A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Kiwi Blitz
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Steffi thinks she can use her kiwi mech to become a superhero. This idea turns out to be very stupid.
Tigress Queen
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A barbarian warlord and a pampered prince try to avoid a marriage alliance that could end decades of violence.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Star Trip
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Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Real Science Adventures
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Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Love Not Found
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Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
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Star Impact
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A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
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A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Monster Pulse
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Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Cut Time
Juby
Rel and her trusty avian friend Fugue are on a quest to save a world that's lost track of time. Follow them and their new recruits, in a story written with help from the stars.
Lilith's Word
inkPangur
If you had the power to make any wish come true using just one word, what would you say?
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Fireweeds Moors
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A cat-headed man and a girl with a sandwich hankering accidentally end up in a myth-infused country where magic chalices are a really big thing.
Ghost Junk Sickness
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Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Devil's Candy
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A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
[un]Divine
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A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Kochab
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A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Goodbye to Halos
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Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Caramel Corn
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Sarah is the only human left in a world full of mythical creatures and monsters. All she wants to do is live a quiet life, but everything changes when she meets her guardian angel, Jacob.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Godslave
Meaghan Carter
Edith has been thrown into the dangerous world of modern-day Egyptian mythology. Fighting monsters and dealing with family drama of godly proportions.
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
This is Not Fiction
Nicole Mannino
What do you do when the person you're in-love with is an anonymous romance novelist? Get your best friend to hire your worst enemy for help!
The Automan's Daughter
Mike Stamm
Aisha Osman and her uncle Siddig outwit bikers, spies and kidnappers while gearing up for a showdown with the formidable Widowmaker mecha.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
Paranatural
Zack Morrison
Superpowered middle schoolers fight evil spirits in their rural hometown. Come for the jokes, stay for the cast, the creatures, and the mystery that ties them all together!
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
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Without any exaggeration – yes. She sees her lack of shenanigans as a personal flaw that prevents her from reaching her goals, so in a very Dorothy way she takes step to improve herself.
Finding weird connection to these adorable dofuses past is a favorite pasttime of mine
Well… given that she just broke up with Walky the timing is not THAT weird. She has a need for both shenanigans and Joyce-time, and Dorothy is great at multitasking.
Also… and now I might be stretching a bit (I admit to no such thing in my previous statements) – Dorothy might be just a smudge jealous of happy, carefree, flippant Becky who Joyce adores and broke into a house together with. They have a connection Dorothy can never hope to match, but that can inspire to a certain degree of subterfuge within certain outlined parameters.
The thing for me is that yeah, Dorothy wants to have fun plenty, but she’s really good at denying that part of herself because she thinks she has to work all the time. I mean, it’s a big part of why she broke up with Walky after all.
That being said I might be overemphasizing that aspect of her character, because hey yeah here she is casually stopping work to do shenanigans! And shenanigans with Joyce too, even after how yesterday went.
wrt that last bit about Becky, I read this more as Dorothy going “okay, I should get Joyce to stop doing this Bad Thing, but I’ll convince her in her language- by making it fun!”. You could totally be on to something though!
Yeah, but that’s something of an excuse I think. Or an ideal she can’t live up to, though she thinks she should.
Remember her trying to talk herself out of getting together with Walky in the first place, calling it “self-sabotage” and a “distraction”, but she goes ahead and knocks on his door and kisses him anyway.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. The ability to direct people’s attention where you want it and be ignored when you need it is…something she would cultivate!
What color the walls were?
If it was all a dream?
Just how high you really were?
If your college memories are actually just implanted memories to make you believe you went to college?
How many iguanas you just walked past without noticing?
If at some point in college you learned and then later forgot how to do instant transmission?
Just how many questions vague wondering can inspire?
Who wrote the book of love?
I love how the day is going according to plan for Dorothy.
She decided she wanted some shenanigans, and here she is sneaking out dressed in Sierra’s shirt and a very dapper hat, with her bestest pal with an Iguana on her head.
He, methings with Walky out of the picture, she needs an outlet for her… slightly less than goody two shoe side.
If the Seeburg music is too lively for you, try the 3M Orchestra on for size, courtesy of the 3M Cantata 700 background music system. Over 24 hours of music on one 9″ square tape cartridge built like a sandwich!
