Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
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“Joyce thinks she banged you. Is that what the apology sex was for? What did you guys actually do?”
“I showed her how to masturbate. But it was before you and I got back together.”
“Oh. Yeah, that tracks with Joyce thinking you banged. But, uh, if you still feel like you gotta apologize…”
“And if it keeps happening, and you need to keep apologizing… well, it’ll be hard, but we can keep coming over and over-coming if you want to keep coming, over and over.”
Honestly, I can see this being Walky’s reaction. I get the feeling that in some ways, he would be somewhat jaded to Joyce being weird about such things. It’s not hard to imagine him straight-up taking it in stride.
Why am I the only one who wants Walky to go villain/depressed, withdrawn mode when Joyce and Dorothy get together?!
This comic has taken all my cynics from me! Sarah’s finding stability, Sal is in a happy committed relationship without a power imbalance, Mike is gone.
Damn it guys, I need an embittered Walky. You can have the sapphic romance, just give me Demon Time David™.
Well…it is Spring semester, y’know. That’s when horniness is in the air. (at least, more so than with fall semester) They can all get bitter ‘n’ depressed after they get their horny on. (channeling my not-so-inner amber)
I can certainly see that as Walky’s reaction to that much of the drama, because that’s easy to put off on Joyce’s weird hangups about sex and on Joyce’s crush on Dorothy.
Less clear how easily well he’ll react to finding out Dorothy is seriously crushing on Joyce
My hope would be that he has a moment of asking “Does that mean you don’t care about me?” and when Dorothy says “I care about both of you.” Then they’re all uncomfortable but gradually try to figure out what this means with at least some kind of discussion.
Would be nice, but I don’t think she’s anywhere near ready for that. Her current take is “It’s just a trauma response. It doesn’t mean anything. Let’s go ‘do laundry'”
“Hey, Jennifer’s friend blurted out something about you and Joyce having sex a week ago. Can I inquire further? Or would you prefer to not talk about it?”
I don’t think we know she doesn’t. Going back to the same place where she was previously with Joyce and wanting to get off the same way Joyce did might have other motivators.
for what it’s worth, i think she kicked a dent in the machine less because it wasn’t getting her off and more because it represented in that moment all the ways she was subordinating herself to other people. she was in the laundry room because someone had to *actually do the laundry* and joyce had wandered off in a post-orgasmic haze. there was a lot going on in that sequence beyond the homoeroticism!
It’s definitely something but I wouldn’t consider it SEX sex, especially since they held hands for like… a minute, tops? And Dorothy left the room when Joyce actually got off. And even during the ‘mutual’ part, it’s just the both of them sitting on washing machines… I’d say I don’t think Dorothy was even actually trying to masturbate. She was just, like, chillin’ and holding Joyce’s hand while Joyce shuffled and got a bit randy before kicking her out.
I’m not sure where you’re getting “a minute, tops” from– they started holding hands here: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/hand/
And then they continue holding hands until Joyce tells Dorothy to leave– with a strip where they have a conversation (still holding hands) in between– so unless you think Joyce was about a minute away from orgasm and the next strips didn’t include any time lapsing between (which doesn’t seem to fit), than it was longer than a minute.
2) it’s still just a single strip of dialogue. A back and forth conversation doesn’t exactly take 20 minutes.
3) my main point is that it isn’t as if they were holding hands while Joyce’s other hand was knuckles deep into herself. It’s still a matter of mere minutes they were hand holding. I don’t think she’s one minute away from orgasming when she tells Dorothy to leave. I think she just went, I dunno, from slightly horny to super horny? She’s reading smut while sitting on a washing machine, I’d be shocked if that’s all it takes for her to get off.
This comes up often, people forgetting how the handholding actually went, which is why I bring it up. 2 does seem to suggest you don’t think there was a time-lapse between strips, which is what I think is inaccurate there. I agree that one conversation didn’t take that long. I do think there was time on either side of it. Joyce rubbing her legs together a bunch is also what’s helping her get close, which is an additional factor to her process of getting off. I’m not sure how much direct touching (assuming that did happen) it actually took after Dorothy left, but I could see it not being a lot– but again, I’m working with the idea that this handholding time was for a while.
(The handholding might be an important factor for some in considering it sex; it might not be for others, who might consider it sex in their lives whether there was handholding or not. And then it’s also reasonable to not consider it sex regardless of extended handholding. I just don’t think it needs to be minimized– to me, it’s not an aspect that affects “is it sex” much either way.)
Frankly, as a virgin and sex repulsed ace person, I’ll admit I’m no authority on sex or masturbation. But I’m beginning to get kinda worried about what the people in this comment section believe to be sex. The hand holding does give what happened intimacy. But intimacy doesn’t mean sex. That’s why I view it as a non-issue. It doesn’t really factor. But that’s also my opinion. It can surely give their laundry thing intimacy.
I… don’t thinks there’s any cause to be worried about what other people consider sex?
We have at least one person in the comments with a partly paralyzed partner whose definition of sex would be unusual for a lot of folks, but certainly not a cause for concern.
