521

Stop
Posted on July 21, 2025 by David M Willis

521 thoughts on “Stop”

  1. shadowcell

    holding hands but with your face

    1. Laura

      As Romeo said, “Let lips do what hands do!”

      1. Paradoxius

        “And lips to lips is criminals’ hand-holding” or something like that

        1. Proxiehunter

          “And lip to lip is hoky lipper’s kiss.”

        2. Proxiehunter

          holy. Damn tablet keyboard.

        3. showler

          Shouldn’t have tried to let your lips do what hands do. Hard to type that way.

        4. The Chosen One

          If you steal a lot of kisses at once, that’s making out like a bandit

        5. Nymph

          A. Fucking. Plus.

        6. and painted shark women

          *chef’s kiss*

    2. butts

      sickos stay winning

      1. Dante

        Beautiful gravatar 100/10, topical and appropriate

        1. Puppeteer Nessus

          You too Dante

      2. Puppeteer Nessus

        Nobel Prize in Gravatars

      3. Nymph

        So true, so real.

    3. Yet_One_More_Idiot

      With your face; YOUR FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

      …sorry, I’ll let myself out. Even after all these years, I still remember when YOUR FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE was a thing. xD

      1. thejeff

        Stop the FAAAACEs!

  2. NGPZ

    *plays “Filthy/Gorgeous” by Scissor Sisters on hacked muzak*

    1. Doctor_Who

      Weird, after not thinking of Scissor Sisters for like a decade, I just randomly heard one of their songs an hour ago, and now here’s another.

      1. Looney

        i call bluff. speaking as a fellow doctor who fan, no way did you go through an entire decade without thinking about scissor sisters ONCE

        1. Doctor_Who

          Okay, fair enough, they were used in a hilarious scene that one time.

          Not my favorite of their songs though. I prefer “Take Your Momma” or “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing”.

          Also, both “Rasputin” and “Spice Up Your Life” have since been used for “The villain is about to be very silly” moments, so the Sisters’ scene isn’t as unique now.

        2. Looney

          i think the first one still sticks out in my memory due to the fact that i grew up knowing that song and didn’t know that anyone else knew it, so hearing it in a major tv show kind of made me feel like i was losing my mind. i also think that scene contributed to the widespread popularity/meme-dom of the song, whereas the other scenes you mentioned used songs that were already popular, so it doesn’t feel quite as influential. but that’s just my opinion.

          also, “i don’t feel like dancing” is a great choice and i would be blasting it right now were i not afraid of waking up my whole apartment complex.

        3. Taffy

          They’re not especially important to the show though, are they?

      2. Amara

        They’re on tour now actually! My wife went with her best friend and saw them live a couple weeks ago, along with Kesha and Slayyyter. The show was a bit too raunchy for the best friend’s taste, but my wife loved it. Next time they’re on tour in our area I’ll be going to see them live.

  3. Rose by Any other Name

    Next panel – the pair of them on the floor making out.

    1. Steamweed

      How else to know what they shouldn’t be doing, unless they do it a little? As the great wise sage Jennifer did say.

  4. Amós Batista

    Joyce pulls.
    Joyce is pulling.
    ?️‍?

    1. butts

      jennifer didn’t even know how right she was

    2. NGPZ

      like a neodymium magnet

      hell more like an MRI coil at this rate! XD

    3. Pocky

      Joyce could never have imagined her game would be so good in college.

      1. Matt

        between undiagnosed ADHD (Walky) and undiagnosed autism (Joyce), it seems there’s a trend to who pulls in college, one backed up by my college experience

        1. Rose by Any other Name

          **sapphic who had undiagnosed autism in college raises her hand**
          I can confirm that I did not, in fact, have any kind of game in undergrad college aside from tabletop roleplaying.
          Fortunately, the tabletop gaming club is where me and another sapphic girl went from being acquaintances to best friends, and a couple of months after graduation on teh way home from an anime con we attended together, she asked me out.
          We’ve been together ever since.
          Plus, my/our game seriously improved after we started dating. Turns out having a partner can really improve a girl’s confidence.

    4. Astariel

      Joyce was pulling.
      Joyce will pull.

      Sorry, activated some old Latin class reflexes there.

      1. Dara

        ooh, your reflexes are different! mine’s nominative singular, infinitive, definition, declension number.

        I once did this in the middle of an art history class because someone was confused about a word in Italian. Jolted upright from being half asleep, spewed all that out, and added ‘from the Latin’ before blinking and remembering where I was xD

        Astoundingly, it was actually helpful.

        1. Dara

          (ugh, it’s been too long, I merged reflexes! nominative singular form, declension of noun in context if relevant.)

          (it’s also been long enough I have forgot so much Latin. it’s still helping in French but a lot less than it used to.)

      2. Rose by Any other Name

        Joyce had pulled.

        (for some spicy past participle)

        Also, sorry, I hit report while trying to post this comment. Yeah, I know, based on number of reports, etc, but I still feel silly for doing so.

  5. Eiim

    Are those the dumping stairs? Have they always been so long?

    1. Rose by Any other Name

      No, those are the kissing stairs. Obviously.

    2. Heatth

      Yeah. I think we never got an areal view though, so we only see one set of steps at a time.

    3. Dante

      If this is foreshadowing imma riot

    4. Bittersweet

      Nah, they’re in the wrong section. That’s the stabbing/congregating section. Dumping’s a little further away from the building. If there’s gonna be mass breakups, they’ve gotta move a bit downwind or else they’re gonna get fined.

  6. Kyulen

    Maybe they can kiss more after they’ve talked with their boyfriends about this? I suppose that’s too much to ask.

    1. Cholma

      As if Walky or Joe would get upset over two women kissing.

      1. Erica

        That’s a very fetishizing of lesbians, “it’s not cheating if it’s hot” mindset

        1. Cholma

          Based on decades of evidence from those 2, I am sincere in believing that neither would care, nor think too deeply into it — to consider it cheating at all.

          Walky is very surface-level emotions, and based on Walky-verse Joe, he was very much into multiple partners & girl on girl. True, his character here is slightly different, and he’s trying very hard with Joyce to become a better person, but that doesn’t change what his first reaction would probably be.

          However, only Lord God Willis really knows what their reactions will be.

        2. GholaHalleck

          Yeah, the guy who didn’t cheat on Lucy, and the guy who lived his entire high school era as a sex pest so no one would get hurt if he cheated, but he never did… Totally wouldn’t care about this at all.

        3. Amara

          Joe: “I just want you to do what you want to do.” Upon her return from the night out at the bar, (which we now know was a date), Joyce tried to reassure him that him being excluded from going out to drink wasn’t against him personally, and he had a very knowing look and more or less okayed her second relationship with Dorothy. He’s known this was coming and feels like he doesn’t have the right to protest any of it, regardless of his personal feelings.

          He might make a joke about making out with walky too, but that might be more of a separate convo with Danny to discuss it.

        4. GholaHalleck

          None of that means he’s *okay* with it, is the point. It means he’s going to martyr his happiness for the person he loves. He’s giving “permission” in a way that is damaging to him and will ultimately damage the both of them.

          Where Joe takes this once it’s actually reality is going to be the biggest bomb in the plot to date I think.

        5. Tobias

          Both of them care very very much about not hurting other people, but that doesn’t directly correlate to them being hurt by this. They might be! But the two aren’t really related to each other.

        6. Mr.Morningstar

          I… think you’re greatly underestimating how these two would feel about being cheated on

        7. VicMortimer

          Lesbians….

          Bi erasure is cool, right?

          And no, it’s NOT cheating if it’s hot. By definition, if your partner finds it hot, they’re into it. That’s how that works.

        8. Nymph

          This is the one.

        9. Odo

          Still cheating even if they think it is hot retrospectively.

          “Cheating” is about violating the boundaries of an existing relationship. Everything we have seen from Joe indicates he thinks they are in a monogamous relationship. Quite frankly, same for Walky.

          Even if they are okay with Joyce/Dorothy retrospectively, that doesn’t change the fact that their partner chose to betray a trust.

          It is perfectly reasonable to go “I’m fine with you kissing, I am not fine with you kissing without talking to me first”.

        10. Nymph

          It’s also perfectly reasonable to go “I’m fine with you kissing”. We don’t know how they’ll react, but I’m excited to find out!

        11. Proxiehunter

          Especially when the only people surprised by Joyce and Dorothy kissing are likely to have been Joyce and Dorothy.

        12. Li

          This. I think there’s potential for heartbreak! But not for surprise.

        13. Mari

          I ship them so hard, and I agree with you so hard

      2. Doctor_Who

        Joe: “Nice.”

        Walky: “Nice.”

        Becky: “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!”

        1. GholaHalleck

          Joe: Called the make outs, not the cheating, I owe Danny 20$.

          Walky: Now I know how Lucy felt.

          Becky: *dog whistle high scream*

        2. Steamweed

          A distinct non-zero possibility it could go that way.

        3. achallenger

          I was looking to make this exact comment. Becky becomes the joker /neg

      3. Kyulen

        Even if both Joe and Walky like seeing women kissing, these two women are their girlfriends cheating on them. I wouldn’t assume they’ll be happy about that.

        1. Steamweed

          I’m suspecting that Walky is expecting it, though. But not Joe.

        2. mags

          Agreed. I don’t think Walky went into this round particularly expecting for it to last. Joe, though… I really think Joe’s going to take it harder than even he thinks he would.

        3. Astariel

          I’ll be shocked if this takes Joe by surprise, considering his recent conversation with Dorothy.

        4. yak

          He knows Dorothy has feelings for Joyce, but he didn’t seem to be contemplating Dorothy getting involved in the relationship. He also seemed to think that ‘doing laundry’ wasn’t sex and didn’t qualify as cheating in any way, even though he knew what it was. He may even have an inkling that Joyce is bi. IMO in that conversation, he was basically telling Dorothy that he trusts her.

          No such conversation happened between him and Joyce, and he’s made her such a focal point in his life that if he interpreted this as a betrayal, even a minor one, it could really hurt him.

      4. Heatth

        As funny as this might be, Joe, in particular, has a bad history with cheating (it is part of why he avoided serious relationships so much), so I expect he being genuinely hurt by it.

        1. Switchchris

          But at the same time he did offer to break up with Joyce so that Dorothy could have her if she wanted… While it would probably Hurt, I think he would be fairly quick to accept it if it meant Joyce would be happy. Dude has grown A LOT since before he started dating Joyce.

          He Knew that Joyce loved Dorothy since before he started dating her and it was always in the back of his mind that if Dorothy ever made a move that Joyce would be hers in a instant (and he was 100% correct)

        2. Erica

          Wait what? When did that happen?

        3. Switchchris

          He had a private convo with Dorothy a while back, can’t remember the exact panels, but I remember that very clearly.

        4. Rov

          The closest he got was saying “be honest with yourself”. I think the “step aside” wording was from a discarded strip when Willis tried to write the Joe/Dorothy conversation years earlier.

        5. Erica

          I remember the conversation, I don’t remember him offering to break up with Joyce so Dorothy could have her

        6. perpetual summer

          Pretty sure that’s a canned strip Willis posted? The first version of that scene included Joe offering that, but since it was so short after he’d started dating Joyce Willis didn’t end up doing that & pushed the whole scene back in the story.

        7. apricot

          Yep, this is correct. It was posted on Patreon a while back and now people keep accidentally brain-merging it with canon lol

      5. DailyBrad

        Joe at least knew this was coming, and thus might be more okay with it potentially.

        Walky, though, I am much more inclined to feel would be hurt and angered by what is basically cut and dry a betrayal of trust. That’s not me shitting on people who are excited about these developments, like I am certainly following along with great interest, but Dorothy abstained from kissing Joyce before Joyce was initially going to get laid for a reason, even if it obviously didn’t take.

        1. Erica

          I don’t know that he knew it was coming. He knew Dorothy had feelings for Joyce but I don’t know if he ever imagined Joyce would return the feelings and cheat on/leave him

        2. GholaHalleck

          He was probably 50/50 on if Joyce would stay with him, but I highly doubt he expected her to have televised make outs before she had the common courtesy to break up with him.

    2. Heatth

      They both have, historically, been pretty bad at restraining themselves from kissing when they shouldn’t be kissing.

      1. Arianod

        And now someone else is getting all their best?

    3. Adeptus

      The dynamic here is interesting. Dorothy is the one impulsively initiating things, and Joyce is reacting to it.

      Dorothy also seems to be the only one who has any care about people and situations outside of the two of them.

      I don’t know what this says about Joyce. She seems to be very much living in the moment, and trusting Dorothy 110%.

      1. mags

        You remember how Joyce is the one who turned around and kissed Dorothy in the middle of a protest, kicking this whole thing off, right? Like, I do think right now Joyce is just kind of riding the high, but I don’t think that qualifies as “Dorothy is the one impulsively initiating things and Joyce is just following”.

        1. Nymph

          Every interaction with Joyce and Dorothy ends up framed like Joyce has no real agency and is just getting led around by Dorothy. I have no idea why.

        2. Dark_Panda

          IKR? It seems to me that Joyce has been the one initiating most of the time. Except the time Dorothy demonstrated Laundromat Masturbation for Joyce.

        3. Li

          Something something reflexive infantalization of Joyce something something reflexive vilification of Dorothy something something.

        4. Nymph

          Something something great points well made. 😛

        5. Li

          ❤️

        6. Tan

          I dunno, panel 3 is very much a shared look, and panel 4 looks like both of them leaning in. Dorothy is admittedly leaning in further (and thus has her hand on Joyce’s shoulder for balance), but then panel 5 Joyce grabs Dorothy’s jacket with both hands and really presses the kiss like she’s about to climb on top of Dorothy right then and there.

        7. thejeff

          Could be wrong, but I read this comment as a “this time, unlike the previous kiss”.

          And she’s also the one pulling back here, first from the handholding, then from the kiss she initiated. Even back at the protest she was saying “we can’t”, like she did in bed the night before.

          This I think fits Dorothy’s pattern, as far back as her first kiss with Walky. She tells herself she shouldn’t do something, but can’t actually hold back.

          Dorothy’s struggling with something. Joyce otoh is all in and has shown basically no hesitation.

    4. Fuchs Sakemann

      Maybe we’ll find out that Walky and Joe support kissing the homies goodnight.
      At least that’s my hope.

  7. Animedingo

    Man the post adrenaline nut is gonna go wild

    1. Throwatron

      i wonder how the school is going to spin the destroyed dorm laundry room so they can blame it on the protest?

