375

Real estate
Posted on August 21, 2022 by David M Willis

375 thoughts on “Real estate”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    No more teachers’ dirty… voice?

    …the least terrible interpretation of panel 2 is “I have a thing that costs 5 GBP if you’re interested” but idk how to work it into the follow-up q

    1. temporalshrew

      “Were those nasty, toxic people paying you to be their friend? *Under*paying you, even? Well, I can take the 5 GBP they gave you off your hands. You know. If you’re interested.”

  2. darkoneko

    …. this isn’t getting any better

    1. AntJ

      swapping Char for Asher in the friendgroup is certainly an upgrade

      1. Jamie

        … is it? I guess Asher’s probably better in bed.

        1. C.T. Phipps

          He also killed Blaine. So he has that going for him.

        2. Decidedly Orthogonal

          *Had Blaine killed, we -think-. Not even stand up enough to do it himself. Smart enough not to though. Between him and Raidah, I think the gang has *much* more dangerous villains on their hands.

        3. Mark

          I think his role was more like “facilitator” or “expediter”. That he made the necessary arrangements and saw to it that the plan was carried out. And I got the impression that he was unhappy with the assignment. I feel that Asher is someone you avoid because of his business associates.

        4. Clif

          Blain was blackmailing him. I suspect that if he made any arrangements, he was happy to do it.

        5. Nono

          I don’t like Char either, but that seems needlessly antagonistic to insult someone’s sexual ability when it had no bearing on the topic

        6. Laura

          Very true, Nono.

        7. RowenMorland

          Maybe it isn’t insulting Cher so much as praising Asher, perhaps he has like top being in bed ratings, triple-double plus good, a distinction held only by him and people who match you exactly on the kink spectrum and aren’t afraid to show it.

        8. Grant

          I mean, unless we get a flashback that shows Asher meeting Jennifer, and the first words out of his mouth are *also* fat-shaming her, I’d say he’s definitely better than Char. (I’m too lazy to look up if she’s the friend of Raidah’s that called Dina an abreast slur, but I wouldn’t be shocked.)

        9. Jason

          I went back and checked- she was.

        10. Jason

          Also I just noticed your comment got autocorrected to “abreast slur” which would either be a slur involving breasts or one that’s aware enough to be abreast of the situation.

          Am amused.

        11. Laura

          Flanders: “Why are you biking two abreast?”
          Homer: “I WISH! No, we’re just biking to a lake!”

        12. Taffy

          What kind of slur would even involve breasts?

          “Watch where you’re walkin’, titfucker!” just sounds like a New Yorker berating somebody.

        13. Casi

          you just gave J. Jonah Jameson a new thing to call Spider-Man, i hope you’re happy

        14. Adam Black

          You Breast of mashpotatoes , You chickpea son ofa toothache

        15. Adam Black

          Ablesist , Ableism a test

        16. Adam Black

          spells ableist wrong

        17. Laura

          I dunno… Ruth frequently mocked Billie’s weight using much cruder language, and Billie apparently liked how Ruth was in bed…

        18. Thag Simmons

          Asher is a nice polite young man and the dude he had murdered totally deserved it

        19. Clif

          All that is true. And yet who among us has not totally deserved to be murdered on occasion.

          Still. Blain. Yeah, let’s give him a pass.

      2. GholaHalleck

        I’m thinking they replaced Char with *Billie* actually. Billie’s possibly higher on the food chain, and it could lead to how Billie and Asher meet easier.

    2. Reltzik

      I mean, I’ll agree that the 5-pounds line is a very bad start, and the introduction in terms of family/business connection and Raidah acting like she’s got some ulterior grudge-settling motives aren’t helping…

      … but “better” is a relative term, and the bar was previously set at “depressive-alcoholic suicide pact relationship with your former bully”.

      1. anon

        well, teh girl(?) who said the five pounds line isn’t in the present panel at least

        1. Leorale

          That’s Charlene. I think one time she also called Dina the R-word. So basically you could swap her out for a moldy potato and still be better off.

        2. All-Purpose Guru

          Russian? Recidivist? Realtor?

      2. Dunedon

        Acting like she has a grudge? She’s not acting … She definitely has a grudge.

        1. Reltzik

          It’s fine to have a grudge, but it looks like she’s befriending Billie to SETTLE a grudge. That’s… kinda icky.

        2. Taellosse

          Only ‘kinda’?

    3. Bryy

      It’s okay, the last panel heavily implies Book 12 starts with the Walky Luncheon.

  3. Schpoonman

    I knew it.

    1. Clif

      All’s Well That Ends Well.

  4. Adriynn

    This feels uncomfortably predatory.

    1. Nova

      It’s the fact that it’s predatory. That’s what’s making it feel like that.

      1. Mr. Random

        Raidah’s a social climber.
        She saw someone and chatted them up. After finding out they were prominent and possibly a good social connection, she introduced her to a new group to keep her close.

        It’s the right thing/wrong reason that follows that entire friend group since year one.

        1. thejeff

          Well, it’s certainly part of it, but the “No more Sarah, no more Joyce” is also part of it.

  5. Svata

    Evansville, huh. That’s where I’m stuck living for now lol

    1. AntJ

      Jennifer, Sal, Walky, and Marcie have been canonically from Evansville for awhile: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/injury/

      1. Svata

        Sure but I didn’t move here til 2021 so I didn’t recall that.

        1. AntJ

          you should try having adhd, it enables you to recall trivial stuff from four years ago while you forget to do your laundry lolsob

        2. Taffy

          It’s a great superpower if your goals include not being able to finish a book as an adult, having terrible cleaning habits, spacing out in the middle of a conversation no matter how desperately you try to pay attention to somebody, and funny fourth thing providing tonal whiplash.

        3. Decidedly Orthogonal

          Did I leave the popcorn in the microwave *again*!?

        4. a/snow/mous/e

          finding your breakfast in the toaster and thinking “surely it can’t have popped yet, maybe i forgot to toast it”, then toasting it again and finding it burnt T^T

        5. Needfuldoer

          Don’t forget losing track of time and suddenly finding yourself five layers deep into a distraction/procrastination cycle. Something completely irrelevant has consumed your attention while the important stuff has faded into background noise.

        6. Taffy

          I was gonna include that, but I started thinking about Roxas.

        7. Geneseepaws

          did you take your pills yet?
          Uh, … no I’d have to have taken them to remember that. I’ll take them now.
          (5 hours later) Crap. Gotta do that soon. Ooooo new comments!

        8. Taffy

          We got the Alexa puck, set her to go off basically every hour or two with a regular hygiene/eating reminder. I sure find myself shouting “Alexa, SHUT THE FUCK UP!” a lot more often than I actually listen to the advice that we told her to give us.

        9. The Wellerman

          Welp, at least we’re not alone in our struggles.

      2. Laura

        It’s a shame — that incident would have been perfect for a U visa. If the cops and DA would have cooperated and prosecuted Marcie’s attacker, and if Marcie’s parents had been in touch with an immigration advocate to file the petition for them, and if the cops had vouched for them as helpful to the prosecution… ok, yeah, that’s a lot of ifs. And I understand why Marcie’s parents didn’t press charges, given how easy it would have been for her attacker’s parents to pick up the phone and call ICE. Connections matter, money matters, use of language and “credibility” matters. And so the attack against Marcie went unpunished and her family remained screwed over and Marcie lost her voice. Just sad all around.

        1. Laura

          Sorry, I was referring to the scene depicted in the link above.

      3. Ed Callahan

        So are Amber, Ethan and Mike. So where are the others from? Dorothy, Danny and Joe went to the same high school but I don’t know where. Joyce and Becky, of course, are from La Porte. Ruth, I think, is from Canada (Toronto?). Carla is from the Indianapolis area, but I don’t know about the rest.

        1. thejeff

          Amber, Ethan and Mike are from a different area. Not sure exactly where, though I think it’s mentioned? The convenience store encounter was during a road trip, not local.

          Ruth is from Canada, but has been living with her grandfather (and Howard) somewhere in Indiana for something like 5 years.

  6. Nova

    Well it looks like she decided to lose a lot more than five pounds. I’m not going to guess what cat-ear-girl weighs but at least she’s not there anymore!

    1. Nova

      “Char” sorry. I should read the tags and I just don’t lol.

