222

Circle of friends
Posted on February 13, 2019 by David M Willis

222 thoughts on “Circle of friends”

  1. DarkoNeko

    Well, see you later, alligator.

    1. Deanatay

      Your argument is irrelephant.

  2. Ana Chronistic

    that

    1. H3xx

      All of that.

      1. FacelessDeviant

        And gravy.

  3. Doctor_Who

    Oh good, Billie didn’t get drunk after all. She binge watched Happy Days instead.

    The amount of brain damage is comparable, but instead of driving under the influence, you water-ski over a shark. So, progress!

    1. shadowcell

      Billie is, if only in her own mind, the Fonzie of everything

    2. Needfuldoer

      ♬ Sunday, Monday, bender days
      Tuesday Wednesday bender days,
      Thursday Friday bender days
      Saturday
      What a day
      Drinkin’ all week with you ♬

      1. RacingTurtle

        May I offer:
        Boozin’ all week with you ♬

        1. Needfuldoer

          Yes! Very good.

      2. MIB4u

        is that … to the melody of “Friday I’m in Love”?

        1. Proto Persona

          No, the theme song to “Happy Days”

      3. Proto Persona

        I need to upvote this so bad. I laughed. Hard.

      4. Roborat

        I thought you were going for a Futurama joke, and was waiting to see how you pulled it off.

  4. King Daniel

    Oh, Billie. No.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Not sure what we expected after the “argument” at lunch, really.

      1. StClair

        This. I expected this.
        Okay, maybe not the finger guns.

    2. GenJen

      Oh, Billie. Yes.

  5. DailyBrad

    This is going to be one of those nights.

  6. Yotomoe

    Billie’s tearing through my patience like tissue paper.

    1. Icalasari

      I’m just hoping this results in the school giving her an ultimatum – Go to rehab, or be expelled. Because I’m worried the only other thing that’ll stop her is if, well, we get a repeat of Shortpacked! except with Billie being the drunk driver instead of Danny

    2. DailyBrad

      She’s an addict, that’s like the number one skill.
      I hope Walky gets her to get her shit together. He’s probably her only lifeline right now.

      1. Marisa Mockery

        Her sobriety depends on Walky? Let’s just hope she’s expelled….

        1. DailyBrad

          Not what I meant, no what I said.

    3. Chris Phoenix

      Addiction of steel, emotion of Kleenex.

      1. Geneseepaws

        Super!

      2. Geneseepaws

        Unless you’re old, in that case is that from the book “The Stress analysis of a Strapless”?

  7. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    Oh Billie. No Billie No.

    1. jeffepp

      Oh, Billie, you’re so drunk
      You blew your mind
      Hay. Billie! Hay, Billie!

      1. Delicious Taffy

        I thought it was “Missy”, not “Billie”.

        1. DonDueed

          Mickey, actually, in the original.

        2. Deanatay

          Ricky, and Lucy, in the improved version.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          Sure, in the version created for Lollipop Chainsaw.

  8. BBCC

    Oh, this’ll be fun.

    Drunk Billie! A day before Valentine’s! Excellent.

    1. Bagge

      TIME TO GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack!

    2. Marsh Maryrose

      I was like, wait, it’s two days to Valentine’s Day? But that’s only true for those of us who are west of EST.

      I notice that drunk Billie managed to take off her glasses before going back to Forest. Judging from her obvious state of intoxication, she’ll be lucky to remember where she put them when she wakes up.

      1. Sunny

        In her braventory?

      2. Needfuldoer

        I’m sure they’re safely tucked away in hammerspace between a couple flasks.

  9. Kyrik Michalowski

    Well, this was very clearly going to happen but that doesn’t mean I can’t be disappointed in it anyway.

    1. oh no

      “Disappointed, but not surprised” is something I say quite often these days.

  10. jeffepp

    She’sh not Billie as she drunk you are. (hic) Ash I wash shay’n… Wat wash I… Oh, I kn(gulp)ow… It wash, it wash…

    1. Keulen

      She’s sotally tober right now.

  11. Victor Riley

    So, it’s been 8 weeks… they should be coming up on Halloween soon. The first holiday in Dumbing of Age!

    1. Zach

      A year solid of spooky doecorations and orange/black color schemes…
      Woooohooo!

    2. BBCC

      It’s October 16ish so yeah, soonish.

      1. BBCC

        15th. My bad.

    3. Lingo

      Expect it in 2021-ish.

      1. Robert

        @Lingo,

        By the time this comic is all wrapped up, we’ll ALL be glad that this semester of college is over.

    4. ShinyNeen

      The pumpkins have even already begun to invade people’s doors!

    5. Marsh Maryrose

      I never thought about this before, but in-comic Labor Day (storyline: The First Step Towards Recovery) was a normal class day, as was in-comic Indigenous Peoples’ Day (This Is the Way that We Love).

      In-comic, it’s the evening of Oct. 15, so assuming no major time skips, in-comic Oct. 31 will be in real-life February 2022, give or take a month.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        This dad joke is as old as programming, but anyway:

        Q: Why do programmers always get Christmas and Halloween confused?

        A: Because Dec 25 = Oct 31

        (This was a lot funnier back when programmers actually used octal notation. I’m guessing that’s pretty much gone the way of the slide rule.)

        1. Geneseepaws

          So very many rude, crude, and horrible slide rule jokes left in the dusty past.
          Let’s leave them there…

        2. Marsh Maryrose

          There was an engineer who made himself a bed in the shape of a slide rule. “I sleep like a log!” he said.

