I could have sworn Willis has said before that he didn’t intend her to have any specific condition or diagnosis. That she’s just Dina. She is who she is.
But, I could have imagined that or he could have said it but has since given her character more definable circumstances.
He’s absolutely said she’s not diagnosed, but given just how late women on the spectrum get diagnosed… I think she’s still below the median age for girls anyways, it’s *totally realistic* for an autistic lady in college to have no diagnosis.
(I’m autistic and Dina is miiiiine, dammit. I am keeping my actually decent autistic characters, even when they’re not diagnosed- especially when, because the diagnosed ones are usually one dimensional stereotypes of autism instead of proper characters.)
Agreed with Alyssa. And isn’t there a racial component in diagnosis too? I could definitely see Dina being able to slip under the radar until college if she’s able to talk and either doesn’t have or was able to hide things like stimming at school.
@Regalli: Yeah, there is a racial component. I have friend who is mixed, 1/4 each Mongolian and Japanese, 1/2 white. Whenever she went to the doctor with her white parent, she was autistic. Whenever she went with her Asian (and also autistic) parent, she was suddenly undiagnosed. Because apparently not making eye contact is 100% because Asian, even though she and the parent were both born and raised in the USA.
I didn’t know about the racial aspect. That’s rather sad.
I wondered if it had to do with an ability to do well in school. When I was in school (and I know for a fact that this is still a problem in the large local school district) if a kid did well academically, even if it took enormous effort from the student and/or if he/she struggled socially, the powers that be would be reluctant to have the student tested.
I was one of those kids, though my issues were relatively minor, so it wasn’t a huge deal that I didn’t get diagnosed or get extra help, but it *was* very frustrating. I also knew several kids that truly, truly needed the help, but as long as they weren’t failing any classes and their behavior wasn’t a distraction, they were put on the back burner.
So, if Dina did well in school I’d imagine that she was probably brushed off as being “quirky.” Especially considering the race issues you mentioned.
When I was in college (ASL interpreting and some Deaf Education classes) we used to say that deafness occurs on a continuum. Or, at least, that’s how the sign was usually translated.
I have no idea, though, if that term is used in general when it comes to deafness/hearing-impaired-ness/hard-of-hearing-ness or if it was just my particular instructors that used it.
It also occurs to me now that I have NO EARTHLY IDEA what the difference between a spectrum and a continuum are or whether one is more apt than the other.
Based on a quick check on dictionary.com spectrum is very very slightly more appropriate because it implies that there may be some level of overlap between the items in the set, whereas continuum just implies there is a set.
So in other words they differ to no significant degree.
Thank you very much for that, Meghan. Truly. I tried looking it up, but ended up with those kind of definitions that use the word you’re trying to define in the definition. I just kind of got frustrated and overwhelmed and stopped trying to figure out the difference for the time being.
I’m still not sure which is more appropriate when it comes to hearing vs. deafness, but it is good to know that the sign we used for “continuum” is perfectly acceptable to use in place of, or interpret as “spectrum.” I’m not an interpreter any more, but it’s still good to know.
There’s a difference. A continuum is, well, continuous – there are no gaps in the set, so to speak. But a spectrum isn’t necessarily continuous – electromagnetic radiation, or light, is a spectrum, and yet it’s quantized (read: not continuous).
So, spectrum is a safe bet (as if using ‘continuum’ would somehow be unsafe).
Hey, some things are binary – such as the answer to a good yes/no question:
“Does a triangle have three sides by definition?” “Are ‘their’ and ‘there’ interchangeable in English?” “Will the Toronto Maple Leafs ever be a good hockey team?”
The tricky part is defining the question narrowly enough. Triangles represent a bounded area and therefore have an inside and an outside. The English spellings of ‘their’ and ‘there’ are interchangeable if you’re testing for words that start with ‘th’ and contain five letters, two of which are vowels. The Toronto Maple Leafs are a good (nay, excellent) hockey team if you’re looking for someone to bet against.
She probably doesn’t usually have to be in close quarters to them. She must feel that she should pay attention to them because she was invited or something
Stay in the back of the class, come right at the start to avoid the rush of people, and you’re in a class of mostly the backs of heads.
Which is a good way to limit the stimuli. She’d also have the lesson to focus on, which could help her tune out the faces.
Right now she’s just in a tiny room of talking, emotional, hormonal heads.
Personally I used to go to a school with pretty crowded hallways. I managed well enough, but I spent a lot of time dazed and confused, staving off panic while moving from place to place. Often would have huge holes in my memory by the end of the day.
Could recontextualize that time she sort of accidentally wandered along with a group of strangers on a beech trip. Came home with a frightening story of abduction.
See, I would be freaking out more, because I would think everyone was staring at me. I”m one of those “people are laughing over there.. it must be at meeee” types.
When just in public she doesn’t have to care what anyone else is saying ro doing. This is a party she’s trying to be active in so following the conversations is important and things are getting very emotional. And to top it off she’s not really close to anyone here since Amber’s not here yet so she has no comfort zone.
It’s probably that previously she just didn’t pay attention to them at all, with Amber’s encouragement she’s trying to understand facial ticks, but she has to consciously concentrate on actively doing something that is instinctive to most people, and it’s probably over-taxing her.
It’s like–there’s a piece of software that comes pre-loaded in most brains. This piece of software is primed to look for expressions (visual and vocal), load acquired knowledge about what they mean, and build a giant database of expressions which is used to filter and interpret incoming data. This software runs in background mode almost constantly. Some of us are born without it, so we have to write our own programs. But programming know-how is not pre-loaded either…
It gets tiring. It tends to cause the Blue Screen of Death.
I relate to this so much except it’s auditory for me, rather than visual.
In a noisy place or simply if I’ve got a lot going on mentally the things people say stop making any sense to me.
It’s not the same as it being loud and noisy and the person next to you shouting sounds like low mumbling. It more that the background noise can be at a low enough level that I can understand the person next to me, but I can’t. I hear the words, I understand the words, but those words put together in the way I’m hearing them makes no sense whatsoever. I then have to concentrate really hard on what’s being said to understand it. I can’t allow any distractions, which is hard in a crowded, loud, stimulating place.
After a while it’s like it becomes so taxing that the words stop making any sense either, so everyone is speaking this language that I don’t understand but fully expects me to not only understand it, but respond in a meaningful way.
It’s so. incredibly. stressful. Not to mention it’s just exhausting. I get so mentally exhausted that I start feeling physically exhausted and as such, I often get irritable.
It gets to where I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack if I can’t get somewhere that’s safe, quiet and pretty much devoid of people. Even people on a tv show or movie will add to the stress and confusion.
Sometimes I can kind of mentally disconnect (dissociate, maybe?) and keep the stress to a minimum, but when I do that I understand very little of what’s said (or even other auditory stimulus like alarms, music, phones ringing, etc) and remember even less of what happened.
I can relate to Dina in a big way here, except instead of saying “stop the faces,” I’d be covering my ears saying “shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!”
I tend to think of it more as a hardware issue, but similar – that a computer with no fancy video card can render at least some of the polygons and particles and eye candy that the card would (if present), but it’s much, much harder on the CPU (and slower).
It could also be stress related. I get sensory overload easily, but it tends to be a lot more extreme when I’m nervous or upset. (Ex. Strong smells normally are irritating, but make me downright ill when I’m in a crap mood.)
So, Dina could be nervous about the social situation making things a lot harder than normal for her.
I don’t know if Dina is like me, but if she is like me, then the difference with this situation is that she knows the people involved. For me, when I know people, it is easier to see them. So then I focus on them more and I receive more information from them. People I don’t know, on the other hand, tend to fade into the background.