      1. Sirksome

        Fun fact: She’s the girl who called Dina the r-word. A really great person.

  7. Dafydd

    Sorry, who’s the toxic group here, Raidah?

    1. anon

      She did at least say she ‘chose’/is aware of unhealthy relationships and stll chooses that

      1. thejeff

        So what you’re saying is that Jennifer recognized this group as more toxic and decided she was all in on that?

        1. anon

          hm, with the ‘cheerleader’ mindset i wouldn’t be surprised if she was more used to dealing with these ppl versus joyce. Unless her parents happened to be around long enough to at least ‘warn’ her like “don’t bother with ppl/be wary of ppl who’s only interested in our money”

          I have heard of rich kids being super cheap/being outta touch but at the same time i can imagine parents telling ppl to be wary of other ppl after money and such

    2. Insanenoodlyguy

      The sad thing is, this actually is a better group for her. Radiah is completely wrong on why it’s a better group for her, but this is a legitimately less toxic place for her. It’d be a bit much to say it’s a good place, but it’s better.

  8. Switchchris24

    Book 12 didn’t end with a Bang, but with a Whimper…

    1. Clif

      If we’re the ones doing the whimpering, I don’t think it counts.

  9. Jamie

    I wonder what happened to Char.

    1. Yumi

      Maybe she fucked all the way off, like she needed to

      1. Nono

        The real mystery is what they kept Char longer than… the other one.

    2. RassilonTDavros

      They had to kick Char out of the polycule because she could only name two of the Beatles.

      That or Dina finally got her long-awaited revenge for that time Char called her an ableist slur, either or

      1. Taffy

        #1: Wild Snapcube reference spotted and appreciated.

        #2: Dina knows how to make a body vanish.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Dina keeps a dozen protoceratops at a farm upstate

        2. Taffy

          You need at least sixteen protoceratops to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any woman who keeps a protoceratops farm.

    3. JessWitt

      Probably lost whatever made her useful to Raidah and was subsequently tossed aside like a used piece of tissue.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Dang, not even worth comparing to the brand name stuff…

    4. GholaHalleck

      The bench can only hold four people, and billie’s connections pushes Char out of the cube.

    5. Fay

      My guess is Char’s family was connected, but Jennifer’s family was better connected and Char didn’t have a personality worth keeping around once she lost her usefulness.
      We’ve seen Char like 3 times, and we’ve already seen her call a someone a slur and tell someone else they need to lose weight. I can only imagine she’d be Mary-levels of hated if we saw her more often.

      1. Fay

        Dropping Char from her friend group is probably the most unquestionably “good” thing Raidah has done. She mainly deserves to be judged for not doing it sooner.

        1. Fuzzy

          Unless Raidah didn’t even do it. Hmm, maybe Asher told her off when he joined the group?

    6. Ana Chronistic

      Friends aren’t joined at the hip, thankfully

      Watch her show up in the next scene to spite everyone who wants her gone (including me) ¬_¬

      1. Clif

        Showing up to spite us would be more of a Mike move.

        The rule was “Mike is whatever you don’t want him to be.”
        Unfortunately, it turns out that the one thing I didn’t want him to be was dead.

        1. Clif

          Mike wins.

        2. StClair

          FATALITY.

  10. JepMZ

    I didn’t know she hates Joyce too

    1. Nono

      Considering what Joyce did to their relationship? Yeah.

      1. JepMZ

        Oh riiiiight right. Completely forgot she had a boyfriend

    2. newlland(Henryvolt)

      I’m surprised people just forgot about the whole Jacob thing. Honestly at this point Raidah has more reason to hate Joyce than Sarah.

      1. Nono

        It’s just an inkling, but considering how much Raidah seems to be into social climbing, I wonder if she’s more mad at Sarah for torpedoing a potential relationship with another high profile lawyer dad, since Dana’s dad is I think one and I don’t think he took too kindly to the friends that enabled her daughter to become a crying depressed wreck.

        1. Laura

          Very true!

        2. Insanenoodlyguy

          Afraid to say that the more realistic take is he appreciates how her friends did their best to be there for her. Remember she was hiding her emotional state from them as well. The therapy she presumably got probably won’t focus on “your friends were really dropping the ball over there.” He wouldn’t hate Sarah, but he’s likely just fine with his daughters old support network that probably kept things from getting worse.

      2. Taffy

        Got more reason to hate Jacob than Joyce.

        1. Nono

          I think Raidah is just mad at anyone who wrecks her potential social climbing potential.

          Sarah ruined her connection to Dana’s dad (by extension), so she hates Sarah.

          Joyce ruined her connection to Jacob’s brother (by extension), so she hated Jacob.

          I don’t think she’s completely cold blooded, but she’s very calculated, and anyone that throws a wrench in her plans is on her hit list.

        2. Taffy

          This one has me more irritated than usual, so sorry if I’m not very well-spoken. It’s just astonishing how low the level of quality is in Raidah’s “””friend””” group. Like, she seemingly has gone out of her way to surround herself with complete and total scumbags.

        3. Sirksome

          The quality of the people doesn’t matter if you only care about the connection.

        4. Taffy

          I know, and that’s part of why it pisses me off so much. These freaks are gonna get everything they want in life while the actually decent people are gonna have to compromise on their dreams and settle for whatever they’re given.

        5. Nono

          Raidah would actually make for a decent foil to Dorothy considering her inherent goodness stops her from being a smarm.

          Honestly, I just had the premonition of Raidah trying to win Becky over, both for being a high profile person with connections, and to get back at Joyce,

        6. Nono

          It’s more likely because they have influence. Dana mentioned that several of her friends’ dads, as well as her own, own law firms. Wouldn’t be surprised if Carl, Char and Chanise were in that group. It’s part of why she dated Jacob. It’s why she’s courting Jennifer. It’s why she invited Walky to lunch.

          If she eventually cut Char and Chan for being terrible people, then sure. Social schmoozing is not inherently a bad thing to do. And Raidah, for lack of a better word, is good at it.

          I don’t think she’s the devil. Her flaws and motives just get increasingly transparent as time goes on.

        7. Archieve

          Does Radiah actually know what Walkys parents do? She asked Jennifer but didn’t get a response.

        8. Sirksome

          Do we even know what the Walkertons do? Charles seems like a stay at home type and Linda’s a professional Karen. I don’t know if they’re of influence, Sal and Walky definitely don’t act like they are.

        9. Nono

          Linda knows the Dean, which is a start. She threatened to sue a church, so she might have some backing (or just be full of hot air, which is also likely).

          Assuming Tony wasn’t interested in Raidah, this might have been her best roundabout way of getting that connection.

        10. Laura

          Tony?

        11. Nono

          Dean McHenry’s son. Shows up only tangentially in a few strips.

        12. Needfuldoer

          Tony had a lot more to do in the old continuity, here he just makes a cameo once every other year or so. (And after everything he went through, he deserves the break.)

        13. thejeff

          Tony’s smart. He agreed to make a few cameo appearances, but no way he was getting anywhere near main character status after the last time around.

        14. Clif

          Tony is Walky’s ex-half-brother. Kindof.

          Tony knows nothing about this.

        15. Laura

          Ah. Thank you for the explanation.

        16. thejeff

          OTOH, she’s added Asher to the group, which might not be so bad if she was judging people by their own character. If she’s interested in Asher because of his connections though, we’re moving back to “devil” territory.

        17. Archieve

          It would be interesting if Radiahs motivation for being seen as a adult came from Dana’s father asking her why he found this out from Sarah and not herself and praising Sarah for being the only adult.

        18. Laura

          I like that idea!

        19. GholaHalleck

          She’s Evil Dorothy, basically.

        20. Needfuldoer

          Unscrupulous Dorothy.

        21. Ana Chronistic

          I thought she hated Joyce because she caused Jacob to break up with her

        22. Clif

          I think so. Yes. Is there a reason to think differently?

      3. Fay

        My guess is that, with Raidah being as manipulative and social-climb-y as she is, that she thinks that Sarah was behind the whole Joyce/Jacob thing. Which, she kinda was, but not nearly to the extent that Raidah probably thinks that she was.

