That’s got to be so rough for sal and marcie. Did marcie seriously have no dreams of her own, other than to be with sal? How will sal feel knowing her friend followed her for that instead of genuinely being a friend?
I don’t think she had no dreams of her own or that she wasn’t genuinely Sal’s friend. She isn’t Danny following a love interest like an ambitionless puppy. But she is likely only now considering that lingering feelings may have influenced her decisions to a degree rather than it just being friendship.
Given that she isn’t sure right now if she still has feelings, I’d say it’s more she wasn’t realising they were influencing it or possibly still influencing it.
Oh gosh, I’m having flashbacks to my now-husband’s off-and-on crush on me when we were besties in HS, and the occasional awkward conversations that happened bc of it. (He was never a pushy Nice Guy about it, more “okay, so if I’m acting sorta awkward, that’s why and I’ll try to get over it bc Friendship Is Most Important.”)
Gosh, they BOTH feel so awkward about this rn and I wanna hug ’em.
Emo Management for Guys, when you seriously like girls/women as friends BUT ALSO as girls/women: the overlap in the Venn diagram of that is HELLA place, both if you can’t come to resolution and get whipsawed AND if do & can live there with a lover-friend: hence orange roses & hearts: red for passion + yellow for friendship.
*infomercial voiceover guy* Don’t you hate it when latent feelings from before you could fully understand them resurface and your brain gets hit by the Fuck Truck
Had the realization that, huh, Sal doesn’t sign that often I can recall, but can clearly read it. (well, usually, a bit of the nuance was lost on her on Marcie saying she wanted to “hit it” on Malaya)
Then it occurred to me, this is probably faster and less ambiguous for her on her end, but also, her hand might make some signs difficult. Speaking of, she’s got her gloves back on. Wonder if that’s due to the outfit or what.
I mean, we know for a fact that Marcie isn’t deaf at all. She’s mute due to an accident, so it’s not nearly as important to sign to her as it would be if she was deaf or hard of hearing.
I know she can hear, but still, we do see her have conversations with both sides doing signs sometimes, which seems like it could often be considerate, but yeah, guessing maybe that’s more of a thing that’d be handy if eavesdroppers are an issue.
I’m pretty sure Marcie going mute wasn’t an accident, that kid was hitting her in the throat with a rock. Sal was then trying to raise money for the repair operation, but I’m guessing it may be too late for that now…
Technically it’s still an accident if Leland was trying to bash her head with the rock and Marcie managed to get her head out of the way.
Also, thank you for reminding me that Leland is maternal-copulating garbage. I had forgotten that the rock wasn’t thrown, but rather Leland was using it as a force multiplier.
“Sorry I sent you mute, I was trying to bash your head in “? Would that count as a “happy” accident? Some people aren’t very nice, no matter what species…
Probably a ‘happy’ accident as far as Leland is concerned in the end? he ‘only’ permanently disabled her, which is easier to ‘boys will be boys! He was provoked!’ in court.
One would hope you don’t get off scot-free after an actual death.
I don’t think that miscommunication had anything to do with sign language or not. For Sal, the idea of being attracted to Marcie was so absurd that the meaning of “put a fist to her face” made much more sense than “hit on her” though I don’t believe for a minute that Marcie tends to beat people up.
I’m still trying to figure out what’s up with the transparent background panels. They are clearly telling us something important, but I don’t yet understand.
I think the Joyce & Becky isn’t even a case of opposing sexualities. There have been ample clues that Joyce CAN be attracted to the womenfolk, even if she’s able to ignore it because she’s DEFINITELY attracted to men as well.
It’s sadder then that.
Joyce isn’t attracted to Becky, because to Joyce; Becky is her SISTER.
I think you’ll find Joyce is very straight, but growing up with someone who was/is attracted to her, and considered that person to be her Sister, Joyce’s behavior was somewhat influenced by that. Pretty sure it’s Word Of God Joyce is very straight…
And it seems I just shocked Daniel the Human with my intellectual insight….until he remembered HE told me all that…
I’m not sure if it’s actually Word of God – though I think the clues otherwise are often taken a bit more seriously than they really should be.
That her notion of platonic female friendships has been distorted by Becky’s basically subconscious crush has been mentioned in canon and covers most of those clues well enough, I think.
They really look different enough each panel, from where I’m looking.
