214

Thoughtful
Posted on June 26, 2016 by David M Willis

214 thoughts on “Thoughtful”

  1. Doctor_Who

    Danny: “But hold on, she can’t have cleaned ALL my clothes or…wait…”

    Danny reaches into his underwear and pulls out a dryer sheet.

    Danny: “…HOW?”

    Dina: “Amber also wishes me to inform you that you are a very heavy sleeper.”

    1. Indiana Bones

      #Canon

    2. Maveric1984

      At least it wasn’t stuck to the back of his school uniform.

    3. Palamdrone

      No, it didn’t happen when Danny was asleep. He’s just that clueless.

  2. butts

    Oh, come on, Amber. Don’t drag Dina into your bullshit. We like Dina.

    1. tim gueguen

      Dina is Amber’s roommate. Dina knows Amber is Amazi-girl. She’s involved no matter what Amber does.

      1. Wheelpath

        Also, nothing could make us not like Dina.

        1. podian

          Don’t say that, Willis will take that as a challenge!

        2. Spencer

          Dina walks into her room, revealing a bound and gagged Amber.

          “Hail Hydra.”

        3. podian

          “Dinosaurs aren’t actually that cool”

        4. doomprix

          The cretaceous was a period in which god created the world 3000 years ago, all hail jesus!

        5. Doctor_Who

          Next storyline: Dina dumps Becky for Blaine.

        6. inqntrol

          Blaine? Oh please, everybody knows she’ll dump her for the one and only…Faz.

        7. Kaoy

          No, that would just make Hydra about 20% cuter.

        8. Dean

          Dina takes off her dinosaur hat to reveal a ‘TRUMP IN 2016’ cap.

        9. Deanatay

          WINCE *GAG*

          …

          *snatches hat and throws it down garbage chute*

          …

          Nope, still like Dina!

        10. Heyitsthatoneguy

          It’s not because she would vote for Trump to be a politician, she’s just happy he’s not extinct. Dina loves dinosaurs, even the dumb and slightly bloodthirsty ones.

  3. Mr. Mendo

    Yeah, Amber’s gone bye-bye…

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      She must go underground, and cut all ties to protect them.

    2. Doctor_Who

      No, this is progress. She keeps breaking into his room to watch him sleep, Cullen style, but this time she decided to do something productive while she was in there.

      1. inqntrol

        Not sure if that is cute or creepy. Or maybe both.

        1. Tacos

          Creepy. Definitely creepy.

        2. Silvester Crow

          Quick! Dobler v. Dommer this. If it’s cute, Dobler. Creepy is Dommer.

          …and they said watching every episode of How I Met Your Mother even if it is one I’ve already seen was a waste of time. I was preparing for this moment!

        3. Gears

          Dalmer, not Dommer. As in Jeffery Dalmer.

        4. horrorshow88

          Dahmer.

        5. Mr Ak

          Dharma

        6. TachyonCode

          Greg?

        7. cookie1995

          Dalmer Definitely Dahmer

      2. saltchocolate

        Amazi-girl always keeps her promises.

    3. TheAnonymousGuy

      Batman glides in
      Batman: Go after her kid.
      Danny: but-
      Batman: follow the nemesis and you’ll find your hero. Also, I’m Batman!
      Batman glides away

      1. timemonkey

        There is no hero here.

        1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          It is the fabric softener we need, not the fabric softener we deserve.

        2. Reltzik

          Batman doesn’t use fabric softener. Batman uses starch.

        3. Michael

          Is that why he can’t turn his head in that costume?

        4. DSL

          Bat Starch. In the Bat Washing Machine that’s in the Bat Laundry Room. All clearly labeled, of course.

        5. DSL

          *Bat Labeled. With the Bat Labelmaker.

        6. SgtWadeyWilson

          I’m now imagining little tiny fine print on the labels that read: “Bat Label.”

      2. Deanatay

        Sounds more like LEGO Batman than Nolan Batman.

        Of course, LEGO Batman is best Batman*.

        *LEGO Movie Batman, of course, not LEGO Video Game Batman. Yes, they are two separate Batmen, it’s canon (In LEGO Dimensions, they actually meet).

    4. LittleMountain

      That girl needs therapy.

      1. achallenger

        like down on the couch?

        1. Neeks

          What does that mean?

        2. David Alexander McDonald

          She’s a nut. She’s crazy in the coconut.

        3. Silvester Crow

          Yeah, if she goes to a shrink, he’s become mentally disturbed in the midst of their first session and try to shove a lime into her ear. That’s how coconuts she is.

        4. namae

          +1 to this comment string.
          I simply have to listen to that song again. 😀

        5. DonDueed

          Now let me get this straight…

        6. Palamdrone

          What does that mean?

      2. Cerberus

        Purely psychosomatic.

      3. wynne

        *ghost saxophones*

        1. DSL

          Playing Yakety Sax.

      4. TachyonCode

        Sometimes a parrot talks…

        1. lejwocky

          Yes, some birds are funny when they talk

  4. Jupiterror

    nice job, Dina

    1. Disloyal Subject

      Your May avatar, lack of punctuation, and subject of address make it fittingly difficult to judge whether you’re being sarcastic. And also inspire bizarre crossover slashfic in my rage-insomnia-and-burrito addled mind.

