125

Sweat it
Posted on June 25, 2018 by David M Willis

125 thoughts on “Sweat it”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Joyce, you’re about to do that anyway

    1. Batman

      Gigidty

    2. Zortac88

      I lasso’d myself to my backpack once. They had to call the fire department to free me.

  2. Stu

    Kinky.

    1. Lilyliv

      Aw man, you beat me to it! 🙂

  3. King Daniel

    Joyce is speaking with black-and-white speech bubbles. Is she undead?

    1. ShinyNeen

      Ooh, maybe she and Ruth finally understand each other!

      1. King Daniel

        Perhaps link text goes hereAmber may want to join the club as well?

        1. King Daniel

          Uh, just pretend I put this link: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/time/

      2. space

        Excellent top-tier callback. Modern sitcom writers would applaud at the prestige of this callback. Well done.

    2. Batman

      Speaking in tongues

    3. Crusading Barista

      Richard of LfG would be so proud.

  4. Derek

    re: alt text. Did Faz make the chart?

    1. Keulen

      Either that or maybe Dorothy learned how to make charts from Faz.

      1. Needfuldoer

        She’s probably built her college career, if not her entire life, around a Gantt chart. Dating Walky slipped the schedule for freshman year and its dependencies something fierce.

        1. MutantSentry

          So how much time did she spend making the chart?

      2. Alan Lafond

        So that would be a leather chart, then?

  5. Emily

    “…so I guess our lunch group is down to a threesome?”

    1. jeffepp

      Slipshine, it is!

      1. Freemage

        Parts of Joyce would likely be totally down with that.

  6. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    Well that was as awkward as I was expecting. Good Joyce. Don’t let your friend self-destruct.

  7. Haven

    Dorothy’s a min-maxer, no way she puts points in charisma unless she’s a sorcerer.

    1. Kernanator

      She wants to make use of the Diplomacy skill, so yes she put points in it.

    2. timemonkey

      Or a bard! Which is probably the closest class equivalent to the career she desires.

      1. jeffepp

        This.

      2. King Daniel

        Or an Aristocrat. Lord Shojo made pretty good use of that during his reign, paranoid paladins aside.

        1. Fire_daws

          If she wants to follow Shojo’s example she better be ready to lie s lot. And get a cat.

        2. foamy

          Good practice for anyone in public life, really.

        3. Woobie

          Shojo was a NPC; that will never be Dorothy.

  8. Sweet

    is it me or is that last frame of joyce unfinished?

    1. jeffepp

      She’s leaning in. The background is some stairs. They kind of merge.

      1. Sweet

        ooooo i see it now

  9. Gojira

    A chart? Is Faz back?

  10. sdrainbow

    Ooooh, I have lots of empathy for Joyce here. I remember being wrecked in college when my regular lunch meetup got canceled for whatever reason.

  11. Sporky

    Well, this is a bit of a social trainwreck isn’t it

    1. mrnoidea

      Everything’s just been falling down the tubes lately.

  12. TrueVCU

    Joyce lassoing Dorothy is definitely a fetish someone here has and that’s not even kind of a stretch

  13. Passchendaele

    joyce, urban cowgirl

    1. Indiana Bones

      Is this a suggestion for the Slipshine comic?

      1. Passchendaele

        “lasso me, joyce! tie me up!”

        “what”

        “you know you want to”

        “what even”

  14. kay

    But can she succeed in a charisma check?

    1. Needfuldoer

      Billie gave her a +1 buff a couple turns strips ago…

  15. Stephen Bierce

    *plays “Rhinestone Cowboy” on the hacked P.A. speakers*

  16. BBCC

    This is gonna be good.

  17. timemonkey

    Come on Dorothy, you should have known that ditching Joyce wasn’t going to work. She jumped you in the bathroom stall to dibs your spare time.

  18. mrnoidea

    Billie’s gonna keep her word and go booze up Walky. Or at least herself.

    1. Tacos

      But will she go back to Galasso’s to get the booze?

  19. Larkle

    I’m thinking Dorothy is going to escape and Joyce and Jacob are going on a ‘date’.

    1. mrnoidea

      And then Raidah appears.

