Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Angel's Orchard
Harry Bogosian
After the events in Demon's Mirror, Gerda has accepted her role as a Demon Hunter, and Cezar has traveled back to the Demon City. Demons have existed alongside humans for millennia, so things begin to return to normal. But an impossibly powerful Relic has been taken by one of the Demon Masters, and a silent war enters its final stages.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
The Messenger
indui
In a ruin-abound town cursed with bad luck, Kai and Kalla--a young boy and a fledgling dragonbird spirit--take on a quest in hopes the reward will solve all of their problems.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
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.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
Three Panel Soul
Matt Boyd, Ian McConville
It's a pretty rigid format but we keep the content loose, you know?
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
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.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
Monster's Garden
Ash G.
Champion pit fighter Kilo Monster was content to spend the rest of his days tending to his quiet garden alone... until he met a curious robot girl and her human family.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
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Cromposaurus willisii
This is a relatively small, arboreal late-Cretaceous omnivore, believed to possess incredible speed and the ability to glide short distances, likely to get around the canopy with greater ease. Decidedly not a pack hunter, given that the existing samples have a wide spread to them, but given that all samples are in pairs, it is believed that they would mate and bond for life.
The “new discovery” would be an amber sample containing a few feathers of a beautiful azure-and-sienna plumage, likely to stand out to potential mates.
Analysis of their crest structure indicates that both sexes were capable of whooping, gibbon-like calls. Enlarged visual cortex but relatively small orbits suggest a diurnal animal with excellent colour vision, which is supported by the new discovery.
There is a rather disparate sexual dimorphism within the species- the males are generally the size of the average housecat, but the females range from 1.5 to 2 times that size. The males, however, have considerably longer talons, and a “feather fan” at the tip of their tail, similar to modern peacocks. However, this seems to serve more of a practical purpose in willisii, used to adjust the general direction of their glide to retrieve carrion or fallen fruit from the forest floor.
One hypothesis is that the “feather fan” aided in a peculiar mating display in which the male demonstrated fitness by picking items of food off the ground in risky circumstances to give to the female. This might explain the association of several specimens with Protoceratops nesting sites.
I’m conflicted. I’d like to think that Dina is so stealthy that she wouldn’t make a sound in the bathroom. Which, now that I think about it is actually kinda creepy. Regardless, merely the fact that Dorothy heard someone should tell us that it was not Dina in the bathroom.
She can somehow make the sink silent, the toilet flushing silent, she even sings silently in the shower.
It freaks the other people who use the shower out. Just this series of silences that drowns out all the other noises. To the tune of Weird Al’s “Jurassic Park”.
In my dorm, lo those many years ago, it would have been the sink asking (angrily) for you to use the toilet instead.
Let’s say I learned to get picky about which sink I used to brushed my teeth, had suspicions about even that one, and didn’t set my toothbrush down anywhere in the communal facilities.
Just say there is a show and sell the T-shirts.
Remember to use all the top key words in the Amazon description and put them into 1pt type to make them look like a line separator.
On one hand, I can understand that Amber tried what she did. She wants to be left alone, and she’s already had to deal with people that did not want to leave her alone. And it cannot be overstated that she’s not having a good day.
On the other hand, I think Dorothy would have left her alone if Amber just told her. And more importantly, Dorothy don’t take kindly to someone trying to fool her; especially if they’re botching it. Ain’t nobody got time for that shit!
But be that as it may, I think that the next strip with these two will involve some honest communication, and compared to what they’ll end up talking about, this is but a minor bump that will be forgotten in about two minutes. So, let’s just wait and see, eh?
I agree that Dorothy would have just left her alone had she asked. But despite what she’s been saying, I think Amber feels like she SHOULD be left alone more than she WANTS to be left alone. She gave a very evasive answer back when Ruth asked if she wanted Joyce removed.
Regardless, I think she and Dorothy really need to talk, for both of their sakes. Things have been pretty focused on what Amber went through, but this whole thing was traumatic for Dorothy as well.
Not to be confused with its less elegant and unfortunate cousin, Cramposaurus. :p
(also I forgot to respond to somebody yesterday, so I just want to say that I don’t have paid content, I just remember the wiki saying Mary’s had several boyfriends/husbands, usually ending poorly for her each time. I’m curious to see if that applies here, because UGH peter’s as annoying as her and I don’t need *two* of her.)
I heard a rumour that for every person making a comment on how much they’re annoyed by having a male Mary introduced, Willis will make another strip with both of them.
is the rumor about every person making a comment on how much theyre annoyed by having a male mary introduced, youll make another strip with both of them true or false?
this is reminiscent of the old gag in the Nexus comic book, where supposedly every time someone wrote a letter complaining about the cliche with the hero thinking the words “This calls for Hyperspeed.”, they would put that thought balloon into a subsequent issue
Allow me to clarify. Any time you hear a rumour about Willis being evil enough to do something just to annoy his readers you can reliably ignore it. Willis does this stuff because he’s evil and that is reason enough for him.
This almost makes me want to go back to university, become a paleontologist, discover a new dinosaur, and name it Cromposaurus just to screw this comic up.
Had it actually been Dina, Dorothy would have opened the door, found the half-bath empty, then closed the door in confusion to find Dina standing behind it, already in her room.
It’s only adorable because it’s Dina. If it were Joe, for instance, it would be somewhat frightening. Robin actually does something similar to this the regular way, in the house invasion sequence, and it’s not particularly cute.
That sounds like the start of an interesting discussion on perceived intent and threat and how these intersect with observed actions to give the impression that somebody is adorable, creepy or completely lacking in respect for others’ boundaries…
I think a big part of it that makes Dina’s actions feel more benign is that she’s extremely responsive about issues relating to consent and when called out on negative behavior does a good job of responding to that and changing said behavior.
So, like, if someone was to be like “Jesus, don’t do that again”, she wouldn’t ever do that again to that person while Joe of at least a day ago or Robin would not at all respond to that request or respond by trying to argue about it.
Consent and respect for consent is huge and can be a major difference maker between behavior considered creepy versus awkward or cute.
Well, going by the “made in god’s image” phrase, I’d guess pork, (because supposedly that’s what we taste like) but better, because gods are supposed to be better than us in some way, and considering the stuff I’ve seen/read, flavor is pretty much the only option left.
From what I’ve seen it’s mechanically very interesting and a great choice for that one player who never knows what to play, but the fact that Beasts make such great allies in other-splat-dominant or mixed-splat games tends to make the “family” theme more important than their other themes, leeching a lot of the horror out of it. Not that it can’t be done well, but it’s something to keep under consideration (and some people want that sort of thing in their games, so hey). I haven’t gotten to play with it long-term, though.
There’s a text adventure game where one of the puzzles involves beating a kid in a dinosaur-naming contest. The key is, while the game’s dinosaur list includes some common dinosaurs that don’t fit the pattern, it will accept anything that ends in -saurus. I won it with the Obviouslyfakeosaurus.
I definitely share a vindictive, judgmental streak with Rachel. When my temper’s in high dudgeon I can spit moral condemnation with the best (and worst) of them, and I can hold grudges FOREVER. What’s more, I can do this in cold, calculating anger, carefully analyzing what cuts straight to the quick while also getting at the thing they did that made me righteously indignant.
…. this isn’t a good thing, and I fortunately don’t do it often.
