It’s possible. Though it’s a level of awareness that I’m not sure I can see earlyDoA!Danny having, so I doubt it was something she told him while they were still dating.
It’s possible that she told him and he didn’t comprehend until later when he had done more introspection. Like, he understood it on a surface level as a general “fact” that Dorothy had told him, and then later when he actually sat down and tried to sort himself out he remembered that “fact” but now had the proper context to understand how it was relevant to him, personally. That understanding led him to be able to give the fact to Joe when Joe was doing a similar sort of introspection but didn’t already have the “fact” in his head.
If you think of the information itself as a key that opens a door in your head, having the key doesn’t do you a whole lotta good until you go looking to open the door. Danny might have had the key but didn’t go looking for the door until later, Joe was trying to open the door but needed the key.
Maybe a little too much bad blood between Joe and Dorothy for that to be long term viable?
Sajuuk-Khar
I mean, if Dorothy could surmount the Sisipheyan rock of her own personal issues, they might bury the hatchet pretty easily with some frank conversation, and, Willis being merciful, love could bloom
So in other words, it’s absolutely never gonna happen
Thag Simmons
I just think that a triangle that relies on two people who begrudgingly tolerate each other at best getting along is a triangle with a major point of failure.
Sajuuk-Khar
Agreed, and while my supposition was meant to indicate they could work up to a better relationship than that with some minor mutual effort, I also acknowledge that it’s incredibly unlikely.
My personal interpretation is Joe’s prob’ly putting 2 and 2 together that Joyce is bi and doesn’t realize it. Why else would proving they can touch without romance or sexuality require an “until” statement?
Like what? Oh, do you mean that she did not consider the possibility that Joyce and Joe did the horizontal tango? In that case, I think Joyce wears her heart on her sleeve and has some strong feels about that sort of thing. Therefore, a Dorothy could probably tell.
More like “Joyce can have character growth outside of Dorothy’s influence”.
Daibhid C
You mean she failed to consider the possibility that Joyce had “character growth” that meant she now did associate all forms of phycial contact with sex, and therefore needed the same disentangling as Joe? Because, honestly, I never considered that either.
Daibhid C
Okay, I’ve reread the strip and I’m now seeing her comment in panel 3 as less “I don’t think Joyce has any trouble with the concept of non-sexual physical contact” and more “I think Joyce should probably be more cautious about physical contact with you“. Which is kind of crappy, but I still can’t see it as failing to recognise character growth.
For the record this is what I was thinking of too. Dorothy makes the assumption that Joyce can separate sexual and non-sexual physical contact, despite zero evidence to support that premise, as well as evidence shown to the audience, in the form of events outside Dorothy’s knowledge, that she probably can’t as of this moment
I mean that in other strips we as the audience, but also importantly Joe as a character, have been shown that Joyce needs to normalize physical contact with the opposite sex. She refuses to lay down when Joe is asleep because she’s worried about what she might do. Joe saw that event, made a comment based on that knowledge, and Dorothy walks up and assumes that Joe is talking out of his ass
I’m trying to place that avatar, because I feel like I’ve seen this before, and I’ve got to say “long unskippable cutscene” “nihilism” and “-us van something” are all not helping me narrow it down at all.
Taffy
It’s from Kingdom Hearts 2.
Thag Simmons
Well, I was assuming Final Fantasy, so I’m close!
MirageOasis
They’re messing with you, it’s the final boss of FF14 a real reborn, Gaius Van Baelsar.
Sajuuk-Khar
Well now my bit just looks stupid!
Thag Simmons
Ah, so my instincts were correct. I even would have gotten the game right, although I think I was assuming this guy was a different FF14 character.
Sajuuk-Khar
Gaius is the old-school of FFXIV villains, kids these days are all about the PC’s evil self-proclaimed bestie Zenos or the incredibly outrageous and 100% done Ancient king of serving conga, Emet-Selch.
Agentomega
You’re correct and they’re pulling your leg. It’s actually Gaius van Baelsar from critically acclaimed MMORPG FFXIV, now with a free trial through level 70 including all Stormblood content.
Sajuuk-Khar
Thag, I can’t believe you haven’t heard of the critically acclaimed action RPG Kingdom Hearts 2. You can play through the entirety of the base game fully remastered AND experience the award-winning Final Mix content, with no restrictions on playtime.
David DeLaney
was not expecting these levels of MMORPG advertising in the comments to-day
–Dave, not that there’s anything wrong with that
spriteless aunty
Yea FFXIV advertising is a meme. Like people literally have reaction images with that text that come up whenever anyone mentions Genshin Impact. It’s fine it’s fine it’s fine.
StClair
Ask Me About LOOM
Taffy
The actual, non-smartass answer is: It was an image of Gaius van Baelsar, from Final Fantasy XIV (free through the third expansion!), paired with an edit of an iconic quote of his. After a bigger villain tricks him into setting off a magical nuke called Ultima, he looks around at the damage and says “Such devastation. This was not my intention!”, despite summoning the power of three captured gods to try and murder you like two minutes ago.
Taffy
I don’t wanna raid with y’all. Too many NIN players.
