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Their friendship is delightful and Sal in general makes me want to make very unmanly noises whenever she is unintentionally cute/charming, which is basically always.
Marcie can be amazingly expressive with those goggle thingies. Helps that she can apparently move the little specular reflections independently like pupils.
Alternate hypothesis: she’s just wearing regular black-rimmed glasses and has Terminator eyes.
Dumbing of Age works on a sliding timescale. And in the future; people can relocate the sun and the rims of their glasses with massive telekinetic force for the purpose of conveying simple facial expressions. Willis is trying to incorporate some anachronistic references that are a bit “ahead of the curve” so that DoA still seems realistic to our psychic bespectacled babies, assuring the work endures for generations.
Actually it’s the force of her eyebrows trying to leave her face (like everyone else’s do) that distorts the goggles and makes the specular reflections move.
I’m not super sure why there’s hesitation with this. Malaya has shown that it takes almost zero actual effort to set her off. It doesn’t even have to be convincing. There’s history about this subject between these two and I’m pretty sure 1) It’s gonna be really really sad, and 2) BBCC’s gonna spontaneously initiate fusion.
Look, just because me and my boyfriend once made these two Ruby and Sapphire when we were joking around and making DoA as Steven Universe characters doesn’t mean I have that on my fanfic list.
Mostly there’s hesitation because it’s kind of creepy manipulation and as Sal suggests just asking her is by far the better approach.
Someone only having sex with you to prove something to your friend can’t make you feel good about yourself. Unless you’re already the kind of sleazeball who doesn’t care how you get it, in which case you shouldn’t.
Hey, if someone is THAT subceptible to the whole “middle school level of reverse psychology” thing, it’s prettymuch your DUTY to exploit them!
Particularly if they are … ‘less than pleasant to be around’!
Rape? Not even a little bit, Malaya is still making a choice even if the situation isn’t entirely what she thought. She can still say no to anyone at any time. And her own screwed up sense of what she should do is leading to her being misled, so I think that is her responsibility. Though it doesn’t make the deception right to do.
No, I mean, it IS kinda deceptive, sure, but Malaya knows who Marcie is, she’s not misrepresenting herself, and this definitely wouldn’t be coercive, so I don’t think that’d be an appropriate way of framing it, but that’s just my personal take, I’m sure plenty of people would have their own interpretation.
… I don’t want to stereotype but as a married parent of young children – that’s about the level of subtle that tends to be in play when you have small dependants who leave you with limited opportunity…
@Miri: I do not and cannot have children, but my sister has a five-year-old daughter. And while I NEVER want to talk to my sister about her sex life, she has kind of hinted that sometimes she and her husband have to carefully schedule…um…”personal time.”
For that matter, my partner and I often have completely opposite schedules; he will start work at 10 AM and get home around 7 or 8 PM, and I won’t get home from teaching until midnight or later. (I teach evenings and even after the class is over, I STILL have a ton of work to do.). SO sometimes we do, um, have to schedule “sexy times.” Not to give too much personal info, but sometimes one of us does kind of have to “seduce” the other, but that does not mean we are deceiving each other.
I am not at all sure that “seduction always relies on deception.” And yes, sometimes people do come out and say “Let’s fuck.”
BUT these are college kids. (Anyone who is currently a young adult in college, please forgive me for saying that – I’m old.) I remember the awkwardness I often experienced as a college student. As an example, after a drinking party, my current partner and I (we’ve been together for over a decade now) both fell asleep on the same futon. While I wanted to roll over and snuggle him, I was far too awkward and embarrassed to do so. Once we actually hooked up, he admitted that he felt the exact same way. (SO…this meant that we both wanted to snuggle each other and didn’t because EMBARRASSMENT!) And when we finally hooked up, it did kind of come down to us saying to each other, “Do you want to have sex now please?”
BUT we were both older than a lot of college students and both had had other relationships. I follow this webcomic regularly and realize that my present experience as someone who not been a college student for years (and who currently teaches at a college) is not the same as the characters’. But I also do have to say that active consent is SUPER important, no matter what your age or level of sexual experience.
I would edit to say that INITIAL seduction USUALLY involves some degree of deception. Even if it’s just putting on nicer clothes or makeup than usual, giving flattering compliments, maybe playing up shared interests or accomplishments, perhaps practicing ahead of time to come off less awkward and more charming… It’s kind of expected on both sides that you’re at least trying to present yourself in the best possible light, which is rarely going to be the Whole Truth.
