this link here too, my backup for this group (floor) thinking cheerleaders are cool. I totally get and agree with the possibility of it being that she was bullied by cheerleaders, but my first read was definitely ‘oh, she’s out of my league,’ and regardless of which interpretation, ‘another roommate that won’t like me.’ (Either way makes sense for her perking up afterward.)
I am concerned a little about Lucy’s coffee offer though, she sort of reminds me of people I’ve known who try to do favours a lot in scrambling to be liked when they have low self esteem.
Overly helpful: check
Comes off perky or like an excited puppy: check
Nervous and anxious: check
Apologizes for everything: check
Best in small doses: check
Probably lonely: check
Tries to bond too quickly: check
Drives people crazy: check
Even though the games are very different the characters are the same. In Teen Titans they fight one another, and in Teen Titans Go you walk around and throw things at them on your phone.
The original Teen Titans cartoon reruns every Saturday morning before Transformers, which I know because I see the last fifteen seconds of it every week on my DVR.
Lucy: “Head cheerleader?” and for the first time in the comic, she looks away and seems to lose confidence. I’m guessing she’s suffered at the hands of Head Cheerleaders (or more likely, their sycophants) in the past.
And what we know, but Lucy does not, is why Billie wants the poorly stitched letters to remain how they are. Something is being foreshadowed. What is that something? I have many guesses but no clues.
She probably doesn’t want it re-stitched because it was Ruth that stitched it back on.
Of course, it was also Ruth that tore it off in the first place, but it’s possible she doesn’t want to lose that, either. She was a bit of an abusive bully herself in high school, and had been making good progress on becoming a better person earlier in the semester, before that run-in with Alice sent her into a nose dive. It probably reminds her of Ruth’s own struggle and how far she’s managed to come since then, which would be comforting when she’s feeling shitty about herself.
Though now that I think about it, that seems much too positive and healthy to be correct :/
For firefox at least, there’s a “Show tooltips” add-on that lets you see title text on things by touching and holding it. I don’t get why no mobile browser seems to have something like this built in
ah… I’ll look into that… sadly that doesn’t help for my rss reader or the embedded browser. and yes, it really ought to be built-in. I saw chrome’s awkward way of getting alt-text work on xkcd today, but last time I checked it doesn’t work on DoA iirc.
I don’t think she sees it as a momento of abuse though, but of redemption and signs of real affection. (it sounds like her life has been short on that.)
I’ve been hitting refresh for the last 15 minutes, and nothing new is coming up, even after a DYW post. So either our fellow sufferites have gone uncharacteristically silent, or something has gone wrong on the server end, or on my end.
But I wanted to note that in the last word balloon of the last panel, it looks like Billie is starting to respectfully but forcefully set boundaries with Lucy. This could be the beginning of a healthy relationship.
I wonder if one day, years in the future, when Amber eventually goes megalomaniac super-villain, we’ll see Lucy take up the cape like the good old days.
Holy crap, that’s it. I’ve been born in the wrong world. All my life, I’ve felt like I’ve been the odd one out. The one person who’s been disappointed if his cookie is chocolate chip instead of oatmeal raisin.
Anyone got a multiverse-hopping dune buggy I can borrow?
Yeah, this is weird. There’s definitely an agenda at work here; not necessarily a malign one but an agenda. Optimistically, the people at Forest Hall are so glad to see the back of Malaya that they are literally doing everything possible to make Billie feel welcome so she’ll stay and Chloe will maybe not swap her with Malaya again!
Or they could just be friendly people who aren’t drama magnets like, you know, most well adjusted human beings. But then this is Willis so probably not.
Taking a wild guess: Billie gets to like this, maybe even gets to help Lucy out a little (I mean, “Lucy.” strikes me as the start of something intended to be helpful, more than something Malaya would say.) The welcome is kind, everyone seems functional and pleasant… and then something from the first dorm comes over, and wrecks the whole thing. (I mean, Ruth just being Ruth, for instance.)
How has Billie kept her ponytail in front of her shoulder this entire time? A clip? Carefully not turning her head to the right? Enough hair spray to turn it into one solid mass?
oh my god they are so cute together
I think Lucy can really be a happy thing in Billie’s life. Sure, she’s inappropriate, pushy and kinda desperate. But Billie has been feeling like all those things herself, like nobody (except Ruth who is just as fucked up) wants to be around her, like she’s completely alone in a cold, hard world where nobody cares.
Lucy cares, in the kind of over-the-top way that IMHO will help Billie orient herself again. She is not a bully, not toxic for other people, so Billie cannot discount her as ‘another broken person’, nor can Billie possibly classify herself as ‘toxic’ for Lucy, because I don’t think they are going to be close enough for anything approaching that.
IMHO, Billie really needs the feeling of normality of ‘people want to be friendly to me just because I’m there’. She had that with Joyce, sort of, but with Joyce it came packaged with ‘everything you normally say and do is either morally repugnant or completely irrelevant’. Being around Joyce and her entourage did not make Billie feel good for who she is, it made her feel like a desperate irresponsible drunkard who can do nothing right.
