Is “I was heavily traumatized at a convenience store as a child” information you normally volunteer? They’ve only been sinlings a few months and before that barely talked. I would be really surprised if Joe did know.
Thag Simmons
I don’t imagine it’s come up naturally in conversation, no.
Jamie
I’d honestly be surprised if Richard knows. Doesn’t seem like information Stacy would volunteer, though she probably should.
thejeff
I wouldn’t be surprised if she had, but she really shouldn’t. Amber doesn’t volunteer the information and spreading details about other people’s traumas without their approval is generally a bad idea.
Sirksome
I think it’s more acceptable if it’s a parent telling a new spouse some important information about their child, but I also don’t think Stacy is actually fully aware of the trauma Amber went through. Like Amber once outright stated that she disassociates and Stacy just kind of ignored it?
Honestly I kind of think Stacy might have a few traumatic issues herself. She took the brunt of Blaine’s abuse for a long time both physical and mental. And she seems to think unconditional support and optimism will just work things out. In fairness she did remarry to a rich doctor so maybe her approach has its merit?
Throwatron
If you are an absolute gem of an abuse sponge like Amber’s mom is, you may well just find an utterly perfect person who will treat you right off of that, alone, because if you are totally tooled to satisfy every whim of a narcissist and be likeable enough for them…well, non-shitty lovers will actually appreciate those traits, more. Even to the point you realize that those traits within you, come from a place of pain, and that you need to be healthier and more fair to yourself.
I wouldn’t recommend banking on that, though. If you have friends or close loved ones who don’t make you feel like you are a stronger, better, more capable person when you are around them, you should try to reconsider what the things you deserve actually are. I promise y’all can do better.
thejeff
If the child is still a minor and the new spouse is going to have to act in a guardian role for them, that’s certainly reasonable. They may need to make decisions for or about the child and need information to do so properly.
Even then for older children, this should be discussed openly with then, not simply with the new spouse.
Amber is an adult. Specifics of her trauma being revealed should be up to her.
Sirksome
That’s true. Not sure the O’malley’s or the type of family that often has open discussions though. And having thought on it for a bit I’m pretty sure Blaine either lied or never told Stacy about the convenience store incident at all. At least that would be very likely.
thejeff
There were cops involved. No way Stacy didn’t know about it.
He might well have tried to distort the story and shift blame for what happened, but he couldn’t have hid it from her.
thejeff
And yes, Stacy’s an abuse victim herself with plenty of issues of her own. Along with huge blind spots. If she brings up the convenience store incident it’ll likely be as a family story, not a source of trauma.
She’s more likely to tell him to watch Amber’s blood sugar.
Deanatay
I know it’s a typo, but ‘sinlings’ has… potential.
I’m not entirely sure on that. Mainly because he decided to stand by the door, as a possibly subtle “I’ll make sure no one else comes in” for Amber. It just seems weird that he wouldn’t walk around the store with her to pester about how much he wants to talk about Joyce.
I’m only familiar with the movie, but one of the seven evil exes there was a woman, Roxie Richter, meaning Ramona was at least bi-curious, but unlikely to be above a 3 on the kinsey scale, considering the ratio.
Doctor_Who
Yeah, Ramona went through a “phase” and dated Roxy. Roxy seems to have taken it more seriously. In the comic they’re actually still friends, despite the “evil ex” thing.
I can’t think of any other lesbians, but in one scene Knives and Kim make out while tipsy, so I guess they’re bi. And there’s a good amount of gay representation; in addition to Wallace and his various conquests, Stephen Stills eventually discovers that he’s gay and gets a boyfriend.
Spencer
Scott Pilgrim is really 00s about its queer characters, most likely stemming from being written in the 00s.
O’Malley’s improved a lot in that regard, where both Seconds and Snotgirl are a lot kinder and more natural about their queer characters.
Really, the weirdest part of re-reading Scott Pilgrim a few months ago was experiencing the existentialist nightmare that this loser slacker who runs away from reality was going through it at 23, and I was five years older.
