234

Causing
Posted on January 24, 2022 by David M Willis

234 thoughts on “Causing”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    What did I just say??

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Welp, someone better answer that phone, because fucking called it.

      1. Kyrik Michalowski

        You called it*

        1. Clif

          But we still don’t know where she’s spending her nights. Somehow I feel that this is an important question.

        2. Decidedly Orthogonal

          On the fountain. Which and what kind of fountain is an exercise for the reader.¹

          [1] Eyebrow waggle, because the truth is rather mundane and depressing.

        3. UnDrewsual

          If you are college age and somewhat clever about it, you can absolutely live on a college campus. You can social engineer your way into a dorm’s common room or (if open 24 hours) use a student center. And if you know where they are, most campuses have a few buildings with communal showers.
          Why, yes, I do know of students who did this because they couldn’t afford housing on top of tuition and other school needs (books, notebooks, food, etc)

  2. The Wellerman

    Nice LEEEEEGS on Joyce LOL ?

    BTW in case you weren’t here yesterday,

    I made a GAME about Joyce’s Christian nightmare — she kills and eats herself out!!! ?

    The game even works on mobile devices!!!

    You can play the game on Newgrounds —

    https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/830313

    Enjoy!!! ?

    1. The Wellerman

      Did I mention you can even Tweet your score?!?!

      Oh BTW please upvote it so it gets approved!!!

    2. Radiance

      what the fuck

    3. Purblebirb

      …the fuck

    4. Amós Batista

      Gonna say: I love the aesthetic of game, specially the “touching” food: kind of eldritch horror. Amazing.

      1. Amós Batista

        May I ask you how did you make this game? It’s ok if you don’t want to.

        1. The Wellerman

          9 months, a TON of trial and error with coding and animation, and at LEAST 20 cans of Monster energy drink all the while.

          When I finally published after all my effort, it was really emotional for me, I’m so glad to see how much you all like it ?

          Hope that answered your question!

        2. Bryy

          Congrats.

        3. Amós Batista

          9 months. It’s very hard to create a complete game, even a smaller one. And I am a professional developer. Even using engines like Unity, setting all things to work together is still very hard, specially for one people.

          And this game worked very well.

          You should be proud, because you deserve it

    5. june gloom

      C’est ne pas it, chief.

      1. june gloom

        Though I have to say the horrified faces of the plushies as she eats them is pretty darn funny.

      2. eh, whatever

        ce n’est pas

        1. Julez

          I’m so glad I’m not the only one this bothered.

      3. Delicious Taffy

        The only times I’ve seen “This ain’t it, chief” used, it’s been to signal that somebody has said something problematic or otherwise offensive. Far as I can tell, the only “objectionable” content in that game is a brief puke animation, so I’m slightly perplexed by your use of the phrase.

    6. Kamino Neko

      She kllls and WHAT?

      … I’m not sure she’s that flexible.

      1. JBento

        This was my first thought.

        1. Cute Carla

          It’s what I wanted to see, tbh, I’m kind of bummed it doesn’t happen

      2. MacareuxMoine

        So that’s actually what they wrote?

        And here I blamed that interpretation on my non-English brain.

        1. Kamino Neko

          I assume it’s not what they intended to write, but…uh…yeah, it’s what they did write.

    7. Nova

      Are you intending to advertise your flash game in the comments section every day?

      1. The Wellerman

        ? Oh! I sure don’t mean to be annoying about it, if that’s what you mean! Sorry if I was!

        I love this comic. I love the comments section and the wonderful people I can interact with every day with minimal anxiety and without draining my energy with eye contact and performative emotions. This site and it’s community have gotten me through some really hard times, and I made this game as a way of giving back, of making something for everyone to enjoy, to show how much I appreciate Willis and everyone here! ?

        We are all going through some really stressful times.

        If there’s anything I had to learn the hard way, it’s that life if FULL of hidden problems.

        So I hid a comforting little game in this corner of the internet! ?

        1. milu

          You are not being annoying Wellerman. Nova? come on.

      2. Bicycle Bill

        Now, if he had been doing this for the past seven days straight or something then maybe I’d think differently, but it’s only been two days so I say cut him some slack.   Besides, it has a connection with this strip.
        If it gets too bad or obnoxious, Willis will let him know.

