i drew this one on valentine's day!
6

Perfect gentleman


Share

Tags: amber, walky

92 thoughts on “Perfect gentleman

  1. If only real life was more like fanfiction…

    1. This is pretty close to fan fiction though. Maybe she just doesn’t appreciate hurt/comfort stories as much.

      1. I recall her describing transformers stabbing each other with their naughty bits and I do mean “stabbing” so I’m not sure I truly understand how her “only one bed” trope can be exploited non-painfully

  2. Don’t trust uninspired smut scenarios in fanfiction. Do better Amber.

    1. I’m not sure I could do a better Amber.

      1. Commas are important people!

        1. Some Commas are *very* important people. Comma Jones , for example, supports their entire family.

      2. i mean walky could probably do amber better

        1. Let’s see. Walky is a young college age student with an incredible metabolism she has a sweet spot for. I am a complete stranger who is a tired post 70’s man now entering into the mandatory body-falling-apart stage.

          Eh, I guess we’ll never know.

  3. “There was only one bed in the hospital room, so he had to sleep with me!”

    1. “He kept going on about something called ‘medical ethics’, though.”

  4. Amber is cute even when she’s in pain. I really hope that she and Walky end up dating again; they seem to have good chemistry. Especially if Amber is thinking about fanfiction while sharing a bed with him.

    1. I mean tbf it’s a safe bet that amber is thinking about fanfiction at any given moment. But yes, true

    2. Amber and Walky have more chemistry together than all the other current main character pairings, except maybe one or two.

      1. Amber and Walky and Sal and Danny are my faves.

  5. Do we know what kind of injury she has? I think they said she wasn’t shot.

    1. https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/anesthetized/

      She definitely has a wound on the right side of her stomach, when Sal found her there was blood there, you can kinda see the patched up wound here and in the next strip Sal mentions Amber being patched up with surgical glue, but I don’t think it’s been stated how she got the wound. My assumption is a laceration, but unsure from what.

      1. Dina later told Dorothy she wasn’t shot to reassure her. I can’t think of a any standard SWAT gear that would stab or pierce like this, makes me wonder if Dina lied.

        1. It could be a friction sort of tear. I just don’t imagine Dina would be the type to sugarcoat something as serious as a wound.

        2. Surely if there’d been any gunshots they would have been heard and reported? And possibly even mentioned on the front page alongside the THIRST?

        3. Also another suggestion, Amber’s injury could also have come about from the environmental while fleeing the cops. For example, she was found in the woods so maybe while running she brushed against a branch that scraped her. Or, in a more urban setting like the park the protest was in, maybe she got hurt on a fence, or brushing past a car.

        4. she could have taken piercing damage from the chain link fencing. also if hit hard enough with a blunt object (like a police baton) the trauma can lead to bleeding. thankfully never experienced it but have seen images as part of workplace safety training. NEVER BREAK LIGHTBULBS! ENSURE PROPER FOOTWEAR WHEN CLEANING THEM UP!

      2. Yeah, you can get some pretty nasty wounds just being active outdoors even without tear gas and armed thugs to contend with.

    2. All we know is that she wasn’t shot. If we didn’t know the cops inflicted it I would have assumed a stab wound.

      My read was that she took a severe blunt force impact to the lower chest that was exacerbated by her having to flee the scene into the forest and collapsing in the underbrush.

    3. She was injured in a way that precluded going to the medical center. Any injury from a fall would not need to be reported, a gunshot wound or a stabbing would be reported to the police. If gunshot is eliminated, then a stabbing is implied since she needed to seek unofficial medical help.

  6. How dare you compare this to “there’s only one bed”. No, no, Walky has plenty of bed to find, it’s just that he’s too emotionally damaged to use it. This is the advanced “Rather be with you than with my feelings” trope.

    1. Amber doesn’t know that, so she’s going with the most common trope she knows/writes about.

    2. thank you! i’ve been writing this trope and been struggling to put my finger on it

    3. I mean, plenty of “there’s only one bed” fics happen in situations where other beds technically exist? I don’t think Walky considers Dorothy’s bed a real option.

    4. There’s also the little matter that none of the “available” beds belong to him, nor has he been invited to use any of them

      1. Tapping this comment vigorously because Yes.

  7. The whole “Hurt/Comfort” thing is working less well than in fanfic as well.

  8. Oh no, she’s genre savvy

  9. Hurt/Comfort fic

  10. Ah, the abdomen lesson is a hard one to learn. I got food poisoning once, spent all night/morning projectile vomiting (and sometimes missing the toilet…), threw up to the point that I tore my throat. A good safety lesson! If you see something brownish with the consistency of coffee grounds in your vomit, that’s blood! It gets that look because of the way blood mixes with stomach acid! I had to spend all weekend recovering from how much it tore up my abdomen muscles, and that was without getting sliced like Amber did. I couldn’t even sit up to get out of bed, I had to do an awkward roll…

    1. C-section.

      It’s a pretty crazy operation, and then they hand you a baby to take care of.