In this hall, there are enough people willing to casually, low-pressure be Team Her for her to not feel desperate, and these people also share a frame of reference with her. Being a cheerleader is cool. A cheerleader uniform is a precious memento that needs to be kept in top condition. Parties are nice, and drinking is not their business.
If I understand the ‘cheerleader queen bee’ thing correctly, it basically means having a company of people who appreciate and respect each other at face value, enjoy each other’s company and do things together just for the sake of doing things together, and then build relationships based on that. And if I understand this floor correctly, that’s what their default looks like, too: you build individual friendships based on the ‘default’ friendship with everyone who’s willing to participate in that.
Gah, no matter what I write it just doesn’t sound right, because actually I just see a simple visual/tactile/synesthetic scheme that probably doesn’t make sense for anyone who isn’t me -_-
Imagine the old floor as an expanse of cold dark grey to black, with several bright bright but still cold-ish spots, where you have a choice between REALLY INTENSE and nothing at all. And the new floor as soft, cushy, warm medium colors, like sinking in a sofa where you can then get to read a book or use a laptop or whatever.
That’s what it’s like in my brain.
(the old building had people who didn’t give any fuck about Billie at all but who Billie could assume would probably disapprove of her, which is the grey/black, with people who are at least aware of Billie and don’t mind her as grey and people who actively don’t like her / aren’t aware of her existence as black. AND it had high-voltage connections with Billie’s ‘siblings’ – which is not an easy relationship and Billie has basically nothing in common with either of them; Joyce-Dorothy-Sarah-Dina-Becky company who are welcoming but don’t approve of Billie’s lifestyle and personality and might as well be from another planet from her point of view; Ruth, who is high-pressure high-intensity and not even remotely a source of stability <= this accounts for 'bright spots')
(and i cannot really unpack the metaphor/visual/feeling for the new building more than I did above. But it feels like that. And Lucy feels like the particularly warm-to-hot spot after which you'll feel better going outside into cold, like a super hot shower – it's actually even uncomfortable, but it gives you that sweet window of time where cold actually feels nice and doens't really make you cold cold. I’d compare it to sauna but I’ve been to one like once in my life so I can’t really build on that. Burning hot shower that allows me to dry myself off and get dressed without freezing in the process though is a daily experience)
Just popping in to say that the sauna comparison does work very well as a description (I’m a Finn and sauna, well, kind of is our thing. Actually I just went to one yesterday). After/during going to sauna, the cold really doesn’t feel as intense anymore, the cooling sensation can in fact be quite nice. I have been outside after sauna in the winter, while only wearing a bathrobe, just enjoying the snowy scenery for a while without any hurry to go inside. 🙂
Also, your description of your synesthesia is interesting. (I experience a minor synesthesia as well, but that’s pretty much just seeing letters in colors.) It’s fascinating how different people with different experiences can interpret same things so many ways in the first place, but when the basic sensory information gets …modeled(?) (not sure what word to use) so heavily, it takes it to a whole new level.
I can somewhat see what you mean by the new dorm’s nature being warmer than the previous one’s. And I hope that you are right in this being beneficial to Billie. I just have some concerns that their admiration for Billie is going to make her try to cling to that admiration and assume her previous role as alpha-bongo and hide her issues (like her bad self-esteem and other vulnerabilities) under that role, and that it would further stop her from actually dealing with her issues, which is going to be bad for her in the long run. However, the second panel gives me hope, because she seems to be discussing her previous role with nostalgia like it’s more a thing in the past, rather than something she is going to try to establish in the present. Also Lucy here really has been coming on way too strong, not even giving Billie a chance to establish physical boundaries and ignoring/not noticing Billie’s attempts to withdraw from the intensity of the interaction in general. But from what’s been established here (and in the previous universe) Lucy really is a genuinely nice and friendly person, so it is highly possible that this interaction will later become positive for both of them. However, first some boundaries need to be set. And they need to be respected.
Yeah, short-term Lucy is kind of an annoying factor. But, yeah – thank you! I’m really glad the sauna comparison worked. After her, it will be easier for Billie to view other people’s general indifference to her very existence as a neutral-to-positive thing and not like falling into a lonely abyss of loneliness.
I don’t think Billie will fall into old habits that much, and there’s a very strong visual/narrative signifier imho: the glasses. Billie took hers off to seem ‘cooler’ in her old way, and came in to be greeted by a welcoming committee ALL WEARING GLASSES. That’s a pretty clear narrative clue: this environment is not the same as Billie’s old one, and she has to figure it out anew, and she can see that (see? glasses? vision? eh? eh?)
