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Company
Posted on March 16, 2019 by David M Willis
DUMBING OF AGE BOOK 8 KICKSTARTER UPDATE! A new thing we’re trying out this year are the DIGITAL PLUS MAGNET and the DIGITAL COMPLETE PLUS MAGNET tiers! If you’ve ever wanted just a PDF instead of a book, but you also wanted a magnet, your time has finally come! After the campaign ends and I finish the PDF, you’ll get that emailed to you, but I’ll also be sending you an address survey, upon which you can tell me which of the character magnets you’d like mailed to you in a small envelope! And if the Dorothy magnet is unlocked by the campaign, you’ll receive her, too! Tier price includes shipping to anywhere in the world.

162 thoughts on “Company”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    COURTESY?! does not compute

  2. fire_daws

    Who are you and what have you done with Joyce?

    1. Wizard

      Respecting boundaries? Madness!

      1. Danielle

        amazing what 9 years does to a person

        1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          Don’t you mean 9 weeks? 😛

        2. keithcurtis

          When will they likely graduate in the real world, given the time ratio?

        3. Marisa Mockery

          The same time Freefall ends probably

        4. thejeff

          Never. Long after all of us and more importantly Willis are dead.

          It’s been running very roughly 1 week per year, so that’s nearly 200 years for four years of school.

        5. Roborat

          That is why Sir Willis is working so hard to extend his buffer.

        6. keithcurtis

          “Phrasing!”

  3. shadowcell

    Becky, this is how we do things when we want Sal to NOT destroy our faces off

    1. King Daniel

      Joyce has been choked twice by Sal in such situations already. Becky, only once.

      Clearly you need to be choked twice to get the message.

      1. BarerMender

        Two examples make a concept.

      2. Bladeglory

        Maybe. Maybe not.

        1. Bladeglory

          …okay not sure how I messed that up, but between the link, strip and link’s hovertext my joke is still there so *shrug*

      3. foamy

        Reminds me of Darth & Droid’s concept of a ‘warning choke’ from Vader…

    2. Abbefaria

      Joyce is the Goku to Sal’s Vegeta, there will never be a time she doesn’t on some level want to destroy someone’s face off.

  4. ValdVin

    The dream is slipping away from her? Hmm.

    1. JessWitt

      It will affect her subconsciously, Freudian style.

    2. Ethics Gradient

      Bit of a white lie there I think … along with the new-found boundary respecting.

      1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

        The details of the dream might have slipped away from her, but I think maybe it’s had some lasting effects that she’s not even aware of. Like boundary conditions.

        No wait, I mean boundaries. “Boundary conditions” was a term from my maths degree. xD

        1. tropicalfreeze

          I think it’s a double meaning. Either the dream could be slipping away from her, or her belief in God is.

          The boundary respecting I think is more about the conversation she had with Sal about not objectifying her.

        2. keithcurtis

          I don’t think it matters. The dream is revelatory of her internal changes, not causative.

        3. ValdVin

          That’s a good point.

  5. BBCC

    YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, BECKY, JOYCE IS FINALLY GETTING OVER ONE OF HER MOST IRRITATING HABITS, DO NOT ENCOURAGE IT.

    Seriously though, I’m so glad Joyce is finally stopping. Mildly concerned she’s not talking about the dream (I noticed that pause before you said you forgot, Joyce!) but still mostly happy she’s not doing this anymore. I don’t enjoy migraines born of fury when she does stuff like that. 😛

    1. Nono

      I don’t think she’s lying. Dreams, no matter how intense they seem when you wake up, tend to very quickly lose details in your memory, unless you keep a dream journal.

      So unless she was lucid dreaming, she may have been subconsciously aware of some of the easier-to-remember points (Becky and Rich Mullins were there!), but maybe not the whole thing.

      1. BBCC

        The reason I think she’s lying is because of the pause and the look on her face when she says it.

        1. Nono

          It reads more like a ‘….what was it about? Huh. I can’t remember’ pause, but who knows.

      2. Regalli

        I think with the pause she remembers some of it – at least the tone of doubt that’s been stewing for a while in her conscious thoughts, too.

        1. BBCC

          That could be it too.

      3. Badgermole

        Also the look on her face when she woke up from said dream (a few strips ago) indicates that it was disturbing enough to remember.

      4. HeatherJean

        Yeah, I tend to have very intense dreams (especially lately: sleep deprived) but the details fade almost immediately upon waking, leaving me with only vague general impressions of what they were about. The locales, however, are sometimes less vague.