As a result, people I don’t know are much easier to ignore. Being around a lot of people I know is harder. That’s why it’s so much more awkward to be in a room full of acquaintances than a room full of total strangers!
My own experience is that faces existing around you is often different from so many faces that you feel like you’re expected to pay attention to and interact with. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of crowds either, but I’ll take an anonymous crowd over a too-large group of people I’m supposed to be interacting and socializing with any day.
These days, I’m more used to having friends, so “too-large” can start at anywhere from 6-10 people depending on how well i know them and how well I’m doing that day. But when I was Dina’s age and just starting to find people who didn’t judge me for being “weird”, the most I could comfortably handle was about 3-4 people I knew really well.
It doesn’t have to be any diagnose, she can just have an introvert personality. I know exactly how she feels. (Well, *almost* exactly, I think she is a bit more introvert than myself.)
Honestly, as an autistic person, I’m willing to put money on her being on the spectrum based on her appearance in this comic, and she did describe herself as neurodivergent in Walkyverse when she appeared at the end of Shortpacked!. While Walkyverse and Dumbingverse have some differences, major character traits have clearly been kept, and I assume Dina’s neurodivergence (most likely being on the autism spectrum) is one of those things.
Or just not used to dealing with people. Large groups are overwhelming for anyone not used to them and even worse when you’re bad at communicating/understanding people.
Overstimulated and unable to process, stated quite clearly in the comic. Third panel pretty explicitly and with a fair amount of detail, with meltdown in the last panel.
She can look down at the bowl/table and tune out those around her. At this party, especially because it’s such an intimate party, she’s expected to interact and respond not only to what people are saying, but their non-verbal cues too. In the cafeteria or classroom or hallways she can look down, focus on other things (her food, the lesson, etc) or she can kind of disconnect mentally and go on auto-pilot. In a room of people she likes and wants to interact she can’t really do that.
Agreed. I’m primarily noise-sensitive, but I can manage in cafeteria settings by just focusing on my food, sitting off on my own and not trying to process all the other people – sound just turns into one big “crowd noise” for me rather than in classrooms where three or four people talking at once sends me into overload.
Science humor, offbeat humor, and sometimes even the same kind of humor I’ve seen cropping up in autistic communities. (fwiw I’d be hard pressed to explain the difference, but trust me, it’s there)
Yeah, “little boy-fling” is surprisingly dismissive and insulting. Not quite as over Dorothy as I would have thought, eh Danny? At least he was quick to apologize to her…now did Walky overhear that crack?
I don’t know which is worse, that he used a band name for a Kipling character, or that he misspelled the band name. I mean the poster has been on Marten’s wall practically since the start of QC back in the late ’80s 😛
Yeah, and with good reason. Becky sees this place with rosetinted glasses – Danny does not. Remember, the very first night he was here a bunch of guys tried to beat him up for fun. Being nervous about being outed would be pretty reasonable.
Yeah, but didn’t he then try to get beat up a second time (to see amazigirl again) by pretending to be gay, and his target muscle guys were all, “Why would we beat you up for that??”
Yeah, but the fact that Tony didn’t beat him up, doesn’t change the fact that Beef and friends were going to. He’s probably well aware that most people he’ll interact with won’t beat him up for liking guys. That’s not much of a consolation when you know that there’s people around who will beat you up for it.
I’m just impressed that he’s addressing their connection at all. He’s done that, like, once before, and that was in a different light and context, so I feel it shows he’s adapting. Not quickly, mind, but he’s adapting nonetheless.
Didn’t Dorothy call him a fling before? Is Danny aware of her attempt at relationship upgrade? I’m legit asking, because I don’t remember if anyone told Danny she stopped seeing Walky as a walking cheeto-cheese covered dick.
Except Dorothy herself considers it a “little fling”? Or that’s the impression she’s given everyone. We’re constantly reminded that this is a just for fun relationship and that it doesn’t really count- the definition of a fling
I can’t link to it at the moment, but Dorothy did describe her relationship with Walky to him as a “For fun” relationship. And the only people who know that Dorothy would now describe her feelings in romantic terms are Joyce and Becky. (Because Walky talked about it with them over lunch).
Though now that I type this out, “Boy-toy” does seem pretty rude. Which is also consistent with Danny’s attitude towards Walky.
“Little Boy Fling” I mean. (I should probably sleep before I continue to make mistakes like this). Still a condescending way of putting a non romantic sexual relationship.
If Danny’s understanding is that the relationship is “for fun” and a “fling” then he might understandably conclude that it’s not a romantic relationship. That they like each other, but certainly don’t love each other.
Besides, he could’ve referred to Walky by his name (well, nickname). Can’t blame Danny for thinking Walky is a boy-fling to Dorothy, but that doesn’t excuse using a label instead of his name – that’s just demeaning.
Looking at the Walky+Danny comics in the tags, this is the only time that Walky’s nickname gets mentioned in front of Danny: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/supercritical/
And that was a single mention that he overheard, almost two weeks ago. Danny and Walky have never actually introduced themselves to each other.
So my initial impression was “Danny stop being a jerk” but I don’t think describing Walky as Dorothy’s “little boy-fling” is quite as rude as it first appears. He’s unaware that he and Dorothy have gotten serious and the last he heard about them it was just “for fun”, and he’s probably not looking for the nicest terms to describe him, considering he momentarily thought that Dorothy had outed him.
It’s rude, but not as bad as I thought at first. My initial reading parsed it as a fling with a “little boy” – ie an insult about Walky’s immaturity. Of course Dorothy can’t see the hyphen…good thing he apologized fast and Dina derailed things.
Man, wait until Danny finds out she’s upgraded from fuck buddies to relationship.. he’s gonna be rightfully pissed off and everyone in here is gonna eviscerate him for it.
I wouldn’t exactly say “rightfully.” He’s moved onto somebody else that he clearly loves. I understand being upset, because that’s just something you can’t control, but it’d be really petty of him to get in Dorothy’s face about it..
True, “Rightfully” IS the wrong word. I’m not sure what I’d call it really.
Break up with guy to focus on studies and because he’s clingy.. Within a month, rail Mini-Carmelo and attach self lamprey-like to his cool ranch powder’ed ass…
I want to say there’s more there. Then it’s like.. “Teenagers are dumb, I should really just relax.”
Even money there’s one before the end of the year. Awful lot of people in these comments, one of them’s bound to do an homage. Bonus points if the characters are named Joe and Roz.
And she gets a snazzy triceratops outfit. Of course I’m prepared as I ever will be for the inevitable drama and heartbreak. I have conflicted feelings here.
I remember reading a book about an autistic boy (I think it was “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime). He once tried to make a list of all the expressions people had on their faces and what he thought were the appropriate emotions attached to them. But the faces changed too quickly and too often for him to figure out what the people were expressing. So he gave up the effort. That must be Dina’s problem.
Let’s see…
– Covers ears so you can’t hear the faces.
– Close eyes and grapple in the dark to remove faces.
Yep, that’s all but one of the methods I know for dealing with a crowded room … the last one being “cover own face with your hands and either stand very still or flee from the room”.
Nice touch with the ears. She describes an issue with the faces but the overwhelming of her senses is more complete than that.
It’s a shame that even as an adult she’s still somewhat confused by her own needs. Doesn’t know to step out before she makes a fool of herself. Hopefully a diagnosis will help her make sense of it all.
Eh, I’m 32 and still sometimes misjudge my own abilities and limitations and therefore fail to bail out on a party (or whatever crowded, over stimulating, overwhelming situation) before I’m so overwhelmed that I freak out. My heart goes out to her. It’s really hard sometimes to figure out where your own limit is. Especially if you really do want to interact.
