I wonder what her source of info is. Actually it’s probably Raidah/Alice, and she’s going to assume they’re just openly cheating. But I don’t think jennifer will actually deign to pass moral judgement or anything like that. If anything, she’ll be relieved that her one tit pic actually was for Joyce and not walky.
I was gonna say her source might be the newspaper, but somehow I can absolutely see Jennifer never reading that despite the fact that she writes for it.
Lee
Correct, she has specifically chastised Joyce for picking up the paper to see her own work published, which Billie is supposedly #TooCoolForSchool to do. While I’d be willing to believe that she nonetheless picks up the paper in secret to see HER OWN bylines, ain’t no way she’s ever read a news story (anywhere; I’m not limiting this to the school paper) not written by herself.
Yeah Joyce I get that you’re totally in love or whatever but there’s a conversation you should really be having now that the newspaper is apparently no longer an urgent matter
Counterpoint. Letting the ideas presented have time to be considered, and not rushing the discussion can allow for more reasoned discourse.
And in the meantime, she can make with the multiple hankies panky.
The Queer Agenda [frog memes]
Somehow, I don’t think enough of Joyce’s brain will come back online for any productive conversation until after she gets a room with Dotty for a week anyways.
she told him she was breaking off with him. He said “hey, maybe we can make this work” and she said “uhh maybe” and then left. He has no ownership over her, she can do what she wants
They’re still not actually broken up which is probably information Dorothy would like to have!
Amara
Imo they’re quasi broken up rn. If they don’t go poly, that convo will have been the break up point. If they do go poly, then they never actually broke up.
Dot
Joyce explicitly deferred the conversation to a later point. There was no conclusion either way.
Shogeton
Sure, there’s a convo to have. But Joyce made it clear that, while she’s not closing the door on a poly future, the future will have Dorothy kissing in it. So while, yes, that is a convo to have sooner rather than later, there is no longer any problem with getting Dorothy kissing going.
not someone else
I think y’all are forgetting that Dorothy herself might have opinions she wishes to express about whether Joyce is still dating Joe.
Dot
It’s not up to her if Joyce can still see Joe, but it is up to her if that’s an arrangement she doesn’t feel comfortable being in.
Shogeton
And she’ll ask. But as I see it, Joyce is not currently in a romantic relationship with Joe. As things are now, she wouldn’t smooch him or go on dates with him or do anything romantic until the matter is settled. There’s a ‘pending’ relationship request with a poly style arrangement, which Dorothy might well say ‘nope’ to. In which case it is no, Joyce has made it very clear that she chooses Dorothy over Joe. And so, I find these smooches to be entirely fine.
deliverything
Schrödinger’s poly. They need to have that talk and collapse that wavefunction.
Sajuuk-Khar
I really actually want them to do this, but my enthusiasm for it keeps being dampened by activation of every contrarian neuron in my body, some of which are newly generated.
OngoingConversation
Schrödingers breakup!
OngoingConversation
Well, don’t I feel silly for making the same joke a few minutes later.
Formedras
The waveform collapsed, making all responses the same.
Cimorene
Maybe that’s what kept happening when I worked at Quizno’s in college. Every Sunday night different couples would show up having serious and tense deep conversations. They’d stay until we locked up and staff theory was that people needed to break up on Sundays in a Quizno’s. Schrödingers breakup (at Quiznos). We observed it, but couldn’t confirm if the relationship was alive or dead.
TheStranger
Joyce apparently thinks they are, despite the ambiguity with which she left Joe’s company.
She could, certainly, stand to be MORE clear about it with him, but as one who has been straight up ghosted by a partner at that age, following months (as opposed to days or perhaps weeks here) of dating, she could certainly be doing far worse than she is. She had an epiphany and shared it with him. His reaction is not what she expected, but in her hormone-addled state, that probably feels sufficient.
She referred to him as her boyfriend two strips ago. And in this strip, she said informed them. Not broken up with them. She’s now hiding Joe from Dorothy.
Needfuldoer
When she finds out, I’m sure Dorothy won’t react to that news badly at all!
Icalasari
Yeah, Joe did leave her with questions. I’ll consider her clean unless she bangs Joe again before discussion/aftet Dorothy goes no/after she decides break up, or she leaves the discussion for more than a day, right now it’s confusing enough that I’d give her a bit of a buffer to at least get her head on straight to decide. Joe knows and is giving her the option and likely expects her to need a little, and she hasn’t boinked or kissed him since Dorothy expected the break up
Note that I’m not full on condoning her actions, just that, based on her actions so dar, I’m going, “Yeah, fine, a lot has happened in the last 24 hours, but she had better decide soon”
Minivet
1. True, Dorothy would like to be more informed.
2. Joe explicitly said he was fine with her doing whatever with Dorothy, so while it is underinforming, it does not rise to the level of involving her in betrayal
Very good explanation. They are indeed in the clear. Joyce’s horrible mother may be after them already with another gang; what do they care what some campus busybodies think?