        Maybe just an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. Whatever.

        1. BigDogLittleCat

          Joyce, if at the stroke of twelve a short glowing fairy in a pointy hat shows up, just go along with them.

      5. Keulen

        I almost always forget my dreams unless I write them down in my dream journal within a few minutes after I wake up.

      6. Meagan

        I get the thing where I confuse waking reality with dream reality too. This has been especially scary given that a theme of many of my dreams including breaking laws and being on the run. Questioning if I actually committed a crime or not is a weird feeling.

    2. Marsh Maryrose

      I don’t remember my dreams at all. I assume that’s because I’m a really slow waker-upper. Only one actual dream has ever stayed with me over the years.

      I did once know someone who remembered her dreams to such an extent that during the day, she sometimes had to ask herself if her memory of an event was a real-life memory, or part of a dream. My assumption is that she and I are at opposite ends of a statistically normal distribution.

      1. BBCC

        I remember some dreams and I remember bits and pieces of others. I’m not saying it’s impossible she forgot, I’m saying I don’t think she did because of the way she’s talking about it and how she looks while she says it.

        1. Some1

          My dreams are really vivid and I usually remember a fair bit of it when I wake up but it slips away after 5-15 minutes. I think its a side effect of my medication.

      2. Tom T.

        I still remember a dream I had as a small child, in which a skeleton was chasing me while holding a pie.

      3. vlademir1

        Most people will only consciously recall significant dreams that occur late in sleep (during the final REM period verging into it’s followup stage 1 NREM period) for a short time, maybe 10 minutes to an hour, after waking. It is fairly rare for people to maintain any conscious memory of the dreams from prior REM periods (people typically experience 4 to 5 of them per night) and it is unusual to maintain memory of dreams beyond the first hour after waking unless one specifically records them (in a dream journal for example) and/or discusses them with someone during that period.

        All that said, I may just find the topic interesting because I only very rarely remember my own dreams since leaving childhood (probably due to my more significant caffeine intake and less normalized sleep schedule in adolescence and adulthood).

      4. BSLangley

        I seem to be somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. My dreams can be intense and I usually remember them for about a day, sometimes less or more depending on intensity. There have been a few exceptions to this; I’ve had a few dreams of being shot, and I never forget those, the first one I had is still burned into my memory in vivid detail, one does not easily forget the sensation of dying. Also, I suffer through sleep paralysis from time to time(more often than I’d like really), and the waking hallucinations that feel like dreams can stick with me for days, probably because I’m technically awake. And then there was the time I was on Welbutron, an antidepressant that is known for its side effects on dreaming for the first for weeks. Dreams were so long and so real feeling it felt like I was living weeks or months in a single night. It was so weird.

      5. BigDogLittleCat

        I’m at your friend’s end of the scale. I sometimes “remember” things only to figure out it was a dream, but the craziest was the time in high school when I dreamed Wednesday.
        When I started to go to my Thursday afternoon classes and my friends asked what I was doing I thought they were all messing with me, because I distinctly remembered all my Wednesday classes.
        Man, that was a long week.

      6. Meagan

        Oops, my above comment was supposed to go here.

      7. FacelessDeviant

        I use tobacco in form of snuff/snus. When I fall asleep with one of those I always remember my dreams vividly. I think its because nicotine is a stimulant and hinders me from reaching full REM sleep.

        I am pretty sure that old shamans did something similar to remember their own dreams and interpreted them.

    3. Felian

      Exactly my thoughts. Shutupshutup Becky. Not sure if Becky is being sarcastic or not, but also not sure Joyce could tell… soo… yay Joyce, finally getting some boundary awareness!

  6. ShinyNeen

    Becky must confront Anti-Joyce once again!

    1. jmsr7

      That strip’s last panel joke was referencing an old coffee commercial.

      1. ShinyNeen

        Ahh, neat! I don’t drink coffee though. You can keep that reference. I’ll stick with the IW! reference.

      2. FacelessDeviant

        And then, SNL made a skit about it that was absolutely genius.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdQKVDUBu2g

  7. Lingo

    Oh man, maybe she DID forget the dream! Maybe I called it. 😀

  8. Stephen Bierce

    I could quote Sondheim but I won’t, as a service to you.

  9. jeffepp

    This implies that they’ve been jimmying the lock all this time. Which flies in the face of the evidence that Joyce can teleport.

    1. Nono

      They share a half-bath.

