150

Waylaid
Posted on June 18, 2024 by David M Willis

150 thoughts on “Waylaid”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “I bet you bat a lot of home runs”

    “I did knock one out of the park!“

    1. Risky

      Back in old testament times.

  2. IntangibleMatter

    Jacob always knows exactly what to say.

    I just hope he manages to get out of there before Sarah realizes he didn’t actually answer her question

    1. Ryan

      But will she understand that he has answered her question twice?

      1. Jeff

        Yes and no. She’ll recognize it and think maybe he did, but she’ll doubt herself about it and agonize until she sees him again.

    2. Mturtle7

      I’m…honestly kind of confused as to how he HASN’T answered her question.
      She asked how he felt about her a couple of strips ago, and he answered, extremely thoroughly and honestly! And then in this strip, she says that he didn’t really tell her if he likes her “in the same way” that she told her he likes him. By which (I assume) she means that he hasn’t told her whether he finds her physically/sexually attractive. So he compliments a part of her body, thus demonstrating that he DOES, in fact, find her physically attractive.

      Am I missing something here? Am I just too ace to function? Or is this one of those things where nobody will believe two characters are being honest about their romantic/sexual feelings unless they’re actively making out?

      1. Proxiehunter

        She expressed a desire to get absolutely railed by him with very strongly implied romantic longing.

        He said “You’re a great person and you have nice arms.”

        Those are not the same thing.

        Honestly starting to wonder if this version of him is demisexual or something. Because he should be able to understand that the two of them are saying separate things and that he is not clearly stating whether he does (or feels it would be possible in the future if they get to know each other better) feel the way she does.

        1. Psychie

          Yeah, at this point I’m assuming he’s actively messing with her, which is either flirting (although I would argue the bad kind since it’s causing frustration) because he is interested, or he isn’t interested and is actively wasting her time while disrespecting her feelings and effort, because given how emotionally intelligent he has consistently been shown to be, there is absolutely no way he doesn’t realize what he’s doing and that it isn’t deliberate. He might not need to be *fully* open and honest about his feelings yet, especially if they are in a building stage, but he *really* needs to give her a direct answer regarding whether or not he is interested in possibly pursuing something romantic and/or physical with her in the near future, because not doing so at this point is simply disrespectful, IMO. There is a time for subtlety and there is a time for clarity of intent, and we are very firmly in the later category at this point.

        2. Decidedly Orthogonal

          There’s another angle: he may simply not know yet. Clearly he’s contemplated Sarah, but whatever part of his brain makes those decisions may not have given the rest of him the big answer, and may not even have enough material to have an answer yet.

        3. Felian

          That would still be better to be put in a direct answer.
          It’s absolutely valid to say “i’m not sure yet but i’m open to finding out“ or “i need time to think about this first“. He did give a non-answer to the implied assumption that Sarah wants to date him.

      2. Jay

        She said: “I want to do you.”
        He said: “I want to be you.”

        These are not parts of a connected conversation. (They might be part of messed-up sex, but there’s clearly no sex happening here.)

  3. Matty

    Dude was really about to just saunter off after all that

  4. pickonecard

    that’s great Jacob but it still doesn’t really clear anything up

    1. clif

      Now he’s just messing with her.

    2. peat_moss

      I mean, he’s been pretty clear about the “I have a girlfriend” thing before. I’m surprised Sarah keeps acting like that’s not the case.

      1. cbwroses

        What girlfriend?
        The last girlfriend we saw was Raidah, and they broke up last semester.

        1. thejeff

          Yup. This isn’t “I have a girlfriend”, this is “I want a girlfriend, not a casual fuck”, with a pretty clear “are you willing to be open enough to admit you’re interesting in more than casual sex too?”

  5. Taffy

    That’s either a really nice compliment or a really creepy bit of foreshadowing.

    1. Reltzik

      It can be both!

    2. HueSatLight

      you mean Jacob’s folders full of elbow pics?

      1. NGPZ

        now I know why they call it elbow grease XD

      2. Sirksome

        I think they mean Jacob’s closet full of severed arms and the dark sub plot of the IU arm cutter criminal that goes around dismembering the most beautiful arms on campus. If you’d paid attention to the background elements this would’ve been obvious.

