192

Triumvirate
Posted on November 18, 2022 by David M Willis

192 thoughts on “Triumvirate”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    https://sgpsketch.tumblr.com/post/701232666593394689/doanot

    1. Ana Chronistic

      [re: yesterday: I got so immediately caught up in the idea for today’s comment I forgot to post yesterday but that’s fine bc I can’t really top the Patreon comment (and it always seems to flop if I just repost)]

      1. Clif

        What was yesterday’s Patreon comment? It would be hard to beat today’s stearage comment.

        1. Ana Chronistic

          pretty much what Nono said, but in all caps, and about the artwork too

    2. True Survivor

      No thank you. Great meme.

      1. True Survivor

        That should be “No, thank you”. Not “No thank you.” Very different. Sorry.

    3. Decidedly Orthogonal

      That’s a rude awakening. Really Becky? Ms Billingsworth? Sarah said it best: “I have… reservations“.

    4. Leorale

      Haha, awesome

    5. Mravac Kid

      Right in the kokoro

  2. The Wellerman

    Triumvirate… of course. ?

    Can’t believe Twitter is dying. Might as well play a fitting song…

    *plays “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!” by Hilary Summers on hacked muzak*

    1. Doctor_Who

      Ding Dong the Witch is Dead might soon be appropriate as well.

    2. Stephen Bierce

      I would have gone with the ED theme from Superdimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, but that’s just me.

      1. Stephen Bierce

        Give Me One More Dance…

    3. Rose by Any Other Name

      I read a book recently where the author had confused the word triumvirate with triage.

      So the characters kept talking about ‘The Triage’ when they clearly were talking about a triumvirate. It was awkward.

      1. Decidedly Orthogonal

        A whole book?!?! And the editor didn’t flag it?! ?

        1. Nova

          If it was self-published it might not have had an editor

        2. J. Gawain

          Which is, and I am quoting many people here, “the single biggest mistake that writers make when trying to self publish.”

        3. Nova

          100%

        4. Clif

          If the three leaders were selected from a dieing ruling class, the perhaps the Triage was accurate.

        5. RowenMorland

          Or if they came together to stem the ruin of the world/country/alliance it could work.

        6. Taffy

          Editors might tell me I’m wrong, and I’m the author here. Who are they to tell me things like “Dog isn’t spelled with a Q”?

        7. Clif

          How else could a doq barq?

        8. Taffy

          No, the one with the dog on it is Mug.

        9. Rose by Any Other Name

          A little late on the reply, but… a whole trilogy.
          Not self-published.
          Which I listened to as an audio book, so it also went through recording.

      2. davidbreslin101

        Mind you, I read an otherwise excellent book by a well-known author with decades of experience, which misused the word “artefact” to mean “a person from a dead civilisation” in a few dozen places. I felt like passive-agressively posting a dictionary to the publishers.

    4. Yotomoe

      I still have faith it won’t die. It’ll just be worse.

    5. True Survivor

      If twitter has a huge loss in usership, what will happen to all the old profile data? Will the old posts just vanish into the void? That would be bad, I’ve been meaning to download a series of Michelle Fus’s self portraits off of her Twitter profile (because like all her art they are amazing), but don’t have an account so I never could after they got buried more than 5 posts deep.

      1. not someone else

        At this point, yes and/or be sold to shady sites. worse-case scenarios are occurring and the site has a high likelihood of actually being destroyed. See if she has a website or something.

      2. Reltzik

        When Twitter throws up that prompt to log in, click the Log In button, then just cancel out of it with the X in the upper corner of the popup. Then you can browse freely.

        … well, for the remaining 2.7 days of Twitter’s life.

        1. Findus

          Oooh, thank you!

        2. Needfuldoer

          Your money’s on the lettuce too, eh?

        3. The Wellerman

          Lettuce? What is this, burger time?

        4. Kamino Neko

          Google “prime minister” “lettuce”.

        5. Jamie

          To explain more than Kamino did, the “lettuce” thing is a webpage someone put up where a lettuce is sitting out and waiting to spoil. The challenge was to see if it would spoil before Liz Truss was out of office. The lettuce won.

          Twitter has also now been challenged by a head of lettuce.

        6. not someone else

          Always bet on lettuce. Hell, my money’s on the same lettuce (as the Truss one). That shit looks like iceberg, it lasts.

        7. Reltzik

          According to old-time slang, my money IS lettuce. So…. yes?