        3. Roborat

          Okay, I am forced to have you killed now. The pun ninjas have been contacted.

        4. thejeff

          We still run into it occasionally in some legacy avionics work. Hex is much more common though.

        5. Deanatay

          HEY.

          Any budding engineering student who DOESN’T spend his spare time converting random numbers in his environment into odd bases isn’t worth talking to.

          Dec 25 = Oct 31 = Sept 34 = Nov 27

        6. Clif

          I understand how Sept gives you base 7. How does Nov give you base 9?

        7. thejeff

          Same way. “Novum” is nine.

          Apparently they ran out of god names for months after August and just numbered the last 4.

        8. Marsh Maryrose

          There does seem to be some lack of authority about whether to use Latin or Greek roots in base names. “Binary” uses Latin, “hexadecimal” mixes both, the roots for “trinary” and “octal” are the same in both languages.

          Is Base 9 nonary? novary? nonal? This apparently is a matter of great dispute among a group of narrow specialists, each of whom argues that their arbitrary preference is the only correct one.

          The Romans actually numbered the last 6 months — Quintilis was posthumously renamed for Julius Caesar, and the good citizens of Rome voted to rename Sextilis after Octavius Augustus.

          The numbered months were originally in the proper places, as the Roman year began on March 1st. (Many asterisks apply here.)

    6. Logan Hawkes

      Let’s not forget, at Halloween Joyce will lose her mind over everyone celebrating a Satanic holiday. Mary will be horrible about the whole thing (as usual), but Joyce will be conflicted. Joyce is already aware that the church has fed her so many lies and she doesn’t believe for a second that her wonderful deeply-flawed friends become Satan worshippers one day a year, but she’s still really uncomfortable with the whole thing. Also, Joyce REALLY won’t want to side with Mary on anything. There’s the punchline: “I developed a new coping mechanism a while back. If I’m on Mary’s side then I need to think about it some more.”

      Huh. This could be a whole chapter. It has all the elements:
      – Joyce’s battle with reconciling her faith with the real world.
      – Mary condemning everything and using her usual douchebaggery to try to prevent everyone else from having fun.
      – Billie and Ruth’s battle with alcohol on a big drinking holiday.
      – Joe’s annoying horndoggery, now even more irritating because people are disguised and he’s not sure who he’s hitting on.
      – All the straight males acting like idiots over Sal’s costume.
      – Carla’s construction of an AMAZING haunted house.
      – Mike being Mike.
      – Amazi-Girl working when Amber is supposed to be at the party.
      – Someone comes to the party dressed as Tony Montana in Scarface. All Joyce sees is the scar.
      – Someone wears a dinosaur costume. It is not Dina. Becky is unaware of this. Misunderstandings and sitcom drama ensue.
      – Refinement of the above: Roz DeSanto comes to the party dressed as a slutty dinosaur (face covered). Becky is unaware that Dina hasn’t arrived…yet. Misunderstandings and sitcom drama ensue. Once that’s resolved and everyone has had a good laugh, Dina can’t stop staring at Roz. More drama ensues.

      Meta: I really hope that all renders as a list.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        I can see this is going to need to be a regular reminder through in-comic Halloween:

        Given that Willis has said that Joyce is autobiographical, and given that Willis has posted pictures of himself as a child wearing Halloween costumes, I think we can safely assume that Joyce’s religious background is probably not a Halloween-is-satanic one. From the FAQ: “Get your kinds of Christians sorted out!”

        Mary we don’t know about, but given that she’s into anime, probably the same (not that she won’t be horrible about anything, given the chance). I’ve never moved in that world, but I’m under the impression that the Halloween-is-satanic group is a fairly small subset of the fundamentalist community.

        Other than that, speculate on! I particularly like the “Becky wrongly assumes that a dinosaur-costumed person is Dina” subplot.

  12. ShinyNeen

    It’s okay Lucy, I don’t think I’d appropriately identify popularity either.

    And hey, so Lucy came to college expecting everything to be different, while meanwhile Billie expected everything to be the same? Fun contrast, that.

    1. DailyBrad

      Yeah, there’s actually a really interesting dynamic there, potentially.

    2. Marsh Maryrose

      And the other Billie callback is to just before her arrival at Forest, where she confidently announced to herself that this was “Take two.”

  13. King Daniel

    Also, whomever was in yesterday’s comments saying that Billie would come in drunk in today’s strip called it. Here’s hoping that the other part of their prediction (cut to Ruth getting drunk) doesn’t come true in tomorrow’s strip.

    1. AntJ

      Yes, that was me. I feel nothing bad about Billie being drunk but I have no clue if this will cause Ruth to relapse, which would be gutting.

      But Willis has a penchant for being gutting, and this is playing out exactly right for a cut to Ruth reacting poorly.

      Here we go.

      1. DailyBrad

        I hope she doesn’t, but there is a solid chance she will. I think people think Ruth is a lot more put together than she currently is. Standing next to Billie will do that.

      2. ktbear

        Wait, wait, wait, Ruth getting drunk ISN’t the big break up I’ve been led to believe will happen on Valentines Day. I’m wondering just how much of Lucy and Walky’s conversation about getting Billie to the party Ruth overheard. I have a feeling Ruth could turn up to see what’s up with that. Doesn’t mean Ruth won’t end up drunk afterwards of course.

