233

Cudgel
Posted on September 20, 2023 by David M Willis

233 thoughts on “Cudgel”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    too bad, some folks are into wedges and cudgels

    1. Decidedly Orthogonal

      “Don’t you dare like me for who I am on my own!” –Sarah

    2. Quirdry Tawks

      You mean, other than LARPers?

    3. Bicycle Bill

      And truncheons!  Don’t forget truncheons!!

      1. clif

        Do professional LARPers get to deduct business truncheons? I mean I would assume so, but I don’t know.

        1. RoyanRannedos

          As long as the value of the truncheon doesn’t exceed three gold pieces.

  2. NGPZ

    Remember, nobody wants to be a Squidward! :p

    1. Cholma

      What about a Squid game?

      1. NGPZ

        A Squid Game with DoA characters? 😮

        1. Cholma

          Well, we know neither Toe Dad nor Blaine will win the money!

    2. Angel

      Seems more catlike to me with that hiss XD; but usually it’s spongebob initiating the convos/situations tho it’s been a while since i watched it

      1. Thrair

        That’s not the sound of a cat. That’s the sound of a lit fuse.

  3. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    You’re losing air, Sarah!

    1. pixiekhatt

      His words have punctured her facade! Someone, quick, get an air pump!

    2. Angel

      maybe she’ll run outta steam and take a break/nap. tho i assume joe/joyce are chilling and doing their own thing but maybe they’d troll sarah by acting obnoxiously lovey dovey and cringey on purpose or so to gross her out enough to avoid them lol

      1. Quirdry Tawks

        I honestly hope she returns to her room to find Joe positively RAILING Joyce.

        1. Freemage

          Vice versa would also be good…. Though that would mean borrowing Little Jacob, I think….

    3. Mturtle7

      Not shown: Sarah still hissing as she flutters away like a leaking balloon, smacking into walls and the ceiling and doing little loop-de-loops in the air on her way back to her room.

    4. NGPZ

      *smiles deviously and starts brainstorming* ??

  4. Cholma

    Sarah rolls a ONE on her Intimidate/Persuasion roll. Tsk Tsk.

    1. Devin

      To be fair she has disadvantage on all Intimidate rolls against Jacob.

  5. Doopyboop

    Jacob has saintly patience, his demeanor here almost makes me forgive him kissing Joyce while still dating Raidah. … ALMOST.

    Though I wonder if part of him keeping out of Joe and Joyce is also thinking to himself that he wants them to be happy, and if they make each other happy, why not? Very mature of him.

    1. Angel

      at this point i’d consider them barely friends or just one notch above “acquaintance” or slightly under friends, i imagine if they actually were closer, he’d be more upset about her trying to get inbetween/break up joe/joyce

      1. Johan

        Until proven otherwise he did only interact with them for a few weeks at the beginning of the semester. He probably saw Joe often as they had similar work out schedules and those usually don’t change when you’re as into it as they are.

    2. Devin

      Jacob is probably one of the most mature cast members. And honestly the fact that he knew that he screwed up wrt Joyce and Raidah and immediately took responsibility for it and accepted the consequences only speaks even more to that maturity.

      1. Arian

        Agreed. I’m very fond of Jacob. He almost always does the right thing – and he’d be unrealistically perfect if he *never* screwed anything up.

        1. Delavan

          ^^ This. This is also something many, many in the comment section could do to remember. Unrealistic perfection is toxic. Performing t’shuvah (repentance/returning) for wrongdoing that harms others is healthy and mature.

      2. Laura

        This leads me to believe that Jacob knows Sarah’s real endgame was not so much to seduce/befriend Jacob as it was just to break him up with Raidah. He knows of Sarsh’s enmity with Raidah, ’cause Raidah told him. And she was using him as a cudgel back then, too. Only that time, Sarah was using Joyce as the wedge between Jacob and Raidah.

        As Sarah mused, back then, “It only broke Joyce a little.”

        1. Laura

          *Sarah’s

      3. zee

        Yeah, I don’t hold that incident against him too hard. He’s as young and inexperienced as the rest of the main cast, he’s allowed a fuck up

        1. zee

          There’s an essay about black exceptionalism hidden somewhere here with Jacob yknow

    3. Doopyboop

      Rather than respond to everyone I’m just gonna toss a comment here, but I definitely don’t expect perfection from these characters. However, everyone also has their own values and for me, I regard cheating to be a betrayal. Even though Jacob broke up with Raidah right afterwards, it still left a bad taste in my mouth that he kissed Joyce, then told her they could never be (why kiss her then bro), and only then broke up with Raidah. I also have some pity for Raidah in that situation.

      However, I hardly regard Jacob as the devil incarnate for making such a mistake. I just don’t think he’s ready to be in a relationship. Also regarding black exceptionalism, which is a fair point, I also think there’s something to be said about misogynoir regarding Sarah, Lucy, and Sal.

