137

Signal
Posted on April 8, 2017 by David M Willis

137 thoughts on “Signal”

  1. AnvilPro

    Sal doesn’t even want a privacy chair, she’s just looking to start trouble

    1. Bagge

      Heh, I actually believe that.

      “Oooops, Marcie, looks like I got in trouble again. To bad MY BEST FRIEND was not around to keep me in check, Marcie. Maybe I’ll go and start some more trouble now, Marcie.”

      1. Pablo360

        Sal: “I’m a real troublemaker, Marcie.”

        Marcie:

        Sal: “It’s not like I like your or anything, b-baka!”

    2. Ophidiophile

      Yeah, it does seem out of character. Sal doesn’t use those chairs; she just leans against walls and glares at anyone who comes close.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        She does tend to stick up for folks, though. Maybe there are nameless extras slouching uncomfortably offpanel, wistfully gazing at the Cube of Isolation.

        1. BBCC

          I can easily see her just being like “No, ah don’t want one myself, but seriously? Dick move.”

        2. gkheyf

          she has slowly started to get involved in other people’s business. but i would’ve thought that her general schooly mccool approach would be to not start none until she finds herself in the middle of it. on the other hand, this should play out interestingly ^_^

        3. BBCC

          That’s usually her MO until people are being immature or being a dick – doing something she sees as both ensures she’ll at least walk up and say ‘hey, you, knock it off’.

  2. BBCC

    Sal is so done with dorm shenanigans and I love it.

    Go figure, after 5 years at a rambunctious boarding school.

    1. Pablo360

      If Sal were a character in Homestuck, she would murder Homestuck, because she has no patience for shenanigans.

      Wait, is Sal just a less-supercillious Rose Lalonde? Who is the Kanaya Mayram in this analogy?

      1. BBCC

        ….Yes.

      2. Delicious Taffy

        Marcie is Kanaya, but neither of them know it yet.

        1. BBCC

          …..So she and Sal are gonna get married?

          I am okay with this.

        2. Liliet

          Jewish married
          I am fully onboard with this turn of events

      3. Krys Brynhildr

        She’s a lot less interested in actually playing armchair psychoanalyst as well. Apparently she’s more into fighting social injustices….like hoarding all the chairs. ;p

    2. Deanatay

      Soooo… Sal for RA, then?

      Heheh… rambunctious hooligans, practicing tomfoolery and shennanigans… I love the odd words English has adopted to describe rebellion.

      1. BBCC

        She probably wouldn’t be the WORST RA if the job was forced on her, but she most likely wouldn’t take it voluntarily (plus the offer would REEK of ‘give the ‘bad’ kid responsibility to make them behave better’).

        And yeah, English has some fun words for rebellion.

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          That first part is basically how Carla for RA would go as well, since they’re both kind of “try to look like they don’t care, but actually can’t ignore problems around them”. Well, I mean, Sal tends to go more for physical solutions, while Carla does engineering and sweet pranks, but still.

        2. BBCC

          Yeah, pretty much, though Sal tends to skip the ‘pretend not to care’ part when it’s a serious problem, and Carla seems like she’d be more inclined to help out with little things like roommates playing music too loud (whereas I think Sal would say they should be able to handle it themselves and not waste her time)

    3. Ari

      I attend a so-called “rambunctious boarding school”. Can confirm, it lowers one’s tolerance for bullshit quite substantially.

      1. BBCC

        Yeah, after 5 years there, I imagine she’s just about done by the time college rolled around.

  3. Tan

    Yup, sure is checking-on-ships day.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Next up, Mary and being dressed at a reasonable time. Their relationship is…rocky, at the moment.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Unless I’m mistaken and thinking of someone else, because I can’t seem to find the relevant strips.

        1. Passchendaele

          I can’t link to the strips, but you’re definitely right, as I distinctly remember that (and my memory is usually reliable). I’d call their relationship a bit…bare.

          (teehee)

        2. John

          Ask and you will receive.

      2. Deanatay

        Really? I don’t ship those two. That’s an unhealthy relationship, right there.

  4. Mr. Mendo

    String? I am confused…

    1. Meta

      Probably a portable antenna? Like the ones on some miniature radios.

    2. Passchendaele

      I legit thought that cord was some kind of string that you could pull to signal your presence and speak with/join Amber/whoever else is inside, until I read Meta’s comment and looked at the last panel again. XD

    3. Remmington Steele

      Wifi aerial perhaps?

      1. Needfuldoer

        You need them when your school awards Faraday Furnishings the contract for their latest remodel.

  5. Yakumo

    Wrong focus. Nodoby gets in to see the Amber comes only after nobody f*&$s with Ambers signal.

