do i tag amber if she's under the covers? hrm
328

Transcript

Dorothy: Sorry, we were just… looking for Amber. To see how she's doing.
Dorothy: Tell her, if you see her, we're thinking about her, okay?
Walky: Yeah, I can do that.
Dorothy: How are… YOU doing, Walky?
Walky: Stop DUMPIN' me every friggin' five minutes, and I'll EVENTUALLY be fine.
Dorothy: ...message received.

Tell her
Posted on May 15, 2026 by David M Willis

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Tags: amber, dorothy, walky

156 thoughts on “Tell her”

  1. NGPZ

    oooooo BURN! XD

  2. IntangibleMatter

    Yeah, wait SIX minutes and it’ll be okay next time Dorothy, JEEZ. Gotta give just a little more time.

  3. QueenofSodor

    dorothy will see a free dose of self-loathing on the table, ask “is anybody gonna pursue that,” and then not wait for an answer before mainlining it

    (not like this isn’t a legitimate thing for her to ruminate or anything, but jeez girl)

    1. Fail Earnhardt

      Her commitment to always putting her hand on an available hot stove is impressive

    2. Reltzik

      Exactly right. There’s a difference between mainlining it and then just chewing on it a bit so you can digest it.

      (That is too what ruminating means.)

    3. Sajuuk-Khar

      Dorothy: “Dead Dove – Do Not Eat”. *sighs, puts it in the microwave* No, no, it’s my fault for needing food…

  4. Astariel

    Harsh, but not undeserved.

    1. Grayfinity

      I forget, is this the first time they’re speaking to each other after the breakup? If so, oof. Asking if someone else is okay before asking if the person you dumped is okay probably stings.

  5. IntangibleMatter

    Also I’m gonna go back through the archives and thumbs up every Carla strip because Carla is great and we’re all bugs.

    1. clif

      Fair.

    2. Aura

      I admire your dedication! Carla is great and we are all bugs! :D

    3. Sajuuk-Khar

      Your admirable commitment to the God-Empress is recognized, fellow insect

      Her Radiance Protects (when She feels like it)

    4. Sajuuk-Khar

      (The Warhammer 40K universe would be WAY more interesting if Carla was the Empress of Mankind, I’ll tell you what)

      1. clif

        Just an oversight, I’m sure. Though you can always correct the background in your games.

        1. Sajuuk-Khar

          Maybe I will! Maybe in fact we ALL will! You watch this comments section, commentariat!

          Or rather, watch tonight’s comments section!

          For in the grim darkness of the far future…there is only CARLA. And war. A lot of war. BUT ALSO CARLA.

  6. Bill Erak

    Now, now, walky, to be fair
    Joyce dumped you this time. lmao.

  7. tbf

    There’s a thumbs up button under the comic. Is it new? What does it do?

    1. Reltzik

      I think it’s the signal for the other comic to execute this one?
      But I don’t see another comic, so I guess it already happened?

      1. Aquila

        If you’re basing this on Roman gladiators, the execution signal was a thumbs down.

        1. vlademir1

          The specific gesture for pollice verso (literally “turned thumb” of “turn of the thumb”) is at best ambiguous in the primary sources and heavily debated by those who study the period professionally. The specific thumbs down gesture we modernly think of as that is mostly a nineteenth century entrant to the popular culture that was heavily used throughout twentieth century media. I personally favor the interpretation I came across between a decade and two decades ago that the kill gesture would be thumb out twisting the wrist such that the thumb crosses the body similar to the modern throat slash gesture for cut while the stop/mercy gesture would be the closed fist similar to tactical halt.

        2. Thag Simmons

          What are you doing? You’re both wrong!

      2. clif

        Now see, I thought it was the gesture for this comic to kill the other one, which explains why you don’t see it.

  8. Icalasari

    Sometimes I forget that Walky is technically a genius and as such very quick on the uptake. No pining, just outright recognizing, “Dorothy constantly picking me up then dropping me is REALLY not good for my mental health”

  9. Amós Batista

    See how Walky is not angry to Dorothy. He just wants to keep distance ..

    1. Armadillo

      This definitely reads as at least mildly upset to me. Not angry angry, but he’s clearly not especially okay with her after how she’s treated him. Rightfully so.

    2. Fail Earnhardt

      I think it’s more that he doesn’t *want* to resent Dorothy, but recognizes their previous dynamic of “Dorothy leaves once Walky has outlived his usefulness” will only continue hurting him if he doesn’t maintain distance.

