Discussion (122) ¬
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net ⋅ 9h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social ⋅ 1dDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social ⋅ 22d
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“ever have an out-of-body experience in your own body”
actually yes D=
ow my head
Whoa. TMI AG.
I’m nt actually sure where we’re going.
Don’t worry, when you talk about other people’s masturbation habit it’s just gossip.
Man, Becky’s side is a disaster as usual
Hey put some respect on the Pile of Lesbos.
it’s nice to see she got more clothes to her name but come on, closets exists
“YES AND I BURST OUT OF THEM” …okay then
That is exactly a Becky response.
Why not? it’s got everything else on it.
It’s probably clean clothes. No clothes added for two weeks https://www.dumbingofage.com/land/
My freshman roommate had a pile of clothes to land on when jumping down from the top bunk.
Becky’s really letting that pile pile
Someone’s sleeping in it, aren’t they? XD
Dumbing of Age Book 15: You Ever Have a Headmate Who Masturbates Herself to Sleep, and You Wake Up And — Oh Hey — That’s Your Mess Now?
Dumbing of Age Book 15, Second Edition: It Smells Nice and the Sheets Are Clean
Possibly might work better as a title for a slipshine. Or could be both!
I was thinking just the “Oh Hey — That’s Your Mess Now?” part
Maybe add back in the “You Wake Up And”, makes it more directly past you leaving present you a mess (even if past you is alt-you)
AG isn’t doing The Voice anymore?
Yeah, she hasn’t been doing it for a while.
A long while.
Based on the blush rule, I think that’s Amber
Per the tags, it’s both of them. Thus the transparent outline in the last panel. They’re talking to each other, AG using the Voice, Amber not.
The Voice has always been a disguise. Both Amber and Amazi-Girl have used in costume and not used it out of costume. Since she’s not going out in costume any more, I assume she’s not bothering at all.
The voice was only ever a thing she started doing to obfuscate her identity while in costume, and she hasn’t been doing any crime-fighting for several months now so there hasn’t been any real reason to keep it up.
It’s times like these that I wonder if Amazi-Girl has a different vocal cadence than Amber. Not like when she puts on her Batman voice, but does she speak differently when at a regular tone. More confident? Maybe she doesn’t swear as much? A little less nasally? I’m just spit balling here. It would be interesting if there were other tells than just no blush, and usually no glasses, even if she can do a perfect Amber impression.
Amazi-Girl talks like Vsauce Michael, Amber talks like Vinesauce Joel.
Who?
One explains things, the other says “Grand Dad” and blows up computers.
It sounds to me like she does. I mean, given that it’s all in a written context.
Amber’s pretty high up on the F-bomb scoreboard. Amazi-Girl isn’t on it at all.
First, please accept my apology as i clicked ‘report’ when meaning to hit reply.
Second, I was going to ask if you’ve got the url and/or know if that is documented on the wiki. Then realized I could just google both points.
. Evidently it’s one of those days.
You could just click on my name.
Likely – I have a plural friend and it’s easier to tell the difference between the two of them. Even if one of them didn’t speak in a much higher tone, she also talks a fair bit faster and giggles way more than he does.
It’s harder to tell in text, though.
Amazigirl is three inches taller than Amber and, though she doesn’t do it, you get the distinct impression her hands are on her hips while she’s talking.
Amber… Well, we now know where her hands were.
Someone’s probably into that.
Amazi-Girl definitely isn’t, though, and I feel sorry for her.
Amber/Amazi-girl makes me feel better about my own mental illness; I might deal with another person in my head, but he doesn’t take over except when he wants to hurt me.
That being said it still sucks just not as bad as it could be.
gross
I know I’d kill my headmates if they did that =/
Figuritively – Literally would kiiinda end me too
I wonder what that’s like,
Like, when an alter touches themselves to sleep.
Is the other (not behind the wheel), aware that it’s happening?
Or is it more like a wet dream?
I’m told (an acquaintance is “plural” and another is “system”) it can vary. Sometimes the others know; sometimes they don’t.
it varies from person to person.
most of the time we’re all connected in some manner to the body here but you can be shut off from the senses and memories.
In our experience it’s similar to trying to have sex in a tiny apartment with thin walls and roommates, or in other forms of forced close quarters: Everyone not involved just kind of averts their focus and pretends it isn’t happening in order to give whoever is participating privacy.