      1. ganymedeanoutlaw

        Burrito addled is my new favorite adjective.

        1. SgtWadeyWilson

          That’s odd; rage, insomnia, and burrito is my favorite breakfast.

  5. Blackouthart

    Someone’s taking lessons from Ruth, I see.

  6. JepMZ

    At least she isn’t completely insane

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Yet.

    2. Reltzik

      …..

      Okay, my overly literally mind and I are trying to imagine what mental state might qualify as COMPLETELY insane. I’m not to the point of visualizing that yet and already it’s not pretty.

      1. Spencer

        Well, “insane” in this context is a pretty crappy term to lob at Amber, for starters.

        Other than that, Amber is heavily dissociating between her alters and has been pushing at the boundaries between them since her fights with Blaine and Sal. If things continue to worsen we could actually see Amber start to experience blackouts during her Amazi-Girl episodes.

        1. Cerberus

          This.

        2. TerribleName

          So… insane?

        3. HMRC4EVR

          I mentioned this before, but at this rate she’ll become DoA’s Punch/Counter-Punch.

    3. David

      I do call “incompletely sane” on her.

      1. Opus the Poet

        That’s true, She’s not gone but she sure as Hell ain’t all there.

        1. Bratty Roger

          ^this:
          Pretty close to my sentiments.

  7. LimeSheep

    save him

  8. Stairmasternem

    I suppose if the computer degree doesn’t pan out, Amber could start a Night Cleaner job. She gets paid to do your house chores while you sleep.

    … This sounds like something the rich and affluent already have.

    1. spriteless

      Ninja Laundromat…. Ninja Burger could expand into that business. We will sneak into your secret base to deliver food, and launder your minions’ uniforms!

    2. David

      Had. They were called Heinzelmännchen and worked unpaid. Come to think of it, they might have been the direct inspiration for house elves in the Potterverse.

      1. Historyman68

        Whoa.

  9. Kernanator

    Don’t worry Danny, Joe is in a meeting with Walky’s mom.

    1. inqntrol

      Ahh, wrong comic?

      1. Doctor_Who

        Aw man, did Sal abduct him from the wrong continuity? That’s going to play merry hell with his SEMME registration process.

        1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          It says it right there in the Twitter feed ‘She jumped six stories.’

        2. PUNNED TO DEATH

          I’M SO IMPRESSED AND ANGRY

        3. Doctor_Who

          …You win.

  10. JessWitt

    Did Amber steal his clothes as revenge?!?

    1. inqntrol

      When Amber met with Sal in the hallway she ran and left her basket full of clothes. And good guy Danny decided to do her laundry.

      1. JessWitt

        Oh riiiiight. Last act of kindness before the breakup.

        1. Reltzik

          She wants a clean break.

        2. Orion Fury

          *Drum peal

        3. JessWitt

          Here’s a +1.

      2. rectilinearpropagation

        Oh my goodness, thank you for this. My brain is so fried I could not remember what this was referencing.

        1. JessWitt

          Yeah right? I really should buy the books this winter.

      3. Aquatus

        Oh…I thought Amber’s “original design” was more directly related to him not having any clothes…

  11. OptimusPride

    Nothing says “file a restraining order”“I love you” like sneaking into someone’s residence and stealing their dirty laundry.

  12. Regalli

    … Okay, I can’t do the archive trawl at the moment, was the favor, what, back when she escaped Blaine for a few hours as “Danny’s new girlfriend”?

    Oh dear. Oh DEAR this is some nasty compartmentalizing then.

    1. Doctor_Who

      No, she fled leaving some laundry in the hall, so Danny did it for her.

    2. Sam

      It is from when she abandoned her laundry and Danny kindly did it for her.

      She has repaid THAT favour by doing his laundry for him and having Dina take it back to him.

      1. Regalli

        Okay, that’s slightly less troublesome then. Still, DEFINITELY not a good sign.

  13. Darwin

    That bag needs a big dollar sign printed on it. If you’re going to steal, big sacks should have dollar signs.

  14. cesium133

    This can’t be an interaction between Dina and Danny. Where’s the raptor?

    1. Reltzik

      In the bag, being about the size of a chicken.

      Clever girl.

    2. Silvester Crow

      If you look at Dina’s “Bird is the word” shirt, there is a raptor between Is and The.

  15. Dafydd

    Was “It was very thoughtful of her” also something Amber told Dina to say?

    Also, now I’m totally waiting for Danny to discover Joe was in the room after all.

    1. Spencer

      Probably not. Dina might actually just think it was nice of Amber to do his laundry for him, without realizing that it is super weird to break into someone’s room to take it for them.

  16. Russ

    This is actually pretty damn creepy. The pattern of unhealthy and invasive behavior continues…

    1. Disloyal Subject

      I believe that’s the point. Of the comic, anyway; Amber and Amazi-Girl are probably more interested in settling books, and maybe admiring sleeping Danny one last time.

      1. Russ

        Oh of that I have no doubt. I’m not judging the comic’s writing, I’m judging the character’s actions.