But that said… sometimes you NEED someone who won’t put up with bullshit, who will call out hypocrisy and give reminders about why people suck when others would lower their guards.
In a way, the right grav puts me in the right mood. If I had a Rachel grav, I think I’d subconsciously feel licensed to unleash that angry side of myself with greater frequency. Walky, on the other hand, gives me license to be an irreverent, silly goofball.
So, while it’s a good mach, Grav Roulette, I’m afraid I will not be adopting the Rachel grav. Nice try. See you tomorrow.
Well the thing is, after playing around with the grav roulette when it came out I all of the sudden couldn’t post the next day from my old email address as Rukduk anymore. I blame myself for playing around with the capitalization while connected on a Wi-Fi network not 100% secure. They weren’t showing up at all, which was really weird. Didn’t matter what device I was using, my comments just wouldn’t show up. I looked through my comments as Rukduk for the last month and couldn’t find anything that could get me banned. So, not knowing the policy on using a different email address, I made a new comment ID with a variant of the old name. If it’s ok too, I will probably switch back the name to the old Rukduk name.
They weren’t even showing as awaiting moderation, so I was pretty sure it was something I’d somehow messed up on. But I couldn’t actually ask what was going on because my comments asking that wouldn’t show up. So after three days of frustration, and immense distrust of the grav roulette, here I am.
Okay, so time for me to actually react to the comic.
And my reaction is…. what the hell, Dorothy?
Actually, it’s WtH x 2.
WtH #1 is obvious. Yes, Dorothy, it’s Amber in the half-bath. It’s OBVIOUSLY Amber in the half-bath. You know it. You figured it out, because you’re smart. You’re so very very smart. You cleverly and intelligently inferred that it might be Amber, and then you cleverly invented a bit of cleverness to cleverly catch Amber out as pretending to be Dina because she didn’t want to have talk to you.
AND THEN YOU DIDN’T TAKE THE HINT.
WtH, Dorothy?
But second, and far more bizarre, is Panels 1 and 2. Dorothy’s doing homework, or maybe studying. She’s got a textbook open, and she’s writing on a piece of paper with a black sharpie. That’s got to be either homework or studying.
…..
BLACK. SHARPIE. She’s doing homework and/or taking notes with a BLACK SHARPIE.
It’s a shared bathroom, which means Amber locked the door on her side; Dorothy needed Amber to reveal herself. If Dorothy had said “I know it’s you, Amber”, Amber would have responded with “No, I’m Dina”.
More bizarre than Dorothy using a black sharpie is: Why does she put the sharpie in her mouth after hearing someone in the bathroom? Does it maker her smarter?
That’s the best sound effect I’ve ever seen.
I don’t have anything else to say, I’m really just here to get a new grav. I saw the bandwagon driving by yesterday and it looks like I’m not too late!
I like how Sarah looks grumpy about how I don’t know how to make new comments properly. Okay, this is my last one, I swear… Grav roulette is kind of addictive, huh
Having no experience with the “shared half-bath” concept outside of this comic, I’ve wondered for a while if the johnette doors have locks at all, and if so, on which sides. Anyone know? And what’s the applicable etiquette? It looks to me like people use it like a passageway, whether occupied or not.
Also, with all the dorm rooms shown, not one fridge, microwave, or coffee pot? I find that unlikely.
And yet Sal hasn’t managed to keep Joyce from playing “wakey-wakey” in the morning. Then there’s the possibility of being locked in.
Thanks for the answer. Anything to add about microwaves and dorm fridges? I saw an awful lot of them when I googled the “shared half-bath” thing.
I gather the IU facilities are considered the opposite: the communal bathrooms, the ones with the hairy shower stalls, also have toilet stalls that are the ones generally used, with the shared half-bath toilets being more for emergencies and the ultra-shy. This would explain the differing locks, I suppose.
(My other guess, a lever inside the half-bath that locks/opens BOTH doors at the same time would ensure privacy, but be difficult to engineer and maintain.)
Dorothy has probably decided that Amber has spent enough time in an isolated swirl of self-hate and has been looking for an opportunity to talk to her.
This is why it is important to state boundaries clearly. By pretending to be Dina instead of just saying: “Yes it’s me, but could we not talk right now?”, her avoidance of contact gets turned into a kind of game where she can be outsmarted. She probably-definitely doesn’t mean for this to happen, but it’s a thing that happens.
And it takes quite a bit of maturity and social awareness to not end up in some form of gameplay, as a response. I’ve been on both sides of this kind of interaction…
They did share a traumatic experience. I’d say it’s not COMPLETELY out of bounds for Dorothy to push a Amber’s boundaries a bit to check in on her – and for Dorothy to get to grips with her own situation.
That said – it IS a very delicate situation and it could easily turn out to be the wrong thing to do. Time will tell.
Dorothy is using the Sharpie for studying. Instead of highlighting the things that are important, she is blacking out the things that are not important.
There is always a big risk in pretending to be someone who the person that you’re trying to fool knows well. I’ve always found it ironic that the only person that Amber is consistently able to deceive is herself.
Should Dorothy have given Amber her privacy? Maybe. But of all people, Dorothy has the right to speak to her. She saw it, she was there. In a way, she might get what happened better than anyone else. I dunno where I read this, but I remember an axiom about how once two people have been involved in an experience of a certain magnitude, they’re bound together by it. Tldr: I think Dorothy should at least face Amber and affirm that link between them even if they don’t explicitly talk about what happened.
Reading your comment, I realize that Amber may have an extra strong wish to avoid Dorothy, of all people, precisely because she was there. Amber is deeply ashamed of her violent tendencies, and Dorothy has seen her at her worst…
As much as she wants her privacy, given her stated fears of being feared, of being the crazy stabby girl, having people want to check up her, having them show they’re not afraid of her or treating her like a freak can only help. Even if she pushes them away again.
I mean, so far she’s used everyone’s attempts at reaching out to her as a way to reinforce her self loathing. Danny is avoiding her, her mom only loves her because she loves monsters, she’s even with Ethan, she won’t even let Dina say she’s glad she’s okay, and Joyce basically got her to admit she tried to kill Ryan. I can’t see Dorothy do any better.
I think eventually Sal’s going to be the one who breaks through.
Actually I think Dorothy might be able to do something. Maybe even more now that she’s at least a bit angry – as I believe Amber probably believes she does deserve this anger.
Comic Reactions: This conversation is necessary and needed to happen at some point and is probably also the conversation Amber has most been dreading. And it makes sense.
She’s always assumed that she is a monster, her father’s daughter, and that people thinking well of her is either because they are willingly blind to that or because they haven’t seen her at her worst.
What Dorothy saw was an Amber that Amber is not proud of or happy with, an example of what she is capable of when pushed to her edge and to her internal reasoning, the proof of what a violent ragebeast she is even though she as the Amber alter has never punched down in that state and only pulls it out in moments of extreme distress being physically threatened by a dangerous person.
So to Amber’s reasoning, Dorothy has seen the monster under the mask, the broken woman who is a danger to everyone else, her father’s daughter and she dreads that that will be exactly what Dorothy saw and internalized. That that odd sort of admiration for the golden alter will turn to the horror of Amber’s “dark side”.