Funny enough, Techmoan on YouTube has covered both these formats. Check those videos out if you have an hour to kill, he digs up all kinds of esoteric recording systems.
Now I kinda want to walk into an elevator and find that they somehow fit a live band inside just to play Theme from a Summer Place or somesuch audio wallpaper. And then stand in silence staring at the doors so I don’t make eye contact with them.
Apparently getting an iguana off the place it wants to be can be… painful. This is actually probably less suspicious than Joyce and Dorothy leaving the room with a box and Joyce with long scratch marks that are probably bleeding on her forehead.
(Head wounds bleed like a motherfucker, even trivial ones, and there’s a reason I worried about Joyce getting scratched on her arm after seeing pictures – iguana claws can in fact break skin and the way something like that would end up looking would be incredibly worrisome. Like, ‘Becky would very possibly be seriously triggered’ worrisome.)
Iguana claws are designed to either go into VERY HARD bark or to let them hang on to rocks while taking crashing waves to the face. If an iguana doesn’t want to move, you’re not moving it.
Yeah, Joyce definitely shouldn’t have gone down the hallway with her new hat (and even into her own room without knowing Sarah knew and was onboard was super risky, even for just ‘can you help me slowly coax this iguana off’,) but removing Fuckface is going to be an Event, especially without anyone who actually knows how to handle him.
I think they also each need toys in each hand — a Transformer and a Decepticon; Batman and Joker; a predatory dinosaur and a hunter (or maybe mixed up a little) — enacting a classic conflict scene.
And hang their phones/tablets on cords around their necks, playing videos of explosions/car chases/other loud conflict.
The counterpart to Decepticons is Autobots…’Transformer’ is the overarching name for all of them – Autobot, Decepticon, Maximal, Predacon, Mini-Con, and every other faction.
Totally. Rather, having been to multiple colleges and universities over the years, I’m reading these comments and thinking “Man, have any of these people ever even been to a college before?”
I mean, in college somewhere, someone is always up to hijinks. It’s required.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Malaya will believe them when A) Fuckface is on her head and B) Fuckface likes to wander but he also seems pretty lazy – he seems to pick a spot and hang out there for a while and C) Neither of them are that good of liars.
Yes, please. ‘Keeping a secret means keeping him INSIDE. Because he is my iguana. What part of this don’t you understand?’ (Only probably insert more cursing here.)
Malaya wasn’t even present when Joyce met Fuckface – she appears to be an early riser or super-heavy sleeper because the only ones there were Sal and later Carla. (That, or Malaya didn’t spend the night in her dorm room. Maybe Carla was actually called in to check in on Fuckface but finds claiming she’s capable of teleportation based on hearing her name more fun? I’d buy it from Carla.)
There’s no alt text on this one! Well, I mean, there is, but it’s just the name of the comic. Is this the work of the iguana and its insidious powers???
Willis thought we wouldn’t notice the lack of alt-text because we would be too distracted by the floral print, but, alas, he underestimated our incredible powers of observation!
Dorothy’s pretty good at pop culture, in which I think Michael Bay is ingrained enough for someone to make a similar joke at his expense.
Even if that wasn’t the case, she strikes me as the kind of person who saw the first Transformers movie–perhaps because she watched the cartoon, perhaps because she remembered commercials or something from watching Monkey Master, or maybe just because it was on at a friend’s house–and was displeased and never saw another, but still, she saw enough to make her savvy.
I like to believe the average person mostly doesn’t care what you do as long as it doesn’t effect them or anyone they care about in theory negatively. Unless they are in a position where they are supposed to care.
(It’s Dorothy/Joyce, of course, though it’s only slightly shippy. Mostly an exercise in writing the characters accurately, I guess? I was planning something longer, but I’m having second thoughts about the whole thing. Reasons. But I was happy with this first segment, so I thought it might be an enjoyable read!)
I think it’s cute! I like the idea of them not quite realizing they’re interested yet. I would love to see something where Dorothy’s less stressed and so they can be more casual and familiar like they are when they’re just hanging out in the future. I think you’d write it well. And more DoA fanfic is always a good thing.
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it, and that’s so nice of you to say!
