Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
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Chu
Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
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?
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
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.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Countdown to Countdown
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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.
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.
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!
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I’m a little amazed Carla is backing away, rather than trying to insert herself into the proceedings. Surely she believes that she’d be a better mentor/partner than Dorothy? xD
I kinda suspect Carla doesn’t have the right plumbing yet-iirc, she’s transsexual and aromantic Asexual, so unless she’s also post-operative, she’s got the wrong bits to be a good teacher on ‘stimulate this to get that sensation’ down there.
To say otherwise isn’t funny, it’s the plot of a particularly gruesome form of nineties underground dirty movie that hopefully, we’ve progressed beyond because it’s not just sick, it’s demented and sexist.
Joyce: Dorothy and I are _not_ sneaking off to have lesbian sex!
Dorothy: No, Joyce, you’re misunderstanding. I’m just going to show you –
Joyce: LESBIAN SEX is what we will _not_ be having!
Dorothy: … Joyce, I’m straight. Remember?
Joyce: Yes! We are both straight. And thus will _not_ be having lesbian sex as soon as we reach our destination.
Technically she just said sex together which giving Dorothy talking about getting UTIs it does sound like Dorothy is planning on having Joyce get sexual relief and not just talking about it.
Joyce: Dorothy is most certainly not leading me down to the laundry room so that she can fuck me silly!
Dorothy: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!
Carla: (of all people) *faints*
I bet she’s mulling over her talk with Becky, wanting not to have sexual hang-ups, but some of her reluctance here isn’t from that. Also still very disappointed with Dorothy.
Also, Joyce is more comfortable talking about sex with Becky than Dorothy, to the point that she can say the word ‘sex’ and not ‘hanky panky’.
I’d argue if joyce did indeed have horniness for Dorothy it wound not make things less creepy or inappropriate. Remember when Marcy ran away after she and sal pretended to kiss? Joyce’s feelings could make this emotionally hurtful because she’s the type of person who only seems to get horny for people she cares for meanwhile Dorothy wants to treat this like an emotionally detached lesson ignoring all the red flags.
A lot of people seem to think that Dorothy is literally going to jill-off in front of Joyce, when I’m 99.999% sure she’s just gonna show Joyce the wonders of a washing machine on a high spin cycle.
I may have said this on another strip, but: ARE there wonders to a spin cycle? I’ve not heard of anyone irl doing this so I assumed it was made up by some softcore writer or something. I have the requisite parts and I don’t feel like things would line up right to actually be pleasurable?
(I also wouldn’t be shocked if Dorothy has never done this, but remembered the idea and went ‘ah, a way I can get Joyce to get off without her being freaked out about actually touching herself’)
For as much as this is being played up, it’s going to be a nothingburger. This is Dorothy we’re talking about here, it’s going to be spreadsheets and the world’s least sexy diagrams.
I mean, I’m hoping so (for Joyce’s sake. as a reader I could take it or leave it- it would definitely be interesting but I’m not super invested in it happening). But then, why did she have to pee first?
Finding out that one thing which is not-Carla is actually two things that are not-Carla, thus increasing the overall capacity of things that are not-Carla, is a devastating revelation. Please keep her in your thoughts🫡
carla might ‘troll’ ppl but other than the one instance where she wanted to tell joyce about becky/dina, i don’t think she’d get involved in anything sexual lol
True, she’s probably still ace in this universe, even if we’ve seen she has at times found Malaya attractive. (Not mutually exclusive, mind you, but just saying that’s one of the only times she’s expressed any attraction on-screen.)
If Dorothy really thinks she’s giving an educational sex positive solution she should just tell Carla that not get angy at her friend who can’t lie for not suddenly gaining deception.
At this point I would not question it with these two, it’s very likely they are and it’s very likely they aren’t. Who knows, I just know Carla is making a good choice to leave it at that.
I know a fellow who was having butt sex with another man, and in the middle of it, he looks down and says “oh no!!”
and his poor sex-partner says “What? What?!”
“Our penises touched! That makes it GAY!!”
… true story, I learned about it later, it is the funniest prank.
Reminds me of a guy I vaguely knew who apparently insisted that if you have gay sex in Rome, it makes it not gay. I think the point was more that he was just on vacation and thus considered it as “not counting”, but it became a running joke of, “When in Rome, fuck a guy” among people who knew about it.
Except Carla, who didn’t realize they were separate people.
And yes, it’s completely possible for a person to fuck themselves (Carla likely advises Mary to do just that on an hourly basis), but remember that this is Joyce who has a giant neon sign above her head informing people that she’s never done that.
I decided a while back that I wasn’t going to count shirts, because it raises too many questions about when and how to count them. (That was Carla’s fault, too.) Anyway, it’s a literal F-bomb, not a metaphorical one.
I did count a text message one time, but that seems more speech-like than a shirt, and is more clearly a single countable statement than an ongoing thing.
Be back in like twoish weeks or so when it’s hopefully run its course. Was hoping for Joyce to actually stand her ground on Dotty overstepping her boundaries.
I support this decision. Genuinely. Being able to walk away or take a break from something that you’re not enjoying is an important skill to have, and something that I could be better at sometimes.
or even ruth, just not an authority figure who’ll get Joyce in real trouble. “Hey Ruth I saw the two blonde glasses ones sneaking around for sex stuff and the jugs one did not look comfortable. They had their laundry.”
I’m hoping that Dorothy might have a moment of self awareness still ” my friend who can’t lie clearly isn’t fine with this and is doing what I demand. I also do not want others do know what I am doing..is this really the positive solution I envisioned?”
A decade later at a press conference: “Excuse me, Senator Dotty, how do you respond to the allegations that you sexually assaulted an autistic girl in the laundry room during your time at Whatever College?”
On Willis’s tumblr, there is a month-and-a-half long gap between the last preview panel (Sal grumbling about dogs barking from a week ago) and the next, which is from March 4th has Walky and Lucy in a different outfit than they wore today. Probably to avoid spoiling all this hot nonsense.
So if you’re like me and want to skip out on the Joyce Gets Peer Pressured Into Semi-Public Masturbation For ‘Her Own Good’ Arc(tm), March 4th seems a good time to hold out until, as that seems like near the beginning of tomorrow’s arc.
I’m leaning towards something like that too. Definitely won’t be reading the comments the next few days, since shippers are going to be excited about Dorothy ‘fixing’ Joyce by making her cum. or the commenters who are adamant that pressuring someone into a sexual encounter counts as consent.
Big same. I’m going to keep an eye on it, but if it resolves in some kind of twee way instead of Dorothy getting reality-checked into the metaphorical boards I’m going to be very disappointed.
Dorothy: this is completely sex positive and non shameful and my plan is flawless. Joyce stop telling people I dont want anyone to know about this lesson I insisted on doing in public!
For Carla, Joyce and Dorothy must look like the player 1 and player 2 options for a video game. Specifically a college themed 2D beat ‘em up, probably called Super Dumb Sisters.
Unless I’m misremembering something, I think the only time we’ve ever seen her without them was after Mary ruined a pair, but I think that was very temporary. I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept in them.
I personally would count the skates as part of her height, because it’s funnier that way.
I don’t think Dorothy should be at all surprised by Joyce not being able to lie. This should really have Dorothy double thinking her plan and asking ” if I have to expect Joyce to lie about what we are doing in public is this plan actually a good idea?”
PLEASE. As though Carla would go and hang out with NERDS. Obviously, she’s going to go find her cool friend Sal, and—hey, wait a minute, Sal, what’s this ukulele nerd doing in here making out with you?! D:<
Since Carla knows Joyce and Dotty are the same person, this must mean one of them crossed over from the Evil Parallel Universe, and Carla is trying to recall the relevant contingency plan.
Nope. That is not what consent looks like. Turning up after being told to leave Joyce alone about sexual stuff and telling her that they were going to jill off rather than requesting consent or discussing it at all, teasing about any reluctance, and only belatedly suggesting that Joyce can back out if she wants to reeks heavily of coercion.