Even though I have social anxiety disorder, some sensory processing issues and some other neurological difficulties, that doesn’t mean I want to be alone all the time, and I definitely don’t want to miss out on events that mean a lot to my friends and loved ones. So, there’s been times that I stay for the sake of my friends/family (and because I truly want to) and try to tell myself I’m not on the brink of a mental melt-down. But once you push yourself far enough that you’re at that melt-down point, you can’t exactly walk it back and undo it.
Yeah, I think part of the problem is that it’s a group just a bit too big for her to handle that she wants to interact with most of. Maybe if they tried working up to this from slightly smaller groups, it could work better?
But yeah, once you’ve hit meltdown, there’s pretty much nothing you can do to get back to safe levels without leaving and decompressing for a few hours, and face is most definitively lost with whoever you were with. (I actually ended up having to drop a class last semester because circumstances around the first class had gone so badly I had to take the syllabus, leave, and apologize via email because I was in complete meltdown. The professor did not respond well.)
Dina would probably point out that her brain will not finish maturing for a few more years. Besides, entering adulthood doesn’t automatically cause you to understand yourself – you can easily wind up understanding less than before.
We Don’t know where she was relative to the door… She could be figuratively trapped between getting OUT and being polite. Danny and Sarah just pushed her past the edge.
Well, that’s more than I went to. Unless you include working in the lab with 200 proof ethanol, with musing playing, at midnight. Seems vaguely party-like.
I’m the same at parties, in a different sort of way. I get so intent on trying to listen to every conversation happening simultaneously that I go into a complete trance. If only there were some way to, say, divide up events into individual panels so that I only have to focus on one human interaction at a time…
I get the same way! I just take breaks in the bathroom, soak up some alone time, calm myself down. Though with Sarah in the bathroom that might not be a great strategy…
Dina also isn’t used to this kind of thing and hasn’t had the opportunity to develop coping strategies.
This comic really makes my heart go out to her.
Yeah, those two actually seem to be a good match – or at least, Dina appreciates Sarah’s willingness to let her be, and Sarah appreciates Dina’s silence, and her innate defensiveness of others is something that Dina probably could benefit from – she seems a bit vulnerable.
A Data-like lack of contractions tends to be writers’ go-to Hilariously Quirky Gimmick they like to use to indicate or suggest a particular flavor of neurodivergence. I happen to fall in that spectrum myself and know many other people who do, and I’ve never known anyone who actually talked like this. So I personally find it to be an annoying and inaccurate cliche. \U_U/
As a glasses wearer, I sympathize with Dorothy. Getting my face grabbed like that is kind of a nightmare…although the last time it happened, it was a slightly drunken young lady who was trying to get me to shut up and kiss her, so I guess that wasn’t all bad.
I was just about to ask if dana was autistic, because the whole face thing points heavily towards that, but I see it has already been discussed and I dont know how to reply to just that lol
Dina’s parents were introduced over the Family weekend at the college.
They didn’t stand behind doors, but they were standing close enough together that you couldn’t get a postage stamp between them. Not exactly socially at ease people.
Dina spends her time behind doors. She knows what’s going on, but a nice solid door between her and others is a nice safety feature.
This is her first party ever. An event that she is looking forward to as a good way to learn to socialize. With, this being a DOA party, and the expected amount of drama already having appeared this early: Im’ surprised she hasn’t exploded.
Quick, find her a door.
Danny did appologise for accusing Dorothy of telling Walky his confidence, he isn’t even sure of his own feelings yet, and being outted before he’s sure he has something to out, is pretty upsetting. I don’t think he meant anything in particular by ‘boyfling’ other than keeping in mode with what Dorothy had said previously, he was a fun fling. (And maybe just a bit upset that he may know.)
Ah, Danny. Oh man, this is so true it hurts. Being in the closet, jumping at any tiny, innocent joke. The paranoia, the fear…
Liking Danny more and more (the poor sod).
First time posting. Just wanted to say I’ve fallen in love with this comic and read every single last page last night. This is my first time reading anything from Willis. What interested me was how much I saw myself in the various characters. Like Joyce, I was raised in a hardcore Christian enviroment and when I began to watch secular cartoons, for me it was my first time watching superhero cartoons when I was 19, I got hooked. Like Ruth, my parents are a no show and I can be very violent when need be. Like Dina, I have a hard time adapting to new situations and dealing with people on a ‘normal’ level. Like Walky, I can be a total spaz when it comes to girls and my interests. Like Danny, I’m lucky enough to be with a girl who completely understands me and loves me for who I am.
I feel her pain. For me it’s voices. When lots of people talk at once, I lose concentration and can’t pick out what people mean, what they’re talking about, the emotional timbre. It becomes frustrating and frightening. I can imagine visual sensory overload have a similiar effect.
I get overloaded vending at events with too many people. Especially if I’m just helping out a friend and not familiar with the product. Too many conversations, being bombarded with questions, watching the crowd and trying to scan to see if anyone is stealing. Too much! o_O
I’m so glad everyone’s sharing their experiences. I know my experience is not unique, but it’s nice to see so many people share it. It tells me I’m not quite the freak I think I am. *huggles all ya’ll*
Hm, with lots of voices going at the same time, I just can’t separate them. I don’t miss tones or emotions, but I can’t focus on the one I want enough to understand the words.
Oh, Dina, that is not in fact an acceptable solution to the problem! My therapist told me so. He seemed very concerned to make that point. So now I just use spray-paint instead.
Oh man…I’ve never heard it put like that before. Having trouble “processing all the faces.” That’s brilliant! Makes so much sense, now. That is a good description of how I feel in tight crowds. Like I’m supposed to be paying attention to it all at once, and I can’t, so everything kinda shuts down.
Interesting. I never have that issue, but pretty sure only because I avoid looking at faces altogether a lot of the time (and let’s not even mention eyes. eyes are the worst.)
Same here. I recognize people by how they look but they better not expect me to say their names. Otherwise, I’ll fumble around for some generic pronoun in place of a name like “dude” or something.
Is Dina wrote to come across as someone on the ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) such as having Aspergers? I’d like to point out this isn’t some troll or mockery of the character, it’s simply that I have Aspergers and would find it interesting.
Word of Willis is that she hasn’t been diagnosed with anything – so no definite ‘yes’, but not a definite no either. And I agree, autistic and totally empathize with her.
Willis hasn’t specified what, but given that Dina has difficulty with social situations (breakfast being the most recent struggle I can remember), I’d say she’s got some issue shared by non-neuroptyoical people her age.
I’m autistic and I definitely read her as being spectrummy.
And WoG is that she’s not diagnosed with anything but it’s totally realistic for a quiet, well-behaved autistic asian girl to go undiagnosed that long, so she still totally could be.
Er, wait, that probably sounds worse than I meant it. I do like DoA!Dina very much; it’s just strips like these that remind me of how different she and Walkyverse Dina are as characters, and I kind of miss the old one, too.
oh god I adore Dina. She is so self aware and communicates so clearly! Something to aspire to. I can just eek out “nope, sorry, I’m out of eye contact for the rest of this party” and then bury myself in a computing device.
I want to give Dina very unwelcome hugs of sympathy. I completely get her feelings here. I hope she’s okay and able to learn to begins enjoying the company as the party winds down a bit more. You kindof need to build up to these things and she dived in bravely.
I’m struck by the fact that both Danny and Dina would probably be more comfortable if Amber was here. Amazi-Girl must be stuck in an elaborate deathtrap somewhere waiting for the next episode to start.
This is known as hyper-vigilance, and is a symptom of PTSD. In short, you’re constantly reading the general mood or atmosphere, and you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO react correctly, diffuse any potentially explosive situations, or you were beaten unconscious, usually right then and there, where everyone can watch. SOME adults consider this fine entertainment, something to spice up a dull event, and will even instigate it themselves, if someone else doesn’t do it first. And you can’t just “not invite them,” because they’re a relative, rich, important, or all three.