And remember, if she’s telling Joe that he’s on the back burner for “more pressing matters” even after he basically pleaded to still be in her life, he doesn’t matter to her. From what she’s saying in this panel it feels like she came to see the guys as an obstacle to Dorothy. Hence the sad close up on his face previously. That was a hurt man. Sarah was right, Joe didn’t deserve this, but how is it anything but over?
The behaviors in this arc are really hard to swallow from the characters. I mean, I want drama, but turning Joyce of all people, into this? It feels like in Pro Wrestling when a Hero wrestler goes Heel. Like she’s designed to get boos from a section of the crowd that once adored her. Same for Dorothy. Now we wait and see what Joe or Walky will do, but the writing seems to be pushing aside or making slight/light of any reactions they ought to be or are having.
Kalylian
The pressing matter probably was her realising that becky will see this picture. I don’t think that’s her dismissing Joe.
thejeff
You mean the pressing matter they haven’t yet talked to but that’s now unimportant since she’s not anywhere near here?
No one has ownership over anyone but generally it’s encouraged to be considerate of people you care about and give some care to people’s feelings because we live in a society
Seralyna
I fundamentally disagree with the idea that it makes sense for this to be something joe is upset about. She isn’t dating Joe, in which case she should be able to do whatever she wants without arbitrarily considering him first.
Even if you treat her non-answer to his request to be poly as an unresolved thread, the end result is that the two options suggested were “Is dating dorothy” or “Is dating dorothy and joe” and in either case she can hug dorothy
Just to add: I distractedly only replied to only the second paragraph. Whether she’s actually dating Joe is unclear and perhaps dependent on how “dating” is to be defined. The state of their relationship is ambiguous right now, due to a combination of Joyce’s indecision in the face of new information and sudden panic at trying to deal with an emerging crisis.
Also, I’m pretty sure David Willis is enjoying dragging this out and keeping us uncertain, hence the lack of clear answers given (Joyce and Joe will apparently talk later, Dorothy never confirmed Joyce’s claimed break-up of Dorothy and Walky… we weren’t even told exactly why Joyce panicked over the newspaper until it was shown — there may be still more to that than has been addressed).
JD
“she isn’t dating joe” except she literally called him her boyfriend a few strips ago and then sort of gave a non-commital response when dorothy suggests otherwise. implying she either is still dating joe, wants to be, and/or still considers him her boyfriend. lol.
again, to reiterate: it is encouraged to be considerate of people you care about for a variety of reasons, and this does not imply ownership. while contextually reasonable to avoid getting into whether or not she’s still dating joe immediately is reasonable in the context of a few strips ago, it is something she may want to discuss with dorothy soon… because it is the considerate thing to do.
Joyce hasn’t even broken up with Joe, and she hasn’t told Dorothy of Joe’s proposal that they be a poly relationship. She ran off after seeing the newspaper and never gave him a proper answer.
The only person who Joyce gave a straight answer too on the status of their love life was Walky and it was “Your relationship with your favorite girlfriend is over! She’s mine now get lost loser.”
Random832
There is an argument that it would be deeply hypocritical for her to pursue a polyamorous relationship without at least offering Dorothy the choice of also having one, regardless of how unlikely it may be that either Dorothy or Walky is interested in that outcome.
thejeff
Sure, but we can’t hold anything in that strip against her because it was a funny joke.
One is concerning them being made known without their permission or authorization and one is about “well it’s pretty much known now that we might as well do a little.”
So there’s this lil thing called consent. I feel like you should know what it is but since you plainly don’t, I’ll go ahead and explain.
Daisy could have asked them if they wanted to be publicized. She didn’t.
Joyce could have asked to (and consented to) kissing Dorothy again right here and now. She did!
In one case, consent was obtained. In the other, it was not.
For example:
If you like coffee, and you drink coffee every day, it would still be very weird of me to walk up and pour coffee down your throat.
It would be totally reasonable of you to get upset. Even if you then immediately went and bought yourself a coffee.
It’s entirely possible to be like “I didn’t want to be outed to the whole school, but now that I have been, I might as well snuggle my girlfriend in public“, and that doesn’t retroactively make the outing fine with you!
Rogue 7
That’s absolutely a moral and logical position to have. Indeed it’s probably the best way to approach the issue.
