222

Partner
Posted on April 30, 2021 by David M Willis

222 thoughts on “Partner”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Amazi-Sarah is prepared for ANYTHINGthis one specific thing

    1. Reltzik

      Snarking at people?

      1. Felix

        Yes, but also yes. And yes, in addition to more yes.

    2. HeySo

      I dunno. “Be Prepared [for anything]” feels less like an Amazi-Girl slogan, and more a slogan from a particular hyena-rallying Disney villain. 😛

      “Scar brand condoms: If you don’t stop them now, they’ll grow up to become a threat to your throne. BE PREPARED.”

      1. milu

        that’s excellent

      2. Demoted Oblivious

        I really do NOT want anything that refers to scars around my equipment.

        1. Morleuca

          ugh, I wish I had scars around my equipment. I mean, I ultimately want them to fade too, but….

    3. Deanatay

      She’s been carrying those around just waiting for the opportunity to throw them at someone like this.

      Use them herself?? Naaaaaah

  2. Doctor_Who

    So, considering that Joyce’s homeschooled Sex Ed likely consisted of “Don’t”, she was unable to recognize a vibrator, she’s “a size six”, and her erotic dreams involve tummy wands…do you think she’s currently wondering why Sarah is offering Dorothy chewing gum?

    1. poofdepoof

      She might have learned a thing or two during that time skip

    2. RassilonTDavros

      …well the way Becky is talking about her parents here totally doesn’t worry me at all.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        (This wasn’t meant to be a reply, not sure what happened there)

        1. Some Ed

          In other web comic comments I sometimes engage in, there are apparently issues about posts suddenly not showing up as replies when they were definitely meant to be replies.

          Maybe some javascript got updated with a bug somewhere that’s causing those attempts at making replies to come over here and make random base posts into replies?

        2. RassilonTDavros

          I should note I was typing that comment while barely coherent, under the effects of the second Pfizer vaccine dose, so it may well have been my fault

        3. Needfuldoer

          Always double-check for the “Cancel reply” link above the comment box.

      2. NotThatDrew

        I’d wager an even 50/50 on her being alright versus trying to overcompensate and just SEEM alright. On one hand her mother has been dead for longer and Toedad was, well, Toedad, but on the other hand I can’t imagine how rough it must be to lose both parents that young.

        1. Emperor Norton II

          What? Becky trying to overcompensate because she’s still incredibly afraid to show any form of vulnerability, because a lifetime habit of building that as your armour doesn’t just magically go away once the main reason you built the armour is gone?

          Nahhh, that’s not possible at all.

        2. Reltzik

          And we can completely rule out the possibility that she addresses problems with humor and absurdity because that makes them more manageable and lets her actually process them.

          … and also that I’m projecting myself onto her with that. Yup, we can definitely rule that out too.

        3. Achallenger

          Oh yeah, is it established how old she was when her mom died?

        4. Thag Simmons

          Late teens I think.

        5. Needfuldoer

          IIRC it was last spring, just under a year ago DoA time.

      3. Rainhat

        With you on that one.

      4. KJ

        This is just Becky being Becky. She’s said similar things in the past – it’s kind of how she copes.

    3. Bicycle Bill

      There must be at least ten there.  Does Sarah really think that Dorothy and Walky would need THAT many?

      And btw, since when do condoms come in strips like that?
      (asking for a friend….)

      1. woobie

        Condoms always come in strips like that. Unless you buy singles from the bathroom vending machine or whatever.
        I do wonder why Sarah carries ALL OF THEM around.

        1. Wizard

          Considering that Sarah seems to be in a committed relationship with her vibe, I’m wondering why she is carrying any around. Just in case of this situation?

        2. Reltzik

          She rooms with Joyce, and there’s a significant chance that Joyce is just going to snap one day and want to go out and blow a dozen dicks in one night.

          But until then, there are so many hilarious opportunities to wave them in Joyce’s face and freak her out to pass up.

          More seriously, it’s not that Sarah wants abstinence, so much as abstinence is the price she willingly pays for distancing herself from society. I’m sure that if she encountered an objectifiably hunky guy who was completely cool with no-strings attached one-night stand without also being a creepazoid looking for a no-strings one-night stand with her, she’d be prepared multiple condoms.

          … er, I mean, it’s just on the general principle. Carry them even if you don’t plan on using them, because sometimes unplanned opportunities arise and need wrappers. She doesn’t plan to and definitely doesn’t fantasize using them all quick succession. Nope. Definitely not.

        3. Roborat

          Okay, I can buy your argument, and I can see having a supply in her room. However, I don’t understand why she would be carrying them around to her lectures, does she think an spontaneous orgy is going to happen in class? Oh, I know, she has watched too much anime and expects some guy to confess to her behind the gym, and everyone knows if you don’t outright reject them, you are supposed to have sex right then and there.

