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Sophia_Nyx 
⚧️ @sophianyx.bsky.social ⋅ 5h
Onyx | 
Emerald | 
Obsidian ⚧️ 
@onua-ryder.neocities.org ⋅ 19h
Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social ⋅ 4m
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Reuters Legal @legal.reuters.com ⋅ 1d
the_dude @lebowski76.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Joe Chouinard @joechoui.bsky.social ⋅ 8m
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Barb O. Saur 
not normally the pillow talk one expects after a first make-out, I expect
What I wonder is has Dumbiverse Mike actually ever taken a drink?
Does he have a horrible revelation coming when he has his first?
I sure hope so. Mike had no development in DoA yet.
Something to look forward to. But not this year.
In fact, his not having a drink (as I assume) is a better development of his character than the cartoonish “only nice when drunk”. Walkyverse Mike is the kind of jerk that will blithely inconvenience or harm himself if that’s what it takes to be nasty to others. This one seems to actually put some value on his own desires and comfort above being a jerk.
That, or this is just part of an elaborately cruel plan that we’ll only see coming to fruition later this year.
I forget, is it walkyverse Mike or dumbingverse Mike who is a jerk for philosophical reasons?
This was explicitly stated by Mike in an earlier appearance to be part of an elaborately cruel plan.
Danny is scheduled to walk in the bedroom any second now. All according to
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/percent/
Isn’t The Horrible Revelation located in Northampton?
Maybe there is a franchise here in town.
Would underaged drinking have upset his parents? They seemed pretty tolerant of everything on the otherside of the multiversal walls.
Are they dating now?
Nah. Just smooching.
Not until they go on an actual date.
GAY!!!!!!!!
Also, BI!!!!!!!
(Maybe?? Who knows what Mike identifies as . . . )
WHATEVER YOU DON”T WANT ME TO BEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
idk I kinda think that whatever this is is definitely what Ethan wanted him to be
You’re not thinking long term. Sure right now it’s what he want, but tomorrow? Ethan will be wishing that Mike had been specifically strait.
Wishing for Mike to be a narrow body of water between two landmasses?
Sure, why not?
As long as you pay your nickel
Spitesexual.
Looks more like spit-sexual.
Sufferingsexual. He is basically the same thing as Kotomine Kirei now that I think of it.
mike identifies as actual hate
he is also hatesexual
Mike is whatever you don’t want him to be. (Or maybe that only applies to Robin)
We all know what Mike identifies as. He identifies as an asshole.
He’s only doing this because it’ll piss someone off, and we all know it.
Damn Mike. Yiu may.be a great kisser but I’m still not convinced there isn’t ulterior motives at work.
You’ll find out that he invited Danny over in 30 minutes Dumby Time. Which will be around Valentines day in real life.
Thirty-five minutes, no?
There is I know there is.
You’d be right – Mike’s already said he wanted to seduce Ethan to reduce Danny to a jealous, whimpering mess.
…You say that like the possibility of Mike NOT having an ulterior motive is worth considering. oO
You also say that like the possibility of Danny reduced to a jealous, whimpering mess isn’t the proper start to a three-way.
–Dave, and then Joe has to hear about it for the next two weeks and learns some stuff
Here’s the comic w/ the ulterior motive:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/percent/
Wait, it’s been like 4 days in real life and they’re still kissing?! What’s the big deal? That’s only a few minutes in Dumby time.
…man, that is the kind of comment that would make me drop your ass and leave. Rude.
Ethan’s self esteem ain’t great, though yeah, I don’t think I’d be thrilled, either, in his shoes.
I think, inferring from the reinitiation, that he was saying he wasn’t finished yet I guess? Cuz it’s like *extended makeout* *inevitable conclusion of make out* “hmm… you know what? still bored” *restarts makeout*
Ethan knows Mike tho. He knows what Mike’s like. I’d say they’re both doing this out of boredom and they’re both ok with that
I’d say Mike was probably bored except we know his plan and that is sadly not it.
Except Mike’s plan isn’t to have sex with Ethan. Mike’s plan is to seduce Ethan and thus tear Ethan and Danny apart with jealousy. Sex might be part of that, but it works just as well without.