My synesthesia is a weird thing where my visual perception is kinda shitty (I am basically incapable of Noticing, I always have to Look For if I want to see something), but my inner thinking operates in a very visual/abstract way. (I genuinely thought my perception of the dorm comparison was visual until I started describing it and realized it also had cold/warm/soft in it) Numbers are always translated into some kind of line, bent and scaled differently depending on what the number is for (a person’s age, math, year), and it’s this 3D structure that I can look at from different angles in my head. Year is a circle/square (gets bent differently depending on ‘viewing angle’) that goes counter-clockwise, and I see it from above and slightly outside, from the side I’m thinking about (so the part I’m thinking about is the closest to me). More outside when it’s spring/autumn, more from right above it when it’s winter/summer, further outside&above when I’m thinking about bigger periods of time. Not a spiral, like it would have made sense but nope when I’m dealing with dates and seasons it’s just a circle and there’s just a different ‘significance’? mental feeling? for which year it is. These nuances are partly felt as colors, gradients, partly I can see patterns and pictures (you know, like those cartoony seasonal pictures in elementary schoolers’ books). Time of day is also a circle, and I have a much easier time with analog clocks than digital clocks because they translate into my perception of it more naturally. But it’s not a kind of circle that has a clockwise/counterclockwise direction, it’s more like a 2d band joined in a circle that I view from its forward surface (when it’s day). When it’s evening/night/morning it’s from a different angle that’s definitely towards the same structure but makes it seem kinda different structurally? Man this is really weird, it’s so natural to me but when I try to describe it in words I realize just how geometry-defying my geometric imagination is. I’m also utterly incapable of perceiving time without outside clues, I can never tell how much time has passed from any given previous moment, and my memories when devoid of specific contextual ‘anchors’ are temporally umoored in a ‘was this a year ago? was this ten years ago? GOTTA LOOK FOR A CLUE’ way. So this 3D (possibly more-D) thing is the only way I can process ‘it’s been two hours’ or something like that. BTW, it’s also got meal times marked on it, because of course it does. And it’s also got color/pictures/patterns on it that shift depending on how/where from I’m looking at it?
Synesthesia is WEIRD but I know I’m better at math than many of my peers because of the numbers line in my head (when I add together big numbers I visualize overlapping layers and it’s just easier to keep track somehow). Sorry for rambling but it’s rare that I ever get to talk about it >u>
(I know it’s already the next day and pretty late at that, but still, replying just in case)
No need to be sorry. It’s quite understandable wanting to talk about your experience, especially since it’s pretty unique one. Besides, I did say that I find it interesting and still do 🙂 As for me, like I said my synesthesia manifests mainly in experiencing or “seeing” certain colors when seeing/hearing letters (or numbers or weekdays and such. For example, the letter A is “blue”, number 2 is “dark green” while Monday is “red” and Friday is “white”). I remember writing my name when I was a child with different colored letters, each the color that I felt was “right” for every letter (or what I felt that this is the color that letter really is/in some weird sense has). Not all the letters (or other symbols/concepts) have as clear color to me as some of the others though. For example, I’m still not quite sure about the letter Z, it’s somewhat blurry. I think that it’s gray but it also feels like it has some brownish shades as well? On the other hand, T for me is clearly bright red and has always been. Anyway,brains are weird.
that is so cool and now my brain is full. 🙂 (I don’t think I have synesthesia but there is a sound I can only describe as ‘silvery’ and a taste that seems ‘yellow’ – and my brain has other interesting things it’s hard to find words for but not nearly that abstract… 90% of the time…)
Given her desperate attempts to obtain recognition and connection, she really strikes me as potentially being the most damaged walky/dumbiverse character of all. Her temperament gives the implication of severe neglect in her past, after all.
I’m guessing that there are approximately even chances that Billie is going to snap at Lucy and intimidate her into silence or that they will have a talk, Lucy will confess that Malaya’s antisocial behaviour made her feel lonely and confessing that she may be overcompensating. This second scenario will end with Lucy hugging Billie in tears just in time for the rest of the Forest Crew to walk in and note that one thing had changed: Lucy didn’t used to be hugging her roomie whilst crying.
As Pablo said, Lucy was in the last arc of Shortpacked! IIRC, Amber trained her to be the new Amazi-Girl after she hung up her mask to raise her and Mike’s daughter, Donatella.
huh. I dunno when the next Amber comic will be, but, I thought of something in the shower: right now Amber’s a lot like Elsa during ‘let it go’.
Don’t let them in,
don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel,
don’t let them know
Well now they know
and like Elsa, she’s trying to play this pseudo-villain role.
Let it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don’t care
what they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on.
The cold never bothered me anyway
…ok that’s enough quoting, but the rest of the song continues to fit her mood since she came back (well, hers is darker and more subdued so far, but it’s close). OTOH, the whole dorm seems to be trying to fill Anna’s role, so maybe they’ll get through to her before anyone turns into ice? 😉 (wait, no, this is Willis, of *course* something’s going to happen)
PAINFUL RESPONSES AND ALSO TRAUMA THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BILLY BUT SURE WHY NOT LUCY MIGHT AS WELL CRY US A RIVER THAT TELLS US THAT SHE HAS BEEN ABUSED AT SOME POINT BY SOME WHITE CHEERLEADER. Or black. Idfk.