And there’s probably going to be a few pieces of that. Dorothy is not used to such violence and has been obviously shaken by the experience, but I don’t think she’ll have as harsh an interpretation of the moment as Amber is holding herself to and she might even do some good processing the moment with her and what Amber has had to deal with growing up.
Though I worry that Amber will also try her darndest to sabotage the conversation based on her current self-image.
I’m really happy that you got Carla.
I’m stuck with Mary because unfortunately, after I played enough grav roulette as Rukduk, my comments just wouldn’t register anymore. Pretty sure an error on my part is the reason. So know I have to post as Rukdug with a different email address to actually even have my comments show up for moderation. So, I guess I have to start all over with rejoining the community.
…
I trust you Cerberus, and don’t want to bother Willis at the moment, so I wanted to ask you: did I ever say anything really hurtful when using the Rukduk handle?
Because, as I explain in an above comment thread, my comments just weren’t showing up as even awaiting moderation. If I said something really bad that ended up hurting people and getting me banned, I want too know. If that’s also the case, if I said something under the Rukduk handle as ban worthy, then I want Willis to ban this one as well. Because you guys are all awesome, and I don’t want to cause pain or distress to the commenting community.
I was freaking out for about three days because I couldn’t comment, and I didn’t know why, and I was scared I’d hurt someone with words a while ago, but if I did end up getting banned, then I don’t deserve to comment here. Because of how great you all are.
I don’t remember saying anything ban worthy while using Rukduk, but I trust Willis completely on that front. He’s practically a superhero with his ability to keep the comments section nice and safe. And if I caused a problem, if I jeopardized the safety of the community I want to know so that I don’t do that again.
Either that, or playing with the grav roulette when it came out messed up my email somehow. So, if that’s the case, I guess I’m stuck as Mary.
..Jeez but the past three or four days have not been good for my self confidence at all. Really feeling a little like Amber here.
For all I know it’s just a technical issue on my front, but I’m already assuming the worst. Plus I had my first teacher-parent conferences this week, and last week was orientation for the students, and I’m pretty sure I botched both of those.
Also, not replying to this comment is fine. I completely understand if you don’t see it, or if you choose to ignore it. You have much better things to do with your time and you already have to deal with enough as it is. I don’t want to add to all the stuff you have on your plate. Congrats again on getting Carla.
I don’t recall anything. It’s probably just system stuff reacting to the gravaysr roulette. I know the system for me tends to give me nothing a lot of times when it throws a comment in moderation.
Thank you. Now I have to get used to being Rukdug instead of Rukduk and I’ll be fine. I just hope people remember that the two names belong to the same person.
Also, I’m too worried about losing the ability to comment to use the grav again, so I’ll have to get used to my posts not fitting with the Mary grav. On the other hand, it could have been worse. I could have gotten Peter. *shudder*
Also, given how big a fan Dorothy is of Amazi-girl, and the fact that she had already “broken up” with Amazi-girl when it happened probably makes it even harsher for Amber. “She thought I was a hero – now she knows I am a monster”.
Your Carla gravatar is awesome, which is fitting given that you are awesome.
Yup! Losing that unabashed fangirl feels like it reinforces her self narrative.
And I feel that really strongly. I am always struggling with the idea that I’m a secret monster that everyone eventually sees, so people suddenly turning on me hits really hard and feels like a confirmation of that even when it doesn’t actually have anything to do with me.
What I’m wondering about is whether Dorothy’s going to put two and two together regardding who really mauled and hospitalized Blaine.
…. no, scratch that. It’s Dorothy. Of course she’s put two and two together. What I’m wondering is what she’s done with that realization internally, and how it’s going to color this conversation.
On the other hand, Dorothy doesn’t look very happy with Amber in the last two panels, in an angry-mother “you don’t get to ignore me” sort of way. Which is a justified reaction, not least because witnessing Amber’s violence will have made Dorothy doubt herself. She didn’t see it coming, and she should have, because she’s smart; in the wake of the hall’s rejection of her as a potential RA, that’s got to hurt, before it suggests that maybe the girls were right, maybe she’s not as good at things as she thinks she is. Even worse, Dorothy can put the pieces together and realise that it was Amber who beat up Blaine, and, therefore, that Amazi-Girl lied to her. Not knowing how serious the distinction between A-G and Amber is, there’s really no other way for Dorothy to interpret it – meaning that she has every reason to feel, quite frankly, betrayed. We may be getting to a break in Dorothy’s Olympian sensibleness. (Hopefully, in two minutes I’ll find out if I’m right or not.)
Bonus yesterday comic reaction: I’m heartened by Joe taking Joyce’s words to heart and seemingly speaking from the heart rather than seeing apologies as a tactic to get in good with folks. And that’s going to matter a lot in actually improving his reputation and a sign that he’s done looking for the shortcuts as he’s seen where that leads.
I’m also incredibly curious about Rachel. Is her self-critique because she’s recognized the harm she did to Amber/AG, Joyce, Billie, and Ruth or the support she accidentally gave Mary? Or is it related to something else not yet put on screen which made her comment to all of them something also aimed at herself?
Whatever it is, it’s definitely tearing her apart and I’m hoping she finds someone to confide in about it.
And Mary and Peter… on the one hand, their smug shithead performative faith approach is definitely less toxic than the targeted life destruction Mary usually peddles in, which seems initially vaguely better, but then again…
I can’t ignore the context that this particular bit of performative faith is aimed at two jewish students and seems heavily wrapped in the shitty fundamentalist idea that jewish people are just “incomplete Christians” who must be converted by God’s wrath to be saved.
Like so much Left Behind bullshittery is based on the idea that most jewish people after completing the prophecy steps related to Israel will go to Hell with only a handful being “saved” by renouncing their faith and becoming “Jews for Jesus”.
And also the undercurrent of intense “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” conspiracy takes that run so freely through modern Rapturist theology and all the not at all subtle anti-semitism that implies that secret Jews run everything from the banks to the media and so on.
And that makes their actions a whole ‘nother level of horrible that utterly decimates that initial desire and reveals the cruel way Mary is operating in the light now that she thinks she has backup.
I also note what a lot of others said in that it seems like Peter is a lot less invested in this shit and is playing Mary and yeah, I get a real disingenuous feeling from him too (I blame the eyebrows). I think he may see Mary as just as much a mark as the people he encourages her to smug at.
You know, in regards to that last comment, that would make Mary’s comment about Stabbed McGee (Which I do not remember exactly, but was along the lines of “Wow, and he was a preacher’s son? I guess some people really aren’t what you think they are”) *fantastic* foreshadowing.
Yeah. As a liberal, sorta Universalist, Catholic I had a lot of…issues with the Left Behind series and other works like that. And the idea of the Rapture in general. It’s very anti-Semetic, and ever since Vatican II the official doctrine is that God doesn’t break his promises so the covenant with the Jewish people still stands. So Jews technically need Jesus. There was something similar about Muslims and Zoroastrians if I remember correctly. The main jist of Vatican II always seemed to be “It would be nice if you believed in Jesus as son of God, but you don’t necessarily have to because every religion has at least a portion of the truth.” So the whole, Jews have to believe Jesus is the messiah or they go to hell is very toxic and hateful.
* Jews technically don’t need Jesus
What the he’ll autocorrect?!? You can’t just delete don’t from that sentence! It’s very necessary for the intention to come off correctly goddamnit!!!!
