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Last 3 panels: Lucy annoyed that she’s the one who always has to feed and walk the brain cell, when the three of them agreed to share that responsibility.
Walky makes jokes about polycules because he thinks they’re funny, but didn’t he already make this one with Lucy and she shot it down? I have some kind of memory that he suggested one with Jennifer, and got the stink eye from both women.
also, uh, I’d have to worry about Linda (even more) if she REALLY buys that Walky can just be like, “Oh, didn’t like that girl? How about this other model?”
You’re talking to a time traveller. The speed of time is relative to him reading the comic, which may have taken a lazy Sunday afternoon he accidentally landed in, and now he’s come back to chat with us all about it and being extra careful to avoid the spoilers of Walky accidentally becoming God.
I’m thinking it’s one of those high fives where they swing their arm in a circle at the shoulder before connecting?
I’ve seen it once or twice in media, but not in person.
Be careful about noise, though.
There’s the initial slap, followed by a moment of complete silence, as everybody stops talking and turns to look.
Don’t think your ears are safe, however. That’s only the eye of the storm before the torrent of cursing when high-fivers realize just how hard they just hit each other’s hands.
(I’m not sure if Amber has Charles that completely figured out, but if she does, I’m gonna start believing she’s on her phone all the time because it’s the only way her social skills can be contained and kept from fixing all the interpersonal problems in the universe.) (Except her own.)
Huh, I seem to have slipped into an alternate reality where Lucy is the one who says that line. Doesn’t even make sense for Amber, my parenthetical comment is clearly based on some other strip that didn’t happen in this universe. The fact I can’t even remember the strip I must have read earlier seems to indicate it’s not even possible for it to exist.
sure, tho i imagine that she’d get jealous otherwise she’d have proposed a more casual thing than ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’ (well even tho it was walky who asked her out)
Yeah, it’s unclear. Like, I guess Walky could be like, “I lied before because I knew you wouldn’t approve of me dating Amber”? And hope Linda doesn’t remember too much about how the interaction wherein she met Lucy went down?
What if Walky hasn’t thought through the “they’ve already met Lucy” thing, and then his mom’s like, “But what about that Lucy girl we met earlier?” And Amber turns toward him (in an exaggerated slow motion that tragically wouldn’t be portrayed well in comic form) and goes, “They ALREADY MET Lucy?”
Imho the Goal is to ridicule Linda so they made ridiculus scenario. If she dont buy it they will have nice window to spell out reason you suck speech to her
as far as i know one of the side charas (sienna?) is in a polycule with mandy and some other girl, but probably not too much content of the moutsdie of some bonus strips (unless we’ll get an ‘arc’ with them like, 25 years form now lol)
OoooK looks like this is really happening and Amber will willingly subject herself to the most hostile and awkward social situation, on purpose. I suppose she is betting it will be even more awkward for Walky and his parents. Would be funny if Dorothy sees them all together!
I adopted the “she could rely on her motherfucking spite” as my saving grace when the sitch is Bad and the spoons are Zero – And I’ve never regretted it
Honestly, out of the entire cast, Amber is probably the best suited for actually pulling this off. Everyone else either has too much self-respect (deserved or not), or not enough patience.
But I get the feeling she’s going to end up speaking up and defending Walky.
She’s “subjecting” herself to a meal and front-row seats to seeing some of her enemies melt down. She’s already planning on matching their hostility, and there’s minimal awkwardness when she has absolutely nothing at stake. Things get awkward when you want them to go well and they don’t, but she’s going in knowing the bridge is on fire with the intent to make it worse.
The Blaine stuff that got Walky kidnapped because Amber existed nearby and Linda is not a nice person so of course she sued Amber’s mum as if it was her fault Blaine sucked and did messed up stuff.
I’ve seen plenty of “fake dates”, but I’ve never seen “fake polycule”–oh, wait, no, there was that one sci-fi novel. It started with the protagonist being charged with some crime, no one would defend her except for a starship captain and his first mate, and the three of them had to get married to be allowed off the planet. Can’t remember the name of the story for the life of me, or any details that lend themselves to being searched easily.
…Anyway, my point is, “fake polycule” is relatively unmined ground and there should be more fiction exploring it.
