I hope it gets called out on his behavior a little at some point cause it’s getting just a tad inappropriate now. He was REALLY roasting Joyce over a sensitive issue for her that was barely provoked. Almost like he was punishing her for suggesting he give Jennifer some space. He even quoted Booster at her. Dude needs to chill.
His roommate just died and he isn’t handling it well. Billie was his closest friend for a long time, and he doesn’t have any other close friends in college now that he’s not talking to Dorothy or (probably) Amber. He probably really, really wants to feel safe and secure right now, and he usually feels safe with Billie.
Though maybe not so much when she’s trying to ignore his existence, and not in a “haha ugh you’re so annoying” way but a “I’ve grown away from you and am no longer interested in associating with you” way.
Or because he realizes that she’s in trouble and is worried about her. I’m not buying the idea that this change is any way “growth” or healthy for her.
At least not until we get a close enough look to know she’s not drinking again. Maybe not even then.
Well, she DID mention going to therapy – wouldn’t be surprised if she actually stopped drinking, and the relationship with Ruth was… well, probably not a very healthy one, all things considered, especially when you factor in the whole “I’d die for you!” nigh-suicide pact they had going for a while.
I don’t think that helped as much as it appeared, I think she has a lot of issues that she’s still dealing with and her way of dealing with them is to move away from everyone.
It’s not the first time that she’s done this, to be frank I think she reverted to where she was at the start but has a lot more people trying to be around her but sees them as causing her issues.
I hate wearing scarves, and Jennifer’s bugs me vicariously.
Also, anyone else have dreams about DoA? I’ve been having a bunch, complete with comment sections. I wake up confused as to what’s actually happening in the comic.
I feel like he had a similar relationship with Dina in the “It’s Walky” universe. Not really emotionally abusive but not great and kind of done for not-great reasons.
Megz
This replied to the wrong post. I meant this as a reply to the post about the Walky/Lucy relationship dream. Sorry.
I had a dream that Walky started a relationship with Lucy because it was easy and he is lazy and wanted to take advantage of that. In the dream, he was uncaring at best and emotionally abusive at worst. It’s silly but it has made me dislike him quite a bit whereas before I was neutral to slightly positive.
My most recent dream had a lot of details, but part of it was that there was a wlw support group type thing going on, facilitated by Leslie and including Anna, Mindy, Becky, and Dina, amongst others. In the same space, there was a support group going on for like…self-improvment? And in attendance there were Roz and Joe.
I’ve never successfully worn a scarf. I don’t know why, but I just can’t wear something that could choke me easily…I guess it’s from actually being choked by bullies for years that put me off of them
I have had a couple of dreams of the comic, on patreon, and get a little confused in the morning when I check the update and go “That’s not what happened…”
And full agree, scarves are annoying and feel uncomfortable. It’s been a nice thing about the plague, with wearing a mask, I now don’t need a scarf to keep cold air away from my asthma lungs. So I guess I just don’t like things around my neck.
*hits avatar randomizer button by slightly changing email* C’mon not Becky or Walky!
I get the feeling that Walky is getting dangerously close to getting told to back off and give Jennifer some space. He’s trying too hard to cling to an old dynamic when what he should be doing is growing and maybe growing up a little. I don’t know what Jennifer’s current deal is but it’s not wrong to want to get some space and change. Could be good change. Could be bad change. But she has a right to try it out and Walky is trying too hard to stop it to keep “Billie”.
I get this perspective, but I also get the perspective of someone who’s known a person for years and years and who’s (in their eyes) being suddenly, inexplicably shut out and brushed off – even more than usual, in this case. She has a right to engage in self-change, but I don’t think it’s totally right to say Walky shouldn’t be allowed to at least *try* reaching out, even if he is doing it in a characteristically annoying-dweeb way.
Now, if she *specifically* tells him to leave her alone and he continues to be an annoying dweeb, there will be a clear-cut problem, but as of right now, he’s basically just… tried to talk to her twice, and all she’s said is that she’s been “busy.”
