159

Keeping
Posted on December 8, 2014 by David M Willis
The third Dumbing of Age Slipshine comic is now up on the Slipshine website! "Finally" is the 18-page completely canon sexy roughhousings between Billie and Ruth you've probably been pining for for years.  And make no mistake, there is nakedness and uncensored naughtybits here.   To read it, you gotta have a Slipshine membership -- for serious, like no exceptions -- but once you have one of those, you can read all five of my bangytime stories which are on there!  (Three are from Dumbing of Age, two are from Shortpacked!.) Most of your questions are probably answered by the "Walky Performs A Sex" FAQ which is found over here.  (tl;dr: again, you have to have a slipshine membership to read it)

159 thoughts on “Keeping”

  1. Jen Aside

    “that coulda been anybody, capes are like a dime a dozen”

    1. Yotomoe

      probably impressiboy. That guy’s awesome.

      1. Dreadhawk177

        Unlike your mother. She only costs a nickel. . .

        1. Lord Geovanni

          +4 internets

        2. l33tmaster

          +6 Coolness

      2. Deanatay

        I thought he was just impressive.

        1. Sambo

          +8.1

      3. Mitsukara

        Now I want to see Danny become Impressi-Boy, AmberAmazi-Girl’s sidekick.

  2. Camachri

    MYSTERY SOLVED.

  3. Idon'tcarenomore

    Technically.

    1. Leorale

      But, ‘technically’ is the only way it *was* the same person as Amazi-Girl… Anyway it looks like Dorothy is buying it, at least on my tiny screen.

    2. MrSirk

      Amazi-Girl does have her own tag.

    3. Jerden

      Technically it was her, technically it wasn’t… this is the great thing about multiple personalities – plausible deniability!
      Why do we remain sane, anyway? It seems like so much work, and you just miss out!

  4. blackhat64

    Gggghhhh. *tugs at collar*

  5. Doctor_Who

    It was Amazi-Girl’s Bizarro counterpart, Terri-Boy!

    1. Yotomoe

      Me am not Terri-Boy!

      1. Hoboturtle

        Terri-boy spends his weekends trying to get Sal to rob a convenience store so that can live thru Amber’s origin story.

      2. Plasma Mongoose

        Does he have a terrycloth cape?

        1. Opus the Poet

          I had one of those back when I was like 6. Adam West was playing Batman on TV… And my mom attached a button to and made a buttonhole in a bath towel… Nananana….

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          I used to have a nice terrycloth jumper but they don’t seem to make them anymore.

        3. Ed Rhodes

          I’m older than you. I had one pre-Batman. I used to watch the
          George Reeves “Superman” show in re-runs (I’m not old enough
          to have watched it in real time.) and made a Superman cape.
          I would leap off the porch (I was also not supid enough to believe
          I could really fly.)

    2. barefootbiker

      His alter-ego, of course, is Faz.

  6. liahansen

    But also technically very much a lie

    1. Jadedcynic

      There’s the rub, Ms. O’Malley seems to be on the cusp of a psychotic break – seeing Amazigirl and Amber as two different people, and despite the costume, the girl who attacked Blaine was Amber who is filled with this rage (dumped on her by both her father’s genetics AND her father’s upbringing) and doesn’t have the superhero’s control and restraint.

      There’ve been hints at that here and there in the past, but it SEEMS that Amber is on the mend, and having a better support structure (including Dorothy here) is helping her edge away from that precipice.

      Of course, her ‘it wasn’t me (the persona you see before you)’ not-quite-a-lie is indeterminate; it could just be expediency, or it could be another back-slide to an unhealthy state of mind…

      …guess we’ll have to wait and see, eh? 😛

  7. Taigan

    Ooooh! Evil Twin!

  8. Mr. Random

    I can’t tell if Dorothy’s eyes convey
    “Oh thank God. She didn’t have to fight her father.”
    Or
    “My god, I’m standing next to a crazy person.”

    1. liahansen

      pretty sure the second one

    2. Cephalo the Pod

      Amber would have been crazy to have not beaten up her father.

      1. GrumpyPanda

        There are perfectly sane non-violent ways she could have handled that situation. However the method she chose was inherently superior, because fuck that guy.

    3. timemonkey

      Dorothy doesn’t know that Amber did it, or that Amber’s at the level of crazy where she divides her indentities entirely, so she’s feeling relief.

  9. Foxhack

    The fact that it wasn’t Amazi-Girl who did the beatdown is what’s really worrying.