        1. The Wellerman

          Uh, I go by they / she. But thanks!

      3. Delicious Taffy

        Eh, it’s been twice. I really wouldn’t extrapolate quite so far ahead as “every day”. They’re excited about a cool project, no need to get absolutist and squash that enthusiasm.

      4. Amós Batista

        Why not? I don’t see any problem about posting it a couple of days. Sunday seem like access are fewer than other days.

        I’ll just wait 2 days to talk about my video too.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          And what a video it is! Y’all did a nice bit of work on that, the lot of ya.

        2. Amós Batista

          I’ll thank milo for the hardest part of the work.

        3. milu

          thank you Taffy =D
          now, now, Amos =P

      5. Spencer

        It’s pretty cool to show off your neat fangame with the fandom of the people you made it for, yeh

        1. Spencer

          fandom of the series* you made it for

          It’d be weird to make a fangame that is a game about the fans of something.

          Or maybe it’d be rad, idk. Someone make a game about me to confirm.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Fan fandom is pretty meta.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          Funny you should mention that…

    8. AY

      Hahaha, that was cute. Good work

    9. neee

      I love this game. It’s genuinely so much fun.
      Great job, seriously. You put a lot of work into this that is so cool

    10. Koms

      Hi, I think it’s a fun game. I like the animation. I’ll bookmark it and play it some more when I get off work.

      I’m really happy all your effort paid off and hope for more exciting projects in your future.

    11. JBento

      I have to say, HA giving you the finger is a great touch.

      1. milu

        oooh yeah i meant to say that too! very nice =)

    12. zee

      Cute game, despite the title. I’m having some issues on mobile though, it’s only registering like 1 out of 3 taps so i miss most of the food

      1. milu

        yeah, this version is easier to play on laptop (spacebar-friendly) but the previous version worked better on mobile i think (you could hold and only pull your finger off to eat, which i think made it easier to control, though i am not having the issues that other people describe. maybe it’s a model thing)

      2. The Wellerman

        Interesting. What kind of phone are you using, and what browser?

    13. Michael Haneline

      The game basically breaks at 425 points for me. 10 minutes went by without any edible items showing, and then I quit the game out of boredom.

    14. MacareuxMoine

      It’s a fun game

      … until you get >100 touching foods in a row (Not an exaggeration: I actually counted them – somewhere around the 115th I gave up).

      1. The Wellerman

        @MacareuxMoine, @Michael Haneline, thanks for your feedback! I really mean that!!! ☺️

        I altered it a bit and now it’s even more fun while still being deliciously difficult!

        Also, be sure to share this game with your friends and upvote it! It really helps!

        1. MacareuxMoine

          While you definitely improved it, I still entered the touching-food-loop at 901/916/906 points (previously the most I got was 117).
          I wonder what’s causing it. If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a look at the code to see whether I can figure it out.

          On an unrelated note: I remember somebody asking whether you were wearing Jar Jar Binks. The current color scheme reminds me more of Randall Boggs.

    15. Ana Chronistic

      Finally remembered to try it (by leaving a tab open on mobile)

      Hahahahahahahaha this is brilliant ??????? although idk if it’s my phone but I couldn’t react to most of the items even when mashing everything ??‍♀️

      1. The Wellerman

        Glad you like it, and thanks for even more feedback! ☺️

        BTW mashing should work now — hope you like Joyce’s barf LOL ?

  3. Doctor_Who

    But the Liz came back, the very next day…

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Are… are you doing a rendition of the duck song with Liz?

      1. Kyrik Michalowski

        Or is it the cat song you are referencing?

        1. Doctor_Who

          Yeah, the cat song.

      2. Thag Simmons

        Most versions use a cat, but yeah. And they beat me to it as well

        1. Thag Simmons

          Wait was the Duck song a variation of “the cat came back” or did it just have a similar premise and I conflated the two in my head?

        2. Kyrik Michalowski

          They have a similar premise, the duck one involves the lemonade stand.

        3. Thag Simmons

          Yeah, I remembered them as being more similar than they are. Whoops.

        4. Clif

          Sadly, I must admit to being ignorant of the duck and the lemonade stand.

