Why couldn’t Willis’s cultural references be to things I would actually understand, like Eve Online?
thereaverofdarkness
I would love to get some EVE Online references in here! However I suspect that the references aren’t just what Willis is familiar with, but are what the characters can be expected to be familiar with.
Batman
High sec kids…..
Batman
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of BOB space. I watched Apocalypses glitter in the dark near Old Man Star. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to pod.
One issue with being married to another woman: I have to kill all the centipedes and spiders because I am the one less afraid of them. Less than a week ago, one ran across the living room floor and we were both up on the couch. I had to go after it with a clip-board. It was awful.
On the other hand, my wife gets to deal with all bees and wasps (which freak me the fuck out).
Why do you have centipedes on the CEILING?? HOW do you have centipedes on the ceiling?? I thought they were too heavy to climb up there aaaa now I’m just gonna be paranoid forever about all the centipedes in my room.
You do know that centipedes are in the house because they are finding food there, don’t you? You kill the centipedes, and they don’t eat the bugs that they are preying on.
It depends on the centipede – a lot of them are pretty small, and also good climbers. Some of them are pretty small, good climbers, and highly venomous.
Wow do they make a lot of noise scuttling across a piece of paper. And when they crawl up your leg, it feels just like the cat’s tail brushing your leg until you realize that’s not the cat’s tail……
Yeah, she has a naturally larger body type but that doesn’t mean she’s not fit or physically healthy. Probably helps her secret identity that people assume she doesn’t have a lot of muscle.
Steve
So she and Amazi-Girl are kinda like Clark Kent and Superman, except Clark and Superman look nothing alike and are two different people?
One day I’ll remember that most of this cast does not, for the most part, make good decisions. One day.
How soon do you guys think Marcie could get text-to-talk?
Regalli
There’s a lot of free resources available, phone or otherwise. I don’t believe it comes standard on smartphones (at least not on recent-but-not-newest model iPhones,) but Google has a function, and scanning the App Store I found like six free to start ones and at least one highly ranked one that says remove ads but nothing about subscriptions. So… pretty quick once Marcie’s had enough of watching the train wrecks.
BBCC
So the real reason she doesn’t get to have text to talk is because she’d tell waaaay too many people they’re being ridiculous.
Regalli
Yeah, Marcie’s too busy with the rest of her life to solve all the drama in this strip.
Kryss LaBryn
If she’s talking to Amber they could just text back and forth with no speech involved at all! 😀
I showed this strip to my girlfriend and she was like “wait these are both just you”; it’s cuz apathy towards excercise and social anxiety are pretty much the young people of the world’s national anthem
Like these guys are just so frickin cute and I almost feel narcissistic because again; it’s like 59% because it feels almost like this whole arc is a self-insert fic
…yeah, this also encapsulates why I think this relationship is bad news.
It’s healthy and helpful to Amber, but it sorta regresses Walky.
Nothing wrong with being comfortable, but dude needs someone to push him, even a little.
And the more I think, Amber mixing relationships with her mental support system may not be the best plan either.
It doesn’t really help Amber much either. It’s nice that she’s with someone that makes it easy, but….like she’s also practically saying she doesn’t want to get help. She needs some sort of help, especially since she’s having trouble with the distinction between her and Amazi-girl and isn’t even aware of AG’s actions anymore. The people that want to “solve” her actually care about her. Walky has the privilege of being oblivious to her issues.
Also, Amber’s been saying stuff like this and ‘let me like him without it being a thing!’ when she knows full well it’s a thing, and him finding out will make it a very big Thing indeed. (And she’s not even concerned about changing his grades yet.) If Walky knew even just the grades and stabbing and said it was okay, that would be one thing. But currently Amber’s trying to ignore the herd of elephants in the room and it’s keeping Walky from making an informed decision. I think the keeping it a secret might actually upset him more if she doesn’t tell in the next couple days.
I find it reasonable to have a breather from trying to fix yourself. There’s a growing number of relationships that either can turn to for pushes without depending on their romantic relationship for that. Having a comfortable partner can make pursuing those relationships, or more directly the personal repair itself, more easy by not making it a constant thing that this relationship depends upon.
Regalli
The thing we worry about is that Amber’s mental health is nearing critical, to the point where she really isn’t healthy for a relationship (the ‘Walky sleeps over, AG comes out, AG doesn’t know they’re dating and recognize him and therefore reacts badly’ situation’s been brought up for a reason,) and Walky’s tendency towards avoidance and anxiety are already low-grade Problems impacting his life. If they only inspire each other to be garbage, then either or both could fall a whole lot further and frankly they need professional help already.
(Also, Walky’s response when Dorothy went to Counseling post-stabbing was that as her boyfriend he should have been able to be the one she could talk to. That is… definitely not a promising sign for this, I had completely forgotten that part of the exchange until I looked it up earlier. Amber’s issues are even further out of his pay grade than Dorothy’s trauma was.)
Kris
Fair enough, but you know what isn’t helping her? She’s completely baffled by how Cap’n Crunch stays so crunchy, even in milk! Both of them are! Hopefully their cruise control relationship also makes it easy staying humble.
Regalli
Soggies may rule?
Needfuldoer
But can they see why kids love the cinnamon taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Does she know why Apple Jacks are called that, despite the fact that they don’t taste like apples?
1) Fixing mental health issues is not the purpose of a relationship.
2) One of the biggest things harming Amber’s health has been Amber and Amazi-Girl viewing her various issues and faults as making her toxic and irreparably broken. Yes, she has problems she needs to work on and find healthier outlets for, but she cannot do that if she keeps writing herself off entirely simply because she HAS those issues.
Walky has been very good for her in that regard, and since he has a similar issue that’s been making it harder for him to work on his grades because he’s too busy freaking out that he suddenly needs to actually WORK to get good grades, it’s been good for him as well.
Neither of them is telling the other that the things each thinks makes them garbage are good things. They’ve only been listening and accepting.
They both ALREADY KNOW the things they talked about on the roof are things they need to work on. That’s why they were calling themselves garbage.
Alanari
Ignoring them doesn’t work either. And right now, she is toxic. And as long as she doesn’t get help, she’ll get more and more toxic. Trying to pretend otherwise is a pretty bad idea. And Amber isn’t just helping him forget about grades, she’s encouraging his procrastination.