But yeah, I wasn’t specifically trying to ship them in this fic. I mean, I want to do the shippy stuff, but I didn’t do a great job my first few tries at it so I wanted to try doing not that for a bit. I was trying to take a stab at addressing some of Joyce and Dorothy’s respective issues (boundaries and overworking) in an in-character way, and yeah specifically move Dorothy to a less stressed state like you said, but it started feeling kinda weird to write about stuff the comic’s sort of already in the process of addressing. I try too hard to stay in canon sometimes, I think. *shrug*
It’s totally fine to hold off for a bit if you need time to figure out how to write a thing. I know I sometimes take forever if I can’t describe something the way my mind’s eye sees it. At the same time, I thought it worked that Dorothy seemed a bit disconnected – she’s stressed and worried about other things and Joyce is trying to be supportive. I think you fit in well with canon, as we have it now, and I think it sets the reader up for further shippyness if that interests you later.
Honestly, you and Bagge received this fic so much more positively than I was expecting (especially considering that it’s not even a complete chapter) that now I’m wondering if maybe I got a little too caught up in anxiety bullshit and, I dunno, maybe the stuff I was worried about isn’t as much of an issue as I think? Or not totally unresolveable, at least. Hard to say.
There’s a bit more to this ‘first chapter’ that does a better job of setting up where the fic is going, and I already had most of that and also some further bits written. Maybe after I get that AO3 invite I’ll throw some or all of that up on there, dunno. Either way, I’m definitely motivated to write and share more fic in the future, so thanks again! You folks are way too kind.
omg, I almost forgot about that fic! yaay, things to read!
and it was good. like, not much happened (yet?), but everything flowed well and I didn’t have to stop and think, just read. that is.. sadly not so common with fanfic, it seems.
now back to reading Homestuck. (I blame willis for this… I looked at his twitter and somehow ended up reading homestuck so I can appreciate the homestuck game better. …. it’s probably a good thing, though, because I’m not sure how much longer it’ll be before flash isn’t easy to view.)
Oh, oh, oh, thank you! Hearing that it was somewhat uneventful is super helpful, actually- that is something I struggle with sometimes. Like, this was all setup work so it wasn’t supposed to be eventful, but it’s something I’ll want to keep in mind in future writing.
Good luck with Homestuck! It sure is an adventure.
setup work is good. it has lots of .. feelings..? in it. stories don’t have to be all action.
actually, something I really liked about the Recluce series is that in a lot of the books, the protagonist spends some time in the middle quietly learning a trade and building stuff. I really liked that – it was educational and interesting at the same time, and was a nice break from the fighting.
Awwww. I like how Dorothy try to stay on course with Joyce fluttering around her. I think you write their dynamics well, and you anchor it well in the events of the comic.
It’s probably mostly my own fanfic reading habits, but I can really see a My Little Pony fanfic in there, with Twilight and Fluttershy.
I never got super into MLP (was too repressed when it was big), but yeah a Twilight=Dorothy comparison is so apt it almost feels too obvious. Maybe I should go catch up on that show…
Yes!
Just, stop when the characters suddenly become weirdly mean around season 6-ish. It keeps getting weirder, and the few good episodes don’t seem worth it any more. Which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to exploring the *new* characters then
Personally, if I saw what is shown in panel 4, I’d automatically assume that I’m hallucinating. Either that or wonder (in a sense of panic) whether Walky and Malaya had body-swapped into Dorothy and Joyce respectively.
Look, Joyce, if Dorothy was REALLY going to show her work, it would go something like this.
“The probability that a given feature, such as the iguana on your head, will be noticed is not a fixed figure. It is dependent upon and varies with a host of other factors. The probability of noticing that feature given all the other distracting features which I have introduced is actually inversely related to the probability of them noticing those other features, and the constant of proportionality is the probability of them noticing those other features given that they noticed the feature we wish to distract from. It’s basic Michael Bayesian probability.”
Actually, if tropes have taught me anything, DURING the heist is actually the preferred time to explain the plan, not beforehand. If you do it beforehand that’s an immediate red flag that the plan’s doomed to fail.
I believe it is traditional that you should explain the situation to your friends/accomplices only whilst running frantically down the hallway being pursued by guards/stormtroopers.
