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SDCC 1229
“OOPS I said the loud part quiet and the quiet part loud.”
I think danny and ethan (esp ethan) know amber well enough to where they know she would
at least she’s not shouting “my hand would be in my pants to this day!” like that cafeteria scene lol
“X part Y and Y part X” formulations always remind me of the McDLT, because I am old as shit.
Are you, though? Are you really?
Aright, any guesses on which characters are going to fill in for who in Amber’s fanfic tonight?
I’m half convinced that Ethan is the Captain America in her fics given how often she writes about him and how close they were.
In that case Ethan- captain America (all round good guy, looks cool but is actually a geek)
Asher- Iron Man (comes from money, douchey backstory) OR Bucky (history of badguyness but was acting under the power of a shadowy villain group)
Sal- Black Widow (badass and also the only female avenger I know from the movies)
Danny- Hawkeye (again the only guess from the movie)
I haven’t watched many of the avenger movies. I’m more of an X-Men comics/DC comics guy
I think Batman is going to fill in Superman.
Their safeword is “Martha.”
Nice
Amber status: critical systems failure, containment breach imminent
You now have – TWO minutes – to reach minimum safe distance
There is no safe distance. May the gods have mercy upon our souls.
Shutting up is one of my strengths; Amber could borrow it sometime.
Huh, that is drama that I never even considered might happen. Boy do I feel like an idiot.
Now I’m wondering whether Danny and Ethan are going to have to separate them.
Amber’s going to be like, “You two, start making out! It’s the only thing that will stop them!” And in a bit of drunken panic, they’ll start to move toward each other before being like, “Wait, what?” “Amber, that is a terrible idea.”
She’s saying what we are all thinking
What Danny and Ethan were thinking, at least.
ethan’s strand of emo hair almost makes it look like he has a scar over one eye tho he didn’t look as concerned in the last panel about it lol
so I wasn’t the only one that thought ‘scar’ at first glance lol
The way Amber ships her friends (or whatever the correct term) has always, and continues to make me uncomfortable
It is indeed very creepy (although, given her state of inebriation, more amusing right now), but the comic does seem to recognize that. This wouldn’t be a punchline, after all, if it wasn’t over the line in some regard.
I wonder what it would be like for the subjects of her real-life-people fanfics to read her work
Word. What makes it okay, however, is that she’s a character in a webcomic. She voices the thoughts of a not-insignificant part of the audience. It’s okay to ship fictional characters – even if you’re one of them.
I’m of two minds about this and it’s become sort of an ethical quandary.
On the one hand, it’s not really bad if your sexual fantasies are inspired by real people or events. And it’s not really bad if a writer (even one writing adult content) takes inspiration from actual things that happen to them in real life. None of the events that are inspiring Amber’s sexual fantasy here are even sexual themselves. There are four hot people and two of them have bad blood; that was enough to send Amber’s brain on some sort of erotic journey. If none of those four knew Amber existed and they came across an online smutfic called “there are four hot people and two of them have bad blood and they’re superheroes and they fuck”, none of them would probably suspect that they inspired it.
On the other hand, it is bad to make other people unwilling parties to those sexual fantasies by making it so obvious that the fantasies are about them. She continually makes it known that she writes smut based on her friends and she makes that smut publicly available to them and keeps talking about how she’s imagining them in sexual situations. Obviously all that stuff is wrong and gross. But that makes it sound like the only bad thing Amber did is fail to keep it to herself, which also seems kind of like a questionable stance for me to take? It leaves me here saying “it’s okay to write smut inspired by real people who didn’t consent to it as long as they don’t know about it.” That seems like the logical conclusion based on what I’ve said so far, but also feels morally indefensible.
Not just as long as they don’t know about it, but as long as no one knows about it. You’ve got to not only not tell them, but anyone and file off enough details that even your friends don’t recognize the patterns.
But yeah, it’s kind of a weird situation.
Just as a parallel, Joyce is doing the same thing, though she is (or was?) deleting the smut and not letting anyone else see it. And denying the blatantly obvious parallels between her characters and her friends.
