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.
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?
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
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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.
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!
Paint the Town Red
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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.
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The Otherknown
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Cyanide & Happiness
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Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
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Yeah, most people don’t realize that 1 in every 4 or 5 women in the United States have been or will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime. Some refuse to believe it.
Then there are some that think they believe, but then don’t realize that also applies to the women THEY know and are completely unaware of how many have had this happen to them and keep quiet about it out of fear or shame.
I thought it was one in 3. And seeing as how I know about 8 or so of my friends who have been, I believe it. And one of them was raped by her pastor. When she was 15. When she tried to tell her mom she got slapped in the face and called a liar.
Rape culture sucks.
No, it’s the screwed up “justice” system and America’s Rape culture that lets the scum get away with it.
You’re only reasonably likely to win a rape case if you are a prepubescent white girl from a reasonably healthy family. I’ve heard of cases where the defense claimed a ten year old was dressing so she was “asking for it”.
Even when someone does press charges and go to trial, there is a very low conviction rate for rape. And the victim is on trial just as much, if not more, than the rapist.
Really? I’ve actually heard that accused rapists are basically guilty until proven innocent; I’ve heard more than one horror story about a guy who was with a girl, then the girl accused him of rape (as revenge or simply because she regretted it) and pretty much ruined the guy’s life.
Honestly, I think there are examples of both in the current justice system, which is, truthfully, broken.
I think it mainly depends on where you are. In the more conservatives states (esp Utah) it’s almost always the girl’s fault. (in their minds)
And it largely depends on who the girl is, who her parents are, and who the boy is. Economic level. If the girl’s parents are well respected members of the community and the boy is from the wrong side of the tracks, yeah, he might end up in jail even if he didn’t do it.
But if the situation is reversed, he probably won’t, even if there is loads of evidence or he beat the girl half to death.
There are quite a few people out there with the opinion that men are ravening beasts and if they think the girl is dressed inappropriately or somewhere they think she shouldn’t be, then she was really “asking” for sex and it wasn’t really rape. Those are the same sort of people who believe it’s not rape if it’s your boyfriend/husband, because you gave them permission to sleep with you before, and apparently they believe that negates a girl’s right to say “no”.
Utah is especially bad about this, as the Mormons teach their girls it is better to *die* than to lose their virtue.
I’m Mormon, in Utah, and wondering what on earth you’re talking about. We don’t teach girls that, we also don’t believe in double standards (such as “it’s always the girl’s fault”). Sex before marriage, whether you’re male or female, is considered a sin, as it is in pretty much any other christian religion you can find. I’m certainly not aware of any that preach otherwise, Joyce’s “Premarital Hanky Panky!” from an earlier comic demonstrate this.
I’m left wondering if you’ve even been to Utah, or met the Mormons you seem to look down upon. I live here, and have never seen the mind set you describe.
Less than two percent of reported rapes are false. I think it might be 2 in every thousand but I don’t want to be quoted as extreme there so I’ll go with my original. The fact that the false accusations get more publicity and the majority of rapes go unreported makes it seem more likely… now I know of a guy who I believe was falsely accused (but not officially) of rape and this actually caused a major schism among my group of friends so don’t get me wrong I know it can happen but its very rare for an official case to be false.
The US justice system is founded on the principle that a person is “innocent until PROVEN guilty”. The trouble often comes when the only proof is one person’s word against another. Who do you believe, without additional evidence?
And which is worse? Letting a guilty person go free or sending an innocent person to prison for a crime they didn’t commit? Regardless of how you personally feel about it, the US justice system is founded on the idea that the latter is worse than the former.
Sal is sadly probably right. Without hard evidence, Joyce would far more likely be the one in trouble if she reported it than Mr. Rapist would.
I read many years ago of an alternate way to bring him to justice while working WITHIN the system: Accuse him of indecent exposure.
Say he just jumped out at you in the parking lot and wiggled it in your face and dashed off.
The reason you’d want to do this instead of accusing him of RAPE? Sadly, it’s pretty simple: It’s far, far easier to get someone convicted of weeny-wiggling than it is to convict them of rape. The victim isn’t on trial. The sentences tend to be longer. >< And finally, while, even if you manage to get a rapist sent to jail, in that culture someone who rapes women often has a certain amount of status, someone who gets convicted of public exposure has NO status. Their time in jail will be much harsher on them.
What's he gonna do, say he raped you? Unlikely. And the victim may be able to describe his unit well enough to convince a judge that she did indeed see it.
Also, it takes the power away from a rapist and turns him into some lame perv.
Now, that advice was written probably about twenty years ago from an American perspective, so YMMV and you may want to do some research before doing it these days. Buuuut… it may be a viable alternative to going through that whole victim-asked-for-it nonsense. Some guy leaps out from behind a bush and shoves his willy in your face before running away, no one's gonna ask what she was wearing. Or if she was coming onto him. Or how many sexual partners she's had. Or any other nonsense.
If Joyce complains to the faculty that THAT's what Ryan did, and her witnesses to the attempted rape back her up, he's gonna be sent home in disgrace. People WILL believe that a nice pastor's boy would do something like that when they might otherwise go "Oh no, not RYAN. He's such a NICE boy!!" And she won't need drugs in her system as proof.
…This seems familiar somehow. Almost as a similar solution was used to a similar situation back in another iteration of the story. Like if Grace mind-wiped herself to forget that she had seen a porn video back in “It’s Walky” or something.
dejablue- feeling as though you’ve drank from this water bottle before
dejamoo- feeling as though you’ve eaten this steak before
dejaflu- feeling as though you’ve felt this sick before
dejatwo- feeling as though you’ve had this feeling twice in the past
dejashoe- feeling as though you’ve worn this footwear before
dejagoo- feeling as though you’ve felt this slime before
dejachoo- feeling as though you’ve performed this sneeze before
Deja-fu – martial art requiring the practitioner to channel and manipulate the powers of time and space, creating a time paradox , thus multiplying and/or maximizing the physical damage, psychological effect, and in some cases combo rating for each assault.
