Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Countdown to Countdown
Velinxi
Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
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!
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Slightly Damned
Chu
Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
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BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
Line breaks will get that job done. Just keep typing, let the words flow however they want to, and, shoot, let’s put a happy little paragraph right down here in the corner.
I’m thinking that Ana C. knows all about the effect of carriage returns, but word wrap in whatever she typed her comment in ahead of time inserted a line break when the line got too long and copy/paste replicated it inopportunely.
One option is to copasta into and then out of the default Notepad that comes with windows, since it can’t handle [and thus strips] hidden formatting.
Of course, you have to know beforehand that whatever you’re using will apply hidden formatting, and that’s not always easy to keep track of.
<p> is handy because it handles all the spacing for you, making it fully agnostic to spacing mistakes — those being the problem we want to mitigate in this circumstance.
Also I have it on good authority that not all devices are capable of doing line breaks easily for long comments, although those devices also might not be able to easily insert left angled brackets.
“Yeah, she was just talking about you this morning! Right before she asked me to come over here so I could ask if you wanted to attend my party with us. And she wants to give me a hundred dollars for being the best (and most discreet) roommate ever!”
I know how this works. The intro is to let you read the comic for free. Then when your hooked, it’s a mere $5.00 to read tomorrow’s strip. Next thing, you’re begging to read two days ahead for an additional $10. The day after that is $15. and that’s when you start hearing rumors that you can get access to the entire buffer for a $1,000., but only to the buffer as it existed when you last paid $1,000.
there’s only four tiers, and they go up to $20. $10 is for a book one pdf and I believe $20 gets you pdfs for books two and three, but don’t quote me on that.
I’m ready for a “Billie tries to mentor Lucy in The Ways Of The Alpha Bongo” storyline. I kind of feel like Billie might be impressed by this, though also probably annoyed (at herself and projecting, as always).
Nah, that would be Martial Law.
Besides his archetype would fit this story-line much better and he is much more familiar with costumed heroes of all stripes.
“Torquemada, do not implore him for compassion.
Torquemada, do not beg him for forgiveness.
Torquemada, do not ask him for mercy.
Let’s face it – you can’t Torquemada anything!”
I’m thinking she takes it to movie night. She may be perceptive and nice enough to save Billie’s ass, but panel five is not the face of someone above getting a little benefit for herself if it’s handy.
It will help in the short term, but what happens this evening when Ruth hears what the rest of Forest Quad thinks about her? Even if Billie tells them to keep it on the down-low, Rose will be star-struck and you know Nash will blurt something out.
Lucy is doing a better job at preserving Billie’s relationship than Billie is. Nice to know she hasn’t let all the attention Billie got turn into resentment.
I don’t think there’s a threat, I think Lucy just noticed that Billie hurt Ruth’s feelings and is trying to cover for her. and is trying to get Billie to take the hint. Girl does not have a malicious bone in her body.
Billie was panicking because she didn’t want anyone to find out Ruth was her girlfriend, not her conquest, and I’m thinking Lucy was concerned Ruth would be hurt at how Billie basically yanked away from Ruth, so she’s saying (implicitly) “Billie, you had BETTER go along with this, I swear to god, don’t be an asshole”
She’s not threatening. She realized that Ruth was hurt by Billie being afraid to be seen with her, so she’s pretending that Billie is way more lovey towards Ruth than she actually is to spare her feelings (and presumably to get them to come as a couple to the movie night).
Lucy’s basically covering for Billie, who hasn’t let her new dorm-mates know how serious her relationship with Ruth is. This not only keeps Billie’s relationship with Ruth away from a pretty rough patch, it gives Lucy some leverage. If she’s ruthless enough (no pun intended), Lucy could always threaten to tell Ruth what Billie’s said about their relationship if she doesn’t come to the party.
Billie’s panicked because she doesn’t want her new followers to think that she cares about someone, because caring isn’t cool (though simply “banging” your RA apparently is). Lucy isn’t threatening, she’s encouraging Billie to agree with this made-up narrative to help the relationship….although she does look annoyed about it, probably because she thinks it’s dumb for Billie to think she has to hide that she cares, and she wasn’t overly thrilled with how Billie acts in the first place.
Lucy usually tries too hard, but she’s doing great here.
The denial Billie is doing sucks. Also between Ruth and Billie, there’s too much denial and too little honest acknowledgement of them caring about each other… but here it shows that Ruth is hurt by that…
Not really a threat, but she’s saving Billie’s bacon and making it clear she knows it.
Billie acted like Ruth was just a casual fling, but here she walked up all lovey-dovey-cuddle-bug with her. And then immediately let go of her hand and tried to act casual when she saw Lucy.
If Billie tries to deny her relationship in front of Ruth, it’s over between them. And if Lucy wanted, she could reveal the truth to Forest Quad and hurt Billie’s reputation there.
But instead Lucy makes the save and acts like Billie has been honest about her and Ruth all along. Maybe she’ll use this to get Billie to attend her party, but if nothing else she’s showing willingness to play along and save Billie’s ass.