        1. Cerusee

          In absolute fairness…Sarah kinda was. It would not have gone anywhere if Joyce hadn’t been horny for Jacob (while insisting to herself that she was only trying to break up Jacob and Raidah to snag him for Sarah), but Sarah not only gave her blessing to the whole thing, but actively encouraged it, and did so primarily out of spite towards Raidah. I don’t want to diminish Joyce’s agency in all this, but Sarah had a much clearer idea of what was going on because she wasn’t in denial, and Sarah has enough influence over Joyce that if she’d told her to stop, Joyce would have stopped. It’s more complicated than “Sarah manipulated a naive Joyce into breaking up someone else’s relationship,” but that’s not exactly a false statement, either, never mind that Joyce kind of initiated the whole thing.

        2. thejeff

          Sarah certainly instigated and encouraged it, but before the end she’d backed off. I think she told Joyce to stop, though she wasn’t very emphatic about it. That’s when Joyce dropped the idea of doing it for Sarah and went about trying to win Jacob for herself.

        3. Cerusee

          Yeah, like I said, I don’t want to diminish Joyce’s part in that mess at all. It’s just that if Raidah clocked that whole thing as “Sarah conspired to break up my relationship with Jacob using Joyce”…that is accurate, if not fully recognizing Joyce’s own agency. (Raidah demonstrably has a low opinion of Joyce’s intelligence. Whereas I think she’s willing to allow that Sarah is smart, even if she thinks she’s a horrible person.)

      4. JepMZ

        It could be just me who forgot, haven’t skimmed thru the comment section yet. In my defense, the mass extinction event of 3 characters all at once really wiped the rest of the events clean off my mind lol. I usually read all the pages once and my memory alone is enough to recall things. Not this comic tho

  11. temporalshrew

    When you introduce your new friend by explicitly declaring the lucrative business their family runs.

    Just normal friend stuff.

    1. C.T. Phipps

      The Catgirl reminds me of that awful guy who made a joke about Emilia Clark’s weight recently.

      “I’m sorry you misunderstood my calling her a short and dumpy girl.”

    2. Archieve

      Think aside from trying to make their group sound exclusive she’s being so verbal about billie/jennifers parents connections to distract from the fact that her primary motive for picking her is her connection to Sarah and Joyce. Billie tried to get on Radiahs good side when they first met but its only after her breakup with Jason that she’s actually seeking Billie/Jennifer out as a connection.

      1. Fay

        I kinda assume it was Raidah’s way of saying “Jennifer is *useful* so don’t fuck this up for me”.

    3. anon

      I’m sure there are other ppl that’d totally introduce themselves that way with their parents company for upper rich class kids but that def comes off as arrogant. I’d only introduce someone that way if they’d want it like bragging about like a famous celeb or so, but i’m sure billie/jennifer would rather be known as that rather than “The ex cheerleader who got kicked out for having a DUI”

      1. Laura

        Very true!

    4. JepMZ

      Yeah…. But Jennifer probably wants it unhealthy. (But she’s probably unaware if she isn’t aware of Raidah talking shit behind her back about her Star Wars hobby)

  12. the jighole man

    as much of a (word i can’t say without getting modded) raidah is, i can understand why billie is hanging out with them.
    Her gf dumped her on the spot in an “Oh, btw…” way, her friends are all having problems and fighting…
    it probably feels like being in a room full of marble filled blenders.

    this group may not be ideal, but any quiet room seems like a haven from the racket.

    1. Mr. Random

      Based on what she said, Ruth’s tried breaking up with her…. a lot.

      And all her friends are fighting due to grief and how they deal with it.

      Her new group isn’t… kind. But they were a heck of a lot more stable, so I agree.

    2. Bryy

      That’s not friendship.

      That’s how predators work.

    3. Shiro

      Just curious–why do you say “word I can’t say without getting modded” instead of reaching into your insults bank and pulling out a different, more suitable and interesting word?

      1. Plain Marie

        …a more suitable and interesting word for Raidah… Are you referring to tympani? Maybe something like kettle drum, for when a mere bongo is not enough.

        1. Reaver

          Opportunistic land shark?

        2. Clif

          Doesn’t count. That’s lawyers generally.

        3. Reaver

          …….Opportunistic Land shark with bad taste in shoes?

        4. Shiro

          Sure, but also like the world of insults is so varied and interesting, I’m curious what makes someone absolutely NEED to use That Word In Particular

      2. the jighole man

        1: to not get my comment modded for saying a bad word
        2: your imagination of what the word might be will be worse than any set of letters i can type.

        1. Shiro

          The thing is we all know what word you mean, it’s well-known to be modded here, and I’m just curious why you’re clinging to that particular word when it’s clearly unwanted in this space.

          I’m probably coming off more aggressive than I mean to, just. It’s so weird to me.

    4. JepMZ

      You can say bongo just fine. It’s just replaced with bonga automatically

  13. Nono

    By the way, let’s not gloss over how after telling her her name was “Billie”, Raidah proceeds to introduce her as “Jennifer”.

    1. Jamie

      Nice catch. I missed that. =/

      Yeah, that’s uncool. That’s literally what Walky did to her.

      1. darkgloomie

        With the difference that Walky was a small child who didn’t know any better.
        Mind, he still is a small (man)child who doesn’t know any better, but he wasn’t trying to manipulate her, and after seeing her upset he tried to help her out.

      2. Cerusee

        Except we, the audience know that he actually didn’t! She assigned herself the name “Billie”. All Walky did was roll with it.

    2. Cass

      Really suspecting that her lashing out at Walky about how she supposedly never wanted to be called Billie and he was the one who made it up and forced it on her when we know that she chose it for herself was her unleashing some buried resentment (/doing her best to mentally rewrite the past so she can keep turning a blind eye to the less charmed parts of her new charmed life) that her new “friends” actually really did do that.

      1. Bryy

        I’d totally be with you on that, except Billie has serious blinders when it comes to people giving her praise.

  14. Chaucer59

    Come over to the dark side, Jennifer. We have a regular table.

    1. Sombrero

      Come over to the thin side, Jennifer. We have a regular BMI.

      1. Taffy

        Written, of course, from Char’s perspective and not your own, I assume?

  15. newlland(Henryvolt)

    “Have you considered losing like 5 pounds?” Who the starts a conversation like that?

    1. Taffy

      Pieces of shit, that’s who.

    2. C.T. Phipps

      Someone pretty sure they weigh less than the person they’re talking to.

      1. Taffy

        Someone pretty sure the person won’t dome them right then and there in front of everybody.

        1. Laura

          True. Billie first introduced herself at the mall by telling Joyce (in front of Char) “I NEED to be friends with them.”

      2. seen2much

        Someone in serious need of being shoved into the nearest trash receptacle and lit on fire.

        1. Laura

          Metaphorically, of course!

        2. Laura

          That specific scenario actually happened to a colleague of mine, Claire Clay. She died of her injuries. I know folks shouldn’t have to always police what they’re saying — nobody’s responsible for other people’s trauma or trigger points. We’re not snowflakes here. I just — the violent imagery in the comments section, it gets to me sometimes.

          I’m sorry — I shouldn’t be the comments police. Just — had a little much of it. I don’t mean anything against you personally, seen2much. It’s just the tone in general.

        3. Miri

          Eek, sorry for your loss. Even if you weren’t close (colleague rather than friend) that’s got to be a huge, scary shock, unpleasant reminder that some people are terrible and terrifying, etc.

        4. JBento

          Hooo-oooo-ly shit. Sorry for your loss.

        5. Cerusee

          I’m so sorry, Laura. That’s absolutely horrible, and nobody deserves to die in such a painful way.

          I’m entirely with you on the larger point. The frequent use of violent rhetoric in the comments section makes me uncomfortable. I’m fortunate enough not to have the same history of exposure to violence than you do, and it’s not triggering to me. However, I think it’s…pretty dehumanizing, and it’s an unhealthy way to think, even about fictional characters. If you go into the comments section of any news article involving a crime, you see people saying the exact same thing about real people.

          Cultivating a mindset where you’re constantly dividing up humanity based on who deserves to have violence inflicted on them and who doesn’t—somehow, that never ends well. (And if anyone thinks ‘but punching Nazis is ALWAYS okay,’ please keep in mind that accusing Ukraine of being run by Nazis is one of Putin’s big justifications for invading the country. *Any* label you can slap on someone that automatically justifies any physical harm towards them will inevitably be misused.)