        8. Needfuldoer

          If some of it is cheddar, and some of it is bread, you’ve got an expensive sandwich.

        9. Stephen Bierce

          Bacon too. And Beef. Very expensive sammich there.

        10. Azhrei Vep

          Okay, Beef as slang for money is finally a new one on me.

        11. The Wellerman

          @Azhrei seems confusing. I’m so used to slang beef having negative connotations, it’s often used to denote when you have a problem with something or someone. :/

        12. True Survivor

          I didn’t know that. Thanks!

      3. Thag Simmons

        Very likely that significant amounts of Data will not survive, even if someone resurrects the site

    6. Taffy

      My favorite part about the whole thing is all the Amaurot jokes. Aside from that, my life is more or less unaffected, so I just got some cyberpopcorn and a comfy lawn chair ready.

      1. The Wellerman

        ???

      2. Clif

        Yeah, to me, Twitter is a spectator sport. I felt the pain when I got dependent on G+ and then it died. Facebook was for keeping track of friends and family. G+ was for circles, communities of interest. I’ve never replaced that. Still miss it.

        Never understood what Twitter does that Facebook doesn’t do better.

        1. davidbreslin101

          I never got the hang of Twitter. It felt more like a place to stalk celebrities than to have a conversation. And I quickly realised I didn’t have a hope in hell of following what was going on unless I was logged in several hours a day.

        2. Azhrei Vep

          I never saw the use for any of it, personally. So watching this stuff burn is nothing but funny, every single time.

    7. Keulen

      Personally I’m enjoying seeing all the funny tweets people are making about in case twitter dies soon.

  3. lines

    oh man…poor lucy

    1. anon

      tbf, lucy and joyce aren’t exactly close, so she might have a vague idea of her issues but it’s not really becky’s place to say “joyce is on birth control now, how do we help her adjust to it”, unless she was already vague about it but she already name dropped joyce. who knows, maybe joyce will run across lucy at some point and talk to her directly

      1. Kilgore

        Correct me I’d I’m wrong but I thought Becky didn’t know about the birth control? Wasn’t Joyce keeping that from her and Becky was keeping the premarital hanky panky from her?

        1. Taffy

          It’d be really awkward if Becky didn’t know, considering she’s explicitly poked fun at Joyce about those pills. Lucky guess, maybe.

        2. Leorale

          Becky is keeping her premarital hanky-panky from Joyce, and Joyce is keeping her newfound autism from Becky.

          (Becky and Joyce should probably just tell each other, since many characters know both secrets and there’s no way this will keep indefinitely… but this isn’t Avoiding Drama Of Age.)

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-13/01-bring-me-to-life-drawing/blobs/

        3. Taffy

          Okay, I know what you meant, but the phrase “newfound autism” made me think of one of those scenes in movies where a bunch of kids are gathered around something fascinating and another kid is walking by and one of the kids in the crowd waves them over to come and look and when they get there one of the other kids is sat on the ground holding like a bunch of newborn kittens or part of a spaceship or something, except it’s the main cast and the one holding the thing is Joyce and she’s got like a plank of wood with the word “autism” carved into it.

        4. Schpoonman

          Now I’m just wondering if Jonny 2×4 is on the spectrum.

        5. Kilgore

          Ah that’s what it was. I knew it was one of the recent developments but for some reason I didn’t think it was that

        6. anon

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-13/01-bring-me-to-life-drawing/enqueerinatin/ becky was there when dorothy was pushing her to get her prescription first thing in the morning

  4. Dana

    Ouch.

  5. Doctor_Who

    Lucy: Fine, I’ll go light the signal.

    Soon.

    1. True Survivor

      That would do it. Great image.

      1. Doctor_Who

        I’m just sad I thought of it too close to midnight to shop a Jennifer silhouette over Batman.

        1. Clif

          🙁

  6. Yotomoe

    I mean she’s really got her life together, y’know?

  7. Cattleprod

    She’s not changing her name to Jennifer if she has a verified account.

    (That’s a reference to something that might not exist when I check this comment section again.)

    1. Vanessa

      Nice. It will take a while to break, Elon probably won’t rip out all the copper from the servers and sell it. Lot’s of spinning wheels tonight though, and no advertisements to be seen.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Maybe he’s doing all this because he misses Fail Whale.

      2. The Wellerman

        Wait no ads? wdym

    2. Thag Simmons

      man it’ll be somethin if the “smartest man in the world” renders twitter nonfunctional in less than a month

      1. Clif

        It would be really something if that was his goal to start with.