        1. Cerberus

          Yeah, and it’s some major problems with the Amazi-girl alter which kind of have always been there. Like, we’ve seen Amazi-girl break into people’s rooms while they are sleeping for personal reasons (like making sure Billie and Danny didn’t sleep together). We’ve seen Amazi-girl have less than stellar regard for people’s boundaries and be more interested in settling what is “owed” and standing for “order” over simply treating people right and being forgiving.

          But now, we’re seeing the dark side.

          I think it’s interesting, because it’s a thing that happens with people who have DID and have a “golden alter”. The alter you presume is the guardian of everything good and pure about you, so you ignore their major issues or problems until the nasty side of their awful becomes apparent.

          For me, luckily, that mostly just fucked me and in ways that served as critical wake-up calls to stop trusting said alter with so much power. For Amber/AG, unfortunately, her golden alter is much more outwardly focused and that has the potential of being really bad for her and others in her life as she continues to drift in this paranoid, inflexible, creeper direction.

          Hopefully, AG thinks this “evens” them out, so that she will be less tempted to creep on Danny in the future.

  17. Stephen R. Bierce

    Again, it’s like the Daffy Duck cartoon in which Porky tells Daffy that it is better to press shirts than to press luck.

  18. DarkoNeko

    Hmm, wow. just wow.

  19. Plasma Mongoose

    1/Steal Underwear
    2/Wash Underwear
    3/Return Underwear
    4/???
    5/Profit?

  20. Rukduk

    Well, this is awkward.

  21. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    The superhero vigilante thing is just a front. The real money is in the laundry.

    1. inqntrol

      Yeah, people sometimes forget cents in their pockets and even bills.

      1. smiley face

        it’s all a money laundering scheme

        1. Reltzik

          Yup. That’s how you really clean up.

        2. Geneseepaws

          After buying detergent, it’s just a wash really.

        3. DSL

          Well, that’s just your spin.

  22. Synnerman

    That is just creepy. Oh Amber.

  23. Mandy

    I’d be kind of surprised if she didn’t damage the clothes in some way, since she was so furious with him.

    1. inqntrol

      She probably took her anger on a couple of lawbreakers on the campus.

  24. Tacos

    Oh well this is just creepy as hell.

    1. tim gueguen

      Hopefully Danny doesn’t have a pet rabbit.

      1. DarkoNeko

        Not anymore he doesn’t.

        Unless you meant Joe.

  25. anna

    How dare you give us a hint at Joyce’s impending melt down and try to placate us with Dina…. Its working but I am not happy about it…

    1. Orion Fury

      Who are you trying to kid?

  26. Dee

    Wow, Amber is a creep! 🙁 This could go to some terrible (great!) places.

  27. timemonkey

    Huh, a comic where nothing horrible happens and there’s only characters I like. It’s been so long I’ve forgotten how to react! I’ve missed you Danny and Din!

  28. John Brewer

    Here’s what led to today’s strip:

    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/sugar-2/

    Amazi-Girl was supposed to “thank” him later, is now unable to for “reasons”.

    1. Orion Fury

      Thank you, I was wondering what the original designs were. Should of figured it was sex.

    2. Cerberus

      Interesting. Amber made that promise, not Amazi-girl. And Dina, who has made a point of noticing AG/Amber’s alter states and makes a point to refer correctly to things by her understanding of them refers to the one who sent her as Amber.

      Which suggests that Amazi-girl may have finally relented her control and kept enough of the details of last night hidden from Amber, that Amber doesn’t think it particularly noteworthy…

      Though, the fact that she notes the “original designs” part also could hint that she’s still being dominated by the Amazi-girl alter which would be awful for her on so many levels.

      Arrgh, I can’t wait to see what is going on with her.

      1. Deanatay

        If so, that’s BAD. If AG can keep secrets from Amber, they’re dissociating even further. I’m hoping that Amber remembers everything, and is simply being honorable and paying her debts.

        1. Cerberus

          Oh yeah, very much. It would mean that she was going into the not sharing memories type of DID that gets all the psych paper headlines and the public attention and that is a lot harder to fix without outside therapist aid.

        2. Clif

          Or you know, it could be there are no alters. It could be that while Amber is messed up in some ways that she isn’t messed up that particular way. Confusing roles with independent personalities is a natural error. But the fact that Amber wants to keep them separate doesn’t mean they actually are. The fact that Amber can promise that Amazi-girl will thank him later is a pretty good indication there is no real seperaration.

          Amber is justifiably upset with Danny but still made a promise. She found a way to keep it without compromising.

    3. Bagge

      Well noted!

  29. Jess

    Guys… What if she made Danny a super suit…
    Guys…
    This could be her delivery method.

    1. tim gueguen

      Unfortunately Danny’s only viable superhero identity is Doormat Boy.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        He drops people into the piranha tank?

        1. inqntrol

          Danning things up?

    2. Disloyal Subject

      After all, if he’s in a supersuit, he’s not Danny, and if he’s not Danny, she can BEAT THE EVERLIVING TAR OUT OF HIM.
      …No, I don’t think she’s that far gone yet. It would hopefully take some extra-strength trauma to push her down that particular road. If we’re lucky she’ll go with one of the paths that leads to SOME THERAPY.

  30. Ridureyu

    See, this just proves why everything is Sal and Danny’s fault. Right?