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whoa Lucy calm down
This is calm. Wait until SHE’S had some coffee.
It’s like getting hit with a 300 Megawatt Care Bear Stare.
Everything’s all fun and cute until a heart shaped beam melts your everything.
Twitchy from Hoodwinked will look positively tame compared to Lucy on coffee.
“I THOUGHT I LEFT JOYCE BEHIND BACK IN READ”
Joyces are like CMOT Dibblers. There’s one everywhere you go.
Wonder how many others get that reference.
One.
At least TWO people got that reference, or I’ll Cut Me Own Throat!
Three, three Throat’s being cut. #GNUSTP.
Four!
Five! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Eleven! (Counting the non-numbered ones… I don’t actually think I’m six people.)
Definitely your genuine dibbler products.
The whole discworld got that reference.
THE TURTLE MOVES
er, I mean
Probably more than you’d think.
Lots and lots.
Turtles all the way down.
There are two types of people. 1) Those who have read Discworld and get that reference. 2) Those who haven’t read Discworld yet and will get it soon enough.
Wait. There are people who don’t know/enjoy the company of Rincewind, Captain Carrot, nor even Foul Ole Ron?! Preposterous, I say, PREPOSTEROUS!
“Inconceivable!”
No, wait, wrong fictitious world.
You forgot one type: Those who haven’t read Discworld, but still get the reference because they spend a lot of time on TvTropes.
I’m on TV Tropes constantly, and I still don’t get it.
Ffft I’ve only read the first story, so I don’t get it. I have 95% percent of a mind to abandon wuthering heights and get back into discworld, AP English Literature be damned.
Dibblers never learn, though, so where does this storyline lead?
ok i am Very nervous about the return of “head cheerleader, problem solver”
She looks like she’s saying it differently now, more like a fond memory, based on her expression. On the other hand, I don’t think it bodes well that people in this hall actually think cheerleaders are cool.
…yeah, i think you’re right about that. hopefully that affects her positively, though–having people clearly on her side from the get-go might prevent her from ending up in the same place again.
Agreed. It comes across much less as something she’s trying to cling to and define herself by than before. I hope the change of location is good for her.
Lucy’s face while saying “cool” doesn’t look too thrilled. She might be intimidated, or not super fond of cheerleaders, or something.
–oh yeah, the comic has set up that cheerleaders and nerds are Not Friends. It’s probably that, and Lucy could well have some bad high school memories of her own.
That’s what I’m assuming. Bullied by the popular cheerleader clique for being an nerd, possibly with a side of light racism
Billie’s moved on from the ‘popular cheerleader clique’ mindset, though. I think that’s why Lucy looks a little relieved in the next panel after Billie tells her it’s not a big deal. (That or she’s just putting the facade back up.)
I mean, she seems perfectly happy about it in panel 1, if her specific hangup was cheerleaders you’d expect that emotion to show up there to start with.
Just to clarify, this is what I meant by ‘people in this hall actually think cheerleaders are cool.’
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/nailed/
(as an aside, although I know it’s a stereotype in tv/comics/whatever, and I’m not from the States, I’ve actually never met anyone who thought cheerleaders were cool, except people who are cheerleaders)
I’m guessing by the third panel that Lucy is this floor’s problem solver, and she’s sad that she’s going to do the neighborly thing and let Billie be it now
Hm, my first thought with that panel was that Lucy doesn’t actually think of someone being a cheerleader and go “!!!!” about it. Like maybe the head cheerleader at her high school bullied her or something, though that’s purely spec.
My interpretation was more like “Head cheerleader? Uh oh.”
I kind of get the opposite vibe. This group has so far seen Billy as cool, including regarding being a cheerleader, which makes me think Lucy might feel not cool enough, especially since her last roommate didn’t like her.
Or what Yumi said.
Totally agree… whatever Lucy is being right now, it just doesn’t seem real. Like she’s secretly worried or scared or insecure and is trying to make up for it by being the best roommate ever.
I was SOO looking forward to seeing more Lucy, because I loved her character the most in Shortpacked!. But this doesn’t seem to be the same Lucy, personality-wise.
Oh yeah, totally agree. I mean, from what she said last page I think there’s definitely some insecurities and/or anxieties.
I really liked Lucy too and I hope we can see this Lucy grow and develop, and I feel confident about our odds there. It feels like Billie moving is expanding the regular cast rather than minimising her interactions to solely with the existing cast.
This Lucy has none of the cynicism of SP! Lucy. I’ve been speculating on the reasons to myself (better fandom experiences, younger age, author deciding DoA has enough cynical characters, NOT WORKING RETAIL…). I like that this personality feels to me like a natural fit because the first thing we ever learned about any universe’s Lucy is that she identifies with Starfire.
Dropping this link here too, my backup for this group (floor) thinking cheerleaders are cool. I totally get and agree with the possibility of it being that she was bullied by cheerleaders, but my first read was definitely ‘oh, she’s out of my league,’ and regardless of which interpretation, ‘another roommate that won’t like me.’ (Either way makes sense for her perking up afterward.)