      1. Jamie

        I don’t think he broke up with Raidah because he kissed Joyce. He kissed Joyce because he was going to break up with Raidah. The entire lunch date had made it clear to him that he should do so.

        The betrayal of Raidah didn’t happen when he kissed Joyce. The betrayal happened when he didn’t explain who-Joyce-was to his brother. The reason he broke up with Raidah was that he realized he was okay with that betrayal, in so many words: specifically, Raidah was not the girlfriend he thought his brother wanted from him, nor the girlfriend he wanted for himself.

        Kissing Joyce just made it tidy.

        1. HueSatLight

          I agree, up to “make it tidy”. He didn’t have any intention of being with Joyce, I can understand why he did it I guess, but I think it was a mistake.

          I think he had to kiss her for narrative purposes, to show chemistry and a missed connection.

        2. Doopyboop

          I don’t think he broke up with Raidah because he kissed Joyce, I’m just saying I’ve seen some people excuse Jacob kissing Joyce with ‘well he broke up with Raidah right after’ which doesn’t exactly excuse it. It’s certainly better than carrying on the facade of the relationship, but eh… I just see where it doesn’t give Raidah much comfort.

          A lot of the Joyce and Jacob situation kinda fits into that square of ’emotional cheating’, including pretending Joyce is his girlfriend and showing her to his brother instead of his actual girlfriend. It’s just that the kiss is a more… physical evidence, I guess? Since emotional cheating can’t exactly be proved.

        3. Doopyboop

          Also, I hate Raidah as much as the next person but can I just say that the mental image of Raidah waiting, so excited to meet her boyfriend’s brother, only to be KEPT waiting, and when your boyfriend DOES show up, it’s to break up with you?

          That’s pretty sad. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

        4. Devin

          Agreed, no matter how much I dislike Raidah, she didn’t deserve that.

  6. Doctor_Who

    I think Sarah’s all tuckered out and has reached her limit of social interaction for the da…wee…yea…entire rest of the comic.

    1. Nono

      Sarah and Amber have things in common

      1. Laura

        And Dina.

  7. Jo_cubstar

    Well, you *had* a chance to make a friend, Sarah… too bad you just screwed that up

    1. Bittersweet

      To be fair, this is like the third chance she’s ‘blown’ with Jacob specifically, I think they’ll end up being at least friends eventually lol

    2. Nono

      I think they are friends. Kinda. I mean, I presume they still share some classes anyway, that bridge isn’t burnt.

      1. Thag Simmons

        It’s burned but it’s like a stone bridge so it’s still standing

        1. zee

          very Heart of Stone from Six the musical. There it was a pretty sad and toxic sentiment about taking abuse out of love for the person inside (love the song though, im not a ballad girlie but whew). Though, Sarah’s no king Henry and Jacobs not married to her. I kinda appreciate the sort of distant, passive forgiveness he’s had with her. There was a fire but the bridge is stil there. Up to you if you wanna cross it

      2. thejeff

        It sounds like they haven’t talked in awhile, so I’d guess they don’t share classes this semester. And probably were avoiding each other for the timeskip part of the last .

    3. V

      Implying that Sarah thinks she wants friends.

    4. Devin

      Given how he’s just now explicitly said he’d be happy to hang out with her even considering she’s just made clear what she’s trying to get him to do and he understands it and doesn’t approve, I kind of doubt hissing at him would have been a deal-breaker.

      1. HueSatLight

        ya, he’s going to give her time to cool off. just not around him.

      2. Vanessa

        This is her honest reaction. She is sharing her feelings now in the most naked way, haha. No pretending to be someone she isn’t around Jacob!

  8. TrueVCU

    That moment when you get lost in the performance of the amped up version of yourself you play for fun but oh no it’s taking over for real now

    1. Laura

      Oooooooooh yeah. Urp. You said that perfectly.

  9. UrsulaDavina

    I know she hissing but imaging Sarah is a tea kettle and really needs to taken off the burner.

    1. True Survivor

      Honesty – it makes her blood boil.

  10. Yotomoe

    Why?
    No really I can’t really fathom why Jason would want to hang out with Sarah after this and also the other thing she’s done. He’s had two major interactions with her and she’s just been trying to manipulate him.

    1. Just an Armadillo

      Agree completely. Jacob should be staying far away from her for pulling this crap.

    2. DailyBrad

      Jacob, not Jason, but yeah, I get where you’re coming from, but I also think he basically sees her as what she can be rather than what she *is* being right now, probably since the two previously were having fun when she’d let down her guard, and the only topic she really did that with was Joyce even well before her plan, like probably due to her essentially big sister tendencies towards her.

      So, yeah, I think he just thinks, “You’re pretty cool when you’re not doing uncool shit, so if you want to sort that shit out, let me know.”

