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Yep, that’s where the protest is. Which adds a whole new meaning to “Watch For ICE”. If the buffer didn’t place this in the last presidency it’d be scary how realistic it is.
I think things will be ok at Dunn Meadow; I’m concerned Amazi-Girl comes across someone trying to commit a serious crime. I know she’s skilled, but as she pointed out: she has no superpowers.
1. Why, I do believe I recognize a Kendal! You’ve good gravatar taste!
2. If you extend the replies enough, then the Reply and Report comment functions go away. Problem solved!
3. But not for editing. That’s still a dire need.
I mean I would probably lodge that removing the Report Comment bit is actually another flaw that should be fixed. I mean, what if somebody started typing heinous stuff deep into a comment chain where, to be honest, people are more likely to do that as arguments get heated? Though I’ve never seen anything like that in the DoA comments. I think there’s moderation before comments become visible. But it still seems like it’d be a good idea!
personally, i suspect that amazi-girl is a dissociative alter given the memory loss and history of trauma; this seems less of a psychosis thing and more a DID/similar thing
So I’m given to understand, by the (admittedly few) systems I’m familiar with. It’s when the selves stop talking to each other that trouble might be brewing.
that’s not a sign of psychosis, it’s just a thing that happens sometimes with people who have DID. what Amber and Amazi-Girl experience is a form of extreme trauma-induced compartmentalization in which the brain creates multiple distinct actors (“alters”) internally in order to continue functioning under extreme strain in early childhood. they’re not psychotic or hallucinating – this is genuinely just a normal conversation between two people in the same body.
systems don’t always speak out loud to each other, of course – a lot of times, communicating by “thinking to each other” works. but sometimes it’s easier to just speak out loud when no one else is around, since it’s less work to externalize communication than to constantly fight through the dissociative barriers your brain has put up to keep you safe from your trauma. as someone else mentioned, it’s not the talking to each other that’s the sign of a (current, active) problem – it’s when you stop communicating clearly that shit gets messy, and the fact that they’re able to talk like this and even have a relatively stable relationship with each other is actually a major sign of positive progress compared to earlier in the series, for example the Nov 26 2017 strip in which Amber finds out Amazi-Girl has been going out but she can’t remember it happening.
source: i have DID, i live this on a day to day basis
I don’t know what it is people have about protesters. When Occupy Wall Street was camped out under the canopy of our library plaza, someone set fire to their tents.
I admit when someone’s idea of ‘free speech’ is to tell straight-up lies about some group of people, I have reservations. The ‘Big Lie’ shuts off people’s critical faculties.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
“Hornt” is a thing, presumably evolving from “horny” being typo’d originally, or evolving in the same was as “turnt”, but yeah, it’s been slang for a bit now.
Wasn’t that the name of his band, though? The one where Hannelore was the drummer for a while, and didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to double-hit the drum pedals with only one foot?
Horny is just the normal sexual excitability that so many of us experience when put in the right situation for it.
Hornt is like if you got Ratatouilled by a tiny succubus who sits on your crotch.
They didn’t start talking to each other until the chase with Toedad, when (iirc) AG realized she really should get Amber’s okay before jumping their body off of a moving vehicle.
They’d actually started talking again earlier in that sequence, but they’d also done so a few times much earlier.
Very early on, they didn’t seem to need to: they shared memories and swapped back and forth as needed with no explicit communication. Sometime after breaking up with Danny they got a bit more distant and we saw them talking and arguing a few times. After cutting up Ryan, they cut communication entirely as AG says here. And Amber started trying to repress AG as well.
But on the flip-side, whether she still ships Joyce and Joe, I wonder if it’s okay that I ship Amber and Amazi-girl? (Am considering them for my make-out art commission this year… oh no, I already did that last year! xD)
I deal with a voice, but I do my best to keep him buried. He’s not friendly, but every once in a while I’ll catch myself talking to him. Medication helps, but he’s never truly silent.
It would be realistic to have all the protestors, American or immigrant, “deported” to some foreign torture prison without access to lawyers. But that wouldn’t be funny at all and would kill the vibe in this comic so hopefully not. Joyce’s sister is an American citizen and white so theoretically she’s somewhat more safe than others.
And there isn’t much the main cast could do about it other than worry, be sad, and drink heavily like the rest of us, so it wouldn’t add any interesting drama.
The comic was written just about one year ago, so I’m thinking that particular dark and terrible result (the deportation thing) wouldn’t have occurred to Willis. He might have just had the “usual” cops-invade-protest-and-arrest-most-everyone result.
I come down on the side of the protest probably not being a big deal. FWIW, there’s a preview panel on the Tumblr of Jocelyne having coffee with Dorothy and she doesn’t appear to be injured or anything.
Given Willis’s buffer, this was prooobably written before this particular spate of “disappearances” at ICE’s hands specifically, but I could be wrong. Horribly fitting either way.
yeah as it turns out, ICE continues to deport people without due process regardless of whether or not news corporations tell us to pay attention to them, who would have guessed?
Well, their job is pretty much to deport people, as I understand it, and if they can’t find enough people they’re justified in deporting… well, either they get busy deporting people who shouldn’t be deported or they might have their budget reduced. Sure, the former approach might ruin countless lives (and deprive the country of the valuable contributions of many talented people), but those are problems for people that ICE staff don’t personally know.
Of course, there’s also the little detail that the kinds of people likely to be motivated for such a career probably either enjoy wielding power over believe others or believe that immigrants tend to be evil. Or both.
Just to add: I don’t actually live in the U.S. and am working by second-hand reports at best, so there’s probably a lot of nuance I’m missing. Still, I suspect Amazi-Girl’s warning is pretty relevant for many: “Careful. Watch for ICE.”
I’m sad to report as an American, that you, a non-American, know more about the situation than 99% of us and I don’t believe that is an exaggeration to say.
“Defending” the border is the federal government’s job. Deporting people is part of ICE’s job. Deporting people without due process is no-one’s job and is 100% unconstitutional.
I’d quote a certain song from The Mikado, but it’s not very funny in the current circumstances, when there might be actual executions* for those who go on “the list”.
* or deportations to El Salvadoran gulags, which is just execution with extra steps.
Willis, Can we see what amber’s saying please (I say, knowing that there s currently almost a year of comics already done, and that any changes will take effect afterwards, likely.
The color works as a general rule, yes, but there are edge cases. What the color has been shown to indicate is whether either character is doing the Amazi-Girl voice; it’s just that usually AG does and Amber doesn’t. But both can code-switch; we’ve had cases where Amber does the voice and AG doesn’t.
(This doesn’t change the fact that I was wrong about who was speaking here; I’m just saying, this is why the balloon color didn’t settle anything for me.)
You are supposed to be able to create Amber’s side of the dialog from Amazigirl’s. Like for example, what would Amber be lying about that would explain why she no longer ships Joe and Joyce.
I really doubt that Amber the fanfic-loving trash goblin has any qualms about shipping a stepbrother she’s had for less than two months and has known less than six months.
My guess: Amber’s cover story is: A Joyce-Joe pairing is no longer any sort of “mess”. Amber loves chaotic mess in her peers’ relationships. But the Joyce-Joe thing seems to be not-messy and not likely to become so. So, shipping them is no longer interesting.
As to Amber lying….and what her true feeling could be…she still roots for Joe and Joyce to pair up. That’s her step-bro, so she’s wingperson-shipping on his behalf.
