253

Bagel
Posted on December 8, 2018 by David M Willis
November's second Patreon bonus strip is up, and it's about Sayid, Becky, and Galasso! All Patrons can go check it out here. And, yo, you can also upgrade to seeing tomorrow's strip a day early every day! That comes in handy sometimes.

253 thoughts on “Bagel”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    for similar reasons, I ended up sleeping in the computer labs p much all the time

    well, I mean, not when CLASSES were there but

    1. Doctor_Who

      Relatable.

      I was a CS major, and also worked nights, 11pm to 7am. This meant my sleep schedule was absolute shambles, because my roommates were awake when I had to sleep.

      Luckily, the computer lab was 24 hours, and almost empty in the early morning, and since I had to do a lot of my homework there anyway, I could head over after work, sleep for a couple of hours, and then wake up and get some work done.

    2. Needfuldoer

      It’s all the white noise from the fans running.

      1. ischemgeek

        I caught up on sleep in early morning bio lectures. The book was a better prof than the prof anyway.

        I got an A in that course. It was a really good textbook.

        1. Br44n5m

          I hope you rated that book favorably on ratemyprofessor

  2. DarkoNeko

    It was bound to happen

  3. BBCC

    Billie is relatable.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      A jerk, but highly relatable.

    2. LeslieBean4Shizzle

      Indeed. I have done that very thing. Although I don’t think for that distance. How far apart are these dorms? I’ve done this between to buildings that were fairly close together (in college) and an “in my 30s” variant in my own home/driveway as recently as yesterday.

      1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

        The 30s variant involves “getting up” to get my kid ready for school and onto the bus. Once completed, I return to my bed and my sleeping wife. School starts WAY earlier than either of our jobs, so I can sometimes get as much as an extra hour and a half in doing this.
        And by this, I mean walking about in a half-awake state in my sleep shirt and panties.

      2. BBCC

        Billie’s dorm is just down the road from Ruth’s.

        1. Needfuldoer

          They just about share a parking lot.

        2. LeslieBean4Shizzle

          Oh, then yeah, I did exactly that on more than one occasion during college.

    3. Emily

      I have never once related to Billie and this is possibly the least relatable she’s ever been.

  4. StClair

    “ah, there’s the contempt I’ve been craving.”

    1. Clif

      Yep.

  5. DailyBrad

    Walking on campus half asleep in her underwear and socks is like one of the most on-brand things I could expect out of Billie.

    1. saltchocolate

      I approve this message.

    2. NerdHerder

      Pants are for people who give a shit.

      1. saltchocolate

        Without pants, but with pillow. Because sleep.

      2. King Daniel

        I thought you weren’t supposed to wear pants when doing that?

        1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          https://www.kongregate.com/games/rete/dont-shit-your-pants

          Pants; not shitting in them is harder than you think. xD

    3. All-Purpose Guru

      Walking around in underwear and socks is pretty much normal for College.

      That or flipflops.

      1. Tawdry Quirks

        This. Many accused me of ‘dressing up’ to go to class because I went to class in jeans and a fitted t-shirt that didn’t look like they had been sitting in the bottom of the laundry basket all semester. That and I’d often wear lipstick.

        It wasn’t that I spent any longer getting ready than other girls. On the contrary, I got ready much faster than the sorority and sorority wannabes who not only wore their pajamas to class, but also had to flatiron their hair before pulling it into a high ponytail and put on a full face of makeup every morning.

        1. CoMa

          I always personally found it to be a very strange idea to go into class at college wearing pajama pants or sweatpants (in school, maybe – I never did). I might’ve spotted one or two people over here (middle of europe) in class who did that occasionally, but at college most people were wearing dresses, jeans, skirts. Sometimes you got someone wearing business outfits in the higher semesters and knew, they’d go to work afterwards or directly came from it, but other than that, people were normally dressed or dressed up.

          Maybe it’s because we don’t really have campuses over here, so you’d need to get through public transit to reach university, if you don’t live somewhere near it in walking distance (which is pretty impossible where I live).

        2. ValdVin

          Pajamas to class?

          I’ve been out of college for quite some time.

          (But just for the record, I don’t think milennials are ruining anything, unlike many of my age cohort who don’t understand how much college costs today.)

      2. ischemgeek

        People didn’t do that in my uni because Canada. It got down to -15C last night and this is not the coldest time of year.

        On my uni campus it would’ve been parka over PJs (pants optional) and boots.

      3. Masumi

        I’m in Taiwan, and the uniform of one of the high schools around here looks very much like pajamas. I wonder if they’re as comfy as they look.
        And yeah, on campus, lots of guys in sweatpants… which produces a rather distinct lack of nice-looking butts.

    4. Yumi

      It’s Friday at 7am, so campus is probably pretty dead.

    5. Regalli

      Could be a touch cold.

      Not that that’s ever stopped anyone.

  6. Stephen Bierce

    Anybody else reminded of the robot toaster in Red Dwarf?

    1. Doctor_Who

      Yeah, or maybe Eddie the shipboard computer from HHGTG. When AI becomes a thing, there had better be a “grumpy bastard” setting or I’ll end up smashing all my appliances.

      1. StClair

        I still remember most of an SF story I read in my youth, where a woman of advanced years and strong opinions has her granddaughter over on the day when a replacement arrives for her dearly beloved old toaster, which has finally given up the ghost. Alas, the replacement is a do-it-all, know-it-all appliance, which snobbishly refuses her request and tries to offer her something more nutritious, etc.

        Granny isn’t having any of that, and it turns out she’s pretty handy with a soldering iron and logic probe… One electronic lobotomy later, the machine (now with a slavishly adoring manner and slurred speech suitable for an Igor) obediently produces the toast. Granddaughter takes a bite and declares with joyful surprise, “it’s good!“

    2. fire_daws

      Not until she starts singing Fly Me to the Moon

      1. Delicious Taffy

        And then someone bonks her on the head to shut her up.

        1. fire_daws

          ^.^ If Billie stayed around in the room long enough I could see both happening

  7. Smooti

    This storyline’s gonna end with Billie realizing that Lucy ain’t Joyce. Joyce has too much cheer and is a pushover, Lucy’s only very cheerful and a mild pushover, and Billie’s gonna test her patience.

    1. AntJ

      I’d be down for a storyline about Lucy.

    2. Nikol Geier

      Honestly, Joyce and Lucy both have boundary issues. Lucy is a bit less genuine than Joyce, too—she’s very much a people-pleasure, and you can kinda tell that she expects people to appreciate it (hence her persisting in bugging Billie when Billie is trying to sleep).

  8. ShinyNeen

    Billie read all the morning person discussions from the other day. She totally knows what angle to play to stay popular with the comments section!

  9. DailyBrad

    While Lucy’s being irritating, and I get where Billie is coming from 100 percent on wanting to sleep, I am glad to see Lucy being a bit more assertive, given the kind of venom she takes from Billie on a regular basis sitting down.

    1. Deadjolras

      Lucy only greeted her “good morning” and invited Billie to breakfast. How exactly is she being irritating?

      1. Rabid Rabbit

        She’s talking.

        It’s not because it’s her talking, per se; it’s the fact that anyone’s talking. And to be fair, Billie’s only just moved in, so one can’t blame Lucy too much for not having worked things out yet. But if you’re living with a not-morning person, the polite thing to do is just not talk at them in the mornings. This is something morning people don’t always understand, because they find it incredibly rude to not talk to someone who’s awake, but they can be trained. It’s not dissimilar to teaching extroverts to stop annoying the introverts.

