Jennifer: You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling
Offpanel voice 1: Woo!
Offpanel voice 2: Yeah!
Offpanel voice 3: Go, Billie!
Jennifer: Think YOU'RE up next, Becky.
Becky: I didn't put in a song.
Joyce: YOU didn't, but it's a DUET.
Becky: ...Joyce?
Joyce: No! It is the MYSTERIOUS HOODED PERSON! Who even KNOWS who I could be!
Becky: Hi, Joyce.
Becky: Joyce, I TOLDJA I need you to keep a VISIBLE SPACE between us fer a while.
Joyce: Would this "Joyce" ignore a stated boundary for an AWESOME declaration of ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP?
Becky: Yeah. ABSOLUTELY.
Joyce: Well good thing I'm not her, so this isn't that.
78 thoughts on “Duet”
IntangibleMatter
Hey why the fuck is Joyce tagged she isn’t in this strip.
Also are we getting a tag for the mysterious hooded person? Or are they a one-off
mads_in_zero
I’ve figured it out, this is the whiteboard ding-dong bandit’s true identity!
Relle
Calling it now, new superhero origin story.
Dana
Or supervillain?
anon
well, there is the ‘anti joyce’ or whatever from the other walkyverse series lol
Reltzik
Alt text: I don’t need to argue with the tag if the hoodie’s tag remains completely hidden by the hood.
Cattleprod
Now we find out if Mysterious Hooded Person has the lyrics memorized or has to struggle to read them through the hood.
Furie
To the Christian song she picked just because everyone who’s not close still thinks Becky is a Christian and no other reason? Be surprised if this randomer has them memorised.
Masha
It would be fun if Dina materalized during the duet
Irreleverent
Ain’t exactly a romantic song, though the lyrics would definitely annoy her.
NGPZ
YEEEES >:D
Dot
Well if it was Joyce I would be annoyed that she’s inserting herself into a scene I was otherwise quite liking but luckily it’s an unrelated hooded person.
clif
That’s the spirit.
Pocky
Also if it was Joyce I would imagine she’d be kinda miffed on the whole “no drinking thing” got walked back so fast lol
DiDi
*unenthusiastic sigh*
Bill Erak
JOYCE, THIS ISN’T VERY LESBIAN LOVE SLEUTH OF YOU
RassilonTDavros
I must have missed the flashback where Mike had a one-hit-wonder with a song about friendship.
ValdVin
The “it’s such a perfect blendship” one?
Not to argue with Mike, but that’s low on my list of Cole Porters. Down in the depths on the 90th floor, even.
Tan
*looks up the song and artist*
Eeugh…
anon
i assume it’s a christian song from their church days but be hilarious if joyce also unintentionally loaded a sapphic song
Allen Alberti
it is a christian contemporary song, “Friends” by Michael W Smith. the Duet version I heard growing up was with Amy Grant. I saw both of them and her future x husband do it live.
It is also an EXTREMELY weird choice for Joyce to make, because the premise of the song is that basically that you can’t remain lifelong friends unless God is involved.
Anna
Huh, also feels weird to me that a karaoke bar would have a niche song like that on their list. Or is Indiana just that Evangelical?
Aquila
@Anna, Maybe the mysterious hooded person uploaded it from her dongle.
Russ
Actually, that particular song had major mainstream popularity. If they had any other Michael W Smith song, then I would be surprised.
Geno
You have thought about these lyrics a lot more than Joyce has
Allen Alberti
@Geno, if you had any idea how many times I had to hear that song, you would cry for me.
Uratnik
True friendship is knowing when to ignore boundaries, and how to ignore boundaries to get away with it. Because true, unending friendship has no boundaries.
Dot
Uh, no, I don’t think that’s true. Friends should have boundaries.
flake
i hope this comment is in character, because that’s definitely not healthy
anon
at least she only had one beer imagine if becky was already tipsy and impulsively kissed joyce (again)
Rimwalker55
This is perhaps both correct and incorrect. True friends have boundaries, but touching a boundary issue doesn’t trigger the rejection of the friend. The person is more important than the boundaries.
Zaxares
… Let’s just hope that Dina doesn’t suddenly materialize in this room, give Becky and the Mysterious Hooded Person a Death Stare(TM) and then leave with a quiet “We are done, Becky.”
