190

Shape
Posted on February 21, 2021 by David M Willis

190 thoughts on “Shape”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    well, it wasn’t eavesdropping until you pointed out you were still in earsight

    1. Blindness

      when you’re loud and in public, there’s no eavesdropping: it’s being present for the show…

      and it’s his classroom so in his defense he has to listen just in case something is going to happen that he has to report to the school and/or authorities- a sad reality nowadays

      1. Deanatay

        To properly ‘eaves-drop’, you need to be precariously perched on the edge of a roof (‘eaves’), in danger of falling off (‘drop’). Only then can you listen in on the really good lesbian gossip!!

        1. Jhon

          I’ve been doing it wrong.

    2. liliaeth

      It’s actually the best way to handle it, to remind people talking in your space, that you are around. that way they can leave to find a more private location if they don’t want to be overheard.

      1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

        Or he could just leave them to their discussion and exit the room…?

        1. Council

          Eh, I’m not entirely certain the Biology teacher switches rooms between classes. Leaving the girls to their devices could mean he has nowhere to prepare for his next class. That would be rather irresponsible of him, respect aside.

        2. Liz

          Honestly, biology classrooms typically have a lot of materials in them and need to be locked when not in use. I took a lot of bio in college and professors actually couldn’t leave until all of the students were out

        3. Deanatay

          It’s his classroom, though. His remark is meant as a rather unsubtle hint that a) yes, he can hear them, and b) to get the heck out of his classroom (like all the other students have done) so he can get some work done before his next class.

    3. ValdVin

      Tangent: My hearing is pretty damn good for an adult half my age. I’ve always wanted a word which meant the opposite of eavesdropping: Someone talking so unnecessarily, annoyingly, loudly that you can’t not listen in.

      (That’s not applied to Becky and Dina here. But I think you all know the kind of thing I’m referring to.)

      1. Paul Grant

        I think it’s Karen(or Ken)dropping. (hey, we can dream can’t we)

      2. Deanatay

        ‘spectating’?

        1. ValdVin

          I think that’s not specific enough, as I connote it with purposeful viewing/hearing, not unavoidable, but YMMV.

      3. BlisSin

        I would call it unwillingly overhearing. As in “I unwillingly overheard this person having a conversation on speakerphone about their partner. They then glared at me for rolling my eyes. As if I had a choice not to hear their conversation”

      4. Opus the Poet

        Google says it’s overhearing something you can’t avoid.

        1. Felix

          “I can’t help but overhear…”

      5. Fuzzy

        “I couldn’t help but overhear…”

      6. Ana Chronistic

        I just realised the word is probably “assaulted” (like verbally assaulted), since sexual harassment can be spoken word. Which isn’t necessarily a criminal offence, but certainly someone’s ears can be assaulted by noise, for instance.

  2. Spencer

    I hope one day I find a romcom where the male lead stops in the middle of a busy intersection after an argument with the heroine and tries to dramatically confess his love, and then he gets hit by a bus.

    1. King Daniel

      probably wouldn’t be the male lead then

      unless it’s a pun, ‘cuz he gets dropped like a balloon made of it

      1. timemonkey

        Depends on if there’s other male characters of greater importance. If not then he’s the male lead no matter when he dies.

        1. Nono

          I mean, what if there’s only one male but he gets killed off in the first five minutes?

        2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Worked in YuYu Hakasho.

        3. ShellShock

          It doesn’t happen in the first five minutes but it’s the end of act one in Meet Joe Black. 7/10 movie overall.

        4. Jenn

          What if he’s not an important character? Can he really be considered a lead?
          ?

        5. Needfuldoer

          Depends on whether you mean “leading character who happens to be male” or “most prominent male character”, I guess.

        6. Clif

          He could be in a lot of the rest of the film, but only in flashbacks?

        7. Jason Rivest

          The plot of “P.S. I Love You”

        8. I am Nothing

          Does it count of a side character is temporarily taking the role of the main lead for the duration of the episode?

    2. Thag Simmons

      I’m pretty sure there’s a Brad Pitt movie where something like that happens.

      1. Tawnee

        Meet Joe Black?

        1. Thag Simmons

          Yeah. The specifics are different (it’s two cars and not a bus, if i remember right) and he’s not *technically* the male lead, since Death possessing his dead body is actually the main character, but it’s close.

        2. StClair

          I was just reading about how they did that scene earlier today!

