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preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 5h
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Sophia_Nyx 
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Barb O. Saur 
beard?? shit, *I’d* be into Walky if he grew one
does he not know what a campus bookstore is tho, or whatever the name is now for where they sell things one might use in a college
I’m sure he does, but why buy some if you can mooch it from your friends?
Yep. Your completely platonic, nonromantic friends.
Considering in my experience, the only reason to go to the bookstore is to get textbooks, and 7/10 times you don’t get the textbooks anyway……yeah, there’s no way Walky knows where the campus bookstore is
Yeah, when I was at school you walked into the bookstore to:
A) Find out how much they’d buy your textbook you were done with back for (an insulting amount)
B) Find out how much they would then sell your textbook to some other poor schmuck for (several times that insulting amount).
Then you walked outside, said “I got Linear Algebra 1, for (a multiple of that insulting amount far less than the one inside)!”.
I assume these days such transactions are handled entirely online, but I am An Old.
God, right? Senior year I sat outside the school store and sold my textbooks for 25 dollars a piece. I made three times as much as the store offered me for them, and it was less than half of what they were selling the used copies for.
the company store pissed me off so much i got into the habit of reading my textbooks twice in the first week and then returning them, while i could still get full price. turns out to be the only good student habit i ever developed, completely on brand that i only did it out of spite.
Or like, a Staples
Or even a dang drugstore, like a CVS or Rite-Aid or whatever they have in Bloomington, IN.
Don’t you know the world outside campus ceases to exist while class is in session, except for a couple restaurants?
I worked for a college for a bit and seemingly all the freshman forgot about the outside world (except the fast food joints) after a few days. If the bookstore or commissary didn’t have something, it was unobtainable, even though there was a strip mall with a drugstore, grocery store, and discount store within walking distance.
Yeah, but he’s not looking for an entire ream of paper. Sure he’d probably use it if he stuck with this gig for a long time, but I don’t think he’s thinking that far ahead that he wants to actually spend real money to invest in something that he might not actually use, especially now that there may be competition.
Bleck! Oh no – no beards. Beards are a deal breaker for me. Sooo weird and itchy and gross.
A short trimmed goatee can be okay, cause the hotness makes up for the itchiness, but I can’t stand actual beards when kissing.
I’m reaching for a joke from Emily Dickinson’s line “My Cactus — splits her Beard/To show her throat –“, but I’m not finding one.
To each their own. My wife says I kiss better when I have a beard.
Based on your name, I’m presuming you’re a man, but I absolutely pictured Becky saying that because of your gravatar, and boy that was some fun imagery.
As a guy who grows a bushy beard (not long, but pretty thick), trust me Walky – beards are more hassle than they’re worth, they itch like fu…dge, and they’re also a pain to trim regularly.
To be quite honest, I wish I *couldn’t* grow a beard.
Shaved off my covid beard this morning. It was itchy. And making me look too much like Willis. Keeping the knit cap though.
Oh, hello, Dear! (Didn’t realize my wife followed this comic.)
Now is that actually Rose, or are you joking about the complaint about beards?
Almost certainly a joke, considering some of Rose’s posts on the Walky!verse comics.
Figured as much, but part of me was hoping to witness a romantic re-meet-cute.
What if he grew a beard like Ted Cruz’s, tho?
Ew, nope.
Cruz isn’t sporting a beard – it’s an embarrassment – an em-beard-assment
I do not like that man Ted Cruz
I do not like his fascist views
I do not like him with a beard
I do not like him freshly sheared
Huh, I guess I’ve only ever read his name and not heard it said pout loud because I thought it rhymed with Crudz rather than views.
Or scuz.
Or an unattended photocopier. Or even an attended one, sometimes.
Usually, colleges have printers and copiers on badge access. You have to scan your student ID so it knows whose account to charge 10 cents a page (or whatever).
The trick is to go through the menus on a printer to make it spit out its configuration page, then you can draw on the back. This is very easy on HP LaserJets.
Also, a lot of people don’t innately make the connection that they can photocopy nothing and get a blank sheet of paper. “But there has to be something to copy!” It will just copy the bottom of the lid.
Oh, configuration pages: So easy for you or me to punch up, sometimes so difficult to guide someone on the phone to do.
I miss the time when I was on the team with admin access to printers; it was a chunk easier to help people for that startup task.
TBH His family is disgustingly wealthy and he has a shit ton of free cash, so I KINDA think it’s lame he’s mooching off other people x.x.
I don’t think he’s mooching.
I think he doesn’t know better, and also maybe he’s afraid to commit to this.
PS For “doesn’t know better” look at Erika Moen fessing up to this when she was first at Periscope Studio, and much ore experienced than an undergrad studying something besides art.
They’re upper middle class, definitely not disgustingly wealthy. That would be the ruttens, *maybe* the billingsworths
I mean, he’s at a university where they’re paying for room and board. Go to the computer lab, open a printer, grab a couple sheets.
Is there any Walky-whiskers fanart?
Poor Lucy. Not only is he Night Guy or what evs, he’s also Captain Oblivious.
I think that beat panel was him knowing exactly what she was talking about, but having absolutely no idea how to politely express his lack of interest.
(Though if it turns out later strips contradict this conclusion…)
I think you’re right. He was pretending to deflect anything serious. When I first read it, I thought that he was pleading stubble to avoid any face to face contact.
I’m not convinced by a long shot he does realize what she actually means…
.
Daniel here. As someone who did not do much dating back in School (constantly FIGHTING off bullies turned me into a Loner), I know something like this would have gone completely over my head without even ruffling my hair. Until Uni started, he was completely uninterested in girls with Dorothy snapping him out of that with Monkey Master. As a Loner, girls were pretty things to look at but I never really paid attention to them. Turns out the Little Sister of a friend had a crush on me for a while (though I don’t know why) but I never knew until someone actually told me. Plus after a girl asked me if I was going to the high School prom, I replied that those types of things didn’t interest me. Literally took me 11 YEARS to figure out she was trying to ask me to go to the prom with her!