  31. KingOfGreyfell

    Ugh. Amber.

  32. Icalasari

    That is incredibly creepy

  33. Reltzik

    “Creepy ex-girlfriend!”

    “Actually, technically, Amber isn’t his ex-gir-”

    “CREEPY EX-GIRLFRIEND!”

    “Uh..”

    “Also, do you really think it was AMBER that broke into his room?”

    (Conversation courtesy of the voices in my head.)

    1. inqntrol

      Damn, people and their alter egos, always inducing confusion!

    2. Spencer

      I think this was definitely an Amazi-Girl decision. Amber knows you’re not supposed to care about underaged drinking, and that surfing on cars gets you killed, but Amazi-Girl is too busy being morally vindicated by existing.

      1. Cerberus

        Yup. Amazi-girl is fixated on her weird and continuously getting weirder moral stances and the way that they get stretched and twisted with every Sal encounter.

        Like in here, she’s decided that fairness and being equal are critically important, so she “pays back” what she feels she still owes and feels that is enough and shows how she is the bigger woman to stick to “her morality” despite “Danny’s horrific betrayal”.

        Now, all of that is kind of twisted from the reality, but it’s the narrative that the Amazi-girl alter is running away with and hopefully the Amber alter can start recognizing soon how toxic that line of thinking and Amazi-girl’s shifting morality really is.

        1. Spencer

          On that first part, I realized that I was wrong about my statement that Amber is fine with underaged drinking, because I recalled that part where she thought Amber was allowed to be inconsistent and helped Billie to her room, and now remember that Amber got super pissed off at Danny for drinking at the party and was not only going to call him a “smug ass motherfucker”, but then texted him that when Ethan interrupted her.

          In short, the one time Amber has ever gotten angry at him without immediately bursting into tears? When Danny violated one of Amazi-Girl’s rules, and it was still based on the idea that, if Danny was caught drinking then he would be expelled, and Amber would go crazy and fight back to try and save him like she did to Blaine. It’s just another example of how Amber needs to be put in a little box for her own good.

        2. Betty Anne

          OR Amber could get the help she needs to realize that people sometimes flip out after years of abuse by a parent. The cops obviously didn’t do anything about Amber stabbing Sal, so she got an early taste of the whole “white kid gets away with a self-defense argument and a ‘don’t do that again’ card while the black kid goes to jail scenario.” Both of them were messed up, both of them acted out and tried to hurt someone, Sal went to jail and she went back home to her abuser.

          Notice how much better all of this would have gone if the cops had put them both in the tank to cool off until a trained counselor could get there, and then gotten them mental help instead? Oh yeah, can’t do that in this country. XP

        3. Spencer

          I think it’s almost certain that Amber got away with any kind of punishment because she was a traumatized white girl wreaking vengeance on the evil black criminal who wronged her. I sorta theorize that Blaine and the Walkertons cut a deal that let Amber avoid punishment while Sal got to go to a boarding school instead of juvie, but that’s only conjecture so far.

          As for that last paragraph, absolutely. Amber never got the chance to deal with stabbing Sal, and it’s been festering in her head since. Her mom wanted her in therapy, but Blaine decided that therapy is for little sucky babies and instead Amber needed to learn to toughen up instead of being scared of people with knives. I’m trying to find the right way to put this, but Amber needs to learn that she can be wrong, that she has done wrong, and that it’s okay for her to be wrong, because the people in her life aren’t suddenly going to abandon her for fucking up.

        4. Cerberus

          All of this.

          She’s been abused. She’s been raised very awfully by a complete scum-sucking piece of shit who has filled her head with so many awful narratives surrounding violence and emotions. She’s been done very very wrong and has a number of mental health conditions she’s trying to figure out completely on her own.

          And part of that, if she’s going to get healthy, is she’s going to have to learn how to let herself be wrong without feeling like that is going to put her in a vulnerable state with her father. How to be angry without feeling like she’s going to become her father. How to be triggered without finding an excuse to blame the person who triggered her as if it was an orchestrated attack. How to be DID without trying to force her personalities into ill-fitting boxes of “good stuff” and “bad stuff”. How to be anxious without beating herself up. How to be a survivor without ripping herself and those important to her apart trying to cope with it.

          And that’s really hard to do. Most simply because she’s got nothing to guide her and all her automatic responses and guidelines that she’s been rote trained to do or had to adopt to survive her shithead of a father are actually counter to her healthy recovery in her life post-shithead.

          In this, she reminds me of my ex and I hope she can find the path my ex could not.

        5. Needfuldoer

          Gotta keep the narrative alive, no matter how tough the mental gymnastics may be.

      2. Reltzik

        That, and I don’t think that the actual act of actually breaking into a room is in Amber’s skillset. Or in her “I can do this without a freakout” mindset.

  34. Zamer

    Just to let you know, using Dina as a method for us to forget about Joyce’s current religious meltdown thanks to Toedad is working.

    1. Reltzik

      The existence of this comment seems to disprove its content.

      1. Orion Fury

        It went Meta?

  35. Teddae

    UM OKAY i am hoping they do not interact anymore after this BUT SURE

  36. Heather

    So she basically doesn’t want to feel in debt to him in any way? Is she feeling the vaguest hints of guilt and is trying to resolve it, albeit it in a kind of ridiculous/creepy way?