Either that or it’s more in line with Amber’s last conversation with Booster? I.e, claiming she wants Joyce and Dorothy to hook up when really she just wants Walky single…
Just some quick copy-paste. If there were many more, I’d have put in a for loop to add them. S’what I did for Sal’s F-MIRV. The time-consuming bit is updating everybody’s appearance counts.
First time (well, four times) Joyce has said “fuck” and meant, y’know, fuck.
Fuck no, that’s the accent of a fucking Scotsman who’s been in fucking London just fucking long enough to really fucking thoroughly piss him the fuck off.
When I was doing the initial count, I almost missed one of Billie’s, because she was using it in the literal sense, and it didn’t register as an F-bomb.
I don’t know if Joyce really understands “horny”, but she’s definitely excited for something that she’s inflated in her head to be a magical moment. Let’s hope Joe is up to the task.
(Are we having a language nerd-off?)
As noted, Middle English is Chaucer.
The technical term for Shakespearean/Elizabethan/King Jamesean English is “Early Modern English”.
I got it mixed up, yeah. There’s a couple of centuries of separationsbthere! The evolution of English is really interesting (actual Old English is the kind of thing that only makes sense to me if there’s a translation to modern provided to read simultaneously.) I’m ESL ans started learning this for a fanfic I wrote, as you do :’33
If by “King Jamesian” you mean specifically the King James Bible, to the best of my knowledge, it’s a version of Early Modern English that affects archaic (even for the time) grammar and vocabulary to sound more authoritative.
This is a very old thing people used to think based on nothing in particular. These days getting them to speak to each other and share memories is considered standard therapeutic practice.
It seems to range from no memory sharing, all the way to multiple identities aware and passing the mic to participate in conversation. A one-on-one chat with one person I’ve met usually was more like a group chat. People vary, sometimes mood or stress affects it. There’s ongoing debate as to whether that should all be under one umbrella label, or classified as separate conditions, and what to call it.
Hi! Actual DID system here! Establishing communication between alters is one of the primary focuses of initial DID treatment, so the fact that Amazigirl and Amber can talk to one another is a very good thing as it means there is less dissociation separating them than before. I talk to other system members on a daily basis, sometimes out loud like Amazi-girl is doing.
hi, also actual system here, talking to each other (yes, even out loud) is normal and desirable. it usually takes effort and practice, because your brain doesn’t want you to know each other exist, but it’s a necessary stepping stone towards becoming a more functional team.
Indiana University, the school this comic is mostly set in, is in Bloomington, not Terre Haute. So the cops are most likely from Bloomington. But in any case, American cops have a long record of overestimating the threats posed by protesters.
True. I was very tired last night and searched for Indiana State University rather than Indiana University, which is state university. It turns out they both use the same Psi visible embossment of the gazebo, so I when I searched the l Indiana State University location and it pulled up crest using the same letter I wrongly assumed that I had found the right place.
Booze with a high enough proof. Wine only causes a different stain and doesn’t budge the Sharpie mark. Beer is useless. Might as well just get water from the tap.
Seriously. AIDS isn’t the only nasty disease out there. We have untreatable gonorrhea, now. Also, someone told me we have untreatable syphilis, but I haven’t been able to verify that.
By that logic she doesn’t technically need a condom anyway, because you can just hope really hard instead. Nothing is technically necessary. But it’s always a good idea to use multiple methods in conjunction, and it’s never good if one fails.
I doubt Joe is going to use it. Joe has used condoms quite a bit I am sure, he’s not going to risk using one that may have been tampered with, even if it was handed to him by a superhero
In which all of us are Amber and also
O M I N O U S.
The story has been picking up intensity as of late, isn’t it. I love it. I dread yet need to see what happens in Dunn Meadow with equal fervor — Maybe because Willis has to be THE comic author I trust the most, so I’m in for anything he throws at us.
Amber + Walky and Dorothy + AG
or if they’re all up for it
Amber + Walky + Dorothy + AG
is AG bi? you might ask. Shortpacked has a few strips about the Kinsey scale too, it turns out. It’s as classy as you would guess. Anyways, the answer is I don’t know.
Call me crazy, but I feel like all of the cops being in Dunn Meadow is exactly why Amazi-Girl should be there. Trying to take on the force as a whole would be a recipe for disaster, but she might be able to, like, slow a cop or two down when they inevitably start trying to kidnap/gas(/arrest?) the protesters en masse. If nothing else it’s better than ignoring it outright.
A-G is all about law and order. In her mind, the cops watching the protest will be taking care of those aspects. So she’s needed elsewhere. If she goes to the protest to interfere with policing, then no one’s watching the non-protest areas.
The risks of losing her anonymity at the protest are pretty high, and it’s unclear how effective she could possibly be, while we know she’s really effective at swooping out of the shadows and beating up people while they’re trying to do a mugging or something.
Well, up to Amazi-Girl, but yeah. If the cops are all playing hall monitor at the protest, they’re not exactly looking at the rest of the campus, so that opens up opportunities for crimes to go unnoticed. In short, she’s taking it on herself to patrol the campus and help out anyone she can.
I know Taffy kinda covered this already, but just to give a very literal translation on what Amazi-Girl is trying to say here…
“[E]verywhere else is up to yours truly.” = “It’s my responsibility to keep law and order in the places where the cops aren’t watching [now that they’re distracted by this protest].”
This is a normal thing for many who have DID (I actually have it) and is actually a positive thing because it means alters are communicating with one another.
Really hope we get see how Jocelyne and the protests have been going soon. Hopefully not too badly, but I’m worried considering how campus protests were going when these strips were probably made.
I’d go further and say that there are likely cops trying to infiltrate the protest to start shit and give uniformed pigs an excuse to break up the protest. That shit is unfortunately evergreen, Willis wouldn’t need to see the future when this was written last year.
I’m hearing it as Peter Capaldi as Malcom Tucker in The Thick of It.
Which is weird because a) Tucker is using it as an invective, not a discriptive, and b) I’ve never actually watched that show, at least partly because I don’t think I could handle all the sweating.
I’m sure that at this point, Amber has fanfic of every possible ship combination in her social circle, including Walky/Sal. Amber is not the type to do anything halfway, and that includes her pron.
As much as I enjoy the fictional and humorous nature of the comic and try not to take anything too seriously, the degree of the division between Amber and Amazi-Girl has become more than concerning. I can’t imagine that people that really have Dissociative Identity Disorder actually behave the way we see Amber/Amazi-Girl do. My (very limited) understanding is that the different “alters” don’t directly communicate with each other the way we see Amazi-Girl carrying on a conversation with Amber in this strip, for instance.
Regardless of all of that, it is extremely unhealthy for her to exist in this state. The pace of the comic may mean that it won’t come to a head and see real progress made until Willis is in his 80s, but I feel that the negative consequences of her mental health condition needs to be a significant part of her arc sooner rather than later.
Willis generally does a fairly good job of balancing “fun” and “serious” and showing that both character flaws and mental health problems are more than just things to make a fictional character “interesting” and have “depth”, but they have real consequences and need to be taken seriously. But I haven’t seen enough of that in Amber’s case lately. Instead, I worry that it is almost normalizing her mental state.
Hi I’m plural. Folks with DID and OSDD, depending on the presentation, may be able to communicate internally with their alters/headmates. Breaking down dissociative barriers to increase communication/awareness/internal cooperation is often a part of therapy.
Willis has also demonstrated people in-comic as tending towards talking to themselves/aloud I think a lot more often than people would IRL.
