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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com ⋅ 8h
Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social ⋅ 9h
John Hyphen
@johnhyphen.bsky.social ⋅ 4d
geoffrey @parsnip.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Get Equipped With @getequipped.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Jeff Harris @nemalki.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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And just like last time, Sarah shows she cares. Daww?
It will be good for Joyce to have the support when she finally decides to confront the problem.
“Finally”? It’s only been like a week of time in the comic.
But yeah, the Joyce-Sarah relationship is really sweet and potentially very supportive – for the both of them. (For instance, I wonder if Sarah had even told the Grieving Pothead Roommate Saga to anyone before.)
Sarah’s her big sister forever.
Don’t hold back the feelings!
I don’t really like talking about my nightmares, either. Makes me remember them =/
I don’t either, but because saying it out loud makes me sound insane.
“So there was this door, but it had, like, teeth, right? And a long hallway which I think maybe I remember from this dentists office I used to go to, but now there are all these evil balloon animals in it. And Christopher Walken tried to fight them, but they set him on fire. I managed to sneak past, but by then the algebra test was over and I missed it, and everyone was coming out and laughed at me in my underwear.”
See, that’s WHY my sisters and I talk about our dreams/nightmares. It’s kind of a contest to see whose was the strangest. My sister usually wins.
I just listen to the weird shit my boyfriend says in his dreams.
“mumblemumble Don’t touch it Danielle… mumblemumble” He doesn’t know anyone named Danielle.
Also he once vigorously groped me in his sleep and made out with the back of my neck. When I asked what he was doing he mumbled “I thought I was helping you with your quest…” then gave a little snore. I told him he was asleep and he apologized and went back to trying to make out with the back of my neck.
Normal is overrated and sanity is boring.
Sometimes, not remembering makes it worse.
Like the time I woke up from a nightmare, looked down at myself, and said, “excellent, the body is mine”. I’m pretty sure that’s more creepy without context.
You do not know how hard that made me laugh. (No, not at you. At the randomness?)
I like talking about my nightmares, because when I wake up I know they’re all fake and they do seem like fascinating stories to me.
I hope every book ends at sleepytime in Joyce and Sarah’s room
Hard to tell the actual reason Joyce won’t talk about her nightmare.
It’s easy to tell. She’s embarrassed about the sex dream part of it. Note the blush.
If she says she relieved the assault, there’s a good chance Sarah will start hounding Joyce to get help, which Joyce knows because of what happened to Sarah’s last roommate. Given how resistant she’s been to discussing the incident at all, I doubt Joyce is eager to start down that road.
reLIVED. Dammit.
My dreams are nighmare fuel for other people.
My nightmares are all a cross between Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Films.
Oh Joyce… it’s hard to remember that it really hasn’t been that long story-wise since the assault.
Even if it had been years I think it’d be justified for her to be having nightmares about it.
And attempting not to deal with the experience won’t help, either. Your brain’s going to work with memories that strong whether you like it or not.
It’s true. That kind of thing will stick with someone… especially when handled as unhealthily as it really was.
I think I can sympathize with Joyce on this one. Let’s not speak of this for a long time…
Sarah wants to be Joyce’s mom so bad
Awww, Joyce.
I wonder if this will mean that Joyce will avoid trying to get intimate with Ethan which allows him to stay in the glass closet for a fair while longer.
Glass Closet is an amazing metaphor. The meta-fourth best metaphor I’ve ever heard.
I checked TVTropes and it seems they have a trope called the Transparent Closet which is the same idea as my Glass Closet.
You should opt to rename it glass closet. It sounds way better :2.
I second this motion!
And afterwards, perhaps there’ll be a TVTropes page about the “Great Glass Elegaytor”?
There is, but it’s about an Elevator for Elegant Alligatos
The Great Glass Alligator?
Well I think he’s being a –
Swell upstanding fellow–
and if he’d ju-
st keep making me smile with his wondrous comics I’ll be forever happy
-tt. and if he doesn’t like it he can k-feel free to delete it
how are you replying in the future O.o
Is there a hidden message there somewhere?
And that was a reply to Yotomoe. Is it Display Comments In Wrong Order Day already?