I’m just gonna check out of the comment section for the rest of the week. It’s not worth it to comment here. I didn’t know about that commenter with a paralyzed partner. I don’t really care to get into the minutia of why I think watering down what sex is particularly when it comes to matters of SA and accusations of cheating are a slippery slope. I’m tired. Have fun guys.
I think it kinda depends on how you look at it. It’s certainly sexual, but whether or not it constitutes sex is pretty much up to the two people involved.
*I* certainly wouldn’t consider it sex, and it’s something I’ve done with girls I *did* have sex with before (I’m a straight cis dude).
Yeah, whether or not it’s Full-On Sex, I’d call it a sexual act, at least in so far as how it ultimately played out, even if it was initiated with the idea it was a life lesson, and with Dorothy’s misguided idea it’d alleviate Joyce’s interest in Joe. Amusingly, it only intensified her desire for him, which, whoops.
To give her a bit of grace, Alice was present for Joyce to say she had sex with her best friend (“according to some definitions”) and the immediate awkward Dorothy moments that followed. That’s about as far as my grace will extend, though, considering that Billie just confirmed right in front of Alice that Walky is dating Dorothy lol. Girl clearly loves drama, though, I’m so here for the trainwreck
We’ve all been so busy sympathizing with her, it never occurred to us to stop and consider that someone who was Jennifer’s high school best friend might actually be a pretty awful person.
Obviously, this is not nearly enough evidence to conclude that might be true, but I have faith.
Well, I mean, I trust Willis’ ability to create terrible characters. And I feel we’re due a queer character who’s just terrible.
Yes, yes, Jennifer, but Jennifer’s a particular sort of terrible. Hmm. Alright, it won’t happen, because having two terrible queer characters be that closely linked would be a bit much.
Robin kinda had to get better because ‘awful politician’ kinda got too real to write in earnest honesty, so her storyline pivoted to ‘awful ex-politician but uses those as lessons that actually kinda work’.
Is that new Avatar custom or from a strip? If the former, it comes together quite nicely – well done. If the latter, which strip did you pluck that detail from?
Nah, the opposite of discrete would be something like ‘connected’ or ‘indistinct’ or something else that implies a lack of separation or distinctiveness. Because that’s what discrete is. And in that regard, I think Jennifer’s honestly pretty discrete.
She’s extremely distinctive, and great at separating herself from groups. Even (especially?) ones she’s trying to fit in with.
I don’t think I really appreciated how pretty Alice is until panel 2.
Like, objectively, she’s been prettier, like at prom, but that joyful smile just hit me in a way her other appearances haven’t.
.I noticed something interesting yesterday while looking at characters up close at first, I thought it was just an Alice thing, but it turns out it applies to a lot of the cast. Characters with black or very dark eyes often have them shaped like the number 6. It’s not every character, but quite a few. I just wanted to confirm that I’m not the only one who noticed this. It also seems like a clever stylistic choice, since it adds a lot of expression to the eyes with a simple design.
Am I the only one who saw the preview image from a year in the future in the Bluesky widget and immediately scrolled back up to check that Jennifer and Walky were wearing different clothes, meaning that this one day is theoretically not going to last an entire year?
Unless they each go and have sex just after this and change their clothes before meeting up again, of course. That’s entirely possible.
Maybe the June 24, 2026 preview takes place next week in-comic. Walky and Jennifer are still discussing Joyce’s sexual cisperceptions, disperceptions, and misperceptions.
I’m calling my shot now. Walky and Dorothy aren’t even together in that strip preview over a year from now. I have no evidence to back up this claim. I just think the rebound has an expiration date. Walky and Jen are talking about how Joyce built a super harem they’re both somehow in yet they’ve never fucked each other. The strip still does take place a week from now in comic time.
I’d recommend My Mother’s Basement hottest trash videos. If you don’t know he’s an anime youtuber and he regularly recommends trashy anime, especially isekai.
My Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom. Was very popular a few years ago. You likely know about it but if you don’t it has two seasons. The main character is a ditzy girl who unintentionally makes all her hot friends fall for her as she tries to avoid the bad ending she’s destined for as the villainess in her favorite romance game.
Ah, I see you are a person of culture as well. Funny you should mention that, the Mother’s Basement crew is exactly how I found out about that kind of stuff. Just randomly clicked on a vid of his, laughed my arse off, and then followed recommendations, and now I’m buying a manga for the first time… possibly ever, now that I think about it. This is how it all starts.
Each chapter is a day in DoA time, and they’ve been lasting 90 to 120 real world days, so next year could be 3 or 4 days in DoA’s future unless there’s another time skip.
I though the definition was that it helps the other person orgasm, not that it helps you orgasm. So it is inherently interactional. So, no.
If you see someone’s underwear and it helps you have an orgasm that’s masturbation and voyeurism, assuming they don’t see you have that orgasm. If you force them to see you have that orgasm it is at the very least sexual assault.
“Somebody you love helps you orgasm”. It’s a hilariously bad definition in so many ways, but it doesn’t make it clear that the help has to be intended or through direct interaction. I’m sure that’s not how Joyce meant it, but it is what she said.
Both overly narrow in some ways and overly broad in others. When Joyce formulates a better working one for herself, I wonder where the laundry room experience will fall.
Especially because sex in no way requires an orgasm from either party. Sex is engaging in what either is, or attempts to mimic all or some of the sensations brought about by the act that causes human sexual reproduction.