And this right here? If this will make Danny jealous, mission accomplished.
plus he’s having fun :T
I had that same thought. Byeeee
I feel like Mike walking into the room is enough to make most people with a healthy sense of self-respect walk out.
You don’t get it. “Still bored” means he wants to up the ante to tongue. Look at the picture sequence.
Challenge accepted?
Mike’s eyes are so well-defined, is this what he’s looked like up-close all this time?
This really IS the book full of bad/sad romance choices. At least Ruth and Billie are bucking the trend for once and going out on a date as opposed to their usual lesbian suicide pact stuff.
I’m a little worried about that date being because Ruth is insecure about Billie being in another dorm, and I’m worried she’ll try to ignore that, but it’s easily the LEAST bad decision being made romance wise right now and I’m much more confident in them figuring it out than Ethan right now.
Honestly, same. I’m worried about how their date will go, but if they can survive everything else they’ve been through so far, I feel like they should be okay. The biggest downside for them is that Ruth’s grandpa has planted seeds of doubt and Ruth’s gotta overcome that, probably with help from Billie or at least reassurance.
Ethan though…oh Ethan.
I hope you’re right. But Valentine’s Day is coming up and I don’t trust ANY bad romantic decisions in this strip around Valentine’s.
Ethan, stop, you don’t know where that boy’s been.
My fingers will be crossed all month for Valentine’s! As for Mike, Ethan does at least know ONE place he’s been…that one Eric dude down the hall.
Bisexual suicidal pact, on Billie’s end. I am not entirely sure as to Ruth’s exact orientation. I wanted to say she was bi, too, but I am not very sure why my brain is hopping to that
It’s okay, you’re right. Ruth is indeed bi.
Oh I know! Sorry, didn’t mean to mis-identify anybody’s sexual orientation, both ladies involved are indeed bi! I just called it the ‘lesbian suicide pact’ because that’s what they had dubbed it years ago.
The joke is that Billie herself called it a “lesbian suicide pact”
Okay, I think I’m getting my terminology confuzzled again. I thought that while the individuals involved were bisexual, the relationship (and particularly the sexual/romantic aspects of it) was lesbian, because it was between women. Is that incorrect?
I’d say it depends on what the individuals involved prefer, since they might feel that calling it ‘lesbian’ could erase their orientation identity if one or both are bi/pan instead of lesbian. I’ve seen people use terms like ‘mlm’ and ‘wlw’ to be more inclusive since they mean ‘men who love men/women who love women’. I guess it’s iffy since lesbian seems used nowadays to identify a person rather than a relationship.
I kind of agree. It seems natural to me to use lesbian to describe a relationship between two women, even if one or both is bisexual. You’re describing the relationship, not the people in it. Some however claim that’s unacceptable and it should be referred to simply as a same-sex relationship.
In this case though, as others explained, it is canonically a “sexy lesbian suicide pact”
Generally people prefer to use mlm or wlw or nblw or nblm or nblnb etc. instead because it can feel like erasure if the person saying it is themselves not bi/pan/poly but is saying so to a bi/pan/poly person or about a bi/pan/poly person, especially given the stereotypes that ‘bi/pan/poly people are really just GAY and internally homophobic or really just STRAIGHT and trying to seem more inclusive’.
So like, generally you should stick with mlm or wlw or nblw or nblm or nblnb unless they themselves express a different preference.
Being pansexual myself, I wouldn’t really appreciate being called a lesbian or being told I’m in a lesbian relationship if I was dating a woman because… I’m still pansexual, and that implies that I am gay, which feels inaccurate and like an attempt at erasure.
However, Ruth and Billie’s themselves deemed it the ‘sexy lesbian suicide pact’, so they chose that, not someone else, and it is their choice what they call themselves. You just shouldn’t force it on someone else if they say it feels like erasure for you to call their relationship ‘straight’ or ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’.
Sam, apologies if this is an insensitive question. But would it be similarly erasing to just say relationship without any adjectives? It seems simpler NOt to label, and less pigeonholed. Thoughts?