And yet, someone still came in behind you. Judging by your no doubt excellent command of temporal placement, I have every assurance that you intended to be in this place.
she’s not “threatening” per se. Lucy accidentally let slip that Billie was talking shit back in, whatever the hell twilight zone dorm is called again, but had the social awareness to recognize from billie and ruth’s reactions that something was up, re: billie’s totally in love with ruth and it wasn’t just some sexual conquest she’s been making it out to be but also she talked a whole lotta shit cuz the weird hero worship got to her head and she regressed bad yadda yadda yadda. Billie’s panicking cuz of how that was almost revealed, and Lucy’s giving her the stink eye to make sure she plays along and takes the out being offered
nice save. probably now she’s gonna use this to get billie to come to movie night and maybe this’ll force billie to treat her with a modicum of respect and maybe stop being such a massive ego-stroking piece of garbage eventually hopefully maybe.
People can be complex. I think Lucy is sweet and caring in trying to make sure Billie doesn’t hurt Ruth’s feelings here. I also think she cares a lot about the relationships she’s cultivated with the people in her dorm, and she’s upset that everyone’s kinda started treating her like dirt since Billie arrived. If she uses what she’s learned here against Billie, it would be a crappy move but it wouldn’t be coming from a place of malice. Lucy could easily make a nasty mistake when she feels like her whole college life is crumbling down.
You know what REALLY pisses me off? People were coming out of the woodwork to defend Mary’s every little action. And now people are coming out of the woodwork to say that Lucy is the worst, most manipulative, most terrible person ever.
Makes up for all the ones who used to tear Becky down over every action.
These days though, the hate’s pretty broadly spread for all the major characters. Guess I haven’t seen much Dina hatred, but that’s about the only example I can think of.
And she hasn’t done much lately.
Man I hope all of you are right about Lucy doing Billie a solid and I’m wrong in thinking that Lucy just realized she found a vulnerability she can exploit
Nah, look at Lucy in panel two – she’s worried about Ruth being hurt here. Which makes me think panel five is more of a ‘Billie, I swear to god, you better go along with this’.
Agreed. If Lucy was a manipulator she’d have a crafty little grin in panel 2, just like Mary did. Instead she had a horrified look and set out to make things better.
She may later realize she has leverage and attempt to use it, but she’d probably just completely fail that stat check.
Of course, if you want to keep the idea of Lucy the evil manipulator alive a bit longer, she’ll invite Ruth (along with Billie) to the movie night where her secrets will inevitably be revealed (that she’s actually a big soft in love with Ruth or that she’s been talking shit about Ruth or both) and that will either ruin her status in Forrest or her relationship or both.
The trick is that’s also exactly what she’d do if she was the nice person she appears to be and not an evil manipulator at all.
I mean, yes, she could still turn out to have some kind of malicious intention for Billie. She’s only human, and she has good reason to feel hurt enough to want to lash out, and there’s still plenty of time in the narrative for Willis to go that route if that’s what’s going to happen. But, even discounting the Shortpacked! continuity, I think we’ve seen enough of her character in DoA for us to believe that’s she’s not the type to make choices like that.
She’s losing her friends to something she doesn’t understand (granted, neither do I), and she came to Billie’s old floor to try and understand it and maybe even work out a way to keep her friends. Lucy seems the type who’d rather coexist with Billie, not destroy her. I mean, she and Billie naturally clash enough that maybe that’s a little foolhardy, but that seems to be the kinds of choice Lucy makes.
Agreed. That just doesn’t seem like her style. ~Maybe~ she could do it out of some misguided Joyce-ian idea that it’s her job to save other people, but I think not.
She just genuinely thinks Billie should be nicer to Ruth.
So we’re all in agreement that Lucy, being the evil chessmaster that she is, engineered this entire situation as part of her master plan to erase Billie from existence, right?
I got accepted into grad school for library science. I’ve been aiming for this for so long I don’t even remember when I started. It still feels surreal, but I am SO excited!
Congratulations to a future fellow librarian. Hope you finish before I retire. The field is changing quickly and everything you learn will be out of date in a decade. That’s why you focus on why and how and skip over the whats.
Watch /read The power of why by Sinek. Librarians are compelled to recommend reading.
These recommendations work if you’re looking at public libraries. I have no opinions about school and academic libraries.
Also: Bowling alone by Robert Putnam and the followup – Our kids.
Palaces for the people by Eric Klinenberg
Our towns by James/ Deborah Fallows
Civic Librarianship by Ron McCabe (your library school will have)
Libraries, community and technology is an OK book, but I would write it very differently today.
Thank you! I know things are changing quickly because information is so tied up with technology, but I think it’ll be interesting!
Ooooh, I should fit in. I already spend a lot of time recommending books to people.
I haven’t chosen my specialty yet, but I think public libraries would be cool (though I also think law libraries and archival libraries are neat. I have a lot to decide).
Very different career paths. Law libraries are only in larger cities and some lawyers view everyone else as accessories. Archives are great but a flat organization. I can’t recommend academics to anyone the way they are moving now. But then, I made my choice so I would say that.
I dunno about that, but I want to look at how different tagging and sorting systems affect patron satisfaction and how patron involvement affects that.
