Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
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Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
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Speaking of speedrunning, meanwhile Joyce has looked up “Places for atheists to hang out”, discovered, and having a mind as impressionable as wet clay is speedrunning that.
She’s already eaten Joe’s entire bottle of vitamin gummies because she’s pro-legalization now, cashed in her next tuition payment to buy crypto, and written a 5000 word dissertation on how Thanos was right.
Well if that’s now picked up by the site autocensor (and since the site autocensor is retroactive–I recall Willis once LOL’d in the comments section when I pointed out that a certain early strip titled simply the “B-word” had been autocorrected to Bongo as a result of the autocensor), I think that might well change the meaning of quite a few comments from a month or so ago regarding certain commenters styling themselves in the manner of a certain site’s subsection.
The War On Drugs is just something employed for scared white people and to fill the ranks of the for-profit prison system.
Weed is only illegal because some rich berks in the 30s saw that hemp would cut into their business. In the 60s the word ‘Marijuana’ got bandied around by conservative politicians in charge to ensure that burgeoning social movements would be associated with a drug with a foreign name.
So it’s real fucking funny to me to see a post about drinking the Kool-Aid that actually drank the fucking Kool-Aid.
It’s uglier than that, Spencer, it’s not just the private prisons-they’re more of a symptom than the disease. You see, the Drug War is a multibillion dollar industry employing thousands upon thousands of people so specialized in their craft that they’re effectively unemployable without a black market to work against. And that’s just half of it. The other half, is that you won’t find an international bank that isn’t awash in cocaine and heroin money, it’s involved in your hedge funds too. BOTH sides use armies of accountants to keep track of their accountants, and they often work together. (Witness BATFE’s fantastic and amazing “Operation: Fast and Furious” which the main agency responsible for regulating firearms facilitated arming the Sinaloa Cartel by subverting U.S. Laws and law enforcement mechanisms as part of one of the stupidest ‘sting’ operations in history-they put the guns out there so they could ‘find them’ at crime scenes, without so much as a stripe of radioactive paint to actually trace down the flow of arms from straw buyers to organized criminals. People died from this, but the guys who set it up didn’t even face charges.)
It’s a corruptive system with ‘benefits’ for all the sponsors. People who object to civil liberties get to push restrictive laws because of the terror and violence, the violent criminals get to become millionaires and billionaires, the prosecution gets to use things like ‘civil asset forfieture’ written for the drug war to go after anyone who doesn’t have enough connections to fight back, and law enforcement gets armored vehicles and military grade weapons, along with a license to steal from the citizens (see: Civil Asset Forfieture), further, they get to use the fear to enact more and more restrictions on civil rights, target minorities and break minority communities (great for furthering the Poverty Plantation)…about the only peop[le it DOESN’T benefit, are the regular citizens who aren’t criminals. Hell, even with all the above, drugs (hard drugs) are cheaper and more available now, than they were when the stuff was LEGAL (accounting for inflation).
so, y’know, it’s actually harmful. as Bill Hicks said in 1988, “it’s not a war on drugs, it’s a war on personal freedom.” because it absolutely is. Every negative outcome of Prohibition from the 1920s is amplified geometrically, including the soaking of the taxpayer and the persistence of ‘temporary measures’ that don’t actually do anything to stem the flow of poison into the veins of your kids, friends, and co-workers.
because it’s not MEANT to solv e the problem, it’s meant and structured to exacerbate the problem and make it steadily worse…a bit like the ‘war on poverty’ or the ‘war on terror’ but more profitable for the corrupt on both sides than the second, and easier to maintain ignorant support for via terror tactics than the first.
Thag, that largely depends on what the problem is. some things people just don’t recover from without surgical intervention-like Gender Dysphoria. (and a lot of those folks don’t recover even with it.) Brain tumours are another one you just ‘don’t recover from’, and nobody’s found a really useful treatment for actual ‘Anti-social personality disorder’ (which is NOT being unsociable, it’s being perfectly okay with murdering other people because you feel like it and then experiencing zero guilt or empathy for your victims). Why? because these are BRAIN things, not mind things.
a Shrink I used to see at the VA put it this way: If nothing’s actually wrong, and you’re depressed, you have a problem. If your life has gone to shit, your body is rotting around you with cancer or some other degenerative disease? or if you’re maimed and horribly crippled? well, depression is pretty normal, it’s not a mental illness at that point, it’s a reaction and response to reality. GD, and other organic damage can’t be cured with therapy-you can learn to live with them, maybe, but they aren’t things you can just talk away. Not at least, any more effectively than trying to pray your way from being gay (which also doesn’t work, because it’s an organic difference in the brain, not a construct of the mind, it’s like being born with brown eyes instead of green, or red hair, or a body that grows parts that don’t feel like they belong).
I dunno about the brain-mind ditchonomy being used like that. I’d say it’s better to not try to convert the gays because it’s crappy to try to convert gays, rather than because gay brains are different. I mean, all differences from mind come from differences in brains, in a casual universe. It is true that some things can be trained away with exercizes and role play, while others can’t. A sociopath with enough impulse control can learn to look at the long view, and not creep out people who can hurt them back, which is everyone. Impulse control is something there’s strategies to work on. It’s a benefit to society if they do.
Likewise gays can train to be as straight as Ethan’s dad. Not much benefit, and a lot of lost joy. If I am gay because of events in my life, not because of some intrinsic thing, than I still don’t think it’s anyone’s business to change it.