If anything, I think the fact that AG and Amber are communicating more now is a sign that it’s a healthier internal relationship, as opposed to earlier in the comic when they weren’t speaking at all (and Amber was waking up with mystery bruises/scrapes without recollection of what AG had been up to).
I will speak on the one point here I do feel confident about:
Talking to oneself (or selves) is a common alternative to thought balloons (which Willis, IIRC, has said they don’t care for) or a purely internal narrative (which is something that works much better in text than in a visual or audiovisual medium).
and just what is wrong with “normalizing” pluralism?
DID is something you can learn to live with, and is just another valid way to be, no less than being autistic or ADHD.
We don’t need to be “cured”, the problem is our country being majorly prejudiced against us and thinking it’s okay for disabled and minorities to suffer for the convenience of “normal” white folk (-_-)
When you find yourself starting to say, “Regardless of my very limited understanding, this is extremely unhealthy.” It’s probably time to ask questions instead.
If you know your understanding is limited that may be a sigh you shouldn’t be making confident assertions of what is and isn’t healthy for a character with a certain condition to be doing.
Another DID system here to expand your very limited and actually very incorrect understanding:
DID systems who have established communication between alters do and *should* talk to one another. It reduces the dissociation that separates them which is the basis of the disorder.
Amber and Amazigirl have both experienced significant consequences to their untreated manifestations of DID, including being in life-threatening danger repeatedly. Like, I feel like *most* of Amber’s character arc thus far has been her wading through the complications of her disorder.
Regardless, DID systems have full and normal lives, just as people with PTSD or depression do. The fact that Amber and Amazi-girl aren’t depicted as constantly in a state of trauma and misery is actually a more accurate representation of life as a system. And I don’t know if you realize this, but it sounds like you’re implying that if they were to suffer more as a result of their disorder it would motivate them to… stop having it? DID isn’t a choice.
What is a choice is the degree to which you acknowledge and work with the traits of the disorder. Amber and Amazi-girl were at their worst when they were actively avoiding each other and pretending nothing was wrong. Now, they are communicating and collaborating and are a lot more stable and taking fewer risks than before. They aren’t in therapy, but it’s actually incredibly difficult to find a therapist who has any clue of how to treat DID (mine lives two hours away and I only see her remotely). So from my perspective, Amber and Amazi-girl are doing about the best they can with the resources they have and that’s reflected in their current less drama-filled life.
Singleton here, barely. Made it through my early teens with just one of me in here by the skin of my damn teeth. Given that you admit having a very limited understanding maybe you should be making fewer sweeping statements and assumptions that what you’re saying is anywhere close to correct. Everything I’ve seen from the systems I’ve encountered online says pretty much the opposite of almost everything you just said.
To Nat, NPGZ, The Blueprint System, and everyone else, I apologize for displaying my ignorance in a hurtful way. Thank you for sharing your perspective on this.
Late to the party here, but I’m taking bets that Joyce will still be a virgin by the time the sun rises the next morning.
And I’m offering a side bet that Joe is the one who is unwilling to ‘go the distance’ – although whether it’ll be due to scruples or performance anxiety remains to be seen.
Yeah, we’re in “protest too much” territory – possibly in reaction to what happened with Dorothy. I think their respective hang-ups are going to interact badly – Joe doesn’t want to be a “sex-monster,” Joyce doesn’t want to think about this not being the perfect night where they’re both equally horny & happy with each other.
I think the latter was MUCH more likely before she relaxed about making sure everything was perfect with Dorothy’s help… …but like, then they almost did something or other, so there’s also that as a potential complication.
I don’t necessarily want to see Joe’s reservations prevent them from having a nice night together, but I do hope we’re going to see him admit to them and receive comfort. Hopefully from Joyce! Because that kind of honest communication would be great before anyone’s pants are off…
I’m reminded of this scene. Joe is very worried about making sure Joyce can say no (which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong), but I’m not sure he’s learned how to let her say yes.
Up until the handy in the kitchen, I would have agreed about Joe. I’m not ruling it out, but so far he’s just been letting her be in control. And doing a pretty good job at communication. With Walky, we saw some visible (to readers) signs of hesitation, and lacking communication.
So maybe a “scruples” based interaction that may or may not end the mood. In which he tells her about Liz, and maybe she tells him about almost kissing Dorothy.
Goodness, I’m so incredibly tired of how every time there is a comic depicting Amazi-girl and Amber communicating openly with each other, a bunch of concern-trolling commenters show up to talk about how worried they are about Amber and how unhealthy it is for her to talk to her alters.
I am both a DID system and someone who writes educational stuff about DID to clear up misconceptions.
When you frame inner-system communication as inherently pathological, I need you to think about what the actual alternatives would be that would be “healthier”. Is it to pretend you don’t have alters and never talk to them? Is it to actively hide from everyone that they exist to the point that you won’t even talk out loud when no one is listening (a thing singlets do all the time)? Is it to just use your power of will to not have alters anymore?
But consider, if you had cripplingly low self-esteem, would the healthiest way to cope with that be to actively hide the aspects of yourself you are ashamed of and hate, from everyone? Or to pretend that you don’t have them? Because that’s what you’re advocating for in discouraging inner-system communication. Alters are not an external invasive force. They are part of THAT PERSON. Including and involving them is non-negotiable in successful treatment.
So for the last time: Amber was in the most danger and her DID was causing her the most problems when she tried to pretend Amazi-girl didn’t exist and vice versa. Amber and Amazi-girl are much more stable now that they are communicating and collaborating. This is an accurate presentation of how DID treatment works.
I think a lot of people are still stuck in the “Evil second personality” slock that is often seen in media, so they assume that anything involving Amber and AG relationship must be inherently unhealthy and dangerous. Again, fell like the only that would be “healthy” for them is that Amber get put in a mental ward.
Yeah, I really wish people wouldn’t focus so much on the mere existence of multiple identities as the center of the disorder, and instead recognize that the trauma, amnesia, and dissociation are what causes all the dysfunction and suffering.
I submit that the situation in the early years of the comic – where “Amber” was basically the dumping ground for all the bad stuff that she didn’t like about herself, so that AG could be what some referred to as the “golden alter” – was very not healthy. She’s gotten better since then.
Yes, the point of DID as an illness is dissociating from yourself, whether that is to wall off aspects of yourself that you want to forget about or because you don’t want to corrupt them with your “inherent badness”. Amber was reinforcing the dissociation separating them by making herself “the bad one”. The separation and dissociation is the unhealthy part. In other words, the impulse to “hide all your bad stuff” in a separate box in the back of your closet is the unhealthy thing, the existence of multiple boxes is not itself unhealthy.
So many people have a singular view of mental illness, like people experiencing single episodes of moderate depression. And then they get better and are no longer mentally ill– and that’s mapped onto every experience, even though so many aren’t like that.
For DID, that means people think the alters need to be gotten rid of and nothing else should be an option.
As a person still working with therapists to figure out if my voices who seem to be distinct selves are psychosis or DID, I appreciate seeing Amber and Amazigirl, especially when she’s thriving. I would love to see her in a place where she can have a relationship where her partner knows Amazigirl. And potentially both of them having relationships and everyone involved being cool with it, and being happy and healthy.
Oh I have to comment one more time! I wonder if Mike will become an alter. I have a friend who has a homestuck OC, a character from JJBA, and a visual novel as their alters. We’ve seen Amber talking to Mike since his death, and having out loud conversations with him. I wonder if this grief will manifest into an alter or not. I’m curious!