.
To me, Walky has as much knowledge as I did back then about interpreting the actions of the girls around him, so it is quite possible that quiet panel was him trying to work out what she meant, and coming to the wrong conclusion. I know I probably would have replied with “Well I wouldn’t mind a couple million dollars, but I think it might cause problems if I robbed a bank for that…” as it went so far over my head not even the tallest basketball player would be able to reach it…
Okay. This is complicated. Walky is actually a smart guy. I don’t think for a minute that he’s that oblivious. If he’s missing the not very subtext, I have to think it’s intentional. At the same time I don’t think he’s completely uninterested. If nothing else, he likes the attention. And there’s some evidence he likes her. As Nightguy, he was making sure she got back to her building safely. He doesn’t discourage her from hanging around him and he’s here now seeking her out. He’s had two relationships go south in a single semester and he hasn’t really recovered from the first one yet. So maybe he’s just gun-shy right now.
But for whatever reason, if she isn’t going to explain in plain language that she’s attracted to him and would like to know if he’s up for various activities, then she’s going to have to up her game, as for example, by asking for help in selecting the underwear that looks best on her. And proceeding to model, changing between them in front of him. If he has room to deflect, he will. For whatever reason.
Using plain language is hard, but works best. A relationship with someone you can’t talk to is asking for problems.
that was an oddly specific underwear story
It might be loosely based on a thing that might or might not have happened.
Wow. That took a turn.
Being smart has little to do with being oblivious to someone’s interest in you. Smart people can have blind spots as easily as anyone.
Yeahhh no, I’m not buying for a second that walkys aware of lucy’s crush. You can be very smart and super oblivious to people’s feelings. My boyfriend is very smart, he’s also as sense as Walky is here. Once (before we started dating) he literally had a girl grind on him at a party and he still didn’t realize she was into him. I spent days flirting with him so hard i did just about everything but flat out say i would sleep with him and he still didn’t realize I was into him until I said straight up I’d date him if he confessed to me.
This. All of this. I had a friend-girl in school who dropped a series of ASTONISHINGLY blatant (in retrospect) hints that went right by me. Had I been even slightly less oblivious, we’d probably be married now.
This is a thing that happens to grown adults too.. I know many who are all “no one is interested in me” as person #3 sits in their lap and flirts all night or a person magically appears who knows all the right things when you’ve had your worst day and is willing to do it for you. Either those aren’t the people you want, your self esteem is that low or you have zero clue what you’re looking at/what to do with it. Almost all of them had back luck/relationships in their youths and it apparently just sticks your life view in an odd way. It’s like they don’t know what affection looks like beyond a rom com script.
“It’s like they don’t know what affection looks like”.
Let me stop you right there. Because you are 100% correct. The “beyond a rom com” doesn’t even apply, because at this point those only leave me feeling confused and awkward.
I’ve been abused, insulted, perjured about, threatened and bankrupted. The obvious conclusion became obvious and I opted out before the 3rd one made me kill myself. Fool me once. etc.. The shame is on me, but ” third time’s a charm” would be my death sentence. I definitely grew up not knowing what affection looked like, mom made sure of that. Now I’m so messed up from two tremendously failed relationships that it’s painfully obvious the only people I find attractive and find me attractive always end up insulting and emotionally abusing me. And I let it happen. So until I can learn to show myself affection and let myself feel it, it’s not safe to be involved with others. And at the rate I’m going, I’ll be dead before I learn.
So… yes it sticks with you. But to be clear, at first you want to see affection, but you don’t know what it looks like. Later, after a few horrifying errors, you think you might have an idea of what it looks like, but now I don’t want to see it because it’s just way to f’ing dangerous to be wrong, again.
Not all of them had that experience, but I’m sorry you did.
It definitely some it applies to, but others they have put on glasses to the point relationships have to be perfect all the time or there are serious problems etc level. Its hard to think something feels right when it takes vastly more good signs to cancel out that one doubting bad one. which can be anything from perfectionism to depression.
I myself had a similar experience to you, but I was lucky to have friends that did have healthy relationships and I wanted it so much it hurt. I gave away so much of myself thinking thats what you do for people. Walky is definitely skewed from golden child syndrome and two frankly odd starts to relationship dynamics. But hes also just traumatized and emotionally drained in general.
Personally, I made so many judgement calls that caused me harm because I wanted that level of affection from other people, but I didn’t know what it looked like to give it to yourself. I could forgive others endlessly but not myself. Realizing I could have and needed my own boundaries to be able to be a functioning member of a relationship and that those weren’t bad things also helped. I wish you all the luck. It took me… too many years but the process was worth it. I have fewer relationships now but most are so much better than I ever thought possible.
I recently reconnected on social media with a woman who I went to college with. She said that she had harbored a huge crush on me in school.
Me: I had no idea. I wish you had said something.
Here: I flirted with you constantly.
Me: I was pretty oblivious, you probably would have had to crawl into my lap.
Here: I did that twice!
Realizing you missed the signs years after the fact hurts.
You gotta keep in mind that Lucy has also been following him around like a puppy for basically the last four months at this point. I am pretty sure he’s gathered she’s interested, he just isn’t.
Yeah, you really haven’t absorbed what people are saying about being oblivious in their own lived experiences. I’ll get your member card out to you straight away.
I literraly had the same situation in high school. That is to say, a geeky black girl blatantly interested in me. I had no fucking idea, and that sure wasn’t her fault. Took me five years to be all “Oh shit wait” and kick myself over that one.
not knowing how to politely do something has never stopped Walkerton before…
No that was me (not Night Guy, the other one). But I wasn’t very good at it.