    3. Profnekko

      Walky never really pinned me as the type to get explosively angry. When he’s not being his goofy self and needs to talk serious he can be quite blunt though which can be a mixed bag but I think when talking to Dorothy the direct route is probably for the best

      1. Dot

        The funny thing is that one of Walkyverse Walky’s big flaws was that he COULD get explosively angry, and would go way too far every time it happened with disastrous results.

        1. Corey C.

          I remember when he beat the crap out of Mike right after Dina was blown up right in front of him and Mike acted like he didn’t care, but I don’t remember any other times Walkyverse Walky got explosively angry. Usually SAL was the one to explode on people… or try to end the world. Do you have any other examples of Walky losing it in the original timeline?

          I do like that Dumbingverse Sal is way more chill than her Walkyverse counterpart.

        2. clif

          Does beating the hell out of Mike after Dina died really count tho?

        3. Cbwroses

          Walky beat up the Head Alien and then tried to drop some people sized capsules on top of him.
          Said people sized capsules had people in them.

        4. Cbwroses

          I won’t spoil who the people were, in case someone wants to read the decades old comic (that reminds me, I need to finish that decades old comic).

        5. Li

          I mean, I don’t know that I would call that funny?
          .
          Willis has talked about how a LOT of their Walkyverse characters had really explosive tempers. Because they too had problems with processing their emotions.
          .
          Joyce still has that trait, to an extent; Walky doesn’t.

        6. zee

          Not ha ha funny, interesting funny. Like ironic. Not everyone’s going to know how much of what character trait is or was the author working through their own real life issues

        7. Dot

          Sal got angry more often, but Walky was perfectly capable of that kind of rage as well. The Mike incident, the time he dropped some bodies on the Head Alien and inadvertently killed Big Boss, his flashback on the Alien ship…

        8. Li

          @Zee: first of all, I wanna be clear that I’m not talking about some obscure thing Willis only said on Bluesky, I’m definitely talking about something that was part of the blog-post-style commentaries they’ve added to the Walkyverse comics. Something like what’s below the comic here: http://www.itswalky.com/comic/the-last-roomies-story-ever-promise-page-7/
          .
          So not everyone will have read that! For lots of reasons, like not wanting to spoil themselves on their first read-through, or maybe even having read the comics a long time ago, before the commentaries existed.
          .
          But I didn’t go out of my way looking for Word of God on this one, it was just kinda there.
          .
          Second of all: sure, but when we’re talking about it being weird or interesting that a creative choice was made, it seems relevant to mention the context of that choice?
          .
          Even without Willis’s commentary, for example, it’s relevant that Walky is only one of many Walkyverse characters who lost his explosive temper in adaptation.
          .
          Especially because we’ve got lots of DoA readers who have never read any of Willis’s other comics, who might see this thread and think, “wow what happened to Walky’s temper?” when the answer is probably just, “well, it would be really boring if every single major character in DoA had anger issues”.

        9. Rosicrucian

          It was something that was supposedly a flaw in all the abductees. Something about the Martian DNA made them ticking time bombs.

        10. Li

          @Rosicrucian: that sounds familiar! It is still true of older characters characters new to Shortpacked, though, like Ethan (who did not keep it as a trait in DoA) and Amber (who did).

        11. Dot

          Yes, most of the Walkyverse rage issues just got funneled into Amber.

        12. Li

          oops
          .
          “still true of older characters new to Shortpacked, like Ethan and Amber” is what I meant to say there
          .
          Like I think by the time Willis had created Malaya or Lucy, “explosive temper” was no longer almost a requirement of being a major Willis character, but the early non-abductee Shortpacked cast still reflect that period of time, is what I am trying to say.

      2. Amós Batista

        Yes. That’s why Walky htting Asher was a big suprise to me.

    4. Odo

      Walky practically always undercuts serious emotions with comedy. He isn’t going to start shouting at Dorothy because doing so would reveal that he is hurt. If he reveals that then he can’t keep pretending to himself that he is fine.

  10. Kirby

    Schrodinger’s Amber has entered the tags

    Or is Schrodinger’s Amber when we’re not sure if it’s her or Amazigirl talking.

    Both? Both.

    1. Corey C.

      I’m pretty sure it’s Amber, given that she was most likely playing video games before Walky covered her up. Also I don’t know if Amazi-girl is attracted to Walky like Amber is.

      1. John Campbell

        We haven’t seen Amazi-Girl since the protest. Amber’s been having to deal with the aftermath herself.