It’s wordy and vague as all hell, but it’s about as accurate as I could get. This is why making out, oral, mutual masturbation, and yes, even masturbating to porn can be labeled as cheating by someone. Absolutely everyone who is a sexual individual has boundaries about what sex they’re okay with their partner engaging in outside of sex with them.
Similarly, every sexual person has a limit to how limited they’re willing to be in order to remain in a sexual relationship. Hence you get polyamory, FWB, and people leaving relationships because their partner is too controlling of their sexual energy.
Sex is absolutely awesome, but you basically always have to be on the same level with a partner.
Joyce is going to casually drop that she’s given Joe a handy and/or been fingerbanged by Joe in front of Walky and/or Billie and it’ll be a full 3 strips before they properly process the information
if Joyce let’s casually drop that she’s been fingerbanged by Joe in front of Walky and/or Billie, it may take even her a while to properly process what she said.
Since Joyce’s current definition sex is “when somebody you love helps you have an orgasm”, there are a lot of things that she could consider sex that many other people might not. For someone who’s not aware of that definition, Walky makes a good point.
Some sinking feeling came over me and i thought, “what if this entire chapter turns into an argument between Joyce and Dorothy over what constitutes as sex?” Like every member of the cast tags in for the argument to give their own two cents.
He should buzz off for a while so Dorothy’s free, then Joyce and Dorothy should ask Joe if he minds adding Dorothy to the team so the two of them can Fuck™. All for reasons which are legal.
Honestly, the spookiest part of that entire post is the inclusion of a “trademark” placed there. It gave me shades of the finale of 1984, an idea of some hyper-capitalist cyberpunk dystopia where some mega-corporation had patented the idea of human intimacy, and anyone who did so without corporate permission could be taken prosecuted.
Hyper-consumerism is more prominent in Brazil than in 1984. While 1984 focuses on state control, austerity, and enforced scarcity, Brazil presents a dystopia of overabundance and consumerist distraction, where capitalism and bureaucracy blend into a grotesque farce. If you live in the U.S., we’re not heading toward 1984, Idiocracy, Mickeu 17 or even Blade Runner we’re heading toward Brazil (the film).
This is something I brought up in my country when campgrounds lobbied for banning camping anywhere else because it deprived them of money. First I suggested this was like banning me from bringing a packed lunch, thereby depriving cafes of money and when that didn’t work, I hit them with “So if I have sex with someone just because, I’m depriving sex workers of a living?”
She’s … not saying it is? She didn’t ask for this information, but she has it, and if it’s information that Dorothy was cheating on Walky, it seems like something he needs to know. Since it isn’t, it’s not. It’s not something she needs to know either, but she can’t do anything about that because Neuralizers aren’t a thing.
I think she handled the whole thing astonishingly badly (well, maybe not that astonishingly, since it’s Jennifer), starting with bringing it up while Alice is there, but still.
“Alice, no! The lack of details and “oh nothing” end to that conversation was supposed to make Walky plead for answers! That can’t happen if you just blurt it out!”
Because if he was already back together with Dorothy, it would have been his business. She wasn’t subtle enough about it, but that’s why she brought it up.
With a few more lines, Walky, you’ll eventually believe in denial.
Anyway, I expect his insecurities to kick in and he’ll just tell Dotty to leave him for Joyce. Result of conversation, I do not know. But he tends to be a sad boy who thinks of himself as not worthy of anyone or anything.
Pretty much every person in the current love ouroboros seems on a set track of self sabotage with the sole exception of Joyce. Dorothy thinks she and Joyce should stay with who they’re currently with even if it tears her apart. Joe would gladly step aside if he had to so she can be with Dorothy even if it breaks his heart. And Walky would end up feeling insecure enough he’d shut things down with Dorothy so she can be with Joyce.
Joyce doesn’t give a fuck and i truly do believe if given free reign would actively fuck all three of them at once if she could.
(Two comments disappeared into the ether, which means either moderation queue or spam ( /dev/null ). They have not appeared yet, which means either the latter is true, or DYWillis is too busy having a life to pay attention to the comment system.)
Incidentally, I was re-reading the first few comics (to confirm that Jennifer was being all “Fuck off and leave me alone, nerd!” to Walky in those early days), and wow, Walky sure has come a long way in a few short months from being paralyzed and tongue-tied by his initial feelings for Dorothy. Why, he sounds almost jaded!
As a minor note, some (certainly not all) of the early comics have had the title text changed from the bare strip name to actual text commenting on the comic. Something to look for on the next readthrough.
“Joyce probably thinks seeing somebody’s underwear is sex.”
Kind of reminds me of the question that pops into my head whenever Bob’s Burgers does a “Tina is really horny” episode: “Tina talks about touching butts a lot. Does she think touching butts is sex? Has Linda not had The Talk with her teenage daughter?”
Joyce is absolutely totally straight and just wants to hang out with her best friend, who happens to be another lady. This is normal behavior and a normal biblical quote to use that has no other context.
GAL PALS
OK, I said I was going to a thread of receipts together on the guy who runs Kapow, in odder to explain why I personally would recommend not giving him your business at TFN.