It just wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day at Dumbing of Age without a little bittersweet heartbreak, now would it.
Walky….BRUH.
Lucy sadly is in the Uncanny Valley between his other girlfriends.
Your comment is in the Uncanny Valley between a thought-provoking point and a gratuitous insult
Perfect gravitar!
+50 Internets
huh, the site clock seems to be off by about five minutes?
Don’t complain. Early is better.
Not really news. I periodically post the time so people can see the delta between a synced clock and DoA server’s time. Apparently the host company doesn’t keep the server clocks synchronized.
Time at this posting 10:00 est
oh ok i haven’t noticed those posts sorry
I’m sorry too. Re-reading i see my post was snarkier than intended. Sorry for tx’ing the harsh.
I thought he said limitless paper at first. Like when I used to be a security guard and they gave the keys to the stationary closet. Didn’t they know I comic?
I’m not sure why he’s bothering with paper at all. I’m no Damn You, Willis, but couldn’t he be roughing it out digitally?
He’d be stuck drawing with a mouse. (Have we ever seen him with a tablet? Even then, digital painting with your finger on a touchscreen tablet isn’t great either.)
Maybe he can go to the art building and sneak some time on a computer with a Wacom tablet.
Limitless paper?
The kind one eats to become super smart?
I thought that was litmus paper, by my teacher acidly told me that basicly wasn’t how chemistry worked.
s/by/but/
tee hee
she wants the D
he wants the B(eard)
Things that are biologically POSSIBLE Walky. Important distinction.
Yeah he might need to take some pills for that
He may just be a late bloomer that way. I didn’t have decent amounts of beard hair until i was twentyish.
Granted, 2 years is forever when you are 18, even if you aren’t working with DoA time dilatation…
“One might say, things that are biologically…. conceivable. biologically… within reach. Biology is kind of the key word here Walky.”
Lucy, honey…you can do better.
If Dotty is to be believed, Walky is quite adept at the activity Lucy is seeking.
Yeah, I guess it really depends on what Lucy actually wants out of this. She’s so sweet, I think we keep thinking of her as a Joyce who wants a serious relationship and dreams of wedding bells.
For all we know she’s just thirsty and wants something casual and short-term just like Dorothy did. Certainly her interest in Walky seems almost entirely based on his looks.
I mean, sweet and thirsty aren’t mutually exclusive.
That usage completely changes the meaning of George Costanza yelling, “these pretzels are making me thirsty!”
fwiw i don’t think of Lucy as a Joyce-y character. She is almost unbearably sweet; but i do think of her as solidly grounded all the same. For my money she’s more of a Dorothy when it comes to sex, not in the wanting to keep it casual part (clearly she’s head over heels over Walky) but i’ll bet she knows what she wants and doesn’t have a coy bone in her body.
…[insert witty follow-up joke on double-entendre potential in last sentence]
I do think of Lucy as a Joyce-y character, mostly because Lucy described Joyce as a “bisexual version” of her.
she said that? ok well, um, not in my headcanon at this point. (i will now take to the tags and return with a triumphantly booming “um ~*ACTUALLY*~”, or a squeaky “forget i said anything”)
gah! found it. i should reread old strips more often, it’s fun
And at that point she barely knows Joyce. She sees herself in her because of how sunny Joyce is. Also the very way she innocently describes her by her (perceived) sexuality — that she’s just unthinkingly picked up — feels very un-Joyce-y, doesn’t it?
I feel so vindicated.
I think she would for some folks, like Roz or Joe.
Aren’t there a few panel simliarities between this and when Walky was just with Joyce?
Maybe doing better means having mediocre sex with someone who’s interested, instead of simping over someone who isn’t.
According to a good friend of mine (my best woman, in fact), mediocre sex w/interest is “like fucking a cold hot dog”.
Lucy, you can do better!
I’d say that most in the cast are on par with Walky when it comes to romanic/relationship stuff.
did Jennifer give up the mantle of cluelessness when she changed her preferred name
There is plenty of clurlessness to go around.
Where do you think Jennifer GOT that mantle? Walky practically weaved it for her.
Cluelessness is not a mantel peers can bequeth upon you. It is crafted by our parents and educational system. Walky is not to blame for Billifer’s nature.
There are… other guys that Lucy has contact with, right? Her dormmates? Her classes? Heck, even a Men’s Health magazine might be a healthier relationship at this point.
Walky tries?! When?!
When being NightGuy apparently?
When McNuggets are involved.
When trying to win an edit war on the D+MM Wiki.
Oh he can be very trying.
He is literally too stupid to blink without instructions and an alarm.
Or maybe he’s just not attracted to Lucy? That is a possibility. We’ve seen Walky when he’s hot for someone and he hasn’t thrown a single toy at Lucy yet!
There’s also the very real possibility that stress is a bone killer and his body is too traumatized to even program itself in that direction.
And/or he might just be tired and need some being single time.
Why does everyone think Lucy could do better? One whole semester down and all she’s managed to accomplish is loosing her leadership status to Jennifer. Maybe this is the last throw of the dice for her.
Because it’s Walky
I don’t mean to sound cruel in my judgment, but oftentimes it’s better to be single than to be in a relationship with someone, and Walky is at a point in his life where he’ll be a liability until he works some things out for himself. A process that would actively be hindered by being in a relationship, I should add – it wouldn’t be any good for him, either.
Just to parrot myself, you are 100% correct (maybe or not about Walky) but yes, people can definitely be in places where a relationship would do far more harm than good.