        1. John Campbell

          It was all explained in detail on Carla and Charlie’s date.

        2. clif

          goes looking for Carla and Charlie’s date to see if that’s true.

      3. ValdVin

        He has a collection of naughty Edwardian photos; all the women have folded the sleeves back on their blouses.

      4. Michael Steamweed

        Jacob’s sexuality is elbowarian. Let’s not kinkshame him.

    3. AbacusWizard

      Foreshadowing… for Sarah wearing sleeveless shirts every day for a month or two?

    4. zee

      I watched those misao playthroughs as a kid, I know where this is going

  6. Schpoonman

    She’s gonna ride that high for a solid 30 minutes before she realizes he dodged her question again.

    1. Abdomino

      I think he’s into the back & forth. Hope so. Sarah deserves a win, and I think he’d be good for her. She might be good for him too. He hasn’t shown a lot of flaws except for maybe letting himself get used more than he should.

      1. Vanessa

        This was fun and she wasn’t rejected! As good as can be hoped I think.

      2. BorkBorkBork

        I wouldn’t call it “into the back and forth” as much as, “He’s interested in a relationship first before intimacy.” I think it’s possible that Jacob might be demi.

        Sarah had already told Joyce that she didn’t want to date him; she wanted to fuck him. Her “sharing her feelings” with him was sharing her horniness. Jacob’s smart enough about emotions and has enough empathy that he knows that sharing what he’s really feeling would *feel* like a rejection, even though he’s clearly very interested in getting to know her better and isn’t discouraging her from having these feelings.

        Walkyverse Jacob was, at his core, always a good guy, and I have to think that this Jacob is as well. If he wasn’t interested in Sarah, he’d let her know when he realized how she felt, and not string her along.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Did he?

    3. Pylgrim

      Or more exactly, answered it in the gentlest possible way.

  7. StClair

    “It’s been nice being waylaid by you, Sarah.”
    XD

    1. Vanessa

      That’s a compliment, right? Several compliments… for someone not accustomed to compliments. An invitation to continue flirting and conversing even. Fingers crossed for Sarah.

  8. darkoneko

    …dude.

  9. Sirksome

    Is Sarah jacked? Some girl in this comic needs to be jacked. We are being under served in that regard.

    1. Wereg

      I can’t remember any aesthetically jacked girls, but we have like three that display some pretty good feats of strength.

      1. Sirksome

        I think Amber might be the closest as in she’s kind of stocky and thick. I think if she flexed we could be surprised maybe.

        1. HueSatLight

          Agatha’s first roommate. But nobody on the floor liked her any better than Willis, and also she moved. presumably she died on the way back to her home planet.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Jacob hasn’t given any indication that he’s into feats. (And so what if he is? Sarah’s answer would probably just be “fine, sweep me off of them”.)

    2. DailyBrad

      I think she’s in good shape, yeah, so she’s probably not some sort of power lifter or anything, but I can imagine she’s got more muscle definition than much of the cast, minus obvious exceptions like Jacob or Joe.

    3. Dday

      Hard agree, we need a lady with nuclear arms.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Over in QC, we don’t know how Elizabeth Appleboom’s cyberarms are powered, so they might have built-in RTGs…

        1. Taffy

          They’re powered by her unnoticeable Dutch accent.

    4. Tawdry Quirks

      The Dumbiverse version of Guns is jacked (could she have been Agatha’s horrible 1st semester roommate?), but I suppose what you’re really seeking is a character who actually appears in the comic and not a one-off character model.

      1. BBCC

        Willis has confirmed Agatha’s roommate was not Guns. It was Bloodrose iirc.

        1. HueSatLight

          Bloodrose is probably Meredith’s gothy roommate. Guns was probably Agatha’s roommate, who played their music too loud and nobody liked. Willis resisted her being Agatha’s roommate, but then wrote out Agatha’s roommate, to shuffle characters around to make room for Becky. So the perfect place to put a character they never want to include.

    5. Amós Batista

      I don’t know if Carla is jacked or not, but she was able to carry Jennifer above her head.

      1. Azhrei Vep

        Carla has limited slapstick power, she doesn’t need to be jacked for that.

  10. Reltzik

    He wants to see her wenis.

    (Look, SOMEBODY had to say it.)

    1. True Survivor

      The most Humerus comment of the night.