You should probably be fine just calling it a relationship, but the adjectives can be useful in certain scenarios. Such as if you need to describe gender dynamics involved (for example, when discussing people impacted by lesbophobia, talking about wlw isn’t inappropriate) or when discussing sexuality you don’t know the specifics of (for instance, if you know Ruth is dating Billie but don’t know what her sexuality is exactly, you could describe her as a wlw if you ever had to).
Do people really use things like “wlw” in actual real life conversation? I just don’t normally think in textspeak abbreviations, even when I’m writing.
I do see the nb part would be weird, since that explicitly isn’t a gay or lesbian or straight relationship – even with the assumption that you’re describing the relationship not the people involved. It couldn’t usefully be described as a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship.
Most people un-abbreviate them in real life, at least in my experience.
And while there ARE non-binary people who describe themselves as gay or straight, it varies.
“wuh-luh-wuh” …. anyway, like yeah tho u can be a nonbinary lesbian–nonbinary people don’t rlly tend to fit entirely in their own box like a third gender*! I should know.
*I mean some do lmao. It depends.
I know how you feel about being called a lesbian when you aren’t one. After a bad split with a toxic friend, he went on to accuse me of “trying to be a lesbian” when I had NEVER identified myself as one and HE had been the one to suggest that I might have been a lesbian rather than pan as I identify now. Muddling the issue even more, my girlfriend at the time(we’ve split since, but remain good friends) has since come out as trans so…fuck him, lol.
*and by him I don’t mean my ex, I mean the ex-friend that was accusing me of ‘trying to be a lesbian’. Which, to expand a bit more, he saw me as ‘faking’ my attraction to my s.o. at the time and being ‘not-real’ because we’re both kinda ace. So he was just a big ole bag of shitty opinions and assholery.
Well that was a real tongue-in-cheek response.
Eh? Eh? Eh?
omg, scoops, your avatar! “Wink wink, say no more! Eh? Eh?”
My tongue, your cheek . . .
. . . sez Mike.
“… now let’s turn to your OTHER cheek(s).”
–Dave, slipshine inbound in 3 .. 2 .. 1 ..
Maybe Mike will actually get into it and have real FE-E-E-LINGS for another human. That would be an interesting development.
I WANT THIS SO BAD, let’s just say this is Doing It for me
lol @ my avi for this comment
That’s my guess too.
It would be, but it’s those kind of thoughts that lead to disaster.
I’ll bet Ethan thinking the same, somewhere down in the back of his mind. Despite knowing Mike as he does.
No Ethan! Don’t look at him sweetly! Just enjoy the smooching!
I’m also bored for the next week
Five hours later: “Boooored, let’s keep going.”
I bet this will last the next intermission segment as well.
I heard that financial supporters of Willis were getting regular panels of Robin waiting for Leslie after every strip. …. I’m thinking this could work for a replacement.
Quite possibly? Mike (and likely Ethan) seems determined to make this last as long as possible. XD
“STILL bored.”
*rips off clothes*
That’s my thought as well. The intent is “still bored, let’s escalate”.
Um.
Why does Mike have shoujo manga eyes?
It’s creeping me out.
Next strip we zoom out to see Willis tied up, and Walkyverse!Robin drawing this.
“Ain’t I a stinker?”
… I’d actually be more okay with this scene if that was the punchline.
If SP! Robin were drawing this, she would be the one riding Ethan like a motorcycle.
(Like a Harley? Can’t remember the exact quote, and the SP! site isn’t as searchable as DoA.)
“Like a mile of bad road”?
I’m strictly a UJM sort, but “like a crotch rocket” has wordplay written all over it.
You answered your own question
I’ll be honest, Mike in this comic is about the most attractive I’ve seen a Willisverse character be drawn. Which is very, very disturbing to me.
He’s also got a little bit of blushin’ going on. Could be his usual anger seeping through, except that it’s not there usually. Leaving either simple raised body temp – hey, we know Ethan’s actually rather hot – or … (gasp) a little actual passion?
–Dave, he’s exploring his emotional sexuality
It’s weird seeing Mike without the angry eyebrows.
Glad I am not the only one who is weirded out by his eyes/look.