Ok but when’s Dina gonna meet the reptile, this is an interaction I strongly need. Dina needs something on her head to make her feel comfortable without her hat, Fuckface is a hat and also a real life dinosaur analogue, this is meant to be
I still think we will have some sort of EXTREMELY silly jealousy storyline with Dina being worried that Becky seeing Joyce emulating – and possibly upstaging – her t-rex-hat will risk a diversion of attention.
Cue a sullen murmur of “lizards are not realdinosaurs”
Why not put the hat over the iguana? If you’re going to do something goofy and suspicious like wearing a hat INDOORS, you might as well put it on Little Miss Mary Sunshine, the sort of girl you’d expect to be wearing a hat–and white gloves–and mary janes.
I do realize this is an actual effect, but I actually remember most Michael Bay movies as well as any other movie. This is a bit of a curse in my case, because they are really, really boring.
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The look on Rachel’s face says “I’m either too high to deal with whatever that was, or not high enough.”
Which Rachel?
Rachel, not Other Rachel.
Otherwise known as panel 5 Rachel.
Or your gravatar
The Rachel whose face we see.
My personal interpretation is that she’s reacting to hearing the word “heist”.
or, it’s college and why would any of this bat an eye in the first place
There’s some pretty strong side-eye game going on with Rachel there.
Nobody warned me that Dorothy was actually totally good at shenanigans! I was not prepared for this turn of events!
Didn’t you hear? She’s cool! She’s hip! She’s chill!
CATCH YOU ON THE FLIP SIDE
WHAT’S CRACKALACKIN’
GET JIGGY WITH IT.
HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW COOL KIDS?
WHAT UP HOMESLICE
BOOM SHAKALAKA!
We’re really linear today!
NO SQUARES HERE
The shoe-thing with Walky was a slight forshadowing, but yes, we have not seen her unlock her full potential.
She worked to better herself in every arena that mattered, right? You’re right- we’ve only begun to see her true shenanigan expertise!
Without any exaggeration – yes. She sees her lack of shenanigans as a personal flaw that prevents her from reaching her goals, so in a very Dorothy way she takes step to improve herself.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/02-everything-youve-ever-wanted/gambit/
Shoot, she’s even wearing the same shirt as back then! U-under the floral one, anyway. Seriously, Bagge. Unequaled archive-digging powers.
Even with that in mind, this is still kind of a weird moment for her to decide to start getting shenanigans practice, but whatevs.
Finding weird connection to these adorable dofuses past is a favorite pasttime of mine
Well… given that she just broke up with Walky the timing is not THAT weird. She has a need for both shenanigans and Joyce-time, and Dorothy is great at multitasking.
Also… and now I might be stretching a bit (I admit to no such thing in my previous statements) – Dorothy might be just a smudge jealous of happy, carefree, flippant Becky who Joyce adores and broke into a house together with. They have a connection Dorothy can never hope to match, but that can inspire to a certain degree of subterfuge within certain outlined parameters.
The thing for me is that yeah, Dorothy wants to have fun plenty, but she’s really good at denying that part of herself because she thinks she has to work all the time. I mean, it’s a big part of why she broke up with Walky after all.
That being said I might be overemphasizing that aspect of her character, because hey yeah here she is casually stopping work to do shenanigans! And shenanigans with Joyce too, even after how yesterday went.
wrt that last bit about Becky, I read this more as Dorothy going “okay, I should get Joyce to stop doing this Bad Thing, but I’ll convince her in her language- by making it fun!”. You could totally be on to something though!
I think Danny might actually give us a clue about how Dorothy ticks here: She does fun things for calculatedly rational reasons http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/mowgli/
Yeah, but that’s something of an excuse I think. Or an ideal she can’t live up to, though she thinks she should.
Remember her trying to talk herself out of getting together with Walky in the first place, calling it “self-sabotage” and a “distraction”, but she goes ahead and knocks on his door and kisses him anyway.
Very good point! And right now she’s bottling out, so she might need to find a new outlet sooner before later.
This, however, I expect is a deliberate, scheduled amount of fun shenanigans with her bestest pal Joyce. In an hour she will be studying again.
