Becky & Joyce: AND FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS FOREVER, IF THE LORD'S THE LORD OF THEM
Alice: ...so when did Billie start going by "Jennifer"?
Lucy: Like, around last Halloween, I think.
Alice: She doesn't like the name Billie anymore?
Lucy: I... ...I guess not. I never really ASKED WHY, I just went along with it.
Alice: I'VE been calling her Billie, 'cuz, like, that was her name, and... she hasn't corrected me.
Lucy: Maybe YOU get a pass, I dunno.
Joyce: ...wait, actually, the lord's STOPPED being the lord of us.
Becky: OH NO!
Joyce: A load-bearing condition is no longer being satisfied!
73 thoughts on “Friends Forever”
Ana Chronistic
“BUT WAIT are we even friends in the first place, strange hooded person?”
“HUH, NO”
“problem solved!”
SunflowerBanjo
Holy shit, it’s Ana!!!!!!!!!!!
Taffy
Alice has the pass, Billie has the ass. Those are the rules.
IntangibleMatter
As Sal once said “she’s not trans or nothin’, just rebrandin” so I think it’s not as big of a deal as it might otherwise be
She’s okay with you knowing her by her old brand
SunflowerBanjo
I think it’s more multifaceted for Alice. Partially born of a self-conscious, “I have a crush on this girl, is she not telling me this because she doesn’t like me?” and “Does this mean I don’t really know her anymore? Does she not WANT me to get to know who she is now?” In addition to concerns around “I am getting a red flag from this. Does this mean I SHOULD have stayed away to protect myself?”
We know she’s down bad for Billifer, and we also know she still has some reservations about letting herself fall back in with her (see: Alice’s convo with Ruth about this). I think those feelings are all coming to a head here, where she’s with a large group of Billifer’s friends for the first time, and EVERYONE aroud them is calling her “Jennifer”.
Tequila Mockingbird
and as old as the meme is, my brain just auto-completed it with the meme “MY BRAND!” from the “i have special eyes” commercial.
QueenofSodor
happy pride month, everyone! here’s to *checks notes* childhood best friends going through shit because of disparate levels of gayness towards each other
QueenofSodor
i mean i suppose alice and billifer’s gayness levels are actually kinda compatible but like. yknow. name drama!
still holding out for joyce/becky drunken one night stand, someday, somehow
Thag Simmons
I do think it seems adjacent. Billie’s idea of what a platonic friendship looks like is uh, perhaps less than platonic, but I don’t think she feels the same way about Alice that Alice does about her.
mindbleach
Nobody in this room is fricking anybody else in this room and boy howdy is there a spiderweb of angst about it.
… wait, no, Jacob’s here. And that’s actually going quite well, frick-wise.
Joe Angel
Hey now, that only goes for… *checks notes* six out of ten currently present people.
There’s also a freshly met crushing sapphic and a bitter sapphic ex, and a straight couple for diversity.
NGPZ
oh yeah, now that both of them are atheists, not quite “Besties in Christ” anymore now are they? XD
TrueSurvivor
Huh, I assumed that Becky’s declaration that “God is fake” was a wavering or an exclamation of dispair in that moment of great emotional pain, not a true turning point in her journey with her faith. Then again, maybe “us” is the crucial part of the broken condition in panel 5 – as Joyce being an aethiest automatically makes the refernced statement false.
SunflowerBanjo
Yeah, that was my read too. Looking at the lyrics yesterday, I had assumed this was an intentional choice on Joyce’s part: She picked a song about unyielding friendship through the love and will of God.
While she, Joyce, no longer believes this, she knows that deep down, Becky DOES. So she wanted to firmly and loudly declare both her devotion to their friendship, and allow Becky to feel reconnected to and affirmed in her faith.
Kinda bummed that doesn’t seem to have been the intention.
geno
This is Joyce. You have thought far more about this than she has about anything in her entire life.
Tan
At last report, Becky considers herself an atheist now: https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/reverseevangelize/
Dragon
Wait, I lost track. Did Joyce actually tell Becky she’s an atheist now? When?
Freemage
After Becky overheard her trash-talking people of faith near the beginning of the semester.