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Not loving all the “something really bad is going to go down in dunn meadow” foreshadowing
Isn’t that where the protest is? I feel(hope) that’s just indicating that they’re there watching protestors nap.
It definitely won’t be JUST that, but I can hope.
Yes, that’s why I’m worried about it.
Think of it as Duh Duh Dun meadow.
Excellent punning. +1 internet point.
Make it two.
Elan would approve.
You nailed it, not-nale wouldn’t fail to like this tale
Yep, that’s where the protest is. Which adds a whole new meaning to “Watch For ICE”. If the buffer didn’t place this in the last presidency it’d be scary how realistic it is.
ICE existed during the Biden administration too.
I don’t think that’s what they were saying, Hue.
AG most certainly means literal frozen water on the stepping stones and sidewalks. But it might also be foreshadowing. Nymph.
Yeah, they’ve existed for some time. But they’ve never been this… enthusiastic before!
I think things will be ok at Dunn Meadow; I’m concerned Amazi-Girl comes across someone trying to commit a serious crime. I know she’s skilled, but as she pointed out: she has no superpowers.
I’m terrified that Dunn Meadow is going to turn into Episode 8 of Andor.
Well the cops probably won’t be deploying killbots, so small mercies.
*Jocelyn is hurled by K2SO, is rescued by Sal in midair*
Does feel mildly ironic to make this comic with a character who is technically a police killbot as my avatar
*comment
my kingdom for an edit function
An ‘edit’ function is my #1 wish for this here akismet.
Separating the “reply” and “report comment” functions is my #2 wish.
Good heavens, those *are* dangerously close to each other. Someone could get hurt!
I’m reporting this comment for subversion.
Damn it, didn’t mean that to be a reply
1. Why, I do believe I recognize a Kendal! You’ve good gravatar taste!
2. If you extend the replies enough, then the Reply and Report comment functions go away. Problem solved!
3. But not for editing. That’s still a dire need.
I mean I would probably lodge that removing the Report Comment bit is actually another flaw that should be fixed. I mean, what if somebody started typing heinous stuff deep into a comment chain where, to be honest, people are more likely to do that as arguments get heated? Though I’ve never seen anything like that in the DoA comments. I think there’s moderation before comments become visible. But it still seems like it’d be a good idea!
Shit happening at Dunn AND elsewhere is always a possibility!
But I’m expecting trouble elsewhere the most, none of the central cast members went to Dunn. That we know of. Yet.
Joyce’s sister went, specifically right after coming out to Joyce, that’s enough of a connection for something bad to happen for narrative purposes.
I’m concerned that Amazigirl is actively talking out loud to Amber as if they’re separate people. That’s a sign of psychosis, and not healthy.
They’re just plural/headmates, my biased layman’s read as a plural lady is that it’s probably chill. ¯\\\_(‘v’)_/¯
personally, i suspect that amazi-girl is a dissociative alter given the memory loss and history of trauma; this seems less of a psychosis thing and more a DID/similar thing
So I’m given to understand, by the (admittedly few) systems I’m familiar with. It’s when the selves stop talking to each other that trouble might be brewing.
That certainly has been the case in DoA: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/kirkwood/
You don’t need to suspect that it’s been explicit for some time now.
She had created a way to survive
She learned to detach from herself
A behavior that kept her alive
It’s always amusing when someone notices that for the first time.
It’s been explicit for years now.
that’s not a sign of psychosis, it’s just a thing that happens sometimes with people who have DID. what Amber and Amazi-Girl experience is a form of extreme trauma-induced compartmentalization in which the brain creates multiple distinct actors (“alters”) internally in order to continue functioning under extreme strain in early childhood. they’re not psychotic or hallucinating – this is genuinely just a normal conversation between two people in the same body.
systems don’t always speak out loud to each other, of course – a lot of times, communicating by “thinking to each other” works. but sometimes it’s easier to just speak out loud when no one else is around, since it’s less work to externalize communication than to constantly fight through the dissociative barriers your brain has put up to keep you safe from your trauma. as someone else mentioned, it’s not the talking to each other that’s the sign of a (current, active) problem – it’s when you stop communicating clearly that shit gets messy, and the fact that they’re able to talk like this and even have a relatively stable relationship with each other is actually a major sign of positive progress compared to earlier in the series, for example the Nov 26 2017 strip in which Amber finds out Amazi-Girl has been going out but she can’t remember it happening.
source: i have DID, i live this on a day to day basis
She is immune to criticism
When was the last “season finale” (i.e. the kidnapping)?
Book 10, we’re on Book 15… I feel like I should go check what happened at the end of Book 5.
End of Book 10, but if we’re assuming symmetry with the previous “season” this is right about the time when Toedad showed up for the first time
Yup, there’s the shoe.
This chapter was written and drawn a year ago, before the ground shifted, so hopefully everything will be fine?
For relative values of “fine”….
I don’t know what it is people have about protesters. When Occupy Wall Street was camped out under the canopy of our library plaza, someone set fire to their tents.
Approximately 25% of all American adults admit that they want that Free Speech should not be a right for some other Americans.
And that same 25% claims that the “left” is removing their Free Speech?
Yyyyup.
Also see “We’re opposed to Big Govt” while putting in bigger govt.
The key word in that sentence is “other”.
I admit when someone’s idea of ‘free speech’ is to tell straight-up lies about some group of people, I have reservations. The ‘Big Lie’ shuts off people’s critical faculties.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
A darn clear and succinct definition!
Amazi-Girl talking to Amber without the benefit of seeing Amber’s responses makes her look crazier than normal.
Also, “hornt?”
“Hornt” is a thing, presumably evolving from “horny” being typo’d originally, or evolving in the same was as “turnt”, but yeah, it’s been slang for a bit now.
Typos becoming ongoing slang? Wiigii!
“Teh” had a brief moment.
pwned
Come on down to Manolios Lectro-Pawn!
But I don’t want to be gutted like sheep!
I prefer Discount Dan’s Used Mech Emporium, personally.
Car for cat seems to have been a thing recently. But, yeah, pwned used to be pretty common
Not to mention the derivative form “pwnt”.
“Teh” had years on Marten’s t-shirt.
Haha okay
Such a questionable observation you got there!
Wasn’t that the name of his band, though? The one where Hannelore was the drummer for a while, and didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to double-hit the drum pedals with only one foot?
No, that was Deathmøle.
I’ve never heard it before, but I was like. “Oh. Okay.”
It’s not *the* standard English move, but it is *a* standard English move. See for example, burnt.
Horny is just the normal sexual excitability that so many of us experience when put in the right situation for it.
Hornt is like if you got Ratatouilled by a tiny succubus who sits on your crotch.
Steered by the little man in the canoe.
I thought that the standard English move was to mug other languages in dark alleyways to steal their vocabulary.
In the words of Urban Dictionary, “the word for horny but hornier than horny.”
Well, at least they’re talking again.
the only other instance I can think of Amber and Amazi-Girl talking to each other was… not a great time so this might be some foreshadowing. ~<3
They didn’t start talking to each other until the chase with Toedad, when (iirc) AG realized she really should get Amber’s okay before jumping their body off of a moving vehicle.
They’d actually started talking again earlier in that sequence, but they’d also done so a few times much earlier.