        1. Emily

          Jesus Christ.

        2. Deadjolras

          What. She just said “good morning” and asked two questions. Like I said below, I’m not a morning person either (far from it, in fact) but even I recognise that’s my own issue and I should not take out my sleepiness on other people that, again, only greeted me good morning and asked two simple questions. It’s not like Lucy is trying to engage Billie in some deep conversation about their personal lifelong philosophies of trying to pry into her life. “Good morning”, “will you join us for movie night” and “do you want breakfast” aren’t invasive at all.

        3. Needfuldoer

          Any and all questions are grating and invasive when you’re groggy-half-asleep but want to be plain old completely asleep. It’s equal but opposite to being kept awake while you’re trying to get to sleep late at night.

        4. Deadjolras

          I’m not sure how many times I have to say I’m not a morning person so I get . I get the annoyance and the “nobody even look at me before i’m fully coherent”. What I’m trying to say is that commenters here need to realise that Lucy is not an invasive monster just because she dared to greet her roommate and ask her a couple of things when she noticed Billie was waking up.

        5. thejeff

          And the other half of the commenters need to realize that Billie isn’t a complete monster for being grouchy and rude when she’s half woken up.
          This is a personality clash. We don’t need to pick teams.

        6. Deadjolras

          Who’s picking teams? All I’ve said Billie was disproportionately rude in response to Lucy’s “annoying cheerfulness”. My issue is more with commenters taking this out of proportion and speaking of morning people vs. non-morning people as entirely two different species of humans, where one needs to be “trained” to interact with the other.

        7. Clif

          Even if it’s true. 🙂

        8. thejeff

          Not necessarily you, but it’s going around.
          Just throwing out the counterpart to “commenters here need to realise that Lucy is not an invasive monster”.

        9. ruhrow

          OK, but you don’t get to be rude when it’s late, either.
          Sorry, but I work a job where everyone is always either staying up late or getting in incredibly early, or both (or sometimes working 28 straight hours and catching a nap or so when possible), and people get woken up during their brief naps often. You give people a bit of leeway on immediate grump, but it’s certainly not a free pass. And I don’t care whether you’re a morning person or a night person – when you work 16hrs, with another 8 to go, then fall asleep for 45min only to be woken up by someone with a simple question…it doesn’t matter which you are.

          Anyway, I’ve always figured that I can’t take my irregular schedule out on my roommates. If I go to bed early, that doesn’t mean that they have to stop making any noise just after dinner. And if I’m trickling in to go to bed at 7am while they’re getting up for work, it’s on me to play music and set something up to block their lights so that I can sleep. You don’t get to ‘train’ your roommates to not talk cheerfully/politely to you when you are awake,, or whatever other accomodation you want.

        10. Sam

          The polite thing to do is recognise not everyone is you and not to be a bongo about someone being friendly to you. If you don’t want anyone to talk to you before you’ve done set things, ask them not to. Introverts and not-morning people are not more correct than extroverts or morning people for having different preferences, they just need to communicate them. This is not about training anyone, bloody hell.

        11. ischemgeek

          As both an introvert and a not morning person, from experience, extroverts and morning people do have to be taught that introverts and non-morning people exist and to respect our boundaries. Our society privileges extroverts and morning people both and literally every strong extrovert I have met has boundary issues like Lucy and Joyce unless someone taught them to read and respect cues that the person they want to social with at stupid o’clock in the morning isn’t up for it yet. Because the social attitude is that non morning people are lazy because they should spring out of bed ready to greet the day and that introverts in general aren’t actually introverts, we’re extroverts with something wrong (probably just shy) and just need to be cajoled into social stuff regardless of our actual stated preferences.

          It’s consent culture. We don’t live in one so people think Lucy is just being friendly by socialing even after Billie communicated nonverbally Lu that she isn’t up to it yet. In an ideal world the non-morning people would be taught to say, “I need you to not talk at me until I am fully awake.” and the morning people would be taught to look for, recognize, and respect nonverbal cues to that effect.

          Like I am glad Lucy is getting more assertive, and I don’t blame her for the good morning. But after good morning, Billie couldn’t telegraph not a morning person harder with a 30 foot sign and Lucy didn’t even try to be considerate.

        12. ischemgeek

          Like if you doubt social privilege of extroverts, consider this anecdote: when I was a kid, what drove my parents to take me to a child psychologist wasn’t that I was a holy terror in the class or that I would rather read a dictionary than watch TV or that I could beat a calculator with my brain or had extensive knowledge of severe weather or that I was getting bulliesor that I stimmed or that I had half a dozen foods I would eat or that I was extremely particular about things like tags on clothes or noise level of environment… it was that I was not a social butterfly like my sibs.

          Like I had all these blatant signs of a pervasive developmental disorder… But what made them take me in was that I had no friends and didn’t really care to make any.

        13. Norah

          I understand what you’re saying. I had some of the same issues but never got diagnosed because my parents never took me to be evaluated, and even if they had, I’d have had a different diagnosis in the 1960s than now.

          Lucy goes overboard though, and so does Joyce. They don’t have social privilege, particularly not Lucy. They’re not just extroverts and morning people; they also lack some social understanding. Lucy’s dorm mates don’t seem to like her that well either. Some people have suggested that Joyce may be on the autism spectrum, or at least not neurotypical. Lucy’s reaction upon finding that Bille had been a cheerleader suggested that she might have been bullied or at least mistreated by one.

        14. Rain

          I mean, blanketedly saying Lucy doesn’t have privilege seems to me to be a misunderstanding of how intersectionality works. Lucy has cis privilege, for example. You can be privileged on one axis and marginalized on another. Joyce being (arguably) not NT wouldn’t negate her privilege as a straight white cis Christian.

          I too thought privilege was a bit of a strong word for extrovertedness, but American society IS set up in a way that makes being an extrovert easier, all other things being equal.

        15. Emily

          But all other things aren’t equal so the idea that being an extrovert or a morning person is a privileged position is actually borderline offensive in how tone deaf it is to even implicitly compare it to actual meaningful forms of privilege. Like, my gut response to that part was basically “What the absolute fuck kind of nonsense is this.”

        16. BBCC

          Yeah, I have to agree with Emily here. There’s all kinds of spots where people are disadvantaged socially, but not necessarily oppressed. Social status is part of that, and introvert vs extrovert definitely feeds into that, but I wouldn’t put it on the same level as, say, transphobia for instance.

  10. GenJen

    I’m with Billy on this. You don’t have to interact with your roommate beyond the basics. Second year of college my roomy and I just respected each others space.

    1. BBCC

      All Lucy’s done thus far is say good morning and invite her to two places (a communal movie night and to breakfast in the cafeteria). Billie’s definitely allowed to find Lucy overly familiar and not want to partake, but Lucy’s not being pushy here.

      1. Jess

        Not to mention Billie’s been kind of rude from the start — basically insinuating that Lucy should leave the room rather than wishing her good morning. She doesn’t have to be a morning person or even engage very much, but a polite “good morning, please let me sleep for another hour/wake up in my own time” costs $0 would be quicker than all this back and forth.