        4. Reltzik

          Oh, that. No, she just has them in her purse, and like pretty much everyone with a purse, she doesn’t customize her purse’s contents specifically for every trip she takes out of the dorm.

        5. Roborat

          You are no fun, I like my theory better.

        6. BBCC

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/sexualshamereel/

          Sarah has sex. Not with anybody we’ve seen during the first semester, but we skipped a whole three months. Even if she didn’t, she carries some just in case.

        7. milu

          i don’t know, that sounded like it could be describing an extended, creative masturbatory life experience

        8. thejeff

          She may have been more social and sexually active back in high school before the full pressure of keeping the scholarship and then the Dana situation and resulting harassment happened.
          It would seem odd if she was getting laid offscreen without it becoming a plot point. Something could have happened during the timeskip, but the longer we go without it coming up, the less likely that is I think.

        9. BarerMender

          Hope springs eternal.

        10. HeatherJean

          >I do wonder why Sarah carries ALL OF THEM around.

          Possibly because she hopes that will convince everybody that she’s having tons of sex, and that will keep them from trying to match her up with someone.

          Not likely, but an alternative explanation as to why she’s be carrying them around.

      2. Miri

        It depends how many you buy at once

      3. Opus the Poet

        That’s the way they come when shipped as a multi-pack.

        You know what would be fun? a “How It’s Made” episode about condoms, especially how they get rolled up and in the package that you have to tear open.

        Well, ask Google and ye shall find https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oif5CWc4eU&ab_channel=HowIt%27sMade

        1. Bicycle Bill

          It’s just that I never saw more than three or four to a strip, and then only when purchased in multipacks of 12 or 24. Even the video you linked to, which showed the finished and rolled condoms being sealed into their individual packets as one lone stripe, mentioned that the strips were then cut to a specific number of packets suitable to the desired package.

          I can only assume that a long, continuous strip would be part of a special package intended for places of extensive distribution such as public health facilities or high-use environments such as brothels.

    4. Lars

      She lives in a wing with Roz. So probably not.

    5. Pylgrim

      No, no. You see, fundies are taught what condoms are: evil tools created by the devil to promote promiscuity in teenagers.

  3. Wagstaff

    Not a bad trade, Becky.

    1. Doctor_Who

      For that price, your options are “become Batman” or “date a dinosaur”.

      Becky chose well.

      1. NotThatDrew

        Yeah, the Batman shit sucks if you don’t have the nearly unlimited budget to work with

        1. Stephen Bierce

          She can’t even afford to be Peter Parker.

        2. Sirksome

          Peter Parker doesn’t typically live that sensational a day to day life. Minus the spider powers any sufficiently trained person with a mask can get their ass kicked for the greater good while struggling to hold down a job, a relationship, and a studio apartment. In fact it might be better cause at least you’d get to pal around with other do gooder freaks.

        3. Ferret

          Peter Parker also builds himself an array of gadgets that complement his powers in most iterations, including his own webshooters. Getting bankrolled by Stark Industries for that stuff is an MCU thing.

        4. Z

          A RECENT mcu thing. Originally he was shown creating his own stuff.

        5. Reltzik

          He literally has a sixth sense as a superpower. If that’s not sense-ational, I don’t know what is.

        6. StClair

          Action is his reward.

        7. Adam Black

          LooKOUT , here comes

      2. Gabriel A Klonoski

        If she plays her cards right she could become a paleontologist and she can date dinosaurs while she dates a dinosaur.

        1. milu

          eyyyyy

    2. Sirksome

      I’m not so sure actually. If it was just Ross that would be a debateable profit but I assume Becky enjoyed having her mom around.

      1. woobie

        nooooo
        Ross with his flaws was still her father. I see mistakes, not prolonged, intentional abuse; therefore losing her last parent undoubtedly is bad for Becky’s emotional well being.

        1. Wagstaff

          He threatened her and her girlfriend with a shotgun! If that’s not abuse, then does abuse even exist?

        2. Spencer

          They probably mean before that, before Ross made it abundantly clear he valued his authority over Becky and his imagined vision of a perfect family over the daughter he actually had.

          If Toedad was just the shittiest human being imaginable from birth to timely enough death it probably wouldn’t have been that big a deal.

        3. Wagstaff

          Does a disease cease to exist before its discovery?

        4. Spencer

          Use an analogy that’s appropriate to the situation.

        5. Wagstaff

          I was referring to abuse, not homosexuality.

        6. Spencer

          I’m aware, I’m saying that we’ve seen like two flashbacks to Becky’s homelife involving her dad. One was him being kind of a weird fundie at a theme park but not particularly malicious, the other was him collapsed in his chair that his wife was dead.