      1. Reltzik

        Look, I know he presents as straight, but he COULD be into wenises. Maybe he’s biceptual!

    2. Roborat

      I was waiting for someone to say something wenis oriented. Was hoping for a flagina comment, but I guess that is to obscure.

      1. Reltzik

        Almost went with one, but it’s part of the hand, not the arm.

        1. Azhrei Vep

          The hand is just part of the arm, from a certain point of view…

  11. Taffy

    Typical woman. Compliment her arms and she’ll literally react at all.

  12. Opus the Poet

    Well, there are worse complements.

    1. Nymph

      D… do you think that’s a bad compliment? I’d be ~so~ happy to be told a romantic interest liked my arms.

  13. DailyBrad

    That’s certainly not giving platonic vibes, but yeah, he’s obviously pushing her buttons a little bit. I guess he likes the cat and mouse games a little if it’ll tease her out of her walls she puts up.

    1. Masumi

      Is that what this is? I’d totally have taken the lack of clear ‘yes’ as a ‘no’ and never spoken to him again.

      1. Council

        In this situation, where you meet each other day to day, and live in the same general area, I do not think that’s a wise course of action.

        Also, with respect for Your self-control(or the lack of need to exercise it, I guess), but many people’s horny doesn’t just turn off automatically when they do not get a clear “yes”, that needs some doing

      2. Nymph

        Never speaking to him again seems like an outsized reaction. Even if he’s not romantically interested, he and Sarah have been fine as friends?

  14. UrsulaDavina

    .Honestly, I can’t tell if this is a creepy fetish. I mean, it’s meant to be vague to keep Sara opening up emotionally, but an arm fetish—on a scale from “to each their own” to “creepy”—where does it lie? It’s probably not like creepy, and is closer “to each their own.” Also, don’t tell me that all fetishes are “to each their own.” You know there are some horribly creepy ones.

    1. UrsulaDavina

      Also please in all seriousness don’t start listening creepy horrible fetishes that’s not needed here.

      1. Proxiehunter

        As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult there’s no such thing as a creepy fetish. If every one’s a consenting adult they’re all too each their own. No one gets to police the contents of someone else’s head.

    2. Taffy

      At least he’s not Yoshikage Kira.
      (If you don’t know who that is, you know how to find the information.)

      1. UrsulaDavina

        That is a case of taking it to the horrifying extreme.

      2. Miri

        I don’t but sometimes there are things on the internet I am reliably informed I don’t want to know.

        Context clues are telling me this is, most likely one of them.

    3. Bittersweet

      I think it’s just in the same vein as being a leg guy. Arms can have very appealing shapes I suppose, they’re fun to draw sometimes when I fight the urge to follow my guideline like it was dictated to me personally by a god. Not like legs which make the pencil go swoooop, but the marshmallowyness of arms can be fun to draw.

      Aesthetically though I can’t say I’ve ever noticed. Muscle is fun to touch but if you can openly see it, it’s gone too far for my personal tastes.

    4. DailyBrad

      I don’t take this as either creepy or a fetish. Remember: Jacob’s a total gym rat, and is obviously into fitness. If Sarah’s in good shape, and she does seem to be, then it’s not really an out-there thing for him to compliment.

    5. Bogeywoman

      I’ve played with a Domme with an elbow fetish before. It was more endearing than, say, an armpit or foot fetish (soz for mentioning, but it gives scale). That said I don’t think Jacob is suggesting a fetish so much as just appreciating a particularly attractive physical feature, like other people might appreciate collarbones, shoulders, legs or hands.

      Also considerably less creepy than the time I tried to compliment someone with smooth, freckly skin by saying
      “I want your skin” and then left out of embarrassment before they could reply.

      1. Miri

        … See, if you peel skin off, it dries out and stops being smooth and soft. That’s a weird thing to say.

        “I want to touch your skin” or “I want to play dot to dot with the pads of my fingers over every freckle on your body” IF you are already in an intimate relationship with them can be hot? Or in a not necessarily sexual way, “your skin is fantastic, and looks so soft and smooth and healthy”?

    6. Abdomino

      I hear gals say they like forearms in a guy all the time, and no one bats an eye. What makes it a “horribly creepy fetish” when a guy says the same?