Generally speaking, Walky needs to grow up, yes, but trying to talk to your friend and comparing the current arrangement of zero communication to a prior time when you talked more isn’t de facto “clinging to an old dynamic.”
Does it really need to be that specific, though? When someone repeatedly ignores you, sarcastically asks if you’re stalking them, and never initiates your interactions… That’s all essentially telling you to go away. Demanding they put it in those specific words seems like it would just end up hurting both parties.
I mean, if Walky were one of my old friends, she’d be loudly complaining about how Jennifer was suddenly “too cool” to hang around with the people she’d been with her entire life, and brainstorming about how to take her down a peg – even if that’s not what Jennifer meant, that’s the message she’s sending very loudly to everyone else right now. Though, uh, the social dynamics of my old friends weren’t exactly the healthiest, so Walky should probably ignore that specific response.
Besides, even if Walky’s “Annoy Jennifer Into Acknowledging Me” plan works out, that’s not really a healthy friendship, is it? It’s one where one party has to move heaven and earth just to get the other to make a token effort. And that’s just going to see this play out again in six month’s time, because they’ll inevitably end up drifting apart again when Walky has to focus on his classes instead of her, and Jennifer just can’t be bothered to include him in her social plans. Friendships just don’t work when one side is doing all the work.
I mean, it’d be nice if there was some closure, certainly. But if that’s not the conversation Walky’s looking to have, he’s ignoring what Jennifer’s plainly saying.
(Oh, and as a closing note that I couldn’t find room for elsewhere; their last attempted conversation seemed to suggest fairly clearly (at least in my opinion) that they’d had similar interactions over break.)
Rabid Rabbit
On the other hand, there’s history there, from being friends as kids to Jennifer becoming a cool cheerleader and shoving him into lockers to them becoming pseudo-siblings again last term — much as I loathe Walky, his attempts at staying close to Jennifer have a background, and he has reason to believe that her sarcastic questions about him stalking her are jsut her being herself.
One has to remember that one of his few moments of absolute sincerity (that we’ve seen) was when he told Sal that he’d been a bad brother to her, but wanted to be a good one to Jennifer if he could.
From Jennifer’s point of view, it’s probably a bit of a “You can’t choose your family” effect, but considering the Christmas break it’s been implied the Walkerton siblings had (especially given that Walky very vaguely rebelled against his parents beforehand), Walky’s attempts to hold on to the sibling who WAS chosen (for being reasonably white-passing) do make a lot of sense.
TL;DR: One can’t forget that Jennifer’s relationship to the Walkertons is more like family than friends. Hell, as she’s said, sometimes she calls Linda “Mom” by mistake. Which is horrific on all sorts of levels.
Rabid Rabbit
(Hmm, I’ve changed from one cranky redhead to another. Well, I can deal with that, though being Canadian, I will always regret my days as Ruth.)
Jane
To clarify, it’s not that I don’t understand what Walky’s doing here – it’s just that I think that, in the real world, his actions would end up causing him more pain in the end than if he’d just walked away. Because Jennifer is telling him quite clearly to go away, and it will be up to her to decide that she misses the past enough to invite him back into her life.
And to be clear, that could well be what would happen; that she feels stable enough in her new life to feel comfortable inviting back old things that she likes, or that she decides this whole experiment was a mistake and that she she go go back to the way things were. But whatever it is she’s doing, she needs to come to these conclusions herself; until she does, he’s being a distraction at best, and an annoyance at worst. Sometimes, you just have to let these things play out on their own.
That said, I’d also say that context plays a role here; if she’s been doing this for months, it’s time to give up. If she really did only start doing this when they got back to college, then his confusion is perfectly understandable. If he annoys her when they head to the same building together, that’s just acknowledging that they’re not strangers. If he waits outside an unrelated building for her like he did today, that’s just needless emotional self-harm.
thejeff
They may well cause him more pain, but Jennifer’s practically his sister and he’s not going to let that go easily.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if he’s thinking back to when she broke down over Ruth and he had no clue what was going on and he doesn’t want to wind up back there again.