And you’re just a child. You don’t know what you did wrong, all you can process is the panic, the agony, the humiliation, and not soon enough, the sweet release of oblivion.
I wish I had had this strip to show people 40 years ago every time I stopped in my tracks because I had entered a place where there were too many faces (or sometimes other things) to deal with.
+1 that the next strip shows that Dina is actually having a good time. That’s another thing I’ve had a hard time to convince people of: in spite of me mildly hyperventilating and in spite of my wild staring eyes, there’s nowhere else I’d like to be.
Loading ...
they feel her pain
or SOON WILL
If only there was a door she could hide behind…
and who is that kawaii little waifu in today’s icon?
You not recognise Miss Brown? 😛
Plasma! Shame on you that face is too much for Dina!
That’s probably what Dina thinks all these people look like.
Sorry Dina! I shall attempt to stop having a face so that you will feel more at ease.
…have I stopped having a face yet? xD
is what Dina wants everybody to look like.
Your avatar fits your comment.
Her mouth doesn’t contain a single gigantic tooth plate, and her blue pupils aren’t the size of saucers.
…there needs to be a version of LOL meme with a triangle smile 😛
There, fixed it: http://i.imgur.com/Itn2Vpm.png
Now that your gravatar has changed, the readers of the future will be very confused
…Dammit!
I WILL STOP YOUR FACES !
You heard Dina! STOP THE FACES!!!!
Inconsiderate.
Having so many facial expressions and using them! Those heathens.
Didn’t you hear her? She said stop the faces, so stop the faces already… *starts covering faces…*
Is she drunk?
Probably merely somewhere on the autism spectrum.
Probably just Asperger Syndrome
Which is still on the spectrum.
Yes
Yeah, I think she has aspergers. Not sure Willis meant it that way though.
I could have sworn Willis has said before that he didn’t intend her to have any specific condition or diagnosis. That she’s just Dina. She is who she is.
But, I could have imagined that or he could have said it but has since given her character more definable circumstances.
I think I remember that know, he did say that at one point I think.
He’s absolutely said she’s not diagnosed, but given just how late women on the spectrum get diagnosed… I think she’s still below the median age for girls anyways, it’s *totally realistic* for an autistic lady in college to have no diagnosis.
(I’m autistic and Dina is miiiiine, dammit. I am keeping my actually decent autistic characters, even when they’re not diagnosed- especially when, because the diagnosed ones are usually one dimensional stereotypes of autism instead of proper characters.)
Agreed with Alyssa. And isn’t there a racial component in diagnosis too? I could definitely see Dina being able to slip under the radar until college if she’s able to talk and either doesn’t have or was able to hide things like stimming at school.
@Regalli: Yeah, there is a racial component. I have friend who is mixed, 1/4 each Mongolian and Japanese, 1/2 white. Whenever she went to the doctor with her white parent, she was autistic. Whenever she went with her Asian (and also autistic) parent, she was suddenly undiagnosed. Because apparently not making eye contact is 100% because Asian, even though she and the parent were both born and raised in the USA.
I didn’t know about the racial aspect. That’s rather sad.
I wondered if it had to do with an ability to do well in school. When I was in school (and I know for a fact that this is still a problem in the large local school district) if a kid did well academically, even if it took enormous effort from the student and/or if he/she struggled socially, the powers that be would be reluctant to have the student tested.
I was one of those kids, though my issues were relatively minor, so it wasn’t a huge deal that I didn’t get diagnosed or get extra help, but it *was* very frustrating. I also knew several kids that truly, truly needed the help, but as long as they weren’t failing any classes and their behavior wasn’t a distraction, they were put on the back burner.
So, if Dina did well in school I’d imagine that she was probably brushed off as being “quirky.” Especially considering the race issues you mentioned.
Stop with the spectrums!
But don’t you know, everything is a spectrum.
(That’s not a joke either I mean it is [a bad one] but it’s also true)
When I was in college (ASL interpreting and some Deaf Education classes) we used to say that deafness occurs on a continuum. Or, at least, that’s how the sign was usually translated.
I have no idea, though, if that term is used in general when it comes to deafness/hearing-impaired-ness/hard-of-hearing-ness or if it was just my particular instructors that used it.
It also occurs to me now that I have NO EARTHLY IDEA what the difference between a spectrum and a continuum are or whether one is more apt than the other.
Based on a quick check on dictionary.com spectrum is very very slightly more appropriate because it implies that there may be some level of overlap between the items in the set, whereas continuum just implies there is a set.
So in other words they differ to no significant degree.
Thank you very much for that, Meghan. Truly. I tried looking it up, but ended up with those kind of definitions that use the word you’re trying to define in the definition. I just kind of got frustrated and overwhelmed and stopped trying to figure out the difference for the time being.
I’m still not sure which is more appropriate when it comes to hearing vs. deafness, but it is good to know that the sign we used for “continuum” is perfectly acceptable to use in place of, or interpret as “spectrum.” I’m not an interpreter any more, but it’s still good to know.
No problem ^_^
There’s a difference. A continuum is, well, continuous – there are no gaps in the set, so to speak. But a spectrum isn’t necessarily continuous – electromagnetic radiation, or light, is a spectrum, and yet it’s quantized (read: not continuous).
So, spectrum is a safe bet (as if using ‘continuum’ would somehow be unsafe).
It’s somewhere on the joke spectrum.
(I’m sorry)
If it makes you feel better I’m such a dork that I actually laughed at that.
Nice
Hey, some things are binary – such as the answer to a good yes/no question:
“Does a triangle have three sides by definition?” “Are ‘their’ and ‘there’ interchangeable in English?” “Will the Toronto Maple Leafs ever be a good hockey team?”
The tricky part is defining the question narrowly enough. Triangles represent a bounded area and therefore have an inside and an outside. The English spellings of ‘their’ and ‘there’ are interchangeable if you’re testing for words that start with ‘th’ and contain five letters, two of which are vowels. The Toronto Maple Leafs are a good (nay, excellent) hockey team if you’re looking for someone to bet against.
But everything is a spectrum! The world is full of them! It’s a SPECTRUM of SPECTRUMS!!
But how does she handle ever being in public? Surely there are more faces in an average classroom than there are currently in Joyce’s room.
Or has she been taking online classes this entire time?
She probably doesn’t usually have to be in close quarters to them. She must feel that she should pay attention to them because she was invited or something
But normally they’re not normally facing in her direction.
Stay in the back of the class, come right at the start to avoid the rush of people, and you’re in a class of mostly the backs of heads.
Which is a good way to limit the stimuli. She’d also have the lesson to focus on, which could help her tune out the faces.
Right now she’s just in a tiny room of talking, emotional, hormonal heads.
Could be she also hides a certain amount of it.
Personally I used to go to a school with pretty crowded hallways. I managed well enough, but I spent a lot of time dazed and confused, staving off panic while moving from place to place. Often would have huge holes in my memory by the end of the day.
Could recontextualize that time she sort of accidentally wandered along with a group of strangers on a beech trip. Came home with a frightening story of abduction.
“Stay in the back of class…you’re in a class of mostly the backs of heads”
It works the other way–sit up front. It’s just you and the teacher and some disembodied voices behind you.
That’s how I survived, anyway.
See, I would be freaking out more, because I would think everyone was staring at me. I”m one of those “people are laughing over there.. it must be at meeee” types.
When just in public she doesn’t have to care what anyone else is saying ro doing. This is a party she’s trying to be active in so following the conversations is important and things are getting very emotional. And to top it off she’s not really close to anyone here since Amber’s not here yet so she has no comfort zone.