Pick your Horrible Histories Foursome: Danny/Ethan/Sal/Asher, or Joe/Dorothy/Walky/Joyce?
Bonus third option (girls edition): Jennifer/Ruth/Alice/Walky
Fascinating question, but I think the danny/sal/ethan/asher foursome wins Horriblest History on account of each of them having a complex relationship with at least two others in the group.
Danny/Ethan/Asher/Walky
Walky and Danny in the same sexual encounter might break the universe. Or at least my awkwardness threshold.
Can we make it a Danny/Ethan/Sal/Asher/Amber fivesome? I think that’s what’s needed to really put it over the top.
The first one definitely. I need that slip shine
Is it time to get the popcorn out?
Most likely yes.
Also soda. And hotdogs.
Burgers, chili.
Past time.
Regarding Danny and Ethan… Danny should have kept his big mouth shut. It wasn’t the time or the place. But, he didn’t say anything that wasn’t well known. Mike was an asshole. Ethan should move past this stuff. Danny has nothing to feel badly about.
I do think Danny should feel bad about the fact that he made Ethans grief and trauma over being kidnapped all about himself. He didn’t come to the hospital to be supportive but because he decided that it was a great time to ask Ethan out and resented that Ethan was feeling awful and not focusing on him.
I’m not sure Danny would agree he has nothing to feel badly about going by his actions here.
I’m not gonna lie. I have completely forgotten they had beef with each other. I can’t even remember the beef. Could anyone point me to the relevant strip please?
danny showed up at the hospital when Mike was near Death to ask Ethan out. Then got mad at Ethan when he was feeling sympathetic for dying friend, and compared Mike to Darth Vader. Instead of just asking him out he picked a fight with Ethan to make Ethan reject Mike ( while he was in the hospital, at the hospital and Ethan had just been freed from being Kidnapped) .
then Mike died leaving extra Ethan guilty for choosing Danny at the party over Mike, and telling Mike off.
If you check the “Danny+ethan” tags it’s only a few strips back because these two have avoided each other for the most part since then. Short version, Danny put his foot in his mouth, but what he said was also kind of accurate, which made it hurt even more. Ethan said Mike wouldn’t wake up for a while, and Danny said, “would that be so bad?” Ethan was justifiably mad, but Danny did end on a zinger, “Look, Ethan, come on. If roles were reversed, he’d be out here taking a big crap on me. And you know it. And you’d let him.”
Yeah he does. Ethan was in trauma and guilt for telling Mike off as the last thing he said. Danny used that Moment to start an argument with Ethan instead of just being supportive. He was an asshole when someone else was dying.
The question I have is… who actually heard Amber’s comments in the final panel.
Ethan’s eyes seem to be pointed at her, indicating he heard what she said. Danny’s eyes have shifted too (although perhaps not as obviously as Ethan’s.)
Sadly its not a perfect fuckpile, given that Ethan is gay, not bi, so there is one leg of the graph that’s only one directional, but I’m sure Ethan could just avoid directly interacting with Sal. Just one of those complications involved when it comes to orgies where not everyone is Bi/Pan, ya know?
I mean I don’t think Danny’s attracted to Asher either, just because someone’s bi doesn’t mean they want to tango with anyone.
And at the end of the day it’s her fanfiction I guess, she can imagine them doing whatever.
All Ethan has to do is squint and pretend it’s Walky.
The cuck chair can resolve many a conundrum i’ve been told
Also, Sal has not expressed any interest in man-man situations like Amber has.
Now that may or may not be a problem… after all, she can interact with Danny and Asher. But, even if she is not a homophobe, some people may just not want to actually WATCH homosexual activity
Yeah but.
She is physically attracted to Ethan,
& Asher and maybe Danny.
I would assume she’s attracted to her current boyfriend, yes.
I feel like you mixed Ethan and Danny up there bud.
being attracted to someone doesn’t necessarily mean you want to see them engaged sexually with other people (especially of the same sex).
who are we missing? jennifer, then Ruth can show to break it up and the drama can really begin?