Very early on, they didn’t seem to need to: they shared memories and swapped back and forth as needed with no explicit communication. Sometime after breaking up with Danny they got a bit more distant and we saw them talking and arguing a few times. After cutting up Ryan, they cut communication entirely as AG says here. And Amber started trying to repress AG as well.
But on the flip-side, whether she still ships Joyce and Joe, I wonder if it’s okay that I ship Amber and Amazi-girl? (Am considering them for my make-out art commission this year… oh no, I already did that last year! xD)
So horny you don’t notice your typos anymore because you’re distracted from actually paying attention to your screen.
Amazi-Girl seems to have a little more in common with Amber than either of them would care to admit!
What, you’ve never talked to yourself outloud? –Signed, an actual DID system tired of people pathologizing system communication.
Hell I’m singular and I talk to myself out loud whenever I’m alone
I deal with a voice, but I do my best to keep him buried. He’s not friendly, but every once in a while I’ll catch myself talking to him. Medication helps, but he’s never truly silent.
I apologize if I offended anyone; it was not my intention.
I am really afraid the protest is going to become a tragedy on par with ToeDad.
Sadly it seems to be the only realistic and respectful way to handle it (in a story with superheroes).
It would be realistic to have all the protestors, American or immigrant, “deported” to some foreign torture prison without access to lawyers. But that wouldn’t be funny at all and would kill the vibe in this comic so hopefully not. Joyce’s sister is an American citizen and white so theoretically she’s somewhat more safe than others.
And there isn’t much the main cast could do about it other than worry, be sad, and drink heavily like the rest of us, so it wouldn’t add any interesting drama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYfHB-b3jvA For the fuckity fuck in a nice British accent
The accent of a Scotsman who’s been in fucking London for long enough to piss him the fuck off.
Oh, right, thanks.
buuuut also trans so… back into danger territory. ~<3
The comic was written just about one year ago, so I’m thinking that particular dark and terrible result (the deportation thing) wouldn’t have occurred to Willis. He might have just had the “usual” cops-invade-protest-and-arrest-most-everyone result.
Don’t forget the pepper spray and beatings.
I come down on the side of the protest probably not being a big deal. FWIW, there’s a preview panel on the Tumblr of Jocelyne having coffee with Dorothy and she doesn’t appear to be injured or anything.
Aha! A good explanation of why AG is out and about
Quite logical, too!
…this is titled “Ice” for a reason, isn’t it? >~<
Given Willis’s buffer, this was prooobably written before this particular spate of “disappearances” at ICE’s hands specifically, but I could be wrong. Horribly fitting either way.
yeah as it turns out, ICE continues to deport people without due process regardless of whether or not news corporations tell us to pay attention to them, who would have guessed?
They’ve been deporting people for a long time, under multiple presidents.
ICE was created in 2003 under Bush.
Well, their job is pretty much to deport people, as I understand it, and if they can’t find enough people they’re justified in deporting… well, either they get busy deporting people who shouldn’t be deported or they might have their budget reduced. Sure, the former approach might ruin countless lives (and deprive the country of the valuable contributions of many talented people), but those are problems for people that ICE staff don’t personally know.
Of course, there’s also the little detail that the kinds of people likely to be motivated for such a career probably either enjoy wielding power over believe others or believe that immigrants tend to be evil. Or both.
Just to add: I don’t actually live in the U.S. and am working by second-hand reports at best, so there’s probably a lot of nuance I’m missing. Still, I suspect Amazi-Girl’s warning is pretty relevant for many: “Careful. Watch for ICE.”
I’m sad to report as an American, that you, a non-American, know more about the situation than 99% of us and I don’t believe that is an exaggeration to say.
No, you pretty much nailed it.
“Defending” the border is the federal government’s job. Deporting people is part of ICE’s job. Deporting people without due process is no-one’s job and is 100% unconstitutional.
So, yeah, nuance I guess.
I’d quote a certain song from The Mikado, but it’s not very funny in the current circumstances, when there might be actual executions* for those who go on “the list”.
* or deportations to El Salvadoran gulags, which is just execution with extra steps.
….. lolz.
_Probably_ because of “Careful: watch for ice”. _But_…..nothing says Willis didn’t do some very-recent edits due to very-recent real-world events.
Willis, Can we see what amber’s saying please (I say, knowing that there s currently almost a year of comics already done, and that any changes will take effect afterwards, likely.
I’m pretty sure the word balloons starting with “Zounds” and “Ffyeah” are Amber’s side of the conversation.
No, those are all Amazi-Girl’s balloons, in response to an Amber we can’t hear.
Huh. Fair enough!
Thanks for clarifying Willis
Amber gets white word balloons and both make more sense as AG lines
The color works as a general rule, yes, but there are edge cases. What the color has been shown to indicate is whether either character is doing the Amazi-Girl voice; it’s just that usually AG does and Amber doesn’t. But both can code-switch; we’ve had cases where Amber does the voice and AG doesn’t.
(This doesn’t change the fact that I was wrong about who was speaking here; I’m just saying, this is why the balloon color didn’t settle anything for me.)
You are supposed to be able to create Amber’s side of the dialog from Amazigirl’s. Like for example, what would Amber be lying about that would explain why she no longer ships Joe and Joyce.
She just feels weird about shipping her brother probably.
Her legal and biological brother, Joe.
People seem to be forgetting that Amber and Joe are fraternal twins, separated at birth.
Westermarck effect, from having spent winter break in the same house.
I really doubt that Amber the fanfic-loving trash goblin has any qualms about shipping a stepbrother she’s had for less than two months and has known less than six months.
If anything, it probably makes it MORE exciting for her.
My guess: Amber’s cover story is: A Joyce-Joe pairing is no longer any sort of “mess”. Amber loves chaotic mess in her peers’ relationships. But the Joyce-Joe thing seems to be not-messy and not likely to become so. So, shipping them is no longer interesting.
As to Amber lying….and what her true feeling could be…she still roots for Joe and Joyce to pair up. That’s her step-bro, so she’s wingperson-shipping on his behalf.
Either that or it’s more in line with Amber’s last conversation with Booster? I.e, claiming she wants Joyce and Dorothy to hook up when really she just wants Walky single…
Bingo.
Ahhh. Yes, I prefer this. A Joyothy sexing, etc.
That’s a lot of additions to the f-bomb list!
Just some quick copy-paste. If there were many more, I’d have put in a for loop to add them. S’what I did for Sal’s F-MIRV. The time-consuming bit is updating everybody’s appearance counts.
First time (well, four times) Joyce has said “fuck” and meant, y’know, fuck.
Dumbing of Age Book 15: Fuck fuck fuckity fuck!”
Strong reminders of Eyebrow Dr Who’s previous show!
Ah, sorry this where I need to add this link: is this the nice posh British accent from the expensive private schools pumping out the British leaders?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYfHB-b3jvA
Fuck no, that’s the accent of a fucking Scotsman who’s been in fucking London just fucking long enough to really fucking thoroughly piss him the fuck off.
The accent you’re looking for is this.
Oh wow, that was … interesting.
I vote for this title!
+1!
Plus one!
Dumbing of Age Book 15: ZOUNDS, that girl is hornt.
I’ve long felt that “fuck” as in “we’re gonna do sex” is not an f-bomb. Only “fuck” as in “oh darn shucks heck” is an f-bomb. But that’s just me.
When I was doing the initial count, I almost missed one of Billie’s, because she was using it in the literal sense, and it didn’t register as an F-bomb.
