My DM is dead inside. Between the halfling that collects fingers and has a dead cat for a pet, the literally insane mage, and the Ace Ventura of a ranger, the three of which are the only PCs, he has to plan at least 3 different ways to try to get us to stick to the campaign, and even then, the chances of us deciding we don’t want to do the campaign no matter what because we’d rather insist that the local government is corrupt and/or zombies.
My family raised me on quests where the needed princess was outright killed, or everybody helped overthrow the just government because the city watch stopped the team’s bar brawl prematurely. Off-book is my D&Default setting.
The players in my family’s games seem more likely to snap. “Uhh, guys… please stop her, if she keeps telling my wizard there’s just something in his brain, I’m not going to be able to stay in character and not have him cut open his own skull!” Fun times!
I get a lot of mileage out of the evil smile as a teacher. Usually when a student tries to “trick” me into answering one of the questions on their test for them. Works like a charm.
The interplay between that smile and Dina’s hat really make that panel special, though it is only a matter of time befor the hat gains dominance over the host.
Speaking of complicated relationships, that was almost a tacit acknowledgement that Sarah needs Joyce on some level… almost.
It’s a good point by Sarah there. Dina is not Joyce, Sarah is not Becky, trying to force either to fulfill that role will not end well nor actually dispel their concerns and co-dependence fueled loneliness (which is not a slag on Dina, she’s like a week into her first relationship ever which began with one hell of an opening bang and her romantic partner being kidnapped away from her, it would have taken an amazing amount of knowledge about relationships and good planning to not get sucked down a co-dependent mode of approaching things).
That being said, Sarah probably does need Dina trying to be here and present. I mean, she’s scared. She’s convinced her roommate is having a breakdown and bad family stuff is happening and in her experience, that leads to betrayal and awfulness and possibly having made an awful and shitty decision because she had few options and a hard time with boundaries.
Sarah seems to view stiff-arming the world her means of solving her desperate need to save the world and it works about as well for her as Dina’s current methods of resolving how much she’s missing Becky are working for her.
Besides the thumbspur, iguanodontids didn’t have actual claws – as heavy-set animals that moved around on all fours, claws would not have lasted long. My vote is for some sort of segnosaur.
But from the disordered chamber of my brain, had not, alas! departed, and would not be driven away, the white and ghastly spectrum of the teeth. Not a speck upon their surface — not a shade on their enamel — not a line in their configuration — not an indenture in their edges — but what that period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth! — the teeth!
Dina, for the love of all that’s holy, unholy, and everything in between never smile like that again. I never thought I’d see teeth scarier than Brian Blessed’s. o-o
Meh, the first one’s not horrible. And, anyways, you can learn to smile without using your teeth.
Which reminds me of the only other time teeth became that terrifying to me, in one of Ellie Kemper’s early roles. I won’t link it (as the subject matter [if not the visuals] is NSFW), but just google Ellie Kemper Teeth, and watch the CollegeHumor video.
… hilariously, I actually am somewhat smiley, but forced smiles for me come off as Dina’s attempt at the Joyce Smile.
My face emotes weirdly. I am either full on triangle grin or Dina emotionless a lot of the time (except concentrating, which looks pissed off, or content which apparently looks confused) – and the triangle grin sometimes happens at inappropriate moments, since it seems at least as much an anxiety reaction as a happiness reaction, and protip don’t grin at someone who’s pissed with you because you’re anxious, it never goes well.
How does a normal human being not know how to smile though? I know she’s… I dunno, SOMETHING, but still, smiling is a pretty natural response to delightful stimuli.
Mr. Willis definitely has a good eye for observation. I have autism and I always look like the penultimate panel whenever I try to smile with my teeth, as does my best friend’s sister who’s built the same way. Maybe it’s like Temple Grandin says and we, being similar to animals, naturally dislike to grin because we interpret it as a threat? I can only genuinely smile with a slight lip movement and a closed mouth
well, when that image causes me to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night I am going to find you, drag you back to my bedside, and make you sing me back to sleep.
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
OMGlob, Dina is attempting the smiling faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace
No, no, no! She just went out and bought some Joker Brand toothpaste. Now with SMYLEX! “Love that Joker!”
THE TRIANGLE…. IT’S FULL OF TOOTHS…
There goes tonight’s sleep.
♫And when she smiiiiiiiiiiles…
The whole world stops to stare for a while!♫
…In horror, mostly.
*initiate screaming*
KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!
“But that’s Dina! I don’t want to kill Dina!”