  8. IntangibleMatter

    Ah, good, more kissing. I was worried they were done

  9. TheFungus

    For the record THIS was the page that got me to finally go “Haha yes” THIS is the page that marked my full transformation into a sicko.

    1. Nadamás

      One of us! One of us!

    2. Dara

      YAAAAAAASSSSS welcome to Team Sickos 😀

      1. Marianne

        Go Team Sickos! ✌️

    3. Dante

      //cheering and rejoicing !!

    4. Taffy

      Yaaaaay

    5. Tequila Mockingbird

      Yeah, I know what you mean… my mind goes to that Warhammer 40k quote form the Possessed Marines.

      “I FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING ME… IT IS A GOOD PAIN.”

      Just replace “The Warp” with sicko, obviously. Or maybe Sappho.

      1. Throwatron

        the boring sort of nerds simply don’t understand. Warhammer could be so much cooler, if only all the characters were rugged lesbians.

        1. Tequila Mockingbird

          Boy, would you be thrilled to hear about the fanfiction I have planned…

        2. and painted shark women

          I don’t like how you almost (almost!) got me to care about warhammer there, don’t do it ever again 😛

    6. NGPZ

      HAVA NAGILA! 😀

    7. Tan

      Welcome. Please enjoy your complimentary t-shirt

    8. kaleido

      hahaha yesssssss

    9. Steamweed

      Welcome! Our website is undergoing construction. The first SickosCon is undergoing planning; if you would like to join a volunteer committee, please reach out to the ConCom.

  10. Animedingo

    Funny enough I dont see Joe or walky having a problem with this.

    We’ll have our poly dorm yet

    1. Jo_cubstar

      I really hope so(

    2. butts

      the obligatory “polycules aren’t a bandage solution for romantic problems” aside… i could see Walky being okay with it in principle, but Joe has some (completely understandable) baggage about infidelity that makes it pretty hard for me to see him being OK with this situation

      1. Nymph

        They’re not, but they’re a pretty good thing to spring up around the understanding that you are, actually, in love with more than one person. You can have a problematic start to a really lovely relationship if it was a genuine shock to you that you could even feel this way. Sometimes people are complicated.

        I’m still hoping for polycule <3

        1. Odo

          I’m really hoping not. It would be treating Polyamory as something that excuses cheating.

          Joyce and Dorothy have both cheated on there partners here. They have made the conscious choice to kiss multiple times without having any conversation with their current partners over whether Walky/Joe would be okay with opening the relationships in this way.

          Jumping to a polycule would skip over the infidelity. It would be as if a retroactive conversation would make their prior decisions okay.

          If the story wanted to go in the polycule direction, I would have preferred to see Joyce/Dorothy talk to Joe/Walky before kissing each other.

        2. Nymph

          Or they could experience consequences and a very rocky time in all their relationships, and still choose to try a poly relationship. It’s not an either/or situation, both can happen.

        3. AK

          I dunno, I… Think it’s just messier than that, the first time you realize that’s something you want. Like. There’s no reason to have the conversation until you understand it’s important to you. For a lot of people, self included, discovering this is something that a) you want and b) has to be properly negotiated is a learning process that starts with a lot of failure, even if you know poly exists already.

          You can have an arc where you really address where the problems and pain points are and do the really messy negotiation of boundaries and talk about redress for harm done and doing better and regaining trust and still… Come out of it with all the same people still in relationships. Honestly that would feel very true to life to me.

          The poly community doesn’t get its stances on communication from nowhere, it gets them from a lot of people having firsthand experience fucking it up in various ways and trying to build structures that prevent that from happening again as much as possible. I don’t think portraying that messiness and then letting it resolve is doing a disservice to either the messiness or the outcome.

          Which is not to say I necessarily think it’s going to happen, I honestly have very little sense for that, but.

        4. thejeff

          Basically this. I’ve got no problem with this turning into some kind of end game poly thing, it’s only if they skip over the messiness because Joe and Walky are just fine with it that it’s really doing the “poly is a bandaid” thing.

      2. achallenger

        your right but also i can see walky trying to kiss joe out of spite and it all going horribly wrong for horny revenge.

        1. Proxiehunter

          Horribly wrong or horribly right?

      3. zee

        Weirdly I’m the opposite. I can see Joe going along with it because he’d do anything for Joyce, but I feel like Walky would be unable to handle it. Like all jokes about how he called it and girl on girl is hot or whatever obligatory man thing he thinks he has to say, but inwardly too insecure over how much dot clearly loves Joyce more. His love for dot isn’t the same soul changing awe joe has for Joyce. But we’ll see how it goes down

    3. Erica

      Really? Joe, who didn’t believe in love or relationships because his dad constantly cheated on his mom and took months of talking to Joyce to gradually change; and Walky, who Dorothy wouldn’t give up Yale for but decided she’d give it up for Joyce; wouldn’t haven’t any problem with this?

      1. Animedingo

        Walky aint that deep

        And its not like they fucked…debateably. Not by joes definition.

        1. Dot

          Narrator voice: Walky was, in fact, that deep.

        2. Throwatron

          People believing Walky Is Not Deep are falling into the exact same trap as the people who were genuinely surprised that Dorothy Is Not Perfect. You can’t just believe a character’s own bullshit about themselves. Don’t be easier to lie to, than the fictional character! They’re lying to themselves for a reason!

        3. thejeff

          It really is amazing to me how well these character’s masks work on the readers.

        4. GholaHalleck

          They did by Joyce’s though.

        5. Grimeyville

          I genuinely don’t know why so many people write Walky off as not that deep when we’ve had plenty of evidence contrary to it, including Dorothy herself observing that Walky makes jokes about things to hide his real feelings.

        6. Taffy

          All he presents is the mask, 97.44% of the time. The remaining 2.56%, he’s expressing his feelings in ways that make him hard to take seriously. He presents shallow.

        7. Grimeyville

          Presenting is hardly the same as ‘is’. We have seen evidence that he’s far from shallow. That he has feelings and hiding them behind the yucks is his go-to. Hard to unlearn that behavior but I sincerely would hope this might do better for him in the long run.

        8. Dot

          Ridiculous. Walky’s entire thing is that he uses the affect of a carefree buffoon to avoid having to deal with responsibilities and emotional intimacy, which intimidate and frighten him. He has a longstanding inferiority complex, he doesn’t think he’s good enough for Dorothy. He’s not a shallow person at all.

        9. Taffy

          Yes, thank you for agreeing with me about him presenting shallow.

        10. Dot

          I disagree that uncomplicated and shallow are the same thing.

        11. Taffy

          Disagree with whatever semantics you want, we both understand he’s fronting a goofball persona.

      2. Kyulen

        It seems silly to me to just assume that Joe and Walky will be fine with their girlfriends cheating on them with each other.

        1. Switchchris

          For Walky its hard to say how he will respond, he doesn’t exactly speak about his own emotions very often.

          For Joe, while it might Hurt to hear that Joyce has picked Dorothy, he knew she would before they even started dating, he even offered to break up with her so Dorothy could have her. He knew Joyce loved Dorothy before they started dating, hell half the cast knew, but he just hoped they his anxieties would be proven wrong.
          He sees himself as not good enough for Joyce and he puts her happiness above his own at every turn, so while I think it would hurt to be proven correct, he would be quick to accept it and congratulate the couple, even with a fake smile and maybe some tears.

          Joe has grown A LOT since he started dating Joyce, He isn’t his Father and I think he knows that now, so I think he would be fine in the long run.

        2. Thing 2

          Silly to assume they will, silly to assume they won’t. Maybe they were both shot by the sniper and we don’t know yet. I mean, I’m sure many people have fun making predictions. Esp. if they can go “called it!”.
          But me, I’m bored to tears with people using the c word and debating this in the comments to almost every page lately!

        3. Dot

          What’s silly is complaining about people discussing and debating what is happening right now at present in this comic including in this exact strip.

        4. Proxiehunter

          A lot of the comment section lately isn’t discussing and debating what’s happening right now at present in this comic. They’re creating fanfic in their heads about what might happen in the future and then getting mad about it.

          At least us sickos are happy about the fanfic we’re writing in our heads about the future of the comic. And most of us know not to get mad if what Willis writes isn’t the same as what we wrote in our heads.

        5. Taffy

          Speak for yourself. If Willis doesn’t give Becky a cool cyborg arm as a direct result of Joyce and Dorothy making out, I’m burning down Radio Shack.

        6. Proxiehunter

          Well that’s just logical.

        7. and painted shark women

          I gotta say I do respect how on-brand you remain, at all times, even in milk :3

      3. DailyBrad

        Joe was the one who was encouraging Dorothy to be honest with herself when he (rightfully) suspected she had feelings for Joyce, so I feel like he’d be way less blindsided by this than Walky.

        Walky, on the other hand, can be firm on certain boundaries, like how a big part of why he and Amber never formally dated was the Sal situation, his distaste for when Ruth was with Billie, or his immediate refusal to cheat on Lucy with Dorothy and him brushing off her attempt as a moment of weakness on her part. I think he’d be more hurt and betrayed by this.

        1. Erica

          Man that’s a good point. Dorothy, for all her moral righteousness, sure has shown to not really respect people’s relationships and be prone to cheating

        2. Switchchris

          She is a very high stress, impulse driven person when she isn’t doing great. Her emotions stay bottled up for so long for the purpose of her goals that they kinds just explode whenever she feels like she is in a safe place or when she is feeling vulnerable.

          Im 100% sure that if Joyce hadn’t marched out onto that field after her, she would not have gave in to Joyce’s obvious love for her, or at the very least she would have held back for as long as she could have.

        3. DailyBrad

          I think that she has been in a very fragile state post-kidnapping, so I am more inclined to cut her some slack, versus when she was more torn on Joyce pursuing Jacob. If anything, Joyce has a spotty history on boundaries as much as Dorothy does.

          That said, I think Dorothy’s issue, beyond the PTSD that is absolutely messing her life up as of late, is that she kind of takes Walky for granted and got it into her mind that he is the uncomplicated comfort person, but in doing that, she’s been reluctant to share her struggles with him because he’s the escape from that, and it’s helped widen the gulf that’s been part of why this happened in the first place.

          Of course, the Dorothy x Joyce train has been coming to the station for ages now, with quite a lot of things building to it, so it’s no one issue. Dorothy’s been heading for a boil-over for a while.

        4. Erica

          She totally does take him for granted. She clearly thought that even when he was with Lucy she could have him back any time she wanted.

        5. Kammon

          I mean, in the Walkyverse she was literally introduced trying to steal Walky away from Joyce on their wedding day. It’s almost something of a consistent character trait.

        6. GholaHalleck

          It’s not a matter of being blindsided, it’s more that Joe would probably think Joyce would be incapable of cheating on him, and Dotty needed to come to terms with her feelings about Joyce because they were eating her alive.

          I doubt he intended for them to bang, but Dotty needed to realize what she was doing and how it could change her friendship to Joyce, and she was sabotaging herself, Walky, and Joyce because she couldn’t come to terms with her need to walk the mountaintop with Joyce.

          I think Joe suspects that Joyce might have feelings for Dotty, and that for her own happiness instead of his own, Joe would step away so they could be together.

          It has precedent because of how his Horn Dog persona was his misguided way to warn people that he couldn’t be trusted to be a stable boyfriend.

          So he probably fully expects there’s a chance she will break up with him, but I doubt he thinks Joyce is actually capable of being as hormone driven and thoughtless as she’s been this entire plot line.

        7. Switchchris

          Joyce has been Hormone driven throughout her entire relationship with him, its most of the reason she started dating him in the first place, because tall buff man makes her feel horny. She wanted to climb him like a mountain. Its just that every time they go past a barrier, she backs off as she didn’t feel comfy anymore.

        8. DailyBrad

          She’s physically very into him, but I don’t think it’s solely that. The two have had an oddly parallel journey in moving away from their past selves in a way people have been slow to accept in their lives, along with connecting emotionally over things like her parents’ divorce, etc.

          But yeah, she’s been more eager than he has to make things physical, though obviously the two have engaged in physical play together all the same. Still, they haven’t been 100 percent on the same page.

        9. GholaHalleck

          I think that’s a disservice to their relationship to say they got together mostly because Joyce had the hots for him. He was there for her for multiple weeks behind the scenes as her phone buddy, and they connected on more then psychical levels before making things official.

        10. Adeptus

          I think both Joe and Joyce genuinely like and respect each other, and are obviously very much sexually attracted to each other. Joyce has a huge hang-up over the concept of virginity however, at least in the old school heterosexual p-in-v sense.

        11. Dot

          I would question how much Joyce actually respects Joe given she is currently cheating on him

        12. Wack'd

          @DailyBrad: “Walky, on the other hand, can be firm on certain boundaries, like how a big part of why he and Amber never formally dated was the Sal situation, his distaste for when Ruth was with Billie, or his immediate refusal to cheat on Lucy with Dorothy and him brushing off her attempt as a moment of weakness on her part.”

          most of those times walky stood firm on boundaries were in defense of someone else! this would require him to say he personally deserves better and i dunno if that’s a rubicon he’s ready to cross

    4. Dot

      Joe’s parents’ marriage imploded due to infidelity and Walky has always had an inferiority complex about not being good enough for Dorothy. This isn’t to disrespect polyamory, but all this talk about this leading that way is wishful thinking from folks who want to have their cake and eat it too.

      1. DailyBrad

        It’s not impossible it could become a polyamory situation, but yeah, I do think it’s the kind of thing that’s absolutely not going to just easily fall into place.

        1. Proxiehunter

          If it was easy it wouldn’t be fun to read about.

        2. Adeptus

          I don’t think this is especially fun.

        3. Nymph

          But I do, so opinions clearly vary and Willis can’t make a storyline that works for every single reader all of the time.

        4. I Know Why the Mowed Lawn Screams

          aww shoot, accidentally flagged you. sorry bout that!

          anyways while i’m here might as well share my two cents. personally i’ve never cared for polyship joe/dorothy/joyce (and /walky? not sure on the consensus on that) because of a few reasons, but i’m not going to begrudge someone for following their bliss.

          it would be cool to see non-monogamous relationships be explored, and i do think it could be written in a way that isn’t hackneyed, but only time will tell if thats in the cards or not.

    5. Cloud

      Whether they have a problem with it or not, Dorothy and Joyce are both still bad people for not discussing this with their partners before they cheated, and relationships that start with cheating are usually doomed to fail. If they all end up poly, that would minimize the hurt but not excuse the crime.

