So either Riley’s super mature or Dina’s really childish. Either way they are both super awesometastical which is totally a word I did not just make up
Years ago, I used to work with a 22yo who looked about 10yo due to her height and babyfaced features, so its very possible for someone like Dina to be like this.
Sympathize. I was hanging out with my aunt and her friends once and a guy was flirting with me hard, which made me greatly uncomfortable, and then he asked me what year I was in, to which I answered that I had just started freshman year and then he asked me which college I went to …
Thankfully, when I said high school, he backed off at top speed.
My older sister matured super early, and when she was 13 she demanded a bikini for summer in exchange for good grades. She got the grades and the bikini, but she looked like a 16 year old in it, so Mom taught her yo say whenever a guy approached “hi, my name’s Sandra and I’m 13 years old!”
Time travel, right? When he turned 29, it was in the middle of a time travel expedition to November 2013. He’s experienced lifetimes since then, but it was, technically, a month ago.
Maybe not recently, but he was nearing 450 when his first incarnation died of old age, and it’s implied in the 50th that another incarnation died of old age as well. (Means Eleven has certainly aged well for 300 years. Also if his reported ages are accurate, every other incarnation has been spectacularly bad at survival.)
I once saw a 20+ year old woman who looked closer to 7. It was honestly kinda surreal looking at someone who looked so mature and yet childlike. The shit you see at Wal-Mart, I swear.
I have friends who love Lolita style. One’s nearly 30 with very adult… attributes, but she can make herself look 10 if she wants to. Which is most of the time.
So I get weird looks when we’re in public together. >.>
When I was 26, I walked into a high school to teach a class, and a kindly adult asked me, “Ohh, is it your first day? Do you need help finding homeroom?” True story.
Well, I get the impression that Riley is so mature and centered that she could be the eldest sister in some parallel universe (if you believe in such things).
Asians can look very young, especially when you take young looking features with smaller frames.
Even as a guy of average height I’ve always looked younger than I am. Not a bad thing as time goes on.
In college I had a friend who know twins in the college he transferred to who looked like they were in their teen (Caucasian). Cute, but they looked like a set-up for a news program.
So it happens, but ask for ID and look around for a news van.
There is life outside your apartment.
I know it’s hard to conceive.
But there’s life outside your apartment,
And you’re only gonna see it if you leave.
There is cool shit to do, but it can’t come to you,
And who knows, dude, you might even score!
There is life outside your apartment.
But you gotta open the door!
Sometimes, late at night, I think my real life is really just filler while I wait around for the webcomics to refresh at midnight. Which reminds me, I have to check out questionable content!
Oh god, if we get any more of Dina and Riley’s adorableness I think I’m going to have facial scars from smiling too hard.
Also, wow, Dina’s vocabulary seems to be better than that of most college GRADUATES.
Man, Dina is so much cuter than my IRL aspie friend. It is because of the dinosaurs, isn’t it? People love people who love dinosaurs in a way they just don’t love people who love gory japanese porn.
To my knowledge Dina has no confirmed condition. People keep assuming she does but it’s never been stated in the comic and I’ve only ever seen willis say she’s never been diagnosed with anything.
She’s not diagnosed, no, but she really sets off that ping! of “Oh yeah, I really really relate to this” in a lot of people who are on the spectrum (me included).
It’s a common enough way to handle it, like Abed on Community.
She seems to have an awareness of it though, knows but not feels the significance of expressions, and isn’t over stimulated from being outside of her comfort zone while in a chaotic environment.
Yes that was a terrible run on sentence. Sure, I could have broken it up into several sentences as I have in the past. But without editing features, it stays that way.
Twelve looks so strange spelled as a word. It’s like one of those words that doesn’t look like a word when you read it over a few times, and now my brain can’t process it as a word…
These are all good, except I would argue that Joe = Belkar (in a less stabby way), and Mike = Xykon. Ruth was Miko before The Event, now I’m not sure who she is. Also not sure where to find our Redcloak corollary.