I worked in a library for 25 years (until I retired), and I won’t sugarcoat — a library is a workplace, after all — but by and large, it was a mostly positive experience, and I was and am glad I stumbled into it.
You’ll meet a lot of, um, interesting people. Some of them will be awesome to work with.
Ooooh, this looks really interesting! I’ll check it out.
I’ve heard lots of good things about being a librarian and I’ve had good experiences volunteering at my school library and my elementary school board’s library warehouse (and the libraries of my elementary and secondary schools).
At least she is today. I mean, next strip is gonna be about her exploiting her newly gained leverage over Billie in some objectionable way or other. But today she is the hero.
I wonder if Lucy likes Billie more than she liked Malaya.
That said, good of her to toss Billie a life preserver, even if it was seemingly meant more to help Ruth out than to save Billie’s ass. Maybe this’ll get her to go to the party.
After yesterday’s strip, I kept thinking about how Billie needed to be called out on her insecure bullshit, but Lucy basically did it while sparing Ruth’s feelings to boot.
My only thing here was that, if Billie wasn’t out to them, Lucy would be in the wrong, here. I mean, she and Ruth aren’t safe HERE, why would she expect to be safe in the other Dorm?
Outside of that, I agree with the though of “more I see of Lucy, the more I like her.” Seeing her with that snide eye, “just because I’m nice doesn’t mean I’m going to take shit,” makes me fucking GIDDY inside. DARN TOOTIN’ LUCE, TAKE NO SHIT.
And now I’m getting this mental image of Joyce and Sarah trying to pull Luccy into their respective corners
“No! She belongs to friendly and cheerful and sweet and socially awkward corner!”
“No! She belongs to grumpy and taking-no-shit-from-nobody corner!”
Lucy I love you, you’re the best! I know I said that about Carla earlier today but that was because she’s also the best and which one of you I prefer depends on who is being mpst adorable at the time.
I mean… her whole plot is to get Billy to her movie night.
Making sure that Billie’s relationship is stable removes a possible roadblock and engratiates her.
Now all that’s left is conquoring Gallasso’s Pizza (and subs) to acquire food and then sending the RA on her floor into a downward spiral by manipulating her grades so she doesn’t bother them during the good scenes.
And it doesn’t quite work, because the other characters know how screwed up they are, and that they don’t do things like that.
Being a socially awkward person who knows how these things are supposed to work is a bit like how I imagine being an economics student; you watch things somehow work out despite the fact everyone involved is an idiot or terrible or both, and you’re like “but … but my book says this works because of rational actors making logical decisions!”
Nah, she’s got at least some of the boundary issues, though in milder form I think. She’s less aggressive about it than Joyce, but we’ve definitely seen her pushing in where she’s clearly not wanted.
She went to talk to her new (difficult) roommate’s old dorm mates to see if they had any advice for how to handle living with her and to ask what kind of things she likes. It’s hardly as invasive as you’re pretending it is. It’s not her fault Carla decided to vomit Billie’s personal drama all over her.
With all the positive vibes for Lucy right now it’d be a really DYWillis thing to do for Lucy to reveal herself as Sydney in disguise and this was all part of her plot to take over Galasso Pizza (and sub).
Is- is Lucy the first DOA character who can READ PEOPLE? Like this is honestly a great save that hopefully helps everyone out here (I think Ruth knew what just happened though) but it’s… sad that I feel like this is the first time someone’s been able to do this smooth of a save
Someone is citing the MA constitutional provision explicitly allowing the state to impede federal marshals enforcing the fugitive slave act, DAMN the average citizen is radicalized
you’re laughing. the largest antebellum plantation house burned down & there are brides who will not get to spiritually absorb the poisoned spectral energy of the land for their big day, & you’re laughing.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
Hot Toys Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 1/6 Scale Darth Vader Deluxe ($495) & Standard ($315) is up for preorder at Sideshow - shrsl.com/4wcx6 #ad
If you preorder make sure to hit the Exclusive versions since they include a commemorative plaque and cost the same.
btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 2d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
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“I’ve heard things you people wouldn’t believe. Frat house rooms on fire off the shoulder of Acacia. I heard freshmen titter in the dark
near the Sample Gates. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in
rain… unless you come to my movie night!”
DANGIT WORD WRAP
Of all the HTML tags the comment section permits, why isn’t <p> one of them?
It would be nice not having to post a wall of text.
Line breaks will get that job done. Just keep typing, let the words flow however they want to, and, shoot, let’s put a happy little paragraph right down here in the corner.
Yeah, just like that.
I’m thinking that Ana C. knows all about the effect of carriage returns, but word wrap in whatever she typed her comment in ahead of time inserted a line break when the line got too long and copy/paste replicated it inopportunely.
One option is to copasta into and then out of the default Notepad that comes with windows, since it can’t handle [and thus strips] hidden formatting.
Of course, you have to know beforehand that whatever you’re using will apply hidden formatting, and that’s not always easy to keep track of.
It’s default Notepad!
Okay, then that’s an especially confusing turn of events.
<p> is handy because it handles all the spacing for you, making it fully agnostic to spacing mistakes — those being the problem we want to mitigate in this circumstance.
