Leather Jackets are one of those things that has contextual coolness. If you’re cool, the jacket’s cool. If you ain’t cool, then the jacket ain’t either.
An acolyte of the Monks of Cool is taken by a senior monk for his final test. He is brought to a cave containing every conceivable item of apparel, and asked “Which outfit is the coolest”.
The correct answer: “Whichever one I put on.”
cbwroses
Which just proves I’m less cool than that monk, as I was considering outfits.
I once went on a multi-year quest to find an affordable (read: dirt cheap, like a couple bucks) secondhand black leather trench coat (like Scully wears on the X-files!). Had to be secondhand, so I wouldn’t feel bad about wearing the leather, as I was vegan at the time.
After about six years of searching to no avail, across two continents (I wasn’t traveling just to look for the jacket — just looking AS I was traveling), I finally gave up. The moment I gave up and resigned myself to never getting my secondhand black leather trench coats, a friend pulled up with a pickup truck full of black leather jackets. She said, “I just found all these leather jackets in the trash out behind the thrift shop. Anyone want one?”
For the rest of that year, I wore two black leather trench coats at the same time, everywhere I went.
…Not saying any of this made any particular sense! Just that sometimes you have to give up attachment to “coolness” for the “coolness” to find you by itself.
Just as Sal is doing, shedding the mystique of her “cool kid costume”.
…I wonder whether her taking the gloves off and answering the ensuing questions has anything to do with the events that broke Amber and Walky up.
Making a leather jacket requires murdering and flaying another living creature. In that sense, leather jackets were always simultaneously and paradoxically both uncool and extremely badass.
trivia!
in french, “cow hide” (peau de vache) is an insult for a vicious, spiteful person who abuses their authority and gets off on being a heartless bully.
typically used to complain about one’s boss.
Actually between Carla’s roller skating and not knowing what’s on the floor of a highly trafficked common area it takes a bit of guts to commit to bare feet. I’d at least be wearing socks at all times if I didn’t have shoes. Who knows what the f you’re stepping in.
I bet the ground isn’t as disgusting as common touch surfaces like doorknobs and shopping cart handles.
BrOkEn GlAsS and dOg PoOp aren’t the ever-present hazards everyone seems to think they are. Just… pay attention and walk around?
Sirksome
We’ve seen Walky walking through the floors munching chips. If stray food and crumbs is the least you have to worry about, you would still risk stepping in something sticky. Speaking of sticky, Mary once sprayed glue on the floor. Also girls walk right from the dorms to the showers and vice-versa so damp floors are also highly likely. Now is when I note we’ve never seen a janitor on this floor ever nor mention of any regular cleaning service.
Needfuldoer
That’s still more “ick factor” than actually dangerous.
Taellosse
Yeah, but that’s a bit like claiming that toilets don’t exist in Star Trek – just because something quintessentially mundane and uninteresting is never depicted in a given fiction doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or never happens.
Unless the school is horrifically underfunded, it is likely someone vacuums the common areas weekly. The way in which Sierra displays true courage with her bare feet is she is willing to enter the dorm rooms of her neighbors. Most of them are freshmen, and it is common (though not universal) for college kids in their first year to respond to the sudden lack of parental supervision by becoming utter slobs. I knew people in college who literally did not vacuum their dorm room floor a single time all year.
Taffy
YEAH idk, maybe watch where the heck you’re walking if you don’t want random glass to jab your foot? Like, pay the barest amount of attention while traveling? So that maybe you don’t wind up getting literally injured?
other than being in the showers, i don’t think there was an issue about the rooms/hallways for her to not put on shoes or sal’s room was close enough to walk to without needing to put on shoes/socks
Sal and Joyce share a half-bath. She’s coming in the hall door though, so probably still coming back from Dorothy’s – which I believe is canonically 30 steps away.
It’s a dorm hallway, every thing is close. Except for the mysterious rooms at the far end of the hall, which take advantage of forced perception tricks to be farther away.
