212

End things
Posted on December 28, 2018 by David M Willis
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212 thoughts on “End things”

  1. AnvilPro

    Joyce just wanted to hang out with Dotty, she didn’t sign up for none of this

    1. Clif

      Well, she signed up for getting Walky a new girlfriend. It’s not Walky’s fault if there’s extra baggage attached to that.

  2. sirconanad

    Oh, Joyce, precious little Joyce.

    1. Deanatay

      Aww, wookit lil’ Joyce, noticing things!

  3. Doctor_Who

    “Wait, where are your pants?!”

    “Wait, where are my pants?”

    “Wait, why are you reading an eldritch grimoire titled ‘Necropantsy’?!”

    1. Michael Steamweed

      Next Slipshine, coming 2019!

    2. jeffepp

      I noticed the lack of pants right away. Cause, important things.

      1. Brotato

        Important things, like thighs.

        1. jeffepp

          Lean and muscular, yet silky smooth, with that beautiful skin tone… erm… What was the question?

        2. Clif

          Why are you reading an eldritch grimoire like the Necropantsycon??? Near as I recall.

    3. Madock345

      Necropants are actually a real magic thing and they’re NSFW and metal as fuck

      1. Icalasari

        To save others from having to google it: They are pants made from human skin that are supposed to give you incredible luck, money wise

        1. Felgraf

          Specifically, I believe you are supposed to put a coin in the scrotum of the necropants for that effect, if I remember correctly.

        2. Marsh Maryrose

          Yes, indeed. There is an Atlas Obscura video on necropants featuring the ever-delightful Caitlin Doughty of Ask A Mortician.

        3. Knayt

          That sounds like a pretty baller coin pouch.

        4. MatthewTheLucky

          You should be ashamed of yourself.

        5. Emperor Norton II

          I can assure you that they are not.

      2. Clif

        I really hope necropants doesn’t translate to I wear dead people.

        1. Clif

          Ninja’d and wrong too.

        2. Madock345

          I mean, not that wrong.

        3. Clif

          Well, wrong in my misplaced hope.

  4. Cheesy1

    “AND WHERE’S YOU PANTS?!?!?!?”

    1. Wizard

      It does say a lot about Sal that her lack of gloves is more notable than her lack of pants.

    2. DailyBrad

      Joyce rooms with Sarah, and is friends with Billie. She’s pretty used to pantsless gals by now.

      1. ObiKemnebi

        Also, there was that time Joyce woke her up and discovered that Sal sleeps only in her underwear and gloves, so at least she’s got a shirt on this time. And… Yeah, the gloves being off is definitely a really out of character thing for her. And I’m pretty sure there’s a trope for this…

        1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Now I am recalling an episode of “Love, American Style”* where this man gets a woman home who clearly is willing to do anything he likes, except take off her gloves. A girl has to have some mystery, after all. Of course, he becomes instantly obsessed with getting her gloves off. At the end she takes one off when he proposes, but keeps the other one on, saving it for the wedding night.

          * A show that I am very confident has not aged well.

        2. merbrat

          I’m picturing Michelle Lee in that. I may be wrong, since I saw it when it first aired!

        3. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          You are correct.

          segment “Love and the Hand Maiden”

          Jed Allan – Paul
          James T. Callahan – Malcolm (as James Callahan)
          Michele Lee – Dory

        4. merbrat

          Daaaang! Now, why can’t I remember important stuff?!

        5. thejeff

          See also Becky and Dina’s hat. 🙂

        6. Chromedome

          I have to ask. If your gravatar momo from QC fan-drawn to resemble spookybot? Or is that image actually somewhere in the comic?

        7. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          It is from the comic, when Momo gets <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2002"Pintsize Vengeance!

        8. Roborat

          Good lord, I hated that show, and I remember that episode.

  5. Madock345

    When you watch a show after missing three episodes

    1. KingMonster

      Ugh…that’s always the worst.

      Then you have to move Time and Space and go though all sorts of cosmic red tape just to get all the episodes you missed.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        You damn kids don’t know what is was like back in the day when the only way to see an episode you missed was to wait six months.