    1. Yotomoe

      That means…the O’malley cloning experiment was a success.

      1. newllend

        Was it ! That means we made an evil clone…stratch that means we made an Eviler clone

        1. Jess

          His name is Faz.

        2. Disloyal Subject

          Faz got all the egomania and evil, Amber all the competence and badassery. Squared.

    2. Regalli

      Yeah, seriously, Amber. SEEK HELP NOW PLEASE.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        You mean besides Danny?

      2. Jerden

        They’d try and cure her. Given that Amazi-Girl didn’t beat up her father, I’m worried about the person you’d get if you eliminated her.
        Also, sane people are boring. If everyone got help for their issues, they’d be no plot to entertain us. I’m probably sane, and my life is so dull I read comics on the internet for entertainment.

    3. StClair

      Yyyyup.

  10. caesaria82

    Great range of Dorothy!faces in this strip, A+++

  11. Plasma Mongoose

    “It was the OTHER me… no not Other Rachel, OTHER ME”.

    1. Yotomoe

      OH! You mean Rose!

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        That would be even better, Rose does need more screen time.

    2. Vangeln

      You mean other Jacob!

  12. Hoboturtle

    Woah, Amber and Dorothy was the last pair I expected to see today.

    1. Hoboturtle

      Thought todays strip would be Ruth and Billie post coitus. Or Joyce and Becky….. post coitus.

      1. Opus the Poet

        NOOOOOO!!!!!

      2. David

        Leslie and Joe?

        Mike and Joe?

        1. Vangeln

          Mike and you mom.

  13. Idon'tcarenomore

    I thinks Dorothy’s glad and wants to believe AG.

  14. Gangler

    I’m not sure I understand how that’s technically not a lie. It was her, wasn’t it?

    1. Yotomoe

      It was Amber. Amazi-girl doesn’t blush.

      1. Gangler

        You sure? Could’ve sworn it was Amazigirl. Remember her being in the costume, using the voice, the whole shebang.

        1. Catullus

          I just went back and checked, the tags label her as Amber for the beatdown itself.

        2. Bibulb

          I did the same thing. BRRRR.

        3. MrSirk

          SpoOoOoky stuff. ö_ö

        4. Gangler

          Never mind. I went back.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/hostage/

          Her voice changes when she throws that first blow. She’s tagged Amber where the page before she was tagged Amazigirl.

        5. JacHunter

          And now we can just assume that Willis foresaw this very conversation and made that tag change on purpose.

          Or he’s a lot better at subtlety than some people give him credit for.

          …I choose both.

        6. Tenn

          You make it sound like the comments section didn’t notice the tag change back when it happened.

        7. John

          Yeah, that was the point where I realized that “amber” and “amazi-girl” being two separate tags was more than just a meta-reflection of the conceit that no one knows Amazi-Girl’s true identity, but indicative of the actual state of Amber’s brain.

    2. Jen Aside

      ***Amazi-Girl*** did not beat up Blaine

      1. xKiv

        In fact, not doing that is pretty much the purpose of A-G’s existence …

    3. BobaFett2

      I believe it started as Amazi-Girl but turned into Amber.

  15. Yotomoe

    IT WAS I, DIO.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      KHAAAN!!

  16. Boomwolf

    Wait, so there’s another person with a cape running around beating dudes up? Someone should make a comic about- wait… Nevermind

  17. LiamAldam

    Makes sense.

  18. Idon'tcarenomore

    It was, but she wasn’t in her right mind, so not her..technically…stretching it a bit. But this is one case I don’t care.
    Leave her be.

  19. Ray Radlein

    Well, she did say “two assailants.” Everyone knows Amazi-Girl works alone. Right?

    1. Bill

      No, that’s Mr. Incredible who works alone.

  20. Kernanator

    Seriously, it was that guy. You know, Not Me?

    1. Leorale

      In that case, Dorothy can find the assailant by following the dotted line

      1. GamaranSepudomyn

        So Dorothy has to follow the dotty?

  21. Cephalo the Pod

    Aww, they kept in touch.

    1. JessWitt

      I like to think of them as “secret correspondents in the night”.

      1. begbert2

        Sounds like another slipshine waiting to happen.

        1. JacHunter

          Doesn’t it, though?

  22. newllend

    But we found your boot print on The exact side of his face where his skull fractured.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      I doubt his pride would let him allow them to trace a print to her.

  23. Jesse

    Ooh, lawyer’d!

