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Tea Berry-Blue @teaberryblue.net ⋅ 1d
Truthout @truthout.org ⋅ 1d
Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Krispy @feathernotes.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Kendra, regular version @kendrawcandraw.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
www.comicsbeat.com/pride-interv...
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
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“Aww, I didn’t sign up for YOUR version of better.”
I thought we were going to take steroids, work out until we’re huge and then beat up all the people in the world who deserve an asskicking.
… X gon’ give it to ya?
i was thinking this thank youuuuuu
Indeed.
I was too busy thinking of Sarah and Mike as almost friends.
Wubba lubba dub dub!
Rick and Morty reference, yay!
Almost friends are the best. You only every get invited to hypothetical parties, and can do whatever you actually wanted to that night.
Like play with other Jacob?
Best friend a girl ever had.
I prefer Bob myself, but that’s just me
people talk about bob a lot but nobody ever brings them to the movies. not a very good friend if you are all embarassed to go out with them.
Meh. Bob is usually too noisy for the movies (although I have heard of him dressing in lace and sneaking in a few times).
I clearly missed the reference here.
Bob (battery operated boyfriend) sometimes has special lacy holders.
Ah, thank you.
You read the FAQ before commenting, you call your “personal friend” for Bob….
…Is there anything negative about you?
@ Emperor: Well THAT’S a new sentiment! O_O
I guess the fact that I like to talk, over share, and am honest to a fault. The people in town would include being a hell bound polysexual atheist but fuck um and feed um dry beans!
Like to talk… Have you seen my posts when I go into “analyse” mode (AKA pulling out opinions of my arse)? If not, then find some of them. I’ll wait. For a few hours. If that’s a fault, then I think I have a few beams to remove from my eyes before pointing out any splinters in yours.
Oversharing… So far, you’re not particularly worse than anyone else in this comment field. As an example, I once asked people that are recipients of a condom-wearing phallus if they ever notice a difference when it’s ribbed (most of them said it didn’t really make a difference). I like to think that this is a place where we can be sex-positive*, as per Roz’ ideal world.
Honest to a fault is tricky, because sometimes there are times where it is at least a strategic advance in dishonesty. I think most of us traverse that minefield if not regularly, then at least occasionally.
Finally, dry beans are too good for your town! At least in my town, currently nobody really cares much about that kind of thing, it seems. I mean, I’ve never really shouted out my atheism, but I’ve never gotten any flak from it either when it’s brought up either.
*That does -not- mean we shame anyone for not having or talking about sex; those are equally good choices. People who know me will know this is obvious, but I know that people who don’t know me will read this comment too, so this is for their benefit.
An actual conversation I just had with my Sarah…
Me: Somebody in the comments asked “…Is there anything negative about you?” Seeing as I am me and kinda can’t objectively answer that, you think you could help?
Her: Not sure. You say you have a bit of a temper, but you also work hard to contain it
Me: Very true. I do that by blowing up stuff. Ah video games. How I love thee ^_^
Surely there is something negative about me? All I could think of was talking too much, being too honest, and over sharing.
Oh! I’m pushy! Definitely pushy. Is there a better word for that?
Her: Assertive?
Me: Na. I’m not that. I just try to make people do stuff when they don’t want to.
Mmmmm, video games…. The entire reason for humanity’s existence.
Is there anything you’d want me to do that I don’t think I want to do right now?
Kind of embarrassing that he’s constantly buzzed
except when he seems to have no energy and he wont even respond to you.
He never makes the first move. Gotta wait til you start something?
The perfect quantity of friends is somewhere around…
no.
Almost.
Not quite.
But entirely unlike …
Aww, she really does almost like her.
So, if Sarah has two almost-friends (Joyce and Dina), how many friends does she have?
Zero. She has zero friends. Friendship rounds down.
and most importantly it rounds down before the addition.
ah, I see you’ve explained this further down…
I used to think so. No. It is not.
Yeah, you’re right
Typical Sarah. and Joyce
That fourth panel worries me.
Same. Hang in there, Joyce!
I think what we’re seeing there is her worrying about Sarah. Joyce wants to help make things better for her, too. Coaxing her into giving other people another chance seems worth a try
You see, it’s things like that which makes me question if Joyce has ever meet people.
Well, considering how sheltered her life was until she started at IU I’d say she’s learning pretty quickly!
Can you imagine a world where you have 7 friends? Because Sarah’s on the cusp of making that dream a reality
Having almost 7 friends must be like having at least 4 actual friends surely…
I see your mistake here – it’s a rounding error. If you assume an almost-friend is 2/3 of a friend, then 7*2/3 = 14/3, which rounds down to 4.