        1. vlademir1

          That got an audible laugh from me.
          That said, I’m a relic of the ’90s US anime community, when you may have seen three episodes of some random interesting series on a collection VHS making the anime club rounds. Better pray you ever actually got to see more of that series and even more so pray that it’s all translated.

        2. StClair

          Whereas back in the late 80s and early 90s, there were only about… a dozen shows and movies, and most everyone eventually saw them all.

        3. Anon a Mouse

          Slayers and Sorceror Hunters were this for me. Finally watched them may years later. So very very 90s.

        4. Clif

          For me, Dark Shadows. You missed one episode and you were a week catching up. Video recorders and their descendants are one of the great inventions of mankind.

        5. Durandal_1707

          I missed DS9’s “The Way of the Warrior” until summer reruns because my parents were using one of the TVs, and my little sister was using the other one, and I couldn’t get either of them to give it up.

          Man, was I pissed off about that one.

        6. Shen Hibiki

          I missed the ending of Samurai Pizza Cats.
          Never found those two episodes translated. I haven’t tried since a couple years ago though…

        7. Emperor Norton II

          How about not knowing if a show would ever actually rerun and thus possibly losing that episode for all time?!?!

        8. thejeff

          I watched afternoon episodes of Robotech, way back when, but I could only catch them if I came right home from school, so it was very spotty.
          Every once in awhile the storyline would shift to a completely different cast of characters and plotline.

          For those who don’t know: Robotech was an American mashup of 3 different anime shows, with some vague connecting threads added. Missing the transitions was very confusing.

  6. Uly

    Sal is determined to make a fresh start, isn’t she.

    1. MatsuoTanuki

      And for that I am so proud of her.

  7. Danielle

    wait is that a ukulele???

    1. Foxhack

      Looks like photos of guitars.

      1. sirconanad

        Maybe she’s looking for something to recommend to Danny once he’s ready to upgrade to a real instrument.

    2. Doctor_Who

      Sal’s going to lead a strike team to mercifully destroy Danny’s ukulele, and that’s the schematic she’s using to find a weak point.

      Many Bothans died to bring her this information.

      1. Danielle

        bothan is ethans evil counterpart

        1. Clif

          See, it all fits.

    3. BBCC

      Probably a guitar or a bass. Sal used to play and has since been looking at music books/magazines and putting pictures up.

    4. jeffepp

      Bass. When they form the traveling roller derby/ rock band, she’ll play bass, and every other episode, reluctantly be the singer. While solving mysteries.

      1. Clif

        I like your universe.

  8. Stephen Bierce

    All this Revelation is going to run Joyce out of oxygen.

  9. Pablo360

    Joyce may seem really pushy and nosey in this strip, but remember, she’s out of the loop when it comes to these events and hasn’t been filled in yet.

    Also she’s really pushy and nosey.

    1. Dana

      So, she’s only pushy and nosey because it hasn’t worked yet?

    2. MatthewTheLucky

      To be fair, this is some A-Grade revelations going on.

      1. Remmington Steele

        Almost but not quite a full book.

  10. Cattleprod

    At least she’s not surprised that Sal doesn’t have robot hands under her gloves.

    1. Doctor_Who

      There goes my theory about her side gig.

  11. BBCC

    Oh, this’ll be fun!

    For me. Not for these two. And ‘Guess ah said’ – gee, Sal way to be enthusiastic. I’m definitely thinking it’s not going to be as simple as wanting to move on. If for no other reason than Sal’s brain not having caught up with that desire yet.

    1. DailyBrad

      It’s also possibly in the morning. Not choking Joyce levels of morning, but enough to where Sal’s still recharging.

      1. BBCC

        Sure, but even so, the wording and her expression are hardly enthusiastic. I do believe Sal wants to move on and was sincere in offering forgiveness, I just also think it’s not going to be as simple as a hand shake and saying it, however much she wants it.

        1. Clif

          It is a pretty big forgive.