Yup, the Left Behind series and the culture that spawned it are both intensely anti-semitic, but like hiding behind pro-warmongering on behalf of Israel as a “Get out of jail free” card about it. But yeah, scratch it even a little bit and it’s all conspiracies about Jews secretly controlling everything and so on.
They’re favorite dog-whistle is “liberal”. To that community it means Jewish. That’s why they complain a lot about the “liberal” media and the “liberal” elites. “Globalist” is another common dogwhistle now that the neo-nazis don’t feel the need to hide.
Willis, since yesterday there’s an extremely annoying video ad loading in this page that is freaking obnoxious, it doesn’t let me scroll to the comments, it keeps “refreshing” and forcing the page to stay in one spot.
It’s an ad for “incrediblenewshub” and I’m having great difficulty reading the comic or the comments because of it :/
While I do like onomatopoeia, I have to admit that not even Don Martin would’ve been able to convey the difference between a half-bath sink faucet and a full-bath sink faucet.
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 19h
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 ⋅ 1d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
It's #webcomicday? We have a special day???
Well, my name is Pat McHoarney and I draw 69 Mouse-Ear Blvd, a multigenerational story about women who all have sexy legs and probably other features. There was a grandmother, but she wasn't hot and so she died off-panel.
Elizabeth Holmes is in prison for defrauding investors through her blood-testing company, Theranos. Her partner, Billy Evans, is now trying to raise money for a company that describes itself as “the future of diagnostics.” nyti.ms/3FbtZm9
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 19h
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
The New York Times @nytimes.com ⋅ 5d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 3d
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“…YET”
My only hope is that there is a paleontologist reading this who will discover a new species of dinosaur and decides to name it the Cromposaurus.
Is “Cromposaurus willisii” proper naming convention? (pretend that’s in italics, I don’t remember how to do that in the comments here and it’s 1am)
Only if you discover and name an entire new genus.
Cromposaurus willisii
This is a relatively small, arboreal late-Cretaceous omnivore, believed to possess incredible speed and the ability to glide short distances, likely to get around the canopy with greater ease. Decidedly not a pack hunter, given that the existing samples have a wide spread to them, but given that all samples are in pairs, it is believed that they would mate and bond for life.
The “new discovery” would be an amber sample containing a few feathers of a beautiful azure-and-sienna plumage, likely to stand out to potential mates.
Boom. Made that up in twelve seconds.
Analysis of their crest structure indicates that both sexes were capable of whooping, gibbon-like calls. Enlarged visual cortex but relatively small orbits suggest a diurnal animal with excellent colour vision, which is supported by the new discovery.
There is a rather disparate sexual dimorphism within the species- the males are generally the size of the average housecat, but the females range from 1.5 to 2 times that size. The males, however, have considerably longer talons, and a “feather fan” at the tip of their tail, similar to modern peacocks. However, this seems to serve more of a practical purpose in willisii, used to adjust the general direction of their glide to retrieve carrion or fallen fruit from the forest floor.
One hypothesis is that the “feather fan” aided in a peculiar mating display in which the male demonstrated fitness by picking items of food off the ground in risky circumstances to give to the female. This might explain the association of several specimens with Protoceratops nesting sites.
Cromposaurus willisii
Because of course Amber preserves the Cromposaurus.
Hopefully they discover a second member of the genus and name it damusaurus if that happens.
You do know that species is listed second, right? It’d be “Cromposaurus damusaurus”, which would only be funny if you saw the names side by side.
Cromposaurus wiigii.
Perfect
The Endless Barrel of Exposition strikes again!
I love spotting people I know in other comment threads
Right under the box for writing the comment it tells you how to use italics…
That’s my plan now! (Not yet a paleontologist but it’s part of my curriculum in uni for three years ^^)
According to Google there is a Cromposaurus on Instagram
Best sound effect ever!
I’m conflicted. I’d like to think that Dina is so stealthy that she wouldn’t make a sound in the bathroom. Which, now that I think about it is actually kinda creepy. Regardless, merely the fact that Dorothy heard someone should tell us that it was not Dina in the bathroom.
She can somehow make the sink silent, the toilet flushing silent, she even sings silently in the shower.
It freaks the other people who use the shower out. Just this series of silences that drowns out all the other noises. To the tune of Weird Al’s “Jurassic Park”.
And that is why Dorothy immediately asked if it was Amber. It all fits!
Disagree!
Best sound effect ever and any time (because time travel!) can be found here
Disagree!
This is still my favorite.
Half-sink bath faucets make a very distinct RRrnnnCHP noise. Anyone who has ever had one knows what I mean. It’s the lack of money invested.
“HALF-BATH SINK FAUCET:” the sound effect you never knew you needed
A very specific sound effect.
It’s an AWESOME sound effect. Let us proceed to gush about it.
It made quite a splash.
Strangely enough though, that’s actually the sound made by the toilet.
It took the dorm residents a few weeks to stop freaking out over a talking toilet asking you to use the sink instead.
In my dorm, lo those many years ago, it would have been the sink asking (angrily) for you to use the toilet instead.
Let’s say I learned to get picky about which sink I used to brushed my teeth, had suspicions about even that one, and didn’t set my toothbrush down anywhere in the communal facilities.
That’s only common sense.
I don’t know what Cromposaurus is but I like it
Sounds kind of like Compsognathus?
It sounds like it would be small, dorky, and adorable. The pug of dinosaurs
So it’s a synonym for Columba livia domestica?
It would also host a symbiotic species of frog that lived on it’s head.
Which one of the Dinobots is that?
The one who’s kind of dumb and violent.
Again which one of the Dinobots would that be?
Well except for the Titular Dinobot who is just violent when he needs to be.
Title text, you know what I like.
I would love to hear Amber’s impression of Dina
That assumes she tried to do one.
I always pictured Dina sounding like Michelle Ruff playing Yuki Nagato.
I always hear Phoebe’s voice from Hey Arnold for Dina’s dialogue.
If that’s anything like the voice she used for Yukari Takeba, I’m so sorry.
Dinosaurs and lesbianing it up are Dina’s things. Amber should have studied.
Clever girl…
cromposaurus isnt real?! now what am i gonna do with all these “HELL YEAH CROMPOSAURUS” t shirts?!
Sell them to everyone else who doesn’t know they’re not real?
Or sell them with the description “It’s a post-modern statement about irony, fake news, and the philosophy of Descartes in an archeological dig site.”
aw yeah MONEY
Money, it makes the world go round…
No wait, it’s not money. It’s a complex* dance of momentum and gravity and centrifugal effect and stuff like that that makes the world go round.
*For people like me, it’s pretty complex. If you’re a physics scientist, you’ll probably consider it easy as heck.
I mean, if you’re talking about the earth going around the sun, that’s just falling and missing.
So we’re all flying?
Like a glass panel off a condo balcony.
It’s a perfectly cromulent cromposaurus.
Especially noted for its colorful contrafibularities.
First make a cool animated show about Cromposaurus as the awesome protagonist and Then sell the t-shirts.
Just say there is a show and sell the T-shirts.
Remember to use all the top key words in the Amazon description and put them into 1pt type to make them look like a line separator.
But seriously, conflicted emotions now.
On one hand, I can understand that Amber tried what she did. She wants to be left alone, and she’s already had to deal with people that did not want to leave her alone. And it cannot be overstated that she’s not having a good day.