        5. Delicious Taffy

          So basically, this duck walks up to a lemonade stand, and he says to the guy runnin’ the thing, “Got any grapes?” Well the dude says no, he’s only selling lemonade, obviously. The duck takes off, but the next day he’s back, askin’ the same damn question like he forgot. The lemonade man, he’s a little weirded out and sorta sends the duck on his way again, but that quacky little nutbar keeps comin’ back for the next few days, more or less harassin’ the stand operator. The guy finally loses patience and takes the duck to a store that sells grapes and he’s like “Here, some grapes, now shut up.” The duck, agent of chaos that he is, asks the guy if the store has any lemonade and takes off without further ado.

        6. milu

          Untitled Duck Song =P

        7. Bicycle Bill

          Taffy, I heard it a little bit different, with the ending involving nails and a hammer.

        8. Ryek Hvek

          I liked the version that ended with l’Orange Sauce

  4. Kyrik Michalowski

    Who could have possibly guessed that Liz would stick around? 😛

    As for Sarah, if it isn’t one sister, it is the other, huh?

  5. Thag Simmons

    And the cat came back, the very next day!

    1. Reltzik

      DAMN YOUR EYES, YOU COMMENT-STEALING BLIGHTER! ;P

      1. Thag Simmons

        I wasn’t even the first one who made this reference! Doctor_Who beat me to it!

        1. Reltzik

          I read the comments from the bottom of the page up, so you were first.

  6. Schpoonman

    Incredible.

  7. Fart Captor

    *rasping* “Joyce butt” ?

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Your gravatar is appropriate and hilariously on point.

      1. Lingo

        Not to mention the username….

    2. Wizard

      And finally some panties.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        Well. of course some panties.  You didn’t really think she’d be wearing a thong or – gasp! – going commando?  I actually expected something like bike shorts with panties underneath.

        After all, and I’m speaking from experience having been raised Catholic in the 1960s, no matter how hard one tries to jettison the baggage of a past upbringing, there are some things that are hard to get rid of.  I don’t know off-hand how long it’s been that the rules changed, but I still find myself avoiding meat on Friday.

    3. Dark_T_Zeratul

      Come on, it’s Joyce here. Show some respect.

      It’s Joyce *tushie*.

    4. Deanatay

      Adding it to your collection, FC?

  8. Abel Undercity

    Liz’s ride is being driven by her Canadian boyfriend.

    1. Thag Simmons

      Oh, hey Ciaran

    2. Spencer

      He’s just being held up a bit while he’s getting some money from his friend, the Nigerian prince.

      1. Needfuldoer

        They share stories about how nobody ever believes them, because nobody else truly ‘gets it’.

  9. King Daniel

    Dumbing of Age Book XII: Goddamnit Liz

    1. milu

      Dumbing of Age Book XII: The statistically-probable number of both ups and downs

      1. Keulen

        It needs to be the entire quote, so DoA Book 12 would be: “I’m Just Going to Keep My Head Down and Have a Perfectly Mediocre Day That Will Have the Statistically-Probable Number of Both Ups and Downs”. I love it when potential book titles are ridiculously long.

        1. milu

          i know, and i like long titles too, but i like meta-ironic titles more =/

    2. JBento

      Dumbing of Age Book XII: I have no hubris to smash.

  10. Suet

    if you look to your right, you might see Willis doing leg sweeps at 9 Chickweed Lane.

    and to your left is the reason why Liz is back here again and not just wanting to ninja around the campus

    1. Rainhat

      Well, if she wanted the paperweight to my left, she could’ve asked….

    2. Heather

      9 Chickweed Lane? What’s that?

      1. Dana

        Newspaper comic Willis likes to yell about on twitter.

        1. Ray Radlein

          The main characters are a pair of legs that fuck constantly

        2. AbacusWizard

          I thought they were a pair of hands?

        3. thejeff

          Definitely legs.

          Nazi legs.

      2. Thag Simmons

        A syndicated in actual papers comic that is both very horny and very bad. Highlights of the past year include turning lady legs turning a gay man straight and being dropped from syndication in several papers for using slurs

    3. Opus the Poet

      The only thing I see on the left is the link to Slipshine and the buffer watch. Which are you talking about?

      1. Suet

        agh, forgot to rotate myself.