      3. Rabid Rabbit

        I tend to suspect not, because last we saw her, Ruth was angry, and anger is one of the things that keeps her focused. She’s always been a depressive drunk: feeling terrible about herself and using alcohol to make herself feel even worse. Billie, meanwhile, is more of a party drunk, which is probably why she has a harder time recognizing that alcohol’s a problem for her. After all, it’s fun, and when she’s feeling down, it cheers her up. I don’t think Ruth’s ever thought alcohol was fun, and from what we’ve seen the best it does for her is numb things.

        What makes this a very bad sign for Billie, though, is that yesterday I realized it’s been a long time since we saw Billie get trashed. Going through the Billie tag: yes, she tried to get a drink at nine in the morning the other day, which is a bad sign, but once she failed she didn’t seem to go out of her way to find booze anyway; when she showed up unexpectedly in Ruth’s bed, there were no drunk bubbles around her, so if she was hungover it wasn’t apparent; at the sports bar where she and Ruth ended up at the end of their date, they’re clearly drinking Cokes or something; in fact, aside from her effort at Galasso’s, this is the first time she seems to have had a drink since she moved. The last time we saw her drink at all was with Dorothy, and she didn’t have enough to get drunk then (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/02-everything-youve-ever-wanted/counselor/). Hell, the last time we saw her mildly drunk was at Joyce’s dorm party. The last time we saw her determinedly get trashed was when she and Ruth slept together for the first time, and that was in 2014 (our time).

        All of which suggests that though we don’t know quite how drunk she and Ruth usually got (however telling the time they both bought bottles of whiskey was), it seems like having Ruth to care for may have actually helped her cut back, without necessarily noticing. Which makes sense: if what she’s going for in booze is the endorphins, then the endorphin rush of being in love with Ruth would have made the alcohol less necessary.

        Well. That was more of a wall o’ text than I expect. TL;DR: Billie being cheerfully drunk in the last panel is a sign that she’s really not happy right now and that the argument with Ruth hit her hard.

        1. thejeff

          I assume she’s been drinking regularly, even without us being shown it every day.
          We know she doesn’t always drink to the point of being obviously intoxicated – the time with Dorothy being one example
          She’s not just a party drunk though – we’ve seen her sneaking drinks alone in her room.

        2. Amazi-Stool

          Well, maybe, but that does not look like the sleeping position of someone who was only mildly intoxicated!

    2. Chris Phoenix

      I said several days ago (in the middle of their pre-lunch conversation) that on 2/14 Billie would consume a Jello shot at movie night in front of Ruth, and Ruth would dump her.

  14. Kravis

    NO MCNUGGETS FOR YOU, BILLIE!

    (mainly cause Walky ate them all, but… Still!)

  15. JetstreamGW

    Willis. That alt text.

    You are a bad person and you should feel bad.

  16. Fezzam

    But Willis don’t forget, John and the B man met Terry and W.H., then she talked to Bruce about her son… ??? step 3 profit.

  17. Stephen Bierce

    Rockabilly or Parrothead?

  18. Bagge

    Awwww, Lucy 🙁

    Awwww, Billie 🙁

    1. Shane Wegner

      Coping with uncomfortable assertiveness from Ruth on putting boundaries on alcohol by… Getting shit faced.

      1. Bagge

        Coping with stress by drinking alcohol.

        Not that uncommon for an alcoholic.

        1. Fart Captor

          Yeah, she was pestering Ruth about booze because SHE really wanted to get drunk

          She’s respecting that boundary by getting drunk by herself instead.

          Doing something about her depression or just finding a less unhealthy coping mechanism would obviously be better, but Billie’s not really doing anything worse than normal for her here

  19. Larkle

    See, that’s the thing. Popularity isn’t the same thing as friendship.

    1. Yotomoe

      I don’t need friends. I just need to be liked.

    2. joyfulldreams

      Doesn’t mean they aren’t related. 😛 Some people are popular just because they’re friendly, likeable, nice, fun to be around, and a good friend overall. I knew plenty a number of those types in high school. Lucy definitely would have been fairly popular where I went, if she wasn’t too terrible shy.

    3. newllend(henryvolt)

      Which is why popularity is overrated.

    4. Marsh Maryrose

      Friendship is a bidirectional relationship between two people, and likeability is a unidirectional relationship from one person to another.

      Popularity is the aggregate of likeability among a group of people.

  20. AntJ

    I literally called this yesterday

    Let’s see if it plays out

  21. Roger

    Okay.

  22. Deadjolras

    ♪Here she comes to wreck the daaaaaaaay!♪

  23. Dark

    I… Really don’t see a happy ending for Billie, if I’m honest.

    1. Yotomoe

      It depends on which massage parlor she goes to.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Based solely on my own personal experiences, those parlors tend to actually be porn sets, and the masseur is actually an actor.

    2. DailyBrad

      Depends on what you mean.
      In-comic? She could start now, and there’s no way she could kick alcoholism because, I mean, arguably it is never gone, but beyond that, the timeline of the comic.
      Willis has said he’s not killing people off, so that’s not happening, but if she OD’d, she could be potentially gone for years.

    3. Bagge

      Neither does she 🙁

    4. Marsh Maryrose

      Just in time for Valentines Day, a callback to the storyline “This Is the Way that We Love:”

      “This is the way you left me,
      I’m not pretending,
      No hope, no love, no glory,
      No happy ending.”

      1. PB

        I love that song and you made me sad.

  24. MatthewTheLucky

    And now Billie tries to seduce Lucy!

  25. TrueVCU

    Oh no it is Drunkzilla

    Oh no

  26. C.T Phipps

    Billie bothered to show up which means that Lucy has a new best friend. The problem is that I suspect Lucy is going to lecture her, which shows she’s no friend at all.