    7. Vanessa

      It’s a compliment that isn’t too stereotypical or objectifying. I still can not tell if he is even into girls. He might get her to work out with him, and he enjoys doing that, or at least feels obliged to often do that. It seems pleasant and mildly flirty.

      1. Nymph

        He dated a woman, kissed another woman, and has been actively flirting with another, third woman. I think he’s into them.

    8. Mark

      I think I’d rate an arm fetish as “neutrally interesting”.

      But I can’t help thinking that this is Jacob trying to dismiss Sarah’s intensity without rejecting her.

    9. Nymph

      I don’t think it’s a fetish at all. It’s just a compliment, no need to pathologize it.

    10. zee

      I feel like most male attracted women are into arms. Like that shit with the shirt rolled up to ¾ length to show off the curve of the forearm muscle, esp when it’s a little veiny. Good shit. Idk why, it’s like baggy pirate blouses. Shits like the equivalent of bikini babes or whatever

    11. Azhrei Vep

      If it is a fetish, I’d definitely put it in the “Oh, is that all?” category. At worst, a “Huh… never considered that being a thing. Neat.”

    12. Reltzik

      It is an undeniable fact that an arm fetish is an unspeakable horror, if for no other reason than it invites the following filk:

      “Don’t tell his heart, his brachiating heart, I just do-” *vauldeville hook*

  15. shadowcell

    Sarah Waylays the Hell Out of Jacob: A Dumbing of Age Pornographique But Not Really

  16. Animedingo

    She didnt actually ask a question

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Since before her sun burned bright in space, he has awaited, a question.

      1. StClair

        He is his own beginning, his own ending.

    2. DailyBrad

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-14/04-for-me-it-was-tuesday/patpatsmooth/

      She did, it was just a few strips back. Indeed, Jacob kind of answers, but not as explicitly as Sarah did, by I guess multiple definitions of “explicitly”.

      1. Mark

        And he dodged it there too. She asked, “how do you feel…” and he replied with “I think….” That’s not a responsive answer.

  17. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    He sings of arms and the woman…

    1. GoodbyBallad

      arma feminaque cantat

      1. Makkabee

        Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam…

        Sorry, Latin class flashback. At this point it’s basic stimulus response.

        Also sorry for the accidental reporting comment when I only meant to reply. Mea culpa.

  18. Hazel

    That went… Well, it certainly could have gone worse.

  19. Bittersweet

    D’awwwwww this interaction is cute, but also feels like a prelude to a “I like you and think you’re pretty, but not what I need in a relationship/I’m not looking for a relationship right now” talk

    1. Bruno

      I’m sorry for whoever hurt you.

    2. DailyBrad

      I don’t think Jacob would lead her on like that. He’s perfectly aware of Sarah’s feelings, and if he wasn’t the least bit interested, I don’t think he draws that answer out like this.

      1. Vanessa

        He doesn’t seem interested in a roll in the hay but he kind of likes her? I am also confused.

        1. Adept

          He does have a (to me very strange) ”keeping myself pure for marriage” vibe.

        2. thejeff

          I don’t get that vibe.

          He’s talked about not being interested in casual sex, but he’s also talked about fooling around. I think it’s more rooted in wanting an actual relationship and not being comfortable with being objectified.

          Which is again an interesting bit of gender reversal, which has come up before in this sequence.

        3. Rectilinear Propagation

          In fact, isn’t that part of why Sarah didn’t pursue him in the first place? She found out early on that 1) they didn’t want the same thing and 2) he’s actually put off by what she wanted at the time.

        4. DailyBrad

          I don’t think it got to that point. I think what happened was Sarah just would not let him in initially, only share Joyce stories. Talking about herself or what she wanted, though? No way, not back then.

        5. thejeff

          It got to exactly that point.

          It was only after that point she backed off from the Joyce stories.

        6. zee

          Man the second the dude isn’t immediately interested in sex it’s a “weird keeping myself pure for marriage vibe”. I maintain my ace (really liked that Demi suggestion someone dropped up higher) theory

        7. BorkBorkBork

          This is just my opinion, but anyone who decides for themself that they don’t want sex outside of a committed relationship is a smart cookie in my book. Considering that those of us with dicks don’t have access to very reliable birth control (aside from surgery, which almost no college student’s going to do), the last point that any man or trans woman has to decide whether they become a parent is the moment they have sex.