        6. Taffy

          I wanna push back very gently against the notion that being aggressive toward fictional characters means you’ll do the same to real people. The entire point of fiction is to tell a story that didn’t happen, and usually requires people to be made up entirely for the purpose, and I think that makes it inherently fine to rail on those imaginary people to our hearts’ content, because they can’t get hurt by it.

        7. Laura

          Very, very true, Taffy. Thank you for that important perspective. It’s so important to take a step back and get a sense of distance from the situation. It’s just fiction! X-)

        8. Cerusee

          I get what you mean, and I don’t mean to argue that these are exactly morally equivalent, or cause the same level of real-world harm (although I think people who leave comments like that on real world news articles about real people don’t think they’re causing any harm, either). But it is disconcerting to say the least to see identical violent language and attitudes (where people are divided up into Good People and Bad People, and Bad People deserve the worst things imaginable, because they’re Bad) in these forums, even if yes, one of them is more divorced from reality than another, and I think the real world harm in an overly relaxed relationship to violent language is not zero.

          (Your comment about Char, below, didn’t bother me at all, because it really got across the depth of your loathing for what she represents without invoking horrific violent imagery I associate with real world atrocities.)

        9. Laura

          Thank you for that, Cerusee: also very important. I appreciate your bringing that up.

          It’s a delicate dance, to be aware of the import of language and hold
          ourselves and each other accountable for language. While all the same maintaining the distance and general goodwill of being here for something fun: just to enjoy a nice comic strip together.

          I do struggle with finding that balance. And sometimes I slip up and say something insensitive or knuckleheaded. And then I get called out for it, as I should be. But it helps when I remember that folks are all here because we appreciate something in common, and we all have that to share together.

          I appreciate you folks, every one.

        10. Taffy

          Nah, I think we’re more or less on the same wavelength, or close enough. While I don’t personally have a problem with… well, basically most things one could say to/about a fictional character, I do think it’s extremely weird and creepy and sometimes even frightening to read the same things aimed at real people. Extreme, exaggerated reactions to fiction are fun, if a little exhausting at times, but people are people and don’t tend to deserve such a lack of nuance in reactions. Just to be clear, I’d never go as far with a real actual human as I sometimes have with these kooky cartoons.

        11. Laura

          Thank you, my friends. Thank you for your kind words, Miri, JBento, and Cerusee.
          And seen2much, I apologize that my comment sounded like it was singling you out — that wasn’t my intention. I am sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable— it was nothing about you personally.

          Yeah — Claire was a good person. Well liked. After she passed, though, folks online posted all sorts of hate speech against her, calling her racial slurs, because she had dared to have an intimate relationship with a person of a different race. Just a sad situation all around, and very much tied in with social expectations of women. That’s part of why I sometimes feel compelled to leap to the defense of women characters in the comments, sometimes. That whole bit about how nobody’s misdeeds are entirely without context or nuance, and nobody is 100% evil. Also it’s a procrastination/distraction for my distractible injured brain.

          Hey — job interview tomorrow. Community organizing to end hate violence and promote nonviolent dispute resolution. Gaah—- scary! Excited, scary, hopeful: all at once!

          Thank you again, friends.

        12. JBento

          Best of luck on your interview!

          “nobody is 100% evil.”

          *waves in the direction of McConnell, Trump, Hawley, deSantis, Taylor-Greene, Coney Barrett, and Ted Cruz*

        13. Laura

          Well, yeah. They do some pretty evil s***, most of the time. Hopefully, they weren’t evil as babies. That’d be pretty scary!
          …I could try harder to think of some non-evil thing about them. That’s about all I got so far, though.

    3. Yotomoe

      “I just sat down”

    4. thakoru

      I just sat down!

    5. Laura

      I could actually see Jennifer brushing it off, though.

      Like the way young women sometimes “neg” each other while feigning support… e.g., “Oh, gosh, you are SO pretty — imagine what you’d look like if you just lost five little pounds! You’d be PERFECT! Have you considered it? Ugh – I bet it was those toxic friends of yours who made you gain that weight. How awful. Don’t worry, you’re safe here. We’ll help you get that weight right off. We see how beautiful you REALLY are.”

      I mean, that’s kind of an extreme example, but I’ve heard conversations like that among teenagers.

      1. Plain Marie

        This kind of toxic behavior masks me grind my teeth.

      2. Insanenoodlyguy

        Considering how she was when she first arrived at college, this probably felt like coming home.

    6. Joy

      the same person who called dina the r slur?

  16. System_Anomaly

    Sorry if this seems random as I’ve been chewing on it for awhile. I don’t really care that you could argue that likeable main cast members might be morally just as bad as Raidah, or that Asher might really be turning a leaf. They’re just… kind of insufferable. I don’t like Asher or Raidah and I am comfortable simply rooting against them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    1. System_Anomaly

      (Raidah’s shadiness is more explicit right now at this point in the comic but I’ve felt that way for awhile)

    2. Sam

      Perfectly fair and valid.

    3. thejeff

      It might be partially protagonist centered morality, but for all the main cast’s problems, we’ve also seen good and caring things from all of them. We’ve even seen hints of that from Asher. From Raidah and the rest of her crew – nothing. Nothing decent at all.

  17. The Wellerman

    Real Estate huh? A very lucrative business, and one that profited (and still profits) off of racism.

    Hardly a coincidence here.

    1. Jamie

      On one hand, yes.

      On the other hand, wow, way to smear an entire industry.

      On the gripping hand, they have so much more terrible than just the racism.

      1. bleepbloop

        If gripping hand (heh) is correct, then how is racism seen as a smear on the industry?

        1. PirateTawnee

          Open racism has greater consequences than open other “ism”s in that industry.

        2. Clif

          On the other hand, the real estate agent historically compares quite favorably when compared to used car salesmen and military recruiters.

      2. Ed Callahan

        Nice to see a Motie reference. Wonder if I can ever work in something about Kzin?

        1. thejeff

          I’ve managed to fit “scream and leap” into normal conversations occasionally. It’s not as useful as “on the gripping hand” though.

    2. anon

      other than someone looking for something very specific and doing the paperwork ahead of time, always seemed like an unnecessary middleman. esp now these days with all the ads of like “put your house listing on our site” or some bs like that lol.

      1. bleepbloop

        *How is calling out racism seen as smearing the industry* is a better way to put that

        1. Laura

          Real estate is based on redlining and restrictive covenants. The racism is baked in from the start. Plus in the US at least, it’s all stolen land.

        2. LiamKav

          At that point, aren’t we getting in to “it’s racism to own a house because the land is stolen”?

        3. Clif

          Yes. Do you own a house?

        4. Taffy

          This tastes weird to me.

          Is my brother, who recently bought a house and gained a stable home that way, somehow less moral than me, who rents half of a duplex (small house split in half) owned by a person from another state who simply inherited it and could sell it from under us at any moment, just by making that purchase? Racism is immoral, so owning a house is an immoral act by that path, he owns one and I don’t, so does that give me some sort of high ground over him?

          I’m only asking because I’m not sure if that’s how it works.

        5. Joy

          I mean lets be real it kind of is.

        6. thejeff

          “Kind of”, but a lot more distantly and abstractly than the consistent and ongoing discrimination. Or even more recent blatant historical discrimination.

        7. Laura

          A body can participate in historically racist structures without explicit personal racist intent.

          It’s hard to participate in society without buying into patterns of historic discrimination in some way. Jobs, transportation, law enforcement, schools… the US history of segregation has made its mark on all of them, to varying degrees. Some manage to escape those structures and build their own alternatives, but it’s very rare and hard to do.

          Doesn’t mean we’re all personally a bunch of racists. Just means we all inherited a society that was built on racial subjugation. In the US at least.

          To get a little more abstract than just real estate. But in real estate it’s particularly pernicious because housing opportunity is the foundation for so much else in life, and because denial of housing has such far reaching effects.

        8. The Oracle

          Doesn’t mean we’re all personally a bunch of racists. Just means we all inherited a society that was built on racial subjugation.

          This is part of why I sometimes wish that the language we use to address systemic issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., could be somewhat less…. I wanna say personal? Aimed, targeted, directed at the individual? I get that everyone has to take personal responsibility for their own actions on the small scale, but on a larger scale, the problem is so huge that it often feels like the individual is being asked to solve for the world.