I’m sure there will be people in the comments dead certain that this is what consent looks like and we’re all being horrible jerks to Dorothy, which is why I’m just leaving this comment here and ignoring the comments section for the rest of the day.
Only so many times I can read people defending obvious overstepping as “okay” because “Joyce NEEDS to learn” whether she wants to, or not.
Yeah Joyce has a history of going along with things that makes her uncomfortable because Dorothy wouldn’t take no for an answer and she waited until they were actually leaving the room to say we can turn back when the time to ask this was at the beginning.
It’s not what consent looks like but I think this is more for humor. Kind of like Dina assaulting people while shouting “hompk” a few storylines back. Funny?Yes. Appropriate? No.
I do not know, does not seem like a topic to make jokes about to me.
I just know that this whole interaction has made me really uncomfortable and also dislike Dorothy. And I never really disliked her before, she did stuff I did not agree with but nothing like this..
Dorothy really didn’t think this plan through, aside from her talking Joyce into something she doesn’t seem okey with at all what exactly did Dorothy expect taking someone who can’t lie out to a public place to learn about sex? It seems Dorothy was so hung up on finding a way to get Joyce away from Joe while telling herself she’s being sexually progressive she completely overlooked public spaces aren’t private class rooms.
Somehow, “No, no. This is fine” does not really read as enthusiastic consent to me. Nor does acknowledging that Joyce doesn’t “have” to do this take away from the inappropriateness of Dorothy asserting that this is something she’s “going” to do. Obviously Joyce may feel differently than I would in her shoes, but Dorothy is still going about this in a really risky way.
I think there’s probably times where ppl are a bit more apathetic and consenting or just someone indulging their partner even if they don’t have much of a libido themselves or so , like any other activity though even if some ppl need a little push to get outta their comfort zone a bit it might’ve been better for dorothy to hand her charts/a powerpoint presentation versus going to the laundry room for a potential/hands on demonstration
Sure, there are probably times like that, but Dorothy isn’t Joyce’s partner, she’s her friend who Joyce just yelled at for interfering in her sex life in their last interaction. In this situation, I think more explicit consent is called for. But I agree, a powerpoint situation would have made infinitely more sense.
This is why I need logistics. I’m sure the details are the big payoff, but it’s unclear what Dorothy plans. I’m sure she’s not planning on forcing Joyce to masturbate right? People seem to think they’re gonna sit on some washing machines, but is that really teaching Joyce anything? Where does that even fall in the consent/coercion debate?
No its not. And Dorothy should know Joyce’s lying patterns by now to know her saying something is fine while clearly hesitating is the opposite of fine. Becky’s already observed Joyce can’t lie to save her life and Dorothy is being willfully ignorant to not acknowledge this, And maybe in denial last panel because Joyce saying something like that in public is exactly the situation Dorothy set them both up for with this plan she’s got no business giving Joyce the side eye.
I was not expecting Joyce to go along with this, and now I’m so curious what her motives are. Generalized horniness? Feelings for Dorothy specifically? Peer pressure? Some combination of the former? Something else entirely?
I read this more as, Joyce’s friends have been encouraging her to learn more about sex and mastmasturbation. She realizes that they might have a good point so she is apprehensive but willing to try. However, because it is Joyce, she can’t help but panick.
Combination of horniness and feelings for Dorothy. Horny feelings for Dorothy, basically. The face she was making last strip sure looked like her horny face.
When she was talking to Becky, she was saying how she wish she didn’t have sexual hang-ups, more or less. And she actually said the word “sex”, instead of “hanky panky”. So that and peer pressure.
We have been privy to her sexual fantasies and sex dreams, and it’s always been guys.
This. I get the shipping brain, but Joyce has said flat-out she’s straight and all her outright sexual stuff has been pointed at dudes. (The stuff that gets pointed to as lady-oriented is about comfort, not horny.)
Literally earlier today I was explaining the ship magnets on my fridge and describing why this particularly pair won’t actually happen, so I honestly can’t remember the last time I laughed this loudly at a comic strip. One of my housemates actually wanted to know what the fuck was going on. xD
I believe there used to be a pin-up gallery that showed pretty much how this is going to go down, except Sarah was there instead of Dorothy (from memory).
Yeah, a lot of people seem to think that Dorothy is literally going to jill-off in front of Joyce, when I’m 99.999% sure she’s just gonna show Joyce the wonders of a washing machine on a high spin cycle.
Yeah, there’s a lot of people talking about how this is basically SA, and like… It’s a washing machine. They’re gonna load it poorly and sit on them for an hour. This is literally less intimate than Joyce riding on the back of Sal’s motorcycle.
Anyone else note an artistic change again, especially prominent in this strip, toward a thinner depiction of characters? About 2 years ago (when the timeskip happened) there was a deliberate artistic shift, and this feels like a gradual reversion.
I think it’s mostly down to characters looking heavier with winter clothing on, which they’ve been wearing a lot more than they did pre-timeskip, than without it as seen here. Plus, Dorothy’s always been slimmer than most characters, and Carla’s tall which makes her look skinnier by default.
Carla: “Aight so I don’t like sex details and I have a bad track record with glasses girls banging on my watch, so Imma head out. You guys don’t have a drinking problem, right? Please don’t have a drinking problem. Cool. Peace.”
I’m kinda surprised Joyce is going along with Dorothy’s plan. Didn’t seem like she would be ok with this, since she still seems to have a lot of hang-ups about sex stuff even after becoming an atheist.
She doesn’t. That’s one of the many problems with dorothys plan, she’s thinking in terms of ” I think this will make Joyce stop pursuing Joe and make me sex positive take that roz” not how is this in practice going to make Joyce feel? And do I really want to put Joyce in a situation where she’s clearly uncomfortable and has to lie?” It’s following the same pattern as the pharmacy trip except this time dorothy herself seems ashamed of people knowing what she’s about to do with Joyce.
Oh, when do we get to the part where Sal and Amber get fused together into Samber and Joyce has to decide if she should leave them be or divide them up again?
Just remember they couldn’t make too much visible progress between episodes, because UPN wanted to be able to run repeats on shuffle and have it still make sense.
I think we’re going to chalk this one up to Dorothy doing the wrong thing, for the right reasons.
Are there better ways to go about this? Most definitely.
Can this still a good learning experience for Joyce(despite the weirdness)? I’m going to hazard a yes; if only because knowing how to safely masturbate is important in my eyes.
While I don’t agree with all of Dorothy’s actions or how she is handling this, I do believe she has her heart in the right place and wants to help. Hopefully this helps Joyce, giving her more sex positive ideas, and hopefully Dorothy will apologize for her “aggressive” helping after this is all done.
I think saying she wants to control Joyce is a very uncharitable way of looking at it. She wants to ‘solve problems’ and (from her perspective reasonable interpretation of ) the situation of ‘Joyce is sexually repressed, and it leads to her making bad decisions like getting involved with a misogynist dickbag’
Now, would this be better if she actually was more honest and less ‘drop the surprise bomb’ on Joyce? Yeah. But Dorothy has her flaws. I still like the dork.
Yeah, I really don’t see the “control” take on it. It can certainly work out that way and that can be a part of Joyce’s frustration with her, but I don’t see it in Dorothy’s intentions.
Not saying specifically control Joyce, though there is a bit of that, but more regaining control over her life which seems to be unravelling a bit at the moment
I can only assume that Carla’s roller blades have a backup feature for just such occasions, and she smoothly rolls out of the frame without making any other movement.
Well, to be fair, I’m just making stuff up because I like the image of her sliding across the floor in socks, powered by the extremely rare burst of awkwardness.
That was a particularly sexual, if kinky, expression of attraction though.
I guess domination and humiliation without actual sex is a kink, but I don’t know if it fits into the usual understanding of sex-repulsed ace.