    3. Blindness

      hasn’t that happened already as part of the whole trope-centric joke that kills him/her off? I swear I saw that before in a romcom

    4. Greebs

      There’s an entire genre of anime where that is a completely plausible opening for a romcom.

      Though traditionally it’s getting hit by a Truck, rather than a bus…

      1. dej

        i need an Isekai Extended universe thats just a truck hitting random people sending them all to various alternate worlds

    5. C.T Phipps

      My wife was devastated by a rom-comm where the twist is that the romantic lead has been dead the entire time and was a GHOSSSSST.

    6. Mravac Kid

      There’s a term for that, “getting isekai’d” 🙂

      1. Spencer

        No that’s trucks. It has to be a truck, that’s the law.

        1. Mravac Kid

          Nah, Truck-kun is just the most popular Isekaier. 🙂

    7. Anon200

      Well they didn’t get hit by a bus but in the 40 year old virgin, the leads did have a heart to heart in the middle of the street blocking traffic.

  3. Doctor_Who

    Oh come on, like the whole class wouldn’t be watching this display of adorableness with this expression.

  4. Sirksome

    It’s also not eavesdropping if we are all machines and the concept of private conversations are an vain conceit of the human condition….also so is horniness.

    1. Boh No

      What if we both kissed in the biology classroom… And were both girls… And also machines…??

      1. zee

        Haha just kidding
        Unless..?

  5. Fart Captor

    The least plausible part of this comic is how people aren’t constantly squealing over how cute these two are

    1. MrSmith

      Probably because the way Becky treats some people (mostly Dorothy) is quite off putting so, for me anyway, all I want is to get through her appearances as quickly as possible so as to concentrate on other characters

      1. Fart Captor

        I’m pretty sure that the people IN the comic are mostly unaware of all that, and even the ones who do all (correctly) think Becky is an adorable sweetie who can do no wrong

        1. Nono

          I don’t think anyone who spends 5 minutes with Becky is unaware of how she acts. Most of them just don’t call her out on the worst parts of her behaviour, and the few that do (Sarah, Dorothy) she mostly ignores.

        2. He Who Abides

          I hope that you’re being facetious, I really do.

        3. Fart Captor

          Becky is pure and good and has never done wrong in her life ?

        4. He Who Abides

          You stan for Rudy too, don’t you?

      2. BarerMender

        Unfortunately, the appearance of Becky has a high incidence of appearance of Dina. If we want Dina, we have to put up with Becky.

        1. Nono

          Hey now, Dina has made appearances in non-Becky strips. Like with Sarah and Ethan.

        2. Jamie

          You might notice Ethan has gotten… thin on the ground.

        3. Jenn

          Hey, wait, have we seen Ethan since the time skip? I remember us commenting on the lack of him a short while after the skip, but I don’t remember if that changed.

        4. Nono

          Still MIA as far as we know.

        5. Needfuldoer

          I hope he didn’t get put on a bus drop out after all the crap that happened last semester. Mike’s death and the resulting strain on his and Amber’s friendship leave plenty of story to tell with him.

          Hopefully we just haven’t had a reason to see him yet.

        6. Spencer

          My guess is grieving Mike and wanting to stay away from Amber (for not telling him he was in the hospital) and Danny (for that last argument they had which is now monumentally worse).

        7. Needfuldoer

          Oh yeah. Danny has to work his way back up to the doghouse for that one.

          As for his break from Amber, I think a good part of that is misunderstanding her mental condition. She’s more than likely still trying to deal with it herself with little outside support (and none of it professional). That might make it seem less “real” to Ethan, who may still see Amazi-Girl as simple roleplay. They started an entire argument about this in Mike’s hospital room, but put it on the back burner because it was in poor taste for the time. It’s possible they never followed up on this important exchange over the break, and just let the hurt simmer all this time.

        8. Spencer

          I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not Ethan misunderstands Amber’s mental health, the problem is that Amber constantly uses her mistakes to fuel a suicidal death march where she hops around on cars and fights kidnappers and hops around on cars again, and eventually this blows up into a second personality and audio/visual hallucinations while their mutual friend dies in the hospital, and Ethan doesn’t know because Amber and AG weren’t speaking to each other at the time Mike got yeeted off a balcony, and Amber was so deep in her “I am shit and can’t be helped’ mentality that she said nothing about blacking out for entire nights to go out and beat the shit out of people.