So the other night on Paterson I asked the question “What even is Walkys major, telecommunications right? What Jobs would that hold for that major any way”?
Then moments later someone hit me up with a list of professions related to it:
Account executive
Announcer
Advertising copywriter
Disc jockey
Audio/video editor
Electronic publication specialist
Film director
Media content creator
Investigative reporter
Multimedia specialist
News writer
Producer
Publisher
Radio/television newscaster
Script writer
Social media manager
Web page designer
Station programmer
Sales representative
News reporter
Technical writer
Television director
Television engineer
To me like 8 of these were kind of solid, if Walky was taking the superhero gimmick seriously you’re not horsing around I can see him going for “News reporter” or “investigative journalist” since Spider-man supes are of the same profession. But knowing him he’d probably go for “Film Director” to live out his dream to make a live action adaptation of “Dexter & Monkey Masters.”
If he’s serious about telecommunications and doesn’t change his major later, I assume Walky would go for whichever job in that field requires the least amount of work and effort. I’m not sure which job of the ones listed that would be.
…you listed the news and most of the information side of things, but there’s another major avenue that could be what he’s doing there: computer networking and network administration. You don’t have to be a genius or a programmer to do the jobs, but you do need math.
What? No! How could you imply that? I love Walky and totally believed him running into Jennifer was just a coincidence like he said! It is a little disappointing that he’s immaturely stalking and purposefully annoying an old friend, but I’m sure he has a good reason for it! The fact that she’s been cold to him is just a reason for him to try harder if you ask me! It’s probably even a cry for help.
My new gravatar is actually very fitting for me right now!
No! You’ve turned hangin’ out here on dumbingofage dot com to read comics into thinking about how I haven’t networked even once in university and I don’t really know what I’m gonna do with myself when I graduate this year! Damn you, Willis!
Also, I just noticed Jennifer ties her scarf in the back, I guess to keep it out of the way? That’s pretty smart. Also-also, apparently it’s actually Asher’s scarf, per the archives and my gravatar. (The main purpose of this comment is secretly so I can get a different gravatar and see if I like it better)
You can’t help but wonder when the great big tank of ice cold water called ‘reality’ will be upended onto Walky’s head and whether he’ll be able to adapt to it.
128 thoughts on “Network”
Ana Chronistic
why tf is Walky so “imprinted like a baby duck” with
BillieJennifer alla suddenDoctor_Who
He’s getting along well with his actual sister lately, so he needs an outlet for his “jerk brother” snark.
See also his recent behavior toward Joyce.
Mr D
Being a big brother, I can confirm.
StClair
I was always the “boring, responsible eldest”. Mostly it was my middle brother starting trouble, and the youngest following him into it.
Doctor_Who
Likewise.
I’m still the boring one. Watching the DuckTales reboot, I relate 1000% to Huey.
Deanatay
Can also confirm. My sister is a badass, though, she can handle both my nice and jerky sides.
Sunny
For a moment there I thought you were talking about food when I read “nice and jerky sides”.
Sirksome
I hope it gets called out on his behavior a little at some point cause it’s getting just a tad inappropriate now. He was REALLY roasting Joyce over a sensitive issue for her that was barely provoked. Almost like he was punishing her for suggesting he give Jennifer some space. He even quoted Booster at her. Dude needs to chill.
Fuzzy
His roommate just died and he isn’t handling it well. Billie was his closest friend for a long time, and he doesn’t have any other close friends in college now that he’s not talking to Dorothy or (probably) Amber. He probably really, really wants to feel safe and secure right now, and he usually feels safe with Billie.
Though maybe not so much when she’s trying to ignore his existence, and not in a “haha ugh you’re so annoying” way but a “I’ve grown away from you and am no longer interested in associating with you” way.
Fuzzy
Sorry, Jennifer.
thejeff
Or because he realizes that she’s in trouble and is worried about her. I’m not buying the idea that this change is any way “growth” or healthy for her.
At least not until we get a close enough look to know she’s not drinking again. Maybe not even then.
Johan
Haha Jennifer cares about Walky haha
ADLegend21
Not sure I wanna know how she drastically changed in 6 months.