    2. Some1

      Joyce seems to teleport without thinking about it. Sarah mentioned that she can, and we’ve outright seen her do it, but she isn’t aware of it. My guess is that Joyce teleported in the first time, but the second time with Becky, Becky picked the lock.

    3. HeatherJean

      And the half-bath, apparently, has no locks on either side of either door. No jimmying necessary. Knocking would seem to be the polite thing to do anyway.

      1. thejeff

        It seems like it really should have some locks for while you’re using it, but it doesn’t seem real practical.

  10. TrueVCU

    That moment when you start growing out of the idiot habits you developed as a child that make everyone hate you.

    I’m still waiting for mine.

  11. Yotomoe

    “Oh, I’m going to knock first and if she doesn’t answer I’m going to teleport into her bed like nightcrawler.”

  12. Jamie

    Y’know, this strip and the last are the clearest indicators of Willis’ short-hair-hood.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      I know, right? There’s no way they’d be able to casually chat over the sound of that hair dryer.

  13. Some1

    Now that I think about it, how was Joyce getting into Sal’s room anyway? Is it because she can teleport?

    1. Nono

      Joyce/Sarah and Billie/Sal’s rooms are connected via a half-bath.

      1. Some1

        Do you not lock the door to the half bath?

        1. BBCC

          Can’t. It doesn’t lock that way.

        2. Some1

          I mean can you lock it so that people can’t just walk into your room through the half bath? Cause if not that sound very concerning when you consider basic privacy rights and not wanting people from the other dorm to have unlimited access to your room.

        3. King Daniel

          Letting it lock that way would also mean someone could get locked into the half-bath with no way out.

        4. Some1

          Honestly this just seems like a terribly designed system. Either you risk getting locked into the half bath or you risk someone breaking into your room because you have no way of knowing what idiots your friends will bring into the dorm. Hell I’ve seen dorm rooms get broken into by complete strangers, who would be okay with a system that gives people like that access to their room that easily?

        5. Fart Captor

          Someone randomly assigned by the university ALREADY has total access to their room because it’s also their room

          All this means is that two more people who aren’t technically your roommate also have access to your room. It’s not as if any random person can get in

        6. Marsh Maryrose

          All security is a compromise. The shared half-bath arrangement means you have to trust three other people instead of just one other person. But it also means you don’t have to go outside and walk down a corridor to pee.

          I’ve spent like half my life in three- or four-bedroom apartments. Pretty much the same dynamic.

        7. thejeff

          Yeah, think of it as a 2 bedroom suite, connected by the half-bath rather than a hallway.

          What I don’t quite get is whether you can lock the bathroom while in use and how that would work. Seems like you’d have to lock both doors and that would lead to forgetting to unlock the one you don’t leave through, leaving the people in the other dorm room locked out.

        8. Masumi

          Then again, you already have one roommate with unlimited access to your room, so whats the big difference. (Which is why I’ve always avoided living in dorms.)

        9. BBCC

          Sadly, they can’t. IU rule – freshmen have to live in the dorms.

        10. Some1

          I’m hoping to move into an apartment with my own room for my Junior year, its mainly so I can finally be free of the tyranny that is pants.

        11. ShinyNeen

          That’s why I had a roommate first year of college! He liked blasting his music, didn’t seem to ever consider using headphones, and even recorded his own rap music!

          I mean, I had(have?) my own problems, but yeah I wasn’t keen on having another college roommate after that one.

        12. BBCC

          Pants are an illusion and so is death, per Big Bang Theory. 😛

        13. Marsh Maryrose

          Some1: I have some sad news for you. Unless you are going to live in a hermit’s cave with no visitors, for the sake of basic hygiene you are going to have to wear some kind of butt-covering, or you’re going to have to put towels on every surface you sit on.

          I recommend sweatpants. I prefer underwear under the sweatpants, but that’s a matter of personal preference.

        14. BBCC

          Shit, that should be per Avatar: The Last Airbender, not Big Bang Theory. Can you tell what was on in my living room?

        15. Tan

          @Marsh Maryrose: That’s what underwear is for. Alternatively (or additionally. Additionally preferred) keep one’s buttocks clean.

        16. Seregiel

          I don’t remember how it was drawn in comic, but some half baths are the commode in a lockable water closet a la public restrooms and the shared sink across the way… so 5x 8 with 2’ x5’ sink, 3’ x5’ walk way with a door at either end and 3’x5’ toilet stall for privacy. I don’t think that’s what exists in this comic/uni but it drastically reduces the “ooops!” Moments in real life

    2. jeffepp

      Yes.