Oof. Yeah, I’ve had some shitty therapy experiences too. (Forever a little angry about the one who gave me a packet about “what it means to be a woman” while knowing I was nonbinary.)
There are bad therapists out there, but there are also a lot of good ones. I’d probably be dead by now if I wasn’t seeing my current therapist (who, in a fun upgrade, not only gets nonbinary identities, but is nonbinary themself).
It’s a process to find the right therapist, but I think it’s worth it. Can be a bit easier of a process if you know what you’re looking for going in.
Ahem.
Okay, so what I was trying to do was put a C- stamp on the ‘An Attempt was Made’ line above, but it didn’t follow as clearly as I was hoping.
Like, a C- for the attempt that was made. Cause it was a mediocre attempt at best.
And now I’m explaining the joke.
Amber, I’m confident that refreshing Twitter is easy enough that you can do it without looking at your phone.
I mean. I might be wrong. I basically use Twitter by clicking on links every month or two and reading threads and then getting bored of what passes for content outside that thread.
Joe should have talked to Dina. I actually think that could have been helpful… Or not. Hard to say. But she’s pretty logical about that kind of thing and that might help.
Joe’s pretty logical himself, or at least does better when he’s allowed to handle emotional stuff from an unemotional perspective. I think Dina would have been helpful too.
Eh, some things are more difficult to unlearn than others, and Joyce is clearly already having unlearning troubles given how hard she’s trying to be the opposite of her past self. I suspect that she wouldn’t even get as far as Liz got if Joe invited her to share his bed, assuming she even agreed to share anyone’s.
I thought I was being kinda mean when I’d go “she was prettier when she smiled” in response to some of these Joyce takes as of late. Apparently I am not.
I’m pretty shure Deanatay was not considering their own RL opinion of purity, but refering that in her old belief system, she couldn’t be pure AND atheist, whatever purity means.
Yeah, but it was specifically a plot point in Is A Song Forever? that as a result of Blaine’s death her source of college tuition no longer existed and thus her future attendance at all was in jeopardy.
Are we sure Blaine’s dead? He seems the type you’d want to make sure is buried, and even then dig him up every couple of years to make sure he remains so.
Blaine thought Amber wouldn’t attend college out of social fear, so he set the divorce terms up so he would pay for college in lieu of child support and/or alimony. Then the selfish prick tried to get Amber to drop out so he wouldn’t have to pay them anything at all.
If he had a will, I bet he left them a token sum of $0.01, the mob squared their dealings up with his estate, and whatever’s left over went to Yuri and Faz.
Bizarre enough, I had a dream last night that I went on a field trip to HELL, which is just about what it feels like to NOT be able to taste mac and cheese.
Ah, damn, that sucks. I hope everyone recovers promptly.
This is the exact reason I cancelled seeing my grandma. I don’t have my booster, my grandma does not have her booster, and my sister is only getting her second dose on the 29th because she’s an antivax piece of shit and her new job won’t hire her unless she does it.
I got my booster this past Sunday. A potentially life-saving chemical with no downsides? Pump that shit straight into my veins, and it was so good I went back for seconds!
Same here! Mr. Willis, I hope you and family completely recover and as soon as possible. I had it the first go-round and don’t wish any variants on anyone. :O
Interesting that Amber knows about the Joyce crush! We might think it’s obvious because, you know, we get to know about everything that’s happening, but I don’t think any other non-Joe character knows yet! There’s a strong likelihood Jacob picked up on it, but other than that?
She figured it out when Joe came to her room for advice on how to help Joyce and how flustered he got when Joyce also appeared. No shipping or convolution necessary.
How was the rest of tuition paid for.?.. on a local private school there is a insurance in case parents die, but I have no idea if it covers suicides. And have no idea if this school covers that either..
He’s an orthopedic doctor or surgeon, I don’t remember exactly which. Naturally, it’s something to do with bones.
Either way he’s making medical specialist money, he can afford two in-state tuitions at a state university (or he can at least tank the cost for a while, as long as he’s not overextended on lifestyle discretionary spending).
Seeing how he seems legitimately happy and fulfilled with Amber’s mom I’d reckon he’s probably chilled on the discretionary spending pretty hardcore. At least, he’s probably spending less on doing whatever with her than he was buying every female-presenting person at every bar in town a drink.
My aesthetic is hot dudes who think they have life all figured out by never getting involved with anyone, then being blindsided by the slightest bit of genuine affection and they’re suddenly trying their damndest to give back in the same way without even understanding that they are.
After conversations with many men, I have come to the conclusion that an overwhelming majority of are surprised by affection in even the most platonic capacities and most would probably commit murder for headrubs or a surprise token of some kind… and that’s really fucking depressing.
We’re taught that our only worth is in being thundering alpha chads, and that any deviation from this requires making up for it in enough ways that, should we fail, means we’re loser baby failures.
Toxic masculinity isn’t just a personal failing, it’s something that gets entrenched into us and we barely have the words to describe it.
Joyce, Walky, Dorothy, now Amber… All my favourite characters have become pretty insufferable these last few weeks. Joe, I count on you now. Don’t betray me.
Dorothy is trying to help Joyce the same way she has helped every other time: patiently explaining the terminology of something Joyce doesn’t understand. Unfortunately for her, the current problem is not one she can just recite a textbook over and it’s totally beyond her power to actually help Joyce using what’s always worked, but she doesn’t get that yet; she doesn’t get that Joyce is going through a chaotic spiral of feelings and resentment that Dorothy trying to boil down to “stop being problematic” can’t solve.