Also I have it on good authority that not all devices are capable of doing line breaks easily for long comments, although those devices also might not be able to easily insert left angled brackets.
…
time to see that movie.
(Only because Tannhauser dorm is still being renovated)
Billie: “Will there be Jell-O Shots?”
“Yeah, she was just talking about you this morning! Right before she asked me to come over here so I could ask if you wanted to attend my party with us. And she wants to give me a hundred dollars for being the best (and most discreet) roommate ever!”
And Lucy’s save rams into the fact that Ruth knows Billie.
Billie has been known to give people $20 basically just for being there though.
Usually to get rid of them, but yeah.
Lucy is a button.
Lucy is a better person than Billie… deserves to associate with.
The Red Button.
Why is she only in university now if she’s aging backwards?
Cute, sure, but better not push her around too much.
Lucy is about to say how Billie said she was gonna bring Ruth to movie night.
Patreon is $5 to find out.
ha! I’m patient, I can wait for tomorrow.
I know how this works. The intro is to let you read the comic for free. Then when your hooked, it’s a mere $5.00 to read tomorrow’s strip. Next thing, you’re begging to read two days ahead for an additional $10. The day after that is $15. and that’s when you start hearing rumors that you can get access to the entire buffer for a $1,000., but only to the buffer as it existed when you last paid $1,000.
How is Willis not a millionaire?
Cause there’s shiny things to get distracted by in the outer world
there’s only four tiers, and they go up to $20. $10 is for a book one pdf and I believe $20 gets you pdfs for books two and three, but don’t quote me on that.
Lucy just exploded onto my radar as one of the coolest people in this comic.
Woah panel 5. Lucy seems way better at reading a mood than I expected
I was thinking that for panels 1-2.
Panel 5 is where I realized that Lucy does possess Alpha Bongo potential after all.
But she’ll use that power for good, right? Right??
I’m ready for a “Billie tries to mentor Lucy in The Ways Of The Alpha Bongo” storyline. I kind of feel like Billie might be impressed by this, though also probably annoyed (at herself and projecting, as always).
You could see last page that Lucy already read the mood of Ruth being hurt by Billie quickly pulling away her hand to look cool.
Awesome save, Lucy!
Well, the problem is that it’s only a temporary save. Ruth’s not an idiot.
A temporary save is enough for Billie to realize HOW BAD she fucked up
It’s a good enough save if Billie steps up. It’s giving her the chance to redeem herself.
Indeed! Well done Lucy!
Attagirl, Lucy.
12/10 Good girl Lucy!
. . . Alright. This has solidified my liking of Lucy. She is AWESOME! Can she become a main character? Without getting awful parents in return?
so Lucy is great but her parents are Torquemada and Donald Trump (it’s complicated)
Torquemada? Nemesis the Warlock reference?
I think the ABC Warriors would probably fit in quite well in Its Walky
How about bringing Dredd to DoA for some interactions with Amazi-Girl?
“I smell a vigilante! And I don’t like vigilantes!”
He’d probably see about recruiting her, with some proper training of course
Nah, that would be Martial Law.
Besides his archetype would fit this story-line much better and he is much more familiar with costumed heroes of all stripes.
“Torquemada, do not implore him for compassion.
Torquemada, do not beg him for forgiveness.
Torquemada, do not ask him for mercy.
Let’s face it – you can’t Torquemada anything!”
<3
It would be better if Lucy’s father was Paul McCartney.
the song was written about a drawing his son made in (I think it was kindergarten) that featured a classmate
Good to know you caught the reference.
Yeah, but it was Lennon’s son.
McCartney’s son wasn’t born when Sgt Pepper was released.
Okay, but we’re already at max good parents, so Lucy is Dina’s adopted sister that she’s too busy talking about dinosaurs to mention.
Well if Dorothy, Dina, and Mike can pull off not having shit parents.
Well. she is listed on the cast-page, so she already is a main character (by definition)!
*plays “Bad Reputation” on the hacked Muzak*
Living for that fifth panel Lucy right now. This is where she starts to get the whole situation and I’m so excited to see where she takes it.
I’m thinking she takes it to movie night. She may be perceptive and nice enough to save Billie’s ass, but panel five is not the face of someone above getting a little benefit for herself if it’s handy.
It will help in the short term, but what happens this evening when Ruth hears what the rest of Forest Quad thinks about her? Even if Billie tells them to keep it on the down-low, Rose will be star-struck and you know Nash will blurt something out.
… Movie night happens mid-February, doesn’t it.
Fake edit: Not to lay blame for this on Lucy at all. Billie dug this hole with her bravado all by herself.
If we’re lucky, it’s a Halloween movie night.
I’m hoping for Mystery Quad Theatre 2XXX Halloween edition, where they play the classics and some up and comers.
Plan 9 from outer space
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Night of the Lupine
Giggly … Jiggly … whatever it’s called it’s just too horrible
We already know the movie:
It’s Flight of the Navigator, Rifftrax-version (but possibly synced-up by Lucy herself)!
It more just looks like the face of someone who is thoroughly unimpressed.
I’d say it’s more the second panel where Lucy gets it and the fifth is merely to inform Billie.