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/nailed/
I am concerned a little about Lucy’s coffee offer though, she sort of reminds me of people I’ve known who try to do favours a lot in scrambling to be liked when they have low self esteem.
Well that’s just a bit overwhelming.
“Bit’s” an understatement after she offered a coffee run.
Billie please don’t shit on Lucy, something tells me she needs a friend.
They both could really use one.
Was it the part on the last page where she kinda seemed to blame Malaya’s behavior on herself?
“the uniform smells like my uncle” so…booze? is that the implication?
Billie smokes cigars off panel.
“the uniform smells like my uncle” — where did that come from?
Having a smelly uncle obviously
the alt text at midnight, but I see now that it has been changed to something about pumpkin spice
I still like Billie referring to herself as “problem solver”. She’ll need to remember that part of her.
But the callback to the earlier strip is poignant.
“Beer, on the other hand…”
*plays the “Lucy Says” song from the Peanuts cartoon soundtrack on the hacked Muzak*
I really hope Lucy and Billie end up getting along.
I really hope something genuine is about to happen.
Overly helpful: check
Comes off perky or like an excited puppy: check
Nervous and anxious: check
Apologizes for everything: check
Best in small doses: check
Probably lonely: check
Tries to bond too quickly: check
Drives people crazy: check
Oh god… I’m Lucy O_O
Lucy is first-week-of-college Joyce, only she gets high on Teen Titans instead of Jesus.
Hopefully Teen Titans Go won’t do to her what Real World did to Joyce…
Haaaaaang on Lucy! Lucy, hang on!
That Panel 3 face… a pre-emptive “damn you Willis” for when the other shoe drops.
…Wait, due to the sliding timescale, Lucy is now too young to have watched the original Teen Titans cartoon, no?
By that logic I’m too young to have watched the original Beatles movies yet here we are
I grew up watching the original beatles movie.
It took me until I was, like, 23 to realize that the Blue Meanies were supposed to be policemen.
Um, I didn’t realise that until I read this comment. Whoops.
I’ve always been super literal, even when I thought about that movie as an adult, I figured it was just a dadaist musical/music video.
Yeah, no, that makes sense.
They were???
Maybe she’s seen Teen Titans Go! or the new TT animated features
Wait, what does Teen Titans have to do with Teen Titans Go? I don’t see the connection.
Even though the games are very different the characters are the same. In Teen Titans they fight one another, and in Teen Titans Go you walk around and throw things at them on your phone.
That reply was awesome, and by extension, so are you.
i’m assuming she watched it after it was finished, like on netflix or something (i have no idea if teens titans is/was on netflix at any point)?
The original Teen Titans cartoon reruns every Saturday morning before Transformers, which I know because I see the last fifteen seconds of it every week on my DVR.
…… so, wait. Teen Titans is Transformers-adjacent?
well they do both star khary payton
Also Hynden Walch.
Nash and Beatrice: “Head cheerleader? COOL!”
Lucy: “Head cheerleader?” and for the first time in the comic, she looks away and seems to lose confidence. I’m guessing she’s suffered at the hands of Head Cheerleaders (or more likely, their sycophants) in the past.
And what we know, but Lucy does not, is why Billie wants the poorly stitched letters to remain how they are. Something is being foreshadowed. What is that something? I have many guesses but no clues.
Just look for the little blue pawprints.
I think she likes to remember when Ruth took off a letter, and eventually sewed it back on.
She probably doesn’t want it re-stitched because it was Ruth that stitched it back on.
Of course, it was also Ruth that tore it off in the first place, but it’s possible she doesn’t want to lose that, either. She was a bit of an abusive bully herself in high school, and had been making good progress on becoming a better person earlier in the semester, before that run-in with Alice sent her into a nose dive. It probably reminds her of Ruth’s own struggle and how far she’s managed to come since then, which would be comforting when she’s feeling shitty about herself.
Though now that I think about it, that seems much too positive and healthy to be correct :/
that html you used there isn’t working for me on mobile (having no mouse with which to mouseover). had to switch to a computer to read it.
For firefox at least, there’s a “Show tooltips” add-on that lets you see title text on things by touching and holding it. I don’t get why no mobile browser seems to have something like this built in
ah… I’ll look into that… sadly that doesn’t help for my rss reader or the embedded browser. and yes, it really ought to be built-in. I saw chrome’s awkward way of getting alt-text work on xkcd today, but last time I checked it doesn’t work on DoA iirc.
There’s an invisible button you can click to the right of “latest”, underneath the comic. At least it works in Safari.
Maybe she should let Lucy fix it. Maybe being attached to mementos of abuse isn’t a good thing.
I don’t think she sees it as a momento of abuse though, but of redemption and signs of real affection. (it sounds like her life has been short on that.)
Awwww, Lucy really wanted to get coffee 🙁
I’ve been hitting refresh for the last 15 minutes, and nothing new is coming up, even after a DYW post. So either our fellow sufferites have gone uncharacteristically silent, or something has gone wrong on the server end, or on my end.