Dorothy in the last panel is annoying the hell out of me. You cornered an incredibly repressed girl and completely unprompted told her that you’ll teach her to do something she thought as taboo until recently; but you’re annoyed she’s nervous and babbles something inappropriate? if you can’t handle this, you can’t handle teaching her Dorothy
Since I’m generally rather pedantic (sorry), I can’t help but speak up. When someone mentions “Stage right” it means “Right as seen from the stage”, so left from the audience point of view. Carla here is exiting stage left.
TMI for Carla. Now that Joyce and Dorothy know her weakness, she should destroy them! But Carla now knows a secret about them too… I’m sure they can agree and pretend this never happened.
Well, Carla is going to have a field day, with this. How long do you think it will take Carla, to spread the rumor, that Dorothy and Joyce, snuck off, to smash?
You know what? I’ll kick the beehive and say I think Dorothy’s doing okay here. Not perfect — far from it — but not nearly as badly as most people are making it out to be. Her initial proposition to Joyce was definitely inappropriately forceful, especially following Joyce’s expressed desire for everyone to butt out of her sex life. That crossed the line into harassment, which is distinctly skeevy, even though it almost certainly wasn’t intended to be.
But at this point, she’s doing fine. She’s making sure she has consent — not enthusiastic consent, sure, but also informed and not coerced. Enthusiastic consent from your sexual partners is, of course, the ideal, but at this point Joyce has enough hangups that may legitimately be impossible for her. You can make the argument that it’s not ‘real’ consent until it’s enthusiastic, but that’s a big catch-22 there, as Joyce is unlikely to be able to give enthusiastic consent until she’s more comfortable with sex, which she’s unlikely to get if she can’t engage in any sexual activity without giving enthusiastic consent! At a certain point, you have to trust what your prospective sexual partner is saying rather than deciding for them that their level of consent isn’t enough. If you aren’t comfortable unless they’re enthusiastic, you should absolutely shut it down, but for your own sake, not because of your partner.
Joyce is nervous, because of course she is, but she is consenting. Provided Dorothy continues to check on that at various stages and make sure Joyce is still okay with things at the current level, nothing immoral is happening here. Imperfect, yes, but what isn’t? Sex is messy.
Again, this is why I think Roz would be a better choice for this. Dorothy is not doing this badly, just clumsily. Always being an open advocate for body autonomy, and sexual freedom, Roz would better know how to approach the subject of, “sexual self-gratification”, aka, “masturbating”. She would be upfront, and forthright, from the get go; this would not make Joyce any less uncomfortable, but at least she would have a better grasp of what she would be getting into, which would really help her transition into a more complete sexual being. To compare Dororthy teaching Joyce how to masturbate, when Roz is available, is like me teaching somebody how to drive, when there is a pro stunt driver, right next door.
I’m sorry, but it’s ridiculous to suggest that having a sexual experience is the most successful way to get comfortable with sex. I know US sex ed is crap, especially when it comes to vaginal stimulation and female/femme/afab pleasure, but there are plenty of resources available, both off- and online, that Dorothy could have explored or presented to Joyce. What we’re dealing with here is a complex trauma, and to say that that Joyce is “unlikely” to break through that trauma without having a sexual experience is effectively to say that exposure therapy is the most reasonable treatment. It’s not, and even if it was, it’s not Dorothy’s place to administer such a treatment; she’s not a professional, and she didn’t present Joyce with other options.
That brings me to my second point, about Joyce being “informed and not coerced.” Like I said above, she wasn’t informed because she wasn’t offered any other options or resources; going to the laundry room to learn how to masturbate was presented as what she was going to be doing. Part of the definition of coercion is using authority to compel somebody to do something without regard for their desire. Dorothy coming to Joyce and saying “we’re doing this,” rather than presenting her with options, is an act of authority, especially considering how Joyce was raised to understand that dissent is met with punishment. So, frankly, yes, she was coerced into doing this, and wasn’t informed of alternatives. That she’s clearly uncomfortable makes it all the more unacceptable that Dorothy is pushing forward at all.
To add, a key component of exposure therapy is that it occurs in a safe, controlled environment. A dormitory laundry room is neither safe nor controlled. It’s a public space, it’s unhygienic, and I doubt any sex educator worth their salt would endorse introducing someone to sexual stimulation via laundry machine. So, really, nothing about what Dorothy is doing right now is remotely “all right”
Dorothy is under no obligation to do things in the perfect way, or present Joyce with options. She doesn’t have any authority over Joyce. Saying “this is a thing we’re doing” does not compel Joyce to do the thing, especially when it’s followed (however belatedly) by an explicit “if you’re okay with it”. Joyce is allowed to say no, and capable of saying no (we’ve seen her stand up to Dorothy before). Saying a thing as a statement of fact does not somehow compel other people to act as such.
As for getting more comfortable with sex, of course there’s other ways. But there’s two things about that. First, the best course of action isn’t the only one people can take. Is Dorothy’s plan the best one? No. Does that make it immoral or inappropriate? Not necessarily.
Secondly, would these other methods ever make it so Joyce wasn’t nervous her first time with a real person? I’m not sure. And it’s absurd to suggest (as some people have) that nervousness invalidates consent. Tempers, sure — you’ll want to double-check if someone seems unsure — but if Joyce says she’s down despite that the responsibility isn’t on Dorothy to second (and third, and fourth…) guess that she’s lying.
Okay thanks. I’ve been SA’d before so like… I actually kinda needed someone to be trustworthy and patient while I acted super nervous and kind of ashamed and like… Crying for a bit before wanting to get back to it, etc. You know??
Funny enough, Ms. Parker’s girlfriend Dollip was doing quick little $5 voice work commissions on stream, the other night. I paid her to say a line from Shadowbringers in her Maximillion Pegasus voice.
That’s not strictly related, but when else would I have a tangential opportunity to mention it?
I think it might be weird to try commissioning somebody to do a voice impression of their romantic partner? Maybe? They did get confused for each other in VODs a lot, a while back. I’m not actually sure about the ethics there. Penny herself streams regularly on Twitch under the name Sajuuk-Khar mentioned, so you might have better luck that way. I don’t really know much about her personal preferences for that sorta thing though, so please don’t quote me on any of this.
This doesn’t look like consent to me. This looks like a socially awkward person getting bullied into doing something they don’t actually want to do by a person they ostensibly trust to make good decisions.
And I’m starting to actively hate Dorothy for it. She’s been incredibly un-self-aware about how she’s been acting since the time skip.
oh my god, please have the argument! Joyce and Dorothy are going to have an argument about this. Like Joyce and Becky needed an argument to know where they stand, these two need that too. The only question is whether they have it before things break.
My impression was that “Threesome” was a nervous tick of Joe’s that was more of a General Request of the Public than a Personal One. He wants Sex like a Capitalist wants Money. Compounded. Dorothy would have this reading on Joe refined over the years. At first, she may have thought he was trying to be too much like his father, or maybe it was a nervous condition. But, after a certain amount of time, her final judgement was that Joe was a Sexual Predator that Dehumanized Women as Commodities. “Sex” to him could come from anywhere, in any quantity, with nameless Women. At some point she gave up trying to fix him and just avoided him. I think that’s wrong, though. Joe has quirks including crass sexual humor, which includes spewing “THREESOME?!” like a Pokemon to lighten a mood.
Hey, sorry for the off-topic are new posters just not getting confirmed anymore? I really want to change my name, but none of my Lorelei posts seem to ever get confirmed. I swear I’m not a bot, all I’m posting is trash shipping takes!
If I was Programming Bots, I would have them insist they are not bots. I would also make sure they pushed a narrative of being non-threatening. My understanding is that Accounts here are Governed by Gravatar and Willis’ Personal Choices.