Ex.: Next with nicolas Cage; prince of persia; anyone that hits you so hard you end up in last week (see old testament sarah vs ryan)
So *that’s* where hi disappeared off to! He didn’t run away – he just vanished and appeared at the start of the storyline! He actually was never born, but simply appeared one afternoon, with no clear memories in his head except that he needed to get back at this lightbrown-haired girl…
It looks like Sal finally realizes the bad effect her words have had on an emotionally compromised girl recovering from drug-induced memory loss.
I don’t blame any of the characters, but I really wish Sal had stayed out of it. Something like this almost happened to an old roommate of mine (well, everyone decided to leave an unconscious girl in a house with people known to take advantage of said people) and then not talk to the authorities about it because they thought it wouldn’t do the girl and good (and it would get people in trouble). Okay, so maybe the situation’s different, but it brings back all those old feelings. I told an RA and the situation with my roommate ended up fine… but this same attitude of “these things happen, don’t tell the authorities” really bums me out.
That means that Willis is doing a great job making us care for his characters and their wellbeing. I’m proud to read a webcomic that keeps its characters true to themselves even in times of crisis, although I wish the characters themselves would do the right thing. I suppose the title “Dumbing of Age” is true: It’s hard at that age to know what the right thing to do is.
I’m not sure Sal realized anything of the sort. I think she simply acknowledges that she and Sarah have opposing views and she may have made an enemy thanks to not minding her own business.
I don’t think Sal blames herself in the least for Joyce’s decision. But it has to be disappointing to lay the facts as you see them out to a person so they can make an informed choice and have them ultimately decide to retreat into their personal fantasy. It’s like Sarah was offering option A, Sal presented option B, and Joyce decided to have the Waldorf salad instead.
My theory: she’s just saying that in hopes that it will rule her out as a suspect when she tracks him down later and leaves his mutilated, bloodied corpse behind a bush in a local park.
Then she’d continue to go on a violent crusade against crime, killing repeat criminals before they can hurt anyone else again.
Willis usually doesn’t write his characters “wordy” but I think it fits given the context. Joyce is speaking without filtering first. (Something I suspect she usually does a lot) It should come out a little awkward when dramatic stuff happens.
Willis has said over in “Shortpacked” that when he edits dialogue, sometimes words get left in that shouldn’t. And deepblueink’s comment makes a good in-story explanation.
I don’t think this was an error at all. Joyce wants to actively pretend to herself as well as to others that nothing happened. She wants to pretend the situation better.
I think it works well as written. “Pretend things are” would be more passive than “pretend things to be.” With the first she would merely be acting as if they were what they were before. With the latter she hopes to actually return things to the way they were before by pretending they are still that way. It makes sense from a person of faith such as herself to think she can create a reality by believing it is already so.
This kind of thing is why people have designated drivers. This kind of thing is why people are allowed to make decisions for sedated loved ones at the hospital. Because people who are drugged up have a habit of making really poor decisions.
It’s easy to say “In the end it’s your decision,” in a situation like the party, but when the person you’re talking to has been drugged it’s also the wrong thing to say. You don’t let her choose how things will go. You do the right thing immediately.
The vibe I get from Sal is more, “Jeez, what’s that gal starin’ at me all murderous like that fer? I didn’ make the girl pick that way, I jest pointed out the way thins are.”
It sounds like a superhero who, instead of fighting crimes, stops you on the street and chastises you for smoking, or having an extra drink with dinner, or something.
And her motorcycle. Actually, I’m pretty sure I’d become a vegan on the spot if a hot chick with no pants pulled up on a motorcycle and told me I should.
I’d like to point out this is going to turn real bad once Ryan files a police report against Joyce and Sarah for Assault and Battery and and their defense will become really sketchy when they claim it was in response to attempted rape without filing a police report to support their claim.
Looks like a no-win situation at this point. I think that Sal and Sarah are both right. Sal saying that they screwed up by not taking care of business when it happened pretty much sums it up realisticlly. Sarah saying they should leave it to Joyce to decide is correct, as far as it goes. But Joyce is still hurting, upset, and disillusioned. Is she really ready to make an intelligent decision, becasue it doesn’t look like it. This isn’t going to go away. And just where is the would-be-rapist anyway? Dead. Hiding? Damn Willis, you make me care.
I guess it shows my paranoid nature that I agree with Sal. Police really aren’t as helpful as they should be in reality, and that’s not just a “only jerks become cops” mentality I’m speaking from. The bureaucracy that is the American justice system is pretty ridiculous, and in a situation like this I honestly doubt the police could do anything. They don’t know the dickheads name, they don’t have any proof he did anything, and he is pry in bad enough condition medically that his story is more likely to be believed, especially considering he is a good lair and the girls would most likely stick to the truth. Which involves assault, however justified. I get that going to the cops is supposedly the “moral” thing, I just don’t see what good could realistically come from it.
Not a whole lot really. I agree with you on the justice system sucking, and that the cops themselves won’t be a whole lot of help.
This reminds me of when my sister and her ex got into it, where he took advantage of her like in the comic, and she threw a boot at him. They went with calling the cops, and she ended up staying the night in jail because, though he not only started it and used her in ways that would of put him in jail, but she was the one that did physical harm to him where there was proof.