But I wanted to note that in the last word balloon of the last panel, it looks like Billie is starting to respectfully but forcefully set boundaries with Lucy. This could be the beginning of a healthy relationship.
I wonder if one day, years in the future, when Amber eventually goes megalomaniac super-villain, we’ll see Lucy take up the cape like the good old days.
Lucy’s probably ecstatic about her university having its very own superhero.
I’m really happy to be seeing more of Lucy….
Now when are we going to get some more Arnold up in here? 🙂
Maybe when he visits Ken at Galasso’s Pizza (and Subs).
You should dial it back a bit Lucy.
Also on another note, I never understood what’s so great about pumpkin spice.
Imagine another timeline in which the ubiquitous autumn flavour was cinnamon raisin.
Holy crap, that’s it. I’ve been born in the wrong world. All my life, I’ve felt like I’ve been the odd one out. The one person who’s been disappointed if his cookie is chocolate chip instead of oatmeal raisin.
Anyone got a multiverse-hopping dune buggy I can borrow?
Maybe go talk to Mayberry Melonpool?
That timeline sounds great, honestly. Maybe their history is also just different enough that they never got Christian EDM and President Glove.
It’s just allspice and nutmeg.
Pupkin spice is where it’s at.
It’s good to be excited, Lucy. I mean heck I’m excited you’re getting a bigger role, but relax.
Panel 4: Snipses get Stitches.
Oh Lucy … I missed you and you’re gonna make my heart hurt, you poor sweet thing.
“Wh-what do you mean ‘out there’….?”
Yeah, this is weird. There’s definitely an agenda at work here; not necessarily a malign one but an agenda. Optimistically, the people at Forest Hall are so glad to see the back of Malaya that they are literally doing everything possible to make Billie feel welcome so she’ll stay and Chloe will maybe not swap her with Malaya again!
They are all pod people and want to replace Billie with a clone-drone of their own making.
Actually, a perpetually-cheerful Billie walking around with a fixed smile would be kind of funny to read.
Kinda reminds me of something…
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/goodmorning-2/
Or they could just be friendly people who aren’t drama magnets like, you know, most well adjusted human beings. But then this is Willis so probably not.
Or, the few ppl who turned out to greet Billie are the friendliest on the floor, and everybody else is jerks we just haven’t met yet
Taking a wild guess: Billie gets to like this, maybe even gets to help Lucy out a little (I mean, “Lucy.” strikes me as the start of something intended to be helpful, more than something Malaya would say.) The welcome is kind, everyone seems functional and pleasant… and then something from the first dorm comes over, and wrecks the whole thing. (I mean, Ruth just being Ruth, for instance.)
lucy is trying a touch too hard
How has Billie kept her ponytail in front of her shoulder this entire time? A clip? Carefully not turning her head to the right? Enough hair spray to turn it into one solid mass?
oh my god they are so cute together
I think Lucy can really be a happy thing in Billie’s life. Sure, she’s inappropriate, pushy and kinda desperate. But Billie has been feeling like all those things herself, like nobody (except Ruth who is just as fucked up) wants to be around her, like she’s completely alone in a cold, hard world where nobody cares.
Lucy cares, in the kind of over-the-top way that IMHO will help Billie orient herself again. She is not a bully, not toxic for other people, so Billie cannot discount her as ‘another broken person’, nor can Billie possibly classify herself as ‘toxic’ for Lucy, because I don’t think they are going to be close enough for anything approaching that.
IMHO, Billie really needs the feeling of normality of ‘people want to be friendly to me just because I’m there’. She had that with Joyce, sort of, but with Joyce it came packaged with ‘everything you normally say and do is either morally repugnant or completely irrelevant’. Being around Joyce and her entourage did not make Billie feel good for who she is, it made her feel like a desperate irresponsible drunkard who can do nothing right.
In this hall, there are enough people willing to casually, low-pressure be Team Her for her to not feel desperate, and these people also share a frame of reference with her. Being a cheerleader is cool. A cheerleader uniform is a precious memento that needs to be kept in top condition. Parties are nice, and drinking is not their business.
If I understand the ‘cheerleader queen bee’ thing correctly, it basically means having a company of people who appreciate and respect each other at face value, enjoy each other’s company and do things together just for the sake of doing things together, and then build relationships based on that. And if I understand this floor correctly, that’s what their default looks like, too: you build individual friendships based on the ‘default’ friendship with everyone who’s willing to participate in that.
Gah, no matter what I write it just doesn’t sound right, because actually I just see a simple visual/tactile/synesthetic scheme that probably doesn’t make sense for anyone who isn’t me -_-
Imagine the old floor as an expanse of cold dark grey to black, with several bright bright but still cold-ish spots, where you have a choice between REALLY INTENSE and nothing at all. And the new floor as soft, cushy, warm medium colors, like sinking in a sofa where you can then get to read a book or use a laptop or whatever.
That’s what it’s like in my brain.