          Ethan understand that Amber is mentally unwell, he just can’t sit there and watch her die, and Amber realized she needs to stop taking ownership of his pain so she can go off and cause even more of it.

        9. Needfuldoer

          Right. She was hiding just how deep that rabbit hole goes.

        10. Spencer

          Yes, she was *actively* hiding how deep the rabbit hole goes and consequently the rabbit hole went a million times deeper than it maybe needed to have gone.

          Amber’s not some evil shitty person but she’s made enough mistakes and caused too much pain to the people around her to be allowed to keep going unabated while nobody holds her accountable for anything. She can’t just keep talking about how shit she is, she needs to be better.

        11. Needfuldoer

          And unfortunately it looks like she’s going to just continue self-medicating through roller derby.

        12. Fart Captor

          you GET to put up with Becky, you ungrateful heathens! ?

    2. Mra

      Well, currently the only one there to witness there adorableness is evil doc brown, who I am pretty sure is squeal intolerant.

    3. Nono

      Eh, people yelling loudly in public about their PDA would probably turn me off after a minute or two.

      I can appreciate loud people, but only in… doses.

    4. Blindness

      Hard to feel cuteness for them when to me they lost their cuteness when Becky acted like a jerk to the one person trying to help Joyce and Dina got into an argument with Joyce over Joyce’s defense of creationism before class…there’s not much cute there, just two people talking about sex in public

      1. MrSmith

        Agreed

        1. Clif

          Disagree. Context matters.

      2. Fart Captor

        If you’re not going to squee you aren’t welcome in this thread! Be gone with you!

    5. Keulen

      I’m pretty sure most people don’t bother to pay attention to the conversations of other people they don’t know very well, even if they are a cute couple.

  6. Proxiehunter

    So, Ace Dina I take it.

    1. Dawn T

      She was confirmed ace on Twitter a while ago I think.

    2. Leorale

      Ace Dina! I just know Becky will take Dina’s laid-back libido as a personal rejection, so I hope she learns this word and googles it soon.

      1. Nono

        Yeah that’s definitely an aspect that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Sexual compatibility is important, and while Dina had indicated she’s content with waiting at any pace Becky wants, I think what Becky also wants is for validation and for someone to find her genuinely, ladyboner-inducing sexy, and Dina just doesn’t really operate like that at a frequent rate.

        1. Rabid Rabbit

          It hadn’t really struck me before, but back when Dina propositioned Becky on her birthday, she said she wanted Becky to touch her, not that she wanted to touch Becky. Suddenly that seems a lot more relevant.

        2. Nelly Dreadful

          There may also be some Christian cultural shock here. Like, as I understand it, you’re supposed to abstain, but abstinence is also supposed to be HARD. Like, you’re supposed to resist temptation but you’re also supposed to find it tempting? The fact that Dina isn’t fighting to resist horniness but simply IS NOT HORNY goes against the way things are supposed to work, and Becky may have trouble dealing with that. The unfairness, as much as anything else.

        3. Regalli

          Yeah, some of the other ace commenters have described a situation like that, having lived in more aggressively conservative Christian areas. I guess they figure it’s easy mode or something? Or we’re flouting God’s will to make babies even though… yeah, I don’t get it. (It’s one of those things I consider distinct but related to ‘Oh you just haven’t met the right person yet!/are a late bloomer!’ For whatever reason, the concept that some humans just don’t feel a particular need to have sex or never look at a random stranger and go ‘yeah I’d fuck them’ makes other people irrationally angry. Like, the amount of sex I may or may not be having impacts you not at all, random stranger!)

        4. Geneseepaws

          I think rando strangers might feel threatened by seeing that you are behaving in a respectful manner, and they then see themselves is a very less than flattering light when they compare themselves to you. By just being there you are indicting them! How dare you Flaunt your proper behavior, right there in front of them! BTW, I see this the way you do; my sex life impacts them not at all.

        5. thejeff

          Of course this isn’t “random stranger” and “person I’m dating isn’t sexually interested in me” is a much harder thing to accept.

        6. Regalli

          Definitely a different matter there but aphobia tends to come from people besides your significant other and/or people actively flirting with you. (Also, I’m not even entirely sure Becky’s hurt so much as confused, it’s hard to say right now from that last panel.)