        1. MacareuxMoine

          Are you implying that tomorrow’s strip will bring the reveal (and that you payed to read it today)?

  11. alongcameaspider

    Spoke a little too soon with that “no hubris to smash” thing didn’t you Sarah

    1. mrnoidea

      There will always be hubris to smash.

      1. Clif

        Hubris is infinite and expands to fill the egosphere.

        1. milu

          The smashing of hubris may be called David Willis’s favourite hobby if it wasn’t already his job.

        2. egg egg

          Smashing of Hubris sounds like his next comic’s name.

    2. Spencer

      S’funny, between last strip and how Sarah’s acted since the Faith-Off, I thought the idea of Panel 3’s dialogue is “I have no hubris to punish, unlike Joyce,” since Joyce being punished for her hubris by her losing new job was something Sarah commented about, and now she’s walked into her room miserable and Sarah cracks a big smile about it.

      Sarah is really not a good person.

  12. Laura

    Ouch, Sarah! Man, if I were down and out and homeless and couldn’t talk to my parents (as has been the case at times in the past) and I finally screwed up the courage to face up to my big sister to tell her about my predicament, being greeted at the door with a “GODDAMNIT!” would send me scurrying back into my hidey-hole of denial. Have a little heart!

    1. alongcameaspider

      To be entirely fair to Sarah she doesn’t know any of that, just that Liz visited a couple days ago and was supposed to be back at her school

    2. Thag Simmons

      Eh, I think if your sister is Sarah this is an expected reaction to showing up unannounced regardless of context

    3. Angel

      Has that actually been confirmed anywhere and I just forgot (which is likely) or just a guess about why she hasn’t left yet?

      1. alongcameaspider

        It hasn’t been confirmed yet, its just speculation at this point

        At this point it’s just as likely her “friend” who was supposed to give her a ride ditched her and she was just too embarrassed to ask anyone for help

      2. Sam

        Just a guess. We currently have 0 info on why Liz is still here.

        1. Clif

          And where she is spending the nights.

      3. Spencer

        My guess is that she doesn’t want to return because, as she told Joe, she’s bullied there as a sheltered Jesus weirdo virgin while she keeps up performative faith for her stepmom.

        Then there’s how she wanted to bang Joe seemingly as a rite of passage; she’d know that she is a cool secular adult who can do secular adult things like sex with hot boys and weed drugs, whereupon she panicked real hard. There’s probably a deeper level to her problems with her friends now, where she’d go back to BSU, hear her friends make fun of her, and know they’re right.

  13. TrueVCU

    And lo, the prophecy has been fulfilled

  14. Fart Captor

    ngl, I’m slightly miffed at Willis for having the foresight to point the tails on Joyce’s word balloons very carefully to make sure it doesn’t look like she’s pooting out dialog

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      We need to hear Joyce talk out her ass, Willis. Is that too much to ask for?

      1. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

        The whole last arc with Becky is about Joyce talking out her ass! /pun

    2. Doctor_Who

      Give her time to digest those nachitos, these things don’t happen instantly.

    3. The Wellerman

      Surely you of all people know how much skill it takes to manipulate flatulence like that ?

      Joyce is but a student in the fart-ial arts

  15. BBCC

    Look, Sarah, your life is a narrative. It’s positioned to maximize drama. Cope. 😛

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      “I knew bad times were ahead, but I never expected them to be this bad or frequent.” – Anon

  16. Yotomoe

    Nice Gams.

    1. Needfuldoer

      She knows how to use them.

  17. StClair

    … 2, 1, liftoff.

  18. RassilonTDavros

    Goddammit Nappa Liz.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      At least Liz doesn’t sing annoyingly the whole way to Earth.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        That we know of.

  19. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    There is something sad about Sarah hoping for a mediocre day. (I still find this strip hilarious, though, ngl)

    1. drs

      she should be a Cynic, not a cynic https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/01/cynicism-modern-ancient-true-meaning/621314/

  20. DailyBrad

    I’m not even surprised at this point, wonder what’s up with Liz.

    Also, better Liz to probably walk in on pantied Joyce than most options. White ones, huh? Cute!

    1. Reltzik

      The route back home contained at least 4 bridges, and she burned them all on the way out here.

  21. woobie

    aww
    where did she spend the night? it looked cold!