I mean, a lot of sci-fi pulp contemporary to early Trek fanfic started as the authors’ fanfiction with the serial numbers scrubbed off (like the Vorkosigan saga), so in my heart I’m rooting for both. And I Want To See It
No, it was definitely a novel – a trilogy, actually. It was from the 60s or 70s, the chairs on the spaceship had webbing to keep the crew secure, faster-than-light travel involved navigating some kind of symbolic landscape. In the second book the protagonist needs to do some kind of spy mission that involves quickly memorising a lot of information, which she is able to do thanks to a mnemonic technique called “The Grand Theater” (there was pointedly no information on how it works, except someone saying “oh, I’m so thankful you know The Grand Theater!”) In the third book she had pyrokinesis for some reason?
it’s probably never come up as much because there’s not as much a ‘need’ for it? Lying about one partner is one thing, but I cant’ think of a realistic situation /real world instance about bragging about multiple ppl w/o coming off like a f*ckboy unless you have some poly acquaintances and wanted to impress them
It’s very funny to me that if you look up “windmill high-five” (because you think you have some idea, but this term isn’t actually familiar to you, and you’re unsure if that’s more a “you” thing or) some of the top results are just, like, people high-fiving in front of a windmill. Other results seem to clarify the actual idea (a high-five popular from Top Gun), but I like to think Walky’s dad would just leave the restaurant with Walky, drive out to some windmills, and high-five him in front of one.
I did find this informative video, which doesn’t actually call it a “windmill high-five,” but still came up in the search for it, and is very educational: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZYfL6MeJek
No matter how this goes down, I suspect the words “in flames” will apply, and I for one am excited to curl up by the fire with some popcorn and watch the flames.
(No one get into how the storyline’s emphasizing that she’s chocolate. I already attempted to craft three jokes for that and they all tripped past funny and pratfell into offensive. It’s a hazard to all who come near it! Stay away, I tell you, STAY AWAY!)
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/sufferable/ I dunno, I think between this polycule joke and the one in this strip, it seems to point towards Lucy not liking the idea of sharing Walky. She is a ‘nice Christian’ after all! One who’s wrapping her mind around ‘when can I sex’, I think polyromance is a bit outside her wheelhouse.
WELP. It’s happening. Amber, who is versed in Fake Dating scenarios (and has Literal Experience with them) is in. To fuck with Linda Walkerton, which tbh is more than enough motivation and maybe, to fuck David Walkerton in an appropriately hardcore manner.
Meanwhile! Walky keeps mentioning polycules, and Lucy holds their sole braincell – and I do see she isn’t doing a stellar job with it. I love this. It’s going to be a glorious clusterfuck, and I’ve got popcorn ready.
DoA needs one of these. With what has happened in the past months we could easily arrange one with Amber, Lucy, Walky, Asher, Ethan, and Booster. At the very least, and in various configurations too.
(Willis, if you’re reading this, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but…)
There is but I’m not sure what word – somebody had it substituted and was confused and tried to correct themselves and it happened again, last week I think.
It was kinda funny but possibly they were using rude words that would have been less humourous
Although now I’m a little curious if it’ll snag it if it’s not by itself, like in an innocuous place name that happens to have the right letters arranged in the correct order, like Scongahorpe, England.
Sir David of Willis was tired of the comments using such a gendered insult to describe Billie like 5 or 8 years ago that he made it auto change to Bongo and just never turned it off. It has become kind of an in-joke for some of us who have been around for a long time.
Both are super nerdy, Lucy can give Amber the kindness and patience she’s defined by, and Amber can teach Lucy #resolution and how to stop trying to please everyone. I’m into it.
Unfortunately, no. But I agree with Dante that there are things they could teach each other. Honestly, I’d be pretty happy if they ended up besties. There’s a Sarah/Joyce-ish dynamic that could happen.
dunno how parents would feel after finding out a bout amber, but it’d be interesting if they were even prouder of walky for dating someone who ‘went through something so terrible’ and ‘seeing past her flaws’ or so lol
well, walky knows that they were all invited though sal did say she was going to avoid them, but if anything it might work out for walky unless it goes so bad that he gets disowned yb them or sal never talking to him again
Walky being Walky, “Let’s do some wacky sitcom shenanigans!” may be literally and explicitly his train of thought. I’m assuming Lucy’s going along because she’s too nice and eager to please for her own good. Amber’s just in it for the free meal and the schadenfreude.
You both really really think that it’s a “binary choice” ? That Linda will magically approve of Lucy after this ? I mean, I like the idea of freely annoying Linda but that is not how it works.
i guess it probably happens, though parents aren’tu sually involved but i’d prolly side eye/be a little wary of someone that’s like “breakup by lunch, new girl by dinner” tho i suppose that’s a teenager-y thing to do, if not just some adult just rebounding with like a casual fling unless they already had someone in mind on their ‘lineup’
I guess he could say he’s not dating Lucy exclusively? But I’m pretty sure he already told them Lucy was his “girlfriend”, which usually implies as much. (Given that they’re not going the poly route, anyway.)
I’ll have to admit to being (pleasantly) surprised by the fact that both Walky and Lucy seem to ‘get it’ where ‘it’ is all of the nuances of the whole awful situation.