        Not that I believe it. Musk has always been of the school of I’m going to go in and try risky things , probably break things and blow expensive stuff up, and that’s okay as long as I learn things. Whether that works as well with social media as it does with big honking rockets remains to be seen.

        Pass the popcorn.

  8. Axel

    To be fair, Jennifer was actually part of their friend group before Joyce started going through this, so it’s not quite the same slight as when all of Lucy’s dorm mates did the same thing. Probably feels the same to her though.

  9. Sirksome

    I mean Jennifer’s head cheerleader class naturally has a higher charisma than Lucy’s cheerful nerd class. Of course Becky would come to her first. Lucy needs to diversify her build.

    1. Yotomoe

      It’s what happens when you specc wrong. I mean don’t get me wrong. You need a nerd class for good team synergy but the low charisma stat can be a deal breaker for a lotta people.

    2. Vanessa

      Jennifer, or whatever her friendemies call her against her repeated wishes, is not the friend Joyce needs now. But don’t wake her up from happy dreams!

  10. Marvelman

    Lucy has friends, right? I mean besides Walky who’s just not that into her? Personally, I don’t know what Walky’s problem is. Lucy’s fine.

    1. Sirksome

      Not really. I think she has a twin brother and the girls of forest quad are nice but I haven’t seen the closer group of friends you would expect. I think that’s why she’s been excited to slowly work her way into the main core cast group.

      1. Laura

        Why so many twins? Is Willis a twin? Does Willis have twins? Is there some special significance to twins?

        (Hi folks, I’m still supposed to stay away from screens, but poking my head in to say hi.)

        1. Vanessa

          If you aren’t joking, yes he does have twin toddlers or preschoolers. But maybe twins are just funny. But I don’t remember her having a twin…

        2. Laura

          OK, thanks!

        3. thejeff

          She’s got an older brother in McNutt, not a twin.

          Walky and Sal as twins dates back to It’s Walky, right? Long before Willis had his twins.

        4. Yotomoe

          Reminds me of Camp Lazlo when there was like…3-4 pairs of twins and one set of quadruplets.

        5. Needfuldoer

          Remember that one-off character from the series finale who was actually intended to be Heffer Wolfe from Rocko’s Modern Life but they couldn’t get the rights?

        6. milu

          Hi Laura! take care <3

        7. Laura

          Thanks, milu!

        8. Miri

          If you ever read the Chalet School books, this is nothing.

          Joey ends up with:

          Triplet girls
          Three singleton boys
          Twins (girl/boy)
          A singleton girl (I think, I’ve read fewer of the newer ones)
          Second twins (also girl/boy)

          She had twin big siblings and I think married a twin. There are at least four other unrelated sets of twins I can think of in the series…

          This is the series where you don’t get a husband: you get a doctor husband! You don’t get a baby: you get twins!

          One of my friends has written some rather compelling BtVS crossover fanfic for it, and I’ve read some by other people… It works confusingly well.

        9. Schpoonman

          I started reading that list to the chorus of 12 Days of Christmas.

    2. Yotomoe

      Fine is fine but I just feel like her and Walky have bad chemistry.

    3. Reltzik

      She had the other girls in her wing, and she was super-kinda-superficially-sorta popular with them thanks to the movie nights that everyone else stopped going to the moment Billie showed up.

    4. Kilgore

      Are we talking fine in the attractive sense or in the traditional sense? Either way Lucy is pretty meh to me. She seems nice enough but that doesn’t really correlate to romance and as Yotomoe said they have no chemistry.

    5. Joy

      Wally finds her incredibly sexy and cute and was too nervous to ask her out? He’s more stoic than he was last season if you hadn’t noticed.

      1. thejeff

        More oblivious and wrapped up in his own concerns until Dorothy slapped him upside the head with the obvious.

        Lucy found him incredibly sexy and cute and was too nervous to ask him out.

        1. Clif

          Walky likes Lucy okay and enjoys her company and appreciates her mind. He is involved with Lucy because Dorothy thought he should be and he would do absolutely anything for Dorothy.

  11. darkoneko

    …Becky, you arshole.

    1. Vanessa

      Hear hear yes. That was so rude of her, what was she thinking.

  12. True Survivor

    Notice how Becky sticks her head in before asking if Lucy is dressed? Come on lady, that would be horrible even if you weren’t in a committed relationship!