    1. Bagge

      We can at least be 100% sure she didn’t spend the night with Joe.

      OK, 80%.

    2. Laura

      She was getting her vanilla coke at the convenience store so she could stay up all night. Probably rode the bus.

    3. Needfuldoer

      Loitering at the 24 hour convenience store?

  22. jmsr7

    OKAY! Now find out why Liz is homeless too.

  23. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Guess who’s back, back again. ?

    1. Reltzik

      The cat came back the very next day…

  24. Bagge

    What IS Liz’ deal? Is this a Becky situation? a Faz? What is she doing.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Tune in tomorrow to find out! Same dumbing time, same dumbing channel!

      1. JBento

        Some days you just can’t get rid of a Liz.

  25. Dr. T

    To quote Cooler in DBZA: I hope someone picks up that phone BECAUSE I F***ING CALLED IT!!!

  26. Carla's #2 Fan

    Thank you for listening to me Liz. I did say that if she were to stay longer, she better go talk to Sarah.

  27. Heather

    Yay! I was wondering how long it would be until Liz appeared again. Glad it wasn’t too long.

    My theory was initially that she simply didn’t feel ready to see and put a personality mask around her shitty friends after her emotionally fraught time with Joe but the fact that she spent the night makes me wonder if it’s something worse?

    Liz also did you sleep in the library or something? (Does this college at least have a 24 hour library?)

    1. thejeff

      It’s been two nights, unless she did spend the first one with Joe, but their meeting again the next morning didn’t read like that.

  28. Delicious Taffy

    *continuing to pound the table* Legs! Legs! Legs!

  29. AGV

    There goes Butt’s new pfp

  30. Kamino Neko

    She only commented on the number of ups and downs, not their magnitude. The universe loves loophole abuse. >_>

    1. Reltzik

      Except when you’re the one abusing loopholes, in which case that counts as hubris.

  31. Archieve

    Big quesrion right now: is liz going to finally admit what’s really going on or will she claim her supposed ride stood her up and ask for money?

  32. Reltzik

    In full fairness to Sarah, this down had a statistical probability approaching unity.

    … also, is it Thanksgiving already?

  33. Ray Radlein

    “Hey, look, Liz never left Bloomington! I totally called it!” — approximately everyone, Joe included

  34. AbacusWizard

    C’mon, Sarah, if you wanna show off your lack of hubris you gotta shake your fist at the heavens while shouting “GOD HIMSELF CAN’T STOP ME”

  35. Delicious Taffy

    Hmm. I’ve noticed that in the past week or so, certain innocuous comments of mine have been eaten by a filter or something before they ever go through. They were short and not especially witty or anything so I’m not terribly torn up about it, but I can’t figure out any pattern to why those particular comments might be getting vored.

    1. The Wellerman

      Happens to me sometimes too.

      At least it’s not as bad as the algorithms in places like YouTube, Tumblr or Twitter — seriously their censorbots are on some really bad shit, and they can all suck my octagon!

      1. Delicious Taffy

        One time I told the official ABC Family Twitter to shut the hell up, and wound up getting muted entirely for a month.

        1. crow

          What were they saying

        2. Delicious Taffy

          Just advertising some show or other, but it appeared on my timeline like three times because Twitter really thought I wanted to watch literally anything on ABC Family. So I told ’em off and got censored by The Man.

    2. Spencer

      This happened to me once, it might just be that comments get filtered automatically if they’re too short.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        If that were the case, we’d see less “…what”-type comments.

        1. King Daniel

          …what

  36. Sombrero

    To the Leg Side this strip has fallen.

  37. Dave

    Starting to think Liz is hiding homelessness.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Well, we’ve certainly never seen such a thing in this comic before. I’m not sure where you could be getting that idea, in an ongoing story that never reintroduces old ideas in a new context.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Well, she was either at Joyce and Sarah’s door, or in the hallway nearby. Maybe she finally worked up the courage to come clean?

  38. Opus the Poet

    OK we have Liz’ ride didn’t get her, never existed, or tried to hit her up for money.

    Name your choice/guess.

    1. Agemegos

      Or Liz’s ride hit on her.

      1. Spencer

        So that’s what the truck was trying for with Ruth.