It’s probably that previously she just didn’t pay attention to them at all, with Amber’s encouragement she’s trying to understand facial ticks, but she has to consciously concentrate on actively doing something that is instinctive to most people, and it’s probably over-taxing her.
DINGDINGDINGDINGDING
“Over-taxing” is the word!
It’s like–there’s a piece of software that comes pre-loaded in most brains. This piece of software is primed to look for expressions (visual and vocal), load acquired knowledge about what they mean, and build a giant database of expressions which is used to filter and interpret incoming data. This software runs in background mode almost constantly. Some of us are born without it, so we have to write our own programs. But programming know-how is not pre-loaded either…
It gets tiring. It tends to cause the Blue Screen of Death.
I relate to this so much except it’s auditory for me, rather than visual.
In a noisy place or simply if I’ve got a lot going on mentally the things people say stop making any sense to me.
It’s not the same as it being loud and noisy and the person next to you shouting sounds like low mumbling. It more that the background noise can be at a low enough level that I can understand the person next to me, but I can’t. I hear the words, I understand the words, but those words put together in the way I’m hearing them makes no sense whatsoever. I then have to concentrate really hard on what’s being said to understand it. I can’t allow any distractions, which is hard in a crowded, loud, stimulating place.
After a while it’s like it becomes so taxing that the words stop making any sense either, so everyone is speaking this language that I don’t understand but fully expects me to not only understand it, but respond in a meaningful way.
It’s so. incredibly. stressful. Not to mention it’s just exhausting. I get so mentally exhausted that I start feeling physically exhausted and as such, I often get irritable.
It gets to where I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack if I can’t get somewhere that’s safe, quiet and pretty much devoid of people. Even people on a tv show or movie will add to the stress and confusion.
Sometimes I can kind of mentally disconnect (dissociate, maybe?) and keep the stress to a minimum, but when I do that I understand very little of what’s said (or even other auditory stimulus like alarms, music, phones ringing, etc) and remember even less of what happened.
I can relate to Dina in a big way here, except instead of saying “stop the faces,” I’d be covering my ears saying “shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!”
I tend to think of it more as a hardware issue, but similar – that a computer with no fancy video card can render at least some of the polygons and particles and eye candy that the card would (if present), but it’s much, much harder on the CPU (and slower).
It could also be stress related. I get sensory overload easily, but it tends to be a lot more extreme when I’m nervous or upset. (Ex. Strong smells normally are irritating, but make me downright ill when I’m in a crap mood.)
So, Dina could be nervous about the social situation making things a lot harder than normal for her.
I don’t know if Dina is like me, but if she is like me, then the difference with this situation is that she knows the people involved. For me, when I know people, it is easier to see them. So then I focus on them more and I receive more information from them. People I don’t know, on the other hand, tend to fade into the background.
As a result, people I don’t know are much easier to ignore. Being around a lot of people I know is harder. That’s why it’s so much more awkward to be in a room full of acquaintances than a room full of total strangers!
My own experience is that faces existing around you is often different from so many faces that you feel like you’re expected to pay attention to and interact with. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of crowds either, but I’ll take an anonymous crowd over a too-large group of people I’m supposed to be interacting and socializing with any day.
These days, I’m more used to having friends, so “too-large” can start at anywhere from 6-10 people depending on how well i know them and how well I’m doing that day. But when I was Dina’s age and just starting to find people who didn’t judge me for being “weird”, the most I could comfortably handle was about 3-4 people I knew really well.
I prefer the term Cheezeburgers when it comes to describing character who have possible but undiagnosed autisms/disorders.
It doesn’t have to be any diagnose, she can just have an introvert personality. I know exactly how she feels. (Well, *almost* exactly, I think she is a bit more introvert than myself.)
Honestly, as an autistic person, I’m willing to put money on her being on the spectrum based on her appearance in this comic, and she did describe herself as neurodivergent in Walkyverse when she appeared at the end of Shortpacked!. While Walkyverse and Dumbingverse have some differences, major character traits have clearly been kept, and I assume Dina’s neurodivergence (most likely being on the autism spectrum) is one of those things.
Or just not used to dealing with people. Large groups are overwhelming for anyone not used to them and even worse when you’re bad at communicating/understanding people.
I think she’s just overstimulated.
Overstimulated and unable to process, stated quite clearly in the comic. Third panel pretty explicitly and with a fair amount of detail, with meltdown in the last panel.
No, just overloaded, I think.
Vicarious face palm.
Double Face Palm! 2HKO!
Makes me wonder how she ever handled eating her cereal in the cafeteria
By focusing on the cereal and not the people around her.
She can look down at the bowl/table and tune out those around her. At this party, especially because it’s such an intimate party, she’s expected to interact and respond not only to what people are saying, but their non-verbal cues too. In the cafeteria or classroom or hallways she can look down, focus on other things (her food, the lesson, etc) or she can kind of disconnect mentally and go on auto-pilot. In a room of people she likes and wants to interact she can’t really do that.
Agreed. I’m primarily noise-sensitive, but I can manage in cafeteria settings by just focusing on my food, sitting off on my own and not trying to process all the other people – sound just turns into one big “crowd noise” for me rather than in classrooms where three or four people talking at once sends me into overload.
Seriously guys calm down with the faces already! Panel after panel, comic after comic.
We need a comic where people don’t have faces.
That’s what xkcd is for!
I could actually see Dina being a fan of that one. Lots of science humor.
Science humor, offbeat humor, and sometimes even the same kind of humor I’ve seen cropping up in autistic communities. (fwiw I’d be hard pressed to explain the difference, but trust me, it’s there)
Elbows! Everyone has elbows. Best part is they don’t do much, easy to process.
If we could have a detective story where The Question crosses proverbial swords with The Blank, that would be ideal.
I can help!
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/morningwoods/
Gah! There were two faces in that! Who would put such things on their own door?
Triangle smile Sarah. Truly a face that no human was meant to see without going mad.
Good thing it was only D-face Sarah
though it WAS drawn by Mary, hmm
Oh, and Sarah took the spot behind the only available door! Poor Dina.
And Danny, I know you’re panicing right now but calling Walky her fling instead of acknowledging the new relationship is pretty rude.
Yeah, “little boy-fling” is surprisingly dismissive and insulting. Not quite as over Dorothy as I would have thought, eh Danny? At least he was quick to apologize to her…now did Walky overhear that crack?
Danny is over Dotty as possible girlfriend but he isn’t over the fact that she hooked up with Caramel Lad so soon afterwards.
Probably hasn’t allowed himself to acknowledge the real reason she dumped him yet.
Walky already assumes he and Danny are arch-nemesis simply due to Danny being her ex.
Is that three completely implausible sets of nemeses now? We’re going to need a scorecard at this rate.
Besides Roz and Joyce, what’s the third one?
Dorothy/Becky, I presume.
Right, I feel so dumb.
Sarah and Raidah?
That one’s mutual.
And not that implausible, either.
Course, Mike did his best to stoke Walky’s insecurity re Danny and Dorothy…
Its a huge step up from the time when Danny made a racist remark that Walky was Mugwai from junglebook .
In Dannys defense, he is justifiably angry at thinking he was immediately outed and his confidence betrayed, and is projecting this onto Walky.
And he’s quick to accept her Dorothy’s innocence and apologize.
( But if Walky overhears this He might figure it out )
That’s Mowgli you ninny!
Be nice, not everyone’s exposed to the classics these days.
“Do you like Kipling?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never kippled.”
I don’t know which is worse, that he used a band name for a Kipling character, or that he misspelled the band name. I mean the poster has been on Marten’s wall practically since the start of QC back in the late ’80s 😛
Mowgli is a character from the Jungle Book, Mogwai are the critters in Gremlins. 😉
I’d be concerned if Walky could be easily mistaken for Gizmo.