Why would anyone assume that an 11 year old would be on campus as a student? I did go to college with a 15 year old girl brainiac, but she lived at home and her parents brought her every day. She acted like she was 30.
Where is anyone assuming an 11 year old is a student? Dina doesn’t consider Riley’s age until it’s pointed out, and Riley is keenly aware it’s Freshman Family Weekend.
but yeah having being a pervy 12 year old, wow, good god that makes me super super nervous for my own kids in the future. “NO DATING AND NO COMPUTERS TIL YOU’RE THIRTY” but Something tells me that won’t work.
The final touches on physical neural development don’t happen until the early to mid 20’s. On the other hand sexual development finishes several years before this. I don’t think this is a coincidence, evolution-wise.
Those final changes are probably “OK time to stop screwin’ and start lookin’ after the kids instead”, given the historical record of life expectancy plus age of marriage and first childbirth…
It’s probably safe to say instinct and the genetic side of evolution hasn’t kept up with our massive leaps in nutrition, medicine and education (and family structure/timelines) that have come since, biasing the various stages of development to somewhat later in life. Re-doing the survey in a few hundred years’ time, assuming we don’t suffer a(nother) catastrophic collapse of civilisation, may present a figure more along the lines of early 30s. I’m not sure mine is quite finished yet, even. I’m certainly not who I was five years ago.
Man, this is a closed world to me. I was all like “what’s this ‘internet’ thing” and “jeez why are we getting a clunky-ass PC not a Falcon?” when I was 12 🙂
Mind you, that’s not to say we probably weren’t even more perverted at that age, and indeed 10-11, when there was opportunity. There just wasn’t much of the latter… (and, as with internet use, it was only in the odd moments where supervision was lacking)
I’ve barely even seen any TT, but I think it might be most accurate to pitch it between the two. Raven’s just a bit TOO flat and low pitched, too cynically Daria-like. Needs to be a bit higher pitched, a little more confused and inquisitive, and indeed more neutral. Plus, she does at least *try*.
people have always underestimated my age, sometimes by as much as ten years, but my favorite part of this is hiw Dina is basically a good guy version of Faz.
The fact that Dina realizes that any answer to that would “tarnish her dignity” means she’s really growing in terms of social skills and interactions, I think. 🙂
CONVENTION APPEARANCES
probably not anywhere for a while 'cuz the world is covered in death
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God, that’s me =( [with a clever girl shirt, no less]
Dina continues to provide her own intrigue, regardless of age.
So either Riley’s super mature or Dina’s really childish. Either way they are both super awesometastical which is totally a word I did not just make up
Dina’s been mistaken for young before, by Sarah’s “friends”. I guess she just looks young. She’s pretty small.
Years ago, I used to work with a 22yo who looked about 10yo due to her height and babyfaced features, so its very possible for someone like Dina to be like this.
True story. I was in a Taco Bell two weeks ago and some teenagers asked me if I go to the same high school as them. I turned 29 a month ago.
I had the opposite problem since I turned 13 decades ago.
I read this as “since I turned that same age, 13 decades ago”
I guess that’s better than reading it as “since I became a zombie, 13 decades ago”
Heh, I also read it as “since I turned, 13 decades ago”
Have I been watching too much “Being Human”?
NO YOU HAVE NOT
so goooooood
Sympathize. I was hanging out with my aunt and her friends once and a guy was flirting with me hard, which made me greatly uncomfortable, and then he asked me what year I was in, to which I answered that I had just started freshman year and then he asked me which college I went to …
Thankfully, when I said high school, he backed off at top speed.
My older sister matured super early, and when she was 13 she demanded a bikini for summer in exchange for good grades. She got the grades and the bikini, but she looked like a 16 year old in it, so Mom taught her yo say whenever a guy approached “hi, my name’s Sandra and I’m 13 years old!”
They always backed off after that.
Smart mom!
29?
I’m starting to think you may not be the actual Doctor.