Immensely funny to me that Lucy puts a hard stop on the pretend polycule out of concern that it could compromise this otherwise fool-proof plan that definitely won’t crash and burn immediately
Many years ago after being estranged from him for almost a decade, I was starting to reconnect with my dad. While visiting him, I was showing him some pictures from my life, including my partner at the time and ‘Joe.’ Finally after several pictures, dad asked “Ok, so who is Joe in this?” I kind of stumbled for a few seconds, then said “Her other spouse.” “Oh, yeah, I’ve been in relationships like that …” he said, and I’m really not sure what else he said for the next few seconds as my brain had gone offline.
I think, surprisingly, Boomers are kind of okay with poly relationships.
There’s a Beach Boys song (Get Around) that has the lyric:
None of the guys go steady, cuz it wouldn’t be right
To leave your best girl home on a Saturday night
Which makes me think that it was pretty much OK to date a bunch of people at the same time in the 50s and 60s.
Then there’s the fact that swingers and cuckold relationships are largely older people.
Not that I’m saying your relationship with your spouse was anything like that, just that to the older generation it’s understandable because there’s a subset of them that are participating in these kinds of relationships.
The 60’s was the “Free love” decade for a reason. There’s always been a counter culture of poly people. Hell, the creators of Wonder Woman in the 40’s were a thruple.
I think the Beach Boys song was more about casual dating than poly.
Going on dates with different people without being tied down, rather than being in relationships with multiple at the same time.
I think that’s very different than poly – the same way some guy today going out and trying to hook up with different women every weekend isn’t really poly.
“Going steady” is the *start* of a relationship. The difference now is we assume a relationship begins on the first date unless told otherwise, rather than when you explicitly decide you’re in a relationship.
I’m not even sure that’s true – though I’m not really much in the dating world these days.
It’s less formal than it used to be, that’s certainly true. More that you kind of glide over from one date to mulitple dates to real relationship at some kind of pace with no clear lines.
As a counterpoint, we’re also far more likely to have casual sex on the first “date” with no expectations of another.
The comment that Linda has tried to sue Amber’s mother “30 times” is interesting. Obviously it’s an exaggeration, but I’m not sure how it’d be possible for more than one suit to have even gotten off the ground in the 4-5 months since The Incident, or what the cause of action would be.
I mean, she’s trying to sue the ex-wife of the perpetrator, the ex-wife who had a restraining order on said perpetrator, the suit was probably immediately thrown out several times.
I cannot see a suit this flimsy being dismissed without prejudice. But regardless of that, it’s been like 3-ish months since the incident. Most firms wouldn’t have even filed a complaint yet.
If it’s not thrown in the garbage, I imagine Stacy might have still might have had to pay some legal fee or other. That’s how shitty people will often punish others, by gradually draining their money with constant legal fees.
Leaving aside everything that’s already been said here, I’m really surprised Lucy doesn’t have any objections that he’s pretending to be in a relationship with his ex. Like, I know they had a contentious breakup, but Amber and Walky liked each other A LOT, to the point that Walky was actually willing to overlook the awful history Amber had with his sister. Having them even pretend to be together runs a big risk of potentially turning into something real. Does Lucy just not know that they used to date? Because if so, that’s a whole other layer to this.
Would you like to take a survey? Do you like to eat beans? Do you like George Wendt? Would you like to eat beans with George Wendt? Would you like to watch a movie about George Wendt eating beans?
so i'm thinking, okay, i took some extra photos of this set of doors this year so i could draw some other angles, it's an important set of doors, so let's pull up my new reference photos...
....and do you see a problem, do you see an issue
Well, Lizard is here, and I've been telling myself for... years that I'd take down my Endgame shelf and put up Spider-Man:No Way Home once the final villain was out.
So.
That's a thing I gotta do.
okay okay -- spider-man reboot idea
the lizard is still dr connors, but he's dr PHIL connors, and he wakes up every day and it's groundhog day and he's a lizard
is this anything
Sean Thomason @seanthomason.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com ⋅ 1d
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Barb O. Saur 
⚧️
Last 3 panels: Lucy annoyed that she’s the one who always has to feed and walk the brain cell, when the three of them agreed to share that responsibility.
Lucy’s annoyed that they both clearly want to try a polycule.
I’m with Amber and Walky – polycule! I am a big fan of using polycules to solve the mathematics of love triangles.
Or, as I said two days ago… GARBAGESKOW!!
I mean, if Amber can get Lucy into Transformers this will go swimmingly.
Polycules are fun though personally my favorite way to resolve love triangles is when the two love interest decide to date eachother instead.
Ah, the Legend of Korra solution.
Walky makes jokes about polycules because he thinks they’re funny, but didn’t he already make this one with Lucy and she shot it down? I have some kind of memory that he suggested one with Jennifer, and got the stink eye from both women.
Huh. Yeah, I seem to remember that too.
Like, once is a joke. Twice is getting into subtle hint territory.