(This comment will of course be meaningless once DCIWOD is over.)
Here it is. The first retcon. Oh of course “It was all just a dream” and now shapeshifters don’t exist in the dumbiverse anymore. It all goes downhill from here. That’s what you’re all thinking. I know better though. Clearly when “Ethan” rubbed his thing all over Joyce’s belly it was a mindwiper and she’s just forgotten the night’s events.
So then this supports the theory that Amazi-Girl is a time traveling Joe who has had Roz’s personality and memories inserted into his brain by a microchip and has been given cyber-surgery restructuring, and that Walky is a simultron created by Pseudo-Danny (from the timeline that was destroyed by Ethan’s experiments with dark matter) meant to harvest Dorothy’s ectoplasm when she morphs into Sarah-17.
Then it seems likely that Joyce is also a simultron, since she clearly is being targeted by the shapeshifters for eradication through self-decomposition, though who created her and what her ultimate goal is still unclear. Also, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the shapeshifters can’t enter this dimension completely yet and have to act through psy-proxies. As for the identity of “Ethan”, I’d say it was Sarah-12.
Of course, Willis has surprised us before, so we’ll have to wait and see what really happens.
Well pf course. It all follows quite naturally since we know that Sarah is Dana Prime. After being stabbed in the back by Joyce in her own universe she fled to the Dumbiverse and stole DumbiDana’s place on campus so that as Joyce’s roommate she could leave the door unlocked for these Shapeshifters who will give her what she needs to take her vengeance on every iteration of Joyce in the multiverse. I think you’re forgetting that Sarah’s scholarship was a deal with the devil and she has to trade her roommates in for continued educational funding. Personally I’m at the edge of my seat waiting to see how Willis reconciles these two seemingly conflicting back-stories.
I love you guys
For a second, I thought today’s strip would be horrifying. Instead, it’s just sad.
I suppose I put what’s going on together a little differently; it seems much more horrifying than the last strip. We all have bad dreams. but carrying that kind of trauma around and refusing to deal with it, possibly/probably because you’ve been told you’ll be taken care of if you live ‘correctly,’ is hell yawning to take you.
Yeah, it’s that much worse when it’s not just facing something you’d rather not face, but actually the choice between getting the help you need to deal with it, and getting to stay out in the “real” world at college instead of going back home to a life she obviously doesn’t want right now. Where she won’t get any help anyways, I’m sure.
Makes it that much worse when it’s not just a choice between “Do I face this or not?” (which she obviously doesn’t want to do anyways).
ETA until Joyce starts stabbing people?
Are we not counting that business with the glass?
-That fully justified business. I just realized that I sounded critical of Joyce’s action there, and that is NOT what I meant to do.
No, we’re talking about her going on a psychopathic rampage, not justified stabbings.
There should be an option for “Why would you do this to me, Willis? Why would you go tormenting my poor, little webcomic-reading heart?” on that poll. Because there are a great variety of tumblr gifs about getting hit “right” in the “feels” that could be applied to this particular strip.
Ouch, my heart.
Fortunately for me, I have a heart of gold.
because you see:
Gold is just a special type of metal;
Metal is just a special type of stone;
So really a heart of gold is just a very special type of a heart of stone.
Thus my heart can never hurt.I really love your comic. And your entire character base from all your comics.
I’m sure I’ll like what happens next (more or less) but I can’t help but worry that Sarah is going to do the only thing she can think of to help her…. and everyone will get pissed at her again. And if Joyce is coming close to accepting she has a sexuality and gets sent home to deal with the trama…..They may brain wash her again!
……Gah! I’m starting to sound like a day time drama. Shoot me now!
Aww. Sarah knows and dosn’t know what to do about it. Poor Joyce.
No kidding. Once again, I has a sad.
Ugh, that is the worst. When you’re trying to scream in your nightmare and you can’t for whatever reason. Or when you don’t move for some reason. Brain, why you gotta pull betrayals like this?
The reason is so you don’t end up flaying around and hurt yourself. It’s actually a pretty sophisticated neural LACK of response.
btw… WHERE WERE HER HANDS UNTIL THAT LAST PANEL YESTERDAY!?