Hey, the Doctor was 29 once. His first incarnation lived to be an old man. Just the ones after that were very bad at staying alive that long.
Time travel, right? When he turned 29, it was in the middle of a time travel expedition to November 2013. He’s experienced lifetimes since then, but it was, technically, a month ago.
29 is like a baby’s age in the passage of time for Time Lords.
You mean 290, right?
Or is that just how long its been since your last regeneration?
He’s not that good at staying alive.
Not true! I’m not sure how long Tennant’s Doctor lasted, but Smith’s has had about 300 years, if you take his stated ages at face value.
Maybe not recently, but he was nearing 450 when his first incarnation died of old age, and it’s implied in the 50th that another incarnation died of old age as well. (Means Eleven has certainly aged well for 300 years. Also if his reported ages are accurate, every other incarnation has been spectacularly bad at survival.)
You could be one of those cops who go undercover at a HS…
Please. I was horrible at fitting in even when I WASN’T over a decade out of date.
How do you do, fellow kids?
I once saw a 20+ year old woman who looked closer to 7. It was honestly kinda surreal looking at someone who looked so mature and yet childlike. The shit you see at Wal-Mart, I swear.
I have friends who love Lolita style. One’s nearly 30 with very adult… attributes, but she can make herself look 10 if she wants to. Which is most of the time.
So I get weird looks when we’re in public together. >.>
When I was 26, I walked into a high school to teach a class, and a kindly adult asked me, “Ohh, is it your first day? Do you need help finding homeroom?” True story.
Ooh, Dina avatar! We’re both gonna get carded ’til our hair turns grey.
I STILL GET CARDED AND I HAVE GRAY HAIR.
People think I’m goth or whatever the kids are these days.
This is how shipping starts. Don’t make us have to get the rolled-up newspaper!
The answer maybe is both…?
Well, I get the impression that Riley is so mature and centered that she could be the eldest sister in some parallel universe (if you believe in such things).
Nothing says maturity like constant cravings for Cocoa Puffs.
You don’t understand!
The withdrawal one gets from Cocoa Puffs is crazy!!!
…and now I need my fix.
The Puffs man, THE PUFFS!!!
Not the Walkyverse, though. She’s still the youngest there.
Yea, she might even have a kid of her own.
You mean, like this one? http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1981
(I assume that was the joke)
She’d probably name it after the Cocoa Puffs mascot or something.
This is simultaneously the most adorable and heartbreaking thing ever!
Except for that one time. And that other one time. And a few more of those times, but they don’t count.
+1
Asians can look very young, especially when you take young looking features with smaller frames.
Even as a guy of average height I’ve always looked younger than I am. Not a bad thing as time goes on.
In college I had a friend who know twins in the college he transferred to who looked like they were in their teen (Caucasian). Cute, but they looked like a set-up for a news program.
So it happens, but ask for ID and look around for a news van.
And Dina is my favorite character again
She stopped being so?
BLASPHEMY.
She beat out his previous favorite, Dina.
I have become one of those people that waits up tiplmidnight and refreshes until the comic appears. Da hell happened to my life?
Willis stole it and your dignity, mine as well come to think.
So . . . “Damn you, Wiliis!”?
Somewhere Willis has a large warehouse of stolen dignity.
He’s not using any of it himself so what is his dastardly plan with that much dignity?
It vanished when Willis started mixing in 100 percent more awesome and feels into each strip.
I never had a life to begin with, so I’m not missing anything, but I can see why for some folks it’s a confusing situation.
Dude, that’s not the way to think about it! There’s a whole world out there to experience! To enjoy! To take over!
There is life outside your apartment.
I know it’s hard to conceive.
But there’s life outside your apartment,
And you’re only gonna see it if you leave.
There is cool shit to do, but it can’t come to you,
And who knows, dude, you might even score!
There is life outside your apartment.
But you gotta open the door!