As for this, at the worst interpretation, it is more along the lines of pick-up artistry (pick-up artisting? pick-up art? The act that a pick-up artist performs), which can certainly get skeevy rapidly, but I think as a one-off hijink… Well, we’ll see how things go, but at the very least they’re well, well short of the line of rape.
I absolutely have done this, and it’s worked out very well a very large number of times. “Hey, nice shoes, wanna fuck?” works very well in clubs. “Hey, we should bang,” is also how my girlfriend (of almost 3 years!) and I met.
I don’t think anyone would argue that Sal is being nice to Malaya here. But this doesn’t read as coercion or rape to me.
If there’s anything particularly immoral about it, it’s that it gets close to gaslighting. And in that sense? Yeah, this is wrong. Less in the sense that it steps over a line, and more in the sense that ethical lines aren’t meant to be toed except in extreme circumstances, which this is not.
Honestly, I only forgive Sal for this because it’s a story in a comic strip, and she’s a more sympathetic character by far than Malaya.
It’s not coercion or rape. It’s deceitful, but Malaya is still completely free to choose who she sexually pursues. All Malaya has to do is be mature and not pursue Marcie just because Sal shows some interest and the whole plan fails. The whole plan hinges on Malaya going out of her way to be spiteful to Sal.
I agree it’s not really rape, but it’s not very cool either. If nothing else, if Marcie is interested in anything beyond the one time physical sex, only getting that because Malaya wants to mess with Sal seems like it wouldn’t be very rewarding.
It is not. It is deceptive and not particularly eithical but it isn’t rape (both parties would be consenting) and it is not rape by coercion (as Malaya would still have the ability to choose not to and is not being swayed by force or threats).
It’s more on par with lying to someone you just met to seem cooler and make them more interested in you – it’s not the right or best approach. It is something you can do to get the results you want, but they will feel horribly betrayed if they learn the truth. Though since this is Malaya, she would likely not believe Sal if she said it was a lie at a later time.
To be fair, if this works, malaya is just as bad. The whole thing is based on her being willing to use (and potentially hurt) a friend to get back at sal. That’s a story without any heroes. It’s a high school drama though, so that’s probably pretty realistic.
Oh, Malaya is bad regardless. If she was a better person who wasn’t so spiteful and easy to provoke in her desire to make sure Sal is unhappy, this plan would NEVER have a chance in the first place. Whether Malaya is willing to risk hurting a friend to spite Sal though is the real question.
Rape by deception does exist, but it typically refers to situations where the assailant impersonated someone else entirely (such as coming into a darkened room when the victim was waiting for her/his romantic partner). This is just immature shenanigans.
I can’t tell what the last panel is supposed to be implying, does this mean they are going with the plan of just asking Malaya if she likes Marcie? Or the plan of Sal pretending to be into Marcie?
I think that’s not quite “pleased as punch”, but more of an overly forced smile. She knows she should take the “ask her” approach, but she’s going with the other one.
Given what we have seen of Malaya, I’d say that hat scenario is very unlikely.
But I’m wondering if Marcie has been carrying a torch for Sal all those years and even the slight act of Sal pretending to want her will throw her in the middle of all those unrequited feelings.
Speaking of potentially stupid decisions, it seems like the ex (was a short-term event) of my ballroom dancing partner is trying to make a move on me again (as she has done the last three or so times she was single). As we overlap in some dancing circles it’s awkward. I hate being single but she just doesn’t click which makes it worse somehow. (We are all well above 40 but somehow I can relate to doa highjinks all too well.)
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some of that in Marcie, but at least Sal’s told her about the plan, so she knows the interest isn’t real. That makes it much less potentially disastrous.
Can’t tell if Marcie’s face is “I’m not comfy with that (a friend pretending) ” or if its “I don’t think you’re comfy with that. so I ‘m sad this great plan won’t work”
Seemingly more the latter
I love that after all this time being in the middle of a circle of more or less stupid and melodramatic people… Marcie is the one making the stupid decision.
Is marcie lusting after malaya or in love with her? If that plot works, malaya will use marcie to put sal in her place. Which could lead to even more pain than unrequited love. Marcie may see herself being dropped as a lover pretty fast.