I don’t know if Joyce really understands “horny”, but she’s definitely excited for something that she’s inflated in her head to be a magical moment. Let’s hope Joe is up to the task.
Yeah lmao OOF big ask there, Joyce buddy.
I enjoy the use of “zounds”. Amazi-Girl is fun to have around again.
It sounds like something a golden age comic vigilante would say!
Absolute Nerd Moment of The Night: It’s even older! It’s a minced oath for “God’s Wounds” in Middle English, around Shakespeare’s peak :33
Shakespeare is well after Middle English; Middle is Chaucer.
Yeah, DJ Willy the Shakes is Early Modern English.
Elizabethan. Apologies, I get my Englisheses mixed up some times fhfjd but yeah that’s +250 years of separation.
I learned all of this for a thing I wanted to write o/ it’s not my first language, but man, it’s fascinating :33
(Are we having a language nerd-off?)
As noted, Middle English is Chaucer.
The technical term for Shakespearean/Elizabethan/King Jamesean English is “Early Modern English”.
I like language nerd offs, particularly about English. I’ve read several books about the history of English, and it’s incredibly convoluted.
Your last 3 words are so totally true.
Thanks. I didn’t know whether to capitalize “Early.”
For once I wasn’t competing TwT
I got it mixed up, yeah. There’s a couple of centuries of separationsbthere! The evolution of English is really interesting (actual Old English is the kind of thing that only makes sense to me if there’s a translation to modern provided to read simultaneously.) I’m ESL ans started learning this for a fanfic I wrote, as you do :’33
If by “King Jamesian” you mean specifically the King James Bible, to the best of my knowledge, it’s a version of Early Modern English that affects archaic (even for the time) grammar and vocabulary to sound more authoritative.
I don’t think DID sufferers can talk to one another.
So this may just be Amazi-Girl amusing herself by imagining what Amber would say.
Depends on the Dissociative Disorder (some have more consciousness during it), severity, etc.
That said, Amber has been shown to have absolutely no memory of what Amazi-Girl does, so I doubt she’s one of the exceptions
Ehh they said they share memories now. I don’t remember the strip. It was a while back.
Ah, forgot about that. Yeah, that was a while back
They stopped sharing memories when Amber slashed “Ryan”, and later they started again. That’s all on-panel.
It depends on the individual. Many can talk to each other. Amber and Amazi-girl have been talking since the kidnapping. Here is one example:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/wrest-2
This is a very old thing people used to think based on nothing in particular. These days getting them to speak to each other and share memories is considered standard therapeutic practice.
They’ve done it before, but I can’t be arsed to dig up receipts.
It seems to range from no memory sharing, all the way to multiple identities aware and passing the mic to participate in conversation. A one-on-one chat with one person I’ve met usually was more like a group chat. People vary, sometimes mood or stress affects it. There’s ongoing debate as to whether that should all be under one umbrella label, or classified as separate conditions, and what to call it.
Just to reiterate what everyone else said: It depends.
Hi! Actual DID system here! Establishing communication between alters is one of the primary focuses of initial DID treatment, so the fact that Amazigirl and Amber can talk to one another is a very good thing as it means there is less dissociation separating them than before. I talk to other system members on a daily basis, sometimes out loud like Amazi-girl is doing.
hi, also actual system here, talking to each other (yes, even out loud) is normal and desirable. it usually takes effort and practice, because your brain doesn’t want you to know each other exist, but it’s a necessary stepping stone towards becoming a more functional team.
The Terre Haute police department is either drastically over estimating the threat posed by queer community or is severely underfunded.
It’s sadly a stand in for the RL protests where people are actually hauled off, deported, and imprisoned.
I almost envy your ignorance here
Bloomington. Terre Haute is the home of Rose-Hulman.
You’re forgetting that certain types see the mere existence of LGBT people as a code-red high priority threat.
That is actually the irl response to many police departments to peaceful protest.
Indiana University, the school this comic is mostly set in, is in Bloomington, not Terre Haute. So the cops are most likely from Bloomington. But in any case, American cops have a long record of overestimating the threats posed by protesters.
True. I was very tired last night and searched for Indiana State University rather than Indiana University, which is state university. It turns out they both use the same Psi visible embossment of the gazebo, so I when I searched the l Indiana State University location and it pulled up crest using the same letter I wrongly assumed that I had found the right place.
The queer community also has nothing to do with it. Jocelyne is at the protest, but it’s not about trans rights, but about the events in Bulmeria.
Yeah, Jocelyne talked about what the protests are about with Dorothy a while back. Doesn’t sound like these protests are about LGBT rights.
She also talked about it with Joe before that.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-15/02-the-one-where-jocelyne-returns/divest/ Messed up the link
I had forgotten about that. Thank you correcting me.
A thought occurs….
I really hope the A on that amazacondom didnt sabotage the integrity
How would it? She used a Sharpie on the wrapper.
You can write over the A with a dry erase marker and it will come right off.
Alcohol also gets Sharpie off. Booze? Disinfectant wipe? Either/any works
Booze with a high enough proof. Wine only causes a different stain and doesn’t budge the Sharpie mark. Beer is useless. Might as well just get water from the tap.
No booze when the wrapper is open. Rinsing off a condom with hard alcohol is a bad idea.
Sabotage the integrity? That would be… regrettable.
God, that would hit so hard. We’d be wrecked.
Joe gets the condom on, Joyce is ready to go, he gets the tip in, and a truck smashed through the wall and flattens them both instantly.
Dangnabbit stop telling people what the next day’s content is! Spoilers!! :O
Not really – Joyce is on birth control pills. She doesn’t technically need a condom so long as Joe has a recent STD test result in the negative.
Is a condom a good idea anyway? Sure. But a break while she’s on the pill isn’t likely to result in pregnancy.
I’m on the pill and I have my partners wear condoms because I do NOT take chances.
Seriously. AIDS isn’t the only nasty disease out there. We have untreatable gonorrhea, now. Also, someone told me we have untreatable syphilis, but I haven’t been able to verify that.
By that logic she doesn’t technically need a condom anyway, because you can just hope really hard instead. Nothing is technically necessary. But it’s always a good idea to use multiple methods in conjunction, and it’s never good if one fails.
Pretty sure there will be no regrets.
And no trucks?
I doubt Joe is going to use it. Joe has used condoms quite a bit I am sure, he’s not going to risk using one that may have been tampered with, even if it was handed to him by a superhero
I mean, that’s enthusiastic consent from ONE side.
I wonder if it’s 100% that A-G was talking to Joe…or to Joyce.
In which all of us are Amber and also
O M I N O U S.
The story has been picking up intensity as of late, isn’t it. I love it. I dread yet need to see what happens in Dunn Meadow with equal fervor — Maybe because Willis has to be THE comic author I trust the most, so I’m in for anything he throws at us.
1) fucking love the use of Zounds here. I love how the Batman ’66 show loved Shakespeare.
2) Incoming Asher.
3) also incoming hurt arc.
Why would Asher be involved?
Amazi-Girl is out alone. Police are otherwise…. engaged. It’s the perfect time for bullshit.
Although I honestly do hope that look Asher gave AG was not one of “I’m gonna hurt that person”.
You can write over the A with a dry erase marker and it will come right off.
Wrong place. Will try 2.
Amber + Walky and Dorothy + AG
or if they’re all up for it
Amber + Walky + Dorothy + AG
is AG bi? you might ask. Shortpacked has a few strips about the Kinsey scale too, it turns out. It’s as classy as you would guess. Anyways, the answer is I don’t know.
