ngl, i always though the ‘inflation’ thing was some kinda joke that went too far because idk if anyone was ever credited for ‘coming up with it’ , like weight gain/chubbiness i understand but the over the top drawings ppl would put would be hard to imagine anyone getting satisfaction from. i wonder if the wonderbread guy is still around i haven’t been on DA in like a decade lol
DailyBrad
Weirdly, inflation is actually one of the better understood kinks in terms of origin, with much of it being directly caused by Violet in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, with “blueberrification” being a subset of inflation with juice inside the subject and thus closer to the ground zero of it, along with people being filled with air pumps in old cartoons, often to reinflate when after they’d been flattened.
I certainly don’t *get* the kink, but I’m unfortunately very aware of it.
The Other Mike
Your mention of air pumps makes me wonder if there’s any Dig Dug fanart catering to the fetish.
Max
Any question you can come up with. The answer is always yes. I once read a translated Japanese comic called “Graduation and Beheading.” The title was very accurate.
seregiel
Yes… but the device is his d***. Source: tried to find an emulator in the early 00’s
zee
Fun fact! There was supposed to be a Gibby! spinoff of iCarly, which shot a pilot that got shut down by executives. It included a scene where an employee of a rec center was told he was supposed to put sunscreen on children and inflate some balls, but he got confused. His boss held up balls covered in sunscreen and some kids walked through with massive stomachs, muttering “so full…”
The Gibby! spinoff did inflation on children!
anon
well, that guy did end up being a pervert, too and i think jeanette mccurdy’s book/auto bio mentioned him even if she couldn’t legally mention his name or so
Here we see a Brown Headed Amber alone on the sweeping forums of the internet, its natural habitat. Behold as she attempts to worm her way into a new webcomic fan forum. Yet she must be careful, if she is rejected she will have to brave the raging inferno’s of the Summer Blockbuster flame-wars alone.
yeah the nonconsenting thing is an issue even if booster isn’t a stranger though not sure how looking at a pic of amber through the lens later would be as effective as just observing her directly
I think Booster is *definitely* trolling Amber, being as intrusive as they possibly can be. I don’t personally see this as creepy, though, since it seems pretty clearly not a sexual thing, rather a “I’m gonna deliberately make you uncomfortable with the flimsiest of excuses” thing.
what if it’s in the context of… oh, just to pull out a hypothetical at random…
“hey, that thing you asked me to do earlier is extremely morally dubious, but I suspect you’re not going to listen if I just tell you that; so instead, I’m going to give you a demonstration of what it’s like being the subject of it.”
how’s that?
spriteless_auntie
Oh that will backfire gloriously. Who do you think taught Amber the boundaries to make that connection? Her Dad? Her doormat ex? Mike?
Nova
Creepy doesn’t have to be sexual. A creep is someone who makes you uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, but nonconsensual photography is definitely under the creep umbrella.
Wasn’t there a Patreon panel posted previously that showed Booster wanting to take candid photos of the quad from Dorothy’s window, so that no one would see Booster doing it? I’m voting “creepy as fuck”.
Mark
I’m voting “serious amateur photographer.” It’s often hard to tell the difference.
not saying it should be encouraged/condoned, but i think a lot of older teens/young adults are still at the phase, whether it’s to be rebellious/contrarian or not enough maturity/life experience, and of course everyone is diff, but it’s a very ‘young person’ thing to not listen/pester someone in this kinda way (at least it’s not a livestream or online so far)
I don’t think this is a lack of awareness of boundaries, this is a deliberate infringement on them. Booster knows what they are doing and is doing it with deliberate intent.
This is just a convenient opportunity for Booster to snap photos of people which would normally be a bit creepy but because of the mutual give and take of their arrangement it works here! Everyone wins! Except Ethan probably. He should really be aware of this whole setup thing since he’s the most important factor.
she has said no therapist would be equipped to deal with her or so, not sure if a student would fare that much better but also no amazigirl adventures anymore so i’d assume booster wouldn’t get in the crossfire of anyhing dangerous
Amber saying that no therapist would be equipped to deal with her doesn’t mean that’s true. It just means that’s what Amber believes is true.