  12. Passchendaele

    joyce taking the subtle approach as usual

    1. Emperor Norton II

      Is this Bagge with a new username?

  13. ShinyNeen

    After everything she went through yesterday, Sal has acquired ‘the chill’. Dunno how much longer that’ll last with Joyce around, though!

  14. lilyliv

    Joyce, honey, I know you’re hella sheltered, but you don’t just blurt out questions about people’s scars. 20% of the time, it leads to cool stories, but the other 80% of the time, it just leads to varying shades of awkwardness for all parties involved.

  15. ditrysia

    Somebody seriously needs to out Joyce in her place soon. This is not cute.

    1. Kravis

      *put

      1. MatthewTheLucky

        Yeah, while focusing on her new identity and trying to get with Dorothy would get her to stop, that’s just not cool.

      2. ditrysia

        Yes I did mean “put in her place”. Thanks.

    2. djaevlenselv

      Eh, I’m pretty sure everyone already knows she’s hot for Dorothy. But even if someone did want to reveal it to everyone, I don’t see why they’d need go to her place to do it 🙂

    3. Dean

      Outing Joyce would be bad, she needs to figure things out at her own pace.

      1. JetstreamGW

        It’s difficult to be in the closet when you’re constantly fawning over another girl.

        She is not subtle.

    4. ditrysia

      This was meant to read “Somebody seriously needs to out Joyce in her place soon. This is not cute.”

      The “O” key is right next to the “P” and I was half-asleep when I posted this so.. there. But also “out in her place” is not an expression that I know of.

      For the record, I’m not in favor of outing anyone ever. So yeah, definitely not what I meant. And also I don’t know how it would work with Joyce, how would outing her even be possible when she’s not even accepting it herself? In this case “outing” would just mean “spread a rumor” probably?

      Anyway sorry for the confusion.

      1. Deanatay

        You realize, you made the same misspelling again.

        I mean, we KNOW what you meant, so it’s not important.

        But, ya did.

        1. BarerMender

          Yeah, that’s a super Freudian slip.

      2. MatthewTheLucky

        We know, we were being sarcastic.

      3. ditrysia

        …… Huh. That’s a thing that happened.

        Copy-pasted intending to change the letter, then forgot to go back and change the letter. Less Freudian slip and more overall lack of attention. But…. ya.

        1. Shen Hibiki

          So you just forgot to out the letter in the right place?

  16. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    [joyce.exe surprise index has been exceeded, rebooting]

    Your outrage is important to us, please stay on the floor for our next available epiphany.

  17. sirconanad

    Also I desperately want Sal to make out with Joyce in that shirt and hairband / hair scarf.

    1. Dana

      Joyce might just be into that.

      1. DailyBrad

        Yup. Sal’s not into gals, though, between what even led to Malaya being in her personal sphere, plus her reaction when Billie tried to hit on her when drunk.

        Though, in the latter case, it doesn’t help that she especially wouldn’t think of Billie in those terms. She’s not a sister to Sal like she is in Walky’s heart, but she also isn’t her type.

        1. Blanche Quizno

          Got a link to that event?

        2. Dana

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/03-the-first-step-towards-recovery/unimpressed/

        3. Marsh Maryrose

          Also, there’s Sal’s reaction when Marcie told her why she wanted to hang out with Malaya:

          “Yeah, Ah ain’t doin’ that, no.”

    2. Ivy

      Uhhh okay

    3. Orange

      Ugh.

  18. JessWitt

    Joyce can’t handle all these sudden discoveries. She just discovered printed smut less than an hour ago!

    1. Deanatay

      You misspelled “LITERATURE”.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        SMUTERATURE!

  19. Kris

    That’s so last storyline. Wake up, Joyce!

  20. Corlanthis

    Next panel better be a shot of some bird in the sky with Joyce’s eyebrow inching up past it.

    1. Opus the Poet

      Inching? Streaking!

    2. Keulen

      And the panel after that should be Joyce’s eyebrow leaving Earth as it escapes into space.