    (I get the panel was likely just constructed like that so we could now who’s talking, but still Willis come on come up with a better opening to the scene then, we know you’re a far far better writer than this! Your stuff is usually 1000 out of 5).

    1. RocketRelm

      On the other hand, this is Becky, who has been established throughout much of this comic to be Not Good At Boundaries. It’s nowhere near as out of character for her as it would be for, say, Dotty, or Leslie.

      1. True Survivor

        Also very true.

    2. woobie

      It’s panels, not full motion.

    3. Nova

      “but still Willis come on come up with a better opening to the scene then, we know you’re a far far better writer than this!”

      Yikes the entitlement in this. Once scene wasn’t formatted according to your personal preferences and you’re negging the author while saying “we” like you’re the face of some silent movement?

      Stunned.

      1. True Survivor

        I didn’t mean for it to come across like that, I just thought their might of been a more logical way for Becky to quickly enter the room and establish the problem to dealt with in this chapter. I generally like this comic and thought that any criticism should be blunted with the perspective that I think he writes a well constructed and engaging comic (not that I actually expected him to ever read my comments – he gets hundreds of them). I only used ‘we’ in regards to the fact people here like his comic – its why they read it. I just like talking about story construction and structure. I didn’t mean to offend him or anyone else.

    4. davidbreslin101

      LUCY: … yes, she’s in the shower.
      BECKY: [marches into shower] You dressed yet?

      1. nicoleandmaggie

        That genuinely made me snort with laughter.

  13. RassilonTDavros

    No gods, no Jennifers!

  14. Suet

    Coming out of the cage, and Joyce is doing just fine.

    Lemme guess, Dotty is Caesar, Pompey is Becky, and Sarah is Crassus.

    1. UrsulaDavina

      Dotty is Crassus Sarah is Ceaser and Becky is Pompey cause in a civil war my money is on Sarah.

      1. wwwhhattt

        So who’s Brutus? Joyce would’ve been the closest if she wasn’t busy being the republic

        1. UrsulaDavina

          I guess either Raddiah or Jenifer?

    2. Thag Simmons

      Oh, this was a chapter break. Surprised I hadn’t noticed.

      1. Azhrei Vep

        Generally speaking, if people are going to bed, it’s the end of a chapter. Solid rule of thumb to work with.

  15. Raen

    “The bi girl in denial with shelves of issues and stupid glasses? …no, the violent one.”

    1. Yotomoe

      You’ll have to narrow it down.
      (You could be describing 3 different characters there.)

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        let’s see… Billie, maybe Amber… hmm, Ruth’s not in denial…

        1. Yotomoe

          You forgot Joyce.

  16. DailyBrad

    I mean, she isn’t wrong. Joyce knows Jennifer and likes her already.

    I’m sure Joyce and Lucy would get along fine, outside of Joyce originally thinking Lucy was mocking her because she was so much outwardly like her. But still, the two just do not really know one another much.

    1. Axel

      Yeah this. I’m sure it doesn’t feel great to Lucy, but Jennifer actually makes more sense (unlike when Lucy’s dormmates (friends?) suddenly stopped trusting her opinion

      1. Joy

        I’m still hoping they were just ribbing her but it’s hard to tell.

  17. Taffy

    Billifer and Lucifer?

    1. Yotomoe

      Are these ship names? cuz I could be persuaded to draw them making out.

      1. Cmasta1992

        Yup that’s me. Captain of the S.S. Lucifer. Slogan : It Literally Can’t Get Worse Than Our Last Cruise

        1. not someone else

          Okay, now I have to ship it just because of the name.

        2. Azhrei Vep

          You son of a bongo, I’m IN.

        3. Opus the Poet

          LOL, not gonna deny it.

      2. Taffy

        Billie/Jennifer and Lucy/Jennifer? And you need persuading?

        1. Yotomoe

          I’ve already drawn Billie/Jennifer. Pretty fun honestly. Maybe I’ll do it again someday.

        2. Yotomoe

          https://imgur.com/a/C5QbSE8

        3. Taffy

          Most excellent. Thank you for the reminder.

        4. The Wellerman

          ?☺️ thanks for reminding me this exists!

          Comic time travel never felt so kinky! ?

