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Tea Berry-Blue @teaberryblue.net ⋅ 1d
Truthout @truthout.org ⋅ 1d
Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Krispy @feathernotes.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Kendra, regular version @kendrawcandraw.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
www.comicsbeat.com/pride-interv...
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
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Oh yeah, sure Becky
Also where’d ya get that jacket Jennifer, such a nice color…
it’s a towel, and probably target
LORE DUMP.
Welp it’s handy. How was I supposed to know at that resolution?
The shower caddy reveals all. (about something I’d not have even noticed otherwise. You may not perceive everything, but at least you’re looking. Unlike my brain.
)
LOOOOOOOOORE
OLYMPUUUUUUUUUS
Lore is an android, but he’d definitely invent a way to take a dump just to mess with people.
So Jennifer is a hoopy frood?
Handy to have in case there are any Vogons in the neighborhood.
I think you mean “Ravenous Bugblatter Beasts of Traal.”
But which of them is the Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon 6? I hear her erogenous zones start three miles away from her body….
Woebetide the ship which gets caught in that tractor beam….actually I take that back.
Took a second to remember Target is a store and this wasn’t some sort of towel game Jennifer is into now.
I think it’s a towel
Jennifer knows where her towel is.
Jennifer doesn’t have a jacket; pretty sure that’s a towel. She also has her shower caddy in the other hand.
She’s also wearing socks, who wears socks in a wet floor area?
I’m not familiar with the shower rooms at Forrest, but if there’s a dressing area, or even a bench, sufficiently far from the the actual showers that there wouldn’t be much risk of puddles, putting on socks before walking back to the room isn’t all that unreasonable given it’s like January right now. If someone is particularly sensitive to the cold they might even be willing to sit down on the floor in the hallway to put them on.
Tbh I’m surprised anyone even gets dressed in the showers. When i lived on a dorm with shared showers (got a private bathroom now babeyyyy) i went to and from in my robe. Hell we were lucky if someone dried off before coming out wrapped in a towel and didn’t track water all down the hall
https://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/699185312413433856/april-28-2023 she def owns a yellow shirt at least lol
(tho you’d have to search like + hoodie or “clothing” too because of yellow jacket just on its own would bring up bees XD)
Yup yup that’s exactly what I thought it was LOL
After gathering references for Billie/Jennifer while working on my thing I’ve come to realize that Yellow is like…her defining color. She’s got a lotta yellow shirts or splashes of yellow. Though I will say once she shifts to Jennifer her predominant color becomes Blue.
Which I’m just realizing is on the opposite side of the color wheel from Yellow. (technically orange depending on what hue of blue.)
Her skin tone is kinda yellow so that tracks? It seems like she just generally wears colors that go with that, so lots of yellows dull blues and saturated reds… Her hair is black with a slight blue/grey sheen so that affects what looks good on her.
She also wears teal a lot tbh?
BJ’s really good at reading people who are transparent
She’ll take any victory she can get (and then exaggerate it).
That nickname carries some connotations with it. Though I’m not sure if they’re wholly unfitting ones.
But she’s not serving as a surgeon in the Korean War…
Oh I was implying she’s very good at BlackJack.
…I”m not quite sure this is how it works.
Which part?
She has your number, Becky!
I lack the photoshop wizardry, but I’d like you all to imagine that scene in Thor Ragnarok where Hela is like “You can’t defeat me” and Thor’s all “No but he can”.
Except Hela is Dorothy, Thor is Becky, and a giant Jennifer bursts out of a castle and starts laying waste to Asgard.
God, she’s only been on screen for four panels and I already seriously wanna draw Jennifer again….
Then again I should funnel that energy into the Millions of Billies I need to line for that one thing I’m working on.
I doubt this is what you were going for with this comment, but I read it to imply that Jennifer and Billie were different characters who happen to be sufficiently similar in appearance that drawing Billie satisfies the urge to draw Jennifer, and I am amused by that interpretation of her ongoing identity conflict.
I thought they got split apart in a transporter accident…
My implication was moreso that I refer to Jennifer as she is currently as Jennifer, but the comic I’m drawing takes place during a time where she went by and identified herself as Billie.
Would millions of Billies not just be Billieons?
Yes. And different hierarchies of them are called Jennerations.