    1. DailyBrad

      Not sure where else she could go. Wouldn’t be to Ruth, and Sarah would throw her out the door Jazzy Jeff-style if she went there.

    2. Aletheia

      Depends on what the lecture is about, tbh. Sometimes a friend has to give lectures (in the “you need to get your shite together” vein), and some lectures are most effective when they come from friends (which, admittedly, Lucy and Billie aren’t at the right level of friendship for, but… eh). 🙂

    3. not someone else

      Given Lucy probably doesn’t know the situation I expect mostly a lot of awkwardness and possibly some kind of terrible drunken misstatement/miscommunication.

    4. Emily

      Enabling someone’s self-destructive behaviour shows you’re no friend at all.

      1. thejeff

        This is college. A roommate showing up drunk at the end of an evening isn’t evidence of self-destructive behavior.
        We know it’s self-destructive, but Lucy’s got far less to go on than we do – a couple of mentions that alcohol would be a good way to get Billie to come to movie night is about it.
        Lucy isn’t enabling anything. She doesn’t know there’s a real problem and she’s not in any position to do anything about it. I suppose she could report her to the RA for drinking, but that’s not going to accomplish anything except ruining any chance of a decent roommate relationship. She’s not a close enough friend to Billie to have any chance of persuading her.

        1. BBCC

          I mean, telling the RA could potentially get Billie kicked out of school, or just the dorms. It’s a dry campus and this would be Billie’s second time being found with alcohol. It wouldn’t take much investigating to find out Billie hasn’t gone to therapy like she was supposed to and that would probably count against her.

        2. thejeff

          Was she found with alcohol before? I don’t recall anything.

          I mean, it certainly could in theory. In practice things generally have to get pretty bad for that to happen. IU’s a “dry campus” – like the vast majority of schools – and it’s got a reputation as a party school, IIRC.

        3. BBCC

          I thought that the alcoholism came out with the suicide pact? If not it might not be so bad.

          According to Willis, alcohol laws and rules tend to be taken more seriously in Indiana (relatively anyways). I don’t know if this is still true, but Willis did say that’s why we don’t see more people drinking in their dorms.

        4. Eldritch Gentleman

          Honestly I don’t think Friend is the right word to describe Lucy’s relationship with Billie. Mobile, annoying furniture would probably come closer.

  27. newllend(henryvolt)

    I have a feeling Billie going to ruin another Valentines day.

    1. Emperor Norton II

      Look, once a tradition’s started, it has to keep going.

    2. BenRG

      I have a feeling that Walky and Lucy are going to spend the night stopping Billie drowning in her own vomit or worse.

  28. Icalasari

    Looks like Billie REALLY did not take that news well. Hoping this ends in her being forced into rehab if she doesn’t want to be expelled

  29. Emperor Norton II

    I am severely disappointed that we are no longer talking about organ harvesting.

    Also disappointed in Billie; but not the least bit surprised.

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      Kidneys may no longer be in play, but hearts, and spleens, are still on the table.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Look, you don’t just give away all the tricks of the trade.

    3. thejeff

      Billie’s going to be in the market for a new liver in a few years, does that count?

  30. Tacos

    Billie, you ain’t cool enough to be The Fonz.

    1. BenRG

      Thanks to being drunk, she is the coolest thing ever, rather than a stumbling drunk who has just ruined her personal life and seriously hurt her girlfriend over an addiction.

  31. Keulen

    I relate to Lucy in that I was never popular in school, but by the time I went to college I realized popularity is overrated. Better to make some good friends than to try to be popular.

    1. DailyBrad

      This is a good sentiment, and true, but being popular can help you meet people who become friends, anyhow. I hope Lucy makes some good friendships, since it’s only going to get harder the older she gets, going by most people.

      1. Marisa Mockery

        I actually found it much easier to make friends after college. It depends on your own abilities and desires.

    2. Bagge

      I hope that’s the lesson she takes here, and I hope Walky can be one of those good friends. (I would also have hoped for Joyce, but they got a… less than stellar start)

      1. DailyBrad

        Joyce cares about Billie, but I imagine she’s got a lot on her plate.

        Walky’s Billie’s best friend, and known her since they were wee babs, so I feel like he’s got a better chance of getting through to her than Joyce would.

        1. Bagge

          Oh, yeah, that’s true, but I was talking about Lucy. I hope Walky and (possibly) Joyce will be her friends.

          As for Billie, she has lots of people that look out for her. Walky, Sal, Joyce, Becky (however inept) and even Lucy. But she’s FAR down in the ditch, and in contrast to Ruth, i don’t think she has hit rock bottom yet. She might be in the process to hit rock bottom now.

  32. Bagge

    Wow, Lucy in her alpha-sweetie-persona (TOTALLY A THING!) learnt in 8 weeks what Billie never learnt in high school. Being the center of the social circle is fun and all, but if you base your self esteem on it you are bound to be disappointed.

    1. DailyBrad

      Billie seemed tantalizingly close to this lesson in her interaction with Alice a while back, but coming to Forest Wing pushed her right back into it.

      1. Bagge

        What I fear is that Billie TOOK the lesson… but has bad enough self esteem to believe that that fleeting shimmer of popularity is the closest friendship and happiness she will ever come.

  33. Bagge

    To be technical about it, Walky, your usual circle of friends is centered around your ex-girlfriend’s girlfriend. Doesn’t make it less awkward, though.

  34. Sharkfin Bangs

    Gonna give the alt text an A+, would cackle again.

  35. Marsh Maryrose

    Narrator Voice: The old hierarchies always matter.