          Like, Toedad’s actions on campus don’t travel back in time and make him always an abusive asshole. He’s wrong because of the things he did now, when his daughter was in front of him and he decided that his authority and his dogmatic faith mattered more than her. The closest thing to “Toedad was always an abuser” we can say here is that his actions on campus showed that he valued the perfect suburban home life for Jesus and himself he thought he had as opposed to the one where his wife was suffering from severe mental problems and his daughter is gay.

        7. thejeff

          We haven’t seen much in the way of flashbacks, but we’ve seen hints from Becky.
          We know the whole religion aspect went far beyond “valued the perfect suburban home life for Jesus and himself”. We know he was forcing Becky into that mold – even beyond her being gay, she was allowed no aspirations beyond getting married and raising kids.
          We knew Becky has developed all sorts of emotional armor and tricks to cope with her home life. There was a comment, for example, about “accidentally” getting gum in her hair so she could get it cut shorter – then tie that to Ross’s speech during the kidnapping about “your hair is your womanhood”.

          I’d agree it’s not proven, but it’s also not clear that he was fine until he showed up on campus with the gun. Abusers are often subtle, especially when out in public, so one flashback to a theme park trip doesn’t prove much.

        8. Spencer

          It probably wouldn’t have been that big a deal that he died, I mean.

        9. Reltzik

          I mean…. TECHNICALLY you can set the threshold for what counts as abuse as worse than that, and still not reach the bottom of the barrel.

          You’re completely right but when you phrase it like that I have to accept the challenge.

        10. Jhon

          A squirrel rifle is not a shotgun.
          (Every time someone calls a rifle a shotgun, the NRA kills a kitten.)

        11. Fart Captor

          woobie, kidnapping someone at gunpoint to send them to conversion “therapy” (torture) is not a “mistake”, that’s the horrifying logical endpoint of an abusive and bigoted mindset

          What the fuck is wrong with you

        12. Wagstaff

          Well put, Fart Captor.

        13. Chris Phoenix

          On the one hand, what Toedad did was far beyond “mistakes.”

          On the other hand, Joyce didn’t realize how toxic Carol was until she got away from home. Becky, having grown up in a cult, might have thought her dad was normal and loving until … hmm… sometime between when her mom killed herself and her dad kidnapped her with a shotgun. Which is actually pretty late in her young life, and she might easily miss the dad she thought she grew up with, even in hindsight.

        14. Wagstaff

          It had been said that blood is thicker than water. For people who’ve enjoyed healthy family relationships, it can be deeply unsettling to hear values like that being questioned.

          However, for people who have endured abusive relationships in their families, blood is only messier than water.

        15. Miri

          I love my parents. I know they love me and would do anything they can to support me.

          I also know that yelling at your kid til they’re so upset they vomit then being annoyed with them for overreacting is not exactly stellar parenting and my dad did this to me a few times… My brother, who does not go to pieces when he’s yelled at, tried to walk away from an argument to his room and Dad followed him so he jumped out of his bedroom window (UK first floor; the one above the ground floor) once. When they got into an argument when Dad was teaching him to drive, my brother got out of the car and threatened to play Chicken with oncoming traffic if Dad didn’t go away and leave him alone.

          In retrospect, I kinda wish I’d had my brother’s boundary-setting abilities…

        16. Delicious Taffy

          Damn, your brother plays hardball.

        17. JBento

          That’s not what “blood is thicker than water” means. It’s the shortened version of an originally-Jewish saying “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”, and it literally means the opposite of what people are using it for these days, that the bonds you CHOOSE to form are more important than any resulting from the circumstances of birth.

        18. milu

          oh wow, didn’t know that! thanks!
          that said, meanings drift through time for many reasons, so i would argue that what an expression means is determined (primarily) by how people use it, not (so much) by its etymology.

        19. Wagstaff

          Yeah, I guess phrases and words in the English language inevitably get altered and tortured by their users for generations.

          For instance, the “hammer and anvil” metaphor is often used to imply that the anvil gets the worse of it, although in reality it is always the anvil that breaks the hammer.

        20. milu

          please do go ahead and rant about how the english language is deteriorating, i’ll be over here marveling at how it ceaselessly reinvents itself *whistles*

        21. Thag Simmons

          I’ve heard conflicting things about which version/meaning of the phrase came first

          However the version where “blood is thicker” refers to family ties is by far the more common usage

        22. Deanatay

          In the West, true. The Arabs have long said “blood is thicker than milk”, meaning brothers of blood (having sworn blood oaths to each other) is a stronger bond than brothers of milk (having nursed at the same breast).

        23. thejeff

          Yeah, as far as I can tell the supposed original meaning isn’t documented before it appeared in modern claims about the origin of the saying, while the traditional version can be traced back to something like the 12th century.