  24. JessWitt

    We’re going to hear the phrase “whiteboard dingdong bandit” once in a while, huh?

  25. Bill

    Hold it. One of TWO assailants?

    1. JessWitt

      Well, Danny did spit at him.

    2. horrorshow88

      Danny was seen leaving the scene with her, so it isn’t surprising people assumed he was involved.

    3. Bill

      Figures he wouldn’t admit to getting whupped up on by only one person. But this was reported by a witness. Someone must have thought Danny was in on the beat-down.

      1. Gangler

        Yeah, if I recall Blane claimed he’d been beaten by a group of large men. This “Two assailants, one wearing a cape” story is entirely new and inconsistent with what Blane gave to the police.

        1. David M Willis

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/oldfashioned/

        2. Gangler

          Ah! There we are! Thanks!

          So the story’s not new, but it is inconsistent with Bane’s account, which only included one large man.

        3. John

          Bane’s account included one large man in a cape who could breathe in space.

        4. Yotsuyasan

          Well, [I]that[/I] would explain my Gravatar…

        5. gwalla

          Daisy is the anti-J Jonah Jameson.

        6. John

          JJJ is totally tsundere for Spidey.

        7. John

          The story Blaine gave the police was not consistent with the story other witnesses provided.

        8. JacHunter

          I love how you and Willis both linked to the same page in response to the same comment within a minute of each other.

        9. John

          If I’m going to get ninja’d, at least it was by the man himself!

  26. Lit

    What she said was technically true from her point of view.
    Welcome to journalism baby!

  27. Greenygal

    Well, Dorothy, from a certain point of view…

  28. Bibulb

    “I will find out who it was, and bring her to justice. Along with her accomplice, your former boyfriend.

    …Threesome? Or would that be too weird?”

  29. Swoop

    This is why I love comics and books. No one in the real world has the voice appropriate for this kind of dialogue. When you let your imagination do the talking everything gets a whole lot cooler.

    That being said, I would give my left arm for a doa animated series.

    1. 3oranges

      I always envisioned Dorothy voiced by Zoe Saldana and Amber by Brad Bird.

    2. StClair

      Kevin Conroy does.

  30. MrSirk

    …Can’t figure out if Amber’s being smart or if this has rather terrifying implications.

    1. John

      The latter.

    2. Kelly

      Little of column A, little of column B

    3. JQuire

      Terrifying implications. Amazber has not developed the healthiest ways of dealing with her abuse and/or mental health issues.

      1. JacHunter

        I kind of look at it as the same way Batman keeps his Bruce Wayne identity separate to the point that he occasionally refers to which ever persona he’s NOT currently acting in as an entirely different person, even in internal monologue.

  31. David Alexander McDonald

    “Not to alarm you, Amazi-Girl, but your tights are on fire.”

    1. Lord Geovanni

      no no it wasnt Amazi-Girl she wasnt even in that strip check the tags

  32. Robert

    “You must have me confused with someone else. I’m the vigilante who was punched in the ovaries by a handful of underage drinkers in a Walmart parking lot.”

  33. GoogerGeiger

    Once again I could care less about the current comic when there’s new porn to read.

  34. Malchus

    Of course she’s not the father of your neighbor, Dorothy.

    1. tinfoil theory

      Blaine was the father of her neighbour, but he’s not anymore.

      Blaine has been to the hospital, and now he is no lionger Amber’s father.

      1. Clif

        Say what?
        I follow Malchus in agreeing that Amazagirl is technicaly truthful, almong other reasons because when Dorothy recites the fact that a Mr. O’Malley was beat up and asks, “if it was you,” Amazigirl can truthfully answer in the negative because she is in point of fact, not Mr.O’Malley. It’s bbasically the Bill Clinton defense whereby Bill can honestly say “I did not have sex with that woman, Monica L.,” thereby informing Monica that he did not subsequenly have sex with Hillery.

        On the other hand, Tinfoill, when we reach your comment I lose track of the conversation entirelly..

        1. la6ue mous snow angel

          The implication I believe is that he lost his sexual organs.

  35. John

    Technically correct is the best kind of correct!

    1. Opus the Poet

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_81Lx8f0s2k for the source of the quote.

  36. takashid

    Is there a need to give Dorothy the run around??? She already knows your secret identity, just tell her “yes, that was amber’s dad, he’s a horrible monster who abused amber and her mother for years and then chased her here to college and took one of her friends hostage”.