      2. Switchchris23

        im 100% sure that Dina could tell her about it way more then Google could. Asexuality is a Spectrum, and it doesnt mean you cant get horny, and depending on where you are on that spectrum, things other then gender can make your Libido get a spike, like Dina’s did for what Becky had said, The human brain is weird.
        All Google will tell her is the base definition, but Dina has probably looked into it to a deeper extent, or can at least tell her how it is for her on a scientific level.

  7. Nono

    Okay, Doc Brock jumped up a couple tiers in my book. That’s Sarah-level snark right there.

  8. Proto_Eevee

    I didn’t realize Becky was yelling until that last panel put things into perspective .

    1. DailyBrad

      I think Becky is typically yelling unless proven otherwise. I like that about her, though.

    2. He Who Abides

      Pretty sure that Becky’s just gotta naturally loud voice.

      1. ValdVin

        …and the big mouth in panel four plus the bold in the speech balloon suggests she turns it up a bit there even by her standards.

  9. Wagstaff

    The euphoria velocity is increasing…

    It could happen rather soon…

    1. I am Nothing

      The Euphorometer is going wild.

      1. Opus the Poet

        “It’s over 9000” When it hits 10K Dina jumps Becky right in the middle of class.

  10. Nayann Martinelli

    So, despite my best hopes, you are telling me that people continue to exist when they are out of sight?

    1. Wagstaff

      To understand that is an important ingredient in complex consciousness. Even Bluejays grasp it.

      1. drs

        Hey, jays are corvids. Smart birds.

        (I know of a scrub jay experiment where jays will re-bury food they’d buried while another jay could see them, to prevent theft.)

    2. Clif

      I see y’all have fallen for the old object permanence myth.

      1. Nayann Martinelli

        Can I just say that your Gravatar just makes your comment an absolute delight?

  11. Tsa

    I imagine Professor Brock’s voice sounds like Christopher Walken doing a Doc Brown impression

    1. goggleman64

      Character improved 200%

    2. Blindness

      …now I can’t unhear his voice when he talks, it actually works better than the Rick voice that was stuck in my head over that connection to the professor

    3. Needfuldoer

      Sorry, it’s gonna take an even better suggestion than that to dethrone Christopher Lloyd from the part of Prof. Brock in my mind. (I think he’s somewhere between Reverend Jim from Taxi and Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, he seems too reserved to straight-up copy/paste Doc Brown’s characterization onto.)

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Might I offer either Leonard Nimoy or Rutger Hauer as a substitute for Christopher Lloyd? They’re all connected, you see.

  12. s

    When I started reading this comic, I was a college student. Now I teach college students and find myself relating to Prof. Brock! What have I become?

    1. Sirksome

      Old…don’t feel bad most people reading this have similar stories. That’s what happens when a comic has run for a decade but the characters have only moved forward 3 months. I was younger than Joyce when I started reading this and now I can’t even relate to most of these characters decisions or actions.

    2. Boh No

      No shame in the coil of mortality, just maybe when students start to talk intimately, maybe give them some privacy to talk, even if it’s in a classroom, because it’s not your place… UNLESS, like, you have another class in there after a break.

    3. Blindness

      An adult?

    4. Needfuldoer

      Everything’s fine, just remember to take your Geritol.

    5. Spencer

      The characters started college the same time as me.

  13. Vangeln

    Wait, so this doesn’t float your boat?

    1. Fart Captor

      It does float her boat, her boat just isn’t very buoyant

      1. Blindness

        perfect gravitar…

  14. Stephen Bierce

    *plays “Drop The Pilot” on the hacked Muzak*

  15. BBCC

    These two are the couple least likely to give a shit.

    1. Sirksome

      Maybe that’s the secret to their success. I think they’re the only couple that’s lasted any kind of time.

      1. Nono

        Mandy and Grace (and Sierra), and I guess Mary and Peter, for lack of evidence to the contrary?

        1. He Who Abides

          Mandy/Grace/Sierra aren’t a “couple”, technically speaking. And if previous incarnations from alternate universes are any indicator, Mary and Peter Paul will split as soon as one of them sets off the other’s stupid religious pissiness.

        2. Jenn

          And if previous incarnations from alternate universes are any indicator

          They probably aren’t, but as someone who finds Mary detestable I kinda hope they do split.

        3. Nono

          The monkey paw curls, they break up, and Mary goes back to harassing Carla.

          At least this way she’s preoccupied.

        4. Geneseepaws

          Maybe that’s how Mary gets “Her Jollies,” by trying to yank Carla’s chain. Perhaps fueling her fantasies?