  36. PapayaPunkPixie

    Oh the days of getting drunk off of next to nothin

    Takes me like half a 750ml bottle of booze to get that wasted anymore

    1. thejeff

      I’m pretty sure Billie didn’t drink “next to nothin”.
      She’s a professional.

      1. PapayaPunkPixie

        Depends on how long she’s been binge drinking. She’s only 18. I’ve been party binge drinking for 5 years. She’d have to have been doing this since 13 to be caught up with me.

        1. thejeff

          Sounds about right. She may be a bit behind still.

          OTOH, when they were both drinking Ruth and her seemed to able to polish off a bottle of rotgut (or two?) with little effort. Other people get visible drunk from a few sips of her stuff (Several people at Joyce’s party, Dorothy when she was vying for the RA job.)

          She’s not just a binge drinker either, though she does that too. Billie’s drinking pretty much every day, as far as I can tell. Ruth visible went through withdrawal the times she stopped and Billie’s never shown any signs of that.

        2. PapayaPunkPixie

          Ah yeah true didn’t think about that. I’ve never gone through a long period of drinking every day– like maybe two or three weeks of daily drinking tops. I’ve got friends who drink like that and not only is their tolerance stupid high, the withdrawal is pretty bad so I try to avoid that and just be a weekend drinker.

    2. Amazi-Stool

      Drinking only half the bottle is considered to be drinking in “moderation” by Billie.

  37. someguywithakatana

    Every time I get a reminder of how much time has passed, in universe, it throws me for a fuckin’ loop.

  38. BenRG

    What happened was Billie, who personified the fact that the same old bullshit continues into adult life. It turns out that adults are just as good as children at believing it when someone tells them that certain things are popular or desirable (indeed, the entire Marketing industry depends on this).

    I’m sort of really glad that Walky is here because he knows Billie better than anyone else and I’ve got the feeling that she hasn’t just got to rock bottom but broke when she hit it.

  39. kilgaen

    Oh no, I dropped my cinnamon bun! Maybe it’s still good?

  40. Eldritch Gentleman

    A lying, self-destructive drunkard happened.

  41. newllend(henryvolt)

    It’s very frustrating you have a character that you like and you want do better but they keeps screwing up do to their lack of trying.

  42. Nobody

    I’m getting tired of this pattern Billie

  43. abysswatcher1993

    Dont remind me about green lantern and hawkgirl breaking up, Willis. it was as painful as the sinking of superboy x miss martian during season 2. Also, Lucy needs better friends. Maybe Walky can be her friend… in a non romantic way because it would be hawkward.

    1. Roborat

      Ah, that is what the alt text is referencing, thanks for that. I thought it was about the former host of The Daily Show, and was very confused.

    2. Amazi-Stool

      because it would be hawkward
      Why would WalkyXLucy be hawkward?
      Wouldn’t it be walkward?

    3. geno

      You must have been very happy in season 3 of YJ considering what happens in the first episode then

  44. FacelessDeviant

    Its movie night. Not really something that it works to get drunk to

    1. Reltzik

      “Okay, every time someone finds a plot hole, we take a shot.”

      1. Roborat

        Everyone would be unconscious within 20 minutes.

        1. Reltzik

          Eh, the sort of people I hang out with (not that I do drinking games) it would turn into 5 hours of drunkenly debating whether some fine bit of minutia was or wasn’t a plot hole and what counts as a plot hole anyway?

  45. chris73

    Well Walky could try making some guy friends or would that violate some sort of code he has

    1. newllend(henryvolt)

      There’s Jason or if that doesn’t work maybe him and Danny can hang out….on second thought maybe we’ll just have Ken and Andy to hang out with him or something.

      1. chris73

        Yeah I don’t know Jason would be a good idea but Danny or Ethan maybe (might be a bit busy…)

    2. Delicious Taffy

      What difference would it make, having more guy friends in particular? Walky might be more bored, I guess? Guys in the American Midwest are often unbelievably boring and hard to interact with.

      1. chris73

        I think part of Walkys issues is that he doesn’t appear to have had any male friends at all and since his father seems less dominant than his mom hes probably had very few, if any, positive male role models, I don’t know if that’s what led him to views on masculinity but there’s probably some sort of link

        I’ve always held the view that friendships with both sexes is preferable to friendships with just a single sex that way you get a better understanding of people in general

        Plus there are just some subjects that are better to talk to with certain genders it’s also good to different viewpoints on things and one of the simplest is to get a males view from time to time

        Lastly let’s not take this down the road of gender politics or whatever and simply leave it at Walkys a guy so it’d do him some good to have a male friend to talk to every now and then

        1. Emily

          “I don’t want to talk about gender politics but here are my weird gender essentialist opinions.” I can’t think of any subjects that are better to talk to men about that aren’t just buying into dumb gender stereotypes and this includes subjects that men have an actual vested interest in.

        2. Charlotte

          I agree with this. It may well be a problem that Walky has no friends, but their gender has nothing to do with it.

          Also, what makes a “less dominant dad” a bad role model? That sounds like an extremely outdated view of masculinity you have there, chris73.

        3. thejeff

          I mean, I’m not going to stand up for Charles as a role model, but “less dominant” isn’t why.

        4. BBCC

          Yeah, Charles has a million issues as a dad, but him not walking all over Linda isn’t one.