That’s just it, Dorothy only has a textbook understanding of where Joyce is coming from. She can’t understand Joyce’s fundagelical upbringing the way someone who lived it can.
That’s why Joyce reveled in having Liz around, and why she needs to get back in simpatico with Becky.
Joyce becoming a slimeball because she finally had the chance to express her hate for her death cult is already kinda funny, but the prospect that Liz somehow did wrong by Joe is on a level that I can’t even.
I don’t think they were saying that Liz did wrong by Joe, but more that the interaction with Liz had a substantial effect on Joe. That whole situation was pretty harrowing for both Joe and Liz.
Not throwing any shade at Liz because she pulled back and acted in a very understandable way, but her reaction clearly messed with Joe’s perception of himself.
Indeed. I’m not faulting Liz for how she acted, merely remarking on how she served as a catalyst for Joe’s sudden soul-searching and Joyce’s breaking out of her old social persona into one that’s a lot more abrasive.
Liz did nothing wrong, I don’t think that was ever insinuated. But Liz had an effect on two people, in different ways (as they had their effect on her, too), and the funny part is that they switches descriptions (although I don’t really agree with it, that was the joke here, I believe).
HOORAY! Amber thinks Joe’s father is a good father figure to her and a good husband to her mother♡! And these are the only good things she said here… Poor Joe, her new sister is already very good at pushing him down all the time. Showing him, very cynically, his problems and overwhelming him with her problems and an almost infinite number of words, that you never know what to say.
Before the time skip there were plenty of red flags. Flipping the table at Ethan, the overall treatment of Danny and total lack of empathy towards him even during their relationship (he has trouble keeping up with my alters while I simultaneously deny I have a problem? FUCK HIM) and afterwards. The casual way she threatened Ruth when Ruth tried to reason with her during the kidnapping arc. She even hallucinated Blaine p much acknowledging that she was aware of this part of her.
After the time skip, the picture has darkened. Her main alter has outright complained about not being able to objectify or exploit people if she believes its harmless. It is hard to put into words just how many layers of fucked up was her dialog with Ethan. She shamelessly sexually harassed Danny out of nowhere and in front of his new gf and seems to want to break them up. Don’t even get me started on this shit with Joe now.
If you were reading this arc out of context, at best she would be getting Faz levels of heat. At worst, we would be talking about the creepy stalker ex who is angsting because she can’t find a tall Jewish guy to complain about a perfectly wholesome interracial relationship to. And that pretty guys won’t fuck for her pleasure.
Still don’t think it’s fair to say she’s like Blaine, she’s like that largely BECAUSE of him. Traumatized people don’t always work out their problems in healthy ways, obviously.
She’s not like Blaine, she’s like Amber.
Okay but “acting like Blaine” is a pretty specific course of actions that she’s engaged in once, at her lowest.
Like, a victim of lifelong abuse can do wrong and that action doesn’t need to be directly linked to their abuser. That is a thing I currently theorize of Becky, for example, in that I think there’s a subtext of a rigid Wrong/Right party to her arguments which is how she was raised by her dad and from there I think it bleeds into how she’s treating Joyce’s atheism as a personal betrayal, but I’m pretty sure Blaine never got mad he couldn’t see hot dudes fuck.
Also if you’re going to nitpick my statement, at least find the right nits to pick. My specific words were “I’m starting to see a non-trivial amount of Blaine in Amber right now.” I wasn’t necessarily pointing to a list of things Blaine did and demonstrate Amber was doing them too. Just that Blaine is typified by a pattern of antisocial behavior that disregards the needs of others and prioritizes his own pleasure over all other considerations.
Just that Blaine is typified by a pattern of antisocial behavior that disregards the needs of others and prioritizes his own pleasure over all other considerations.
This part and its thought process is what I’m objecting to. A “disregard for the needs of others and prioritizes his own pleasure over all other considerations” is wildly vague in relation to the specific topic of “Amber beginning to act like Blaine.”
Blaine wasn’t acting in prioritization of his own pleasure, he was acting out out of a prioritization of his own inherent superiority to his daughter and his wife, and that their defiance to him was in defiance of his fundamental right to do with them as they please. Extremely tellingly to the question of Amber acting in relation to Blaine, Amber feels weird on reflection for her behaviour, said behaviour being something she previously could rely on to bypass all her guilt complexes.
In this specific context, the two of them could only be tied together by virtue of Amber doing a thing she wants at the expense of someone being hurt.
Okay but there’s lots of ways to display a troubling antisocial tendency without it connecting to her abusive father, especially when her troubling antisocial tendencies are not at all like Blaine’s.
When I look at analysis of personal history and it’s impact like this, I just can’t help but think of something I read in my Critical Thinking class concerning history in general.
According to social historian Isiah Berlin, there are two kinds of thinkers when it comes to history — Hedgehogs and Foxes.
Hedgehogs know “one big thing” and have a theory about the world, and try to account for events in a coherent framework, are impatient with those who don’t see things their way, and confident in their predictions. For hedgehogs, predictions are almost always “nearly right” or “just off timing”. The media especially LOVES it when hedgehogs fight each other on camera in so-called “debates”.