On the other hand, I think Dorothy would have left her alone if Amber just told her. And more importantly, Dorothy don’t take kindly to someone trying to fool her; especially if they’re botching it. Ain’t nobody got time for that shit!
But be that as it may, I think that the next strip with these two will involve some honest communication, and compared to what they’ll end up talking about, this is but a minor bump that will be forgotten in about two minutes. So, let’s just wait and see, eh?
I agree that Dorothy would have just left her alone had she asked. But despite what she’s been saying, I think Amber feels like she SHOULD be left alone more than she WANTS to be left alone. She gave a very evasive answer back when Ruth asked if she wanted Joyce removed.
Regardless, I think she and Dorothy really need to talk, for both of their sakes. Things have been pretty focused on what Amber went through, but this whole thing was traumatic for Dorothy as well.
Not to be confused with its less elegant and unfortunate cousin, Cramposaurus. :p
(also I forgot to respond to somebody yesterday, so I just want to say that I don’t have paid content, I just remember the wiki saying Mary’s had several boyfriends/husbands, usually ending poorly for her each time. I’m curious to see if that applies here, because UGH peter’s as annoying as her and I don’t need *two* of her.)
I heard a rumour that for every person making a comment on how much they’re annoyed by having a male Mary introduced, Willis will make another strip with both of them.
First thought: oh damn it.
Second thought: Wait, I can ruin everyone’s fun. *finger steepling intensifies* *evil laugh*
There are two male Marys? Can they get male Mary married? Maybe the second one is mail-ordered.
Does John Brown count?
willis, can you confirm? true or fake news?
what
is the rumor about every person making a comment on how much theyre annoyed by having a male mary introduced, youll make another strip with both of them true or false?
…I suspect that wouldn’t work very well for the story, the pacing, the buffer, and for not giving your fans bizarre powers over the comic.
Well, if you want to be realistic and boring and rational about it…
Also, not suddenly making EVERY LAST COMIC about those two.
We’ll find out in November, won’t we!
(Watch, the Nov. 21st strip just so happens to have Peter and Mary in it anyway.)
this is reminiscent of the old gag in the Nexus comic book, where supposedly every time someone wrote a letter complaining about the cliche with the hero thinking the words “This calls for Hyperspeed.”, they would put that thought balloon into a subsequent issue
Allow me to clarify. Any time you hear a rumour about Willis being evil enough to do something just to annoy his readers you can reliably ignore it. Willis does this stuff because he’s evil and that is reason enough for him.
Cramposaurus has no style, and styleblocks everyone nearby.
It should be a song….
half-bath, sink faucet
brush your smile
then you floss it
This almost makes me want to go back to university, become a paleontologist, discover a new dinosaur, and name it Cromposaurus just to screw this comic up.
Well played, Dorothy, well played.
Hopefully she’s more effective than Joyce, shared experience maybe?
I think Dorothy is also going to be a bit more tactful than Joyce. Or even quite a lot.
Why did Dorothy suddenly put her pen in her mouth in panel 2?
She put the pen in her mouth between panels after hearing the sink.
But why!
Had it actually been Dina, Dorothy would have opened the door, found the half-bath empty, then closed the door in confusion to find Dina standing behind it, already in her room.
Because it is adorable
…super late but this reply was intended for Sunny. Good job me.
It’s only adorable because it’s Dina. If it were Joe, for instance, it would be somewhat frightening. Robin actually does something similar to this the regular way, in the house invasion sequence, and it’s not particularly cute.
But yes, when Dina does it, it’s adorable
It’s because Dina never uses her powers for evil.
Only for adorable mischief.
That sounds like the start of an interesting discussion on perceived intent and threat and how these intersect with observed actions to give the impression that somebody is adorable, creepy or completely lacking in respect for others’ boundaries…
I think a big part of it that makes Dina’s actions feel more benign is that she’s extremely responsive about issues relating to consent and when called out on negative behavior does a good job of responding to that and changing said behavior.
So, like, if someone was to be like “Jesus, don’t do that again”, she wouldn’t ever do that again to that person while Joe of at least a day ago or Robin would not at all respond to that request or respond by trying to argue about it.
Consent and respect for consent is huge and can be a major difference maker between behavior considered creepy versus awkward or cute.
I was talking about the pen in mouth thing and misfired. It was supposed to go one thread up.
Are we to assume that Dina and Amber have similar-sounding voices?
Or is Amber just really good at voices
Indeed.
See: Amazi-Girl voice disguise
Oh, Dorothy.
Oh, grav roulette.
Oh, FUCK NO grav roulette.
Why did Willis even PUT Mary into the Grav Roulette options?
Presumably because she has a large-ish role in the story.
Or to punish us for something. Uncertain which.
What if we a all roll until we all become Mary, then we can all talk about how God tastes?
Okay I’ll leave now…
Four of us in a row complained about having her once.
Someone followed up the thread with wanting to walk along the line slapping each one of them.
Hard to argue with that.
Well, going by the “made in god’s image” phrase, I’d guess pork, (because supposedly that’s what we taste like) but better, because gods are supposed to be better than us in some way, and considering the stuff I’ve seen/read, flavor is pretty much the only option left.
“This bacon tastes heavenly, what did you-”
*Mischievous grin.*
“Oh, my God!”
“Exactly!”
As there is nothing awkward or evil to talk about today (And my tank of UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS is empty right now) I’m here to talk about a nerdy topic:
Read this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial
What is you guys’ opinion of this PnP RPG?
From what I’ve seen it’s mechanically very interesting and a great choice for that one player who never knows what to play, but the fact that Beasts make such great allies in other-splat-dominant or mixed-splat games tends to make the “family” theme more important than their other themes, leeching a lot of the horror out of it. Not that it can’t be done well, but it’s something to keep under consideration (and some people want that sort of thing in their games, so hey). I haven’t gotten to play with it long-term, though.
I really need to stop reading about the Chronicles of Darkness games. It always makes me want to play them, and I have nobody to play them WITH.
Reading about their mechanics can help cure that urge in short order.
I’m imagining her doing a really really bad Dina impersionation…but I can’t really imagine it well since none of the characters have voice actors
Also thank god my character changed…especially since Danny looks rather indie lesbian in that picture which fits me quite well
I refer you to the comment I made yesterday if you want to roll the Grav roulette
linky link? http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/oath/#comment-1265298
I will now forever think of Danny as the indie lesbian.
You’re such a good egg.
My mental ‘voice’ for Dina is basically the digitally-sampled voice Apple use for ‘Suri’, their personal data assistant app.
Well Amber DOES do alternate voices.
Hee hee. +5 clever points for Dorothy.
And cool, I’ve got Mindy now? Yay!
Wait…but now my gravatar just got dumped by Leslie. Now I shall feel sad every time I post.
I think that captures the Mindy experience pretty well.
I find it adorable that Dina’s friends read up on dinosaurs just to keep a foot in the game.
Also, Dorothy with a pen in her mouth will never NOT be adorable.
I have a feeling Dorothy knew a thing or two about dinosaurs before she ever met Dina…
Most likely – but now she learns from a master.
Also, I bet she spent some time reading up on current dinosaur news during her clipboarding phase to secure the Dina vote.
Half-bath sink faucet is the best sound effect ever.
