Arms

178 Replies to “Arms”

    1. No no. She’s saying that he is so sexy that she may be willing to push her into traffic for those tattooed arms. Not actually meaning it mind but it is amusing.

      1. Oh I thought she was gonna push him into traffic for stealing Marcie; cuz she basically can’t handle her having other friends as well as she claims

  1. Sayid. . . Sayid. . . wasn’t he in a slipshine where he had sex in a music room or am I thinking of a dream I had about this comic and it’s characters way back?

      1. Yeah, dreams ought to be private stuff. My ex-wife used to take a romantic interest in mine.

        You’re crushing my dreams, I told her.

      2. Without asking for anyone to reveal anything that should stay in the Slipshine subscriber and/or Patreon worlds, is Sayid canon a music major?

        ‘Cause I’m still waiting for just one single confirmed music major in the DoA cast.

          1. Cool. I don’t suppose we’ll ever get to see if the 3 Fangirls deem him an “antisocial head case.”

            Old joke with several canonical answers:

            Q: What do you call people who hang around with musicians?

            A: Drummers
            A: Singers
            A: Violists
            A: Accordionists
            [etc., etc.]

      1. Thank you for reminding me that Sal once hit on the kid she held hostage without knowing it.

        My computer’s cranky because I just spewed chip pieces all over it but it’ll live.

    1. Yeah, I don’t have Slipshine but my first thought was that Sal was barking up the wrong tree. It’s also kinda sweet to see Sal telling Marcie about Danny like that. I do ship them, primarily because I’d like to see a healthy version of that relationship, though I figure that a healthy friendsip is all I’ll get.

    1. Maybe Sal just recognizes that if Danny’s hat is not removed soon it will permanently bond to him (except in times when it would be rude to keep it on, such as in class, of course)

            1. Some people have very specific rules for not being rude.

              In my experience, “men wearing hats inside” is considered rude by persons who don’t consider “loudly complaining about strangers’ attire in public because it’s ‘rude'” to be rude.

              1. There’s a place here where even women are expected to take their hats off. Something to do with respecting veterans, apparently. it seems like a weird and arbitrary tradition, but, I’ve given up on hats anyways; I can never keep them on my head.

  2. Lay down your arms
    And come peacefully
    Lay down your arms
    And surrender to me…
    I’m a Soldier of Love!
    –The Beatles, who had this in their live sets but never released on a record

    1. I dunno, presumably when he takes the rest of his clothes off the hat goes as well.

      Maybe even the ukulele, unless he’s found some new uses for it.

      1. Yeah, Sal’s considering it. If there were absolutely no chance I don’t think the suggestion would have made enough impression that she’d be discussing it like this.

        1. I don’t believe so, in either the strip or the patreon canon.

          You may be thinking of Brian, the guy who ran the meet and greet for questioning folks. He and Sayid hooked up at least once.

              1. To be fair, there was a Chick-fil-A guy. But he was an untagged guy who looked more like a brown-haired, beard-wearing Jocelyn.

  3. Marcie may always be the most important to Sal, but some of those choices may be harder than others. 😉

    Seriously though, this is very accurate to a lot of friendships I’ve had or seen. Good job, Willis!

    I gotta say they have good taste – I’m 22 so Sayid’s probably a bit too young for me (assuming he’s 18) but I get this way about Randy Orton’s ink so I get where they’re coming from.

    This does raise a question for me though – for all the (justifiable) grief she was giving Sal about not having any other friends, does MARCIE have any other friends she doesn’t want to bang? I guess Carla?

    Ah well. This seems like as good a time as any to remind everyone Marcie is into polyamory in the Walkyverse. Sharing is caring in more ways than one, Sal. 😉

    1. Sal’s not into gals, sadly. Though I guess nothing precludes her from still dating the same guy, just not dating Marcie in the process.

      1. Not all polyamory involves dating both other parties. ‘V’ relationships exist.

        Which is basically the term for what you’re suggesting.

        And besides, that’s what fan fiction’s for. 😉

      2. maybe not here she isnt, but not so much in the fanfiction I’m gonna consider for 3 minutes and decide not to write for a lack of interest.