  6. timemonkey

    People who get in to see the Amber are often left disappointed and confused.

  7. Passchendaele

    “uh…uh…NO SE HABLA INGLES”

    *closes cube*

    “…why’m I not even surprised anymore?”

    1. Passchendaele

      and oh god sal and amber at the same place and time. this is the last way I expected them to meet. either she retreats, Ethan jumps in, she switches to AG, or everything goes to hell. and now I’m worried about that last one.

      1. Micro-Girl

        They did meet in the hall when Amber was going to wash her clothes.

      2. Dragon_Nataku

        … wait, so AG and Sal are totally cool with eachother now, but Sal still makes Amber BSOD?

        *throws hands up into the air, wanders off*

        1. Spencer

          Amber still has PTSD relating to Sal (she defined it as “very anxiety inducing but can be near her and relatively civil when she’s Amazi-Girl. because Amazi-Girl is perfect and invincible and willing to concede she acted poorly (as long as she can blame Amber for all the wrongdoing like the stalking and the yelling at Danny)

          Personally I believe Amazi-Girl is how she wants to act towards Sal. She wants to atone and try to do right by her.

      3. Marsh Maryrose

        In the next strip, I’m expecting to see the “door” slam down in panel 1. When it re-opens, Amazi-Girl will be in control.

  8. AutobotDen

    say it with me: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!!!!

  9. Kris

    The privacy cube’s one weakness!

    1. Bagge

      Amber only planed for meek and introvert people, and failed to anticipate for the contingency of someone actually interacting with her.

  10. Nono

    ARRRR MATEY, YOU BE TAKING MY BOOTLEG ROUTER!

    1. Abel Undercity

      And they called her Pirate Amber, Terror of the Student Commons…

  11. Stephen Bierce

    All we hear is…Radio Gaga…

  12. Fart Captor

    I wanted to know how this was going to go down but now I’m having second thoughts

  13. Shiro

    Welp! Amber, meet Sal. Sal, Amber.

    Now, if anyone’s gonna put two and two together, I’d buy Sal for that person.

    1. Kris

      Not likely. They’ve done this dance at least once already.

    2. Fart Captor

      My money’s on Ethan. Or possibly an accidental team effort

  14. Schpoonman

    Amber tried to go full Gurren Lagann.

    Little did she know is that Sal would look SO BOMB with Kamina’s glasses and is in fact the true inheritor of Simon’s legacy.

    1. Pie

      Don’t believe in yourself, Amber! Believe in the Sal that believes in you!!

    2. Krys Brynhildr

      See, except to actually be the true inheritor of the legacy, she’d have to wear Simon’s Starshade for a while and then wear something even more cheesishly awesome.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        “We evolve beyond the person we were a minute before! Little by little, we advance a bit further with each turn. That’s how a drill works!!”
        ALWAYS ESCALATE doesn’t seem like a great philosophy for Sal, but it’s hard to argue with HOT BLOOD.

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          Unless you’re a COOL RIVAL…and then its super hard not to argue with HOT BLOOD. Honestly though, the COOL RIVAL character in that show was also pretty hotblooded, so really you have to go for KILL LA KILL to get that dichotomy going on.

          And those outfits might be too racy for anything but a Slipshine costume party comic.

    3. Tacos

      Her’s is the drill that will pierce the chair fort.

    4. foamy

      This is just begging for Sal to reply with “I’m Batman.” :v

  15. Kernanator

    The shields have been breached! Reality is flooding in!

  16. Griffin

    Who do you think you are
    Running round yanking cords

  17. Keulan

    Sal, if you wanted a chair cube fort you should’ve thought of it first.

    1. BBCC

      She seems more irked a fort exists period, not that it’s not her’s.

      She is going to take back this conquered territory and redistributing it to the masses! ….In the name of evil, of course.

      1. Savail

        I see what you did there…and I approve.

        1. BBCC

          Eyyyyyy~

        2. Bagge

          So do I

        3. BBCC

          I repeat: Eyyyyyyy~

  18. Leorale

    Remind me, is Ethan still in there, too?

    1. Tacos

      I think so. I also think Dina was with them too last we saw.

      1. Fart Captor

        Nah, we saw her climb back out before Amber put the top chairs on

      2. inqntrol

        Yeah she came to ask Amber if Becky can move in their room and then left.

        1. Leorale

          Sweet; thanks y’all.

  19. Tacos

    So I guess they really did make a chair fort of solitude.

    1. inqntrol

      Which it’s only weakness is the lack of internet apparently.

      1. Tacos

        Too bad she’s no Bruce Wayne. He’d have built a chair fort with wifi.

