118

Taken
Posted on November 8, 2010 by David M Willis
The Indiana University dinner hall depicted here actually stopped using trays as of October 1.  I knew this before drawing the strip, but since the strip takes place in late August, I figgered I'd still draw them using trays. ...forgetting, of course, that time doesn't work the same way in Dumbing of Age as it does in my other strips.  The characters don't age in real-time, and so they may be freshman indefinitely, meaning this strip doesn't strictly take place in 2010.  I should have just ditched the trays from the start. This approach is going to take some getting used to.  My brain is hard-wired to think otherwise.

118 thoughts on “Taken”

  1. David Herbert

    Aww, poor Sarah.Maybe she and Joyce can have a liquored up lesbian experience together.

    1. arjay2813

      they gave you the wrong pic. should have gotten Joe. I dont think people will disagree with you though.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Billie, Sal, Sarah…

        Joyce is the fandom’s ‘Little Black Dress’, apparently.

        1. Ragnal

          And now adding Sarah has made my smile even bigger. Didn’t realize that was possible.

    2. Trae Dorn

      Am I the only one getting a bit tired of hearing everyone’s lesbian fantasies? It makes me not want to read the comments anymore.

      Once or twice? A little funny. Three or four times? A little offensive. After that? Just annoying.

      1. Drpepperfan

        Yes. Yes you are.

        BillieXJoyce FTW!

      2. agentksilver

        I find it annoying that lesbianism is the bandaid of this universe’s fandom.

      3. KHNO

        same here

      4. Kokopure

        Willis typically seems pretty alright with his comics’ gay fanshipping; hell, he linked to that one fanfic. I say gogo shippers. (I’ll also not try to understand what’s “offensive” about shipping.)

        1. thomas0comer

          WHAT FANFIC TELL ME IMMEDIATELY! Sorry for the caps abuse, but I must show my urgency! IT IS IMPERATIVE Dammit there I go again. Anyway, where is this mythical fanfic Willis linked to?

      5. skies

        As a lesbian, I totally appreciate all the lesbian fantasy. I…I thought we were being serious…

        Anyway, when *I* ship Sal and Joyce, I’m not joking.

      6. Sarah

        Not tired of it in an offensive way, just annoyed that it seems like instead of talking about the plot or universe, even the smallest interactions become “OMG THEY’RE TRU LUVS YESSSSS!!!!” I’d like some actual discussions, not just who fandom thinks Joyce is gonna bang this week, even though she’s incurably heterosexual and a very religious person who was raised to believe pre-marital “hanky-panky” was wrong. While that may have changed in this universe, we’ve seen no evidence of it. So explain to me again how her putting on a helmet and acting like a doofus means in this universe she’s going to marry Sal instead of Walky?

        (ETA: Last time I treid to reply it ended up at the bottom of the page.)

        1. Joebo

          I point your attention towards Beeftony’s gravatar.

        2. Magnus369

          Love to burst your bubble here, but-

          Joyce’s repressed lil self is exactly the type who winds up going whole hog lez/gay/transgendered/furry. Religious and otherwise repressions have a wonderful way of completely screwing up a person’s self image so badly that one day, they finally accept the new experience and *poof* ethan’s wearing pumps and joyce is now john.

          Or they both just vote liberal to piss off their parents.

        3. ThatGug

          Seems then you should bring up that discussion. If other people are discussing stuff you dont care about it you move on.

      7. R

        I’m a lesbian, I like lesbian pairings best as they’re what I can relate to best. I did the JoycexBillie story thing as a joke. Joyce is (I believe) an explicitly heterosexual character, or at least she’s written like one. She’s not very fun to write in slash, because at the end of the day, you can’t really change a character’s sexual orientation and have it be very convincing (unless you’re Joss Whedon). It’d be like writing about Joyce joining a Zen monastery, it’s just not her.

        1. Kaj

          Epic +1 for the Joss Whedon reference… and an excellent summary of a typical fan fiction problem.