      Which, I dunno, maybe his own hangups with his brother mean he gets where she is coming from on some level? He has been oddly patient about it all.

    3. Angel

      well, he hasn’t rly been directly too negatively affected by her yet so maybe he’s giving her the benefit of the doubt /would expect someone sarah-adjacent to come back later and be like “yeah sorry i was a bit emotional at the time/not thinking clearly” and apologizing to eveyrone

    4. Segnosaur

      Confused here… did you really mean “why Jacob” and not “why Jason”? They are probably 2 different people. (Probably don’t even like the same type of football.)

      As for why Jacob would want to hang around Sarah… they did share a class together and had lots of talks (although lots of it was about Joyce). Also:
      – as Joyce said, Sarah is pretty
      – she is a dedicated student, a trait she shares with Jacob (and it doesn’t hurt that they are both considering law as a profession)
      And perhaps now that he has broken up with Raidah, he can see a bit of what she was really like, and can appreciate the… simplicity… that Sarah offers

      1. DailyBrad

        Oh, Yoto said Jason when presumably meaning Jacob, so I was just commenting on that.

    5. Thag Simmons

      Jacob knows she’s not always like this I guess, they did go to class together for quite a while, and probably figures she’s just going through something right now.

      1. HueSatLight

        Maybe interested in her perspective on things, we didn’t see very much of their class, it’s not unreasonable that she said some things in discussion that aren’t comic-worthy, but he might have found insightful. Plus she has a heart of gold, somewhere in there. And she’s pretty and cute.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Also Jacob dated Raidah, so maybe he’s into a girl who’s a bit of a bongo

        2. Segnosaur

          I think Raidah and Sarah are 2 totally different types of bongos…

          Raidah keeps an outward veneer of decency, but at heart is a petty manipulator who is only interested in getting what she wants.

          Sarah is anti-social, but at heart can show a large amount of empathy for someone she cares about. Yes, she did try to “manipulate” Joyce/Jacob in order to hurt Raidah, but this is after months of Raidah’s attacks. (Its not like she was like Mike, wanting to spread chaos for the fun of it.)

        3. Durandal_1707

          Well, bongo drums usually _do_ come in pairs.

    6. Sanvi

      I kinda agree. I would not want to hang out with Sarah if I were Jacob right now.

      That said, I wonder if “being Black in Indiana” contributes to an extent? I mean, college campus, so it’s not lily-white, but I know that sometimes I’m more willing to give other queer people the benefit of the doubt in my very red state where we’re hard to find. I am guessing there are not a whole whole lot of other Black law students?

      I think sometimes I just want to be friends with someone on instinct, and might still feel that way even if they were being kind of ridiculous like this. And factors like “feeling like we have some things in common I don’t commonly see” often contribute to that sense of “oh I want to be your friend” for me. Athough I’d probably also shut the door because even if I instinctually vibe with their inner being I don’t have time to deal with these kinds of actions.

      1. Laura

        Ooooh yeah. Boy do I get that.

        I attended a large public university with a grand total of TWO (2) Black male students in the entire class. Taking ALL of their classes together for the whole year. Class after class.

        …And the teachers STILL called them by each other’s names. One of the two had phocomelia, so he wasn’t exactly hard to remember. And the professor STILL called the other Black man by his name. AARRRGGHHH! The stupid, it burnsss!

        So, yeah, I can get that. Folks with one or two common feathers have got to stick together. ESPECIALLY in a cutthroat field like law.

    7. Bruno

      Sarah and ‘Cob used to hang out and it was enjoyable. Before the 2016 election, people hung out because it was fun to do rather than to signal approval of all of each others’ behaviours and political beliefs.

      1. Laura

        Seconded!

      2. thejeff

        WTF?
        This isn’t political, it’s personal manipulation.

        Nor is any change along those lines linked to the 2016 election, other than that being an obvious symptom of the Republican Party becoming more extreme. And more of a personal threat to many people. But it was a long process.

      3. Thag Simmons

        Do you think people not wanting to associate with people with radically different behaviours and politics wasn’t a thing prior to the 2016 election?

        1. thejeff

          I do think that it being over just how they voted in the last election became much more common then, mostly because that election threw the differences between the parties and candidates into sharp relief.

        2. Bruno

          Yeah, 100% it was a thing. Both sides of that election 100% thought “the other side” was trying to destroy America and institute a fascist police state. They were both right, but they took it out on each other and on people in the Dumbing of Age comments section which left them unable to organise because they were too busy trying to kill each other. Sad!

        3. Thag Simmons

          That’s not what happened. That doesn’t even work as a deeply oversimplified version of what happened.

        4. Bruno

          If you’d seen it happening, it wouldn’t have happened.