I don’t think the issue is consent here since Joyce certainly has the ability to say no (and in fact, noping out of things she doesn’t want to do with friends is something that Joyce does often and clearly). It does seem like the whole strident tone Dorothy is taking isn’t super helpful, and it rubs me the wrong way that she’s not explaining any of this or asking whether Joyce is ok with it, because while she’s not coercing Joyce into doing it, she’s definitely not acting very careful of her friend’s feelings. So yeah, idk, 2/5 stars, Dorothy, your approach could use some work. But who knows, it could also end up going great.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
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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 ⋅ 3d
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?"
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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welp, time to update
This will end wonderfully.
Happily, even
Well I bet Carla was happy to learn that they weren’t sneaking off to do hanky-panky things together.
I’m a little amazed Carla is backing away, rather than trying to insert herself into the proceedings. Surely she believes that she’d be a better mentor/partner than Dorothy? xD
Carla wants no part in doing hanky-panky things.
Better? sure. Interested? no. Carla may be the best at everything but she also gives 0 shits.
I kinda suspect Carla doesn’t have the right plumbing yet-iirc, she’s transsexual and aromantic Asexual, so unless she’s also post-operative, she’s got the wrong bits to be a good teacher on ‘stimulate this to get that sensation’ down there.
To say otherwise isn’t funny, it’s the plot of a particularly gruesome form of nineties underground dirty movie that hopefully, we’ve progressed beyond because it’s not just sick, it’s demented and sexist.
I mean that is the goal.
Dumbing of Age Book 13…
I Guess You Are Different People
That was what you meant, right?
We’re Going To Be Doing So Much Laundry
The ellipsis really makes or breaks that one, imo
“Hey, carla.”
“The suspense is terrible. I hope it lasts.”
Carla is speechless while processing. What are the odds it lasts?
. . . -try to think of a witty comment but is speechless-
Joyce: Dorothy and I are _not_ sneaking off to have lesbian sex!
Dorothy: No, Joyce, you’re misunderstanding. I’m just going to show you –
Joyce: LESBIAN SEX is what we will _not_ be having!
Dorothy: … Joyce, I’m straight. Remember?
Joyce: Yes! We are both straight. And thus will _not_ be having lesbian sex as soon as we reach our destination.
Technically she just said sex together which giving Dorothy talking about getting UTIs it does sound like Dorothy is planning on having Joyce get sexual relief and not just talking about it.
Nobody in the dorm will be surprised by this.
Smoooooth, Joyce. Totally pulled it off.
Oh good, she’s going through with it. This is the end.
This is the end of this comic.
I figured there would be more signs of the apocalypse, but I guess Carla being speechless is a pretty good one.
Joe being sensitive. Danny having a successful relationship. Amazigirl giving up crimefighting.
I mean, the signs were there plain as day.
She still hasn’t dropped an f-bomb, there’s still hope left!
The f-bomb will be the climax.
In all of the ways.
Joyce: Dorothy is most certainly not leading me down to the laundry room so that she can fuck me silly!
Dorothy: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!
Carla: (of all people) *faints*
Of course it’s not the end!
What if they take all the buff to get into laundry room and do the thing?
expected a bit more opposition from joyce. still very disappointed with Dorothy, this is very creepy behavior
I bet she’s mulling over her talk with Becky, wanting not to have sexual hang-ups, but some of her reluctance here isn’t from that. Also still very disappointed with Dorothy.
Also, Joyce is more comfortable talking about sex with Becky than Dorothy, to the point that she can say the word ‘sex’ and not ‘hanky panky’.
You’ve forgotten to factor in Joyce’s horniness for Dorothy, which I think is what tipped the balance. See how Joyce ate half her own face last comic.
I’d argue if joyce did indeed have horniness for Dorothy it wound not make things less creepy or inappropriate. Remember when Marcy ran away after she and sal pretended to kiss? Joyce’s feelings could make this emotionally hurtful because she’s the type of person who only seems to get horny for people she cares for meanwhile Dorothy wants to treat this like an emotionally detached lesson ignoring all the red flags.
pretty sure she’s just horny about the idea of getting off (and perhaps more nervous than horny, though they can overlap).
this isn’t to shit on this ship, I just really don’t think it’s what’s happening right now
A lot of people seem to think that Dorothy is literally going to jill-off in front of Joyce, when I’m 99.999% sure she’s just gonna show Joyce the wonders of a washing machine on a high spin cycle.
Even if it’s the washing machine I don’t think that would necessarily make it better.
It’s better. Or more accurately, actually doing it would be worse.
It’s still not good.
Mostly I expect Dorothy’s going to talk about it. With diagrams.
Ohhhh, you’re right. Which, there is also precedence for in one of the Joyce pin-up pics.
I may have said this on another strip, but: ARE there wonders to a spin cycle? I’ve not heard of anyone irl doing this so I assumed it was made up by some softcore writer or something. I have the requisite parts and I don’t feel like things would line up right to actually be pleasurable?
(I also wouldn’t be shocked if Dorothy has never done this, but remembered the idea and went ‘ah, a way I can get Joyce to get off without her being freaked out about actually touching herself’)
For as much as this is being played up, it’s going to be a nothingburger. This is Dorothy we’re talking about here, it’s going to be spreadsheets and the world’s least sexy diagrams.
Kind of what I’m thinking. Joyce’ll still be flustered by it and it’s still pretty damn inappropriate, but not as wild as we want to imagine.
I mean, I’m hoping so (for Joyce’s sake. as a reader I could take it or leave it- it would definitely be interesting but I’m not super invested in it happening). But then, why did she have to pee first?
This whole interaction just feels completely off. Really holding my breath here.
I love that there is a certain awkwardness level that even Carla will nope out of.
She only just learned that these are two different people, so she needs a little time to process this added information.
Finding out that one thing which is not-Carla is actually two things that are not-Carla, thus increasing the overall capacity of things that are not-Carla, is a devastating revelation. Please keep her in your thoughts
🫡
We could start a GoFundMe to buy her therapy skates.
Finding out that the thing they’re doing is masturbating will only confuse things further re: them not being one person.
“I’ve heard about that ‘if you had a clone would you bang it’ thing before but to see it in real life?!”
See, I read that less as nopping out and more her not wanting to delay them. Although it could honestly be both.
Carla: Very well, you may pass.
More like Carla: Sure, lead the way! *follows after them to potentially join in*
carla might ‘troll’ ppl but other than the one instance where she wanted to tell joyce about becky/dina, i don’t think she’d get involved in anything sexual lol
True, she’s probably still ace in this universe, even if we’ve seen she has at times found Malaya attractive. (Not mutually exclusive, mind you, but just saying that’s one of the only times she’s expressed any attraction on-screen.)
Also, “hanky-panky things” gross Carla right out.
LOL
I think it’s more that Carla just finds hanky-panky to be kinda gross and repulsive
“But now that I mention it…”
That’s a good Dotty face in the last panel.
ObTvTropes Page: Suspiciously Specific Denial.
Yeah Dorothy, you earned that one.
Ya, what’s she upset about?
Because that is the face you make in sitcoms when your partner in shenanigans blurts out what you are doing
If Dorothy really thinks she’s giving an educational sex positive solution she should just tell Carla that not get angy at her friend who can’t lie for not suddenly gaining deception.
What? Joyce can totally lie, where’d that idea come from?
At this point I would not question it with these two, it’s very likely they are and it’s very likely they aren’t. Who knows, I just know Carla is making a good choice to leave it at that.
I love Carla slowly noping out at the side. XD
Just slowly sliding backward on her skates. Scientists are baffled as to how.
Yo fellas, is it gay to be bad at keeping the plan to do hanky panky things with your bestie a secret?
It’s not gay if it’s a bro-job. It’s not gay if it’s just Buddylingus.
I know a fellow who was having butt sex with another man, and in the middle of it, he looks down and says “oh no!!”
and his poor sex-partner says “What? What?!”
“Our penises touched! That makes it GAY!!”
… true story, I learned about it later, it is the funniest prank.