I still don’t think student therapists should be trying to treat their fellow students with no oversight or actual qualifications, but this isn’t smarting of age so we’ll see!
anon
sal also got like , “well, rob a convenience store at 14 and see how many therapists you get sent to” although i’d assume they might have some kinda unintentional/inherent bias if it was like “This kid robbed a convenience store” versus “she was desperate to help her injured/newly-crippled friend” or so (though even with a ‘valid’ reason, they’d prolly have to ‘lecture’ her about not committing the crime and all the other stuff)
And I still think Amber is, in the usual manner of children very young adults, vastly overestimating how special and unique(ly broken) she actually is.
A genuinely good therapist (I acknowledge none may be available) would be much too professional to laugh and say “oh, dear, you have no idea“… but they might very well think it.
thejeff
To some extent that’s true, but DID really is rare and neither well understood or easy to treat. It’s unlikely a random therapist is going to have with it or with anything much rarer.
Ed Callahan
Of course, Willis would have to draw this therapist first, and it would kind of undercut the premise of DOA.
I hope that is not the case, but worry that it is.
I’m still holding out for the SS Garbage Skowl to be repaired in dry dock and set out anew.
Unless it’s a friendship, of course. Amber could use more friends and Booster seems a decent person to me.
you’re not supposed to get too close/directly interact as a nature documentary-person tho, right. wonde rif they’ll bump into ethan first questioning this or another person booster will answer and someone will reasonably say “that’s kinda weird/messed up/unnecessary, just talk to him” lol. thhough other than danny and joe, idk if anyone would care enough to get involved
not sure how helpful observing amber /now/ would be if she’s not on good enough speaking terms to push booster on him lol. seems like it’d be easier to just ask her to talk about the past
might be hard for her to talk about her current emotions but i can imagine her and some other ppl just casually just dumping all their past issues like “Yeha my dad was abusive, ethan was there for me but turns out he was gay which made our prom night awkward” and summarize
I kind of like Booster as a cast addition. (Note that “like” is absolutely not a stamp of approval on their actions. They definitely are too clever by half, and their grasp on psychology is still definitely a novice’s, but most strikingly when and how they use it.)
Anyway, I do like that they fill some of the same role Mike did while not being quite as “living cartoon character” about it. I do find it kind of funny that someone called Booster is routinely seen to “neg” people to a degree and take them down a peg.
But you can totally like a character as a character without liking them as a person. I wonder if this applies to real life at all. I feel like it does. I’m gonna come up with an example from my personal life later.
I think part of the symbolic meaning of Booster’s name has to do with the Power Booster Rod from the original continuity, for reasons I’ll probably write up in full at some point.
122 thoughts on “Delicate”
Ana Chronistic
“stupid EULA!”
Ana Chronistic
somehow surprised “lactation” isn’t in those alt-text tags
Kazuma Taichi
yeah, at mpreg and inflation, might as well go full in
The Wellerman
Re:Alt-Text, Today’s strip is sponsored by DeviantArt! ?
tim gueguen
Yeah, diaper stuff keeps turning up there. Don’t see the appeal of it.
anon
ngl, i always though the ‘inflation’ thing was some kinda joke that went too far because idk if anyone was ever credited for ‘coming up with it’ , like weight gain/chubbiness i understand but the over the top drawings ppl would put would be hard to imagine anyone getting satisfaction from. i wonder if the wonderbread guy is still around i haven’t been on DA in like a decade lol
DailyBrad
Weirdly, inflation is actually one of the better understood kinks in terms of origin, with much of it being directly caused by Violet in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, with “blueberrification” being a subset of inflation with juice inside the subject and thus closer to the ground zero of it, along with people being filled with air pumps in old cartoons, often to reinflate when after they’d been flattened.
I certainly don’t *get* the kink, but I’m unfortunately very aware of it.
The Other Mike
Your mention of air pumps makes me wonder if there’s any Dig Dug fanart catering to the fetish.
Max
Any question you can come up with. The answer is always yes. I once read a translated Japanese comic called “Graduation and Beheading.” The title was very accurate.
seregiel
Yes… but the device is his d***. Source: tried to find an emulator in the early 00’s
zee
Fun fact! There was supposed to be a Gibby! spinoff of iCarly, which shot a pilot that got shut down by executives. It included a scene where an employee of a rec center was told he was supposed to put sunscreen on children and inflate some balls, but he got confused. His boss held up balls covered in sunscreen and some kids walked through with massive stomachs, muttering “so full…”
The Gibby! spinoff did inflation on children!
anon
well, that guy did end up being a pervert, too and i think jeanette mccurdy’s book/auto bio mentioned him even if she couldn’t legally mention his name or so
tim gueguen
She apparently refers to him as The Creator in the book.