I can’t say that I agree or disagree that this is true for Walky. I might not recommend he be in a relationship, if asked, but to flat out assert it seems bold. Ultimately that is a decision to be made by the individual.
She deserves better not in that Walky is a bad person (My personal feeling aside) but in that she deserves someone emotionally mature and aware enough to reciprocate her feelings which Walky isn’t doing. She’s clearly crushing hard on him and he’s not giving anything back which is not the kind of relationship I’d wish on anyone. It doesn’t set a good precedent for if they started dating. Kind of a bad omen.
Yeah, there’s some definite issues Walky has, but ‘doesn’t know how to deal with conflict without deflecting’ or ‘has no idea how to put effort into things, may or may not be undiagnosed ADHD and leaning into lazy, certainly does not examine what he’s doing and what he wants on a frequent basis’ don’t necessarily preclude him from a relationship. You can work on those.
Either missing Lucy’s anvil-sized hints or catching them but not saying ‘hey, you’re nice and all but I’m not into you’, however? Does. I can see why he would miss, say, any cue that she dropped around discussion of Mike (like her flirting when he said ‘it’s empty because my roommate died,’) because that does seem to be a thing that takes over when he lets himself think about it. Or while he was pseudo-dating Amber, or just-post breakup(s). But in that case, it’s probably LUCY’S cue that Walky isn’t in the headspace to consider a date at the moment, so don’t get your hopes up. Regardless of the reason, Walky’s not a good dating prospect for Lucy right now. Probably not a good dating prospect in general at the moment, given the unresolved crap.
(Hey, suddenly gotta wonder what winter break was like for Walky at home, too, especially after the ‘Linda tries to get his friend expelled for being the daughter of a kidnapper’ thing. He’d already been coming to terms with ‘parents’ treatment of Sal was bad and predated her doing anything objectionable’ and ‘parental racism, internalized in Dad’s case’, but that was a new one that couldn’t be tied to their family dynamics… except for the part where Linda wanted to punish SOMEONE for causing problems for her, feelings of the children actually impacted by it all be damned. And I REALLY don’t think he’s ready to contextualize his and Sal’s upbringing as abusive yet. Apropos of nothing in this strip at all, but. Huh. Suddenly I’m wondering.)
He could also not be out of parental grasp enough to realize his parents do collateral to loved ones as a whole. Sal, Amber, if he brought LUCY home now that he’s catching on to Sal’s treatment… what would his parents do in reaction to Lucy? My take is trauma brain often pulls back from relationship thinking at all due to overload of emotional investments but if he has thought it through to parental level and not feeling like he can go NC… also fair to just not go down that road even if he was kind of into Lucy. And that is probably a thing that 18 yr old Walky would have no idea how to verbalize without it being awful (because it js) so might as well just eat the words before they come out.
God, yes. I don’t see any particular spark on Walky’s part, but even if he did given the racism aspect, yeah, yikes.
Given Linda’s already financially abused a kid to try and keep her from associating with ‘the wrong kind of people’… yeah, he is not anywhere NEAR in a position to go NC, and I’m not sure he’d recognize that it’s an option he’d want to prepare for yet. (Even if he manages to maintain some sort of relationship with the parents, there is no universe where it’s safe for any of the Walkerton kids – Jennifer included but at least the chance is astronomically lower with her – to let Linda have any access to or influence over their finances.)
ktbear, are you saying that Walky might be her last chance at a relationship? At a 18 or 19, at a college where presumably there’s a good selection of men?
Hmm… I read “last throw of the dice” more like maybe Lucy’s taking her last shot at Walky, not that ktbear was implying it was either Walky or spinsterhood for Lucy. But I really don’t know. Maybe ktbear is a victorian?
ktbear, i’m also not sure why so many people are yelling at the screen, but maybe i don’t relate to fictional characters the way many here seem to. I’m like, “oh sweet, she’s all over him, let’s see where this goes”. *eats popcorn*
Also i can’t seem to dislike Walky altogether, for some reason? and i’ve read all the comments detailing why you should. Not that i have any issue with people hating on him (except it… kinda gets repetitive >.>) He’s a kid. An irritating brat for sure, but i can see how he could be endearing also.
I believe there are two main reactions when people don’t like a character beyond the True Evil Dads: people who react bad to certain personality types as they would in real life due to personal pet peeves/bad experiences or people who just think certain characteristics are uninteresting compared to other bonfires and they enjoy some level of fantasy jerkery but this isn’t their cup of tea. There is a third rarer one where there are certain characters you might find FUN to hate. Walky isn’t my cup of tea, and we would not get along in real life(to the point I would actively question what is his draw to other’s , even when I was his age) but I find him entertaining on screen outside of a personal interaction. He’s the friend of a friend I want stories about, but I would not want to become a cast member to those stories on a camping trip or something.
Exactly! He’s a bit of a jerk, but in an entertaining way. This being a story and me a reader, i’m all for the cheeky snarky asshole getting (some) airplay.
also, re: why girls keep falling for Walky of all people, never understimate how hot self-confidence is, no matter how unwarranted. It’s probably not much fairer than people being found more attractive for having symmetrical features or whatever. That’s just how it is.
I recognize that it can feel urgent and truly vital to find a relationship, but it isn’t. In no way is college the “last throw of the dice.” Lucy has plenty of time.
Lucy is thirsty as fuck and it hurts
Panel 3: Lucy tries eye-sparkles in an attempt to seduce the Walky.
Panel 4: Eye-sparkles intensify
Panel 5: Eye-sparkles shut down
*plays Exile’s “Kiss You All Over” on the hacked Muzak*
As someone who was in Walky’s shoes once.
He knows. He absolutely knows.
She might as well be firing rockets at his face. He knows.
He’s just not sure how to break it off while not offending his friend and so he just… doesn’t react. Brushes past it, hoping the situation will just resolve.