It sucks, but like I said going to the cops wouldn’t be the best thing. Joyce could get into some serious crap if they do.
This storyline hits distressingly close to home. Friends and I found out that we knew a serial rapist and set about trying to find out what we could do about it. Which turned out to be… nothing. We ostracized him- fortunately and unfortunately, our social circles were tightly interwoven- but that was all we could do.
She has an edge – she doesn’t remember the event, and from a physical standpoint Ryan didn’t even get as far as assaulting her, so she lacks both sorts of trauma that really can burn this sort of thing into a person. All she has to remember the event is a cut hand (which will heal), and a second-hand account of a person’s nasty betrayal.
Well, Joyce, the decision is yours.
AND YOU MADE THE FUCKING WRONG ONE!
Even if Ryan doesn’t come after you next (hell, would any of you be able to recognize him? You have lapsed memories of the event, and I’m not sure Sarah got a good look), he’ll still be coming after other girls.
Joyce is making the only decision in her viewpoint that will let her stay at college.
Super wrong to not report it … but again, they handled the situation in the worst possible way. Sal explained all the ways in which it would be pointless as well as the possible other side effect of getting Sarah in trouble for assaulting someone with a weapon.
We all want justice, but in the real world it is not that easy. You need evidence and witnesses, something they have none of.
To those who keep saying the cops “couldn’t” do anything, let’s look at a few facts:
-Chances are this is not the first time the the has done this. He seemed to really have his “act” together. Therefore, chances are there could be other victims besides Joyce. Ideally, the police investigate such claims. (Depends on the police force in question as to whether this wil actually happen. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt for a police force that has to deal with on-campus crime though.) I can’t say how sucessful the police’s investigation will be (As I said earlier it depends on the police force in question’s ability as well as how good ‘Ryan’ or whatever his name is is at hiding his tracks and just random chance.) but at the very least it would help the authorities should he ever try to do this again. (And you know he will. Well, he might have trouble now that he has a huge scar on his face.)
-As for Sarah being charged with armed battery or something of that nature, well… I hate to say it but that is probably a valid charge. She kept hitting him after he was on the ground, bleeding and unresisting. That definitely goes past self-defense or just trying to protect Joyce. So… rapists are bad people but you can’t just beat them to death. Not that I blame Sarah, I probably would have reacted the same way.(Not that that, you know, makes it right.)
Not to mention Robert Pickton. The cops were having women reporting assault and attempted murder and that women were heading out to his farm and never coming back for TWO YEARS before the cops thought it might be worth looking into.
Of course, they were just prostitutes. You know. Not anyone that MATTERED. *eyeroll*
As someone who works in Residence Life, this make me cringe. At least file a damn anonymous report with the campus police! What happened is a violation of the Clery Act and should be reported…
It occurs to me, just because the drugs are no longer effecting her brain doesn’t mean that they’re out of her system. I’m sure that a prompt urine sample would be able to corroborate their story.
You’re right! I didn’t even think about that, since it takes a full 48 hrs to a week for any sort of drug to be completely out of her system. There’s their proof that she was drugged.
Also, they wouldn’t find any alcohol either, because she was drinking soda, so she wouldn’t get pegged with underage drinking. Sara would be okay because she was defending the drugged one, Joyce.
“I used the minimum force necessary to restrain him.”
Got that one straight from a cop. Apparently you can do just about anything so long as that’s what you tell the police when they arrive.
And she didn’t even use that, at that. Because he was still able to get up and sneak away while they were occupied, right? So really, it would be more like “I used the minimum force necessary to restrain him– and it wasn’t enough.”
But yes!! You’re absolutely right. A urine sample containing roofies but no alcohol would go a long way to supporting their story.
Hmm. Now, how to get her to actually agree to pee into a cup..?
Hate to be a downer, but you guys are wrong about drugs. Not all of them take at least 48 hours to pass. In fact, one of the reason ruffies and date rape are so popular is because the drug is completely out of the victims system in less then 24 hours, and that is at a high dosage. Its also one of the reasons date rapists are among the hardest to convict. No sign of forced sex, and no drugs in the victims system if they do report it, since they can’t even remember the crime until much later. And of course for this reason most women don’t.
So they have at least 12 hrs to go get this done, if they decided to go to the police, but it looks like they really aren’t because now Walky is talking about the Pajama jeans again lol
Joyce is making the right decision. It’s too late to actually prove any kind of attempted rape actually happened. If they had immediately gone to the police then the situation could have been resolved with some (possibly serious) embarrassment.
Vigilantism can’t end well, though I get the feeling that Sarah and Sal are going to try anyway. And if Ryan is the kind of scumbag I think he is then they are going to find themselves well out of their depth.
I haven’t read all the comments yet, but I feel like we all feel the way we do because we are witnesses to the act and its results.
Someone mentioned Ryan filing a police report against Joyce/Sarah, but that’s not going to happen because he doesn’t know they haven’t filed one against him (and apparently won’t) so he’s not going to offer himself if they had.
Everyone is saying poor choice, but that choice more or less happened “last night”. If she remembered her parents last night, she probably will remember now, and not to mention he didn’t actually succeed in even hurting her. Does it suck? Is it a bad choice? Sure, but I think if anything was going to happen it would have last night.
And while she claims to want to pretend it never happened, she decided this looking at her hand. That mark will not pretend it didn’t happen and I don’t think she is really pretending it didn’t happen either. To be honest, I think she knows most of what happened if not the full implications thereof.
While a sad commentary on a broken justice system, it is true that nothing good would come of going to the police. Mention of attempted rape would be dismissed without any proof, and while the drugs would show up, it just wouldn’t stick without one or both of her and Sarah going to jail for assault. Her parents would be called then, and she really will go away and never see the world again.