Big Z
I’d almost characterize it the other way ’round to get to the same idea. True friends have boundaries, but touching a boundary issue doesn’t trigger the rejection of the friend, because a true friend respects the boundary-violation callout and immediately makes it right without complaint.
Or, put another way, a true lifelong friend is a person who says “Oh, sorry. Absolutely.” when you say “Please don’t do that again, it bothers me”, and MEANS it.
Rimwalker55
Well put.
Astariel
Huh, wasn’t expecting Joyce to show up here, but I probably should have. The one lock of hair poking out of the hood is very cute.
Tawnee
My “Mysterious Hooded person who is not Joyce” hoodie has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my “Mysterious Hooded person who is not Joyce” hoodie.
Thakoru
“Okay , this is getting silly. Is anyone else going to randomly show up out of nowhere?!”
Dina: I have been here the entire time.
Morhek
Sam Reich, what are YOU doing here?!
Big Z
I absolutely went back and re-read since the start of Karaoke Night just to see if we get any glimpses of either Dina or Not-Joyce in the background or corners of panels etc.
Warmth
Wouldn’t like to be Dina right now, observing everything from a corner.
Sirksome
I do think Dina being there really lines up with the way things are going.
Dave from Indy
We sure it’s Jiyce and not Kenny from South Park?
Ray Radlein
It’s Singer X, Joyce’s (other) long-lost sister!
Jon
Joyce, of course, has no idea that Singer X is in reality her sister Six, who disappeared after a freak karaoke accident five years ago.
Mitzi B.
I’m gonna be honest, if someone put on a Christian song at a karaoke night I was hosting, I would kick them out on principle.
Mitzi B.
I also appreciate that Jennifer got a little applause for her singing, that’s sweet!
Her facial expression makes it pretty clear that the lyrics of “Good Luck Babe” sailed right over her head….
Allen Alberti
I wonder if offpanel where we can’t see them, Ruth is glaring at them and threatening femurs if they don’t
3oranges
Her outfit looks familiar. I wonder if she’s one of the nobles from Thingley.
Tan
That is the Grand Duchess of Thingley, who is neither married to nor related to the Duke of Thingley and in fact definitely outranks him in every way that matters.
Pocky
yeah; the whole cast is sneaking in here, aren’t they? lol
redcaela
Wow, surprise introduction of Other Joyce!
anon
expected willis to commit to the bit and tag her as hysterious hooded person
quibbles
This increasingly has season finale vibes
Sirksome
Maybe this is a bad read but I don’t think Joyce has to hide like this. I really don’t think Dina’s problem is that Joyce and Becky hangout as friends.
Bash
Hanging out together at a party is probably okay. The two of them going out drinking would have been a bad idea. Becky doesn’t want it to look like she is still in love with Joyce.
Ray Radlein
Especially hanging out at karaoke with approximately the entire student body of Indiana
Pylgrimm
And friends are frieeeeeeeeeeends forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of theeeeeeem… (in case anybody was wondering about the song not!Joyce chose.
Needfuldoer
It’s not Joyce, it’s Gal Incognito!
Jerna
Lesbian Love Sleuth, prompt from “Good Luck, Babe”: “Well, disguising yourself worked last time. Maybe this time you can pretend to be a line cook who’s come in late? Hopefully you won’t need to ‘dispose’ of anyone to make room for yourself. This may require causing different foods to touch, but you’re sure you’ll be able to cope for a few minutes if you don’t have to eat it. Hopefully, anyway.”
(Sorry about the delay. I had to do some things that were time-consuming for me.)
You decide to go into the kitchen, but you need a disguise. Somewhere in the storage, you find a few of those cooking hats. You don’t know the name, but you do remember that, when in France, there’s enough place in it for the cooks to hide their rats in. While donning one of those, you notice a series of lush Italian mustaches and make-up kits on a few shelves. You put one on as well to finish your disguise. You go into the kitchen. There are some of the cooks already there. You mumble a “sorry I’m late”. They look up from their work and don’t seem to recognize you. It must be your current state of rotundness that makes you blend in, because no-one is surprised. You go to a wad of dough lying on a table, ready for toppings to be put on. You vaguely remember the ingredients of the “Vegetarian Feta and DEATH” and put them on. So, this Alice gal the boss is talking to, you say, where is she? “Oh, she’s in his office, waiting for instructions. The boss is running some errands so he told her to wait there.” After you finished the pizza, you sneak off. Nobody is paying attention to you, just focused on making pizzas. You go to a door where you assume Mario Mario’s office is. And sure enough, when you open it Alice is sitting there waiting patiently. There’s a desk with a computer nearby. You can try to wake Alice up, but you can also nose into Mario Mario’s computer and desk. What do you do?
