This week I’m doing some guest strips over at John Kovalic’s Dork Tower! That’s right, the quarter-century-old Dork Tower! Imagine doing webcomics since 1997. Just imagine it! I certainly can’t! Anyway, I hope I don’t break anything.
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“Nothing you would ask for could possibly be at all good for ME”
“Hey now! …I’m sure I could think of SOME way it could be good!”
“PASS”
House of Grandma Derriere D=
(I keed, I keed)
Back the truck up Grandma. Come to Papa.
I’d say, come to Grandpa might be more appropriate.
Well this escalated quickly… or not.
Well, this failed to escalate quickly.
Well, this quickly failed to escalate.
Well, this escalated quickly to failure.
Well, this failed to escalatingly quicken.
i mean it could escalate worse depending on how sarah reacts.
I am glad she is being treated with the contempt she deserves.
Right? Did Sarah learn NOTHING from the absolute cluster fuck that was using Joyce to break up Jacob and Raidah?
I feel like she learned the wrong lesson: that it can ever possibly work.
i mean, technically it did succeed in breaking them up , even tho joyce didn’t end up with jacob
tho a joe/joyce/jacob threesome would be quite the slipshine
… well now I kinda hope that happens.
It’s a very different situation though. That was out of pure spite. She just wanted to hurt Raidah.
Here she actually has valid reasons to think she’s helping Joyce through this. She’s wrong, but that’s thanks to not knowing why Joyce thinks he’s changed.
The Jacob affair also likely taught her that Joyce doesn’t have great judgement when she’s crushing on someone, which makes it even harder to accept her opinion of Joe at face value.
Even if Joe were as bad as Sarah thinks, “helping” Joyce by trying to get someone else to seduce him is a shitty and manipulative thing for Sarah to do.
That Mandy didn’t immediately slam the door in her face shows her restraint
Dumbing of Age Book 14: No
Dumbing of Age Book 14: I’m Trying To Resort To Not-Murder And You’re All Making It Very Difficult
I prefer Dumbing of Age Book 14: I’m trying to resort to not-murder, and you’re all making it very difficult!
I’m starting to think Sarah may be a bit unhinged.
This is more social interaction than she usually has in a month, so definitely.
Sarah is now behaving in a manner which would justify Raidahs behavior.
Yup, and it sucks, because while it would not “prove Raidah right” (she’s doing it because she doesn’t understand why Joyce has friends rather than prove Sarah and Joyce are bad people), it would outwardly seem like that to everyone.
Wonder if on some level Lucy being turned against Sarah has her pushing boundaries with her real friends? Aside from the dumb plan Mandy’s response last strip already made it clear Sarah was just being insulting and if anything is more likley to want to tell Joyce about her roommate asking girls to proposition her boyfriend (pretty sure Mandy is more friendy with Joyce to begin with)
resorting to murder might catch joe’s eye, actually
Depending on the method of murder chosen, she could literally catch Joe’s eye.
and sarah IS good with bats… is an upcoming baseball game afoot?
“Death to the opposition!”
– Worf, DS9 S07 E04 Take Me Out to the Holosuite
She going to make her way through the whole cast?
Jennifer: No!
Carla: No!
Jennifer: No!
Jennifer: I don’t do sequels!
Wait, crap, how did I screw that up. The third and fourth ones were Ruth and Roz.
I’d actually feel a little bad for Joe if it was Roz. I feel like she kind of manipulated him by publishing that sex tape for a political statement. I don’t think he fully realized what that meant at the time. She’d just be using him again and I don’t know how their relationship works for that to be okay.
That’s what Dorothy was worried about too, at the time. He was fine with it then.
I wonder if his perspective on that has changed. Back then he was a misogynist afraid of becoming his dad so he avoided real relationships and enjoyed being used. Nowadays he respects himself a lot more. Actually it would also be interesting if Joyce interacted with Roz now that she’s dating Joe considering Roz’s history with him. That will be compelling if Willis ever uses that story thread.
A. I don’t think Roz would do it, cause intentionally seducing somebody to ruin a relationship is gonna check a few of her “no” boxes, and
B. I feel like while she could make a good pitch if she decided to, it’s known she doesn’t keep secrets. And while I don’t think Joe would at this point try to get sex while hiding it from a partner (since that’d be like his dad) so much as get seduced in a moment, I think with Roz there would be a “wait a minute… Roz tells everybody, everybody would know we banged again, maybe even video Joyce would know what am I even thinking Sorry Roz gottago”
For the first, it depends on whether she thinks of it as ruining a relationship or giving a sex pest a chance to blow his cover.
If she thinks Joe is just pretending to have changed and to be seriously interesting in Joyce in order to get into the virgin’s pants, then there’s no real relationship to ruin, just a ploy.
And what’s she doing here about it? Trying a convoluted, zany scheme to manipulate peoples feelings.
I do hope Lucy sees this in action.
Mike: Yes.
Sarah: But you’re dead.
Mike: What’s your point?
Mike, at least, would demand a nickel.
His mom would demand a nickel.
I have to wonder why Sarah here would ask a corpse. No matter how much she may want to break Joyce and Joe up, I can’t see her doing *that*.
Since clif started with Mike: Yes, assume the dead Mike just walked up to Sarah and said that. Sarah didn’t need to ask.
I am pretty sure Carla would say yes if you tell her there is an opportunity to throw a pie in someone’s face, but she probably skip everything to just throw the pie and declare Mission Acomplished.