… Huh! They ARE less angry than usual, aren’t they?
I’ve never made out with one of my guy friends, but it I did, I don’t think I’d tell him it was boring.
You’re not the Grand Marshal of the Asshole Parade, though, so you can’t expect to aspire to Mikeness.
“What is that infernal racket?”
“It’s the Asshole Parade.”
“But it’s 2:30am! They can’t possibly have a permit to March now.”
“Okay, first, I did say ‘Asshole Parade’, and second, you try looking into those dreamy eyes and telling the Grand Marshal ‘no’.”
I KNOW Mike’s got a disturbing play hidden unde the passion, but I can’t help how hot this is.
here is kitty’s finnish word of the day!
viha (hate)
i hope “deus ex machina gayness” guy hates this
have a nice day!
Why do I find this so hot?
It’s making me want sloppy hate kisses.
Mikes Hot. He just is. You can hate him as a person and insist to yourself that his objectionable motivations and actions would be an ABSOLUTE TURN-OFF to you irl, but you’d be lying if you swing that way at all.
Plus, if your anything like me, you probably find even those objectionable motivations and actions alluring on their own. I have a real thing for terrible people who are at least honest about being terrible. What can I say? They do it for me. ‘All Girls Want Bad Boys’ doesn’t just apply to girls.
No, because “all girls want bad boys” doesn’t even apply at all. Some girls do. Some boys do.
“It’s universally true that everyone is into the thing I’m into” is a trope that is both irritating and harmful
HE GREW EYE WHITES
seeing the whites of Mike’s eyes is so very weird
Panel 3 Mike makes me uncomfortable
I can take or leave panel 3 … it’s panel 5 with the tongues that has me weirded out.
this is a horrifying sight
not the two dudes kissing, Mike with Normal Eyes
Still have mixed feelings.
However, yaoi zowie.
If I remember to, I am so stealing those two words.
–Dave, +1 would read again did not contain cougar
Steal away, my good man.
Accidentally came out to a group of people today because I instinctually made a pun.
It’s not even the first time.
It’s really only a matter of time until I do this I’ve just been lucky enough not to be set up for one yet.
Sometimes I manage to stop myself. Which is good, because if I ever come out to my students, for example, I want it to be intentional, and not because one of them comments on my writing not being straight.
But in some environments I’m even more susceptible to it, like in my pottery class last night.
My “coming out to students” strategy is typically to mention something my wife and I did over the weekend, or something else natural in the course of conversation, the same way a teacher might mention their opposite-sex spouse.
Me: “And this is where I’d mention my wife. IF I HAD ONE.”
Mike’s shoujo face is life.
When I got to this comic from the previous one, the hover-text lagged a little so I thought it was “*belch*”. Which would have been great.
Soft!Mike is such a look lmao. He’s doing this purely to be a dick, but you gotta give him props for style (like, in his own dickish way xD).
Still totally 100% not the person Ethan should be making out with, but both he and us will have to make do with that for now probably, in terms of boys smooching lol. Characters making terrible life choices in DoA, what else is new. Bless.
Is it me or did it get 300% more anime in this strip?
The eyes? Yeah. Yeah it did.
…Drunk Mike? Is that you?
Mike’s face here is profoundly disturbing and definitely not what I needed to start the morning <_<
Mike is gonna mess up Ethan. You know this, I know this, hell even Ethan knows this…
And yet.
Ethan’s an adult now! He’s 18! How is he still making bad decisions in his romantic and/or sexual life???
“There’s a time in one’s life to make stupid mistakes, to follow your heart over the cliff and suffer the bumps and bruises of outrageous fortune!”
“Yeah, it’s called college.”
“There is a time and a place for everything, children, and it is college.” –Chef, South Park
Next on DOA:
Still bored.
*Ethan and Mike both strip, looks at each other and then makes out*
Bored?
Not yet, but keep doing that, Mike—someone’s bound to get bored, real soon.
Mike’s not blushing. And what are the dots under his eyes?
Okay, forget I asked. That’s Mike’s very, very light blush action.
I’ll give Mike this…he hasn’t ripped Ethan’s skin off, so this isn’t the worst that ‘bored’ could lead to.