Walky is frustratingly relatable for me at times and this is definitely an area where I can say, yeah, you be oblivious to the extremely obvious
I resemble this remark.
Seriously, it took me about four months to figure out that my now long-term partner was interested in me. I like liked him, but was sure he was being nice and paying attention to be because he wanted to be friends only. It wasn’t until an Appropriate Support Hug somehow turned into mutual kissing that I *finally* realized he was interested in me too. (And even then I thought that maybe he just wanted to hook up with someone and I just happened to be there…) *facepalm*
Later Partner told me that he was about to either hire a plane to skywrite “Jaime, I’m interested in you romantically” or give up and live forever in unrequited love. He couldn’t believe anyone could be that oblivious to the signals he was sending. Let’s just say that he knows me a LOT better now.
“No one could be that clueless” is one of those statements that is basically never true.
Yeah, Daniel here. *I* was one of those people who didn’t have a hope of getting a clue what this kind of signal meant. Turns out the Little Sister of a friend had a crush on me for a while back in School, I could not have been any more oblivious to her feelings at all! Had to be told years later! In hindsight, it’s possible some things she did may have been to get my attention, 1 potential example coming to mind would have been a bit more obvious than what’s going on here – if it was an actual attempt that is. I still don’t have all the details…
I was that clueless basically from the first time a girl tried to send a signal (in the…3rd grade? 4th?) clear through my 20s.
And on the other side of things, a girl I was carrying a roughly Antarctica-sized torch for had a friend arrange things for a casual encounter between us and told me after the fact that she had no idea I was attracted to her, despite what her friends had told her.
And that was a girl with way more Experience In Such Matters than I had.
So, yeah. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a n00b or a vet, you can absolutely be oblivious to even the most garishly neon signals.
I am in agreement. I am pretty much still that person, but now also seek to actively undermine myself when I think I may be even getting a hint of flirtation.
On the plus side, when you’re that oblivious, when you do see the signs you can be pretty sure you’re not just making it up.
Sadly not. I’ve responded and asked a couple of times. Got shot down. Checked with friends and they confirmed, naw bud, you mis-read.
Yeah, try going through life with a -100 “nonverbal communication” debuff. In retrospect I’ve been in this situation a couple times, but only realized it in retrospect, years later.
It’s also possible to be pretty good at nonverbal communication in general, but to have a huge blind spot when it comes to romantic intentions towards yourself.
My partner and I were dating exclusively for almost a year before we both realized it was mutual and made it official.
Put two oblivious people together and the result is when you finally start dating people’s response is, “FINALLY!”
Or sometimes “Wait. You weren’t dating already?”
As someone who had to have my future spouse literally PUSHED INTO MY LAP to realize they were interested in me, can confirm. There is no such thing as an expected level of ‘clue’, at any age. Don’t be deterred by obliviousness.
I had the exact same thought. I’ve been in those shoes, too.
Huh.
I was just relating to Lucy here. Except, in college, when after many weeks of flirting with a male friend I finally dropped a line VERY similar to that, he got the message.
And then, after the sex, he was like “That was great, buddy! Anyway, I’ve got a date in an hour. See you tomorrow!” And very politely kicked me out of his room so he could go sleep with a friend of mine.
He, as it turned out, wasn’t a very nice person.
In the past few years I’ve become aware of at least a few times in my past where a girl was giving off lots of hints that she was interested and I didn’t react, not because I wasn’t into her, but because I completely failed to realize that she was into me at the time. I’m still leaning towards Walky just being that oblivious to Lucy’s hints.
Bzzztt. Yes you really can be absolutely this oblivious. Parental abuse does horrific things to one’s ability to recognize and comprehend affection. And that is not the only reason people miss clues and hints. There are various spectra that people may be on that can interfere, and those too, do not comprise all the reasons people can be clueless. Practice also makes a big part of it. I’ve had a girl refuse to sleep anywhere but in my bed, and I didn’t get it. In hindsight, I should have run screaming, because it went so completely, cow-tippingly wrong.
Lucy’s trying about as hard as a girl from a harem anime and is doing just as well
Maybe she should have gone the tsundere route instead?
That’s not exactly Sarah’s turf, but I still feel like it would be encroachment upon it.
Oh Lucy…you may not be my favorite but I’ve been there and it’s a long and hard road ahead
I don’t think Lucy can “do better” but she can def find someone more compatible with her and actually feels the same. Walky tends to know who he likes pretty quickly (if the only 2 people he’s ever liked is a good indication)so I don’t think this’ll be a “he’ll come around” situation. Walky def does not do coy either
Yeah! This is what worries me. Walky has consistently (as in the two times he’s been interesting in somone) shown he’s a guy who knows what he wants. If he were attracted to Lucy we’d know by now.
Yeah, I don’t see this ending well for Lucy. And Walky…I love the kid but he is the type to totally push off letting her know cause he doesn’t know how to handle the situation
Like Dottie broke it off because she wanted to study but she enjoyed her relationship with him and he was the one that broke off the fun with Amber for his relationship with Sal but besides being convinced to buy stretchy pants he’s not really known to be bad in a relationship.
Lucy and him just don’t seem like a good fit.
Agreed. I’m using ‘better’ as shorthand for ‘actively interested in her and emotionally available for dating right now,’ and Walky definitely fails at least one of those criteria, but you are tight. He’s a perfectly good date when he’s trying!
But he is not trying here.
* Er, right. Thanks, thumbs and tiny mobile keyboards.
An unrequited crush can be rather corrosive and damaging. Especially if it’s on somebody a bit usey who either realises that you will unquestioningly go the extra mile for them and is happy to exploit that, or who won’t necessarily notice but is happy to take more than they give from a friendship. (I had the former, but can see Walky doing the latter wihout realising until somebody points it out.)