        5. chris73

          He’s less dominant because hes being dominated, hes basically given up any pretence of helping raise his kids and is leaving it all to Linda

          I dont recall any strips of him saying to Linda anything like do you think this is a good idea or similar

          So yeah in my opinion Linda is dominating everyone in the family, including Charles, and thats probably part of the reason why Walky has no idea of how to be masculine, of how to be a man

          I agree Charles walking over Linda would be a bad thing but at the moment Linda is walking all over Charles, Sal and Walky and maybe if Charles had spoken up earlier and raised the kids together with Linda instead of being so submissive Sal and Walky would be doing better today

        6. BBCC

          This is probably me being pessimistic, but I really don’t think it would have been much different because frankly, I don’t think Charles disagrees with Linda. Yeah, him not speaking up and asking if Linda was sure might be because he’s submissive and Linda doesn’t listen to him, but it might also be he agrees with her.

        7. chris73

          Yeah you’re probably right on that Charles probably did agree with how they were raised.

          I just think that Walky hasn’t had any positive male role models growing up and doesn’t have any male friends now (doesn’t seem to have any friends for that matter) and he has a very iffy sense if what masculinity is all about and I think it’s all linked which is why I think he needs to make some make friends (as well as female friends)

        8. BBCC

          Charles is definitely a shit role model, but even if it were just submissiveness, I don’t think that would necessarily be the lack of male role models.

          A) Masculinity doesn’t require dominance. Charles would need to learn to stand up for himself when he or others are mistreated, but submissiveness isn’t automatically bad either.

          and B) Up until Sal screamed in Walky’s face what the problem was, Walky got along with his parents. He thought they were great. So if Walky had picked up his weirder ideas of masculinity (like ‘real men only own one pair of shoes’) it probably wouldn’t be from Charles. In that case, I’d think Walky would also be more submissive too.

          There’s no harm in Walky making more friends with guys – like you said, who knows being a man more than another man? But I don’t know male role models are Walky’s issue here.

        9. chris73

          Fair call, in that case I wouldn’t mind seeing how or where Walky got his idea on shoes from, even growing up in 70s I had a cheap pair of trainers, gum boots, sandals and rugby boots

          I just cant get my head around that type of thinking, I mean now I have work boots, work shoes, dress shoes, casual shoes, cross trainers running shoes, weight lifting boots, a couple of pairs of chuck Taylor’s, medium weight and heavy weight tramping boots (and still have a pair of gum boots) and I don’t think its excessive because they all fulfill different, specific roles

          All though come to think of it I do have more shoes than my wife does…

        10. BBCC

          Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe because it looks like once Walky was responsible for buying his clothes and picking what he wore, he didn’t want to buy more shoes? Walky doesn’t strike me as someone who enjoys clothes shopping and so buys whatever seems comfy, funny or his mom won’t object too much to (for instance, his mom is probably why he doesn’t buy velcro shoes). See: How happy Linda was he found a girl willing to dress him and him responding ‘Well, if you wanted a girl to dress me so badly, how come YOU stopped?’

        11. thejeff

          I could be wrong about the shoes, but I think it’s more the idea of different, but basically the same shoes. Combined with Walky not doing any activities that require special shoes.

          I mean, that’s basically me, though I don’t attach any special “masculinity” to it, I don’t see the point. I’ve got a pair of sneakers I were most of time. Sandals for when I can get away without really wearing shoes. A pair of vaguely dressy shoes I never wear. Running shoes, rock climbing shoes, ski boots (if those count), several pairs of shoes/boots for caving in various stages of destruction.
          But most of those I didn’t have at Walky’s age, because I didn’t do most of those things. Probably didn’t have more than one pair through most of college, since I didn’t need shoes for all those different roles.

        12. Emily

          I mean I overcompensated by attributing masculinity to stupid shit as a teen but that’s because I was super in denial about being trans and was desperate to find attainable markers of masculinity.

        13. chris73

          What is wrong with idea of that because Walky is a guy it’d be a good idea for him to have a male friend

          I’m not saying he shouldn’t have female friends (he should) but female friends don’t “get” being a male like males do (funnily enough) and so having male friends would help Walky because he seems lonely

        14. thejeff

          Nothing wrong with having male friends, but there’s too much gender essentialism in there to even unpack.
          You’re assuming there’s something “male” that Walky doesn’t get and needs to learn from other men and that he can’t get from female friends because they just don’t “get” being a male. Can’t he just find friends who get his “Walkyness”?

          Personally, I always found that guy friends are at least as likely to reinforce toxic masculinity as to help you move away from it and that not having female friends was a much bigger warning sign than not having male friends.

        15. Delicious Taffy

          This might be off-base, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. As far as women not “getting” what it’s like to be a man, I think there is a certain amount of truth to that, at least within certain bounds. It’s true that there are a lot of stereotypes and assumptions built into the idea, but if you look at it through the lens and inside the framework of those stereotypes, you do wind up with gender-specific problems and issues, even if they’re ultimately nothing but societal constructs.

          What I mean by that is, if you look at the fact that people are often raised and socialised differently based on their assumed gender, you can see that they wind up with problems and opinions heavily influenced by and specific to their gender, if only because that’s how people have deliberately set things up.

        16. Delicious Taffy

          I dunno, maybe I’m just a little biased and sort of disillusioned, when it comes to guys. If Walky could find a guy whose head isn’t planted firmly in his lower intestines, and who isn’t already tainted by the spectre of toxic masculinity, he might gain some benefit from having a guy friend.

        17. Fart Captor

          @chris73:

          The majority of my friends are women, which has been the case for at least 15 years. Almost ALL of my closest friends are women.

          Oddly enough this has not resulted in me feeling lonely. The women I’m friends with “get” me as well or better than my male friends. Because gender isn’t some mystical barrier that prevents understanding.