  2. Qaxis

    Since her old room mate hasn’t been named yet, i bet she turns out to be someone we have heard of.

    1. Wackd

      It was probably Robin doing speed.

      1. beeftony

        If Robin did speed the resulting chaos would make the universe explode.

        1. Joebo

          I don’t know, I think that if she ran around in a circle fact enough she could open up a black hole which would actually cause a certain amount of implosion.

      2. Hoop

        It can’t be Robin. Everyone LIKED Sarah’s old roommate.

        1. DudeMyDadOwnsADealership

          Malaya then?

      3. R

        I think Robin’s probably a teacher, or at least I hope she is.

        1. No0ne

          Two words: Track Coach

    2. Drpepperfan

      Maybe it was Sydney Yus.

      1. Undrave

        But no one likes Sydney!

        1. No0ne

          YOU TAKE THAT BACK OR I’LL MAKE YOU EAT THE INTERNET! I HATE SYDNEY TOO…

          More so then I hate everyone else…

    3. No0ne

      It was Alan! Who is also a conspiracy nut and believes in flying saucers! And is also… now a female… Anna anyone? XD

      1. Drpepperfan

        Hmm, that brings up an interesting point. Seeing as Alan was [Spoilers] an alien in a human disguise, does he fall under the Dumbing of Ages “No Aliens” rule, or does he exist as a human being?

        1. TexasNinjaBuzzard

          That was like eight years ago; I don’t think spoiler warnings still apply.

          …He’s totally the Producer for the Dexter cartoon in the DoAverse.

        2. Rowen Morland

          Plenty of people have decided to read Dan’s older stuff because of his newer stuff. Everything old is becoming new again.

          Which is nice.

        3. Drpepperfan

          Dan?

        4. No0ne

          Dude I’ve had people complain when I ruin things like the ending to Titanic or 300 or the ending to Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Once during history class I had a guy complain (no he wasn’t being sarcastic) when I told him Hitler kills himself at the end of World War 2…

  3. Keleso

    Mmmm… zebra pudding.

  4. Vivvav

    Ye olde plot doth be thickening.

    1. halcyon1234

      Thick like pudding.

  5. JK9000

    The fuck is zebra pudding?

    1. Jen Aside

      http://www.google.com/search?q=zebra+pudding

      My guess.

    2. Wannablessedbe

      I’m wondering the same thing.

    3. begbert2

      Get yourself a zebra, accelerate it up to 88 miles per hour, then…let go. Then grab your spatula and scrape up the skid mark.

      1. McMoose

        Unless, of course, the Zebra has a Flux Capacitor.
        Then, you may have to wait 30 years to get your pudding.

    4. Shade

      Just a guess but I’d wager it’s chocolate and vanilla pudding in a striped pattern. That being said it’s kind of a guess.

  6. Gianni

    I like Sarah, she was one of the characters I would’ve liked to have seen more character development from in Roomies so I hope she gets more attention this time around.

  7. Drpepperfan

    So is bongoy McDickhead here meant to be someone, or is she an original design?

    1. Joebo

      I believe that she is, for once, someone we haven’t heard of or seen before.

  8. Viktoria

    Her specifying ‘illegal’ drugs makes me think it was pot or pharmaceuticals, not something harder. If it was meth or heroin, she’d say that, because it has more impact.
    Everybody likes her, party drugs, I’m thinking Conquest.

    1. Dahlia

      I was thinking the exact same thing… it never occurred to me in “Roomies!” but after “Shortpacked” I had a suspicion or two THIS universes Sarah had Conquest for an old roommate…

      Though in the main walkyverse I’m sure the ages are too far apart (maybe)…

    2. bramble

      I was thinking that just saying “illegal drugs” rather than naming any drug in particular might indicate that there were a lot of different drugs going on – maybe not anything particularly hard, but enough different varieties that Sarah’s not going to take the time to list everything.