Haha yep that’s the hard part about male on male butt sex. There’s a risk of it being misconstrued.
Well that’s one of the hard parts anyway
Reminds me of a guy I vaguely knew who apparently insisted that if you have gay sex in Rome, it makes it not gay. I think the point was more that he was just on vacation and thus considered it as “not counting”, but it became a running joke of, “When in Rome, fuck a guy” among people who knew about it.
No Rome-o.
Ohhh Carla’s shirt is an F-Bomb.
oh, so THAT’s what it was
it is a white tank otherwise so maybe she drew it on herself lol
I just noticed that and I want one.
Thank you, I was wildly confused by the shirt.
I love Carla’s shirt
It’s ok, Joyce. Everyone already assumed you two were fucking.
If Becky did think Joyce and Dorothy were doing the horizontal tango, then I feel like she would have something to say.
Then again, the first thing Becky guessed Joyce’s “problem” was being a lesbian.
She might be getting over that crush by now. What with being nearly engaged and everything.
she did make a comment early on about “dang, good thing you’re not into girls otherwise we’d need to have a talk about your taste in bony poindexters”
Except Carla, who thought they were the same person. That’s two adjustments at once. Efficient!
Well if Carla thought Joyce/Dorothy masturbated she’d be on the right track.
I suppose it depends on which of the two’s traits Carla thought won out on balance.
Except for the people who thought you were the same person apparently.
Except Carla, who didn’t realize they were separate people.
And yes, it’s completely possible for a person to fuck themselves (Carla likely advises Mary to do just that on an hourly basis), but remember that this is Joyce who has a giant neon sign above her head informing people that she’s never done that.
Joyce just can’t help herself when it comes to panicking and say things, can she?
Does this count as a F-bomb for Carla?
I decided a while back that I wasn’t going to count shirts, because it raises too many questions about when and how to count them. (That was Carla’s fault, too.) Anyway, it’s a literal F-bomb, not a metaphorical one.
I did count a text message one time, but that seems more speech-like than a shirt, and is more clearly a single countable statement than an ongoing thing.
I’ve officially lost interest in this arc
Be back in like twoish weeks or so when it’s hopefully run its course. Was hoping for Joyce to actually stand her ground on Dotty overstepping her boundaries.
I support this decision. Genuinely. Being able to walk away or take a break from something that you’re not enjoying is an important skill to have, and something that I could be better at sometimes.
I’m honestly hoping for Sarah to come back and bring forth the squidward smack of justice at this point.
or Becky maybe? I’m kinda hoping Carla narcs (to a friend who will intervene, not to an authority)
or even ruth, just not an authority figure who’ll get Joyce in real trouble. “Hey Ruth I saw the two blonde glasses ones sneaking around for sex stuff and the jugs one did not look comfortable. They had their laundry.”
I’m hoping that Dorothy might have a moment of self awareness still ” my friend who can’t lie clearly isn’t fine with this and is doing what I demand. I also do not want others do know what I am doing..is this really the positive solution I envisioned?”
A decade later at a press conference: “Excuse me, Senator Dotty, how do you respond to the allegations that you sexually assaulted an autistic girl in the laundry room during your time at Whatever College?”
Underrated comment.
On Willis’s tumblr, there is a month-and-a-half long gap between the last preview panel (Sal grumbling about dogs barking from a week ago) and the next, which is from March 4th has Walky and Lucy in a different outfit than they wore today. Probably to avoid spoiling all this hot nonsense.
So if you’re like me and want to skip out on the Joyce Gets Peer Pressured Into Semi-Public Masturbation For ‘Her Own Good’ Arc(tm), March 4th seems a good time to hold out until, as that seems like near the beginning of tomorrow’s arc.
I’m leaning towards something like that too. Definitely won’t be reading the comments the next few days, since shippers are going to be excited about Dorothy ‘fixing’ Joyce by making her cum. or the commenters who are adamant that pressuring someone into a sexual encounter counts as consent.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/1/24/ to go straight to tomorrow’s strip, if you’re going to do a reading buffer. Next chapter ‘probably’ starts on Feb 14th: https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1588367439297130496
Big same. I’m going to keep an eye on it, but if it resolves in some kind of twee way instead of Dorothy getting reality-checked into the metaphorical boards I’m going to be very disappointed.
Yes Dorothy, Joyce is TOTALLY in the wrong for feeling awkward about this.
Dorothy: this is completely sex positive and non shameful and my plan is flawless. Joyce stop telling people I dont want anyone to know about this lesson I insisted on doing in public!
feel like you should have offered that as an option in the first place dorothy
can’t wait to find out who walks in on them
Twenty dollars says it’s Becky. (I’m just kidding about the double sawbuck.)
For Carla, Joyce and Dorothy must look like the player 1 and player 2 options for a video game. Specifically a college themed 2D beat ‘em up, probably called Super Dumb Sisters.
This actually sounds like it could be a hilariously fun game.
Well, if I could find the talent for it, I might be able to make a DoA beat ’em up ala Castle Crashers one of these days
I’d totally play an old-school arcade beat-em-up like Golden Axe or Charlie Murder, if it featured the cast of this comic.
Now is Carla really that tall or is she wearing her stupid wheels inside again
Wheels I think. Wait how tall is Carla supposed to be?
Carla is the standard by which all others should be judged. How tall is Joyce? About 0.8 Carlas. The Statue of Liberty? Several Carlas.
Even without wheels she’d tower over those two
Unless I’m misremembering something, I think the only time we’ve ever seen her without them was after Mary ruined a pair, but I think that was very temporary. I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept in them.
I personally would count the skates as part of her height, because it’s funnier that way.
and
I’m assuming wheels just because it’d make for a better smooth noping out of there in the last panel.
She is a tiny bit taller than Sarah. https://www.dumbingofage.com/jesuschrist/
*she might be wearing skates in that strip, she was wearing them not too much earlier
Yes, probably both, Carla is tall, Carla is wearing her rollerskates inside again.
How dare you, Carla-sama’s wheels are M A G N I F I C E N T
Carla’s F-bomb tanktop is Good
Carla has the right idea
Both Dorothy and Carla have completely appropriate reactions here. At least Carla didn’t start out by teasing Joyce and making it worse.
Still think there’s more to Dorothy’s aversion to Joe.
I’m calling Joe banged a close friend and Dotty was forced to choose between Danny or the other friend.
I don’t think Dorothy should be at all surprised by Joyce not being able to lie. This should really have Dorothy double thinking her plan and asking ” if I have to expect Joyce to lie about what we are doing in public is this plan actually a good idea?”
To make Carla nope out is truly a spectacle
She’s just going to head on over to hang out at Lucy’s where there’s no uncomfortable drama happening.
PLEASE. As though Carla would go and hang out with NERDS. Obviously, she’s going to go find her cool friend Sal, and—hey, wait a minute, Sal, what’s this ukulele nerd doing in here making out with you?! D:<
Since Carla knows Joyce and Dotty are the same person, this must mean one of them crossed over from the Evil Parallel Universe, and Carla is trying to recall the relevant contingency plan.
Is this what consent looks like, Dorothy?
I don’t think this looks like consent.
Maybe Joyce is gonna run to Joe at the last minute and copulate him just to spite Dorothy.
I can’t help but think that, for better or for worse, Dorothy’s plan is gonna backfire (:o)
Nope. That is not what consent looks like. Turning up after being told to leave Joyce alone about sexual stuff and telling her that they were going to jill off rather than requesting consent or discussing it at all, teasing about any reluctance, and only belatedly suggesting that Joyce can back out if she wants to reeks heavily of coercion.
I’m sure there will be people in the comments dead certain that this is what consent looks like and we’re all being horrible jerks to Dorothy, which is why I’m just leaving this comment here and ignoring the comments section for the rest of the day.
Only so many times I can read people defending obvious overstepping as “okay” because “Joyce NEEDS to learn” whether she wants to, or not.