To sum up a discussion we’re having below in hopefully way fewer words: My view of Dorothy & particularly Joyce is that it’s not one that they would have (I expect more awkward flailing and panicking) but I don’t at all think this is an issue of hypocrisy or anything.
Li
Totally a fair opinion to have! But this short pithy reply was definitely directed at the idea that they’re being hypocrites. I think I wound up coincidentally saying a longer version to you down below though, heh.
Also how in the fucking world is “making out” now “nookie”? Why are we so determined to collapse the waveform between “kissing” and “fucking”? Like, yes, cheating, kissing cheating, cheating BAD, I understand this logic chain, but “kissing = fucking” I just can’t get behind.
468 thoughts on “Informed”
NGPZ
aaawweee ^-^ <3
oh hai Billy XD
this should be fun :3
Amara
I wonder what her source of info is. Actually it’s probably Raidah/Alice, and she’s going to assume they’re just openly cheating. But I don’t think jennifer will actually deign to pass moral judgement or anything like that. If anything, she’ll be relieved that her one tit pic actually was for Joyce and not walky.
Doctor_Who
I was gonna say her source might be the newspaper, but somehow I can absolutely see Jennifer never reading that despite the fact that she writes for it.
Lee
Correct, she has specifically chastised Joyce for picking up the paper to see her own work published, which Billie is supposedly #TooCoolForSchool to do. While I’d be willing to believe that she nonetheless picks up the paper in secret to see HER OWN bylines, ain’t no way she’s ever read a news story (anywhere; I’m not limiting this to the school paper) not written by herself.
deliverything
Evidence for this (or at least Jennifer’s claim):
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/publishedarticle/
Needfuldoer
Counterpoint:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/billing/
deliverything
Guess it’s performative, then. Trying to act “cool” in front of others while privately actually caring? Who’d have expected that from her?
Needfuldoer
That’s our Jennifer!
[10 second sitcom theme music sting]
Sharizard
Aw, Ruth is super cute in this strip.
Taffy
Me when Ruth
Thag Simmons
Almost certainly Alice
HueSatLight
This isn’t necessarily in response to the photo. Joyce told Jennifer she’d had kinda sex with Dorothy. Walky told Jennifer Joyce probably didn’t.
Boomer Gonzales
Raidah told Carla.
The entire campus knows inside of half an hour
Pocky
Joyce: “I consent”
Dorothy: “I consent”
Jennifer: “I don’t”
Decidedly Orthogonal
Don’t stop kissing. Just flip Ms Billingsworth the bird and carry on.
Rose by Any other Name
The kiss is great and all, but I am living for panel 3. Their little cuddle is so cute!
Decidedly Orthogonal
Yes 100%. Good cuddles are spectacular.
Newlland(Henryvolt)
Yes you “informed” them…one might have been lead to a different conclusion than the other but whatever.
Dot
Yeah Joyce I get that you’re totally in love or whatever but there’s a conversation you should really be having now that the newspaper is apparently no longer an urgent matter
Decidedly Orthogonal
Counterpoint. Letting the ideas presented have time to be considered, and not rushing the discussion can allow for more reasoned discourse.
And in the meantime, she can make with the multiple hankies panky.
The Queer Agenda [frog memes]
Somehow, I don’t think enough of Joyce’s brain will come back online for any productive conversation until after she gets a room with Dotty for a week anyways.
Elf grrl
Honestly, I just want Joyce to have the conversation with Joe (a REAL one), so I can enjoy her and Dorothy smooching.
Seralyna
she told him she was breaking off with him. He said “hey, maybe we can make this work” and she said “uhh maybe” and then left. He has no ownership over her, she can do what she wants
Dot
They’re still not actually broken up which is probably information Dorothy would like to have!
Amara
Imo they’re quasi broken up rn. If they don’t go poly, that convo will have been the break up point. If they do go poly, then they never actually broke up.
Dot
Joyce explicitly deferred the conversation to a later point. There was no conclusion either way.
Shogeton
Sure, there’s a convo to have. But Joyce made it clear that, while she’s not closing the door on a poly future, the future will have Dorothy kissing in it. So while, yes, that is a convo to have sooner rather than later, there is no longer any problem with getting Dorothy kissing going.
not someone else
I think y’all are forgetting that Dorothy herself might have opinions she wishes to express about whether Joyce is still dating Joe.
Dot
It’s not up to her if Joyce can still see Joe, but it is up to her if that’s an arrangement she doesn’t feel comfortable being in.