  21. newllend(henryvolt)

    Yeah stuff happens when you’re not around Joyce you may be the main character in a sense but you’re not the center of the universe.

  22. Joe Moose

    That what happens when you read slashfic – I mean, literature. You lose track of time, and before you know it you’re out of the loop.

  23. Tacos

    I wonder how many more “Wait!”s Joyce has? Besides “Wait where’s your pants?!”

    1. Clif

      Wait! Did I knock before walking in on Sal and her underwear?

      1. jeffepp

        Teleport.

        1. Clif

          Wait! Did I just teleport? And does it work on other people’s clothing? Is that what happened to Sal’s pants?

  24. Crusading Barista

    Eyebrow raise intensifies

  25. Unspeakable Anger

    I have a minor question. It seems to my eye that Sal’s right hand has some odd orientation of her fingers at times. I’m just curious as to whether that’s intended, or Willis hasn’t drawn Sal’s hands sans gloves in the current style (vs the slightly bobblehead everyone had who knows how many years ago) a significant amount of times?

    I realize that sounds like a critique. It came to mind though, as I had surgery on a tendon sheath in my hand relieve tenosynovitis, and the finger in question took a few years to get to its current usability level.

    I would imagine a knife just going in raw would cause all sorts of chaotic damage, so was wondering if Sal’s hand was showing that result.

    1. DailyBrad

      It may be intentional, considering it’s been either stated or implied that she’s got issues with her lack of dexterity with that hand, judging by her not playing guitar anymore.

      Though, going by the pics of guitars in the back, hard to say if it’s a “she can’t anymore” situation, or like when she wouldn’t sing initially with Danny because of guilt over Marcie, if she had hangups about doing things she enjoyed before the incident.

    2. MatthewTheLucky

      Sal mentioned having difficulty with fine motor control to Danny when she was giving him ukelele tips, so it is intended that her fingers are messed up.

    3. BBCC

      You’re not the first person to wonder. According to the book pdfs, the knife went THROUGH her hand, not just in it. That has the potential to fuck up tendons, muscles, veins, bones, ligaments, nerves, etc. Plus it went in diagonally and got a bit jagged in the struggle. So it could be either or.

      1. Brotato

        Book pdfs???

        1. BBCC

          Dumbing of Age is also released in book form. Those books come in PDF format. I order them yearly.

        2. Brotato

          Oh. I was thinking like with rpgs, where there are like, whole articles & shit on classes/races/monsters/etc., cuz you mentioned the extra info…

        3. BBCC

          There is some extra info in the ‘last time’ and the first two books have character profiles (including for Mary and Raidah, who aren’t on the main cast page – Mary’s in Art Education and Raidah’s in law, just ftr). There’s also things like extra art, the patreon bonus strips, etc.

        4. Needfuldoer

          The books usually have a sentence or two under each comic, plus a page or two of commentary at the end.

          Sounds like you’re looking for Walkypedia, the fan-curated wiki. It covers the old Walkyverse continuity as well as DoA.

        5. Needfuldoer

          *Otherwise unreleased concept art at the end. Plus aborted/dropped/rewritten strips and the artwork and character models released through the year.

          Wait for the coffee to kick in before commenting!

  26. Kris

    What is Sal doing anyway? Is it like laundry day or something?

    1. DailyBrad

      She has been known to be half naked when lounging from time to time, like when Malaya made fun of her for wearing gloves while being in her underwear.

      1. Blanche Quizno

        And when Joyce made the mistake of waking Sal up and Sal was wearing nothing but undies and gloves.

      2. Zee

        Yknow, speaking of that, I’m kinda curious about how Malaya will react to the scar. I’m wondering if itlltbe kind of an “oh. Ohhhh. Oh…” Moment if she’ll try to cram it into her idea of sal being a faker. If she started saying it was make up or something too look badass I might cry laughing

    2. BBCC

      Looks like she’s reading something.

      1. Clif

        The alt-text suggests it’s a magazine. Personally , i’my holding out for Art of Motor cycle Maintenance.