Basically, they both found someone who encourages them to ignore their problems. Which sure as hell feels nice, but it will also make things way worse.
She isn’t toxic. And “getting help” – presumably the professional kind – is not the only way thing she can do to work on her issues. Assuming that’s even an option, given how we already know her mom had to save up just to afford replacement glasses when hers broke.
The thing responsible for her worst outbursts was her obsession with Sal, and she’s already addressed that. It may have taken outside events for her to realize it was something leading to harm, but she’s let it go all the same. Both Amber and Amazi-Girl have made peace with Sal, even though she still sets off Amber’s PTSD.
She IS working on her problems.
She also isn’t encouraging Walky to procrastinate or ignore his problems. He’s already seeing a tutor and actually trying to improve, even if he could be trying harder.
Working on your problems doensn’t just make them vanish. Some things take time. There is nothing helpful about beating yourself up simply because you have flaws you can’t magically wish away.
Kris
Wait, wait, wait!……Is Walky actually seeing a tutor?! If he is I will take back most of my distaste for him! I know he tried to see a tutor once. Jason, who got fired! Who is no longer a T.A. but a bartender, and they both got wasted! That does not count as seeing a tutor. Did Jason confirm some sort of agreement to still tutor Walky? Was Walky looking for another source for help and I missed it? Was it like a patreon exclusive strip? I’m not even trying to be a jerk here I legitimately want to know. Cause all I know for now is he tried once, failed, then got drunk….and also Amber changed his grades in there somwhere.
thejeff
No. He’s not. Or at least there’s been no evidence of it since the whole Jason thing.
He did try a couple of times before that all blew up, but not since breaking up with Dorothy.
There’s no reason to think he’s simply given up on it though. Walky didn’t give up on tutoring. Jason quit / got fired. It’s been less than a week, so there’s no reason to assume he’s not going to keep trying, either with another tutor, or something else
Alanari
Except he never wanted to do tutoring in the first place and only did it because of Dorothy. Without Dorothy and with a new girlfriend who encourages procrastination, the chances of him finding motivation to go to tutoring are small..
If Walky hadn’t been so afraid that his girlfriend would stop loving him if she found out about his grades slipping, he might have told her about it much sooner while there was still time to avoid flunking out by legitimate means.
Amber encourages him spending time with her, and lets him make his own decisions about whether he should be spending that time studying. If Walky can’t make the decision on his own to study instead of something fun, that’s his own fault, not hers. She’s not standing in his way.
BBCC
Walky’s done badly on a few weekly quizzes. I doubt it’s even that badly. Again, they haven’t even had a midterm yet. He can still course correct.
Inahc
Not that tutoring was actually helping at all. (Partly because Jason sucks at it, partly because Walky was either self-sabotaging or has ADHD)
Regalli
It’s not just Dorothy – it’s at LEAST as much his mom putting the pressure on. That’s where his freak out during the first consult with Jason was from (‘I’m a smart boy! I have to get an A! Do you know who’s going to see my grades? MY MOM.’ Last sentence large text in its own speech balloon.) The thought of failing Linda’s come up multiple times, and tends towards the catastrophic. (Probably because Walky’s at least a little aware of what happens when you disappoint her. He was probably still awake and may have still been listening at the end of that conversation.) He didn’t know Dorothy when he signed up for the more advanced math classes without placement or anything because That’s What Smart Kids Do. And his conceptualizing himself as an Effortlessly Smart Kid isn’t just gifted burnout like Dorothy’s, there’s serious parental pressure. (‘I thought he was a telecommunications major?’ ‘So does he, right now.’)
Yeah, even without Dorothy? Walky is still going to be living in terror of bad grades. Or even ‘not living up to your potential’ grades. My recommendation is to get him the fuck away from Linda forever, but a good first step there is staying in school (ie, AWAY FROM HER,) and figuring out who he actually is and what he actually wants to do. And frankly I don’t think he knows either of those things yet, since he seems bored with his telecom class and only chose the major because it sounded like it had to do with TV. Getting expelled for changing his grades or failing all his classes as he anxiety-avoidance spirals are both definitely not good outcomes because he needs to minimize Linda’s ability to control his life.
thejeff
@FC: He may not have given up on it, but I think, given the weight that part of the story has had already, that we’d actually see it if he’d actually gotten another tutor.
That’s not likely to happen in the background. And we haven’t seen anything since Jason. We’ll be back to it, but for the moment Amber’s approach has been to change his grades and pass on his offer to study together.
I probably should have thought to make this clear in my last comment, but I’m not blaming Dorothy or even suggesting she put pressure on him.
Walky’s own fear did that. She never pressured him at all. The moment she found out she was nothing but supportive. I’m just saying that Amber has been good for him because of how she’s explicitly reassured him from the start that she’s okay with his flaws.
Dorothy tried to assure him that him flunking calc wouldn’t change how she felt about him, but Amber’s approach seems to have been much more effective at easing his nerves.
@thejeff:
Walky changing his mind about hacking his grades would seem to strongly suggest he’s not simply ignoring the problem. He realized that it wouldn’t actually make him feel better since he’d still know he hadn’t put in the work to earn it. That’s a major step forward, even if he still needs to learn how to study.
BBCC
I’m not disputing that he’s doing badly, I’m disputing that it’s too late to course correct. Amber thinks he’ll end up on probation based on his current grade, and probably because she thinks he wouldn’t be able to get his grade up. But they haven’t even had a midterm, so I sincerely doubt it’s too late to fix it. Too late for the A he wants, maybe, depending on the weight of weekly quizzes, but it’s probably not too late for a high B.
Alanari
Oh he has reasons to go to tutoring. Yes. But without someone or something putting pressure on him, he’s avoiding it. And believe me, I understand running away from things that scare the hell out of you. But that doesn’t get anything fixed.
He went to tutoring when Dorothy demanded it, stopped when they were on pause, went back after they got together again and hasn’t made any effort so far since both the relationship and Jasons job as a tutor tanked.
I’m not even sure he actually needs tutoring. He’s smart, all he needs to do probably is to sit down and read (and understand) his books. And pay attention in class. He most likely has no problems to understand maths but problems to concentrate on maths.
Alanari
She is. She’s aggressive and pushes her partner into doing what she wants. Plus her psychological problems, those always put strain on your relationships and your partner. This is a strain you can mitigate, but not by pretending it doesn’t exist.