Starting with the original post, revealing the guy loves sharing right wing fascist stuff on LinkedIn.
Alex Maw@xjmaw.bsky.social ⋅ 6m
Since you might think it's weird you got a like on this over a year after the fact, the director of Kapow just shared this on LinkedIn; i.imgur.com/hqQYWgO.png
so i got photos of the makeship dina plushie proto
and honestly it looks 100% perfect
except
sidebar
the hood can pull off the head, like a real hoodie
which is something i didn't even consider
should i leave that as an option, or tell them to sew the hood to the top of the head
trying to figure out why i have these weird shoulder pains these last few days
am i dying
is it indigestion
am i sleeping wrong
no it turns out i just have terrible fucking posture when i paint things
hahahaha wish granted XD
Smash cut to joyce/dorothy making out in the middle of the protest 8D
… with the other protesters wondering why they brought a washing machine …
Nah, they all know.
I think they’d more be questioning HOW they brought a washing machine, and a 240v generator
Bonus points if it’s a Yoshi and Toad kiss
We can hope.
That’s it Walky; deny everything, and you’ll be fine. Definitely not something you should talk to Dorothy about./s
That being said I’m not sure how he brings the subject up with Dorothy.
Any ideas how he could/should/will handle it?
It’s Walky, it won’t be subtle.
“Joyce thinks she banged you. Is that what the apology sex was for? What did you guys actually do?”
“I showed her how to masturbate. But it was before you and I got back together.”
“Oh. Yeah, that tracks with Joyce thinking you banged. But, uh, if you still feel like you gotta apologize…”
Yeah, I can totally imagine him saying that last part after any version of the prior.
“And if it keeps happening, and you need to keep apologizing… well, it’ll be hard, but we can keep coming over and over-coming if you want to keep coming, over and over.”
Walky is such a great friend. So giving!
Honestly, I can see this being Walky’s reaction. I get the feeling that in some ways, he would be somewhat jaded to Joyce being weird about such things. It’s not hard to imagine him straight-up taking it in stride.
And then we get Dorothangst about it. Lots of Dorothangst. And she remembers the time she asked about Joyce watching and her eyes unfocus.
Why am I the only one who wants Walky to go villain/depressed, withdrawn mode when Joyce and Dorothy get together?!
This comic has taken all my cynics from me! Sarah’s finding stability, Sal is in a happy committed relationship without a power imbalance, Mike is gone.
Damn it guys, I need an embittered Walky. You can have the sapphic romance, just give me Demon Time David™.
Well…it is Spring semester, y’know. That’s when horniness is in the air. (at least, more so than with fall semester) They can all get bitter ‘n’ depressed after they get their horny on. (channeling my not-so-inner amber)
Mike lives on in my cold, bitter heart.
I can certainly see that as Walky’s reaction to that much of the drama, because that’s easy to put off on Joyce’s weird hangups about sex and on Joyce’s crush on Dorothy.
Less clear how easily well he’ll react to finding out Dorothy is seriously crushing on Joyce
My hope would be that he has a moment of asking “Does that mean you don’t care about me?” and when Dorothy says “I care about both of you.” Then they’re all uncomfortable but gradually try to figure out what this means with at least some kind of discussion.
It’s at this point that someone muses aloud if part of Dorothy’s decision to forgo Yale was Joyce, making it even MORE awkward.
Would be nice, but I don’t think she’s anywhere near ready for that. Her current take is “It’s just a trauma response. It doesn’t mean anything. Let’s go ‘do laundry'”
I can’t regard this as plausible simply because it doesn’t involve Dorothy having a panic attack and running away screaming.
“Hey, Jennifer’s friend blurted out something about you and Joyce having sex a week ago. Can I inquire further? Or would you prefer to not talk about it?”
Love Alice big Goofy grin. Girl want some gossip
That smile on Alice’s face thou.
Having a lot of fun actually getting to know who Alice is outside of flight/fight mode.
Alice should learn some discretion from Jennifer.
Real talk, I suspect we’re gonna learn that Alice is exactly as messy as Billie was, possibly even more so.
We can only dream.
I love Walky’s confidence in panel 5. He’s also 100% right on all counts.
Maybe I’m just a lesbian, but mutual masturbation while holding hands is pretty sex.
Was Dorothy doing any jillin’? I remember Joyce booted her out so she could finish herself off. But Dorothy didn’t see to be gettin’ anywhere.
Dorothy was trying, afterwords, but the dryer wasn’t doing it for her. She kicked a dent in the machine.
I’m still surprised that Dorothy doesn’t own a vibrator.
I don’t think we know she doesn’t. Going back to the same place where she was previously with Joyce and wanting to get off the same way Joyce did might have other motivators.
True, can’t imagine she goes to the laundry room every time she wants to masturbate.
Just when she wants to masturbate *with Joyce*.
for what it’s worth, i think she kicked a dent in the machine less because it wasn’t getting her off and more because it represented in that moment all the ways she was subordinating herself to other people. she was in the laundry room because someone had to *actually do the laundry* and joyce had wandered off in a post-orgasmic haze. there was a lot going on in that sequence beyond the homoeroticism!