M!a
MCH main. Lends itself well to my rotation of “hit him with everything that’s not in cooldown”. ?
Taffy
SMN here. It’s great for my ADHD, cuz it’s simple and colorful (go ahead, make fun of that it’ll make you* look really cool), but on days when I can manage more complex planning, I’m a big fan of RDM for being super flashy.
I feel like he’s trying to find a way to have the joke be funny but realizing no matter how he plays it it’s just going to sound like “hurr lesbians hot durr”. And he’s sad because that’s an image he doesn’t want to have be his anymore but it’s refusing to leave him, maybe he can’t ever change how people see him; maybe it’s better to just throw it all away and go “should I leave you two alone for an hour?”
236 thoughts on “Detox”
Ana Chronistic
Dotty’s face was never seen again
AbacusWizard
THE MERGING IS COMPLETE
Taellosse
POWER OVERWHELMING
(this was a Starcraft reference, right?)
Eric
She will be assimilated
Eric
Heh-heh; I said Ass
seikodelic
I am so sorry! I was trying to click off the alt text and I accidentally reported your comment!
StClair
GIVE ME YOUR FAAAAAACE
(someone had to)
Sajuuk-Khar
Your FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
Decidedly Orthogonal
Neither was Joe’s zipper.
Thag Simmons
Now I’m wondering what the odds are that Danny picked that up from Dorothy in the first place.
RassilonTDavros
It’s possible. Though it’s a level of awareness that I’m not sure I can see earlyDoA!Danny having, so I doubt it was something she told him while they were still dating.
Psychie
It’s possible that she told him and he didn’t comprehend until later when he had done more introspection. Like, he understood it on a surface level as a general “fact” that Dorothy had told him, and then later when he actually sat down and tried to sort himself out he remembered that “fact” but now had the proper context to understand how it was relevant to him, personally. That understanding led him to be able to give the fact to Joe when Joe was doing a similar sort of introspection but didn’t already have the “fact” in his head.
If you think of the information itself as a key that opens a door in your head, having the key doesn’t do you a whole lotta good until you go looking to open the door. Danny might have had the key but didn’t go looking for the door until later, Joe was trying to open the door but needed the key.
David DeLaney
“I got it from A-gnes, she got it from Jim / We all agree it must have been Lou-ise who gave it to him …”
–Dave, a little song, all about FRIENDSHIP
NickG
Friendship with benefits and also venereal disease. Good old Tom Lehrer.
Doctor_Who
His expression in the last panel makes me think this is not helping Joe disassociate this sort of behavior from sexual thoughts.
A trait he shares with many of the readers, of course.
Bootshivers
He’s trying, the poor bloke, and I bless him for that
TulipKitten
To be fair, they masturbated together in a laundry room, and Joe knows about this…
Rose by Any Other Name
Given the looks on both Joe and Dorothy’s faces, I think the feeling might be mutual.
**crosses fingers and chants**
Polycule, polycule, polycule…
Thag Simmons
Maybe a little too much bad blood between Joe and Dorothy for that to be long term viable?
Sajuuk-Khar
I mean, if Dorothy could surmount the Sisipheyan rock of her own personal issues, they might bury the hatchet pretty easily with some frank conversation, and, Willis being merciful, love could bloom
So in other words, it’s absolutely never gonna happen
Thag Simmons
I just think that a triangle that relies on two people who begrudgingly tolerate each other at best getting along is a triangle with a major point of failure.
Sajuuk-Khar
Agreed, and while my supposition was meant to indicate they could work up to a better relationship than that with some minor mutual effort, I also acknowledge that it’s incredibly unlikely.
Yeet
yeah but it would be dramatic and hot
BarerMender
Joe: You two do what you need to do. I’ll be over here by the wall.
brionl
The proper term is “I’ll be in my bunk.”
BarerMender
He can’t watch from his bunk.
Jay
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell *can* be polyamory, I guess… I don’t think anything else would work with those two
BarerMender
His expression looks to me like, “Oh, no, am I already loosing the new-found love of my life?”
Kazuma Taichi
My personal interpretation is Joe’s prob’ly putting 2 and 2 together that Joyce is bi and doesn’t realize it. Why else would proving they can touch without romance or sexuality require an “until” statement?
Jacob Crawford
Love how Dorothy fails to consider that things may have occurred that she’s not aware of
True Survivor
Like what? Oh, do you mean that she did not consider the possibility that Joyce and Joe did the horizontal tango? In that case, I think Joyce wears her heart on her sleeve and has some strong feels about that sort of thing. Therefore, a Dorothy could probably tell.
Needfuldoer
More like “Joyce can have character growth outside of Dorothy’s influence”.
Daibhid C
You mean she failed to consider the possibility that Joyce had “character growth” that meant she now did associate all forms of phycial contact with sex, and therefore needed the same disentangling as Joe? Because, honestly, I never considered that either.
Daibhid C
Okay, I’ve reread the strip and I’m now seeing her comment in panel 3 as less “I don’t think Joyce has any trouble with the concept of non-sexual physical contact” and more “I think Joyce should probably be more cautious about physical contact with you“. Which is kind of crappy, but I still can’t see it as failing to recognise character growth.