Foxes, in contrast, are complex thinkers. They don’t think that one big thing drives the march of history (for instance, they aren’t likely to think that military spending alone ended the Great Depression). Instead, Foxes recognize that reality emerges from the interactions of MANY different agents and causes, including blind luck, often producing large and unpredictable outcomes.
I suspect that an individual’s PERSONAL history shouldn’t be treated any differently.
I’d disagree. Amber is her own brand of terrible. The anger and casual threats are Blaine-like, yes, but the self-loathing and sexual harassment are not.
Having just got mine, I have now realized that Willis is clearly part of the Liberal Illuminati Lizard People kNowing Every Evil Nazi Secret (lil’peeps). Obviously they knew in advance that we would need a third round vaccine and so they introduced a likable goof in Booster to get us to like the idea in advance.
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If this convo doesn’t fit into a tweet, tl;dl
280 characters or less
This comic has a lot of characters, but still fewer than 280. Phew, close call.
True, but some of them are REAL characters, IYKWIM. AITYD.
Surprise Joe Bob Briggs!
Jeez, is Joe crushing on Joyce actually that obvious?
yeah
I thought you’d be linking this one: 2021/comic/book-11/05-as-long-as-its-free/colder/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/05-as-long-as-its-free/colder/
Speaking of speedrunning, meanwhile Joyce has looked up “Places for atheists to hang out”, discovered, and having a mind as impressionable as wet clay is speedrunning that.
She’s already eaten Joe’s entire bottle of vitamin gummies because she’s pro-legalization now, cashed in her next tuition payment to buy crypto, and written a 5000 word dissertation on how Thanos was right.
Somebody stop her before she discovers Joe Rogan.
discovered REDDIT, I don’t know how that word got deleted.
Censors picked up on it, you aren’t allowed to say here
Well if that’s now picked up by the site autocensor (and since the site autocensor is retroactive–I recall Willis once LOL’d in the comments section when I pointed out that a certain early strip titled simply the “B-word” had been autocorrected to Bongo as a result of the autocensor), I think that might well change the meaning of quite a few comments from a month or so ago regarding certain commenters styling themselves in the manner of a certain site’s subsection.
reddit?
Dang how’d you get that past the censor
Let’s see if Reddit works.
Huh, thought for sure that’d work with just the first letter capitalized.
Good ol’ auto censor. I think it gets the DYW that people used to say whenever Willis did a plot that hurts.
“reddit” is not in the word replacer in any form!
Feel like I failed to properly indicate that I was joking about the site censoring the word “Reddit”
I figured you were joking to the extent that I didn’t want to risk testing it out, lest I look a fool.
reddit?
… It was pretty obvious what you were talking about anyway XD
So how long before she spontaneously materialises a fedora?
Nice, but maybe chill with including pro-legalization with all that?
It really doesn’t help this cause to be demoted to a fringe position like this.
yeh
The War On Drugs is just something employed for scared white people and to fill the ranks of the for-profit prison system.
Weed is only illegal because some rich berks in the 30s saw that hemp would cut into their business. In the 60s the word ‘Marijuana’ got bandied around by conservative politicians in charge to ensure that burgeoning social movements would be associated with a drug with a foreign name.
So it’s real fucking funny to me to see a post about drinking the Kool-Aid that actually drank the fucking Kool-Aid.
It’s uglier than that, Spencer, it’s not just the private prisons-they’re more of a symptom than the disease. You see, the Drug War is a multibillion dollar industry employing thousands upon thousands of people so specialized in their craft that they’re effectively unemployable without a black market to work against. And that’s just half of it. The other half, is that you won’t find an international bank that isn’t awash in cocaine and heroin money, it’s involved in your hedge funds too. BOTH sides use armies of accountants to keep track of their accountants, and they often work together. (Witness BATFE’s fantastic and amazing “Operation: Fast and Furious” which the main agency responsible for regulating firearms facilitated arming the Sinaloa Cartel by subverting U.S. Laws and law enforcement mechanisms as part of one of the stupidest ‘sting’ operations in history-they put the guns out there so they could ‘find them’ at crime scenes, without so much as a stripe of radioactive paint to actually trace down the flow of arms from straw buyers to organized criminals. People died from this, but the guys who set it up didn’t even face charges.)
It’s a corruptive system with ‘benefits’ for all the sponsors. People who object to civil liberties get to push restrictive laws because of the terror and violence, the violent criminals get to become millionaires and billionaires, the prosecution gets to use things like ‘civil asset forfieture’ written for the drug war to go after anyone who doesn’t have enough connections to fight back, and law enforcement gets armored vehicles and military grade weapons, along with a license to steal from the citizens (see: Civil Asset Forfieture), further, they get to use the fear to enact more and more restrictions on civil rights, target minorities and break minority communities (great for furthering the Poverty Plantation)…about the only peop[le it DOESN’T benefit, are the regular citizens who aren’t criminals. Hell, even with all the above, drugs (hard drugs) are cheaper and more available now, than they were when the stuff was LEGAL (accounting for inflation).
so, y’know, it’s actually harmful. as Bill Hicks said in 1988, “it’s not a war on drugs, it’s a war on personal freedom.” because it absolutely is. Every negative outcome of Prohibition from the 1920s is amplified geometrically, including the soaking of the taxpayer and the persistence of ‘temporary measures’ that don’t actually do anything to stem the flow of poison into the veins of your kids, friends, and co-workers.
because it’s not MEANT to solv e the problem, it’s meant and structured to exacerbate the problem and make it steadily worse…a bit like the ‘war on poverty’ or the ‘war on terror’ but more profitable for the corrupt on both sides than the second, and easier to maintain ignorant support for via terror tactics than the first.