It’s definitely something but I wouldn’t consider it SEX sex, especially since they held hands for like… a minute, tops? And Dorothy left the room when Joyce actually got off. And even during the ‘mutual’ part, it’s just the both of them sitting on washing machines… I’d say I don’t think Dorothy was even actually trying to masturbate. She was just, like, chillin’ and holding Joyce’s hand while Joyce shuffled and got a bit randy before kicking her out.
I’m not sure where you’re getting “a minute, tops” from– they started holding hands here: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/hand/
And then they continue holding hands until Joyce tells Dorothy to leave– with a strip where they have a conversation (still holding hands) in between– so unless you think Joyce was about a minute away from orgasm and the next strips didn’t include any time lapsing between (which doesn’t seem to fit), than it was longer than a minute.
1) I was operating from memory.
2) it’s still just a single strip of dialogue. A back and forth conversation doesn’t exactly take 20 minutes.
3) my main point is that it isn’t as if they were holding hands while Joyce’s other hand was knuckles deep into herself. It’s still a matter of mere minutes they were hand holding. I don’t think she’s one minute away from orgasming when she tells Dorothy to leave. I think she just went, I dunno, from slightly horny to super horny? She’s reading smut while sitting on a washing machine, I’d be shocked if that’s all it takes for her to get off.
This comes up often, people forgetting how the handholding actually went, which is why I bring it up. 2 does seem to suggest you don’t think there was a time-lapse between strips, which is what I think is inaccurate there. I agree that one conversation didn’t take that long. I do think there was time on either side of it. Joyce rubbing her legs together a bunch is also what’s helping her get close, which is an additional factor to her process of getting off. I’m not sure how much direct touching (assuming that did happen) it actually took after Dorothy left, but I could see it not being a lot– but again, I’m working with the idea that this handholding time was for a while.
(The handholding might be an important factor for some in considering it sex; it might not be for others, who might consider it sex in their lives whether there was handholding or not. And then it’s also reasonable to not consider it sex regardless of extended handholding. I just don’t think it needs to be minimized– to me, it’s not an aspect that affects “is it sex” much either way.)
Frankly, as a virgin and sex repulsed ace person, I’ll admit I’m no authority on sex or masturbation. But I’m beginning to get kinda worried about what the people in this comment section believe to be sex. The hand holding does give what happened intimacy. But intimacy doesn’t mean sex. That’s why I view it as a non-issue. It doesn’t really factor. But that’s also my opinion. It can surely give their laundry thing intimacy.
But it isn’t a sex act.
I… don’t thinks there’s any cause to be worried about what other people consider sex?
We have at least one person in the comments with a partly paralyzed partner whose definition of sex would be unusual for a lot of folks, but certainly not a cause for concern.
I’m just gonna check out of the comment section for the rest of the week. It’s not worth it to comment here. I didn’t know about that commenter with a paralyzed partner. I don’t really care to get into the minutia of why I think watering down what sex is particularly when it comes to matters of SA and accusations of cheating are a slippery slope. I’m tired. Have fun guys.
I’d say a lot of commenters wouldn’t necessarily think it was sex, but Joyce explicitly does and to at least some extent her opinion matters here.
It is certainly sex adjacent.
I think it kinda depends on how you look at it. It’s certainly sexual, but whether or not it constitutes sex is pretty much up to the two people involved.
*I* certainly wouldn’t consider it sex, and it’s something I’ve done with girls I *did* have sex with before (I’m a straight cis dude).
Walky never outright said they didn’t have sex, just that Joyce’s definition is probably pretty broad.
Yeah, whether or not it’s Full-On Sex, I’d call it a sexual act, at least in so far as how it ultimately played out, even if it was initiated with the idea it was a life lesson, and with Dorothy’s misguided idea it’d alleviate Joyce’s interest in Joe. Amusingly, it only intensified her desire for him, which, whoops.
As far as he goes, he’s 100% right, but he’s missing the whole “Dorothy wishes she’s had sex with Joyce” part of the big picture.
Alice managing to out-Billie Jennifer! I can see why they got on so famously.
right up until the drama had personal consequences for her.
Someone likes storm watching more than she let on.
Fingers crossed this works it way back to Dorothy via Walky bringing up this conversation later.
I like how it’s “none of Walky’s business”, not “none of Alice’s business”.
To give her a bit of grace, Alice was present for Joyce to say she had sex with her best friend (“according to some definitions”) and the immediate awkward Dorothy moments that followed. That’s about as far as my grace will extend, though, considering that Billie just confirmed right in front of Alice that Walky is dating Dorothy lol. Girl clearly loves drama, though, I’m so here for the trainwreck
Welcome to the Sickos, Alice.
We are the loud majority.
The Paladins can shut the hell up and let us have this, for once.
Sickos! Sickos! Sickos!
I’m a sicko and i’m proud of it!
HAHAHA YES!
Alice has even fewer filters than even Carla, right?
We’ve all been so busy sympathizing with her, it never occurred to us to stop and consider that someone who was Jennifer’s high school best friend might actually be a pretty awful person.
Obviously, this is not nearly enough evidence to conclude that might be true, but I have faith.
Well, I mean, I trust Willis’ ability to create terrible characters. And I feel we’re due a queer character who’s just terrible.