      2. Thag Simmons

        Eh, I think they’ve been a couple for about as long as Dorothy and Walky were.

        1. Sirksome

          Dorothy and Walky got together and broke up before the time skip even happened (I’m not sure on how the timing shakes out) Becky and Dina got together before the time skip and are still together after it. That’s at least 3 months.

        2. Nono

          Well then again, Dorothy and Danny were together for at least a summer and presumably some time in school… so I guess they’re in the lead?

        3. Sirksome

          I mean if we’re also talking about couples that were together before the comic then I guess technically one of the parents has the title for longest right or a teacher that could be married or in a long term relationship we just don’t know about? Maybe I should’ve been more specific about what I was talking about.

        4. Nono

          Mandy and Grace still win if you only count still existing relationships, I think. Not sure about Leslie/Anna.

        5. Thag Simmons

          Oh yeah, I wasn’t factoring the time-skip into my thinking, just how much of the actual comic’s run they’d been together for.

      3. Blindness

        Are Jacob and Raidah still together? If so, then they’re older than the two of them. And unlike the other couples that got together due to joint issues or deception they haven’t actually had much time in the spotlight together in the strips until very recently. And even when it was their spotlight, it was short-lived and actually about the others and their reactions and not them as a couple.

        1. Miri

          No, Jacob broke it off because he was interested in Joyce, while also telling Joyce they wouldn’t happen because of the lying to his brother and kissing thing. Joe told him he was silly, and sure Joyce does dumbassed things – but she learns from it and improves and is generally awesome.

      4. Tan

        I am reasonably certain that the longest-running couple that does not predate the characters’ appearance in the comic would be Richard and Stacy

        1. Delicious Taffy

          They did hook up in the supply closet before any of these kids got together. It’s not hard to consider that the start of their relationship.

        2. Sirksome

          Richard and Stacy, setting the example to these kids on how you relationship! Hook up with someone hot in a supply closet and if they’re chill put a ring on it! The gold standard!

        3. Delicious Taffy

          Kids these days with their “standards” and their “incomplete personalities” and their Digimon.

  16. DarkoNeko

    the professor named his horny part the “Great Scott”

  17. Pocky

    that boat’s taking a lot of water, from what I can tell.

    1. He Who Abides

      Yeah, Becky needs to borrow an “Other Jacob” methinks.

      1. BarerMender

        Are you serious? With God, all the angels, and her dead relatives watching? With Satan waiting and rubbing his hands? Could a good Christian girl…? Could she?

        1. Delicious Taffy

          She probably could, if she paid a nearby rollerskater to cause a distraction.

  18. BarerMender

    Becky & Dina languidly look at the professor, flip him off, and go back to each other.

  19. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    He should be doing a nature documentary voiceover instead.

    1. Plain Marie

      Now that I would find entertaining. Maybe I’d snarkily do voiceover commentary myself.

  20. crow

    Becky should be a poet

  21. Bogeywoman

    Personally I really liked that Dina seemed to have a sexual drive and was big pri-demi Dina because autistic and otherwise disabled characters are routinely presented as asexual/unsexual and it’s neat to have rep that /isnt/….

    But I also appreciate willis’ way of showing the ambiguities of sexuality (like not necessarily feeling arousal but having sexual attraction and vise versa) going back to Malaya and ultra car/la

    1. Samantha

      I think she does. She doesn’t seem averse to sex or uninterested in it she just seems to be very low libido or have much lower sexual drives. She likes Becky and wants to try sexual things with her but is just mostly okay if it doesn’t happen. Feels very grey ace or Demi I think. Especially since she was the first one to bring up making the relationship physical and she enjoys physical affection like kisses and hugs and cuddling

      1. Demi or Gray?

        What’s the difference between gray ace and demi? The first time I read the demi definition, it immediately resonated, because I’ve never felt even a flutter of attraction for random strangers. I’ve always needed a very close emotional relationship to feel attraction. But even then, my libido is pretty low, I get easily overwhelmed by sexual contact, and I’m perfectly content to stop at any point. So looking at gray ace and demi definitions, it kind of feels like a distinction without much of a difference, just highlighting different things.

    2. Nono

      I wouldn’t call them autistic, but between Walky’s attention deficiencies and Joyce’s own OCD, there are definitely characters on some spectrum with sex drives.