Marcie definitely lusts after her, as per http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/fuck/ and the following comic. Whether there are additionally love feelings beyond that is unclear. Based on her (non-)reaction to Malaya+Joe, though, it seems like Marcie’s at least willing to roll with things?
Matters of both the heart and the loins are complicated from individual to individual.
Would Malaya find it a turn off with all this sneaking and being scared to say what one really wants. It’s possible Malaya knows what they are doing and is playing along to see if they are really going to do that. Or maybe she’s really just that easy to manipulate.
I’m rooting for Marcie to get laid as much as any other character but she could courage up a little more. Malaya doesn’t wallow in self doubt and underconfidence, whatever other traits she may have.
Its oh-so-human that, in a choice between playing an emotionally-risky charade to indirectly provoke Malaya into a relationship and just bluntly asking “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”, Marcie has chosen the former. Because, on some level, we all seem to think that attempting indirect query-by-implication in relationships is ‘safer’.
Plausible deniability. It’s easier for most people to be able to say “well I never asked them out so I wasn’t actually rejected” than to hear “I’m not interested in going out with you”
Also, doing it this way would (ideally) have Malaya pursuing Marcie, which would let Marcie know she’s at least open to sex with girls without Marcie having to take any risks of coming out to her or risking biphobic dickery by hitting on her.
Question. Is Malaya even INTO girls? We know she’s slept with Joe (and from all I know, she didn’t HATE it), so she’s at least straight/bi. I’d hate for Sal and Marcie to go to all this trouble only to have Malaya go, “Eww, I’m not into chicks. F_ck off!”
Yes in Walkyverse she was definitely was attracted to women, at least robot women who are not sexually attracted to her. And the fact that in this world he also likes human pervert men it would be very specific if she didn’t like women.
But Carla in the other universe was a robot and to a large extent that seemed to be the attraction for Malaya, so it’s not clear exactly how that would translate.
He’d have leeway to play it in many different ways, if he chose.
We don’t know Danny likes blond men, and if he just can’t be attracted to blond men its legitimate. But I don’t think if a blond man wanted to date Danny there would be a huge debate of do we even know he’s attracted to blond men.
There’s a big difference between “robot women” and blond men. We don’t know that Malaya was attracted to any human women – after Leslie, she didn’t seem to think so.
Yeah, but she was DEFINITELY sexually attracted to UC after she got her new humanoid chassis. Personally I tend to think Malaya’s somewhere on the ace spectrum (gray-ace or demisexual, probably) and is only sexually attracted to people rarely. (Not having Slipshine, Joe seemed to be at least as much spite as anything.)
Having read that Slipshine, she didn’t seem real into it.
Some kind of demi-sexual is most likely the best parallel. Or it could be exactly the same and she’s only attracted to humanoid female robots and there aren’t any of those in this universe so she’s out of luck.
No, I think that this is a hook for an arc that will leave the readership of this strip screaming: “Damn you Willis!!! Probably because of how negatively it will impact Marcie and Sal’s friendship.
Wait. Sal’s explaining her plan on “camera”. Narrative convention states we can’t just have 3-4 strips of someone explaining a plan followed by that person executing the plan perfectly with no problems. So, place your bets on why this won’t work.
Maybe Sal and Marcie start making out or something, and for once Malaya is happier for Marcie than she’s spiteful for Sal. Then Sal has to keep pretending to be in a relationship every time the three of them are together?
There is one exception to the “explaining on camera” trope: When the success of the plan creates bigger problems than its failure. That’s where I’m placing my bet.
So does marcie just wanna bone Malaya? Or does she want a full relationship? Because if the latter she should really not be trying to date someone who is incredibly mean to one of her longest friends. Or at least calling out Malaya on her shit.
She just wants to sleep with Malaya, she doesn’t actually want a romantic relationship with her. She developed this friendship with Malaya with ulterior motives from the beginning.
Marcie’s thought process in panels 4 & 5, “in order to make out with one hot girl, I have to make out with another hot girl? Well, I guess if I absolutely have too…”
it’s probably for the best, given Malaya’s habit of contradicting everything, if you told her you like her she’d probably just instinctively hate you and work to make you hate her back.