Yes, yes, Jennifer, but Jennifer’s a particular sort of terrible. Hmm. Alright, it won’t happen, because having two terrible queer characters be that closely linked would be a bit much.
Yeah, that sums it up for me. Her entire presence before this was “anger that appeared pretty justified” but now I’m backing way the fuck up.
More Alice for me then!
Her trauma doesn’t make her a saint, but I don’t think her flaws are going to make her irredeemably awful either.
Mike was queer. So is Replacement Mike.
Anyway, whatchoo talkin’ about, Alice is awesome. Just vorpal blade all that lack of communication bullshit.
And Makaya, everyone complains about them everytime they show up.
Robin’s gotten better, but “member of the American Fascist Party stalking her Les Bean crush” doesn’t leave much room to go anywhere but up.
Robin kinda had to get better because ‘awful politician’ kinda got too real to write in earnest honesty, so her storyline pivoted to ‘awful ex-politician but uses those as lessons that actually kinda work’.
Very sparingly.
“Jennifer exists, but having two characters be terrible, queer, and closely linked would be a bit much.”
Ruth:
Isn’t that pretty much why she broke things off with Billifer?
Only in the sense that she wouldn’t be able to cope with taking Jennifer down with her.
I kind of expect Alice and Jennifer to somehow simultaneously restrain each other but also act on hilarious impulses.
Like this!
also very true, and EVERYONE KNOWS. ~<3
the vice-versa also applies
*tents hands* so, the “will they, won’t they”…
Alice being this amused is, well, amusing.
Walky’s disdain is, also, amusing. I do wonder if he’ll bring this up with Dorothy, and if Dorothy is going to be honest with him.
He’s also not wrong
He’s not wrong, but it would be misleading at best if Dorothy passed it off the way he’s doing it here.
CACKLING IRL
AND ALSO. NOT WRONG.
Is that new Avatar custom or from a strip? If the former, it comes together quite nicely – well done. If the latter, which strip did you pluck that detail from?
Alice the shit-stirrer, you love to see it
Jennifer 100% wanted to bring up the drama, otherwise she wouldn’t have asked and then been all like “oh no reason, nothing”
Exactly. Jennifer just completely dropped that juicy tidbit of gossip expecting the sharks to swarm. She was the opposite of discrete.
Hm… is the opposite of discrete, being put-together? Like, having all your shit figured out. (Which is nobody in this cast.)
But on a less pedantic point, I agree, she was the opposite of discreet
Nah, the opposite of discrete would be something like ‘connected’ or ‘indistinct’ or something else that implies a lack of separation or distinctiveness. Because that’s what discrete is. And in that regard, I think Jennifer’s honestly pretty discrete.
She’s extremely distinctive, and great at separating herself from groups. Even (especially?) ones she’s trying to fit in with.
She was seeing if there was something she had to interfere with, and through incompetence leaked essential information.
Eh, oh no reason, nothing is probably worse. That’s what people always say when its something.
She didn’t do it well, but she had good reasons to bring it up beyond stirring up trouble.
Alice is my new favorite
Alice’s faces have made my day two days in a row
And to think if it hadn’t been a busy laundry day Joyce and Dorothy would be having sex right now.
Or doing what they did before, which some might define as sex and some might not.
Or not doing either. Maybe just talking.
They might still have been interrupted by the text about Jocelyne
oh, I didn’t know Alice is Amber’s sister. Gemini sisters. Almost a clone.
I love Alice so much.
She’s so into the drama immediately, I love her excitement
I can see how she and Billie were friends. Billie’s a drama talker and Alice is a drama listener.
Appropriate gravatar is appropriate.
She’s here for the mess
I don’t think I really appreciated how pretty Alice is until panel 2.
Like, objectively, she’s been prettier, like at prom, but that joyful smile just hit me in a way her other appearances haven’t.
.I noticed something interesting yesterday while looking at characters up close at first, I thought it was just an Alice thing, but it turns out it applies to a lot of the cast. Characters with black or very dark eyes often have them shaped like the number 6. It’s not every character, but quite a few. I just wanted to confirm that I’m not the only one who noticed this. It also seems like a clever stylistic choice, since it adds a lot of expression to the eyes with a simple design.
That is a clever design choice. You have a great eye for details.
I’ve always interpreted it as a shiny highlight. Sometimes there’s more than one if a character is feeling particularly emotional.
Am I the only one who saw the preview image from a year in the future in the Bluesky widget and immediately scrolled back up to check that Jennifer and Walky were wearing different clothes, meaning that this one day is theoretically not going to last an entire year?
Unless they each go and have sex just after this and change their clothes before meeting up again, of course. That’s entirely possible.
Nonsense, Alice is gonna get brain freeze and throw up her drink on them and they change.
It takes six comics.
I don’t know if I’m ready for that many comics of throwing up. Feels like something that would happen to Cyclops.
Maybe the June 24, 2026 preview takes place next week in-comic. Walky and Jennifer are still discussing Joyce’s sexual cisperceptions, disperceptions, and misperceptions.
I’m calling my shot now. Walky and Dorothy aren’t even together in that strip preview over a year from now. I have no evidence to back up this claim. I just think the rebound has an expiration date. Walky and Jen are talking about how Joyce built a super harem they’re both somehow in yet they’ve never fucked each other. The strip still does take place a week from now in comic time.