        And she wouldn’t have to leave the building either. I know that’s not what I want to do five minutes after waking up.

        1. BBCC

          Lucy didn’t even wake her. She didn’t say anything until she heard Billie stirring.

        2. NelC

          I don’t understand this remark, echoed up-thread. “Stirring” does not equal “awake”. I can stir quite well even when deep asleep, and even when I’m in the process of waking up, that doesn’t mean the rest of my brain is up to making conversation and doing complicated social calculus as to whether I want to watch a movie or not, right after my first stir. Some people just do not wake up quickly and don’t like being forced into it.

        3. BBCC

          Lucy didn’t force Billie to wake up. She was waking up on her own and Lucy said good morning. While I do agree Billie should have been able to go back to sleep after shooing Lucy off, Lucy didn’t wake her up.

          Billie also seemed very capable of conversing, but it’s irrelevant because she was shooing Lucy off.

        4. Emily

          Seriously, if Billie had stowed all the snide whining and just politely asked for what she wanted I’m like 98% sure Lucy would leave her be. Like, at no point has she asked Lucy to let her sleep she’s just been rude.

      2. GenJen

        If the second I woke up my roommate said hello and tried to have a cheerful conversation with me, i’d be cranky too. I think by now Billy’s been pretty clear about how she feels about their relationship. You don’t gotta be friends or even overly friendly with the roommate.

        I’d have to say though, if Billy wants her to stop she needs to sit her down and be explicit about it cause Lucy isn’t gonna chill any other way. Those two are both stubborn in their own way.

        Then again, i’m much more of a Billy than a Lucy so i’m for sure biased, haha. To me, 7 AM 7cheerfulness is pushy.

        1. BBCC

          Fair enough on not wanting to be asked for plans immediately, but Lucy’s not hammering on it. All she asked was if she wanted to come. She started to be a little pushy about movie night, but she’s shifted the topic here.

          I get it. I am a Billie when it comes to waking up. But I would have told her ‘Lucy, it’s seven AM on a Friday. I’m sleeping. Talk later.’

        2. ischemgeek

          As a non-morning person, Lucy is not intending to be but she is overstimulation personified for just as Billie’s eyes are opening. She’s also showing blatant disregard for Billie’s non-verbal cues.

          It’s not a Mary thing, it’s a Joyce thing. Nobody here thinks Lucy is trying to be a jerk. But still grating as all hell when you’re in Billie’s shoes and still half-awake.

        3. BBCC

          I’d say Lucy’s a little milder than Joyce here (Joyce would absolutely have screamed in Billie’s face to wake her up as soon as Joyce got up), but yeah, I get that.

        4. Jess

          You’re right that by now Billie has certainly given lots of hints about how she wants her roommate to interact. Probably there’s even been enough just over the course of the last couple of strips! And I think a lot of people in Lucy’s shoes would have taken the hint by now, which suggests that you’re right about their equal capacities for stubbornness as well. I still maintain, though, that while you don’t have to be friends or even friendly with a roommate you should be polite. Billie fails that litmus test here, and much more drastically than Lucy imo.

        5. Jess

          you know what lol never mind the politeness debate this is an example of why it’s important to set boundaries

          everyone’s happy and no one has to think very hard about it!

        6. GenJen

          I’d agree, except I think those two have very different ideas of what they want out of a roommate. Billy won’t be happy until Lucy tones it down by at least 50%, Lucy won’t be happy until she makes a friend out of Billy.
          I gotta feel for Lucy a bit here. 2 Roommates in a row that don’t want much to do with her. Probs not what she wanted outta her freshman roomy experience. I bet she was itching for one of those “We were college roommates freshman year and then became best friends for life” Stories.

        7. BBCC

          I think Lucy didn’t have many friends in high school and so now she’s trying to make up for it by being an extreme people pleaser. So, sure, she should drop subjects and leave Billie alone, but at the same time, she wants to give Billie very opportunity to hang out and, in Walky’s case, she heard he had a problem and wanted to help.

        8. thejeff

          Well she obviously wasn’t cheerful and friendly enough to win Malaya over, she needs to ramp it up to avoid failing again.

        9. ischemgeek

          Yeah. I sympathize with her on that front. She has to learn that not everyone will like her and that is ok. Like not everyone likes the same foods.

          I am told, for example, that some people like celery. Why is beyond me but apparently some people like the green hate sticks. And hey good for them. They can have my share.

          But my point being that Lucy will be happier when she realizes she’s Billie’s celery and seeks out folks who like celery rather than trying to become chocolate.

        10. Clif

          Thejeff, you convinced me.

        11. BarerMender

          Billie has already asked Lucy to dial down the people pleasing, and Lucy has flatly refused. Nuts to Lucy.

        12. GenJen

          I just went back through Lucy’s archives. Seems like in the beginning Billy was pretty cordial to Lucy, more than she usually is at least. Being with someone who’s always ON can wear you down, especially if they can’t take a hint. Like when Billy was talking to Walky and Lucy jumped into the convo with no invite or understanding. Unless prompted, I just threw headphones on and did my own thing when my roommate brought someone in.
          After a while i’d be a bit harsher as well so that hopefully they’d get it.
          Also, I get a feeling like this isn’t the only time Lucy’s done the “too cheerful in the morning” routine.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/goodmorningworld/

      3. Ivy

        Lucy is worse than Amber’s dad

        1. GenJen

          Oof, that’s a statement, haha!

          But yeah. I just went back through Lucy’s archives. Seems like in the beginning Billy was pretty cordial to Lucy, more than she usually is at least. Being with someone who’s always ON can wear you down, especially if they can’t take a hint. Like when Billy was talking to Walky and Lucy jumped into the convo with no invite or understanding. Unless prompted, I just threw headphones on and did my own thing when my roommate brought someone in.

          Again though. I’m way too close to Billy’s temperament

        2. thejeff

          She’ll probably also be politer when she’s not mostly asleep. She’s only got about 3 braincells firing now.

        3. Emily

          Billie has given us no reason to believe that she ever has more than 3 brain cells firing or that she’s capable of being any more polite.

        4. GenJen

          oops. wrong reply. Haha sorry

        5. Norah

          Huh? She’s not being abusive! She’s mildly annoying.

        6. Yumi

          Yeah, either Ivy has terrible judgment or…the hyperbole was the joke.

        7. Norah

          Hopefully the latter.

        8. Zee

          It was pretty obviously a joke. No one is that dumb

        9. Yumi

          Yeah, I got it. I was just trying to explain that to Norah.

  11. Delicious Taffy

    Sometimes you just wanna sleep for 19 hours on a Thursday afternoon, without the threat of cheerful behavior.

  12. Yumi

    Are the beds in this dorm loft-able? Billie really should loft her bed; she could get a bit further away from morning!Lucy that way.
    Unless that just encourages Lucy to become more Joyce-like.

    1. BBCC

      This dorm doesn’t have loft beds. According to Malaya, it’s because their rooms are larger here.

      1. Regalli

        That’ll do it. Ahhh, newer dorms.

      2. Yumi

        I hate waiting for moderation. I just want to get into the technicalities of bed lofting.

    2. Regalli

      I believe at least some on campus are? I’m pretty sure we’ve seen one lofted in Dorothy and Sierr’s, at least, though I don’t think we’ve seen enough of Forrest Quad to be sure. Not sure how easily that would be accomplished mid-semester, though. Mine always needed extra pieces they might have put away somewhere after move-in. (We will never reach spring semester.)