  27. Blanche Quizno

    um…Sal’s not wearing *pants*… How is Joyce not noticing THIS??

    1. Keulen

      To be fair Joyce has seen Sal without pants before, but she hasn’t seen her without gloves until now.

  28. meanderling

    Aw, Sal has guitar posters up! She’s decorating (and maybe coming out of her guarded emotions cage a lil).

    1. Dana

      It’s probably more what you say, but it’s also possible she’s decorating to mark territory against Malaya.

    2. Ivy

      Sal’s becoming cool

      1. Ivy

        Dammit wrong gravitar

  29. KingMonster

    Congratulations, Joyce! You’ve been out of the loop!

  30. tirachokko

    lmao how long can Joyce go w.o finding out about the stabby stabby? Probably until this comic ends huh

  31. Nono

    “Sal, have you seen your dumb twin brother?”

    Joyce, you literally know where he is.

    1. jeffepp

      This is more of find someone to moral outrage with mission. But, so far, everyone seems to already know. Wally’s subtle like that.

    2. Zee

      Pretty sure she doesn’t. She can guess but he never said where he was going

  32. DarkoNeko

    Well, this escalated.. quickly ?

  33. MatsuoTanuki

    I have trouble reading facial expressions, especially illustrated ones. What is Sal’s expression in the last panel implying? Annoyance? Regret? Indecision on whether or not to open up?

    1. insomniac

      Annoyance.

      The sort felt by anyone who’s had a relative walk in halfway through the movie and been expected to catch them up.

      1. MatsuoTanuki

        Thank you.

  34. GenJen

    I mean…didn’t Dorothy end things with him, like, twice? I’m kind of confused why Sal, Billie, and Joyce are acting like he dumped Dorothy and then made out with another girl rather than got dumped because his girlfriend wanted more time to study and he ended up rebounding. I guess I can kind of see Joyce thinking this is wrong because of how she thinks about relationships and Walky and Dorothy in general, but I thought the other two would be more sympathetic to Walky (I thought Billy was but her lack of defense and the face she made when Joyce called it ‘gross and a betrayal’ has me second-guessing that). Is it, like, an Indiana cultural thing i’m missing where if you get broken up, you need someone to introduce you to your rebound or it’s wrong?

    1. GenJen

      Clarifying cause re-reading I don’t like how I worded one thing. I have no problem with Dorothy deciding to focus on her studies over a relationship. It was a difficult decision for her and I respect that she was open and honest with Walky about it and did what she thought was best for her future.
      I just used it to highlight that the reason he was broken up with had little to do with a problem with the actual relationship or a perceived character flaw or fault on Walky’s part, reasons why even though he was broken up with, it would make sense that people would be disgusted at him bouncing back so quickly. I had a friend in high school that broke up with a good person and hooked up with someone less than a week later. My friends and I gave him Sh!t about it for a month.

    2. Cass

      My best guess is that they assume he must have been two-timing Dorothy for him to already be in another relationship (especially with the way it’s coming out of nowhere to them)

    3. thejeff

      I don’t think they really are and I don’t think they’re all having the same reaction.
      Billie was advising him to move on and approving of “revenge sex”. I think her reactions were more to what Joyce was saying (and how Joyce was taking it as she realized they were already together) than to the idea of them getting together quickly.

      Sal did seem upset in the rooftop scene that he was moving on too quickly.

      I’ve got no damn idea what Joyce thinks or how she rationalizes it being romantic for her to try to hook them up but gross for them to do so on their own. Apparently I haven’t watched the right Christian rom-coms. For which I am eternally grateful.

      1. TemperaryObsessor

        The thing is Billie termed dating Amber as revenge sex.
        I think she see’s it not so much as none of Dorothie’s pupping business who he dates now as encouraging him to win the break up.

  35. Roger

    well this’ll just be what it is won’t it

    1. Clif

      Always.

  36. Questionor

    This is all part of Mike’s plan right?

    1. Mr. Random

      The beatdown and having Joyce realize the that Wamber was a thing. That was his plan.
      Having Joyce annoy Sal is just a happy accident.