Also who says somebody won’t name a new dinosaur Cromposaurus? Maybe a paleontologist reads this comic too.
There’s a text adventure game where one of the puzzles involves beating a kid in a dinosaur-naming contest. The key is, while the game’s dinosaur list includes some common dinosaurs that don’t fit the pattern, it will accept anything that ends in -saurus. I won it with the Obviouslyfakeosaurus.
And for today’s Grav Roulette…. I am Rachel.
I definitely share a vindictive, judgmental streak with Rachel. When my temper’s in high dudgeon I can spit moral condemnation with the best (and worst) of them, and I can hold grudges FOREVER. What’s more, I can do this in cold, calculating anger, carefully analyzing what cuts straight to the quick while also getting at the thing they did that made me righteously indignant.
…. this isn’t a good thing, and I fortunately don’t do it often.
But that said… sometimes you NEED someone who won’t put up with bullshit, who will call out hypocrisy and give reminders about why people suck when others would lower their guards.
In a way, the right grav puts me in the right mood. If I had a Rachel grav, I think I’d subconsciously feel licensed to unleash that angry side of myself with greater frequency. Walky, on the other hand, gives me license to be an irreverent, silly goofball.
So, while it’s a good mach, Grav Roulette, I’m afraid I will not be adopting the Rachel grav. Nice try. See you tomorrow.
As a spambot, I have many interesting things to say about Cromposaurus.
Wait a minute
Look, I’m sorry about yesterday. I promise to never make another dick joke involving either Mary or Peter.
That’s it. Last try.
Test Comment: Good sleuthing there Dorothy.
Oh thank goodness. All of my other comments weren’t even showing up as awaiting moderation.
I blame your avatar.
Yup. Rukdug’s avatar was off swapping spit with Peter.
and now you can’t unsee it
Well the thing is, after playing around with the grav roulette when it came out I all of the sudden couldn’t post the next day from my old email address as Rukduk anymore. I blame myself for playing around with the capitalization while connected on a Wi-Fi network not 100% secure. They weren’t showing up at all, which was really weird. Didn’t matter what device I was using, my comments just wouldn’t show up. I looked through my comments as Rukduk for the last month and couldn’t find anything that could get me banned. So, not knowing the policy on using a different email address, I made a new comment ID with a variant of the old name. If it’s ok too, I will probably switch back the name to the old Rukduk name.
They weren’t even showing as awaiting moderation, so I was pretty sure it was something I’d somehow messed up on. But I couldn’t actually ask what was going on because my comments asking that wouldn’t show up. So after three days of frustration, and immense distrust of the grav roulette, here I am.
Amazi Girls superpower is immunity to our criticism.
Ambers superpower is apparently convincing enough Dina impressions
Apparently NOT convincing enough.
Okay, so time for me to actually react to the comic.
And my reaction is…. what the hell, Dorothy?
Actually, it’s WtH x 2.
WtH #1 is obvious. Yes, Dorothy, it’s Amber in the half-bath. It’s OBVIOUSLY Amber in the half-bath. You know it. You figured it out, because you’re smart. You’re so very very smart. You cleverly and intelligently inferred that it might be Amber, and then you cleverly invented a bit of cleverness to cleverly catch Amber out as pretending to be Dina because she didn’t want to have talk to you.
AND THEN YOU DIDN’T TAKE THE HINT.
WtH, Dorothy?
But second, and far more bizarre, is Panels 1 and 2. Dorothy’s doing homework, or maybe studying. She’s got a textbook open, and she’s writing on a piece of paper with a black sharpie. That’s got to be either homework or studying.
…..
BLACK. SHARPIE. She’s doing homework and/or taking notes with a BLACK SHARPIE.
WtH, Dorothy?
It’s a shared bathroom, which means Amber locked the door on her side; Dorothy needed Amber to reveal herself. If Dorothy had said “I know it’s you, Amber”, Amber would have responded with “No, I’m Dina”.
More bizarre than Dorothy using a black sharpie is: Why does she put the sharpie in her mouth after hearing someone in the bathroom? Does it maker her smarter?
On looking closer, I see that Dorothy entered the bathroom, contrary to what I said.
That’s the best sound effect I’ve ever seen.
I don’t have anything else to say, I’m really just here to get a new grav. I saw the bandwagon driving by yesterday and it looks like I’m not too late!
Argh sorry that was supposed to be a new comment…
Ken’s not too bad but let’s see who else I can get
I like how Sarah looks grumpy about how I don’t know how to make new comments properly. Okay, this is my last one, I swear… Grav roulette is kind of addictive, huh
Having no experience with the “shared half-bath” concept outside of this comic, I’ve wondered for a while if the johnette doors have locks at all, and if so, on which sides. Anyone know? And what’s the applicable etiquette? It looks to me like people use it like a passageway, whether occupied or not.
Also, with all the dorm rooms shown, not one fridge, microwave, or coffee pot? I find that unlikely.
The doors have locks on the sides of the rooms, but none on the sides of the half-bath, so that each room can’t lock the other out of the bathroom.
And yet Sal hasn’t managed to keep Joyce from playing “wakey-wakey” in the morning. Then there’s the possibility of being locked in.
Thanks for the answer. Anything to add about microwaves and dorm fridges? I saw an awful lot of them when I googled the “shared half-bath” thing.
It does seem kind of horribly designed. You can get trapped in there, but you can’t keep people from bursting in while you’re on the toilet?
At least in a communal bathroom, like my dorm had, you have stalls.
See, my college had the reverse on the lock situation. Admittedly, that was probably because we also had public restrooms in the hall just in case.
I gather the IU facilities are considered the opposite: the communal bathrooms, the ones with the hairy shower stalls, also have toilet stalls that are the ones generally used, with the shared half-bath toilets being more for emergencies and the ultra-shy. This would explain the differing locks, I suppose.
(My other guess, a lever inside the half-bath that locks/opens BOTH doors at the same time would ensure privacy, but be difficult to engineer and maintain.)
Dorothy has probably decided that Amber has spent enough time in an isolated swirl of self-hate and has been looking for an opportunity to talk to her.
This is why it is important to state boundaries clearly. By pretending to be Dina instead of just saying: “Yes it’s me, but could we not talk right now?”, her avoidance of contact gets turned into a kind of game where she can be outsmarted. She probably-definitely doesn’t mean for this to happen, but it’s a thing that happens.
And it takes quite a bit of maturity and social awareness to not end up in some form of gameplay, as a response. I’ve been on both sides of this kind of interaction…
They did share a traumatic experience. I’d say it’s not COMPLETELY out of bounds for Dorothy to push a Amber’s boundaries a bit to check in on her – and for Dorothy to get to grips with her own situation.
That said – it IS a very delicate situation and it could easily turn out to be the wrong thing to do. Time will tell.
I thought she might have been using a colored highliter rather than a sharpie. They look sort of the same.
Dorothy is using the Sharpie for studying. Instead of highlighting the things that are important, she is blacking out the things that are not important.
There is always a big risk in pretending to be someone who the person that you’re trying to fool knows well. I’ve always found it ironic that the only person that Amber is consistently able to deceive is herself.
That’s because Amber is Amazi Girl’s dark side.