“What do you mean getting creampied has nothing to do with actual cream pies!? Then why would anyone do it!?”
Beacuse cream is delicious.
….
… wow.
That response is so perfect. I have no words.
A tip of the hat and a bravo to you, Ursula Davina.
Seducing a guy to spite another girl seems to hetero-dramatic for her lol
Honestly surprised nobody has mentioned Mary as a likely candidate to agree to this. Nothing she likes netter then showing up other people flaws to feel superior for morally pure reasons ofcourse/sarcasm.
Mary: I’ll help! I think it’s a great idea!
Sarah: Oh fuck, that was a close one, thanks for talking me out of it.
i think mary would be too religious for that even tho she and peter openly thirsted for each other, joe might be too jewish for her unless it’s something she represses and finds hot b/c of the ‘sinfull’-ness of hooking u pbefore marriage /with a non christian
NO. STOP ASKING.
(Sarah sadly crosses Yotomoe off her list)
Carla: I have so many questions about why the hell you thought this was a good idea
So far she’s exclusively asked people who’ve had sex with Joe in the Walkyverse (which includes Sarah herself, if memory serves), which means we should expect Sarah to ask Marcie and Robin next
…Robin would probably actually do it, up until her new TA reminds her of how he got fired the first time around
“Bloomington”. Today, a pleasant college town. Tomorrow, a smouldering wasteland. (after Dreyfus in Return of the Pink Panther)
Dumbing of Age Book 14: I’m Trying to Resort to Not-Murder, and You’re All Making it Very Difficult!
Geeze Sarah your trying to become a lawyer yet your announcing (very loudly) your intent to commit a crime to several witnesses.
Don’t say your crimes out loud don’t write your crimes down don’t involve other people in your crimes.
Not-murder is not a crime.
Usually.
True but if Sarah does commit murder she has a lot of witness that can prove intent.
Sarah’s clearly a….”Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard butler and Jamie Foxx”
Deeply stupid movie
What’s so stupid about a morally righteous, secret badass, enacting a years spanning revenge fantasy by murdering a bunch of people while also teaching a pretty terrible lawyer a lesson about our flawed legal system and why he should’ve fought for justice instead of cutting a deal with his family’s murderer/rapist?
It always felt like it was written by the kind of dumb guy who thinks he’s a lot smarter and more insightful than he is and is way to confident about himself. The sort of movie that would be an avid listener of the Joe Rogan podcast
I mean admittedly I ain’t seen it in a while, maybe my memory’s being unkind to it
It is a pretty stupid film. Clif’s comment actually reminded me of the scene where Gerard Butler confesses to killing his wife and child’s killer, but it was actually a gotcha moment because he only admitted to thinking about killing someone and that isn’t a crime! Turns out you can say you wanna kill as much as you want maybe?
i mean. if you are indicted for murder and witnesses heard you talking about murder, that’s not gonna help your case. all else being equal
Next you’re gonna tell us Bruce Wayne isn’t processing his grief in a healthy and productive manner!
Also like, these people all know Joyce. What if one of them says “hey your roommate tried to get me to go seduce your boyfriend and ruin your relationship”?
Sarah is not one to shy away from burning bridges if she feels it’s justified.
Sarah is either testing the limits of her friendship with Joyce( who has told her before she will always be foregiven) or taking Joyce’s willingness to forgive for granted.
Or, Sarah is willing to be hated in order to achieve a greater good. Sarah has been hated, alone, and bullied before. What does one more time really matter to her? Sarah would just be alone again, and Joyce would be safe. Trauma affects everyone differently.
I’m thinking that Sarah’s so convinced she’s right about Joe that it supercedes being found out. After all, if she can “prove” to Joyce that Joe never changed and is still willing to sleep with anyone at the drop of a hat; Joyce will ignore Sarah’s manipulations and instead be thankful she “saved her” from a bad relationship.
Which just comes back to everyone around Joyce (except, amusingly, current Joe) infantilizing her and thinking they know better than her.
Sarah is as good a lawyer as Dorothy is a good president.
As long as nobody’s taking notes on that criminal fucking conspiracy…
if you think it, don’t say it;
if you say it, don’t write it;
if you write it, don’t sign it;
if you sign it, don’t come crying
(from “How to save a dead friend” though i think that’s like a Russian saying?)
Sounds very Night Vale ish
never listened! pretty sure it’s older, the film is an archival documentary, the image where you see it on a wall was probably shot in the 2000’s
anyway, i think it was actually with the first sentences in the past, like:
don’t think
if you’ve thought, don’t say
if you’ve said, don’t write
if you’ve written, don’t sign
if you’ve signed don’t complain
something like that. it was probably niftier in the original russian but it sounds cool in english too
casa del gramandierra…
gra(ce), mand(y), (s)ierra
heh 😀
And here I was wondering why Google was turning up nothing.
THEY HAVE THEIR OWN SHIPNAME
Top tier relationship
I have no caffeine in my system and must depend on the quick thinking of others.
Daaaamn, polyamory unlocks a whole new level of ship names!!
Thinking about it since yesterday this plan is actually DOUBLE dumb because if Joyce was cool with Sarah flirting with Joe and Joe accepting the proposition then I think she’d be very reasonably patient with Joe getting seduced by an actual TRIAD of sexy flirty hot girls. I’m sure she wouldn’t be THRILLED but based on the earlier scene she’d be like “Naw I get it. That’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
i think its obvious why, Joyce has decided to lose her Virginity to Joe. and date him , so she can have some normalcy. and shes prepared for him to slip up a few times.