      1. BBCC

        Read Hall (Joyce and co.) dorms are. Forrest Quad (here), no.

        1. Marsh Maryrose

          There’s a chart under “Bed Configuration” near the bottom of the Move-In Guide. Read is one of only three halls with lofted beds.

          I’m sure that for Billie’s purposes, bunk beds and L-shaped bunk beds would be worse.

          I’m honestly not quite clear on why L-shaped bunk beds exist. It seems to me like they appear to have all the disadvantages of bunk beds, with a bigger footprint. There must be something I’m missing.

        2. Yumi

          Oh, huh, I hadn’t considered that you could have bunk bed/L-shaped beds and not just…lofted beds. I mean, you have the capability? But they just act like it can’t happen? That’s weird.

          Anyway, it’s probably easier to have sex on the lower bunk of an L-shaped bunk bed than on the lower bunk of a traditional bunk bed.

        3. Illithid

          The upper bunk is a great place to prop your feet at certain times. The ones in my college dorm even had convenient crossbars underneath.

    3. Deanatay

      Any bed is loft-able if you have enough wood.

      DOUBLE ENTENDRE INTENDED

  13. Jess

    Jesus. I wouldn’t want to be roommates with either of them, or (God forbid) in a triple with both of them. I hope Lucy can learn to respect Billie’s boundaries and Billie can learn to be less of an asshat sometime soon.

    1. Jay

      tbh I don’t think Billie needs to be less of an asshat, she’s only reacting to her environment of overly obsessive happy go lucky people when she’s the complete opposite and that gets fucking annoying

    2. Illithid

      I’d totally get along with Billie. We’d ignore each other and give each other space, only gradually becoming conversational. Except she’d probably snitch my booze.

      Lucy would die by withering glare.

    3. Emily

      Billie needs to set her boundaries before Lucy can respect them. Preferably with a method other than passive aggressive bongoiness.

    4. Sam

      Billie needs to learn to express boundaries first. Note that she hasn’t actually told Lucy ‘I would rather you save talking until I had time to do X, Y & Z’, she has just been a bongo to her for being cheerful in the morning as if that is a massive crime.

      1. TemperaryObsessor

        That would be a good thing for Billie to say after she’s woken up. Right now can’t talk tired.

        1. Emily

          She was apparently awake enough to ask fully coherent questions about the subject at hand and make shitty snide remarks.

        2. BarerMender

          Billie: Lucy, you see these three oranges in a net bag? I’ve read that if you beat someone with this it will hurt like the devil but won’t leave any marks. If you speak to me again before I’m standing erect, we’ll test that. Capisce?

  14. Ivy

    Guys, what if
    What if
    Billie respectfully told Lucy she needed space in the morning and Lucy agreed to tone it down until noon

    1. Kern Wallace

      That’s a smart idea!

      Which means it’s never going to happen.

    2. Jay

      What if Lucy could realize the person who’s constantly grumpy doesn’t wanna be woken up at 7 am most likely EEVRY DAY I woulda just told Lucy to fuck off so props to billy

      1. BBCC

        Lucy didn’t wake her up. Billie was already waking up and Lucy just said ‘Good morning’.

        1. Yumi

          You keep arguing that point, but, like, Billie was BARELY awake. It’s pretty common for people to stir, roll over, and go back to sleep. Lucy didn’t poke at her, be loud, shake her or anything, but it does seem like she started addressing her when Billie was not fully conscious.

        2. BBCC

          Billie stirred and opened her eyes. I’m not sure why Lucy should be expected to ignore her when her roommate is awake. Yeah, sure, Billie might want to roll over and go back to sleep, but that’s not the same as Lucy waking her.

        3. Yumi

          I don’t think Lucy was wrong to say “good morning,” but it seems…I don’t know, more like a technicality? Half awake is still half asleep. Her eyes flutter a bit and then someone’s staring at her and addressing her…that seems like a lot.

          Honestly? I’d feel like someone’s waking me in that situation. I wouldn’t be so rude about it like Billie, but for me moments like that are part of the sleep cycle.

        4. BBCC

          I guess I just don’t get it because to me, awake is awake. Sure, you could go back to sleep almost immediately, but that’s still awake. Even if you want to argue Lucy woke her by making her all the way awake, that’s clearly not the case because she’s still half asleep here.

        5. the final pam

          I mean, it definitely is different for different people, but personally I wouldn’t bother someone unless they were actually, y’know, getting up out of bed. Someone opening their eyes and grumbling doesn’t mean they’re actually awake, let alone at least enough to want to engage with anyone.

        6. BBCC

          All she said was ‘Good morning’. Billie told her to back up, which Lucy responded to by pointing out she was nowhere near Billie. At that point, Billie was capable of conversing, based on her…well, conversing.

        7. The Final Pam

          “..let alone want to engage with anyone.”

          Billie being able to converse doesn’t mean she was wanting to, lmao. Especially because she was dismissing Lucy and telling her to leave through her body language and by saying she had a restraining order on her smile for 20 feet.

          I’m not saying that Lucy was wrong or anything for saying ‘Good morning’, just that Billie was clearly giving off signals of ‘Go away, stop bothering me’. After that, Lucy immediately started a conversation about movie night.

        8. ischemgeek

          Are you by chance a morning person?

          I am not. Trust me in that I can look fully awake (eyes open and everything) and not actually be fully awake for about 1.5 hours after my eyes open. During that time, any social interaction is Too Much. Too loud, too much info, too visual, brain literally can’t process right and I get total sensory overload. Billie is telegraphing not a morning person loudly but our society doesn’t bother to teach morning people to read and respect nonverbal cues of non-morning people so yeah. Attitudes like yours are common.

          Part of my issue might be I am literally autistic and it takes more brainpower for me to make words go effectively but I can’t make full sentences come out of my mouth until about 30 min after I wake up. So basically all I got is cranky glares, one or two word phrases and grunts for a bit. I may want to politely ask for time to sleep but literally can’t until I am already mostly awake. My current partner and I had a conversation after I snargled at him Dina style and retreated to the bathroom for an hour one morning when he was playing a particular melodramatic Twitch streamer at full volume and had something going on the kitchen and wanted to have a conversation at almost shouty volume over the Twitch streamer literally right after I woke up.

          But that depends on having a roommate who will listen to your boundaries. My college roommate was Billie’s passive-aggressive whining and spoiled brat entitlement mixed with Joyce and Lucy’s morning person tendencies and lack of respect for boundaries. So I copied by basically only going to the room to sleep. Cuz if she was there so were her friends and if her friends were there they were claiming my space and using my shit without permission and the RA and Don were useless.

        9. Arioch

          Okay. A couple of things. 1. I have insomnia, chronically, so my sleep schedule gets fucked up regularly. 2. I am not, nor have I ever been a morning person. 3. When “waking up” it takes me over an hour to become fully awake. 4. But, if for some reason I become even partially awake and the process starts, it doesn’t just stop.
          In other words, for someone like me, if I were to stir and do the blinking thing and start to roll over and someone started talking to me, my wake up process would start. My brain would just go, “oh, we have to get up now” even if I need to get 3 more hours of sleep. Until I am fully awake, we have a sliding scale of verbal. The biggest problem is how it might affect me later if my sleep cycle has been interrupted.
          That all said. Billie is still being a dick. I have warned all roommates ahead of time. The biggest problem I had was actually a friend who insisted on texting me during the day when I worked third shift and used my phone as an alarm. The airplane setting on my phone was broken and if I used I couldn’t hear my alarm either. I had to block his number because he kept send texts in the middle of my sleep cycle and I almost died driving to work because it was a 40 mile drive, because I was only get 3 hours of sleep.