  14. Nono

    ANTI-JOYCE

  15. Kyrik Michalowski

    Joyce is learning… I don’t buy it, what’s the catch?

  16. Tacos

    Wh-what the? A courteous Joyce? Did aliens replace her with a facsimile?

  17. mrnoidea

    Yup. I’m calling it now. At the rate that Joyce is changing over the weeks, Thanksgiving with the family is going to be life-changing one.

    Or at least Christmas.

    1. Reltzik

      By Christmas, Carol will be telling her she’s not allowed to come over and celebrate Jesus’s birth because she doesn’t believe in Jesus.

      …. that’ll be around 12 years from now, depending on timeskips. Thanksgiving should only be, mmm, about 8 years.

      1. mrnoidea

        Oh, the irony how what we know as Christmas is mostly pagan tradition…

        1. vlademir1

          To be fair, most of the major feasts in the liturgical calendar fall at about the time of some pre-Christian pagan celebration/rite and that was done intentionally as part of the Christianization of Europe even if some residual pagan elements oft remained in folk celebrations (in later periods without the direct symbolic understanding of their intent).

    2. Marsh Maryrose

      I’m pretty sure the Buffer Watch has never been more than six months ahead of the current date (I seem to remember that that was a deliberate cap). That would be three in-comic days.

      In-strip Thanksgiving is a loooong ways away. Given Willis’s dramatic tendencies, I’m pretty sure we won’t have to wait that long for some sort of fraught and drama.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Apropos Thanksgiving, from the now-retired Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle:

        Many Thanksgivings are family gatherings, and family gatherings are often fraught. My suggestion is: Embrace the fraught. You’d miss the fraught if it weren’t there.

  18. Reltzik

    …. okay, so is Panel 6 Becky being sarcastic/ironic, or does she really think that?

    1. Victor Riley

      Well, that’s what Joyce did before, so I think that’s Becky’s way of saying, “Who are you and what have you done with Joyce?”

    2. mrnoidea

      Maybe the latter?

    3. BBCC

      Well, she whole heartedly went along with Joyce barging in and waking Sal that way her first day after rooming with her. “It’s morning! It’s time for everyone to get up and let us love them!”

      Sal strangled them both.

  19. BarerMender

    Without God, Joyce has lost her self-righteousness. She has to stop pushing people around. I know, it might me other things besides self-righteousness, but those things are too hard for me.

  20. Kensou

    Genie voice: That’s right! She CAN be taught!

    Also, darnit Willis, now I want to watch Megamind.

  21. Yotomoe

    Sal, I’m respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as your friend by coming in anyway!

    1. Bagge

      Compromise!

    2. Reltzik

      “Fine by me, but it’s not okay with my roommate, so you’ll have to assert her authority with her instead. I dunno, talk to her about God wanting you to knock on doors and have them open or something.”

      (Yeah, I know, definitely not a Sal thing to do to passively-aggressively sic Joyce on Malaya rather than fighting her own fights.)

      1. MatthewTheLucky

        I dunno, it would piss off Malaya.

  22. moon

    There was this cartoon I watched in sunday school (I think? It’s been a long time) that I remember but can never find and this seems like the best place to ask. Anybody remember a very basic CGI- sort of like the characters were made of legos? (I don’t think they were actually supposed to legos it was just most likely made in the 90s) What’s happening is most likely a modern plauges of Egypt. A family is hiding in the bathroom when a kid turns on a sink and the water turns to blood. I don’t remember after that because I scared a scared I looked away for the rest of the video. Was it just a dream?? This is my personal Clockman.

    1. moon

      ah well. You know what cgi Christain cartoon I ways also forced to watch but actually liked? 321 Penguins!

  23. Chris Phoenix

    Is it just me, or does Joyce look 30 years old in panel 3?

    1. Reltzik

      Nah, she’ll be 20 in September.

      1. Reltzik

        *22 in September

  24. Laladoria

    Oh dang, Becky got real excited about being in Joyce’s dream.

    Also, I love Joyce’s blow dryer hair!

  25. abysswatcher1993

    Ok, Joyce isn’t harassing people and is more liberal about what she wants. Is she becoming one of the demonic secularists her family fears? Is she finally learning to respect boundaries and be nice at appropriate times? Is Willis going to give these characters maturity and happiness? So many miracles happening at once!

    Hit it Gamzee!