“FOOLS! Dina is GONE! There IS NO MORE DINA! That TOOTH-THING ATE HER AND IS WEARING HER CORPSE! KIIIILLLLL!”
NO! she’s still in there somewhere, we just need to reason with her!
THERE IS NO MORE REASON! THAT IS THE LITERAL MAW OF MADNESS!
THERE IS NO DINA! ONLY ZUUL!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg7MAacSPNM
Surprised it took this long for someone to make that reference…
Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
ZUUL! Mother-f…
https://youtu.be/EKufn-zGZCg?t=1235
This has happened in another universe.
And it will all happen again.
Everything is ruined forever.
I can only imagine how mentally taxing it must have been for Willis to draw this…
…good.
JESUS CRAP what are your TEETH DOING DINAAAA
real people don’t have teeth! they have white mouth-guards!!!
Ah. She’s attempting to do the fabled TRIANGLE GRIN. I see now.
Still terrifying.
The triangle grin is not a beginner’s move.
When reptiles try to smile? You get this.
JESUS CHRIST
You have said all I could ever say about this.
Great gums tho.
The color itself isn’t all that healthy but that’s just nitpicking.
I love your grav. Where did you find it?
Said in the appropriate voice. :3
Dina please stop.
Wow… things got deep extremely quickly.
OH DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP!
That smile… now I won’t be able to sleep tonight.
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
In real life, that would be terrifyingly cute.
I’ve DONE that smile IRL.
As a DM.
To my gaming group.
When they just walked into a horrifying trap and asked me something like “we made a mistake, didn’t we?”
They assure me that the smile is not cute, but is terrifying.
All DMs have done that smile at one point or another.
They have also all done the bug-eyed-Joyce-hears-Dorothy-is-an-atheist face, usually when the PCs do something that fucks the whole campaign.
It’s a job fraught with emotional peril.
My DM is dead inside. Between the halfling that collects fingers and has a dead cat for a pet, the literally insane mage, and the Ace Ventura of a ranger, the three of which are the only PCs, he has to plan at least 3 different ways to try to get us to stick to the campaign, and even then, the chances of us deciding we don’t want to do the campaign no matter what because we’d rather insist that the local government is corrupt and/or zombies.
My family raised me on quests where the needed princess was outright killed, or everybody helped overthrow the just government because the city watch stopped the team’s bar brawl prematurely. Off-book is my D&Default setting.
The players in my family’s games seem more likely to snap. “Uhh, guys… please stop her, if she keeps telling my wizard there’s just something in his brain, I’m not going to be able to stay in character and not have him cut open his own skull!” Fun times!
…maybe make your group more coherently unified then. It’s not supposed to all be up to the DM.
A DM friend adds some ambiance music in his games, for that situation it would be that track
*plays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Xg-pyQ7Ak *
I get a lot of mileage out of the evil smile as a teacher. Usually when a student tries to “trick” me into answering one of the questions on their test for them. Works like a charm.
If only more people agreed on that point. As an overly-toothy smiler, it unnerves some folks.
DINA NO, STOP
And just like that, this became a horror strip.
“The smile is coming from inside the room!”
Hmm, doesn’t quite have the same ring of terror.
Dina’s dentist must have a field day with her visits
Not like this. Not like this.
well, there goes my plan to sleep tonight
aw cmon sarah that was cuAAAAAAAAAAAA
We are entering a zone that shouldn’t even exist.
There’s something PAST True Zone???
The Smile reminds me of The Man Who Laughs and Salad Fingers
Pretty much what happens when I try to smile…
It went from cute to just plain psychotic.
That’s a Moe smile right there… :/
Protip, Dina: That is less of a “I’m friendly” smile and more of a “I’m going to rip out your throat” teeth-baring.
To be fair, under normal circumstances, that’s probably what she’s going for.
I don’t know, that smile underneath that hat seems extremely appropriate somehow.
No wonder she and Amber are roommates!
nature fact: Dina can unhinge her jaw to swallow objects larger than her own head
Maybe Dina could be a stand-in for Marie Osmond.
I predict at least 6 gravatars of that face.
I’m dropping it after today (I would’ve used it longer if it was a preview panel) but I’ll take the under on that guess.
DINA NO. ONLY JOYCE CAN DO THE SMILE. ABORT.
The more I look at that smile, the more upsetting it becomes.
All it takes is one bad day, Batman.
Super creepy Dina faaaaace!
Jesus fuck, that’s terrifying. It reminds me of the main character from Tokyo Ghoul.