I was honestly concerned for a bit that Sal would implement this plan without first discussing with Marcie (bc she and all of the cast love their bad decisions), so I’m so glad this convo is taking place. And good on her for suggesting the logical/reasonable choice as well.
Why can’t she just tell Malaya that dating her would really piss Sal off? It already genuinely bothers Sal that Marcie is friends with her so this shouldn’t be hard to sell.
Wouldn’t the fact that it would bother Sal be enough to get this to happen?
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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 ⋅ 2d
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...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 19h
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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Tell someone how you REALLY feel? What madness is this??
←courted husband by spontaneously using him as a bed
Aww.
All the hearts.
I love these two.
Their friendship is delightful and Sal in general makes me want to make very unmanly noises whenever she is unintentionally cute/charming, which is basically always.
Marcie can be amazingly expressive with those goggle thingies. Helps that she can apparently move the little specular reflections independently like pupils.
Alternate hypothesis: she’s just wearing regular black-rimmed glasses and has Terminator eyes.
It’s the Parker-Wilson Eyewear Effect. Under correct conditions, realistically static eyewear will mimic facial expressions for effect.
I never noticed that before.
Now I have to go back and look at all the Marcie toons.
Dumbing of Age works on a sliding timescale. And in the future; people can relocate the sun and the rims of their glasses with massive telekinetic force for the purpose of conveying simple facial expressions. Willis is trying to incorporate some anachronistic references that are a bit “ahead of the curve” so that DoA still seems realistic to our psychic bespectacled babies, assuring the work endures for generations.
Maybe we can do that already, but since there’s no coordination we’re pulling the sun in many different directions and it all cancels out.
Actually it’s the force of her eyebrows trying to leave her face (like everyone else’s do) that distorts the goggles and makes the specular reflections move.
Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t Ana Chronistic’s references always ahead of the curve?
Hey, there’s Biblical precedent for people being able to move the sun. And this is a comic about religion, so…
(Sorry, too soon?)
Her glasses remind me of Boneclaw Mother’s mask from Digger
I’m very familiar with where Sal is in panel 5.
I’m not super sure why there’s hesitation with this. Malaya has shown that it takes almost zero actual effort to set her off. It doesn’t even have to be convincing. There’s history about this subject between these two and I’m pretty sure 1) It’s gonna be really really sad, and 2) BBCC’s gonna spontaneously initiate fusion.
Look, just because me and my boyfriend once made these two Ruby and Sapphire when we were joking around and making DoA as Steven Universe characters doesn’t mean I have that on my fanfic list.
Yet anyways, shut up, don’t look at me.
I think they meant nuclear fusion via soundwave pressure.
Ah, I see. I know absolute jack about physics, so I made the SU joke.
Best part, it works both ways.
Mostly there’s hesitation because it’s kind of creepy manipulation and as Sal suggests just asking her is by far the better approach.
Someone only having sex with you to prove something to your friend can’t make you feel good about yourself. Unless you’re already the kind of sleazeball who doesn’t care how you get it, in which case you shouldn’t.
Meh, I don’t think it’s creepy, and I don’t think Marcie is a sleazeball for it. If anything, it more makes Malaya the sleazy one.
Hey, if someone is THAT subceptible to the whole “middle school level of reverse psychology” thing, it’s prettymuch your DUTY to exploit them!
Particularly if they are … ‘less than pleasant to be around’!
Who could say no to that smile?
Malaya, probably, hence the hijink.
She’s had no chance to say “no” since she has no idea! XD
I’m torn.
On the one hand, I feel Marcie, here. Avoidance is always the best!
On the other…this kind of stupid hijinx never go well.
I feel like that’s just par for the course when you interact with Malaya.
Oh, come on. When have wacky hijinx ever gone wrong in a comic?
… right, okay, what about in this comic?
… right, okay, how about…
Willis must have forgotten the layer that includes a translation of Marcie’s sign-language. I can’t tell what her response to all this is.
….
(sarcasm, of course)
The Willisian mouth crinkles in panel 4 need no translation.
I love how her goggle shinies are now her pupils
They always have been.
…yeah, pretty sure a literal “sigh.” is the appropriate response here.
In my headcanon, Sal is also simultaneously signing the word sigh. We cannot see her hands in that panel, so you cannot tell me I am wrong.