I misread that as “prepared for himbo to slip up a few times”
which I mean…
Basically correct.
Sarah assumes Joyce will give Joe some finite amount of chances. she’s hoping it might cap around three chances, but she’s prepared to play the long game as she knows Joyce is really into forgiving. This is war.
Sex war.
Love is a Battlefield!
Heartache to heartache, we stand! (what a banger)
“Not in this timeline, Sarah.”
:O all these potential pairings this week were from the other side.
Moments like these make it all too clear to me how far behind I am on understanding the greater universe of Willis’ works. Three years spent reading this comic is fucking amateur hour compared to some of you guys.
Side note: holy shit I’ve been here three years, it feels like half that time.
If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been reading DofA for longer than I care to admit and have been studiously avoiding reading anything except Shortpacked! So we’re nearly equally ignorant of alternate timelines.
Some of his early stuff is pretty unsavoury, not to mention terribly drawn and lettered. Also, he’s really into Transformers???
so, and this is just me, but i’m extremely fine not having to learn about Transformers. not that it’s not interesting, it probably is. but like, i already have a life
When I read Shortpacked i just skipped 99% of the transformers and Batman stuff and stuck around for the plot. Highly recommend as a non-transformers fan.
The cherry on the cake would be if Robin strolled by and Sarah was like “… Nah, never in all the multiverse, surely “
Man, Sarah, how is it that in a comic strip that involved a sitcom hijinks plot to try to defeat implicit racism that yours is one of the more pathetic displays we’ve seen in a while?
The fake relationship thing was a bad idea but it was a bad idea that you could execute on!
Interestingly, this is approximately the same hijinks: convince X that Y and Z fuck so that X accepts that they can’t change Y.
except for, like, the differences
Really the key one is that Amber has low self-esteem and is willing to tolerate Walky
another one is that X doesn’t actually think she will change Y, because Y is already changing of his own accord, and the other person (W i guess) has the wrong idea about Y
It’s because of how obviously desperate she is! Like, for Walky and Lucy, it doesn’t really take that much to get either of them to go ahead with poorly-thought-out, politically incorrect, hijinks. But Sarah is SMILING at multiple people here. Saying “please”. Making concessions. That’s how you can tell her self-esteem has truly hit rock bottom she’s no longer acting like herself…
What a bunch of murder enablers!
It mean it is Joe … they may have been hoping it would come to this.
I feel like this is most true of all with Rachel.
“don’t not murder Joe on my account”
Literally everyone on campus sharing and hearing the news of Joe’s death, afterwards: “So then he was murdered by someone who was upset about who he was f*cking.” “Yeah, whoever could have guessed? \sarcasm”
Castration is technically not murder (as long as you manage the bleeding).
A bit extreme, no?
The same result can be achieved with a chastity belt. Plus she can auction the key off to the highest bidder in the dorm hahaha
The sexual assualt implications of that aside, this is a sex thing. This can massively backfire. Now Joyce has KINKS.
oh, Joyce is kinky. she’s just not aware of that fact yet
I’m reading the alt text like, “Zathras knows!”
awe cMon,
everyebody knows NOBODY LISTENS TO POOR ZATHRAS
Very sad life. Probably have very sad death. But at least there is symmetry.
A good reading to be sure.
Alas, poor Zathras.
I’m going to make prediction she is going to ask Malaya next who will probably say yes beacuse it’s a diabolical scheme a stupid diabolic scheme but a scheme non the less also Malaya was attracted Joe beacuse of the list don’t know if Sarah was there for that.
Malaya would tell Sarah to man up and do it herself. Nothing she hates more than a poser, and Sarah is currently trying to pretend that she’s a good friend while actively sabotaging her roommates relationship.
Like, if Joe had ‘passed’ Sarah’s little test, do you think she’d have acted any differently? If he rejected the threesome, would she back off? No, Sarah is conclussion shopping.
I like that your typo makes it unclear whether you mean “conclusion” or “concussion” and the latter doesn’t … not work.
I have adopted conclussion as a new word. It means ‘a conclusion that only makes sense to the concussed’.
Malaya is also chronically incapable of actually recognizing posers, given she’s perpetually up Sal’s ass, so she might be down for this.
She’s only up Sal’s ass when Sal is being insincere due to her ‘image’. She said it explicitly when Danny brought Sal flowers. The fact that Sal was being honest about liking the flowers wasn’t something she was going to rag on her for, because Sal wasn’t hiding behind her ‘badass’ persona.
I think if Joe had actually passed Sarah’s initial test, she still wouldn’t be happy with him, but it would have given her enough pause that she’d limit herself to not being around him and the occasional snide remark.Maybe some light threatening-with-bat.
Yeah, it might not have settled all her doubts, but his failure certainly confirmed them
I have nothing to say about today’s comic, but a lot about the crossover comic. Freakin’ awesome! XD
Ah the perils of a sliding timescale
Huzzah for dork tower! The intro setup cartoon is (tragically!) great, too.
The year is obviously 20xx.
It better be. After all, IN A.D. 2101
WAR WAS BEGINNING.
Kudos for Willis. Playing with tine skip and fourth wall at same time.
*time skip
Wow. I don’t think I’ve read Dork Tower since I did so in actual physical copies of Dungeon Magazine.