        5. thejeff

          That’s even farther removed from reality than the first comment.

        6. Bruno

          I mean, it’s cartoonishly exaggerated but it is true you guys are way too pissed off at people who are your economic and social equals in every way that matters over silly crap to actually organise against people that aren’t. Like the average American since 2016 thinks that the minor lifestyle and opinion differences from other working class people are the most important thing in the universe.

    8. Chubsius

      On the one hand: nice, prim and proper guys are sometimes attracted to bad bongos. To be fair, a bad bongo who is on your side and will fight for you can be a great thing. Never undervalue having a bongo in your corner.

      On the other hand, I’ll quote what Joe told Jacob about Joyce, because it might be running through Jacobs head now, “one out of every five things she does is messed up. But it used to be one out of three. She keeps trying, okay? She keeps doing better. She says she’ll give up but she won’t. She’ll never stop trying. And…some day she’ll be perfect and you’ll wish you’d gotten in on that.”

    9. hatman

      Honestly I think he believes she’s putting on a facade and if she’d just accept that others can make their own choices in life and actually believe it as opposed to her weird love/hate thing going on with the rest of humanity, she’d be a decent person to hang out with as she actually does want to study as opposed to the more out there members of the cast.

      Too bad that’d require self-awareness from Sarah and that ain’t gonna happen. Not in this comic.

  11. DailyBrad

    Ah, that’s the angle. I can respect that, honestly.

  12. Nono

    I mean, that IS real and open Sarah.

    A snake is not going to turn into a golden retriever.

    1. DailyBrad

      Thing is, he’s seen her be decent before, even if it was her affectionately dunking on Joyce to him, back when she didn’t want anything from him (outside of being attracted to him, sure), and wasn’t trying to sabotage Raidah. A firm, “I like you but I am not going to enable you” is maybe the approach someone needs to take with her, since she can’t spin this shit like she did with Lucy, as much as she really wants to.

      1. Vanessa

        She’s is doing this for what are basically this best reasons, trying to protect Joyce from a dude she thinks is just a manipulative horn dog. Jacob respects her honest feelings and her sister-like guard dog attacks.

    2. HueSatLight

      snakes are good for hugs. anyways, whenever someone calls a woman a snake, I think of how the berniebros called Elizabeth Warren a snake because she had the audacity to run from president at the same time as him.

      1. Laura

        Boa constructors and pythons give amazing hugs!

        1. Laura

          I once visited a college and was hit on via snake. A student had a pet snake curled up in the pocket of his cargo shorts, and did the old line: “Do I have a four-foot snake in my pants or am I just happy to see you?”

          Later, sitting next to said student and wondering whether he was going to reach out and hold my hand, the snake made his overtures for him by reaching out and coiling around my wrist.

          Snakes are like coiled gateways to cuddle town.

        2. Bash

          Hopefully you like snakes and that was cute and not scary. Because I think it’s very cute.

        3. Laura

          It was cute! He was a nice young man. I liked him a lot. I liked the snake too. Snakes are always a way to my heart.

      2. Thag Simmons

        “Run for president at the same time as him” is a fun attempt at exonerative phrasing and it makes me very curious about your stance on Ralph Nader.

        But Snakes do give good hugs, that is indisputable.

        1. HueSatLight

          cool cool. tell me how when she dropped out she did it to help Biden, endorsing him immediately and expecting a cabinet seat. Wait she didn’t do that, despite what the berniebros claimed. Andrew Yang ended up doing exactly that, be he wasn’t called a snake.

          Because snake is something a woman gets called, usually for not being sufficiently deferential.

        2. Thag Simmons

          I saw a lot of venom directed at Yang actually. Same with Biden and Harris and Buttigieg and the rest because it was a pretty high stakes zero sum competition, but it took a different shape because for the rest of the crop running against Bernie wasn’t seen as a betrayal. That’s why the snake thing more than anything, the accusation was that she was a backbiter undermining the progressive cause with a campaign that had no chance of winning but could split the progressive vote

        3. HueSatLight

          You should probably take a while to reflect on the reaction to her instead of doubling down. If you got caught up in a doing a dogpile, that’s something a person can grow past.
          Yang was Mr. Universal Basic Income, so “splitting the progressive vote” is rationalization you’re not going to be able to sell to me.

        4. Thag Simmons

          Yang is a dumbass libertarian who tunnel visioned onto one good policy, I’d hardly call him progressive. More to the point, nobody saw him running against Bernie as a betrayal of a shared cause, which again is the entire reason people were calling Warren a snake.

          I am not saying the snake thing was good rhetoric, but I see why it happened, and I’m not going to soften my criticism of a politician’s actions because she is a woman.