Or she can smile, say she wishes to pretend it never happened, remain in Uni with good friends that are truly better than anyone could hope for without knowing them for more than a week, and hope this drama doesn’t drive any of them far. Everyone she cares about (and most at the party) knows who to look out for, so no one will be taken unawares by his charm/drugs/etc. While justice is not served this time per se, he will not succeed again. This really is probably the best possible outcome that doesn’t drive the entire cast apart forever.
“And while she claims to want to pretend it never happened, she decided this looking at her hand.”
It could be that, while she was staring at her hand, she decided (realized?) she actually got off pretty lucky. She could have gotten raped, could have gotten a disease, could have gotten pregnant could have even gotten beaten or killed (for all she knows). What she actually got was a gap in her memory and a cut hand. Now, maybe a bit less naive and a bit more wary, she’s hoping to get back to her life with minimal disruption.
Yeah, I’ve been in situations which, while not exactly like this one, have resulted in me reacting the same way.
In the policemen’s defense (because it seems everyone is turning it into a commentary on a broken justice system), all they can do at this point is that some guy at a party, -probably- named Ryan, tried to drug their friend. (No real rape/assault occurred.) That amount of information is hardly going to merit an investigation. If they intend to follow up on this and try to identify the guy, and/or if they reported it immediately then the police would have more to work with. As it is, the weight of the crime and the amount of police work it requires do not really match up.
Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t REPORT a crime, because the fact that it was filed and is proveable may become important later, but it’s not the police’s or the system’s faults that a case like this does not always lead to proper action.
(Yeah, I know that in many places the police are dicks who’d arrest a man for assaulting a burglar and such, but this is not one of those cases.)
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
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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
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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History repeats Joyce. This may come back and bite you in the FAAACE!
Or beat her to death with her own bloody femurs.
I have FAAAAAITH in Joyce’s decision.
No Joyce, you must go ask Ruth for help! I’ve been sitting on a joke about Ruth for weeks and i want a chance to finally use it.
Ruth will find out somehow. And then her hands will thirst for Ryan’s neck.
Then she, Sal, and Amazi-Girl will team up and end him.
Excellent.
This idea is supported.
And then they all have hot lesbian sex.
So she does remember!
maybe she finally read her tweet about glassing some dude in the faaaace.
Maybe everyone has told her all about it and she has a huge wound in her hand.
and a douche-bag lives to rape another day…
I was soooooooooooooo hoping to shout “yaaaaaaay MURDER!”
No, why have blood on your hands with this. Play his trick on him, there should be a gay frat house somewhere. Haul his unconcious rear over to it.
Yeah, but first you’d have to find a gay frathouse filled with jerks unscrupulous enough to rape an unconscious person.
I like the justice, but in practice it (HOPEFULLY) might not be that easy.
Speaking of Minds, y’know what’s on mine? MURDERS!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
Maybe she tattooed instructions to herself on her hand. Now she just needs to find a wisecracking perverted skull.
Wait, when did Harry write on his hand? All I remember is the Sigil.
The other wisecracking perverted skull, Morte. You know, Planescape Torment?
Pretty normal. Pretty sad.
Yeah, most people don’t realize that 1 in every 4 or 5 women in the United States have been or will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime. Some refuse to believe it.
Then there are some that think they believe, but then don’t realize that also applies to the women THEY know and are completely unaware of how many have had this happen to them and keep quiet about it out of fear or shame.
I thought it was one in 3. And seeing as how I know about 8 or so of my friends who have been, I believe it. And one of them was raped by her pastor. When she was 15. When she tried to tell her mom she got slapped in the face and called a liar.
Rape culture sucks.
Yah, roughly 1 in 3.
So, is she going to rip off the bandage? Because that’s a pretty big sign that stuff happened.
Yeah, but the gash is a bigger sign.
aaaaand this is why scum get away with what they do in real life…..
Its not their fault, nature and nurture made them that way…
-.-
>_<
I feel like Izzy and MoreWhitecaps have female gravatars up for a reason…
Just be glad that the internet does not provide the “reach out and touch someone” else your femurs would be jeopardy.
well i guess its really hard to convey sarcasm they way i put it. though adding potential alien modifications to the factors woulda helped.
No reason other than I like my exposed boobs avatar. That probably makes me a lil creepy lol. I can put my walky one back up if you’d prefer?
Males using female avas and vice versa on the internet is almost as old as I am.
No, it’s the screwed up “justice” system and America’s Rape culture that lets the scum get away with it.
You’re only reasonably likely to win a rape case if you are a prepubescent white girl from a reasonably healthy family. I’ve heard of cases where the defense claimed a ten year old was dressing so she was “asking for it”.
Even when someone does press charges and go to trial, there is a very low conviction rate for rape. And the victim is on trial just as much, if not more, than the rapist.
Really? I’ve actually heard that accused rapists are basically guilty until proven innocent; I’ve heard more than one horror story about a guy who was with a girl, then the girl accused him of rape (as revenge or simply because she regretted it) and pretty much ruined the guy’s life.
Honestly, I think there are examples of both in the current justice system, which is, truthfully, broken.
I think it mainly depends on where you are. In the more conservatives states (esp Utah) it’s almost always the girl’s fault. (in their minds)
And it largely depends on who the girl is, who her parents are, and who the boy is. Economic level. If the girl’s parents are well respected members of the community and the boy is from the wrong side of the tracks, yeah, he might end up in jail even if he didn’t do it.
But if the situation is reversed, he probably won’t, even if there is loads of evidence or he beat the girl half to death.