  9. JackNapier

    Yeesh. What a freaking bongo.

    I’m curious about Sarah’s past at the school, and I’m glad to see that she’ll be getting more attention here than she did in the Earth-2 Roomies.

    1. No0ne

      HA MY NAMING CONVENTIONS STUCK!

  10. Andrew Davis

    NO. If I can’t use a freaking tray at lunch every day then neither can they 🙁

  11. DCHorror

    Is she a people hating joy kill because she turned in someone doing drugs, or is there a lot more to that that’s being pinned on one issue?

    1. begbert2

      There seems to be reason to believe that she was a people-hating joykill before she turned anybody in. (That is, that it’s a personality thing.) And when unpopular person blitzes popular person, unpopular person get even *less* popular.

      1. No0ne

        That’s why instead of turning people in I just light them on fire and make it look like it was an accident…

        1. DCHorror

          That doesn’t seem like it’d work more than twice.

        2. Nashville

          Sure it will. Just not in the same zip code.

        3. agentksilver

          I think Nashville means state.

        4. No0ne

          Sure it will, especially if they smoke illegal substances. You light up their illegal substance while they are sleeping, put it on their bed and run like crazy. XD

  12. Trent

    I had a room mate who did drugs and stole from me a lot. But when I told the dorm coordinator, they just moved me, they didn’t kick him out or anything.

    1. Kamino Neko

      Sarah might have gone to the cops about it. It doesn’t seem to be specified just who she narced to.

      Or Dumbiverse UI’s PTB could be more anti-drug than your school’s.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Or mine, for that matter – I remember the dorm being told pretty much straight out that they’d turn a blind eye to pot, so long as the smokers weren’t too obvious about it.

        1. Joebo

          We were told to go smoke in the woods.

        2. Trent

          It’s not that my school is pro-drug, they just didn’t have the proof, and since at the time I was still a teaching major, they just decided to get me out quick and easy. Many a kids in my dorm were arrested for smoking in the dorms.

  13. Undrave

    Go find better friends Sarah!

    I’d probably act the same way as Sarah if a roomate had been bothering me with illegual activity. And I’m not studying law!

  14. Multipartite

    But, but, without trays how will they carry all their plates and their glass and their drink and their napkins and their cutlery and their dessert to the till and the dining table? O.O (Do people, by any chance, have to buy and bring their own trays…? I’m probably missing something critical.)

    — Person/People at a university’s college which uses trays

    1. bramble

      At my school, you just have to balance everything. Silverware on the edge of the plate, dessert and drink held awkwardly in the same hand… actually, there are trays available, but they’re flimsy little paper-mulch things that don’t hold up under the weight of a cup of soda, and you have to pay extra for them.

  15. No0ne

    I know right…

  16. No0ne

    I can see the future! In the future of this comic Mike, Sarah and Billie will have epic hate bangs. Sal will murder Joyce and Walky, but make it look like they eloped (Mike will help). Danny will date Amber and Dorothy will drive herself insane focusing only on academics, having no social life and eventually end up in jail for illegal drug use and/or aggravated assault when she gets one bad grade keeping her out of her dream school. Then Billie will die of alcohol poisoning because somebody will be trying to keep Mike drunk so he will be nice, but Billie (coming back from a party) will think its tea or coffee and drink it becoming even more drunk and dying. Joe will get an STD and die from that. Dina will get hit by a bus (for no reason other than Mr. Willis screwing with people’s minds) Then the school will get shut down for the massive amounts of death going on and the entire cast (Those who aren’t dead) will end up working at a toy store. Then the Martians invade and kill off anyone left.

    DUMBING OF AGE: BUCKETS OF BLOOD!
    Yes… I am bored…

    1. No0ne

      Heck maybe even some of the ones who end up dead will be working at the toy store you never know with Mr. Willis writing…

    2. DCHorror

      Then, after five years of doing all this, it turns out all just to be a dream…of Professor Doc.