AG, I admit I don’t know, but if we’re to abide by the Sexuality/Continuity rules, Amber might also be not nearly as straight as she claims to be :33c
Surprisingly non-straight characters? In MY DoA?!? :O
Call me crazy, but I feel like all of the cops being in Dunn Meadow is exactly why Amazi-Girl should be there. Trying to take on the force as a whole would be a recipe for disaster, but she might be able to, like, slow a cop or two down when they inevitably start trying to kidnap/gas(/arrest?) the protesters en masse. If nothing else it’s better than ignoring it outright.
(Again, feel free to call me crazy.)
Argh, borked up the HTML. Pretend that “cop or two” and everything after it is un-Italicized.
A-G is all about law and order. In her mind, the cops watching the protest will be taking care of those aspects. So she’s needed elsewhere. If she goes to the protest to interfere with policing, then no one’s watching the non-protest areas.
Plus it is likely she get arrested if she goes.
Yep. She’s be very out-numbered.
The risks of losing her anonymity at the protest are pretty high, and it’s unclear how effective she could possibly be, while we know she’s really effective at swooping out of the shadows and beating up people while they’re trying to do a mugging or something.
Everywhere else is up to yours truly? Can someone parse that for me?
“Yours truly” is postcard lingo for “Me”.
Everywhere else is up to me?
Well, up to Amazi-Girl, but yeah. If the cops are all playing hall monitor at the protest, they’re not exactly looking at the rest of the campus, so that opens up opportunities for crimes to go unnoticed. In short, she’s taking it on herself to patrol the campus and help out anyone she can.
“Yours truly,
-Amazigirl”
Like the closing of a letter. The cops are all watching the protest, so the rest of the city is unprotected. The only protector left is Amazigirl.
One could argue she was the only useful protector in the first place.
She has a 0% chance of arresting some protesting student for exercising their right to free speech. So, yeah, def useful.
I know Taffy kinda covered this already, but just to give a very literal translation on what Amazi-Girl is trying to say here…
“[E]verywhere else is up to yours truly.” = “It’s my responsibility to keep law and order in the places where the cops aren’t watching [now that they’re distracted by this protest].”
Amber has a laptop in there which she uses to write fanfic while Amazi-Girl works
You think she’s never written fanfic on her phone? Either touch typing or quietly voice to texting?
Chekov’s “Require Enthusiastic Consent”. We know Joyce is enthusiastic and consenting. I’m guessing Joe is consenting…..but is he enthusiastic?
I don’t think she was worried about Joyce in this scenario
So was her advice said to Joe, or was it said to Joyce?
That Dunn Meadow foreshadowing just getting more and more ominous.
Yup. A slow build.
As elsewhere stated… it’s dun Dun DUNN Meadow.
If the cops have their eyes on Dun Meadow and you have your eyes on everywhere else then who has their eyes on the cops?
Your mom has her eyes on the cops
For a nickel.
Sadly, Amazi-Girl is immune to criticism, not tear gas and bullets.
hopefully some of the protestors are live streaming.
That seems like a realistic expectation to put on yourself, AG.
ZOUNDS, THAT GIRL IS HORNT
So she’s just… talking to herself out loud now
She has done so before
She has done so before.
oooh. I forgot
This is a normal thing for many who have DID (I actually have it) and is actually a positive thing because it means alters are communicating with one another.
When did AG get the two-piece costume
Dorothy made it for her. Just before A-G kicked The Incelerator idiot.
Amber/AG had already started work on it, but Dorothy put on the finishing touches
Did the detailing. Trimming. Put on the fancy butt emblem.
Always fun when these two talk to each other.
Panel 2 narrator : “and yet they won’t”
So, the point of gazebo was only for them receive a condom from Amazi-girl? Like World of Warcraft?
More to hint to the audience that something is happening at the protest that has all the cops attention…
Really hope we get see how Jocelyne and the protests have been going soon. Hopefully not too badly, but I’m worried considering how campus protests were going when these strips were probably made.
Jocelyne is going to get arrested and Joyce will have to wait, huh.
“Zounds”? Is she the Scarlet Pimpernel as well?
I’m still 100% this girl is a top change my mind.
Nobody can for it’s the truth
So there’s going to be something REALLY bad at Dunn Meadow in the next couple of weeks for us, next day for them.
That much police presence at Dunn Meadow cannot be a good thing… It only takes one trigger-happy person…
Which describes the majority of police
I’d go further and say that there are likely cops trying to infiltrate the protest to start shit and give uniformed pigs an excuse to break up the protest. That shit is unfortunately evergreen, Willis wouldn’t need to see the future when this was written last year.
Am I the only one reading Joyce’s “Fuckity Fuck Fuck” in the tune of “thumpity thump thump” from frosty the snowman?
I’m hearing it as Peter Capaldi as Malcom Tucker in The Thick of It.
Which is weird because a) Tucker is using it as an invective, not a discriptive, and b) I’ve never actually watched that show, at least partly because I don’t think I could handle all the sweating.
All the swearing, not sweating. I have no idea how much sweating there is in The Thick of It.
The cadence isn’t perfect, but yes.
Fuckity fuck fuck, fuckity fuck fuck, over the thrusts of Joe
I’m sure that at this point, Amber has fanfic of every possible ship combination in her social circle, including Walky/Sal. Amber is not the type to do anything halfway, and that includes her pron.
While A-G is prepared for every eventuality, Amber has written every eventuality.
Amber saying “Zounds” was the panel I never knew I needed.
As much as I enjoy the fictional and humorous nature of the comic and try not to take anything too seriously, the degree of the division between Amber and Amazi-Girl has become more than concerning. I can’t imagine that people that really have Dissociative Identity Disorder actually behave the way we see Amber/Amazi-Girl do. My (very limited) understanding is that the different “alters” don’t directly communicate with each other the way we see Amazi-Girl carrying on a conversation with Amber in this strip, for instance.
Regardless of all of that, it is extremely unhealthy for her to exist in this state. The pace of the comic may mean that it won’t come to a head and see real progress made until Willis is in his 80s, but I feel that the negative consequences of her mental health condition needs to be a significant part of her arc sooner rather than later.
Willis generally does a fairly good job of balancing “fun” and “serious” and showing that both character flaws and mental health problems are more than just things to make a fictional character “interesting” and have “depth”, but they have real consequences and need to be taken seriously. But I haven’t seen enough of that in Amber’s case lately. Instead, I worry that it is almost normalizing her mental state.
Hi I’m plural. Folks with DID and OSDD, depending on the presentation, may be able to communicate internally with their alters/headmates. Breaking down dissociative barriers to increase communication/awareness/internal cooperation is often a part of therapy.
Willis has also demonstrated people in-comic as tending towards talking to themselves/aloud I think a lot more often than people would IRL.
If anything, I think the fact that AG and Amber are communicating more now is a sign that it’s a healthier internal relationship, as opposed to earlier in the comic when they weren’t speaking at all (and Amber was waking up with mystery bruises/scrapes without recollection of what AG had been up to).
I will speak on the one point here I do feel confident about:
Talking to oneself (or selves) is a common alternative to thought balloons (which Willis, IIRC, has said they don’t care for) or a purely internal narrative (which is something that works much better in text than in a visual or audiovisual medium).
Seems like this might upset some plural folks.
and just what is wrong with “normalizing” pluralism?
DID is something you can learn to live with, and is just another valid way to be, no less than being autistic or ADHD.