No.
So, Dina, do you by any chance moonlight as a crazy dancing very tall smiling man who chases down people in the street?
Dina! What big teeth you have!
“it’s to best kiss you with, Becky”
Uhhh… I think you may have the logistics of kissing somewhat… askew?
She’s at the edges of that field.
I’m waiting for someone to use it as an icon.
Kill it with fire!!!!!! Stop Dina, stop now!
Rictus of Age.
Dumbing of Rictus.
can’t unsee those gums and molars….
Holy shit!!! That is horrifying! Sarah’s not gonna be getting any sleep tonight, is she?
She isn’t looking at it directly, maybe that makes it more difficult for panel 6 to be burned into her retinas.
JESUS CHRIST HOW HORRIFYING.
Another FAAACE for the collection.
This could replace that creepy Joyce smile edit meme.
The Raptor!
Actually, yea. That’s helping.
Now Sara can stay awake for days and use that time to study.
I think she nailed it, guys.
Oh god.
There’s only 19 teeth visible, and probably no more than 2 hidden by her pose.
She’s so tiny she doesn’t even have room for a full mouthful of teeth!
Could we also note how they can selectively be razor sharp or duller than a sack of NPCs?
I count 20 individual teeth.
Don’t humans have 32?
Technically, but most people really only have 28 ‘cuz the Wisdom teeth either never pop up, or have to be removed.
If I am to believe the most EXXXXXTREEEEEEEEMMMMMMMEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! comic artist EVAH!!!, Rob Liefeld, human mouths contain 57 bajillion teeth each
But how many do Zhenyuanlong suni have?
In any case, we’ll need more teeth
nope
DinoJaws!
Jesus Christ How Horrifying.
I’ve had my doubts about Dina’s humanity for a while now.
aw shit that was supposed to be a reply to Mr Random
The interplay between that smile and Dina’s hat really make that panel special, though it is only a matter of time befor the hat gains dominance over the host.
Speaking of complicated relationships, that was almost a tacit acknowledgement that Sarah needs Joyce on some level… almost.
I can’t help but notice that she obviously flosses.
Every day, as recommended by the American Dental Association.
Dina attempts The Smile. Sarah replies with The Grimace.
Gunnerkrigg Court, the epilogue to Ch 40, “The Stone”.
(“I can mimic the facial movements for a smile, but I tend to avoid it, as it often leaves the onlooker somewhat unnerved.”)
aah, I remember that scene XD
Oh. That scene.
I think Dina learned about smiling from intimidation techniques shown on nature shows
It was clearly a dinosaur show. 🙂
I seen better smiles out of Howard Dean!
That looks painful.
I can see her face getting stuck like that.
Dina… Brush your teeth.
“Just sit back… and relax… WHILE I EAT YOUR BRAINS!”
NOPE. NOPE. THIS IS NOT WHAT I NEEDED TO SEE FOR BREAKFAST. ABORT! ABORT!
DUMBING OF TRIANGLE WHERE ARE YOU
SAVE US
The triangle has forsaken us.
ONLY ONE PERSON CAN DO THE TRIANGLE
AAAAAaaaaaugh-aw, I feel bad, though. She’s trying so hard.
I too feel bad because she’s trying so hard, and very much wish she would try less hard.
Classic Rookie Mistake: not smiling hard enough.
Please welcome today’s guest artist for panel six, Brooke McEldowney of 9 Chickweed Lane.
Yesssssssss!!
This is nowhere near as insufferably pretentious.
The horror, the absolute horror.
Smily!Joyce is back!!!!
This whole time I thought Joyce’s triangle smile was white due to stylization and not actual teeth
ahhhhhhhhh D:
LIEEEEEEEEEEFEEEEEEEEEEEEE–
…
sorry, force of habit.
It’s a good point by Sarah there. Dina is not Joyce, Sarah is not Becky, trying to force either to fulfill that role will not end well nor actually dispel their concerns and co-dependence fueled loneliness (which is not a slag on Dina, she’s like a week into her first relationship ever which began with one hell of an opening bang and her romantic partner being kidnapped away from her, it would have taken an amazing amount of knowledge about relationships and good planning to not get sucked down a co-dependent mode of approaching things).
That being said, Sarah probably does need Dina trying to be here and present. I mean, she’s scared. She’s convinced her roommate is having a breakdown and bad family stuff is happening and in her experience, that leads to betrayal and awfulness and possibly having made an awful and shitty decision because she had few options and a hard time with boundaries.