              1. Nah, nothing you wouldn’t already have on a list, it’s just that Bagge gave us a great reminder yesterday that sometimes egging on fanfic writers can work out really well : D

                1. …I just checked and apparently I have 354 ideas for these two monogamous and about 20 more with various thirds.

          1. I mean, the system says it’s only okay for 14 year olds to date 14 year olds and 15 year olds to date 14 year olds and up.

            …The one you’re thinking of was about sex wasn’t it

      1. I’ve noticed that the half-plus-seven “rule” tends to be invoked a lot more from the people doing the halving than from the people doing the subtracting.

        I.e., a lot more “I’m 46, she’s 30, so half-plus-seven and it’s okay,” and a lot less “I’m 30, she’s 46, so minus-seven-and-double and it’s okay.”

        1. Because society doesn’t generally raise moral questions about younger people dating older ones, but puts the moral burden on the older party.

          Also because guys stereotypically tend to target younger women rather than older ones.

          Honestly, I’ve rarely heard it seriously invoked outside of hitting on high school or maybe college girls – which means at my age, I haven’t heard it in practice in a long time.

        2. I’ve definitely had thoughts along the lines of, “Okay, so if we do the half-your-age-plus-seven thing, I am technically a couple years too young for you, but hear me out: fuck math.”

    2. I think Sal also has a somewhat immature idea of friendship or at least is taking hers with Marcie a bit more seriously than the latter. They are besties but I think Marcie would probably say that she’d put her life-partner (whoever that may be) first.

      1. I dunno about more seriously, but definitely differently. Marcie (maybe, hopefully) has a good relationship with her parents and seems to be more inclined to try new things and meet (and grow close to) new people. Sal’s not the only one she had for 13 years, like Marcie was for Sal. That’s always going to colour things for Sal.

      2. That may someday be true for Sal too, but since neither of them actually have a life-partner now, it doesn’t feel that way.

        Few people, other than Joyce, would qualify a statement to their closest friend with “Other than my hypothetical husband who I haven’t met yet.”

    1. Yep. Some of us technically knew that from Walkyverse, but Willis confirmed it on tumblr a while ago during the flashback to Sal and Marcie meeting. His words – “It’s Bi Visibility Day but it may not be a good idea to out Marcie when she’s five”.

  4. Sayid’s looking pretty dang good, so, respect to Marcie’s tastes on this one.
    And I wonder if Sal’s going to find any more dudes with ink, if that’s her fancy.

  5. So Marcie’s moved on from thirsting over Malaya, huh. Good for her, she sucks and i don’t think had the self-awareness to even recognize Marcie’s crush, let alone her own interest in girls.

    Is Malaya interested in girls at all even? I remember she and Ultra Car were an official couple back in Shortpacked, but Malaya always seemed kinda weird and refusing to address that in herself. I can’t tell if she was genuinely attracted to her as a girl or if it was cuz she was a robot, and I don’t know if she ever could either.

    1. Liking someone else doesn’t necessarily mean she’s given up on Malaya. They’re not dating in a monogamous relationship so there’s nothing wrong with that.

      As for Malaya, she always read as reaaaalllllly demi to me.

    2. In SP!, Malaya went out on a date with Leslie, and at the climax of the storyline, they kissed…and then Malaya said something along the lines of, “Well, I guess I’m not a lesbian after all,” much to Leslie’s chagrin. Was she not into girls at all, or was she just not into Leslie? Who knows?

      1. Her exact words were ‘I guess I’m straight after all’ but later with Ultra Car, she said she tried it with guys and that sucked and she tried it with girls and that also sucked. Sounds like she wasn’t into anybody really until she and UC got closer which seemed like she was demi to me, but there’s room for interpretation.

            1. Also, if memory serves, she hated that everybody seemed to believe that they would end up together, because they’d known each other since kindergarten and they wre roommates.

    3. It could be she’s romantically attracted to girls but not sexually attracted to them.

      Or she’s bisexual and Shortpacked Malaya had no chemistry with Leslie.

  6. Hopefully Sayid is bisexual and Marcie isn’t just very bad at picking these things.

    Mind you, I was hoping Malaya would give Marcie a shot. She had no chemistry with Leslie in Shortpacked but was clearly interested until the kiss.