        10. BBCC

          @ Pam – Yeah, I can agree Lucy should’ve stopped talking by now, but I’m seeing a lot of people saying A) Lucy woke her up and B) Lucy is rude to even be saying good morning and neither is true to me.

          @ ischemgeek – No. Not even a little bit. I’ve never in my life been a morning person. And sure, again, I can see people not wanting to have full on conversations, I just don’t see it as rude for people to say good morning (or, before Billie shooed her away, for Lucy to respond to things Billie said). Granted, I also don’t think it’s rude to respond to said ‘good morning’ by groaning, turning over, and yanking your blanket over your head until the other person leaves, so what do I know?

        11. ShadeTail

          BBCC: It’s not rude to say good morning. It damn well is rude to continue pushing when someone has made it clear they’re not interested in a conversation with you at that moment. Say what you want about Billie’s attitude; she’s definitely made it clear that she’s not interested, and Lucy just won’t stop pushing.

        12. BBCC

          “Yeah, I can agree Lucy should’ve stopped talking by now, but I’m seeing a lot of people saying A) Lucy woke her up and B) Lucy is rude to even be saying good morning and neither is true to me.”

          ^^^ Literally my first sentence.

        13. thejeff

          Note that Lucy wasn’t just responding to things Billie said, unless you count “Tonight is movie night” as a response to “I’ve got a restraining order on that smile for at least another 20 feet”.
          Each day’s strip has started with Lucy saying something not directly related to the previous strip or anything Billie’s said.

        14. the final pam

          Considering that Billie hadn’t moved at all except rolling to first see Lucy before moving back, it’s fair to say that she’s not really in a waking up mood. She’s pretty clearly giving off body language that she wants to keep on sleeping, when Lucy engages her with a conversation. So, I don’t know, personally I would have ignored my roommate in that situation because even if they’re ‘awake’, they’re not really woken up? If Billie had sat up and started getting ready to get out of bed, maybe. But as it is, she’s curled up in her blankets, hugging her pillow, facing away from her roommate.

        15. BBCC

          Again, to me, awake is awake, especially since all Lucy said was ‘Good morning’. Billie not having started to get out of bed doesn’t mean she’s not awake. All her body language says to me is ‘just woke up’. After that, sure, she looks like she wants to sleep, but before that, nah. Especially since, again, all Lucy said was ‘good morning’, to which Billie responds fully coherently.

        16. The Final Pam

          And to me, someone waking up and being awake is different. I wake up when my sister comes into my room. Its not an invitation for any kind of interaction. I had just been disturbed by a noise and checked it out. And clearly this is just a difference of opinion, because I find it to be kinda rude to talk to someone if they’re clearly not wanting to be up yet, but you think its fair game. I would personally rather, even if its just greeting them ‘good morning’, to wait and see if they’re actually waking and getting up than to see them make a noise and assume they’re fully awake. Because if they’re just going to go back to sleep in five minutes, whoops.

          And sure, Billie responds to Lucy, except Billie’s response to Lucy was a clear dismissal, complete with her shooing her away. That is not “I am awake, continue to talk to me” body language, that’s “go away” body language.

        17. ischemgeek

          Awake is not necessarily awake if you aren’t a morning person is what the Final Pam is saying. Morning people wake up awake. Non-morning people don’t. For us, waking up is a process that takes time. Half-awake is not just a figure of speech, it is an actual state of being we pass through on the way to awake.

          Billie looks awake, but she isn’t.

          Ever been woken from a dead sleep by something jarring? That is what it feels like in that state when someone talks to you. I look awake but my brain responds as if you disturbed my sleep because I am not yet fully awake.

        18. ischemgeek

          To rephrase: for a morning person, waking up is an event. For those who are not morning people, it is a process. During which overstimulation is as unpleasant as it would be if we looked asleep.

          Should Billie communicate this to Lucy? Yes, but, y’know. Dumbing of age not emotionally adulting of age.

        19. BBCC

          I get not being 100% awake when you wake up. Trust me, I go through most mornings like that. I can get not wanting to have conversations when you’re just waking up. I don’t get how just saying ‘Good morning’, a two word sentence that doesn’t even require a response (most people will get it if you don’t want to answer that, in my experience) is a great imposition. Even if the other person turns over and falls asleep again, it’s not a big deal. Maybe this is because I have to have conversations a lot in the morning when I’d rather not.

        20. ischemgeek

          I have no problem with the greeting. What I have an issue with is continuing to talk and make noise and request input after Billie made it clear she isn’t desiring of morning interaction.

          If Lucy said good morning and then didn’t verbal wall of text till Billie reciprocated, I would have no issue. It’s that she says good morning, gets reluctant but socially expected response, launches conversation, ignores Billie’s non-verbal and verbal cues of not wanting to have this conversation right now, and when Billie (abrasively because Billie) finally states the boundary in this panel, she refuses to respect it.

          It’s not that she initiated morning interaction, it’s that she disregarded Billie’s cues and then flatly refused to respect an interpersonal boundary.

        21. BBCC

          No argument here. Lucy should have stopped when Billie waved her off.

        22. Regalli

          When trying to wake my brother for school my mom would try by talking until she got a response and then asking him math questions.

          That’s how we learned he could do multidigit arithmetic in his sleep.

        23. Tadpole7

          Half awake and just stirring is not up. Plus Lucy was definitely doing more than saying good morning.

          I like Lucy quite a bit but as some one who is functional and often up early in the morning being ambushed by a request just as I’m booting up guarantees I’ll be irritated.

          Also as someone who’s had to crash at a lot of people’s place or room with someone. Unless something important or time critical not bothering someone until they’ve fully booted up was a critical in keeping things smooth.

        24. BBCC

          Lucy didn’t ambush her with a request. Literally all she said when Billie woke up was good morning. Billie asked her to back up (which Lucy told her didn’t make any sense) and at that point Billie was awake enough to converse. And, regardless of whether or not she should have kept talking, just saying good morning when your roommate is waking up is not invasive or pushy.

        25. Miri

          Arguably, if you are talking to somebody you think has just woken up and they make no sense that’s a good clue that they are at least half-asleep, and the most appropriate response under the circumstances pictured is “it’s still really early, I’ll talk to you later, go back to sleep”.

        26. BBCC

          The problem with that being that after Lucy pointed out she was nowhere near Billie, Billie was making sense (at least within the conversation).

        27. Yumi

          I frequently have conversations with my mom when I’m asleep–or what I would consider asleep, I guess I don’t know if you would–that I retain no conscious recollection of. My mom will start talking and I’ll respond in ways that make her think I’m awake, but I’m not.

          Now, I don’t think that’s what happened here– I think Billie was further awakened by Lucy and is conscious of the conversation, if groggily so. It’s just not always so cut and dry.