        (Seriously, A-G, there are healthier ways to express your displeasure with Amber leaving you to deal with her wank-aftermath.)

      2. Kirby

        It’s certainly Amber under there, I was mostly making a joke about the hovertext

    2. Reltzik

      The two interpretations exist in superposition. It’s Schrodinger’s Schrodinger’s Amber.

  11. Wack'd

    belated rules post because this website is held together with paper clips and rubber bands
    .
    all replies will be deleted, i’ll stop posting this on sunday, yadda yadda

    1. Miri

      There are rules? Does this mean people can’t playfully Damn Willis in the commentary any more? I’ve been a lot less active and reading the comments a lot less since the site update (though mostly incidentally – onto week 6 of being knocked out by COVID for instance)… Do people get notified if their comments are deleted?

      So it’s not *just* me commenting on the rules… 😜

      I have to imagine that having this conversation with Amber suffocating under the blanket next to him and with Joyce just outside the room makes it extra-awkward and plausibly contributes to the levels of shade Walky is sneaking towards Dorothy right now… Partly because of the added awkwardness and partly because he’d quite like to make sure Amber can breathe…

      I am also wondering if Amber has written any smut-fic scenes where one person is hiding under a blanket while in bed with another person while they talk to somebody else. Given Walky claimed he was spooning Booster up there and gave her a horny ouch, if it hasn’t happened previously I suspect it may happen in future…

      1. Wack'd

        people can still say “damn you willis”, that’s fine
        .
        people do not get notified if their comments are deleted, sorry

  12. EpochFlame

    how many times has dorothy dumped him? I think this one’s the third?
    first being pajama jeans

    1. clif

      Not so sure. This time Joyce dumped him, and I was thinking at one point he dumped her and Joyce was so indignent about it happening that way that she got them back together just so Dorothy could dump him instead, but then that didn’t happen. That’s what I remember anyway. It’s been awhile, so I could be wrong. There were pauses that weren’t pauses, but I think there was just one real one where he wound up in a suitably twisted relationship with Amber the first time. So I’m going to go with one real dumping.

      1. Cbwroses

        Walky dumped her over the pajama jeans when she tried to give him an ultimatum.
        Joyce angrily got in his face about that and told him how beneath Dorothy he was, then pushed Dorothy into his face to get back with Dorothy so that Dorothy could retroactively dump him, as was the proper order of the universe, but Dorothy did not do that.

        She then suggested, weeks later, that they take a break because her grades were slipping.
        That lasted like 2 days, when they suddenly had sex after bumping into each other in the elevator.
        Walky took that as a sign that they were back together and decided he was going to buckle down and get tutoring from Jason (who was just informed by his ex that she was fired for sleeping with a student, said student being Joe, and had snitched on Jason as well).
        Right after Walky started dragging Jason around, Dorothy broke up with him officially, feeling that it wasn’t right of her to pick him up and put him down whenever she felt like it.

        Walky then spent the next day being angry and sad to the point the-artist-formerly-known-as-Billie actually tried to comfort him, but the only comfort Walky found was the Twitter page and Tweets of Rounder, Shorter, Thick Dorothy aka Amber.
        After the kidnapping happened, Walky talked to Dorothy about still being in love with her, but she said something to the equivalent of things being the same as when they broke up, that she was planning on leaving for Yale, and so it still wouldn’t be right to toy with his feelings.

        There was no further talks regarding romance and dating between the two of them (that I recall) until she suggested he get with Lucy, then later suggested he dump Lucy for her, then tried to kiss him a few days later after he was unsure Lucy had dumped him, then that same day said she would help him get back with Lucy, then they had sex like two days later, after Walky saw how sexually frustrated she was (and having unrealized feeling for Joyce).
        After sex, Walky asked her what their status was, she said they could be serious or not, it was up to him.
        Walky chose to be serious with her and then Joyce was laughing in his face like 5 days later.

        All of that is just a very long winded and rambling way of saying they’ve had one pause and 3 breakups, with everything being Dorothy’s decision except the first pajama jeans breakup.

        1. George

          If she gave Walky an ultimatum, I don’t think him taking her at face value is really *him* breaking up with her.