        5. HueSatLight

          if you’re trying to convince me that snake is not a misogynist slur, because Warren didn’t drop out of the race the week you wanted so the absolute fucking torrent of snake emojis was deserved for her crimes of, as I said, having the audacity to run for president when he did, then you’re doing a terrible job.
          You’re still rationalizing the difference in response to Yang and Warren. The reason the snake rhetoric happened is there’s still a lot of misogyny in the populist left, and its holding the progressive movement back.

          The reason the berniebros didn’t see Yang running against Bernie as betrayal is because of misogyny. There were definitely people undecided between Sanders and Yang.

          I guess I’m a criminal too, I voted for a candidate who had no chance of winning, because he was the best candidate still in the race; even though he was a populist and who had been in the Senate so long he didn’t realize the Senate GOP weren’t his friends.

        6. HueSatLight

          When Taylor Swift was bombarded with snake emojis, it was also because she betrayed the progressive movement by not shaking Bernie Sanders’ hand at a debate.

        7. Thag Simmons

          I’m not going to deny that there was sexist shit thrown at Warren from the Bernie camp. It’s a primary and emotions run high, every camp is going to have some real shitbags in it. But people didn’t call Kamala a snake for being a woman who ran against Bernie!

          Snake is not actually a gendered insult. It can be used as part of a sexist statement but as a term for a treacherous backbiter it’s used for men just as commonly as women, if not more commonly.

        8. Thag Simmons

          I’m sorry for even rising to the bait. Relitigating three year old primary discourse in a webcomics comment section is just a waste of time and we both have better things to do.

        9. HueSatLight

          I did learn that spamming a snake emoji is rhetoric, that Yang pretending to be progressive and they doing a 180 isn’t betrayal of the progressive movement for “reasons” and that people who I assume participated in the dogpile are still reluctant to admit there was misogyny in it.

          I answered your curiosity, but you didn’t answer mine. I guess it was me who rose to your bait.

        10. Thag Simmons

          Yeah I was trying to be concise enough to not flood the comment section with unrelated political screeds, which whoops, guess I fucked that up.

        11. HueSatLight

          you didn’t have to relitigate the primary. I was talking about misogynistic harassment directed at Warren and her supporters. You decided to rationalize it and probably thought I would say something different about the 2000 election, so you could relitigate that.

          yes, you fucked that up when I suggested you take some time to reflect instead of doubling down.

        12. HueSatLight

          I saw Nader speak in 2000, I was excited to hear what he would say, and extremely disappointed that it was all “both parties are identical,” and ego stroking, not about Green Party policy or vision. so… I’m curious what your presumptions were.

  13. BBCC

    A tangible example of why I still ship it even with everything.

  14. AbacusWizard

    Dumbing of Age, book 17: HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
    SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

  15. NGPZ

    Happy Anniversary Willis and Maggie!!!

  16. cbwroses

    Cudgel’s a good word, Jacob.
    I haven’t heard it used since the A&E version of Nero Wolfe.

    1. Quirdry Tawks

      I haven’t seen it since Level 30 or so of FFXIV.

      One-handed thaumaturge arms just do not exist beyond that.

      1. Taffy

        None of the 1H THM weapons even look that good, honestly. The defense bonus from the shields isn’t really worth it, either.

        1. anonymsly

          Some of the shields look cool, but not enough to counterbalance the ugly weaponry. Even the 1H CNJ weapons look better because they’re mostly just leafy tree branches which is hilarious.

  17. Corronchilejano

    Someone set us up the Sarah

  18. Animedingo

    Hisssssssssss

  19. foducool

    well, clearly, SOMEONE has to get laid…

    1. Rotunda

      But that SOMEONE doesn’t like or admit needing other people!

  20. Quirdry Tawks

    Is it possible that she just needs to eat something?

    1. Jamie

      Joe’s still beating heart, I think is what she’s hungry for.

  21. Angel

    Jacob is a gift and we don’t deserve him.

  22. Bicycle Bill

    Is she about to turn into a snake, or is the hissing the sound of all the air going out of her plans?

    1. Steelbright

      I like this interpretation, we just wait for a couple more panels before she starts having to revaluate her strategy

    2. Needfuldoer

      She sprung a leak and needs some Fix-a-Flat.

      1. Opus the Poet

        This is the exact thing I came to say today. The leak thing, not the Fix-A-Flat thing.

  23. Sanvi

    If it helps, Sarah is treating everyone like a wedge today and you were her last resort? Hopefully anyway, I suppose in theory she could keep going

  24. Imogen

    I know this is a joke, but there might be an interesting story in how Sarah emotionally shuts down to such an extent that she’s essentially nonverbal.

    1. Bryy

      Yeah.

      First, we need to remember these people are still FRESHMEN. Cringe is their breakfast.

      But yeah. Sarah is about to melt down.

      1. Jed!

        Sarah’s a sophmore, but not a big difference.

        1. Taffy

          Every year of school makes you exponentially more adulterererer than the people one year behind you.