She’s not as bad as certain other people in this comic, but she is someone you should keep at distance for your own sake.
And no, she’s not working on it. She’s trying to fix the obvious things without addressing the actual problems that lie beyond that. Which doesn’t work. Trust me, I tried the exact same thing, and it backfired horribly. Facing your own brain is scary, but there’s no way around it if you want to heal.
The way she reacted to sal on the roof is not exactly peace. It was running away in panic.
He said he wanted to study. And she knows he needs to study, to understand maths. She basically said “let’s procrastinate instead”.
thejeff
She’s not working on her problems. She’s gotten better about Sal, but the disassociation is getting worse and she’s actively repressing that – fighting with her alter, which is not likely to turn out well.
How much Walky can or should help with that is an open question – beyond saying “get thee to a therapist”, I’m not sure what he coud do.
She’s changed Walky’s grades. She’s turned down his offer to study together (not a big deal, but …) He’s not seeing a tutor anymore.
A large part of their relationship, all starting on garbage roof, is “it’s ok, we can be garbage.” That’s not healthy.
They’re adorable as hell, but I’m far from convinced they’ll be good for each other.
Regalli
I feel like some degree of mild self-deprecation or ‘I’m too worn out on this people thing to keep peopling to whatever standard they want me to’ is fine. The problem to me is that they both genuinely believe they are failures. That is not encouraging. And if it was just ‘sometimes I feel like I can’t live up to this’ ‘up here we don’t have to’ then, again, it would be fine. But Amber introduces the kiss after Walky says he feels guilty finding her cute the day after the Dorothy breakup with ‘well, we already are garbage’ – he’s probably still got that guilt hanging around given they’re keeping the relationship quiet. Amber’s suggestion when he was worried about grades was to change them, and when he said that wouldn’t feel right to him she changed them anyway. That’s a repeated pattern of ‘ignore the real problem, cover it up’ in their relationship that isn’t great. That it also means Amber has another secret from Walky that could get him expelled is just… even worse. (And her ‘let me like him without it being a thing!’ is doomed to failure. Walky might well be okay dating her after he knows she stabbed Sal. Sal might even be okay with it all. But I think Walky will be much less pleased if he finds out she knew it, say, a week ago and never told him.)
Amber ignoring the fact that she and AG are no longer sharing memories and trying to just force AG away isn’t just a bad idea, it’s actively dangerous to Amber. (AG could get hurt. AG pushes herself so far she nearly died once already.) At minimum, I really don’t think she should be in a relationship without telling him before it gets to the point where he might be there while she’s asleep. And if Walky thinks significant others are supposed to provide all the emotional support and their needing therapy is a failure of him (which he did back when Dorothy was at Counseling,) he’s going to get himself in so unimaginably deep and he isn’t remotely equipped for it. (None of the cast are, I want Amber to either find a DID support group or an actual therapist or both.)
Eldritch Gentleman
Well the key problem is that they are basically escaping from reality. They have problems, those problems won’t go away just because they pretend they don’t exist. This relationship can serve as a counter-balance of sorts. An emotional boost needed to start fixing their problems without being overwhelmed and falling to despair but they don’t seem to be doing anything about it.
They can’t stay inside their little garbage closet because eventually when they come out the rest of the house will be completely on fire.
Regalli
If everything else weren’t almost certain to sink the relationship first, I’d honestly be worried that a major fight will be one of them taking a couple steps out of the pit or going ‘actually I don’t think you’re garbage’ and the other one being upset because this relationship is supposed to be them both accepting they’re terrible and not getting reassurance they don’t believe.
I believe they could be good for each other if they weren’t both so mired in anxiety and self-loathing, but so far it’s been a net negative because of the grades thing.
thejeff
Exactly. If they were working on their issues through other routes, a nice counterbalance nonstressful relationship might be good for both of them.
But they’re not. And it’s going to come back to bite them. Through the relationship and elsewhere.
I don’t see how you think they’re pretending their problems don’t exist?
Acknowledging that their problems exist was the ENTIRE thing they were doing up there. What they really needed was for someone to be able accept that they these issues, and still say “okay, but I still like you”. Because when people tell them things like “oooh nooo no you’re not garbage you’re great” it feels to them like they’re only still hanging around because that person is unwilling or unable to accept their flaws. Like, Amber expressed this outright to her mom. Walky expressed the same kind of fears about Dorothy finding out he was flunking calculus. Ignoring those flaws would defeat the entire purpose.
Yes, Amber could and probably should be doing more, even if it isn’t professional help. Trying to get rid of Amazi-Girl obviously backfired, but it’s not like she has a DID manual or even a diagnosis so that she could have known that. And since the first Garbage Roof, she’s seems to given up on that, at least for now. Accepting the status quo and just letting herself be happy for a little while is far from the worst idea, even though obviously she shouldn’t use that as a long term strategy.
Given how all that shit with Ryan went down only last week, this seems like a far better choice than convincing herself she’s too broken for a relationship and continuing to withdraw further from her friends, which is the direction she was headed before she ran into Walky.
Regalli
She threw out the mask and tried to shove AG back last night after the Sal realization triggered another panic attack. Which Walky helped with… but Amber still hasn’t told either of the twins and wants to ignore the fact that that’s a thing.
Amber’s current state is troublesome and I do worry they could bring out the worst in each other by reinforcing the garbage (not out of nowhere, since we know Amber changed his grades against his wishes,) but really? It’s the pile of secrets that I’m most worried about. The grades, the Sal thing, the dissociation – ANY one of those could be disastrous for a new relationship, but all three being secrets at once is what actually makes it a doomsday clock. They can be really cute together. Sometimes they are just what the other needs! But with Amber knowingly keeping two huge secrets from him and probably unknowingly keeping a third, the longer she keeps things secret the worse they’ll be when they do inevitably come out. If the air were cleared earlier, if she didn’t change Walky’s grades and was working up the nerve to tell about Sal, I would feel mostly okay with this relationship with the hope that AG matters get better under control before they spend the night together or something. But the current circumstances (let me just awkwardly ignore your sister’s existence! Hope you don’t check your grades ever or remember what they were!) are going to blow up in Amber’s face and that will almost certainly end with things getting worse than they were before the kiss. Honestly I wish they had kept things platonic for a bit longer. At least long enough for ONE of the secrets in the secretbomb to resolve safely. There were still risks and the dynamic still inspired the grade changing, but the stakes were just enough lower that ‘I stabbed your sister in the hand five years ago and permanently disabled her’ wouldn’t be quite as potentially catastrophic.