Well, there was that one time Walky hit the Nachitos after midnight, although I think it was agreed to never discuss it again.
This.
What came from his bowels that night… the horror…
Well, he is a bit short. Not hairy enough though.
Ive never seen Walky bathe after midnight
Yeah, that quick ” sorry” was important, without it Danny would have been a real jerk. Still rude though
Oversensitive, much, Danny?
Yeah, and with good reason. Becky sees this place with rosetinted glasses – Danny does not. Remember, the very first night he was here a bunch of guys tried to beat him up for fun. Being nervous about being outed would be pretty reasonable.
Good point. Ethan could probably add some more reasons
Yeah, but didn’t he then try to get beat up a second time (to see amazigirl again) by pretending to be gay, and his target muscle guys were all, “Why would we beat you up for that??”
Yeah, but the fact that Tony didn’t beat him up, doesn’t change the fact that Beef and friends were going to. He’s probably well aware that most people he’ll interact with won’t beat him up for liking guys. That’s not much of a consolation when you know that there’s people around who will beat you up for it.
I think something important to note is about the strip with Tony is that Danny considers being gay something that would provoke someone to hurt him.
I’m just impressed that he’s addressing their connection at all. He’s done that, like, once before, and that was in a different light and context, so I feel it shows he’s adapting. Not quickly, mind, but he’s adapting nonetheless.
Exactly what I was thinking…way to go Dan
It’s also worth considering that Danny has no knowledge of the Dorothy/Walky relationship besides “It’s not a serious thing. It’s just for fun.”
Didn’t Dorothy call him a fling before? Is Danny aware of her attempt at relationship upgrade? I’m legit asking, because I don’t remember if anyone told Danny she stopped seeing Walky as a walking cheeto-cheese covered dick.
Now I need to know how to get melted cheese safely on a dick. Thank you Ghola
Cheeto “cheese” is powdered, and doesn’t need to be melted.
Word of caution, be very careful about any powdered cheese with added spices. Jalapeno flavoring is not a genital-friendly substance in my experience.
EmbraceEvil~ You drizzle it. Like wax. Zesty, edible wax.
Rich~ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Except Dorothy herself considers it a “little fling”? Or that’s the impression she’s given everyone. We’re constantly reminded that this is a just for fun relationship and that it doesn’t really count- the definition of a fling
Her feelings have changed.
I can’t link to it at the moment, but Dorothy did describe her relationship with Walky to him as a “For fun” relationship. And the only people who know that Dorothy would now describe her feelings in romantic terms are Joyce and Becky. (Because Walky talked about it with them over lunch).
Though now that I type this out, “Boy-toy” does seem pretty rude. Which is also consistent with Danny’s attitude towards Walky.
“Little Boy Fling” I mean. (I should probably sleep before I continue to make mistakes like this). Still a condescending way of putting a non romantic sexual relationship.
Whaddaya mean, nonromantic?
If Danny’s understanding is that the relationship is “for fun” and a “fling” then he might understandably conclude that it’s not a romantic relationship. That they like each other, but certainly don’t love each other.
Danny doesn’t know that Dorothy has romantic feelings for Walky.
Besides, he could’ve referred to Walky by his name (well, nickname). Can’t blame Danny for thinking Walky is a boy-fling to Dorothy, but that doesn’t excuse using a label instead of his name – that’s just demeaning.
I think he’s interacted with Walky for a grand total of five minutes. Does he even know his name? It’s been mentioned in front of him once.
Looking at the Walky+Danny comics in the tags, this is the only time that Walky’s nickname gets mentioned in front of Danny: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/supercritical/
And that was a single mention that he overheard, almost two weeks ago. Danny and Walky have never actually introduced themselves to each other.
Could also be a “Did that jackass just make fun of my sexual issues? While he’s okay with being Dorothy’s walking dick? Awww helll naw!”
Only.. you know.. however Danny would say it.
So my initial impression was “Danny stop being a jerk” but I don’t think describing Walky as Dorothy’s “little boy-fling” is quite as rude as it first appears. He’s unaware that he and Dorothy have gotten serious and the last he heard about them it was just “for fun”, and he’s probably not looking for the nicest terms to describe him, considering he momentarily thought that Dorothy had outed him.
It’s rude, but not as bad as I thought at first. My initial reading parsed it as a fling with a “little boy” – ie an insult about Walky’s immaturity. Of course Dorothy can’t see the hyphen…good thing he apologized fast and Dina derailed things.
Well:
1) Last he heard from Dotty it was just a fling
2) She ditched Danny for reasons that would stop it being serious with Walky unless she was lying or just insulting Danny
So, no, it’s not rude, it’s fair.
Man, wait until Danny finds out she’s upgraded from fuck buddies to relationship.. he’s gonna be rightfully pissed off and everyone in here is gonna eviscerate him for it.
I wouldn’t exactly say “rightfully.” He’s moved onto somebody else that he clearly loves. I understand being upset, because that’s just something you can’t control, but it’d be really petty of him to get in Dorothy’s face about it..
True, “Rightfully” IS the wrong word. I’m not sure what I’d call it really.
Break up with guy to focus on studies and because he’s clingy.. Within a month, rail Mini-Carmelo and attach self lamprey-like to his cool ranch powder’ed ass…
I want to say there’s more there. Then it’s like.. “Teenagers are dumb, I should really just relax.”
Stop the FAAAAAAACES!
No.
Stop the faces would make a good book title
crap that was supposed to not be a reply
Stop the faces is the name of someone’s sex tape.
No its not, trust me I checked.
Not yet, I would guess.
Even money there’s one before the end of the year. Awful lot of people in these comments, one of them’s bound to do an homage. Bonus points if the characters are named Joe and Roz.
And on the cover…
<—
Join me Link, and I will make your face the greatest in Koridai, or else you will die!
Stay classy, Danny.
This is not how you face palm, Dina!
What do you mean? She’s palming twice as many faces as most people. She’s extra good at facepalms.
I think facepalming the perpetrators is a perfectly natural response.
Danny needs to calm down.
He’s Danny though.
Which he did. Like a panel later.
Quick, switch back to Roomies!-style art!
Wait, Dina! There’s a face…on…YOUR…HAT!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
yeah, but it’s eating her face, thereby reducing the number of faces in the room
Ahh, but it’s a dinosaur face (and inanimate) so it’s static and unchanging, thus she likes it.
oh no
I’m not prepared for sad dina moments
None of us are. None of us.
That said, I wouldn’t worry about it. This strikes me more as adjustment than sadness.
The next chapter should provide some insight to our dinosaur fan.
And she gets a snazzy triceratops outfit. Of course I’m prepared as I ever will be for the inevitable drama and heartbreak. I have conflicted feelings here.
But then Dina will grow up a bit and be a better person, just like (almost) everyone else in the Dumbiverse.
By which I mean she won’t compromise herself for who she is, but figure stuff out and work through it with her friends.
I remember reading a book about an autistic boy (I think it was “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime). He once tried to make a list of all the expressions people had on their faces and what he thought were the appropriate emotions attached to them. But the faces changed too quickly and too often for him to figure out what the people were expressing. So he gave up the effort. That must be Dina’s problem.
As somebody who used to have panic attacks around groups of people, I sympathize with Dina on a personal level.
Seconded!
Thirded! (Well, if you cross out that pesky “used to have” bit)
Fourthed
She seems more overstimulated than having a panic attacks. They’re very different experiences.
In the immortal words of Joe Dulce…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzb35dgR1oY
I’m worried aobut how Dina is handling this stress but I also find it adorable… I am conflicted.
Is it making you use…facial expressions?!!
I’m trying not to for Dina’s sake.