Raidah has been concerned about Asher today, and hence was pushing Jennifer to get her shit together. (cf here). If she were to know of him being at this party, I could see her show up and then get very… noisy about her history with Sarah once she sees her here with alcohol.
I could see Carla and Charlie making an appearance for the shenanigans.
Malaya to further rub Sal the wrong way maybe.
[Reads what you said on Raidah]
[T-shirt now says “One Fear”]
One more comment asking about Ruth, she will come like Beetlejuice.
How does Beetlejuice come?
In black and white stripes.
Should I change my pfp, because I was going “man they’d be a cool polycule too” and then Amber hit me with that mirror of a last panel…
*plays “Comedian Gallop” by
Vassil Kazandjiev on hacked muzak*
Wait doesn’t Ethan *know* That Asher is the one that called the cops on Sal and inadvertently caused the stab incident? I’m fairly certain that Amber told him.
Amber did indeed tell him. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/speakingof/
I’m pretty sure ethan told asher when they were hooking up that’s like “I know who you are” “So you’re trying to fuck your trauma?” “i’m very traumatized”
I think Ethan said that out loud for Danny’s “benefit”…
I would be inclined to think that, but his expression and wording don’t really line up with that interpretation for me? Like, he actually seems surprised. But maybe it’ll be clearer in a few strips.
Agreed. It does function to make Danny insecure and maybe Jealous.
I forget, does *Danny* know? Like I said above I think Ethan said that to jab at Danny but I’m not sure Ethan knows Danny knows or not.
I think the past is a little less about the cop thing and more about whatever near-romance thing they had going on as well as some deeper info about why Asher and co were going around robbing stores. AKA, the mob stuff I think. Like the way Amber explained it in Tan’s link above, it doesn’t really include how Asher was involved in robbing stores or was a criminal, it was just “he called the cops, and that escalated things”. He could have seen her scurrying in and called the cops, he could have dared her to go in as a dare or a joke, but I don’t think Ethan would immediately put together “Asher’s family has ties to the mob and such” just from that line.
She does include the statement “He betrayed Sal”, from which it is certainly possible to infer that they also knew each other prior to that, but that really depends how close Ethan was paying attention to Amber’s wording.
lol other than being drunk i wonder how common she would say stuff out loud to herself, feels like it’d be something she wouldn’t spend effort on versus downing an energy drink and immediately opening her laptop or taking out her smartphone/doing something in a notes app
With the amount of time she spends alone, she likely talks to herself quite a bit.
Drunken confession that Amber wants to live vicariously through Sal.
Amber is so fucking gross
In Vino Veritas
seriously, her habit of fetishizing real people, her close friends of all things, is the nastiest thing she does.
and as far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with her trauma or her DID, she just has wildly inappropriate sexual boundaries and is somehow okay verbalizing them out loud, to the people who are the subjects of her masturbation fantasies
I wish she would stop
fr the whole incorporating her peer group in her fanfic is so offputting, she’s such a freak
To be fair, she is trying really hard not to say it out loud in this situation. And failing badly.
She basically had only Ethan as a friend growing up. (And then Mike, but he was Mike and not really a friend.)
Ethan wasn’t all that much more socialized than she was and didn’t appear to mind, so she got used to talking about it with him. So it’s now something she treats as acceptable for close friends.
It’s definitely weird, but she’s never really had any push back on it.
“wildly inappropriate sexual boundaries”
You mean as opposed to the commentariate?
Well, yeah, when we exist on different sides of the walls of fiction. Me saying, “Those two should fuck” about two character in a comic is way different than someone in the comic standing five feet away from the people and saying, “Those two should fuck,” or me seeing some tension between two employees at Joann Fabrics and saying, “Those two should fuck” to the customer standing next to me.
I was wondering what would be the worst thing that could happen with Asher being drunk, and it occurred to me that he might let it slip that he colluded with the kidnapping and the subsequent assassination of Blaine.