Lucy is doing a better job at preserving Billie’s relationship than Billie is. Nice to know she hasn’t let all the attention Billie got turn into resentment.
I think this is simpathy for Ruth.
Pleased to meet you,
Yes I’ve heard your name,
But what’s puzzling you is the
Movie I’ll be playin’
Ruth goes starry-eyed, “That’s the best compmiment anyone’s ever paid me.” “Calling you the devil?” “They know that I am the End Times in human form.”
Sometimes to do right thing you have to help someone that doesn’t deserve to be helped.
I feel really dumb what is Lucy threatening here and why is billy panicking?
I don’t think there’s a threat, I think Lucy just noticed that Billie hurt Ruth’s feelings and is trying to cover for her. and is trying to get Billie to take the hint. Girl does not have a malicious bone in her body.
… about those malicious muscles, though…
Billie was panicking because she didn’t want anyone to find out Ruth was her girlfriend, not her conquest, and I’m thinking Lucy was concerned Ruth would be hurt at how Billie basically yanked away from Ruth, so she’s saying (implicitly) “Billie, you had BETTER go along with this, I swear to god, don’t be an asshole”
She’s not threatening. She realized that Ruth was hurt by Billie being afraid to be seen with her, so she’s pretending that Billie is way more lovey towards Ruth than she actually is to spare her feelings (and presumably to get them to come as a couple to the movie night).
Lucy’s basically covering for Billie, who hasn’t let her new dorm-mates know how serious her relationship with Ruth is. This not only keeps Billie’s relationship with Ruth away from a pretty rough patch, it gives Lucy some leverage. If she’s ruthless enough (no pun intended), Lucy could always threaten to tell Ruth what Billie’s said about their relationship if she doesn’t come to the party.
Billie’s panicked because she doesn’t want her new followers to think that she cares about someone, because caring isn’t cool (though simply “banging” your RA apparently is). Lucy isn’t threatening, she’s encouraging Billie to agree with this made-up narrative to help the relationship….although she does look annoyed about it, probably because she thinks it’s dumb for Billie to think she has to hide that she cares, and she wasn’t overly thrilled with how Billie acts in the first place.
Lucy usually tries too hard, but she’s doing great here.
The denial Billie is doing sucks. Also between Ruth and Billie, there’s too much denial and too little honest acknowledgement of them caring about each other… but here it shows that Ruth is hurt by that…
Thanks for the heads uo everyone that makes sense!
Lucy isn’t threatening anything. She just saved Billie’s ass from hurting Ruth’s feelings and is making sure Billie knows it.
She also just successfully sidestepped Billie’s line of questioning about why she’s here.
Not really a threat, but she’s saving Billie’s bacon and making it clear she knows it.
Billie acted like Ruth was just a casual fling, but here she walked up all lovey-dovey-cuddle-bug with her. And then immediately let go of her hand and tried to act casual when she saw Lucy.
If Billie tries to deny her relationship in front of Ruth, it’s over between them. And if Lucy wanted, she could reveal the truth to Forest Quad and hurt Billie’s reputation there.
But instead Lucy makes the save and acts like Billie has been honest about her and Ruth all along. Maybe she’ll use this to get Billie to attend her party, but if nothing else she’s showing willingness to play along and save Billie’s ass.
Wow, I need to be less verbose, like 7 people got ahead of me while I was typing all that.
And yet, someone still came in behind you. Judging by your no doubt excellent command of temporal placement, I have every assurance that you intended to be in this place.
The Doctor has never been known to have problem with timing, after all.
she’s not “threatening” per se. Lucy accidentally let slip that Billie was talking shit back in, whatever the hell twilight zone dorm is called again, but had the social awareness to recognize from billie and ruth’s reactions that something was up, re: billie’s totally in love with ruth and it wasn’t just some sexual conquest she’s been making it out to be but also she talked a whole lotta shit cuz the weird hero worship got to her head and she regressed bad yadda yadda yadda. Billie’s panicking cuz of how that was almost revealed, and Lucy’s giving her the stink eye to make sure she plays along and takes the out being offered
good save billie
nice save. probably now she’s gonna use this to get billie to come to movie night and maybe this’ll force billie to treat her with a modicum of respect and maybe stop being such a massive ego-stroking piece of garbage eventually hopefully maybe.
Even if she doesn’t force her to come (whether via blackmail, ‘you owe me’ or by inviting Ruth now), I suspect Billie will be showing up anyways.
Yay!
So, see, people: Lucy is really just a sweet, caring person – not a sly manipulator pretending to be good!
That hasn’t stopped them from thinking she’s doing it for leverage later. *sigh* :/
People can be complex. I think Lucy is sweet and caring in trying to make sure Billie doesn’t hurt Ruth’s feelings here. I also think she cares a lot about the relationships she’s cultivated with the people in her dorm, and she’s upset that everyone’s kinda started treating her like dirt since Billie arrived. If she uses what she’s learned here against Billie, it would be a crappy move but it wouldn’t be coming from a place of malice. Lucy could easily make a nasty mistake when she feels like her whole college life is crumbling down.