There are quite a few people out there with the opinion that men are ravening beasts and if they think the girl is dressed inappropriately or somewhere they think she shouldn’t be, then she was really “asking” for sex and it wasn’t really rape. Those are the same sort of people who believe it’s not rape if it’s your boyfriend/husband, because you gave them permission to sleep with you before, and apparently they believe that negates a girl’s right to say “no”.
Utah is especially bad about this, as the Mormons teach their girls it is better to *die* than to lose their virtue.
I’m Mormon, in Utah, and wondering what on earth you’re talking about. We don’t teach girls that, we also don’t believe in double standards (such as “it’s always the girl’s fault”). Sex before marriage, whether you’re male or female, is considered a sin, as it is in pretty much any other christian religion you can find. I’m certainly not aware of any that preach otherwise, Joyce’s “Premarital Hanky Panky!” from an earlier comic demonstrate this.
I’m left wondering if you’ve even been to Utah, or met the Mormons you seem to look down upon. I live here, and have never seen the mind set you describe.
Less than two percent of reported rapes are false. I think it might be 2 in every thousand but I don’t want to be quoted as extreme there so I’ll go with my original. The fact that the false accusations get more publicity and the majority of rapes go unreported makes it seem more likely… now I know of a guy who I believe was falsely accused (but not officially) of rape and this actually caused a major schism among my group of friends so don’t get me wrong I know it can happen but its very rare for an official case to be false.
The US justice system is founded on the principle that a person is “innocent until PROVEN guilty”. The trouble often comes when the only proof is one person’s word against another. Who do you believe, without additional evidence?
And which is worse? Letting a guilty person go free or sending an innocent person to prison for a crime they didn’t commit? Regardless of how you personally feel about it, the US justice system is founded on the idea that the latter is worse than the former.
Sal is sadly probably right. Without hard evidence, Joyce would far more likely be the one in trouble if she reported it than Mr. Rapist would.
I read many years ago of an alternate way to bring him to justice while working WITHIN the system: Accuse him of indecent exposure.
Say he just jumped out at you in the parking lot and wiggled it in your face and dashed off.
The reason you’d want to do this instead of accusing him of RAPE? Sadly, it’s pretty simple: It’s far, far easier to get someone convicted of weeny-wiggling than it is to convict them of rape. The victim isn’t on trial. The sentences tend to be longer. >< And finally, while, even if you manage to get a rapist sent to jail, in that culture someone who rapes women often has a certain amount of status, someone who gets convicted of public exposure has NO status. Their time in jail will be much harsher on them.
What's he gonna do, say he raped you? Unlikely. And the victim may be able to describe his unit well enough to convince a judge that she did indeed see it.
Also, it takes the power away from a rapist and turns him into some lame perv.
Now, that advice was written probably about twenty years ago from an American perspective, so YMMV and you may want to do some research before doing it these days. Buuuut… it may be a viable alternative to going through that whole victim-asked-for-it nonsense. Some guy leaps out from behind a bush and shoves his willy in your face before running away, no one's gonna ask what she was wearing. Or if she was coming onto him. Or how many sexual partners she's had. Or any other nonsense.
If Joyce complains to the faculty that THAT's what Ryan did, and her witnesses to the attempted rape back her up, he's gonna be sent home in disgrace. People WILL believe that a nice pastor's boy would do something like that when they might otherwise go "Oh no, not RYAN. He's such a NICE boy!!" And she won't need drugs in her system as proof.
…This seems familiar somehow. Almost as a similar solution was used to a similar situation back in another iteration of the story. Like if Grace mind-wiped herself to forget that she had seen a porn video back in “It’s Walky” or something.
I believe you mean Joyce. Man, correcting someone about that kind of makes me feel like a dickhole.
Oops. Yep, I meant Joyce.
Did you make that mistake because you read El Goonish Shive and because Grace and Joyce are somewhat similar? Oh, I hope so.
Somewhat similar characters, I mean.
Possibly. I do read El Goonish Shive, and the characters do have somewhat similar personalities…
Good point, though. Early Joyce is sometimes tempted to run from the scary, impure truth.
If Joyce’s parents had a second daughter and named her “Grace,” I would not be surprised in the slightest.
If she weren’t the only girl in the family that would definitely seem like a likely name.
Except here, there’s no Head Alien to taunt her, no secret agency to take her to, and no gun for mind-wiping.
Joyce is about to realize, one way or another, reality hurts.
and reality hits you hard, bro.
Harder than your mom?
That depends, got a nickel?
Only if your mum has a penis.
Or femurs.
The thing is that we’ve seen that no matter how hard reality hits, Joyce tends to hit back, sometimes with sharp objects in hand.
OR SO THEY SAY
Deja vu: The sensation that an author is referencing a previous work.
2/ A repeating event that occurs when something in the Matrix has being altered.
3/ A 2006 crime drama/time travel movie featuring Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer.
4/ Waking up in a strange room feeling like youve felt this pain in your backside before.
dejablue- feeling as though you’ve drank from this water bottle before
dejamoo- feeling as though you’ve eaten this steak before
dejaflu- feeling as though you’ve felt this sick before
dejatwo- feeling as though you’ve had this feeling twice in the past
dejashoe- feeling as though you’ve worn this footwear before
dejagoo- feeling as though you’ve felt this slime before
dejachoo- feeling as though you’ve performed this sneeze before
Dejawho – Feeling as though you’ve seen this small thing asking why you’re taking its Christmas tree before.
Deja-fu – martial art requiring the practitioner to channel and manipulate the powers of time and space, creating a time paradox , thus multiplying and/or maximizing the physical damage, psychological effect, and in some cases combo rating for each assault.