  20. motorfirebox

    GOIN’ ROUND TAKING MY BARS, COLLECTING TO THE WEB IS HARD, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARRRRRRE

    1. motorfirebox

      mother fricker that’s supposed to say “connecting”

  21. TheKelliestKelly

    I’m reminded of the flashback when Sal was a little girl and she was not having Marcy hogging the play tower. Privacy chairs, slides, parental attention – you name it, Sal wants you to share it

    1. Bagge

      Sharing is caring

      Except for your sweet hog, of course

      1. Deanatay

        … Which she lets Marcie ride on? So, still sharing.

        1. BBCC

          She’s let Billie and Joyce ride on it when they had somewhere to go and it didn’t make sense for Sal to go alone or it was an emergency. She also (I think) let Malaya ride on it when AG hurt her. Marcie’s been the only one who got to ride for fun (though she’s since offered to let Joyce ride so they could go to a diner she found).

  22. DarkoNeko

    “…let me in ?”

  23. valis_kr3

    The password is swordfish.

    1. Tacos

      Nah the password is “password”.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Pff. Amateur. Try “password1234”, it’s so much more secure.

        1. John

          That’s the kind of password an idiot would have on his luggage.

        2. Arianod

          Thanks for the Mel Brooks ref! X3

        3. Dragon_Nataku

          That’s the kind of stupid thing my parents have as their alarm code on their house. gg, parents

        4. Falling Star

          “I LIKE TO DANCE WITH DUCKS AT DAWN”

      2. showler

        It’s “Drowssap” backwards. That’s my mother’s maiden name.

        For security.

    2. Wack'd

      “Now I’ll give you one more guess…”

  24. Cerberus

    Oh hai sudden episode of intense PTSD, I didn’t see you there. Yes please, come in, make yourself comfortable, stay as long as you’d like.

    1. BBCC

      Oh, pffft, as if that pesky bongo cares about permission to stay, the inconsiderate butthole.

      1. Leorale

        Feelings don’t knock.
        I think they’re more like HAI HERE I AM, WHAT YOU GONN’ DO ABOUT IT while they wreck shit up.

  25. Delicious Taffy

    Completely unrelated to the strip, but while searching through some character tags to find a specific Mary strip, I happened upon Kaitlin, and in the comments for her first appearance, someone mentioned Becky probably being anti-gay. I just thought this was amusingly ironic, considering what we know now, and especially considering the context of the only other two strips to contain Kaitlin.

    1. Bagge

      That was part of what made the introduction of Becky so brilliant in my mind. The way it was built up, Joyce was having a massive crises of confidence. Befriending Dorothy, dating Ethan, going to parties… was she really a good christian any more?

      When Becky showed up from the blue some of us speculated that she would serve as an anchor to Joyce’s old life. That she was there to test Joyce’s faith (“is this all worth it, Joyce? Wouldn’t you be happier if you came with me to Anderson’s?”)

      As the mystery built up, with Sarah being suspicious and Becky increasingly non-committal, we started to worry that perhaps she was sent by Joyce’s parents or siblings. And then Becky kissed Joyce and all our speculations came crashing down.

      And why I think it was brilliant is because Becky really DID test Joyce’s faith and DID make her decide on where she really stood.

      Or as the comic put it:
      Joyce: “God, send me an Angel or something.”
      Becky: “Is that still really what you believe? That what I did was a mistake?”
      Joyce: “No. How could I? Becky, You’re my best friend. Pit you against anything else in my life, you will win every time.”

  26. Rukduk

    Well, shit.

  27. JessWitt

    These two gotta stop meeting like this. And by this, I mean awkwardly.

    1. Deanatay

      Welp, Sal’s made up with Amazi-Girl. Now for the hard part – making up with Amber…

      1. JessWitt

        *nods in agreement* Mm-hm.

  28. RaijinK

    That’s no sound effect in panel 5. Ever since Tennessee, Sal just yells “yank!” at people that annoy her.

    1. Brute

      ???

    2. Reltzik

      I guess she really did pick up a lot of Southern mannerisms.

    3. Vulcanodon

      Lived in East Tennessee for seven years. They are still not over the Civil War. Apparently forgetting that East Tennessee sided with the North. (Or at least, didn’t like the Confederacy)

      1. Krys Brynhildr

        I’m pretty sure one of the only wars people are actually over that America has been in was the Revolutionary one, and that might just be because England has mostly given up on Imperial Rule by now.

        1. Rukduk

          I think both Mexico and the US might be over the Mexican-American War. Maybe. I do know that both the US and Spain are over the Spanish-American War. The US kinda likes to forget we pretty much lost the war of 1812, mainly by forgetting it existed, but the Canadians remember it with pride.