She definitely wanted Ethan to stop making a thing out of (1) the fact that Walky was the male version of the person who had basically come to personify her trauma, and (2) that this was now the second boy in a row that she’d started dating shortly after he’d broken up with Dorothy. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for her not to want to discus either of those things, because if she’s okay with them, they’re unimportant.
But when Ethan said she should probably tell Walky about her and Sal, Amber agreed. Yes, she told him to shut up, because clearly didn’t want to talk about that right then, but she still agreed that yes, she should tell him. She had even tried to tell him once already but lost the nerve.
And jesus fucking christ, they have been dating for only a few days. There is plenty of time. The fact that there are foreseeable problems down the road that have not already been addressed at this – again, very early – stage in their relationship does not mean it is unhealthy. Same goes for the fact that this whole thing may end up blowing up very badly (which I agree is very possible).
I don’t see the grades thing as the kind of massive land mine you do. Yes, it was bad that she still did it after he changed his mind, but she didn’t just completely ignore his wishes. She changed his grades, but only enough to keep him off academic probation. She should still have checked first, but if she doesn’t wait too long to tell him what she did, I think there’s a good chance he’ll forgive her.
I also don’t see how she is under any obligation to explain her mental illness to him, especially this soon. People have every right to keep that kind of thing secret for however long it takes for them to feel comfortable sharing it.
And ffs, Walky is not in any danger from Amazi-Girl unless he suddenly starts up a life of crime (and attacks AG when she tries to stop him, though honestly even then I doubt she’d actually hurt him (even if simply grabbing him by the hoody wasn’t enough to stop him)). Yes, for a while there AG was in fact very dangerous to Sal any of her friends AG found near her, but she’s past that now. We’ve seen no evidence that AG is becoming irrational. The problem that is worsening is that Amber and AG are further dissociated than ever and not sharing memories. They’ve essentially painted a line down the middle of her brain and told the other “stay on YOUR own side and don’t touch MY stuff!”. She’s not going to suddenly go berserk and start karate-chopping random bystanders
thejeff
The grades become a major land mine if she wasn’t as clean about as she thought and someone realizes – then they’re both expelled. (Not likely to happen, since that would move them away from the main cast, but still a concern.)
Her mental illness: While theoretically I agree with you, practically she owes him an explanation before he’s confronted with it unexpectedly – in this case most likely before they actually sleep together, since AG is taking over in Amber’s sleep.
I don’t think he’s in any actual physical danger from AG – though waking up next to him with no memory of him being there might put that to the test.
It still something you want to break to a boyfriend a little more gently than that.
Regalli
Changing the grades at all, even enough to keep him off probation, can get them both expelled. Period. It’s a BIG FUCKING DEAL and schools don’t take kindly to people hacking their computers and committing fraud. Keeping him off academic probation* probably also ensures he keeps receiving the same level of academic scholarship funding, (and his grades sound like they were high enough he might have actually gotten some,) which would be costing the school money. They will not be happy about that, either. She will get in trouble, he will get in trouble, and even if Walky doesn’t realize how much trouble they’ll be in, I do.
* Which won’t even work or be necessary. We’re pre-midterms and he would need to be struggling in multiple classes to be under a 2.0 – Which he may well be, but if she’s changing those grades then someone’s way more likely to notice since his other classes didn’t just change TAs and he doesn’t suspect he’s struggling there yet.
AG might be fine waking up in an unfamiliar setting or with an unfamiliar person, but at minimum she’s going to have questions and she might get agitated when Walky doesn’t get what’s going on. Maybe not actively dangerous, but not a pleasant interaction for either of them and potentially a ‘Walky thinks it’s a breakup and Amber doesn’t realize there’s any problem until the next day, argument where no one’s actually having the same conversation ensues’. And I can’t rule out AG being really upset because if I woke up with a partner I had no memory of hooking up with (and/or in someone else’s dorm room which also belongs to Mike,) I would not be particularly calm even if I vaguely knew the person. I want Amber and AG speaking to each other again ASAP, because I don’t think that’s a good situation on AG’s behalf either.
(The ‘btw my roommate is Mike’ thing is a different, much smaller problem where politeness and ‘oh god you know him? Damn, poor you’ will suffice when it does come up, but again: AG without Amber’s memory for context won’t know that if they do decide Walky’s room is better than risking Dorothy discovering. … I can’t imagine they WOULD decide that because Mike finding out is even worse than Dorothy AND he’ll probably tell her anyway, but people in this comic make really bad decisions and social anxiety makes it eighty million times worse.)
Regalli:
I agree that AG getting agitated is possible. I don’t see that resulting in anything worse than Walky being confused and Amber explaining it later.
thejeff:
No. I agree that there will come a time where it will be a good idea to tell him so he’ll understand what’s going on when AG is unexpectedly there,
she does not owe him that. That is not how that shit works.
Eh, pressure to improve yourself can come from a lot of places. It dosen’t have to come from a romantic relationship. Eventually Walky will have to decide if he’s willing to flunk out, A healthy relationship doesn’t have to be a cure all for your character flaws.
152 thoughts on “Exhaustive”
Ana Chronistic
love means never having to do the very same things one appreciates in the other
(no for serious, I love that my guy will dispatch the centipedes on the ceiling I couldn’t reach anyway)
Ana Chronistic
You still earning Charizard candy?? It’s about Shinx now!
Clif
Why couldn’t Willis’s cultural references be to things I would actually understand, like Eve Online?
thereaverofdarkness
I would love to get some EVE Online references in here! However I suspect that the references aren’t just what Willis is familiar with, but are what the characters can be expected to be familiar with.
Batman
High sec kids…..
Batman
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of BOB space. I watched Apocalypses glitter in the dark near Old Man Star. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to pod.
Clif
Your Batman.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
One issue with being married to another woman: I have to kill all the centipedes and spiders because I am the one less afraid of them. Less than a week ago, one ran across the living room floor and we were both up on the couch. I had to go after it with a clip-board. It was awful.
On the other hand, my wife gets to deal with all bees and wasps (which freak me the fuck out).
Clif
I think we call that division of labor according to the principal of least aversion. It’s why I do the cooking and my wife does the dishes.