Does he though? The only one talking about Joyce this entire time has been Amber. Joe hasn’t mentioned Joyce except for when Amber brought her up out of seemingly nowhere.
It’s not time zones that cause this, it’s latitude. The closer you get to the tropics, the more consistent in length the day/night cycle becomes year-round; Bloomington is at around 39°N, about 1,700km north of the Tropic of Cancer.
King Daniel
(Time zones are very specifically an effect arising from longitude, for comparison.)
Jamie
But if the longitude were different, it’d be a different time. 😛
King Daniel
Still wouldn’t change that this latitude, at this time of year, only gets nine-and-a-half hours of daylight. 😛
Regalli
Yep. As someone who does in fact have seasonal depression (that layers on top of the regular depression) it really sucks when we reach this time of year and the What Is Sun period.
Psychie
I’d argue that sunset being so absurdly early has more to do with daylight “savings” (such a BS name for it) than anything else. If we just never fell back in November, then we’d get an extra hour of sunlight before it got dark. 5:30 is still rather early, but significantly more reasonable than 4:30.
King Daniel
If anything, I’d argue that jumping forward is what should be done away with. Otherwise you’re talking only sunrise at half til 10 AM, this time of year.
King Daniel
(As someone from a northern country which in recent years actually tried the “let’s jump to using DST permanently” thing you’re suggesting, it failed miserably in large part because of the above.)
Agemegos
I understand that.
What I said w as that I have a different problem with the sphericity of Earth and its unilateral lighting.
Where I live is also in ET like Bloomington, but I’m so much more East that the sunset is an hour earlier.
It depends on what state/province/etc you live in. It’s not a coincidence that IN and AZ are the places with the most timezone / DST upheaval, as they are each on the edge of zones.
God temperate countries sound disorienting. I visited america once in the summer and i thought my brain was breaking when i saw it was 8:30 but the sun was still up
You know I’ve completely lost track of what time it’s supposed to be in DoA right now. I thought it was still daytime, early even since neither Amber or Joe have done much besides talk to a few people. Now it looks like sunset. Where did the day go?
Same. It’s that part of the year where the sun comes up as most people are headed to work, and it sets as they’re on their way home. It sucks but at least the days are starting to get longer again.
Psychie
See, I never understood why daylight “savings” was set up that way, like, we only get roughly one workday’s worth of sunlight per day this time of year, and they decide to piss it away by putting it when most people are contractually obligated to be indoors and as miserable as possible? Like, why not set it up so the sun sets at least an hour or two *after* most people are off work so they have time to socialize and engage in extracurriculars before the drearies set in. Granted, I work nights so I’m generally unaffected either way, but it’s still dumb.
King Daniel
Daylight Savings Time is the “unnatural” time zone though; standard time is, by name and definition, the “accurate” time more in line with the actual solar cycle. DST is simply whatever enforcing governmental entity deciding to pretend as a legal fiction that since the sun’s rising earlier, an hour must have gone “missing” from the last non-DST night.
i recommend the episode of the podcast 99% Invisible called “Matters of Time” and specifically the segment about DST.
I learned 2 things:
1) all sorts of permutations of DST have been tried through history
2) each configuration makes lots of people unhappy; in particular delaying sunset means delaying sunrise and that makes people working outdoors (agriculture, construction etc) upset.
In conclusion i think we just need to agree that winters suck, and the norther you are the worst they suck, and make our peace with that (don’t @ me, i just hate winters but if you think winters are swell, well that’s fine)
Seregiel
Normally, sure but the cities near me are on fire so the snow needs to get here asap.
Azhrei Vep
“It sucks but at least the days are starting to get longer again.” – Needfuldoer
Are you mad? That’s fantastic! The shorter daylight hours are the only redeeming quality this miserable time of year has! It’s just such a pity that the daylight has to come back.