    If Dorothy knew all the facts she would be on her side, just like Danny was once he knew. But i guess she doesn’t know Dorothy well enough yet to know if she can trust her with the truth.

    1. Bagge

      I think the main point is to keep the compartmentalization going. From Amaziegirl’s perspective she really didn’t hit Blaine – that was Amber. She is not trying to fool Dorothy as much as herself. (For a not very precise use of the term “fool”)

      1. MrSirk

        I’m sure she’ll figure it out eventually. Or you know totally snap and murder someone…let’s hope she figures this shit out.

      2. Matthew Davis

        Yeah, I think this is the crux of things, here. Amazigirl is Amber’s way of dealing with not being in control of things — by creating someone who is always in control and then inhabiting that persona. It’s very functionally similar to the psychology of Batman (which is no doubt Willis’ intent), but taken to an extreme Batman doesn’t usually show. If Amazigirl beat Blaine up in a fit of anger, then Amazigirl loses her function as that psychological crutch.

        I do have a question, though — assuming what I said is true, which it seems to be by this comic, then how does Amber reconcile her attempt to “get” Sal with what Amazigirl is supposed to be?

        1. Thomas

          @ Matthew: “Seeing [her] triggered a bad memory. […] We panic, and we end up doing stuff like […] fighting a bunch of our neighbors in a Walmart parking lot.”

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/gashface/

        2. John

          Well, remember, the first time she encountered Sal, Amber was completely useless in the actual crisis and then freaked out and stabbed Sal from behind after she was already in custody.

          I think what Amazi-Girl is (was?) trying to do with Sal is get a do-over so she can do it right this time: Catch Sal in the act, force her to desist her criminal activities, defeat her face-to-face in honorable combat using only appropriate force, rescue anyone put in danger by said criminal activities, and then, I dunno, leave her tied to a lamppost outside the police station or something.

          Sal has been foiling her plan by not getting up to anything more antisocial than a little underage drinking and refusing to escalate the confrontation to violence so that Amazi-Girl is justified in using violence herself.

          The key things she’s trying to prove to herselves are, I think:
          1. that she’s physically and emotionally strong enough to face and defeat Sal, and
          2. that she’s mentally and morally strong enough to treat Sal justly rather than savaging her like a rabid dog.

          These goals may be contradictory at the point where they run into reality.

        3. Bagge

          That makes a lot of sense. Amaziegirl is in control even when Amber wouldn’t be.

          That same logic opens up an interesting possible explanation for why only Amaziegirl dates Danny and not Amber. Relationships are hard and scary and Amaziegirl is better equipped to deal with that. (of course, good relationships demand that you can be vulnerable with each other, which Amaziegirl doesn’t do)

    2. timemonkey

      If Dorothy found out she lost her temper and hospitalised her own father, abusive asshole he may be, it’ll pretty much destroy the image she has of Amazi-Girl and likely trigger her responsable side to actually report what she knows. And then she’d hate herself for doing it.

    3. JacHunter

      Well, there’s the fact that she’s currently RECORDING Amazi-Girl. She can’t give up too much knowledge that would let someone who might see the video in the future know who she is. That’s why she still poses as Amazi-Girl even though Dorothy’s in on her secret.

  37. Bagge

    Amaziegirl is that part of Amber that can allow her self certain things that Amber can’t…. such as NOT beating up her father. Crikie – the whole amaziegirl/amber dynamics is getting scarier by the minute.

    The whole Dorothy/Amaziegirl is getting more awesome by the minute though. She is getting regular updates now? Louise Lane would be proud. (Actually, if a Superman comic makes Louise Lane president I would read the shit out of it).

    1. Disloyal Subject

      Who’s Louise Lane? Or did you mean Lois?

      1. Bagge

        Ah, thanks.

  38. Rabid Rabbit

    Also, Dorothy, you should probably stop referring to your secret midnight meetings with AG as “going out Deep-Throating”.

    1. gwalla

      For Daisy’s mental health if nothing else.

  39. Benjy

    YAAY another lesbian scene in DOA!

    1. Kelly

      Another? No, no, we want Dorothy and Joyce, not Dorothy and Amber!

      1. Benjy

        No, I want Dorothy and Amber. It’s the classic Clark Kent and Lois Lane scenario, except LESBIANS.

  40. allaces14400

    Escapism at its finest.

  41. Kelly

    The Slipshine lives up the great quality you have established Willis!

    All hail the Pornlord!