    1. Kensou

      Eh, she’s fine so long as she doesn’t start being amazed by magnets. That’s the TRUE danger sign.

      1. abysswatcher1993

        Joyce: “Magnets. How do they work?”

      2. Bagge

        Let’s be fair.

        It’s not like Joyce doesn’t have cause to be amazed by magnets
        http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/183372924902/the-eighth-book-collection-is-here-and-you-can-go

  26. EvilMidnightLurker

    SKRULL

    1. Vukodlak

      Dang it, I was going to say that…

  27. Keulen

    And it turns out Joyce actually knocking on Sal’s door before entering and Sarah admitting to liking a holiday is because Joyce is still dreaming. One of those dream-within-a-dream things.

    1. Reltzik

      Yeah, those dream-within-dream things have become a much more popular trope in the past decade or so. I wonder when their inception was.

      1. Meagan

        No way, I’m a nineties kid and they have been around my whole life.

      2. Lily

        great pun dude

    2. Charles Kuhman

      Check out an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show from the sixties, that starred Danny Thomas as a space alien in a dream. Also another one where he thought he was losing his hair. Both had dreams within dreams. Also both are pretty funny and worth watching.

  28. DailyBrad

    Becky sassing Sarah in panel one is life and love.

    1. Bagge

      It is, it truly is.

  29. foducool

    if only every insensitive person could have a dream and turn like this

    1. Bagge

      I think it’s more about Sal’s outburst at Joyce when she wanted to use her as a Barbie doll one time too many.

      1. BBCC

        Plus about Joyce poking at things insensitively like her screaming about how Sal had a scar yesterday.

  30. Bagge

    This is a new and strange concept for Becky

  31. MatsuoTanuki

    I’m so proud, my baby is learning.

  32. Bagge

    Displaying your characters in the mirror so you have to draw them from two different angles is a cartoonist’s way of showing off, right?

    1. Reltzik

      In theory. In practice it’s usually just a cartoonist’s way of needlessly doubling his workload.

      1. Bagge

        I mean, I AM impressed, so if it was intended to show off it’s working.

    2. ValdVin

      Especially panel two, with two angles of Joyce’s floofy hair.

  33. PB

    I am fit to burst from JOY over all these strips. Willis, you run the risk of spoiling us. <3

  34. BenRG

    Is Becky being sarcastic or do she and Joyce really normally think that way?

    1. Bagge

      I’m pretty sure she’s facetious for the sake of comic effect, an also gently probing Joyce to figure out where this sudden change in behavior come from.

      While Becky doesn’t always HONOR boundaries, I’m pretty sure she understands them.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Becky understands better than most the possible consequences of someone barging through an unlocked door.

      2. thejeff

        I’m not sure she’s much better than Joyce in this regard or why she should be.
        She was happy to go loom over a sleeping Sal with Joyce earlier.

        1. Bagge

          I’m guessing here, but if I were to project there thoughts on the matter it would be something like

          Joyce: I see no reason not to loom over a sleeping Sal.
          Becky: It’s hilarious to loom over a sleeping Sal.

        2. BBCC

          It’s all fun and games until you get choked.

          Then again being choked by a pretty biker miiiiight not be the deterrent Sal hopes it is for Becky. 😛

        3. Marsh Maryrose

          Although if you’re Mike, the fun and games might start when you get choked.

        4. thejeff

          It’s possible, but I haven’t see any real indication her take is any different from Joyce’s – “This is normal behavior.”

        5. Bagge

          There is stuff like this, where she is shown to be mindful and actively worried about stepping on Leslie’s boundaries – a person she is actually dependent on.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/03-sometimes-the-sky-was-so-far-away/mojo/

        6. thejeff

          Even with Joyce, there may well be a difference between boundaries of peers and of adults.
          I doubt Joyce (or Becky) were encouraged to cross their parents boundaries, but were allowed none of their own.

      3. Zee

        She barged into Sal’s room to hover over her when she’s sleeping too, remember?

    2. Kinoko

      I think she’s being serious but also self-effacing. Like just putting it into words makes her realize how ridiculous it is. Becky’s really good at that.

  35. joyfulldreams

    …I sense a potential Malaya encounter.

    1. JessWitt

      Or more adventures with Fuckface. I prefer this please.

      1. ShinyNeen

        One tends to go hand-in-hand with the other, so it’s a question of if more Fuckface adventures are worth more Malaya.

        … personally I’d say yes.

  36. hof1991

    Joyce both wants to talk about the dream and not talk about her dream. So she changes the subject.