Ruth, Walky was just suggesting I invite you to our movie night.
He did?
HE DID?!!!
Wow look at the time I should be in math class bye.
You know what REALLY pisses me off? People were coming out of the woodwork to defend Mary’s every little action. And now people are coming out of the woodwork to say that Lucy is the worst, most manipulative, most terrible person ever.
You guys. YOU GUYS.
Makes up for all the ones who used to tear Becky down over every action.
These days though, the hate’s pretty broadly spread for all the major characters. Guess I haven’t seen much Dina hatred, but that’s about the only example I can think of.
And she hasn’t done much lately.
Man I hope all of you are right about Lucy doing Billie a solid and I’m wrong in thinking that Lucy just realized she found a vulnerability she can exploit
Nah, look at Lucy in panel two – she’s worried about Ruth being hurt here. Which makes me think panel five is more of a ‘Billie, I swear to god, you better go along with this’.
Agreed. If Lucy was a manipulator she’d have a crafty little grin in panel 2, just like Mary did. Instead she had a horrified look and set out to make things better.
She may later realize she has leverage and attempt to use it, but she’d probably just completely fail that stat check.
Of course, if you want to keep the idea of Lucy the evil manipulator alive a bit longer, she’ll invite Ruth (along with Billie) to the movie night where her secrets will inevitably be revealed (that she’s actually a big soft in love with Ruth or that she’s been talking shit about Ruth or both) and that will either ruin her status in Forrest or her relationship or both.
The trick is that’s also exactly what she’d do if she was the nice person she appears to be and not an evil manipulator at all.
I love the Evil Lucy (and Evil Marcie) crack theories. They’re so much fun!
But then of course we end up with people who aren’t thinking of them as crack theories… Ah well. I still think they’re fun.
I mean, yes, she could still turn out to have some kind of malicious intention for Billie. She’s only human, and she has good reason to feel hurt enough to want to lash out, and there’s still plenty of time in the narrative for Willis to go that route if that’s what’s going to happen. But, even discounting the Shortpacked! continuity, I think we’ve seen enough of her character in DoA for us to believe that’s she’s not the type to make choices like that.
She’s losing her friends to something she doesn’t understand (granted, neither do I), and she came to Billie’s old floor to try and understand it and maybe even work out a way to keep her friends. Lucy seems the type who’d rather coexist with Billie, not destroy her. I mean, she and Billie naturally clash enough that maybe that’s a little foolhardy, but that seems to be the kinds of choice Lucy makes.
Agreed. That just doesn’t seem like her style. ~Maybe~ she could do it out of some misguided Joyce-ian idea that it’s her job to save other people, but I think not.
She just genuinely thinks Billie should be nicer to Ruth.
Dang I’ve always been a little bit awe-scared of people like Lucy. Look at that! She can just see people! And say things that make them do things!
She has that people-talking magic, the great unknowable mystery that it is
Lucy Glenn, the People Whisperer(TM)
Good on Lucy for reading the room
Good on Billie for (trying to) go with it
Good on Walky for not making a poop joke
He’s working himself up to it.
Ill-timed poop jokes are for today’s Walkyverse rerun Walky.
Lucy is an absolute gem.
So Lucy is now the best character in the strip, true fact!
Agreed
But Dina still exists
So does Sal.
Lucy’s pretty great though.
Lucy tops all!
So we’re all in agreement that Lucy, being the evil chessmaster that she is, engineered this entire situation as part of her master plan to erase Billie from existence, right?
DoA finale twist: Lucy is behind *everything*!
But what about SYDNEY YUS?!
Through implication, yes, and with plausible deniability!
Let Ruth do your dirty work, you naughty thing.
And Lucy goes in for the save.
Kindness that Billie kind of didn’t freaking deserve in a sense considering her behavior around Lucy.
Lucy was very clear. This niceness wasn’t for Billy.
Lucy’s much more socially intelligent than I expected. Good Job!
Lucy is officially a hero.
Oh my God Lucy! She’s one of the more sensible people in Forest. I was iffy about her before but now I love her.
AAAAAALPHA SWEEEETIE!
Yep. She really came through here.
I KISS LUCY I KISS HER THANK YOU!!!! Bless the new cinnamon roll :’) I love.
Lucy steps up to bat, and hits it out of the park.
Off topic, but I got some good news today:
I got accepted into grad school for library science. I’ve been aiming for this for so long I don’t even remember when I started. It still feels surreal, but I am SO excited!
Congratulations!
Thank you!
Congrats!!!
Thanks!
Oh my gosh, congrats!
Thank you!
Congratulations!
Thank you!
Congrats!!!
Thanks!
I gotta ask, what is library science, is it the science to organising a library?
This page sums it up really well:https://www.mymajors.com/college-majors/library-and-information-science/
Thanks, so I was on the right track.
Pretty much, yes.
Way to go congratulations.
Thank you!
Congratulations!
Oh wow, that is a lot of congratulations, but they are all appreciated!
AWESOME!
IT’S SO COOL!
Wonderful! Take care in your book-related endeavors.
Thank you! I shall.
Congratulations!
Thank you!
Congratulations!
Also, BOOKS!