As is your gravatar
Stop the faces!
Dinadorable
panel4 face
I hope Dina can calm down or she will lose face in front of her peers.
just gonna http://imgur.com/gallery/sPwgpLj
heh! 😛
I…I heard it. Why did I her it ?
I have no idea… *sneaks out of room…*
Let’s see…
– Covers ears so you can’t hear the faces.
– Close eyes and grapple in the dark to remove faces.
Yep, that’s all but one of the methods I know for dealing with a crowded room … the last one being “cover own face with your hands and either stand very still or flee from the room”.
ALL THE FACE.
AAAAH.
I feel you, Dina.
Nice touch with the ears. She describes an issue with the faces but the overwhelming of her senses is more complete than that.
It’s a shame that even as an adult she’s still somewhat confused by her own needs. Doesn’t know to step out before she makes a fool of herself. Hopefully a diagnosis will help her make sense of it all.
Eh, I’m 32 and still sometimes misjudge my own abilities and limitations and therefore fail to bail out on a party (or whatever crowded, over stimulating, overwhelming situation) before I’m so overwhelmed that I freak out. My heart goes out to her. It’s really hard sometimes to figure out where your own limit is. Especially if you really do want to interact.
Even though I have social anxiety disorder, some sensory processing issues and some other neurological difficulties, that doesn’t mean I want to be alone all the time, and I definitely don’t want to miss out on events that mean a lot to my friends and loved ones. So, there’s been times that I stay for the sake of my friends/family (and because I truly want to) and try to tell myself I’m not on the brink of a mental melt-down. But once you push yourself far enough that you’re at that melt-down point, you can’t exactly walk it back and undo it.
Yeah, I think part of the problem is that it’s a group just a bit too big for her to handle that she wants to interact with most of. Maybe if they tried working up to this from slightly smaller groups, it could work better?
But yeah, once you’ve hit meltdown, there’s pretty much nothing you can do to get back to safe levels without leaving and decompressing for a few hours, and face is most definitively lost with whoever you were with. (I actually ended up having to drop a class last semester because circumstances around the first class had gone so badly I had to take the syllabus, leave, and apologize via email because I was in complete meltdown. The professor did not respond well.)
Dina would probably point out that her brain will not finish maturing for a few more years. Besides, entering adulthood doesn’t automatically cause you to understand yourself – you can easily wind up understanding less than before.
We Don’t know where she was relative to the door… She could be figuratively trapped between getting OUT and being polite. Danny and Sarah just pushed her past the edge.
Dina’s first and possibly last college party, brought to you by Sprite.
I only went to one.
Well, that’s more than I went to. Unless you include working in the lab with 200 proof ethanol, with musing playing, at midnight. Seems vaguely party-like.
Well you’ve gone to more than me. Then again, I am not a party person.
I’m the same at parties, in a different sort of way. I get so intent on trying to listen to every conversation happening simultaneously that I go into a complete trance. If only there were some way to, say, divide up events into individual panels so that I only have to focus on one human interaction at a time…
Last panel : face-ality !
I now that this is a horrifying moment (I’ve experienced it myself) but this needs to be a reaction image.
This particular strip makes me feel very sad
I get the same way! I just take breaks in the bathroom, soak up some alone time, calm myself down. Though with Sarah in the bathroom that might not be a great strategy…
Dina also isn’t used to this kind of thing and hasn’t had the opportunity to develop coping strategies.
This comic really makes my heart go out to her.
Well, ones that’ don’t involve clawing the faces off of others.
And how the hell did that apostrophe get there?
She learned all her coping mechanisms from velociraptors.
In that case, they’re lucky she didn’t gut them with her toenails.
Aww poor Dina, she needs a hug.
It’s alright, I have no face 🙂
So is there even a fraction of a chance someone hasn’t made a FAAAAAACE joke in the comm- NOPE. No there is not.
Technically or something, you just did.
There’s a reason for that. And the reason is shut up.
I shall not for I am tacos and thus unable to speak. Everything you are thinking I’ve said was all in your imagination >.>
Ooh ooh a potential Dina storyline ….!!
Or, she might just go in the bathroom with Sarah.
But I can hope …..!!!
That might actually be an interesting storyline.
Yeah, those two actually seem to be a good match – or at least, Dina appreciates Sarah’s willingness to let her be, and Sarah appreciates Dina’s silence, and her innate defensiveness of others is something that Dina probably could benefit from – she seems a bit vulnerable.
Do you suppose Dina would get along with Slenderman?
I’m wondering if she’s a fan of No Face from Spirited Away.
What about Shockwave? He’s faceless, logical, and created space dinosaurs.
They’d never get along. He couldn’t take the criticisms of how inaccurate the anatomy is on the Dinobots.
“Those could never be mistaken for actual dinosaurs! The entire concept is flawed!”
DoA is a regular meme generator.
That’s my new band name. Stop the Faces
That’s also the name of my sex tape.
Then I’ll take Meme Generator!
dinas favorite superhero is The Question.
Wonder why Dina never uses contractions.
(Just kidding; I know exactly why.)
Because she slept through English class?
Dina was born and raised in the US – I’m sure she knows her contractions.
A Data-like lack of contractions tends to be writers’ go-to Hilariously Quirky Gimmick they like to use to indicate or suggest a particular flavor of neurodivergence. I happen to fall in that spectrum myself and know many other people who do, and I’ve never known anyone who actually talked like this. So I personally find it to be an annoying and inaccurate cliche. \U_U/
Is it because she’s secretly Rook Blonko?
Is she secretly Faye from the must-hide-accent era?
Best Waifu just got a whole lot more relatable.
two faces neutralized. Dina requires more hands
http://www.patriciabarbazan.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/sally_bollywood.jpg
I’d go looking for the animated .gif version but I’m sure it would take me all night.
Poor Dina is not helped by the accelerated DRAMA rate at this party. Joyce alone could be enough to overload her.
Ten minutes in and Danny got hit in the faaaaace. Shaping up to be his kind of party.
More like groped in the face, really.
As a glasses wearer, I sympathize with Dorothy. Getting my face grabbed like that is kind of a nightmare…although the last time it happened, it was a slightly drunken young lady who was trying to get me to shut up and kiss her, so I guess that wasn’t all bad.
I was just about to ask if dana was autistic, because the whole face thing points heavily towards that, but I see it has already been discussed and I dont know how to reply to just that lol
As an autistic reader I’ve been claiming her as one of my own for a loooong time, but yeah this is one of the comics where I’m really feeling it.
Same, same, same. (Come on Willis please let her get diagnosed soon PLEEEEASE.)
Stop ALL the faces >:O
Boyfling?Is Danny channeling Faye? (I suppose Raven is also a possibility.)
I want a boyfling
Ah! I knew I remembered boyfling from somewhere, Faye getting all flustered like that was funny
I cope by not looking at the faces. I can’t read ’em anyway. Come to think of it, I’ve only been to one party in over a decade.
I know its a long time down the track but your next comic collection should be titled “stop the faces”
Second.
yep, third
Fourthed.
yes please
Dina’s parents were introduced over the Family weekend at the college.
They didn’t stand behind doors, but they were standing close enough together that you couldn’t get a postage stamp between them. Not exactly socially at ease people.
Dina spends her time behind doors. She knows what’s going on, but a nice solid door between her and others is a nice safety feature.
This is her first party ever. An event that she is looking forward to as a good way to learn to socialize. With, this being a DOA party, and the expected amount of drama already having appeared this early: Im’ surprised she hasn’t exploded.
Quick, find her a door.