I’m suddenly thinking of Brooklyn 99. “I did it for LOVE!” “Cool motive! Still murder!”
If I may put my patented Yoto spin on this.
My desired outcome would be that Sarah decides to double down on her seduction attempt and it just plays out like a comedy of errors of Sarah trying to get Joe to fall for her. And getting ever more frustrated that he keeps not cheating on Joyce with her.
Until she asks herself “Why am I trying so hard at this?” And realizes she’s in love with Joe and/or Joyce and they form a mutual multi-directional relationship!
the interaction with Mandy was a clear Tchekhov’s didactic introduction to polyamourous terminology
As you like it.
So then she decides to take another tack and seduce Joyce instead!
Man I hope someone respects Joyce enough to tell her what Sarah is trying to pull here
she isn’t exactly being discreet/quiet about it so i wouldn’t be surprised if she could overhear what she’s doing if they decide to open the door and take an early lunch/break from the drawings sortings
I tomorrow’s last panel a speech bubble comes floating out of the margin: “Sarah, you know we can hear you?”
Can’t decide if it’s more likely that Sarah knows this and it’s a cry for help on some level-(Joyce please reassure me well stay friends no matter what) or she’s overestimating how much of a child everyone else perceives Joyce as because agreeing to Sarah’s scheme requires thinking of Joyce as incapable of making her own choices (aside just being awful)
I get where Sarah is coming from.
She’s functionally Joyce’s BIG SISTER (booming echo effect), and she is not privy to all the changes Joe has undergone. Sarah only knows what she’s seen, which is a Joe that is not good for Joyce.
That said, diving deep into an insensitive stereotype of polycules is not a good look. I also get that she wants to be proactive in protecting Joyce, but this may be a case where she’ll have to get by with the “If you do anything to harm my loved one, you’ll become the subject of an unsolved mysteries podcast someday.”
She also can’t control Liz.
I mean is she really desperate enough to go all the way to Garfield to get her sister just to break up Joe and Joyce? 😮
desperate enough to call on the Garfield telephone to float the idea. floating like an unending supply of Garfield telephones washing up on a French beach.
Even if she did, Liz and Joyce got along really well, I seriously doubt she’d do that to her.
Liz. Liz would be good for seducing Joe.
Liz would be good at seducing anybody. She’s kind of hot. Ironically though I think she’d be bad at seducing Joe. Pretty sure she scarred him for life!
She’s very kind of hot. Incredibly kind of hot, really. Kinda hope she comes back at some point ngl.
Wasn’t there a tumblr preview image of her? Don’t remember when she was going to show up again though.
ha NO. Liz has managed to get Joe to say NO the most times for sex ever.
then when he agreed, she made him feel ashamed.
i mean she tried before but kinda panicked so she’d probably need a proper(?) relationship or at least a few hookups in between before handling joe but i imagine with the way she reacted she’d probably want to only be intimate with a lover rather htan a casual fling
Nah, the thing about this is it’s selfish. It’s about being right rather than protecting anybody. Because at the end of the day, it’s not being a good friend if you create the situation that breaks your friends heart. Uncovering the cheating, sure. But creating the cheating in the first place? Now your engineering pain. It’s a passive aggressive “You should have listened to me, now you’ve suffered for it.”
This, 100%
I think the point here is to show right off before Joyce gets any more serious that Joe isn’t serious. That he hasn’t really changed and that he’s just trying to get into her pants.
If that was true, then the cheating (or just dumping once he’s gotten what he wants) is inevitable and the sooner it happens the less damage it’s going to cause.
I get where you’re coming from, but I genuinely believe that reasoning is still bad. I’ve been really bothered by some of the folks my friends have dated (not counting actual abusers ofc, just idk not stellar partners) and I still didn’t actively try to engineer one of them cheating on the other. I just, ya know, talked to them about it. I know this is “dumbing of age” so I get story-wise why Sarah is doing this, but I don’t think it’s ethically good. Yes even if it’s seemingly well-intentioned.
Sarah is thinking of Joe in terms of “fix her with my penis”, as he told her early on.
We’re way beyond “not stellar partners” here.
Then she should _tell_ Joyce that. Not manipulate people.
None of that changes who’s causing the damage. This is Joyce’s first real relationship. It’s early, sure. But it’s still the first relationship. And Sarah’s taking it on herself to ruin it in a way that, if successful, will hurt Joyce a lot. And doing so on SARAH’s terms, not Joyce’s.
It’s a shit move. The fact she’s probably rationalizing it the way you ascribe to her makes it not one iota less shit. Not to mention Sarah already has a history of ending relationships purely for spite. Using Joyce to do it.
Would you think the same way if Joe really was just trying to fix her with his penis and then dump her and move on?
Sarah wouldn’t know that either. She’s simply acting as if she knows best in either situation. So yes, I do think the same, it would be a shit move. Joyce isn’t asking for help, Sarah shouldn’t be insistent on giving it. Even if it happened like that, Joyce would have made her own decisions, made her own mistakes. People being shit because “they know best” are still shit.
A problem that a LOT of the annoying Joyce pseudo-mom brigade have is this persistent belief that they’re 100% right when it comes to Joyce, even when Joyce is not on board.
Hands up, everyone who can see where this is going
Ladies and Gentlemen; TO MURDER!
joe’s prediction of joyce being murdered by sarah is now transferred to him
Murdering Joyce does prevent her from ever being in a bad relationship ever again. This could swing back around to the original prediction.