I’m a little worried how she doesn’t see this will fail spectacularly.
also, uh, I’d have to worry about Linda (even more) if she REALLY buys that Walky can just be like, “Oh, didn’t like that girl? How about this other model?”
I mean, WALKY
I mean, it’s only December and Walky IS on his third girlfriend already. He’s not Casanova, but he does have options.
It’s January.
Man, time moves so damn fast in this comic, it’s hard to keep up.
It’s taken them 13 years to finish a semester….
Getting through a day every few months with a couple major timeskips is extremely fast for a webcomic.
13 years! Already a third of my life!
It’s been a long road, getting from there to here.
“What a long… strange trip it’s been!”
…but my time is finally here.
13 years is a fifth of my life, and more than half of the time since I was killed the last time.
You’re talking to a time traveller. The speed of time is relative to him reading the comic, which may have taken a lazy Sunday afternoon he accidentally landed in, and now he’s come back to chat with us all about it and being extra careful to avoid the spoilers of Walky accidentally becoming God.
That only happens every 3 out of 7 timelines, and people making comments about it usually correlates with timelines where it doesn’t happen.
First time anyone has said this about doa
Dr Who made me hiccup.
(That was the joke)
Mindmill high five? Pika pika?
Also LOL Walky XD
BTW I still don’t know what a Windmill Highfive is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxqKp_s6GWU
Compatibility via short attention spans, Lucy
Also, great garbage thinks alike. Hmm?
The hell is a “Windmill High Five?”
It’s when you high five and some weird Spanish guy has a problem with it.
I’m very proud of you for that joke
everyone loves a good Don Quixote joke.
Yeah, Taffy nailed that.
ngl (do the kids still say that?), if I high-fived someone and some bystander started going off at me in Spanish I’d be feeling pretty tilted
it is a giant problem, making enemies like that.
I can’t think of a good way to keep the references going and now I’m feeling like a bit of a donkey
Chivalrous of you to try, nonetheless.
I’m sancho huge fan of these threads.
I, on the other hand, am Aldonza with them.
I’m wondering the same thing
same
I’m thinking it’s one of those high fives where they swing their arm in a circle at the shoulder before connecting?
I’ve seen it once or twice in media, but not in person.
Yeah, just search up a gif of a windmill dunk and imagine that getting intercepted by an approving palm.
Be careful about noise, though.
There’s the initial slap, followed by a moment of complete silence, as everybody stops talking and turns to look.
Don’t think your ears are safe, however. That’s only the eye of the storm before the torrent of cursing when high-fivers realize just how hard they just hit each other’s hands.
It’s that thing where you high five and then low five on the elbow follow through, like in the volleyball scene in Top Gun.
Ah, thank you. I had tried looking it up, but couldn’t find an explanation.
It’s just a high five with extreme enthusiasm like what your bro is doing two chicks at the same time and that’s the coolest thing you can imagine.
(I’m not sure if Amber has Charles that completely figured out, but if she does, I’m gonna start believing she’s on her phone all the time because it’s the only way her social skills can be contained and kept from fixing all the interpersonal problems in the universe.) (Except her own.)
I don’t think Lucy has Charles figured out, I think she’s assuming that Charles would be pleased his son is schtupping two women at the same time.
Huh, I seem to have slipped into an alternate reality where Lucy is the one who says that line. Doesn’t even make sense for Amber, my parenthetical comment is clearly based on some other strip that didn’t happen in this universe. The fact I can’t even remember the strip I must have read earlier seems to indicate it’s not even possible for it to exist.
“…so you’re not inherently opposed to the polycule. Interesting. Hold that thought.”
Right?
Hmm?
LOL maybe lucy would agree if it was asher, since as far as we know she said she’s not bi
You don’t have to date the other two parties to be in a polycule, though!
“This is my boyfriend, Walky, and that’s his boyfriend Asher”
sure, tho i imagine that she’d get jealous otherwise she’d have proposed a more casual thing than ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’ (well even tho it was walky who asked her out)
“This place has hit a new high in low.”–Klinger on M*A*S*H
But…Walky already introduced them to Lucy. Like…How are we weaseling out of that?
Yeah, it’s unclear. Like, I guess Walky could be like, “I lied before because I knew you wouldn’t approve of me dating Amber”? And hope Linda doesn’t remember too much about how the interaction wherein she met Lucy went down?
My best guess is that he’ll say he was lying when he introduced Lucy to them, as some kind of joke.
This all feels like a poorly conceived plot from Saved by the Bell. Im anticipating the laugh track any time now.
What if Walky hasn’t thought through the “they’ve already met Lucy” thing, and then his mom’s like, “But what about that Lucy girl we met earlier?” And Amber turns toward him (in an exaggerated slow motion that tragically wouldn’t be portrayed well in comic form) and goes, “They ALREADY MET Lucy?”