I mean, she was planning on going into *politics*, so…
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. The ability to direct people’s attention where you want it and be ignored when you need it is…something she would cultivate!
She’s making it work though
New!Dorothy and New!Danny can bond over their hip styles.
I remember my dorm hallways being pretty quiet most of the time.
Come to think of it, I don’t remember my dorm hallways at all.
Hmm, I wonder…
Wonder what?
What color the walls were?
If it was all a dream?
Just how high you really were?
If your college memories are actually just implanted memories to make you believe you went to college?
How many iguanas you just walked past without noticing?
If at some point in college you learned and then later forgot how to do instant transmission?
Just how many questions vague wondering can inspire?
Who wrote the book of love?
I love how the day is going according to plan for Dorothy.
She decided she wanted some shenanigans, and here she is sneaking out dressed in Sierra’s shirt and a very dapper hat, with her bestest pal with an Iguana on her head.
He, methings with Walky out of the picture, she needs an outlet for her… slightly less than goody two shoe side.
SHENANIGANS SISTERS.
Those are Sierra’s clothes, aren’t they.
Probably.
I’m sure that, if they are, Sierra will demand pics for her wall of memories.
*plays dull, soothing, actual Muzak music on the hacked Muzak*
Something like this, perhaps?
Or maybe this?
Googling “elevator music” found me several videos with music like these.
Here you go! Genuine background music.
If the Seeburg music is too lively for you, try the 3M Orchestra on for size, courtesy of the 3M Cantata 700 background music system. Over 24 hours of music on one 9″ square tape cartridge built like a sandwich!
Funny enough, Techmoan on YouTube has covered both these formats. Check those videos out if you have an hour to kill, he digs up all kinds of esoteric recording systems.
Now I kinda want to walk into an elevator and find that they somehow fit a live band inside just to play Theme from a Summer Place or somesuch audio wallpaper. And then stand in silence staring at the doors so I don’t make eye contact with them.
Wrong song, but maybe they take requests?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYu_kmy3Hbg
Genius
I prefer to believe it’s her shirt.
That was supposed to be a reply to Bagge
Two very possible alternatives.
They are both adorable
Early Halloween getup, Dorothy?
Also wouldn’t it be easier to wear the hat over Fuckface? Or would he mind?
In my experience with iguanas, they mind most things…
Thanks. Now I desperately want to see an iguana with a hat over it.
I like how no one considered putting the iguana in a box or something.
Imprison the noble iguana, even for a brief period of time? That’s animal cruelty!!!!!
(Yes, I remember that Malaya was just foot-scooching his box along until she got
a suckerPeter to help shift it.)Apparently getting an iguana off the place it wants to be can be… painful. This is actually probably less suspicious than Joyce and Dorothy leaving the room with a box and Joyce with long scratch marks that are probably bleeding on her forehead.
(Head wounds bleed like a motherfucker, even trivial ones, and there’s a reason I worried about Joyce getting scratched on her arm after seeing pictures – iguana claws can in fact break skin and the way something like that would end up looking would be incredibly worrisome. Like, ‘Becky would very possibly be seriously triggered’ worrisome.)
Iguana claws are designed to either go into VERY HARD bark or to let them hang on to rocks while taking crashing waves to the face. If an iguana doesn’t want to move, you’re not moving it.
Yeah, Joyce definitely shouldn’t have gone down the hallway with her new hat (and even into her own room without knowing Sarah knew and was onboard was super risky, even for just ‘can you help me slowly coax this iguana off’,) but removing Fuckface is going to be an Event, especially without anyone who actually knows how to handle him.
If a strip doesn’t include Dina, Carla, Marcie, Roz, or Jocelyne, there’s pretty much no chance of anyone braining properly.
Sal and Rachel get half a point each.
I think they also each need toys in each hand — a Transformer and a Decepticon; Batman and Joker; a predatory dinosaur and a hunter (or maybe mixed up a little) — enacting a classic conflict scene.
And hang their phones/tablets on cords around their necks, playing videos of explosions/car chases/other loud conflict.
/overkill
The counterpart to Decepticons is Autobots…’Transformer’ is the overarching name for all of them – Autobot, Decepticon, Maximal, Predacon, Mini-Con, and every other faction.