The last panel seems to suggest that Sal has given a full body shiver (or a similar tensing action) in response, and that her hands are tightening into claws because of it. It seems reasonable for Rycan to assume that isn’t exactly the most favorable of signs.
That said, Sal isn’t the type to give up on Marcie, and she seems to want to try handling the matter straightforwardly, so at least their current relationship should manage to pull through. Rather, we already knew Sal wasn’t up for a romantic/physical relationship with Marcie, and Marcie was probably also full aware of that herself. In a way, it’s rather unproductive drama but, well, that’s pretty normal for relationships, after all.
In any case, Willis’ art nuances do seem to make it clear that Sal definitely doesn’t seem to be comfortable with the current conversation topic.
If you needed space from someone because of feelings about a week or so(?) ago, you most definitely still have feelings. They don’t go away that fast.
Has sal already learned that friendships get unstable when feelings are involved? That they usually collapse or grow more distant when said feelings go away? She once called Marcie the one friend who stayed around. This friendship will change.
.. It is good that sal started making other friends. Does marcie has close friends she doesn’t have feelings for?
I recently took a course on sign language. It would be kinda neat if Marcie’s dialogue actually followed proper American Sign Language grammar. It wouldn’t be too difficult to read, just a little weird.
I’m in the slightly weird position of wanting both paths… Sal and Marcie would be cute, and probably raise a bunch of questions for Joyce, and maybe Walky. On the other hand, dealing with the unrequited love of your best friend is a tricky and interesting story as well.
On the other other hand, I’ve been shipping Sal and Amber in my head, but that’s prolly just wish fulfillment.
Man I’m feeling Marcie RN. I’m trying to be friends with my ex and I’m doing a p good job but I still have huge feelings for her. Obviously not exact same scenario but similar enough to hit home for me
Yeah, I saw this coming. I mean, who at 18 or 19 years old has answers to those questions. She was just responding on impulse to every situation and hoping that some kind of direction would become plain to her later!
Sal, the answer to all of those questions is “Yes”. If Marcie genuinely did not have feelings for you anymore, her answer would have been an instantaneous “no”.
That said, just because you DO have feelings for someone doesn’t necessarily mean that the two of you would make a good couple. One of the hardest (yet most important) lessons to learn in life is that you can love someone wholeheartedly (and they might love you in return), yet you’d still not be a good match for each other.
Eh, it could be more of “I still have SOME kind of feelings but I can’t actually tell whether I’m still romantically attracted to you vs just physical attraction because you’re hot or if it’s nostalgia/regret/the-one-that-got-away because I thought I was over you when I fell for the Malaya and now I have to reevaluate the last year or more of my life because clearly I was wrong about something and haven’t figured out what yet.”
I do not know to what extent my decision to follow you was based on a crush vs. friendship. I also don’t know to what extent my needing space was informed by a crush vs. your getting into fights vs just needing to expand my friend group.
I thought I was over you but then we started pretending now I’m not sure. I’m not sure how much space I’m going to need going forward to figure this out.
ohohoh thank god i never put myself out there to avoid the exact awkward situation marcie’s in rn (not that it’s good or anything – it’s still a learning and growing opportunity). been where Sal’s been tho. it’s okay babies, whatever you do will be fine in the end if you want to be fine with it.
unrelated but accidentally misread the alt-text and thought you were talking about making a enameled pin of the last panel, willis. spent a few seconds trying to figure out how that would work out (thought you meant marcie and i thought it’d be nice to have movable forearms in blue. i’d pay for a marcie pin that’s signing “maybe”)
I like that the characters` have a relationship that allows this conversation, and allows them trust the answers are as honest as they can give. No judgement, no false assurances, just trying to work it through.
Just go and fuck already. See if you like it and if things click. If not, oh well, at least you can cross it off yer bucket list. If yes, just roll with it and see where it goes. less angst all around that way.
I just have to chime in quickly to say again that it’s really cool how the sign language is done in this comic. I really like the interpretation of it, visually.
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“Do… you WANT… feelings? Ah gotta huge sack fulla feels here” *holds out arms*
Ruth runs up, buys them all.
With her new ability to feel, she’s basically Data after he got the emotion chip installed.
Do to want feels, because that’s how you get feels
Feels: Not Even Once.
Oh, you two sweet, ridiculous children. I love their friendship.
And yes, I am jotting down that confirmation Marcie went to Tennessee with Sal. Called it back in 2016.
https://newcanonsofage.tumblr.com/post/143046159168/school
You’re Newcanonsofage? Neat.