        28. FairyGothMama

          Like Yumi, I can have conversations while still mostly asleep and not recall a damn thing. My daughter used to get ‘permission’ by asking while I was sleeping. I had to have a conversation with her and implement a rule that it doesn’t count unless I am awake enough to sit up, look qt her, and answer her. And if it wasn’t important (like cookies or something) then waking me up was an automatic no

        29. BBCC

          Yeah, but conversing while being asleep is pretty clearly not what’s happening here. Billie’s not so out of it she doesn’t understand what’s being said or incapable of thinking about it.

        30. Yumi

          I did flat out say that I don’t think that’s happening here, but it’s just not for the reasons you’re picking– it’s more that she’s shown rolling her eyes during the conversation and that she got up at this point. According to my mom, I’ve had some pretty coherent-sounding conversations while sleeping.

        31. BBCC

          I get that. I’ve had some of those conversations with my mom too (albeit when my mom was sleeping), but this really just doesn’t strike me like that. She doesn’t seem that out of it to me and the things you mentioned are part of it. I dunno, I guess it’s the way she’s talking.

        32. Tadpole7

          No. Context matters here, this isn’t the first time this has happened and gotten a negative reaction. Billy indicated strongly she wasn’t interested, Lucy continued to a point that Billy fled the room to go sleep elsewhere in peace. Which was really not cool of Lucy.

          Saying goodmorning as a barometer check of someone’s willingness to engage is one thing, but not taking the hint that they aren’t ready to do so is rude.

        33. Emily

          If Billie didn’t want to have this conversation she could have tried not engaging in this conversation by directly asking questions. Like that’s not actually a great indicator that one is not interested in a discussion.

        34. Zee

          Hey, y’all know Billie could a just
          Ignored Lucy
          And gone back to sleep anyway
          Or pretended to be asleep until she left. She’s already a bongo, so it would fit her MO

        35. Emily

          Or she could have said “Please let me sleep until at least X o’clock” like a civil human being.

        36. BBCC

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/goodmorningworld/

          ^ This was definitely creepy if that’s what you meant be a repeated pattern. And yeah, I’ve said that Lucy should probably have stopped talking by now. But Lucy did not wake up Billie and all she did here was say good morning when she noticed Billie already stirring. Billie said Lucy was in her face and Lucy corrected her, and after that Billie carries on the conversation.

        37. Arioch

          Okay, yeah, that’s creepy…

        38. NelC

          Yeah, not a quiet waker, that Lucy. I would stir, too, if that was going on. “Stirring” doesn’t count if you’re being forcefully woken up.

        39. BBCC

          Lucy did not do anything to ‘forcefully wake Billie up’ today. This is from an earlier storyline. Billie was waking up on her own.

      2. Ivy

        Yeah, Lucy sure is some type of drum

    3. Keulen

      That would make too much sense. After all, this comic’s not called “Smarting of Age”.

      1. Deanatay

        It’s RIGHT THERE in the title, people.

  15. abysswatcher1993

    7AM?! What kind of non working teenager wakes up that early?!

  16. butts

    i have found my next victim

    1. fire_daws

      Could we have expected any less?

      1. Ivy

        Relevant avatar?

    2. Deanatay

      Actually, you’ve used Billie’s butt a lot.

      I mean, it’s no surprise. She has the best butt in the series. Butt, you could throw in Malaya’s, or Dina’s, just for variety.

      1. butts

        I’ve been LOOKING for a good shot of ETHAN’S but WILLIS won’t GIVE ME ONE

        not malaya, fuck malaya

    3. ValdVin

      Bravo!

  17. brute

    after reading yesterday’s comic, i wondered to myself why anyone likes Billie.
    this comic was the answer.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      She isn’t happy go lucky like Joyce, nor smart like Dorothy, nor strong willed as Sal, nor hipstery as Dany, nor a tragic figure as Amber, nor a sympathetic character as everyone, but she is HELLA RELATABLE because like many she wants to sleep until 11 AM and then stand up from bed 30 minutes later and do something before class or work. Priorities right there!

    2. Emily

      Because she’s a total jerkass to her roommate?

  18. kencineroar

    I get that being woken up with cheeriness is annoying, but Billie is so rude all the time that it’s becoming abrasive. I find I like her less and less with each strip she’s in, even though I was starting to warm up to her when the Billie/Ruth storyline was in full flux.

    1. Marisa Mockery

      She’s never been a good person. Ruth made her try to be better, but Ruth ain’t here. So very….very…..very slowly she’ll have to learn how to be a good person in general and especially without Ruth. But considering how slow time moves in this comic we’re gonna deal with bad Billie for a while XD She’s just barely started her character arc. I don’t think she’s actually given up at drinking either….

    2. Sam

      This is literally the Billie experience. She has never been pleasant. She is only able to assemble some mix of good traits when interacting with Ruth.

      1. thejeff

        She’s not really pleasant most of the time, but she’s definitely got her good traits. Most of them wrapped up in her alpha bongo mode, but generally focused on taking care of her friends.

        1. Norah

          She doesn’t like or value people she considers nerds. She thinks she can say anything to them or treat them like crap. Lucy is being annoying here, but if this was one of her non-nerdy friends, I don’t think she’d be acting quite as bongo-y here.

        2. Norah

          By “she” in my last sentence, I meant Billie.

      2. BarerMender

        Billy was being reasonably pleasant, considering the circumstances. She asked what the movie was, and Lucy refused to answer. That isn’t pleasant. Then when Lucy said “You’ll have to deal,” I wanted to give her three fingers stiff to the solar plexus. Lucy is an asshole.

  19. MatsuoTanuki

    Yay, a set up for bisexual lady snuggles.~

    1. Deanatay

      GRUMPY bisexual lady snuggles. She made the trip especially for the GRUMPY.

  20. Aeron

    I’m going to make my own deal, with alcoholic lesbians!

    1. Clif

      Complete with suicide pact? I’m pretty sure this is one of those don’t try this at home things.

  21. Jay

    “fuck you, I have my recovering alcoholic girlfriend)

  22. Tacos

    7AM? Fuck that. Unless I got class, I’m sleeping till 12PM or maybe 1PM.

    1. Keulen

      Back when I was in college I avoided taking any classes that started earlier than 9 or 10 AM. (Saying “back when I was in college” makes me feel old, even though I graduated in 2011, so not that long ago.)

      1. dethtolldotmid

        I had to take the bus into the city for classes when I first started college. So I couldn’t have taken early morning classes even if I’d wanted to — which I didn’t.

      2. Zee

        Okay that specific comment scares me because the years between 2011 and now is a big chunk of my life

    2. BBCC

      You. You get me.

    3. RicardtheDragoon

      Ah, yet another person who’s perspective is the opposite of my own. (So, I could respond to almost anyone.) I routinely get up at six for around half the week, and it was only a few years ago I quit getting up at 5:30. If I get too much sleep (this is less difficult to achieve than you might expect, particularly on weekends), I wake up with a migraine that last for 4 to 8 hours.
      So, enjoy sleeping in and know that not all others can get way with it or even desire it. (On the other hand, I know a few people who agree with you whole-heartedly.)

      1. Havtorn

        I’m not sure I would say I actually “enjoy” sleeping in, tbh. More than getting up, sure (I sleep very poorly and go through the day feeling ill up until lunch, basically), but if given the choice I’d opt to be a morning person in a heartbeat. I doubt I’m alone or even really in the minority of people.