    Is this a way if only in her own mind to completely sever ties?

    Idk, it’s kind of weird to be fixated on doing his laundry even if it was one of the last things he did for her I guess as her bf (besides caring that she lives or dies, but she can’t thank him for /that/, in her mind he betrayed her).

    But then she’s in a pretty strange head space right now I guess… probably amazigirl near full time. (Ugh).

    1. StClair

      IMO, yes, all of this. Especially the part where it’s weird, ridiculous and/or creepy.

    2. rectilinearpropagation

      I am trying to remember the last time we saw Amber as herself and not her alter-ego. Has that happened since the break-up? If not, hasn’t it been days in comic book time?

      1. Heather

        I believe so. I mean she went the amazigirl route during the breakup and wasn’t wearing the costume- even outside the mask she is likely still in ‘amazigirl mode’.

        Probably doesn’t want to think/have any true emotional fallback like being sad tbh- instead she embraces anger and ‘justice’. And justice also means ‘paying your debts’ and the favours people did, not just doling out pain to the people who ‘do wrong’… I guess? Idk, it’s odd. But then this is the girl who to be ‘consistent’ as Amazigirl decided to make a big deal about underage drinking (though that was more so she didn’t have to examine herself too much for using it as an excuse to try to beat down Sal).

      2. Spencer

        The last time we saw Amber was yesterday when she was saw Danny and Sal together and slipped into the Amazi-Girl persona. As far as we know, she’s been Amazi-Girl since.

        1. Cerberus

          This.

          It’s my suspicion that Amber either hasn’t come back or has only just come back right before sending Dina out. Either way, it could spell some major badness as far as her DID goes.

        2. Spencer

          I’m gonna make a guess and say the next time we see Amber, it will be her coming back to normal and putting the costume away. We know she’s showing up sometime next month, so there’s plenty of time.

          And, yeah, with what you’ve informed me about DID Amber has done one of the scariest things imaginable. She let Amazi-Girl take the reigns for most of the day and make unilateral decisions for both alters.

        3. Cerberus

          Yeah, it’s not something I’d really recommend and has tended to go badly in my experience to put it mildly (I am glad in so many ways that I’m no longer a dumb ass middle schooler).

          And based on the preview panels, we’ll see Amber at least by July 19th, though we may see her earlier. I’m definitely very nervous/excited to see her response/interpretation of the whole scenario.

      3. Reltzik

        The breakup was yesterday (Saturday).

  37. Woof

    I hope Danny rolls with this, it’s time to let this whole bad situation mellow out and die. Danny may be a dumbass sometimes, but he’s a genuinely good guy, and doesn’t deserve to be abused any more than Amber did. She needs to sort her own problems out instead of reaping them onto others.

    1. Reltzik

      Yeah, he needs to move on to someone able to offer him a more stable relationship, like his other-universe canonical relationships of Sal, or Billie, or maybe Ruth.

      WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

      1. Reltzik

        ((To clarify, this is me snarkily anticipating future train wreckage, rather than suggesting that Danny needs a girlfriend to make him whole.))

        1. Cerberus

          Yeah, in reality, taking a serious bent, what he needs most is to work on what Danny is without a partner and believing that that individual can be a whole person with a future and value before going in a relationship with anyone.

        2. Spencer

          Which is why his confessing his attraction to Ethan was such an important move for him, even outside of his acceptance of his identity as a bisexual man.

          Danny spilled how hot he was for Ethan not because he was hoping to get up all in that glorious manchest, he did it for himself. Because he wasn’t going to allow himself to be ashamed of his own feelings, and did so with no real regard for pursuing a relationship with Ethan.

          Coming from the guy who told Amber he was fine with her almost swearing at him, not because he forgave her and understood that she lashed out and felt immense guilt, but because he’s just naturally accepted that abuse is a thing to put up with, that’s incredible. It’s the first step into building himself into a Danny that deserves to be happy for himself, and not just the Lois Lane or the guy hanging around the White House updating servers.

  38. Sammy

    Amber is…really abusive and creepy. She got into this situation because she freaked out over Danny having a conversation with Sal and telling her she should take a break.
    Then, she decides to break the boundaries that she’s set up by breaking into his room and doing his laundry, then using Dina to communicate to him. I can’t really parse her message from what Dina’s saying, but you can sense that subtle blaming in that whole “I broke into your room and did your laundry instead of having sex with you because I am super pissed at you for talking to Sal”.

    1. Heather

      I don’t really get anything about sex from this at all honestly?

      1. Sammy

        When Danny helped Amber by doing her laundry, she said that Amber-girl might pay him back for it later. I think sex was implied there, and so now I think she’s saying that she wanted to do that, but had to pay him back another way, because of this whole…scenario.

        1. Spencer

          Amber did his laundry because she felt compelled to pay him back for his earlier kindness, and now she doesn’t want to have sex with him anymore. It’s not “I’m so angry I’m going to do your laundry grr argh.”

          It’s that need to put Danny’s kindness in a box, I think, is what’s worrying.

        2. Sammy

          You’re oversimplifying it. shows Amber thanking Danny for doing her laundry. She says, “Amazi-girl will thank you later.” In the comments of this particular comic, you said, “Amber means that they’re going to frick frack.”. I agree with that.