Transformers also includes the ones who weren’t even involved with the war, like the lost colonies in IDW.
You’re at college. Walking down a hall with an iguana on your head is pretty much par the course.
Totally. Rather, having been to multiple colleges and universities over the years, I’m reading these comments and thinking “Man, have any of these people ever even been to a college before?”
I mean, in college somewhere, someone is always up to hijinks. It’s required.
This is gonna be fun!
Y’know, until they get back and realize Malaya is in her room and demands to know what the screaming red fuck they were doing with her lizard.
“Returning him. Don’t know how he got out. You should be more careful in the future, you could be in trouble if Ruth spots him.”
Unfortunately, I don’t think Malaya will believe them when A) Fuckface is on her head and B) Fuckface likes to wander but he also seems pretty lazy – he seems to pick a spot and hang out there for a while and C) Neither of them are that good of liars.
Yes, please. ‘Keeping a secret means keeping him INSIDE. Because he is my iguana. What part of this don’t you understand?’ (Only probably insert more cursing here.)
Right? “Wait – you said you’d keep him fuckin’ secret and then went around showing him to everybody? Are you fucking stupid?”
Malaya wasn’t even present when Joyce met Fuckface – she appears to be an early riser or super-heavy sleeper because the only ones there were Sal and later Carla. (That, or Malaya didn’t spend the night in her dorm room. Maybe Carla was actually called in to check in on Fuckface but finds claiming she’s capable of teleportation based on hearing her name more fun? I’d buy it from Carla.)
There’s no alt text on this one! Well, I mean, there is, but it’s just the name of the comic. Is this the work of the iguana and its insidious powers???
Willis thought we wouldn’t notice the lack of alt-text because we would be too distracted by the floral print, but, alas, he underestimated our incredible powers of observation!
this is it
the perfect comic strip
Yup.
It must be true- you’re saying so even though there’s no butts in this comic!
True
So perfect it doesn’t even need alt text
I MISSED THIS STORY LINE.
Wow this is a fucking mazing.
But isn’t Dorothy describing Fire hosing?
Well, she’s right anyway.
I’m surprised Dorothy has seen enough Micheal Bay to be able to formulate a plan named after him.
Dorothy’s pretty good at pop culture, in which I think Michael Bay is ingrained enough for someone to make a similar joke at his expense.
Even if that wasn’t the case, she strikes me as the kind of person who saw the first Transformers movie–perhaps because she watched the cartoon, perhaps because she remembered commercials or something from watching Monkey Master, or maybe just because it was on at a friend’s house–and was displeased and never saw another, but still, she saw enough to make her savvy.
There’s not nearly enough explosions for Michael Bay in this strip though.
Maybe she’s a fan of Lindsay Ellis?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE-6M7IbNSI&t=0s&list=PLJGOq3JclTH8J73o2Z4VMaSYZDNG3xeZ7&index=4
Honestly that whole video series was amazing.
I would totally buy it from Dorothy.
(Did this universe’s Linkara still need to buy some toys and meet Ninja Rick, I wonder?)
She ate the whole plate.
Dorothy: Joyce, place your trust in me!
Narrator Voice: Joyce should not have placed her trust in Dorothy.
Was pretty nice of Willis to lend Dorothy a shirt.
I say, jealous I can’t pull that off.
They are putting something back where it belongs. Technically, it is the opposite of a heist.
I prefer to think this is the Freddy Prinze Principle in action—
they see it, but “It’s not my job!”
They are protected by the Someone Else’s Problem field…
Beat me to it.
“First we paint the iguana pink …”
I like to believe the average person mostly doesn’t care what you do as long as it doesn’t effect them or anyone they care about in theory negatively. Unless they are in a position where they are supposed to care.
Joyce knows everything about heists, of course.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/invader/
I want to see the trying on clothes montage that happened between panels 3 and 4.
Dorothy needs to wear those clothes more often.
Can Dorothy wear that outfit all the time please?
Joyce is too pure that she doesn’t know who Michael Bay. Someone please destroy his movies before Joyce knows them!
Also shenanigans
Damn it where’s the link. They forced their way into Mike’s room.
This seems like a good time to share a little bit of fanfic! Uh, right?