Eat outta shorts! Eat outta shorts!
Wait… that came out wrong…
Realization: isn’t this kind of rape, or at least coercion by deception?
It wouldn’t work if Malaya wasn’t gullible.
Or more like this is basically half the get laid schemes on How I Met Your Mother.
Rape? Not even a little bit, Malaya is still making a choice even if the situation isn’t entirely what she thought. She can still say no to anyone at any time. And her own screwed up sense of what she should do is leading to her being misled, so I think that is her responsibility. Though it doesn’t make the deception right to do.
I don’t know what to classify it as, but it definitely isn’t honest.
No, I mean, it IS kinda deceptive, sure, but Malaya knows who Marcie is, she’s not misrepresenting herself, and this definitely wouldn’t be coercive, so I don’t think that’d be an appropriate way of framing it, but that’s just my personal take, I’m sure plenty of people would have their own interpretation.
Seduction always relies on deception. Even if both of you know what’s going on. You never come out and say, “Wanna fuck?”
… I don’t want to stereotype but as a married parent of young children – that’s about the level of subtle that tends to be in play when you have small dependants who leave you with limited opportunity…
@Miri: I do not and cannot have children, but my sister has a five-year-old daughter. And while I NEVER want to talk to my sister about her sex life, she has kind of hinted that sometimes she and her husband have to carefully schedule…um…”personal time.”
For that matter, my partner and I often have completely opposite schedules; he will start work at 10 AM and get home around 7 or 8 PM, and I won’t get home from teaching until midnight or later. (I teach evenings and even after the class is over, I STILL have a ton of work to do.). SO sometimes we do, um, have to schedule “sexy times.” Not to give too much personal info, but sometimes one of us does kind of have to “seduce” the other, but that does not mean we are deceiving each other.
I am not at all sure that “seduction always relies on deception.” And yes, sometimes people do come out and say “Let’s fuck.”
BUT these are college kids. (Anyone who is currently a young adult in college, please forgive me for saying that – I’m old.) I remember the awkwardness I often experienced as a college student. As an example, after a drinking party, my current partner and I (we’ve been together for over a decade now) both fell asleep on the same futon. While I wanted to roll over and snuggle him, I was far too awkward and embarrassed to do so. Once we actually hooked up, he admitted that he felt the exact same way. (SO…this meant that we both wanted to snuggle each other and didn’t because EMBARRASSMENT!) And when we finally hooked up, it did kind of come down to us saying to each other, “Do you want to have sex now please?”
BUT we were both older than a lot of college students and both had had other relationships. I follow this webcomic regularly and realize that my present experience as someone who not been a college student for years (and who currently teaches at a college) is not the same as the characters’. But I also do have to say that active consent is SUPER important, no matter what your age or level of sexual experience.
According to the late great Allan Sherman, “Dating is when you pretend to be someone else until the other person loves you for who you are.”
Thought you meant the guy from “The Critic”
I would edit to say that INITIAL seduction USUALLY involves some degree of deception. Even if it’s just putting on nicer clothes or makeup than usual, giving flattering compliments, maybe playing up shared interests or accomplishments, perhaps practicing ahead of time to come off less awkward and more charming… It’s kind of expected on both sides that you’re at least trying to present yourself in the best possible light, which is rarely going to be the Whole Truth.
As for this, at the worst interpretation, it is more along the lines of pick-up artistry (pick-up artisting? pick-up art? The act that a pick-up artist performs), which can certainly get skeevy rapidly, but I think as a one-off hijink… Well, we’ll see how things go, but at the very least they’re well, well short of the line of rape.
Nope, never. No one ever just comes out and says that.
I absolutely have done this, and it’s worked out very well a very large number of times. “Hey, nice shoes, wanna fuck?” works very well in clubs. “Hey, we should bang,” is also how my girlfriend (of almost 3 years!) and I met.
I don’t think anyone would argue that Sal is being nice to Malaya here. But this doesn’t read as coercion or rape to me.
If there’s anything particularly immoral about it, it’s that it gets close to gaslighting. And in that sense? Yeah, this is wrong. Less in the sense that it steps over a line, and more in the sense that ethical lines aren’t meant to be toed except in extreme circumstances, which this is not.
Honestly, I only forgive Sal for this because it’s a story in a comic strip, and she’s a more sympathetic character by far than Malaya.