141 thoughts on “Village Pantry”
Ana Chronistic
oh shit
Joe doesn’t know
Ana Chronistic
I haven’t seen either Cheetos OR Nachitos, lately it’s weird flavours of ramen
Decidedly Orthogonal
As long as it’s not raw men.
marcus erronius
no that’s a different establishment
Little Smile
i could go for some RAW men. Thought Smack down every now and then is good too.
Thag Simmons
yeah, dang.
Sirksome
Is “I was heavily traumatized at a convenience store as a child” information you normally volunteer? They’ve only been sinlings a few months and before that barely talked. I would be really surprised if Joe did know.
Thag Simmons
I don’t imagine it’s come up naturally in conversation, no.
Jamie
I’d honestly be surprised if Richard knows. Doesn’t seem like information Stacy would volunteer, though she probably should.
thejeff
I wouldn’t be surprised if she had, but she really shouldn’t. Amber doesn’t volunteer the information and spreading details about other people’s traumas without their approval is generally a bad idea.
Sirksome
I think it’s more acceptable if it’s a parent telling a new spouse some important information about their child, but I also don’t think Stacy is actually fully aware of the trauma Amber went through. Like Amber once outright stated that she disassociates and Stacy just kind of ignored it?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/introduced-2/
Honestly I kind of think Stacy might have a few traumatic issues herself. She took the brunt of Blaine’s abuse for a long time both physical and mental. And she seems to think unconditional support and optimism will just work things out. In fairness she did remarry to a rich doctor so maybe her approach has its merit?
Throwatron
If you are an absolute gem of an abuse sponge like Amber’s mom is, you may well just find an utterly perfect person who will treat you right off of that, alone, because if you are totally tooled to satisfy every whim of a narcissist and be likeable enough for them…well, non-shitty lovers will actually appreciate those traits, more. Even to the point you realize that those traits within you, come from a place of pain, and that you need to be healthier and more fair to yourself.
I wouldn’t recommend banking on that, though. If you have friends or close loved ones who don’t make you feel like you are a stronger, better, more capable person when you are around them, you should try to reconsider what the things you deserve actually are. I promise y’all can do better.
thejeff
If the child is still a minor and the new spouse is going to have to act in a guardian role for them, that’s certainly reasonable. They may need to make decisions for or about the child and need information to do so properly.
Even then for older children, this should be discussed openly with then, not simply with the new spouse.
Amber is an adult. Specifics of her trauma being revealed should be up to her.
Sirksome
That’s true. Not sure the O’malley’s or the type of family that often has open discussions though. And having thought on it for a bit I’m pretty sure Blaine either lied or never told Stacy about the convenience store incident at all. At least that would be very likely.
thejeff
There were cops involved. No way Stacy didn’t know about it.
He might well have tried to distort the story and shift blame for what happened, but he couldn’t have hid it from her.
thejeff
And yes, Stacy’s an abuse victim herself with plenty of issues of her own. Along with huge blind spots. If she brings up the convenience store incident it’ll likely be as a family story, not a source of trauma.
She’s more likely to tell him to watch Amber’s blood sugar.
Deanatay
I know it’s a typo, but ‘sinlings’ has… potential.
Decidedly Orthogonal
Yes… Mr Burns “Excellent”
Needfuldoer
How long until Sal happens to wander in?
Diane
I’m not entirely sure on that. Mainly because he decided to stand by the door, as a possibly subtle “I’ll make sure no one else comes in” for Amber. It just seems weird that he wouldn’t walk around the store with her to pester about how much he wants to talk about Joyce.
MacareuxMoine
More so, him putting an emphasis on ‘usually’ implies that he knows about her exceptional experience.
The Wellerman
I don’t know about you, but I feel like ending the year on a good note.
Schpoonman asked for it, and here you have it —
??? SUPER SAIYAN JOYCE!!! ???
https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/thewellerman/super-saiyan-joyce
Doctor_Who
Sweet! Looks like a DLC boss for the Scott Pilgrim video game.
…Though Joyce is getting broad minded if she’s one of Ramona Flowers’ exes.