I don’t know if Walky’s being oblivious or doesn’t know how to let her down gently so is ignoring it and hoping she works it out, but either way, her moving on and either being happily single or finding a relationship with somebody who adores her and fancies her and respects and values her would be an improvement, even if the person themselves isn’t a wealthy guy with a family with connections and a body made of sculpted caramel. I am assuming alternative guy can also be sweet, understanding and supportive in relationships, and has a sense of humour and an awareness of his own strengths and limitations – even if Walky’s need to study is hard for him to internalise – and preferably is also reasonably intelligent but who may well be considerably more ambitious than Walky is…
Yes, Lucy could do worse: she could be crushing hard on Not-Ryan (and convinced he’s either innocent or that she can save him), or on any of the other misogynistic dudebros who apparently swamp this university and are willing to attack doxed women to protect their own, or she could have been crushing on Mike previously…
Is the comic secretly set in this world? It feels to me like Lucy has almost as bad a case of lockdown thirst as, um, a friend of mine. You don’t know them tho.
I think it’s possible she hasn’t dated before, or not in a long time.
oh yeah no i think i might know that friend of yours, from your description, unless— there are several of us? Who have such friends.
I sure as hell know one.
Does it count as lockdown thirst if it started 4 years before the outbreak? Asking for a … friend. Also, does one need to thirst for someone in particular, or can they be just generally thirsty, even if they know their cup is laced with cyanide? I mean, the water is probably fine, but there’s no way to drink without poisoning yourself.
I’d tell your friend to milk the crisis for all it’s worth
also that sounds pretty bad? i’m not sure i get the metaphor super accurately but i’m pretty sure there’s no poison bad enough that you can’t, like… overcome it? my sympathies, whatever the issue actually is.
OK you do go into some more detail in another comment on this page.. well shit. This internet rando apologizes for even trying to reason you out of your own feelings and apprehensions. Good luck to you.
No apology necessary. The message of support is appreciated. I’m probably on the wrong board today as I think I was fishing for some support.
Yeah, no notification on responses and comment sections going obsolete after 24h means it’s not really the best place i think?
…Welp, happy Valentine’s Nay!!!! =D
(indulge me.)
(Sure Milu i think you’re hilarious)
(Awww thanxx so #blessed to have you in my life Milu)
(Same Milu, same)
I have…Never felt more similar to Walky when I was in college than this comic. Like, God. This…This is it. This is the one. INCAPABLE of reading when someone was interested in me.
I HONESTLY can’t tell if he’s just fucking with her or if he’s actually THAT oblivious: equal odds on either.
I think he has a general idea at least, and is ignoring her infatuation hoping it will go away without incident and they can still be friends. From experience from Lucy’s position.
It’s pretty obvious to me that he’s not fucking with her, and she’s trying to change that.
Ba
Dump
Tsshhhh
Hopefully with less dump and more tush.
He’s Just Not That Into You
*He’s Just That Not Into You
Walky, you chowderhead, you can’t be that clueless.
Speaking from (bitter) experience …. oh yes, he can.
“Backward, turn backward, oh Time in your flight;
I now realize what Lucy was meaning last night!”
(apologies to Elizabeth Akers Allen)
[Chris Helmsworth]
^THIS^
[/Chris Helmsworth]
Oh, he easily can. It’s not that hard to miss signals from someone you’re not interested in. I actually don’t know how often that’s happened to me, but i know of at least three girls who felt that way about me but i didn’t see it until well after they gave up. And had it pointed out to me.
Hell, it’s not hard to miss signals when you are interested.
The other problem – of seeing everything as a signal when you are interested – is also common, of course.
I dunno. Walky’s pretty perceptive, especially about romantic body language. BILLIE’S the dense one.
… well, one of the dense ones.
*Jennifer. Sigh. I’m going to need to see her called that about fifty more times in comic before it sinks in.
Seriously, what privilege does she have that “Dotty” doesn’t?
“Dotty” hasn’t asked to be called “Dorothy”. Jennifer has. It’s a respect thing.
Admittedly, these are college students, so respect is optional. I like to try and be better, myself.
Didn’t she say something about not liking being called “Dotty” at one point, though?
Not that I recall, no, but it’s been a while and I just got up.
The character has asked other characters to call her “Jennifer.” She has not asked the commenter above to call her by that name. Does the commenter need to *correct the comment out of respect for the character? If so, I would think that commenters would need to write “*Dorothy” in their next comment when they have used “Dotty” in a comment.
Girl is THIRSTY
Still too subtle, Lucy.
At this point, I think she’d need to beat him over the head with her naked body for him to either fully get it or acknowledge it…
*tries to picture it*
*ok i pictured it now ty*
Walky, the most dense oblivious man this sided of the Continental United States.
But I can’t say I’m one to talk. I only recognize that flirting has happened hours later and end up kicking myself for not recipricating.
There have been times where I didn’t realize that a girl was flirting with me and/or hinting that she was interested in me until literally years later.
Does it count if I realize it’s happening, but dismiss it as just my imagination?
Yes.
I just want to say how neat the framing is in panels three and five with the lightsaber flare inbetween Lucy and Walky.
I hope that’s foreshadowing that there is a “spark” between them and Walky is just very, very, VERY oblivious. (See my comment above) I think Lucy might be good for him; it seems she is more in tune with where he is in his life and college at the moment (unlike Dorothy, who has serious ambitions beyond what most college freshment do) and she doesn’t seem to be dealing with the same kinds of serious difficulties Amber/Amazi-Girl is. IMHO it seems like Lucy genuinely likes Walky with no baggage attached.
A lightsaber flare between them means he will knock her up so she can die in childbirth while he becomes a mass murderer, right?