Poor Joe could actually use a sister to talk to right now, come to think of it
An attempt was made?
That, and she’s thinking of the positives too, I guess?
What she would have had to pay a therapist to say to her, she’s already doing.
Also, what the hell is a “squint test”?
She means he sort of looks like Ethan if she squints
And she would rather talk to Ethan
I would hope that wouldn’t be what a therapist would say to her, but I guess it varies.
Any particular reason not to hope so?
Because I think that’d be a shitty way to approach therapy, especially with the the conclusion of “having very little room to complain.”
I’m so glad we’re on the same page
Hey, my therapist told me I have no hope of ever getting better. It does vary.
not an expert but pretty sure that makes them a bad therapist.
Thag, that largely depends on what the problem is. some things people just don’t recover from without surgical intervention-like Gender Dysphoria. (and a lot of those folks don’t recover even with it.) Brain tumours are another one you just ‘don’t recover from’, and nobody’s found a really useful treatment for actual ‘Anti-social personality disorder’ (which is NOT being unsociable, it’s being perfectly okay with murdering other people because you feel like it and then experiencing zero guilt or empathy for your victims). Why? because these are BRAIN things, not mind things.
a Shrink I used to see at the VA put it this way: If nothing’s actually wrong, and you’re depressed, you have a problem. If your life has gone to shit, your body is rotting around you with cancer or some other degenerative disease? or if you’re maimed and horribly crippled? well, depression is pretty normal, it’s not a mental illness at that point, it’s a reaction and response to reality. GD, and other organic damage can’t be cured with therapy-you can learn to live with them, maybe, but they aren’t things you can just talk away. Not at least, any more effectively than trying to pray your way from being gay (which also doesn’t work, because it’s an organic difference in the brain, not a construct of the mind, it’s like being born with brown eyes instead of green, or red hair, or a body that grows parts that don’t feel like they belong).
I dunno about the brain-mind ditchonomy being used like that. I’d say it’s better to not try to convert the gays because it’s crappy to try to convert gays, rather than because gay brains are different. I mean, all differences from mind come from differences in brains, in a casual universe. It is true that some things can be trained away with exercizes and role play, while others can’t. A sociopath with enough impulse control can learn to look at the long view, and not creep out people who can hurt them back, which is everyone. Impulse control is something there’s strategies to work on. It’s a benefit to society if they do.
Likewise gays can train to be as straight as Ethan’s dad. Not much benefit, and a lot of lost joy. If I am gay because of events in my life, not because of some intrinsic thing, than I still don’t think it’s anyone’s business to change it.
Oof. Yeah, I’ve had some shitty therapy experiences too. (Forever a little angry about the one who gave me a packet about “what it means to be a woman” while knowing I was nonbinary.)
That must have been awful!
And yet more reason for me to be turned off of therapy.
There are bad therapists out there, but there are also a lot of good ones. I’d probably be dead by now if I wasn’t seeing my current therapist (who, in a fun upgrade, not only gets nonbinary identities, but is nonbinary themself).
It’s a process to find the right therapist, but I think it’s worth it. Can be a bit easier of a process if you know what you’re looking for going in.
True, I guess?
But of the ones I have tried, even when they weren’t being insensitive or even downright bigoted, just barely helped at all.
At least for now, I am quite reluctant to gamble on a crapshoot unto a tiny island within a sea of punishment.
Various hobbies and Tuca and Berty have been much more calming to me than any therapist I’ve met.
On the squint test: https://digitalshiftmedia.com/marketing-term/the-squint-test/
As she mentioned previously, both Joe and Ethan are tall and Jewish, so if she stares at Joe squinting she could mistake him for Ethan.
Well I hope being jewish isn’t what she perceives by squinting, that’d be weird for black jews .
C-
…
That didn’t come across, did it?
Ahem.
Okay, so what I was trying to do was put a C- stamp on the ‘An Attempt was Made’ line above, but it didn’t follow as clearly as I was hoping.
Like, a C- for the attempt that was made. Cause it was a mediocre attempt at best.
And now I’m explaining the joke.
What curve was it graded on?
HER curves?
At least your attempt at a joke didn’t fall as flat as mine
No it camw across pretty clearly
Barely
Amber, you can’t speed run life.
You can if you want the bad ending
there is no good ending.
There’s better endings, at least
…and I’m pretty sure that’s Existentialism in a nutshell? Maybe?
She can, it’s just that resetting your game file is unheard of and she’s way too late to even touch the WR anyway.
(alternative answer: Tier Zoo reference goes here)
Danny and Ethan kiss.
Suddenly: ticking.
Danny: “oh no–”
BOOM!
Alright, who told them the Steel Glass Test Chamber was a good makeout location?
Dina. She tried really hard to think of a more appropriate location, but that was the best she could do.
Ticking?
tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-ti-
How did I misread that as tickling and type ticking?
Danny and Ethan are Lemmings?
That’s an old reference. Igetthhatreference dot gif.
B
Wow Amber’s not being helpful at all today.
Amber, I’m confident that refreshing Twitter is easy enough that you can do it without looking at your phone.
I mean. I might be wrong. I basically use Twitter by clicking on links every month or two and reading threads and then getting bored of what passes for content outside that thread.