        24. thejeff

          Becky has plenty traits of long term abuse, especially the mountains of emotional armor. She didn’t start hiding behind wacky Becky after the kidnapping. She had long practice.

          At the very least, there’s this.

  4. Gon

    Sara’s being herself AND being happy. Good for her

    1. butts

      notice how Joyce’s expression instantly morphs into a frown

      1. NotThatDrew

        Perfectly balanced

        1. Giguioto

          As all things should be

        2. King Daniel

          As all things should be

  5. Sirksome

    Does Sarah just have condims on her at all times? Is that expected of the kids of today?

    1. Diner Kinetic

      I like to think she had them to pull a bad joke on joyce, but a more interesting target presented herself first

      1. brasca1

        Of course this could backfire if Dorothy accepts the condoms with the parting remark that it’s not like Sarah will be using those any time time soon.

        1. Reltzik

          That’s a bit more aggressive than Dorothy gets, and Sarah would probably laugh and tease her anyway rather than let herself be shut down.

    2. He Who Abides

      She probably keeps some on hand, just in case Mr. Right Now doesn’t have one. At least, if she’s like my friend Kendra, she does.

      1. plasticwrap

        Mr. Right Now? I didn’t peg Sarah to be the type to have NSA sex…

        1. King Daniel

          Sarah’s literally stated in the past that she has no intentions of getting into actual relationships (this is why she and Jacob ultimately didn’t get anywhere, as Jacob was looking for an actual long-term relationship while Sarah just wanted to fuck him once or twice).

        2. BBCC

          She also has, in her opinion, an extensive sexual shoe reel: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/sexualshamereel/

        3. RacingTurtle

          That is a magnificent typo and a useful link. 10/10 comment, would read again

        4. BBCC

          WOW, of all times for my m key to crap out, huh? It’s been a little finicky. XD

    3. Amos Batista

      Not one, or two. Dozens of them.

    4. butts

      seriously it’s just good practice, even if you don’t expect to use them it’s convenient to have

      1. Sirksome

        I suppose it is one of those situations where it’s better to have and not need than to need and not have.

    5. Wagstaff

      Well if this is a trend, at least they’ll be safer!

    6. Yotomoe

      I feel bad for never having condoms on me but I also never have sex so it’s fine. But like…if a really hot chick WAS down for something something I’d have to go to a drugstore or something. But you can’t keep them around forever cuz they expire.

      1. Kyrik Michalowski

        It’s always diappointing when you realize you have expired condoms and need to get rid of them.

        1. Yotomoe

          Expired condoms hurt because you both realized you’ve wasted money and also realized that nobody wanted to have sex with you. It hurts your wallet and your pride.

        2. Kyrik Michalowski

          Exactly.

        3. Wagstaff

          Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

        4. Achallenger

          Yeah, and the Worst Part is when you check a new box and realize the expryt date is 10 years in the future so you’ve had this set how long exactly…

        5. OBBWG

          The even worse part is when you check your box and realize the expriration date was 10 years in the past.

      2. Wizard

        And carrying them around in highly variable states of temperature and humidity doesn’t help either.

      3. Keulen

        I never have them on me either, but then I pretty much never find myself in a situation where I’d need to use them these days. I’m not at all sure that I’d catch on if a woman wanted to have sex with me anyway.

    7. Axel

      At least in the fall she was mostly interested in no-strings relationships, so I don’t find it shocking that she’d keep some in her bag.

      1. Yotomoe

        I like to imagine that 3 month break Sarah just had a string of lovers and Joyce was just really respectful (and a bit frazzled)

        1. Sirksome

          I’d actually be legitimately upset if we missed that in the timeskip. I don’t give a shit about the details of Mike’s death or how trash couples broke up, or Halloween, but missing out on Sarah getting some strange and maybe authentically enjoying herself for once?! That would be really, needlessly cruel!

  6. Octopus Ink

    Wish I could’a cashed in MY parents for a dream life.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Yeah, the way she worded that totally doesn’t worry me about Becky’s mental state at all. I’m wondering if she feels like their deaths were her fault, somehow.

    2. Wagstaff

      “Lady Life was quite a fickle fighter, so we settled on a deal.”

      “What’d you give ’em?”

      “Oh, nothing important! HA HA HA HA!”

    3. Azhrei Vep

      Right, Ock? Give me that opportunity, and I’d seize it in a heartbeat. They’re not doing me any good, but a dream life would amazing!

  7. Johan

    Oh are Sarah and Joe fucking in this verse too?

    1. Doctor_Who

      Considering their last interactions was this…yeah, maybe if Joe’s into rough stuff.

    2. Proxiehunter

      Not yet.

  8. Yotomoe

    SARAH JUST WENT UP LIKE…10 POINTS FOR ME HOT DAMN.