  37. Ophidiophile

    Wait, is Joyce finally catching up?

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Not yet. She still has to realize she isn’t the protagonist of a romcom.

      1. BenRG

        I don’t think that Joyce has ever seen herself as the protagonist but rather the supporting character who is one of the protagonists’ well-meaning best friends.

        1. jeffepp

          Something something someone in want of a girlfriend.

        2. thejeff

          In this romcom, no.
          She definitely saw herself as the leading lady in the one with her and Jacob, before Walky made her realize she was the seductress trying to tear the protagonists apart.

  38. vlademir1

    Love that eye twitch from Sal in the last panel. That is oft my reaction to people who act how Joyce does, so I feel a strong empathetic response here.

  39. Clif

    To be fair, I was surprised Sal was reading a magazine.

  40. abysswatcher1993

    Amber and Sal are becoming better people, Walky is maturing a bit, and even Ruth seems to rise up. The one that has problems being in tune with current events and social cues and that has the attention span of John Egbert is little Miss Brown. Joyce, not everything is about you!

    1. BenRG

      Giving her five minutes to catch up is, arguably, about her.

      1. Clif

        Yeah. Sal was really impressive in her handling of post fight. But Amber had her moments too. Reclusive timid Amber getting through the fight without recourse to Amazigirl or blind killing rage was huge. And I was impressed as well with the text message setting up the conversation with Walk y she really didn’t want to have.

        1. thejeff

          Yes. And I think that’s more what the moment of triumph was than the “stupid girl, turning your back on an enemy who isn’t out yet” take on it.

    2. Emily

      Can’t say I’ve seen any meaningful indication that Amber is becoming a better person.

      1. Orange

        She admitted what happened to Walky, and didn’t argue there was a problem with what happened. She was begrudgingly willing to talk to Sal when her typical response was fight/flight*. She accompanied Sal to join the roller skating crew to help diffuse anger, which is something Amber wouldn’t typically do. These might not be ‘enough’ for you, but I do believe there’s indication Amber is trying.

        *I understand you strongly believe Sal shouldn’t have had to initiate any of it. I’m not going to debate with you on that, just pointing out Amber took a risk she normally wouldn’t have that helped reconciliation begin.

        1. Emily

          She admitted if after she no longer had the option to hide it from him only the choice of whether it came from her or Sal. She still hasn’t fessed up to tampering with his grades so I doubt she’d have told him about this if she could have gotten away with not doing so. And the roller derby thing feels a lot more like “not taking an opportunity to be even worse by rejecting a completely undeserved olive branch” rather than getting better. Amber never had to try she just had to not be even more terrible to Sal.

  41. Gregg Fielding

    Waiting for Joyce to have that “I don’t know what’s going on with anything, anywhere, at all” moment.

  42. butts

    great priorities, joyce

  43. Needfuldoer

    Poor Joyce is completely out of cranial bandwidth, it’s all used up on Walky outrage.

    Still wicked cute, though.

  44. BenRG

    Give Joyce a chance, people; this is promising to all be a lot to take in if you say it all at once! I strongly recommend that Sal tell her to sit down and start breathing deeply before she starts seeing purple spots floating in front of her eyes!

  45. Victor Riley

    Was it really “hours later”?… I thought they had been broken up for at least a few days, because there were several classes and run-ins they had between the Dorothy break-up and the Amber hook-up.

    1. BBCC

      More like a day. They broke up in Faz Is Great and he got with Amber in Of Mike and Men, which is the next day.

    2. Zellgato

      Same.. I must need to re read cause I could have sworn that Amber and Sal have met up and fought people at night for a while…
      and that I thought hadn’t started until around when walk/dor broke up.
      So I was thinking it was a week.

      Granted. they only dated for maybe a month and a half.

      1. Zee

        Granted it was a pretty intense month and a half. They fell in love, walky had his first everything pretty much.