Okay. So, my mom is a lawyer. She’s a pretty fun person, though, not all serious like some lawyer stereotypes. And she loves Halloween.
One year, she got invited to some lawyer networking party, and it was on October 30th. The invitation described it as Halloween-themed and said something like “Costumes welcome/encouraged/whatever.” My mom had decided on her costume for that year and already had everything for it, so she got ready in it that day and went to meet up with her boss at the networking party.
No one else was in costume. And my mom…was dressed as Gene Simmons. From Kiss. Full face makeup, a wig, an inflatable guitar. The place they were at had a bunch of Halloween decorations up, but no costumes. Except for my mom, Gene Simmons.
Wow. Just. Wow. She must have felt really hung out to dry there, huh? ?
Geneseepaws
Ok, Serzly, yur Mom is rocking it. Long may she reign.
shrub
Your mom sounds cool, hope it didn’t affect her career
Yumi
Naw, her career was fine. She just didn’t network much at that one event because when they offered her a name tag, she said something like, “You think I want people to know who I am?”
She was pretty embarrassed initially, but she was laughing about it by the time she got home.
Wednesday Addams had the best take on a costume. Just wear your regular clothes.
Then, if anyone asks, just tell them “I’m a homicidal maniac. We look just like everyone else.”
after a few years (not that i really go to ‘parties’) i just got lazy. i wouldn’t be against it but i wouldn’t spend too much money on something i’d only wear once a year, maybe a nice wig or so but other than that i’d rather just chill with friends. some ppl just don’t care but it makes sense for some ppl around their age range to still be super into dressing up or being ‘meh’ about halloween
As I got older, the less effort went into costumes. The last one I dressed up for, I wore a simple cardboard sign on my chest, labelled: ” I love ceilings” in black marker.
123 thoughts on “OC”
Ana Chronistic
“ah ain’t gonna stealies yer Original tha Character Copyrite YOUUUUU”
The Wellerman
Oh noes. Sonic fans….
Harmony
Is that… is that a Joyce sonic?
Doctor_Who
Did Joyce just make leather jackets uncool? We;;, they had a good run.
Thag Simmons
Leather Jackets are one of those things that has contextual coolness. If you’re cool, the jacket’s cool. If you ain’t cool, then the jacket ain’t either.
Yumi
Sometimes jackets are magical, is the thing.
Doctor_Who
I like Sir Terry Pratchett’s take on this.
An acolyte of the Monks of Cool is taken by a senior monk for his final test. He is brought to a cave containing every conceivable item of apparel, and asked “Which outfit is the coolest”.
The correct answer: “Whichever one I put on.”
cbwroses
Which just proves I’m less cool than that monk, as I was considering outfits.
Laura
I once went on a multi-year quest to find an affordable (read: dirt cheap, like a couple bucks) secondhand black leather trench coat (like Scully wears on the X-files!). Had to be secondhand, so I wouldn’t feel bad about wearing the leather, as I was vegan at the time.
After about six years of searching to no avail, across two continents (I wasn’t traveling just to look for the jacket — just looking AS I was traveling), I finally gave up. The moment I gave up and resigned myself to never getting my secondhand black leather trench coats, a friend pulled up with a pickup truck full of black leather jackets. She said, “I just found all these leather jackets in the trash out behind the thrift shop. Anyone want one?”
For the rest of that year, I wore two black leather trench coats at the same time, everywhere I went.
…Not saying any of this made any particular sense! Just that sometimes you have to give up attachment to “coolness” for the “coolness” to find you by itself.
Just as Sal is doing, shedding the mystique of her “cool kid costume”.
…I wonder whether her taking the gloves off and answering the ensuing questions has anything to do with the events that broke Amber and Walky up.
Hof1991
Black leather jackets are the uniform of men over 55. That’s how we recognize each other.
True Survivor
Making a leather jacket requires murdering and flaying another living creature. In that sense, leather jackets were always simultaneously and paradoxically both uncool and extremely badass.