No, I just submitted a bunch of stuff there.
Oh, you too.
Yeah! Newcanonsofage is really fun though. We’re tumblr friends.
I feel Marcie so much. Not on the unrequited crush, but on the answers she’s giving Sal.
Yes, though, isn’t the full answer “I don’t know? Maybe? Probably? Some? Um? … I don’t know?”
Yep. I too have trouble figuring out what my emotions are
Ouch. I feel for both of them.
That’s got to be so rough for sal and marcie. Did marcie seriously have no dreams of her own, other than to be with sal? How will sal feel knowing her friend followed her for that instead of genuinely being a friend?
It can be both.
I don’t think she had no dreams of her own or that she wasn’t genuinely Sal’s friend. She isn’t Danny following a love interest like an ambitionless puppy. But she is likely only now considering that lingering feelings may have influenced her decisions to a degree rather than it just being friendship.
Or she realised her feelings influencing her actions earlier but went, NOPE not dealing with that right now!
Given that she isn’t sure right now if she still has feelings, I’d say it’s more she wasn’t realising they were influencing it or possibly still influencing it.
Can you repeat the question?
Malcolm in the Middle theme song reference?
You’re not the boss of me now!
“let me just take a peek at your butt real quick”
i mean, fair
I’m the Number One fan of the Sal from Tennessee—
*Animal belts me and silences the Muzak*
Animal is my favorite Muppet.
Oh gosh, I’m having flashbacks to my now-husband’s off-and-on crush on me when we were besties in HS, and the occasional awkward conversations that happened bc of it. (He was never a pushy Nice Guy about it, more “okay, so if I’m acting sorta awkward, that’s why and I’ll try to get over it bc Friendship Is Most Important.”)
Gosh, they BOTH feel so awkward about this rn and I wanna hug ’em.
Emo Management for Guys, when you seriously like girls/women as friends BUT ALSO as girls/women: the overlap in the Venn diagram of that is HELLA place, both if you can’t come to resolution and get whipsawed AND if do & can live there with a lover-friend: hence orange roses & hearts: red for passion + yellow for friendship.
Extremely helpful, Marcie, thank you
OH NO
All these new revelations really giving new context to strips like this one: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/scoot-scoot/
Now we know that Marcie’s brain was boiling during this comic.
*infomercial voiceover guy* Don’t you hate it when latent feelings from before you could fully understand them resurface and your brain gets hit by the Fuck Truck
Just make the comic black and white and have Marcie falling over and the informercialization is complete
THAT’S a lotta damage!
Isn’t that from a commercial from Pharma for The Magical Science Sauce that you should ask your Doctor about?
I’m really glad they’re talking.
Had the realization that, huh, Sal doesn’t sign that often I can recall, but can clearly read it. (well, usually, a bit of the nuance was lost on her on Marcie saying she wanted to “hit it” on Malaya)
Then it occurred to me, this is probably faster and less ambiguous for her on her end, but also, her hand might make some signs difficult. Speaking of, she’s got her gloves back on. Wonder if that’s due to the outfit or what.
I mean, we know for a fact that Marcie isn’t deaf at all. She’s mute due to an accident, so it’s not nearly as important to sign to her as it would be if she was deaf or hard of hearing.
I know she can hear, but still, we do see her have conversations with both sides doing signs sometimes, which seems like it could often be considerate, but yeah, guessing maybe that’s more of a thing that’d be handy if eavesdroppers are an issue.
I’m pretty sure Marcie going mute wasn’t an accident, that kid was hitting her in the throat with a rock. Sal was then trying to raise money for the repair operation, but I’m guessing it may be too late for that now…
Technically it’s still an accident if Leland was trying to bash her head with the rock and Marcie managed to get her head out of the way.
Also, thank you for reminding me that Leland is maternal-copulating garbage. I had forgotten that the rock wasn’t thrown, but rather Leland was using it as a force multiplier.
“Sorry I sent you mute, I was trying to bash your head in “? Would that count as a “happy” accident? Some people aren’t very nice, no matter what species…
Probably a ‘happy’ accident as far as Leland is concerned in the end? he ‘only’ permanently disabled her, which is easier to ‘boys will be boys! He was provoked!’ in court.
One would hope you don’t get off scot-free after an actual death.