I like your name!
Only if mind control exists, which it doesn’t.
It’s not coercion or rape. It’s deceitful, but Malaya is still completely free to choose who she sexually pursues. All Malaya has to do is be mature and not pursue Marcie just because Sal shows some interest and the whole plan fails. The whole plan hinges on Malaya going out of her way to be spiteful to Sal.
I agree it’s not really rape, but it’s not very cool either. If nothing else, if Marcie is interested in anything beyond the one time physical sex, only getting that because Malaya wants to mess with Sal seems like it wouldn’t be very rewarding.
It is not. It is deceptive and not particularly eithical but it isn’t rape (both parties would be consenting) and it is not rape by coercion (as Malaya would still have the ability to choose not to and is not being swayed by force or threats).
It’s more on par with lying to someone you just met to seem cooler and make them more interested in you – it’s not the right or best approach. It is something you can do to get the results you want, but they will feel horribly betrayed if they learn the truth. Though since this is Malaya, she would likely not believe Sal if she said it was a lie at a later time.
To be fair, if this works, malaya is just as bad. The whole thing is based on her being willing to use (and potentially hurt) a friend to get back at sal. That’s a story without any heroes. It’s a high school drama though, so that’s probably pretty realistic.
Oh, Malaya is bad regardless. If she was a better person who wasn’t so spiteful and easy to provoke in her desire to make sure Sal is unhappy, this plan would NEVER have a chance in the first place. Whether Malaya is willing to risk hurting a friend to spite Sal though is the real question.
Rape by deception does exist, but it typically refers to situations where the assailant impersonated someone else entirely (such as coming into a darkened room when the victim was waiting for her/his romantic partner). This is just immature shenanigans.
I can’t tell what the last panel is supposed to be implying, does this mean they are going with the plan of just asking Malaya if she likes Marcie? Or the plan of Sal pretending to be into Marcie?
My next question is, what can possibly go wrong?
Marcie is basically giving the ‘Heyyyy best buddy! D’ya wanna do me the biggest, bestest favour?’
I take it as Marcie being down with the plan, so as to avoid the coming out and saying it. She looks pleased as punch.
I think that’s not quite “pleased as punch”, but more of an overly forced smile. She knows she should take the “ask her” approach, but she’s going with the other one.
For once Sal is is the voice of reason, and Marcie continues to be the voice of lust.
The sign-language of lust. All hands-on.
Laurie Anderson, Langue D’Amour:
Because the woman was restless. She was a hothead.
She was a woman in love.
Heck, Sal, all you have to do is let Malaya see you looking at Marcie and biting your fist.
And, since this is Willis, also Sal biting her lip. (Okay, it’s not easy to do both at once, but still…)
Okay, it kind of feels like Sal is breaking the forth wall and giving us the stink eye in that last panel.
It does a bit, but I think she’s just looking away because things are going both her way and in a terrible way (those being the same thing).
And hilarity ensues….
60/40 chance that Marcie picks Sal over Malaya as time passes, which might just put Sal in a pickle.
Marcie: yes i can totally go along with pretending to be into Sal too get into Malaya’s pants without catching feelings
Later: oh no
Marcie x Sal
OR…..OR malaya thinks marcie’s also into sal and likes/respects marcie enough to try to help
OH DAMN THAT’S POSSIBLE
My new worst case scenario.
Given what we have seen of Malaya, I’d say that hat scenario is very unlikely.
But I’m wondering if Marcie has been carrying a torch for Sal all those years and even the slight act of Sal pretending to want her will throw her in the middle of all those unrequited feelings.
Speaking of potentially stupid decisions, it seems like the ex (was a short-term event) of my ballroom dancing partner is trying to make a move on me again (as she has done the last three or so times she was single). As we overlap in some dancing circles it’s awkward. I hate being single but she just doesn’t click which makes it worse somehow. (We are all well above 40 but somehow I can relate to doa highjinks all too well.)
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some of that in Marcie, but at least Sal’s told her about the plan, so she knows the interest isn’t real. That makes it much less potentially disastrous.
Not sure about that. Doesn’t it just lead to feeling stupid about having agreed on top of the other pain?
Oh probably, but that’s still not as bad as actually thinking Sal’s into her and potentially acting on that.