Thank you!
I will not lie, books have been 90% of my motivation to become a librarian.
Yay!!!
Congratulations, BBCC. You going for a master’s or doctorate?
Thank you!
I’m going for a master’s in library and information science.
Congrats!!
Thank you!
Hey, congrats! I’m starting the same program this fall so I’m sure I share your excitement.
Awesome! Congrats to you as well! Library buddies!
Go you!!
Thank you!!
Congratulations to a future fellow librarian. Hope you finish before I retire. The field is changing quickly and everything you learn will be out of date in a decade. That’s why you focus on why and how and skip over the whats.
Watch /read The power of why by Sinek. Librarians are compelled to recommend reading.
These recommendations work if you’re looking at public libraries. I have no opinions about school and academic libraries.
Also: Bowling alone by Robert Putnam and the followup – Our kids.
Palaces for the people by Eric Klinenberg
Our towns by James/ Deborah Fallows
Civic Librarianship by Ron McCabe (your library school will have)
Libraries, community and technology is an OK book, but I would write it very differently today.
Thank you! I know things are changing quickly because information is so tied up with technology, but I think it’ll be interesting!
Ooooh, I should fit in. I already spend a lot of time recommending books to people.
I haven’t chosen my specialty yet, but I think public libraries would be cool (though I also think law libraries and archival libraries are neat. I have a lot to decide).
Very different career paths. Law libraries are only in larger cities and some lawyers view everyone else as accessories. Archives are great but a flat organization. I can’t recommend academics to anyone the way they are moving now. But then, I made my choice so I would say that.
I live in a large-ish city and I don’t really like working with kids, plus I like law stuff.
Congratulations!
Thanks, and I love your icon!
Congrats, welcome to the LIS crowd! I’m just about to start my second semester in UW-Madison’s online Master’s program.
Thank you! I hope you have a good second semester!
Good show!
You now have to pick one of the librarianfolk in QC to identify with, right?
Bonus points for saying ‘good show’. Jason would approve.
There’s librarians in QC? I have to read it now.
Are you going to discover a new type of micro-library? (Sorry bad joke but I had to make it)
I dunno about that, but I want to look at how different tagging and sorting systems affect patron satisfaction and how patron involvement affects that.
That is very cool, that is a fascinating field. Be sure to say hi to Claire and Tai if you run into them.
I’m really excited to get into the field and see what’s up. And I’ll definitely give them a shoutout.
Congratulations!
Thank you!
Congrats!
Thanks!
Congrats, and if you aren’t already reading Kristen Arnett on LitHub, you should be.
I worked in a library for 25 years (until I retired), and I won’t sugarcoat — a library is a workplace, after all — but by and large, it was a mostly positive experience, and I was and am glad I stumbled into it.
You’ll meet a lot of, um, interesting people. Some of them will be awesome to work with.
Ooooh, this looks really interesting! I’ll check it out.
I’ve heard lots of good things about being a librarian and I’ve had good experiences volunteering at my school library and my elementary school board’s library warehouse (and the libraries of my elementary and secondary schools).
Ooo, Lucy shows some amazing smarts
Wow Lucy is a lot more scheming and socially astute than I expected.
And just like that, Lucy soars to the top of my list.
I did not think I would like Lucy. I now like Lucy very much.
Go Lucy! Seriously, I think my heart grew a size when she realized what Billie did.
Better get to a hospital asap.
Lucy is the hero we need.
At least she is today. I mean, next strip is gonna be about her exploiting her newly gained leverage over Billie in some objectionable way or other. But today she is the hero.
Wow, this strip has made me realise my fondness for old sitcoms…because I love Lucy
That pun was about as bad as Lucy is good, so… I approve
Funnily enough, it’s Billie who has some splainin to do
Whatever happens next, Lucy won the whole chapter today. Classy and potentially manipulative all in one social situation saving lie.
Ruth’s face in panel 1 hurts, man
I was on the fence about Lucy, but now I’m all on board with her. *boards the Lucy train, honks the whistle*
Lucy owns.
I am going to take Panel 5, increase it to ginormous size and stencil the city with it.
Bless you for trying to help Lucy but I think that some things just aren’t believable. Ruth knows her girl well enough to know that!
I wonder if Lucy likes Billie more than she liked Malaya.
That said, good of her to toss Billie a life preserver, even if it was seemingly meant more to help Ruth out than to save Billie’s ass. Maybe this’ll get her to go to the party.
Lucy is a big, gosh-darn hero.
After yesterday’s strip, I kept thinking about how Billie needed to be called out on her insecure bullshit, but Lucy basically did it while sparing Ruth’s feelings to boot.
Billie’s face in panel 4 tells me “message received,” at least.
LUCY YOU MAGNIFICENT CINNAMON ROLL
Billie, get your act together. Make Valentine’s Day be some other characters’ problem this year.
Every strip with Lucy makes me like her even more.
Me too.
My only thing here was that, if Billie wasn’t out to them, Lucy would be in the wrong, here. I mean, she and Ruth aren’t safe HERE, why would she expect to be safe in the other Dorm?