It’s nice that Becky can now admit she’s possessive. First step to positive change.
well shes’ willing to share with jen but at least she’s not actively trying to sabotage/distnace her and dorothy lol
When Becky admits something about herself, she goes out of her way to tell everyone about her revelation. She’ll soon have the words “possessive” tattooed on her forehead.
Jennifer is really the one Becks should be threatened by at this point. She’s the dark horse in the battle for Joyce’s soul.
Wait until she finds out about Joe.
Joe’s not a threat. No possible relationship potential he could have compares to the sway the best friend has over Joyce.
I know there are people who are really annoyed at people trying to get Joyce to do things, and I get that. There are also people who hate Becky, and… I mostly don’t get that.
Still, I do kind of hope we’re reaching a turning point for that story and that Joyce takes better care of herself, with or without help, and part of me wonders if some of that ends up coming from Joe. I know that, so far, Joe and Dina have already been more helpful on the autism from than the others have, with Becky not knowing about it and Dorothy and Sarah showing that even intelligent, progressive people can have very flawed understandings of autism.
Joyce needs validation and support so she can face her problems on her own terms, not multiple mom friends fighting over who’s the most effective at forcing her into something “for her own good” “because she has to”.
More Jennifers and Joes, less Beckys and Dorothys.
Joe maybe, though Joe’s also shown a tendency to pull away from these problems and push them onto her other friends.
I really don’t think it’s true for Jennifer. Her approach worked for the doctor’s visit, when Becky and Dorothy were hesitating to take that step, but her attitude was still “someone has to solve this”.
I don’t think “friend realizes Joyce needs help” is the problem, it’s the way that help is implemented that’s the problem.
This! Jennifer offered help and only acted after Joyce accepted. Dorothy and Becky first decided without Joyce’s input that the pill wasn’t an option and now that Joyce has proved them wrong they are back to deciding for Joyce how she needs to act right now for the prescription…again without any real input from Joyce…it’s the same problem being shown on opposite sides of the helping spectrum.
Jennifer still walked into that situation going “Why haven’t you fixed this?” That Joyce was in bad enough shape to immediately agree to going to the doctor, doesn’t change that approach. She also left it for the others to follow up on – getting her to actually get the pills and take them. I think this take on how much better she is at it doesn’t really match what we’ve seen.
She gave Joyce a choice to say no. What needed to be done was let joyce know there was an option. We find out later that part of the reason joyce is so beat down is feeling worn down by Dorothy Becky and Sarahs micromanaging tendencies not because she’s in too rough shape to give a meaningful yes or no. As others have already pointed out the 3 mom friends were showing up at the crack of dawn before Joyce even had a chance to decide to try on her own so it comes off more as a completion to who is the helper rather then something the others “needed” to follow up on.
.
She sort of did – but we don’t know what would have happened if Joyce had said no, because she was in rough enough shape to just go along.
I’m not convinced, give what Jen said when she showed up, that she would have just backed off if Joyce hadn’t agreed. Different read on the scene maybe.
I don’t hate Becky but I find her tiresome sometimes. The whole “rivalry” thing seems really played out and unfunny to me. I wish she could grow up a little.
Becky initially didn’t even want to try to get Joyce on the pill and just accepted her pain as a fact of life before it became another way to compete with Dorothy. I really hope Jennifer points that this dynamic is not healthy and advises Becky to wait for Joyce to decide whether she want help or not.
Jennifer wouldn’t even know about that, would she? I took it less that she didn’t want it, and more that she just took it as a given that Joyce wasn’t going to do anything about it, since Becky correctly knew Joyce wouldn’t on her own volition. Once the ball was actually rolling, though, she did seem to genuinely be all for it, but also knows Joyce has hangups about taking pills.
What I’m getting at is Joyce having hangups isn’t justification to make all the decisions for her. She needs to be given the opportunity to learn her own limits.
Just admit it, Becky. Jennifer respects that sort of spite.
I love Becky’s smile in panel 3. Very cute.
Yes, telling someone you’re already christian to get rid of a discussion about religion, heaven and hell. It’s a cheap trick, Jennifer, but it works.
It’s consistent, at least, she’s said it before in the past, even if she seems to kind of have just sort of a vague relationship with religion.