Im so excited!! Im so…. scared!
I’m so scarecited.
Yoursmoreisburning pretending they can’t hear the laugh track.
Super hoping for Booster-as-random-Screech-analogue to show up now, thank you.
This is a plot concocted by Walky and Lucy, of COURSE there’s SBTB levels of wacky hijinks involved!
Wait – who gets to do the time freeze and talk to camera?
Lucy was introduced as the person he was whispering to. Not as his girlfriend.
True but he was…VERY implicit about it.
Still, that leaves an opening big enough to drive a polycule through.
Sure but Linda was trying VERY HARD to ignore the implications, so any excuse to she’ll be jumping to grasp
Imho the Goal is to ridicule Linda so they made ridiculus scenario. If she dont buy it they will have nice window to spell out reason you suck speech to her
i assume amber’s joining htem for lunch, tanking it and hten lucy wil lbe taken to dinner in comparison
A fake polycule is never the answer.
A real polycule, sometimes.
A fake polycule is precisely the answer when it’s a really complicated fake dating setup that leads to a real polycule.
Sadly, that opportunity has passed.
No, it hasn’t. It’s going to pass, but until they actually show up at the restaurant, they could still go back and try it.
The polycule is in a state of quantum indeterminacy
Or in boring physics terms, “don’t count your chicks before they hatch (an even weirder plan)”
Don’t count your cats until you open the box?
Ah, great, so she DIDN’T back off when she thought Amber couldn’t pay tuition.
God I hate Linda.
now I’m wondering if she wanted to be absolutely sure Amber couldn’t pay tuition.
Damnit! If you guys were in an ACTUAL polycule I’D give you a windmill high five.
Double windmill high fives.
If I had an extra arm, I’d give poly-windmill high fives.
I’m not going to give up on my hopes tbh.
It’s not the first time polycules have been mentioned by David Walkerton’s mouth :3c
as far as i know one of the side charas (sienna?) is in a polycule with mandy and some other girl, but probably not too much content of the moutsdie of some bonus strips (unless we’ll get an ‘arc’ with them like, 25 years form now lol)
draw it. Draw it. Draw it! Draw It! DRAW IT!
OoooK looks like this is really happening and Amber will willingly subject herself to the most hostile and awkward social situation, on purpose. I suppose she is betting it will be even more awkward for Walky and his parents. Would be funny if Dorothy sees them all together!
the power of spite
I adopted the “she could rely on her motherfucking spite” as my saving grace when the sitch is Bad and the spoons are Zero – And I’ve never regretted it
Amber has her phone. She’ll be fine.
…they are?
She’s probably had dinner with Naomi Segal and Ethan’s spineless dad on multiple occasions, so this is going to comparatively be a dream vacation.
Wow. Wow, this is an excellent point. I’d been thinking of the time she inserted herself as Danny’s girlfriend for an afternoon, but… Oh god.
Amber gave the motivation, one of the most powerful motivations for any college student
free food
Truth.
Honestly, out of the entire cast, Amber is probably the best suited for actually pulling this off. Everyone else either has too much self-respect (deserved or not), or not enough patience.
But I get the feeling she’s going to end up speaking up and defending Walky.
She’s “subjecting” herself to a meal and front-row seats to seeing some of her enemies melt down. She’s already planning on matching their hostility, and there’s minimal awkwardness when she has absolutely nothing at stake. Things get awkward when you want them to go well and they don’t, but she’s going in knowing the bridge is on fire with the intent to make it worse.
walky probing the idea of a polycule again is kind of a low for him but also funny
Maybe that will get her into the Walkertons’ good graces, as they are passive POS anyway.
Last 3 panels: Succession
THIRTY times!?
Hyperbole… I hope
That’s as many as three tens.
And that’s terrible.
My memory is foggy. Why would Walky’s parents want to sue Amber’s mom? Was it because Amber stabbed Sal?
Yeah, that and the Blaine fiasco
The Blaine stuff that got Walky kidnapped because Amber existed nearby and Linda is not a nice person so of course she sued Amber’s mum as if it was her fault Blaine sucked and did messed up stuff.
“This will all end in tears, I just know it” – Marvin, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
We should trust the Willis. This will be good.
By “good” I mean complete disaster.
I’ve seen plenty of “fake dates”, but I’ve never seen “fake polycule”–oh, wait, no, there was that one sci-fi novel. It started with the protagonist being charged with some crime, no one would defend her except for a starship captain and his first mate, and the three of them had to get married to be allowed off the planet. Can’t remember the name of the story for the life of me, or any details that lend themselves to being searched easily.
…Anyway, my point is, “fake polycule” is relatively unmined ground and there should be more fiction exploring it.
I’d read it.
…Are you absolutely convinced that was a novel and not several different TOS-era Star Trek fanfictions?