Ana Chronistic
So when ordering takeout, I realized I’m the phone caller, even though I hate talking to people! How did THAT happen
Dragon_Nataku
Why do you have centipedes on the CEILING?? HOW do you have centipedes on the ceiling?? I thought they were too heavy to climb up there aaaa now I’m just gonna be paranoid forever about all the centipedes in my room.
Roborat
You do know that centipedes are in the house because they are finding food there, don’t you? You kill the centipedes, and they don’t eat the bugs that they are preying on.
Knayt
It depends on the centipede – a lot of them are pretty small, and also good climbers. Some of them are pretty small, good climbers, and highly venomous.
Ana Chronistic
Because these fuckers get EVERYWHERE
me
Wow do they make a lot of noise scuttling across a piece of paper. And when they crawl up your leg, it feels just like the cat’s tail brushing your leg until you realize that’s not the cat’s tail……
JetstreamGW
Walky you wild stallion you.
Clif
He’s got to make up for being so smooth last time.
Groudon
I know that feel, Walky. I know that feel.
Kris
What’s the story on all the flips and stuff anyway hamster girl potato person?!
Doctor_Who
Gravity doesn’t recognize her with that mask on.
BarerMender
Amber studied martial arts from the age of 13 and ran track and field in high school, so she”s the athletic type. Not to say, you know, a jock.
Regalli
Yeah, she has a naturally larger body type but that doesn’t mean she’s not fit or physically healthy. Probably helps her secret identity that people assume she doesn’t have a lot of muscle.
Steve
So she and Amazi-Girl are kinda like Clark Kent and Superman, except Clark and Superman look nothing alike and are two different people?
AnvilPro
This might actually be one of my favorite relationships I’ve ever read in a comic
Kinoko
Ditto. I never realized I was invested in them until they hooked up.
BBCC
Awww, it’s nice that they’re not feeling under pressure.
Now, uh, Amber, seriously, you should probably fill him in soonish. Maybe not this instant but like…soonish.
Kris
If by “soonish”you mean ignoring it until the worst/most dramatic time then sure.
BBCC
One day I’ll remember that most of this cast does not, for the most part, make good decisions. One day.
How soon do you guys think Marcie could get text-to-talk?
Regalli
There’s a lot of free resources available, phone or otherwise. I don’t believe it comes standard on smartphones (at least not on recent-but-not-newest model iPhones,) but Google has a function, and scanning the App Store I found like six free to start ones and at least one highly ranked one that says remove ads but nothing about subscriptions. So… pretty quick once Marcie’s had enough of watching the train wrecks.
BBCC
So the real reason she doesn’t get to have text to talk is because she’d tell waaaay too many people they’re being ridiculous.
Regalli
Yeah, Marcie’s too busy with the rest of her life to solve all the drama in this strip.
Kryss LaBryn
If she’s talking to Amber they could just text back and forth with no speech involved at all! 😀
Regalli
Seriously honey, this one actually does have a doomsday clock.
Lilyliv
Why are they both so relatable here?
Diner Kinetic
I showed this strip to my girlfriend and she was like “wait these are both just you”; it’s cuz apathy towards excercise and social anxiety are pretty much the young people of the world’s national anthem
Like these guys are just so frickin cute and I almost feel narcissistic because again; it’s like 59% because it feels almost like this whole arc is a self-insert fic
Laladoria
Here we see Amber being adorable and Walky being Walky.
Mr. Random
…yeah, this also encapsulates why I think this relationship is bad news.
It’s healthy and helpful to Amber, but it sorta regresses Walky.
Nothing wrong with being comfortable, but dude needs someone to push him, even a little.
And the more I think, Amber mixing relationships with her mental support system may not be the best plan either.
Kris
It doesn’t really help Amber much either. It’s nice that she’s with someone that makes it easy, but….like she’s also practically saying she doesn’t want to get help. She needs some sort of help, especially since she’s having trouble with the distinction between her and Amazi-girl and isn’t even aware of AG’s actions anymore. The people that want to “solve” her actually care about her. Walky has the privilege of being oblivious to her issues.
Regalli
Also, Amber’s been saying stuff like this and ‘let me like him without it being a thing!’ when she knows full well it’s a thing, and him finding out will make it a very big Thing indeed. (And she’s not even concerned about changing his grades yet.) If Walky knew even just the grades and stabbing and said it was okay, that would be one thing. But currently Amber’s trying to ignore the herd of elephants in the room and it’s keeping Walky from making an informed decision. I think the keeping it a secret might actually upset him more if she doesn’t tell in the next couple days.
desolation0
I find it reasonable to have a breather from trying to fix yourself. There’s a growing number of relationships that either can turn to for pushes without depending on their romantic relationship for that. Having a comfortable partner can make pursuing those relationships, or more directly the personal repair itself, more easy by not making it a constant thing that this relationship depends upon.
Regalli
The thing we worry about is that Amber’s mental health is nearing critical, to the point where she really isn’t healthy for a relationship (the ‘Walky sleeps over, AG comes out, AG doesn’t know they’re dating and recognize him and therefore reacts badly’ situation’s been brought up for a reason,) and Walky’s tendency towards avoidance and anxiety are already low-grade Problems impacting his life. If they only inspire each other to be garbage, then either or both could fall a whole lot further and frankly they need professional help already.
(Also, Walky’s response when Dorothy went to Counseling post-stabbing was that as her boyfriend he should have been able to be the one she could talk to. That is… definitely not a promising sign for this, I had completely forgotten that part of the exchange until I looked it up earlier. Amber’s issues are even further out of his pay grade than Dorothy’s trauma was.)
Kris
Fair enough, but you know what isn’t helping her? She’s completely baffled by how Cap’n Crunch stays so crunchy, even in milk! Both of them are! Hopefully their cruise control relationship also makes it easy staying humble.
Regalli
Soggies may rule?
Needfuldoer
But can they see why kids love the cinnamon taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Does she know why Apple Jacks are called that, despite the fact that they don’t taste like apples?
wwwhhattt
Is it all the jack?
Fart Captor
1) Fixing mental health issues is not the purpose of a relationship.
2) One of the biggest things harming Amber’s health has been Amber and Amazi-Girl viewing her various issues and faults as making her toxic and irreparably broken. Yes, she has problems she needs to work on and find healthier outlets for, but she cannot do that if she keeps writing herself off entirely simply because she HAS those issues.