I don’t think that miscommunication had anything to do with sign language or not. For Sal, the idea of being attracted to Marcie was so absurd that the meaning of “put a fist to her face” made much more sense than “hit on her” though I don’t believe for a minute that Marcie tends to beat people up.
Ups, I meant “being attracted to Malaya”, she also couldn’t imagine being attracted to Marcie but for other reasons.
I’m still trying to figure out what’s up with the transparent background panels. They are clearly telling us something important, but I don’t yet understand.
They’re the moments when the rest of the world ceases to exist.
Thanks, I saw it that way too and then wondered if I was reading too much into it XD
Sal & Marcie, Joyce & Becky, Amber & Ethan, all childhood friends who would have probably got together if not for opposing sexualities.
Maybe they should all form a club?
The “I’d bang my bestie if they were into my gender” club? They would have to think of a better name…
The Biologically Gonad-blocked Club?
they could call it “damn you, Willis!”
I think the Joyce & Becky isn’t even a case of opposing sexualities. There have been ample clues that Joyce CAN be attracted to the womenfolk, even if she’s able to ignore it because she’s DEFINITELY attracted to men as well.
It’s sadder then that.
Joyce isn’t attracted to Becky, because to Joyce; Becky is her SISTER.
I think you’ll find Joyce is very straight, but growing up with someone who was/is attracted to her, and considered that person to be her Sister, Joyce’s behavior was somewhat influenced by that. Pretty sure it’s Word Of God Joyce is very straight…
And it seems I just shocked Daniel the Human with my intellectual insight….until he remembered HE told me all that…
I’m not sure if it’s actually Word of God – though I think the clues otherwise are often taken a bit more seriously than they really should be.
That her notion of platonic female friendships has been distorted by Becky’s basically subconscious crush has been mentioned in canon and covers most of those clues well enough, I think.
Apparently having Fucktimus Prime drive through your brain results in total paralysis below the mouth.
XD That is an awesome name!! I so wanna make that now!!
Just gotta avoid using Daniel the Human’s Optimus Prime figures, he REALLY didn’t like it last time…
Sal’s hands in the last panel give away her reaction.
Poor Marcie.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you mean.
Sal’s hands look more or less the same in each panel.
I can’t see it clearly, but it looks like her fingers are curling up in the last panel.
Yup, her hands and posture changed just a bit, she’s tensed up in the last panel~
They really look different enough each panel, from where I’m looking.
The last panel seems to suggest that Sal has given a full body shiver (or a similar tensing action) in response, and that her hands are tightening into claws because of it. It seems reasonable for Rycan to assume that isn’t exactly the most favorable of signs.
That said, Sal isn’t the type to give up on Marcie, and she seems to want to try handling the matter straightforwardly, so at least their current relationship should manage to pull through. Rather, we already knew Sal wasn’t up for a romantic/physical relationship with Marcie, and Marcie was probably also full aware of that herself. In a way, it’s rather unproductive drama but, well, that’s pretty normal for relationships, after all.
In any case, Willis’ art nuances do seem to make it clear that Sal definitely doesn’t seem to be comfortable with the current conversation topic.
If you needed space from someone because of feelings about a week or so(?) ago, you most definitely still have feelings. They don’t go away that fast.
Has sal already learned that friendships get unstable when feelings are involved? That they usually collapse or grow more distant when said feelings go away? She once called Marcie the one friend who stayed around. This friendship will change.
.. It is good that sal started making other friends. Does marcie has close friends she doesn’t have feelings for?
“maybe”
The endless struggle of being friends with someone you were SERIOUSLY attracted to at one point, am I right fellas
Third base!
(By which I mean, an Abbott and Costello reference and one of Marcie’s potential relationship goals.)
Dammit just the “and” was supposed to be in italics sorry
Ah yes, Who’s on First. Scientifically the funniest thing ever. That bit never gets old.
Good talk
Is it? I’m not sure how I feel about it. Much less how Sal feels about it. Or how Sal should feel about it.
I’d say the signs point to yes …
y’knoooowww…
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/helping/
I read this out of context so I’m prolly just making stuff up, but on the off chance I’m not, this has apparently been a long time coming.
I recently took a course on sign language. It would be kinda neat if Marcie’s dialogue actually followed proper American Sign Language grammar. It wouldn’t be too difficult to read, just a little weird.