    2. Zaxares

      I’ll take “Never existed” for 200!

      1. Queezle

        seems the most likely choice to me too.

  39. Acher4

    Is Liz sleeping on the fountain?
    That must have been a cold night….
    brrrrrrrrr

  40. Rabid Rabbit

    To no one’s surprise, Joyce’s panties appear to be the basic white model. I wonder how long that will last.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Joke’s on you. Under those basic white panties is hidden one of them saucy little red numbers, with the lace and the flower pattern on the cheeks.

    2. Clif

      Until they dye.

  41. Sombrero

    Surprised no one is asking the really important questions: will Liz disrupt Joyce’s nap? Or will Joyce sleep nonstop leaving Sarah alone with the big revelations? Can’t wait for next week strips…

    1. Needfuldoer

      I hope this isn’t the return of Putting-on-an-Act Joyce.

      1. Sombrero

        I hope this is the return of Putting-on-Pants Joyce. I’m dreading the legidification of DoA.

  42. nightshade

    “she should live so long” as my elderly Jewish neighbor would say when someone was making predictions like sarah was

  43. Amós Batista

    Joyce’s not using common underwear. She’s looks like using boxers…

    1. Needfuldoer

      Not really? Most of what’s visible is the bottom of her shirt.

  44. Rabisch

    Poor Sarah. Her sister Joyce and her sister Liz will totally charge her routine. Probably Liz will want to sleep before giving explanations. No clear if Joyce is sleeping or if she’s hearing all. Maybe the story of Liz’s big problems will help she and Joyce to become friends for real ♡.

  45. Spencer

    Yotomoe fan art has given me a skewed perception of Joyce’s butt.

  46. Huehuetotl

    I bet Liz forgot to register for spring classes and didn’t know what to do.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Ooh, I wonder if Liz got that part of the real-life backstory instead of Joyce…

  47. Vulcanodon

    I am getting worried for Liz.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Hopefully her story will come out of stasis in this chapter.

  48. Keulen

    I’m definitely wondering where Liz has been sleeping lately, since it seems likely that her ride doesn’t exist for whatever reason.

  49. Beau Kirin Maysey

    Will those who ‘called it’ please step up to take a number?…

    Also, I’m gonna say Sarah’s big shit-eating grin deserves this a little…

    1. Thag Simmons

      Everyone called this. Joe called it!

  50. Spencer

    I’m guessing this is more “does not want to go back” than “cannot go back.”

    Liz, I think, wanted to return to her douchebag friends at Ball State confident that she was now a secular adult who can have hot times with hot boys and do weed drug even as they kept on making fun of her for her performative Christianity for her stepmom’s sake, but panicking with Joe reinforced in her that she is the helpless, naive child that laughing at for being a fucking weirdo is totally valid her peers insisted she is.

  51. Inbar Fink

    If the speculation about Liz procrastinating going back to her college because she doesn’t want to put on the Innocent Churchy Girl Persona again is true… I wonder if she’s gonna be envious of Joyce for being ‘out’ about her Atheism now with basically all of her friendgroup.

    Also I love the Sarah Face in page 3!

    1. thejeff

      Maybe, but now it’s Monday and it’s more serious, since now it’s classes, not just the weekend.

      Also, it seems weird if it’s just that she would have been avoiding people here for the last couple days – to the point that we’re worried about where she’s been sleeping.

      1. Inbar Fink

        Wait, isn’t it Sunday? Literally for the last couple of strips they’ve been talking about how it’s Sunday.

        1. Spencer

          It’s Sunday, yes.

        2. thejeff

          You’re right. I was thinking she showed up Saturday, but it was Friday, which it had to be because they skipped class. Brain not working.

          Still, I think the second point holds.

  52. Spencer

    Anyway my fondest wish for this chapter is that Sarah, high on her own cool supply, gets merced as hard as physically possible and learns a valuable lesson about not just caring about the people you love when you feel like it.

    (and also Dana’s back and then we find out Sarah didn’t actually help Dana like she thinks she did)

    1. Sombrero

      Don’t hold your breath. In this strip Sarah is one of us (the not-your-usual-college-student-trope), Dana was trying to be one of them (your-usual-college-student-trope). Dana’s potential place in the narrative is now occupied by Jennifer.