Shogeton
And she’ll ask. But as I see it, Joyce is not currently in a romantic relationship with Joe. As things are now, she wouldn’t smooch him or go on dates with him or do anything romantic until the matter is settled. There’s a ‘pending’ relationship request with a poly style arrangement, which Dorothy might well say ‘nope’ to. In which case it is no, Joyce has made it very clear that she chooses Dorothy over Joe. And so, I find these smooches to be entirely fine.
deliverything
Schrödinger’s poly. They need to have that talk and collapse that wavefunction.
Sajuuk-Khar
I really actually want them to do this, but my enthusiasm for it keeps being dampened by activation of every contrarian neuron in my body, some of which are newly generated.
OngoingConversation
Schrödingers breakup!
OngoingConversation
Well, don’t I feel silly for making the same joke a few minutes later.
Formedras
The waveform collapsed, making all responses the same.
Cimorene
Maybe that’s what kept happening when I worked at Quizno’s in college. Every Sunday night different couples would show up having serious and tense deep conversations. They’d stay until we locked up and staff theory was that people needed to break up on Sundays in a Quizno’s. Schrödingers breakup (at Quiznos). We observed it, but couldn’t confirm if the relationship was alive or dead.
TheStranger
Joyce apparently thinks they are, despite the ambiguity with which she left Joe’s company.
She could, certainly, stand to be MORE clear about it with him, but as one who has been straight up ghosted by a partner at that age, following months (as opposed to days or perhaps weeks here) of dating, she could certainly be doing far worse than she is. She had an epiphany and shared it with him. His reaction is not what she expected, but in her hormone-addled state, that probably feels sufficient.
Newlland(Henryvolt)
And plus Joyce a few strips ago had a very lose response when referring to Joe as her “Ex boyfriend”: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/01-not-so-smooth-criminals/splash/
Kalylian
She referred to him as her boyfriend two strips ago. And in this strip, she said informed them. Not broken up with them. She’s now hiding Joe from Dorothy.
Needfuldoer
When she finds out, I’m sure Dorothy won’t react to that news badly at all!
Icalasari
Yeah, Joe did leave her with questions. I’ll consider her clean unless she bangs Joe again before discussion/aftet Dorothy goes no/after she decides break up, or she leaves the discussion for more than a day, right now it’s confusing enough that I’d give her a bit of a buffer to at least get her head on straight to decide. Joe knows and is giving her the option and likely expects her to need a little, and she hasn’t boinked or kissed him since Dorothy expected the break up
Note that I’m not full on condoning her actions, just that, based on her actions so dar, I’m going, “Yeah, fine, a lot has happened in the last 24 hours, but she had better decide soon”
Minivet
1. True, Dorothy would like to be more informed.
2. Joe explicitly said he was fine with her doing whatever with Dorothy, so while it is underinforming, it does not rise to the level of involving her in betrayal
Vanessa
Very good explanation. They are indeed in the clear. Joyce’s horrible mother may be after them already with another gang; what do they care what some campus busybodies think?
Elf grrl
Joyce did not say anything close to a “maybe”. Re-read the strips. She legt realized she’s a hussy and dipped out of the conversation for more “pressing matters”.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/01-not-so-smooth-criminals/dateboth/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/01-not-so-smooth-criminals/everyones/
Burahn
And remember, if she’s telling Joe that he’s on the back burner for “more pressing matters” even after he basically pleaded to still be in her life, he doesn’t matter to her. From what she’s saying in this panel it feels like she came to see the guys as an obstacle to Dorothy. Hence the sad close up on his face previously. That was a hurt man. Sarah was right, Joe didn’t deserve this, but how is it anything but over?
The behaviors in this arc are really hard to swallow from the characters. I mean, I want drama, but turning Joyce of all people, into this? It feels like in Pro Wrestling when a Hero wrestler goes Heel. Like she’s designed to get boos from a section of the crowd that once adored her. Same for Dorothy. Now we wait and see what Joe or Walky will do, but the writing seems to be pushing aside or making slight/light of any reactions they ought to be or are having.
Kalylian
The pressing matter probably was her realising that becky will see this picture. I don’t think that’s her dismissing Joe.
thejeff
You mean the pressing matter they haven’t yet talked to but that’s now unimportant since she’s not anywhere near here?
Erica
No one has ownership over anyone but generally it’s encouraged to be considerate of people you care about and give some care to people’s feelings because we live in a society
Seralyna
I fundamentally disagree with the idea that it makes sense for this to be something joe is upset about. She isn’t dating Joe, in which case she should be able to do whatever she wants without arbitrarily considering him first.