But he seems to be mostly calm here. Not wanting to talk about himself or the past at all.
For now.
Still wondering if that will lead to anything. It’s been awhile now and nobody knows. Even worse is instead of Jennifer he’s now dating Ethan. Someone directly affected by Asher’s actions there. He’s getting away with it.
That shoe will drop when it’s good and ready. But it will drop. Given Sal’s outward animosity towards Asher post-kidnapping after they’d previously reconciled, I wonder if she knows or suspects something the others don’t.
You mean there are people who *don’t* say RE: in their inner monologues?
That’s what I was wondering.
I actually say “regarding” in my head.
And I also write out “et cetera” instead of just “etc.”
I’m a big fan of “to whit”
I don’t have many opportunities to use re: in my monolog, but I have plenty of other anachronisms that I do utilize
Amber Danning it up.
Oh thank god, it’s becoming a train wreck. I was getting worried.
I’m wondering what holiday this event’ll be called, to differentiate it from Halloween.
Second Halloween.
I’m curious what people think, is rpff (real person fan fiction) more or less weird/disconcerting when it’s about personal acquaintances one knows versus about people one doesn’t know personally e.g. celebrities, actors, musicians?
I think it is super weird/creepy either way.
Maybe a bit worse if it is about people you really know. What does that say about how you see them? But I do not know, both creep me out.
Either way it’s objectifying the people one is writing into their story without their consent, but since that already kinda goes with the territory for public figures it’s very slightly less problematic.
Being horny about people you know isn’t something you need their consent for. It’s so fucking weird how often the word consent comes up in these comments where it’s just unwarranted.
If you are allosexual, the chances are good that you’ve “objectified” a friend or someone’s partner a time or two “without consent” because asking first is deranged. “Hey can I fantasize about you? Thanks.” It doesn’t need “consent” because it doesn’t involve them at all. It involves an imaginary version of them.
She’s not using their names or likenesses in the story, just the details of their situation. Plenty of authors write about people they know usually with some changes. Unless Ethan is actually secretly the real-life Captain America or whatever, then I’m not seeing what people’s big problem is with this beyond “she’s drunk and saying things that are cringe”.
There’s nothing really bad about thinking this now. Saying out loud is definitely cringe at least.
And she’s said and done even worse things along similar lines in the past, without the excuse of being drunk.
I think some commenters are definitely taking as worse than it is, but it’s also clearly being portrayed as a character flaw here.
I like that Amber has wildly inappropriate fantasies about the people she knows. Really adds to her character.
At last, the voice of sanity.
She is a freak and a weirdo and I love her.
Two of these dudes are exes of hers, too. And her friendship with Sal has so many psychosexual issues it’d be canon if they were two dudes in a shonen manga
Sorry man, characters can’t have personality faults if I would personally be uncomfortable in real life in that situation
panel 4 is absolutely hilarious they’re just staring in horror
What cool fanfiction titles can we think of for this foursome? What’s Amber cooking here? I’ll start:
Settling the score
All the queen’s men
Long and intimate
Trauma dumping (scat content warning but no scat actually happens)
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Dammit Amber. Stop being creepy about/to your friends.
Amber, is that you? I didn’t know you were active in this comment section!
Also, stop talking to yourself! It only adds to your creepiness!
Alas, can’t criticize Amber without sounding like Amber
I kind of love all of them acting like caricatures of themselves, but Danny not even being able to own what happened with Ethan and just trying to escape is… Pretty sad
ehh… considering how badly he effed up his last conversation with Ethan while sober, I think he’s making the right choice practicing avoidance while drunk
I think I speak for all Dumbing of Age readers when I say: When is the drunken orgy?!
I object. If they’re gonna have an illegal orgy, it may as well involve molly.
Doesn’t she live in a different building?
If there’s a character named Molly, I don’t remember her. I was talking about MDMA, X, disco biscuits.
DB are a great Jam band
Strawberry preserves are great jam.
But would be a terrible band name.
Jam and biscuits….
Rolling on formerly twitter.