Just in case anyone is, like Sarah, trying to resort to not-murder and stressing out about it (or, like me, struggling with work stress right now)…
…here’s some loveliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=127jWtltR88
…played on the hacked babbling brook outside. And in the hacked fireplace.
Much needed, thank you. Good luck with your stress.
Thank you! Here’s wishing you a peaceful night, too!
Stop being shitty Sarah
Casa Del Gramandierra? what the heck does that mean?
Portmanteau throuple name for Grace, Mandy, and Sierra.
oh wow that is some CRINGE broken Spanish, it hurts. “Del” indicates the object belongs to a masculine proper noun, and I doubt highly Gramandierra is a masculine entity or they have deemed it a proper noun. Since it’s a throuple name, it should be treated as a group name, so the preposition “de” is appropriate. If we’re treating the group as a singular feminine entity, then the preposition is “de la”, but that sounds awkward as fuck and I wouldn’t use it. it’s only mildly better than “del”, which is wrong on all counts
Given this is Indiana, yeah not surprised there aren’t that many Spanish speakers over there to otherwise point out that error to them (or at least, not as many Spanish speakers as where I live).
I can’t get over how someone that took a bat to a rapist is now rapidly closing in on Walky as the most annoying character in this strip
feels like the door knob should be on the right hand side of the door. immersion broken. just going to set my chart on fire.
Huh. That was before Sierra moved in, I guess
Hey, wait, this dorm has triple rooms? A triple-stack bunk bed must be, uh, snug.
This may come as a surprise, but beds can accommodate more than one person on occasion
Did Sarah genuinely think this would work? Maybe if she’d emphasized they wouldn’t actually have to do it, but I doubt even then.
I mean then the issue is that they’d be asked to destroy someone else’s relationship.
itt would work if there were more roz-like ppl on campus htat didn’t know about joe maybe but even still on joes end there prolly wouldn’t be too much temptition
I think people are doing Roz dirty. I can’t really see her intentionally trying to seduce somebody in a relationship for the purposes of ruining that relationship. Seems like the kinda toxic female-to-female interaction she’s actively campaigning against.
But Roz (and most of the rest of the floor) know that Joe doesn’t do relationships. If he’s claiming to, it can only be because he’s faking it to take advantage of Joyce’s naivety. So she wouldn’t actually be ruining a relationship, just disrupting his Game.
They’re wrong about that of course, but they’ve got no reason to know they’re wrong.
They’ve got reason to know it’s none of their business.
They’ve got no reason to know, but they know what Joe was like. Without evidence, why should they change their minds?
They don’t have to change their opinion about Joe. They just have to know they shouldn’t be involved in Sarah’s stupid convoluted scheme. Like the people Sarah’s tried to get in on this so far. It’s fairly simple to just stay out of this.
I feel like Roz wouldn’t want to interfere with Joyce letting go of any lingering qualms about preserving her virginity past the point where she feels ready to explore.
Damnit Sarah, you’re supposed to be a concerned asshole on the side of reason, not proving yourself right.
i would say she shoudl talk to dorothy but not sure if ateam up is the best idea for now
The ultimate tragic ending is the one where Radiah, wrong when she said it, turns out to have been completely right about the person Sarah becomes.
…OK, who’s up for a SILLY, SILLY game?
Here it is:
Q: What is your favorite song that features the word “NO!”?
I can go:
A: “Ain’t Got No / I Got Life,” Nina Simone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtJzr1Wcy_s
Looking through my phone there’s only a few with “no” in the title (I’m assuming that’s what you meant)
“No Matter What” from the Steven Universe is a strong contender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9_wACQvhys
but if I wanna be more cruel I really love “No Children” by the Mountain Goats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9_wACQvhys
So beautifully miserable.
Thanks, Yoto! Looks like you got Stephen Universe twice. Can we have some Mountain Goats, too, please?
8-D Thank you!
Title or lyrics, or just general vibe… any “NO” song will do. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9_wACQvhys
https://youtu.be/fqGKZ3fzN1M
Jeez why was the link doing that.
Cool! Thanks!
Oh, WOW, that IS SAD! D-8
You can only put one link per comment in this comments section. If you try to put in more they’ll all turn into the first link. Known issue.
I’ve been feeling the song “No Roots” By Alice Merton.
I love that suspenseful beat!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PUdyuKaGQd4
No ragazzo no!
tu non mi metterai
tra le dieci bambole
che non ti piacciono più!
nooo… oh no!
(you didn’t specify a language =P)
Ooh, I love it!
oh btw Laura thanks for the links to map games the other night, i’ve tried a few of the freerice.com games, they’re pretty cool! the questions start looping back after a bit but there’s a bunch of different quizzes. it’s neat =)
i have this map in my bathroom, i love it (the image is very low-res, the map is like A3 length i’d say)
here’s a somewhat better image
Ooh… pretty pretty pretty! I think I’m in love with it. *Sighs dreamily*
So glad you’re having fun! NY Times games shouldn’t get ALL the fun!
How about a song that’s literally just called “No!”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9_TMj8GB6s
Exactly!
The funny thing is this is the second time Sarah has tried to destroy a relationship.
This is a thing she feels is perfectly appropriate.
i mean, is it /ever/ rly appropriate to destroy a relationship, even if you know it’s toxic, unless something happens to where the cops get involved the best you can do is give advice from the sidelines from the most part
“even if you know it’s toxic”
The relationship has existed for about 2 days, and Joe is TRYING (key word, TRYING) to change.