  7. For the second time in a row, Sal has misinterpreted Marcie’s attraction for somebody as something else (Malaya = hitting, Sayid = platonic friendship).

    If Sal made more eye contact she would notice Marcie’s expressions and the nuance of what she means when she gestures, but presumably this time Sal was just too preoccupied checking Sayid out herself.

    It’s always funny when friends get thirsty together.

  8. Sal’s into guys with tattoos of fish bones on their arms? I don’t get it.

    But then, I don’t like tattoos in general.

    Or arms. Like, they’re nothing but extension rods for your hands. Why don’t they quit mooching and get a real function?

    1. I think they’re supposed to be an outline of the arm muscles? There isn’t a good shot here, but that’s what they look like to me in the bonus strips he’s in from the back of book 7.

      1. Sorry, Needfuldoer, you slipped in whilst I was making self-referential asides.

        You think so? Hm…I haven’t purchased the book you’re referring to, so per–

        *user has been terminated on admission of cheapskatery.*

    2. Incidentally, apparently I am only called forth to post when the strip takes place at this building’s staircase, at night.

      Beyond that, I have no power, like a vampire, except, boring, and lame.

    3. I too am not all that into tattoos … I think scars are better. They’re just as permanent, and usually come with a much better story.

    1. Sayid had sex with a guy earlier this semester, but I don’t know if any relationship was established. I’ve only seen the promos on Willis’ tumblr.

  9. Something tells me that Marcie has been teasing Sal about whether Danny is the one for her. “You’ve always liked the clean-cut hipster types!” or something similar.

    Meanwhile, I think that Sal is slowly coming to terms with the fact that sharing a best friend with anyone else is difficult, especially when there are signs of intimacy in that other relationship. I strongly suspect that Sal is going to stay on her wall, moping about that fact, until either Danny, Amber of Amazi-Girl come out to talk to her.

  10. Weird thing I noticed: When I open this page on my phone, it appears normally, but if I open it on my Playstation it has a “beginning of week” button (that doesn’t seem to do anything)

    I know it isn’t exactly related to today’s strip but I just noticed it and wanted to bring it up.

  11. Here’s a potential question for someone who might have had a similar experience. So, I was in the middle of my shift tonight, and I’d accidentally let myself get sidetracked to the point that I had several small tasks piled up.

    Now, I have a perfectionist streak, and if I make even a small mistake, it stresses me out more than almost anything else, and usually starts a sort of spiral and I keep messing up and getting more and more stressed out. In some of the worse cases, it can set off an anxiety attack, which is the opposite of what I need at work.

    Sometimes, I can sort of city off the anxiety attack and refocus my brain with a small amount of blunt force. Which is basically a fancier way of saying that I sometimes hit my head on a wall to reset. Never hard enough to cause myself or the wall any actual damage, not since I was in high school, but enough to sort of vent all of my anxiety at the same time and force myself to focus. It’s not necessarily an aggressive thing, I’m not mad at anyone except maybe myself, and it’s more of a sudden, super powerful impulse than a premeditated decision. I’m not explaining it very well, but it’s the best I can do.

    And it pretty much freaks people out, because hey, this guy just got really upset, whacked his head against a wall, and now he’s acting completely normal like nothing was wrong in the first place. My manager thought I was mad at her and having a violent angry outburst, until I explained all of this in slightly different terms.

    So, basically my question is: If anyone here has a similar problem and is comfortable sharing, could they possibly point me toward either a better coping mechanism that won’t upset others, or maybe some kind of anxiety medication to help keep me from having the attacks in the first place? It’s affecting my job at this point, even if tonight is the first time I’ve done it at work. Usually, I can step away, breathe, and settle down, but there are times when I can’t, and I just don’t always have the juice to power through the attack. Anyway, sorry for the rambling. I know this isn’t my journal or a dedicated advice forum.

    1. When I’m in the ‘so overloaded that I want to start hitting my head on my desk’ place, I excuse myself from said desk, go to the break room and stand in a corner with my eyes closed until my stress levels go down. I also try to sort out in my head what I will do first before going back.

      1. That’s close to what I usually do as well. If I have a free moment, I’ll excuse myself and go stand in the freezer until I’ve cooled down mentally and physically. The trouble is that my job is so fast-paced and the building is so small, I rarely get a chance to be away from people’s line of sight, and when I do, it’s only for a couple of minutes.