What you’re missing, is that Sarah rounds down BEFORE she multiplies. 2/3 rounds down to 0, 7*0 = 0.
The perfect number of friends.
6 is a perfect number
One Is The Loneliest Number.
seven is to many….. i have um…… i’m not even sure but its stressful having friends.
Do pets count? Because if they do, I have 2 best friends, 2 people I interact with at least monthly, 2 dogs, and a cat! ^_^
Pets are almost-friends. See above math.
In the case of cats it’s important not to confuse being a cats servant with being its friend. We should always know our place.
No. I can accept a vigilante operating without consequence in an otherwise realistic world, but someone having SEVEN friends? As in…multiple people, who genuinely enjoy your company? That’s not even a thing.
Yeah, this is definitely where the line needs to be drawn. I can suspend a lot of disbelief, but now we’re just getting carried away.
That’s it, Willis. You never told us you were making DoA a science-fiction comic! Having seven friends would clearly require some advanced technology our scientists haven’t even conceived of, yet. I can no longer suspend my disbelief!
Seven possible friends? Immersion broken, rage quitting comic.
Yeah, I can imagine a world where I have 7 friends. I’d have to get rid of a couple to get there, though.
Speaking from experience: Yeah, enjoy it while it lasts. You turn 45 years old and they all DIE on you. The new ones you make. mostly, won’t have the same depth, because they’re to new, and you’re too bitter.
Almost friends is the Cheap As Chips version of friends.
rent a friend? pay 5 an hour more for snuggle benifits.
Professional cuddlers are actually a thing and apparently can be just as good, if not better, than snuggling with someone you actually know.
…I watch too much buzzfeed…
Also, cuddling with your actual friends is highly underrated. 10/10 would always recommend (assuming they’re onboard for it too. consent still an important thing in such situations)
But if they don’t give their consent, take your revenge by introducing them to Mike. Decades from now they’ll thank you for it (possibly out of fear that you’ll do something worse, but hey, it still counts. )
probably only available in big city areas since i doubt small towns would have enough desire for that to be a full time job.
Professional cuddlers? Is that a real thing? I find that concept to be very creepy.
How far away can you go and still be dancing with me?
If you need to take more than one step to get within touching range, you’re not really dancing with them.
I’m quoting a Breakfast Club song.
AH!
Damn, that last panel was just….Damn what the hell?
Yeah, that would’ve been a terrible thing to say if Sarah wasn’t apparently proud of it.
I dunno if “proud” is the right word. She’s definitely not ashamed of it, but I think its more that she’s acknowledging that she’s either not ready to handle new actual friends yet, or that the prospect has her a bit nervous.
That she seems to be going along with it seems promising. Being almost friends with more people would still be a positive step
Much like Dorothy carrying around a notepad for social interactions, it is a joke.
that does sound like a good form of friendship.
at least if they aren’t actually friends you wont make the mistake to rely on them.
But they may rely on you, and then you may feel guilt about letting them down, which would mean that they are your friends. Vicious cycle there.
Virtuous cycle there – fixed that for you.
maybe single serving friends are best than. the ones you make at a con for the day or on a plane ride?
For zipless chats?
Or perhaps on a train?
Looks like Joyce is one of those folks who really super want all their pals to befriend each other, too.
You can’t blame her, we all try to be happy in our way.
Who doesn’t? If I know all these awesome people, I want to share them with all the other awesome people I know!
Though if Sarah tries being friends with people who are actually nice, she might like that better than her previous experience.
But that could result in an awesome singularity forming, and then you have things like muscled unicorns, cyborg magicians, and chainsaw wielding astronauts showing up.
I am willing to accept these consequences :I
Well that is including and not limited to.
Still, that’s a reality that sounds entreaging. Not one you would want to live in, but one you might visit from time to time.
Well I suppose so, unless you live there, then you have to deal with burgers that cause immediate flatulence, gun slinging kids, raptor rider bandits, I mean, the list just goes on.
I try to avoid my friends meeting each other because there’s a high probability that they’ll each notice that the other is better company than me and go off together leaving me behind.
As long as she sticks to getting them to befriend and not force-shipping them.
Ah, Geek Social Fallacy #4 (and#5 in this case).
Joyce is the only character smiley enough to remind me that the DoAverse is filled with people who have mysterious and probably deadly white voids in place of mouths.
Huge happy teeth.
idk man would you rather they’re all like Dina’s big smile?
Has anyone Photoshopped Dina’s Joyce Smile on Joyce?