It’s been five panels already. I’m starting to think the threesome isn’t gonna happen.
For all we know it’s *already* happened XD
This is now a race to see who will have the threesome/orgy first. Will it be Walky or Joyce who somehow pull off a threesome? Weirdly Dorothy has potential to be in both. Although in a bit of twin synergy, Walky and Sal seem to share the same predilection toward monogamy, so maybe Walky wouldn’t be up for it.
Burying the ledge? What, exactly, was Amber masturbating to? Waiting her turn with Walky whilst watching?
*sigh*
‘lede’, not ‘ledge’ – screw you, autocorrect!
Nah. Amber was definitely hot last night at the idea of Sal, Danny, Ethan, and Asher all settling their differences the sexy way. She was likely brain storming the imminent fiction.
I don’t think she’s saying Amber masturbated to sleep last night, just that AG has to deal with the aftermath every mornin.
Yeah, Amber passed out drunk and barfy last not. She’s comparing it to that, not saying she masturbated last night.
Walky seems like he would be down for a polycule with Dorothy and Amber, given that he was in favor of one with Lucy and Amber.
My Current favorite ship is Amber/Dorothy(/Walky). The big question for me is how straight is Amber? (I remember Dorothy said she was a Zero Kinsey scale, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t. Ace people do it.)
Sources:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/windmill/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/kinsey/
There’s been a lot of evidence — I’m talking horse dream levels of evidence here — that Dorothy’s statement that her evaluation could change was prescient, at least when it comes to Joyce. It remains to be seen when and if that attraction will be acknowledged consciously, and whether it might apply to other girls or if Joyce is an exception to the rule. It’s definitely in the realm of possibility on Dorothy’s end though.
Other commenters have mentioned some notably sapphic responses from Amber and AG in the past, though I haven’t tracked down the sources for those personally. Assuming they’re correct, though, a throuple is not out of the realm of possibility.
And, of course, not all polycules are throuples. They could both date Walky without having any interest in each other. Plurality adds an extra wrinkle too, since Amber *or* AG could be involved without necessarily including the other. It’s hard to tell how separate they want to keep things — dating Danny they tried to keep a delineation there but I’m not sure how much of that was for secret identity purposes.
AG and Amber seem pretty stalwart on dating separately, which honestly is probably because they don’t really like being conflated with each other (or at the very least, AG doesn’t seem to like sharing with Amber – Amber might be more flexible on that). Only AG dated Danny and only Amber dated Walky.
The question there is how much of that is because of their sincere desires to date separately, and how much was their mental anguish and toxic attitudes towards each other as a whole. That’s been more resolved now, and even if it’d be valid for them to still hold on to dating separately, that might have just been a byproduct.
Dating Danny was weird because they weren’t really being written as a system when that started, so both of them were involved at the start.
With Walky though, it was only Amber and at first, AG didn’t even know about it.
I realize that the polycules don’t have to be throuples, although it probably helps if the three of them are friends.
But I personally ship Dorothy and Amber. Or maybe whatever the equivalent to shipping is for a queer-platonic relationship. I think that they’d be good influences on each other.
A bit of twinergy, if you will.
Gotta build up to it. You can’t just come in and be all “We gon’ bang now!” It lacks subtlety and is too porny. It needs to happen naturally.
Wait: Amber is still sleeping…
I mean I don’t think it would be a threesome. It would probably be a foursome.
Who else are we expecting to show up, here? Amber can wait her damn turn with the body, Amazi-Girl gets this one.
I know Amber has had increasingly fewer fucks to give, but I feel like even she would have been less inclined to be THAT graphic in front of peoplem, probably especially Walky.
Of course, Amazi-Girl was never into Walky, so it probably is something she really doesn’t care about, regardless. That did always amuse me, that both Amber and Amazi-Girl were attracted to Danny, but only the former was impressed with Walky.
Amazi-Girl isn’t consumed by self-loathing. A lot of Amber’s initial draw to Walky was their mutual self-hatred.
omg are getting an Amazi-Girl that needs to act like a normal person?
Are getting Literal Character Development?
If by “normal” you mean “not a superhero”, then yes.