HueSatLight
I don’t know if this is what Jacob Crawford meant, but it’s what I thought of. https://www.dumbingofage.com/cuddle/
Jacob Crawford
For the record this is what I was thinking of too. Dorothy makes the assumption that Joyce can separate sexual and non-sexual physical contact, despite zero evidence to support that premise, as well as evidence shown to the audience, in the form of events outside Dorothy’s knowledge, that she probably can’t as of this moment
Jacob Crawford
I mean that in other strips we as the audience, but also importantly Joe as a character, have been shown that Joyce needs to normalize physical contact with the opposite sex. She refuses to lay down when Joe is asleep because she’s worried about what she might do. Joe saw that event, made a comment based on that knowledge, and Dorothy walks up and assumes that Joe is talking out of his ass
Taffy
Feels like a reach.
anon
tbf most ppl aren’t as self reflective/sometimes don’t notice obvious things til they’re pointed out from another person’s perspective
BarerMender
Didn’t Joyce say something about cherishing those moments when she’s breathing the same air as Dorothy? And didn’t Dorothy find that a little freaky?
Taffy
Such demonstration. This was not my intention.
Sajuuk-Khar
This is what you get for that fifteen minute-long unskippable cutscene about how to believe in Joe is to believe in nothing, Dorothus van Keensar!
Thag Simmons
I’m trying to place that avatar, because I feel like I’ve seen this before, and I’ve got to say “long unskippable cutscene” “nihilism” and “-us van something” are all not helping me narrow it down at all.
Taffy
It’s from Kingdom Hearts 2.
Thag Simmons
Well, I was assuming Final Fantasy, so I’m close!
MirageOasis
They’re messing with you, it’s the final boss of FF14 a real reborn, Gaius Van Baelsar.
Sajuuk-Khar
Well now my bit just looks stupid!
Thag Simmons
Ah, so my instincts were correct. I even would have gotten the game right, although I think I was assuming this guy was a different FF14 character.
Sajuuk-Khar
Gaius is the old-school of FFXIV villains, kids these days are all about the PC’s evil self-proclaimed bestie Zenos or the incredibly outrageous and 100% done Ancient king of serving conga, Emet-Selch.
Agentomega
You’re correct and they’re pulling your leg. It’s actually Gaius van Baelsar from critically acclaimed MMORPG FFXIV, now with a free trial through level 70 including all Stormblood content.
Sajuuk-Khar
Thag, I can’t believe you haven’t heard of the critically acclaimed action RPG Kingdom Hearts 2. You can play through the entirety of the base game fully remastered AND experience the award-winning Final Mix content, with no restrictions on playtime.
David DeLaney
was not expecting these levels of MMORPG advertising in the comments to-day
–Dave, not that there’s anything wrong with that
spriteless aunty
Yea FFXIV advertising is a meme. Like people literally have reaction images with that text that come up whenever anyone mentions Genshin Impact. It’s fine it’s fine it’s fine.
StClair
Ask Me About LOOM
Taffy
The actual, non-smartass answer is: It was an image of Gaius van Baelsar, from Final Fantasy XIV (free through the third expansion!), paired with an edit of an iconic quote of his. After a bigger villain tricks him into setting off a magical nuke called Ultima, he looks around at the damage and says “Such devastation. This was not my intention!”, despite summoning the power of three captured gods to try and murder you like two minutes ago.
Taffy
I don’t wanna raid with y’all. Too many NIN players.
M!a
MCH main. Lends itself well to my rotation of “hit him with everything that’s not in cooldown”. ?
Taffy
SMN here. It’s great for my ADHD, cuz it’s simple and colorful (go ahead, make fun of that it’ll make you* look really cool), but on days when I can manage more complex planning, I’m a big fan of RDM for being super flashy.
*That’s the Royal You, for the record.
clif
It may not have been Dorothy’s intent, but last panel Dorothy is smiling.
ValdVin
much hug
so affection
very friends
David DeLaney
WoW
TerribleTransit
Okay, Chekhov’s Implied Lesbian Romance is getting really hard to ignore.
True Survivor
Poor Joe. They are just rubbing it in his face (or well here it is actually each other’s but you get the drift).
Amelie Wikström
I feel like he’s trying to find a way to have the joke be funny but realizing no matter how he plays it it’s just going to sound like “hurr lesbians hot durr”. And he’s sad because that’s an image he doesn’t want to have be his anymore but it’s refusing to leave him, maybe he can’t ever change how people see him; maybe it’s better to just throw it all away and go “should I leave you two alone for an hour?”
David DeLaney
“… I’ll be in my bunk, er I mean loft bed”
Bryy
We’re not in Act Three yet.
shadowcell
Dumbing of Age Book 14: Many Men Suffer From This
True Survivor
That would a great title.
Jess
definitely a top contender imo
RassilonTDavros
…Honestly, that would be fucking hilarious.
AY
+1
Jammy
Joyce, that’s the best worst pickup line I’ve ever heard.
Vanessa