    1. butts

      what, because she carries condoms around? that’s just good policy, man

      1. Reltzik

        Also, she used them as comedy props to punch a hole in a very threadbare pretense.

      2. Delicious Taffy

        It seems sorta dangerous, for various reasons. Least of which is that the condoms are gonna get ruined if you sit on ’em. I’ve heard about guys carrying a condom in their wallets, and I’m always baffled. Carrying several on your person is absolutely mystifying to me.

        1. milu

          i mean, a wallet condom could be better than nothing. that being said, teenagers need to be informed that there are banging options that don’t require a condom.

          anyway, what are the other ways that carrying condoms around seems dangerous to you?

        2. Delicious Taffy

          The biggest worry on my mind is that a potential rapist might learn about them and use them as his excuse. I realise and understand that it’s not on anyone but the rapist to prevent it, of course.

          Truthfully, most of the scenarios I can see going poorly involve public embarrassment, like someone sees/hears about you carrying condoms and decides it’s worth causing a scene over in some way. And again, I’m not saying that that’s justifiable in any way. Anxiety and paranoia make stuff like this the first things that come to mind for me, is all.

        3. thejeff

          If a rapist uses “she was carrying condoms” as an excuse, it’s just an excuse and he was going to rape anyway.

          The risk of getting caught up in the moment and going ahead anyway even though you don’t have protection because it’s “probably safe” is much higher.

        4. milu

          ah, ok. sorry to hear that.
          yeah i can see how, sadly, the possibility of being seen as sexually active counts as risk-taking for some people.

        5. JBento

          This is the most distressing variation of Bilbo’s “What do I have in my pockets?” riddle I’ve ever seen.

        6. He Who Abides

          Good, I’m not the only one who’s twisted enough to think of that.

        7. Delicious Taffy

          Great, now I’m imagining the voice of Brother Theodore screeching “SLUT! SLUT BAGGINS!”

  9. Mr D

    Look at angwy widdle joyce

  10. Joyfulldreams

    My bet is she’s gonna tell Walky about harvard (was it harvard?) to try and ward herself off of getting back together with him.

    And then probably fail and kiss him anyways.

    1. Sirksome

      I think it was Yale actually but any ivy league university will do. But why would she tell Walky this? They’re not together so it’s not really his business or concern. It would be a flimsy excuse to be near him and/or alone with him which is why she doesn’t really have a good excuse here.

      1. milu

        to be fair, if she did mean to talk to Walky about that, she still wouldn’t know what to tell her friends because she still hasn’t told anybody about being accepted at Yale.

  11. Sirksome

    Also can anyone really blame Dotty if she in fact wants to get some action from her magically hotter ex? Most of us would do the same in her position!

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      I certainly can’t blame her, especially seeing as how I’m single again. I would do the same in her position.

    2. Yotomoe

      It’s been 10 years and I’m a WAY different person than I was in high school and I’d definitely still hook up for a one-night stand with my ex.

      1. thejeff

        I can blame Dorothy if she decides on a one-night stand with Walky.

        Because this is Dorothy and it won’t be one-night any more than it was “just for fun” or than the pause was real. That would be okay, but she needs to be honest about it, especially to herself.

    3. Keulen

      I absolutely can’t blame her.

  12. He Who Abides

    I can’t help but think of Basil, from Waiting For God, right about now.

  13. Kyrik Michalowski

    I like Sarah’s optimism that they’ll need that many. I’m also a bkt surprised she has that many on her. Clearly Sarah is a wild woman and needs that many for when she finds someone worthwhile.

  14. Stephen Bierce

    You want to talk to me,
    Go ahead and talk.
    Whatever you got to say to me
    Won’t come as any shock.
    I must be guilty of something,
    You just whisper it into my ear…    –Bob Dylan

  15. Yotomoe

    I may be doodling something but while I work at this I have been actually wondering if Willis still saves the fanart I do. And if he does I’m wondering how big the yoto section is now.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Oh mighty Willis, bestow upon us the knowledge we seek. (I hope he saves the fanart, it’s great stuff.)

      1. Yotomoe

        I’d like to think he enjoys it after all this time. I’ve yet to receive a cease and desist, but I’m also partly afraid if I draw too much attention he will say that he wants me to cut it out. (or do it less).

    2. Doctor_Who

      It’s a Yoto-Byte.

    3. David M Willis

      my fanart directory has over 1100 images in it

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/yotomoescreen.png

      it’s a tossup between who has more art — you, or the folks who really like inflation porn of lucy for some reason

      1. Wagstaff

        “To see gods walk among us is just so… inspiring.”

      2. Yotomoe

        Ah yeah. I’ve seen that. I guess I gotta step my game up.