Wait why would the orgy be illegal? The last illegal orgy I heard about was a gay one involving a conservative Hungarian politician and only because they were breaking some Covid restrictions.
Why would it be illegal and where would they get molly?
The drinking is what is illegal. But this is Indiana, so orgies may be illegal too.
Combining the orgies with the drinking definitely has moral issues and potentially legal ones depending on how drunk people get.
Officer, arrest this cartoon.
I think it’s okay if they’re equally drunk and alright with it?
Do your own research, I’m not telling you where to get drugs.
*Shortpacked! Flashback unlocked!
Threesome?
Sure.
Yes please
WHAT?
Fine. Foursome.
(Funnily, with their sexual preferences, this would go quite smoothly. Probably only Sal and Ethan would not be so intimate… )
I think Sal’s actually still mad at Asher, you guys…
I’ve always wondered: Who else, besides Amazigirl, is inside Amber?
Danny was, briefly.
2D Mike.
Was gonna Walky too but I think they only dry humped.
I really want Ethan and Danny to be friends again, they were so good with each other (except for that one thing, which I think was understandable on both sides, and I hope Ethan can eventually forgive it).
I also still think they’d be great as a couple, but Sal and Danny are also really good together (and it doesn’t look like they’re into polyamory).
It was understandable, but NOT THERE.
Sure Mike might have said the similar thing, but prob not at the Hospital unless he wanted to end the friendship.
Mike more likey would have chided Ethan for not caring enough about Danny to bang him, if Danny was a patient.
If Asher had Mike killed ( a high possibility ) Ethan will probably forgive Danny.
I am not sure Mike would not have done the same thing Danny did in the same situation. But “Mike would have done the same” is not really a ringing endorsement. Mike did a lot of shitty things.
“He was my math tutor once! It was fast and impersonal!”
Either this dorm room is the biggest dorm room ever or the comics are belying how packed in elbows to asses everyone must be. Also, did they get that bottle from Jesus cause we got a real loaves and fishes thing going on with one bottle getting everybody with bubbles floating over their heads.
Other options include: They’ve anexxed the other half of the dorm room to help fit it, and some of them are sometimes hanging out in the hallway.
Man, I read the “keep those thoughts internal” bubble as coming from Ethan and I was both confused and impressed.
Really looking forward to when Ashers involvement in the whole hostage/murder situation gets aired out.
This party is how Asher learns he gets confessional drunk.
Sal’s concern about Asher being around continues to intrigue.
I like Sal’s defensiveness about dating her math tutor given her past with Jason. Its Just fun to go “oh hey! I know why she’s getting all hung up on that innocuous detail!”
It’s also just an uncool thing that doesn’t match her image. Even her self-image.
Poor amber, my fic backlog is way too big for that hehe
Okay, it was a larger-than-normal bottle of (probably) cheap booze, but there are several people here, and they all seem to be far drunker than the available per-person serving would suggest being this deep into ‘loss of inhibitions’ mode.
Is this the light-weight dorm?
It’s a cartoon jug with “XX” on the side, come on. It’s as strong as it needs to be.
XXX would be too strong, X would be not strong enough. XX has Plot% ABV.
If the other universe is any guide, the Walkertons, at least, are lightweights to the point that they can get hammered just by breathing too deeply near that jug.
I don’t think anyone here has much experience with alcohol, except for Sal and we know she’s a lightweight.
Back at Joyce’s party, a bunch of people got boozles off a slug from Jennifer’s bottle. This is a bigger bottle and Jennifer isn’t keeping most of it to herself.
A couple of shots of cheap whiskey each might be enough. Nobody’d legless, just happy.
I instinctively feel like confronting him for being at a party with his bf is kind of unnecessary even though in general the bomb that he’s behind/was involved in some amount of shit has to drop at some point
not sure if that’s logical of me
Unbelievable, and yet most believable: How the fuck is this calculated so perfectly
Joe of the past will attest to the viability of whispering “Make Out” at people fighting.
It was just casual tutoring. Fast and impersonal.