(the old building had people who didn’t give any fuck about Billie at all but who Billie could assume would probably disapprove of her, which is the grey/black, with people who are at least aware of Billie and don’t mind her as grey and people who actively don’t like her / aren’t aware of her existence as black. AND it had high-voltage connections with Billie’s ‘siblings’ – which is not an easy relationship and Billie has basically nothing in common with either of them; Joyce-Dorothy-Sarah-Dina-Becky company who are welcoming but don’t approve of Billie’s lifestyle and personality and might as well be from another planet from her point of view; Ruth, who is high-pressure high-intensity and not even remotely a source of stability <= this accounts for 'bright spots')
(and i cannot really unpack the metaphor/visual/feeling for the new building more than I did above. But it feels like that. And Lucy feels like the particularly warm-to-hot spot after which you'll feel better going outside into cold, like a super hot shower – it's actually even uncomfortable, but it gives you that sweet window of time where cold actually feels nice and doens't really make you cold cold. I’d compare it to sauna but I’ve been to one like once in my life so I can’t really build on that. Burning hot shower that allows me to dry myself off and get dressed without freezing in the process though is a daily experience)
welcome to my brain y’all ._.
Just popping in to say that the sauna comparison does work very well as a description (I’m a Finn and sauna, well, kind of is our thing. Actually I just went to one yesterday). After/during going to sauna, the cold really doesn’t feel as intense anymore, the cooling sensation can in fact be quite nice. I have been outside after sauna in the winter, while only wearing a bathrobe, just enjoying the snowy scenery for a while without any hurry to go inside. 🙂
Also, your description of your synesthesia is interesting. (I experience a minor synesthesia as well, but that’s pretty much just seeing letters in colors.) It’s fascinating how different people with different experiences can interpret same things so many ways in the first place, but when the basic sensory information gets …modeled(?) (not sure what word to use) so heavily, it takes it to a whole new level.
I can somewhat see what you mean by the new dorm’s nature being warmer than the previous one’s. And I hope that you are right in this being beneficial to Billie. I just have some concerns that their admiration for Billie is going to make her try to cling to that admiration and assume her previous role as alpha-bongo and hide her issues (like her bad self-esteem and other vulnerabilities) under that role, and that it would further stop her from actually dealing with her issues, which is going to be bad for her in the long run. However, the second panel gives me hope, because she seems to be discussing her previous role with nostalgia like it’s more a thing in the past, rather than something she is going to try to establish in the present. Also Lucy here really has been coming on way too strong, not even giving Billie a chance to establish physical boundaries and ignoring/not noticing Billie’s attempts to withdraw from the intensity of the interaction in general. But from what’s been established here (and in the previous universe) Lucy really is a genuinely nice and friendly person, so it is highly possible that this interaction will later become positive for both of them. However, first some boundaries need to be set. And they need to be respected.
Yeah, short-term Lucy is kind of an annoying factor. But, yeah – thank you! I’m really glad the sauna comparison worked. After her, it will be easier for Billie to view other people’s general indifference to her very existence as a neutral-to-positive thing and not like falling into a lonely abyss of loneliness.
I don’t think Billie will fall into old habits that much, and there’s a very strong visual/narrative signifier imho: the glasses. Billie took hers off to seem ‘cooler’ in her old way, and came in to be greeted by a welcoming committee ALL WEARING GLASSES. That’s a pretty clear narrative clue: this environment is not the same as Billie’s old one, and she has to figure it out anew, and she can see that (see? glasses? vision? eh? eh?)
My synesthesia is a weird thing where my visual perception is kinda shitty (I am basically incapable of Noticing, I always have to Look For if I want to see something), but my inner thinking operates in a very visual/abstract way. (I genuinely thought my perception of the dorm comparison was visual until I started describing it and realized it also had cold/warm/soft in it) Numbers are always translated into some kind of line, bent and scaled differently depending on what the number is for (a person’s age, math, year), and it’s this 3D structure that I can look at from different angles in my head. Year is a circle/square (gets bent differently depending on ‘viewing angle’) that goes counter-clockwise, and I see it from above and slightly outside, from the side I’m thinking about (so the part I’m thinking about is the closest to me). More outside when it’s spring/autumn, more from right above it when it’s winter/summer, further outside&above when I’m thinking about bigger periods of time. Not a spiral, like it would have made sense but nope when I’m dealing with dates and seasons it’s just a circle and there’s just a different ‘significance’? mental feeling? for which year it is. These nuances are partly felt as colors, gradients, partly I can see patterns and pictures (you know, like those cartoony seasonal pictures in elementary schoolers’ books). Time of day is also a circle, and I have a much easier time with analog clocks than digital clocks because they translate into my perception of it more naturally. But it’s not a kind of circle that has a clockwise/counterclockwise direction, it’s more like a 2d band joined in a circle that I view from its forward surface (when it’s day). When it’s evening/night/morning it’s from a different angle that’s definitely towards the same structure but makes it seem kinda different structurally? Man this is really weird, it’s so natural to me but when I try to describe it in words I realize just how geometry-defying my geometric imagination is. I’m also utterly incapable of perceiving time without outside clues, I can never tell how much time has passed from any given previous moment, and my memories when devoid of specific contextual ‘anchors’ are temporally umoored in a ‘was this a year ago? was this ten years ago? GOTTA LOOK FOR A CLUE’ way. So this 3D (possibly more-D) thing is the only way I can process ‘it’s been two hours’ or something like that. BTW, it’s also got meal times marked on it, because of course it does. And it’s also got color/pictures/patterns on it that shift depending on how/where from I’m looking at it?