      1. thejeff

        Starting with really cheating definitely screws up your chances at a relationship, but if they go talk this out now a couple of kisses first isn’t going to be a big deal.

      2. Nymph

        “relationships that start with cheating are usually doomed to fail.”

        Is there data on this? This gets said a lot, but I actually know a ton of couples who started with cheating and are still going strong. A guy who cheated on me married the woman he cheated with and they’ve got a cute kid and a nice life now.

        The idea that you can’t start with a mistake and still build a meaningful relationship always just seems like wishful thinking to me and a bias toward karma/justice porn of those relationships then breaking up.

        I think if you’re dealing with a serial cheater, they’re likely to cheat on you the way they cheated with their partner before, but serial cheaters aren’t the only version of that story.

        I would just love to know if anyone actually studied this and has statistics on it. I want to know if this is fluff to make people who were cheated on feel better (it doesn’t make ME feel better, I’d rather get cheated on because those two people were actually in love and drawn to each other rather than just for funsies to hurt me), or if this is actually based in reality.

        1. Steamweed

          An excellent gravatar!

        2. Nymph

          tyyyyy!

        3. Li

          https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5709195/

          This study made an attempt, and it was specifically motivated by the lack of prior research on the topic. Keep in mind that it’s a limited study, 74% white people, not necessarily representative of even the population of the USA, etc.

          Its conclusions, such as they are, were that there is an increased likelihood of cheating in subsequent relationships, but it’s certainly not “always doomed”. And keep in mind that they’re comparing folks who cheated in their first-ever relationships to folks who didn’t, and not really eliminating factors like “financially independent versus not”, nor did they track anyone’s reasons for cheating. “Someone who cheated in their first relationship is 3x likelier to cheat in their second relationship than someone who didn’t” has obvious limitations in extrapolation.

          (Also I think you’re exactly right, folks are biased by their sense of karmic justice.)

        4. Nymph

          I really appreciate you finding a study at all and then offering such good opinions about the limitation of the study! Ty so much <3 you are always awesome.

        5. Li

          It was a great question! And after a few false starts where I just got blog posts by religious weirdos, I was able to find an actual study ❤️

    6. Steamweed

      Poly?
      Cool!

    7. Madock345

      Let’s Go! Main Cast Poly Adventure! I want EVERYONE in it.

  11. Dot

    Man, I’m glad for everyone who wanted these two together but speaking as a gay lady myself I just do not feel anything towards them as a couple. Like yep… that sure is two girls kissing. You got anything else for me?

    1. GholaHalleck

      The inevitable social implosion as her high school bestie, their boyfriends, and the old besties Ace GF scatter like autumn leaves in the wind because they were too hormone-driven to not tongue in the middle of a televised protest about a possible genocide?

      AG probably being shot in a non-vital area?

      1. Dot

        Yeah sure that’s great can I have my Billie/Ruth back though please

        1. GholaHalleck

          Does Indiana have no liquor on Sunday laws? If not, there might be a chance!

          … And that would free up Alice for Joe. It’s a win win.

        2. DailyBrad

          On one hand, I do like Billie/Ruth, but on the other, I am a big Alice fan and would be pretty down to see Billie/Jennifer get over her mental blocks on acknowledging she and Alice had a thing and perhaps renewing that. There are options.

        3. Dot

          Ok but consider: I don’t like Alice and I do like Ruth.

      2. Bittersweet

        It’s kind of weird we’re checking in on Joyce and Dorothy before AG actually, is she okay? Is the strip gonna cut to her in a jail cell as the clock hits midnight? That would distress me

        1. DailyBrad

          It’s not impossible, but I am inclined to think that no, she won’t be arrested during this. I feel like the time it was implied Asher may have realized her identity would be kind of an odd thing to put in the strip if she’s just going to get arrested and unmasked, anyway, by some random flatfoot.

        2. PedanticJerkass

          Better than in a body bag or a morgue locker.

  12. Reltzik

    So are they really good at hand-holding, or really bad at kissing?

    1. Tawnee

      Only way to be sure is with more data. Observed by neutral parties (us) of course.

      1. Steamweed

        It’s for science.

  13. ZombieKyrik

    Wow, they need to talk with their respective boyfriends before they kiss again.

    No matter how much I want them to continue kissing. x_X

    1. Kyulen

      I agree, this seems like the most reasonable course of action. I worry they won’t do that though.

      1. ZombieKyrik

        I don’t think either of them have figured out how they’re going to explain this. I definitely see both Joe, and Walky being hurt by this; probably Joe the most. Not that Walky won’t be hurt, but Joe already has prior experience with cheating, and I could imagine he might have the bigger reaction.

        1. Armadillo

          Glad to see there’s still people in this comment section who aren’t trying to pretend Joe and Walky are somehow going to be fine with being cheated on. Feels like everyone here is trying to pretend that everything will be totally fine because “yay lesbians!”

        2. Nymph

          People having a different opinion isn’t “pretending” and these two aren’t lesbians. They’re bi.

        3. Armadillo

          You’re deliberately missing my point and you know it.

        4. Taffy

          Everyone who disagrees with me secretly actually agrees with me and is being deliberately difficult to make me upset.

        5. Armadillo

          Also deliberately missing my point.

        6. Taffy

          You didn’t have one in the first place, let’s not “pretend”.

        7. Nymph

          Nope, I’m just disagreeing with you. People who are saying they think Walky and Joe won’t have a problem… I tend to genuinely believe they think that.

          I think this will work out (or at least be more interesting than a simple explosion) not because I’m pretending or because Dorothy and Joyce are both WLW, but because it’s what I really think.

          I promise!

        8. Proxiehunter

          How about the point that calling them lesbians is bi erasure?

        9. Crow

          I just like drama. I wanna see Joe and Walky get hurt.

  14. Bittersweet

    So they go do laundry in the morning, then immediately in the middle of that have to leave to go find Jocelyne which doesn’t seem to take more than an hour. Then the protest gets broken up almost immediately after.

    Where did they go for like the 7 hours after lol. I choose to imagine they’ve just been running laps around campus like this.

    1. Erica

      They were bangin

    2. Kyulen

      Sunset tends to happen earlier in the winter where they are, but even so that’s still a few hours uncounted for.

      1. Tessea

        Well Amazi-Girl did tell them to take a long route home.

        1. Throwatron

          They may have had some motivation to make it the really long way.

    3. Heatth

      Yeah, I am confused about the same thing. They did probably wake up late, to be fair, (they both slept after midnight). So, like, if we assume this is an early sunset and that they woke up around noon, maybe it is “just” 4 or hours of unaccounted time? Maybe they been running in circles this whole time, to disperse and avoid getting caught? I don’t know how big this campus is to know if it is plausible or not.

      1. Tricia

        We know that Asma got back at 12:40. So there’s definitely a good 4 hours unaccounted for.

        1. Thing 2

          12.40? Half a clock? What about 8pm? I can’t see which is the big hand. Now I wanna go see what that clock says in other strips. Maybe it is stuck on a time and correct only twice a day…

    4. GholaHalleck

      The moon herself caused an Eclipse to bless these newly christened lesbians.

  15. Ray Radlein

    They, uh, really took the long way back to their dorm, huh

  16. Bwsab

    …Becky’s already seen pics of them kissing at the protest on social media, hasn’t she.

    1. Doctor_Who

      As has Hank, since we already know he was keeping an eye on it.

  17. jeffepp

    They’re trying at least.

    Very, very trying.

  18. Dante

    That fifth panel is so full of sexual tension I’m blushing, goddamn

    ……. Girls pls talk to your boyfriends. Get this polycule going. SICKOS ARE WINNING — BUT WE COULD WIN BIGGER

    1. Looney

      SICKOS CAN WIN THE FOOTBALL BOWL

    2. VicMortimer

      Yes! Yes we can!

      Looking forward to the full on bi foursome!

    3. Odo

      Personally I think an appropriate response would be for Joe to dump her. He might not have that sort of self-respect yet, but polycule seems like the wrong direction.

      It seems like a wild leap from “You cheated on me” to “I trust you and feel secure enough in this relationship to open it up”.

      Maybe we will see “I’m hurt and angry but I don’t feel like I deserve a respectful and honest partner, so I will agree to a poly relationship out of my own self-loathing, and because I idolize Joyce and think I have to in order to keep her from breaking up with me”

      But if that is how the poly relationship starts, I fully expect it to crash and burn.

      1. Throwatron

        I’ve been saying this is the exact likely outcome I’ve been scared of for months, and I’m gonna keep saying it because it’s seemed the most realistic this whole time.

  19. Tequila Mockingbird

    Maybe an inappropriate question, and not one I suspect merits an answer, but given how long it took for Joyce to accept hetero sex as normal and natural… why do I suddenly have a bad feeling it’s gonna take at least as long to unravel all the fundie programming around WLW fun times?

    I mean, I hope not, but as a former fundie myself, that guilt complex and programming is a stubborn, STUBBORN bastard that likes to crop up at the least opportune moments.

    1. GholaHalleck

      She’s already given a handy, was given a handy, and rode a washing machine to climax in the middle of a public space. If God was anywhere around, God doesn’t care.

      1. Tequila Mockingbird

        I know that and you know that, but the anxiety does not go away just because you realize it’s irrational. I’ve always related to Joyce as someone raised fundie who left the mindset in college, so maybe I’m just projecting? Just hoping she has an easier time deprogramming than I had.

        1. GholaHalleck

          I think she’s gone the other way, where without the religious lock-down, she’s gone full ahead with “I can do what I want, and what I want is to tongue all these people and not worry if I’m hurting anyone”

          At least when she was trying to break up Jacob and hook up with him, she showed remorse you know?

        2. thejeff

          Only afterwards. None while she was in the middle of it.

    2. ZombieKyrik

      Actually I think Joyce will have an easier time accepting WLW fun times because of Becky/Dina. Will there be hurdles? Almost certainly. Will it be messy? Probably. Will it be easier to accept? I hope so.

    3. Bash

      It seems like she has a lot of hangups about PIV sex but less around other forms of pleasure, so it might actually be easier for her.

      1. thejeff

        This’d be so much easier if it were with you

        1. Steamweed

          Link no worky.

  20. BadRoad

    worse? or BETTER?

    1. Proxiehunter

      A combination of the two. Wetter? Wait, no.

      1. ZombieKyrik

        I would definitely consider your answer as accurate.

      2. Arianod

        This XD

    2. Dara

      DEFINITELY better 😀

      1. Thing 2

        Definitely wetter

    3. Taigan

      This is clearly some new definition of “worse” that I’m unfamiliar with

    4. Deanatay

      Nice Invader Zim ref!

  21. Taffy

    What the fuck were you bongoes doing between noonish and sundown? Good gravy, when they hear “take the long way”, they take it to heart.

    1. Looney

      to be fair, it’s the middle of winter. far fewer hours between noon and sundown that time of year. but still, were they just standing in the snow staring into each others’ eyes for a few hours…?

      1. Yumi

        Yeah, hours still… and looking at the strip from yesterday (because I immediately had to go back and go “when did it get to be night”), it looks like it’s around 8pm now. Seems like they should be colder.

        1. Dara

          Not if they’ve been keeping each other warm xD

        2. Yumi

          I mean, they did something during those hours that prevented hypothermia.

          Tangentially, my mom told me earlier today about someone she used to know in her professional network who got caught cheating on his wife– by “caught,” we’re talking naked in bed with his secretary in his cottage up north. But his “explanation” was that they had gotten caught in the rain (or something?) and their clothes were wet and they were really cold, so as soon as they got back to the house, they had to strip and then huddle together for warmth.

        3. Dara

          That is some absolute sitcom nonsense right there

          I hope it’s real xD

  22. RassilonTDavros

    Ah I see, the “keeping this secret” approach

    It cute, but also Can’t Wait for the inevitable fallout in 52 years’ time.

  23. JA

    Went from holding hands to hooking tongues.

  24. Erica

    Enough cuteness, let’s get to the fallout already

  25. Sapphic Endgame

    they’re so. fucking. cute. every single time i look at this i feel so happy. they’re just completely unable to do anything else. god. god!!! BEAUTIFUL

  26. Derek

    I haven’t joined the discussion too much, though if I understand right team sickos is pro this happening and team paladin is against?
    does it put me in the paladin camp if I don’t care about the ship but I find the way it was deployed extremely tactless and corny?
    “let’s be criminals” really feels like one of those lines in a movie that sounded really cool in the trailer but in context it’s stilted and forced. and what makes it worse is that in a comic this line was not even written to make a trailer look good, it’s just orphaned in the strip it’s in.

    1. Tequila Mockingbird

      “Sickos” is also a reference to a long-running joke in the Onion’s political cartoon section. (At least I’m pretty sure it is. I hear “sickos” and my brain autocompletes “ha ha, yes!” every time I see it.

      But yeah, you have it right. “Sickos” is the tongue-in-cheek name for people who want this ship to happen come hell or high water, and “Paladins” is the name for those who feel like they should probably break up with their current partners before continuing. At least that’s how I’ve come to understand it.

      That said, it’s fiction, it’s drama, it’s a soap opera, people will cheer on messy situations for entertainment value that they obviously would not approve of in real-life human conduct. Just remember to not take it too seriously and actually get upset over two fictional cartoon characters smooching.

      That’s not directed at you specifically, more of a general recommendation to all.

      1. perpetual summer

        Sickos absolutely don’t have to care about the ship. It’s about the messy drama you mentioned! Like I’m not particularly rooting for the ship (they’re like, fine. I think I just wish we’d gotten more pining before things started happening. ) but I fully support the cheating because I hope they fallout will be fun.

    2. Tan

      For the most part the dividing line between Relationship Paladins and Sickos is that the Relationship Paladins insist on a duty of care from Joyce and Dorothy to their respective current(*) boyfriends, and cast moral judgment on anything that happens between them without either cleanly breaking up with their boyfriends or having some sort of non-monogamy talk FIRST. Y’know, the way most people would want to be treated themselves, were this a non-fictional story. Relationship Paladins may or may not ultimately be down for the ship, but want it The Right Way(tm). Some of the more extreme Relationship Paladins have cast moral aspersions on Willis for writing the story this way and/or on the Sickos for enjoying it, or declared the characters ruined for them, though that shouldn’t be taken as representative of the group as a whole who just aren’t enjoying the cheating aspect in one way or another.