          In this comic, when Dina communicates that Amber could not repay him by “her original designs”, she’s saying that she originally wanted the laundry thing to be an excuse to have sex with him. She reframed it as a transaction in which she owes him labor, which is something I would do if I were really pissed off at somebody who had done something for me. She’s also been on a bit of a streak in which she’s only been portrayed as Amazi-girl, being particularly violent (you might recall the May 12 strip in which even the victim of the thief she was beating up was scared. She said in the May 14 that she was actively beating people up to work through her feelings on what he’d done. The June 4th strip shows her actively thinking about doing something bad to Sal, who she’s tried to accost multiple times regardless of whether or not she’s actually committing a crime.)

          It’s up to interpretation, and we don’t know how Amber is feeling right now, but I do think that she’s communicating to him that she did her laundry because she’s pissed with him.

        3. Spencer

          The laundry wasn’t an “excuse” for sex. She wanted to have sex with him because Danny is her boyfriend.

          We aren’t gonna know until later, but I’m reasonably certain this is just “do a nice thing because he is owed this kindness, then never speak to him again.”

        4. Cerberus

          Yeah, that part where she’s putting Danny’s kindness in a box that is a worrying sign for how Amazi-girl is starting to view the humans in her life (well, maybe not starting to). Basically more props than actual people.

          As Granny Weatherwax notes, nothing good comes from viewing people as things.

        5. Spencer

          Looking back, I think she’s done it before. You know, Sal is the Evil One, Dorothy is her Jimmy Olsen who squeals about how she’s more than human, Danny was her Lois Lane and after Amazi-Girl has a rousing day of fighting crime they cuddle and play Mario Kart, and the students at the campus are cheering citizens who Amazi-Girl must rescue from ne’erdowells. Amazi-Girl is a creature of compartmentalizing, after all. She needs things to fall in specific boxes because that’s just where they belong.

        6. Cerberus

          Yeah. All of this. And I think the argument with Danny where they broke up shows just how hostile she is to the notion of one of the people in the boxes getting up and moving around. Like, she decided Danny was part of an evil conspiracy against her, simply because that was easier for her to believe and internally accept than the notion that Sal, the evil one, wasn’t actually pure evil and might actually have some good qualities and be capable of doing good deeds such as saving her life.

          I’ve been worried about Amazi-girl’s inflexibility for awhile, but this box enforcement is a really bad look for her and something she’s going to need to handle sooner rather than later if she doesn’t want to continue to do things she’s going to be regretting later.

        7. Reltzik

          I think it might be a bit of spiteful break-up accounting.

          “You don’t get to walk away from this with me owing you anything.”

          The breaking-in part is mildly creepy, but everything else is the normal irrational weirdness I’d… not exactly expect, but be unsurprised to find in a breakup.

  39. Aurora

    I’m happy to see that Amber isn’t too far gone into rage mode to make a nice gesture. Though she is apparently far gone enough that she thinks the way to do it is break into his room while he’s sleeping, soooo…. still kind of worrying.

  40. Spencer

    Eh, I laughed. We’ve seen Amber breaking into places being played for comedy before, we’ve seen the same done for Joyce, Billie and Ruth, so I’m not gonna set up my fainting couch for her very angrily doing his laundry. It’s worrying now because now we get that Amber’s behaviour is the result of massive amounts of untreated trauma and mental health problems, rather than “lol shes a superhero”, but Amber doing weird shit she can get away with due to being Amazi-Girl has been a consistent thing in this series since its inception.

    To me, this strip is an indicator that she’s not nearly as done with Danny as she wants to be. That she felt the need to owe him despite his “betrayal” because he had done her a kindness she hadn’t yet repaid, and thus in Amazi-Girl logic, she must give back in order to remain morally absolute and just. Now she’s in the clear and she can totally hate Danny forever for talking to Sal being swayed by the Evil One and attempting to stop the mission. An important strip to me is how we’re going to see Amber react to their breakup, because as far as we know she still hasn’t shifted back since originally slipping yesterday.

    Wait, sorry, I’m using the wrong script. I meant to say that Amber is Toxic, Broken, in the Cycle of Abuse, and other total buzzwords for dehumanizing the mentally ill.

    1. Cerberus

      Yeah, that’s a large part of why I’m worried about her and where she’s at (and especially which alter is in charge at the moment). She’s in a dark bad space and making very suspect decisions based on reasoning that’s getting more and more twisted according to her strong desire to keep Amazi-girl “consistent” (I noted a long while ago that that consistency was a really bad sign with Amazi-girl that would turn out bad and that’s seemed to bear out).

      And it’s making the more “ha ha, amusing” aspects of her character much more, “um, er, now that we know more about this alter and what is driving her and how she reacts to people she has deemed her “enemies” a lot less cute and a bit more nervous laughter inducing.

      And yeah, I really want to know how the Amber alter is going to respond to the breakup, because I feel that is gonna determine a lot about whether Amber is going to take steps to try and take care of herself or if she’s going to need a shake-up bigger than nearly dying or breaking up with her boyfriend over a runaway piece of paranoia in order to get her to realize that things continuing as they are are not sustainable.