          To compare it to something else for illustration, it reminds me of plastic pollution. Yes, it’s good to recycle your bottles and especially to find alternatives to one-use plastic, like a metal canteen or something, but I’m not smart enough to know whether or not even half the country/world individually switching off plastic would make as much of a dent as taking down the manufacturers and marketers who tell us the plastic is Fine Actually. I can drink out of this canteen all day and night and berate/bully/pester everyone I’ve ever met, and it doesn’t feel like there would be so much as a tiny dent in the overall problem.

          And that’s also how I feel about all the “isms”, like no matter what I do or how much of a change I make in my community, the overall problem is still there and hurting millions on millions of people. I’ll get lumped in with the rest of the herd and told I’m the problem, and obviously that’s nowhere near as bad as being in the shoes of somebody who’s directly affected by racism/queerphobia/ableism/sexism, but it does start to feel hopeless when you and everyone around you knows you’re doing as much as you can and still being told you’re personally causing the pain.

          That got away from me, but hopefully the idea is louder than any less-than-optimal word choices.

        9. Laura

          Hey – that makes a lot of sense, The Oracle. Very true. Thank you for raising that very essential point.

          (Full disclosure, I benefit personally from many of these systems of oppression, including racism and classism, that we’ve been discussing. So I do bear personal responsibility for some of these harms, as a participant in and beneficiary of social hierarchy and inequality. I always have.)

          The Oracle, I recall a few days back that you felt I was accusing you personally. I’m very sorry that I came across that way. That wasn’t my intention. My intention was just to speak out in general against punching — that’s it. I didn’t mean to single you out in any way. I’m sorry that it felt accusatory in tone.

          I get that my comments often sound moralistic and preachy, and make folks feel uncomfortable, like they are walking on eggshells for fear of saying the wrong thing.

          I’m sorry.

        10. The Wellerman

          Laura, I concur about what Oracle is saying.

          Also, Oracle, I’m sorry of falsely accusing you being someone else. I was motivated to do in the midst of the conflict because I was afraid of being called out if I didn’t align with the apparently universal social obligation to pick a side. Social cues are so much of a guessing game to me, but in retrospect I can safely say that I regret what I said and hope you are well in spite of it.

    3. thakoru

      I mean, you can say that about most industries. Capitalism and racism kinda go hand-in-hand.

      1. The Wellerman

        True. Capitalism floats the value of products and services on free market principles, and free market principles inevitably include principles of racism and bigotry of all kinds.

        Ironically Real Estate in particular became especially egregious last century because of government intervention in the form of Red Lining and other insidious tactics.

        Combined with Racial Covenants on the private end of the stick, this meant that blacks and other minorities often couldn’t get mortgages or repair existing ones and were forced to rent, preventing them from building equity and therefore wealth that they could pass down to their children.

        1. thejeff

          And even when that kind of explicit legally enforced version got shut down, exploitation continued. Block busting, for example.

          Even as late as the 2008 housing crisis, real estate agents and banks steered more black buyers into subprime loans than they did with even white buyers with the same incomes and credit ratings, leading to more black families losing homes in the collapse.
          It’s not even history. It’s now.

        2. JBento

          Topical: https://twitter.com/cliffordlevy/status/1560248817466974211

        3. Laura

          Happens a lot. Also accent discrimination in the rental housing market. Happens so much. There was a sociology study on it years ago, but unfortunately I can’t find the source.

        4. The Wellerman

          @thejeff, @JBento,

          ???

      2. Clif

        “Capitalism and racism kinda go hand-in-hand.”

        On the contrary, a true capitalist is an equal opportunity exploiter.
        #NotAllCapitalists

    4. Amós Batista

      That’s it: Raidah wants to fund a Syndicate for her.
      – Asher is a mobster
      – Jennifer’s family profits with real estate speculation, that I believe as a abomination
      – Char, that is a piece of shit.

      1. DrunkenNordmann

        Considering Char is very much missing from the table in the last panel, I don’t think whatever she brought to the group could outweigh her stupid mouth anymore.

  18. Sirksome

    Char fucking sucks.

  19. Taffy

    Just pretend I wrote the phrase “fuck you” in every possible combination of capital letters and HTML flair, with increasing volume and vitriol, aimed at every single character in this strip and twice for Raidah. That’s as much as I care to analyse this one, because I’m trying to be less caustic.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Even the blink and marquee tags?

      Daaaaang.

  20. RassilonTDavros

    Huh, it just hit me that we haven’t seen Char in a while (or Chan, for that matter). Her last appearance before this was all the way back in Book 8, meaning she hasn’t shown up as a part of Raidah’s friend circle once since the time skip. Wonder if those two got kicked out of the group after Raidah upgraded to a model with better connections.

    1. Yotomoe

      I’ve always said Billie could be a Model.

      No I haven’t, but I’ve thought it. 😛

      1. Jamie

        Pretty sure you’ve used her as a model for Fine Art™.

    2. Sirksome

      I mean even if they were besties I don’t think I could tolerate much Char in the comic. Her appearances are brief but she might actually be worse than Mary.

      1. Thag Simmons

        Fuck at least Mary is funny awful. Char is just awful.

        1. JBento

          Mary’s only funny awful when she gets countered, though. Mike was the one that was on occasion funny awful.

        2. Thag Simmons

          When does Mary not get countered by someone?

        3. King Daniel

          When she was triumphantly running her transphobic mouth all over Carla and then successfully blackmailed Ruth into not doing anything about it.

        4. King Daniel

          (Yes Carla ultimately struck back with her Rube Goldberg prank, but that wasn’t until weeks, maybe even a couple of months, of real time later.)

        5. Sirksome

          That was Mary’s one time getting a “win” if you can call it that since all she got was a very brief moment of tormenting Carla before being almost immediately humiliated by her, punched in the face by Jennifer, and shunned by everyone in the dorm wing. I think it kind of evens out considering where she is now.

        6. alongcameaspider

          I mean she did get comeuppance for that, it wasn’t immediate sure but let’s not act like that was a long term win for her

        7. Insanenoodlyguy

          Mike’s existence became so increasingly problematic in this comic’s style of reality that they had to kill him off. Then replaced him with Booster, who was quickly sidelined because we didn’t love to hate him but just hated him.

    3. thejeff

      My current assumption is that Raidah’s probably still in touch with her, but doesn’t trust her to keep her mouth shut well enough to string Jennifer along.

      1. Insanenoodlyguy

        In fairness, we did start to see that Raidah sincerely didn’t like her. She might have just dropped her at the soonest opportunity based solely on that fact. At the least she could have rationalized it as Char being such an obvious liability. People who say that in public with witnesses and don’t realize the moral problems are people who are going to do that kind of mistake again and you don’t want to be in the splash zone when they have the wrong audience. Char is a Karen Viral clip waiting to happen and Raidah doesn’t want her face in there.

  21. Yotomoe

    I like all of Billie’s pounds though. More cushion for the pushin’, as I always say. More Squeezin’ for the Pleasin’.

    1. The Wellerman

      See, this human has the right idea — enjoy her body for what it is, and forget there’s a bourgeois bongo brain that goes with it.

      1. not someone else

        I feel as if you have likely missed the flashing lights and waving red flags between you and the implications of posting this comment.

        1. The Wellerman

          She may be beautiful, but she is still a bongo, is all I’m trying to say.

        2. Reaver

          “Value this woman for her body alone, and nothing more cause nothing else is of value” is gross, dehumanizing, and also did I say gross?

          Stop making comments about “HER CRAPPY BRAIN and “ENJOY HER BODY”

          That’s nasty, why are you thinking it’s acceptable to talk about women that way?

        3. The Wellerman

          “’cause nothing else is of value” — I was only referring to Billy’s case, not because of her being a woman but because of her narcissism and aggressive, violent tendencies.

          Believe me, I would never think to refer to women in general that way (especially considering that I myself am a feminine NB who’s been dehumanized 6 ways to Sunday.)

          It is my fault for not taking the time to choose better words, and I am sorry that my original comment came off as misogynistic — I didn’t mean it that way at all, and didn’t mean to upset you.