Joe is basically a sex addict, and he is trying to break the habit for someone he really likes.
But Sarah decided that Joe can/will never change, so she dangles sex in front of the sex addict, triumphantly claims she is correct, and that Joyce should just give up on him now and go back to being single.
Part of me thinks that Sarah doesn’t want anyone to be happy, or for them to get better.
If it got her what she wanted, she would probably dangle a bottle of vodka in front of Ruth, just to prove she is still an alcoholic, even if it messed with her anti-depressants.
How would Sarah know Joe’s really trying to change?
And she wouldn’t at all be thinking of him in terms of “sex addict” rather than “creep who only interacts with women to hit on them”.
Calling Joe a sex addict sounds like some MRA nonsense to gloss over when he’s a creep.
Joe constantly seeks sex, and immediately says yes to any woman that tries to offer it to him.
about 4-5 strips ago, Sarah (someone that hates joe, and joe isn’t too fond of) pokes her head out the door and says “Joe, im horny for you. lets F”, and joe immediately says yes.
just right away, without a thought in his mind.
kinda like an addict.
Men have problems too, just like women.
but our problems are glossed over and considered stupid or creepy.
Try seeing joe as a human.
Trauma skews our sense of normal, and we all self-sabotage in slightly different ways. What does it matter to Sarah if she offends people? She’s been alone, bullied, and hated before. This is familiar territory. What’s being alone again compared to Joyce being safe? I suspect Sarah would think it a fair trade.
Not only does Sarah not succeed with her plan, she is also actively burning the few bridges she had left to her dorm mates
well, joyce might forgive her but i imagine her other friends would limit their interactions but unless there’s more of a time skip theyr’e pretty much going to stay room mtaes for a while
She’s trying to drag the secondary cast into her mess. Understandably, they want no part of it.
Soon she’ll have to dip into the tertiary cast.
Hey, you, you wore that kokomo shirt back in September. wanna do some shenanigans?
It’s especially bad because they’re mostly just acquaintances. I’m sure a lot of Mandy’s frustration is stemming from the fact that Sarah makes no efforts to acknowledge any of her fellow hallmates outside of when she needs something from them like this.
Imagine you’re minding your own business and your edgy misanthrope neighbor shows up after ages of flat out ignoring you and asks you to do something to hurt the one person who puts up with their bullshit so they can say I told you so. Sarah sounds like a collosal asshole. Mandy not telling her to leave in an impolite manner should denote sainthood on her part.
The thing with not caring if anybody likes you is that generally nobody likes you. Not that this had good odds to begin with, but you don’t even got an account at most of the local trust banks, let alone credit Sarah.
I mean i’m sure some ppl would be ok if it a mutual enemy like “wanna help me screw over X” but wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in the hall knew joe and joyce were dating the few times he went over or saw the m kiss at one point XD
Joe got a lot of women pissed off at him, but I don’t think he actually got on anybody’s enemy list. So it’s just Sarah asking them to throw themselves into a shitton of unnecessary drama for no real payoff. They neither hate Joe or have feelings over smothering overprotectiveness for Joyce. Which leaves the only thing Sarah has is “cause you like me and it’s a solid for me” and as established, she doesn’t have accounts at those banks.
Got to wonder if on some level Sarah is sabatoging her own friendship here, after telling off Lucy for how dumb it was to resort to comedy sitcom schemes she doing the exact same thing the moment Joyce stands firm ondatibg Joe.
Billy managed to pull it off.
And Sarah did not.
just get liz back /shot XD; but ”not murder” why not do what she suggested and just tie joe up herself lol
Crossovers, non-stop It’s Walky references… this must be Nostalgia Week.
Please, explain
Sarah was an early partner for Joe, iirc. Then he had feelings for Joyce, but then did some org(ies?) with an entire squad (of secret agent alien fighters), which Mandy, Sierra, and Grace were a part of. He finally ended up with Rachel, his online girlfriend.
Crossover this week with Dork Tower, on the DoA main page.
I guess that means Sarah asks Robin too, somehow.
Well Done!
You’re a Googlewhack!
(Hope this works)
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22gramandierra%22&sca_esv=565268182&source=hp&ei=1L4CZaS_FIq_hbIPueO6wAQ&iflsig=AO6bgOgAAAAAZQLM5NpaVZD-Tt6ixsgwFeiGIHH5U7J9&ved=0ahUKEwik-c2i0qmBAxWKX0EAHbmxDkgQ4dUDCAs&oq=%22gramandierra%22&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6Ig4iZ3JhbWFuZGllcnJhIjIFEAAYogQyBRAAGKIEMgUQABiiBDIFEAAYogRIsyBQ1QpY1QpwAngAkAEAmAHKAaABygGqAQMyLTG4AQzIAQD4AQL4AQGoAgrCAhAQABgDGI8BGOUCGOoCGIwDwgIQEC4YAxiPARjlAhjqAhiMAw&sclient=gws-wiz
The comic I read right after DoA is S*P and today when it opened I was looking at the second panel and it worked really well.
Ohh, I love when someone put latin language on in.
With respect of all DoA demographics, I’ll aways praise when I see some Spanish/Portuguese reference.