        18. chris73

          Good for you but I was talking about what might work for Walky

          No it doesn’t but there are some things males get that females dont and vice versa

        19. Fart Captor

          That has ALREADY worked for Walky

          And while there are many experiences and social pressures that are specific to one gender or another which are more likely to be shared by others of the same gender, 1) being the same gender STILL isn’t a requirement for understanding and sympathizing with those experiences, and 2) that does not constitute the ENTIRETY of a person’s experience.

          We’ve ALREADY seen women who “get” Walky on various levels.

          Amber gets his anxiety from struggling with things that seem to come naturally to others, and how he needs to vent about his failings.

          Becky gets his sense of humor, and how he sometimes uses humor to hide his feelings or to cover his awkwardness in emotional situations.

          Dorothy has similar taste and gets why he likes the things that he likes, and appreciates him as he is.

          What exactly are these gender-specific problems you think Walky has that ONLY another man can relate to?

        20. chris73

          Specifically? How about he thinks that a real man only has one per of shoes, which suggests that he both wants to be a man but also has absolutely no idea of what it means to be one

          How is any of his female friends going to help him with that

        21. Delicious Taffy

          That’s not a problem only a guy can explain to him, he’s just being a weirdo.

        22. Fart Captor

          Yeah, that’s something women can point out as being silly just as well.

          Walky might well refuse to LISTEN to a woman regarding such things, but that’s a problem with him, not some absurd innate inability for women to understand it.

          But you’re finally hitting on something that ISN’T ridiculous gender-essentialist nonsense: Walky would benefit from having men in his life modeling less toxic and pointlessly self-limiting forms of masculinity, because he probably IS too insecure to re-evaluate his own without seeing someone else doing it first.

          Once he gets past that he could learn from anybody about how gender roles are stupid and society dividing up personality traits, interests, skills, etc as exclusively belonging to one gender is extremely harmful.

          Though I still say Walky needs friends for regular-ass friend purposes right now more urgently than he needs role models. Becoming more comfortable with his masculinity is a LONG term project. His one pair of shoes will have to be enough for now.

    3. BenRG

      Oddly enough, I get the impression that he is at least on friendly terms with Ethan and Danny (and I’m glad that he doesn’seem to t have any problems with their sexuality that I’ve seen). However, I think that Walky isn’t yet ready to exert the effort that friendships really require to make an maintain.

      1. chris73

        Yeah that’s a good point, friendships do take effort

      2. thejeff

        Walky doesn’t really seem to have much in the way of friends at all. His sibling relationship with Billie. His ex-girlfriend, which forced him into close enough contact with Joyce to form kind of a bond. His budding friendship with Amber quickly turned into romance and then probably imploded. Tentative attempts to rebuild a relationship with Sal.

        That’s pretty much it.

        He should hang out with Becky. They seemed to play off each other well. Even if only for the purpose of getting Joyce to make those faces.

        1. chris73

          Nothing wrong with being friends with Becky but it’s looking like he needs a friendship based on more than just getting Joyce to make faces

          Having Mike as your roommate cant be easy so he really needs a friend and preferably more than one

        2. Fart Captor

          They ALREADY have more to their friendship than that. Even if they didn’t, it’s not like it has to STAY that way forever. Friends tend to become closer over time. There’s absolutely no reason he and Becky couldn’t become really good friends.

          Even Joyce is somebody he could probably lean on if he needed to. They tend to act more like frenemies, but despite their protests they’ve both shown they care about each other and will drop the snark when needed

          Hopefully he and Amber can still be friends eventually, because she understood him really well, and it would make hanging out with Ethan less awkward and he’d also be a good friend for Walky.

        3. BBCC

          Also it would be great if he and Dorothy became friends again when the sting of the breakup wears off.

  46. Zaxares

    Oh hey, Billie DID turn up (late and drunk). 😛

    Also, I hope that Lucy learns the lesson soon that popularity is a trap. Sure, it FEELS nice being the center of adoration and adulation, but it also means that you’re locked into living up to what your audience expects of you. If you don’t, you’d be surprised at how quickly they can turn on you. You then start to live your life for them, not for yourself. I think it’s no surprise that a lot of celebrities wind up having rather public meltdowns at some point.

    1. BenRG

      Being in the public eye and the focus of everyone’s attention is very nice until you realise that you’re always in the public eye and the focus of everyone’s attention. Like you say, the next step is to go Britney Spears.

  47. neeks

    Dumbing of Age 9: I Have Nothing to Blame But My Own Expectations

    1. Bagge

      Dumbing of Age 9: I Have Nothing to Blame But My Own Expectations And My Shitty Parents

      (closer to the truth for most characters)

  48. torrent29

    But Lucy, you’re still clinging to the old high school mentality. Where popularity even matters. Its a big campus! You’re not alone in your nerdiness.

    1. Charlotte

      Agree, Lucy just needs to find a nice group of people like her. There are bound to be lots of them on campus.

      I’d try the physics and maths students. (Maybe just because I was one of those.)

    2. CJ

      If the choice is being popular or being lonely, most people will choose being popular. If the choice is being popular or having most people behave politely to you and a few who are willing to hang out and be friends, quite a lot of people will choose the latter. Before Billie showed up, it looked like Lucy had the second choice, but now it doesn’t see to be the case any longer.

  49. Rectilinear Propagation

    “I have nothing to blame but my own expectations.”

    Oof, I know that feel.