Rectilinear Propagation
I was going to joke about taking psychic damage from the alt text but then I read the comments…
anon
https://twitter.com/thesupermonart/status/1422098388527452161 I meant over the top stuff like this as opposed to something that might be closer to ‘chubby chasing/feederism’ or whatever, but to each their own
Needfuldoer
That place is an epicenter of depraved fantasy.
Stephen Bierce
FREEZE-FRAME! *organ riff starts*
shellshockbp
Still no fix on the muzak?
The Wellerman
That’s too bad :/
Doctor_Who
I was about to make an Ao3 joke, but nothing I can conceive of beats the alt text.
Suet
Not even a week in, I have now uttered my first “Damn You Willis” via alt-text. Great start to our 25th year.
Booster-azzi?
Nono
I can’t decide if Booster is being creepy yet. It feels kind of… nature documentary-ish.
True Survivor
Here we see a Brown Headed Amber alone on the sweeping forums of the internet, its natural habitat. Behold as she attempts to worm her way into a new webcomic fan forum. Yet she must be careful, if she is rejected she will have to brave the raging inferno’s of the Summer Blockbuster flame-wars alone.
Needfuldoer
Booster’s narrating this in their best Sir David Attenborough voice.
The Other Mike
If the comment section here allowed upvotes, you would have mine.
anon
yeah the nonconsenting thing is an issue even if booster isn’t a stranger though not sure how looking at a pic of amber through the lens later would be as effective as just observing her directly
DailyBrad
It’s kinda creepy, but I also can’t rule out that Booster is intentionally trolling Amber a little bit as much as anything else.
Psychie
I think Booster is *definitely* trolling Amber, being as intrusive as they possibly can be. I don’t personally see this as creepy, though, since it seems pretty clearly not a sexual thing, rather a “I’m gonna deliberately make you uncomfortable with the flimsiest of excuses” thing.
Queen Anthai
That isn’t any better.
StClair
what if it’s in the context of… oh, just to pull out a hypothetical at random…
“hey, that thing you asked me to do earlier is extremely morally dubious, but I suspect you’re not going to listen if I just tell you that; so instead, I’m going to give you a demonstration of what it’s like being the subject of it.”
how’s that?
spriteless_auntie
Oh that will backfire gloriously. Who do you think taught Amber the boundaries to make that connection? Her Dad? Her doormat ex? Mike?
Nova
Creepy doesn’t have to be sexual. A creep is someone who makes you uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, but nonconsensual photography is definitely under the creep umbrella.
Ana Chronistic
I half expect something like the ending of One-Hour Photo
Freemage
Wasn’t there a Patreon panel posted previously that showed Booster wanting to take candid photos of the quad from Dorothy’s window, so that no one would see Booster doing it? I’m voting “creepy as fuck”.
Mark
I’m voting “serious amateur photographer.” It’s often hard to tell the difference.
Keulen
Their behavior here seems kinda creepy to me.
anon
not saying it should be encouraged/condoned, but i think a lot of older teens/young adults are still at the phase, whether it’s to be rebellious/contrarian or not enough maturity/life experience, and of course everyone is diff, but it’s a very ‘young person’ thing to not listen/pester someone in this kinda way (at least it’s not a livestream or online so far)
UrsulaDavina
Amber is not looking at porn she is clearly watching tiktok complations of boils being lanced.
Casi
You know, i think porn would be more socially acceptable to me.
RassilonTDavros
Amber just enjoys it when Clark Kent is a more round(ed) character.
Pocky
Yeah; Booster gonna need to learn some boundaries.
anon
i’m sure if amber gets uncomfortable with it later she can call it off. at least there’s no signs of aggression/her suddenly punching them though
Psychie
I don’t think this is a lack of awareness of boundaries, this is a deliberate infringement on them. Booster knows what they are doing and is doing it with deliberate intent.
Darasara
Yea, this seems like Booster is deliberately needling Amber based on what she want’s them to do to Ethan.
Sirksome
This is just a convenient opportunity for Booster to snap photos of people which would normally be a bit creepy but because of the mutual give and take of their arrangement it works here! Everyone wins! Except Ethan probably. He should really be aware of this whole setup thing since he’s the most important factor.