Sajuuk-Khar
It’s okay, Becky and Joyce! The song doesn’t actually specify* the Lord God! You can be submissive unto THE DARK LORD SATAN
Kimi
I am also thinking Cthulhu might not be that far off with how our world is working currently, or some evil clown god.
clif
Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen. – Roger Zelazny
M!a
Holy crap I thought I was the only one left ON EARTH who had read Roger Zelazny!
That one’s from “Creatures of Light and Darkness” I think, though it’s been almost fifty years.
Thanks for that! 🙂
NickPG
Madrak the Mighty’s Possibly Proper Death Litany, nice.
TrueSurvivor
Weirdly, there is an Batman animated film (loosely based on a comic miniseries of the same name) where the Joker is just one of Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones. It’s called Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham.
Cass
Come to Asmodeus and walk away ready to Eldritch Blast the next evil parent to pass through town!
IntangibleMatter
Happy pride month, regardless of if you’re going through shit because of having disparate levels of gayness with a childhood best friend!
IntangibleMatter
Dammit comment section, I meant this to be a reply to QueenOfSodor
Thag Simmons
Okay, that explains it. I was wondering if there was a reference I wasn’t getting.
NGPZ
oh yeah, theyz both atheists now, so not quite “Besties in Christ” anymore than are they? XD
Sajuuk-Khar
It’s okay, Becky and Joyce! The song doesn’t specify the Lord God*! You can instead submit your will and allegiance to THE DARK LORD SATAN
RassilonTDavros
“Have you tried Hare Krishna?”
TrueSurvivor
“I HAVE BEEN CALLED MANY NAMES. TO YOUR ANCESTORS, I WAS THE THRONE OF THE MOUNTAIN WIND. TO MY ENEMIES, I WAS THE ZOTH OF THE HATED LASH. I HAVE BEEN NAMED SCOURGE AND ASHARU AND FELL KNIGHT OF THE BOUNDLESS DEEPS.”
-Hasmed
Twenty-billion internet brownie points if you are one of the other ten people on the planet that knows this reference.
PuppeteerNessus
This is from that game with that dead guy who talks all mean!
clif
Well, that narrows it down.
NGPZ
ugh, please ignore the double comment, I see the site is still under maintenance :/
cornfixer
its pride month so alice really gotta come out of this arc with a girl now
Pocky
conditions no longer met
Astariel
At first I was worried that this was going to cause another religious argument between Joyce and Becky, but then I remembered that Becky’s an atheist now too. So now I’m just worried about Jennifer and Alice.
Bill Erak
You really didn’t think this through, Joyce…
Also Alice, you being able to call her Billie is do to her deeply rooted crush on you which she cannot acknowledge because despite being surrounded by a buncha fucking queers she’s still in her heteronormative era.
Thag Simmons
Honestly, I’m not sure if there is a deeply rooted crush. There’s definitely attraction, but I don’t think Jennifer feels the same way about Alice that she does about Ruth.
She definitely cares a lot about Alice, but I do not think she cares in the same way that Alice cares and I suspect that might cause some problems down the road.
PilkScientist
I went back to check, I think it’s worth noting that when Alice first rejected her, when they first met in the strip, it destroyed Billifer so much that she vomited in public, learned to pick Ruth’s lock, broke into her room, and had drunken relapse sex with her. If that’s not deep I don’t know what is.
Thag Simmons
I’ll say that Billie was already in a not great place (Withdrawal, Ruth) and a former best friend going scorched earth like that would probably be pretty upsetting to anyone.
It’s certainly possible I’m misreading this, and it usually doesn’t pay to bet against maximum gayness in a webcomic, but I really do get the vibe that while Jennifer cares a lot about Alice (and definitely not exclusively platonically), I do not think she has the same sort of romantic feelings for Alice that Alice does for her
Bash
It can hurt to be rejected by friends too. Especially in such a harsh way.
anon
i guess it would be awkward to bring up with alice i think she did say something like “I dont liek who billie was” although you’d think that’d be a good thing to show her change when she was originally trying to re-befriend alice again
Paladin
Billie has seemed to internalise ”gay” as a slur, or at least as something non-popular.
Billie is alpha. She is head cheerleader, cool, popular and awesome, so she can’t be queer because….
Rabid Rabbit
But she’s a cheerleader!