      3. jupiterror

        what a collection

      4. Wagstaff

        I’ve always wondered what these artists were like… but even Da Vinci and Picasso were deemed mad in their days as well, I guess.

        1. milu

          I don’t think either Da Vinci or Picasso was deemed mad?
          Both of them met with acclaim in their lifetime and made a comfortable living as artists.

          Famous artists who had mental health issues exist, but they were great artists despite being depressed or psychotic. i’m sure that discussion can get more complicated in individual cases, but it should be said that the myth that mental instability is a necessary tradeoff for creative genius is dangerous rubbish.

        2. Wagstaff

          Well, I guess comparing these artists to Da Vinci and Picasso is a bit of a stretch.

          At least Da Vinci didn’t blow up girls like they were Violet Beauregarde.

      5. butts

        incredible

      6. Wagstaff

        Evidence suggests that nothing is safe from Rule 34.

      7. annarchy

        They just can’t wait for Lucy get big.

    4. Needfuldoer

      But do you have it all archived somewhere? Inquiring minds want to know!

      For… reasons.

  16. BBCC

    Sarah is the best.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      When Dorothy becomes president she needs to hire Sarah in some form. Even if it is just as a condom keeper.

      1. Wizard

        Secretary of Condoms?

        1. drs

          Health and Human Services

        2. milu

          Condom-Keeper General

        3. Vjlobel

          Condom czar

    2. Keulen

      She definitely is right now.

  17. DailyBrad

    Sarah is amazing, and I love the “cashed in” gag with Becky.

    Do wonder what Dorothy’s going to talk to Walky about. I mean, we know she’s thirsty for him, but do you suppose she’s going to let the cat out of the bag or like, hop in the bag for cat action? So to speak.

    1. milu

      i think she’s hoping to bag the cat. So to speak

  18. plasticwrap

    Sarah, why do you carry around condoms? That seems suspicious…

    1. Wagstaff

      Same reason she oodles pictures of Michael Jordan. Can’t remember the exact comic, though.

      1. DailyBrad

        Wonder if it’s Michael B. Jordan, seems more likely given her age.

        1. RacingTurtle

          It is. That’s one of the hardest-working middle initials in the world, right there

    2. Delicious Taffy

      She recently picked up the hobby of slipping them into the pockets of awkward underclassfolk who are mere minutes from sealing the deal but also seem to have misplaced theirs. Gal’s gotta have fun somehow.

  19. Lingo

    Seems kind of strange to me for SARAH of all people to be carrying condoms around. Like Dorothy she’s almost singularly focused on school, and unlike Dorothy she’s very misanthropic to boot. The only guy she’s shown interest in wasn’t into casual sex, and generally she acts like she thinks she’s too misanthropic to ever actually attract a guy. So I wonder what her sex life is actually like (aside from “Other Jacob”).

    1. Delicious Taffy

      She likes to fill ’em with satsumas and hide the lot in people’s backpacks while they’re on the way to class.

  20. Achallenger

    At least smile parity was maintained

  21. Yenklette

    I’m standing by my prediction from a few weeks ago: This chapter is going to be about unrequited crushes all around. “HOMPK!” is meant to be tragically ironic, as it’s Dina’s cutesy catchphrase to title the chapter where her heart is going to be broken. Dorothy, Joyce, Walky, Becky, Amber and Dina, a tragic tangle of messy feelings. Maybe Robin and Leslie, if they play any greater a role than they’re playing now.

    Picture this: Dorothy pursues Walky. Joyce, devastated, finally accidentally expresses her own suppressed feelings. Becky is devastated hearing this, because with everything that’s been going on, her oldest crush turning out to have some biromantic leanings—just not for *her*—is too much to take. In the turmoil, Dina ends up hearing or seeing enough to hurt her.

    Look, if you wanted a comic without ridiculous melodrama like the above, should’ve stuck to Marmaduke. Me, I love this trash.

    1. Yenklette

      I don’t mean trash in a bad way! I’m being self-effacing, but I just realized it’s kind of a mean thing to post on someone else’s work. I actually think Willis is doing a really good job if this is where we’re heading.

      1. Yenklette

        I was blanking on Lucy’s name, but I meant to add at the end of the first paragraph: “And of course, poor, poor Lucy.”

        1. milu

          Ruth and Daisy meet up, Ruth likes Daisy, Daisy panics, she’s texting Jennifer the whole evening for advice on how to woo her ex, Jennifer plays the Cyrano, for fun at first but slowly, crushingly, she realizes she’s still stupidly in love with Ruth, Ruth is getting nice and wooed for a while but then she understands what’s going on and storms out, Asher picks up Jennifer’s phone and reads enough of her flirtatious conversation with Daisy (which really consisted of Daisy quoting Ruth and Jennifer suggesting responses) to understand that she’s in love with someone else and he breaks up with her, Jennifer is like “sure whatever”, she goes back to her room where Lucy is already crying in the dark, and in a communion of heartbreak, they start making out.