  25. a/snow/mous/e

    Please give up nowww…

  26. Taffy

    Jacob: “You’re probably just low on Vitamin B.”

    1. Laura

      She’s also a little low on Vitamin See.

      1. Laura

        Thankfully, Other Jacob keeps her well supplied with Vitamin D.

  27. JA

    So we may actually see Sarah’s head explode?

  28. Lingo

    Welp. See you in 2027, Jacob!

  29. Cmasta1992

    Sarah is working overtime to catch up to Dorothy and Jennifer in the self sabotage sweepstakes

  30. Icalasari

    Jacob, no! She’s been activated, you need to get your diamond gear before she takes out the entire section of hall and creates dark spots for spawns!

    1. Laura

      Huh?

      1. Bash

        Did you ever play minecraft?

        1. Laura

          Nope. Sorry.

        2. Laura

          I’m an Apple IIe / 5″ floppy disk kiddo. By the time real video games came our, my hands were already wrecked.

        3. NGPZ

          Ah, minecraft is a 3D building game where at nighttime, special hostile enemies called creepers spawn. When attacked, they hiss like a fuse of dynamite, and the player must finish destroying them quickly when that happens to avoid them exploding and destroying large chunks of their home.

        4. Laura

          Thank you! That makes more sense!

    2. Needfuldoer

      Kadir beneath Mo Moteh.

      1. Laura

        Hmm?

        1. Needfuldoer

          Shaka, when the walls fell.

          Call the bondulance.

        2. Laura

          Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

        3. Laura

          Oh, OK, I get it now! Had to search online for a bit.

          What you said is Tamarian for “It’s Greek to me.”

          https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Mo_Moteh

        4. Needfuldoer

          Sokath, his eyes uncovered!

        5. anonymsly

          Kayshon, when he became a puppet!

        6. Laura

          OK, that one’s a little beyond me. Still. I get that it’s an episode of Star Trek, but I don’t get what it means.

        7. Needfuldoer

          It’s from an episode of Lower Decks, which is set in the early 2380s (about 5 years after the end of Voyager). By that point the universal translator can mostly parse the Tamarian language, and an individual named Kayshon joined Starfleet. He got turned into a puppet on his first mission, but was back to normal by the end of the episode.

        8. Laura

          Thank you!

  31. 0xKruzr

    I love Jacob. He’s such a good egg.

  32. Jed!

    Imagine how Danny would react if he learned that Jacob knew that Joe was into Joyce before him.

    1. HueSatLight

      It might be some comfort that Joe didn’t confide in Jacob, he just has tells Jacob had the opportunity to read.

  33. Bash

    Damn, I can see why Joyce liked him so much.

  34. Francoinblanco

    Oh so when Walky make shenigans its fun and dandy but when I want some drama i get logic and solutions for my problems?

    1. Handley Ramirez

      Let’s think about the difference between shenanigans and drama before answering.

      1. Taffy

        The difference is that shenanigans are harmless and unfunny, while drama is harmful and hilarious.

  35. DashWallkick

    Jacob is saying as clearly as possible “you know, you can have me if you want, but you have to drop the defense mechanisms” and Sarah responds like Joe just made a pass at her.

    1. Bash

      Sarah was more into the idea of hooking up. Being emotionally vulnerable is not something she feels ready for. But at the same time she does like Jacob, so it’s an internal conflict for her.

      1. DashWallkick

        Oh I know, hence why it’s juicy. He’s saying outright she has to be emotionally vulnerable for him to reciprocate, and she’s furious that someone has her pegged that hard. It’s fantastic.

        I mean I guess “like Joe made a pass at her” is a bit misleading but I thought it was funny.

  36. DarkoNeko

    Jacob’s definitely more open to the idea compared to last semester eh. I guess he’s feeling more stable now

    1. Bash

      Open to the idea of dating Sarah? I’m not sure if that ever came up before now, except for Joyce saying “they’d look cute together” because they’re both black. There was no reason for Jacob to think Sarah was interested until Joyce admitted she was talking up Sarah, which he was genuinely surprised about

  37. Needfuldoer

    Yeah, her spirit animal is definitely a temperamental housecat.

  38. OnyxIdol

    Well I can relate to Sarah’s seething rage if nothing else

  39. Vulcanodon

    Jacob dangles the possibility of hanging out, with a seemingly impossible condition. It could be just the medicine she needs. The HSSSSSSS seemed like Gollum suddenly exposed to light.

  40. Amelie Wikström

    I like that comment about being a person. Growing out his hair and doing things with it is new, but it fits. Jacob, ever since his Shortpacked! days, has been struggling with his feeling (more or less accurate) that people just see him as a sexy piece of meat. And he always had this close cropped buzzcut like he was trying to be invisible, trying not to have his body noticed by other people.