        2. Cbwroses

          This and the one after it are the relevant strips:
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/no/
          Also, I don’t know what you’d call “take off those pants in public…I can’t tell you what to do, but I can decide I don’t find you attractive anymore,” if not an ultimatum, but I also don’t know how “fine, I’ll keep my pants and you can no longer suck on my nipples,” is not Walking breaking up with her.
          If you give me a “do ____ or else” choice, and I choose “or else”, I still chose.
          Also, Dorothy tells Joyce that Walky broke up with her, hence why Joyce got in his face about it.
          You’re welcome to view it differently, but the characters within the story don’t.

        3. Wack'd

          i know what you meant but i’m imagining dorothy telling walky she’ll break up with him if he doesn’t publicly take off his pants

        4. zee

          I don’t think they were disputing that dotty gave an ultimatum. Imo ultimatums of “x or we’re done” are basically soft breakups. Like, don’t give an ultimatum if you’re not good with both outcomes. You’re the one who put the breakup on the table, it’s basically like setting a bomb to be disarmed. Choosing the “or else” is simply not disarming the bomb and letting it blow up. You’re still the one that set the bomb, you’re the one going to prison for it. That’s a very personal opinion type thing tho, YMMV and what have you.

        5. NGPZ

          hey um @Wack’d sorry if off topic but how did you get a URL link in your name?

          I saw another user, Banana, also do it but I cannot figure it out for the life of me :/

        6. Wack'd

          to the best of my knowledge there’s a form area for it underneath where you put your email, but i haven’t had to log in the normal way in a hot second so i’m probably not the best person to answer this

        7. NGPZ

          yeah, no, there just be the name and the email form :/

        8. clif

          Cbwroses, so if I follow you, then you count three breakups and Dorothy dumped him only twice, with one of those having us disagree on how to treat the technicality that Joyce did the breaking up. Did I follow correctly?

        9. PokeyPuppy

          DANG, this is a great summary. I suffer through so many bad ones in my life (run a bookstore), this is fantastic work.

        10. Cbwroses

          @zee that is how many people would view an ultimatum. That is generally how I view ultimatums. But there are also many people who make them while not being ok with one of the options.
          It’s like gambling: some people only risk what they’re willing and able to lose while others risk what they can’t afford to lose.
          Dorothy didn’t even say she was going to break up with him, only that she would *decide* to not find him attractive. Now I myself took that as being willing to break up with him, but if she clarified that they would still be together while she withheld physical affection from him, I wouldn’t feel like she had lied or was incorrect in that interpretation.
          ———-
          @clif: yes.
          ———
          @PokeyPuppy: thank you!

  13. Dot

    “I like to stay amicable with all my exes”

    1. 3oranges

      To be fair, there are all sorts of things I like to do that I almost never manage to do.

      1. Miri

        I like to eat copious amounts of ice cream as part of a healthy lifestyle plan that results in me having perfectly defined, firm abs. Alas, I don’t eat as much ice cream as I’d like, and my abs lack the definition I desire 🤷🏻‍♀️ (Should probably eat more ice cream. Definitely what I’m doing wrong. Not exercise more or differently/consume fewer calories or anything like that…)

      2. clif

        Staying amicable with all your exes is comendable. But how many exes you have seems relevant. If you only have one ex, it seems easier and so less commendable, with each additional ex increasing how impressive it is. Except at some point the sheer number of exes would become salient. if you have a couple of thousand exes, something is clearly wrong and, far from being commendable, staying amicable with all of them just takes it into wierd territory. So clearly their is optimal number of exes which deserves maximal commendation, but I have no idea how many exes that would be.

    2. apocryphascribe

      I was guffawing when she said that the first time. Glad to see we didn’t have to wait too long to see it crash into reality.

    3. Pocky

      Like the 3 of his so far? lol

      1. Brian K. Pittman

        It’s a Dorothy quote, so is in reference to her repeated mishandling of Walky as a partner, basically highlighting she’s not great at the thing she said she likes to do.

      2. clif

        Given we count Joyce’s, when was the third?

    4. thejeff

      To be fair, she did stay friends with Walky after their previous breakup. And “amicable” isn’t a bad description of her with Danny. They’re not friends, but they’re not hostile either. Not so bad as far as breakup go.

      1. Dot

        Danny is currently steaming mad at her

        1. Li

          Being mad at someone doesn’t mean you aren’t still their friend, though?

        2. Dot

          And also, like, I really wouldn’t consider Dorothy and Danny friends in any meaningful way. They don’t talk.

        3. Rosicrucian

          Or at the least, when Dorothy has sought Danny out, she has subsequently proven that she ignored Danny’s pretty sensible advice on the things she asked him about.

          This being what he’s currently steaming mad about.