      The Sickos, by contrast, are here for the mess. Whether because bisexual awakening trumps all, or because Dorothy x Joyce is the ship they’ll die for, or because trash goblins (said with affection) just want drama, they look upon Dorothy and Joyce’s spiral toward one another, pressed against the proverbial window going “Yes… Ha ha ha… Yes!” The looming fallout is either a small price to pay or downright the point. Sickos are generally dismissive of Relationship Paladins on the basis that it is fiction, and sometimes one enjoys things in fantasy that one wouldn’t enjoy if it were real. Of course the Sickos have their own extreme contingent, decrying the Relationship Paladins as prudes/homophobes/pearl-clutchers, but again, extremes should not be taken as representative of the whole.

      And then there are the COWARDS who are like “Well both sides…” Don’t be a COWARD. Embrace your inner Sicko or your inner Relationship Paladin. It’s more fun that way.

      I am a Sicko.

      1. Florence

        Ha ha yes! I mean, I agree with this comment as a sicko myself

      2. Madock345

        Sicko here. Let’s connect every node on the local dating chart. It’ll be fun, I swear.

        1. Tequila Mockingbird

          If the smoochy-chart was an Ouroboros before, let it evolve into a true Gordian Knot of amorous chaos!

      3. Tequila Mockingbird

        Quote: Some of the more extreme Relationship Paladins have cast moral aspersions on Willis for writing the story this way and/or on the Sickos for enjoying it

        Okay, I cast my vote for Paladin in the poll just because I’m a sucker for a happy wholesome ending… but if people are actually making moral judgements on real-life human beings for the events of a fictional story, I might defect to the Sickos out of spite. That’s strikes me as like… saying Star Wars fans are okay with child murder because of what happened in “Revenge of the Sith.”

        This is drama, which is difficult to have drama if every character automatically makes the perfectly correct healthy decision every single time with nary a moment of hesitation or temptation. A friend of mine once said “if no one makes a mistake, then there isn’t a story.” He was talking about DnD and other RPGs, but I’m tempted to apply it more broadly to creative writing in general.

        Even as someone who chose “Paladin”, that’s just a personal preference, not a statement of value or ethics. I’m self-aware enough to know that sometimes a happy ending isn’t the route an author wants to go, or indeed, a happy ending would cheapen the narrative.

        It’s a daily comic strip about university students getting into wacky hijinks and/or smooching each other, broken up by moments of DYW’s signature curveballs of heartbreak. It’s supposed to be fun, not stressful or upsetting. If one is not enjoying themselves, why are they even here?

        My mind can’t help but go to that Perry Bible Fellowship comic of “SKUB vs. ANTI-SKUB” that’s used to parody senseless internet factionalism.

        1. Throwatron

          “Okay, I cast my vote for Paladin in the poll just because I’m a sucker for a happy wholesome ending… but if people are actually making moral judgements on real-life human beings for the events of a fictional story, I might defect to the Sickos out of spite. That’s strikes me as like… saying Star Wars fans are okay with child murder because of what happened in “Revenge of the Sith.”

          This is exactly where I ended up.

        2. Wilde

          I cast in with sickos too, for similar reasons! I’m tired of trying to debate absolutist binaries (right/wrong, good/evil). My goals here are fundamentally incompatible with anyone who wants to discard gray area or nuance, because that’s my shit. Non-binary in every aspect of my being, so if I’m forced to pick a binary side, I’m picking the least restrictive one!

        3. Li

          Yes.

          To be fair to the paladins, it’s not all of them, and quite a few people who just want the girls to communicate with their partners and haven’t read the uh hundreds and now thousands of comments completely missed the folks who have been beating the “Willis is a bad person for writing this and readers who don’t hate it are also bad people” drum.

          Also the “if you don’t agree with my exact specific definition of cheating, you must be an awful, abusive partner IRL” drum.

          But those drums are definitely getting beaten, and it continues to be uncool.

  27. S. Harriet

    Good to see Joyce’s health regen had time to recover from those tear gas burns. Must be the power of sapphic vibes :3

    1. Tequila Mockingbird

      I mean obviously. After that recent patch, the Sapphic character class now has a regenerating health feature. It’s gonna be absolutely killer for Sapphic-mains. I fully expect to see a lot of new builds entering the meta.

      1. Taffy

        It’s only 15 HP/s, in a game where your health is generally in the 4-digit area. Handy for topping off between pulls, but it’s really only saving a cast or two.

      2. Steamweed

        For quicker recovery like this, the Sapphic is a great Pathfinder 2E (remastered) character class. (D&D 5E doesn’t handle the mechanics as well, imo.)

        1. Tequila Mockingbird

          Yeah, Sapphic used to be a prestige class back in DnD 3.5e, which carried over to Pathfinder 1E, but when the remaster came around and they announced it was turning into a basic/character class, I was initially worried it was going to be totally game breaking. Thankfully Paizo proved me wrong, though I will always have a soft spot for that alternate Sapphic build from a third-party sourcebook. I think it was Immortals Handbook 1, maybe 2? It’s been a hot minute, I don’t really remember.

  28. darkoneko

    Stop ! HAMMERTIME

  29. Derek

    the other thing that gets me is people acting like caring about Walky or Joe is homophobia. Their respective girlfriends clearly care about them! Dorothy has said and implied that with Walky things make sense, she feels stable and more secure. Joyce has said that Joe makes her feel safe, attractive and loved.
    This is not like Leslie’s former marriage, these were genuine relationships based on respect and mutual attraction, why would anyone say it’s homophobia to suggest that this new thing will make this complicated at best?
    genders and sexualities removed, if you’re in a relationship with one person and then leave them because you found another person you like better, you will be a cad and a villain in the eyes of the jilted first person, sorry!

    1. Erica

      And poor Walky JUST got back with Dorothy

      1. Taffy

        That’s his own fault.

  30. Erica

    HEALTHY POLY IS NOT FOUNDED ON CHEATING AND SNEAKING AROUND, IT’S FOUNDED ON OPEN COMMUNICATION AND MAKING SURE YOU’RE RESPECTING BOUNDARIES

    I’m not even poly but I’m getting really annoyed with all the “they can all just be a polycule yay!” shit, as if that would make their behavior okay.

    1. GholaHalleck

      I just keep seeing the bald guy from arrested development telling his wife opening the marriage is a terrible idea but lets do it anyway.

    2. Buli-Buli

      People are suggesting that both Walky and Joe will each grant retroactive consent because girl-on-girl is hot.

      There are many more reasons a polycule wouldn’t happen though.

      While Dotty may lose some antipathy for Joe now that she’s accepted she was envious and has successfully “stolen” Joyce away from him…
      Joe _hates_ infidelity. It’s the very root of his character.

      As for Walky, he also has a history of being against cheating.
      And he and Joyce also have beef.
      Not to mention Walky’s self-esteem issues, particularly where he loses out to Joyce in particular (school work, the school newspaper comic, Dotty’s then-platonic attention…)

      1. Derek

        I still find it rather funny that last week someone said “As for Joe, he has trauma about cheating, and specifically his dad ruining his parents’ marriage, not around polyamory. ”

        As if it’s was unthinkable that Joe’s trauma about his parents’ relationship falling apart would translate to him having current issues around the idea of non-monogamy.

        Joe, the guy who centered his entire personality around non-monogamy specifically because he didn’t want to get feelings involved and risk crushing them. The guy who slowly let himself be vulnerable and be monogamous with someone because their budding relationship convinced him that risking the feelings was worth it. The guy who at times viewed himself as a monster because of the possibility of “ruining” his girlfriend either through sex or by cheating on her.

        I’m sure he will have no issues with her cheating on him at allll /sarcasm

        1. Big Z

          Right? Even if we grant Joe has “no issues around polyamory”, he’s still likely to consider himself being cheated on at this very moment once he finds out.

          But sure: “Okay, she cheated on me, we should totally not only keep being in a relationship but I should retroactively bless this thing I hate and that destroyed my parents’ marriage by making this a poly relationship after-the-fact.”

      2. thejeff

        And for Walky, when Dorothy brought it up, in the context of Joyce watching, his reaction wasn’t exactly “Wow, that’s hot.”

    3. Armadillo

      Thank goodness somebody finally said it.

    4. Nymph

      I’m poly and:

      – They don’t have to be Healthy Poly. They can be fucked up, messy, embarrassing poly that hurts people. It’s drama, that happens in this comic.

      – People new to poly often fuck up on their way in. Expecting a group of people who are brand new to the idea to start off exactly right and be perfect at it is frankly hilarious. My early polycules were…nightmares to be honest.

      – Even people who are experienced at poly can suck at it sometimes. It’s a difficult balance to maintain, and there are mistakes, jealousy, and hurt the way there is in any relationship.

      I personally am more sick of the way polyamory is only accepted if it’s some magically perfect, unblemished thing. Why is polyamory not allowed to be as messy as other relationships in this comic? That’s just silly.

      If people (myself included) want to see this group go polyamorous, why are you annoyed at that? I’m allowed to want representation of myself in the media I consume.

      I ship the polycule.

      1. Elsewise

        I can absolutely see Joe saying “yay, let’s be poly, girl on girl is hot!” and actually not being okay with it. And honestly I think that would be a really interesting dynamic to explore! Not necessarily a, like, multi-year relationship, but at least a “maybe we could do this OH WAIT NOPE” could be interesting!

        And yes, my sickoness extends beyond Joyce/Dorothy. I am a sicko about all of the relationships.

        1. Nymph

          Exactly! That would be such a GREAT thing to see explored!

        2. AK

          I could also see Joe saying “Let’s be poly, I like my girlfriend being happy and am honestly not remotely blindsided by this given that I’ve kind of been low key trying to broach the topic with both parties for a little while.” And maybe it works or maybe it doesn’t and either way the communication from both Joyce and Dorothy to their respective partners needs a lot a lot of work, but you know.

          There’s been a decent bit of poly adjacent hinting around Walky for a while and I think Joe is a little bit expecting something in this direction? I wouldn’t be surprised if some permutation of polyamory was given a shot. I also wouldn’t be surprised if one wasn’t. But I do think it would be interesting.

        3. Li

          Oh right, totally lost that thread on Walky but it was one of my points for MONTHS. That he’s twice now said something that indicated he was interested in dating both Lucy and Amber, and while it’s hard to tell how serious he is about anything, ever………

          I’ll admit I don’t think Joyce is his preferred third! But if he and Dorothy open things, there’s no reason we can’t add Amber and Amazi-Girl in here.

          (Amazi-Girl can be Dorothy’s second girlfriend.)

        4. thejeff

          He didn’t react positively to the suggestion of Joyce watching.

        5. Li

          Yes I am well-aware, that is what I was in fact referencing when I said she wouldn’t be his preferred third.

          What we don’t know is how much of that was because it was Joyce.

        6. AK

          Yeah I do not assume polycule when I talk about poly here, I very much assume multiple hinges, which is how a lot more of the poly I’ve encountered in my real life has worked. But yeah, both Walky and Amber have had some poly adjacent leanings that are worth paying attention to.

      2. Wack'd

        100% cosigned. more partners means more people to fuck up with, just what a romantic drama like dumbing of age needs!

      3. Li

        As I saw someone else say yesterday on tumblr or blsky — “how come when a mono relationship goes south, those two people were just wrong for each other, but if a poly relationship goes south, everyone feels the need to say ‘this is why I could never be poly’.”

        1. Big Z

          It’s the truest of facts that the more “majority” ones beliefs/preferences are, the more it seems one is likely to ascribe anyone else having a problem to their different beliefs/preferences rather than the ordinary follies of life.

        2. Li

          Yeeeeep.

  31. perpetual summer

    Okay they’re honestly so funny

  32. Icalasari

    Ok, so they do have their minds about them, they just have lust set to maximum overdrive right now

    1. Steamweed

      The healthier route: the two find their respective guys, and bang their brains out of them.

      1. Wack'd

        this seems like it would cause more problems than it solves

  33. DiDi

    All right. Let’s see how this continues.

    We’re back to some reasonable thought processes now. Please have it go in a more positive direction and not bullshit secret keeping, please.

  34. Sirksome

    I wonder what Walky and Joe think of this.

    1. Taffy

      Unbeknownst to all, they saw the entire thing from a window, and they’ve been having a serious discussion about the matter. The strategy they’ve settled on for now is, they’re gonna present a united front and directly address the entire thing with their girlfriends, no matter how late they all have to stay up. Becky, Sarah, Booster and the white boy have all separately agreed to vacate the rooms if asked, so that no matter what room the conversation happens in, they won’t have to worry about bugging any of their roommates. Details were kept light, but Becky seems to have caught the implication, because she’s been looking at pumpkin pie recipes for the past three hours.

      1. Wack'd

        this is a really funny possibility. walky’s got untreated adhd and he’s gonna lock the fuck in for turning his relationship into a meeting that will last an indefinite length of time? i think he’d rather go cry in his room!

        1. Taffy

          Walky would probably break first, sure. He could still agree to it without fully understanding the gravity, and then amscray once it gets tedious and boring for him.

        2. Thing 2

          amscray! now there’s a blast from the Sci Fi past!

        3. Taffy

          Why specifically the Sci Fi past? If you’re referencing an old book or movie, I probably haven’t seen or read it.

  35. Uly

    Joyce, listen, if you’re gonna be nonmonogamous then you really need to tell your trying-to-be-monogamous boyfriend.

  36. Reflex76

    “Nope! Worse than kissing!”

    *five minutes later*

    “Nope! Worse than groping!”

    *five minutes later*

    “Nrph! Wrphh thn fngrphn!”

    *five minutes later*

    “Nope! Worse than cunnilingus!”

  37. Muttski

    Poor Joe and Walky.

  38. Sirksome

    Must be nice to leave a protest not having to worry that the university you attend is profiting from killing your immediate family or even just people you know. Or even just that you won’t risk getting killed yourself for organizing at all. Kinda puts dumb romance drama in perspective.

    1. Kelibath

      Agreed. They have s LOT to process, sure, but I think the Asma panels came in at just the right time to point that out. A shame she isn’t the focus.

  39. AbacusWizard

    [voice = “Zim”] Worse? Or… better? [/voice]

  40. Lee

    Alright you two, I was 257% on board for one “realization” kiss, but now I’m switching sides and joining the “y’all need to stop this until you talk to Joe and Walky” commenters.

    1. Sirksome

      I mean I don’t really care about Joe or Walky especially much but seeing Asma so stressed did actually take a lot of the cuteness and enjoyment out of this for me. Like they have so much privilege.