Sarah seems to view stiff-arming the world her means of solving her desperate need to save the world and it works about as well for her as Dina’s current methods of resolving how much she’s missing Becky are working for her.
No canines, so she’s probably a herbivore. No reason to be afraid.
Tell that to the victims of the hippo
No tusks either, neither oral nor cerberal. However, as Toedad found to his cost, she has the sharpest claws…
Possibly an Iguanadontid?
Besides the thumbspur, iguanodontids didn’t have actual claws – as heavy-set animals that moved around on all fours, claws would not have lasted long. My vote is for some sort of segnosaur.
Even herbivores will occasionally eat meat. Like deer eating baby birds. And there’s evidence that ceratopsians also sometimes ate meat.
Okay, now you’re attempting to scare away Sarah out of campus.
Jibbers Crabst that’s creepy
Okay, now that’s enough to scare a cat off a gut wagon.
Hilarious + horrifying = hilarifying!
I will add this to my vocabulary immediately.
It’s rather reminicent of that scene in Addams Family Values where Wednesday is forced to, er, “smile”…
Yup, that was my thought.
And the other campers – and counselors! – all draw back in horror.
Oh my gawd! Dina’s a cenobite!
I think you’re overdoing it a wee bit there Dina
But from the disordered chamber of my brain, had not, alas! departed, and would not be driven away, the white and ghastly spectrum of the teeth. Not a speck upon their surface — not a shade on their enamel — not a line in their configuration — not an indenture in their edges — but what that period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth! — the teeth!
Teeheehee x3 excellent.
…I want to make a joke about In The Mouth of Madness just to connect another thing which is not Lovecraft but certainly feels like it.
Tony Robbins hungry…
The last few panels really successfully hides the weak, transparent exposition of the dialog.
You’re just sort of stringing smart-sounding words together.
To be honest, gotta agree. There’s a certain amount of self awareness and manners of speech that feel like organic and more “Am I right, Audience?”
Thanks for the nightmares, Willis.
Oh my GOD I haven’t laughed like this in days!
Typo in first panel, second balloon:
– perseverEnce -> perseverAnce.
Is Dina a T-800 or something?
Ask Becky’s Dad
OH YAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
I love Dina even more!!
You know the episode of Steven Universe when Alexandrite’s second jaw hinges open? Yeah, that’s what this reminds me of.
=D
(To be clear, this is my reaction, not an attempt to replicate)
Isn’t Dina supposed to have pointy teeth?
Aw, how cute! Sarah’s trying to smile back!
Damn you, Willis.
Yikes! Too many teeth, like the ‘Nobody Dies’ version of Rei Ayanami
What has been seen cannot be unseen!!! My eyes! My beautiful, beautiful eyes!!!
That reminds me terribly of Attack on Titan.
The thought of a Dina Titan is truly terrifying.
Oh good, I’m not the only one who thought she looks like the Smiling Titan.
Welp. I’ll never get to be an awesome lesbian lady, but according to what Sarah just said, Becky is my spirit animal.
Maybe some sort of Becky/Danny hybrid. Although maybe I just relate to Danny’s circumstances more.
i cant decide if its adorably terrifying or terrifyingly adaorable.
More smile.
MORE.
GUMMING OF AGE
Dina, for the love of all that’s holy, unholy, and everything in between never smile like that again. I never thought I’d see teeth scarier than Brian Blessed’s. o-o
TOO MANY TEETH! STAHP! LOVE OF SCIENCE, STAAAAHP!
Um, no, Dinah, Joyce isn’t a raptor….
I love Dina. She’s so cute. 🙂
Also, this smile is completely normal in my family.
Dina, I love you, so don’t take this the wrong way when I say “NEVER SMILE AGAIN.”
Meh, the first one’s not horrible. And, anyways, you can learn to smile without using your teeth.
Which reminds me of the only other time teeth became that terrifying to me, in one of Ellie Kemper’s early roles. I won’t link it (as the subject matter [if not the visuals] is NSFW), but just google Ellie Kemper Teeth, and watch the CollegeHumor video.
Funny, I was thinking of the skit with DerrickComedy. You know the one.
Same video. It’s just that it came up from CollegeHumor on my Google search.
it’s nice to know that other people have the same problem of going zero-to-Joker when they try to smile
It reminds me of what you get if you do a Google Image search on “penguin mouth.” It’s SFW… but… not safe for anything else.
… hilariously, I actually am somewhat smiley, but forced smiles for me come off as Dina’s attempt at the Joyce Smile.