        4. Li

          @Dot: they don’t talk on-screen very much right now, but Wack’d did a pretty thorough rundown a few days ago that reminded me that they’ve actually had several significant interactions since the breakup, not least of which was Danny going to Dorothy when he realized he might be attracted to men and her trying to help him through that (however successfully we rate that attempt).
          .
          An argument can be made that oh, Danny didn’t think of Dorothy as a friend, he just literally had no one else he could talk to about that (Joe reacted badly, he was WORRIED Amber would react badly, and obviously he couldn’t tell Ethan), but like. It’s still a thing that happened, well after they broke up.

        5. Corey C.

          The last time Dorothy talked to Danny he didn’t seem made at her. He accepted that she was bi but disapproved that she wanted a girlfriend while dating someone else. Dorothy got flustered and stormed off, but Danny remained surprisingly chill.

        6. Rosicrucian

          And then Danny found out that Dorothy went out and did the awful bisexual stereotype he warned her against.

        7. Denkel

          And are you never mad at your friends if they do something you dislike? Danny is mad for something completely outside of their breakup, staying in good terms does not mean, “never do anything you might dislike”.

          PS: Sorry for the report, hard to “reply”…

      2. Dot

        It does mean your current relations are hardly amicable!

        1. Li

          I genuinely, genuinely do not understand this line of argument.
          .
          If I said “I like to remain on amicable terms with my exes,” I know I wouldn’t mean “I am literally saying I want to always be friends with every person I’ve ever dated.” Because I would be saying this thing in a world where the expectation, especially among straight people, is that exes are people we never talk to again after a breakup: people we are forever awkward around, and can never be friendly or even cordial with, ever again.
          .
          So in that context, I would know that I was saying, “I don’t want to be one of those people who can’t ever be in the same room with an ex again without it being, at best, extremely socially awkward.”
          .
          And like. I don’t have exes lol, I’m very demi and very gay and I have only even sort of dated a handful of people prior to my current girlfriend, none of whom were ever serious enough to be an “ex”.
          .
          But that’s still what I have absorbed from the cultural osmosis of TV, etc.

        2. Tan

          I don’t think that “amicable” (being on generally friendly terms as a (platonic) relationship status without necessarily formally being friends) just automatically goes away whenever Danny (or Walky) is upset at her.

          But I *do* think it’s funny to hold up Dorothy’s claim next to the current mood of her exes toward her, so.

        3. thejeff

          @Li: That’s basically how I’m reading “amicable” here. She and Danny haven’t really been friends since the breakup, but they’re on friendly terms.
          As breakups go, that’s relatively good.
          I suspect some of the argument here is over what we read into amicable. The rest is more the dramatic irony of Walky actually being mad at her this time.

        4. Li

          @Tan: Joking about it is fine, I’m only confused because I don’t really think everyone who’s been making this argument has been joking.
          .
          @thejeff: Yep, we are in complete agreement here. Good point about the dramatic irony, though.

    5. Rosicrucian

      Dorothy tries to excel in all things. Denial certainly is one of them.

    6. Denkel

      From Merriam -Webster (slightly edited for formatting):
      “Choose the Right Synonym for amicable
      amicable, neighborly, friendly mean exhibiting goodwill and an absence of antagonism.

      *amicable* implies a state of peace and a desire on the part of the parties not to quarrel:
      _maintained amicable relations_

      *neighborly* implies a disposition to live on good terms with others and to be helpful on principle:
      _neighborly concern_

      *friendly* stresses cordiality and often warmth or intimacy of personal relations:
      _sought friendly advice_”

      So, yes, she did try to stay amicable; that does not mean “friendly” neither it means that she will always manage to do so, just that it is her desired outcome.
      So, can we please stop milking that phrase to critizice her at every turn?

  14. StarryMoon

    A serious Walky is a scary Walky indeed

    1. Corey C.

      “Beware the Silly Ones” is an age old trope in media.

  15. Pocky

    But Walky is just so easy to dump, look at all the girls who have do e it already lol

  16. Taffy

    Hell yeah, Walky. That’s some good self-advocating.

  17. redcaela

    As obvious as may seem… sometimes it needs to be said. And heard.

  18. mads_in_zero

    Tagging Amber under the covers is a tough call because what if that’s Amazi-Girl. There’s no way of knowing.

    1. Dave from Indy

      So sort of like George of the Jungle mixing up his wife and her twin (who doesn’t like George) except there it was done for comic effect..,

    2. Grimey

      Schrondinger’s Superhero

    3. Niklarean

      But wait, what if it’s actually Booster?