      1. abysswatcher1993

        And then someone is hurt and there’s no going back…

        1. Zee

          Well idk if this will be when that happens. From Jacobs perspective it’s just having lunch with a friend. And I’m not sure how direct raidah will be about the situation. I’m kinda hoping she shows up though for dramas sake.
          Now that I say all that I worry Joyce will the next target of a slander campaign

        2. abysswatcher1993

          Joyce: “So this is how it feels to be you?”
          Sarah: “Yeah.”

        3. BBCC

          Would it be slander to say Joyce is trying to get with Raidah’s boyfriend if Joyce really is trying to get with Raidah’s boyfriend?

        4. thejeff

          That’s not likely what the slander campaign would be though. If you’re mounting a slander campaign to keep your boy from being interested in another girl, “she’s interested in you” isn’t really the best approach. You want to find or make up nasty dirt of your rival.

        5. BBCC

          True, but I thought the point of the slander campaign would be telling other people she was trying to get with Jacob’s boyfriend. If the point is telling Jacob mean things about Joyce, it’d probably be other stuff you’re right.

        6. thejeff

          Well, done correctly, you start the rumors and by the time they get back to Jacob they’re not traceable to you, but yeah.
          The point of the slander campaign would be to neutralize Joyce as a threat to the relationship and probably punish her for trying.

          Besides, everybody who might care already knows she’s trying. Mostly before she did.

        7. BBCC

          Yeah, that all makes sense. I was initially assuming that the slander campaign would be during or after Joyce succeeding.

        8. Zee

          Tbh maybe this is just because I hate raidah and have almost no moral standards for her (besides using the word retard I guess) but I can see her convincing people Joyce was lying about being drugged or something. Do people know it was Joyce? Or just that Ryan did it? I can’t remember

  20. Kater

    Is Joyce missing her arms?

    1. laladoria

      She’s leaning into the frame. The torso you think you’re seeing is a background of a road and some stairs.

      1. Kater

        Thank you

  21. Harvest Time

    I’m a bit conflicted. On one hand, Dorothy’s being fraying at the seams for a while, and I’m genuinely concerned for her. On the other, we get more sweet, sweet Dorothy time, which is awesome. She’s a lovely, kind cinnamon roll, on the whole. I’m finding myself wishing things were easier for her.

    Which is exactly what this writing should be making me feeling, unfortunately. I just hope she makes it out of this one with her dreams intact, and doesn’t crash too hard.

  22. Bagge

    No, no Dorothy. Wait until Joyce and Jacob have sat down and THEN make your excuse, to give them a full lunch of flirting.

  23. Indiana Bones

    So should we start the countdown to Joyce realizing that she’s Bi? Cause it really seems like its coming soon

    1. Yumi

      Honestly, and I almost never say this, I think she’s straight.

      1. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

        Isn’t her heterosexuality Word of Willis?

        1. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

          (by which I refer to this trope)

        2. Mel

          It is. His picture of bi characters was Ruth, Billie, Mike and Danny.

        3. Griffin Raynor

          Word of Willis is great but it can’t stop me from reading her as bi. I see what I see and what I see is bisexuality.

    2. timemonkey

      Between Billie, Sal, Dorothy and Becky if Joyce wasn’t straight she would have had that breakdown already.

  24. Dean

    Billie is all, “I undid Joyce’s top button, my work here is done.”

  25. ShinyNeen

    I swear I was already working on this dumb fanart before I saw this update

    Lunch is still on! Make it happen, Joyce!

    1. Needfuldoer

      The sad Joe in the background is a nice touch!

      1. ShinyNeen

        Thanks!

        Poor Joe : (

    2. Batman

      Jacothy?

  26. cbwroses

    Joyce really shouldn’t be surprised about this.
    There was always the possibility that Walky would leave, and Billie doesn’t really hang with Sarah and Dorothy as they’re two serious and straight laced people who neither share in her idea of fun nor are impressed by her former hs status.

    Then there’s Sarah, who probably doesn’t want to watch Jacob flirting with someone else right in front of her face.

    Really, Joyce jumped the gun with this lunch thing. She should have finagled a dinner date with Dorothy instead. Then she’d be much more likely to have her all to herself, vs dividing her attention between multiple people.

  27. newllend(henryvolt)

    Billie’s actually putting in the time to support her surrogate brother, good on her.