Joyce building a super-harem makes her sound like the protagonist of some trashy isekai.
Where does one find these trashy isekais?
Asking for research.
I’d recommend My Mother’s Basement hottest trash videos. If you don’t know he’s an anime youtuber and he regularly recommends trashy anime, especially isekai.
My Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom. Was very popular a few years ago. You likely know about it but if you don’t it has two seasons. The main character is a ditzy girl who unintentionally makes all her hot friends fall for her as she tries to avoid the bad ending she’s destined for as the villainess in her favorite romance game.
Ah, I see you are a person of culture as well. Funny you should mention that, the Mother’s Basement crew is exactly how I found out about that kind of stuff. Just randomly clicked on a vid of his, laughed my arse off, and then followed recommendations, and now I’m buying a manga for the first time… possibly ever, now that I think about it. This is how it all starts.
I dead ass want Billieffer and Dotty to talk up how neither of them are bisexual and Danny just keeps hitting them with his ukulele.
Signed.
Each chapter is a day in DoA time, and they’ve been lasting 90 to 120 real world days, so next year could be 3 or 4 days in DoA’s future unless there’s another time skip.
No, Dorothy wishes!
… and yeah Joyce too, probably.
…Jennifer too.
Not to mention a lot of people in the comment section
Wally, er, Walky, every statement you said is likely true. For the most part.
“Probably Thinks Seeing Somebody’s Underwear is Sex” next book title.
Seeing someone’s underwear is sex if you love them and it helps you have an orgasm.
But what if the underwearer is not into you and its not mutual? Was that then sex? Or rape? Or what?
Voyeurism, maybe?
I though the definition was that it helps the other person orgasm, not that it helps you orgasm. So it is inherently interactional. So, no.
If you see someone’s underwear and it helps you have an orgasm that’s masturbation and voyeurism, assuming they don’t see you have that orgasm. If you force them to see you have that orgasm it is at the very least sexual assault.
“Somebody you love helps you orgasm”. It’s a hilariously bad definition in so many ways, but it doesn’t make it clear that the help has to be intended or through direct interaction. I’m sure that’s not how Joyce meant it, but it is what she said.
Both overly narrow in some ways and overly broad in others. When Joyce formulates a better working one for herself, I wonder where the laundry room experience will fall.
Especially because sex in no way requires an orgasm from either party. Sex is engaging in what either is, or attempts to mimic all or some of the sensations brought about by the act that causes human sexual reproduction.
It’s wordy and vague as all hell, but it’s about as accurate as I could get. This is why making out, oral, mutual masturbation, and yes, even masturbating to porn can be labeled as cheating by someone. Absolutely everyone who is a sexual individual has boundaries about what sex they’re okay with their partner engaging in outside of sex with them.
Similarly, every sexual person has a limit to how limited they’re willing to be in order to remain in a sexual relationship. Hence you get polyamory, FWB, and people leaving relationships because their partner is too controlling of their sexual energy.
Sex is absolutely awesome, but you basically always have to be on the same level with a partner.
Even if they’re not wearing it at the time?
Maybe to some of the more extremist sects…
lol even if jen’s not staying in teh same place surely she knows joyce would’ve been in the communal shower /dorm bahtrooms
Joyce is going to casually drop that she’s given Joe a handy and/or been fingerbanged by Joe in front of Walky and/or Billie and it’ll be a full 3 strips before they properly process the information
if Joyce let’s casually drop that she’s been fingerbanged by Joe in front of Walky and/or Billie, it may take even her a while to properly process what she said.
Ah so Alice is also a disaster girlie.
Has the Alice x Jennifer been named yet because I am reporting for duty
It’s too bad Lucy didn’t wing for her roommate because “Lucifer” is right there.
Damnation you’re right. Howinhell did any of us miss that??
Alifer? No, that looks too much like “a lifer.”
Billice?, given that Alice doesn’t know her as Jennifer.
Jenice?
Jealice A catchy pun/homophone for a pair of drama enthusiasts.
Jennifer + Alice = Delicious (DRAMA!)
I name this ship the JennAlicious . . . !!
*Smash a bottle of sparking cider on the bow, and set a course for Here Be Dragons!*
Walky the (n)ever insightful
Walky’s insight rolls are underappreciated by the people around him.
Alice is an utter trash goblin, seems very promising to be entertaining as hell. I can’t tell if she and Amber would collab or become rivals.
Walky’s always been more perceptive than he lets on. He hides it because noticing things gets him in trouble.
Since Joyce’s current definition sex is “when somebody you love helps you have an orgasm”, there are a lot of things that she could consider sex that many other people might not. For someone who’s not aware of that definition, Walky makes a good point.
Some sinking feeling came over me and i thought, “what if this entire chapter turns into an argument between Joyce and Dorothy over what constitutes as sex?” Like every member of the cast tags in for the argument to give their own two cents.
Willis could just draw on the comments…
Hey, Joyce. What if you do it with someone you don’t love?
By Joyce’s definition, if she’s “doing laundry” by herself while fantasizing about someone she loves and she has an orgasm, that would count as sex.