Sometimes, late at night, I think my real life is really just filler while I wait around for the webcomics to refresh at midnight. Which reminds me, I have to check out questionable content!
…oh god I hate myself.
“Oh god I hate myself”… isn’t that a webcomic to check out?
*googles it*
If Jacques ever makes a spin-off starring Marigold, he should seriously consider that as a title for it.
I thought his spin-off starring Marigold was called “Questionable Content”.
Yeah, when did Marten become an extra anyway?
There hasn’t been one clear protagonist in QC for ages now.
so it’s an ensemble cast
To be fair, I’d rather read about Marigold than Marten.
Though I liked this ship better when it was insane dork-hate-flirting.
Blame Momo; it would’ve gone on forever if not for her. But, ooooh nooo…
Thanks to time zones it appears at 6:00 p.m for me
3:31pm for me.
5:00 am for me
10:00 pm here
10:01 for me!
Which sucks because I am usually still at work when the comics update!
…so then I have to be sneaky and pull out my iPhone when no one is around! 😀
See, that’s why you should live on the West Coast. It’s only 9PM for us. 😛
Sweet sweet 9pm. Actually 9:02 on my computer’s clock for some reason.
Got your NTP turned on?
Its 11:01 for me
1pm for me.
West coast all the way baby
move to central time. it shows up at 11 here.
Yyyyep I’ve been one of ‘those people’ for a month or two now. I can’t say it doesn’t bare fruit!
I’m always up past midnight anyway. Yaaaaay jobs with flex time! What would us night owls do without you?
I would think flex time would rarely be an issue for you of all people!
If I were the boss, I would SO change the name of our policy to “Wibbly Wobbly Time”.
I remember when that happened to me. But lately I’ve been doin’ it less cuz…if I miss it at midnight then the comments get flooded and I get annoyed.
It appears at 9:00 for me ;-D
Can we PLEASE see them eating cereal together? PLEEEEAAAREEWDSEDEDWEEEREWSSSS?
Sorry the image of Riley and Dina eating cereal gave me a non-sexual spasm…
You worry me sometimes kingMabel.
I’m still trying to figure out what that last word was.
Not as much as Queen Dipper, but you worry me all the same.
moe-gasm
But if Riley’s cereal-sexual, that would be EEEEWWW!
oh god I second this.
do it Willis…please.
also other Riley & Dina doing cute childlish things together.
cute-gasm > norm-gasm
“I like to think I have a sort of timeless charm.”
a “Lucky” Charm if you will. *gobbles cereal*
Riley is destined to become a cereal-killer.
Thanks Amber…way to Dan things up! 🙁
It’s contagious!!!
Actually, it’s far better they know now.
Dina’s dignity would be far more tarnished and she would be very crushed if she found out later.
Pop quiz. Who’s really more socially inept, Amber or Dina?
Dina and Riley BFFs forever.
One can only hope!
Oh Dina
with shortpacked we get a double dose of Riley today
This is why everyone loves her
Dina’s not 12!?!?
Dina’s middle-aged, she just suffers from Dick Clark Syndrome. 😛
Oh gosh this is incredibly adorable.
Poor Dina!
And Amber just killed the fun the two were going to have.
They were gonna go on adventures. CEREAL ADVENTURES.
She’s a such a party pooper!
One does not simply deceive Dina
But one does deceive Dina simply.
BOOM BOOM!
Was that the best you could do?
Don’t diss the fox.
Dat unibrow, Riley.
I think it’s just her bangs in between them. They’ve been separate in other strips.
Butter Toast.
Gravy!
Oh god, if we get any more of Dina and Riley’s adorableness I think I’m going to have facial scars from smiling too hard.
Also, wow, Dina’s vocabulary seems to be better than that of most college GRADUATES.
So that’s how he got those scars…
Why so happy?
She expresses a vocabulary above most people’s comprehension, period.
Remember, we live in a world run by the greedy and overrun with the stupid.
Who got that way by pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Riley’s believe it or not. (Apparently not because she wasn’t tagged, thus it is not Riley, but an imposter!)