  42. Tom T.

    “Understood”? Why is Dorothy letting A-G just drop the topic of the whiteboard bandit?

    1. Bill

      Because a good reporter knows that you need to have a good relationship with your sources.  Respect them if it’s not that important and you become someone that they can trust, and that trust can repay huge dividends.  But if you press a source too hard, you may wind killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

  43. nothri

    Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Norman Bates didn’t hurt anybody, it was all his mother’s fault. The hairs, you are splitting them.

  44. Nonagon

    Dammit, stop getting me hyped for porn. Every side comic you release makes the price of that Slipshine account look just a little bit more reasonable.

    1. Shadow Eagle

      go for it, Nonagon, it’s worth it JUST for Willis’ works…

      1. Leonou

        Well it is worth only for Willis comics. But some other works around there are just as great, especially Amanda Lafrenai’s series.
        Anyway, it has a large range of styles (story-wise, sexuality-wise and art-wise) so one is bound to enjoy one’s first time there. Then one can decide whether it is worth keeping the subscription going or stop it after one month.

    2. chase

      I was just thinking the exact same thing. I only subscribed once for Willis’ comics on Slipshine and then immediately unsubscribed after I’d had my fill. I’m wondering if I should renew because this is the one I’ve been dying to see the most.

  45. Trevor

    I know this is out of Willis’s control, but if you do subscribe to magic porn land (aka slipshine), your password will be emailed to you in plaintext. So you should not use a password you use for anything else, as it is extremely likely to be compromised. Willis should probably mention this when he promotes his slipshine work. I’m too lazy to try to contact him directly, so hopefully he’ll read this.

    1. Kelly

      In fact it uses http auth, which is why you get a modal pop-up box instead of a field in the web page.

      In theory, I really like the idea of http auth, it makes the auth natively part of http, not tacked on with forms and cookies, and there are some abstract reasons to like it.

      However, it has only basic (plain text) and digest methods. It is kinda sorta secure (in transit) if you run this over ssl, but it still has issues. Like keeping your password on the server in plain text or bad compromised MD5 hash form, among other things.

      I would love to see HTTP auth updated for modern times and real security, but as it, it just isn’t.

      Also, I just checked, and the dialog says “A username and password are being requested by http://members.slipshine.net”

      It does not say “https:” so it isn’t even ssl protected, so it is totally sniffable in flight.

      So, yeah. I saw something on their twitter which makes me think they have some big upgrades in progress, I hope that includes security. Hm… I wonder if they are hiring?

      1. Kelly

        heck, @Tautologicaly even lives in Seattle.

      2. Trevor

        Yeah, you know more about this than me, but when plaintext passwords are sent through email, there’s a substantial security risk. As you say, it’s not even encrypted while it’s being emailed, so really it would be a bad idea to use any password that you use for anything else for this password.

        1. Kelly

          Absolutely! It would be bad enough with just that. The rest just makes it worse.

          Thing is, Slipshine is a really small outfit, and I am pretty sure they came into this from a webcomic direction, not a tech/hosting site direction. So it isn’t surprising.

      3. JWLM

        Oh, my heavens. They really are screwed up — they can’t even be reached by HTTPS Everywhere. Hey, Slipshine, 1995 called; they wanted to send you the SSL certificate you should have ordered back then.

  46. David

    “Have you considered that it might have been your neighbor herself?”

    1. Bill

      “He was the father of … my neighbor.”

      Blaine is Dina’s dad?

      1. JacHunter

        Amber and Dina are roommates.

        1. Bill

          I knew that — I was trying to be funny.
          Didn’t work, apparently.

  47. OmegaDez

    The very fact the slipshine preview shows Billie removing Ruth’s glasses makes me think I won’t appreciate this as much as I thought I should.

    Everything should come off but the glasses, of course.

    1. Kelly

      Billie’s stay on, FWIW. Also it is a super cute scene.

    2. MrSirk

      Hahahaha! Of course!

  48. Arkadi

    Depends on who’s talking now I guess.

  49. Rartorata

    Your “neighbour”, Dorothy? I’m not doubting you, but you do look a lot like Amber, and people who look like Amber tend to be related to her.

    But hey, I’ve only observed two universes in your cluster, so what do I know?

  50. B.D

    She’s talking about Blaine in the past tense. …did Amber beat her father to death?

    …

    Oh well, time for Thai food.

  51. Onion

    That was still only “a few nights ago”?? Wow, this comic moves a lot slower than I would expect.

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