      1. Bogeywoman

        I don’t really see them as representation, though because they’re still largely fanon for the moment (I mean, walky is heavily implied at the point)

        1. Nono

          Dina has never been outright confirmed as on the spectrum either. She displays a lot of the behaviour, but she’s no more confirmed to be any more than Joyce or Walky are.

          Joyce and Walky have disabilities that are more invisible, which is funny because Dina functions better in society than they do.

        2. Regalli

          Yeah, the closest we have to confirmation for any of the cast is AmbG’s plurality being referred to as such, diagnosis or no. (Also Ruth and Jennifer’s depression and alcohol issues, but they were also both clearly, consciously, and always written that way where the others all developed over time.) Even then, it was still left as coding and not text long after the point where Willis was definitely consciously writing it that way – people were still questioning if that was what was going on into the kidnapping arc, where ‘Amber and AG weren’t sharing memories and Amber tried to prevent AG from taking control by severe sleep deprivation’ was a key plot point.

          Of Dina, Walky, and Joyce, Walky’s has actually been the closest to confirmed – one of Mike’s last real interactions with Amber has him mention ADHD by name, along with saying ‘even if he wants to learn, maybe he can’t.’ ( https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/technically/ ) Because it’s Mike, take it with a grain of salt, but it coming up by name taken with things like the doodling in class suggest he may have been onto something there and that the studying techniques they were trying weren’t ones that would work for Walky. (And this is one case where Mike being Walky’s roommate means he had a bit better of a gauge than usual on Walky’s studying abilities or lack thereof.)

          Dina’s heavily autistic-coded, true, and has only gotten more so over time, but the official stance has always been ‘she’s never been diagnosed with anything.’ Still, there’s only so many comorbidities or accompanying traits you can ping before the subtext starts looking texty. (Such as, say, casually hyperextending her elbows for dinosaur imitation.) But Joyce is also pretty clearly SOME variety of neurodivergent, we just don’t have a clear idea what since so many of her quirks are Willis’s and they aren’t sure whether theirs are an anxiety disorder born from years of religious trauma or autism or the like, either. And the autism one is an option that’s come up frequently enough with Joyce it’s in the conversation. They’re both clearly neurodivergent, they’re both where Willis puts various Probable Neurodivergence Quirks for strips, and I suspect that’s part of why Dina’s never formally said the word ‘autism’ either.

        3. Regalli

          * Not EXPLICIT text in that first paragraph, I should say, or at least not ‘using the exact words and name’ even though it was abundantly clear before that from AmbG’s actions together. (Though there was Walky’s ‘you’re different people’ not too long before that, I always forget it.)

    3. Spookyfox

      yeah im autistic and ace (and a lesbian) but I did really like dina being more sexual. I hate that that’s the box people always put us in. Even if im in that box myself. Ugh existence is so complex and annoying

      1. Regalli

        Agree with the Desexualized Disabled Person (particularly the Infantilizing Because of Developmental Disability variant) being an incredibly frustrating trope. That said, Dina does clearly WANT to have sex with Becky, and I think it’s very much a thing Dina wants for herself instead of ‘because Becky wants it.’ (Especially since it made Becky awkward and avoidant for MONTHS.) Given the Significant Gray Ace Pride Shirt she was wearing in the storyline before the kidnapping went down/Word of Willis confirmation but seriously that shirt and her coordinated Ace Purple sneakers are too spot on for me to think it’s NOT a thing she’s done research on in-universe, my read’s been ‘gray ace who rarely experiences attraction – though not never, we saw she also had some Very Likely Pants Feelings about Becky in Velociraptor Onesie – but is positive towards sex and may have a sex drive independent of attraction to people.’ As another autistic ace lesbian, that one feels actively sexual enough/familiar enough to my life for my own tastes. YMMV, of course, but she’s far from indifferent on the subject even if she’s not sexually attracted to Becky all the time. Feels different from the active infantilization route to me.

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/sinproofed/ (Velociraptor Onesie was also just a great look on Becky for a single strip. Give us more cute dinosaur regalia, Willis!)

        (Gray Ace Shirt appeared in To Remind You Of My Love running in early 2020. As I still haven’t figured out multilink comments, the particular strip of note would be Precipice on February 24th, the one where Amber tries to make her stay when she has a midterm as the only Anti-Horny Buffer between her and Walky – which, incidentally, dick move Amber – and Dina points out that if they don’t want to have sex, they don’t need her around to just not have sex. Cue Amber being dismissive that that’s ‘not how human brains work,’ Dina annoyedly replying ‘it is’ and leaving. 1: It literally is, people decide not to have sex with other people who they find attractive but sex would be inappropriate with all the time, but 2: between the shirt, the strip, and Amber’s comment there plus Dina’s annoyance, it definitely felt like ‘Autistic Ace Gets Microaggressioned Again On Both Of Those Fronts’ as a strip.)