Google Doc link because I didn’t realize AO3 has a waiting period to register OOPS
(It’s Dorothy/Joyce, of course, though it’s only slightly shippy. Mostly an exercise in writing the characters accurately, I guess? I was planning something longer, but I’m having second thoughts about the whole thing. Reasons. But I was happy with this first segment, so I thought it might be an enjoyable read!)
I think it’s cute! I like the idea of them not quite realizing they’re interested yet. I would love to see something where Dorothy’s less stressed and so they can be more casual and familiar like they are when they’re just hanging out in the future. I think you’d write it well. And more DoA fanfic is always a good thing.
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it, and that’s so nice of you to say!
But yeah, I wasn’t specifically trying to ship them in this fic. I mean, I want to do the shippy stuff, but I didn’t do a great job my first few tries at it so I wanted to try doing not that for a bit. I was trying to take a stab at addressing some of Joyce and Dorothy’s respective issues (boundaries and overworking) in an in-character way, and yeah specifically move Dorothy to a less stressed state like you said, but it started feeling kinda weird to write about stuff the comic’s sort of already in the process of addressing. I try too hard to stay in canon sometimes, I think. *shrug*
You’re welcome!
It’s totally fine to hold off for a bit if you need time to figure out how to write a thing. I know I sometimes take forever if I can’t describe something the way my mind’s eye sees it. At the same time, I thought it worked that Dorothy seemed a bit disconnected – she’s stressed and worried about other things and Joyce is trying to be supportive. I think you fit in well with canon, as we have it now, and I think it sets the reader up for further shippyness if that interests you later.
Honestly, you and Bagge received this fic so much more positively than I was expecting (especially considering that it’s not even a complete chapter) that now I’m wondering if maybe I got a little too caught up in anxiety bullshit and, I dunno, maybe the stuff I was worried about isn’t as much of an issue as I think? Or not totally unresolveable, at least. Hard to say.
There’s a bit more to this ‘first chapter’ that does a better job of setting up where the fic is going, and I already had most of that and also some further bits written. Maybe after I get that AO3 invite I’ll throw some or all of that up on there, dunno. Either way, I’m definitely motivated to write and share more fic in the future, so thanks again! You folks are way too kind.
omg, I almost forgot about that fic! yaay, things to read!
and it was good.
like, not much happened (yet?), but everything flowed well and I didn’t have to stop and think, just read. that is.. sadly not so common with fanfic, it seems.
now back to reading Homestuck. (I blame willis for this… I looked at his twitter and somehow ended up reading homestuck so I can appreciate the homestuck game better. …. it’s probably a good thing, though, because I’m not sure how much longer it’ll be before flash isn’t easy to view.)
Oh, oh, oh, thank you! Hearing that it was somewhat uneventful is super helpful, actually- that is something I struggle with sometimes. Like, this was all setup work so it wasn’t supposed to be eventful, but it’s something I’ll want to keep in mind in future writing.
Good luck with Homestuck! It sure is an adventure.
setup work is good. it has lots of .. feelings..? in it. stories don’t have to be all action.
actually, something I really liked about the Recluce series is that in a lot of the books, the protagonist spends some time in the middle quietly learning a trade and building stuff. I really liked that – it was educational and interesting at the same time, and was a nice break from the fighting.
Awwww. I like how Dorothy try to stay on course with Joyce fluttering around her. I think you write their dynamics well, and you anchor it well in the events of the comic.
It’s probably mostly my own fanfic reading habits, but I can really see a My Little Pony fanfic in there, with Twilight and Fluttershy.
Thank you thank you thank you!
I never got super into MLP (was too repressed when it was big), but yeah a Twilight=Dorothy comparison is so apt it almost feels too obvious. Maybe I should go catch up on that show…
I like it, and the sheer metric tonnage of fan material makes it a fun fandom to explore, but it’s no must see. Try it if you feel like it
Yes!
Just, stop when the characters suddenly become weirdly mean around season 6-ish. It keeps getting weirder, and the few good episodes don’t seem worth it any more. Which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to exploring the *new* characters then
Ooh, huh. That -is- weird. Well, thank you for the warning!