      1. Spencer

        I’m gonna come at this honestly, I don’t know what you mean here.

        1. Sombrero

          What I mean is that members of the main cast are dorky/asocial/neurodivergent/etc. types that are not pursuing integration within any meaningful groups of friends/peers in-campus because they would obviously not fit well. They contrast with minor characters that present such kind of integration, like Asher, Raidah, Tony, but the story is not about these minor characters, except when members of both groups kind of clash (Sarah/Raidah, Sal/Asher). Dana was presented as a member of the integrated group, but what happened to her hints that maybe she was not a natural. At this point in the narrative, Jennifer is trying to play the same role Dana seems to have played. To me, there are too many points of contact now between Jennifer and Dana’s stories that I won’t count on Dana’s return, taking into account that since Shortpacked! ended its run, Willis seems to be betting on judicious narrative trimming on DoA.

        2. Spencer

          Dana’s hypothetical return wouldn’t be about bumping her to protagonist status, it’d be about some extrapolation on a dramatic incident in Sarah’s past getting recontextualized from the misunderstood hero narrative it’s got right now. Dana back in college would be some indicator that she’s been able to heal and move on, considering the last time we heard about her she wasn’t doing too good according to Raidah.

          Moreover, you’re making a wild assumption on how this character acts considering she’s been in like five flashback strips, and the main characters seek integration with meaningful groups in the cast because they find it in each other.

        3. Sombrero

          On that account, it seems the narrative is moving towards recontextualizing other dramatic incidents in Sarah’s family past, so still no Dana’s return in sight.

          I acknowledge I’m a sucker for wild assumptions.

        4. StClair

          Sarah is the older, wiser, sarcastic but ultimately sympathetic-and-good-hearted “oh you poor dumb kids who don’t know any better” audience-identification character.

        5. Spencer

          I mean, she certainly thinks she is. She’s also a petulant, sullen 20-year old who tells herself it’s fine to only care about other people when it matters and Joyce has inferred that she’s begun to stop believing that Sarah loves her as much as she used to, because Sarah just flat out cannot do good for her if it’s not a crisis.

          Sarah goes “pff, children” at Joe at the start of the series and they are like a year apart. She’s 20; she’s only older and wider by JRPG standards.

        6. Sombrero

          Maybe we will discover in this storyline why Sarah has the mind of a much older person in a young body. I’m 56 and Sarah is the character which often expresses my own opinions.

    2. Axel_Grease

      I would like to see more about the Dana thing as well. I always had the feeling that what Sarah did was wrong, but I kept quiet about it because I was clearly in the minority.

      1. alongcameaspider

        Until we can get Dana’s perspective on things I’d say we don’t have enough information

        After all we only have Sarah and Raidah’s perspective and neither of them are unbiased in the situation

      2. Spencer

        Yeah, in a storyline with a lot of emphasis on the negative aspects of Joyce’s closest friend group, revealing that Sarah’s biggest moment of “doing the right thing when it was hard” wasn’t some unambiguously heroic move just kinda hits as drama catnip.

        And y’know, it wouldn’t be about “Raidah is right actually,” Sarah wasn’t the villain, she actually would have been removed from college had Dana’s breakdown continued to affect her grades while all her rich-ass friends waved it off, but it’d be interesting to find out that she was lionizing herself this whole time for something that made Dana miserable, and her whole beef with Raidah that she reignited wasn’t as clear cut as she wants it to be. Whenever I think of this idea I always come back to that one flashback strip where it ends with Sarah going “you know what’s harsh? The terms of my scholarship!” and it makes me wonder if Sarah unintentionally sold her concern for Dana as about her grades because she’s, canonically, extremely fucking bad at being emotionally honest and available.

        And I’ll reiterate, it’s not like Raidah would be totally right, she still downplayed Dana’s depression on the grounds of her not seeing it, let alone the effects it was having on Sarah where she’d get tossed out on her ass because Dana wouldn’t let her sleep.

      3. Sam

        I very much doubt we will ever get anything that indicates Sarah was wrong about that. Both because it was an integral part of our understanding of Sarah but also because even if Dana showed up and cursed her out for it, that wouldn’t actually make Sarah *wrong* or mean she did the *wrong thing* as there were limited options of what she could do.