      1. Throwatron

        “Privileged” is actually the thing I keep coming back to with these kids, that lets me easily look past how lacking in worldliness a lot of them are. Like, these aren’t just teenagers, they’re extremely sheltered teenagers. For all the trauma they’ve managed to accumulate, they have just as much shit to unpack from their young lives going relatively well, as they do from the parts of their young lives that were genuinely traumatic. That’s why half of them have the self-awareness of common slugs.

      2. J

        I mean neither Joe nor Walky did anything to deserve the emotional maelstrom that’s about to hit them

        1. Thing 2

          People have to ‘deserve’ shit happening?

      3. Lee

        They do have a lot of privilege. But not so much that there’s a damn thing they can do about “Bulmeria”, as we watched Asma realize in the previous comic. The weight of the world doesn’t belong on the shoulders of a bunch of eighteen year old kids, and I can’t dislike them for living their lives even though there’s suffering somewhere in the world (there’s always suffering somewhere in the world). Nor can I dislike Willis for doing the same: the internet is *still* making fun of Tim Buckley for “Loss”, so I think it’s safe to predict that most people wouldn’t want Willis to abruptly change the theme, tone, and focus of this comic.

        1. Sirksome

          I don’t dislike them for living their lives and finding their love. In the long run good for them. It just feels hollow now. Plenty of others have already broken down Dorothy and the protest so I won’t go there. It just feels a little less important when juxtaposed with someone else suffering before this.

  41. Darkmelody42

    I hate this for Joe and wally. I love these two together but it needs to be done right.

    1. Rebecca

      This is a story. A teen drama, at that.

      1. ESB_Stringfellow

        Translation: This IS doing it right!

  42. darkoneko

    …wow people sure have been angsty in there since the Kiss.

    1. Nadamás

      Eh people are always angry here for something or other.

      1. Steamweed

        Anger, angst, and drama? Here?? In THESE comments???
        (how long has this been going on?)

  43. ZombieKyrik

    Quick random question for everyone:

    If you are/were heterosexual, and in a relationship; would a homosexual/non-binary cheating hurt you more, less, or the same amount as a heterosexual cheating?
    And can you explain why you do/don’t feel that way?

    1. Armadillo

      Maybe slightly less? It’s the same amount of betrayal, but if somebody I was in a relationship were to leave me for a woman I could at least take some solace in the fact that it’s because my significant other was apparently looking for something I can’t/can never/would never be.

      But to be clear we’re talking about the difference between being stabbed in the back and having somebody twist the knife while it’s in there. I still don’t see myself ever letting somebody who does that into my life again. The most critical thing here is the betrayal of trust and that’s the same regardless of what kind of person you decide to cheat with.

    2. Buli-Buli

      Homosexual? Not bisexual? Worse.

      If the cheating partner is a homosexual that means they never found the heterosexual partner sexually attractive. The relationship was based on a lie from the start.
      Or the (presumably cis) heterosexual was functionally sufficiently trans-presenting as to be attractive enough for the homosexual cheater.
      Which would be a painful blow to any cis person I can imagine’s sense of identity.

      1. eh, whatever

        My sense of identity is invulnerable. I would instead conclude that the cheater simply isn’t 6 on the Kinsey scale.

    3. Yumi

      Can’t answer this from a straight perspective, not gonna try, but–
      Cheating that was part of my partner discovering their identity/changes in it would hurt less. These can be really charged experiences for people, and there’s a lot I’d consider within it. This isn’t a scenario I’ve been in, but I did have a time when someone ghosted me and part of it ended up being because they realized they were really only into women. Being ghosted sucks, but as an AFAB nonbinary person… fairly affirming ghosting, at least.

      If it were cheating with someone of a different gender than me and it wasn’t connected to changing identity– like, they were bisexual before we were together, they were bisexual while we were together, they were bisexual when the cheating came to light– then it’s just the same.

      1. Li

        This is the key.

        It’s not that Dorothy and Joyce are both girls that’s causing 95% of readers whose comments I’ve read to give them some clemency here, it’s that they both thought they were straight.

    4. Taffy

      I’m only in a hetero relationship by optics at this point, but really the important question for me would be “How fucking funny is this person?”, because I’m already hilarious and I’d be concerned for her safety with them if they made her laugh harder than I can.

    5. Thing 2

      I wouldn’t give a toss about hand holding, kissing, sitting on vibrating machines, heck, not even sex. My concern would be how do they feel about me and has that changed! I don’t own anyone.

      1. ZombieKyrik

        I don’t feel like wanting a partner to share intimate/sexual moments only with you is “owning” them. Some people might feel like they own their partner, or the reverse, but for most people it’s a matter of trust, health, and a desire to have a best friend to share all of life with.
        Some people are ok with having an open relationship, having a polycule, or simply not exclusively having sex with each other. However feeling that you want someone to be exclusive with you doesn’t necessarily come with feelings of “ownership.”

        It’s all about what each person’s comfort level with these matters is, and how that shapes their desires.

        1. Tequila Mockingbird

          Absolutely this. There is a vast gulf between someone who objectifies their partner bad enough to consider themselves an “owner,” and two consenting adults in a committed monogamous relationship expecting both parties to keep to that mutual agreement.

          Not that a monogamous couple can’t later change their minds and decide to open the relationship up, but that’s gotta be something all parties involved have to sign off on, otherwise you’re just going back on your word.

      2. Thing 2

        OK, I was not clear. I wasn’t ‘accusing others of “ownership”‘, I was speaking for myself. I don’t own my sexual partner’s sexual desires or their sexual activities. I don’t own their love, but I would probably be concerned about losing it. That would be the bit I’d imagine affecting me. But I could lose someone’s love in other ways. And I could retain their love while sharing it and sharing their sexual activities.
        Plus I was answering the question, which was polling what individuals think/feel. That was how I think/feel. It was not a comment on how anyone else thinks/feels, nor any kind of judgement.
        I’m also not judging the activities of fictional characters, the author in creating them and their activities, nor others for the range of responses (but I am very amused by the range and the vehemence of some of the responses!)

    6. AK

      I mean it would be weirder, given that he’s very straight, but I think I would be equally annoyed. Not at the sex, we’re lightly poly and I lean that way moreso than he, to be cheating it would have to be like. Unprotected and stupid. Or there would have to be a romantic relationship he didn’t tell me about developing. Anyway. Weirder but not worse or better. Idk, maybe if he was doing romantic stuff with another woman behind my back that would feel worse. Less like figuring some stuff out and more like actively hiding something from me in a way that makes me wonder if I should feel threatened. I’m pretty comfortable with him doing whatever as long as it’s protected and I know about it, it would indicate something weird for him to actively decide against those two really easy boundaries.

      I know he would have a lot fewer boundaries about me being in a same sex qpp than the opposite sex qpp I am in. It’s not a thing he’s psyched about, but the mate guarding instinct just is not the same with other female people as it is with other male people. Which like. None of this stuff is rational. It’s just animal brain stuff. Anyway I think he’d be pretty unhappy with actual cheating as our relationship defines it either way, but I suspect based on those facts about our normal situation that it would be easier if it was same sex than if it was opposite sex.

      1. AK

        Also like for the sake of sanity, let’s acknowledge unprotected sex with an opposite sex person just is scarier, regardless of their gender situation. That creates risk of creating a pregnancy and upending our household’s entire situation for the next two or more decades. Your life partner not caring enough to guard against that and its potential impact on both of you is pretty upsetting. At least same sex the worst he could do would be contract something unpleasant.

    7. Kyulen

      I’m bi, but for a long time I thought I was straight. If I was in a hetero monogamous relationship with someone, I’d be bothered if they cheated on me. I doubt it would matter to me if they cheated on me with someone of the same sex as me, opposite sex, or nonbinary. I think I would be upset regardless.

    8. Big Z

      Me personally? It’d hurt me about the same: cheating is cheating, and the object of said cheating doesn’t really factor in because they’re almost irrelevant to my feelings which are about the person I’m with and whatever our relationship definition is.

      Oddly enough, back when I thought I was monogamous, I’d absolutely have been happier to discuss a sort-of-open relationship if my partner wanted to be with someone who was the opposite gender from me, on the grounds that “I can understand wanting something I don’t have on offer”.

      1. Big Z

        (that said, I’m also not strictly hetero these days since my partner of decades transitioned a few years back to enby, incl. some surgery, and I found that didn’t actually bother me at all)

    9. Steamweed

      Not so much a matter of hetero/homo, but a matter of how how deeply and monogamously my partner and I had discussed that we were, or if not discussed, that I felt after a long timespan. (and really it’s best to talk over that stuff up front and not like weeks or months or years later.)

    10. Elsewise

      I’m a cis bi woman, and when I was in high school I identified as straight and was dating a boy who broke up with me because he “wasn’t ready to date” and then immediately started dating a freshman girl. If it had been a boy? Yeah, now that you mention it I think I might have felt better about it. Even if he was bi or pan and not gay, it’s sort of the ultimate “it’s not you it’s me”.

    11. Wack'd

      this is so outside my realm i can’t even, like, conceive of it anymore. i’m poly, i’ve got two girlfriends, they both bang other people (partners and casuals alike) all the dang time with no accountability to me, and it doesn’t bother me a jot. i’d have to, like, reset my brain to 2017 to even consider this question, it feels like trying to read sanskrit.

  44. PedanticJerkass

    I’m much more concerned with the current whereabouts and condition of Amazi-Girl/Amber at the moment than I am with more Joyce/Dorothy canoodling.

    1. ZombieKyrik

      That’s a good point; hopefully she managed to get away without being identified, and with minimal injuries.

  45. Nadamás

    https://www.tumblr.com/itswalky/789435763608682496/was-rereading-the-old-its-walky-archives-and-found?source=share

    Putting this here again now that it’s actually relevant

    1. Zamperla

      Ooh I was hoping someone would cross-post that. Very thoughtful, already been enjoying this plot but I love seein the Damned Willis’ thoughts.

    2. Tricia

      I saw that before and Willis is full of it. Nearly every relationship in the comic has ended extremely poorly. Hell, Amber put Wally through a table. How is that a relationship ending simply with no drama? He just wanted to get them together and cobbled a half-assed excuse afterwards.

      1. Rebecca

        The fact that you’re applying the descriptor ‘extremely poorly’ to relationships that ended with some slightly upset conversations is indicative of a lack of perspective. I’ve seen relationships that ended extremely poorly, and those involved the police. By contrast, the worst that’s happened to a DoA character as a result of a relationship ending is them feeling bummed for a few days.

        1. Tricia

          Ruth going into an alcoholic depressive spiral is just “feeling bummed”?

          And we’re not talking about how characters react to the breakup. We haven’t even seen if the Joe and Walky will react badly to this. (Spoilers: they won’t). It’s about Willis claiming there’s never been a “messy terrible end” to any relationship. Which nearly every relationship that’s ended in DoA has ended messily.

        2. Alongcameaspider

          What makes you think Joe, who is known to have serious issues with infidelity, will react well to being cheated on?

        3. Rebecca

          Well you see they think this relationship has been introduced into the story randomly for sick thrills and so, by that logic, all potential resistance to the relationship will be expunged so that the author’s desires can be endorsed by the entire cast.

        4. Rebecca

          And as Willis says in this very post, they’re a trash goblin that loves mess. So maybe, possibly, their definition of “messy terrible end” is different than yours.

        5. deliverything

          Also, “messy terrible end” should be interpreted by Dumbing of Age standards.
          As a pedantic addition: the alcoholic depressive spiral wasn’t caused by the relationship’s ending (though it may have been worsened by it), having started before they got together in the first place… and breaking up with Jennifer led (via a painful route) to Ruth finally getting the help she needed. Put another way, it was only after that break-up that we first saw Ruth displaying any signs of emotional stability.

          As to Walky being put through a table? As there doesn’t seem to have been any long-term damage, he likely preferred that to every other break-up he’s been through: simultaneously unambiguous and cartoonish. What could be better, to his mind?

        6. Taffy

          Please provide a link to the strip(s) you’re drawing these alleged spoilers from?

        7. Silent

          Nothing quite says “messy terrible end” like regularly hanging out with your ex a couple of months after the breakup.
          I think Jacob & Raidah are the only exception since they haven’t interracted since the break-up.

          And I’m not sure how you came to the conclusion of that “every breakup in DoA has been messy” and yet this one just won’t be, citing the author saying it’ll be a messy breakup as evidence

    3. Throwatron

      Wow looks like Willis’ wife is extremely based, and she’s also completely right. I dare any of you to disagree with Willis’ wife when she’s being this correct.

      You could also just agree with Willis, too, but he’s the monster who decided to make his story less ridiculous and more believable, for once.

    4. Li

      Thank you! Very edifying.

  46. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    ‘He took her in his arms, and they kissed, for the first time, for a long time.

    “Oh,” she muttered after. “Perhaps that was a mistake. It hurts so much when you stop.”‘

    – Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

  47. Isactuallyabear

    Oh no, I giggled at this? Like this is awful for reasons I’ve already talked about on a previous page but also I’m starting to like this for some reason. Guess I’m a sicko after all.

    Also, I see that alt-text. I don’t know if this is Willis being cheeky by dismissing the criticisms with a joke, or some sorta ironic self-dunk thing? I dunno.

  48. Newlland(Henryvolt)

    OK good for them, the only problem is I wished it happened under better circumstances given their other partners but maybe they can work something out, I’m glad they’re exploring their feelings…I bet Daisy saw them and decided to publish them making out in the paper.

  49. Shogo

    I’ve already said I hate this before, so instead of just repeating myself I’ll focus on two other things.

    The first is Amazigirl’s status. She already stretched my willing suspension of disbelief as she was, but it will outright shatter if nothing happened to her. Even though I don’t want her to get messed up, I just can’t accept her wading into tear gas, without a gas mask, and throwing down with riot police without her facing consequences.

    The second is, because of Joyce’s interactions with Billie, whether or not Joyce and Dorothy are actually in agreement on whatever the hell this is supposed to be. She seemed to naively/sincerely believe Billie when she claimed that you can hook up with your best friend and it “doesn’t count”.

    From a purely drama-based standpoint, it would be kind of interesting if Joyce was coming out of this thinking that Dorothy is still just her best friend while Joe is her “real” partner.