Wouldn’t it more likely be “de la Gramandierra” though? like, i get that it’s a neologism, but
a) all the constituent elements are feminine names
b) the last element (which often determines the grammatical gender in a composite word) is an actual Spanish noun with feminine gender (“la sierra”, mountain range)
c) if there is an implicit second term, it could be something like relationship “relación” or throuple “trieja” (according to wiktionary), both feminine in gender
unless there’s a better rationale that i’m not thinking of, or it’s just fine and cool and common for coinages and loanwords to be gendered either way, or even preferentially masculine (this tends to be the case in france-french, while canadian french tends to gender loanwords in the feminine; compare: “un job” (france) “une job” (canada))
It is so refreshing to see that side characters holding Sarah in the utter contempt she deserves.
Sarah coming to the realization that as far as popularity goes… she is not that far from Joe.
Possibly lower. When’s Sarah ever brought doughnuts? Hell, Rachel actually let Joe talk long enough to apologize. We know that lady holds grudges but she let Joe finish his sentences. I’m not saying she likes him, but he’s allowed more words.
Joe has shown growth and change and maturing. Sarah has not.
Sarah hasn’t really been the center of any story arcs. She’s sort of a one-joke character without the potential to grow. Maybe that will change?
She’s gone from “don’t do anything to make my roommate bother me more, otherwise I don’t care” to over-protective mama bear. She gave genuinely good advice, admittedly in an abrasive manner, to Lucy re: deserving better than a boyfriend who won’t stand up for her to his colorstruck parents.
If anything, Sarah’s regressing.
Local college student once again shocked to find people she has made no effort to befriend unwilling to support her ill-conceived scheme
It’s funny, whenever I visit Roomies!/It’s Walky/Joyce and Walky, something always has changed in there.
Knock less, smile… less?
She said last strip “I didn’t expect you to be knocking and saying hello”, implying she’s pleasantly surprised the normally antisocial Sarah is reaching out. After actually hearing what she came around for… she doesn’t need to be surprised again.
No means NO, Sarah! ;P
oh GOD I tried to pull crap like this on my actual little sister once and it didn’t go over well SARAH NO!!!! SARAH JOYCE HAS AUTONOMY STOOOOOP
Huh. Wonder how Joyce will take it when she finds out Sarah is doing this?
Whoa, whoa, whoa: hold the presses!
New COVID shots out now! How was this not front page news!?
https://www.vaccines.gov/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/12/health/cdc-covid-19-vaccines/index.html
It wasn’t front page news because everyone is sick of hearing about COVID, even though it’s kinda still extremely relevant and never went away. And also America has been conditioned to not care about anything older than two weeks.
COVID’s literally killed more people than eleven 9/11s, but do they feel morally obliged to “never forget” the pandemic and the impact it had on countless people all over the world, including disabled folk and minorities that were hit by it the hardest? NO!
I guess in this country some lives really are worth more than others huh? 😑
Never Forget the 10 million square feet of rentable office space.
catchy.
yeah, not being personally at high risk from covid (i mean, beyond a potentially debilitating long covid like anyone else) what’s been most difficult about this crisis the last couple years has been dancing around acquaintances and loved ones, trying to figure out if we’re gonna have to avoid that subject (me being a fucking coward), trying to decide if they mean enough to me that i’ll want to keep hanging out with them while keeping a feeler out for how far down the proto-fascist pipeline they might have slipped, or just stay the fuck away… it’s been disheartening.
i remember vaguely Andrea Dworkin explaining in “Right-Wing Women” that some women find the patriarchy so scary and the prospect of a liberation struggle makes them despondent so they fall in with right-wing ideologies which scapegoat a far less terrifying threat, some already marginalized (hence not actually threatening) community. i think that explains a lot about why some people from our “side”, whatever that means for you, will turn to conspiracies rather than acknowledge the unfathomable fucked-upness of the world. it’s comforting.
but how long can someone refuse to see the problem until they become part of the problem…
Re: proto-fascist pipeline, see my mega-paragraph from about a week ago about how modern conservatism and bigotry in the US largely depends on maintaining careful ignorance of one’s own beliefs. (it’s a page or two down).
See also, “You Can’t Get Snakes From Chicken Eggs”, regarding how a lot of people would rather not face the world as being complicated and fucked up, and how bigotry can repackage itself as a solution to their problems.
(sorry I can’t provide anything more than an infodump right now, got code commissions to finish)
you’re not obligated to respond, so you don’t have to apologize for whatever.
yeah, i’m not so interested in actual conservatives, like i’m expecting them to have trash values, fuckem
i’m more preoccupied about how some people on, again, my side (an entirely subjective assessment that most definitely doesn’t include self-identified conservatives) can be attracted to certain ideas, not even necessarily because they’re simple, because some of these can debate me out of the room with covid “facts”. they’ve done their research, emphasize on “their”.
it’s not about simplicity, because nothing about covid is simple, and anyway i’m not in a relationship that matters with anyone who doesn’t at least on some level acknowledge that the world is vast and complex and they can’t possibly hold the Truth.
No surprise that 99% of the “did my own research” folks refuse to divulge the source of their facts because it’s really just them nodding along to a YouTube video from a thinly veiled alt-right “think tank”. -_-
I mean a substantial chunk of people are on the virus’ side.
Plot twist: Rachel actually has a portal that allowed the Joe and Rachel from the Walkyverse to cross over!
Rachel always looks like she is about to or just finished participating in a Sarah Conner-like terminator adventure just off screen
I guess Willis just started drawing her face that way in Shortpacked!, decided it looked cool, and literally never stopped since!