        1. ischemgeek

          For me it is like I live in the wrong time zone. I sleep a normal amount of time, just later. It’s like my body runs on Pacific time but unfortunately I live in Atlantic time.

  23. Deadjolras

    I’m not a morning person at all, like it takes me around 20 minutes to even become verbal, but even I can tell Billie is being disproportionately rude here and Lucy has done nothing wrong. I get it: having to think about answering questions when you’re barely awake sucks, but that doesn’t give you a pass to be a jerk, nor does it make the person asking you said questions (or, god forbid, greeting you “good morning”) insufferable or disrespectful.

  24. Bagge

    Billie deals!

  25. nlips

    Somebody who speaks her morning language!

  26. nothri

    Extreme antisocialism: the heart of their relationship.

    1. Deanatay

      Ruth: Everyone sucks.
      Billie: Except me, right?
      Ruth: Did I MENTION an exception? NO, I did NOT.
      *Billie snuggles closer, nuzzles Ruth’s neck*
      Ruth: You just… suck the right way.

  27. Kaunisenkeli

    Or, Lucy, you could respect your roommate’s boundaries and just leave her be. Nothing says you have to interact with someone just because you live together.

    1. Sam

      Billie never stated any boundaries which is 100% her own fault. Lucy trying to be friendly isn’t disrespectful, Billie acting like a bongo to Lucy for daring to be cheerful in the morning is. If she doesn’t want Lucy to talk to her when she just wakes up, then she should say that! At this point Lucy probably just accepts Billie’s abrasiveness as her normal attitude because that is how Billie often acts with her.

  28. IKneedYou

    I know Billie comes across as rude here, but seriously fuck off any roommate who wakes you up at 7am with a Good Morning and random stuff. Unless it’s important, it’s super shitty thing to do and can wait til later.

    1. Sam

      She did not wake Billie up. Billie stirred awake of her own accord. Lucy said good morning and might have just left it at that if Billie chose not to respond.

      1. Sunny

        As has been mentioned before plenty of times, “stirring” and “awake” are not the same things whatsoever. I need to “stir” for at least 10-15 minutes before I feel anywhere near ready to get up. If I have the time for it I’ll sometimes go for 45 minutes before getting up. For those initial 15 minutes I am in no way, shape, or form ready or willing to talk about anything. I might be able to form coherent sentences but very much prefer to not have to interact with others until I’ve had enough time to, you know, wake up. Maybe you go from asleep to fully awake and coherent immediately, but unless something’s on fire that just doesn’t happen for me, nor for many others.

        And do you really believe that Lucy wouldn’t have continued trying to be friendly to Billie and tell her about movie night and ask her if she wants to come eat breakfast, or if Lucy should get her something? Do you honestly believe that Lucy would not have further interacted with Billie in any way if Billie had just muttered something less coherent and turned around? This is Lucy we’re talking about here. Lucy, who sees friendliness and helpfulness as forms of interaction.

        As you may be able to glean from the way I asked thaqt question, I doubt Lucy would have let Billy rest in peace.

  29. SpaceshipPilot

    Had another DoA-inspired dream last night. Don’t remember much.

    Amber moved into my hometown, and came round for dinner. She claimed to be the real Amber, and said that the version in the comic was inspired by her. Then she recruited me and a couple of my friends to assist her with Amazi-Girl shenanigans, which included investigating a restaurant that had secretly been taken over by aliens.

    Dreams are strange.

    1. Clif

      I like your dreams. Want to trade?

  30. Emily

    ITT non-morning crying more than literal babies about their sleep habits.

    1. dethtolldotmid

      It must be hard to read.

    2. ischemgeek

      Yeah how dare people have strong opinions about being bothered when not yet fully awake and the kind of people who habitually tread all over that boundary. 9_9

      You don’t see night owls shitting on morning people for wanting to go to bed early or getting pissed if a neighbor or roommate is keeping them up. It’s almost like we recognize how crappy it is to have your sleep interrupted.

      1. Zee

        I mean, yeah you do. Shitting on morning people is kind of a very common thing

        1. ischemgeek

          Shitting on inconsiderate people who ignore nonverbal or verbal cues to let us wake up inbpeacebis common. I have never seen anyone who isn’t a teenager shit on someone for needing to go to bed.

          By contrast shitting on non morning people before being cranky/lazy/asocial/generally exhibiting traits of being tired in the morning is almost a national sport.

    3. Needfuldoer

      Also morning people willfully ignoring how non-morning brains work.

      (Said the non-morning person who adapted to a UMT sleep schedule out of necessity by brute force.)

      1. Needfuldoer

        (I mean UTC +0, or GMT. Somehow they melded together…)

    4. Daibhid C

      If you don’t think having your sleep schedule disrupted is a big deal, I can only assume you haven’t actually had much experience of literal babies…

    5. FairyGothMama

      Really glad the morning person I married is more considerate than you. I leave him alone when he needs to sleep and quietly do my nocturnal thing elsewhere. When he wakes up, he goes away to do his chirpy diurnal thing elsewhere. Billie is being exceptionally rude here, but Lucy’s being clueless. I LIKE Lucy, but in this case I relate to Billie.

      1. Emily

        I’m betting they didn’t learn you weren’t a morning person because they tried to interact with you in the morning and you were total jerk to them. Y’all act like morning people are the devil and it’s incredibly tedious.

        1. FairyGothMama

          Oh, we snarled at each other a time or two. I was a jerk who woke him up after he’d gone to bed. I apologized and bugged out until I was ready to sleep. He was a jerk who woke me up while getting ready for work. When I snarled, he apologized and went to work, and we had our conversation that evening. And we both agreed that waking up enough to roll over or say goodbye or goodnight wasn’t awake enough for a conversation, or any sort of information. We learned to leave notes.

    6. Deadjolras

      The trials and tribulations of non-morning people: read all about it here, on DoA!

    7. TemporalShrew

      I think you just became the grouchiness you’re criticizing.

  31. Reltzik

    Home is where the grouch is.

  32. acher4

    That “Thank you” speaks volumes

    Also,
    was that a “reverse walk of shame”?
    lol 😛

  33. Durandal_1707

    So, uh, does Billie have a key to Ruth’s dorm, or does Ruth sleep with her door unlocked?

    1. ischemgeek

      She does yes. Ruth gave her the key.

      1. Clif

        And she has made many copies. Just in case.

  34. JBento

    SEVEN a.m.? JFC, I thought this was like at least 10 a.m. or something. Are you TRYING to get thrown out the window, Lucy?

    1. PSadlon

      Seriously. The only way I do 7 AM is if I stay up that long.

      1. JBento

        If you’re talking to me at SEVEN in the morning, one of these needs to be true:

        1) someone I care about is dying REALLY soon;

        2) you’re in bed with me and you’re supposed to be there.

        Otherwise, I don’t care if WW3 just flared up, that’s information you can give me later.

    2. BBCC

      Seriously. I don’t think Lucy’s wrong for saying good morning when Billie was waking up, but after that? Yeah no. Girl. Honey. Sweetie. It’s 7 AM on a Friday. Shut UP.

  35. eskimolos

    not saying but just saying this is my favorite DoA couple, go team trainwreck \o/

    1. Clif

      Not sure if you mean with Lucy or Ruth, but Billie is capable of many simultaneous wrecks .