          I’ve known enough people who have “stuck their dick in crazy” and ended up with a kid they had almost no rights to see and interact with, who had a mother that treated the father like garbage and who treated the kid (along with her others) as an 18-year meal ticket .

          (and by enough, I mean two. Which isn’t really a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice)

        8. Taffy

          Honestly, one is enough. Two I guess makes it legally plural, so “people” stops being colloquial.

        9. thejeff

          Condoms are a thing and used properly, they’re pretty damn reliable.

          And lets be honest here, whatever you make think of “18-year meal tickets”, the stakes are a hell of a lot higher in possible pregnancies for the women.

        10. Taffy

          Yeah, all those condoms being worn at times other than sex. It’s an epidemic, really, with how many times people are wearing condoms in any moment other than during a sexual encounter. Everyone is saying this, they’re always saying “I love wearing my condom for purposes other than sexual intercourse, which is a normal thing to do.”

        11. Mark

          I think he’s trying not to say “I don’t feel one way or the other, yet, and I need for you to back off a little and let me get to know you better.”

  20. Matrix

    Sarahs batting abilities ftw

  21. JA

    And that was the day Sarah started doing 500 pushups everyday.

  22. Queezle

    Smooth.

  23. G127

    I’m probably in the minority here, but I really don’t like the way he plays games with her. It all seems so manipulative. And this response feels like dodging the question.

    1. eh, whatever

      He is dodging the question because he hasn’t figured out how he feels about her. And that is because he doesn’t know her well enough to form an opinion.

      (Also, I forgot there are people who are into arms.)

      1. Vanessa

        He seems to enjoy conversing with her… she might yet be a suitable “introduce to Mom and admired older brother” contestant but he has a long checklist and a long todo list meanwhile.

        Maybe Jacob sees potential but is waiting to see if she can mature a bit.

        1. Da Boy

          Yeah in most of their interactions he tried to kind of pull her tongue. Get her to open up about herself but she just kind of always ran away and he never got to know her properly.

    2. Foolissa

      I agree! It’s starting to feel like a power play on his part and it’s not fair.

      1. Mark

        But grabbing him and pouring lust into his eyes and ears is fair?

        1. HueSatLight

          He has repeatedly invited her to say what she’s feeling, suggesting it would lead to a two way street.

    3. Sam

      I don’t think he’s playing games so much as giving carefully measured responses because he does like Sarah as a person so far, but he also hasn’t REALLY gotten to see her depth much and he’d like to see and experience more of her out of her shell before making a full concrete decision.

      It isn’t strange to want to be on somewhat equal ground on knowing each other before committing to one answer.

      1. thejeff

        He wants more of yesterday’s Sarah and less of the one that’s just lusting after him. He knows that she’s there underneath, but isn’t interested in anything with her if that one is going to stay hidden.

  24. foducool

    master of distraction

  25. Miri

    So… I think after the Joyce thing, we know he has thrown out The List. Sarah is also prelaw, but she has moved away from “I want to make connections with people who can help me when I graduate” and is making friends with people she likes and trusts.

    There is a decent chance that either Ethan or Joyce will have mentioned the whole “when she passed out at a party after being roofied, it was Sarah who came in and attacked the guy with a bat to get her to safety” thing. He also knows about the kidnapping and the fallout from that, and that Sarah is BRAVE and gutsy and sticks by her friends.

    As he has alluded to, he has also seen first-hand what it’s like to live with somebody who’s sinking into a pit of depression. He also knows Raidah and how focused and image-driven she is.

    We also know from how he and Joyce ultimately blew up, he values honesty, and I think he sees Sarah as honest. Not – he knows exactly how guarded she is – but fundamentally, if there is a difficult truth (“my roommate is sinking way too deep into depression for me to help her, she’s self-medicating to the extent she’s going to destroy my life too… I need to get her help regardless of the fallout”; “while talking about Joyce’s foibles is easy – and kiddo has lots of quirks, bless her homeschooled heart – I am being a dick here. The girl has treated me with nothing but kindness and I’m here tearing her down because I don’t know what else to say to the cute guy? I’mma stop now”; ‘you’ve asked me to be honest, so here I am, first telling you how much I wanna smash, and then explaining that a large part of that is because you aren’t just hot: you are genuinely likeable, damn it!”)