Maybe she’s a wedding-and-funeralist.
But that is less than a C+E Christian, right?
I am agnostic (I can’t even commit to being an atheist, but I certainly don’t check the box for Christian), but will certainly go to church if invited for a wedding or funeral, as it’s about the people who send the invite, not me making it about me.
Fellow Agnostic here and that’s basically my relationship. I’ll even join in a group prayer with my family on thanksgiving, though tbh I usually just spend the entire prayer pondering the existence of a god and hoping if there is one he’s cool with me being skeptical. Followed by me getting super defensive in my own head like “well I mean, you didn’t give me a lotta great evidence and blind faith has lead to a lot of bad stuff. If anything it’s RESPONSIBLE for me to be agnostic” and by the time I’m done thinking that the prayer is over.
My family doesn’t even do that. Both parents were raised Catholic and had to do the whole CCE thing (as far as I know), so they were completely burned out on the formalities long before I came along. The only masses I’ve attended have been at weddings and funerals.
The Agnostic’s Prayer.
Billy can be very perceptive when she’s not drunk.
I feel like Lucy is missing a very important distinction between “yes” and “sure”.
Yeah, Becky’s not wrong in that Jennifer really isn’t committal on this, though Lucy’s right in that Jennifer does consistently refer to herself as a Christian is it comes up. Just, without any real passion for it, seemingly treating it as just this thing that’s always been there. I can’t speak for what it’s like in Indiana, but I know growing up in Texas that church is social as much as anything else, especially so for people in sports/extracurricular groups, so as a cheerleader, she probably went to church with others in her social group, like Alice. Doesn’t necessarily mean she’s ever given it much thought beyond that, though, like Becky suspects.
I can’t speak for congregations I’ve not been part of, but “social as much as anything else” is also a thing in Indiana and, I think, the way it should be. Check descriptions of the early church. What it should not be is only a social club.
When you grow up unable to recall a time when religion wasn’t a part of your life, it can indeed be just a thing that’s always been there. You see passion from converts. “There’s no saint like a reformed sinner.”
That said, I think Becky is saying that Jennifer’s exposure to Christianity has left her no different than if she had never heard of it.
Becky doesn’t know that we’ve secretly switched Joyce’s obvious attraction from Dottie to Joe. OK, she’s still wants to spend “special alone together” time with Dorothy. But, Joe. Butt Joe. Joe butt.
I see what you did there
I actually laughed at the last panel. Well needed considering recent social media news. Thanks Mr. W.
Becky would much, much rather use Jennifer to feel like she’s getting one over on Dorothy than be even slightly actually supportive to Joyce. Seems legit.
What would supportive be here? Having the pills just sit in the bottle without her taking them because of her hangups about pills?
As Roz pointed out in a brief conversation, there are major reasons to be consistent about taking pills, and Joyce’s hesitation isn’t really doing her any favors.
Of course, I suspect Joyce is probably going to be less wary now that she’s kind of accepting certain changes in her life more, like Joe and Dina being supportive on the autism possibility in a way that isn’t making her feel like she’s being handled with kid gloves even more than usual.
Offering help to Joyce rather than treating her like a stubborn toddler, actually talking with her without insulting or belittling her, giving her a bit of space to workshit out for herself….
Pretty much anything she never does, honestly.
It does kinda feel like regardless of what becky does people find a reason to complain. When she was trying to help she was coddling, but this seems almost like a direct response to that, with her saying ‘hey i’ll keep my distance but also make sure someone checks up on her’
I think some of us would prefer it if Becky kept her nose entirely out of Joyce’s medical business, so any amount of involvement goes against that preference, which is why no matter how she tries to handle the situation it’s not gonna get an optimal response.
Some perhaps, but others were also complaining when she and Dorothy were hesitating to do anything, before Jennifer swept in and helped Joyce properly.
And other people were cheering her on. So what we’ve learned is that different people have different opinions. Nobody cares when the opinions are all for whatever a character is doing, but any and all disagreement is treated as catastrophising. If we don’t like what a character is doing to any degree, suddenly we “think” that character is a villain who deserves hell and punishment, but if we like it (barring bigotry), not a peep is heard.