Folus
This mysterious hooded stranger is almost as bad at thinking things through as Joyce is.
Mads
A lord bearing condition
anon
love how joyce didn’t realize til halfway(?) thru the song
Thing 2
Does the cheap-arse light machine not do anything else? Can someone insert a colour filter every so often?
redcaela
These two dorks stopping in the middle of their song because of a technicality is exactly the sort of thing I expected from them, lmao
Mr D phone posting
The hair poking out of the hood makes it look like whomever the mysterious hooded person is, they got a beard.
Dean
Joyce used to have a beard, but then she broke up with Joe.
Stanistani
Fiery. 🔥
NGPZ
BTW sorry this off topic but
my autistic ass tried avocado toast for the first time ever, SHO GOOD ^^
Needfuldoer
RIP in peace to your finances. :( I heard that stuff is the downfall of an entire generation.
/s
Mr D phone posting
That’s Chile’s national breakfast.
Try mashing to avocado with some lemon juice and diced garlic to give it a bit of zest.
NGPZ
yeaaaaeaaah i actually squirt a little bit of lime on mine ^^
favorite way thus far is butter and a little salt and just a pinch of wasabi, really pairs well with the fat of the fruit :9
Shade
Huh that’s the one food that sets off my autistic ass, I can’t even actually try it because I start wretching before it gets near my mouth.
Macareux Moine
@Alice: Maybe she is just glad you’re no longer calling her a drama hurricane who ruins everything she touches.
@Becky/Joyce: Don’t worry: what you just sang about was a sufficient condition not a necessary one. So according to the rules of logic you can still be friends forever. Furthermore you being atheists means you can ignore any logical statements that require the existence of the Lord. Dina will confirm this.
Rabid Rabbit
So to be clear, no one in this scene is actually drunk, right? It’s just the disco ball or whatever projecting oversized drunk-bubbles on them?
eh, whatever
Yes; these are way too big for boozles, and too regularly spaced all over the entire panel.
videobear
“Boozles!” So THAT’S what those little bubbles near the heads of drunken comic characters are called. I didn’t even know they had a name!
Rowan
I now literally cannot access DOA unless I first clear all my browser data. Not just the cache, all the browser data, every day. If I click through more than a few strips, I get the “request header fields too large” error again until I delete browser data.
This is definitely a comic issue not a me issue, it’s on 2 different phones and 3 different browsers. Please can this be fixed? It’s pretty inconvenient
ChaosChild
I’ve had this same issue several times now, it’s only happened since the site “upgrade”. Definitely another issue that’s been introduced.
Dustfeather
This has been happening on my phone too (still works fine on my laptop though!)
Jerna
Lesbian Love Sleuth, prompt from “Duet”: “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!”
Every sleuth knew that a desk with a computer will beckon for them. It is just the rule of nature. You approach it and start nosing through the shelves, but there’s nothing noteworthy there. Except for a file labeled V.F.D. You skim through it, but nothing on Alice. So you turn your attention to the computer. You boot it up and it opens on the usual password screen. You guess it could be… “Mario Mario”. No luck. “Vegetarian Feta and DEATH”. Nuh-uh. “Lesbian Love Sleuth is awesome”. Try again. You look back on the file you found in the desk. “VFD”. You’re in. You start to do a silly little dance, however in your enthusiasm you start getting more nauseous of that pumpkin (What pumpkin? Oh never mind, I’m going to vomit) and you vomit all the content of your stomach on the screen and the PC. The wet goo slips into the hardware, causing a short-circuit, leading to a fire inside the PC. The smoke triggers a fire detector. Naturally everyone in the restaurant will know where you are. Your only exit is the door you came from, the same door everyone is coming towards. What will you do?
Dwampre Scorrigank
Well, this is hardly your fault! Or at least, it doesn’t have to look like it is. Try to move Alice without waking her so she’s seated in front of the smoking computer.
deliverything
And, if you do happen to wake her, gesture toward the door and tell her the Lesbian Love Sleuth’s coming. Maybe you can escape in the resulting confusion?
(It’s good to have a back up plan. If you don’t need it now, you can save it for later.)
rows
Quick! somebody let Joyce and Becky know the lord can be a metaphor before they flip!
bliss