While I’ll agree that this isn’t the worst, I’m worried that you’re flagging ripping Ethan’s skin off as the worst, when there are clearly far worse possibilities than that.
I mean, have you ever had your skin ripped off? It’s not an experience most people would consider pleasant.
Does it count if I’ve had a 2nd degree sunburn over a fifth of my body, multiple times?
YES, it sucks. But there’s something worse. There’s ALWAYS something worse.
Panels 2-4 Mike is… staring into my soul… D:
So am I the only one seeing a yaranaika face in the third panel?
Screw Mike. I mean, no, don’t screw Mike, love yourself Ethan and don’t screw Mike. But screw Mike for this BS. I’m probably a stick in the mud, but I don’t care if Mike catches the feels from this after planning to destroy Ethan and Danny, on top of all the other crap he’s pulled with people like Amber.
Not to make it seem like Mike, as a character, isn’t interesting for conflict. He is, I get that, Willis writes him well. I just hate Mike as a person.
I hope Mike catches feelings and then gets his heart utterly crushed because it’s the least he deserves for pulling this kind of manipulative horseshit.
I’m just hoping a few years from I can read this in the archives, and laugh because Mike has gone through a character arc. The first time through Walkyverse I hated Mike too, and hoping I can have that same feeling here eventually. Dunno though Willis might decide to make him actually terrible.
This comic has been going for like 8 years and Mike hasn’t developed as a character at all. He’s a plot device that exists to manufacture drama and make mean punchlines.
Calling it now. This whole sub-plot was an excuse by Willis so he could practice drawing shounen art.
What’s shounen?
(I hope it’s not much like goru, another word I learned from this space.)
Shounen means young boy in Japanese; it can also refer to a genre of comics / cartoons aimed at that demographic (think One Piece, Naruto, Dragonball, stuff like that)
But this isn’t really shounen art. More shoujo, I think. Yaoi, really.
It’s shounen ai – boy love. It’s not quite yaoi. Yaoi is sex between two men (hard is explicit, soft is not). Kissing is still shounen ai. Definitely not shounen or shoujo.
My understanding was that yaoi included romance, not just sex. And that the Shounen/Shoujo distinction was (at least originally) the intended audience – boys/girls. Yaoi being stories about gay males written for girls.
Just keep in mind if you ever talk to a Japanese person, to them, “shounen ai” refers to pedophilic content with little boys.
(They would likely use Boys Love / BL for what you’re talking about.)
@thejeff: yeah, I wonder if they meant shoujo or possibly shounen ai. I know a few westerners still use that to mean basically”non-explicit yaoi”. (As I said below, it has a different meaning in Japanese.)
And yes, “yaoi” at least used to refer to male/male romance/porn with a predominantly female audience. (For stuff aimed at men, I’ve seen expressions like Bara, Men’s Love, and GeiKomi…)
Does it differ “bishonen”? I only know that from its use by a few characters in-universe in Faans about Rikk.
PS These webcomics are slowly drawing me into anime.
Don’t resist. It’s okay, you’re only a yaoi virgin once…
Bishounen describes a really beautiful male character. It’s essentially a pretty boy.
It was guro as I recall, not “goru”.
Mike’s hair isn’t nearly tall enough to be shounen.
And it is also a colour that exists in nature.
Oh hey, there my old crush on mike.
Fr though I know this is part of mike’s plan but God do I want to be Ethan now
Well, that’s escalating quickly!
–Dave, I heartily approve of this product and/or servicing
Even if mike does develop feelings for ethan, still a no-no for me. It does make for some good eye candy though.
I gotta say Willis’ art style really doesn’t lend itself to eroticism for me. That’s not to say it’s a bad style at all just that smut looks really weird with these character designs.
Nothing smutty has happened yet. Just some kissing.
I wouldn’t exactly call open mouth kissing chaste.
I do generally agree. I buy into the Slipshine once a year or so for the character bits
A couple of the pinup pages I do find pretty hot, but the stories not so much. OTOH, I like the stories as stories.
“Character bits”?