    1. Rebecca

      Joyce would have to be literally as stupid as a rock to come out of this scenario that deluded. Just because critical thinking happens offscreen doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

      Also, just… Why do you think Willis would establish all these dangers, remind us of the snipers, build to this protest for months of updates, and give us yesterday’s strip… And then have Amazi-Girl breeze through it unfazed? Most of Amazi-Girl’s big dramatic moments, and half her comedic ones, have been about the limitations of a physical body screwing over superhero antics at the worst possible time. Just because she drop-kicked a few cops doesn’t mean Willis has made her invincible.

    2. Bash

      Joyce knows this is wrong. About halfway through the protest, she says she should check up on Joe because “he’s trying so hard to be good to her.” She understands that wandering around hand-in-hand with Dorothy isn’t fair. And when they finally kiss, she says “uh-oh,” because she just cheated on Joe and now will have to break up with him. Otherwise there would be no “uh-oh.”

  50. Zamperla

    Puts hands to ear piece. I seem to be receiving news that the Oopsie-Doodle is accelerating wildly into what experts are calling a Severe Uhoh, on pace to develop, at this rate, into an absolute fucky-wucky. Back to sports!

    1. Thing 2

      A fucky-wucky might be good.

      1. Zamperla

        It’s happened to these two before!

    2. Tequila Mockingbird

      It’s like the Richter scale, but for messy fictional drama! By the way, what’s the rate of conversion? If I remember it’s 16 Oopsie-Doodles in an Uh-Oh, with any value above 100 being a “Severe” Uh-Oh, and 5,280 Uh-Oh’s equal a Fucky-Wucky? At least I think so? Imperial Trash Goblin measurements are so much more confusing than Metric Trash Goblin ones.

  51. DashWallkick

    This would be utterly adorable if there wasn’t a massive swinging pendulum called Joe that’s inching closer and closer.

    Walky, I mean. That wasn’t going to last. Walky knew it from the jump.

    1. Nullset

      He named his massive swinging pendulum Joe as well?

      1. Steamweed

        There’s Little Joe, Other Little Joe, and Other Other Little Joe.

      2. GLaDOS

        No matter how ornate the grandfather clock…

  52. FaerwenOfValenwood

    idk y’all I’m still kinda half-unironically holdin out for that Joe/Joyce/Dorothy polycule, however unlikely

    (Walky fails that particular vibe check, I prefer him with Amber)

  53. Liara

    No Dotty, the word is *better*

  54. Rebecca

    So, when the story finally progresses enough for the fallout of these decisions to hit, are the paladins going to be:

    A) Relieved that it finally happened

    B) Frustrated that it took so long

    C) Weirdly surprised that it actually happened

    Personally, I’m guessing C. Because while pattern recognition dictates that Willis isn’t going to magically forget about the consequences of relationship drama in this comic all about the consequences of relationship drama, the comments section for this arc has been wild.

    1. Taffy

      But if The Consequences™ (which remain permanently undefined) don’t happen now now now now now, that means they’ll never happen ever at all forever.

    2. Proxiehunter

      Also odd is what seems to be a belief that this is going to result in anything worse than two break ups everyone involved will get over in a month or two max, probably less.

      1. Taffy

        But they’ve all been married by cosmic law for over 10,000 years. How do you just get over that in a couple months?

    3. Big Z

      D. Already tired of the Dorothy/Joyce romance, which is about as interesting as watching paint dry on a hot day.

      1. Big Z

        By which I mean, the INTERESTING part of the story is going to be how Joe and Walky (and everyone else) react to these two morons, and I dread more than anything another series of “no we can’t but we must” before the good bit hits. If we’re doing it for the drama, let’s get to the drama.

      2. Dot

        Yeah I think this is my main issue. I don’t think these two are very interesting together! Let’s get to the meat, please!

    4. thejeff

      As a relationship paladin, one of my biggest worries about this is that I’m not going to like the consequences. Either that they won’t be enough for me or that I won’t enjoy where it ends up.

    5. Bittersweet

      C and A. The story has been framing this as a good thing, we’ve seen very little of Joyce’s internal thoughts, a small but vocal minority of the comment section is absolutely convinced that this will end in a poly situation (which I don’t think would be anywhere near as convinced if this cheating was not being framed as a good thing with no consequences.)

      And by consequences, I literally mean either Joe or Walky crashing out. Breaking up at this point would not be considered a consequence because it doesn’t really affect Joyce or Dorothy negatively the way that either of the boys reacting especially poorly would. If they just go “yeah, I guess that figures” and step back quietly with no further angst, irritation, or sadness where the girls have to deal with it emotionally, that doesn’t count lol.

      Frankly, I have a whole preferred path for the whole thing going down that ends with Incelerator being like “you and are we’re not so different” to Walky again, only instead of confusion this time he kicks tf out of that loser for the catharsis. My man needs not a villain arc, but just a really bitter angry arc for a little bit. I needs it in my bones.

      1. Throwatron

        if night guy actually grew a spine and drop-kicked incelerator’s head off i would lose my absolute shit. hell yea my boy. make choices that affect the world! get messy!

      2. Li

        don’t confuse “hoping for it to happen eventually” for “convinced we’re not only going there but going there immediately with no fallout”

        I think a few folks do think that, primarily people who aren’t remembering Joe and Walky’s visible sadness over the idea of not being enough for their girlfriends (Joe after Joyce and Dorothy went out for #dranks, Walky when Dorothy offhandedly said she was enjoying doing something (editing a wiki) where it wouldn’t matter if she made mistakes).

        But I think the vast majority of polycule votes are either unspecified or expressly saying we expect mess.

      3. thejeff

        The lack of any view of what’s going on in Joyce’s head has been concerning me for awhile now.

    6. DiDi

      I personally would fluctuate from B then to C and end it at A.

  55. Drakkin the Alien

    well… Walky was wondering outloud about when Joyce would be going down on Dorothy from the very early weeks of the story. He will go around the dorms and cash in on the bets. Lucy claimed that Joyce was a bisexual version of herself after one single talk, so she will be supportive. Jacob will also be supportive and rest easy that he dodged a bullet. Jennifer is going to congratulate herself for the situation, nothing to worry about. What about Joe’s feelings? “Are we going for a threesome from the get go, or she is just coming over as an overseer?” he would say. Becky is going to frown and go “Are you fucking kidding me?” and Dina is going to ad, “If you are fucking with my girlfriend, you are fucking with me!”. So that illustration of the three in a bed will become canon. 😉

  56. Acher4

    OH YES!

    They are SO in for each other!!!! Not just a ‘small’ thing during danger.

  57. Qube

    the whitest girls you know

  58. kaleido

    giddy giggling into the night!!!

    1. kaleido

      oh GOOD avatar for this 😀

  59. Ornathe

    Awh, I know the feeling of of not wanting to stop kissing even when you should get a move on.

    Sidenote, glancing back at , I actually forgot that Dorothy literally already admitted to him that she’s technically already kinda cheated on Walky by intentionally sending Joyce saucy pictures, and he seemed mostly just amused that she’s actually worse than him. Which he then followed up by gently suggesting she should just be honest with herself (instead of running in circles and in denial). I really don’t think he’ll be very surprised, or even as judgmental as some people expect – even though we know he’s not cool with cheating, he’s already shown some understanding that this isn’t coming from a place of malice, and I don’t think he’ll be angry, exactly. Disappointed and sad, definitely, hurt, sure. But I think he’s actually grown enough not to have a full existential crisis over his girlfriend realizing that she’s in love with her best friend, when that’s pretty much been the entire friend group’s impression all along. As long as she doesn’t try to lie or hide it. I think that would be far more of a sticking point than if she comes to hm with this sooner rather than later, and I do think she will.

    1. Ornathe

      Oops, messed up the tags on that.

    2. Mr.Morningstar

      Look I don’t doubt that he will prolly handle this with more grace than expected, but this is still going to hurt him.

      1. Ornathe

        Yeah, I absolutely do think he’ll be hurt! There’s no way around that one. Even if you fully respect and understand why someone you love breaks up with you, it still hurts, especially if it’s because they found someone else. It sucks! But I think it’ll be a bittersweet kind of hurt where he’s happy Joyce will be happy with someone she loves while being pretty sad that he’s no longer the person in that role. He’ll probably question himself a bit, maybe get a bit hung up on whether he wasn’t a good enough boyfriend after all despite doing everything right, but that’s normal. You don’t even need to have pre-existing parental hangups to feel that way. I suspect it’s going to be some interesting fuel for his arc, and I’m sure Rachel will be watching like a hawk to see if he crumbles like a house of cards or if he’s able to prove that he’s being good on his own merits now and not just to get in Joyce’s pants.

  60. Doopyboop

    Now that some actual cheating has occurred, I wanted to bring up ye olde cheating bisexual stereotype. Now, I’m no fan of that trope. It gives us bi people a bad name. If this was the first time any characters here were shown to be bi, I would be very upset.

    HOWEVER.

    For confirmed bisexuals(only not counting Jocelyne because she’s still figuring herself out), as far as I can remember, we have Ruth, Billie, and Danny. Danny himself made it clear to Dorothy how he felt about cheating, and I’m sure Ruth and Billie felt similarly. 2 out of 5 is better than ‘the only introduced bisexual character is a cheater’. Bisexual people are not a monolith after all. It’s still a bit of a shame, but I can live with it. And I can understand that a lot of Dorothy and Joyce’s stuff here is tangled with a lot of trauma, internalized biphobia, all that shit.

    Do I feel bad for Joe? Yes. Do I think his relationship with Joyce was the only thing making him respect women as people and now he has carte blanche to be an asshole? No. Is he going to regress a bit? Yes.

    Do I feel bad for Walky? Yes. However, getting back with Dorothy was already kind of a rebound off a rebound… of a rebound? So they were doomed to fail. Sorry it had to go this way.

    The only way my opinion of these two would go down would be if they tried to keep this a secret. Otherwise, I’m willing to see where the story goes.

    1. Doopyboop

      *By any characters I mean any character at all in the comic. As in, everyone up to this point was either gay or straight then WHAM first two confirmed bi people in the comic confirmed via cheating.

      1. GholaHalleck

        Ruth and Billie are meh. Their diasterhood isn’t tied to their sexuality as such, at least Ruth’s isn’t. But it’s still… Not a *fun* feeling that the *only* bisexuals currently in stable relationships and-or not cheating are dudes.

        Admittedly, I would need to see more of Ruth and Jason, but it’s already been played for “Hostage taking is funny if it’s a man in the handcuffs” so… Probably not the best either.

        1. Doopyboop

          Honestly the vibe I got from Jason isn’t that he was actually taken hostage but more of a tsundere masochistic…whatever the fuck it is they have going on. I mean whatever it is, he IS consenting to it.

        2. Wack'd

          ethan is literally fucking the guy who caused him to get held at knifepoint at age 13, knowingly

          and also unknowingly fucking a guy who got him abducted and tied up in a basement because he was blackmailed by the guy who put his childhood crush in a coma

          they’re stable now but it’s a rotten foundation and there’s an earthquake coming

        3. GholaHalleck

          Ethan’s gay though.

        4. Throwatron

          sometimes being gay is just like that

        5. Wack'd

          the thing about relationships is they involve two people

        6. Li

          Dina.

          To a lesser extent because they’re more minor characters, Marcie and Sierra.

          (Honestly the more minor the character, the more likely their relationships are to be stable and healthy. Willis seems to favor mess.)

    2. Proxiehunter

      Also Asher.

      1. Doopyboop

        Thank you, I forgot him! And honestly there’s probably a lot more bi characters just waiting to reveal themselves

        1. Doopyboop

          Thought of a couple more;

          Marcie – I’m a bit unsure, because I don’t think we’ve ever heard her preferences and we definitely know she had feelings for Sal, but she’s currently dating Malaya who is non-binary so… I’d say probably bi or pan?

          Sierra – I recall hearing that she confirmed herself to be pan in a patreon strip.

          Mike – Bi, if I asked him his opinion on cheating, he’d say he’d cheat on my mom for a nickel. Also he’s dead.

        2. Li

          I thiiiink one of the Patreon bonus strips had Marcie go off to have a good time with a boy! She and Malaya seem to have a chill off-screen open relationship.

          Also just to head off anyone still operating on the first thing Willis ever said about Mike’s sexuality like 20 years ago that they’ve said they regret, yes, Mike is bi. (Dumbiverse Mike was bi, and is now dead.)

          Oh, and don’t forget Dina. She’s “unconcerned” with her sexuality in the Dumbiverse, and some variety of gray ace, but she’s also been interested in men. Bi or pan or any other label, she counts. ?

          So does Robin, though understandably folks are going to be less eager to add her name to the list fff.

        3. Doopyboop

          How could I forget Dina and Robin “I’m so straight I swear” DeSanto!?

          Booster and Charlie are also somewhat unaccounted for, I could see Booster being bi or pan since they’ve expressed interest/attraction to Joe, Tony, Ethan, Amber, and Ruth. We’ve heard that Charlie is ace but we don’t know if she is only wlw or not! Walky is also a bit up in the air, but he’s expressed a willingness to have sex with men before so I feel he’s next up for a bi-awakening.

          So in total we have 11 confirmed bi of some kind characters, with potential for three more. Even if we go with just the 11 bis, 2 of those engaging in a bit of cheating is hardly the majority and thus, why I don’t personally view this as a case of the cheating bisexuals stereotype. This concludes my Ted Talk.

        4. Li

          Ooo, good point about Booster, I totally spaced on them and they’re definitely bi.

          I’m also right there with you on Walky, I think PART of his reaction to Dorothy announcing she’s bi might well be some form of “oh is that something we’re supposed to say? Me too I guess”.

          (Like, not part of the immediate reaction? Just that her clearly feeling like it’s a big deal and needs to be confessed might spur him into a more casual announcement, maybe before she gets around to the Joyce confession that might be more painful for him…)

  61. Thing 2

    I can see why same gender sex might be easier for someone who was brought up no sex. Having grown up bisexual with no opportunity for same gender sex and plenty of opportunity for heterosex, if faced suddenly with what the heck to do during homosex, I’d probably die of embarrassment. But, logically, one should have a better idea of what ones own body type likes…

  62. The Queer Agenda [frog memes]

    Ladies! Garbage roof is right there!

  63. Mr.Morningstar

    Look they’re cute, I don’t deny that, but we’re moving past moment of passion and extreme emotions to just outright cheating.

    Please, please go break up with Joe and walky now.