With any hope she won’t eventually log into a billionaire’s supercomputer to discover the truth about oversimplified logos XD
TO be fair, AG already acts more like a normal person that Amber most of the time.
“You know that phrase about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes? Ambers squelch. I had to make my costume just to have something decent to wear.”
Yes
… May wanna run your sheets through the laundry a few times, Dorothy. Ew.
Least she knows how to occupy herself while she waits for them to dry.
Amber probably didn’t do that last night, on account of drunk barfing. But sounds like someone should run _Amber’s_ sheets through the laundry. While they still bend.
Sounds like she’s revelling in the experience of waking up in a clean bed because it’s a rare occurrence for her
She said the sheets are clean, so that probably didn’t happen this time.
(But yeah, wash your sheets regularly, people!)
I mean, I’m not gonna lie. Past-Nothri is definitely an asshole, leaving me all sorts of messes to clean up. But on the other hand, Future Nothri is amazing and always happy to receive more work from present me. So it all balances out.
mr. david willis i think this might be the best punchline you’ve ever written, ever
Press F … for Amber?
We gotta get Amazi-Girl a snappier name.
Amethyst.
Maise?
Jessica.
I rescind my suggestion and second this one instead.
I gotta ask: is this an accidental or intentional Heroes reference?
永字
So it’s really AG who’s awake, and speaking like a normal person rather than doing a Batman voice. Interesting.
That has been the case since the time skip.
The voice has always been part of their disguise, not part of Amazi-Girl’s identity.
(The Voice is also a good song by The Moody Blues.)
Up above I posted a link to what looks like the last strip where AG used The Voice. It was more than four years ago.
Who’d have thought that the personality created to vent anger and aggression was actually the responsible one.
Seeing Amazi-girl without her mask feels off. would be less weird if she was naked and wearing nothing but the mask.
♫ And the world shines on me today ♫
amber please use gloves
If someone goes to sleep after drunk barfing aren’t you supposed to like, leave someone with them? Or at least make sure they’re sleeping on their side? I mean I know mazi woke up on her back bc it makes for a good shot. Maybe she just rolled over
Okay, I suppose I’m old and cranky, but I don’t like the idea of using a mental disorder for laughs. Frankly, it’s always bothered me how the rest of the cast all seem to take Amber’s issues in stride.
Do you think they should be more bothered, or something?
What else are they supposed to do?
Well, I understand the concern, but I don’t think her peers are licensed therapists. I’m honestly happy to see that they make LESS of a deal of it – that the majority of her friends know at this point and accept her to the point they can both openly talk about it is really nice to see. When I was in college, I had 20+ alters trying to pretend to be one person and it was MISERABLE. Amber and Amazigirl are honestly (currently) doing better than I was, in terms of communicating with each other, being aware of each other, being able to get along / cooperate.
Also it’s one of those disorders that can get you super-institutionalized so I’m pretty happy with nobody forcing her into treatment right now.
I mean… I don’t think her existance has ever been funny except for the occasional quips in full superhero mode. It’s mostly been examined in the trauma vein. This just seams like slice of life with DID and a supportive (albeit ill equiped) network.
Well, if I were to joke about my depression and you were to tell me to not joke about it, I would probably take issue with that because it’s my brain, I’ll say speak about it how I wish. Same goes for fictional characters speaking about themselves. As long as the author isn’t actually being an asshole about it (and Willis isn’t), characters/people need to have the freedom to voice their thoughts and be honest about how they view themselves.
As far as Walky’s line goes, this is about as perfect treatment as I could personally request. Amber’s DID isn’t something he is equipped to handle so he’s going after what he can, which is some theoretical barf. He isn’t making light of her DID, he’s just not walking on egg shells around her. It’s almost as frustrating being treated like spun glass as it is being treated like I’m making up my affliction.
This exactly. I hate when people walk on eggshells around me. I mean obviously being totally dismissive of the seriousness of my health issues (not DID specifically but other mental and physical stuff) sucks too, but when people act like my life is 100% dire and get really uncomfortable even talking about it it just makes me feel like I now have to put extra work into making them feel okay about it.
I have DID, it’s really funny sometimes. Are lives aren’t dour and serious 100% of the time actually
As someone who has DID, the way AG makes jokes about her own headmates is VERY typical of inner system good-natured teasing. When you live your life sharing a mind with a bunch of other people, it’s akin to making a joke about dealing with your roommates.