Ex.: Next with nicolas Cage; prince of persia; anyone that hits you so hard you end up in last week (see old testament sarah vs ryan)
So *that’s* where hi disappeared off to! He didn’t run away – he just vanished and appeared at the start of the storyline! He actually was never born, but simply appeared one afternoon, with no clear memories in his head except that he needed to get back at this lightbrown-haired girl…
Uh oh, Sarah’s gonna mess someone up later.
It looks like Sal finally realizes the bad effect her words have had on an emotionally compromised girl recovering from drug-induced memory loss.
I don’t blame any of the characters, but I really wish Sal had stayed out of it. Something like this almost happened to an old roommate of mine (well, everyone decided to leave an unconscious girl in a house with people known to take advantage of said people) and then not talk to the authorities about it because they thought it wouldn’t do the girl and good (and it would get people in trouble). Okay, so maybe the situation’s different, but it brings back all those old feelings. I told an RA and the situation with my roommate ended up fine… but this same attitude of “these things happen, don’t tell the authorities” really bums me out.
That means that Willis is doing a great job making us care for his characters and their wellbeing. I’m proud to read a webcomic that keeps its characters true to themselves even in times of crisis, although I wish the characters themselves would do the right thing. I suppose the title “Dumbing of Age” is true: It’s hard at that age to know what the right thing to do is.
I’m not sure Sal realized anything of the sort. I think she simply acknowledges that she and Sarah have opposing views and she may have made an enemy thanks to not minding her own business.
I think he’s talking about Sal’s look in the last panel.
I don’t think Sal blames herself in the least for Joyce’s decision. But it has to be disappointing to lay the facts as you see them out to a person so they can make an informed choice and have them ultimately decide to retreat into their personal fantasy. It’s like Sarah was offering option A, Sal presented option B, and Joyce decided to have the Waldorf salad instead.
Its also called drama. Helping push stories along since ancient times.
Repressing things like that will undoubtedly lead to cancer, Joyce. FIDN THAT PUNK AND BEAT. HIM. DOWN.
My theory: she’s just saying that in hopes that it will rule her out as a suspect when she tracks him down later and leaves his mutilated, bloodied corpse behind a bush in a local park.
Then she’d continue to go on a violent crusade against crime, killing repeat criminals before they can hurt anyone else again.
Yes Joyce! FIDN HIM! FIDN HIM SO HARD IT THEY NEED TO SPELL IT WRONG TO GET THE FULL EFFECT!
AND WHEN YOU FIDN HIM…CASTRENUATE HIM!
“Pretend things to be”? Wouldn’t it be more natural if she said “I just want to pretend things are the way they were before”?
Willis usually doesn’t write his characters “wordy” but I think it fits given the context. Joyce is speaking without filtering first. (Something I suspect she usually does a lot) It should come out a little awkward when dramatic stuff happens.
Willis has said over in “Shortpacked” that when he edits dialogue, sometimes words get left in that shouldn’t. And deepblueink’s comment makes a good in-story explanation.
I don’t think this was an error at all. Joyce wants to actively pretend to herself as well as to others that nothing happened. She wants to pretend the situation better.
I think it works well as written. “Pretend things are” would be more passive than “pretend things to be.” With the first she would merely be acting as if they were what they were before. With the latter she hopes to actually return things to the way they were before by pretending they are still that way. It makes sense from a person of faith such as herself to think she can create a reality by believing it is already so.
And then Sal and Sarah went on a quest for vigilante justice!
In tights
What? It could happen.
But way sexier than your thinking.
Why do I get the feeling Leslie’s next lesson plan is going to cause a whole bunch of awkward in class on Monday?
The only way we can do that Joyce is by disposing of the body.
Or the FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.
HOLY MEME NON-SEQUITUR BATMAN!
Eh, I try… too hard… on purpose.
With your penis?
Trying “hard” costs a nickel.
Oh Joyce… you choose poorly. So very very poorly.
This kind of thing is why people have designated drivers. This kind of thing is why people are allowed to make decisions for sedated loved ones at the hospital. Because people who are drugged up have a habit of making really poor decisions.
It’s easy to say “In the end it’s your decision,” in a situation like the party, but when the person you’re talking to has been drugged it’s also the wrong thing to say. You don’t let her choose how things will go. You do the right thing immediately.
The look on both Sarah’s and Sal’s faces show a possibility that one of them will have to finish the job.
The vibe I get from Sal is more, “Jeez, what’s that gal starin’ at me all murderous like that fer? I didn’ make the girl pick that way, I jest pointed out the way thins are.”
So…who else thinks Bossy Interloper is a pretty cool superhero name for Sal to take on her vigilante actions?
It sounds like a superhero who, instead of fighting crimes, stops you on the street and chastises you for smoking, or having an extra drink with dinner, or something.
And she mesmerizes people into tolerating it with her amazing power of pantslessness.
And her motorcycle. Actually, I’m pretty sure I’d become a vegan on the spot if a hot chick with no pants pulled up on a motorcycle and told me I should.
Stupid decision Joyce.
Poor Joyce. I don’t think this will end well for her, but part of making a good and realistic character is letting them make mistakes in character.
No! Bad Joyce!
*whaps her on the nose with a newspaper*
It doesn’t go away if you pretend it didn’t happen!
No, It only goes away if you burn it, with fire I would presume, and sweep the ashes under the carpet,maybe in someone elses house.
mmmmm BBQ ……. what?
FUCK DA POLICE
I like this Joyce.
I’d like to point out this is going to turn real bad once Ryan files a police report against Joyce and Sarah for Assault and Battery and and their defense will become really sketchy when they claim it was in response to attempted rape without filing a police report to support their claim.