The time-honored tradition is to buy Slipshine for the “articles”,
I was thinking of that, but I am serious.
I’m so happy Wilson came back to this
Who?
Fuck! Willis, I meant Willis
The volleyball from Cast Away?
Tim’s next door neighbor from “Home Improvement”?
thank you Willis!!!!!
Don’t mind me im just salty over the fact its taken this long for the comic to let Ethan kiss a dude and its manipulation makeouts even JOYCE kissed a girl 3 years ago
Sorry for the nitpick, but if memory serves (you’re talking about Becky, right? Did I forget another kiss with a girl ?) she didn’t kiss a girl, she was kissed by a girl. And she didn’t react too well because she’s straight, and it wasn’t the right kind of kisser for her.
Finally, Ethan gets to kiss someone he wants to!
I’m with Amber – “Hey you two! Break it up down there!”
This will not end well.
I’m still tentatively holding onto my bet that Mike’s whole ‘plan’ here, if it could really be called one, is just kinda rolling the dice on a gamble to potentially get Ethan and Danny together? With the caveat that this solely accomplished via some needlessly hurtful jackassery toward both of them.
Which makes this strip almost pitiable in that here’s the part where Mike, I’m wildly guessing, realizes; shit, Ethan’s dumb ‘I’m-half-in-love-with-you’ face is stupidly attractive and endearing and maybe Mike kind of doesn’t hate this more than the idea of getting Ethan together with some other dude that would actually be fucking nice to him.
Of course Mike is going to plow ahead and try it anyway because hates himself, so that’s just more reason down the line to twist Ethan up as much as he can emotionally down the line in the process and Danny too. And maybe that’ll show Ethan enough that he’ll finally wise up to Mike’s shit and call him out on it and completely loathe him like anybody sane would by now and cut Mike out of his life for his new friends, or whatever.
And then Mike presumably would be free to…I dunno, go back to his room alone and fantasize about Amber stabbing him repeatedly to death or whatever the hell else lets him sleep at night with all that festering rage. Seriously. I do not think he’s kidding around when he baits people into exchanges that would skirt invitations to some kind of blowback or physical assault.
I know it’s not a popular interpretation (and it is also 100% conjecture) to propose there’s anything more to Mike’s behavior than being a troll, but–while I think as inarguable it is his actions are AWFUL and inexcusable–I also don’t think he does this for shits and giggles or tries to shirk blame for it. There’s no enjoyment in this from Mike that I can discern at all even when he ‘succeeds,’ satisfaction or vindication at best, but all of this calculated hurt just reeks to me of spite. Not lulz, simple spite. Lashing out at the world for being a horrible and maddening place and the people around you for being incomprehensibly stupid for refusing to acknowledge this awfulness and even going along with it instead of trying any even obvious means of reducing their own suffering because who knows, maybe they’d rather just suffer and make you watch. That rage was my entire existence at one point that turned out to be a coping mechanism for undiagnosed ASD, and it’s a miracle I managed to fake humanity the way people expect you to act (to keep my job at the time) when all I wanted was to just go around spiting the people around me with the bluntness and viciousness that Mike does. Asperger doesn’t always look like Dina. Which, again, I am repeatedly not trying to say that anything Mike’s done so far is okay or excusable, but I do find plenty familiar and empathetic in him that is not nearly as similar to typical trolling as Mike believes he is.
Ya know, when Mike said “still bored”, I remembered the scene in Rocko’s Modern Life when Rocko worked as a phone sex operator, flatly saying “Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby.”
Why are their tongues so brown? Aaaaa!
Bloody hell, you lot – the new HHS policy proposal is all-out bonkers.
If that passes, I urge any physician that might be reading this to decline treating Republicans based on moral objections.
I mean, my parents are Republican, so no. I’m not going to do that. But I getcha.
On one hand: Yay, you’re getting more smootchin’! On the other hand: WHADOYA MEAN YOU’RE STILL BORED
Lol, what if this subplot continues like this until Valentines Day, just once a week check back on these two still making out.
Spike is such a grating personality that I prefer him when his mouth is closed or at least occupied. Maybe he’s actually the boring one.
….so is Ethan gay or not?