Johan
3. It’s Ja
nuary.
ADLegend21
EVEN WORSE.
Stu
Well, she DID mention going to therapy – wouldn’t be surprised if she actually stopped drinking, and the relationship with Ruth was… well, probably not a very healthy one, all things considered, especially when you factor in the whole “I’d die for you!” nigh-suicide pact they had going for a while.
Blindness
I don’t think that helped as much as it appeared, I think she has a lot of issues that she’s still dealing with and her way of dealing with them is to move away from everyone.
It’s not the first time that she’s done this, to be frank I think she reverted to where she was at the start but has a lot more people trying to be around her but sees them as causing her issues.
thejeff
Maybe. Though I’d expect Ruth to be a lot more supportive of the therapy and not drinking than Asher would be.
And people getting in new relationships and isolating themselves from their existing support networks sets off a ton of red flags for me.
Needfuldoer
Part therapy, part acting the role she wants.
Yumi
I hate wearing scarves, and Jennifer’s bugs me vicariously.
Also, anyone else have dreams about DoA? I’ve been having a bunch, complete with comment sections. I wake up confused as to what’s actually happening in the comic.
BBCC
I’ve had a couple!
Megz
I feel like he had a similar relationship with Dina in the “It’s Walky” universe. Not really emotionally abusive but not great and kind of done for not-great reasons.
Megz
This replied to the wrong post. I meant this as a reply to the post about the Walky/Lucy relationship dream. Sorry.
theKOT
I had a dream that Walky started a relationship with Lucy because it was easy and he is lazy and wanted to take advantage of that. In the dream, he was uncaring at best and emotionally abusive at worst. It’s silly but it has made me dislike him quite a bit whereas before I was neutral to slightly positive.
Doctor_Who
Walky dating Lucy because it’s easy just makes me think he’s next gonna fall for an Amazon courier and have to fight her seven evil exes.
wwwhhattt
Nah, Lucy’s not way too young for him.
Yumi
My most recent dream had a lot of details, but part of it was that there was a wlw support group type thing going on, facilitated by Leslie and including Anna, Mindy, Becky, and Dina, amongst others. In the same space, there was a support group going on for like…self-improvment? And in attendance there were Roz and Joe.
Yumi
Tonight’s dream featured Becky being both an undergrad student and, somehow, the dean of the school.
BBCC
She can do it! I trust her.
Blindness
I’ve never successfully worn a scarf. I don’t know why, but I just can’t wear something that could choke me easily…I guess it’s from actually being choked by bullies for years that put me off of them
Diane
I have had a couple of dreams of the comic, on patreon, and get a little confused in the morning when I check the update and go “That’s not what happened…”
And full agree, scarves are annoying and feel uncomfortable. It’s been a nice thing about the plague, with wearing a mask, I now don’t need a scarf to keep cold air away from my asthma lungs. So I guess I just don’t like things around my neck.
*hits avatar randomizer button by slightly changing email* C’mon not Becky or Walky!
Diane
Curses…Ah well, I’ll take Walky.
BBCC
Note she does not argue he’s wrong.
Stephen Bierce
*plays The Pretenders’ “Room Full Of Mirrors” on the hacked Muzak*
Megz
I get the feeling that Walky is getting dangerously close to getting told to back off and give Jennifer some space. He’s trying too hard to cling to an old dynamic when what he should be doing is growing and maybe growing up a little. I don’t know what Jennifer’s current deal is but it’s not wrong to want to get some space and change. Could be good change. Could be bad change. But she has a right to try it out and Walky is trying too hard to stop it to keep “Billie”.
TemporalShrew
I get this perspective, but I also get the perspective of someone who’s known a person for years and years and who’s (in their eyes) being suddenly, inexplicably shut out and brushed off – even more than usual, in this case. She has a right to engage in self-change, but I don’t think it’s totally right to say Walky shouldn’t be allowed to at least *try* reaching out, even if he is doing it in a characteristically annoying-dweeb way.