      1. “Happy surgery, have a baby!”

  11. Is anyone else having issues with commenting? Whenever I successfully write a comment the site says page not found, but the comment goes through anyway. Also it still refuses to save my name and email despite me having the little box checked.

    1. Yes, I and many others have this problem, most of the time. Sometimes you don’t get the error and have a 10 minute edit option, but even then your name and email are not saved, regardless of checkmark.

    2. This has been an issue since the new site went live

    3. i do not know why but that stopped for me a week ago, it takes 10 seconds for the site to update when i post, but it has gone through everytime, i wonder if it has to do with the site cookies, the save your name and email are saved but i have to click and they autofil.
      on pc

    4. The error message probably happens depending on how long it takes the type the comment and how active the comment section is. Data on a server uses a database format, your browser downloads a HTML representation of that data. The identity and size of the comment section of that HTML document are dynamic. With many comments being posted the size and identity change too much to be re-integrated and generate an error condition. This is fixed by reloading the website.

    5. On a similar point, has the Buffer Watch stopped showing up for anyone else?
      Cause the alt text made me curious if Willis meant Valentines day last year or this year (as in a very recent insert strip), so I went to check if he was again a full year ahead – and nothin. No Buffer Watch.

      Edit: Oh wait. Buffer Watch appears on the Main DoA Page. It just doesn’t appear when on comments – which I always am.

    6. Yes, though I assumed it refusing to remember my name and email was an issue with my browser and/or plugins because site’s not remembering me happens everywhere now.

  12. I mean this is still pretty sweet and intimate, although I’m given to understand that Amber’s fanfic leans a lot… wetter than this.

    1. The only “wetness” Amber can do at this moment is bleed, but hopefully she’ll live up to her own fanfiction expectations once she isn’t in so much pain. Knowing Amber she’ll probably try before she’s fully recovered, but not tonight.

  13. walky should consider being a perfect Lovely Lady

    1. I bet he could be such a good girl 😇🥰

      1. Yesterday with the whole “would it be weird or intrusive, cuzza my maniless” thing is definitely another note in the egg file

  14. I can’t help but think Amber feels like she deserves this by her own logic. She (thinks she did at least) played a part in what broke Walky and Dorothy up so she deserves to suffer, laying up close and in pain.

    1. She certainly nudged them in that direction. And she intended to break up Joe and Joyce for her own benefit. But a stab wound is by far too much to pay. She could have had a bit of regret without a risk of infection and jail time. Guess she could have gotten Mike hallucinations again, so who’s to say which would have been worse.

  15. Heh. Reminds me a bit of Just Stab Me Now…. (Book/audiobook/Youtube channel, plotline is about an author who periodically enters into her own novel to confront the heroine, who is absolutely NOT down with the whole “enemies to lovers” trope and its associated elements, including There’s Only One Bed.) Highly recommend!

  16. off topic but useful tip for a mental health boost:

    I just installed a chrome extension which removes all side bar videos when using YouTube, cuz let’s face it, the algorithm cares about nothing but traffic and has so much endemic rage bait it’s just not worth the trouble anymore

  17. goddammit! sorry for the double post :/

    1. that’s okay I just installed an extension which takes care of that

  18. having had my appendix removed recently, and making the mistake of moving a bit too much after the surgery, I can confirm that your doctor will get very upset with you, and sit you down to explain how much of what you do requires your core lol

  19. I love Walky and Amber so goddamn much y’all have no fucking idea.

    1. I agree. The only couple I equally love is DannyxSal, so a world where both of these pairings continue is a world I can enjoy.

      Billie/JenniferxRuth was a nice relationship, but I feel like AlicexBillie/Jennifer could be better.

      However I’m mostly rooting for DannyxSal, and AmberxWalky. The Walkertons are some of my favorite characters; not counting their garbage parents.

  20. Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but when I was in college I’m pretty sure the beds weren’t big enough for two people to sleep side-by-side in one bed comfortably. I guess Indiana University has bigger beds than we had at my college years ago? This isn’t really a complaint, I genuinely like today’s strip.

    1. I shared a twin size bed with someone for like 3 years; you learn to adapt. Although we slept while holding each other which meant the lack of space wasn’t a problem.

    2. I think Willis once mentioned that they consistently widen the beds when you’re looking into them, to make more things possible.

  21. Guess she actually wants cuddles.

    1. I think she was secretly hoping Walky would join her in bed the whole time, but she’s in too much pain to enjoy it as much as she normally would.

  22. Alas, fanfiction really leaves out the amount of interference incredible pain can do on romantic scenarios. For the best, mind, for the best.