    3. ErickRedfieldh

      That entire spiel would have been so much more hilarious if you had continued the trend of adding (Mike will help) to the end of each and every scenario.

      1. No0ne

        Joe will get an STD (Mike will help) and die (Mike will help).

        1. Rusty_Unycorn

          YES.
          That is the most awesome prediction ever. You did forget something though: It will all be absolutely hilarious (Mike will help).

  17. TexasNinjaBuzzard

    Wow, the head of the campus Junior Republicans chapter looks great in purple. Go fall down some stairs and get paralyzed, purple-coated Coats voter!

    Sarah’s hair continues to be awesome. She’s absolutely right, of course– if you don’t rat a roommate for doing illegal crap in your room, count on them hiding their stash in your stuff right before the cops bust in.

    1. Tiger

      So because she wears purple, that makes her a Republican, and that means she should gain a severe, life-altering disability?

      …Okay then!

      1. TexasNinjaBuzzard

        The attitude of “He’s part of our little club so we don’t care what crimes he committed, and if you have a problem with that, then that means it’s your fault for pointing it out” is a fundamental feature of moden Republicanism. It is absolutely a defining trait.

        1. Tiger

          …Funny, and here I thought both political parties are guilty of this. Silly me!

          Seriously, though. Violently judgmental, much?

        2. David

          That’s a fundamental feature of every group ever.

    2. No0ne

      Fanatic politicalism much? O.o

      Yes the pun is intended…

  18. Mujaki

    Maybe Sarah just has her OWN tray. Because carrying things is USEFUL, damn it.

    1. Kamino Neko

      I like this idea…the image of Sarah carrying the thing to and from the dining hall amuses me. (Especially if the dorms and dining hall are separate like at some of the residences at the school I attended…)

      1. agentksilver

        Actually, I like it too. It would fit with her personality that she would discover that trays were being discontinued, and since she has to work for everything else in her life, she was probably like, “Sigh, I guess I’d better bring my own damn tray then.”

    2. Magnus369

      I’m starting to think I was the only one smart enough to have a clipboard in school… which yes, could (and did) double as a tray pretty damn easily.

  19. Heather

    What a bongo.

    Now I’ll admit I’ve had flatmates who did soft drugs and I haven’t told- but that’s mostly because it wasn’t having detrimental effects on anyone else or themselves anyway (plus they were one off occurences anyway it seemed- experimentation and all that). Plus we don’t share rooms.

    I’ve been woken up by flatmates sure, but hardly every night, and that was mostly from sex anyhow. And heck they were sometimes considerate and did it in the early evening instead of late at night.

    An utter pothead of a ROOMmate however waking you up all the time (as we’ve heard earlier) (we don’t share rooms here, never have since my sister back when I was 13) threatening your own education in the process (sleep deprivation in the long term is no joke) and happiness because of it deserves to be hung out to dry. If your habit hurts other people or causes them major inconvenience, IF they’ve told you this personally, and in some cases repeatedly, and you DON’T stop or even TRY to be more considerate and they feel the need to tell, you’re the one with the problem, not them.

    Of course that sort of depends on how it was handles on Sarah’s end- we’ll see. But I think that’s a very probable senario- it sounds like she put up with it for a while at least.

  20. Hoop

    Why the hell would they get rid of trays? That makes no sense!

    1. Recycle

      My college got rid of trays in an effort to go green or someshit. They said it was a waste of water to wash them.

    2. ME

      “Saving water” was the reason they gave us. Not using trays means not having to wash trays.

    3. Big Mo

      It saves on a lot of extra unnecessary dishwashing, which saves water and thereby money.

    4. Joebo

      My bet is that they were trying to find ways to save money. Having to wash all those trays again and again would be kinda expensive.

      1. Mike Crichton

        Having to mop up all the spills from dropped plates and glasses will surely waste water too?

        1. David

          I really don’t those two expenses would be in any way comparable.