Hew was a mass murderer long before he did that. Him becoming one lead directly to the start of their relationship.
A “spark” between them? Could this be foreshadowing a Girl Genius crossover?
LOLing at Slartibeast Button, BIA and AbacusWizard.
Nah, this is Willis we’re talking about. The spark in question will possess one of them with the ghost of Starscream.
I guess that hair Dorothy shaved never grew back?
goddammit malaya
Hrrm, Jennifer. This could be interesting.
THis is so adorable. I love Lucy she has the most adorable wholesome crush. I wish Walky liked her but I guess she isn’t his type but he deserves a sweet motivated supportive girlfriend
I dunno. This reads as clueless. Walky usually is more observant, but… I think Walky would be like “oh, shit” if he knew and didn’t like her, because she looks almost like she’s going in for a kiss. That would have meant he figured out his playing clueless didn’t work, hence “oh, shit”.
I think he doesn’t deserve anything tbh, He’s clueless, unmotivated, and used to coasting and being a massive man child…
He has gotten a lot better. The thing with Walky is he needs to be pushed and when he is he does incredibly better. He needs someone to challenge him and make him want to be his best. He has make big strides this wanting to do the comic strip is a huge step for him wanting to actually engage with his actual passions art and cartoons on his own. He has started standing up for his sister and had his eyes opened about his failings in his family and he made things right and has been better and he’s growing up. I think Lucy would be a good balance she’s driven intelligent(things we know Walky is into) and motivated but is way less type A than Dorothy who gave Walky issues of insecurity I think if it could work with Lucy it would be a good balance
throw a toy at his head!!
That’s the kind of thinking we need around here
It still wouldn’t have been enough, but maybe…
She should have WINKED.
Or closed her eyes with a head tilt…
I really don’t think he’s that into you, Lucy. Just ask him out and find out.
Hey Lucy, at least when you offer him anything he wants, at least he is thinking of something associated with masculinity…
By the way is everyone else getting beard care ads here, or is it just me?
Just you. What’s up with your beard, anyway?
It’s uncared for, obviously
I am emotionally unavailable to my beard. Just how I am.
I keep getting ads for trimming my nether regions. I want to call that beard-adjacent, but that would go to a weird place.
I also question the intelligence of The Algorithm in its ad choices.
They are so clueless with the ads, “welcome to the dark ages”, really? Adult diapers for seniors? Sailboats for $12,000 per linear foot? Yeah they don’t know me AT ALL.
It seems like Manscaped is sponsoring every YouTuber lately.
(Maybe I should get in on that. I need new blades for my Norelco and those things are expensive!)
Alas, the mention of Oscar Isaac only makes Lucy more smitten with Walky.
I choose to believe her brain had a stack overflow and crashed when she imagined bearded Walky.
c’mon Lucy you gotta be way more direct than that; do you even understand how oblivious this dude is
Walky MIGHT be the most oblivious person in the room.
Might.
Is he though? Or is he just not into her and hoping she’ll drop[ it if he avoids the subject?
I like that sometimes, they’re just not into you. That was one of the things I liked in the original Roomies. Joyce was adorable and wonderful but Danny flat out didn’t want anything to do with her romantically.
Roomies Joyce was “adorable and wonderful”???
Adorable? Yes.
Wonderful? Eeeh…
Roomies Joyce was dangerously unstable and annoying.
lucy be super thirsty. i feel bad that its aimed at walky.
Welllllll isn’t panel 1 relatable …
Undiagnosed ADHD is years spent mostly wondering why you can put in ridiculous, unhuman amounts of effort into some things, but can’t manage to do simple things like take out the trash.
You don’t see a lot of female Nice Guys in stories, but dang if that isn’t Lucy all over. Either ask him out or move on, Luce, stop trying to elbow your friendship into a romance.
Walky: Listen, I’m like Xander and you’re Willow.
Lucy: I like boys.
Walky: No, I mean Season 1-3 Xander and Willow.
At no point has Lucy acted entitled to Walky. Being a chicken is not the same as being a Nice Guy.
Lucy: “I’ll be your beard, Walky.”
Walky: “That’s not what… wait, what?”
Lucy, you’re still being way too subtle. Or maybe he’s not interested, but as a guy who’s really oblivious to when a girl’s into me, I wouldn’t be surprised if Walky is also that oblivious.
To be LESS subtle she’d have to be throwing things at his head, and who thinks THAT’S romantic?
I just realised Walky has only ever dated white girls so far. (well, the number of girls he has actually dated amount to two, so it’s not really meaningful), I wonder if he’ll get some “unexpected” backlash from his mom if he ever ends up dating Lucy and his mom learn about it.
Interesting. Now I’m wondering how Linda would have taken it if he started dating Jennifer. On the one hand, “the girl next door” is supposed to be the greatest thing ever, and Jennifer is the “reasonably white-passing daughter she always wanted”, but on the other hand, she’s not entirely white.
Considering that Linda treated Jennifer absurdly better than Sal, HER OWN DAUGHTER, I’m pretty sure that she’d’ve been delighted for Walky to end up with her.
I wonder if Walky has his own racism that Linda has implanted into him. That he has been conditioned to overlook the affections of awesome gals like Lucy because they don’t fit what he was told to seek out.
I wouldn’t think Willis would go there but he did with Sal and Walkerton.
(Syndrome Hands) You DENSE M*****F*****!!
I’d argue Walky knows exactly what she means and doesn’t want to do the healthy thing and say, “No, Lucy, I’m not feeling it.”
Panel 2 Lucy: Man, those are some strong IW Dina vibes she’s giving off.
The Doctor: Oh! I know what’s it like: it’s like when you fancy someone and they don’t even know you exist. That’s what it’s like.