She’ll try to help by pretending to be into Marcie to make Sal jealous :p
I like how Sal has given Marcie a choice between sit-com shenanigans and a sensible adultish course of action.
And she’s chosen shenanigans.
Let me get my shocked face . . .
Last panel is wonderful for both of them, face-wise, but I have a fondness for anytime the dot eye cast members show sclera, it tends to be hilarious.
And like-like can lead to love…
Well, I see this has now been adequately covered.
Can’t tell if Marcie’s face is “I’m not comfy with that (a friend pretending) ” or if its “I don’t think you’re comfy with that. so I ‘m sad this great plan won’t work”
Seemingly more the latter
I’m reading “weighing the inherent uncomfortable weirdness of this plan against malaya’s position on the scoville scale”
More “I know this isn’t the right way and I feel bad about choosing it, but let’s go anyway.”
These two idiots may be my favorite pair of friends in DoA.
Why go with the direct approach when you can try the crazy plan that might work as long as Malaya doesn’t realize Sal is faking interest in Marcie?
It so begins, have no idea how this will go down but fuck it guess we’ll haft to see to find out.
I love that after all this time being in the middle of a circle of more or less stupid and melodramatic people… Marcie is the one making the stupid decision.
OH WELL, SHENANIGANS IT IS!
FINALLY, Marcie will get her time to shine at making the bad choice.
tuition is expensive but dumbification is free!
Why do I feel like Malaya acts like this because she secretly likes Sal
That’s where my money is.
Okay the question is what type of “like” we talkin about?
As in she wants a relationship with her
So maybe shoves is loves?
Marcie ya coward!
Sal, you never tell a girl you like her, it just makes you look like an idiot.
…I ALMOST got that reference.
…Is it the Potter musical?
Yes.
In Marcie’s defense, the slow game realllly wasn’t working. And if Malaya really is as anti-Sal-sexual as she seems to be….
Yeah, but the “ask her if she like-likes you” plan might work. And it’s objectively a better plan in a moral sense.
I don’t know what choice Marcie has made but, based on Sal’s reaction, it’s the one that’s going to hurt the most.
marcie, horny disaster
relatable
Is marcie lusting after malaya or in love with her? If that plot works, malaya will use marcie to put sal in her place. Which could lead to even more pain than unrequited love. Marcie may see herself being dropped as a lover pretty fast.
Marcie definitely lusts after her, as per http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/fuck/ and the following comic. Whether there are additionally love feelings beyond that is unclear. Based on her (non-)reaction to Malaya+Joe, though, it seems like Marcie’s at least willing to roll with things?
Matters of both the heart and the loins are complicated from individual to individual.
pretty sure it’s lust
the white of her eyes…
Would Malaya find it a turn off with all this sneaking and being scared to say what one really wants. It’s possible Malaya knows what they are doing and is playing along to see if they are really going to do that. Or maybe she’s really just that easy to manipulate.
I’m rooting for Marcie to get laid as much as any other character but she could courage up a little more. Malaya doesn’t wallow in self doubt and underconfidence, whatever other traits she may have.
Its oh-so-human that, in a choice between playing an emotionally-risky charade to indirectly provoke Malaya into a relationship and just bluntly asking “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”, Marcie has chosen the former. Because, on some level, we all seem to think that attempting indirect query-by-implication in relationships is ‘safer’.
Plausible deniability. It’s easier for most people to be able to say “well I never asked them out so I wasn’t actually rejected” than to hear “I’m not interested in going out with you”
Also, doing it this way would (ideally) have Malaya pursuing Marcie, which would let Marcie know she’s at least open to sex with girls without Marcie having to take any risks of coming out to her or risking biphobic dickery by hitting on her.
Question. Is Malaya even INTO girls? We know she’s slept with Joe (and from all I know, she didn’t HATE it), so she’s at least straight/bi. I’d hate for Sal and Marcie to go to all this trouble only to have Malaya go, “Eww, I’m not into chicks. F_ck off!”
Malaya is into whomever will piss people off. Like some sort of unintentional, female version of Mike.
Spitesexual then?
Yes in Walkyverse she was definitely was attracted to women, at least robot women who are not sexually attracted to her. And the fact that in this world he also likes human pervert men it would be very specific if she didn’t like women.