The Wellerman
Wait, ARE there lesbian couples in Scott Pilgrim?
It’s been so long…
Psychie
I’m only familiar with the movie, but one of the seven evil exes there was a woman, Roxie Richter, meaning Ramona was at least bi-curious, but unlikely to be above a 3 on the kinsey scale, considering the ratio.
Doctor_Who
Yeah, Ramona went through a “phase” and dated Roxy. Roxy seems to have taken it more seriously. In the comic they’re actually still friends, despite the “evil ex” thing.
I can’t think of any other lesbians, but in one scene Knives and Kim make out while tipsy, so I guess they’re bi. And there’s a good amount of gay representation; in addition to Wallace and his various conquests, Stephen Stills eventually discovers that he’s gay and gets a boyfriend.
Spencer
Scott Pilgrim is really 00s about its queer characters, most likely stemming from being written in the 00s.
O’Malley’s improved a lot in that regard, where both Seconds and Snotgirl are a lot kinder and more natural about their queer characters.
Really, the weirdest part of re-reading Scott Pilgrim a few months ago was experiencing the existentialist nightmare that this loser slacker who runs away from reality was going through it at 23, and I was five years older.
It was a real Frank Miller moment for me.
milu
haha! very cool!
M u S c L e S
Spencer
I like it!
Spencer
Okay that was weird. I wrote “that’s rad wtf” twice and they both got eaten somehow, but then the above went through.
The Wellerman
Yeah, and last strip, I couldn’t get “so fucking beautiful” to go though either.
Gotta LOVE the sporadic censor-bots.
Schpoonman
You got somewhere I can DM you for those bones? This is fantastic.
The Wellerman
? Thanks!
So, should I leave my Discord handle or should you leave yours?
The Wellerman
To be clear, I currently don’t have a means by which you could pay me, but I might set up an itch.io account in the near-future, so stay tuned!
alongcameaspider
You know Joe you could have just found her in her dorm room later and not gone outside
Deathjavu
He could have…but as Amber pointed out, he *really* wants to talk about Joyce.
WanderingLynx
Feels like Joe knows that if he backs out now, he won’t ever do it. #Relatable as hell, but also the healthy choice so…
Spencer
Can confirm #relatable status.
A dude in love will actually take every opportunity to talk about it if he can convince himself he’s still an ubermasculine powerhouse while doing so.
TemplarKnight
Does he though? The only one talking about Joyce this entire time has been Amber. Joe hasn’t mentioned Joyce except for when Amber brought her up out of seemingly nowhere.
Is there a scene I am missing?
Suet
This is nacho year, Joe
Or anybody else’s, for that matter
Yumi
I like the sky in the first panel. It’s almost an upside down bi flag.
Regalli
We cannot POSSIBLY be nearing the end of the storyline already. How is it so dark outside?
… I mean, January, but still!
David M Willis
It’s 4:30!
Regalli
Axial tilt is more damnable than even you.
Agemegos
My quarrel is with time zones.
King Daniel
It’s not time zones that cause this, it’s latitude. The closer you get to the tropics, the more consistent in length the day/night cycle becomes year-round; Bloomington is at around 39°N, about 1,700km north of the Tropic of Cancer.
King Daniel
(Time zones are very specifically an effect arising from longitude, for comparison.)
Jamie
But if the longitude were different, it’d be a different time. 😛
King Daniel
Still wouldn’t change that this latitude, at this time of year, only gets nine-and-a-half hours of daylight. 😛
Regalli
Yep. As someone who does in fact have seasonal depression (that layers on top of the regular depression) it really sucks when we reach this time of year and the What Is Sun period.
Psychie
I’d argue that sunset being so absurdly early has more to do with daylight “savings” (such a BS name for it) than anything else. If we just never fell back in November, then we’d get an extra hour of sunlight before it got dark. 5:30 is still rather early, but significantly more reasonable than 4:30.