    1. Zaxares

      One of the worst parts of it all is that, for all of his faults, I don’t believe Joe has ever actually cheated on anyone. He’s always been upfront with his sexual partners that this is a physical-only, NSA thing. Now he’s in his first real emotional relationship, and his partner with whom he has fully opened up and allowed himself to be vulnerable to has cheated on HIM. (You can argue whether kissing counts as cheating, but considering that both Joyce and Joe went into this wanting to be emotionally invested in each other, I would say that yes, it counts as cheating.)

  64. Brian K. Pittman

    It’s hard to be happy for them when I know they’re literally hurting two other people in the exchange. Joe’s come so far and finding out Joyce cheated on him is likely gonna be devastating. And Walky…he pretends not to be bothered by a lot, but as someone like that I know he’s internalizing all of that and it’s going to end badly. This is going to break someone.

  65. Da Boy

    Wanna bet Joe and Walky will be just inside, having been worried about them?

  66. Cloud

    People rooting for cheating ?

    1. Da Boy

      It’s a fictional story, these characters exist for our amusement XD

    2. Taffy

      People [reading a comic and then] rooting for [the story potential of fictional] cheating [without ever condoning it for real human beings who might actually hurt someone]

    3. Ldritch

      If I am a bad person for enjoying fictional characters cheating on their partners, I do not want to know what I am to you for reading Warhammer 40k novels.

      1. Tequila Mockingbird

        Leaving reply here for 40k nerd solidarity (especially 40k nerds smart enough to separate fantasy from reality and not use a fictional dystopia as a pipeline to simping for real-life f*scism.)

        1. Throwatron

          The fact that some 40k players actually end up fash is so incredible to me. Games Workshop invented an entire setting called “THESE ARE THE GRIM RESULTS OF FASCISM: ENGAGE IN FASCISM AT YOUR OWN PERIL! IT IS THE DEATH OF ALL GOOD IN THE UNIVERSE,” and yet there’s a group of dunder-headed troglodytes on this planet, who engage with said work, and go “yo, chainsaw swords and acid bombs are awesome, bro. this fascism thing is kinda hella sick?”

        2. Da Boy

          It bites into the need for purpose and meaning. Imperium is fighting for its survival against all kinds of powerful threats. There is a reason why many people went “Now I get it” when playing Space Marine 2 and getting to the Last Stand bit. It’s the desire for heroism against overwhelming odds.

        3. thejeff

          A huge part of the appeal of fascism is the aesthetic. Makes it really hard to deal with in fiction (or games).

        4. Tequila Mockingbird

          Thank you. Please keep talking. I am so ridiculously starved for intelligent takes from people who actually understand the entire premise of the Warhammer setting.

    4. miri

      The shit that I have enjoyed in the confines of fiction would put you into an early grave. This is entry level sicko material. Playskool shit.

    5. Vaishino

      Dawg, have you never heard of a soap opera? Drama sells.

      1. Mr D

        I see your Soap Opera and I raise you Telenovelas.
        Take a Soap Opera, dial up the drama up to double, and then it plays 5 days a week, not 4 times a month.

        1. Da Boy

          Grannies in Poland absolutely loved those in the 90s. We imported so many from South America XD

        2. Throwatron

          I watch pro wrestling, and I just saw a dude stab a guy in the face like a dozen times with a fork, last weekend.

          A trading card company is giving away a one-of-a-kind card in their next set, where if you pull the card, they will send you the actual fork as a collectible.

          (If you’re wondering, the dude who got stabbed totally had it coming)

        3. Proxiehunter

          Not sure what counts as a Soap Opera these days. The ones my mother and sister watched when I was younger did air five days a week.

    6. Kyulen

      Apparently a lot of people here are fine with cheating when it’s their favorite fictional characters doing it. I don’t understand it myself. If they were clearly villainous characters I wouldn’t mind as much since that’s bad guys doing more bad things, but I find it hard to enjoy it when characters who are supposed to be good people do bad things like cheating on their partners. Especially the cheering for cheating, that seems really weird to me.

      1. Proxiehunter

        A lot of people here are fine with cheating when fictional characters engage in it in ways that promise to shake up the status quo of a work of fiction.

        What I find strange are the number of posters who act like a real person has been actually cheated on.

        1. thejeff

          For the same reasons we care about anything that happens to these fictional characters. Emotional investment is kind of the point.

        2. Li

          Are you being disingenuous here? Proxiehunter is decidedly not talking about people who are just upset for the characters, but people who are taking moralizing stances, such as Cloud, who is saying in the OP of this thread that anyone cheering right now is showing themselves to be a red flag IRL.

    7. Li

      And here we have Exhibit Can’t Even Keep Track of a Paladin making this needlessly personal.

      1. Taffy

        Well yeah, they gotta sit up on their high horses on top of their ivory towers, huffing their own farts after shoving their heads so far up their asses that they’re peaking out of their own mouths.

  67. Maddie B

    Yeah, these two need to sort things out with their previously established partners so they can start being cute sapphics without all the ethical issues.

  68. Alan in DC

    Who is gonna be first to touch the other’s boobage?

  69. AlexaSpuds

    God I love this messy gay shit, reminds me of when I was like this like 6 years ago (I was a reader back then too lmao).

  70. eskimolos

    Genuinely feelings are complicated and this is where it tends to come up in your teens, while you were trying things out with someone and suddenly realised you had real, deep romantic feelings for someone else.

    I stand by the notion that believing kissing is cheating is something archaic and unsuited for humans to consider. I do agree that if you just aren’t that into your partner and are actively considering other people to be with, you should probably leave them before things get messy. I do not think what Dorothy and Joyce are doing is egregious or uncharacteristic, as others have said this becomes egregious if either or both of them try to hide it from their boyfriends. The best case scenario would be to just straight up confess what they’ve done and apologise and clearly state their interest and intention to be together.

  71. AnonGrouch

    Joe hates himself a lot still. I feel like Joe’s thoughts will definitely go somewhere like ‘oh Joyce chose someone else I guess I AM not worthy’ and not fight for what will make him happy. That to me is the actual thing in the way of the poly. The cheating is just the hammer to that particular stake in the heart. That’s why I don’t think we’ll have DoJoJo until like a year or so from now if it even happens.

    As for Walky… It really is hard to say. I think he has a lot of depth to his emotions and character that often get layered with jokes and a persona he’s built for himself. I expect him to take this really hard. Guy is possibly clinically depressed and doesn’t have a way to deal with his emotions basically at all. I think Mike’s death and the general driftiness of his life has made this way harder to deal with. Even if he goes along with it, I feel like he’ll be masking a lot of pain.

    1. Kyulen

      Yeah, I worry how Joe and Walky are gonna take this. Maybe they’ll act like it’s fine outwardly, but I feel like they’re gonna take it a lot harder than many people in these comments seem to think.

  72. Needfuldoer

    So this confirms they’re both down for cheating.

    1. Da Boy

      If they’d have sex… I wonder if they’d get hit with a nuke of a post-nut clarity.

      1. Throwatron

        Joyce making Dorothy come, only for Dorothy to immediately have a reality-induced panic attack, would be both apropos, and so funny.

    2. Amós Batista

      we can say they were cheating for much before today, much before

  73. Deanatay

    Bang! Click! Goes the closet door. Dorothy is not ready.

    (Yes, her closet locks from the inside. I can stretch the metaphor if I wanna.)

  74. Steamweed

    Sadly, the pair of them are moving away from the One True Light of Sickos, and descending into The Darkness of Relationship Paladining.

  75. Big Z

    At this point I’m wondering if we get some sort of weird sicko/paladin hybrid ending — if the commenter above me is correct that Dorothy is slamming the door on this in some way, then we might just get the most absurd timeline:

    – Joyce and Dorothy never set sail
    – Joyce probably confesses to Joe, and that drama happens
    – Dorothy continues being self-destructive
    – Joyce accepts her bisexual awakening (possibly by way of unlearning the Billifer Rule)
    – Dorothy maybe doesn’t accept her own

    Now THAT would be a mess to satisfy some sickos while mollifying the paladins somewhat (if Joyce “comes clean” rather than “getting caught”)

    1. Li

      This would all be interesting to me!

      There would also be a part of me grimacing through all the “see we were right Dorothy was a villain all along” reactions getting worse and worse as she slides further into denial. “Dorothy asking Danny a terribly worded question, she’s the worst homophobe in the comic” levels and worse.

  76. Woop de doop

    This is so fuckin gay UGH

  77. Ldritch

    They are about to be found out, aren’t they?

  78. Bajja

    THAT LEAN AND PULL BY DOROTHY AHHHHH

    Okayyyy Willis, you got me. Joe/Joyce is dead. D/s is the one true gender binary lol

  79. Wack'd

    everyone brings up joe’s prior experience with cheating, no one brings up walky’s prior experience with being dumped by dorothy

    which was, if i recall, to wallow in self-pity, get blitzed, immediately rebound with the first person who could quiet the voices in his head telling him he’s worthless, and then feel even more worthless for rebounding

    also his first reaction to a near-death experience was to try and get back together with dorothy! he said that if he’d died he would’ve regretted not being with her more!

    boy is down bad for her and this is absolutely gonna shatter him into a million tiny pieces

    1. Heatth

      On the other hand recently he have been more mature and even called Dorothy out when she tried to get back to him while he was still dating Lucy. I think there is a reasonable chance he will stand up to her again.

      Either way, I doubt he will take it in stride as many are predicting. I think it will either break him, as you say, or piss him off.

      1. Wack'd

        i think that, like. when he rebuffed dorothy during his time with lucy, it was out of loyalty to lucy. not himself, terribly. and he could also see that dorothy was in a deep dark place and using him to escape. he stood up to her, but he also wanted to help her while maintaining his own relationships.

        and now walky IS that relationship. he’s the cheated-on party. he can stand up for sal. he can stand up for amber. he feels bad he didn’t stand up for lucy enough. but can he stand up for himself? can he say with his whole throat that he, personally, deserves better? that’s still kind of an open question! we’ll see, i guess

        but the other side of that coin? writing dorothy’s behavior off as a breakdown he needs to help her through? it’s not gonna fly. dorothy couldn’t even convince dorothy this was a breakdown. walky knows how much dorothy loves joyce. he’s seen it firsthand. that’s a fact he’s gonna have to live with. will it anger him? will it deepen his inferiority complex? who knows! but it’s gonna be ROUGH

        1. Heatth

          Yeah, I can see that. At any rate I am looking forward to it. There should be a strong reaction, cheating is not the worst crime imaginable, as some people seem to think it to be, but it is still shitty. Dorothy did wrong by Walky. It is not even the first time she been unfair to him, but certainly the worst. This shouldn’t be swept under the rug.

          A lot of people are wanting them all for form a polycule and resolve this all peacefully and, like, I see the appeal. I wouldn’t if it happens later. But first I want to see the consequences. I am here for the mess.

        2. Heatth

          *I wouldn’t complain if it happens latter

          Damn lack of edit button!

        3. Dot

          My issue with polycule theory is that it would feel too much like a narrative reward for what is by any measure terribly bad behavior on Dorothy and Joyce’s part.

        4. Wack'd

          i don’t really care for the pop-karma model of fiction writing. why punish characters for shit you made them do?

        5. Proxiehunter

          The viewing characters relationships as a “reward” model isn’t that great either.

        6. Li

          +1

          I know this is a narrative, but even in stories, relationships aren’t even ususally rewards for making the right choices.

      2. Li

        I would genuinely really like to see Walky stand up for himself and his own boundaries.

        Every time he’s talked about any of these relationships, it’s been very self-flagellating — when he went to ask Lucy out for the first time, he specifically said he couldn’t “fumble the ball” of a girl who’s way too pretty and smart and nice for him twice, and Dorothy visibly recognized that he was talking about her.

        (I don’t blame Dorothy or Lucy for how their relationships ended either, but I absolutely think Walky is being way too hard on himself and taking all the blame for… bad timing, a bad fit, etc. things that weren’t entirely or even at all within his control.)

        1. Odo

          Ehhhh I kind of blame Lucy.

          She actively encouraged the whole Amber/Parents plotline and then blamed Walky even though he was super clear that his parents sucked.

          Then she was mad because he wasn’t religious, but couldn’t say that, so instead she just chose something else to be mad at him about.

          Lucy kind of sucked, IMO. Whole ton of self-serving anger and zero introspection.

        2. Li

          …those are interesting interpretations of the sequence of events. It’s particularly interesting that you interpreted Lucy as being mad at Walky for not being religious and only pretending to be upset when she realized he’d never said he loved her?

          IDK, you might benefit from a re-read.

    2. Dot

      Fucking thank you.

    3. Kyulen

      You make some good points. I feel like way too many people here seem to think Walky will be fine with this, when there’s a very good chance both him and Joe take this pretty hard when they find out what Joyce and Dorothy have been doing.

  80. thumb

    Tomorrow: The rest of everything and figuring it out.

    1. thumb

      It just occurred to me that Becky will somehow find out exactly what’s up with Dorothy (and by extension Joyce) before midnight.

  81. Nymph

    My opinion on why the polycule-that-might-yet-be would be fun as a story:

    JOE – It presents Joe with a relationship that allows him to be with multiple people without necessarily hurting any of them. Literally freeing him from his concerns about being like his dad (because he doesn’t seem to get off on sneaking around and being a shit). He’ll get to find out that there are other models for a relationship. He will ALSO get to be in a situation where Tall Rachel sees him out with a date who is Not Joyce and get in his face about not changing until Joyce/Joe straighten her out about it. That’s fun to me.

    WALKY – It puts Walky in a relationship with Dorothy that might make him jealous or realize how much he wants to be in a monogamous relationship where he’s not constantly worried he isn’t good enough. It might, instead, offer him a relationship where he can relax and not worry about being everything for his partner. Maybe he’ll branch out to Amber with his new freedom, or maybe not! Maybe it will renew his appreciation for what he and Lucy had, and start him on a journey to make it up to her or be there for her in a way he wasn’t. Maybe even opens him up to explore his bisexuality (that I think has been heavily hinted at) and deal with his mother’s raging disapproval of this relationship dynamic.

    AMBER – I just think it’ll be funny if instead of a break-up that frees Walky for a monogamous relationship, the polycule happens and gives her lots of things to crackship. Maybe she ends up with Walky as a partner in the polycule or maybe she ends up with Booster! I think they’d be really cute together, that’s all. Maybe AG ends up with Dorothy! Who knows, loads of opportunity for our resident Trash Goblin <3

    DOROTHY – Gets Joyce and Walky, one to care about her and help her grow, one to care about her and help her relax. Maybe she'll find a third partner, but these two balance her nicely already. She'll have to confront being queer, being in a non-standard relationship, and learn how to accept being judged by people. I'm also really fucking hoping this is the start of Actual Activist Dorothy who tries to help people in concrete ways.