    So this bleach job is probably very brave of him. Going three years off camera has maybe made him more confident in himself, doing things with his appearance that are just for “him” rather than worrying about how people see him.

    And Sarah needs to listen to the people who still talk to her.

    1. Mark

      An interesting interpretation. I found his previous hairstyle equally attention-getting. And I get the feeling that, either way, he just likes his look for its own sake and isn’t vying for attention or inattention.

  41. Suet

    Tea kettle, deflating toy, snake… bah, her hiss sounds like a bomb that’s about to explode.

    Oh snap, Sarah became the locked after being the locker earlier with Joe. Quite the double turnabout.

  42. Lamppost

    D’aww. Jacob is good people.

  43. ValdVin

    Welp, Jacob’s didn’t tell Sarah about his convo with Joe in the fitness center, but I’m certainly thinking about it. Sarah’s not gonna ever know of that, is she?

    1. Mark

      This whole comic is driven by people not really talking to each other, mostly. Or, maybe, not hearing each other.

    2. HueSatLight

      He kind of did? It’s not like they can link back to previous strips to show a conversation verbatim. Joe acted in a way that we would if he really liked her, and it was about three months ago. We also don’t see every conversation, he may have talked about Joyce a lot in a more real way than he talks about women in general. So it gets mentally filed under “Joe unintentionally revealing he likes Joyce”, duration: for a while now.

      1. Thag Simmons

        Yeah, it’s not necessary for Jacob to cite the specific example we saw

  44. sdrainbow

    sarah can do whatever she wants, of course, but getting a speech like that would be an enormous turn off for me.

    Not that he’s saying anything wrong or inappropriate, just….yuck. no thank you.

    1. Schpoonman

      I’m confused, do you think Jacob is in the wrong here?

      1. clif

        No, he’s in the right, which is absolutely unforgivable.

        People 101

      2. sdrainbow

        no, not at all. just that saying that would immediately kill my interest.

        1. Taffy

          Being told to treat somebody as a person and not a weapon?

        2. CMasta1992

          “We can hang out if you respect me as a human”
          “Sorry that’s a red flag for me”

          Get outta here with that nonsense

        3. sdrainbow

          yes, exactly, you get it. I will have gotten, very quickly.

        4. Taffy

          That’s fuckin’ weird.

        5. Bruno

          How dare you think you have the right to be interested or disinterested in a person based on their behaviour!

        6. Schpoonman

          I’m going to try my best to be sarcastic? What about this would kill your interest?

          Is it that Jacob recognizes Joe’s feelings for Joyce are genuine? Is it that he asks not be used as a weapon against two consenting adults? Is it that he asks for honesty from Sarah as a prerequisite for spending time with him?

        7. Schpoonman

          *TO NOT BE SARCASTIC.

          Fucking hell, my brain.

        8. sdrainbow

          I would be completely unable to not hear that as performative, regardless of the actual intent. I don’t really like the phrase “virtue signaling”, and again (since I guess I need to repeat this?) I don’t think that’s what he’s actually doing, in universe, but it’s a similar concept.

        9. sdrainbow

          man, my kingdom for an edit button

          It would probably clarify things to specify I’m talking specifically about panel 3. Panel 1 and 2 don’t bother me.

        10. Schpoonman

          Are you my last roommate? Because less than a week after I moved in, I said “Please don’t play head games,” after he immediately started playing head games with me, and after I asked him to stop he increased the amount of head games.

        11. sdrainbow

          Is walking away a head game? Because that’s what I would do.

        12. Bruno

          Kinda love this exchange because you’re fully admitting you’re like, not even really in the right here, just kinda having a human reaction to something. But you know what you’re doing and you’re handling it like an adult. And there’s like five people here also having human reactions but doing it with the tone of a young adult protagonist rallying an army against a lukewarm social democrat.

        13. Taffy

          No, you smartass, walking away is not a fucking head game. You’re acting like a direct request not to be a dick to somebody is some sort of problem.

        14. SDRainbow

          Interesting – when the comments get nested to a certain level, you lose the ability to both reply and flag. I hadn’t seen that before.

        15. The Oracle

          “Performative” is not a valid word to use for a direct request not to fuck with somebody. Your attitude is shit and you should improve as a person.

        16. thejeff

          If it was out of the blue it might be questionable, but here it immediately followed talking about how she’d tried to manipulate him last semester and asking him to do the same to someone else.

        17. Bruno

          I’m gonna try not to bust a fuckin’ gasket about this but you literally asserted a boundary with someone who I think is in the right during a 40 second conversation. And that’s really hard on me. I need to text my therapist.

        18. Reaver

          I mean if you came to my door just to try and *use me again* I would not care if you lost interest.

        19. The Oracle

          If anything, losing interest would be a good thing, because then they’d at least leave you alone.