Also, I will happily accept the headcanon that she literally does participate in Sarah Conner-like terminator adventures with her dimension-traveling Shortpacked! self all the time, just off-screen.
hey did a smut babies =*
A+ love it milu!
OMG, it’s perfect!
not really, Grace is kinda armless, but thank you both <3
YO THIS IS AMAZING! Seriously blown away by how good you are at posing characters. Fun dialogue too. Fantastic work.
More likely choices for Sarah to bring in to try to break up Joe and Joyce:
Mary. (Fornication’s a sin!)
Radiah. (Revenge for Joyce breaking up her relationship with Jacob.)
Carol. (Oh so much baggage there.)
Liz. (She hasn’t burnt her bridges with Joyce yet.)
…. why yes, these are all terrible choices. What comic did you think this was that we were reading?
Eh:
Mary: Would rob her of her sense of superiority. This is a dumpster mess of sinners on it’s own already. Joyce has proven inferior as she suspected. breaking them up doesn’t save anything. Now if you asked her to harass them for going to hell, shame Joyce out of her godless relationship, maybe. Wouldn’t work, but she’d be more likely to try.
Radiah: Help Sarah. Break somebody up. Revenge on Joyce is one thing but helping Sarah? See what she’ll get a lot more out of is not helping Sarah and feeling ethically superior about Sarah being such a shitty person and so pathetic and friendless she actually tried asking Radiah. Time to point and laugh.
Carol: Retreated from their united front. She’s got baggage, but huge parts of her family aren’t talking to her and stepping back in now is picking wounds and having a fight she already retreated from. Carol before all this would likely have taken a swing once she realized Joe was Jewish but here and now? Nah.
Liz: Wouldn’t do it cause he’s with Joyce, she’d do it (probably accidentally) when Joe was with Sarah. Now, if she ends up legitimately seducing Joe away from Joyce, then it is likely that JOYCE can use her to waylay Joe and end the relationship.
I didn’t say these were particularly good or viable options. Just that they’re more likely than the ones Sarah’s trying now, and that they’re still terrible ideas.
Mary seems like exactly the sort who could decide that fornication’s a sin, and Joe and Joyce are doing fornication, so clearly it would be righteous to seduce Joe away from Joyce in order to break up their relationship.
It might be a little harder to get her train of thought along those lines right now, though, simply because she’s kind of busy with her boyfriend.
Eh, he doesn’t need to know. And if he finds out, he’ll understand it was for a righteous cause.
Nah. He validates her feelings of holier-then-thou. They can break the rules because they are so righetous they are above them. Having sex with Joe is just slumming it.
Given Sarah’s trajectory lately (proving Raidah’s vindictive gossip right to everyone who doesn’t know better), I’m concerned she’s going to end up mirroring the Dana incident here and doing something to get either Joyce or Joe “removed” from the situation. I fear that’s the ultimate culmination of this arc, and Lucy will be there to witness the fallout.
Alternatively, she witnesses enough to assume (based on Raidah’s coloring of the truth) Sarah’s about to sabotage Joyce and does something to get Sarah in trouble to try to stop her. Sarah certainly has been poisoning the well with just about everyone who someone in authority might ask to corroborate an accusation.
I can really easily see this cumulating in Joyce asking Sarah why she’s trying to break her heart.
And here we see Sarah completely trying to remove Joyces agency in her own decisions.
Don’t be like Sarah
I actually like Rachel’s inclusion in this strip. She’s doing everything she should do.
I guess the chapter title is a reference to Sarah’s cynical/nihilistic attitude about relationships in general, and her view of Joe’s motives in specific. Maybe we’ll learn more about how she got burned in the past, and why she’s “looking for nothing” now.
I don’t understand want having 3 women seduce Joe would accomplish that she didn’t already prove by seducing him herself right in front of Joyce. Joe doesn’t have the willpower to resist his own desires and everyone knows it.
More women = more temptation. Sarah didn’t actually seduce him, or at least I wouldn’t count it since they didn’t actually fuck. But turning down a four-way seems slightly harder for a person with Joe’s condition, so if he went for that instead, it’d prove to Joyce that… I guess that Joe’s not immune to the siren call of a fourgy, something the grand majority of people don’t actually get to participate in? Like, I’ve never met anyone who’s done it, at least. For a horny 18/19-year-old fuckboy, it’s gotta be at least a little more tempting than hate sex with somebody who just physically dragged you out of their living space.
Joe was prepared to strip naked in a hallway and bang Sarah right in front of Joyce and all she had to do was say, “I’m horny, wanna do it?”
Yes, I read the comic too. 🙂
your avatar does suggest you are sighted
Did you read the comic? He was making a joke, and Sarah did not catch/trust the end.
alright look in fairness i’ve read the comic and i’m not 100% sure this makes total sense to me
i’m like 38% sure honestly
it wasn’t a joke
You’re right. It’s almost as if Sarah’s acting irrational. That can’t be right!
This is all really silly. Joe – despite being careful and considerate otherwise, recently – makes a joke that he would no longer make…then no one explains it…then this. It feels like forced drama.
This is on a level with Daisy-will-never-get-laid.
I’m sure there was some intention with the parallel but seeing how she’s acting here makes me want to review the Dana situation in a different light. This looks really bad.
You have to learn to resort to not-murder on your own. Your not-friends won’t always be there to stop you.
being a grumpy ass is coming back around to bite hers eh?