deliverything
What sort of sleuth (lesbian love or otherwise) would you be if you didn’t gather hidden information when given the chance? One who gets in a lot less trouble, probably. Even so… computer-and-desk nosing time!
deliverything
(Meta note, because it’s likely not evident: I’m hoping this goes wrong somehow.)
Desu
Oh, GREAT choice in song!
“Friends” by Michael W. Smith carried me when I had to leave friends behind or we moved schools.
Steamweed
Amazi-Girl! Nightguy! Mysterious Hooded Person!
Our superhero* roster is filling up fast!
(*for various interpretations of ‘super’)
deliverything
(and various interpretations of ‘hero’)
Needfuldoer
Croooooow! (Bat guano!)
YourCousinJay
joyce.. girl…. come on man……
Rogue 7
I really find it fascinating how Joyce has turned into someone who seems to desperately be trying to have her cake and eat it, too.
She couldn’t pull the trigger on ending things with Joe. He had to do if for her. And I think a lot of that was because she wanted to be able to be in love with both of them.
And here we see how she’s unwilling to accept that she can’t both date Dorothy and have an unchanged relationship with Becky. I think you also see that with her stated goal of getting Becky & Dina back together- Joyce doesn’t want there to be any negative consequences of her decision to get with Dorothy, she wants everything to be the same except she gets to smooch Dorothy now.
It’s a reasonably fascinating character flaw.
thejeff
Which you know, fair. You shouldn’t have to lose your best friend to date someone, even if they did have a crush on you.
The situation with Joe was more complicated, but ties more to the “not being willing to pull the trigger” part than the “have her cake and eat it” part. Not only wasn’t she able to commit to dumping Joe, she also wasn’t able to take the chance of talking to Dorothy about his poly offer.
Rogue 7
You shouldn’t have to, but life doesn’t always work off of “shouldn’t have to”s. Becky clearly feels some sort of way about Joyce, and Joyce is trying to use brute force and ignorance to get past that somehow.
Sirksome
Okay upon thinking on this a bit I believe I can articulate the slight issue here. On the surface this is a pretty cute moment of friendship. I truly don’t believe the fracture between Becky and Dina exists because of Joyce. I think the problem is this dynamic, other comments brought Joyce is breaking a boundary Becky tried to set, but even that isn’t as problematic to Becky’s relationship as the fact she also enjoys it. This is what Becky loves about Joyce and they feed into each other in this way. That’s really the problem here, Becky can’t get over Joyce or start seeing Dina as priority as long as Joyce keeps pushing like this. It’s not a flaw in either that deserves blame this is just the relationship they’ve built since they were kids.
——
I don’t think it’s a coincidence Marcie and Sal are here because they went through the exact same thing. The solution was just that Marcie needed space. Becky might need space from Joyce too but Joyce won’t give it to her and more importantly Becky doesn’t actually want it. She’s not over Joyce and it looks like she won’t be for some time to come.
—-
Maybe I’m wrong? Maybe next strip Becky will reaffirm her boundaries or maybe this innocent karaoke party is just some inconsequential fun group dynamics? I could be reading a lot into a smile but I also think this is a pattern between these two. Unlike Sal and Marcie, Joyce and Becky haven’t actually talked and acknowledged how their relationship might change. It’s almost the opposite they kind of refused the fact things might be different now.
Corey C.
If Lucy, Sal, Marcie, and even Jacob have joined in, so I’d say this scenario wouldn’t even be considered remotely romantic anymore. It’s just a group of friends hanging out. Now if Joyce picked a romantic duet to play with Becky, THAT would raise some eyebrows, but her constant affirmations that Dotty is her one true love, the person she’s destined to marry, will make that impossible. Unless Joyce is a super moron.
Also, and I’m just wildly guessing right now, but group karaoke with 9 people in a room seems like something Dina wouldn’t want to partake in anyway.
M!a
It is obviously Space Captain Julia Gray!
(my first choice was Kenny but someone else got it first)
Donutholebandit