Dang, it’s just puppy eyes and butterfly kisses this week ain’t it?
and dead ham-hams.
*Starts crying*
Looks like a no-win situation at this point. I think that Sal and Sarah are both right. Sal saying that they screwed up by not taking care of business when it happened pretty much sums it up realisticlly. Sarah saying they should leave it to Joyce to decide is correct, as far as it goes. But Joyce is still hurting, upset, and disillusioned. Is she really ready to make an intelligent decision, becasue it doesn’t look like it. This isn’t going to go away. And just where is the would-be-rapist anyway? Dead. Hiding? Damn Willis, you make me care.
Who knows? Maybe the drugs in the glass got all up in his bloodstream and between that and the concussion he has no idea what happened last night.
Ah me, no edit…sorry for the spelling.
So, almost rape as drama? Not bad, not bad.
This will all end up with Joyce falling into a Coma, and Faz discovering he is the father of Billie’s kid.
I TELL YOU, THIS IS NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!
Billie’s alternate possible kid FROM THE POSSIBLE FUTURE.
I guess it shows my paranoid nature that I agree with Sal. Police really aren’t as helpful as they should be in reality, and that’s not just a “only jerks become cops” mentality I’m speaking from. The bureaucracy that is the American justice system is pretty ridiculous, and in a situation like this I honestly doubt the police could do anything. They don’t know the dickheads name, they don’t have any proof he did anything, and he is pry in bad enough condition medically that his story is more likely to be believed, especially considering he is a good lair and the girls would most likely stick to the truth. Which involves assault, however justified. I get that going to the cops is supposedly the “moral” thing, I just don’t see what good could realistically come from it.
Not a whole lot really. I agree with you on the justice system sucking, and that the cops themselves won’t be a whole lot of help.
This reminds me of when my sister and her ex got into it, where he took advantage of her like in the comic, and she threw a boot at him. They went with calling the cops, and she ended up staying the night in jail because, though he not only started it and used her in ways that would of put him in jail, but she was the one that did physical harm to him where there was proof.
It sucks, but like I said going to the cops wouldn’t be the best thing. Joyce could get into some serious crap if they do.
This storyline hits distressingly close to home. Friends and I found out that we knew a serial rapist and set about trying to find out what we could do about it. Which turned out to be… nothing. We ostracized him- fortunately and unfortunately, our social circles were tightly interwoven- but that was all we could do.
Thsere is always getting the IRS or in this day and age, Homeland Security on him.
The IRS? O_o Forgive my ignorance (not American), but what can the IRS do about stopping a serial rapist? O_O Is there a tax I’m unaware of?
It’s a revenge thing with the humorous twist of being a punishment as painful as the crime yet almost wholly unrelated.
The FBI brought down Capone on tax evasion rather than his ridiculous list of larger crimes. Whatever works, ya?
Good luck, Joyce. I don’t think that’s possible, but if it is, I really hope you can.
She has an edge – she doesn’t remember the event, and from a physical standpoint Ryan didn’t even get as far as assaulting her, so she lacks both sorts of trauma that really can burn this sort of thing into a person. All she has to remember the event is a cut hand (which will heal), and a second-hand account of a person’s nasty betrayal.
I like the last bit with Sarah. Good to see her doing so much cool stuff given how rarely she appeared in the first series.
Noooo, Joyce. This is not the proper response, regardless of whether or not it’s a normal response.
Worse decision EVER!!
This one made me cry. I know it’s a hard decision from personal experience. *hugs Joyce*
Well, Joyce, the decision is yours.
AND YOU MADE THE FUCKING WRONG ONE!
Even if Ryan doesn’t come after you next (hell, would any of you be able to recognize him? You have lapsed memories of the event, and I’m not sure Sarah got a good look), he’ll still be coming after other girls.
Joyce is making the only decision in her viewpoint that will let her stay at college.
Super wrong to not report it … but again, they handled the situation in the worst possible way. Sal explained all the ways in which it would be pointless as well as the possible other side effect of getting Sarah in trouble for assaulting someone with a weapon.
We all want justice, but in the real world it is not that easy. You need evidence and witnesses, something they have none of.
Even if they leave the issue alone, will Amazigirl? Remember, she is immune to criticism.
Oh Joyce. You idiot.
To those who keep saying the cops “couldn’t” do anything, let’s look at a few facts:
-Chances are this is not the first time the the has done this. He seemed to really have his “act” together. Therefore, chances are there could be other victims besides Joyce. Ideally, the police investigate such claims. (Depends on the police force in question as to whether this wil actually happen. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt for a police force that has to deal with on-campus crime though.) I can’t say how sucessful the police’s investigation will be (As I said earlier it depends on the police force in question’s ability as well as how good ‘Ryan’ or whatever his name is is at hiding his tracks and just random chance.) but at the very least it would help the authorities should he ever try to do this again. (And you know he will. Well, he might have trouble now that he has a huge scar on his face.)
-As for Sarah being charged with armed battery or something of that nature, well… I hate to say it but that is probably a valid charge. She kept hitting him after he was on the ground, bleeding and unresisting. That definitely goes past self-defense or just trying to protect Joyce. So… rapists are bad people but you can’t just beat them to death. Not that I blame Sarah, I probably would have reacted the same way.(Not that that, you know, makes it right.)
Well said. Even if it doesn’t result in any charges against him THIS time, the police will now have more reason to believe the victim the next time.
I really doubt that given the polices propensity for not noticing things till too late – Jeffry Balmer is an example of just that.