I’m surprised he hasn’t fixed it yet.
We all know Dina’s a super-genius, so she is totally twelve.
She is basically Chiyo-chan!
…dammit! Now I want to see Dina in a blue penguin costume.
If Dina = Chiyo-chan, then who is Osaka?
Osaka’s person hasn’t transferred in yet.
Seriously, why is Dina so damn cute?
Because Dina. Because Awesome!
Man, Dina is so much cuter than my IRL aspie friend. It is because of the dinosaurs, isn’t it? People love people who love dinosaurs in a way they just don’t love people who love gory japanese porn.
I see no answer to that which would not tarnish my dignity.
To my knowledge Dina has no confirmed condition. People keep assuming she does but it’s never been stated in the comic and I’ve only ever seen willis say she’s never been diagnosed with anything.
She’s not diagnosed, no, but she really sets off that ping! of “Oh yeah, I really really relate to this” in a lot of people who are on the spectrum (me included).
Kind of like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, only without also being a huge jerk.
But Sheldon is not crazy. His mother had him tested.
It’s a common enough way to handle it, like Abed on Community.
She seems to have an awareness of it though, knows but not feels the significance of expressions, and isn’t over stimulated from being outside of her comfort zone while in a chaotic environment.
Yes that was a terrible run on sentence. Sure, I could have broken it up into several sentences as I have in the past. But without editing features, it stays that way.
Cragalanch is wondering why you didn’t proofread
Poor Dina thinks she still has some dignity left. Silly girl.
If you kept all your dignity in college, you certainly did something wrong.
a) terrific gravatar my friend
b) hopefully it’s not all gone within the first month of college :/
The Hat is not amused. lol
Come to think of it, Dina’s choice of headwear does not exactly scream ‘maturity’, which may have been a factor when Riley guessed her age.
That is assuming the headwear gave Dina a choice, of course.
Speaking of hats, I wonder when (or if) Joyce will be wearing her ‘alien’ hat again.
Yes, yes she is. On the inside.
Twelve looks so strange spelled as a word. It’s like one of those words that doesn’t look like a word when you read it over a few times, and now my brain can’t process it as a word…
that was cute and sad all at once
It may be the complete lack of sleep but in this strip Dina’s voice suddenly sounded a lot like Starfire from Teen Titans in my head.
YOU’RE THE ONE MAKING WILLIS TAKE SHOTS AAH YOU MONSTER
I always read her with Niki Yang’s voice. 🙂
I always read Dina as Fluttershy
Just like with Fluttershy, Dina is best pony. 😀
Is anyone else relieved about seeing Amber spoiling Dina’s fun as opposed to, say, running into Danny and Sal? At least its the lesser of two evils.
No. Willis doesn’t choose the lesser evil, he just saves it up for later.
And it then becomes bigger than it was originally!
Rapport
Rapptor
Raptor
Treachery is afoot!
I’m Not Rappaport
Baby steps Dina
…Has Dina been taking speech lessons from Vaarsuvius?
Hot DAMN is that a mashup I would love to see.
Jacob = Roy
Mike = Belkar
Dina = Vaarsuvius
Walky = Elan
Billie = Haley
Ethan = Durkon
oh wow
In the spirit of geekery I feel I should quibble over your choices, but I’m too busy being amazed at the possibilities.
Also, Galasso = Tarquin.
These are all good, except I would argue that Joe = Belkar (in a less stabby way), and Mike = Xykon. Ruth was Miko before The Event, now I’m not sure who she is. Also not sure where to find our Redcloak corollary.
No wait, I’m an idiot, *Mary* is Miko. No two ways about it.
pahahahaha 😀
Why would anyone assume that an 11 year old would be on campus as a student? I did go to college with a 15 year old girl brainiac, but she lived at home and her parents brought her every day. She acted like she was 30.