Joe should have talked to Dina. I actually think that could have been helpful… Or not. Hard to say. But she’s pretty logical about that kind of thing and that might help.
Joe’s pretty logical himself, or at least does better when he’s allowed to handle emotional stuff from an unemotional perspective. I think Dina would have been helpful too.
If only he weren’t so intimidated after getting a glimpse of her powers.
Though I don’t think Joyce quite qualifies as an “uncorrupted puppy dog” anymore.
Yes but Amber doesn’t know that yet
Eh, some things are more difficult to unlearn than others, and Joyce is clearly already having unlearning troubles given how hard she’s trying to be the opposite of her past self. I suspect that she wouldn’t even get as far as Liz got if Joe invited her to share his bed, assuming she even agreed to share anyone’s.
Well atheism doesn’t mean corruption.
She’s just a snooty jerk now.
For an atheist, she’s still pretty pure.
“For an atheist”
…Atheists aren’t any less moral, or good hearted and plenty of religious people are morally bankrupt with multiple affairs.
You don’t need to add “for an atheist” and debating a woman’s purity is so disgusting I’m shocked there’s still internet here in the dark ages.
Like.
I thought I was being kinda mean when I’d go “she was prettier when she smiled” in response to some of these Joyce takes as of late. Apparently I am not.
I’m pretty shure Deanatay was not considering their own RL opinion of purity, but refering that in her old belief system, she couldn’t be pure AND atheist, whatever purity means.
You know the feeling when you talk to someone and it feels like you just have the same problems as last time?
That’s Joe.
Actually, they never covered the issue of how Amber’s tuition got paid for, right?
Guessing the step-dad is covering it
Her dad was forced to pay for it, it’s why he wanted her out of college.
Yeah, but it was specifically a plot point in Is A Song Forever? that as a result of Blaine’s death her source of college tuition no longer existed and thus her future attendance at all was in jeopardy.
Her dad is very much not alive at this point
Presumably Joe’s dad/Amber’s step-dad stepped in to continue her tuition
Are we sure Blaine’s dead? He seems the type you’d want to make sure is buried, and even then dig him up every couple of years to make sure he remains so.
Maybe he’s in Witness Protection. With Mike.
Blaine thought Amber wouldn’t attend college out of social fear, so he set the divorce terms up so he would pay for college in lieu of child support and/or alimony. Then the selfish prick tried to get Amber to drop out so he wouldn’t have to pay them anything at all.
If he had a will, I bet he left them a token sum of $0.01, the mob squared their dealings up with his estate, and whatever’s left over went to Yuri and Faz.
Only just found out by checking the sidebar (I’m not on Twitter), but I wish you and your family a safe recovery. Hoping you’re okay!
What?
From Willis’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1473709725757935624?s=20
They and their family have COVID.
I seriously hope they’re alright!
Bizarre enough, I had a dream last night that I went on a field trip to HELL, which is just about what it feels like to NOT be able to taste mac and cheese.
Hope everyone will be ok.
Ah, damn, that sucks. I hope everyone recovers promptly.
This is the exact reason I cancelled seeing my grandma. I don’t have my booster, my grandma does not have her booster, and my sister is only getting her second dose on the 29th because she’s an antivax piece of shit and her new job won’t hire her unless she does it.
Fuck! I didn’t know the vaccine denialist staircase had THAT many steps!
I can’t even get ANY vaccinations, and between this bullshit and Omicron, I am deeply afraid for myself and others.
*nearly passes out from dizzying anxiety*
I got my booster this past Sunday. A potentially life-saving chemical with no downsides? Pump that shit straight into my veins, and it was so good I went back for seconds!
That really sucks and I hope they get better soon
Same here! Mr. Willis, I hope you and family completely recover and as soon as possible. I had it the first go-round and don’t wish any variants on anyone. :O
Oh no! I hope everyone recovers without any aftereffects of note.
Gah! I read the announcement through Kickstarter updates, and I completely forgot each time I came back to say something!
Hope you and your family are doing better soon, Willis!
Poor Joe can’t catch a break today
I just realised, has amber not met atheist Joyce yet?
Does Atheist Joyce have a costume?
its a paid dlc cosmetic
Joe is having the most random day.
Is Amber just giving us cliff notes on the comic, now?
I don’t like Amber right now
Currently I am flip flopping hard between just feeling very bad for her and thinking “Just shut up, Amber”. Sometimes both at the same time.
Interesting that Amber knows about the Joyce crush! We might think it’s obvious because, you know, we get to know about everything that’s happening, but I don’t think any other non-Joe character knows yet! There’s a strong likelihood Jacob picked up on it, but other than that?
It’s shipping. Of course she picked up on it.
She figured it out when Joe came to her room for advice on how to help Joyce and how flustered he got when Joyce also appeared. No shipping or convolution necessary.
Amber’s gotten much stronger hints than the rest, hell he’s more or less confessed to her about it
Dammit, Amber, you’re a comics nerd, you’re supposed to be better at wordplay than that.
“Joyce is an uncorrupted puppy dog, and you’re an unreconstructed horndog.” It’s not that difficult!
Petition for Willis to hire you.
How was the rest of tuition paid for.?.. on a local private school there is a insurance in case parents die, but I have no idea if it covers suicides. And have no idea if this school covers that either..
I bet Richard picked up the bill.
I don’t remember Joedad’s profession (or name), but I got the impression he’s flush with legitimate money, and he’d definitely fund Amber’s education.