    1. JessWitt

      Her insistence to help adds to my suspicions for where Walky’s story could lead.

    2. thejeff

      Well her plan is probably still to get him drunk, which gives her an excuse to drink too, so it’s not like her motives are pure.

  28. JessWitt

    Oof I’m real confused by Billie’s double negative.

    And cut Dorothy some slack, Sarah. She just dumped Walky and is going through the rough post-breakup motions (though Walky has it just as rough if not more).

    1. Selement

      I don’t see a double negative. Those who say ‘Could care less’ when they mean ‘couldn’t care less’ are the ones who are saying it wrong. Yes I realise that’s most people! Seems to be more so from Americans than over here in the UK. Arguably it’s been so misused that could care less now leans couldn’t care less… but it definately isnt a double negative!

      1. Needfuldoer

        ♫ I hate these word crimes
        Like “I could care less”
        That means you do care
        (at least a little)         ♫

        It’s almost as bad as using “walla” instead of “voila”, especially in writing…

        1. JessWitt

          Weird Al answers everything.

          People say “walla” for “voila”? My brain just twitched a little.

      2. thejeff

        It’s an idiom. It means what it means, not what the parts mean.

        1. Michael

          ಠ_ಠ “I couldn’t care less” is NOT an idiom just because people usually get the grammar wrong but are still usually understood. Idioms are phrases like “it’s in the bag” or “piece of cake”.

        2. thejeff

          It’s been common usage for 50ish years. There are various explanations for its evolution and existence. Like other apparently nonsensical idioms like “head over heels”.
          Like it or not, usage defines language – especially slang and idiom.

          Or as always there’s an xkcd for that.

  29. Defensor

    Do people with charisma NOT apologize? Does it detract from one’s dignity?

    1. Jason

      Pretty sure people with charisma absolutely apologise- when there’s a good reason to. Apologising without good reason feels kind of cringy- like the person is cringy, or eager to please, or in some other way lacking in confidence and self belief. And a lack of self belief is sort of the opposite of charismatic imo.

      1. Inahc

        yeah, over-apologising is… not a good look.

        but, there are also still people who give the advice “never apologize”. they’re generally not people you ought to take advice from. they are unfortunately likely to be a subset of people with high charisma. 😛

        1. Bathymetheus

          I’m inclined to suggest that they’re a subset of people who think they have high charisma, e.g. Pointy Haired Bosses.

        2. Jason

          I’m inclined to agree with you. What the percentages are on those who genuinely believe that, and those who actually believe they’re awful but hide it (probably even from themselves) is up for debate. I’m going to go with 20/80 though.

      2. Roborat

        Apologizing without good reason? They could be Canadian.

        1. Inahc

          Nah, that’s different:) the Canadian “sorry” isn’t necessarily an apology as such; it means something like “oh dear, a bad thing happened. If any of that *was* my fault I didn’t intend it”. It’s for when two people bump into each other, before they sort out whether either of them is at fault. It’s not for when you’re blaming yourself for random shit like Dorothy appears to be doing.

  30. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

    If Dorothy did leave, it could set up the next Slipshine: “Joyce and Jacob perform a flirt and then suddenly realize they are doing it and get extremely self-conscious after which Jacob questions his relationship with Raidah leading Raidah to confront Sarah and get a confession leading Joyce to blame herself and Jacob is mad until he sees how upset Joyce is over the consequences and consoles her and then they hold hands at the end which makes Joyce really happy because it’s basically fundie first base”

    1. Agemegos

      https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/base_system.png

      1. jeffepp

        youtube.com/watch?v=8fvTxv46ano

        1. Agemegos

          http://www.dangermouse.net/cricket/baseball.html

  31. BenRG

    Actually, Joyce, your friends aren’t going to hang out with you and give you camouflage for interacting with Jacob. You’re going to have to one-on-one with him without appearing guilty, nervous or attracted to him. Good luck!

    Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure that Joyce in panel 6 is a one-line summary of a Slipshine!

  32. Reltzik

    So, basically, the Dorothy/Walky pairing is what was holding together the group of friends?

    … let’s see. Billie was there (under protest) because of Walky, Joyce because of Dorothy…. Sarah because of…

    …. actually, my flowchart tells me that Joyce is the linchpin of the group, and Sarah only left because the fragile optimism of friendship which was slowly regrowing like a daffodil poking up through the cracks in her concrete heart despite her best attempts to exterminate it just took a bad beating.