Even if you treat her non-answer to his request to be poly as an unresolved thread, the end result is that the two options suggested were “Is dating dorothy” or “Is dating dorothy and joe” and in either case she can hug dorothy
deliverything
Exactly; while I’m one of those who considers it unresolved, the fact is that Joe’s specifically endorsed Joyce kissing Dorothy (and/or doing other things) in a decidedly unambiguous way.
deliverything
Just to add: I distractedly only replied to only the second paragraph. Whether she’s actually dating Joe is unclear and perhaps dependent on how “dating” is to be defined. The state of their relationship is ambiguous right now, due to a combination of Joyce’s indecision in the face of new information and sudden panic at trying to deal with an emerging crisis.
Also, I’m pretty sure David Willis is enjoying dragging this out and keeping us uncertain, hence the lack of clear answers given (Joyce and Joe will apparently talk later, Dorothy never confirmed Joyce’s claimed break-up of Dorothy and Walky… we weren’t even told exactly why Joyce panicked over the newspaper until it was shown — there may be still more to that than has been addressed).
JD
“she isn’t dating joe” except she literally called him her boyfriend a few strips ago and then sort of gave a non-commital response when dorothy suggests otherwise. implying she either is still dating joe, wants to be, and/or still considers him her boyfriend. lol.
again, to reiterate: it is encouraged to be considerate of people you care about for a variety of reasons, and this does not imply ownership. while contextually reasonable to avoid getting into whether or not she’s still dating joe immediately is reasonable in the context of a few strips ago, it is something she may want to discuss with dorothy soon… because it is the considerate thing to do.
Kyulen
Joyce hasn’t even broken up with Joe, and she hasn’t told Dorothy of Joe’s proposal that they be a poly relationship. She ran off after seeing the newspaper and never gave him a proper answer.
Newlland(Henryvolt)
The only person who Joyce gave a straight answer too on the status of their love life was Walky and it was “Your relationship with your favorite girlfriend is over! She’s mine now get lost loser.”
Random832
There is an argument that it would be deeply hypocritical for her to pursue a polyamorous relationship without at least offering Dorothy the choice of also having one, regardless of how unlikely it may be that either Dorothy or Walky is interested in that outcome.
thejeff
Sure, but we can’t hold anything in that strip against her because it was a funny joke.
Li
Weird read of what people were saying but okay.
yak
Hey, the bare minimum is still the bare minimum!
Nono
“How dare you out us in the newspaper!”
“Also since we’re out here how about some nookie”
june gloom
I wonder what the difference is. Hmm. I guess we’ll never know. A mystery for the ages.
Dedlok
One is concerning them being made known without their permission or authorization and one is about “well it’s pretty much known now that we might as well do a little.”
There is a difference
Nymph
So there’s this lil thing called consent. I feel like you should know what it is but since you plainly don’t, I’ll go ahead and explain.
Daisy could have asked them if they wanted to be publicized. She didn’t.
Joyce could have asked to (and consented to) kissing Dorothy again right here and now. She did!
In one case, consent was obtained. In the other, it was not.
For example:
If you like coffee, and you drink coffee every day, it would still be very weird of me to walk up and pour coffee down your throat.
It would be totally reasonable of you to get upset. Even if you then immediately went and bought yourself a coffee.
Hope that helps!!
Pergola
Oooo, yes. Pour it! Pour it down my throat!
( new fetish unlocked )
Li
Also mixing up cause and effect.
It’s entirely possible to be like “I didn’t want to be outed to the whole school, but now that I have been, I might as well snuggle my girlfriend in public“, and that doesn’t retroactively make the outing fine with you!
Rogue 7
That’s absolutely a moral and logical position to have. Indeed it’s probably the best way to approach the issue.
To sum up a discussion we’re having below in hopefully way fewer words: My view of Dorothy & particularly Joyce is that it’s not one that they would have (I expect more awkward flailing and panicking) but I don’t at all think this is an issue of hypocrisy or anything.
Li
Totally a fair opinion to have! But this short pithy reply was definitely directed at the idea that they’re being hypocrites. I think I wound up coincidentally saying a longer version to you down below though, heh.
Sajuuk-Khar
Also how in the fucking world is “making out” now “nookie”? Why are we so determined to collapse the waveform between “kissing” and “fucking”? Like, yes, cheating, kissing cheating, cheating BAD, I understand this logic chain, but “kissing = fucking” I just can’t get behind.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Nothing is true. Everything is permissible.
Proxiehunter
Everything is true. Nothing is permissible.
Clif
Truth is subjective and cheap. Permits are expensive.
SillyGoose
Cheaps truths are subjectively permitted. Expenses must be permitted by your manager.
Effie
You can check out any time you want. But you can never leave.
ZombieKyrik
+1 Love that song
Mr D
Filthy Acts at a Reasonable Price