          Then they’re both like “lol wtf”. It’s the only bleak spark of comedy in a long day of crushing disappointments.

        2. Delicious Taffy

          Jeffiner and Lucy, eh? Now there’s a combo I hadn’t yet considered yet.

        3. milu

          i don’t think it would work out, though. they might try to redirect their horniness for other people towards each other for a minute, and then break down laughing at how much they turn each other off. i don’t think they have any sexual chemistry, but i’d love to see them getting closer as friends.

        4. milu

          although… the more i think about it… i’d say there might be bdsm potential there. *lofty musings*

          …so anyway, Taffy! nice grav! i remember Yotomoe posting that not too long ago, but it was in black & white if memory serves. nice job.

        5. Delicious Taffy

          I like Yoto’s art and I like to color. What more can a gal say?

  22. Dara

    She won those at skee-ball, didn’t she?

    1. Wagstaff

      The odds that she went to Vegas over the time skip are slim to none.

      But perhaps she may have won them as part of a bet…

  23. Bagge

    Sarah is helping

  24. Varangian

    HEYYYYOOOOO~

    God, I love you, Sarah.

    Also like…I’m conflicted.

    On the one hand, I feel pretty strongly that Willis has set up a “Chekhov’s Walky’s Weenus” here–three people are hornt up for Walky. His being hot is a major plot point. Someone needs to bang him, before this arc is through; I am expecting a Slipshine. And I also like Walky/Dorothy! It’s cute as hell and they have Unfinished Business!

    BUT it’s been solidly pointed out that the two of them are just setting themselves up for heartbreak if they fool around again, and I can’t endorse that shit!

    additionally I guess I’m an uncultured Marmaduke reader but I ain’t looking forward to some supposedly unavoidable trainwreck. Like, Christ. Pre-break and over the break we saw how many relationships get atomized into dust? For all that Ruth claims the last semester was The Worst, at least people were having a good time. In the current semester, everyone’s just looking at their navels, except for Jennifer and Asher, which is…I want to like it, but ehhhhhhh????

    HONESTLY it’s not just Walky who needs to get laid! SOMEONE needs to have some goddamn fun or a positive relationship again. Someone. Anyone. If for no other reason than to set up sustainable soap drama for the future! Ruth and Daisy! Dina and Becky (before they become a black hole of despair)! A N Y O N E.

    …Well, not Leslie and her terrible shitty gf. I don’t want that.

    1. Varangian

      Addendum: Leslie is fine, she can get laid. She can even bone down with Anna, I just don’t wanna see or have anything to do with it because Anna sucks.

    2. drs

      As I said before, from my experience with college, it is statistically likely that some of the breakups would get back together. Let the betting begin!

  25. Juanoku

    I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she
    1) swiped the amazi-condoms (yes I’m calling them that now)
    Or 2) amber have them to her for… Some reason, idk

    1. Juanoku

      *gave
      Fuck

      1. Miri

        Yeah, that’d be the reason

  26. Kravis

    The conversation is about a foursome with Amber and Walky’s hair.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      At some point, they realise they have no good location for it and she’d a tear.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Wait, what the fuck was I saying? Trade Amber for Becky and they can just use Dorothy’s place.

  27. drs

    Lots of people worried about Becky’s “cashed in my parents” (which I’m happy to take as black humor), but no one’s commented on Joyce’s annoyed grouse at Becky which prompted it. And Joyce looked so happy last strip. Is Joyce starting to find Becky annoying in general?

    1. DailyBrad

      I think she’s just grumpy since she’s teamed up with Joe, and they get along to an extent, but she’s always going to complain about that pairing.

  28. RacingTurtle

    Aw, come on, Joyce. Your biology partner is not that bad.

    …no, I couldn’t type that with a straight face. He is that bad. I love Joe and all his potential, but he is currently terrible.

    1. RacingTurtle

      And I am super excited to watch them try to do homework together.

      1. Jeff K!

        Joyce actually really gets along well with Joe, and she respects his non-public persona. Joe is someone she can actually talk to about her problems, and he gives solid advice back.

        She’s frazzled about having to maintain her front of belief around Becky, and the tension is starting to show through here.

        She wants Becky happy, but she knows that the Biology homework in particular is going to make both of them face and challenge the things they have been taught their whole lives.

        She also knows that Becky is planning to maintain the “learn enough to pass the homework but discard conflicting information” worldview. It’s driving Joyce up a wall that she is going to have to confront her best friend over her beliefs, and soon.

        1. milu

          “Becky is planning to maintain the “learn enough to pass the homework but discard conflicting information” worldview”

          what are you referring to?