    I’m not sure why he’s doing this slow tease…

    1) He’s enjoying the power play, isn’t interested, doesn’t like casual sex, and is just stringing her along with no end goal [seems out of character]
    2) He’s worried about scaring her off if he turns around and comes on strong [plausible]
    3) He knows Raidah will have a shitfit if they get together and wants to be sure it’s worth it before he commits to dealing with that [also plausible]
    4) He genuinely wants to get to know her a lot better before they get physical which means taking it sloooowly, and he knows if he shows that internally he matches her enthusiasm, that’s going to be harder… [Hur hur, harder… But also plausible]

    So hopefully not the first, and a mix of the others, and this ship will sail ❤️ And Raidah will manage to blow up a torpedo before launching it and sink herself (Jennifer may help).

    Possibly also not wanting it to be weird if he goes for Joyce’s “sister” but I think she’s happy enough with Joe and will be so happy for Sarah having somebody decent that she won’t mind, so long as she can get baby cuddles sometimes.

    1. thejeff

      I’d lean mostly on 4, with just a little bit of the doesn’t want casual sex from 1. He wants a relationship, not just casual sex, and going too hard on the physical too fast gives Sarah the excuse to retreat back into her safe “I don’t care about anything, I just want to smash” mode.

    2. Heavensrun

      I doubt Joyce’s relationship with Sarah is any kind of impediment for him. He’s aware that Joyce is actively shipping them, if I recall.

      It’s also worth mentioning that I’m pretty sure Jacob has already been hurt by sex addiction in the past? I mean, that was a whole plotline in the old continuity, but I’m *pretty* sure he referenced something similar earlier in DoA as well. He probably just wants to go slow until he’s confident that he can control himself and that she won’t be too much of a temptation and fuck up his life balance.

      1. thejeff

        I don’t think anything about sex addiction here in DoA, but he has talked about not being interested in girls after him only for his body

  26. DashWallkick

    My read — since Sarah dresses super modestly, he can’t really talk about how ‘hot’ she is. So he says “You have nice arms” because that’s the only part of her he’s seen. It reflects how withdrawn she is — he can only compliment the parts of her she reveals. It’s hard to call someone ‘hot’ when they refuse to wear flattering clothes, smile, or make eye contact.

    Plus it’s pretty funny to cap off “I WANT TO BE THE FROTHY SURF THAT CRASHES AGAINST YOUR ROCKY SHORE” with a quietly whispered ‘you have nice hands.’

    1. Mark

      I’m unconvinced. There is so much more to see than shapes. There are people one might not look at twice but, if one did, one would see that inside there is someone well worth knowing.

      Anyway I think Sarah’s attractive enough that she doesn’t need to add bait. It’s her sour public persona that I find off-putting.

      1. DashWallkick

        He’s also probably still indecisive about her, or maybe just enjoying the back-and-forth they’ve built where he gives her space and patience to grow and he doesn’t have to commit to anything yet.

  27. ValdVin

    Well, Sarah’s arms are sturdy, like a pickup truck.

  28. S

    Well, clearly all that bat wielding is paying off

  29. fireprincesslily

    Hrrrrmmm nope I don’t like it!

    I’d like them together but that seems like another dodge from Jacob. If he’s interested he needs to say so.

    1. Holly

      Agree, you end up stringing people along if you don’t speak plainly and it does more damage than it’s worth.

  30. Pergola

    Danny is a good egg.
    Sarah is a curate’s egg.

    1. Taffy

      So, Jacob is complimenting her out of politeness?

      A “curate’s egg” is something described as partly bad and partly good. In its original usage, it referred to something that is obviously and entirely bad, but is described out of politeness as nonetheless having good features that redeem it.

      Yes, I know the meaning has shifted a bit, but the ToS of this website requires the most negative connotation to be the default assumption.

  31. Heavensrun

    Cut to Sarah tearing all of the sleeves off all her shirts.

  32. Nymph

    My take:

    She expressed how she felt about him in an ‘appreciation of his physical attributes’ way and asked how he felt about her in return. He told her that he thinks she’s a lovely person and the world needs more of her. She responded with a similarly praising set of compliments about his personality and then asked him to answer her question in the same way… so he complimented her on something physical.