My face emotes weirdly. I am either full on triangle grin or Dina emotionless a lot of the time (except concentrating, which looks pissed off, or content which apparently looks confused) – and the triangle grin sometimes happens at inappropriate moments, since it seems at least as much an anxiety reaction as a happiness reaction, and protip don’t grin at someone who’s pissed with you because you’re anxious, it never goes well.
I WANT TO PROTECT THAT SMILE
That’s the same view some hapless plant eater had millions of years ago right before the Velociraptor started ripping its flesh off…
Dina’s dentist should be proud; those are some seriously straight teeth.
Her gums are pretty seriously receded with a sort of unhealthy color, though. She needs to expand her brushing regimen to include them.
That seems less like “velociraptor hunting” and more like “apatosaurus eats small pterosaur, because hey, free food”.
“The” smile. Like Starfire?
Well, good thing I’m reading this on the morning.
Not just anyone can pull off the off-white Dorito chip grin, Dina.
Tomorrow’s strip: Dina eats Sarah before returning to her home planet to lay eggs.
Given the teeth she might be about to bite Sarah with her smaller internal mouth before cacooning her for implantation.
Hey Sarah….WHY SO SERIOUS?
Oh god.
That’s AMAZING!
Welp. Now I know what fear is. Thanks.
Just add William Shatner’s cover of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds as a soundtrack and your experience of elemental horror will be complete!
Okay, what the fuck is wrong with her? Even psychopaths know how to fake a smile…
Psychopaths fake a lot of things. Dina rarely fakes anything.
How does a normal human being not know how to smile though? I know she’s… I dunno, SOMETHING, but still, smiling is a pretty natural response to delightful stimuli.
Oh, she knows how to smile (see her post-kiss face for that). But she just isn’t good at faking that.
OK, I had to try REAL hard not to laugh out loud at work after seeing that Dina smile! Oh good heavens…it made my day.
Oh. good lord. now i know how she will look like if she gets zombificed. Very scary. *sobs*
Sure, Willis, that’s great. It’s not like I was planning to sleep tonight or anything…
This. This is the face I want to have put on my tombstone. The face that put fear into several people I know.
My God, she looks like the Joker…
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHhhhh (breathe in) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhh…
…
Eh, wasn’t gona sleep tonight anyways…
You know… It’s not the teeth. It’s the eyes. The horrid, painful “This hat is slowly eating me and if I say anything it’ll only become angrier” eyes.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdxeklrcnQ1qj8u1do2_1280.png
If thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee…
Mr. Willis definitely has a good eye for observation. I have autism and I always look like the penultimate panel whenever I try to smile with my teeth, as does my best friend’s sister who’s built the same way. Maybe it’s like Temple Grandin says and we, being similar to animals, naturally dislike to grin because we interpret it as a threat? I can only genuinely smile with a slight lip movement and a closed mouth
I am autistic and I triangle grin sometimes, but my forced smiles look like Dina’s forced smile. :\
Dina, please stop
I will give five million live dinosaurs if you just stop making that face
Please
I’m pretty sure New York or Tokyo’s pigeon infestations are the only places you could get that many dinosaurs.
Move over, Cheshire Cat! Take a walk, Joker! THERE’S A NEW GRIN IN TOWN
How can something so adorablAAHHHMYENHANCEDLIGHTRECEPTORS!
well, when that image causes me to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night I am going to find you, drag you back to my bedside, and make you sing me back to sleep.
Yikes! This is like that deleted scene where the Terminator tries to smile.
Panel 4 is just a regular smile. Panel 6 is THE SMILE!
Welp, I guess that’s the face that will haunt my dreams.
… no sweetie, that makes you look like a youkai.
Yokai Watch’s newest mon.
no idea what that is, I was thinking more along the lines of Kuchisake-onna
YIKES
That terrible moment when you realise that a person’s face is just a meat-filled skull with a covering of skin…
It’s a moment that will henceforth be known as “The Dina Effect”
That is the stuff of nightmares.
That the sort of smile I do when I try to attempt one in the mirror.
Seriosly unless I have an honest happy smile any attempt to smile for whatever reason gets terrifyingly, creepy fas,t quick, & in a hurry/
Whyyyyyy would you draw thaaaaat
Have you seen what used to be the final panel of Shortpacked!? The man has a very strange mind.
http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=2195
She’s trying, but…. *shudder*……
more clenched teeth than a rob liefeld drawing…
Dina is on the Joker!