Still don’t see ‘em!!
I have only had it twice, but when you wake up before your (normal) paralysis does its as scary as hell.
I don’t know that I have had that happen, but I have had the paralysis wear off before I wake up a few times. (Turns out biting into your arm is a great way to wake yourself up.)
Yea, happened to me once as a kid, scared the crap out of me.
I had a roommate that did that.
Hahaha funny comic!
No, wait. The other thing.
Also: total consensus on the poll! What are the odds of that?
Willis your gonna make me cry. Its really painful being in that spot of wanting to help or be there someone you care about or respect, but they don’t want to open up.
Your mind just starts thinking about what you could do to help them, who else could you all. And then you think that you shouldn’t pry because prying can make things worse…
Wait… “Who else could you call…” Ohhh what a nice way to confirm without telling us that Sarah was really empathetic with her roomie last year…
Why am I feeling empathy for these characters!… Are you getting paid for this? You should be getting paid for this… I wish I had more money to pay you for this.
interesting how the nicest person in DOA is having a nightmare, yet the bongoiest one in Shortpack’d is having a Dream
A dream where she wakes up as a fatass.
Joyce is the nicest person in DoA? Generally nice, I agree, but occasional episodes of condescension when the views of others don’t align with hers puts her out of the running for ‘nicest’. And implied homophobia.
And occasional bouts of beating the shit out of people. Mustn’t forget that little incident.
I’d say that Danny is probably the nicest person in DoA.
I don’t think Malaya’s dreaming.
I knew that nightmare would be over. That was trippy stuff, too.
Talk about blue balls am I right joyce?
So first I was like “oh darn this is still really affecting Joyce badly”, and I started to think “not talking about it is going to cause more problems, maybe she should seek professio-” and THEN I realized that the Dana thing was happening all over again.
Poor Joyce and Sarah. Sarah’s probably thinking how similar this is to Dana. Hopefully she won’t have to go down that same road with Joyce.
I started to say Joyce and Dana not the same, but then I remembered that Marx quote everybody uses.
True they aren’t exactly the same, but both have experienced traumatic events Joyce is at least for the moment refusing to talk about it and put up a tough front for others just Dana did.
Regressed fear, lingering temptation, a sense of insecurity, the lack to want to tell anyone! Yep, she’s human…. more than she’ll admit too. Her friends best find a way to fix her, before she becomes something of fear and destitute.
Where’s the kickstarter for book 2? I want to give you money.
Seconded! I just got Book 1 a couple of weeks ago and I definitely want Book 2 in print too.
Good job, Willis, by the way. Book 2 is every bit as good as Book 1. I am always looking forward to the next DoA strip.
This is why you shouldn’t eat right before bed.
You know, if your roommate wakes up in the middle of the night yelling “Help!”, and when you ask if they want to talk about it and they say “absolutely not”, I’d say that’s a pretty good sign that you should make sure to talk about it.
Yeah, I know if my roommate screamed themselves awake at two in the morning and said flat-out that they do not want to talk, I’d definitely consider sitting up and fucking badgering them about it, or even doing so the next morning the best possible course of action.
Am I alone in thinking that Sarah’s a bongo? She might be a bongo because she just cares so darn much, gosh darnit, but she’s still a bongo! Forcing someone to do what you want them to do because you feel you know what’s best for them and they don’t makes you an ASSHOLE. If someone’s making a mistake and refuses your advice and counsel, you have to let them make that mistake. Or be a nosy bongo like Sarah and make the decision for them. Either way.
Man, Narf-from-February-27th-2013, you were cranky. Did you run out of cigarettes or something?
Seriously, though, I’ve been archive-bingeing (again – I think I may have a problem), and my opinion of Sarah has changed. She’s not a bongo. In fact, I think she may be the most grown-up member of the entire cast. Also, SHE DOES CARE SO DARN MUCH, past-Narf, so suck on that! Hah!
You shithead I will eat your skull
God dammit, past Narf, go to bed!!! It’s late and you have to work in the morning!
Damn you Willis?
Damn you Willis.
They are going to the best of moirels
I don’t know why, but this made me teary-eyed.