    4. Mikey

      What does “pri-demi Dina” mean?

      1. Clif

        It’s short for Pridemious Dinosaur. 😐

  22. Samantha

    AWWWW NOOOO I love this couple and this is pointing to a major potential problem in the relationship of incompatable drives. Dina is not sex averse and is interested but isn’t very libidinous Becky is apparently very libido driven and that may be a problem with Becky’s inability to take the lead sexually because of her upbringing

    1. He Who Abides

      Honestly, it doesn’t seem that bad to me. Dina seems like the dominant member of their relationship, so Becky being unable to take a leadership position when it comes to sex; if Becky wasn’t such a sub, she’d be hounding Dina non-stop for sex (which would be a warning sign.

      Granted, I married a woman who is as sex-averse as I am (and we’ve just started a trial run with a third person who’s also got no libido), so I probably have no idea what I’m talking about here.

      1. Zaxares

        This could still wind up being a problem though. At the moment Becky is holding back her sexual urges because she still feels that sex is something that should only be indulged within the bounds of marriage (or civil unions, maybe. I don’t know if Indiana allows gay marriage). Once that issue is solved though, depending on Becky’s libido she may wind up wanting sex far more often than Dina is in the mood for. This, in turn, may wind up fueling irritation and/or resentment on Dina’s part, and disappointment/insecurity on Becky’s part (“Am I doing something wrong? Does she not find me attractive anymore?”). This is something many couples encounter, and for the most part, they come to terms with it with various solutions. Hopefully Becky and Dina have the patience and wisdom to work through it together.

        1. Regalli

          Gay marriage is universally legal in the United States after the 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges. Whether or not you can find a religious official of your particular denomination willing to perform a ceremony is a different and more complicated matter, but it is legal.

          Dina’s definitely not sex-averse, given she’s the one who’s put it on the table, and we have seen her be most likely sexually attracted to Becky before – see above point re: dino onesie – but yeah, that they’re on different pages with ‘I’m constantly sexually attracted to you’ and ‘I want to have sex with you but am not necessarily always feeling sexual urges’ is something that should be talked out. The good news is that it coming up now gives Becky a chance to do some reading and both of them a chance to talk through their feelings on the subject!

  23. Bagge

    shut up prof, you teach biology. Like this hasn’t happened to you before.

  24. RacingTurtle

    Awww, these two <3

  25. Boh No

    Doc I hope you have another class period in here or something because I notice YOURE still here, and I’m about three seconds— that’s right one whole EXTRA second of mercy!—away from drop-kicking you

    1. Regalli

      Agreed. Vacate so the next class can enter. You can talk to students giving you heads ups about accommodations and the like while you pack like everyone else.

    2. Liz

      I pointed this out earlier but bio lab rooms often can’t have unsupervised students in them due to the expensive and sometimes dangerous materials they have. He probably can’t leave until everyone else does. I think letting them know that he is still there and within (unwanted) earshot is a pretty reasonable move here.

    3. Zach

      He has to at a minimum inventory the supplies and clean the room.
      Most lab teachers offer tutoring in the lab.
      He isn’t obligated to leave, they are obligated not to lordly discuss their sex life in public.

      1. Opus the Poet

        Given the distance between the “u” and “r” keys, I’m gonna ascribe the typo to Otto Korrect rather than fumble-thumbs. “lordly”, it doesn’t even MAKE SENSE!

  26. Keulen

    Maybe the reason Professor Brock acts grumpy so much is because he’s overheard too many college students talking about how horny they are and he’s gotten tired of it.

    1. brute

      this is the most plausible fan theory i’ve seen for this comic tbh

  27. Akp

    Dina is the most deeply relatable character in this regard that I have ever encountered in any context.

  28. Mikey

    Reminds me of when I was dating a fat girl who felt bad about her body even though she was, to quote Shakespeare, “so freakin’ gorgeous.” She did very much need to be told that she was loved at least partly because of her shape.

    Still makes me sad that she felt that way, though luckily I’m told she’s more confident now.

  29. Council

    Honestly, for a starting move in his wrestling into the conversation, the Prof is being pretty cool about this.