    I’m not clear on where people are getting “this is manipulation” or “this isn’t fair” or “he’s going to reject her” from him literally meeting her where she’s at in the time he has available (he’s going out for something, he was already on his way, we have no idea if he’s already late or what).

    He also expressed that he’s happy she came to tell him all this despite him having somewhere to be.

    Flirting without immediately knowing what you want from a relationship, knowing how to express it, or making things official might be a little stressful if you’re the one waiting on an answer, but it’s not a sign of something sinister.

    There’s literally no harm in it if everyone’s okay with it, and I think Sarah has proven time and time again that if she was annoyed by his answers (vague or not) she would say so instead of going “oooo” with a happy/flattered expression.

    1. Nymph

      Sorry for the wall of text, it’s just weirding me out when every day seems to be people demonizing one character or another for what look like pretty common, harmless interactions.

    2. Amós Batista

      “I’m not clear on where people are getting “this is manipulation” or “this isn’t fair” or “he’s going to reject her” from him literally meeting her where she’s at in the time he has available”

      Yes! I feel he was very, very cautious here. Cumplimenting her body, in a very distant way, but still telling her.

      It was smooth. Well played.

      1. DashWallkick

        I think people are just chomping at the bit for the ship setting sail. “Jacob isn’t giving me what I want, that means Sarah feels that way too!” I mean she’s literally looking at her arms in the end of the comic going “ooooooh!” in excitement. I don’t know why everyone else is trying to read the tea leaves in his perfectly fine statement that buttons off today’s comic and the scene the two of them were having. We’ll see more in the future.

      2. Bittersweet

        I mean, I said it sounds like he’s going to reject her right now, but apparently people read WAY too much into my intention with that lol. I earnestly think he’s gonna let her down easy. They might still get together later, but it seems more like he likes her but isn’t ready to commit to that for any reason.

        The only character I tend to demonize a little is Jennifer and that’s just because she consistently behaves in a way I detest irl from real people. And even then I try my best to be fair to her. But it’s like how I’m fair to brussel sprouts. I accept people like them, they just chase me out of a room because of the smell.

        1. thejeff

          He’s going to reject her in the sense they’re not going to bone here and now, but that’s not really a rejection.

    3. Taffy

      Most of the people here are unhinged and incredibly paranoid about human interaction, for various reasons. It can be off-putting sometimes, but most (most) of ’em are harmless.

      And then some of ’em are dirty scumfuck cops and corporate bootlickers, but at least their nonsense takes are usually funny.

  33. Arianod

    …too bad they’re mainly for keeping people at arm’s length ^^u

  34. thumb

    Okay, but is he trying not to say no. ‘Cause you can think people are amazing and still not want to be romantically involved with them. Most times, in fact.

    1. DailyBrad

      I feel like he has to be more savvy than that, though, to feel that way and not say as much after Sarah kind of laid her cards down for him to see.

      I can buy that he’s maybe evaluating his interest still, but I think if he knows he doesn’t want to date her, his behavior here would be cruel and counter to her suggestion of his high emotional intelligence.

      1. thejeff

        Did she though?

        She’s made it clear she interested in him physically, and she’s gone farther towards admitting she likes him more than that than she has before, but it’s not like she asked him on a date or anything.

        Be amazing if she managed to get that out as he’s walking away though.

        1. DailyBrad

          The physical stuff, yes, but what she was saying before about emotional intelligence, etc, is certainly going further than that. Like, she’s definitely not giving platonic compliments in that context.

  35. Florence

    Honestly, Sarah deserves this high even if it’s not enough. She deserves to know her arms are hot and would start wars

  36. anon

    i wonder how ‘toned’ sarah’s arms are, other than swinging bats, and that earlier part of them in the gym together i imagine she doesn’t set aside too much time to keep them in shape lol

  37. Whirlakitty

    Some of you are speculating about whether Jacob is demisexual, which lead me to looking up ‘demisexual’ and reading about it, and going wait, WTF, isn’t that just “normal human behavior”? And, um, yeah…I feel like I’m way too old to be making new discoveries about my sexuality based on a webcomic.

    1. Heavensrun

      You’re never too old for that!

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