  29. Bagge

    Sal is more brave than me.

    I mean, there were at least 80% risk of someone having sex in there.

    1. Reltzik

      ……..

      …. define “risk”.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Well, it would be rude to interrupt.

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          I’m not sure the original estimate accounts for the possibility of someone watching porn in their either for that matter.

        2. Commodore Jeep-Eep

          That ups the risk factor considerably.

          Too great a chance for horrifying fetish porn or something.

    2. StClair

      Sal gives no fucks about interrupting same.

    3. JBento

      Hey, Bagge, I hope at least no-one you know was affected by Stockholm attack. *sympathy*

      1. Bagge

        Thanks for asking. Me and my loved ones are safe and sound, and I’m actually pretty proud of how my country reacted to the crisis.

        I was in Boston during the marathon bombing, and one of the memories that stuck was how Dunking Donuts made sure to supply the police with free donuts during the manhunt.

        In this current crises, day-care centers reached out and made sure to let parents know they would be staffed until everyone was home. Stores and residents of Stockholm let people stay over the evening or night. People took care of each other.

        Like someone commented – if the goal of the act of terror was to divide Swedes, it flopped spectacularly.

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          I don’t really know you, since I’m still pretty new to the comments section here, but I’m glad that you and yours are okay.

          Really, the one plus side of all the stuff that keeps going down recently, if there is one, is the times where people end up dropping all their usual hangups and come together as a group. I sort of feel like thats something we often forget as “civilized people”.

          I mean, I’m technically a “citizen of the United States of America” and there’s a lot of really shitty stuff that the powers that currently are in power are trying to push through, but even with how awful and inexcusable that stuff is that doesn’t mean that the people in the country can’t try and make up some of the difference in order to make sure we get as many of the people who are getting marginalized or threatened by the policies as we can through these bad times.

          Even if its really hard to know what to do at times or how best to support people when you’re barely able to work on getting to a point where you can support yourself.

        2. Bagge

          Thank you

  30. BenRG

    Well, this promises to be an interesting conversation (even if it will likely be a somewhat one-sided one).

  31. acher4

    She sure pulled another drama tag, didn’t she? 😛

  32. Arianod

    Arrrr, Matey!

  33. Reltzik

    And moments like this, for anyone here who still doubts, is why content warnings exist.

    1. JBento

      In this case, of course, what was needed wasn’t so much a content warning as a warning of the content (of the chair fort).

    2. Reltzik

      Warning: Outside world may contain triggers.

      1. StClair

        I once idly contemplated warning labels “for the easily sad” – that is, for myself and others who are emotionally sensitive/fragile, suffer from depression, etc etc – before I realized that you’d have to basically cover the world with them.

  34. Danni

    i feel like i missed a lot

  35. Tualha

    What happen?

    Somebody set up us the chairfort.

    What!

    All your chair are belong to us.

    We take signal!

    It’s you!!

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      Emperor Norton II, I call your Majesty’s attention to the fact that Tualha deserves at least +1 Internet.

      1. Arian

        Seconded 😀

    2. Falling Star

      SHUT UP AND TAKE MY INTERNETS

  36. Bicycle Bill

    “Hey!  My signal!”
    —————
    Signal to/for what?  I’ve never seen a plug-in external antenna for a cellphone or tablet.

    1. C.

      http://www.alternativewireless.com/verizon-6620l-antenna-kit.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwlKLHBRDztKr6wMnRthMSJAALcT-s4RD9K1OBhiHy4bD4g5Nw-tL34OwhpgB5jBTf8R_ZKBoCMVjw_wcB\

      Within seconds of a Google search.

  37. Falling Star

    I wish I could get Wi-Fi that easily.

  38. Kater

    That is a neat word bubble drip on the final panel there

  39. JBento

    Huh, didn’t know it was “PTSD like a pirate” day…

  40. sundriedrainbow

    I don’t need no goddamn help from some bleeding-heart…wait, wrong musical.

  41. DT

    The physics of opening the cube… nnffffft…

  42. trlkly

    I just hope this isn’t like the previous times this has happened. It’s always just been extremely uncomfortable, and I think we all by this point get what happens to Amber when she’s around Sal.

    I want this to further the story, and I want it not to be completely uncomfortable. At the very least, keep a joke panel in there. (And, no, Amber having a panic attack isn’t a joke.)

  43. Gesc

    My money is on Amber ditching.

    She’s ditching so hard.

  44. Ana Chronistic

    I missed a day due to picking up a friend, and disappointed no one posted “The signals are very strong tonight.”

  45. Orion Fury

    Shake, Move, Groove, etc.

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