John Campbell
I only make my leather gear out of cows that were assholes.
(Not cow assholes; those get made into hot dogs.)
milu
trivia!
in french, “cow hide” (peau de vache) is an insult for a vicious, spiteful person who abuses their authority and gets off on being a heartless bully.
typically used to complain about one’s boss.
Needfuldoer
[Nathan Explosion] Brutal.
Ana Chronistic
A cool leather jacket isn’t doing its job, jackets keep you warm!
Needfuldoer
Good ones also keep asphalt from abrading your epidermis in a motorcycle accident. All the gear, every ride! Nobody wants to be a meat crayon!
Taffy
“Meat crayon” is maybe the most vivid and scary description for getting motorbiked to hell and back.
Nova
I heard “road lipstick” and it was just as nightmarish, also convinced me to avoid convertibles.
Needfuldoer
Motorbiking to Hell and back sounds badass.
Just remember ATGATT.
The Wellerman
Is that a DNA sequence? ? ? ?
Needfuldoer
All
The
Gear,
All
The
Time
Leadsynth
It bugs me so much when I see people on motorcycles without helmets, or in flip-flops or something. Just no!
Caro
even the gloves. sal character development summarized in three panels
ThunderNight
especially the gloves
True Survivor
Good catch. You have a sharp eye.
powerpowerpow
Sal’s character arc speedrun any%
Sirksome
She’s dressed as the girl with the spider tattoo. That’s Sal’s OC for the girl with dragon tattoo movie.
RassilonTDavros
Man, I’m so used to the post-timeskip designs that between Sal’s hair and Joyce’s lack of glasses it almost feels like we’re back in the Walkyverse.
Stephen Bierce
Well Long Tall Sally
She’s built for speed, she got
Everything that Uncle John need, oh baby
Yeah baby, woo baby
Havin’ me some fun tonight, yeah
Nova
I literally just had a Predator marathon this weekend and that song has been stuck firmly in my head.
Mr D
Joyce-
Why are you shoeless?
RassilonTDavros
…because Rapunzel was shoeless in Tangled?
The Wellerman
I don’t know. Why are you looking at her feet? ?
Sirksome
Actually between Carla’s roller skating and not knowing what’s on the floor of a highly trafficked common area it takes a bit of guts to commit to bare feet. I’d at least be wearing socks at all times if I didn’t have shoes. Who knows what the f you’re stepping in.
Nono
Sierra is the bravest soul.
The Wellerman
She is the Chosen One
cbwroses
Sierra also has the bravest soles.
Needfuldoer
I bet the ground isn’t as disgusting as common touch surfaces like doorknobs and shopping cart handles.
BrOkEn GlAsS and dOg PoOp aren’t the ever-present hazards everyone seems to think they are. Just… pay attention and walk around?
Sirksome
We’ve seen Walky walking through the floors munching chips. If stray food and crumbs is the least you have to worry about, you would still risk stepping in something sticky. Speaking of sticky, Mary once sprayed glue on the floor. Also girls walk right from the dorms to the showers and vice-versa so damp floors are also highly likely. Now is when I note we’ve never seen a janitor on this floor ever nor mention of any regular cleaning service.
Needfuldoer
That’s still more “ick factor” than actually dangerous.
Taellosse
Yeah, but that’s a bit like claiming that toilets don’t exist in Star Trek – just because something quintessentially mundane and uninteresting is never depicted in a given fiction doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or never happens.
Unless the school is horrifically underfunded, it is likely someone vacuums the common areas weekly. The way in which Sierra displays true courage with her bare feet is she is willing to enter the dorm rooms of her neighbors. Most of them are freshmen, and it is common (though not universal) for college kids in their first year to respond to the sudden lack of parental supervision by becoming utter slobs. I knew people in college who literally did not vacuum their dorm room floor a single time all year.