  50. SolomonK

    Tomorrow’s Valentine’s strip may be Ruth coming to find Billie and reaffirm and reconnect their relationship, and Billie agreeing to go into rehab and therapy.

    1. BBCC

      Nah. Too happy for a Valentine’s strip. 😛

      1. SolomonK

        The ultimate in defeated expectations for the comments section.

        1. BBCC

          None of the previous Valentine’s strips have been happy. It’s kinda a thing in this comic. I doubt Willis will start now. It might be they’ll reconcile, but I doubt it’ll be tomorrow.

        2. thejeff

          I doubt they’ll even meet up tomorrow. There’s no set up for it. I guess Ruth could come looking and get mad to find her drunk, but she had to have known that, so I don’t really expect it.

          Maybe it’ll be some other unexpected break up. Do we have any couples left? (Dina and Becky are off limits. And there’s been no prep work at all for that.)

        3. BBCC

          I think they’ll meet up at some point soonish – the storyline has another two weeks out of it.

          Or they won’t and it’ll be something else (Walky/Amber break up officially, Walky talking to Sal finally, Billie drank too much and needs the hospital, etc.)

        4. Emily

          Well, there’s Raidah and Jacob I guess but I’m not sure any of us would be particularly heartbroken over that ship sinking. Maybe it’ll just cut to someone’s parents calling them and telling them they’re getting divorced.

        5. BBCC

          Ooooh, can it be the Walkertons?

        6. JBento

          With Willis at the helm? It’d probably be Sierra’s.

        7. Emily

          Or Dina’s.

        8. BBCC

          Shhhhh, can’t hear either of you, the Walkertons are getting divorced.

        9. thejeff

          The Browns.

          Though that’s probably got more drama attached to it than a left field Valentine’s Day surprise can handle.

        10. BBCC

          I mean, yeah, the Browns are likely headed that way, but I suspect that’ll be post-Joss coming out.

        11. geno

          I can see the Walkertons getting a divorce, but I think it requires a bit more story time to see it happen. The Browns are interesting. I am not so sure the Dad would do it, but if Mom goes full evil over the coming out there would be a reckoning.

        12. BBCC

          The Walkertons are more wishful thinking on my part because I hate them and I like seeing characters I hate unhappy. Plus, c’mon, the story potential for Sal and Walky would be DELICIOUS.

          But yeah, if anyone is getting a divorce, my internet cash is on the Browns, after Joss comes out.

        13. Clif

          All evidence to the contrary, I’m hoping for Amber/Walky text messaging.

    2. Reltzik

      Too much info for a single strip. I’ll call it as:

      First panel: Lucy say something about Billie being drunk that she interprets as criticism.

      Several more panels: Billie goes on a rant about how she does what she wants and drinking is fun and nothing that an uppity bongo she couldn’t care less about says is going to make her stop.

      Final panel: Billie realizes that a very furious Ruth is standing right behind her.

      Hovertext: Happy Valentine’s Day.

      1. Emily

        Best possible version of the “They’re standing right behind me aren’t they?” trope.

  51. C.T Phipps

    I do like that Lucy is stuck in a place that remains perpetual high school. It makes it a hell for Billie’s heaven.

  52. Joe How

    In that last panel as Billie appeared I could only hear “I came in like a wrecking ball ” in my head.

  53. Ethics Gradient

    So the whole wing has been drinking with Billie?

  54. Ziggy

    This is not going to end well, for Billie. There is no way her new R.A. is not going to know of this, and he she will most likely not going to cover for Billie’s drunkenness. If Indiana University is anything like UW Eau Claire, (where I went), there is a mandatory “substance abuse class” that all minors have to take, when they get busted for Under Age Drinking. Maybe this will be start of Billie getting actual help, as the University could dictate that as long as she is in a substance abuse program, she will not get kicked out.

    1. Ryan

      Maybe she will, maybe she won’t, but either way it’s clear that she’s a toxic influence on Ruth, and Ruth is smart to keep her at arm’s length until she takes even a little bit of responsibility towards getting help.

    2. thejeff

      If every college student whose RA noticed them drinking sent them to some “substance abuse class”, the place would be swamped.

      More likely, even if she did, she’d sit through the class like everyone else, pretend she didn’t have a problem and keep right on drinking. They can’t possibly force every student caught drinking into an actual substance abuse program – first because the vast majority don’t need it and second because there just aren’t enough seats.

      Not to mention that she’s already supposed to be seeing a therapist as part of the fallout from Ruth’s hospital visit.

      1. Tan

        I will remind that it is in Billie’s file that she’s an alcoholic. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/reputation/

  55. JBento

    I see Billie’s getting a headstart on Ballantine’s Day.

    1. Ryek Hvek

      “All ‘ail Saint Ballantine !!”

  56. PB

    I think the real problem with Forest Quad is that it’s painfully obvious now that Lucy wasn’t the only one on their floor with her problem. NONE of these kids must have been popular in high school. Billie has filled a power vacuum that she never expected.

  57. Emperor Norton II

    Meanwhile, on Twitter:

    https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1096126828559912960

  58. autogatos

    I am empathizing with Lucy so much right now. Every time I started a new school I swore I wasn’t going to be the socially awkward nerd no one talks to anymore. Yet every single time I somehow found myself naturally slipping into that role again.

    Heck I’m an adult in my 30s now and finding this STILL happens when I try to get to know groups of moms at my daughter’s school. It’s like social hierarchies are predetermined for life. 😐

  59. AA

    Favorite comment-thing-when-I-hover-over-the-strip ever

Leave a Reply to DailyBrad Cancel reply

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

*

*

*

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