Not really, Joyce told Becky she wanted to try on her own and Becky laughed that off and is now going against Joyce’s wishes saying Joyce definitely needs her. That’s going beyond a friendly check up and into Becky deciding for herself that Joyce needs her unwanted help.
I guess people take offense at how Becky frames her actions, which is grating tbh. Sure, she’s giving Joyce space /now/ and having someone else check on her, but she still has a flippant attitude re: doing it to one-up Dorothy, and she also readily dismissed Lucy wanting to help because OMG Jennifer!
It doesn’t seem like a checkup at all really, just Becky going through other people as Jennifer points out last panel. Definatly grating how she frames her actions as she knows what’s best for Joyce be because it’s a form of control for her.
@_@
I’m guessing there will be all this build up and they’ll walk in on Joyce taking her pills by herself.
Maybe, but people were saying the same thing about her going to get the pills and it didn’t happen then.
I think the actual conflict happening here with Joyce chafing over her friends trying to manage her crises, but still actually needing them to, is more interesting than a version where she can handle it and they’re just busybodies.
I think the conflict here is between what Joyce needs (support) and what she’s getting (management). The inability to distinguish between the two is kinda the problem.
That’s fair, but that seems more like her friends not knowing how to help properly, rather than them being the villains who just need to leave her alone.
Entirely unnecessary escalation of something I did not even remotely say, but thanks, I guess.
Sorry, didn’t mean you necessarily, but it’s definitely being framed that way around here.
It’s not.
I agree that it’s more interesting! It’s also very relatable for disabled people in the audience.
It’s a subtext of yours, she can prove it.
Jenny has a lot of superpowers, it’s astounding. She’s still not “outside help“
I know Jennifer doesn’t recognize yet how toxic her new friendgroup is because they have some good qualities and she’s been surrounded by bongoy, backstabbing behavior her whole life and thinks it’s normal, and I know she’s headed either for settling in to being a shitty person or for some VERY painful grappling with self-revelation down the line, but gahdDAYUM that new haircut looks amazing on her.
With the two of them in the same room it becomes so obvious that Lucy and Jennifer each have the thing the other needs: Lucy needs to develop the social awareness and selfishness to defend herself from all the predators and parasites waiting to take advantange of her kindness and generous nature. Jennifer needs to learn to prioritize truth over status.
And then Lucy needs a glow-up as fantastic as Jennifer’s.
Or maybe they just could leave Joyce some breathing room to process everything for a day or two?
Just an idea.
But but but but but then she might not do the optimal thing as decided by people who aren’t her, and that’s bad for some reason.
Do you think that without interference she would have gone to the doctor at all?
Or would she just be waiting for this cycle to end and then go through it all again next time around?
We don’t know and neither does Joyce. Your argument seems to be that Joyce shouldn’t be allowed to fail and therefore it’s justified for her friends to take charge before she does. The problem is failure is how people learn. Let Joyce try to figure out for herself what she is capable or or isn’t. If she really does need them to take command from her fine but she hasn’t been given the chance to find out for herself yet.
Yeah, so what if she “fails”? She makes a choice, that choice has a negative repercussion, and the stakes are that she deals with said repercussion for a minute. Oh no.
She’s been dealing with these bad periods for years. It’s not a new problem.
I don’t know. Maybe we’re talking about different things?
I’m certainly not saying her friends are handling this well, but it’s not clear to me that just leaving her alone is a better plan. That they’re not good at helping her is a character flaw. Casting it as trying to control her, as some her are doing, goes too far for me.
For most of her life Joyce wasn’t given any option but to deal with the pain. Things are changing for her now as her opinions have radically shifted so it’s not fair to say she didn’t seek help before so she will never get to it on her own. Nobody is saying Joyce should be left all on her own, just that she needs to have a say in her own life decisions. Becky and Dorothy have already made it very clear to Joyce that they want to offer help so she knows she’s not alone and help is there when she needs. She has also expressed frustration with both of them for being overbearing and needing some space. Becky and Dorothy mean well but whether they mean it or not making decisions about Joyce without giving her a say is a form of control. Jennifer is calling attention to it in this very comic strip pointing out that Becky is very possessive of Joyce( a type of controlling behavior) and that the reason she’s seeking outside help is she doesn’t want to share Joyce with dorothy. They are playing metaphorical tug of war with each other and poor Joyce their rope. Their not bad people per say but the way their help manifests is indeed controlling. To say they are being controlling Is not condemning Dorothy or Becky as villians or assigning malicious intent to their actions, it is simply pointing out thats it is a problem that they both need to acknowledge and work to change.