Yeah Joyce has a history of going along with things that makes her uncomfortable because Dorothy wouldn’t take no for an answer and she waited until they were actually leaving the room to say we can turn back when the time to ask this was at the beginning.
It’s not what consent looks like but I think this is more for humor. Kind of like Dina assaulting people while shouting “hompk” a few storylines back. Funny?Yes. Appropriate? No.
I do not know, does not seem like a topic to make jokes about to me.
I just know that this whole interaction has made me really uncomfortable and also dislike Dorothy. And I never really disliked her before, she did stuff I did not agree with but nothing like this..
“Appropriate? No.” is coercion. It places the reader in 2nd Person. Dictate facts to the reader. It’s a ride.
*Nobody suspects a thing*
Don’t be suspicious, Don’t be SUSPICIOUS!- https://youtu.be/TyEBeHvNJvE
Put that face away, Dorothy. You dragged Joyce into these shenanigans yourself.
Dorothy really didn’t think this plan through, aside from her talking Joyce into something she doesn’t seem okey with at all what exactly did Dorothy expect taking someone who can’t lie out to a public place to learn about sex? It seems Dorothy was so hung up on finding a way to get Joyce away from Joe while telling herself she’s being sexually progressive she completely overlooked public spaces aren’t private class rooms.
Somehow, “No, no. This is fine” does not really read as enthusiastic consent to me. Nor does acknowledging that Joyce doesn’t “have” to do this take away from the inappropriateness of Dorothy asserting that this is something she’s “going” to do. Obviously Joyce may feel differently than I would in her shoes, but Dorothy is still going about this in a really risky way.
I think there’s probably times where ppl are a bit more apathetic and consenting or just someone indulging their partner even if they don’t have much of a libido themselves or so , like any other activity though even if some ppl need a little push to get outta their comfort zone a bit it might’ve been better for dorothy to hand her charts/a powerpoint presentation versus going to the laundry room for a potential/hands on demonstration
Sure, there are probably times like that, but Dorothy isn’t Joyce’s partner, she’s her friend who Joyce just yelled at for interfering in her sex life in their last interaction. In this situation, I think more explicit consent is called for. But I agree, a powerpoint situation would have made infinitely more sense.
This is why I need logistics. I’m sure the details are the big payoff, but it’s unclear what Dorothy plans. I’m sure she’s not planning on forcing Joyce to masturbate right? People seem to think they’re gonna sit on some washing machines, but is that really teaching Joyce anything? Where does that even fall in the consent/coercion debate?
Obviously they’re gonna fist each other while dangling by their ankles from the ceiling , like straight chicks do all the time.
No its not. And Dorothy should know Joyce’s lying patterns by now to know her saying something is fine while clearly hesitating is the opposite of fine. Becky’s already observed Joyce can’t lie to save her life and Dorothy is being willfully ignorant to not acknowledge this, And maybe in denial last panel because Joyce saying something like that in public is exactly the situation Dorothy set them both up for with this plan she’s got no business giving Joyce the side eye.
Did Ruth not give them the “enthusiastic consent” lecture during orientation? We got it 25+ years ago at my college…
She did nothing of the sort.
I was not expecting Joyce to go along with this, and now I’m so curious what her motives are. Generalized horniness? Feelings for Dorothy specifically? Peer pressure? Some combination of the former? Something else entirely?
I read this more as, Joyce’s friends have been encouraging her to learn more about sex and mastmasturbation. She realizes that they might have a good point so she is apprehensive but willing to try. However, because it is Joyce, she can’t help but panick.
Masturbation*
Apparently even with auto-correct on my typing sucks.
Combination of horniness and feelings for Dorothy. Horny feelings for Dorothy, basically. The face she was making last strip sure looked like her horny face.
Sometimes you just gets swept up in the moment but hopefully she doesn’t have some kinda breakdown/panic attack five mins in or so
This, I think. But I’m still holding out for “Joyce digs her heels in and says ‘not until you tell me why this is so important to you!'”
When she was talking to Becky, she was saying how she wish she didn’t have sexual hang-ups, more or less. And she actually said the word “sex”, instead of “hanky panky”. So that and peer pressure.
We have been privy to her sexual fantasies and sex dreams, and it’s always been guys.
This. I get the shipping brain, but Joyce has said flat-out she’s straight and all her outright sexual stuff has been pointed at dudes. (The stuff that gets pointed to as lady-oriented is about comfort, not horny.)
*sidle sidle sidle*
*fast retreating footsteps*
Don’t worry, the cast from Menage a 3 will show up and make everything bet…
Well, okay, if anyone from MA3 showed up it would make everything infinitely worse.
I think the only “normal” person from there that wouldn’t cause too much of a drama hurricane would maybe be Jung lol
So you do see two of them
A washer still feels inane, how about a vibrator?
Literally earlier today I was explaining the ship magnets on my fridge and describing why this particularly pair won’t actually happen, so I honestly can’t remember the last time I laughed this loudly at a comic strip. One of my housemates actually wanted to know what the fuck was going on. xD
If they stops because another stupid thing, I swear I’ll stab everything.
What if there’s a twist where she copulates Joe? XD
Listen Dorothy I dunno what that look is about, you really did bring this upon yourself.
I adore Carla. She’s supreme.
I mean, did that shirt of hers always have spaghetti straps?
Carla is perfection.
Finally, more comments about Carla, and how awesome she is (it’s what she would want after all).
I just put 2 and 2 together how theyre gonna learn to masturbate and also do laundry
I believe there used to be a pin-up gallery that showed pretty much how this is going to go down, except Sarah was there instead of Dorothy (from memory).
Yeah, a lot of people seem to think that Dorothy is literally going to jill-off in front of Joyce, when I’m 99.999% sure she’s just gonna show Joyce the wonders of a washing machine on a high spin cycle.
Dorothy is going to fix Joyce with a badly-loaded washing machine.
In a public washroom? Why?
Because funny metal cube go brrrrrr when you hit the button and also Dorothy has an exhibitionism kink.
Honestly, Dorothy’s cardinal sin here is that this is an insanely cheap first date. Show some class, Dotty.
Yeah, there’s a lot of people talking about how this is basically SA, and like… It’s a washing machine. They’re gonna load it poorly and sit on them for an hour. This is literally less intimate than Joyce riding on the back of Sal’s motorcycle.
Anyone else note an artistic change again, especially prominent in this strip, toward a thinner depiction of characters? About 2 years ago (when the timeskip happened) there was a deliberate artistic shift, and this feels like a gradual reversion.
I think it’s mostly down to characters looking heavier with winter clothing on, which they’ve been wearing a lot more than they did pre-timeskip, than without it as seen here. Plus, Dorothy’s always been slimmer than most characters, and Carla’s tall which makes her look skinnier by default.
Carla: “Aight so I don’t like sex details and I have a bad track record with glasses girls banging on my watch, so Imma head out. You guys don’t have a drinking problem, right? Please don’t have a drinking problem. Cool. Peace.”
I’m kinda surprised Joyce is going along with Dorothy’s plan. Didn’t seem like she would be ok with this, since she still seems to have a lot of hang-ups about sex stuff even after becoming an atheist.
Hah, I don’t think Dorothy has a right to be mad about this one since she basically announced the same to Joyce a couple pages ago
She doesn’t. That’s one of the many problems with dorothys plan, she’s thinking in terms of ” I think this will make Joyce stop pursuing Joe and make me sex positive take that roz” not how is this in practice going to make Joyce feel? And do I really want to put Joyce in a situation where she’s clearly uncomfortable and has to lie?” It’s following the same pattern as the pharmacy trip except this time dorothy herself seems ashamed of people knowing what she’s about to do with Joyce.
I am always on board for the ride of weird character decisions. I watched Voyager man, you can’t phase me!
Dammit, now you’ve spoiled the part where Dorothy and Joyce turn into newts and hatch like five thousand eggs together
Oh, when do we get to the part where Sal and Amber get fused together into Samber and Joyce has to decide if she should leave them be or divide them up again?