But there’s so many bad ideas to try and so little time.
I know! It’s like, why is there no line there or something to at least denote two rows of teeth!?! O_O
Best case scenario, she had plaque amass between all her teeth before she started to brush them properly, and they became a mass of calcified stone so impenetrable, the dentist just decided to smooth it down and be done with it. It has cost them 1180 USD in broken equipment to do just that. Joyce lost her allowance for a nine months.
Now her mouth is filled to the brim with hardened corpses of bacteria turned pure white by cheap whitening toothpaste the marketers pushed hard onto Young Earth Creationists and other groups who are gullible enough to buy their cheap glorified soap.
o_O
It’s a portal to Canada. The white is a snowstorm.
A portal to the Antarctic. While there is a superficial resemblance between Canada and Antarctic snowstorms, the occasional gust of penguin feathers gives it away as does the cloud-muted glow of the midnight sun.
One of my best friends is so much like Sarah, it’s funny. Same name too. When she gets home from a class, she’s like “Don’t fuck with me. I had to interact with people today.” XD
reminds me of one reason i like my current job some. I am not only allowed to but encouraged to hang up on people if i feel it will be better.
“We’re going to make things better. Your words, not mine.”
and then, “It’ll be almost like you have friends!”
Sorry, but I’ve been ‘almost friends’ with someone, and it isn’t better. Trust me.
Based on the title text? In Sarah’s case, it is. She can pretend to be friends with a group of people she happens to need to walk to the same places with, and meddling samaritans will stop bothering her with the currently unwanted baggage of intimacy.
“Title text”? My bad, the alt text.
No, you had it right. It’s the title text–the text in the title tag. Text in the alt tag is not seen anymore.
Though you can also call it a tooltip or hovertext, to keep people from getting confused with the actual title.
Well, I suppose if you wanted to be accurate, you could call it the text in the title attribute for the comic image tag. Unless I recall those terms wrong. Then ignore me.
That’s the correct terminology, though I got curious and checked the page source, and it is in fact using ”alt”, not ”title”.
Alt is technically supposed to be descriptive text displayed only if an image doesn’t load, but if there is no title attribute, almost all browsers will show a tooltip using the alt text instead, even though that behavior is not and has never been part of the HTML spec.
Hm, last time I checked it was using an “href” with that as “title” which contained an “img” with that as both “alt” and “title.”
Nah, you’re right, ety. FC must’ve missed the title tag in both the image tag (img) and the link tag (a). He probably does that so it still works on older browsers.
It’s actually older browsers that would use the alt tag if the title tag was missing. Neither Chrome nor Firefox do it now.
I even remember back when this was new and people made a big fuss about how Firefox didn’t display their hovertext. There was even an extension to fix it. Apparently it no longer works, but it would be easy to make a replacement.
Oh good, maybe Joyce can fix Sarah and Jacob while we’re at it.
Does Jacob need fixing? And for the sake of possible misunderstanding, does Other Jacob need fixing?
May need new batteries. Joyce has been running them down lately.
…
You know, mock light-saber battles. She’s a ‘The Force Awakens’ fan.
Have to remove that Raidah-shaped growth from his arm.
Yep.
Little Sis is making better.
Incidentally it means having Big Sis around if Ryan shows up.
Everyone wins!!!!
Ah, yes, Mr. Top of the No-Hug List. The only hug he’ll be getting is the kind that involves an automated metal vice and his nether parts. Or possibly the kind that turns out to be his body being lodged in a solid concrete wall as a result of being DBZ-punched across campus.
I dunno, if an AMAZI-KICK™ can’t DBZ-launch someone in the DoAverse I don’t know what could.
Mac truck?
A speeding train? I submit Hoboken, NJ as example of DBZ kick into splinters and dust.
We almost found out on that one, but Sal managed to prevent it at the last second.
I was reading the strip, and before I opened the comment field, I thought to myself, “Bagge is basically going to be all “Yay, little sis is taking care of Big Sis right now, happiness!!!” and then be all bouncy bouncy bouncy across the room.”
And I was right.
Having realized your sin is the first step to becoming a better Emperor.
Thinking about Bagge is a sin?
If so, I’m sinning every day of my life, baby!
How well you know me.
And yes, thinking about me is a sin. It leads to mouth smooches and evolutionary studies.
I was already there without thinking of you.
As a complete and total aside, yesterday I found out there was an MMO called Dofus, and thought “I bet this fact would amuse Bagge.” I have no idea if there’s actually any doofusery going on in it.