Walky is putting so much effort into not putting any effort into Lucy’s feelings that it hurts.
well put, Sombrero.
My grav would have to agree with yours.
Oh Lucy, you poor thing
You will have to say it as blatantly as possible if you want him to actually aknowledge anything
Shoo, begone Joe gravatar
Oh this I dig
Oh dear. Lucy, please. Stop trying to woo this guy, he’s not worth it…
The gravatar fits. XD
“Love is just a chemical reaction, and not a particularly interesting one. Eat at arbys”
“Feeling pangs of love? Don’t worry, it’ll pass, just like all things eventually do. Eat Arby’s*.”
*or don’t; eat whatever you want, we D.N.G.A.F.
This just hurt
Yeeeep. I’ve been in Lucy’s shoes before too, as somebody who’s naturally shy AND introverted, and before I was experienced enough to know better about how you just have to be more upfront with feelings and relationships because people aren’t mind-readers.
Or to realize they did get the hint and are deliberately avoiding the subject because they’re not into you.
Oh, so oblivious, i know that feeling
I don’t know that he is so oblivious. I think that, like so many things in his life, he’s ignoring it in order not to have that conversation. He’s a bit more mature now, so he might get there eventually. Maybe.
Lucy is not so lucky. Ir is very lucky?
#relatable, amiright?
Giving Walky a pass here. Before the kidnapping/murder he had no trouble responding to this kind of situation. The time skip was needed because the cast is different people and this is a different comic.
He doesn’t want Lucy’s dad to kidnap him.
yeah pretty sure he has trauma and of his relationships, he was mainly Interested in Dorothy, then saw amber as “thicc dorothy with a cool superhero thing and garbage like me”, and now I don’t wanna do her this way, but Lucy is pretty much everything he was not ready to handle about Dorothy (smart and extremely self motivated), as well as clearly not seeing and therefore unable to be at peace with his garbage-ness, which is a liability for someone who enjoys being garbage.
One day, Lucy will hopefully grow up and grow standards in the process.
Willis just blatantly trolling us with that poll. It’s obviously gonna be Joyce and Walky
I’ve got a boarding pass for the USS Joece and dammit, I’m going down with that ship!
it’s obviously gonna be Malaya, but no one knows it yet cause she’s gonna submit on a whim at the last second and blow everyone out of the water.
That line should have worked.
I can’t believe fanfics have lied to Lucy all this time
Lucy, you are being too subtle; Walky does not understand, “subtle”. You need a sign that says, “lets smash”, and even then, it would take a while.
And Walky would respond, “which one:
Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl,
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate?”
..sadly yes, yes he would.
You know, I’d like to say this is exaggerated, that no one can be that clueless. Except that one of the happiest married couples I know (they’ve been together since the early 90s) love to talk about how clueless he was.
To hear her tell it, she was sending him every signal she could think of and he just wasn’t picking up. She finally gave up, walked up to him and said “Hey. I’d like to date you. Wanna?” He had absolutely no clue.
Oh, for god sakes SHE WANTS TO TOUCH YOUR PENIS!!!!
Reminds me of “You! Are! A! Toooyyy!”, from that old TV show about talking toys.
Toy Story? Wasn’t that Woody’s line to Buzz?
Yeah, he screams at him underneath the car, at a gas station. Then they get into a brawl you’d never see in a kids’ movie today and wind up at the arcade.
Total cluelessness regarding flirting, Walky? Well, me, too, man. Me, too.
Maybe he’s just not interested and is too much of a bonehead to just say so? He’s not obligated to fuck her just because she would REALLY like him to, y’all. I’m getting gross vibes off the responses to these two, and it’s not fantastic.
That said, if he’s not interested, he really ought to say it to her face, gently if possible.
This is how I’m reading it. I think he’s plenty aware that Lucy’s into him, and just isn’t that into her, and not into a relationship in general right now. Really it was a novelty that just spontaneously erupted with dorothy then rebounded into amber, and after those two I don’t think he’s likely super keen on dating another highly motivated and intelligent girl that’s really into him.
Support this 100%, if he in fact is picking up her signals. I’m not convinced his antenna is receiving anything right now.
And yes, gently, BUT, and this is important, BLUNTLY. He doesn’t need to be cruel, but being absolutely clear is an important part of being gentle. Lack of clarity only creates confusion and prolongs suffering.
Walky is being a typical clueless young guy, missing out on hints that he could be doing the sex thing . . .
Which kind of implies that guys don’t care what they’re sticking it in as long as they can get it wet, which supports Delicious Taffy’s comment of getting gross vibes off of some of the responses. As much as some people might appreciate the idea of a guy as brute who only responds to instincts, that mentality leads to problematic behaviour for a number of reasons. As such we live in a world where people need to expect more from their partners in order to ensure that no involved parties can get hurt (in whatever combination of people are involved).
Not meaning to say that’s what you intended in your writing, just that it can be read that way /Alec Guiness/ “from a certain point of view”
I think that you can interpret the fan response that the fans think Lucy is a wonderful gal and wonder why Walky isn’t feeling it.
I have the same Last Jedi poster as Lucy!
It’s okay Walky, I couldn’t grow facial hair ’til I was 21, maybe you’re just a late bloomer!
Or god hates you and makes your facial hair suddenly actually grow the same week you join the military, I’m not sure which one was my case
pretending to be clueless, enjoying the power. as common as shit, been close to both sides of it, been ON both sides of it, may even have experienced some personal growth from being the patsy.
Sure, you can interpret malice in anything.
are you RPing as malaya?
she deserves this.
Faux naivete to a mask passive aggressive strategy of social dominance?
Thsts LUCY all the way .
walky is mirroring her. all she has to break it is saying “you can touch my booby”
lucy ready to risk it all