Should Dorothy have given Amber her privacy? Maybe. But of all people, Dorothy has the right to speak to her. She saw it, she was there. In a way, she might get what happened better than anyone else. I dunno where I read this, but I remember an axiom about how once two people have been involved in an experience of a certain magnitude, they’re bound together by it. Tldr: I think Dorothy should at least face Amber and affirm that link between them even if they don’t explicitly talk about what happened.
Reading your comment, I realize that Amber may have an extra strong wish to avoid Dorothy, of all people, precisely because she was there. Amber is deeply ashamed of her violent tendencies, and Dorothy has seen her at her worst…
As much as she wants her privacy, given her stated fears of being feared, of being the crazy stabby girl, having people want to check up her, having them show they’re not afraid of her or treating her like a freak can only help. Even if she pushes them away again.
I mean, so far she’s used everyone’s attempts at reaching out to her as a way to reinforce her self loathing. Danny is avoiding her, her mom only loves her because she loves monsters, she’s even with Ethan, she won’t even let Dina say she’s glad she’s okay, and Joyce basically got her to admit she tried to kill Ryan. I can’t see Dorothy do any better.
I think eventually Sal’s going to be the one who breaks through.
Actually I think Dorothy might be able to do something. Maybe even more now that she’s at least a bit angry – as I believe Amber probably believes she does deserve this anger.
“There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.”
Oof, at first read I thought Cromposaurus was some new Transformer.
Maybe it could replace Slug the Dinobot.
Not Slug, Slag! [/tfnerd]
I bet Dina would have been able to spell Mboscodictiasaur.
Imagine. The KRUMPOSAURUS.
Krumping is still a thing? Or did that go the way of the dinosaurs?
Krampus-saurus
Hey, I’m supposed to be Jocelyne.
Not good enough to fool Dorothy.
Ech.
Oh yes, jackpot. I’m keeping this.
OK. Trying that grav roulette that the kids are all doing these days.
No matter how hard I try I keep getting the same grav. Must be a glitch or something.
no, that’s whirl, glitch is orange
baah
H*ck.
WHAT!?! the cromposaurus is totally really! I’ve seen one… Mind you, I was hopped up on a metric arse-ton of pills at the time :/
Nice try Amber, nice try
Comic Reactions: This conversation is necessary and needed to happen at some point and is probably also the conversation Amber has most been dreading. And it makes sense.
She’s always assumed that she is a monster, her father’s daughter, and that people thinking well of her is either because they are willingly blind to that or because they haven’t seen her at her worst.
What Dorothy saw was an Amber that Amber is not proud of or happy with, an example of what she is capable of when pushed to her edge and to her internal reasoning, the proof of what a violent ragebeast she is even though she as the Amber alter has never punched down in that state and only pulls it out in moments of extreme distress being physically threatened by a dangerous person.
So to Amber’s reasoning, Dorothy has seen the monster under the mask, the broken woman who is a danger to everyone else, her father’s daughter and she dreads that that will be exactly what Dorothy saw and internalized. That that odd sort of admiration for the golden alter will turn to the horror of Amber’s “dark side”.
And there’s probably going to be a few pieces of that. Dorothy is not used to such violence and has been obviously shaken by the experience, but I don’t think she’ll have as harsh an interpretation of the moment as Amber is holding herself to and she might even do some good processing the moment with her and what Amber has had to deal with growing up.
Though I worry that Amber will also try her darndest to sabotage the conversation based on her current self-image.
Also, I’m never going to stop loving the fact that I got Carla. It makes me happy every time I post.
I wonder whether DYW could have set it up that way deliberately.
Might have. =) I know I’d like doing that if I had any control over the hash.
DYW claims it was luck: https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/900241393423175680
And speaking of luck…
https://twitter.com/Hawkuno/status/900952582637486082
Some people clearly don’t have as much of it as others.
As soon as I saw you got Carla I went backwards through the comic explicitly to see your reaction when you discovered this. =D
It is AWESOME.
I…
… what is this face that have.
I’m really happy that you got Carla.
I’m stuck with Mary because unfortunately, after I played enough grav roulette as Rukduk, my comments just wouldn’t register anymore. Pretty sure an error on my part is the reason. So know I have to post as Rukdug with a different email address to actually even have my comments show up for moderation. So, I guess I have to start all over with rejoining the community.
…
I trust you Cerberus, and don’t want to bother Willis at the moment, so I wanted to ask you: did I ever say anything really hurtful when using the Rukduk handle?
Because, as I explain in an above comment thread, my comments just weren’t showing up as even awaiting moderation. If I said something really bad that ended up hurting people and getting me banned, I want too know. If that’s also the case, if I said something under the Rukduk handle as ban worthy, then I want Willis to ban this one as well. Because you guys are all awesome, and I don’t want to cause pain or distress to the commenting community.
I was freaking out for about three days because I couldn’t comment, and I didn’t know why, and I was scared I’d hurt someone with words a while ago, but if I did end up getting banned, then I don’t deserve to comment here. Because of how great you all are.
I don’t remember saying anything ban worthy while using Rukduk, but I trust Willis completely on that front. He’s practically a superhero with his ability to keep the comments section nice and safe. And if I caused a problem, if I jeopardized the safety of the community I want to know so that I don’t do that again.
Either that, or playing with the grav roulette when it came out messed up my email somehow. So, if that’s the case, I guess I’m stuck as Mary.
..Jeez but the past three or four days have not been good for my self confidence at all. Really feeling a little like Amber here.
For all I know it’s just a technical issue on my front, but I’m already assuming the worst. Plus I had my first teacher-parent conferences this week, and last week was orientation for the students, and I’m pretty sure I botched both of those.
Also, not replying to this comment is fine. I completely understand if you don’t see it, or if you choose to ignore it. You have much better things to do with your time and you already have to deal with enough as it is. I don’t want to add to all the stuff you have on your plate. Congrats again on getting Carla.
I don’t recall anything. It’s probably just system stuff reacting to the gravaysr roulette. I know the system for me tends to give me nothing a lot of times when it throws a comment in moderation.
Thank you. Now I have to get used to being Rukdug instead of Rukduk and I’ll be fine. I just hope people remember that the two names belong to the same person.
Also, I’m too worried about losing the ability to comment to use the grav again, so I’ll have to get used to my posts not fitting with the Mary grav. On the other hand, it could have been worse. I could have gotten Peter. *shudder*
You are a WoW NPC.
Thought you could fool us, did you?
Sometimes a glitch is just a glitch, not a punishment or a judgment of your worth.
Thank you. This week has just been a bad headspace week and I think I was letting it get to me.
So after the universe assigning you Carla as your avatar, what’s next on your to-do list, Cerberus?
Is it “whatever you want, you motherfucking goddess”?
Also, given how big a fan Dorothy is of Amazi-girl, and the fact that she had already “broken up” with Amazi-girl when it happened probably makes it even harsher for Amber. “She thought I was a hero – now she knows I am a monster”.
Your Carla gravatar is awesome, which is fitting given that you are awesome.
Yup! Losing that unabashed fangirl feels like it reinforces her self narrative.
And I feel that really strongly. I am always struggling with the idea that I’m a secret monster that everyone eventually sees, so people suddenly turning on me hits really hard and feels like a confirmation of that even when it doesn’t actually have anything to do with me.
What I’m wondering about is whether Dorothy’s going to put two and two together regardding who really mauled and hospitalized Blaine.