  23. Amber’s comment in panel 2 about how much of her is connected through her lower abdomen just made me think of Vic Michaelis asking “Am I a bag Hank?” and being worried about the answer.

  24. Ten Dimmadollars says that we get the irritating cheaters tomorrow.

    1. You can look at the Patreon if you want the blurred spoiler of who is in tomorrow’s strip.

      1. As long as I don’t look, I can pretend it’s the one where Jennifer and Ruth get back together.

  25. If enough people are:
    a) determined to read this comic and
    b) hate Joyce or Dorothy or both
    given that this is a comic about Joyce…. maybe someone should set up one of those websites like “Is it snowing in Dunedin”, only “does DoA feature Joyce & Dorothy today” then those people can check and give it a miss on Joyce&Dorothy days.
    But maybe I’m reading it wrong. Maybe there are simply people who love loudly hating Joyce&Dorothy

    1. Ethan’s cheating on Mike, but who’s Asher cheating on?

      Edited to say this was a reply to Miroku 2235 above. No idea how it ended up down here.

    2. It’s definitely that last thing.

    3. Comics do sometimes shift focus, even onto other main characters. I mean, look at QC.

      1. Yeah, most of the time it isn’t even about PintSize.

    4. And then there are people who are into loudly complaining about the haters.
      Really seemed pretty quiet today. A couple of fairly mild comments.
      I’m sure there will be more when they’re back on stage, but maybe we could not feed the flames when they’re not actually blazing.

    5. What’s the point of a comment like this, aside from stoking further hostility?

      Rule 11 was added for a reason.

  26. Those beds look surprisingly big.

  27. Wait, the alt text says that Willis drew this on Valentine’s day, but….. Which one? Given their long buffer, it doesn’t feel right that it would have been the one last week, but the current buffer seems too short that it would have been the one last year? I guess we might be back into the buffer he drew before he had to change plans because of the Doyce swerve? The timeline matches better than expected, the swerve would only have had to have cost three months of buffer, which seems reasonable for having to have replanned a bunch of stuff.
    Alright, I think I solved my confusion.

    1. An excellent question. I’d be curious to hear this as well.

    2. I’m pretty confident it would be Valentine’s Day of 2025. The preview panels of smug Joyce from just a few pages ago were originally uploaded on February 13th, 2025.

      1. Yeah. Willis had a buffer of over a year before the Kiss. That the current buffer is shorter doesn’t change where it was then.
        And we were never really out of that buffer. The only changes that affected the buffer were the addition of some Asma strips and reworking a few others to fit them in.
        They talked about changing plans to have DoJo get together during the protest, but that decision happened while working on that sequence, so it didn’t really change the buffer. At least that’s my understanding.

    3. Even with the rewrite I’m sure some of the old strips were still useable

  28. Remember, kids: genre awareness saves lives!

    1. We get it, Elan. Now, back to OOTS with you, deal with your demonic brother.

      1. We really need a “like” option in the chat.

  29. ‘A lot of my body is connected to my lower abdomen’ As someone who had to have surgery on their rear to drain out a massive infection a few years back. I can confirm this! You do not realize how many things are connected to the waist and below till everything down there hurts. You cough? You sneeze? Time for PAIN down there.

  30. Honestly, I’m a little reluctant to see these two back together. Yes, they’re cute and I adore them, but their garbage roof dynamic is based on mutual self loathing. That invites mutual sabotage. After all, if one of them starts to feel good about themselves, it threatens the relationship. So they’re both incentivized to encourage each other to be the worst version of themselves.
    .
    That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the story, but from my position of being immersed in the story and empathizing with the characters, I want better for both of them. But even as a reader who wants interesting chaos, I feel like that dynamic has been done better before. If we want explosions, these two can’t hold a roman candle to the ultimate self sabotaging duo of Ruth and Jennifer.

    1. I’d really love Walky to find someone who treats him well.

      Dorothy kept yanking him around because their relationship could never be a priority for her.

      Lucy never did a decent job listening to what Walky was actually expressing, and instead blamed him for reality not aligning with her fantasies.

      Amber treated Walky okay… but that largely has to do with her own self-worth being garbage.

      It’d be nice for Walky to find someone who genuinely just likes him. Not as a convenience, or a fantasy, or “garbage”, but just him.

      1. I feel like these two COULD get to a point where they could build each other up rather than keeping each other level, honestly. They’d have to both believe they were capable of growth first, though.

        It’s called “garbage can”, not “garbage can’t”.

        1. Absolutely! I think we are seeing some signs from Walky that he wants to be treated better. I think he’s seen this movie and didn’t like the ending and may be at a point where he wants to be with someone who thinks he’s worth being with and so is she. I think they could be that, but they’ve got to have that talk.

  31. walky aside feels like it’d be hard to stay completely still while sleeping but while i’ve never rolled over my bed i don’t think i’ve ever not moved or so versus like being tucked in with a weighted blanket

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.