        4. Reaver

          Billie is a woman, you are ALWAYS making nasty comments about her “Bourgeois brain” and how you’d “Get rid of it to keep her hot body”

          It’s gross, stop it, I don’t care if you think her personality sucks It does) but ALL WOMEN have more worth than their bodies, stop thinking it’s okay to boil them down to just their sex appeal because you don’t like them.

          You really come off as insensitive a LOT of the time, do better, you either ask gross questions about people’s sex lives, announce your own sex life, or say gross things about characters.

          Get yourself together, you are one of the reasons I’ve started to avoid the comment section, I know people do like you and that’s great for them, but wow just stop making everything so uncomfortable.

        5. The Wellerman

          When’s the last time I announced my sex life? Months ago?

          Besides that, I’m sorry i grossed you out like that. I really make my best efforts to be sensitive on a multicultural frontier where misunderstandings are to be expected. Even now I still mess up sometimes, and so do others. Giving the benefit of the doubt is especially important on a multicultural frontier, because people could just as easily be turned away from the comments if they fear being labeled as bigoted or insensitive at the drop of a hat. In fact Yoto himself actually told me he’s taken a temporary hiatus from the comments section for as long as he has for this very reason, and I’ve considered doing the same for quite some time now.

          But I digress. Again, I’m sorry I’ve grossed you out before, and really hope I didn’t do you too much emotional damage today.

        6. Yotomoe

          Yeah might be time for another hiatus, actually. I ain’t got the spoons to deal with drama no more. I’ll be back if I got something worth sharing.

        7. Laura

          Thanks, not someone else. Yes, agreed.

          NG, you know I like you as a person. Just a few comments kind of hit the scary buttons for me, and that was one of them.

        8. The Wellerman

          I’m sorry i triggered you like that Laura. I really regret not taking the time to choose better words. ?

        9. Laura

          Thank you, NG. 🙂

          Take good care — and good luck on your coding job interview! Let us know how it went.

    2. Cmasta1992

      Once again Yoto is the voice of the people

  22. Nono

    I can’t decide if this friend group is better or worse than the Forrest Hall groupies.

    Probably worse? But they’re all kinda bad.

    1. Ed Callahan

      The groupies are just young and naïve. And cheerful, which people here seem to find suspect, sometimes.

  23. Dr. Gonzo

    Finally, a promising well adjusted group of students for a change.

    1. Taffy

      Would you like a towel to clean up all that sarcasm? Perhaps a mop, as it appears to be dripping all over the floor?

      1. Dr. Gonzo

        Apparently we have different understandings of the words promising and well adjusted.

  24. Nick Piers

    Yeah, nothing says non-toxic social group like fat shaming.

    1. Suitora

      Not to mention, she’s the girl who called Dina retarded. I can see why they dumped her.

      1. Nick Piers

        Yiiiiiiiiiiiikes. I completely forgot about that.

        Oh yeah, this is TOTALLY not a toxic group. /sarcasm

      2. Taffy

        Hey. Don’t.

      3. The Oracle

        Are we just typing slurs out in the open now?

        1. Needfuldoer

          Rather we didn’t.

        2. Taffy

          That’s what I’m sayin’.

        3. The Oracle

          Cosigned honestly. I’m surprised there’s no filter for it.

      4. Nova

        Please don’t type a slur (even to discuss the slur) we all would have known what it was if you’d just said “The r-slur”.

        1. Taffy

          What you said, but less polite.

  25. alongcameaspider

    Who the fuck opens up a conversation with someone they literally just met with a shitty comment about their weight

    1. Taffy

      A bold motherfucker, that’s who.

      1. Archieve

        Wouldn’t call char bold, more ignorant.

    2. Jamie

      This isn’t the first time they’ve met.

      It’s the first time they’ve spoken to each other, though.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/char+jennifer/

    3. Sirksome

      Someone cool with calling people r*t**ded. Char sucks.

    4. Needfuldoer

      The type who openly describes someone they just met as a hard-R.

  26. Cmasta1992

    RIP Char

    And Jennifer is shaped perfectly. Yall just can’t appreciate art.

    1. Taffy

      I can’t believe Char is fucking dead.

      1. C.T. Phipps

        Ruth made Billie a functioning lightsaber and Billie straight up murdered Char.

        And Raidah named her….Darth Jennifer.

  27. Bryy

    Willis giveth Halloween, and Willis taketh away.

    1. Clif

      Hey! We got costumes.

    2. The Wellerman

      Hey! Just wait until IRL Halloween for a game! ?

  28. Jonah Sanville

    “toxic social group” they are going through a lot and can be dumb ((hey nice title drop jo)) but at least they love billie for who she is and not what she can offer them

    1. True Survivor

      Very true.

    2. Taffy

      “Toxic” in this case means “including a person I dislike as well as several people whose faces aren’t replaced with cartoon sacks with dollar signs on them from my perspective”

    3. Insanenoodlyguy

      And yet they were still toxic.

  29. anon

    Wow that’s needlessly rude esp to someone you’d barely know (other than like having a muffin top or so, or more exposed skin in a costume, you wouldn’t even notice 5 pounds anyways [unless you specifically ask someone to help you lose weight it’d still be uncalled for ])

  30. Jon

    God, Char was such a useless sack of toxic shit. You know you’ve gotta be a garbage human when even this circle of creeps and social predators ditches you.

  31. Kitschensyngk

    From toxic to radioactive.

  32. bubba0077

    Raidah probably thinks this is a win-win. She gets to add another person with “good connections” to her peer group, *and* she gets to remove someone from Joyce and Sarah’s orbit that (Raidah thinks) they will actually miss.

    Meanwhile, Jennifer gets a peer group who appreciate her for exactly the shallow qualities she herself has built her self-worth on.

    1. anon

      At least they aren’t in cali, I imagine the “only making friends with ‘connections'” would be 10x worse if everyone’s aspiring to make it in hollywood/as an actor/in the ‘industry’

      1. Aubrey

        I mean this as in as good-natured of a way as possible, but as someone who’s from and went to college in California (we always keep the ‘fornia’), you’re not really going to find many people on any of our major college campuses who are trying to make it in the entertainment industry. This isn’t to say that there aren’t any like, acting or creative writing majors who might aspire to act in or write movies one day, or that there aren’t specific programs geared towards this at certain schools, but it’s really not on the top of anyone’s mind, like at all. Living in California kind of inoculates you against the glamorous romanticization of Hollywood.

        Tbh you’re going to find WAYYY more people trying to make it in the tech industry – that’s where the money is right now.

        1. Eldritchy

          This would be So much worse for her XD She’d have to associate with the *shudder* Nerds!

    2. Needfuldoer

      Well put.

  33. Suet

    ♪ In this town we call home ♪
    ♪ Everyone hail to the pumpkin song ♫

    Ey, Evanescence’s next! Maybe.

    It’s Good Charlotte!

    The last time we’ve seen her

    The last time we’ve seen her with then-Billie

    Char, exactly 10 years ago, at the same date

    1. Amós Batista

      Nice work in your comments. Didn’t know we could put ‘alt’ in comments links…

  34. Dr. T

    Jennifer got away from a toxic environment? Right off the bat they repeatedly take shots about her weight. Granted, this is the group that Raidah likes, so they’re likely to be as toxic as her.

    1. Amós Batista

      yeah, they took a while to take Char away…

  35. Wereg

    Well, at least there’s not even any confusion as to how bad Raidah is.

  36. ADLegend21

    and THERE it is, the manipulative controller shows herself.

  37. The bird that wasn’t

    Ok so they ditched Char’s unfiltered rude ass but what happened to Chan?

  38. BBCC

    Well healing isn’t the word I’D choose for this, Raidah, but you do you, babe.

  39. Grayfinity

    Calm before the storm?

    Just kidding! The storm was already here.

    1. Grayfinity

      Oh sweet! Fresh outta moderation purgatory. Hello collective readers of DOA and Mr. Damn You Willis!

      1. thakoru

        Hellooooo!

      2. Laura

        Welcome, Grayfinity!

      3. The Wellerman

        Welcome to the comments section, Grayfinity! ?

        *plays “Mitsuha No Tsugaku” on hacked muzak*

  40. Bagge

    Don’t we all love a happy ending

  41. Felgraf

    Jennifer’s going to let Joyce’s recent potential diagnosis slip, isn’t she.