I mean, a lot of sci-fi pulp contemporary to early Trek fanfic started as the authors’ fanfiction with the serial numbers scrubbed off (like the Vorkosigan saga), so in my heart I’m rooting for both. And I Want To See It
All of this. If Radiance can remember the title I’d be delighted
Ha, got it! The Roads of Heaven trilogy by Melissa Scott. I make no guarantees as to its quality but 14-year-old Radiance enjoyed it, anyway.
“like the Vorkosigan saga”
Lois Bujold, the author, vigorously denies this.
https://www.goodreads.com/questions/738167-was-shards-of-honor-ever-a-star
Good to know, thank you!
No, it was definitely a novel – a trilogy, actually. It was from the 60s or 70s, the chairs on the spaceship had webbing to keep the crew secure, faster-than-light travel involved navigating some kind of symbolic landscape. In the second book the protagonist needs to do some kind of spy mission that involves quickly memorising a lot of information, which she is able to do thanks to a mnemonic technique called “The Grand Theater” (there was pointedly no information on how it works, except someone saying “oh, I’m so thankful you know The Grand Theater!”) In the third book she had pyrokinesis for some reason?
Oh, this is going to bug me all day.
Alien Secrets by Annette Curtis Klause is the first thing I thought of, but it’s from ’93.
That sounds badass, honestly.
this sounds absolutely solid i need someone to crack whatever this is…
it’s probably never come up as much because there’s not as much a ‘need’ for it? Lying about one partner is one thing, but I cant’ think of a realistic situation /real world instance about bragging about multiple ppl w/o coming off like a f*ckboy unless you have some poly acquaintances and wanted to impress them
But yeah would be interesting to see in fiction
Now I ship Lucy and Dorothy and Walky!
Only now?
It’s very funny to me that if you look up “windmill high-five” (because you think you have some idea, but this term isn’t actually familiar to you, and you’re unsure if that’s more a “you” thing or) some of the top results are just, like, people high-fiving in front of a windmill. Other results seem to clarify the actual idea (a high-five popular from Top Gun), but I like to think Walky’s dad would just leave the restaurant with Walky, drive out to some windmills, and high-five him in front of one.
I found one where two people stood next to each other and windmilled their arms such that they high-fived over and over again. It was okay.
I did find this informative video, which doesn’t actually call it a “windmill high-five,” but still came up in the search for it, and is very educational: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZYfL6MeJek
DOA commentary never fails to educate. Sometimes this is a good thing.
lots of good lucy faces this week
No matter how this goes down, I suspect the words “in flames” will apply, and I for one am excited to curl up by the fire with some popcorn and watch the flames.
First there’s talk of Windmills.
Then you mention “in flames”.
And now I’m thinking of that one scene in Sleepy Hollow.
Ah, nostalgia bomb!
I always found it odd that immediately after that, the story is “and everything is fine now!”
I will likewise be seated by the fire, in whichever direction the smoke isn’t ^^
This is the funniest route this could possibly be going [thumbs up]
They’re going to end up in a REAL polycule.
It’s the only way a three-way arrangement for a Fake Dating fic can end. These kids know their tropes ok
I still say Lucy’s too vanilla for that.
(No one get into how the storyline’s emphasizing that she’s chocolate. I already attempted to craft three jokes for that and they all tripped past funny and pratfell into offensive. It’s a hazard to all who come near it! Stay away, I tell you, STAY AWAY!)
the AU / possibility of these three in a polycule is actually activating every neuron in my body
Prayer (?) circle, fam
I do note that Lucy’s objections are all practical reasons for the plan, not a blanket disinterest in a polycule. Which is… interesting.
Just like Amber, Lucy reads fanfic. The concept of an OT3 isn’t beyond her.
So the funny thing here is… Both girls here know what they’re doing – And they think they can outrun the tropes. Poor unfortunate souls
You rang?
https://youtu.be/Gi58pN8W3hY
If they do piss off the parents before the sun sets, they will belong… To each other!!1!1!
(god, what a banger of a song)
given how infatuated lucy seems to be with walky from the start i’m not sure how much she’s wililng to ‘share’
Give it time…
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/sufferable/ I dunno, I think between this polycule joke and the one in this strip, it seems to point towards Lucy not liking the idea of sharing Walky. She is a ‘nice Christian’ after all! One who’s wrapping her mind around ‘when can I sex’, I think polyromance is a bit outside her wheelhouse.
She’s giving practical reasons for not _pretending_ to be in a polycue. Her interest wouldn’t be relevant.
It’s not a real polycule, so there would be no reason to share her actual feelings about one.
It was only ever a pretend polycule though.