      2. thejeff

        It’s not clear when Amazi-Girl and Sal actually started teaming up regularly. They were working together less violently trying to track down Ryan. Then the stabbing happened and when Amber was back on campus, she didn’t have access to Amazi-Girl’s memories and we didn’t see Amazi-Girl on stage until the start of Flying to the Red (Thursday), which was just after the Amber/Walky kiss(end of Wednesday).

        I think we can take it for granted that Amazi-Girl was going out most nights while Amber slept, but we only have confirmation for a couple of them and I believe one rumour of her having a sidekick. Amber came back to campus in The Do List on Saturday, which leaves up to 5 days for possible team ups.

        Walky and Dorothy went on pause on Monday and broke up on Tuesday.

  46. Victor Riley

    Plus… it was Dorothy that ended it. Walky has every right to rebound. (It may not be the best thing for him, but he has the right) If Dorothy started dating someone else, that would be a betrayal. (Because it was under the pretense that she didn’t want to date at all. If she had said otherwise, that the two just weren’t a fit together, or that she was interested in someone else, or wanted to date other people… than it wouldn’t be a betrayal, because she was at least honest.)

    (Wait… am I simplifying it or complicating it? I can never remember which…)

    1. BBCC

      Dorothy didn’t break up with him because she didn’t want to date. She broke up with him because she had too many commitments and wasn’t on top of her studies anymore. Had she gotten it under control, she’d be within her rights to date again (or ask him to get back together, as seems more likely to me, but she might well refrain since she felt that she was yo-yoing around on their relationship’s intimacy level a lot).

      1. thejeff

        I think the implication involved Dorothy starting to date someone this soon, which would be an issue since if getting her studies under control only took a day or two, breaking up to do so seems extreme. Especially when Walky was already doing what he could not to use up her time.

        I’m not sure where this is all going to go, but I think Dorothy’s made strict decision not to be distracted by boys again. I’m also sure she’ll break that as easily as she’s done before – with Walky or someone else. It’s been well established as a character flaw and I doubt it’ll be resolved off stage.

        She does seem to have recovered from her impending breakdown though, which I’m a little surprised by. Don’t know if she’s caught up on work, but she seems to be sleeping again and willing to take time off for Joyce shenanigans.
        Hopefully it’s not that simple. I don’t like the idea that it was just Walky causing her problems.

      2. Victor Riley

        Her intention may be to scale back on commitments, the impact is still that she didn’t want to date anybody. So, if she suddenly started dating someone else, that would be a betrayal… as thejeff said, that means she got her studies “under control” in a very short amount of time, and there was no need to break up. Which means that she wouldn’t have been honest in the first place.

        1. BBCC

          No, the impact is she is breaking up with Walky. And misjudging how long it would take to get things under control is not the same thing as not being honest.

        2. thejeff

          Not “not being honest”, but it’s certainly not going to come across well.

          Mostly though, assuming that she really is sorted out not, which I’m not convinced of, I don’t like it narratively. Feels like it wrapped up to cleanly and was just an excuse to break them up for more drama.
          OTOH, how long in real time can Dorothy be sidelined as “Too busy, still behind.” I did expect that to come to some larger crisis, not just blow over when they broke up though.

        3. BBCC

          Sure, but that’s not the same as she dumped him because she didn’t want to date.

          Dorothy still looks a bit of a mess to me, on that note. Better, but still not back to wear she was. I think she’s kicked the can down the road, but this will come back.

  47. JA

    Sal’s not wearing pants and the first thing Joyce notices is she’s not wearing her gloves?

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      I guess her badassexual outvoted her homosexual

    2. BenRG

      Joyce has seen Sal in various levels of dress before; she’s never seen her without gloves.

    3. Tom T.

      They’re cartoon characters. Joyce just assumed that Sal always wears gloves, like Mickey Mouse.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Are those gloves, or are they just his hands at this point? And the white around “Classic Mickey”’s pupils, is it skin or sclera?

  48. Eldritch Gentleman

    And so the ideal falls apart.
    Also Sal looks surprisingly relaxed and… actually really cute here. It’s like she lost that nervous edge she always had.

  49. Bagge

    See how the tables have turned. Who’s behind on the plot now, Joyce?