Synesthesia is WEIRD but I know I’m better at math than many of my peers because of the numbers line in my head (when I add together big numbers I visualize overlapping layers and it’s just easier to keep track somehow). Sorry for rambling but it’s rare that I ever get to talk about it >u>
(I know it’s already the next day and pretty late at that, but still, replying just in case)
No need to be sorry. It’s quite understandable wanting to talk about your experience, especially since it’s pretty unique one. Besides, I did say that I find it interesting and still do 🙂 As for me, like I said my synesthesia manifests mainly in experiencing or “seeing” certain colors when seeing/hearing letters (or numbers or weekdays and such. For example, the letter A is “blue”, number 2 is “dark green” while Monday is “red” and Friday is “white”). I remember writing my name when I was a child with different colored letters, each the color that I felt was “right” for every letter (or what I felt that this is the color that letter really is/in some weird sense has). Not all the letters (or other symbols/concepts) have as clear color to me as some of the others though. For example, I’m still not quite sure about the letter Z, it’s somewhat blurry. I think that it’s gray but it also feels like it has some brownish shades as well? On the other hand, T for me is clearly bright red and has always been. Anyway,brains are weird.
Also, good catch on the glasses thing 🙂
that is so cool and now my brain is full. 🙂 (I don’t think I have synesthesia but there is a sound I can only describe as ‘silvery’ and a taste that seems ‘yellow’ – and my brain has other interesting things it’s hard to find words for but not nearly that abstract… 90% of the time…)
I sense an abyss of loneliness in that third panel…
Given her desperate attempts to obtain recognition and connection, she really strikes me as potentially being the most damaged walky/dumbiverse character of all. Her temperament gives the implication of severe neglect in her past, after all.
Yeah.
Big lesson Lucy needs to learn here. I have a feeling the teacher just arrived.
I’m guessing that there are approximately even chances that Billie is going to snap at Lucy and intimidate her into silence or that they will have a talk, Lucy will confess that Malaya’s antisocial behaviour made her feel lonely and confessing that she may be overcompensating. This second scenario will end with Lucy hugging Billie in tears just in time for the rest of the Forest Crew to walk in and note that one thing had changed: Lucy didn’t used to be hugging her roomie whilst crying.
I like that scenario.
Pumpkin Spice?
*smashes monitor with brick*
ok, easy, Raul. breathe into the paper bag, get the hyperventilation under control
Are you okay? It’s just cinnamon and nutmeg, friendo. If you want some, you can get it in just about everything, right now.
“Lucy? You got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
…wait i get the impression y’all have met (Lucy before DOA)
She was a late addition to the Shortpacked! crew.
As Pablo said, Lucy was in the last arc of Shortpacked! IIRC, Amber trained her to be the new Amazi-Girl after she hung up her mask to raise her and Mike’s daughter, Donatella.
Too keen, needs blunting.
Lucy, you are on about eleven here, you need to dial it down to about five or six.,
Alt-text: Has the in-comic day hit the out-here day yet?
I’m not sure if this is canonical or not, but ‘today’ should be Sunday, October 10 in-comic.
huh. I dunno when the next Amber comic will be, but, I thought of something in the shower: right now Amber’s a lot like Elsa during ‘let it go’.
Don’t let them in,
don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel,
don’t let them know
Well now they know
and like Elsa, she’s trying to play this pseudo-villain role.
Let it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don’t care
what they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on.
The cold never bothered me anyway
…ok that’s enough quoting, but the rest of the song continues to fit her mood since she came back (well, hers is darker and more subdued so far, but it’s close). OTOH, the whole dorm seems to be trying to fill Anna’s role, so maybe they’ll get through to her before anyone turns into ice? 😉 (wait, no, this is Willis, of *course* something’s going to happen)
holy shit you’re right
OH BOY. HERE WE GO. SOME GOOD OL.
FREAKING.
PAINFUL RESPONSES AND ALSO TRAUMA THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BILLY BUT SURE WHY NOT LUCY MIGHT AS WELL CRY US A RIVER THAT TELLS US THAT SHE HAS BEEN ABUSED AT SOME POINT BY SOME WHITE CHEERLEADER. Or black. Idfk.
You sure seem to be very Mad Online about other how people read webcomics.
Completely off topic and incredibly late, but I just read the ‘seventh annual’ on the poll and had to double take. Seven years, way to go Willis!
Soooo…. She’s Malaya’s old roommate? I’m sure that went well…