    2. Can you try doing this in the bathroom or other private place? Can you maybe leave for a few minutes and walk around the corner and do it out of sight? That should work for the “not freaking out others” part.

      But aside from that there are a lot of medications that can help with that. What I believe is best is to work with a therapist, aided with medication if necessary, but I do recommend to find a good therapist to help you go through the source of that anxiety. And I mean the deeper thought, not the there’s a lot of work” but the “why does it feel this level of terrible that there is”. You might be able to develop some good defense mechanisms to prevent it from happening in the first place.

      Good luck.

      1. I guess I could try taking a bathroom break, if I have the time and need to take it. Around the 7:30 dinner rush, though, I’m so busy trying to get things filtered and scrubbed, while also cooking dozens of items with half the cooking space, I almost never have the freedom to step aside. That’s basically what caused this particular incident.

        As far as “why does it feel this level of terrible,” I have a pretty solid grasp on the reasons. It couldn’t hurt to talk to a good therapist about those, and I’ll try to find one in my town (and coverage range). Eventually, y’know.

      1. That’s actually really helpful, thank you for linking it. I’ll try adding the rational/irrational exercise to my usual cooldown thing. This Wheaton guy seems pretty cool.

    3. My two go to outlets at work may not be extremely helpful, but I’ll bring them up anyway.

      When under sudden extreme stress I’ll take a minute and go in the freezer (I work in a restaurant mind), inhale deeply then just scream at full force until I have no breath left. Once I do that then inhale deeply again I’m right as rain and get right back to work. I use the freezer as the heavy insulation helps with sound reduction, so I’m not distracting anyone else.

      My more common major outlet comes from my having taken up meditation years ago for mostly unrelated reasons. It takes a reasonable bit of time developing the Pavlovian response before this works in my experience, but just assuming my normal meditative posture (standing in my case because I mainly do moving meditation) and taking a single deep breath lets me reset myself and get back to the work at hand.

      1. The freezer trick has helped me before, maybe I should start using it more. I’m not so sure about the screaming, since I’m not sure if it’ll be muffled sufficiently, but I might just try it when there aren’t any customers to startle. I also have a similar posture and breathing thing I’ve been trying recently, and it’s decent. Maybe I could work on refining it, so I can eventually replace the headbutting entirely.

        1. Yay breathing exercises, those seem to help a lot of people.

          For me, one thing that’s helped with the excessive reaction to mistakes has been apologizing to myself, the way I’d apologize when accidentally bumping into someone on the street. OTOH, sometimes it’s more helpful to push back and be like “yeah, that was dumb, so what? These are normal human mistakes, get used to it.”

          I guess it’s sort of a matter of finding a healthy balance, where the part of me that made a mistake can acknowledge it and consider whether there are changes to be made (eg. Setting an alarm instead of risking forgetting something) and the part of me that’s angry/scared can process the feelings without spewing emotional abuse at the rest of me.

          1. As for meds: benzos are the kind you take only occasionally, when you need the anxiety to go away Right Now. They interfere with long-term improvement, but they’re very useful for situations where short-term functioning is more important. Other meds are daily and most of them have shit side effects (I’m avoiding them myself right now); a lot of those help you make long-term improvement but a few prevent it, and I forget which those are. I think all the SNRIs are good or neutral?

    4. I’ve heard some people report that immersing their face in ice water for a just a second has a similar brain-reset effect (not the whole head, just the front of the face up to the ears and/or hairline).

    1. Danny x Joyce because the first (guy Walkyverse!Joyce was attracted to) will become the last (and long-term guy Dumbingverse!Joyce will be attracted to).

  12. When I first saw the comic, I was trying to figure out what NNF meant, line BFF and NSFW, but I finally realized (at least I assume I’m right now) that it’s just the sound “nnf”.

  13. I really like this because it shows understanding from both of them.

    Sal knows she’s been clingy and jealous regarding Marcie so this time she makes sure to tell Marcie it’s cool and to go have fun with her ‘friend’.

    Marcie, on the other hand, knows Sal’s been feeling neglected so she asks if Sal will mind if she takes off after her ‘friend’.

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