      1. clif

        Or both.
        …
        I guess we’ll never know for sure.

    4. Needfuldoer

      Schrodinger’s Superhero is both there and not there until you look.

  19. RassilonTDavros

    Yaaaaay, the site’s back up an’ running! I don’t have to delve into the cesspit that is Reddit to get my fix

    1. NGPZ

      hahaha i feel that X~X

      if ya seekin an alternative to the reddit and comments section for discussing the comic, feel free to contact me on discord (my handle there is my name all lowercase but with a period before the letters), i got somethin right up ya ally

  20. PilkScientist

    Understood, increasing intervals to 10 minutes, see you then.

  21. Sajuuk-Khar

    If Dorothy was a fantasy world penitent, would she be more like a Sister Repentia from 40K or would it be more an Iron Maiden-ass suit of armor from such as Fear & Hunger/Blasphemous/Diablo?

    1. Fail Earnhardt

      She would be Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony 100%

      1. Sajuuk-Khar

        I’m into it, I think our neurotic mess could rock a total-blindness capirote helm and a bandage-wrapped sword of eldritch radiance

    2. zee

      Mmmm funger mention. I actually forgot about the penance armor

      1. zee

        Anyway penance armor bc you know there’s some sick codependent ass part of her that would want to do a Marriage with Joyce and pre kiss dotty was on some penance armor ass timing punishing herself to stay away.
        (Note for non funger fans: Marriage is not just getting married. I’m not decrying gay marriage lmao. Marriage is permanently physically fusing two or more bodies together to create a new, much stronger character.)

  22. TrueSurvivor

    I know this is slightly off topic, but, for some reason, I find it strangely pleasing that the characters in the Book 15 adds have been, in whole or part, slightly osculating.
    Note that I mean osculating as in moving side to side, not as in kissing – not that I would mind, but that is just not what they were doing.

  23. 3oranges

    Oscillating is to swing back and forth, osculating is making a little mouth with someone.

    1. Thing 2

      I was delighted by an ad for an osculating fan, once…

      1. clif

        You know how us fans are.

    2. Thing 2

      Dorothy: If you changed your top to something that didn’t clash with all the decor and other people’s clothes, you might find that you stop clashing with people. I’m not sure it would work in real life, but maybe for someone in an artist’s head?

      1. Thing 2

        Well that wasn’t where it was supposed to go!

      2. Grimey

        When you say top, do you mean her clothes or Joyce?

        1. clif

          Does Joyce clash with the decor?
          I hadn’t noticed.

  24. Mr.Morningstar

    OOF.

    honestly kinda deserved tho, but oof nontheless

  25. Arianod

    Fair.

  26. anon

    did not expect a lights counter but nice

  27. Rimwalker55

    Dorothy’s sadness reminds me of Ruth, although she uses the word “mistakes”. Some decisions are life defining and the resulting hurts just have to be endured. No do-overs. You have to grow on from here.

    https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/trustworthy/

  28. Newlland(Henryvolt)

    Them just breakuping isn’t even the problem. At least the other times ended on good terms, but can anyone tell me with bold confidence the way they split this time was a healthy breakup?

    1. vlademir1

      I certainly know people who would… but they aren’t the type to read web comics in general nor this one in particular. Personally, I feel like they were only healthy interacting with one another for a very short part of the time they’ve known each other. I also feel like Dorothy has been depicted as not particularly healthy in her approach to relationships from the beginning (ie. when and how she dumped Danny).

  29. YourCousinJay

    I’m glad Walky is finally verbally admitting he’s not doing okay, like it probably shouldn’t be but this is a pretty big step for him.

    1. Zaxares

      Yeah. I confess that if I’d been in his position I’d be WAY less diplomatic with Dorothy than he has been. :P

  30. Sharizard

    Alt-text compromise: Blue blanket now gets its own character tag.

    1. clif

      Based on textual evidence, I maintain that Booster should also be tagged.

  31. Sirksome

    I hope Walky takes some time to think about the fact every woman he’s dated has discarded him when it became inconvenient for them and decides what he actually wants in a relationship. Dorothy may be the most guilty of using Walky in this way but it’s a larger problem with objectification in Walky’s love life. Even Amber has literally shoved him aside. I really hope he as a character starts thinking about these things.

    1. drs

      “became inconvenient” is not how I’d describe them.