        5. a/snow/mous/e

          pretty sure I’ve seen a timey-wimey selfcest orgy somewhere on e621, lol xD

  18. pyrock_mania

    Weeks/Months later we learn this idea came to Becky after watching how Dorothy reacted to Jennifer stepping in with Joyce, and if anything is going to get Dorothy to actually hate her it’s encouraging Joyce to go to Jennifer instead of Dorothy.

    1. Vanessa

      And especially because Billy is such a toxic hypocrite. Please don’t let Joyce start hanging around with Billy’s social-climbing, hateful, vindictive fremenies.

      1. Schpoonman

        It’s worth noting that nothing Jennifer said in that peptalk made Joyce feel better; Jennifer lovingly described what a wretch she is and Joyce thought “Oh, if she can make it through the day after 10,000 things that would have driven me to hermitude I can get through this.”

  19. Rainhat

    We had a question the other day about people outside the main character clique not interacting with them. Here ya go, here’s why.

  20. bejouled

    Joyce is getting sick of people being up in her business, so Becky is recruiting more people to be up in her business?

    The prior issue of her not getting birth control has been dealt with. What is Becky even getting Jennifer for?

    1. J. Gawain

      Becky’s comment indicates that she thinks Joyce is sick of her, Dorothy, and Sarah. She doesn’t seem to have put together that the reason Joyce is angry at them is that they are all up in her business. The fact that Joyce appeared to respond well to Jennifer seems to confirm that for her.

      As to what advice she is looking for, I’m taking a almost absolutely incorrect stab here that she wants help with how to broach the subject of her and Dina doing the horizontal *insert dance name here* to Joyce.

  21. June Gloom

    Joyce deserves a better class of friend than this selfish meddling weirdo who seems to use being loud as a substitute for having a personality.

  22. Reltzik

    So Becky wants a SECOND person to give Joyce bad advice, to balance out the two calmer, rational advisors.

  23. Francoinblanco

    so Becky is aware that Joyce has had enough of the triumvirate on her head so she decided to make the triumvirate quatvirate with Jennifer.
    Lucy is smile treasure not yet spoiled by drama

  24. anon

    i would’ve assumed becky or someone in their group would’ve had jennifer’s phone number (or twitter unless she doesn’t use it /check it anymore lol)

    tho i’d still ask lucy too/other trusted ppl so there can be multiple perspectives

  25. Akane

    Not sure how one more person being up in Joyce’s business would help with Joyce being overwhelmed by the people beinh up in her business to be honest.

  26. BBCC

    Becky, nooooo, don’t make Lucy sad.

  27. anonymsly

    You know, I think Lucy might actually be very helpful to Joyce, depending on how she went about it and what she believes the ‘problem’ is. Lucy might actually be a non-judgemental listening ear when Joyce needs one. Also, a non-Joe non-judgemental listening ear, since Joyce might possibly want to sort out boy thoughts out loud.

  28. Nono

    I think the problem is that Becky could have just gone ‘hey is Jennifer around, I need to ask her something’. Instead, she leads with the problem, which makes Lucy think she’s asking for help with it.

    1. Nicoleandmaggie

      Seriously

  29. Yotomoe

    https://imgur.com/a/8MXfwLI
    Decided to make a compilation of my Joyce/Joe art. Probably shoulda posted it yesterday tho.

    1. Séathrún

      Gonna be honest, I understand why you stopped doing it for very good reasons, but your Joyce/Liz art is hands down some of my favorite of your DoA art.

  30. Regina phalange

    Or, OR, and hear me out here, maybe instead of foisting Joyce on the barely-holding-it-together social-climber, Becky could try being an actual friend instead of a close-minded, judgmental bigot?

    Becky, Joyce doesn’t want you around because you’ve both swept the “your personal religious beliefs are a deep betrayal to me and our relationship” blow-up under the rug and pretended everything is fine, when it certainly is not.

    1. Daibhid C

      Yeah, I hate it when I say everything someone believes is stupid and only stupid people believe it, and they get all judgemental about that.

      1. Derek

        I still don’t think Joyce was talking about Becky there, but even if she was, they had their big explosive fight and then haven’t talked about it since. it IS weird that Becky seems to have gone back to her usual status quo with how she treats Joyce. Are they just going to paper over it and pretend nothing happened?

        1. vulcanodon

          Wait, do people actually resolve issues? My whole family’s been doing it wrong all these years

      2. Nova

        This but unironically when I:

        – wasn’t talking ABOUT them
        – wasn’t talking TO them
        – had no reason to know they were going to turn up.