He’s a medical osteologist, IIRC.
He’s an orthopedic doctor or surgeon, I don’t remember exactly which. Naturally, it’s something to do with bones.
Either way he’s making medical specialist money, he can afford two in-state tuitions at a state university (or he can at least tank the cost for a while, as long as he’s not overextended on lifestyle discretionary spending).
Seeing how he seems legitimately happy and fulfilled with Amber’s mom I’d reckon he’s probably chilled on the discretionary spending pretty hardcore. At least, he’s probably spending less on doing whatever with her than he was buying every female-presenting person at every bar in town a drink.
I like to think the mob chipped in out of spite.
I’ve always liked Joe, but I think he’s currently my favorite character.
I hope everyone at Casa de Willis gets back to tasting macaroni and cheese soon.
Same! Maybe that went because the cheese is a more subtle, savory flavor than the buckeye that punched its way through?
My aesthetic is hot dudes who think they have life all figured out by never getting involved with anyone, then being blindsided by the slightest bit of genuine affection and they’re suddenly trying their damndest to give back in the same way without even understanding that they are.
After conversations with many men, I have come to the conclusion that an overwhelming majority of are surprised by affection in even the most platonic capacities and most would probably commit murder for headrubs or a surprise token of some kind… and that’s really fucking depressing.
I mean, you’re hitting the bullseye.
We’re taught that our only worth is in being thundering alpha chads, and that any deviation from this requires making up for it in enough ways that, should we fail, means we’re loser baby failures.
Toxic masculinity isn’t just a personal failing, it’s something that gets entrenched into us and we barely have the words to describe it.
Huh, I guess Amber didn’t interact with Joyce recently.
Joyce, Walky, Dorothy, now Amber… All my favourite characters have become pretty insufferable these last few weeks. Joe, I count on you now. Don’t betray me.
What has Dorothy done, besides staying on brand
That’s what makes it compelling drama!
Dorothy is trying to help Joyce the same way she has helped every other time: patiently explaining the terminology of something Joyce doesn’t understand. Unfortunately for her, the current problem is not one she can just recite a textbook over and it’s totally beyond her power to actually help Joyce using what’s always worked, but she doesn’t get that yet; she doesn’t get that Joyce is going through a chaotic spiral of feelings and resentment that Dorothy trying to boil down to “stop being problematic” can’t solve.
It’s gucci.
That’s just it, Dorothy only has a textbook understanding of where Joyce is coming from. She can’t understand Joyce’s fundagelical upbringing the way someone who lived it can.
That’s why Joyce reveled in having Liz around, and why she needs to get back in simpatico with Becky.
Having a holier-than-you, know-it-all attitude about the Joyce situation instead of trying to understand and empathize with her feelings.
That’s a solid core you got for the dialogue there, Amber, pity you bookended it with absolute shit.
No, Joyce has become a slimeball (due to Liz) and Joe has become a puppy dog (due to Liz).
Joyce becoming a slimeball because she finally had the chance to express her hate for her death cult is already kinda funny, but the prospect that Liz somehow did wrong by Joe is on a level that I can’t even.
I don’t think they were saying that Liz did wrong by Joe, but more that the interaction with Liz had a substantial effect on Joe. That whole situation was pretty harrowing for both Joe and Liz.
Not throwing any shade at Liz because she pulled back and acted in a very understandable way, but her reaction clearly messed with Joe’s perception of himself.
Indeed. I’m not faulting Liz for how she acted, merely remarking on how she served as a catalyst for Joe’s sudden soul-searching and Joyce’s breaking out of her old social persona into one that’s a lot more abrasive.
Okay but she’s abrasive because she grew up in a death cult. That’s not being a slimeball.
Liz did nothing wrong, I don’t think that was ever insinuated. But Liz had an effect on two people, in different ways (as they had their effect on her, too), and the funny part is that they switches descriptions (although I don’t really agree with it, that was the joke here, I believe).
HOORAY! Amber thinks Joe’s father is a good father figure to her and a good husband to her mother♡! And these are the only good things she said here… Poor Joe, her new sister is already very good at pushing him down all the time. Showing him, very cynically, his problems and overwhelming him with her problems and an almost infinite number of words, that you never know what to say.
She didn’t say “good”. She said “better”.
That bar is very low.
You’re right. But it’s still à good point for Joe’s father.
Joyce has been corrupted and Joe 8s reeling from being used for hus horny and treated like a slimeball.
Horndog is a fair cop, but if he were a slimeball, he would’t be depressed ight now.
Well, Joe’s problem is specifically that he thinks he’s a slimeball.
Joe really could use someone he could talk about his issues with, but I definitely think Amber is not that person.
Danny is waiting that moment since their childhood.
Maybe if Joe’s exasperated enough he will take that offer
You’re depressed, Amber. You don’t need a reason to feel bad.
Hot take: I’m starting to see a non-trivial amount of Blaine in Amber right now.
… in what regard?
Because the way she treated Danny that one (1, singular) time while freaking the eff out over Sal, yeah I get that, but I dunno where it is here.
Maybe in the sense that she’s being overly pragmatic in how she views things, esp people
“Pragmatic” is not a word I would use to describe Blaine.
Before the time skip there were plenty of red flags. Flipping the table at Ethan, the overall treatment of Danny and total lack of empathy towards him even during their relationship (he has trouble keeping up with my alters while I simultaneously deny I have a problem? FUCK HIM) and afterwards. The casual way she threatened Ruth when Ruth tried to reason with her during the kidnapping arc. She even hallucinated Blaine p much acknowledging that she was aware of this part of her.