You mean I could search the Web for this MMO and become a Dofusist? Oddly tempting.
…I’m intrigued.
And, in fact, amused, so good call
I read little sister and had a Bioshock flashback. Now I have to run from the room before a big daddy shows up.
*BIOSHOCK 2 SPOILER*
Sarah is Big Sister. You can’t runt fast enough.
Don’t you hate it when you say you want to do something and then people (specially, ugh, FRIENDS) take you up on what you said? IT’S THE WORST.
Why doesn’t Joyce just understand that Sarah obviously likes her, and therefore she doesn’t have to put any effort into displaying this or expressing affection for her friend and holding back from saying hurtful things!
*totally not talking from experience or anything*
Oh, good.
It’s almost as if friendship is -yet another- of those things where it doesn’t really matter what you say you are, it matters what you actually do.
Who’d have thought!?!?!?!
It seems like Joyce is going to get Sarah to be cheerful and social even if it kills her! Kills Sarah, that is!
#WeGotIt
Well, Sarah could simply just snap and kill Joyce…
With the power of a thousand. … No, doesn’t work.
Yeah, Joyce is channeling the power of suns into her smile.
But Sarah can channel the power of black holes.
She tried to use her tidal forces to rip Becky and Dina apart…
…dammit Orion I just spent two hours on TVTropes because of you.
Also, sometimes explaining the joke is the joke. Oh wait. Damn.
Only two hours? Consider yourself lucky.
I MANAGED TO CATCH MYSELF THIS TIME
Man, if I’m ever the moderator of any sort of forum I’ll delete or edit any posts that link to TVTropes, and it will only partially be in jest.
I normally don’t link, too. Reference, yeah.
its like eating food at grandmas, trying to strike the perfect balance of begruding accceptance, and enjoyment such that she is content, but you are not gorged to death. your appetite does not factor into this euation. #justimmagrentgrandmathings
Grandmas can make bad food?
My wife’s grandmother certainly can! Its the kind of cooking that makes you pre-eat before a meal.
I thought there were laws against this or something.
There are laws against pre-eating before a meal?
My parents used to caution my little brother and I against eating anything at Grandma’s house when we visited her because ‘you don’t know how old it is, you could get sick’. My grandmother never threw away food no matter how old/rotten it was.
In my family, we avoid any restaurant that advertises ‘just like grandma used to make!’ because what grandma used to make was basically POISON.
Has Sarah ever met Mike? Suddenly I need to see this interaction.
Yes, this needs to happen!
On panel in the main strip, not really. Sarah does know Harriet, Mike’s mom. Or her bat does, at least.
Okay, seriously, how do you people know exactly where to find that one comic you want to illustrate a point in the comment section? It takes me forever just to refind a whole subplot I want to reread…
Using the tags is often helpful. Up at the top (just above “Discussion:” at the top of the comments) where it says:
“└ Tags: joyce, sarah”
You can click on one of those to get a list of all the strips that contain or mention that person. So we click on Sarah:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/sarah/
Now you can edit that carefully. If you change /sarah/ to /sarah+mike/ (no spaces) you get a link that give you a list of all the strip with both Sarah and Mike:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/sarah+mike/
(The order does not matter, /mike+sarah/ works the same.)
Only two in this case, which tells us that Sarah and Mike don’t interact much. Checking the actual content of those two strips reveals that they don’t really interact in those strips either.
(You can use more than two tags. Forex, /ethan+dina+joyce+ruth+danny/ works and just gets two strips at the room party.)
Characters appearing in a strip are tagged in the box below the comic, so you can just click that to see all of a character’s appearances.
You mean the rest of you don’t keep detailed cross-referenced notes?
Nah, I use a chart.
I’ve got diagrams and spreadsheets and I’m working on building a complete database of every comic, all of it’s comments, and more extensive tags for subject material and plot points… okay I was thinking about it, but I haven’t actually quite been pushed over the edge into doing it.
I just program my bioroids with the personalities of the cast and ask them questions.
Clif’s notes?
It helps if you know their names. I found it just by doing a tag search: sarah+harriet.
What is this “friends” thing I keep hearing about? Is it the crossbreed between pegasai and unicorns?
The Majik of “Friends” happens when an Earth Pony and a Unicorn love each other very much,… And then they start a family…. And If they have a Foal, and she falls in love with either Joey or Ross, … And then, … You have a Friends-thing.
One of those things poets made up just because they think it ought to exist.
You know, like Truth, or Love.
Wow! Someone give this guy a hug!
Ooooh, ooooh, I know that one! Hugs are, um, er… a… type of… cookie, right?