    1. Laura

      Oh, NOES!!! :O

    2. Nono

      As bad as that SOUNDS, Raidah was suitably shocked when Char busted out the r-word, so I’m erring on the side of optimism on that one.

      I do think she may try to worm her way into Becky’s ear, though. Steal Joyce’s best friend who just happens to have a link to a previous congresswoman and is kinda high profile herself? Sounds like a fit for her MO.

      1. Fay

        Eh, no way Radiah and Becky could tolerate each other. Becky’s lack of filter would drive Raidah nuts and she’d see through Raidah’s passive-aggressive schtick almost immediately.

        1. Bryy

          I have a feeling that Walky is about to do just that.

      2. DrunkenNordmann

        Wasn’t Raidah also talking down to Dina, though? I got the feeling she objected more to Char SAYING the word (instead of using less overt language).

        1. JBento

          I dunno. When chastised, Char said “oh right, we’re in public” to which Raidah responded “Oh, right, we’re in the WORLD”, suggesting her objection to the r-word is not one of perception.

        2. thejeff

          But Raidah’s own behavior to Dina suggests that her objection was to the word, not to the prejudice that goes along with it.

        3. Joy

          I’m under the impression that Raidah thinks she was being nice? I mean, there’s still the implication that she doesn’t critically re-examine her own actions at all, and her sense of morality is more about being right and less about how her actions effect other people.

        4. JBento

          I sort of agree with Joy here. Regardless of where you (general you) think Raidah falls in the Master Evil Manipulatrix to Jerk Antagonist That’s Actually Good spectrum, knowingly prejudicing against Dina in that situation would be a Bad Move (TM).

          I’d venture it came from genuine ignorance of proper behaviour and not “Non-Neuronormative People, Pffft”.

        5. thejeff

          I’d read her actions then as possibly well-intentioned, but still demeaning as all hell.
          Like plenty of others, she might see the word as the problem, not the attitude.

      3. Johan

        She’s didn’t call Dina the r-slur but she was defo ableist af.

    3. Fay

      I wonder if it’s gonna somehow turn into Jennifer letting slip that she herself might be/someone else thought she was autistic, and then Raidah or Asher treating her differently afterwards.

      1. Bryy

        I think it’s important to remember that Billie is ableist as well.

  42. thakoru

    Raidah: Welcome to our positive, non-toxic friend group.
    Char: HEY YOU’RE FAT!

  43. FlamestAndLight

    “nice to meet you, you should lose weight” wow, definitely healthy friend group, you *definitely* didn’t just take one relationship that was hurting you and replace it with another

    Honestly, and maybe this is just cause i’ve been talking to a friend about the topic, but I really think Jennifer has a self harm issue and uses her relationships (and drinking) to get said harm

    1. Sam

      Entirely possible. You can emotionally self-harm by putting yourself in situations emotionally harmful to yourself over and over and Jennifer can tell herself she is in control and has power by choosing it. But you are still being hurt.

    2. thejeff

      Well, Jennifer knows she’s a poisonous drama hurricane, so if she hangs out with this group at least no one she cares about will get hurt.

  44. Axel

    does Raidah hear herself (or her ‘friends’) talk?

  45. The Oracle

    What a load of bullshit.

  46. AGV

    Jennifer do you realize the shit you got yourself into

  47. Serendipity

    out of the frying pan, into the fire.

  48. Amós Batista

    So, the reason Billie and Ruth broke up was only because Ruth wanted, right? I was expécting something more dramatic, as Ruth had asked Jennifer for forgivness at end of their vacation.

  49. Rabisch

    Dunno if this group has an initiation rite, but if it did I hope Jennifer proved her worth by making Raidah understand how convenient it would be for everyone to get rid of Char and her dangous politically incorrect comments and replace her with Asher. Who is polite and is from a very important family.

  50. Amós Batista

    Jennifer’s family must be famous, huh?
    Evansville is like, 125 miles aways from their college…

    1. Needfuldoer

      Or she’s talking up the details she just learned on the way over, to butter Jennifer up.

    2. Sombrero

      Real estate in Evansville sure must be a thing.

      1. thejeff

        I’d assume that he’s into real estate on a bigger scale, not just a real estate agent in Evansville. Commercial real estate or hotels and million dollar houses. Money laundering.
        Kind of stuff Trump did, probably on a smaller scale.

        1. Cerusee

          That would go with Jennifer’s one time query to her housekeeper about “When da—Senor Billingsworth had all the homeless people moved out of downtown, where did they go?”

          (Sal’s face in that strip lives rent-free in my head.)

        2. JBento

          ALL THOSE FACES!

        3. Johan

          I need a link

        4. JBento

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/nina/

  51. Taffy

    “hAvE yOu CoNsIdErEd LoSiNg-”

    Perish. Fuck off. Eat shit. Literally disappear forever without a trace. Never be seen or heard again. Stop existing. Take everyone like you along for the ride. Get catapulted onto a meteor. Crash the meteor into a fucking gas giant. Become a fish and taint the ocean instead of the land. Go to Hell and get rejected for being such a chore. Evaporate into neon gas so you can at least light up a Budweiser sign in a backwoods petrol station. Lose all sense of direction and get lost on your way out of bed. Become a Harry Potter fan. Become permanently dizzy so you bump into things constantly. Forget your entire past and wake up in a shipping container off the coast of New York in the year 1876. Be cursed to always get the wrong flavor of beverage no matter how careful you are. Choke non-lethally once every 43 hours on the dot even if you haven’t been near anything bite-sized. Forget your parents’ faces every time you smell fresh-cut grass. Shut the fuck up for once. Why can’t you just shut your fucking mouth? Be silent. Just stop making noises from your useless face hole. Why is it so fucking hard to just shut up? Cease. Knock it off. Cram it. Put a sock in it. Stifle yourself. Why did your parents fail so fucking hard? Stop embarrassing humanity. Just quit it. Go away. Stop forcing your existence on others.

    And so on. Her attitude sucks, is the gist of it.

    1. Plain Marie

      *saving this list for later*

      1. Clif

        You never know when it might come in handy.

    2. Username Taken

      I about died at “Become a Harry Potter fan” just casually slipped in the middle of this. XD

      1. Clif

        Yeah, it seems kind of harsh and uncalled for. Over the top.

        1. Taffy

          Admittedly, I got carried away on that one. I was hoping the neon thing would be abstract and surreal enough to balance it out, but there may be some things better left unsaid.

    3. Laura

      WOW! Hot dang! Huzzah! Now THAT is what I call a hyperbolic trajectory! Wowee! Yowza! 😀 Hep hep hurrah!

    4. Joyfulldreams

      I want this to become a copypasta. Desperately.

  52. Friendly Frankenstein

    Huh. Well, first of all these people all fucking suck rocks. But I appreciate that Billy kinda went in clearly… well. She said it herself: she thinks so long as she knows something is ‘unhealthy’ then its fine. It’s very likely she’s not fooling herself about these toolbags. But they match the energy of… like all those times where the tried to Re-Assert Cheerleader-Be-Have.

    But I wonder if when she mentioned something about Ruth ‘lying’ back a ways, if that’s info we still don’t have? Or if she was just referring to some like. She thinks it was a lie that ruth wanted to break up, kind of logic.

    Obviously no literal way to know, so I say again: toolbags.

  53. JBento

    Finally, something the commentariat can be unanimous about:

    Char needs to shut the entirety of the fuck up.

  54. Alan in DC

    Well shee-it … that tied a lot of loose story ends together in a much simpler way than I was expecting.

    I thought for certain there would be considerably more drama and complexity than that.

    1. Clif

      Wait for it.

  55. Username Taken

    This definitely reinforces my suspicion that Raidah dating Jacob was largely driven by her using him for his connection.

    Also Char sucks.

  56. Lone Duck

    It’s so wonderful that Jennifer is healthy now, and she has friends who like her for who she is. Sarcasm aside, I have to assume that Raidah knows exactly who Asher is, and his ties to organized crime. Why else would Raidah hang out with him?

    1. Plaaaa

      I imagine he’s the guy who gets them weed.

    2. Sajuuk-Khar

      Organized criminals can often be very wealthy, powerful members of society. If Asher’s grandpa is, say, a cartel guy, it’s feasible he also owns several local construction companies and businesses.