…. no, scratch that. It’s Dorothy. Of course she’s put two and two together. What I’m wondering is what she’s done with that realization internally, and how it’s going to color this conversation.
Oooh. Good point Reltzik. Though I have to wonder if she already figured that out.
On the other hand, Dorothy doesn’t look very happy with Amber in the last two panels, in an angry-mother “you don’t get to ignore me” sort of way. Which is a justified reaction, not least because witnessing Amber’s violence will have made Dorothy doubt herself. She didn’t see it coming, and she should have, because she’s smart; in the wake of the hall’s rejection of her as a potential RA, that’s got to hurt, before it suggests that maybe the girls were right, maybe she’s not as good at things as she thinks she is. Even worse, Dorothy can put the pieces together and realise that it was Amber who beat up Blaine, and, therefore, that Amazi-Girl lied to her. Not knowing how serious the distinction between A-G and Amber is, there’s really no other way for Dorothy to interpret it – meaning that she has every reason to feel, quite frankly, betrayed. We may be getting to a break in Dorothy’s Olympian sensibleness. (Hopefully, in two minutes I’ll find out if I’m right or not.)
Hmm. I’m neither female, bi, nor a redhead, and am not a sprots fan, but depressed alcoholic Canadian is pretty on the nose.
Bonus yesterday comic reaction: I’m heartened by Joe taking Joyce’s words to heart and seemingly speaking from the heart rather than seeing apologies as a tactic to get in good with folks. And that’s going to matter a lot in actually improving his reputation and a sign that he’s done looking for the shortcuts as he’s seen where that leads.
I’m also incredibly curious about Rachel. Is her self-critique because she’s recognized the harm she did to Amber/AG, Joyce, Billie, and Ruth or the support she accidentally gave Mary? Or is it related to something else not yet put on screen which made her comment to all of them something also aimed at herself?
Whatever it is, it’s definitely tearing her apart and I’m hoping she finds someone to confide in about it.
And Mary and Peter… on the one hand, their smug shithead performative faith approach is definitely less toxic than the targeted life destruction Mary usually peddles in, which seems initially vaguely better, but then again…
I can’t ignore the context that this particular bit of performative faith is aimed at two jewish students and seems heavily wrapped in the shitty fundamentalist idea that jewish people are just “incomplete Christians” who must be converted by God’s wrath to be saved.
Like so much Left Behind bullshittery is based on the idea that most jewish people after completing the prophecy steps related to Israel will go to Hell with only a handful being “saved” by renouncing their faith and becoming “Jews for Jesus”.
And also the undercurrent of intense “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” conspiracy takes that run so freely through modern Rapturist theology and all the not at all subtle anti-semitism that implies that secret Jews run everything from the banks to the media and so on.
And that makes their actions a whole ‘nother level of horrible that utterly decimates that initial desire and reveals the cruel way Mary is operating in the light now that she thinks she has backup.
I also note what a lot of others said in that it seems like Peter is a lot less invested in this shit and is playing Mary and yeah, I get a real disingenuous feeling from him too (I blame the eyebrows). I think he may see Mary as just as much a mark as the people he encourages her to smug at.
You know, in regards to that last comment, that would make Mary’s comment about Stabbed McGee (Which I do not remember exactly, but was along the lines of “Wow, and he was a preacher’s son? I guess some people really aren’t what you think they are”) *fantastic* foreshadowing.
Yeah. As a liberal, sorta Universalist, Catholic I had a lot of…issues with the Left Behind series and other works like that. And the idea of the Rapture in general. It’s very anti-Semetic, and ever since Vatican II the official doctrine is that God doesn’t break his promises so the covenant with the Jewish people still stands. So Jews technically need Jesus. There was something similar about Muslims and Zoroastrians if I remember correctly. The main jist of Vatican II always seemed to be “It would be nice if you believed in Jesus as son of God, but you don’t necessarily have to because every religion has at least a portion of the truth.” So the whole, Jews have to believe Jesus is the messiah or they go to hell is very toxic and hateful.
* Jews technically don’t need Jesus
What the he’ll autocorrect?!? You can’t just delete don’t from that sentence! It’s very necessary for the intention to come off correctly goddamnit!!!!
Your device’s autocorrect is a fundie?
…I think I have to go look up the political positions of Samsung.
“He’ll” is one of those Joyceian autocorrects that’ll fudge you up. I otter know, I need to go retype the word that keeps getting turned to “shot”.
Yup, the Left Behind series and the culture that spawned it are both intensely anti-semitic, but like hiding behind pro-warmongering on behalf of Israel as a “Get out of jail free” card about it. But yeah, scratch it even a little bit and it’s all conspiracies about Jews secretly controlling everything and so on.
They’re favorite dog-whistle is “liberal”. To that community it means Jewish. That’s why they complain a lot about the “liberal” media and the “liberal” elites. “Globalist” is another common dogwhistle now that the neo-nazis don’t feel the need to hide.
She knew it wasn’t Dina because she knew SOMEONE was there.
Cromposaurus = Crumple-Horned Snorkack?
Or Snorklewacker?
Willis, since yesterday there’s an extremely annoying video ad loading in this page that is freaking obnoxious, it doesn’t let me scroll to the comments, it keeps “refreshing” and forcing the page to stay in one spot.
It’s an ad for “incrediblenewshub” and I’m having great difficulty reading the comic or the comments because of it :/
Yea, I got that too, it was very annoying.
There is, however, a Thumpasaurus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_QfO7g1YsI
You see, Dorothy? This is why no one likes you.
Hey I like her
I was seconds away from googling “cromposaurus,” eager to hear the news, but then I decided to read the rest of the comic, first.
“Crompo-” does not seem to be legit Latin or Greek. At least according to google-trans. Which is probably better about L or G than Japanese.
I have 10 characters in my email address. Which means I can play grav roulette 2^10 times.
Without repeating myself. But I expect Willis made way fewer gravs than that.
Yes, I’m making a list.
He made 56.
While I do like onomatopoeia, I have to admit that not even Don Martin would’ve been able to convey the difference between a half-bath sink faucet and a full-bath sink faucet.
Oh gods, Don Martin… He truly was the emperor of onomatopeia. And slapstick comic in general.
It’s the echo from the smaller space.
HALF-BATH SINK FAUCET
Batman would not be caught so easily.
<3333333333333
Grav experimenting.
Too messy.
Dating the worst.
Okay, but unreasonable.
Minty fresh.
Well, we’re both Asian in some respect.
But we’re both Asian and on the spectrum.
She’s kinda funny, when you’re not the brunt of her barbs.
I do find redheads pretty.
Ugh, HIM again.
Adorkable.
Crap, three Peters in a row.
Neat-o.
He doesn’t get as many gravatar pics. Feel bad for the guy.
The other half of the Grandy couple.
We share some Filipino descent. And it is cool to see one who doesn’t adhere to the cheerful stereotype.
My original gravatar from many years back.
She needs a GF, stat.
Hello again, spearmint.
Eurasians, unite!
Grumpy girl again.
The newest teach.
Honda!
I don’t watch GoT, sorry.
Seems cool, but she hasn’t shown up yet.
Ex-friend
The main character.
Previous gravatar.
Getting a lot of Grandy, lately.
Sweet, dull Arnold.
Making me aware of being part-Filipino I see? Okay, last one.