Danny did appologise for accusing Dorothy of telling Walky his confidence, he isn’t even sure of his own feelings yet, and being outted before he’s sure he has something to out, is pretty upsetting. I don’t think he meant anything in particular by ‘boyfling’ other than keeping in mode with what Dorothy had said previously, he was a fun fling. (And maybe just a bit upset that he may know.)
Ah, Danny. Oh man, this is so true it hurts. Being in the closet, jumping at any tiny, innocent joke. The paranoia, the fear…
Liking Danny more and more (the poor sod).
I hereby nominate “boy-fling” as one of those new words to get introduced into the dictionary for 2015. All in favour?
In my head, Dina sounds like Fluttershy, which makes her lines much more funny to me
The last panel makes me think her hat has gained sentience and is speaking which I find fairly humorous.
I’m pretty sure that it’s always been sentient. Although it being sapient might make a little more sense.
First time posting. Just wanted to say I’ve fallen in love with this comic and read every single last page last night. This is my first time reading anything from Willis. What interested me was how much I saw myself in the various characters. Like Joyce, I was raised in a hardcore Christian enviroment and when I began to watch secular cartoons, for me it was my first time watching superhero cartoons when I was 19, I got hooked. Like Ruth, my parents are a no show and I can be very violent when need be. Like Dina, I have a hard time adapting to new situations and dealing with people on a ‘normal’ level. Like Walky, I can be a total spaz when it comes to girls and my interests. Like Danny, I’m lucky enough to be with a girl who completely understands me and loves me for who I am.
Is your girlfriend also a masked vigilante?
I think the characters are my favorite part about Willis’s work.
I feel her pain. For me it’s voices. When lots of people talk at once, I lose concentration and can’t pick out what people mean, what they’re talking about, the emotional timbre. It becomes frustrating and frightening. I can imagine visual sensory overload have a similiar effect.
I also have trouble with voices. Particularly the ones in my head that tell me to write comments.
I get overloaded vending at events with too many people. Especially if I’m just helping out a friend and not familiar with the product. Too many conversations, being bombarded with questions, watching the crowd and trying to scan to see if anyone is stealing. Too much! o_O
I’ve compared the experience of having to hear too many people talking at once to having needles shoved in my ears. It is really really not fun.
I’m so glad everyone’s sharing their experiences. I know my experience is not unique, but it’s nice to see so many people share it. It tells me I’m not quite the freak I think I am. *huggles all ya’ll*
Hm, with lots of voices going at the same time, I just can’t separate them. I don’t miss tones or emotions, but I can’t focus on the one I want enough to understand the words.
Oh, Dina, that is not in fact an acceptable solution to the problem! My therapist told me so. He seemed very concerned to make that point. So now I just use spray-paint instead.
GIVE ME YOUR FACES
Oh man…I’ve never heard it put like that before. Having trouble “processing all the faces.” That’s brilliant! Makes so much sense, now. That is a good description of how I feel in tight crowds. Like I’m supposed to be paying attention to it all at once, and I can’t, so everything kinda shuts down.
Interesting. I never have that issue, but pretty sure only because I avoid looking at faces altogether a lot of the time (and let’s not even mention eyes. eyes are the worst.)
It’s not the faces I have problems with, it’s the names! Who are you people?!
Same here. I recognize people by how they look but they better not expect me to say their names. Otherwise, I’ll fumble around for some generic pronoun in place of a name like “dude” or something.
…did Dina make Dorothy drop her drink?
Sure looks like it. Not a party till somebody spills their drink. Now we just need to break a lamp.
Hope her glasses aren’t broken, that’s always a pain.
Yes, but doesnt D seem like the kind of person who has an at least OK spare/second pair?
Dina and Billie can now bond over their mutual dislike of people’s FAAAAAAACES!
Also, is it just me or does Dina look noticeably taller than in previous strips?
Is Dina wrote to come across as someone on the ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) such as having Aspergers? I’d like to point out this isn’t some troll or mockery of the character, it’s simply that I have Aspergers and would find it interesting.
I believe Willis has said that she has, quite possibly, maybe something, but he wouldn’t specify what.
Word of Willis is that she hasn’t been diagnosed with anything – so no definite ‘yes’, but not a definite no either. And I agree, autistic and totally empathize with her.
Willis hasn’t specified what, but given that Dina has difficulty with social situations (breakfast being the most recent struggle I can remember), I’d say she’s got some issue shared by non-neuroptyoical people her age.
I’m autistic and I definitely read her as being spectrummy.
And WoG is that she’s not diagnosed with anything but it’s totally realistic for a quiet, well-behaved autistic asian girl to go undiagnosed that long, so she still totally could be.
(I am keeping my representation thanks.)
…You know, I really miss Walkyverse-Dina sometimes.
Er, wait, that probably sounds worse than I meant it. I do like DoA!Dina very much; it’s just strips like these that remind me of how different she and Walkyverse Dina are as characters, and I kind of miss the old one, too.
oh god I adore Dina. She is so self aware and communicates so clearly! Something to aspire to. I can just eek out “nope, sorry, I’m out of eye contact for the rest of this party” and then bury myself in a computing device.
The Faces stopped in 1975.
Dina is not a fan of Rod Stewart.
Oh Dina, I really feel for you right now.
I want to give Dina very unwelcome hugs of sympathy. I completely get her feelings here. I hope she’s okay and able to learn to begins enjoying the company as the party winds down a bit more. You kindof need to build up to these things and she dived in bravely.
I keep reading “active” in panel 3 as “attractive”
Too many sexy faces for Dina!
I’m struck by the fact that both Danny and Dina would probably be more comfortable if Amber was here. Amazi-Girl must be stuck in an elaborate deathtrap somewhere waiting for the next episode to start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to2cze58R5E
Stop, stop, stop all the faces, give me time to breath.
Stop, stop, stop all the faces, or I’ll have to leave!
Man can I relate to Dina sometimes. That’s also how I feel watching action movies most of the time…
FAAAAAAA–*smack*
And that’s why Mike should be there; stoping faces, with his fists.
Huh, Mike really does have only ONE facial expression, doesn’t he?
Aaaaand I have a new band name.
I want a print of this strip, or at least the last panel.
*autism feels*
I have a feeling that Dina is going to have a complete breakdown. 🙁
have Dotty and Dina ever spoken before?
Yeah. she’s noticed Dina a few times. And has picked up her name. (Though Dorothy is offpanel in this example) http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/potty/
This strip indicates Danny is a Questionable Content fan.
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1943
This is known as hyper-vigilance, and is a symptom of PTSD. In short, you’re constantly reading the general mood or atmosphere, and you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO react correctly, diffuse any potentially explosive situations, or you were beaten unconscious, usually right then and there, where everyone can watch. SOME adults consider this fine entertainment, something to spice up a dull event, and will even instigate it themselves, if someone else doesn’t do it first. And you can’t just “not invite them,” because they’re a relative, rich, important, or all three.
And you’re just a child. You don’t know what you did wrong, all you can process is the panic, the agony, the humiliation, and not soon enough, the sweet release of oblivion.
Dina is half-a-straw away from breaking.
Could also be a sign of autistic over-stimulation. Or anxiety. There are a lot of neurodivergences that can cause a reaction like this.
very true. autism spectrum was my first thought, since I am aspie. But any number could do it.
I wish I had had this strip to show people 40 years ago every time I stopped in my tracks because I had entered a place where there were too many faces (or sometimes other things) to deal with.
+1 that the next strip shows that Dina is actually having a good time. That’s another thing I’ve had a hard time to convince people of: in spite of me mildly hyperventilating and in spite of my wild staring eyes, there’s nowhere else I’d like to be.
… … … Stop the feces? … … … Sorry, that wanted out …
You know, Dina could have Social Anxiety Disorder and not be anywhere on the Autism Spectrum.
Also, Dina is probably thinking “shut your faaaaace”