    After Joe’s…thing, the last few comics, I wouldn’t be surprised if he disappoints us.

    And after Booster.

    Really, the theme of this new school year in general seems to be ‘we are not Absolutely horrible, but we are not up to your expectations’.

    1. Nono

      Dorothy is still a good bean. Ruth seems to be doing okay, as is Sarah. Jennifer seems fine?

      1. JBento

        Ruth opened the year threatening to dismember people. She’s just as terrible as she’s always been.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Eh, she said the words mostly, but I really doubt she was doing more than just going through the motions.

        2. JBento

          “She spent over a year inflicting psychological and physical violence on the people under her care, but now she’s just saying it for funsies.” is not the effective defence you seem to think it is.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          Was it a year? I thought it had only been a few weeks before her Big Meltdown. I’m not saying it’s necessarily better, but I don’t remember her last genuine threat or physical attack. She got on the meds and has been doing better, lately. That doesn’t erase how she started, and that was never my point.

        4. JBento

          I mean the year BEFORE the comic started. First years apparently can’t be RAs, and when the comic started everyone was already calling her Ruthless and the atmosphere of terror was already in place.

        5. Spencer

          It depends.

          Ruth was typically played for some form of comedy, but it took a while for her to actually become a sympathetic character and most of us realize now that Ruth was being a horrible abusive asshole to mask large amounts of personal trauma and addiction, and she has since put a stop to it. We wouldn’t have a character who sits off to the side perpetually flipping the bird in Ruth’s direction if Ruth was intentionally meant to be a 100% pure and heroic character.

          Now she’s backsliding into the persona of Ruthless, but it’s being entirely played for comedy, and crucially nobody is actually taking her seriously and so much as asking her a question causes her to drop the act and become pleasant. She’s not terrorizing her dorm or throwing Billie into chairs anymore, she just has a little comedy routine that in-universe and out nobody seems particularly worried by.

          If we get to the point where she tries to slap someone so hard she leaves the imprint of a dick on their face, sure, but she’s not that Ruth anymore and it’s for the better.

        6. He Who Abides

          In defense of Ruth, she slapped a dick imprint onto Mary while Mary was actively calling her worthless (same thing Sir does to her) and a conga (the point where it kinda became justified to me).

        7. Spencer

          You probably shouldn’t physically assault people under your care on the grounds of being called a bongo and being mean when they tell you to do your job.

          It’s Mary and nobody gives a shit and nobody should, but it’s not like this was written after establishing she was, like, literally willing to murder Ruth and try to isolate Carla somehow to bully her. Mary when that strip was written was just the asshole from Roomies.

        8. JBento

          Ruth is nowhere NEAR anything pure and heroic – if she were, when Carla came complaining about Mary, she would have done something.

  30. Rabisch

    I like this prof more and more. Be has a great sense of humor.

  31. Emily

    God, I’d love to give that last line to some of my high school students.

  32. misanthropope

    “We can’t have sex because reasons”
    also:
    *tearfully* “You’re not horny for me every waking second?!?”

    ah that takes me back. holy shit am i glad i’m old

    1. Spencer

      This sounds true to life more than it actually should.

      Be obsessed with sex, but actually having sex makes you a shameful cur who belongs in Hell.

      1. StClair

        The most ironic and sad part, of course, is that the denial and repression often leads directly to the obsession. Desire and/or the human brain is/are perverse that way.

  33. Fallingfeather

    Oh shit, I actually caught up. I just spent like, a week rereading the archives because I fell off the DOA boat sometime around 2017. So Mike’s dead now, huh? Geez.

    …I thought the next button was broken for a minute there before I checked the date.

  34. ValdVin

    The change from Becky in panel three to panel four is as sudden and incredible as can be. Good stuff!

  35. Wakeangel2001

    don’t think you can bribe your professor to give you good grades with stories of your saphic college adventures

  36. Rainmaker J

    Nihilist Doc Brown is now my favorite character in the strip.

  37. Megan Rivera

    Becky Goes to Horny Jail! 10 Bonks!

    1. thumb

      That’s all they do in Horny Jail. I’m surprised they’d stop at 10.

  38. Opus the Poet

    Sinking Horny Ship is my new emo band name.

  39. thumb

    oh no
    One is ace/demi, the other has two metric tonnes of repressed urges. Further talk may be required. Maybe they can continue sexual drama in the middle of the next class.

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