Taffy
YEAH idk, maybe watch where the heck you’re walking if you don’t want random glass to jab your foot? Like, pay the barest amount of attention while traveling? So that maybe you don’t wind up getting literally injured?
anon
other than being in the showers, i don’t think there was an issue about the rooms/hallways for her to not put on shoes or sal’s room was close enough to walk to without needing to put on shoes/socks
Alex
I seem to recall they’re next door to each other?
thejeff
Sal and Joyce share a half-bath. She’s coming in the hall door though, so probably still coming back from Dorothy’s – which I believe is canonically 30 steps away.
It’s a dorm hallway, every thing is close. Except for the mysterious rooms at the far end of the hall, which take advantage of forced perception tricks to be farther away.
shrub
I’m really enjoying these strip with Joyce being happy, its nice and long may it continue
Yumi
I used to be a lot more into dressing up than I am now, but I’m still in the “gotta do something for Halloween” camp.
My mom…has some stories about her own Halloween dressing up experiences, from which she has only sort of learned.
shrub
Well you can’t end the story like that
Yumi
Okay. So, my mom is a lawyer. She’s a pretty fun person, though, not all serious like some lawyer stereotypes. And she loves Halloween.
One year, she got invited to some lawyer networking party, and it was on October 30th. The invitation described it as Halloween-themed and said something like “Costumes welcome/encouraged/whatever.” My mom had decided on her costume for that year and already had everything for it, so she got ready in it that day and went to meet up with her boss at the networking party.
No one else was in costume. And my mom…was dressed as Gene Simmons. From Kiss. Full face makeup, a wig, an inflatable guitar. The place they were at had a bunch of Halloween decorations up, but no costumes. Except for my mom, Gene Simmons.
The Wellerman
Wow. Just. Wow. She must have felt really hung out to dry there, huh? ?
Geneseepaws
Ok, Serzly, yur Mom is rocking it. Long may she reign.
shrub
Your mom sounds cool, hope it didn’t affect her career
Yumi
Naw, her career was fine. She just didn’t network much at that one event because when they offered her a name tag, she said something like, “You think I want people to know who I am?”
She was pretty embarrassed initially, but she was laughing about it by the time she got home.
shrub
Best way to handle it
milu
so… most lawyers are in fact all boring and serious like the lawyer stereotype?
Yumi
According to my mom, yes.
The Wellerman
I’m curious, how much you take her word for it?
About the stereotype, I mean?
milu
According to Rachel Bloom, too
The Wellerman
tell us a story!
RassilonTDavros
I mostly just wear my not-very-accurate replica Tom Baker scarf and call it a day.
Bicyle Bill
Wednesday Addams had the best take on a costume. Just wear your regular clothes.
Then, if anyone asks, just tell them “I’m a homicidal maniac. We look just like everyone else.”
Hat
I know it’s a Thing, but I’m suddenly really hating how blue everything is. And it’s gonna be like this the whole storyline!
Shadowsnail
Da ba dee da ba di
ADLegend21
Julia is Sal confirmed. Joyce had no choice but to stan.
Lanie
Or is it that Julia is Joyce as Sal because she stanned so hard?
not someone else
I’ve decided this means Joyce subconsciously ships Sal/Dorothy.
PirateTawnee
She’s subconsciously envious of the already existing triad and this her first tentative step to creating one of her own.
McMuffin
I hate when people act too cool to dress up in a costume
BBCC
Same, but I also recognize that some people just aren’t into it and it doesn’t have anything to do with looking down on people for dressing up.
anon
after a few years (not that i really go to ‘parties’) i just got lazy. i wouldn’t be against it but i wouldn’t spend too much money on something i’d only wear once a year, maybe a nice wig or so but other than that i’d rather just chill with friends. some ppl just don’t care but it makes sense for some ppl around their age range to still be super into dressing up or being ‘meh’ about halloween
Roborat
As I got older, the less effort went into costumes. The last one I dressed up for, I wore a simple cardboard sign on my chest, labelled: ” I love ceilings” in black marker.
That is correct, I went as a ceiling fan.