      Amber dumped him for his “Mike’s alive” BS. https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/attention-2/
      I’m pretty sure Lucy dumped him for some mix of not standing up to his parents, and her realizing that he just wasn’t into her the way she was. (And maybe that she’d been chasing a fantasy of love.)

      Dorothy OTOH could be described that way, twice: breaking up because he was too distracting from her Sacred Studies, and then again to “upgrade” to Joyce.

      1. Sirksome

        “Become inconvenient” is maybe a poor choice ,y original impulse was to say “when he stops being fun” but that seemed even meaner. My point isn’t really that Walky isn’t in part responsible for the breakups especially Lucy’s (racism isn’t something anyone should deal with as the cost of a relationship). My point is more that his emotions are never considered, the Mike situation was and possibly still has been tough for Walky too. Amber never thought of that. Dorothy never considers how Walky feels when she kept picking him and dropping him until now after the fact. And Lucy of course thought he was all in at the start despite them never truly talking about it and now even though he said her friendship was really important to him, Lucy has seemingly abandoned him even as a friend. It has technically only been a few days I think. Maybe that will change in the future? But we’ve seen both of them around and it doesn’t seem like their previous platonic friendship has survived.
        —-
        It just feels like a pattern of seeing Walking as a dating prospect first and forgetting this is actually a person. Maybe Walky should consider that about himself too.

        1. Grimey

          I’ve been thinking about Jacob and Lucy for a bit now, and been wondering if when Walky said that people fuck their feelings through him, if he was also thinking of Lucy. We’ve talked about him being perceptive—I wonder if from his viewpoint, Lucy found in Jacob the person she thought Walky was.
          *
          I think it’s going to be some time before Walky sees himself as a person though I could be very wrong. I’ve been cheerleading the Walky crashout arc with alarming regularity for sometime now but that he’s nothing if not resilient. I guess I had this thought that as Sal and Walky’s childhoods were vastly different, eventually their college lives would catch up in opposing reflection.
          *
          It just now occurred to also that Amber is here, front and center to be present for the finality of Walky and Dorothy’s relationship, possibly friendship for a little bit—which thanks in part to Booster, she realizes she had a hand in. We’ll see how that goes.

      2. Odo

        Amber and Walky bonded over both thinking of themselves as garbage. Her dumping him was fair… but man the relationship wasn’t doing either of them any favors.

        Lucy was primarily interested in some imagined fantasy of Walky, which is why she never picked up on anything that she didn’t want to hear, such as when Walky told her she should avoid his parents, or when Walky was unenthused about having sex.

        Then, when Lucy realized she’d been pursuing a fantasy in her head rather than a real person she got pissy and blamed Walky. And because Walky regularly thinks of himself as “garbage” he was fully ready to accept it.

    2. nadamás

      I mean, she shoved him because he said an incredibly insensitive thing about her dead friend whose death was a severe source of trauma for her. I will stand by her on that until the end days.

      1. thejeff

        To be fair to him, he said it because of the trauma over his abusive roommate dying. Amber’s reaction was certainly understandable, but it’s not like he was just messing around or deliberately poking at her pain.

        1. nadamás

          I know, I still say it was an understandable reaction on her part.

        2. Dandi Andi

          I think it’s a distinction worth making that Walky was acting out in a way that hurt people who were not responsible for his grief. Amber played out at Walky because she was being hurt by Walky.

      2. Sirksome

        To be clear I don’t think the shove was actually the problem beyond Amber’s already established history of abuse and rage issues. I was just using shove as an attempt a clever word association because she dumped Walky both literally and in their relationship at the same time. Her reaction was valid of course but she never considered that Walky, Mike’s roommate who likely spent the most day to day time with Mike during his college life was also very effected by Mike’s death and that’s why he was acting out. I wouldn’t expect Amber to understand or forgive Walky in that moment she hadn’t even dealt with her own grief yet, but it does stand as another example of a women dumping Walky without much consideration for him as a person with emotions or depth beyond the fun partner they expected.
        ——
        Especially since they seem to be flirting with a potential second chance at being a couple I’m not sure Amber won’t dump him again at the first sign of conflict.

  32. ValdVin

    It took me more days than I want to admit to notice that there’s a thumbs-up button on the new layout.

    1. Taffy

      Don’t get too embarrassed, it’s only existed for two or three days.

      1. Miri

        I want to be able to like comments too but appreciate this is greedy (feature is added. ADD MORE FEATURES!!) ☺️

        1. clif

          Narrator: As more features were added, the navigation bar slipped further and further down the page.