Samber had it coming, Joyceway did nothing wrong.
Alright FINE I’m going to watch Voyager damn you internet
I was happy with rewatching DS9 for the 5th time but no I’ll do it
It gets a lot better after Seven joins the crew.
Just remember they couldn’t make too much visible progress between episodes, because UPN wanted to be able to run repeats on shuffle and have it still make sense.
So the completely predictable outcome of this is it making Joyce more likely to want to bone Joe right?
Yeah. But who knows really? When you expect Demon Lord Willis to zig, he zags!
Knew it, I AM so tired I am hallucinating!
Alright, guess once I’ve had good sleep instead of insomnia episodes, I’ll reread these and find out this is all a bizarre
adventurefever dreamNo human, I can assure you your senses do NOT deceive you here
If Carla loans Joyce her F-bomb short, maybe Joyce will be able to break through her mental block and flip people off
yeah dotty, can’t you see joyce is super okay with this?
I think we’re going to chalk this one up to Dorothy doing the wrong thing, for the right reasons.
Are there better ways to go about this? Most definitely.
Can this still a good learning experience for Joyce(despite the weirdness)? I’m going to hazard a yes; if only because knowing how to safely masturbate is important in my eyes.
While I don’t agree with all of Dorothy’s actions or how she is handling this, I do believe she has her heart in the right place and wants to help. Hopefully this helps Joyce, giving her more sex positive ideas, and hopefully Dorothy will apologize for her “aggressive” helping after this is all done.
How much of this wanting to help and how much is trying to regain lost control?
I think saying she wants to control Joyce is a very uncharitable way of looking at it. She wants to ‘solve problems’ and (from her perspective reasonable interpretation of ) the situation of ‘Joyce is sexually repressed, and it leads to her making bad decisions like getting involved with a misogynist dickbag’
Now, would this be better if she actually was more honest and less ‘drop the surprise bomb’ on Joyce? Yeah. But Dorothy has her flaws. I still like the dork.
Yeah, I really don’t see the “control” take on it. It can certainly work out that way and that can be a part of Joyce’s frustration with her, but I don’t see it in Dorothy’s intentions.
Personally I’m inclined to be uncharitable to Dorothy these days, since she started acting like she’s Joyce’s overbearing mom figure.
Not saying specifically control Joyce, though there is a bit of that, but more regaining control over her life which seems to be unravelling a bit at the moment
Graceful as a swan, Joyce.
I can only assume that Carla’s roller blades have a backup feature for just such occasions, and she smoothly rolls out of the frame without making any other movement.
Please, PLEASE make it so that it emits that sound you get in big vehicles when they reverse.
“And they all moved away from me on the bench, there…”
“Until I said, ‘and creating a nuisance'” because Carla’s all on board with that.
Your secret is now public knowledge.
That would be assuming that Carla knew their names…
Ah yes, Carla’s complete disinterest in anyone that isn’t her, their only defence… and a good one at that.
What’s puzzling her is the nature of their game.
Has there ever been before, a moment that Carla just speachless… exited on the left?
This feels really earned…lol
The weirdest part is, Carla’s not even wearing her skates
She has RuTech™ Hammerspace Skates.
how can we tell she’s not wearing her skates? maybe she’s slowly wheeling backwards
Well, to be fair, I’m just making stuff up because I like the image of her sliding across the floor in socks, powered by the extremely rare burst of awkwardness.
Smart move, Carla.
Also, what does her shirt mean?
It is an F bomb.
Carla is quickly processing all the opportunities opened by the idea of having sex with an identical clone of herself.
Unlikely. Carla is asexual and sex-repulsed.
I seem to recall her being attracted to Malaya though? (Until Malaya hooked up with Joe.)
Attraction doesn’t mean you want to have sex.
Sure helps, though.
That was a particularly sexual, if kinky, expression of attraction though.
I guess domination and humiliation without actual sex is a kink, but I don’t know if it fits into the usual understanding of sex-repulsed ace.
Not more unlikely than finding an exact version of herself.
*headshake* extroverts
You kinda set yourself up for this, Dorothy
Dorothy in the last panel is annoying the hell out of me. You cornered an incredibly repressed girl and completely unprompted told her that you’ll teach her to do something she thought as taboo until recently; but you’re annoyed she’s nervous and babbles something inappropriate? if you can’t handle this, you can’t handle teaching her Dorothy
Since I’m generally rather pedantic (sorry), I can’t help but speak up. When someone mentions “Stage right” it means “Right as seen from the stage”, so left from the audience point of view. Carla here is exiting stage left.
Ah, so the opposite of baseball, where right field is from the batter’s POV, not the fielders! (Took me way too long to learn that)
Like Snagglepuss.
Carla’s skates are making a truck-backing-up reverse alarm beep in that last panel.
Yeah.
No.
Think I’ll put this story on the backburner for now.
TMI for Carla. Now that Joyce and Dorothy know her weakness, she should destroy them! But Carla now knows a secret about them too… I’m sure they can agree and pretend this never happened.
Well, Carla is going to have a field day, with this. How long do you think it will take Carla, to spread the rumor, that Dorothy and Joyce, snuck off, to smash?
You know what? I’ll kick the beehive and say I think Dorothy’s doing okay here. Not perfect — far from it — but not nearly as badly as most people are making it out to be. Her initial proposition to Joyce was definitely inappropriately forceful, especially following Joyce’s expressed desire for everyone to butt out of her sex life. That crossed the line into harassment, which is distinctly skeevy, even though it almost certainly wasn’t intended to be.
But at this point, she’s doing fine. She’s making sure she has consent — not enthusiastic consent, sure, but also informed and not coerced. Enthusiastic consent from your sexual partners is, of course, the ideal, but at this point Joyce has enough hangups that may legitimately be impossible for her. You can make the argument that it’s not ‘real’ consent until it’s enthusiastic, but that’s a big catch-22 there, as Joyce is unlikely to be able to give enthusiastic consent until she’s more comfortable with sex, which she’s unlikely to get if she can’t engage in any sexual activity without giving enthusiastic consent! At a certain point, you have to trust what your prospective sexual partner is saying rather than deciding for them that their level of consent isn’t enough. If you aren’t comfortable unless they’re enthusiastic, you should absolutely shut it down, but for your own sake, not because of your partner.
Joyce is nervous, because of course she is, but she is consenting. Provided Dorothy continues to check on that at various stages and make sure Joyce is still okay with things at the current level, nothing immoral is happening here. Imperfect, yes, but what isn’t? Sex is messy.
Again, this is why I think Roz would be a better choice for this. Dorothy is not doing this badly, just clumsily. Always being an open advocate for body autonomy, and sexual freedom, Roz would better know how to approach the subject of, “sexual self-gratification”, aka, “masturbating”. She would be upfront, and forthright, from the get go; this would not make Joyce any less uncomfortable, but at least she would have a better grasp of what she would be getting into, which would really help her transition into a more complete sexual being. To compare Dororthy teaching Joyce how to masturbate, when Roz is available, is like me teaching somebody how to drive, when there is a pro stunt driver, right next door.
I’m sorry, but it’s ridiculous to suggest that having a sexual experience is the most successful way to get comfortable with sex. I know US sex ed is crap, especially when it comes to vaginal stimulation and female/femme/afab pleasure, but there are plenty of resources available, both off- and online, that Dorothy could have explored or presented to Joyce. What we’re dealing with here is a complex trauma, and to say that that Joyce is “unlikely” to break through that trauma without having a sexual experience is effectively to say that exposure therapy is the most reasonable treatment. It’s not, and even if it was, it’s not Dorothy’s place to administer such a treatment; she’s not a professional, and she didn’t present Joyce with other options.