Where is anyone assuming an 11 year old is a student? Dina doesn’t consider Riley’s age until it’s pointed out, and Riley is keenly aware it’s Freshman Family Weekend.
And the “mean girls” were just being that while at the mall.
(…as is Amber) ? 😉
Darn, Riley almost made Dina’s ‘short list,’
now she’s just on the ‘Dina’s short’ list.
Pretty much the same as the ‘Edward Elric’s short’ list
Aaaand this sort of thing is why I don’t guess people’s ages at less than a decade range.
That comic where Dina is super cute.
You mean every comic.
Nah.
She isn’t in most of them.
Actually, she is, she’s just hiding behind a door.
Or swept up and hidden by the crowd.
Dina: “well, I’m gonna have my dignity tranished anyway. So what the hell”
Amber’s face is best face.
FFAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEE
I’ve seen that joke so many times that it doesn’t PHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE me anymore.
The truth comes out! Those inquiring about riley’s “legality” really are creepy! (unless they were also 12 — I was all like a/s/l? when I was 12)
YUP.
but yeah having being a pervy 12 year old, wow, good god that makes me super super nervous for my own kids in the future. “NO DATING AND NO COMPUTERS TIL YOU’RE THIRTY” but Something tells me that won’t work.
You wont last nearly that long lol. They’ll defeat you by 17 if not before.
AND THEN EVERYONE WILL GET HERPES AND DIE.
don’t worry, no kiddoz yet, but fuuuuuck it will be so nuttyyyyy
The final touches on physical neural development don’t happen until the early to mid 20’s. On the other hand sexual development finishes several years before this. I don’t think this is a coincidence, evolution-wise.
Those final changes are probably “OK time to stop screwin’ and start lookin’ after the kids instead”, given the historical record of life expectancy plus age of marriage and first childbirth…
It’s probably safe to say instinct and the genetic side of evolution hasn’t kept up with our massive leaps in nutrition, medicine and education (and family structure/timelines) that have come since, biasing the various stages of development to somewhat later in life. Re-doing the survey in a few hundred years’ time, assuming we don’t suffer a(nother) catastrophic collapse of civilisation, may present a figure more along the lines of early 30s. I’m not sure mine is quite finished yet, even. I’m certainly not who I was five years ago.
Man, this is a closed world to me. I was all like “what’s this ‘internet’ thing” and “jeez why are we getting a clunky-ass PC not a Falcon?” when I was 12 🙂
Mind you, that’s not to say we probably weren’t even more perverted at that age, and indeed 10-11, when there was opportunity. There just wasn’t much of the latter… (and, as with internet use, it was only in the odd moments where supervision was lacking)
I’ve discovered that I read pretty much everything Dina says in Teen Titans Go Starfire’s voice.
I’d make it a bit more nasal. Starfire’s was really cheerful and emotional, which Dina isn’t.
yeah no kidding, it’d be more like raven or a vulcan 😛
I’ve barely even seen any TT, but I think it might be most accurate to pitch it between the two. Raven’s just a bit TOO flat and low pitched, too cynically Daria-like. Needs to be a bit higher pitched, a little more confused and inquisitive, and indeed more neutral. Plus, she does at least *try*.
You think this is under my control?
when i first read this in the a.m., my first reaction was “RAPPORT? MORE LIKE RAPTORP, AM I RIGHT DINA?”
it was pretty funny at 7 am.
people have always underestimated my age, sometimes by as much as ten years, but my favorite part of this is hiw Dina is basically a good guy version of Faz.
She isn’t perving after Amber. Or is she?
great page
Great page. Now drink.
Im an opposite here.Im 14 but because of my hair(facial,on my hands,legs,pretty much everywhere),people think im a short 16-18year old
Used to happen to me a lot in high school. people thought I was a senior
Is it bad that I heard DBZ abridged’s dende voice for dina’s in teh last panel >_<
The fact that Dina realizes that any answer to that would “tarnish her dignity” means she’s really growing in terms of social skills and interactions, I think. 🙂