Now, if she *specifically* tells him to leave her alone and he continues to be an annoying dweeb, there will be a clear-cut problem, but as of right now, he’s basically just… tried to talk to her twice, and all she’s said is that she’s been “busy.”
Generally speaking, Walky needs to grow up, yes, but trying to talk to your friend and comparing the current arrangement of zero communication to a prior time when you talked more isn’t de facto “clinging to an old dynamic.”
Jane
Does it really need to be that specific, though? When someone repeatedly ignores you, sarcastically asks if you’re stalking them, and never initiates your interactions… That’s all essentially telling you to go away. Demanding they put it in those specific words seems like it would just end up hurting both parties.
I mean, if Walky were one of my old friends, she’d be loudly complaining about how Jennifer was suddenly “too cool” to hang around with the people she’d been with her entire life, and brainstorming about how to take her down a peg – even if that’s not what Jennifer meant, that’s the message she’s sending very loudly to everyone else right now. Though, uh, the social dynamics of my old friends weren’t exactly the healthiest, so Walky should probably ignore that specific response.
Besides, even if Walky’s “Annoy Jennifer Into Acknowledging Me” plan works out, that’s not really a healthy friendship, is it? It’s one where one party has to move heaven and earth just to get the other to make a token effort. And that’s just going to see this play out again in six month’s time, because they’ll inevitably end up drifting apart again when Walky has to focus on his classes instead of her, and Jennifer just can’t be bothered to include him in her social plans. Friendships just don’t work when one side is doing all the work.
I mean, it’d be nice if there was some closure, certainly. But if that’s not the conversation Walky’s looking to have, he’s ignoring what Jennifer’s plainly saying.
(Oh, and as a closing note that I couldn’t find room for elsewhere; their last attempted conversation seemed to suggest fairly clearly (at least in my opinion) that they’d had similar interactions over break.)
Rabid Rabbit
On the other hand, there’s history there, from being friends as kids to Jennifer becoming a cool cheerleader and shoving him into lockers to them becoming pseudo-siblings again last term — much as I loathe Walky, his attempts at staying close to Jennifer have a background, and he has reason to believe that her sarcastic questions about him stalking her are jsut her being herself.
One has to remember that one of his few moments of absolute sincerity (that we’ve seen) was when he told Sal that he’d been a bad brother to her, but wanted to be a good one to Jennifer if he could.
From Jennifer’s point of view, it’s probably a bit of a “You can’t choose your family” effect, but considering the Christmas break it’s been implied the Walkerton siblings had (especially given that Walky very vaguely rebelled against his parents beforehand), Walky’s attempts to hold on to the sibling who WAS chosen (for being reasonably white-passing) do make a lot of sense.
TL;DR: One can’t forget that Jennifer’s relationship to the Walkertons is more like family than friends. Hell, as she’s said, sometimes she calls Linda “Mom” by mistake. Which is horrific on all sorts of levels.
Rabid Rabbit
(Hmm, I’ve changed from one cranky redhead to another. Well, I can deal with that, though being Canadian, I will always regret my days as Ruth.)
Jane
To clarify, it’s not that I don’t understand what Walky’s doing here – it’s just that I think that, in the real world, his actions would end up causing him more pain in the end than if he’d just walked away. Because Jennifer is telling him quite clearly to go away, and it will be up to her to decide that she misses the past enough to invite him back into her life.
And to be clear, that could well be what would happen; that she feels stable enough in her new life to feel comfortable inviting back old things that she likes, or that she decides this whole experiment was a mistake and that she she go go back to the way things were. But whatever it is she’s doing, she needs to come to these conclusions herself; until she does, he’s being a distraction at best, and an annoyance at worst. Sometimes, you just have to let these things play out on their own.
That said, I’d also say that context plays a role here; if she’s been doing this for months, it’s time to give up. If she really did only start doing this when they got back to college, then his confusion is perfectly understandable. If he annoys her when they head to the same building together, that’s just acknowledging that they’re not strangers. If he waits outside an unrelated building for her like he did today, that’s just needless emotional self-harm.
thejeff
They may well cause him more pain, but Jennifer’s practically his sister and he’s not going to let that go easily.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if he’s thinking back to when she broke down over Ruth and he had no clue what was going on and he doesn’t want to wind up back there again.