I can see her feeling the need to tell the people she’s fantasized about.
That depends on the definition of “help”. Which might imply that the other person deliberately does something to that end, not just exists.
As I think the alt-text pointed out, Joyce’s definition would make Roz a virgin.
I don’t think we know enough of Roz’s backstory to be sure.
It did make Joe a virgin before Joyce. Joyce is the experienced sex-haver in that relationship.
He should buzz off for a while so Dorothy’s free, then Joyce and Dorothy should ask Joe if he minds adding Dorothy to the team so the two of them can Fuck™. All for reasons which are legal.
Honestly, the spookiest part of that entire post is the inclusion of a “trademark” placed there. It gave me shades of the finale of 1984, an idea of some hyper-capitalist cyberpunk dystopia where some mega-corporation had patented the idea of human intimacy, and anyone who did so without corporate permission could be taken prosecuted.
You’re sort of describing the film Brazil (1985).
Hyper-consumerism is more prominent in Brazil than in 1984. While 1984 focuses on state control, austerity, and enforced scarcity, Brazil presents a dystopia of overabundance and consumerist distraction, where capitalism and bureaucracy blend into a grotesque farce. If you live in the U.S., we’re not heading toward 1984, Idiocracy, Mickeu 17 or even Blade Runner we’re heading toward Brazil (the film).
The Cold War never ended. Take responsibility for your part in it.
Why did this end up here?
This is something I brought up in my country when campgrounds lobbied for banning camping anywhere else because it deprived them of money. First I suggested this was like banning me from bringing a packed lunch, thereby depriving cafes of money and when that didn’t work, I hit them with “So if I have sex with someone just because, I’m depriving sex workers of a living?”
Nah. He should come along. All must come under the Harem of Joe. Even Mary. Especially Mary.
Based on what he knows? He ain’t wrong.
Alice is a lot of fun with her watching this group drama. XD
It’s not a bit more your buisness than it is his, Billiefer.
She’s … not saying it is? She didn’t ask for this information, but she has it, and if it’s information that Dorothy was cheating on Walky, it seems like something he needs to know. Since it isn’t, it’s not. It’s not something she needs to know either, but she can’t do anything about that because Neuralizers aren’t a thing.
I think she handled the whole thing astonishingly badly (well, maybe not that astonishingly, since it’s Jennifer), starting with bringing it up while Alice is there, but still.
Careful, Walky, a guy on here got deleted for saying stuff like that
Alice is great

very true
“Alice, no! The lack of details and “oh nothing” end to that conversation was supposed to make Walky plead for answers! That can’t happen if you just blurt it out!”
– Jennifer, probably
Sure. That’s not what’s happening in the comic, but that’s a fun alternate reality.
Hence the “probably”.
It’s the kind of mean girl mind game she’d play. Otherwise, why bring it up in the first place if it’s none of his business?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/decade/
Because if he was already back together with Dorothy, it would have been his business. She wasn’t subtle enough about it, but that’s why she brought it up.
In which Walky does not know of how much an understatement it is of which he speaks
It was mostly mutual masturbation
Though we spoke of penetration
Weed have to wait
For someone else
To try it out
I got that reference!
I’m just waiting until Walky connects the dots between this conversation and Dorothy’s apology.
Next comic is Joyce and Dorothy having sex
Unfortunately, it’ll be PiV, the only kind that doesn’t really count.
I thought they’d be taking turns pegging each other.
With a few more lines, Walky, you’ll eventually believe in denial.
Anyway, I expect his insecurities to kick in and he’ll just tell Dotty to leave him for Joyce. Result of conversation, I do not know. But he tends to be a sad boy who thinks of himself as not worthy of anyone or anything.
Pretty much every person in the current love ouroboros seems on a set track of self sabotage with the sole exception of Joyce. Dorothy thinks she and Joyce should stay with who they’re currently with even if it tears her apart. Joe would gladly step aside if he had to so she can be with Dorothy even if it breaks his heart. And Walky would end up feeling insecure enough he’d shut things down with Dorothy so she can be with Joyce.
Joyce doesn’t give a fuck and i truly do believe if given free reign would actively fuck all three of them at once if she could.
Does Akismet still hate me?
(Two comments disappeared into the ether, which means either moderation queue or spam (
/dev/null
). They have not appeared yet, which means either the latter is true, or DYWillis is too busy having a life to pay attention to the comment system.)Incidentally, I was re-reading the first few comics (to confirm that Jennifer was being all “Fuck off and leave me alone, nerd!” to Walky in those early days), and wow, Walky sure has come a long way in a few short months from being paralyzed and tongue-tied by his initial feelings for Dorothy. Why, he sounds almost jaded!
As a minor note, some (certainly not all) of the early comics have had the title text changed from the bare strip name to actual text commenting on the comic. Something to look for on the next readthrough.
“Joyce probably thinks seeing somebody’s underwear is sex.”
Kind of reminds me of the question that pops into my head whenever Bob’s Burgers does a “Tina is really horny” episode: “Tina talks about touching butts a lot. Does she think touching butts is sex? Has Linda not had The Talk with her teenage daughter?”
Walky being the voice of reason is … disconcerting.