  36. Cmd1095

    Billie is so relatable here, well except for the part where she has a significant other to go to, I can’t relate to that at all ahahaha *cries* but the general morning attitude part is XD

  37. Zee

    So what I’m getting here is that non morning people are kinda bongoy (said as someone who is simultaneously a morning bird and a night owl. Yeah my sleep schedule is fucked)
    I mean, if Billie is gonna be a dick about it she might as well ignore Lucy and go back to sleep

  38. Piotr W

    Ugh. Billy is acting really hateful in this strip. What did Lucy do to deserve this kind of treatment..?

    1. Roe

      Billie is being rude but she’s clearly been annoyed for three strips and Lucy is explicitly telling her she doesn’t care about her boundaries.

  39. Ziggy

    Lucy: “I’m sorry, but I’m who you’ve got. You will just have to deal.”

    *Billie getting up, grabbing her pillow* “The hell I do!”

    1. OBBWG

      Billie dealt with it.

  40. OBBWG

    Lucy is not helping by rejecting Billie’s comment about nails on the chalkboard. While Billie is being rude (i.e. just being Billie), the comment should elicit more of a “I’ll try to back off” response than “…deal [with it].” Neither person is making the situation better.

    1. CJ

      I rather liked the “”deal with it” idea. Lucy intends to study and why should she slink around a roommate who doesn’t.

      1. TemperaryObsessor

        Agreed, leave me alone is a reasonable boundary, I’m miserable so you can’t be cheerful isn’t.

        1. Nikol Geier

          She didn’t say “you can’t be cheerful”. Billie has said, pretty repeatedly, “I don’t want to be your friend.” Not in so many words, of course. Lucy keeps trying to get her bagels and invite her to events. It’s honestly really bad roommate etiquette. For once, I kinda 100% agree with Malaya. Nothing’s worse than a clingy person you have to share a room with.

      2. Roe

        Simply not talking to Billie right now is not “slinking around her”, Billie is the one who can’t even stir in bed without having to engage in conversation. Why can’t Lucy just go about her day and leave Billie alone, even if in the same room.

    2. Emily

      Lucy has already let enough of Billie’s bullshit go unchallenged I’m glad she’s standing up for herself. If Billie wanted an “I’ll back off response” she should have tried basic civility instead of trying to bludgeon Lucy into submission with mean spirited barbs.

      1. Nikol Geier

        This is literally the worst way to handle a roommate who doesn’t like you. If she doesn’t like you, she doesn’t like you. Stop trying to befriend her and just ignore her and you’ll be fine. Billie has no right to be a jerk, but her prickliness is a natural consequence of Lucy trying to start conversations. Roommates aren’t friends.

  41. DragonLizardJareth

    “You’re cheerfulness is like nails on a chalkboard.” Calling it right now. The title of this Volume.

    1. DragonLizardJareth

      *Sorry… “Your”

  42. Deathjavu

    All these people talking about how terribly early 7AM is…I remember when I had that luxury. Now work forces me to get up at 5:30 AM regularly, or sometimes as early as 3:30 AM!

    1. Emperor Norton II

      Same here. Blessed be sleeping pills, is all I’m saying.

    2. Emily

      Ahhh I remember when I had to get up at 3 AM every day. Definitely not my favourite part of bakery work.

  43. Galimatias

    I’m a night owl and an introvert, but I still would have killed for a roommate like Lucy. Someone who is apparently silent until they see you wake up AND offers to bring you bagels in bed? Seriously, Billy doesn’t know how good she has it.

    1. Nikol Geier

      Yeah, but she’s doing it with the clear expectation that she and Billie will be Friends because of what she’s doing, and Billie doesn’t really want to be friends with her.

      Sometimes I would kill for a roommate like Billie, who’s hygienic, doesn’t use the space much, and doesn’t expect me to like them. Look, roommates are business partners. Lucy’s trying to befriend someone who wants to keep it professional.

    2. Zee

      Saaaame. I hope I get a roommate like her in uni

  44. Amyra

    In my head, Lucy sounds like Josephine from Scrubs.

    1. MatsuoTanuki

      Oh God now I’m gonna be reading every part in Josephine’s voice now in MY head…

  45. Jay

    7 is when I have to be AT work. I sleep in when I can, but I have to be up by 5:30 at the absolute latest so I can get to work on time.

  46. Nikol Geier

    There’s a lot of weird takes about this, so can I just say that in my view, Lucy is a bit of a tough roommate to put up with and could stand to be less “you have to like me”, and Billie could stand to be a bit less rude?

    I mean, I get that Billie is abrasive, but she’s been pretty clear that she doesn’t want to be Lucy’s friend. Hell, so was Malaya! Lucy honestly feels a little bit entitled in all these exchanges.

    Malaya and Billie are not obligated to be friends with Lucy. You don’t have to be friends with your roommate. Billy does not want to be friends with Lucy. Lucy is not honoring the boundaries that Billie has set.

    You don’t have to think that Billie is a poor underprivileged “non-morning person” to see that Lucy is being kind of difficult to like throughout her interactions with Billie. Lucy is acting like Joyce, except Joyce had the reason of “sheltered homeschool kid”, and Lucy has the reason of “introverted fandom nerd kid”.

    1. Nikol Geier

      In all fairness, though, I’ve known “fandom kids” like Lucy—the compulsive people-pleaser type—and they usually got on my nerves pretty quick. I don’t want to seem pretentious or mean here. I’ve been in fandoms, I like Harry Potter, some of my best friends are introverts etc etc etc. But some of them have a really shallow outlook on things, and Lucy’s semi-controlling attitude of “you have to be my friend because I am being nice to you” gives me bad vibes. Again, it’s associations.

      1. Nikol Geier

        I guess a lot of it is particularly the “Harry Potter” fandom that gets on my nerves. Half of that fandom is awesome and calls Rowling out on her weird BS and half of it… kinda sucks. And was it Lucy or Amber who mentally writes fanfic about real people? Or both?

        Not that Billie’s a paragon of Discourse or anything. I just don’t like these nerd kids.

        1. Nikol Geier

          I know I’m spamming here, last take: I have had roommates like Lucy and roommates like Billie. Sorry, bagel fans—Billie *is* being the better roommate here. Yes, she’s been rude and dismissive, but she’s also left Lucy alone. That is like the #1 job of a roommate: To respect boundaries.

          Not that Lucy is Lucy-fer or anything. She’s just, well, kind of “in the wrong” in a way that doesn’t translate as well through a comic, because we’re always in the mood to see these characters.

          But we don’t have to live with them.

  47. Rob Carlson

    “You’ll just have to deal with me continuing to talk to you while you’re trying to go back to sleep” is D- roommate behavior.

    1. Nikol Geier

      Man I need to chill a little because reading Lucy’s dialogue is legitimately giving me extremely frustrating recollections of my worst roommate experiences. And I mean, yeah, it sounds like a tiny violin, but imagine someone trying to make friends with you in the one place you’re supposed to be relatively safe from social anxiety.

      I’m probably coming out harder on Lucy just because I just got out of one of these relationships and MAN, LEAVE ME ALONE MY DUDE I JUST WANT TO PASS MY CLASSES

  48. BarerMender

    I think Billie’s lost some weight.

  49. Roborat

    If she just walked from one building to another, those socks should be pretty black on the bottom, in the second last panel.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.