Walky has been very good for her in that regard, and since he has a similar issue that’s been making it harder for him to work on his grades because he’s too busy freaking out that he suddenly needs to actually WORK to get good grades, it’s been good for him as well.
Neither of them is telling the other that the things each thinks makes them garbage are good things. They’ve only been listening and accepting.
They both ALREADY KNOW the things they talked about on the roof are things they need to work on. That’s why they were calling themselves garbage.
Alanari
Ignoring them doesn’t work either. And right now, she is toxic. And as long as she doesn’t get help, she’ll get more and more toxic. Trying to pretend otherwise is a pretty bad idea. And Amber isn’t just helping him forget about grades, she’s encouraging his procrastination.
Basically, they both found someone who encourages them to ignore their problems. Which sure as hell feels nice, but it will also make things way worse.
Fart Captor
She isn’t toxic. And “getting help” – presumably the professional kind – is not the only way thing she can do to work on her issues. Assuming that’s even an option, given how we already know her mom had to save up just to afford replacement glasses when hers broke.
The thing responsible for her worst outbursts was her obsession with Sal, and she’s already addressed that. It may have taken outside events for her to realize it was something leading to harm, but she’s let it go all the same. Both Amber and Amazi-Girl have made peace with Sal, even though she still sets off Amber’s PTSD.
She IS working on her problems.
She also isn’t encouraging Walky to procrastinate or ignore his problems. He’s already seeing a tutor and actually trying to improve, even if he could be trying harder.
Working on your problems doensn’t just make them vanish. Some things take time. There is nothing helpful about beating yourself up simply because you have flaws you can’t magically wish away.
Kris
Wait, wait, wait!……Is Walky actually seeing a tutor?! If he is I will take back most of my distaste for him! I know he tried to see a tutor once. Jason, who got fired! Who is no longer a T.A. but a bartender, and they both got wasted! That does not count as seeing a tutor. Did Jason confirm some sort of agreement to still tutor Walky? Was Walky looking for another source for help and I missed it? Was it like a patreon exclusive strip? I’m not even trying to be a jerk here I legitimately want to know. Cause all I know for now is he tried once, failed, then got drunk….and also Amber changed his grades in there somwhere.
thejeff
No. He’s not. Or at least there’s been no evidence of it since the whole Jason thing.
He did try a couple of times before that all blew up, but not since breaking up with Dorothy.
Fart Captor
There’s no reason to think he’s simply given up on it though. Walky didn’t give up on tutoring. Jason quit / got fired. It’s been less than a week, so there’s no reason to assume he’s not going to keep trying, either with another tutor, or something else
Alanari
Except he never wanted to do tutoring in the first place and only did it because of Dorothy. Without Dorothy and with a new girlfriend who encourages procrastination, the chances of him finding motivation to go to tutoring are small..
Fart Captor
If Walky hadn’t been so afraid that his girlfriend would stop loving him if she found out about his grades slipping, he might have told her about it much sooner while there was still time to avoid flunking out by legitimate means.
Amber encourages him spending time with her, and lets him make his own decisions about whether he should be spending that time studying. If Walky can’t make the decision on his own to study instead of something fun, that’s his own fault, not hers. She’s not standing in his way.
BBCC
Walky’s done badly on a few weekly quizzes. I doubt it’s even that badly. Again, they haven’t even had a midterm yet. He can still course correct.
Inahc
Not that tutoring was actually helping at all. (Partly because Jason sucks at it, partly because Walky was either self-sabotaging or has ADHD)
Regalli
It’s not just Dorothy – it’s at LEAST as much his mom putting the pressure on. That’s where his freak out during the first consult with Jason was from (‘I’m a smart boy! I have to get an A! Do you know who’s going to see my grades? MY MOM.’ Last sentence large text in its own speech balloon.) The thought of failing Linda’s come up multiple times, and tends towards the catastrophic. (Probably because Walky’s at least a little aware of what happens when you disappoint her. He was probably still awake and may have still been listening at the end of that conversation.) He didn’t know Dorothy when he signed up for the more advanced math classes without placement or anything because That’s What Smart Kids Do. And his conceptualizing himself as an Effortlessly Smart Kid isn’t just gifted burnout like Dorothy’s, there’s serious parental pressure. (‘I thought he was a telecommunications major?’ ‘So does he, right now.’)
Yeah, even without Dorothy? Walky is still going to be living in terror of bad grades. Or even ‘not living up to your potential’ grades. My recommendation is to get him the fuck away from Linda forever, but a good first step there is staying in school (ie, AWAY FROM HER,) and figuring out who he actually is and what he actually wants to do. And frankly I don’t think he knows either of those things yet, since he seems bored with his telecom class and only chose the major because it sounded like it had to do with TV. Getting expelled for changing his grades or failing all his classes as he anxiety-avoidance spirals are both definitely not good outcomes because he needs to minimize Linda’s ability to control his life.
thejeff
@FC: He may not have given up on it, but I think, given the weight that part of the story has had already, that we’d actually see it if he’d actually gotten another tutor.
That’s not likely to happen in the background. And we haven’t seen anything since Jason. We’ll be back to it, but for the moment Amber’s approach has been to change his grades and pass on his offer to study together.
Fart Captor
I probably should have thought to make this clear in my last comment, but I’m not blaming Dorothy or even suggesting she put pressure on him.
Walky’s own fear did that. She never pressured him at all. The moment she found out she was nothing but supportive. I’m just saying that Amber has been good for him because of how she’s explicitly reassured him from the start that she’s okay with his flaws.
Dorothy tried to assure him that him flunking calc wouldn’t change how she felt about him, but Amber’s approach seems to have been much more effective at easing his nerves.
@BBCC:
Amber thought Walky would have ended up on academic probation if she’d put his grades ALL THE WAY back, so it would in fact seem like he was doing pretty bad.
@thejeff:
Walky changing his mind about hacking his grades would seem to strongly suggest he’s not simply ignoring the problem. He realized that it wouldn’t actually make him feel better since he’d still know he hadn’t put in the work to earn it. That’s a major step forward, even if he still needs to learn how to study.
BBCC
I’m not disputing that he’s doing badly, I’m disputing that it’s too late to course correct. Amber thinks he’ll end up on probation based on his current grade, and probably because she thinks he wouldn’t be able to get his grade up. But they haven’t even had a midterm, so I sincerely doubt it’s too late to fix it. Too late for the A he wants, maybe, depending on the weight of weekly quizzes, but it’s probably not too late for a high B.