    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/damngirl/

  50. fire_daws

    Joyce is learning a lot of things today!

  51. DT

    “WAIT ARE YOU WEARING UNDERPANTS RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!”

    1. Zaxares

      Glad to see I’m not the only one who spotted that. XD

    2. BenRG

      “Joyce… Ah never wear underthings!”

      *Joyce goes into meltdown mode*

  52. Mr.Morningstar

    Wasn’t it DOROTHY who ended it?

    1. BenRG

      It depends on your point of view. Walky at least gave the impression that it was mutual and I suspect that he’d probably take it on himself out of some kind of attempt to shield Dorothy from criticism.

    2. Zee

      If you wanna play devil’s advocate you could point out that walky originally had the idea to break up and was going to dump her, then Dorothy proposed the pause

  53. Treita

    That picture of Amber for Slipshine makes me sad I’m too poor to afford the comic subscription.

  54. Guest42

    Yeah, given the response I gotta back walky up.

    He didn’t end things with Dorothy.

    It wasn’t the first time Dorothy ended things with him.

    1. Shane Wegner

      And as best I can remember, her reason was along the lines of “I need to focus on becoming the United States President.”

  55. Dariu55

    **eyebrows intensify**

  56. BenRG

    I’ve got this mental image of Malaya coming into the room to find Sal trying to calm down Joyce, who is breathing into a brown paper bag with a frantic expression visible over the top of it.

    1. Lacuna

      And then Malaya somehow interprets it as Joyce being cooler than Sal.

      (Does Malaya know what happened between Joyce and Becky’s dad? I assume she doesn’t, what with spending so much time in her own head.)

  57. SonicBlueRanger

    Man Joyce is getting overloaded with new information today isn’t she?

  58. Deanatay

    “G-girls can’t have SCARS! Girls are delicate, fragile flowers, and not even the most evil man would DARE to hurt one!”
    “Uh, OK, first: WRONG. Second, a woman did this to me.”
    “But, but, girls NEVER have to use violence…”
    *Sal gives Joyce a LOOK*
    “I… Imma go back to my room now…” *runs*

    1. BenRG

      Regrettably, I think that Joyce has been disabused on the notion in the first line of your post some time ago.

      I do think that Sal will have some difficulty convincing Joyce that there is no romantic or cinematic explanation for the scar. “No Joyce, ah didn’t nearly lose mah hand fighting a dinosaur!”

    2. Zee

      I…really don’t think that’s the mindset of the girl who smashed a glass in her attempted rapists face and sent a grown man flying with a punch

  59. Ryek Hvek

    “It is not a scar. It is a stigmata. For I am in reality…. Brown Jeebus.”

  60. Shane Wegner

    Joyce was so sure was a mastermind who was three steps ahead.

    1. Bagge

      I mean, to be fair she was.

      Only, in a direction completely unknown to anyone not living on planet Joyce.

  61. Roe

    Joyce is giving me anxiety and I don’t know how that’s possible from one little comic strip.

  62. Qinx

    I may be behind the times.. but I saw a Cameo Dina appearance over at Girl Genius While catching up on my reading http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20181031#.XCZyC2kh2Uk

  63. Agemegos

    Someone gotta tell Joyce to her face: “You are not the the rom-com police. You are not Miss Manners Enforcement Division. You have no authority to scold Walky. You have neither duty nor right to avenge insults to Dorothy. This is none of your business, so stop meddling. People gonna do wrong things, and what you get to do about it is read the bits in the Bible that tell you not to judge other people.”

  64. Meta

    Joyce..

  65. Author X

    Wow, that’s sure a rude way to react to seeing something that a person has obviously been putting a lot of effort into hiding up to this point!

  66. ADLegend21

    Don’t let the scar distract you from the fact that Sal’s not wearing any pants

    1. Yumi

      Joyce has seen her without pants before, but she hasn’t seen the gloves before.

  67. DarkoNeko

    “look, just let me read in peace”

  68. MicaXIII

    AND WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS?!

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