Not to mention Robert Pickton. The cops were having women reporting assault and attempted murder and that women were heading out to his farm and never coming back for TWO YEARS before the cops thought it might be worth looking into.
Of course, they were just prostitutes. You know. Not anyone that MATTERED. *eyeroll*
The cops couldn’t do anything because they can’t even give a NAME right now. Maybe once the girls find out who Ryan actually*is*.
SAL WILL RUE THE DAY SHE MADE AN ENEMY OF SARAH.
RUE.
Deja-rue
Deja-Roux: The uncanny feeling that you’ve had that sauce before.
Forget tha police comin’ straight from the underground.
Young fundie got it bad ’cause she’s Brown.
As someone who works in Residence Life, this make me cringe. At least file a damn anonymous report with the campus police! What happened is a violation of the Clery Act and should be reported…
(Man, this imaginary college’s ResLife sucks!)
It’s only half-imaginary. It is IU…
It occurs to me, just because the drugs are no longer effecting her brain doesn’t mean that they’re out of her system. I’m sure that a prompt urine sample would be able to corroborate their story.
You’re right! I didn’t even think about that, since it takes a full 48 hrs to a week for any sort of drug to be completely out of her system. There’s their proof that she was drugged.
Also, they wouldn’t find any alcohol either, because she was drinking soda, so she wouldn’t get pegged with underage drinking. Sara would be okay because she was defending the drugged one, Joyce.
“I used the minimum force necessary to restrain him.”
Got that one straight from a cop. Apparently you can do just about anything so long as that’s what you tell the police when they arrive.
And she didn’t even use that, at that. Because he was still able to get up and sneak away while they were occupied, right? So really, it would be more like “I used the minimum force necessary to restrain him– and it wasn’t enough.”
But yes!! You’re absolutely right. A urine sample containing roofies but no alcohol would go a long way to supporting their story.
Hmm. Now, how to get her to actually agree to pee into a cup..?
I just said that yesterday…
Hate to be a downer, but you guys are wrong about drugs. Not all of them take at least 48 hours to pass. In fact, one of the reason ruffies and date rape are so popular is because the drug is completely out of the victims system in less then 24 hours, and that is at a high dosage. Its also one of the reasons date rapists are among the hardest to convict. No sign of forced sex, and no drugs in the victims system if they do report it, since they can’t even remember the crime until much later. And of course for this reason most women don’t.
So they have at least 12 hrs to go get this done, if they decided to go to the police, but it looks like they really aren’t because now Walky is talking about the Pajama jeans again lol
Joyce is making the right decision. It’s too late to actually prove any kind of attempted rape actually happened. If they had immediately gone to the police then the situation could have been resolved with some (possibly serious) embarrassment.
Vigilantism can’t end well, though I get the feeling that Sarah and Sal are going to try anyway. And if Ryan is the kind of scumbag I think he is then they are going to find themselves well out of their depth.
haha very funny comic!
I haven’t read all the comments yet, but I feel like we all feel the way we do because we are witnesses to the act and its results.
Someone mentioned Ryan filing a police report against Joyce/Sarah, but that’s not going to happen because he doesn’t know they haven’t filed one against him (and apparently won’t) so he’s not going to offer himself if they had.
Everyone is saying poor choice, but that choice more or less happened “last night”. If she remembered her parents last night, she probably will remember now, and not to mention he didn’t actually succeed in even hurting her. Does it suck? Is it a bad choice? Sure, but I think if anything was going to happen it would have last night.
And while she claims to want to pretend it never happened, she decided this looking at her hand. That mark will not pretend it didn’t happen and I don’t think she is really pretending it didn’t happen either. To be honest, I think she knows most of what happened if not the full implications thereof.
While a sad commentary on a broken justice system, it is true that nothing good would come of going to the police. Mention of attempted rape would be dismissed without any proof, and while the drugs would show up, it just wouldn’t stick without one or both of her and Sarah going to jail for assault. Her parents would be called then, and she really will go away and never see the world again.
Or she can smile, say she wishes to pretend it never happened, remain in Uni with good friends that are truly better than anyone could hope for without knowing them for more than a week, and hope this drama doesn’t drive any of them far. Everyone she cares about (and most at the party) knows who to look out for, so no one will be taken unawares by his charm/drugs/etc. While justice is not served this time per se, he will not succeed again. This really is probably the best possible outcome that doesn’t drive the entire cast apart forever.
“And while she claims to want to pretend it never happened, she decided this looking at her hand.”
It could be that, while she was staring at her hand, she decided (realized?) she actually got off pretty lucky. She could have gotten raped, could have gotten a disease, could have gotten pregnant could have even gotten beaten or killed (for all she knows). What she actually got was a gap in her memory and a cut hand. Now, maybe a bit less naive and a bit more wary, she’s hoping to get back to her life with minimal disruption.
Yeah, I’ve been in situations which, while not exactly like this one, have resulted in me reacting the same way.
Well Ms. Joyce. There be some murder’n tonight!
In the policemen’s defense (because it seems everyone is turning it into a commentary on a broken justice system), all they can do at this point is that some guy at a party, -probably- named Ryan, tried to drug their friend. (No real rape/assault occurred.) That amount of information is hardly going to merit an investigation. If they intend to follow up on this and try to identify the guy, and/or if they reported it immediately then the police would have more to work with. As it is, the weight of the crime and the amount of police work it requires do not really match up.
Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t REPORT a crime, because the fact that it was filed and is proveable may become important later, but it’s not the police’s or the system’s faults that a case like this does not always lead to proper action.
(Yeah, I know that in many places the police are dicks who’d arrest a man for assaulting a burglar and such, but this is not one of those cases.)
“If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer;”
Job 9:27