        Sarah could have reported her to the school for drug usage to get Dana suspended or expelled or asked for a room transfer that could take months. Those were the only other options really left to her as she couldn’t make her go to mental health services or rehab and their friends didn’t believe her and Dana wasn’t up for talking about it or managing her feelings.

  53. Robert

    “Didn’t we just leave this party?”

    -Han Solo (ANH, LucasFilm/20th Century Fox 1977)

  54. JBento

    I have jut found out that a few days ago a Zoom meeting of the Italian senate was interrupted with a Tifa porn clip and none of you told me and HOW DARE YOU!

    I AM DISAPPOINTED IN ALL OF YOU!

    WHAT ARE YOU LOT EVEN FOR?!

    1. DarkoNeko

      what does this got to do with this webcomic ? Also who care, it’s some game that came out like 25 years ago

      1. Spencer

        Yeah, we should only talk about relevant things.

        Like horrifying Sonic the Hedgehog comic facts.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Ooh, such as the time Sonic cucked Tails, or the time a magical unicorn almost got Tails to snipe Eggman, JFK-style.

        2. The Wellerman

          No idea Tails was into chastity belts…

        3. Spencer

          Nah, Tails just hated Sonic because he was dating a girl who at least six years Tails’ senior and they had a fight about it that time Tails’ mom and dad tried to lead a proletarian uprising against the monarchy.

          It’s cool, though, because it turns out she started cheating on Sonic with his evil alternate universe counterpart, Scourge the Hedgehog.

          I didn’t fabricate a single word of this.

        4. Delicious Taffy

          It’s also incredible that I can, without any exaggeration, describe one of my favorite characters as “Sonic except he’s sideways and also a timespace cop”.

      2. Delicious Taffy

        Oooh, careful being dismissive about FF7~ The rabid hyperfans can smell it a mile away, and they’ve all got Opinions to share.

    2. Delicious Taffy

      Is that why I’ve been seeing Tifa and Italy mentioned next to each other? It’s one of those cases where nobody’s been posting the sauce, so I’ve just sorta been assuming “Italian Today” was a reference to somebody’s recent fanfic or bizarre rant.

      1. JBento

        I would wager that is, indeed, why.

      2. Delicious Taffy

        “Italian Today”? For fuck’s sake, my automangle has been aggressive lately. It’s also been “correcting” the word “of” into “if” nonstop, like that makes any damn sense.

  55. Jonah Sanville

    really hope we can figure out what’s going on with liz, i’m a little tired of her ngl. still like her!! just ready for something else

  56. Joyfulldreams

    Seriously. What the fuck is up with Liz. Liz?? What’s going on with you???

    1. Delicious Taffy

      She’s afraid to go home because they might find out she’s a g*mer.

      1. The Wellerman

        A gamer?

        “If you’re happy and you know it, IT’S A SIN!” ?

      2. Spencer

        With the glass ceiling broken, all the oppressed groups shall prosper; especially the most oppressed group of all.

        Gamers.

  57. Mackabre

    I will join the chorus hoping we finally get to learn what Liz’s deal is. Personally leaning towards the “doesn’t want to leave yet” camp

    1. Joyfulldreams

      Where did she sleep last night though?? 🙁

  58. C.T. Phipps

    I actually am interested if Joyce will realize that she’s effectively Sarah’s substitute Liz.

    Or if Sarah never realized that she protects Joyce because she’s slotted her into her Liz shaped hole.

  59. C.T. Phipps

    I’m going to call it now: Joyce will become Dorothy when Dorothy leaves and Liz will be her new Joyce-like friend.

    1. Eldritchy

      There is always two, a Dorothy and a Joyce. One to embody Atheism the other to crave it.

      1. C.T. Phipps

        Jocelyn: But there is still a vague spirituality in her.

        Becky: I once thought as you. But she’s more machine now than woman. Twisted and evil.

        Joyce: I JUST HAVE GLASSES! I AM NOT A CYBORG!

  60. ProjectXa3

    …so Liz dropped out, right?

    1. Raen

      I think she never went at all, cf the gummy stunt.

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Her college has been closed due an outbreak of Butts Disease, but she is too embarrassed to mention it because she suspects she was Patient Zero.

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