    JOYCE – Gets Joe and Dorothy, two people who absolutely think she hung the moon in the sky. Has to confront being queer, likely has to have an empathetic talk with Becky that being poly still doesn't mean there's an opening for her other than bestie, has to confront the idea that monogamy isn't somehow more holy or pure than polyamory. I'm hoping this is also the start of Actual Activist Joyce who will presumably focus on queer issues and maybe even grow close with Booster who I know she sees as a source of Queer Discourse because she has asked them multiple questions.

    In conclusion, I don't want polyamory like some magical band-aid that solves cheating and makes it not matter. I want polyamory because there are some really interesting character arcs that I want to see explored through it. I also just want to see a poly group of main characters in my media. So I'mma keep hoping and shipping.

    1. Nymph

      I know that’s long, so only read if you actually want to lmao. Thanks for perusing my TED talk.

    2. Nymph

      Adding: Jacob seems kinda prone to enjoying The Chase and New Relationship Energy, so seeing the polycule and maybe talking to Lucy about opening up the relationship is good GOOD drama that might swing around to include his Sex Addict character trait people have talked about from one of the other comics in this series.

      1. Dot

        I hope not because that storyline was bad lol

        1. Thing 2

          Gosh. Moralistic much! Some “bad” stories are there precisely do get people thinking about “bad” things. But there is no universal “bad”, only personal opinions and collections of personal opinions. If a big enough proportion of a population have the personal opinion that something is “bad” society is down on it. That’s where rules and indeed laws come from.

        2. Dot

          No I mean it was not well written

        3. I Know Why the Mowed Lawn Screams

          no yeah dot’s right, the jacob sex addict stuff in shortpacked! did not age all that well lol

      2. Li

        The last time it got brought up to Willis, they said they regretted that storyline and didn’t want to revisit it…

        But never say never. If they found an angle they liked better, it might be different. Especially since it was, at the time, an admitted overcorrection after writing so many repressed characters… and by now, Willis has written a lot more characters who are repressed and dealing with it or who aren’t and are happy.

        1. Wilde

          Oh! Do you happen to have a link for that? Was it on Bluesky or Tumblr? I missed that Willis had said that, and I’m always curious about their thoughts behind or about different plots.

        2. Li

          https://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/81366789633/dumbing-of-age-the-new-normal-let-me-tell-you-a

          Took me a bit but I found it! I misremembered it as having been in response to an ask.

        3. Li

          (Also I misremembered some of the content of what they said! So please do read it lol oops.)

    3. kaleido

      yesssssss. yes exactly! so many interesting stories within!

    4. Wack'd

      a huge part of walky’s whole thing is that he loves multiple people. he’s never stopped loving dorothy, but he apologized to amber that he can’t give her “his whole heart”. he even joked about polying it up with lucy, which she shot down, and which i absolutely took as a “haha unless” situation

      i think walky’d be down for it but i think that it depends massively on how dorothy approaches the subject, because right now it seems like dorothy’s on the road to dumpsville and i don’t think walky’d be able to bring himself to pitch it to her if he’s thinking she doesn’t want him at all

      1. Nymph

        This is also a great point! Walky would potentially thrive in a poly relationship.

    5. Tan

      Honestly I feel like even if everything settles into happy poly, Joe wouldn’t actually be interested in dating other people. Maybe, *maybe* pick up a fuckbuddy on the side, but I very much see him being like “Okay, this is my one singular girlfriend, and also she has a girlfriend. I can live with that”

      Which may not necessarily bode well for the long-term sustainability of the polycule in terms of unevenness, but ticking timebomb is also fun.

      1. Nymph

        It’s not uneven if he chooses not to date anyone else. As long as he’s allowed to and not given different rules, there’s nothing wrong with him not immediately getting a second partner. I do also love the idea of him thinking he’s down for it, genuinely being open to it, and just… finding out that’s not his bag. That’s a really good arc and very true to life.

        1. Tan

          I would draw the distinction that it’s not *unfair*, but it is uneven. He is not wronged by this situation, but I do suspect he’ll eventually want to reevaluate how okay with it he actually is.

        2. Nymph

          I just disagree that it’s uneven. People in a polycule are not dating the same number of people at any given time, and there are even polyxmono relationships that work out. It can be not-identical without being uneven.

          I’m not saying you have to agree with my take, just that I don’t agree with yours as I’ve understood it.

          I do still like the idea of him trying poly and realizing he’s mono.

    6. TulipKitten

      Honestly, Walky probably is somewhat open to polyamory. He joked about being in a polycule with Amber while he was with Lucy after all. And holy shit, now that I’m typing that out it makes me remember how shitty he was to Lucy.

    7. and painted shark women

      I like the case you present here, and the detail you present it in. :3

  82. CianM1301

    Girls, are you trying to get caught?!

  83. Skychrono

    If I had to guess at how this ends, it’ll be more like Chasing Amy, less FAANS.

    (Oh no, one of those references is almost 30 years old, and the other is from an event in 2005?!)

    1. Wack'd

      god, joe and walky, sitting on that ratty-ass couch, staring slack-jawed and horrified at joyce and dorothy, sure is an image

      who gets up and does the big slap? doesn’t seem terribly in character for either of them

      1. Skychrono

        They may slap each other, a comedic “is this even real?” moment.

    2. Nadamás

      I am honestly hoping for the fasns ending because i love that comic

  84. Coco

    So they will continue in secret or they will talk? I need to know asap. I’m not one to cast the first stone though. I had a HUGE crush on one of my friend when I was dating my current husband at 20. I didn’t cheat at all but I’m still to this day so happy my friend didn’t made any move on me because I’m happily married now but I wouldn’t have been able to resist one iota.

  85. Kaz

    inb4 they suggest going to do laundry now

  86. Amós Batista

    I’ll confess, and I know I’m be wrong about it, but I’m not mad about Joyce and Dorothy, but I still not over hings about Joe (no, it’s not because of the Do List).

  87. Sapph-o

    Sorry but wow I hate this storyline and this ship…

    1. sisterofdarkoneko

      Ironic

      1. Sapph-o

        Lesbians are allowed to have taste, ok!!! If I wanted to see white ppl cheating I’d go to a coldplay concert 😛

        1. Taffy

          You say you have taste, but what’s your favorite Dragon Ball? The objects, not the thing they’re from.

        2. Nymph

          Four-Star Dragon Ball is the best and I won’t be convinced otherwise. It’s graphically very pretty, but also comes with a lot of sentimental value since his grandfather gave it to him.

  88. egg egg

    this is so disappointing

    fwiw i love the idea of joyce/dorothy but media has been so filled with cheating plotlines for the last 15-20 years that i am terribly over them

    i also hate that, once again!!!! bisexuals are cheating in media!!!!!

    really helps keep my bi self from wanting to come out to ppl irl when this is the constant rep we get. thanks.

    1. Dot

      This is a valid complaint, but I will say it’s cushioned a little by there being more bisexual representation in the strip, like Ruth, Billie (even if she is shoving herself back into the closet at the moment), and Danny, who pushed back hard against the cheating bisexual stereotype.

    2. Bleuryder

      This is one of the few occasions where I let that stereotype slide, because they’ve given us more than one type of bisexual and they range from relatively stable in relationships to hot dumpster fire. And as an added bonus, we get more than one gender of them.

      I’d like to add that while yes, the cheating bisexual trope IS present with these two, I am impressed that none of the representations of bi characters are the Slutty McSluterson who is going around slutting up all the space and their identity is slut. That one bothers me more than the cheating stereotype and this comic has avoided that trope with flying colors.

  89. RedComet

    This doesn’t make it not cheating but I think that conversation Joyce had with Billy about how essentially girl-girl stuff between best friend stuff “doesn’t count” has heavily weighted her actions in this arc.

    I could see her casually but honestly bringing it up with Joe and being surprised he’s uncomfortable with it. IMO at that point they’d have to talk about if it’s something that can be worked past due to misunderstanding on her part, forgiveness on his part.

    But poor Dorothy if that’s that case. She’d have thrown away everything for someone not operating on the same wavelength.

    Anyway that’s just one possibility. I’ll enjoy this drama and smooches until the repercussions hit.

    1. Dot

      Kind of feels like we should have gotten more from Joyce’s perspective leading up to the initial kiss. It feels like a missing puzzle piece.

      1. Throwatron

        My best explanation for all of this is that, over the past couple of days, Joyce has been in a perpetual whirlwind of uncritical emotional drives. I think the explanation we may end up seeing actualized, is that she actually hasn’t had a proper, rational thought, in like, three days. She’s just been cycling between impulsive (horny), and impulsive (crisis), back and forth like a pendulum.

        1. Yak

          This is my read as well. Dorothy has been navel-gazing, Joyce has just been doing what feels right. I have faith she will survive the impact once she introspects but it’s gonna be rough.

        2. Dot

          Sure, but I don’t think that’s been very satisfying to watch unfold.

        3. Big Z

          Right there with you. At this point, I said elsewhere, that my best hope for something interesting to emerge from this is “Joyce confesses to Joe, and figures out something about herself after all this impulsive whiplash; Dorothy slams the door on bisexuality because it doesn’t fit her self image and continues her self-destructive arc”.

  90. Ac

    i am genuinely excited for this storyline !!

  91. Derek

    there’s no freaking way these two would be okay like this instead of coughing and crying until they are heaving, they were exposed to tear gas powder. There should be ugly tears and snot gushing down their faces as they struggle to breathe. NO ONE is this fine and cute after getting turbo-maced

    1. Icalasari

      It’s hours and hours later, very possible they got the tear gas and mace dealt with

      1. Derek

        I assumed this was less than an hour later, the fact that it’s dark doesn’t really mean a lot of time has passed since it gets dark early in winter. Unless they went to the protest at like. noon

  92. Derek

    and is there a thought spared for poor Jocelyn, the trans individual whose safety they were ostensibly concerned about and they entered the protest to check on? the person who, next to Arab and Muslim individuals, is possibly the biggest target of police violence in an incident like this? ultimately I think Jocelyn will be fine because she is white and nothing about her outfit screamed “queer” in a way that would single her out. but it’s still so messy of Joyce to insert herself into a conflict to check on her sister, and then forget all about her.

    1. Throwatron

      In her defense, what you’re describing is literally exactly what her older, authoritative sister instructed her to do. Joyce uncritically obeys any authority figure she trusts; she only defies authority now, because she distrusts more authority figures than she used to. But, her sister is one of the ones she trusts.

    2. Heavensrun

      She was fine when they escaped from the protest, which is a thing that they succeeded in doing before the separated, and they were explicitly told to scatter.

  93. stellatedHexahedron

    okay i gotta ask. are allo people actually this stupid about kissing. like on a scale from “no, two reasonable people who admitted to themselves they’re cheating and are in public wouldn’t, this is just for the gag” to “well you’d have to be ridiculously head-over-heels and/or horny but they *are* 19 year olds” to “after all that denial? i’m surprised dorothy managed to *stop*”

    1. Throwatron

      the short answer is yes.

    2. Taffy

      Yes, universally. Every allo person would and will do exactly what these two characters are doing in this comic.

    3. Amós Batista

      demi can be even more stupid

      1. Joy

        Real.

      2. Throwatron

        as a demi moron i can also confirm this

    4. Yeet

      it depends but yeah
      people are stupid about a lot of strong emotions and ways to express them really, let’s be real

  94. Joy

    I like this strip haha omg

    1. Taffy

      It’s a good strip.

  95. Juanoku

    They just had to have this revelation as soon as they got boyfriends, huh?
    I wanna be happy for them but i can’t in all good consciousness

  96. Thing 2

    The people complaining hard about not liking plot developments in this comic because they are cheap thrills or not a representation of a perfect addressing of queer or political or cultural correctness…. Why are they reading the comic? I know I’m not them, and everyone is different, but me… well, if I don’t like it, I don’t go on reading it. I mean, there are bound to be comics for (almost) everyone, and therefore plenty that are just not ‘me’.

    1. Li

      Hate-reading is a time honored tradition.

      But also Willis gave us a comment section, and they do pay attention to feedback. I fully understand with the impulse to let them know you’re not enjoying this development. It’s part of why I’ve left the occasional positive comment even when I didn’t have anything much to say about a strip: I want the noise to be representative, at least.

    2. Big Z

      Easy answer: When a comic has thousands of daily strips, in a body of work by the author that has DECADES of strips, it’s not only possible but LIKELY that someone will like 95% of Willis’ work but really dislike the occasional storyline.

      And as Li says, as this comment section exists and we know Willis listens to some feedback…

    3. Bittersweet

      Because I can hate a storyline in a strip and not the strip? The only webcomic that’s run for decades that has never had a storyline I hated is Sluggy Freelance lol. It’s a singular storyline, I can’t hate all of Batman because I happen to hate a few issues.

  97. Eff

    No, don’t stop. Seriously. This may not be the correct way to go about this discovery, but you’re young; go ahead and make mistakes. Maybe you’ll discover you’re polyamorous, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have a hard choice to make between two great people, maybe you won’t have to choose. Who knows?

    I don’t regret the choices I’ve made in my life nearly as much as those where I didn’t take the risk and made no choice at all.

    1. Odo

      It is one thing to take personal risks. It is another to be a jerk to someone else. Making mistakes by disregarding other people isn’t cute it is selfish.

  98. Snoopy

    Well, I hope they tell the truth to their current partners and both the guys break up with the gals. I want the boys to have love and respect for themselves that they aren’t getting in these relationships.

  99. Lenks

    I find it very funny that the same people saying “it’s not called smarting of age!” and in favour of Joyce/Dorothy are somehow convinced that Joe and Walky will instantly, and without issue or drama, adopt an expansive, healthy, and communicative polyamorous lifestyle. Oh so it can be called smarting of age when you want it to be? lmaoo

    1. Nymph

      I actually can’t find a single comment suggesting they’ll find an “expansive, healthy, and communicative polyamorous lifestyle”.

      I see a bunch of people saying it might work out or that it’d be interesting, some people saying it would be too much of a band-aid on the cheating, others saying they hope they try for a polycule and it’s messy, and some people pointing out that it’s definitely not going to work.

      I think maybe you just wanted to be mad about this and so you made some stuff up, but I’m happy to be wrong.

    2. Taffy

      Screaming at ghosts again, Tyler?

  100. Staszu13

    Worse for who?

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