Newllend(henryvolt)
So the other night on Paterson I asked the question “What even is Walkys major, telecommunications right? What Jobs would that hold for that major any way”?
Then moments later someone hit me up with a list of professions related to it:
Account executive
Announcer
Advertising copywriter
Disc jockey
Audio/video editor
Electronic publication specialist
Film director
Media content creator
Investigative reporter
Multimedia specialist
News writer
Producer
Publisher
Radio/television newscaster
Script writer
Social media manager
Web page designer
Station programmer
Sales representative
News reporter
Technical writer
Television director
Television engineer
To me like 8 of these were kind of solid, if Walky was taking the superhero gimmick seriously you’re not horsing around I can see him going for “News reporter” or “investigative journalist” since Spider-man supes are of the same profession. But knowing him he’d probably go for “Film Director” to live out his dream to make a live action adaptation of “Dexter & Monkey Masters.”
Keulen
If he’s serious about telecommunications and doesn’t change his major later, I assume Walky would go for whichever job in that field requires the least amount of work and effort. I’m not sure which job of the ones listed that would be.
Blindness
…you listed the news and most of the information side of things, but there’s another major avenue that could be what he’s doing there: computer networking and network administration. You don’t have to be a genius or a programmer to do the jobs, but you do need math.
Needfuldoer
I got my degree in computer networking, now I fix TV equipment. There’s a lot of skills overlap, especially now that everything is a computer.
ktbear
The one that jumped out at me, having just read Joyce and Walky, was web page designer.
ktbear
What the…stupid avatar! Gimme back my Dina dammit!
StClair
Yeah, I seem to have lost my Ruth in the latest shuffle.
Bagge
Honestly, “too much overthinking” is not an uncommon trait in this cast
Bogeywoman
Or my life
a/snow/mous/e
same
ValdVin
Walky is the exact kind of person to put 3x the thinking into doing something the easy way.
thejeff
Those are the people who change the world.
ValdVin
They sometimes do change the world/ However, they sometimes don’t take into consideration the effort v. payout.
Sirksome
So you’re telling me Walky’s excuse was just a line of bullshit and he’s actually just really annoying? That’s too bad.
Keulen
I get the feeling you hate Walky. Just a tiny bit, maybe.
Sirksome
What? No! How could you imply that? I love Walky and totally believed him running into Jennifer was just a coincidence like he said! It is a little disappointing that he’s immaturely stalking and purposefully annoying an old friend, but I’m sure he has a good reason for it! The fact that she’s been cold to him is just a reason for him to try harder if you ask me! It’s probably even a cry for help.
My new gravatar is actually very fitting for me right now!
thejeff
It was just an excuse and he’s not just being annoying.
ElectricBlue
No! You’ve turned hangin’ out here on dumbingofage dot com to read comics into thinking about how I haven’t networked even once in university and I don’t really know what I’m gonna do with myself when I graduate this year! Damn you, Willis!
ElectricBlue
Also, I just noticed Jennifer ties her scarf in the back, I guess to keep it out of the way? That’s pretty smart. Also-also, apparently it’s actually Asher’s scarf, per the archives and my gravatar. (The main purpose of this comment is secretly so I can get a different gravatar and see if I like it better)
Sirksome
Personally I think Dorothy is an upgrade from Asher.
Needfuldoer
UsernameGravatar checks out.Dara
Oooh, let’s see what I get! My old one looked like someone had pudding dumped on her head.
Dara
No more pudding! I’ll take it.
a/snow/mous/e
aaaaaaaaaa
BenRG
You can’t help but wonder when the great big tank of ice cold water called ‘reality’ will be upended onto Walky’s head and whether he’ll be able to adapt to it.
AGV
Narrator: The building was hard to draw from the inside
Lingo
Yeah, I’m just here to check out the new gravatars.
Lingo
Score!
Lorien Inksong