WELP. It’s happening. Amber, who is versed in Fake Dating scenarios (and has Literal Experience with them) is in. To fuck with Linda Walkerton, which tbh is more than enough motivation
and maybe, to fuck David Walkerton in an appropriately hardcore manner.Meanwhile! Walky keeps mentioning polycules, and Lucy holds their sole braincell – and I do see she isn’t doing a stellar job with it. I love this. It’s going to be a glorious clusterfuck, and I’ve got popcorn ready.
Clusterfuck sounds like a polycule that’s only for pleasure and not romance (and I support these three in said endeavor).
DoA needs one of these. With what has happened in the past months we could easily arrange one with Amber, Lucy, Walky, Asher, Ethan, and Booster. At the very least, and in various configurations too.
(Willis, if you’re reading this, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but…)
Sierra’s in a polycule.
And she’s in like 3 panels a year (idc about the real number), often without any lines. Not exactly a focus character.
Sure, but the suggestion was that DoA should have a polycule. It does.
“Clusterfuck” is the venery term for a group of polycules.
“A gaggle of geese.”
“A murder of crows.”
“A clusterfuck of polycules.”
I actually read that as “To fuck with Linda Wankerton”.
“You son of a bongo, I’m in!”
Holy shirt, beatch was replaced by BONGO.
its actually even better this way…
Given bongo mating habits it even kind of makes sense.
Fun Fact: Bongos are the only member of the genus *Tragelaphus* where both sexes have horns.
Do you mean bonobos? … Do they have horns..?
No, they mean bongos:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bongo_(antelope)
Yeah, I think it’s been that way for the last decade.
yeah, and there might be another word that becomes conga
I want to try that out but I see obvious problems here.
There is but I’m not sure what word – somebody had it substituted and was confused and tried to correct themselves and it happened again, last week I think.
It was kinda funny but possibly they were using rude words that would have been less humourous
The obvious guess would be a rude word that starts with c, but I don’t want to type it in case it doesn’t autocorrect.
I’m pretty sure it’s conga, and willing to take a chance.
Yep. See you next Tuesday, folks!
Although now I’m a little curious if it’ll snag it if it’s not by itself, like in an innocuous place name that happens to have the right letters arranged in the correct order, like Scongahorpe, England.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scongahorpe_problem
Fascinating reading… I now really want to read about a buttbuttination attempt…
A: nope, it still replaces it if its in tags!
Sir David of Willis was tired of the comments using such a gendered insult to describe Billie like 5 or 8 years ago that he made it auto change to Bongo and just never turned it off. It has become kind of an in-joke for some of us who have been around for a long time.
I think it was Roz who was being bongo’ed at, when she was giving Joyce shit for realising she should be supportive of gay folks.
Parents conclusion:
Amber isn’t good enough for Walky.
Walky isn’t good enough for Lucy.
Friday Night Funk battle ensues.
But is Amber good enough for Lucy?
Both are super nerdy, Lucy can give Amber the kindness and patience she’s defined by, and Amber can teach Lucy #resolution and how to stop trying to please everyone. I’m into it.
Unfortunately, no. But I agree with Dante that there are things they could teach each other. Honestly, I’d be pretty happy if they ended up besties. There’s a Sarah/Joyce-ish dynamic that could happen.
Now that would be interesting.
Sal isn’t good enough for Danny. But Danny’s good enough for Walky.
dunno how parents would feel after finding out a bout amber, but it’d be interesting if they were even prouder of walky for dating someone who ‘went through something so terrible’ and ‘seeing past her flaws’ or so lol
Sometimes the history takes more than one strip to make more sense, like the yesterday one.
Believe in Willis’s process.
When else did Walky bring up the topic of polycules?
Awwww
I mean… you all realize how horrible this is going to be, right? Cause Sal is gonna be there?
We know Sal and Danny are going to be there, but Walky doesn’t.
I’m getting the popcorn ready now!
well, walky knows that they were all invited though sal did say she was going to avoid them, but if anything it might work out for walky unless it goes so bad that he gets disowned yb them or sal never talking to him again
This is a really stupid idea.
Yeah, it really doesn’t fit in a comic called “Smarting of Age”.
Windmill high five!
even for teenagers making stupid choices this really smells like “wacky sitcom shenanigans” rather than anyone’s real train of thought
It really does. I’m going to endure it, but it’s not enjoyable.
Walky being Walky, “Let’s do some wacky sitcom shenanigans!” may be literally and explicitly his train of thought. I’m assuming Lucy’s going along because she’s too nice and eager to please for her own good. Amber’s just in it for the free meal and the schadenfreude.
It was Lucy who came up with the “who’s the absolute worst white girl you could introduce to your parents” scheme.
Hmm ?
I wanted to leave it at that joke but, sigh.