Personally, if I saw what is shown in panel 4, I’d automatically assume that I’m hallucinating. Either that or wonder (in a sense of panic) whether Walky and Malaya had body-swapped into Dorothy and Joyce respectively.
I’m still trying to decide whether the fifth panel reaction is because of the iguana or Dorothy’s shirt.
Look, Joyce, if Dorothy was REALLY going to show her work, it would go something like this.
“The probability that a given feature, such as the iguana on your head, will be noticed is not a fixed figure. It is dependent upon and varies with a host of other factors. The probability of noticing that feature given all the other distracting features which I have introduced is actually inversely related to the probability of them noticing those other features, and the constant of proportionality is the probability of them noticing those other features given that they noticed the feature we wish to distract from. It’s basic Michael Bayesian probability.”
None of your distracting prose worked.
I see what you did there.
Iguana on my head……………what it’s all the rage in Milan
“Why is there a…?”
“You see nothing unusual.”
“But…”
“You see nothing unusual! The Power of Mr Iguana compels you!”
Actually, if tropes have taught me anything, DURING the heist is actually the preferred time to explain the plan, not beforehand. If you do it beforehand that’s an immediate red flag that the plan’s doomed to fail.
Alternatively, it could succeed, but only if 80% of the pieces go wrong and you have to scramble to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
I believe it is traditional that you should explain the situation to your friends/accomplices only whilst running frantically down the hallway being pursued by guards/stormtroopers.
And if you try explaining afterward, there is a good chance you will be interrupted when the audience has heard exactly the amount they need to.
The trick is to whisper. That way your friends can know what they have to do but the universe will not insure it goes wrong.
That shirt should come with an epilepsy warning.
“Dorothy?”
“Yes, Joyce?”
“Why have you got one of Joe’s shirts?”
“It’s a long, embarrassing story and it still doesn’t make any sense even to me. Just… don’t ask.”
Just like Mel Brooks and Madeline Khan at the airport in High Anxiety.
To be fair, in the words of Brooks, that was a dramatic airport.
Ok but when’s Dina gonna meet the reptile, this is an interaction I strongly need. Dina needs something on her head to make her feel comfortable without her hat, Fuckface is a hat and also a real life dinosaur analogue, this is meant to be
I still think we will have some sort of EXTREMELY silly jealousy storyline with Dina being worried that Becky seeing Joyce emulating – and possibly upstaging – her t-rex-hat will risk a diversion of attention.
Cue a sullen murmur of “lizards are not realdinosaurs”
I thought the Bay Principle was “Make everything explode. What’s plot?”
I for one totally loves seeing Dorothy show off in the middle of a heist, but I also love Joyce calling her out on it.
I enjoy how it takes only three panels for Joyce to go from tiny iris-concerned to calling this a heist and being all-in on it.
Of course she is – this is Dooooorothy
This is all Joyce’s thing in the first place; Dorothy is just helping.
She’s making it fun for Joyce to do the right thing! That’s good helping!
Agatha, meanwhile, has a fine day!
Honestly at my school no one would have batted an eye
Yeah, it’s college..
And let’s face it – it doesn’t show up on the top ten weird things Joyce has done this week.
Batted an eye? No.
Gone “Oh hey, cool iguana. Didn’t know you had one.” Yup.
Similar Michael Bay principle applies- make too many crappy movies and I’ll avoid everything you make until the end of time.
Why not put the hat over the iguana? If you’re going to do something goofy and suspicious like wearing a hat INDOORS, you might as well put it on Little Miss Mary Sunshine, the sort of girl you’d expect to be wearing a hat–and white gloves–and mary janes.
Or maybe its not as big a deal to everyone else as Dorothy and Joyce clearly think it is
Kind of my opinion.
How did she get to Dorothy’s room anyway? Did she walk nonchalantly down the hall with an iguana on her head?
She skipped the 33 steps in happy anticipation of showing Dorothy the head-lizard.
I am absolutely loving Dorothy here.
So chill, and for a moment, carefree.
That shirt and that hat, yeeee
Yeah that little vindictive look means Rachel has just come up with a way of punishing them somehow.
I do realize this is an actual effect, but I actually remember most Michael Bay movies as well as any other movie. This is a bit of a curse in my case, because they are really, really boring.