      1. Spencer

        Honestly, I really think it’s going to take her final confrontation with Sal for her to realize how bad things have gotten. Being confronted with the fact that the monster in the dark is a human being with friends and family and realizing that, if Sal is an actual person, and Sal had reasons for why she did those actions, then Amber didn’t just lose herself to her rage, she violently scarred a real human being. Not a concept. Not a villain. Not even just the asshole who took her Ethan hostage; but a scared kid who did something stupid and violent out of a crushing sense of despair, just like Amber.

        With the way things are going, I’m also really convinced that it’s going to be Sal who helps pull her out of the darkness. Apart from Sal’s major character arc right now being based on how she has no one she can connect with except for Marcie, Sal has been there. Sal’s gone through Amber’s journey and came out of it. Worn down and bitter, but also with a strong sense of fundamental being and the assurance that, even with her one big mistake, the love of her parents shouldn’t be conditional. And I think with all that Sal’s been put through, she’s going to be able to be there for Amber in a way that nobody was there for her.

        Also Sal and Amber teaming up at roller derby would be super cute.

        And, yeah, much as I’m ready to roll with this as a joke with a side order of uneasiness, because I’m used to Amazi-Girl doing weird shit in the name of lulz, we’ve spent so long defining Amazi-Girl’s actions as fundamentally unhealthy to Amber, and now we’re starting to see that leak to other people. I can’t exactly say it’s unfair that folks are skeeved out by this, even if I’m not willing to jump on the “fuck off you mentally ill abuse victim you arent owed anything” bandwagon.

        1. Cerberus

          All that makes a lot of sense to me and I think you’re right that she’s going to need a major confrontation with Sal in some manner to truly make it click how toxic her current path is.

          And I think you’re right that Sal will be the one to help her set things right in her head because they do have so many similarities (being abused, having lots of anger and rage that they had/have to get a grip on expressing healthily, awkwardness about trusting other people to let in emotionally, trained in bad habits by an abusive parent who occasionally pops up to reset a lot of progress).

          And I think this is her doing things that are not so okay and where AG’s actions take on a little bit of menace because of how we see her mental processing has gotten warped. But I have a lot of hope that Amber/AG will make it to the other side of this without becoming her father. That she will eventually figure it out and get better.

          I want to believe in that and I think she deserves to be able to try to make it there.

        2. StClair

          Great post!

  41. BenRG

    Okay, it looks like Amber is going to turn into a stalker ex-SO with a difference, doesn’t it? She won’t go around breaking Danny’s stuff but maintaining it!

    Maybe (and I know this may sound weird) she wants to keep associating with Danny but she’s too afraid of Amazi-Girl and Dark Amber to approach him personally? Or maybe, on a certain level, all of the personae miss him so much that they’re looking for excuses to have something to do with him? Either way something tells me that poor Dina is going to find herself the go-between in the most abnormal relationship on campus!

    1. trlkly

      That’s where my mind went, too. But then I thought about who would be stealing his clothes, and figured it would be “Amazi-Girl.” So I could see this more as AG tying up loose ends so “Amber” has no excuse to go see him again.

      Either way works–either gives the idea that at least “Amber” realizes there’s a problem. Which means she might actually try to fight becoming Amazi-Girl.

  42. Saaaam

    Dodged a bullet danny.

    Well currently in the process of dodging that bullet and maybe it’ll curve to hit you, but you’re dodging. Now go to town, downtown, on Ethan cause fuck it.

  43. A Scientist

    That’s a good shirt, Dina.

    But now that stupid song is stuck in my head.

    That’s a bad shirt, Dina.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      I don’t know.  I now want that shirt.
      Because everybody knows that the bird is the word.

  44. Questionor

    I wonder what it says about my time in college that I knew stranger relationships there.

  45. ninja_jesus

    Oh, when I first read this, I thought Amber broke into his room to trash his clothes, but then changed her mind after. The alternative, with her doing his laundry, seems a bit more creepy. Breaking in is not good in any circumstance, but I would’ve understood a bit more if she did it out of petty revenge instead of paying off a debt.

    So what’s the deal? Does Amber hate Danny or not? She very clearly declared he’s no longer with her, due to circumstances unknown to Danny, so one would think she’d not go out of her way to do anything positive for him. I don’t know, I’d be pissed off at this mixed signal behavior.

    1. Spencer

      Amber thinks she has to hate Danny now because he “betrayed” her by talking to Sal and wanting her to stop being Amazi-Girl. Even during the last chapter, Amazi-Girl noted that she Amber did really need him, and that Sal had taken “our” Danny.

      By doing his laundry for him, Amber is trying to pay him back for doing her laundry for her when she had a PTSD episode and ran away. She was planning on some Amazi-sex with him, but because they broke up that’s not gonna happen, so instead she did his laundry so she could tell herself that they’re even. She’s trying to be the bigger person because she needs Amazi-Girl to be constantly moral and just, and not paying Danny back, despite his shocking betrayal, is in violation of that narrative she built.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Bearing in mind Danny has no idea what significance Sal has in the Amazi-Girl narrative.

    2. John Brewer

      > Does Amber hate Danny or not?