    2. HueSatLight

      It’s a bitter seed, but might still sprout into something. It’s similar to what Joyce said to Joe at the end of the Do List, that she wants to be treated like a person. Sarah is not in the mood to be wooed right now anyways, and if “I’d still like to hang out, if you can treat me like a person” is something a person can’t take to heart after cooling off, then it’s good it’s a turn-off.

      And the commentary may be shipping everyone all the time, but Jacob didn’t really specify that. Hanging out it also something friends do.

  45. Carla's #2 Fan

    Time for Sarah to get a Therapist

    1. Vulcanodon

      Now’s the time. I’ve been on a waiting list for a good chunk of a year. Someone told me college students may be the only demographic with routine access to mental health care in the country.

      1. Bruno

        The demand’s high because everyone on the internet thinks they’re gods.

        1. Taffy

          Well, I know the rest of you aren’t, but it’s not nice to treat people like they’re delusional when they’re simply mistake.

        2. Bruno

          Sorry, it’s because everyone on the internet thinks therapists are gods. The average person on the internet considers their *own* divinity to be constrained strictly to moral judgement.

        3. NGPZ

          Eh, a lot of therapy method can actually make that worse, notably CBT and related.

          If I wanted someone to pretend-believe whatever Stanislavski Opinion at any moment to make me wrong all the time, I could just go to a message board on 4chan or Elon Musk’s Twitter. -_-

        4. Bruno

          Therapy’s easy to access for kids for the same reason tobacco was easy to access for kids in the 50’s. Hook ’em young.The entire NGO industrial complex conspires towards this. Every youth-facing organisation has a therapist, none of them have an HIV diagnostician, a physical therapist, or even a chauffer. You’re on your own for the most basic and necessary of tasks, but God almighty do they want you in therapy.

        5. Taffy

          Will you shut the fuck up for once, goddamn

        6. Taffy

          Y’know what, nevermind. Your shitty bait is worthless and your opinions are whatever you “think” (lol) will upset the most people. Grow up and get a life.

        7. Bruno

          Dude, you seem kinda irritable today. Therapy not going well?

        8. The Oracle

          Just because your own life is devoid of value and you’ll never amount to anything, that doesn’t give you the right to try and drag other people down with you.

        9. Bruno

          Me after I spend years paying someone $50 a week to make my worldview less toxic.

        10. The Oracle

          You’re a pathetic loser and nobody will ever want you.

    2. Taffy

      A Sarahpist

      1. NGPZ

        The hissing burning one! XD

  46. Rabisch

    I’m more and more concerned about Sarah’s future. Let’s hope she will be able to be happier in be totally immersed in her job.

  47. Dot

    sigh :/

  48. LaGrosseLegume

    Finally. After some MONTH of abcence I caught up with you Pals!

    1. Amós Batista

      welcome back

    2. NGPZ

      welcome back to Sarah hissing like a minecraft creeper XD

      1. LaGrosseLegume

        And thankfully you used the only minecraft reference i can understand xD

  49. Dave

    That dude is rock solid and very discerning. Can we just follow his life – or can can you start a new web comic dedicated to this character? He’s my new hero – I want to know more about him.

    1. Bruno

      SMARTING OF AGE REAL

    2. Thag Simmons

      No, because characters who are rock solid and discerning tend not to make the sort of dumb mistakes this comic is built around.

  50. Reltzik

    Jacob, you shouldn’t have reminded Sarah that you’re a person. Sarah strongly dislikes persons.

  51. Sigivald

    “I am an END, not a MEANS. Go refresh your Kant.”

  52. Handley Ramirez

    Dang, and now I’m crushing on Jacob. What a mature response to some dumb****ery.

    1. Nicoleandmaggie

      Yeah— for some reason I don’t understand I always play if I had to date one who would I pick with casts of fictional characters and Jacob just rose to the top. (I’m this fictional scenario I’m also 18 so it’s not gross.)

  53. Pocky

    Sarah out here rolling nat 1’s on charisma all day

  54. OBBWG

    You know Sarah is angry when she starts developing 9 Chickweed Lane teeth.

  55. RassilonTDavros

    Man, I missed a really good comic while worshipping porcelain last night.

  56. Amós Batista

    Tbh, I almost hiss like that each time any persona non-grata approachs me.

  57. The Jighole Man

    Jacob a real one.

  58. Sam

    I too hiss when I hear things that I do not want to.

  59. The Oracle

    Sarah should murder Jacob for not playing along with her boneheaded nonsense.

  60. Spongegirl Circleskirt

    Jesus Christ. Sarah! Mind your own damn business!

  61. Mr. Random

    She’s just… having so many issues.

  62. Hinoron

    “YOUR REQUIREMENTS ARE OUTRAGEOUS! HOW DARE YOU!”

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