You both really really think that it’s a “binary choice” ? That Linda will magically approve of Lucy after this ? I mean, I like the idea of freely annoying Linda but that is not how it works.
i guess it probably happens, though parents aren’tu sually involved but i’d prolly side eye/be a little wary of someone that’s like “breakup by lunch, new girl by dinner” tho i suppose that’s a teenager-y thing to do, if not just some adult just rebounding with like a casual fling unless they already had someone in mind on their ‘lineup’
I guess he could say he’s not dating Lucy exclusively? But I’m pretty sure he already told them Lucy was his “girlfriend”, which usually implies as much. (Given that they’re not going the poly route, anyway.)
Not exactly. He did say they were “whispering exclusively.”
I mean, I disapprove of both people all the time, like in the Republican primaries.
A cunning plan that will go down in flames once Sal and Danny share the same table.
I’ll have to admit to being (pleasantly) surprised by the fact that both Walky and Lucy seem to ‘get it’ where ‘it’ is all of the nuances of the whole awful situation.
Oh, if only you young ‘uns put this kind of thought into your studies…
Immensely funny to me that Lucy puts a hard stop on the pretend polycule out of concern that it could compromise this otherwise fool-proof plan that definitely won’t crash and burn immediately
“My Polycule will not be Hydrox.. we need A+ material for the creme, and Amber’s like a C-.”
Many years ago after being estranged from him for almost a decade, I was starting to reconnect with my dad. While visiting him, I was showing him some pictures from my life, including my partner at the time and ‘Joe.’ Finally after several pictures, dad asked “Ok, so who is Joe in this?” I kind of stumbled for a few seconds, then said “Her other spouse.” “Oh, yeah, I’ve been in relationships like that …” he said, and I’m really not sure what else he said for the next few seconds as my brain had gone offline.
I think, surprisingly, Boomers are kind of okay with poly relationships.
There’s a Beach Boys song (Get Around) that has the lyric:
None of the guys go steady, cuz it wouldn’t be right
To leave your best girl home on a Saturday night
Which makes me think that it was pretty much OK to date a bunch of people at the same time in the 50s and 60s.
Then there’s the fact that swingers and cuckold relationships are largely older people.
Not that I’m saying your relationship with your spouse was anything like that, just that to the older generation it’s understandable because there’s a subset of them that are participating in these kinds of relationships.
The 60’s was the “Free love” decade for a reason. There’s always been a counter culture of poly people. Hell, the creators of Wonder Woman in the 40’s were a thruple.
wow, based
Yeah, they made a movie about them a few years ago: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.
I think the Beach Boys song was more about casual dating than poly.
Going on dates with different people without being tied down, rather than being in relationships with multiple at the same time.
I think that’s very different than poly – the same way some guy today going out and trying to hook up with different women every weekend isn’t really poly.
“Going steady” is the *start* of a relationship. The difference now is we assume a relationship begins on the first date unless told otherwise, rather than when you explicitly decide you’re in a relationship.
I’m not even sure that’s true – though I’m not really much in the dating world these days.
It’s less formal than it used to be, that’s certainly true. More that you kind of glide over from one date to mulitple dates to real relationship at some kind of pace with no clear lines.
As a counterpoint, we’re also far more likely to have casual sex on the first “date” with no expectations of another.
This is notable for the fact that Sal wants this to go smoothly and simply while Walky wants the biggest train wreck possible.
When has Walky wanted anything to go smoothly?
…You know what? I just answered my own question: Dorothy.
The preview for tomorrows strip makes me want to punch Lucy in the face.
This is a great plan, and I can’t see how it’s in any way inferior to just confronting the parents in question 10/10
The comment that Linda has tried to sue Amber’s mother “30 times” is interesting. Obviously it’s an exaggeration, but I’m not sure how it’d be possible for more than one suit to have even gotten off the ground in the 4-5 months since The Incident, or what the cause of action would be.
I mean, she’s trying to sue the ex-wife of the perpetrator, the ex-wife who had a restraining order on said perpetrator, the suit was probably immediately thrown out several times.
I cannot see a suit this flimsy being dismissed without prejudice. But regardless of that, it’s been like 3-ish months since the incident. Most firms wouldn’t have even filed a complaint yet.
If it’s not thrown in the garbage, I imagine Stacy might have still might have had to pay some legal fee or other. That’s how shitty people will often punish others, by gradually draining their money with constant legal fees.
That is… not a No.
That’s a “Not Her”.
Leaving aside everything that’s already been said here, I’m really surprised Lucy doesn’t have any objections that he’s pretending to be in a relationship with his ex. Like, I know they had a contentious breakup, but Amber and Walky liked each other A LOT, to the point that Walky was actually willing to overlook the awful history Amber had with his sister. Having them even pretend to be together runs a big risk of potentially turning into something real. Does Lucy just not know that they used to date? Because if so, that’s a whole other layer to this.
Why would she object to her own idea?
Her idea was to find a shitty white girl for him to pretend to be dating. Picking Amber in particular was Walky’s idea.
you know, girl has a solid point