      Amber is dissociating, possibly to the point where her different parts aren’t sharing memories. Parts of her still love Danny, and parts of her think he’s the enemy.

  46. Bagge

    This makes me extremely worried.

    Letting yourself into your boyfriends room and doing his laundry is a cute gesture of intimacy. It is pushing boundaries you HAVE EARNED THE PERMISSION TO PUSH.

    Doing it to your ex is AT BEST a spiteful gesture to “get even” or some bullshit like that, but it’s also sends a very clear message of insecurity. “Look what I did without asking and that you couldn’t prevent me from doing. What else might I do, hmmm?”

    As noted, Amaziegirl has never been a big one on boundries, so I really hope this is only a spiteful way to show Danny that shoe doesn’t need him, but what worries me is that this is not something hateful blurted out in the heat of the moment. This took planning, premeditation and resolve to carry out.

    In short, I have no idea of how Amber and Amaziegirl are interacting in this, and that’s what worries me.

    1. Spencer

      I really don’t think Amber’s trying to threaten Danny with this. Like, that seems to be extrapolating to the nth degree.

      I think you’re right on her trying to prove she doesn’t need Danny, though.

      In short, it is pretty spiteful of Amazi-Girl, because she’s trying to go “Okay, we’re even now. I showed you that, despite your villainy, I can still do nice things for you. Now let’s never talk again.” I also think it’s tinged with a bit of “I should do something nice to pay him back” because for all her bluster, I don’t think she hates him nearly as much as she thinks she needs to.

      1. anonymsly

        I also don’t think it’s a conscious threat from Amber, but it doesn’t have to be a conscious threat to be rather, or extremely, threatening.

        Danny has seen Amber’s rage and pain, it’s been directed at him, and at at least one point I would judge that there was a non-zero chance of him suffering physically from said rage and pain. He’s seen her beating people, and he saw her beat one person badly enough to send him to the hospital. (It doesn’t even matter whether Blaine deserved it, because it happened. And Amazi-girl’s and Amber’s bar for ‘deserves it’ might be different now.)

        Now he knows for sure that she can come and go from his room anytime she wants, and he would never know, and he cannot stop her. She can literally do anything she wants to him or his possessions, or to Joe, and he can do nothing about it. Anytime she wants. For reasons he might never know and cannot predict.

        That is terrifying. Whether she intended it to be or not.

      2. Cerberus

        Yeah, that’s probably where Amazi-girl is coming from there, but Danny would definitely be justified in interpreting this in a more negative way given that they aren’t together anymore and more importantly, now that Amazi-girl has openly stated that she views Danny as a villain who has wronged her.

        Like, I don’t think it was intentional, but making a point about “settling accounts” when you’ve just gone on a massive rant spree about how you need to settle the score with enemies who’ve wronged you carries some unfortunate connotations nonetheless.

        1. Spencer

          Yeah, I can see what you, Bagge, and anonymysly are getting at. I don’t think this is going to develop into anything, buuuuut it is really weird and could be construed as a threat, even if I’m not convinced it plays out that way.

  47. GUIGUI

    Uh? Did Amber had a change of mind, did I miss a strip? This seems to come out of nowhere. Well, things seems to go better? MAybe?

    1. Needfuldoer

      A debt has been paid.

      1. GUIGUI

        Thanks. I had forgotten about that.

  48. Chris Phoenix

    Hey Willis, you’ve got a video ad on your page that keeps scrolling the page to itself every few seconds. With sound.

    This kind of crap is exactly why people get adblockers.

    1. Nightsbridge

      hiveworks handles his ads, give them the info on it

      1. Chris Phoenix

        I did. We’ll see if anything happens. If we’re still getting these ads a week from now, I’ll install an adblocker.

  49. Pat

    How did Danny know what was in the bag?

  50. Phildog

    Okay. Wow. We all knew amber was crazy, but damn. She is super crazy. Like a danger to herself and others crazy. Breaking into her ex-boyfriend’s room to do his laundry because she owed him a favor? She needs to be institutionalized.

  51. PlainMarie

    Well, that’s not creepy at all.

  52. Kkiten

    This would be the best prank ever. But instead of ‘She owed you one’ say ” I found this out in the street’.

  53. Kei

    Dina, no. It’s not thoughtful at all. Making people feel uncomfortable and unsafe is not thoughtful.

  54. zoelogical

    mrgle.

    i really wish that this was gonna be the end of Amazi-girl’s actions. but i feel pretty sure that it’s not.

    YOU GET A THERAPY. YOU GET A THERAPY. YOU ALL GET A THERAPY.

  55. MapleAmber

    I like Dina’s shirt!

  56. nothri

    The downside of having a superhero as your significant other is that eventually you might have a superhero as your significant Ex.

    1. DSL

      There was a movie about that …

      1. magicallady

        a so-so movie

  57. magicallady

    amber, thats….thats a little creepy….

  58. TheGrammarLegionary

    Just as a side note, is anyone else curious as to whose bed Joe woke up in this morning? I mean, it’s not surprising that he’s elsewhere, but I’d still assumed it was his own bed and I doubt enough time has passed for him to be “up and at ’em” on a Sunday.

  59. Keulan

    It’s nice that Amber’s paying Danny back for doing her laundry earlier, but this is still kinda creepy.

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