This!
It is possible to point out unhelpful or unhealthy behavior in someone without that being “turning them into a villain”. Some of the relationship dynamics in play here are unhelpful, some of them are unhealthy, and crucially, Joyce is asserting that she does not like them. (Maybe she didn’t mind them before, but what matters is that she does *now* and she is communicating that! It may be messy and emotional instead of polished and rational, but that doesn’t make her feelings invalid.)
Who knows how long it would have taken Joyce to even consider getting medical help for her periods, now that she’s left the church that taught her birth control was for hellbound sluts, without some prompting? Not me! But what we do know is that Jennifer helped Joyce get past the first hurdle—even considering it all, and then actually going to an appointment—by the low-stakes approach of pointing out that the option existed if Joyce wanted to take it, and then offering little more than the emotional support of her presence while she did. No mocking, no hectoring, no lecturing, no excess reassurance that just reinforces the feeling that the sense of fear must have something to it after all, because why else would someone keep telling me it’s okay and there’s nothing to worry about, over and over again?
People can be well-meaning and also wrong. Love can be real, and also warped by fear into something controlling and possessive. You can make mistakes, misjudgments in your actions and relationships, and not be a terrible person. You can hurt other people, unintentionally, and not be a villain.
“are you christian?” “Sure” it was just a “whatever makes you sleep better at night”-reply. she just tired of this.
Please Becky, you couldn’t be more obvious than if you carried a neon sign.
“Joyce is a college freshman dealing with a lot of changes, and too many people want to help. Tune in for My Three Moms Thursdays at nine, only on SCTV!”
…and I thought I closed that tag. Its like 1998 all over again.
This week, Joyce must deal with peer pressure urging her to take pills because they will be “good for her.”
I like Jennifer’s new hair. I do not like Jennifer’s new friends.
What new friends?
Oh, you mean the opportunistic social climbers?
No, Yay Newfriend is crossing over from “Questionable Content.”
an invisible cameo
Raidah and her friends, Worse-Raidah and Worse-Raidah’s-Boyfriend(-I-Think).
No, I shall not learn their names.
I’m a bit disappointed that Jennifer showed up now. I imagined Lucy taking this on, and winding up talking on and on about her issues while Joyce listens supportively. Helping someone else might be the best thing for Joyce at this point.
That would be pretty funny. We do enjoy a reversal every now and again.
She’s got your number, Becky!
Also, this is an extremely cute outfit for Jennifer.
All outfits Jennifer wears are cute because they’re on Jennifer. She could show up later wearing a hotdog suit and I’d still say it looks good on her.
Still… *narrows eyes* …still doing that Dorothy rival thing huh?
I’m sorry that Lucy has to hear this madness of jealousy schemes.
so i get the distinct impression joyce did not ask becky to do this.
No, that would involve respecting Joyce’s choices and growth.
Becky/Jennifer looks like a improbable (unholy?) alliance. At least, spending time with Becky is much better for Jennifer than doing it with Raidah.
Can’t prove it, sure, but you’ve set a precedent of wanting to one-up Dorothy any chance you get, so…
Probably talking out of my rear here so I’ll get sources later.
Becky is a great example of how even nice well meaning people can still be ableist. In fact it’s quite common.
At this point with how long this has gone on, I really need a person to call it out and for it to actually stick, cause it’s grating how every Becky scene is her running past Joyce’s boundaries after being told to stop
Neither of them were taught about boundaries growing up.
Nice, well-meaning, God-fearing people don’t need them.
if i was in joyce’s shoes, I’d be extremely annoyed
Learning/getting comfortable taking pills doesn’t seem like a group activity. Like you’d need maybe one person around who could Heimlich if it went poorly. If Joyce is wearing thin on Becky and Dorothy “climbing up her butt”, then Becky recruiting a team… yes, extremely annoyed.
Yeah, there really isn’t any benefit in this bizarre “getting the band back together” shit. Nobody is helped and it’s just more people hanging up on Joyce over an ultimately petty issue.