Outside of that, I agree with the though of “more I see of Lucy, the more I like her.” Seeing her with that snide eye, “just because I’m nice doesn’t mean I’m going to take shit,” makes me fucking GIDDY inside. DARN TOOTIN’ LUCE, TAKE NO SHIT.
Honestly, I would Like Lucy and Sarah to meet.
And now I’m getting this mental image of Joyce and Sarah trying to pull Luccy into their respective corners
“No! She belongs to friendly and cheerful and sweet and socially awkward corner!”
“No! She belongs to grumpy and taking-no-shit-from-nobody corner!”
Billie and Ruth walked into this situation holding hands and leaning on each other – they were very clear out to the dorm.
Plus, I think it’s reasonable to think if Billie is out to an entire dorm of people she’s known for like 3 days she’s also out to her actual friends.
I mean, maybe not in BILLIE’s case, but that’s a reasonable conclusion in general, yeah.
It’s confusing you think anyone but Joyce is Billie’s friend in this dorm.
Up to and including her brother Walky.
Furthermore, as Joyce tries to be everyone’s friend, I don’t know if she counts.
Of course it counts. Why would it not?
Lucy is quickly becoming my favorite character. After Dina, of course.
Ah, Lucy. You cinnamon roll.
Aw Lucy, what a sweetheart.
And Billie embellished a little with the Forest people when she mentioned “femur-ripping”.
Lucy I love you, you’re the best! I know I said that about Carla earlier today but that was because she’s also the best and which one of you I prefer depends on who is being mpst adorable at the time.
Whew, fangasm over
Lucy to the rescue \o/
Joyce steps forward to ceremonially induct her into the Most Loyal and Worshipful Order of the Shippers.
Lucy is the hero these folks need, but not the one they deserve.
….Smooth, Lucy. Very smooth.
I just love panel 5’s unspoken subtext: “I’m trying to help you out here girl; play along with me if you know what’s good for you!”
OH MY GOD I LOVE LUCY SO MUCH what a sweetheart. New favorite character!
Lucy goes through all the reactions here:
P2: Oh no, she’s hurting.
P3-4: Saving the ship, yay.
P5: Grab the fucking lifeline I just threw you, you dumbass.
P6: Wait, what?
This
Okay. Lucy is officially my favorite character.
W: She has?
R: She has?
B: I have??
L: You HAVE.
B: … I have!
Even Lucy knows you fucked up, Billie. You fucked up, m’am.
Somewhere in these comments I’m sure someone is seeing this as part of some crazy ass Machiavellian plot on Lucy’s part but I’m too tired to find it
I mean… her whole plot is to get Billy to her movie night.
Making sure that Billie’s relationship is stable removes a possible roadblock and engratiates her.
Now all that’s left is conquoring Gallasso’s Pizza (and subs) to acquire food and then sending the RA on her floor into a downward spiral by manipulating her grades so she doesn’t bother them during the good scenes.
When the shy, awkward girl is the most socially aware.
Go Lucy, you keep rocking.
And it doesn’t quite work, because the other characters know how screwed up they are, and that they don’t do things like that.
Being a socially awkward person who knows how these things are supposed to work is a bit like how I imagine being an economics student; you watch things somehow work out despite the fact everyone involved is an idiot or terrible or both, and you’re like “but … but my book says this works because of rational actors making logical decisions!”
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang Lucy. She went from a character that slightly annoyed me to one of my favorites. That was amazing.
I think that Lucy is naturally what Joyce tries to be, without the personal boundary issues
It will be interesting to see the negative aspects of Lucy’s personality, if any, we get to see if/when she’s elevated to the main cast
Nah, she’s got at least some of the boundary issues, though in milder form I think. She’s less aggressive about it than Joyce, but we’ve definitely seen her pushing in where she’s clearly not wanted.
She has basically gone to someone’s old place of residence to get info on how to get someone to go to something they’ve already turned down.
She went to talk to her new (difficult) roommate’s old dorm mates to see if they had any advice for how to handle living with her and to ask what kind of things she likes. It’s hardly as invasive as you’re pretending it is. It’s not her fault Carla decided to vomit Billie’s personal drama all over her.
Well sure she’s not perfect but if that’s the worst thing Lucy does then she’s easily the best character we’ve seen thus far
Lucy, I am not a fan of your stupid over positive outlook on life but you’re officially a good character in my books now
With all the positive vibes for Lucy right now it’d be a really DYWillis thing to do for Lucy to reveal herself as Sydney in disguise and this was all part of her plot to take over Galasso Pizza (and sub).
Is- is Lucy the first DOA character who can READ PEOPLE? Like this is honestly a great save that hopefully helps everyone out here (I think Ruth knew what just happened though) but it’s… sad that I feel like this is the first time someone’s been able to do this smooth of a save
Maybe Mike? Though he uses it for evil, not good.
When Willis mentioned the “Lucy is evil” thing on Twitter, I thought it was just one person, not half the comment section.
Which half?
The right half.
My half?
But that would make the Right half the wrong half, and therefore both halfs are right.
Somebody’s probably already said this, but…
I LOVE LUCY
yup: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/sniping-2/#comment-1377821
Lucy is my new favorite character