        She was venting her own shit in a place where she knew there wasn’t anyone around who might take it personally and Becky tracked her down instead because she was upset at being left out.

        Either Joyce was just supposed to never vent her thoughts and feelings on the off chance that Becky might turn up out of nowhere (entirely unfair because everyone deserves a place to vent their feelings), or she was supposed to never leave Becky’s side and… also never get a chance to vent those feelings.

        It’s a messy issue, but Becky made a thing that was not about her into a fight about her because she was upset for other reasons. Joyce was not just ranting at Becky about how everything Becky believes is stupid. (Unlike Dina who literally did and said that kind of thing all the time).

        1. Big Z

          This, a thousand times this, ESPECIALLY because of how Becky reacts to Dina’s atheism.

          I remain on team “Hope Joyce Kicks Becky to the Curb until she GROWS UP”.

        2. thejeff

          Just to be clear that “place where she knew there wasn’t anyone around who might take it personally” was a room around the corner from Becky’s with the door open to the hall and anyone passing by.

          And frankly, going to look for your best friend when you hear they’re skipping class isn’t exactly bad behavior. Or unexpected.

        3. Taffy

          God forbid Joyce misses one class
          Fa la la la la, la la la la
          Dotty, let’s go crawl up her ass
          Fa la la la la, la la la la
          This is such a real disaster
          Fa la la, la la la, la la la
          Won’t she be glad we harassed her
          Fa la la la la, la la la la

        4. Nova

          It doesn’t matter how close to Becky’s room it was, it wasn’t Becky’s room. It was a room that Becky went to with the express purpose of finding Joyce rather than text to see if she’s okay. She made comments suggesting she only went to find her because she now had an excuse to intrude on Joyce’s relationship with a new friend who wasn’t Becky.

          I personally would never have gone to look for my friend when I knew another friend was visiting that day. I don’t think my friends’ choices to skip or attend class are any of my business because people are allowed their own personal private lives. It’s bad behaviour to treat your friends like they owe you an excuse for their whereabouts at school when you are both adults. And it’s bad behaviour to invite yourself to something without texting ahead to even say “hey I’m coming!”

          Becky was intruding on a conversation not about her and MADE it about her. She hurt her own feelings and then she and everyone around her treated Joyce like a monster for discussing her own feelings in a place she felt safe to do so. She is allowed room and space to discuss her feelings (even the not fun ones) and a good friend would have given her some grace on that.

          I have feelings about how I was brought up and I air those sometimes in ways that WOULD hurt people’s feelings if they didn’t know I was talking about myself, but I don’t owe people an apology when they don’t bother to get all the information first or extend me the same kind of empathy.

        5. anonymsly

          It was Joe’s room. I don’t think the boys’s dorms are ‘around the corner’. I think they’re on a different floor.

        6. Psi Baka Onna

          Also the door wasn’t open to the whole world through out Joyce’s venting, pretty sure Joe opened the door because someone knocked on it…

          To lazy to double check though.

        7. deliverything

          I’m a bit late, but…
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-12/01-sister-christian/lookitme/
          And yes, it does look like Joe had only just opened the door.

        8. thejeff

          Last time we have the right angle on it, Sarah and Joe are in front of the open door.

        9. thejeff

          Same floor, other wing of the building.

        10. Taffy

          It sucks when you’re trying to make a sweeping generalisation that’s also weirdly specific, but not about any one person in particular, and then some jackass comes along and takes it as a personal attack targeted directly at them. And then suddenly now you’re somehow personally and individually responsible for all of that person’s potential emotions, when they were never part of the equation in the first place, you didn’t ask for their opinion, their opinion wasn’t required or necessary, and it doesn’t even have any basis in reality.

          Oh, and then other people who also weren’t involved come crawling out of the woodwork to back up the person you were never even talking about, or talking to, or so much as thinking of. It’s not just rude on everyone else’s part (almost to the point of group bullying), it’s fucking exhausting. Because now that you’ve been assigned as this person’s emotional babysitter, it’s not gonna stop until something explodes, at which point you’ll be blamed for that too because somehow it’s always the bear’s fault the village idiot got mauled and never the idiot’s fault for covering their body in barbecue sauce and sneaking up on the bear with an air horn.

          Okay, that a little weird toward the end there, but Jesus Parallel Parking Christ.

        11. Nova

          100% this.

        12. The Oracle

          Great, now I’m hungry for ribs and payday is still a week off.