We don’t need to be “cured”, the problem is our country being majorly prejudiced against us and thinking it’s okay for disabled and minorities to suffer for the convenience of “normal” white folk (-_-)
Also, in my understanding, “curing” isn’t currently possible for DID. Therapy aims at getting alters to cooperate, not to get rid of them.
When you find yourself starting to say, “Regardless of my very limited understanding, this is extremely unhealthy.” It’s probably time to ask questions instead.
If you know your understanding is limited that may be a sigh you shouldn’t be making confident assertions of what is and isn’t healthy for a character with a certain condition to be doing.
Another DID system here to expand your very limited and actually very incorrect understanding:
DID systems who have established communication between alters do and *should* talk to one another. It reduces the dissociation that separates them which is the basis of the disorder.
Amber and Amazigirl have both experienced significant consequences to their untreated manifestations of DID, including being in life-threatening danger repeatedly. Like, I feel like *most* of Amber’s character arc thus far has been her wading through the complications of her disorder.
Regardless, DID systems have full and normal lives, just as people with PTSD or depression do. The fact that Amber and Amazi-girl aren’t depicted as constantly in a state of trauma and misery is actually a more accurate representation of life as a system. And I don’t know if you realize this, but it sounds like you’re implying that if they were to suffer more as a result of their disorder it would motivate them to… stop having it? DID isn’t a choice.
What is a choice is the degree to which you acknowledge and work with the traits of the disorder. Amber and Amazi-girl were at their worst when they were actively avoiding each other and pretending nothing was wrong. Now, they are communicating and collaborating and are a lot more stable and taking fewer risks than before. They aren’t in therapy, but it’s actually incredibly difficult to find a therapist who has any clue of how to treat DID (mine lives two hours away and I only see her remotely). So from my perspective, Amber and Amazi-girl are doing about the best they can with the resources they have and that’s reflected in their current less drama-filled life.
The way some people talk about them I think they believe the only thing that should be done about Amber DID is putting her on a institution.
Singleton here, barely. Made it through my early teens with just one of me in here by the skin of my damn teeth. Given that you admit having a very limited understanding maybe you should be making fewer sweeping statements and assumptions that what you’re saying is anywhere close to correct. Everything I’ve seen from the systems I’ve encountered online says pretty much the opposite of almost everything you just said.
To Nat, NPGZ, The Blueprint System, and everyone else, I apologize for displaying my ignorance in a hurtful way. Thank you for sharing your perspective on this.
Late to the party here, but I’m taking bets that Joyce will still be a virgin by the time the sun rises the next morning.
And I’m offering a side bet that Joe is the one who is unwilling to ‘go the distance’ – although whether it’ll be due to scruples or performance anxiety remains to be seen.
Yeah, we’re in “protest too much” territory – possibly in reaction to what happened with Dorothy. I think their respective hang-ups are going to interact badly – Joe doesn’t want to be a “sex-monster,” Joyce doesn’t want to think about this not being the perfect night where they’re both equally horny & happy with each other.
I think the latter was MUCH more likely before she relaxed about making sure everything was perfect with Dorothy’s help… …but like, then they almost did something or other, so there’s also that as a potential complication.
I don’t necessarily want to see Joe’s reservations prevent them from having a nice night together, but I do hope we’re going to see him admit to them and receive comfort. Hopefully from Joyce! Because that kind of honest communication would be great before anyone’s pants are off…
I’m reminded of this scene. Joe is very worried about making sure Joyce can say no (which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong), but I’m not sure he’s learned how to let her say yes.
Up until the handy in the kitchen, I would have agreed about Joe. I’m not ruling it out, but so far he’s just been letting her be in control. And doing a pretty good job at communication. With Walky, we saw some visible (to readers) signs of hesitation, and lacking communication.
So maybe a “scruples” based interaction that may or may not end the mood. In which he tells her about Liz, and maybe she tells him about almost kissing Dorothy.
(supposed to be a reply to Bicycle Bill)
I would have thought Amber’s text bubble would be a colored normally.
they would be, but all that blue is amazi-girl
Goodness, I’m so incredibly tired of how every time there is a comic depicting Amazi-girl and Amber communicating openly with each other, a bunch of concern-trolling commenters show up to talk about how worried they are about Amber and how unhealthy it is for her to talk to her alters.
I am both a DID system and someone who writes educational stuff about DID to clear up misconceptions.
When you frame inner-system communication as inherently pathological, I need you to think about what the actual alternatives would be that would be “healthier”. Is it to pretend you don’t have alters and never talk to them? Is it to actively hide from everyone that they exist to the point that you won’t even talk out loud when no one is listening (a thing singlets do all the time)? Is it to just use your power of will to not have alters anymore?
But consider, if you had cripplingly low self-esteem, would the healthiest way to cope with that be to actively hide the aspects of yourself you are ashamed of and hate, from everyone? Or to pretend that you don’t have them? Because that’s what you’re advocating for in discouraging inner-system communication. Alters are not an external invasive force. They are part of THAT PERSON. Including and involving them is non-negotiable in successful treatment.
So for the last time: Amber was in the most danger and her DID was causing her the most problems when she tried to pretend Amazi-girl didn’t exist and vice versa. Amber and Amazi-girl are much more stable now that they are communicating and collaborating. This is an accurate presentation of how DID treatment works.
I think a lot of people are still stuck in the “Evil second personality” slock that is often seen in media, so they assume that anything involving Amber and AG relationship must be inherently unhealthy and dangerous. Again, fell like the only that would be “healthy” for them is that Amber get put in a mental ward.
Yeah, I really wish people wouldn’t focus so much on the mere existence of multiple identities as the center of the disorder, and instead recognize that the trauma, amnesia, and dissociation are what causes all the dysfunction and suffering.
I submit that the situation in the early years of the comic – where “Amber” was basically the dumping ground for all the bad stuff that she didn’t like about herself, so that AG could be what some referred to as the “golden alter” – was very not healthy. She’s gotten better since then.
But some people refuses to see that because it doesn’t fit into their expected narrative.
Yes, the point of DID as an illness is dissociating from yourself, whether that is to wall off aspects of yourself that you want to forget about or because you don’t want to corrupt them with your “inherent badness”. Amber was reinforcing the dissociation separating them by making herself “the bad one”. The separation and dissociation is the unhealthy part. In other words, the impulse to “hide all your bad stuff” in a separate box in the back of your closet is the unhealthy thing, the existence of multiple boxes is not itself unhealthy.
So many people have a singular view of mental illness, like people experiencing single episodes of moderate depression. And then they get better and are no longer mentally ill– and that’s mapped onto every experience, even though so many aren’t like that.
For DID, that means people think the alters need to be gotten rid of and nothing else should be an option.
As a person still working with therapists to figure out if my voices who seem to be distinct selves are psychosis or DID, I appreciate seeing Amber and Amazigirl, especially when she’s thriving. I would love to see her in a place where she can have a relationship where her partner knows Amazigirl. And potentially both of them having relationships and everyone involved being cool with it, and being happy and healthy.
Oh I have to comment one more time! I wonder if Mike will become an alter. I have a friend who has a homestuck OC, a character from JJBA, and a visual novel as their alters. We’ve seen Amber talking to Mike since his death, and having out loud conversations with him. I wonder if this grief will manifest into an alter or not. I’m curious!
“Watch for ICE” is a vibe lately it seems.
narf!
if that were the case, I oughta make Amazi-Girl a lie detector