I don’t have DID specifically, but as someone with both other mental health issues and physical chronic illness/disability, making jokes about it is a crucial coping mechanism. And I find this is a frequent trait among most of the chronically ill and ND people I encounter.
Basically when you’re dealing with stressful stuff, it’s kind of necessary to make light of it sometimes so you don’t exist in perpetual depression about your circumstances.
Obviously using someone’s disability or mental health issue to mock them/be mean in some way is a totally different story. Sometimes to people outside the relationship that line can be a little fuzzy. My friends definitely make jokes that might sound mean to people who don’t have my condition/aren’t familiar with how I interact with my friends, because they lack context to understand the intent or how it’ll be perceived by me.
I think also familiarity is a factor. A close friend or my husband or kid making a joke about my illness may come off differently than a total stranger.
But yeah I make more jokes about my own condition than pretty much anyone else around me, and while sometimes it’s necessary for people to treat it seriously, it’s MORE uncomfortable for me when people walk on eggshells around me, because I end up feeling like it’s now my job to comfort THEM about my own health issues.
Tl;dr it’s a complex issue so it’s kind of impossible to generalize this sort of thing as always offensive or always okay. Nothing in this particular comic rubbed me the wrong way though.
I also think there’s this tendency in our society to treat stuff that’s considered “abnormal” as always unacceptable, which ends up extending to treatment of the person themselves.
Some conditions can be cured/treated, some can’t. And some are still rough even with treatment. When you’re in a situation like that, it feels really bad to be treated like your life is just miserable (even when it sometimes is) or act like you’re not allowed to be happy or have fun until you’ve solved your unsolvable problem.
I’m so glad the term Headmate has made its way into the generalized lexicon enough that I’m seeing it in this comic. I’ve got OSDD and just… accurate representation of what it’s like to live my life represented by one of my absolutely favorite characters of this multiverse warms me up so much. Thanks David. You really do go the distance into making this world something I want to live in.
I’m not the most versed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, so for a solid minute I thought Amazi-Girl was talking about Dina.
I mean, as Dina put it, she IS a biology student.
Headmate? I take it this implies that Amber and Amazigirl, think of themselves as two distinct people? I was under the impression that Amber considered her and Amazigirl were two distinct facets of the same person? More or less “personas” rather than distinct personalities.
Yeah they are two distinct personalities. AG started as just a super hero alter hero for Amber to compartmentalize her emotions but that slowly develop into a separate identity with her own thoughts.
speaking as a post-integration DID system, the difference is fuzzy and complicated
The two have actually been at a point where they didn’t remember what the other had done last night. They weren’t sharing memories. (They are now again.)
Sometimes I get the feeling that AmaziGirl doesn’t like Amber very much. It’s not fair talking of your headmate that way with other people.
I don’t see why? It’s basically like complaining about your roommate. It doesn’t mean you particularly hate them but their habit can still annoy you.
She doesn’t. Or at best she tolerates her. Remember, when Amber got unleashed on Ryan, her quote was that she took all the bad things she felt about herself and put it in a container, so that Amazigirl could be good and just. Those bad things involve her social anxiety, rage, depression, lack of hygiene (as mentioned here) and various unresolved trauma. While Amber is obviously more than those things (like 70% of the whole person), that’s what she represents most to Amazigirl. Not surprising they don’t really get along historically, and even if they’re doing way better now, a bit of animosity isn’t suprising.
*Amber* doesn’t like Amber very much, either.
Last panel is exactly why my system has a strict “wash your hands” rule after masturbating, no matter how late at night.
Thankfully only me and one other alter ever really want to masturbate in the first place (vast majority of my alters are sex-repulsed). On the other hand, the other person is my brother so YEAH I don’t want to know about it and YEAH I’ve ‘walked in’ on him before
1) oh nooooo
2) are you the only one following the comic?
WHY HAVEN’T WE HAD MORE AMAZI-GIRL SHE’S AWESOME
Don’t you mean she is….. Amazing? *Get pelled by tomatoes).
An apple, i think that’s felony battery
Head-mate? No, not a head-mate. However, my first term in the dorms I learned to sleep with earplugs.
I would have never noticed the cheek blushes thing by myself lol