    5. xaan

      My college got rid of trays and by doing so also reduced food waste by some ridiculously high percent. People would get one plate, sit down, and eat, then go get another plate of food if they were still hungry, rather than load up three plates and two glasses of soda and a waffle and a bowl of ice cream and then throw half of it away. Dining hall saved money, which the next year we saw manifested as better food.

  21. Richie9999

    Having had a roommate who spent most of his time doing drugs and/or getting drunk, I can sympathize with Sarah.

  22. Slothful

    How can you run a big ol’ cafeteria without trays? That’s simply madness!

    1. Rusty_Unycorn

      very carefully…

  23. James

    This set up leads me to suspect that there’s a lot more grey area here than just whether or not said roomie was doing drugs.

  24. MarkLar

    I’m wondering as to what drugs they did. I mean, pot’s illegal, but i could put up with a pothead roommate. If it was constantly dropping acid or e then hells yeah. Id be like “bro, you got a problem, i think you should deal with it.” And then “look for guidance” if it doesnt stop.

    1. Kamino Neko

      Your room mate dropping acid won’t get you in trouble (unless they have a really bad trip and cause you harm directly).

      However making your room and your things smell of pot, if the school is hard on drugs, will get you in trouble.

  25. Darth Cariss

    This strip is called “Taken” and they’re talking about some girl who’s not around anymore. She’s clearly Liam Neeson’s daughter, right?

  26. Robert in San Diego

    I’m plumping for Daisy as Sarah’s former roommate.

    1. Joebo

      As in “Hi I’m Daisy!” ?

  27. agentksilver

    Who’s “we”? Does IU have a Secret Society? A Secret Society of Illegal Drug Users? Knowing my older sister, they would do a terrible job keeping secrets.

  28. skies

    At my college, narcing was pretty much the douche-y-est thing you could do. The only person I heard of who *actually* did it was a parent. But my college is pretty pot-tastic. People smoke right outside the dorms, inside the dorms…

  29. R

    That’s why I always lived in the substance free nerd dorm. Or off campus in the world’s tiniest apartment by myself.

  30. Roborat

    What, no faaaaaaaace jokes? Nobody able to come up with something. I am disappointed, and the streak is broken. Wait a minute….

    1. No0ne

      “I hope you choke… on your FAAAAACEEEEEEEEEE”

      … That sounds like a very painful way to die…

  31. Shift

    So, random bongo gets in Sarah’s face, because Sarah’s ex-roommate made Sarah’s life uncomfortable with excessive drug use… and she’s the bad guy?

    Ah, stupid people… we should be allowed to hunt them for sport. It would be a better use than they are right now.

    1. No0ne

      I agree with you, as long as we add illegal immigrant/drug runner season too. (I live in Arizona about a 30 min WALK from the border, and I’ve had friends held up by drug runners who decided to hide at my friend’s house from the police)

  32. I_like_Mike

    Seriously, anyone else get the “Sarah’s the victim of some serious bullying” vibe?

    Psych studies have shown that bullies generally prosper & are well-liked (proving we really are closely related to chimps), while the victims suffer from depression, social ostracizing, etc. Also, it seems to me, once you’re someone’s victim, it’s easier for everybody to see you as a target and jump on you, too.

    The “we liked her, we hate you” would fit. Look at Sarah’s expressions. Panel one looks resigned to the crap she knows is coming. Panel three she’s not making eye contact, very submissive in a been-beaten-down sort of way. And such a quiet, timid justification for an action she had every right to? WTF? (I agree, a problem, druggie roommate would hide her stash in Sarah’s stuff if there was trouble. Also, my brother’s friend, as a freshman, returned to his room to find his roommate had (finally, a week late) arrived. The roommate had brought no possessions, was wearing my brother’s friend’s clothes, had used his toothbrush–though, for what we’re not sure, it wasn’t found in the bathroom–and had removed the elastic from a pair of my brother’s friend’s BVDs to use as a tourniquet while he shot up with heroin. That was the scene he opened the door to. He left, immediately, & informed authorities. The druggie was removed from campus, by cops, as he apparently had outstanding drug-related warrants. My brother’s friend was told later that pretty much the only reason the cops weren’t looking at him as a possible co-possessor of the drugs was that he hadn’t set foot in the room when he opened the door, and that he’d immediately narc’ed instead.) Panel five: depressed. Panel six: still depressed, and using pudding (pretty flimsy) as the excuse for why she doesn’t get along with the others.