No, that’s gingersnaps.
Gingersnap hugs are okay but aren’t the best ones. The best hugs are the ones between old friends that you dunk in milk. Soggies may rule!
What a fun octet of people that’s gonna be oh there’s Mike. Call it off, y’all.
I still don’t get why Mike is more outlandish and cartoony to me than the superhero.
He has yet to be punched in the face for the things he says to people. And has friends.
Oh huh, that makes sense.
Even if she’s an outlandish concept people still react to Amazi-Girl. Mike feels like he exists on a completely different wavelength than the rest of the series.
Purer and more awesome.
I was going to say a 2D edgelord douchebag who’s not too queer to be threatening and thus allowed to be a raging shitfucker but still has people defend him in droves and insisting his abuse is always for the greater good.
But that works too I guess.
You say tomato, I’ll say tamoatah.
I liked him in Shortpacked, but not here. Although that’s almost entirely due to that one extremely personal jab at Amber on parent weekend.
He’s alright as a character but he’s shit as a person
Is it wrong of me to get genuinely frustrated with folks when they prop that up as some kind of Necessary Truth that Amber deserved to hear?
Because I want to body slam a puppy every time someone tosses that garbage at me.
Spencer: Even if we put aside the question of whether or not she should have heard it at all, in a context where it could have been helpful to her; the fact remains that Mike said it not to actually help her, but just to be a complete dickhead about it.
Not at all, Spencer. There really is no possible way that could have helped her, and no way Mike could have known enough to make that comment, yet not enough that he wouldn’t realize how incredibly hurtful it was
I prefer “acquaintances with benefits”
Call them up once every few months, meet for brunch and be semi-invested in their lives, and go back to hiding in your room, fearful of the burning star hanging above you.
All the best acquaintances come equipped with hugs.
That burning star spits out UV radiation at the best of time and civilization destroying hiccups at the worst. Who wouldn’t be fearful?
((The doctor is never fearful.))
“Your class is only 15 minutes after ours.”
What? Wait, how?
There are colleges that have classes starting at different times on the same day instead of having class periods? How does that work? Doesn’t that make trying to choose classes during registration a nightmare if classes don’t start/stop at the same time?
Is this a weird “this class has an abnormal number of credits” thing or is this typical?
It’s pretty typical. And it does make scheduling a nightmare. But hey – not like it’s the administration putting up with that BS. Welcome to college, kids!
Dina and Sarah are like.. really good reps of my opinions sometimes
Almost Friends is a start – then you get to upgrade
Based on last year, Sarah’s experience is that friends are just waiting to turn into life-long arch enemies and boyfriend stealers.
Plays I Am A Rock on hacked Muzak.
I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain.
It’s laughter and it’s loving, … Wait! It is pretty hard to disdain ‘loving’, just ask Joe, or Mike, or Becky, or …. We won’t ask scar-face. We have “special plans” for satisfying our lusts for vengeance. That is very different than loving.
Since it seems like she’s trying to open up more, I wonder if this arc will reveal that Sarah also has some tortured past. She was a curmudgeon even before she came to university, and there’s usually a reason behind that (usually).
I think she only became a curmudgeon, as you call her, after the only way she could see to save her roommate’s life (and not ruin hers) was to tell the roomie’s father, which resulted in the rest of their group turning against her. Flashback Sarah is not the peak of outgoingness, but she seems friendly.
She was describing herself as a misanthrope even before that went south:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/carl/
She at least seem willing to make friends, but reluctantly.
Oh joy, emotional manipulation in the morning.
How? She’s basically just saying she wants to help Sarah make friends, which we’ve seen is what she does want to some degree, if not to Joyce levels.
And, really, is this any worse than “still broken up about Billie, huh?” from yesterday?
….
Sarah’s going to meet Mike.
…..
PLACE YOUR BETS NOW!
Mike is distracted – he still has to make his move on Ethan.
That, or he’s looking to warm up for the main event.
…I’m thinking about it, and the only possible outcome I see to that event is Mike acting ridiculously friendly towards her.
Because, y’know, Mike.
Because Mike instinctively knows she’d hate that.
Sounds about right.
On this glorious day, I have discovered how to see the hovertext on mobile………. (Accidentally, but that is irrelevant)
I know right!?! For anyone who hasn’t found the trick yet, you click the blank spot next to either the “Latest” arrow or the “First” arrow.
In case you haven’t read all the other hover texts, it starts at the comic Scoot (Guess Who’s Coming to Galasso’s). There’s one easter egg before that somewhere, but I forget which strip.