        2. Kamino Neko

          Yeah, he really seems to have confused Becky with prior-to-loss-of-faith Joyce/Joyce’s ongoing, increasingly cracked, fascade.

        3. thejeff

          Yeah, that doesn’t match my understanding.

          Becky’s ditching the creationist nonsense, but keeping the faith. Joyce has lost her faith, but isn’t having as easy a time ditching the rest of what they’d been taught. You’re right that she doesn’t want Becky to know she’s lost her belief and that she needs to keep up the creationist front to keep her from realizing.

          But, back in the strip where they picked partners for the lab, Joyce was unhappy about not getting to work with Becky and not pleased about being stuck with Joe – who also wasn’t pleased about working with her.

        4. zee

          What? No, Becky’s not a creationist. The reason she’s so annoyed that her scholarship forced her into poli-sci is because she wants to be a biologist. She bonded with Dina over having the later undo her creationist brainwashing

        5. RacingTurtle

          Joe is going through a phase where he is capable of having a real conversation but is uncomfortable with that ability, so he keeps punctuating the conversations with crude comments. He has done it to both Amber and Joyce since the break. If he were a real person it would be superlatively irritating, and it definitely irritated Joyce. They are friendly with one another, but it isn’t a comfortable friendship at the moment

  29. C.T Phipps

    I admit, after all Dorothy put him through, I kind of want her to hit on Walky. Walky to then jump on a speeding away van and then give her the double bird.

    Basically have her get the treatment normally reserved for Dan.

  30. BenRG

    A guess: Joyce’s partner is Joe and she’s not looking forward to an evening of quips about ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘passing on genetic traits’.

    1. Daibhid C

      Yes.

      1. Daibhid C

        Darnit, why do the links never work when what I’m saying doesn’t work without them?
        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/resemblance/

  31. Rabisch

    GO DOROTHY! You need that talk with Walky! And Walky too need it. Can’t wait for Joyce ‘nd Joe study time together. They will become the perfect studybuddies♡.

  32. Caspar Mulders

    Why does Sarah carry at least eight condoms around? I mean, sure, being prepared is good, but this seems…optimistic.

    1. Alan in DC

      Maybe she moonlights in drag as Trojan Man (’90s trivia, rebooted in 2018).

      Or maybe they’re Alka-Seltzers for indigestion. The ‘camera’ is too far away to legibly make out the item.

      Or maybe it’s just to ‘sell’ the punchline. That’d be my vote.

    2. BenRG

      Remember, Sarah has long thought that Joyce would flip out one day and become a nymphomaniac. Maybe she’s trying to stay ready for that day.

    3. bleepbloop

      Schools hand out free condoms like candy, at some point you just end up stockpiling them in your backpack.

  33. FacelessDeviant

    No really, Dorothy don’t.

    Jeez, a guys hair grows a few centimeters and everyone looses their minds. That university could use some more guys that aren’t horrible.

    1. drs

      Dorothy liked Walky before the mystery hotness, and dumped him for her questionable “Yale over fun” values, not because he was a bad boyfriend for her.

      1. FacelessDeviant

        True. I didn’t mean that Walky was horrible but that most other guys pretty much have been horrible. Like scarface and his crew of stooges, even Joe is pretty ugh even though he’s trying to better himself.

        Theres not a lot of good options for those who like guys there, thats my point.

    2. bideomames

      what’s wrong with him turning a few heads? Girls have that monopoly since the beginning of time. Let the man be foxy, jeez

    3. Spencer

      Danny could be so helpful were he not so monogamous he blamed himself for cheating on his superhero girlfriend first with her secret identity and then thoughts of dude chests.

      (Apropos of nothing but I kinda wonder how Danny would react to having casual sex at some point)

  34. jonathan young

    i think we’re seeing the Walky Hair milked for every ounce of humor that can be had. The longer we go with no one bagging him, the more humor. might bea couple weeks here.

  35. Deanatay

    *Fourth panel tableau holds for a beat, then Dorothy snags one of the condoms and runs*

  36. Jackie

    I just love Sarah’s smile.

  37. Billifer Jenningsworth

    More like Dorothy Koomer amirite?

  38. Falcon

    So I’ve realized that Joyce’s subconscious crush is probably steering her to being more assertive than she would usually be about Dorothy’s sex life.

  39. Hinoron

    Becky: “Seriously Sarah, stop waving those around. I won’t need them.”
    Sarah: (Grinning with evil knowingness) “…because?”
    Becky (turns away, unable to face anyone in the group). “…I still have half a pack in Walky’s size left over.”
    Joyce: “EWWW!’ (flees)
    Sarah: “You know they expire eventually, right?”
    Becky: “…I’ll check them first.”

  40. Antonio Tyler

    Apparently I just had to grow my hair out a quart of an inch longer? ??‍♂️

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