    If the (evil–I’m sure now) druggie ex-roommate was also a bully, then turning her in for drug use (to whatever degree it might have been, from “just tried it for the first time”, to “married to a needle”) might have been Sarah’s excuse to get rid of her.

    There was a kid in my sixth-grade class that used to whisper about me & throw spit balls in my hair until I finally punched her. But in my relatively mild & limited experience, bullying is stressful. I was angry nearly constantly from September ’til January (when I punched her), but I think I was angry instead of depressed because I was only getting it from one person. You can’t fight the whole world. More bullies means you’re helpless. Helplessness makes you depressed. And, I can’t imagine what it would be like if you could never escape that bully. If Sarah’s roommate was bullying her, she would have had it 24/7, because the bully Sleeps In The Same Room!

    Anyway, that’s what I thought first reading this comic. Bullying. Poor Sarah.

    1. agentksilver

      I wholeheartedly agree with this.

  33. Norman Greene

    And now it’s humiliating stories from Norman: I had an employee once who was a pot user; he never used at work but he bragged about it on Facebook and so on. Anyway he was a nice guy at first but he would ask for more money; more vacation time; he’d call in sick etc. I had to fire him and there’s no denying the pot played a huge part in it. So Sarah did the right thing for everyone including the purple bongo. I mean drugs mess you up on a number of levels and how long would it have taken for the royal “We” to stop liking Sarah’s roomie? I think Sarah’s unfortunately being bullied the same way I was around this situation only she did much better than I; she helped the addict and I didn’t. She and I were both punished for doing things seen as punitive and we both are not liked by those individuals or their friends anymore, So in otherwords I hated Sarah in the original run of Roomies! and even more so in It’s Walky! but here I identify with her. I just hope I still identify with Jason if he ever shows up.

  34. Jeff

    i miss zebra ckae and eating in a dinning hall that resembles the max/peach pit

  35. NightRaven

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the only “evil” thing her room-mate did was tell Sarah she smoked pot. Someone smoking pot (and in most cases they wouldn’t smoke in the room, and if she did, it would’ve been enough for Sarah to just ask her not to smoke there. Pot smokers, in general, are very considerate to other people’s feelings, it comes with the “hippy-image”.)
    And narcing? Seems like she called the cops or something, I can definitively understand the treatment she gets here.

    1. Heather

      It was also stated she woke her up all the time though from coming in at 4am. In short roommate was well deserved to get narced on because she let her habit affect her roommate with no consideration for minor things like sleep.

    2. Magnus369

      What the hell planet are you from? damn near every pot-head I’ve known has been a selfish turd who could careless if their habit was bothering you. In fact most would go so far as to tell you to fuck yourself and mind your own business. It’s been the rare one or two I’ve known who were actually cool about it, and they were long past college. Note, vast difference in ages – high school/early college == assholes, post education == much more laid back.

  36. ProjectXa3

    Sarah seriously needs to corner them (so they can’t just walk away in a self-righteous huff) and go apeshit-lecture on them to the tune of “Excuse me? I’m sorry but I came to college to LEARN THINGS AND GET GOOD GRADES SO I CAN GET A GOOD JOB! Her habits were preventing me from doing that and making my grades suffer! I wasn’t about to jeopardize MY entire future just so YOU GUYS could have someone else to hang out with!”

  37. historyman68

    Sarah has a very Wonderella look in the last two panels.

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