      1. thejeff

        Asher’s grandfather is a mob boss. He probably doesn’t own any of those companies. He just owns the people who own them. Like Blaine.

        And hey, mob lawyer can be a very lucrative career. Make contacts. Keep your options open.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Raidah’s angling for that lucrative “Better Call Saul” money

        2. Clif

          If you’re a lawyer, it’s good to know potential clients.

  57. Deviant

    Oh yes, the social group that includes a mob guy that has people murdered and someone that opens the first conversation they have with a new member with ragging on their weight seems way less toxic.

    Totally.

    1. DrunkenNordmann

      To be fair, the last panel implies Char has been replaced.

      Probably because she can’t keep her mouth shut.

  58. Sajuuk-Khar

    Q: What happened to Char?

    A: Great question! I’m going to bring in guest speaker and problem solver, Gustavo “Gus” Fring. Gus, maybe you can tell us what happened to Char.

    GUS: Char was…not up to Pollos Standards.

    A: And there you have it! Thanks Gus!

    1. The Oracle

      Based on the name Gus, and what little I’ve absorbed from pop culture osmosis, I’m guessing this is a Breaking Bad reference?

      1. Needfuldoer

        Or Psych, but Shawn’s nicknames for Gus are usually even sillier.

  59. Plaaaa

    Did Jennifer lose 5 lbs?

    1. Taffy

      How much do we figure Ruth weighs? She’s pretty skinny, but has a deceptive amount of muscle to ‘er. The depression probably contributes to a lack of eating, if my own is any indication, but that can also cause more weight gain than you’d think, sometimes. Hard to tell but I’m gonna guess maybe… 120lbs? Jennifer lost probably about 120lbs?

      1. anon

        I always thought Billie/jennifer was drawn as a bit ‘curvey’ but not too overweight/chubby looking esp for college standads. tho post timeskip other than her hair getting a lot shorter i wouldn’t think there’d be any significant changes to her weight compared to ethan being “emo/emaciated” or whatever

        1. The Oracle

          Ruth made several digs about Billie’s weight, especially early on, but I kinda chalked that up to one of those snippy remarks women make toward each other for no apparent reason. I guess that’s cute to some people, but I think it’s just indistinguishable from tearing each other down out of some misplaced sense of competition. Or possibly since it was so early on, she may have been Noticing? and not fully realising it yet. Either way, still gross. What was my point, again?

          Oh yeah, I think maybe you’re right that Billie is meant to have some fine-ass curves but not be like…heavy-set? She also seems to have a good amount of muscle to her, which does weigh more than one might expect. Weight’s a touchy subject for some people (kinda me included lately), so I’m trying to be tactful.

        2. anon

          shortness might be a factor to it, like if you see those charts of “5 women of diff heights all the same weight” can look prettydiff but i woudln’t be surprised if some of it was muscle since she’s able to kick down a trash chute and prolly has a bit of tone in general, even tho sometimes ‘cheerleading’ is looked down upon there is practice and movement put into it, even if it’s not as “serious” as gymnastics to other ppl

          If anything, other than youth/metabolism, i’d expect walky to be ‘chubbier’ b/c i doubt Jen has ‘worse’ eating habits than him (though beer/alcohol has a lot of calories, so other than like getting blackout drunk and vomiting in the toilets, maybe that added to it as well)

  60. CrazyJ

    Everyone talking about how rude the “lose 5 pounds” comment is which it is, but nobody mentioning how Jennifer told Raidah that she prefers to be called Billie and not only did Raidah ignore that request but also introduced filled in details about her background which suggests she was stalking Billie before this encounter. If I was in Billie’s position I would have noped out of there right then, but instead she starts calling herself Jennifer to fit in instead of correcting Raidah at this point.

    1. Adept

      Billie has always been a weak, damaged individual. I’ve been hoping she’d get better, but this is more of a downward spiral.

      1. StClair

        Why put yourself through actual introspection and character growth/development when you can just walk away, shed your skin, and find a fresh start with a new group who don’t know your history/baggage and will let you be the same as you’ve always been a totally new person?

  61. Fuzzy

    1. Man I can’t believe Jacob dated Raidah even though Raidah insisted on hanging out with Char.

    2. I wonder if part of the reason she stopped going by “Billie” is to avoid thinking so much about her last name, and the thought in the back of her head that she’s only worthwhile to Raidah because she’s a Billingsworth. It’s probably not that deep. But maybe!

    1. Cerusee

      Given the timelines involved, Jacob only dated Raidah for a few weeks, and they weren’t very serious. It’s entirely possible he did not get enough exposure to her friends group in that time to witness the worst they had to offer.

    2. DrunkenNordmann

      On the second point:

      I think it’s more likely that Raidah’s insistence on calling her Jennifer made her realise she needs to drop the nickname to be accepted in her new social circle.

    3. thejeff

      It’s not proof, but I suspect Raidah kept them apart. There’s only one strip with both Char and Jacob and she doesn’t approach Raidah until Jacob has walked away.
      Wouldn’t surprise me if something like that’s going on now as well.

  62. Adept

    Urgh, these horrible people deserve the misery of each others company.

  63. BlackScarabFilmZ

    Oh, this is so much worse than I imagined it being before the flashback…

  64. Stephen Nedland

    By the looks of things, Jennifer never told Raidah why she was really upset, on that Halloween, that her girlfriend dumped her. Raidah just projected her own opinions about Sarah and Joyce, and assumed that Jennifer felt the same way.

    1. JBento

      She did say she had lost her date for the night, which is, admitedly, not the same thing.

    2. Bryy

      She DID say that she was only hanging around “those nerds” due to her date.

  65. Keulen

    So Raidah only picked Jennifer to be in her friend group because her family is rich. What a terrible way to pick your friends, though if Char’s no longer hanging out with her this is a slight improvement.

    1. alongcameaspider

      Maybe Jennifer got pissed at her for commenting on her weight constantly (if you’re going to open with that to someone you’ve never talked to before I’m gonna assume it’s gonna be a constant thing) and in Raidahs weird ladder climbing mindset to friendships Jennifer’s rich parents > whatever reason she was hanging out with Char so she cut Char loose

      Alternatively they’re still hanging out and Char was just elsewhere the last few times we saw Raidah, maybe in class

    2. thejeff

      Probably not “only”. The “No more Sarah. No more Joyce.” comment suggests other motives as well.

      I’d guess Char isn’t good enough at being discreet about the ploy Raidah’s running, so she’s been sidelined for the moment.

      1. Bryy

        Yeah, I think Raidah is trying to actively steal all of Sarah and Joyce’s friends, if not outright ruin their lives. I know people that do that, and it is super petty.

  66. wakeangel2001

    So having a body shamer immediately encouraging an eating disorder is a totally non toxic social group?

    1. jackiedu46k

      It appears she was removed from the group

  67. Reltzik

    Wait, what?

    I just noticed… end of book 12?

    SINCE WHEN DO BOOKS END WITHOUT SHOTS OF SOMEONE SLEEPING IN A BED???

    ….

    …. this started happening 5 books ago without me noticing, didn’t it?

    1. thejeff

      Book 9 seems to have been the last.
      The first season ended in Book 10 with first the rooftop gathering and then the season changing shot of the parking.

  68. AlaninDC

    Speaking of folks we haven’t seen in awhile, I wonder how Faz and his mom are holding up?
    I don’t think I’ve seen him since the hospital shooting.

    1. Taffy

      Faz is in jail for pulling the trigger. His cop cosplay (his copsplay, if you will) was just good enough to get him in, but the recoil from the gun knocked off his fake moustache, ruining the whole disguise. It was pretty cut-and-dry after that. Unfortunate, but that’s what he gets for cheaping out on adhesive.

  69. Willoughby Chase

    Crossroads

  70. cmd1095

    Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons I guess?

    1. Bryy

      It’s highly not the right thing.

  71. Canary

    CONCERN

  72. Perdellian

    Wait, is Carl a wolfman‽

  73. Steelbright

    gone from the trainwreck crowd to the group of people trying to pretend they’re better than everyone else….might just be lateral motion

  74. Victor Riley

    Oh, so Raidah is the Emperor-like villain that’s plotting behind the scenes, culminating in a giant battle?

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