King Daniel
If anything, I’d argue that jumping forward is what should be done away with. Otherwise you’re talking only sunrise at half til 10 AM, this time of year.
King Daniel
(As someone from a northern country which in recent years actually tried the “let’s jump to using DST permanently” thing you’re suggesting, it failed miserably in large part because of the above.)
Agemegos
I understand that.
What I said w as that I have a different problem with the sphericity of Earth and its unilateral lighting.
ValdVin
Where I live is also in ET like Bloomington, but I’m so much more East that the sunset is an hour earlier.
It depends on what state/province/etc you live in. It’s not a coincidence that IN and AZ are the places with the most timezone / DST upheaval, as they are each on the edge of zones.
zee
God temperate countries sound disorienting. I visited america once in the summer and i thought my brain was breaking when i saw it was 8:30 but the sun was still up
milu
Related: how the movie Midsommar exploits the eeriness of a never-setting sun to add to a generally unsettling atmosphere for horror movie purposes ?
milu
(it’s set in northern Sweden)
Stephen Bierce
“It’s not easy being Cheesey.”–Chester Cheetah
Rotunda
When the sky hits your eye like a flag that is bi—that’s amore!
Endplanets
Did she bring Joe to a convenience store hoping that he would get kidnapped and be more like Ethan?
Dark.
Doctor_Who
Joe: Amber, Sal just told me you offered her $20 to take me hostage.
Amber: You can’t prove that.
Joe: And I suppose it’s a coincidence that I somehow got signed up to receive daily emails about new Transformers toys?
Amber: These algorithms are getting very sophisticated.
Joe: And there’s a pamphlet next to my bed about the benefits if making out with dudes.
Amber: Actually, that has nothing to do with Ethan, I gave those to all my male friends.
Joe: …Yeah, that tracks.
Thag Simmons
Somehow I doubt it
Frame Ferpect
Hey I finally understood what Pun Jacob said in this strip
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/majesty/
Sirksome
You know I’ve completely lost track of what time it’s supposed to be in DoA right now. I thought it was still daytime, early even since neither Amber or Joe have done much besides talk to a few people. Now it looks like sunset. Where did the day go?
Doctor_Who
It’s post Christmas. Where I live, it’s dark by 5 PM every day now.
Needfuldoer
Same. It’s that part of the year where the sun comes up as most people are headed to work, and it sets as they’re on their way home. It sucks but at least the days are starting to get longer again.
Psychie
See, I never understood why daylight “savings” was set up that way, like, we only get roughly one workday’s worth of sunlight per day this time of year, and they decide to piss it away by putting it when most people are contractually obligated to be indoors and as miserable as possible? Like, why not set it up so the sun sets at least an hour or two *after* most people are off work so they have time to socialize and engage in extracurriculars before the drearies set in. Granted, I work nights so I’m generally unaffected either way, but it’s still dumb.
King Daniel
Daylight Savings Time is the “unnatural” time zone though; standard time is, by name and definition, the “accurate” time more in line with the actual solar cycle. DST is simply whatever enforcing governmental entity deciding to pretend as a legal fiction that since the sun’s rising earlier, an hour must have gone “missing” from the last non-DST night.
milu
i recommend the episode of the podcast 99% Invisible called “Matters of Time” and specifically the segment about DST.
I learned 2 things:
1) all sorts of permutations of DST have been tried through history
2) each configuration makes lots of people unhappy; in particular delaying sunset means delaying sunrise and that makes people working outdoors (agriculture, construction etc) upset.
In conclusion i think we just need to agree that winters suck, and the norther you are the worst they suck, and make our peace with that (don’t @ me, i just hate winters but if you think winters are swell, well that’s fine)
Seregiel
Normally, sure but the cities near me are on fire so the snow needs to get here asap.
Azhrei Vep
“It sucks but at least the days are starting to get longer again.” – Needfuldoer
Are you mad? That’s fantastic! The shorter daylight hours are the only redeeming quality this miserable time of year has! It’s just such a pity that the daylight has to come back.