    1. Zero

      Dreams do that, though. She may be telling the truth.

  37. Eldritch Gentleman

    …
    SOMEONE CALL CAPTAIN MARVEL! SOME SKRULLS KIDNAPPED AND REPLACED JOYCE!

  38. ziggy78eog

    “Dumbing of Age: Secret Invasion”. This is where Captain Marvel sent all those Skrulls. THANKS FOR NOTHING, DANVEERS!!

  39. Kinoko

    Joyce! I’m so proud of you!
    Sal opened up to her and told her, in explicit terms, that being treated like a doll bothered her. Joyce is listening because she wants to be a good friend. This is wholesome and sweet and pure. C:

    1. BBCC

      I know! I’m so proud of her! Clearly being snapped at for treating her like a doll and then again yesterday for poking at the scar got through to her.

      Okay, Sal, now yell at her about boundaries more generally, it didn’t work when Dorothy or Sarah did it but I BELIEVE IN YOU. XD

      1. ShinyNeen

        Clearly every girl on the floor is going to have to have a talk with Joyce about boundaries, one by one. Think of all the heartfelt conversations we’d get that way!

        (I jest- I’m really proud of Joyce here, too!)

        1. BBCC

          But that’s so much less convenient when Sal can do it in two conversations! 😛

          (I know! This is such a great moment!)

  40. Mr. Random

    Pavlol DOES work!
    Eventually.

  41. stoodmuffin

    Willis has really mastered the art of making a cute, wholesome, strip, that makes my brain go “Oh, how will THIS explode?”

    1. stoodmuffin

      An evil, foreshadowing, genius. Makes it look SO unassuming, in some strips.

      Foreshadowing based on so much previous context.

  42. Seregiel

    It’s almost like she’s learning that Becky skewed her idea of what was acceptable or not in platonic female relationships… and is now realizing this in full ramifications.

    1. BBCC

      Apparently this one’s her parent’s fault – they gave Joyce the task of getting her brothers up and so now she thinks it’s okay to barge into people’s rooms and wake them because ‘it’s so cool you can’t lock me out! We’re like a family!’

      1. Seregiel

        Her parents taught her certain boundaries are crossable, certainly. The fact that anyone can be like Becky (in that closeness of female friends), that she wanted a sister in her dormmate from the get go, or a sister in her husband’s significant other that she hadn’t met, or that she can declare Billie her best Christian friend so quickly and unilaterally… I think is less ignoring boundaries and more this is how you make friends because friends act this way… Her best friend at least, which she wants more of as she creates a new pseudo family in college. Some boundaries to her are “harmless” and she needs to learn that is not okay and is doing so, but I’m convinced that her relationship with Becky also made her blind to a whole slew she’s finally just seeing…

        1. Seregiel

          Sorry for two part- phone and fingers aren’t cooperating.

          And yes, this is bedroom entering, and that boundary blur is her parents, but i feel it’s a secondary problem to, and entwined with, her lack of understanding how most people make interpersonal relationships and how quickly/deeply they form. That quickness to adopt outsiders to a familial level is part of the Becky influence of best friend/sister she never had and wants so bad. Also, Becky just showed up in her dorm… bad circumstances yes, but Joyce wasn’t THAT surprised initially. I could also see past interactions where Becky showed up in her room back home for shenanigans and that was just How Girls Are Friends.

        2. BBCC

          Okay, I can definitely see where Becky and Joyce’s dynamic feeds this, but Joyce has said that the waking people up and jumping in their beds is from her time at home.

  43. Nenja

    It’s great to see Joyce learning and getting better at stuff like this.

  44. Emperor Norton II

    1: OK, so first of all, Joyce -does- remember her dream, and is deflecting from it. Sure, I’ve seen lots of posts with other commenters talking about how they (and people in general) don’t remember their dreams well. My counterpoint is that this is a fictional world, and in fiction, everyone remembers their dreams perfectly all the time*. Perfect dream memory is a classic trope, and if you don’t believe me, I’m sure there is a certain webpage that I’m not going to link to (because I value your time) that will have about three hundred examples ready.

    2: Joyce has taken another important step on her road of redemption. A step about boundaries. Is she still perfect? Absolutely not! Is she getting better? Oh yes. Is she already a better person than I am? Without a doubt.

    *Except for a few of the stories in Sandman.

    1. MatthewTheLucky

      Perfect dream memory is less a trope than it is an application of Chekov’s Gun.

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