    1. Agemegos

      Nope. Some people are shooting through to leave Joyce and Jacob by themselves together — Sarah at least and maybe Dorothy also.

    2. BBCC

      I’m pretty sure Sarah’s leaving because she still likes Jacob, knows it won’t work out, and is sad about that.

    3. Zaxares

      Nah, this is just one of those unfortunate side-consequences of when two people in a social group break up. It tends to cause splits between the group as a whole depending on how acrimonious the break-up was. In my experience, people have a tendency to support one partner or the other, and friends start hanging out with one or the other accordingly.

      In this case, Billie is following Walky because she’s his friend (and also potentially for the opportunity for more boozin’). Sarah is leaving because she either still feels guilty over trying to use Joyce to split Jacob and Raidah up, or possibly because she recognizes that Joyce and Jacob ARE growing closer, and because she still likes Jacob, it’s too painful for her to hang around, but she’s rationalizing it under the pretenses that she should “give Joyce and Jacob some alone time together”.

      1. CJ

        When hanging out with both sides of a breakup, you need some finely honed skills to deals with cognitive dissonance (aka there are several universes between how the sides experience the breakup, it’s reasons and timing) and a good pokerface.

        1. BBCC

          Only if the breakup’s really bad.

  33. abysswatcher1993

    Joyce may be a selfish jerk, but she is right in this page. DOROTHY, YOU BETTER STAY FOR LUNCH AND EAT SOMETHING! HUMANS NEED FOOD, YOU IVY LEAGUE WANNABE!!!! That is all for tonight, folks.

  34. Mr.Morningstar

    She dumped most of her stat points into intelligence, so her charisma level is quite low.

    1. Reltzik

      The main problem I have with believing that she dumped charisma is that Walky is not charisma.

      1. JBento

        No, he’s caramel.

  35. Daisy

    Please say Jacob and Dorothy have an important chat about work-life balance and moderation. Girl needs someone to point it out and Jacob seems like a good candidate, especially as he’s in prelaw and that’s one of the most intensive courses out there.

    And then Joyce will love him even more because he took care of her wife.

    Or Jacob will get into Dorothy and everything will go to sh~t.

  36. JBento

    “Charisma” is the weirdest spelling for “backbone” I’ve ever seen.

    1. BenRG

      I’m thinking that Billie is an RPG geek. In most RPG systems, ‘Charisma’ is a general category for the class of management/human interaction skills.

      Once again, we are reminded that Billie is far more of a nerd than she’ll ever admit to!

      1. happyblinker

        But it’s Sarah that says that, not Billie.

      2. JBento

        Sarah’s the one that says charisma, though? Isn’t she?

        *double checks*

        Yeah, she is.

  37. Booker

    Forget snapping Jason’s suspenders Walky. Jacob has far superior ones.

  38. BenRG

    FWIW, I’m still expecting Dorothy to shout at Joyce and rush off. Then we get the important and self-aware talk with Jacob in which Joyce learns that having someone detached from the circle is sometimes a guarantor of a painfully accurate summation of your mistakes.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Knowing Willis’ narration style, this either happens or we have to wait months for that epiphany, just like all the time it took for her to break with Ethan.

  39. SpaceshipPilot

    I wonder what’s happening with Amber and Sal right now… I hope AG didn’t take over and attack her or something.

    1. CJ

      AG has cooperated with Sal re macstabby, Amber attacking Sal would be far more likely.

      1. thejeff

        Even Amber’s interacted with her without incident. Admittedly from the safety of a privacy chair fort.

        1. BBCC

          Honestly, I think Amber would be more likely to run than to attack Sal.

        2. C.T Phipps

          Amber is the violent scary one.

        3. BBCC

          Yet AG is the one who stalked Sal twice.

        4. thejeff

          And Amber has never done more than run from her and as I said, interacted with her peaceably the last time they met.

  40. @zombieundergrnd

    And Joyce’s BDSM characteristics begin to emerge. Wait until Amber finds out.

  41. Waffliesinyoface

    Dorothy’s got enough charisma to be a paladin. Shame she’s not religious, she could get some sweet lightning magic out of that kinda deal.

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