  31. JessWitt

    First thing that came to mind when I saw the new chapter title:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dfguV9V1y3w

  32. Sam

    Becky, you should have started with that last sentence.

    But honestly, Lucy would probably be better at it because she might have some insecurities, but she’s not Jennifer and that’s a good thing.

    1. brute

      yea 🙁 and also i just want to see Lucy have a better time. i would be her friend 🙁

      1. Mark

        Seconded.

  33. Ymbrael

    Too many cooks spoil the Joyce?

  34. bagge

    no, lucy! you’re an alpha sweety, rememeber. stand up for yourself! this is your job now

  35. Acher4

    I confess, seeing Becky getting on, how Joyce is going through very many changes and she is almost on the verge of snapping… was quite nice.
    I like Becky but she had been somewhat, how to say it, self-centered(?)… well not exactly, she has been going on with many changes herself and didn’t want to lose her friend… but it felt like at times she wasn’t a good friend at all.
    But ofc, then she goes and tries to ask advice from Jennifer…:P.
    Honey, Lucy is right there! 😆

  36. MegaBee

    Aw…

  37. Aelfwine

    If you weren’t a butthole, Becky, you could have merely asked about Jennifer’s whereabouts.

  38. Sombrero

    If Jennifer it’s the guide, I bet you will be lost in the woods pretty soon.

  39. Bryy

    Jennifer is about to get a double whammy of Walky and Becky.

    I am here for this.

  40. 3oranges

    I guess you can have a triumvirate of women, but it feels etymologically weird. Like they should be a triumfeminate. Stupid sexist Latin.

    1. Rotunda

      I’ve had the same etymological incongruence nagging at me. It’s amazing how hard it is to put aside and just let it be what Becky said.

    2. Adept

      What about horrible Greek-Latin mashups like polyamory? >.<

      1. Laura

        Or worse, Greco-Germanic mashups like “lumpectomy.”

        As the old song goes: “This is how it sounds: a little un-rational.”

    3. Owlmirror

      As far as I know, “troika” is a known valid word, and does not specify the gender of the threesome in charge.
      Hm. Come to think of it, “threesome” also doesn’t specify gender, but has, uh, other connotations.

    4. Taffy

      I don’t know why everyone insists on respecting Latin in the first place. Break it down for parts, sure, but what’s it done for us lately?

  41. Daibhid C

    Okay, Becky, the correct thing to do was lead with “Do you know where Jennifer is?” Having failed to do that, the next most correct thing to do was say “Yes. Yes, that’s what I meant. Just have a chat with her when you have a chance.” (And then, if you must, “Incidentally, do you know where Jennifer is? I wanted to talk to her about it as well.”)

    1. Amós Batista

      I think Becky didn’t liked the Lucy answer, thinking she couldn’t help Joyce.
      Of course, Becky was a assbutt here.

  42. Rabisch

    I know that this strip is more about Becky being unable to ask questions instead of giving long and unrequited explanations. Jet, I think Lucy will be VERY happy the day Jennifer will stop being her roommate. Seriously, their relationship is atrocious and after college I’m sure Lucy will do everything for avoid to see her again.

    1. Nicoleandmaggie

      Is this the first time she’s shown anything other than complete admiration for Jennifer? #CharacterGrowth?

      1. Rabisch

        No, I’m pretty sure she was annoyed by her already a few time in the past.

  43. CJ

    Becky, tactful as ever…
    Poor Lucy.

  44. ShellShockBP

    Damn Becky. Willis why do you hate Lucy so much? /hj

  45. AGV

    Don’t infodump your plan to innocent bystanders, Becky ?

  46. TheScreenJockey

    Lucy being on the fringes of an existing friend group and just shyly waiting to be properly invited in is very me freshman year of college.

    I eventually got in.

    1. nicoleandmaggie

      The people in Lucy’s own hall all seem so nice. Naive, but also sweet. I hope she has friends there.

  47. Amós Batista

    It’s the first time I don’t have any idea who will be the protagonist of a chapter. If is Becky, Amber, Lucy or Joyce…

    1. The Wellerman

      That, and the title could very well be misleading. Remember “Trial and Sarah”? ?

  48. Sporky

    becky being a total shithead as usual

  49. Bicycle Bill

    Looking at panel 1 and the “Star Wars – The Last Jedi” poster on the wall, I feel compelled to note that when Willis began ‘Dumbing of Age’, that movie was still seven years in the future.  Yay, sliding timescale!!!

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