Alanari
Oh he has reasons to go to tutoring. Yes. But without someone or something putting pressure on him, he’s avoiding it. And believe me, I understand running away from things that scare the hell out of you. But that doesn’t get anything fixed.
He went to tutoring when Dorothy demanded it, stopped when they were on pause, went back after they got together again and hasn’t made any effort so far since both the relationship and Jasons job as a tutor tanked.
I’m not even sure he actually needs tutoring. He’s smart, all he needs to do probably is to sit down and read (and understand) his books. And pay attention in class. He most likely has no problems to understand maths but problems to concentrate on maths.
Alanari
She is. She’s aggressive and pushes her partner into doing what she wants. Plus her psychological problems, those always put strain on your relationships and your partner. This is a strain you can mitigate, but not by pretending it doesn’t exist.
She’s not as bad as certain other people in this comic, but she is someone you should keep at distance for your own sake.
And no, she’s not working on it. She’s trying to fix the obvious things without addressing the actual problems that lie beyond that. Which doesn’t work. Trust me, I tried the exact same thing, and it backfired horribly. Facing your own brain is scary, but there’s no way around it if you want to heal.
The way she reacted to sal on the roof is not exactly peace. It was running away in panic.
He said he wanted to study. And she knows he needs to study, to understand maths. She basically said “let’s procrastinate instead”.
thejeff
She’s not working on her problems. She’s gotten better about Sal, but the disassociation is getting worse and she’s actively repressing that – fighting with her alter, which is not likely to turn out well.
How much Walky can or should help with that is an open question – beyond saying “get thee to a therapist”, I’m not sure what he coud do.
She’s changed Walky’s grades. She’s turned down his offer to study together (not a big deal, but …) He’s not seeing a tutor anymore.
A large part of their relationship, all starting on garbage roof, is “it’s ok, we can be garbage.” That’s not healthy.
They’re adorable as hell, but I’m far from convinced they’ll be good for each other.
Regalli
I feel like some degree of mild self-deprecation or ‘I’m too worn out on this people thing to keep peopling to whatever standard they want me to’ is fine. The problem to me is that they both genuinely believe they are failures. That is not encouraging. And if it was just ‘sometimes I feel like I can’t live up to this’ ‘up here we don’t have to’ then, again, it would be fine. But Amber introduces the kiss after Walky says he feels guilty finding her cute the day after the Dorothy breakup with ‘well, we already are garbage’ – he’s probably still got that guilt hanging around given they’re keeping the relationship quiet. Amber’s suggestion when he was worried about grades was to change them, and when he said that wouldn’t feel right to him she changed them anyway. That’s a repeated pattern of ‘ignore the real problem, cover it up’ in their relationship that isn’t great. That it also means Amber has another secret from Walky that could get him expelled is just… even worse. (And her ‘let me like him without it being a thing!’ is doomed to failure. Walky might well be okay dating her after he knows she stabbed Sal. Sal might even be okay with it all. But I think Walky will be much less pleased if he finds out she knew it, say, a week ago and never told him.)
Amber ignoring the fact that she and AG are no longer sharing memories and trying to just force AG away isn’t just a bad idea, it’s actively dangerous to Amber. (AG could get hurt. AG pushes herself so far she nearly died once already.) At minimum, I really don’t think she should be in a relationship without telling him before it gets to the point where he might be there while she’s asleep. And if Walky thinks significant others are supposed to provide all the emotional support and their needing therapy is a failure of him (which he did back when Dorothy was at Counseling,) he’s going to get himself in so unimaginably deep and he isn’t remotely equipped for it. (None of the cast are, I want Amber to either find a DID support group or an actual therapist or both.)
Eldritch Gentleman
Well the key problem is that they are basically escaping from reality. They have problems, those problems won’t go away just because they pretend they don’t exist. This relationship can serve as a counter-balance of sorts. An emotional boost needed to start fixing their problems without being overwhelmed and falling to despair but they don’t seem to be doing anything about it.
They can’t stay inside their little garbage closet because eventually when they come out the rest of the house will be completely on fire.
Regalli
If everything else weren’t almost certain to sink the relationship first, I’d honestly be worried that a major fight will be one of them taking a couple steps out of the pit or going ‘actually I don’t think you’re garbage’ and the other one being upset because this relationship is supposed to be them both accepting they’re terrible and not getting reassurance they don’t believe.
I believe they could be good for each other if they weren’t both so mired in anxiety and self-loathing, but so far it’s been a net negative because of the grades thing.
thejeff
Exactly. If they were working on their issues through other routes, a nice counterbalance nonstressful relationship might be good for both of them.
But they’re not. And it’s going to come back to bite them. Through the relationship and elsewhere.
Fart Captor
I don’t see how you think they’re pretending their problems don’t exist?
Acknowledging that their problems exist was the ENTIRE thing they were doing up there. What they really needed was for someone to be able accept that they these issues, and still say “okay, but I still like you”. Because when people tell them things like “oooh nooo no you’re not garbage you’re great” it feels to them like they’re only still hanging around because that person is unwilling or unable to accept their flaws. Like, Amber expressed this outright to her mom. Walky expressed the same kind of fears about Dorothy finding out he was flunking calculus. Ignoring those flaws would defeat the entire purpose.
Yes, Amber could and probably should be doing more, even if it isn’t professional help. Trying to get rid of Amazi-Girl obviously backfired, but it’s not like she has a DID manual or even a diagnosis so that she could have known that. And since the first Garbage Roof, she’s seems to given up on that, at least for now. Accepting the status quo and just letting herself be happy for a little while is far from the worst idea, even though obviously she shouldn’t use that as a long term strategy.
Given how all that shit with Ryan went down only last week, this seems like a far better choice than convincing herself she’s too broken for a relationship and continuing to withdraw further from her friends, which is the direction she was headed before she ran into Walky.
Regalli
She threw out the mask and tried to shove AG back last night after the Sal realization triggered another panic attack. Which Walky helped with… but Amber still hasn’t told either of the twins and wants to ignore the fact that that’s a thing.