After the time skip, the picture has darkened. Her main alter has outright complained about not being able to objectify or exploit people if she believes its harmless. It is hard to put into words just how many layers of fucked up was her dialog with Ethan. She shamelessly sexually harassed Danny out of nowhere and in front of his new gf and seems to want to break them up. Don’t even get me started on this shit with Joe now.
If you were reading this arc out of context, at best she would be getting Faz levels of heat. At worst, we would be talking about the creepy stalker ex who is angsting because she can’t find a tall Jewish guy to complain about a perfectly wholesome interracial relationship to. And that pretty guys won’t fuck for her pleasure.
Also she has a history of extreme violence.
Still don’t think it’s fair to say she’s like Blaine, she’s like that largely BECAUSE of him. Traumatized people don’t always work out their problems in healthy ways, obviously.
She’s not like Blaine, she’s like Amber.
I didn’t say she’s like Blaine. I said shes beginning to act like him. I’m noting the trajectory, not the position.
Okay but “acting like Blaine” is a pretty specific course of actions that she’s engaged in once, at her lowest.
Like, a victim of lifelong abuse can do wrong and that action doesn’t need to be directly linked to their abuser. That is a thing I currently theorize of Becky, for example, in that I think there’s a subtext of a rigid Wrong/Right party to her arguments which is how she was raised by her dad and from there I think it bleeds into how she’s treating Joyce’s atheism as a personal betrayal, but I’m pretty sure Blaine never got mad he couldn’t see hot dudes fuck.
Also if you’re going to nitpick my statement, at least find the right nits to pick. My specific words were “I’m starting to see a non-trivial amount of Blaine in Amber right now.” I wasn’t necessarily pointing to a list of things Blaine did and demonstrate Amber was doing them too. Just that Blaine is typified by a pattern of antisocial behavior that disregards the needs of others and prioritizes his own pleasure over all other considerations.
Just that Blaine is typified by a pattern of antisocial behavior that disregards the needs of others and prioritizes his own pleasure over all other considerations.
This part and its thought process is what I’m objecting to. A “disregard for the needs of others and prioritizes his own pleasure over all other considerations” is wildly vague in relation to the specific topic of “Amber beginning to act like Blaine.”
Blaine wasn’t acting in prioritization of his own pleasure, he was acting out out of a prioritization of his own inherent superiority to his daughter and his wife, and that their defiance to him was in defiance of his fundamental right to do with them as they please. Extremely tellingly to the question of Amber acting in relation to Blaine, Amber feels weird on reflection for her behaviour, said behaviour being something she previously could rely on to bypass all her guilt complexes.
In this specific context, the two of them could only be tied together by virtue of Amber doing a thing she wants at the expense of someone being hurt.
…the antisocial tendency IS the thing I’m reacting to, yes. It’s a really troubling development by itself.
Okay but there’s lots of ways to display a troubling antisocial tendency without it connecting to her abusive father, especially when her troubling antisocial tendencies are not at all like Blaine’s.
Very interesting thread.
When I look at analysis of personal history and it’s impact like this, I just can’t help but think of something I read in my Critical Thinking class concerning history in general.
According to social historian Isiah Berlin, there are two kinds of thinkers when it comes to history — Hedgehogs and Foxes.
Hedgehogs know “one big thing” and have a theory about the world, and try to account for events in a coherent framework, are impatient with those who don’t see things their way, and confident in their predictions. For hedgehogs, predictions are almost always “nearly right” or “just off timing”. The media especially LOVES it when hedgehogs fight each other on camera in so-called “debates”.
Foxes, in contrast, are complex thinkers. They don’t think that one big thing drives the march of history (for instance, they aren’t likely to think that military spending alone ended the Great Depression). Instead, Foxes recognize that reality emerges from the interactions of MANY different agents and causes, including blind luck, often producing large and unpredictable outcomes.
I suspect that an individual’s PERSONAL history shouldn’t be treated any differently.
I’d disagree. Amber is her own brand of terrible. The anger and casual threats are Blaine-like, yes, but the self-loathing and sexual harassment are not.
Amber doesn’t get to blame others for this.
So startlingly close to a revelation, only to swing away at the last second, like a frightened bird…
Joe, please find someone else to talk to, someone who actually pays attention and can maybe give advice.
Having just got mine, I have now realized that Willis is clearly part of the Liberal Illuminati Lizard People kNowing Every Evil Nazi Secret (lil’peeps). Obviously they knew in advance that we would need a third round vaccine and so they introduced a likable goof in Booster to get us to like the idea in advance.
Thanks for helping me get 5g DyW!
Well, that acronym _clearly_ didn’t work. Back to sleep.
I thought you were going for “lil peens” but that isn’t it either.
Amber. Amber, no. Amber, why.
Please let Joe participate in the conversation.
I like this dynamic
Joe: Hey I have some actual plot and character development to talk about no–
Amber: Yeah, but where’s MINE at?
Joe: Amber you had like two or three arcs about i–
Amber: Yeah but what about NOW?
…How can Amber not have the skill of refreshing twitter WHILE making small talk?!
She’s very good at twitter, but small talk is hard and takes all of her concentration.
Especially when she’s the one doing all the talking. Not that Joe has had much of a say in the matter.