I’m in the slightly weird position of wanting both paths… Sal and Marcie would be cute, and probably raise a bunch of questions for Joyce, and maybe Walky. On the other hand, dealing with the unrequited love of your best friend is a tricky and interesting story as well.
On the other other hand, I’ve been shipping Sal and Amber in my head, but that’s prolly just wish fulfillment.
WHAT PART OF MAYBE DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!?
I’M NOT SURE!
WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?
I DON’T KNOW!
WE’RE SHOUTING FOR EMPHASIS. IT’S A THING. IT’S NOT NECESSARILY A GOOD THING.
Man I’m feeling Marcie RN. I’m trying to be friends with my ex and I’m doing a p good job but I still have huge feelings for her. Obviously not exact same scenario but similar enough to hit home for me
Oh dude.
……F.
Fs in the chat, lads
Yeah, you got to watch what you say when Fluffywolf’s here. (What?)
Yeah, I saw this coming. I mean, who at 18 or 19 years old has answers to those questions. She was just responding on impulse to every situation and hoping that some kind of direction would become plain to her later!
Translation: yes.
I’ve been in Marcie’s place and this hurts.
DoA Book 9: I Don’t Know? Maybe?
That seems to sum up practically the entire cast’s romantic entanglements, doesn’t it?
Really awkward, but kinda sweet. Let’s hope their friendship will survive.
Sal, the answer to all of those questions is “Yes”.
If Marcie genuinely did not have feelings for you anymore, her answer would have been an instantaneous “no”.
That said, just because you DO have feelings for someone doesn’t necessarily mean that the two of you would make a good couple. One of the hardest (yet most important) lessons to learn in life is that you can love someone wholeheartedly (and they might love you in return), yet you’d still not be a good match for each other.
Eh, it could be more of “I still have SOME kind of feelings but I can’t actually tell whether I’m still romantically attracted to you vs just physical attraction because you’re hot or if it’s nostalgia/regret/the-one-that-got-away because I thought I was over you when I fell for the Malaya and now I have to reevaluate the last year or more of my life because clearly I was wrong about something and haven’t figured out what yet.”
AKA – It’s complicated.
Indeed it is.
But nonetheless, that means that on some level Marcie still DOES have some feelings for Sal.
I do not know to what extent my decision to follow you was based on a crush vs. friendship. I also don’t know to what extent my needing space was informed by a crush vs. your getting into fights vs just needing to expand my friend group.
I thought I was over you but then we started pretending now I’m not sure. I’m not sure how much space I’m going to need going forward to figure this out.
feelings are dumb i dont want them anywhere near me
Your life, your choices.
yeah, I tried that for a good 10-20 years. They don’t go away.
Maybe?
Honestly, I can’t really recommend honesty in this case. Just say “no” until you believe it.
I mean, I don’t know whether it worked in my experience, but I’ve always been sure that if it was a lie then it was a good lie to tell.
I’ve always been honest in those cases. With all of it, including the pain. It allowed the other part to be considerate.
Given enough time, the feelings turned into friendship.
I suspect that, if forced to answer, Becky would answer the in same ways to the same questions from Joyce.
Becky forced to answer. Pffft. Becky wouldn’t be having this conversation unless Becky wanted to have this conversation.
Aw Marcie
I’ve been there
Except not a lesbian8’0
ohohoh thank god i never put myself out there to avoid the exact awkward situation marcie’s in rn (not that it’s good or anything – it’s still a learning and growing opportunity). been where Sal’s been tho. it’s okay babies, whatever you do will be fine in the end if you want to be fine with it.
unrelated but accidentally misread the alt-text and thought you were talking about making a enameled pin of the last panel, willis. spent a few seconds trying to figure out how that would work out (thought you meant marcie and i thought it’d be nice to have movable forearms in blue. i’d pay for a marcie pin that’s signing “maybe”)
Big lesbian oof
I like that the characters` have a relationship that allows this conversation, and allows them trust the answers are as honest as they can give. No judgement, no false assurances, just trying to work it through.
Just go and fuck already. See if you like it and if things click. If not, oh well, at least you can cross it off yer bucket list. If yes, just roll with it and see where it goes. less angst all around that way.
“There’s a time and place for everything, and it’s called college”
then this is definitely the time and place!
I do hope that this does not ultimately harm their friendship. Sal’s and Marcie’s friendship is one of the great things in this comic.
I just have to chime in quickly to say again that it’s really cool how the sign language is done in this comic. I really like the interpretation of it, visually.