Amber’s current state is troublesome and I do worry they could bring out the worst in each other by reinforcing the garbage (not out of nowhere, since we know Amber changed his grades against his wishes,) but really? It’s the pile of secrets that I’m most worried about. The grades, the Sal thing, the dissociation – ANY one of those could be disastrous for a new relationship, but all three being secrets at once is what actually makes it a doomsday clock. They can be really cute together. Sometimes they are just what the other needs! But with Amber knowingly keeping two huge secrets from him and probably unknowingly keeping a third, the longer she keeps things secret the worse they’ll be when they do inevitably come out. If the air were cleared earlier, if she didn’t change Walky’s grades and was working up the nerve to tell about Sal, I would feel mostly okay with this relationship with the hope that AG matters get better under control before they spend the night together or something. But the current circumstances (let me just awkwardly ignore your sister’s existence! Hope you don’t check your grades ever or remember what they were!) are going to blow up in Amber’s face and that will almost certainly end with things getting worse than they were before the kiss. Honestly I wish they had kept things platonic for a bit longer. At least long enough for ONE of the secrets in the secretbomb to resolve safely. There were still risks and the dynamic still inspired the grade changing, but the stakes were just enough lower that ‘I stabbed your sister in the hand five years ago and permanently disabled her’ wouldn’t be quite as potentially catastrophic.
Fart Captor
I really don’t think “telling Walky about her history with Sal” is the thing Amber didn’t want Ethan to make a thing out of.
She definitely wanted Ethan to stop making a thing out of (1) the fact that Walky was the male version of the person who had basically come to personify her trauma, and (2) that this was now the second boy in a row that she’d started dating shortly after he’d broken up with Dorothy. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for her not to want to discus either of those things, because if she’s okay with them, they’re unimportant.
But when Ethan said she should probably tell Walky about her and Sal, Amber agreed. Yes, she told him to shut up, because clearly didn’t want to talk about that right then, but she still agreed that yes, she should tell him. She had even tried to tell him once already but lost the nerve.
And jesus fucking christ, they have been dating for only a few days. There is plenty of time. The fact that there are foreseeable problems down the road that have not already been addressed at this – again, very early – stage in their relationship does not mean it is unhealthy. Same goes for the fact that this whole thing may end up blowing up very badly (which I agree is very possible).
I don’t see the grades thing as the kind of massive land mine you do. Yes, it was bad that she still did it after he changed his mind, but she didn’t just completely ignore his wishes. She changed his grades, but only enough to keep him off academic probation. She should still have checked first, but if she doesn’t wait too long to tell him what she did, I think there’s a good chance he’ll forgive her.
I also don’t see how she is under any obligation to explain her mental illness to him, especially this soon. People have every right to keep that kind of thing secret for however long it takes for them to feel comfortable sharing it.
And ffs, Walky is not in any danger from Amazi-Girl unless he suddenly starts up a life of crime (and attacks AG when she tries to stop him, though honestly even then I doubt she’d actually hurt him (even if simply grabbing him by the hoody wasn’t enough to stop him)). Yes, for a while there AG was in fact very dangerous to Sal any of her friends AG found near her, but she’s past that now. We’ve seen no evidence that AG is becoming irrational. The problem that is worsening is that Amber and AG are further dissociated than ever and not sharing memories. They’ve essentially painted a line down the middle of her brain and told the other “stay on YOUR own side and don’t touch MY stuff!”. She’s not going to suddenly go berserk and start karate-chopping random bystanders
thejeff
The grades become a major land mine if she wasn’t as clean about as she thought and someone realizes – then they’re both expelled. (Not likely to happen, since that would move them away from the main cast, but still a concern.)
Her mental illness: While theoretically I agree with you, practically she owes him an explanation before he’s confronted with it unexpectedly – in this case most likely before they actually sleep together, since AG is taking over in Amber’s sleep.
I don’t think he’s in any actual physical danger from AG – though waking up next to him with no memory of him being there might put that to the test.
It still something you want to break to a boyfriend a little more gently than that.
Regalli
Changing the grades at all, even enough to keep him off probation, can get them both expelled. Period. It’s a BIG FUCKING DEAL and schools don’t take kindly to people hacking their computers and committing fraud. Keeping him off academic probation* probably also ensures he keeps receiving the same level of academic scholarship funding, (and his grades sound like they were high enough he might have actually gotten some,) which would be costing the school money. They will not be happy about that, either. She will get in trouble, he will get in trouble, and even if Walky doesn’t realize how much trouble they’ll be in, I do.
* Which won’t even work or be necessary. We’re pre-midterms and he would need to be struggling in multiple classes to be under a 2.0 – Which he may well be, but if she’s changing those grades then someone’s way more likely to notice since his other classes didn’t just change TAs and he doesn’t suspect he’s struggling there yet.
AG might be fine waking up in an unfamiliar setting or with an unfamiliar person, but at minimum she’s going to have questions and she might get agitated when Walky doesn’t get what’s going on. Maybe not actively dangerous, but not a pleasant interaction for either of them and potentially a ‘Walky thinks it’s a breakup and Amber doesn’t realize there’s any problem until the next day, argument where no one’s actually having the same conversation ensues’. And I can’t rule out AG being really upset because if I woke up with a partner I had no memory of hooking up with (and/or in someone else’s dorm room which also belongs to Mike,) I would not be particularly calm even if I vaguely knew the person. I want Amber and AG speaking to each other again ASAP, because I don’t think that’s a good situation on AG’s behalf either.
(The ‘btw my roommate is Mike’ thing is a different, much smaller problem where politeness and ‘oh god you know him? Damn, poor you’ will suffice when it does come up, but again: AG without Amber’s memory for context won’t know that if they do decide Walky’s room is better than risking Dorothy discovering. … I can’t imagine they WOULD decide that because Mike finding out is even worse than Dorothy AND he’ll probably tell her anyway, but people in this comic make really bad decisions and social anxiety makes it eighty million times worse.)
Fart Captor
Regalli:
I agree that AG getting agitated is possible. I don’t see that resulting in anything worse than Walky being confused and Amber explaining it later.
thejeff:
No. I agree that there will come a time where it will be a good idea to tell him so he’ll understand what’s going on when AG is unexpectedly there,
she does not owe him that. That is not how that shit works.
Classic Appa
Eh, pressure to improve yourself can come from a lot of places. It dosen’t have to come from a romantic relationship. Eventually Walky will have to decide if he’s willing to flunk out, A healthy relationship doesn’t have to be a cure all for your character flaws.
TooOldToBeCool