      2. ValdVin

        Really? Okay, now I feel better.
        But I’m still going backwards and upvoting all the entries I can.

  33. Opinion

    I hope she does actually hear him. Im a little concerned Dorothy is going to try to “fix it” is someway and they’ll just be worse overall.

    Sometimes the most “amicable ” a break up can be “we dont interact anymore” atleast in the short term. And with the pace of the comic “short term” would last until about 2030 or later.

  34. Rosicrucian

    Come to think of it, Walky’s got double Dorothy dumping pheromones.

    As soon as Amber heals up, she’s gonna obliterate that twink.

  35. Li

    In which I feel simultaneously bad for Dorothy and PROUD OF WALKY.
    .
    I still want him to take several steps back here and realize that maybe, just maybe, his dating history is NOT a series of unfortunate events where he just keeps fumbling smart pretty girls who’re “too good for him” (https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/particular-2/).
    .
    I am still very much on the “Dorothy didn’t mistreat Walky on purpose at any point here, she’s just exactly as stupid and bad at this as everyone else in the cast” train, but that you’ll notice the issue I take is with the idea that it was “on purpose”. Not with the idea that it was mistreatment.
    .
    (Similarly, I support Lucy in breaking up with Walky, but it’s awful that Walky has so clearly internalized that breakup as another terrible mistake he made, rather than… at the very least as a series of mistakes they both made, and a relationship that wasn’t making either of them happy.)

    1. Strain Of Thought

      I still feel like Dorothy’s lowest moment in the entire comic was telling Danny that she had practiced comforting people by touching them too much for her touches to not be comforting. I’m generally a really big Dorothy sympathizer and give her all kinds of allowances for her crashout arc, given how much she was selflessly pushing herself past her limits to achieve some wildly unrealistic ideal of perfection. But Dorothy increasingly seems like she has always struggled to see other humans as real people with valid interiority, rather than squawky objects to be managed as projects, *especially* men like Walky. It almost feels like Dorothy is attracted to Joyce because Joyce is so impulsively, unreasonably emotionally driven in all things that Joyce breaks through Dorothy’s ability to objectify everyone and forces Dorothy to engage with her as a living human being.

      1. Doopyboop

        To give Dorothy some grace, I don’t think she objectifies people or that she doesn’t see them as real people. I actually think Dorothy has difficulty with social cues and is a perfectionist (this is just my interpretation but I think Dorothy is autistic) which is why she practices comforting people. Not because she has trouble seeing them as real people and thus needs to practice, but because she has struggled in the past to nail the mark socially (see the storyline ‘This Is Halloween’) and thinks the best way to make up for past transgressions is to just keep practicing and refining the skill. It doesn’t really work that way of course, but again I think this is a matter of how Dorothy thinks, being neurodivergent, rather than seeing people as objects to enact her own will upon.

        1. Li

          Yep, this 100%. Extremely autistic character.
          .
          And there’s no way it isn’t deliberate? The other character we know has practiced giving people comfort via physical contact is, uh, Dina.

  36. Bwitty03

    hm. with the addition of the transcript, thumbs up, kickstarter banner, and location tags the navigation bar is no longer on screen when the page is loaded. a minor inconvenience for reading through.

  37. Deckard

    Been trying to read earlier strips, but I keep getting “ Request Header Fields Too Large. The server refused this request because the request header fields are too large.”

    I don’t know if this is the right place to mention, but yeah.

    Otherwise: Dorothy and Joyce in the white space. Heh.

  38. Jerna

    Lesbian Love Sleuth: Yesterday’s suggestion “Joyce should always be spying on people, so she should do that!”
    You go look for this Alice broad and make a mental note to see if the term broad isn’t loaded. You see her walking down the corridor. You hide behind a potted plant so she can’t see you. Trouble is other people can see you. You decide to roll for stealth. Unfortunately, the die lands in front of your target’s feet and she steps on it, falling backwards. She sits there, rubbing her tushy where she fell on and spots you. She angrily walks up to you, her posture saying she is going to demand an explanation. What do you do?

    1. Needfuldoer

      GET ye flask!

  39. Thisguy

    You cut deep, Walky.

  40. Barf Ninjason

    I bet Amber would love to be tagged under the covers, *if ya know whadda-mean*

  41. Victor Mortimer

    He’s not wrong.
    And the dumping was completely unnecessary. Could have been a great polycule. Could even have brought Amber in if she could watch Walky and Joe doing each other.

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