Johan
Why not sonic? Or buff Lucario?
Rabbit
Watch this somehow turn into Amber/Booster as opposed to Ethan/Booster
…. Yknow, I wouldn’t be opposed. Booster is a psych student.
anon
she has said no therapist would be equipped to deal with her or so, not sure if a student would fare that much better but also no amazigirl adventures anymore so i’d assume booster wouldn’t get in the crossfire of anyhing dangerous
Nova
Amber saying that no therapist would be equipped to deal with her doesn’t mean that’s true. It just means that’s what Amber believes is true.
I still don’t think student therapists should be trying to treat their fellow students with no oversight or actual qualifications, but this isn’t smarting of age so we’ll see!
anon
sal also got like , “well, rob a convenience store at 14 and see how many therapists you get sent to” although i’d assume they might have some kinda unintentional/inherent bias if it was like “This kid robbed a convenience store” versus “she was desperate to help her injured/newly-crippled friend” or so (though even with a ‘valid’ reason, they’d prolly have to ‘lecture’ her about not committing the crime and all the other stuff)
StClair
And I still think Amber is, in the usual manner of
childrenvery young adults, vastly overestimating how special and unique(ly broken) she actually is.A genuinely good therapist (I acknowledge none may be available) would be much too professional to laugh and say “oh, dear, you have no idea“… but they might very well think it.
thejeff
To some extent that’s true, but DID really is rare and neither well understood or easy to treat. It’s unlikely a random therapist is going to have with it or with anything much rarer.
Ed Callahan
Of course, Willis would have to draw this therapist first, and it would kind of undercut the premise of DOA.
Needfuldoer
And Booster is no therapist, so by the transitive property…
StClair
“You fool. No man can help me.”
“Non-binary.”
cbwroses
I hope that is not the case, but worry that it is.
I’m still holding out for the SS Garbage Skowl to be repaired in dry dock and set out anew.
Unless it’s a friendship, of course. Amber could use more friends and Booster seems a decent person to me.
Nono
Booster did call Amber a “fascinating creature” once.
Honestly, that’s part of my issue with them. They don’t seem very much to treat people as people? More like cases and problems to puzzle out.
Johan
They called Ruth that. I believe all they said for Amber was “oh she’s plural.”
BBCC
Ahhh, train wreck waiting to happen. Do want!
True Survivor
Is that reference to Back Stroke of the West?
Clif
Booster is photosexual, confirmed.
H.J. Fleischmann
Ah, booster going full nature documentary on this.
anon
you’re not supposed to get too close/directly interact as a nature documentary-person tho, right. wonde rif they’ll bump into ethan first questioning this or another person booster will answer and someone will reasonably say “that’s kinda weird/messed up/unnecessary, just talk to him” lol. thhough other than danny and joe, idk if anyone would care enough to get involved
anon
not sure how helpful observing amber /now/ would be if she’s not on good enough speaking terms to push booster on him lol. seems like it’d be easier to just ask her to talk about the past
DailyBrad
I mean, most characters, sure, but this hinges on asking Amber to *talk* about anything. That was tough to do before Mike died, much less after.
anon
might be hard for her to talk about her current emotions but i can imagine her and some other ppl just casually just dumping all their past issues like “Yeha my dad was abusive, ethan was there for me but turns out he was gay which made our prom night awkward” and summarize
shadowcell
…Dumbing of Age Book 13: rule 34 clark kent…
DailyBrad
I kind of like Booster as a cast addition. (Note that “like” is absolutely not a stamp of approval on their actions. They definitely are too clever by half, and their grasp on psychology is still definitely a novice’s, but most strikingly when and how they use it.)
Anyway, I do like that they fill some of the same role Mike did while not being quite as “living cartoon character” about it. I do find it kind of funny that someone called Booster is routinely seen to “neg” people to a degree and take them down a peg.
Meagan
It is ironic about the name.
But you can totally like a character as a character without liking them as a person. I wonder if this applies to real life at all. I feel like it does. I’m gonna come up with an example from my personal life later.
RassilonTDavros
I think part of the symbolic meaning of Booster’s name has to do with the Power Booster Rod from the original continuity, for reasons I’ll probably write up in full at some point.
Ed Callahan
I think you’re on to something here.