That brings me to my second point, about Joyce being “informed and not coerced.” Like I said above, she wasn’t informed because she wasn’t offered any other options or resources; going to the laundry room to learn how to masturbate was presented as what she was going to be doing. Part of the definition of coercion is using authority to compel somebody to do something without regard for their desire. Dorothy coming to Joyce and saying “we’re doing this,” rather than presenting her with options, is an act of authority, especially considering how Joyce was raised to understand that dissent is met with punishment. So, frankly, yes, she was coerced into doing this, and wasn’t informed of alternatives. That she’s clearly uncomfortable makes it all the more unacceptable that Dorothy is pushing forward at all.
To add, a key component of exposure therapy is that it occurs in a safe, controlled environment. A dormitory laundry room is neither safe nor controlled. It’s a public space, it’s unhygienic, and I doubt any sex educator worth their salt would endorse introducing someone to sexual stimulation via laundry machine. So, really, nothing about what Dorothy is doing right now is remotely “all right”
Dorothy is under no obligation to do things in the perfect way, or present Joyce with options. She doesn’t have any authority over Joyce. Saying “this is a thing we’re doing” does not compel Joyce to do the thing, especially when it’s followed (however belatedly) by an explicit “if you’re okay with it”. Joyce is allowed to say no, and capable of saying no (we’ve seen her stand up to Dorothy before). Saying a thing as a statement of fact does not somehow compel other people to act as such.
As for getting more comfortable with sex, of course there’s other ways. But there’s two things about that. First, the best course of action isn’t the only one people can take. Is Dorothy’s plan the best one? No. Does that make it immoral or inappropriate? Not necessarily.
Secondly, would these other methods ever make it so Joyce wasn’t nervous her first time with a real person? I’m not sure. And it’s absurd to suggest (as some people have) that nervousness invalidates consent. Tempers, sure — you’ll want to double-check if someone seems unsure — but if Joyce says she’s down despite that the responsibility isn’t on Dorothy to second (and third, and fourth…) guess that she’s lying.
Okay thanks. I’ve been SA’d before so like… I actually kinda needed someone to be trustworthy and patient while I acted super nervous and kind of ashamed and like… Crying for a bit before wanting to get back to it, etc. You know??
CARLAPOSTING: Is anyone, like me, a huge fan of Penny “SnapCube” Parker and also can absolutely hear her as Carla’s voice actor?
Because in her LPs Penny does this “byyyyyeeeee!” that fucking sends me and I feel like Carla is doing that rn.
I’ve been saying this for years.
Then you have been Extremely Correct for years.
Thank you both! Now I can find her a voice artist!
Funny enough, Ms. Parker’s girlfriend Dollip was doing quick little $5 voice work commissions on stream, the other night. I paid her to say a line from Shadowbringers in her Maximillion Pegasus voice.
That’s not strictly related, but when else would I have a tangential opportunity to mention it?
You think she could do Ms. Parker’s voice too? Even if not, I’m always looking for voice artists for the fan games, so shoot me a link, please!
I think it might be weird to try commissioning somebody to do a voice impression of their romantic partner? Maybe? They did get confused for each other in VODs a lot, a while back. I’m not actually sure about the ethics there. Penny herself streams regularly on Twitch under the name Sajuuk-Khar mentioned, so you might have better luck that way. I don’t really know much about her personal preferences for that sorta thing though, so please don’t quote me on any of this.
Alright, even if she can’t do Carla for the reason mentioned, still more characters I intend to voice, so very much splendid!
This is what you get, for ignoring her clear signal to leave her the hell alone about it, Dorothy.
It was a small load. They did it by hand.
I’ve heard it requires the “delicates” setting.
I cannot wait for this train wreck to unfold
Me too! Also, i didn’t know you were also a game dev!
This doesn’t look like consent to me. This looks like a socially awkward person getting bullied into doing something they don’t actually want to do by a person they ostensibly trust to make good decisions.
And I’m starting to actively hate Dorothy for it. She’s been incredibly un-self-aware about how she’s been acting since the time skip.
oh my god, please have the argument! Joyce and Dorothy are going to have an argument about this. Like Joyce and Becky needed an argument to know where they stand, these two need that too. The only question is whether they have it before things break.
The whole damn floor already thinks you two are banging, kids. (…that is a very important comma.)
I’ve been avoiding the comments section for the past three days because I know if I scroll up I’m going to see a dumpster fire.
But god damn for the first time do I relate with the people who get really angry with these characters. Like holy shit Dorothy, what the fuck.
If you’ve been uncomfortable/mad with Dorothy, then it’s only a small trash fire. Most folks seem to be in the “this is crossing SO many lines” camp
This strip specifically or just the whole arc? Dorothy barely said anything here.
The whole arc, really.
Joe: “THREESOME!”
Dorothy: “Fine! Ok, Fine! You’ve been begging for this for YEARS, Joe!”
Joyce: “Yes. Yes, this is fine. I’m fine. Yeah, let’s do this.”
Joe: “…t-threesome?”
Dorothy: “Take off your clothes and get on the bed, Joe. Don’t make Joyce do it.”
That implies that Joe wanted to have a threesome with Danny.
How so?
If he’d been begging Dorothy for a threesome for years, she would have been dating Danny for most of it.
My impression was that “Threesome” was a nervous tick of Joe’s that was more of a General Request of the Public than a Personal One. He wants Sex like a Capitalist wants Money. Compounded. Dorothy would have this reading on Joe refined over the years. At first, she may have thought he was trying to be too much like his father, or maybe it was a nervous condition. But, after a certain amount of time, her final judgement was that Joe was a Sexual Predator that Dehumanized Women as Commodities. “Sex” to him could come from anywhere, in any quantity, with nameless Women. At some point she gave up trying to fix him and just avoided him. I think that’s wrong, though. Joe has quirks including crass sexual humor, which includes spewing “THREESOME?!” like a Pokemon to lighten a mood.
That last panel is now my favourite (non-slipshine) of anything Willis has ever done.
Joyce is totally into Dorothy :3
I want the world to know I’m dead, and Willis killed me. AVENGE MEEEEEE
If Willis killed you, this is not the correct place to ask for vengeance.
Wow, Joyce managed to make Carla back away. Impressive.
I wonder what happens when a person goes Super Saiyan when they are already Blonde? Super Joyce is breaking through, and she is over 9000.
Well that’s regular blonde, Super Saiyan turns the hair golden blonde, and I’ll say, it looks REALLY good on Joyce!
https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/thewellerman/super-saiyan-joyce
The funny thing is that the entire dorm would probably assume Joyce means soemthing like DOrothy teaching her to use tampons or something.
Either that or they would assume that Joyce and Dorothy had already been … intimate together
Joyce(With her hands between her legs): “Han-ky Pan-ky, Pump-kin-Pie!”
Joyce(With her legs around Joe): “Han-ky Pan-Ky, Pump-kin-Pie!”
Meanwhile, Dorothy is hiding behind the headboard, glaring like a cat in the dark.
Hey, sorry for the off-topic are new posters just not getting confirmed anymore? I really want to change my name, but none of my Lorelei posts seem to ever get confirmed. I swear I’m not a bot, all I’m posting is trash shipping takes!
If I was Programming Bots, I would have them insist they are not bots. I would also make sure they pushed a narrative of being non-threatening. My understanding is that Accounts here are Governed by Gravatar and Willis’ Personal Choices.
I don’t think the issue is consent here since Joyce certainly has the ability to say no (and in fact, noping out of things she doesn’t want to do with friends is something that Joyce does often and clearly). It does seem like the whole strident tone Dorothy is taking isn’t super helpful, and it rubs me the wrong way that she’s not explaining any of this or asking whether Joyce is ok with it, because while she’s not coercing Joyce into doing it, she’s definitely not acting very careful of her friend’s feelings. So yeah, idk, 2/5 stars, Dorothy, your approach could use some work. But who knows, it could also end up going great.
I know it’s tomorrow’s strip already I’m just still hella concerned about Dorothy’s scowl at Joyce for not keeping this secret.