Malaya dated Carla in the other universe and Willis has stated that orientations are consistent between universes.
But Carla in the other universe was a robot and to a large extent that seemed to be the attraction for Malaya, so it’s not clear exactly how that would translate.
He’d have leeway to play it in many different ways, if he chose.
We don’t know Danny likes blond men, and if he just can’t be attracted to blond men its legitimate. But I don’t think if a blond man wanted to date Danny there would be a huge debate of do we even know he’s attracted to blond men.
There’s a big difference between “robot women” and blond men. We don’t know that Malaya was attracted to any human women – after Leslie, she didn’t seem to think so.
But didn’t she try and date Leslie only to com to the realization she doesn’t like girls?
Yeah, but she was DEFINITELY sexually attracted to UC after she got her new humanoid chassis. Personally I tend to think Malaya’s somewhere on the ace spectrum (gray-ace or demisexual, probably) and is only sexually attracted to people rarely. (Not having Slipshine, Joe seemed to be at least as much spite as anything.)
Having read that Slipshine, she didn’t seem real into it.
Some kind of demi-sexual is most likely the best parallel. Or it could be exactly the same and she’s only attracted to humanoid female robots and there aren’t any of those in this universe so she’s out of luck.
Sal for best Wingman award
Ugh. Emotional manipulation. Gross.
“Shield eaters and Malaya-misleaders have many likes alike.” – Old Dumbyverse proverb
Is this a tease for the next epic lesbian Slipshine story?
I’m sold.
No, I think that this is a hook for an arc that will leave the readership of this strip screaming: “Damn you Willis!!! Probably because of how negatively it will impact Marcie and Sal’s friendship.
Pff. They`ll hook up. Guaranteed.
….are we all just going to ignore “Eatin’ outta yer shorts”?!?
That is going to haunt me….
It is a play on the idiom ‘eating out of your hand’, but with oral sex implications.
Ignore it? Im gonna start USING it!
Wait. Sal’s explaining her plan on “camera”. Narrative convention states we can’t just have 3-4 strips of someone explaining a plan followed by that person executing the plan perfectly with no problems. So, place your bets on why this won’t work.
Maybe Sal and Marcie start making out or something, and for once Malaya is happier for Marcie than she’s spiteful for Sal. Then Sal has to keep pretending to be in a relationship every time the three of them are together?
There is one exception to the “explaining on camera” trope: When the success of the plan creates bigger problems than its failure. That’s where I’m placing my bet.
Turns out Sal’s more bi than she thought, suddenly best friends become lovers
I love sal cuz she reminds me so much of applejack, honesty and her accent which I use when I read her lines in my head.
Oh good, it ain’t just me.
So does marcie just wanna bone Malaya? Or does she want a full relationship? Because if the latter she should really not be trying to date someone who is incredibly mean to one of her longest friends. Or at least calling out Malaya on her shit.
Not like Sal has been any nicer. They’ve settled into a tolerable passive hostility.
She just wants to sleep with Malaya, she doesn’t actually want a romantic relationship with her. She developed this friendship with Malaya with ulterior motives from the beginning.
“eating out of your shorts?”
I`m too young to read this comic.
Marcie’s thought process in panels 4 & 5, “in order to make out with one hot girl, I have to make out with another hot girl? Well, I guess if I absolutely have too…”
That is not what was recommended.
But it isn’t what wasn’t recommended, either.
it’s probably for the best, given Malaya’s habit of contradicting everything, if you told her you like her she’d probably just instinctively hate you and work to make you hate her back.
I was honestly concerned for a bit that Sal would implement this plan without first discussing with Marcie (bc she and all of the cast love their bad decisions), so I’m so glad this convo is taking place. And good on her for suggesting the logical/reasonable choice as well.
As someone who has definitely said sigh rather than doing the action, I totally feel Sal here.
What if Sal pretended to be sexually interested in *herself*?
I read a lot growing up and somebody actually had to tell me that you weren’t supposed to say the word “sigh”…
Why can’t she just tell Malaya that dating her would really piss Sal off? It already genuinely bothers Sal that Marcie is friends with her so this shouldn’t be hard to sell.
Wouldn’t the fact that it would bother Sal be enough to get this to happen?
Darn, I saw the title and thought it was going to be about the Legend of Zelda monster.
Oh Sal