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Victimless
Posted on May 24, 2022 by David M Willis
FINAL DAY! The Dumbing of Age Book 11 Kickstarter ends tonight, Tuesday, May 24, at 11:45pm EST! I Excised All my Anxieties into Cartoon Characters Who Definitely Don't Have Feelings for Each Other will collect "Year Eleven," spanning the five storylines that start on September 10, 2020, and complete on August 26, 2021. This includes new commentary, 24 Patreon bonus strips, behind-the-scenes artwork, and new character designs into a 224-page tome with luxurious glossy paper all bound up into a sturdy presentation.   There's a foreword by Kendra Wells!  12 character magnets are unlocked!  Pick one, pick three, pick five, or pick them all!  Add-on magnets from previous years!  

142 thoughts on “Victimless”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “Like a LiveJournal!”

    “…ok sure, nothing there but Russian bots”

    1. Ana Chronistic

      then Dumbing of Age Book 12: Some Place You Can Scream, Victimless, What’s Bothering You at the TOP OF YOUR LUNGS

      1. Clif

        Nobody there but us bots would make it an ideal place to vent.

        And it just doesn’t have the cache of Dumbing of Age Book 12: Um, I have a very obvious response to that which I am tamping down, both in the knowledge that I often lack in nuanced understanding and in the pursuit of maintaining this friendship.

      2. Some Ed

        Book 12 gets the title from panel 1, book 13 gets the title from panel 7?

        Or does book 13 actually need to contain panel 7 in order to get its title from it?

        I suppose, if that’s a requirement, Willis could put out a page that does panel 7 in flashback, and then he could use it for the title, and it wouldn’t even have to be book 13.

    2. eh, whatever

      And Russian snark.

      LEARN OLBANIAN

  2. Sirksome

    I mean technically Jennifer never changed her name. It’s always been Jennifer. Billie was the change. Jennifer is her true self….technically.

    1. ThunderNight

      so does that make Billie the heartless or the nobody?

      1. Jamie

        Rexfennij?

        1. Sirksome

          I prefer Blixlie actually.

      2. Kyrik Michalowski

        I think it means she’s whole, like Sora after Kairi saved him as a Heartless.

      3. Sam

        Billie is the Nobody. Drama & Trauma is the Heartless. And combined they make Jennifer, who thirsts for drama AND therapy. But has still not learned the greatest lesson of all that just because you’re a Nobody doesn’t mean you deserve to disappear to make way for someone else and that your greatest relationships are the strongest source of strength you have, not what title you have.

        Being Number I in an organisation of 13 people isn’t impressive Jennifer, it just means you need to get bonked on the head with a keyblade harder than everyone else.

        1. ninja_jesus

          So then Jennifer/Billie is like Kairi/Naminé in the way her Nobody name doesn’t do the X thing.

    2. Chaucer59

      “Jennifer” isn’t her true self—it’s her given name.

      1. Sirksome

        “Billie” isn’t either but stating that doesn’t validate her hypocritical statement! If anything it argues against it and why would you want to do that when Jen is so clearly on a roll with the good advice so far?

        1. BarerMender

          Was it hypocritical? Or was it confessional?

        2. Sirksome

          Both?

        3. Clif

          I think so.

    3. Regalli

      Eh, I think there’s plenty of grounds for the name you were given at birth not inherently being your true name and self. Even setting aside the way that’d intersect with gender, let’s just look at the Walkerton kids. Of Walky, Sal, and Jennifer, Jennifer’s the only one going by her given first name, and I don’t think that’s likely to change. Imagine Sal going back to ‘Sally.’ Doesn’t fit, does it? The thought of Walky going by David gives me a sense of revulsion. I think even imagining him as an adult in professional settings I’m going to assume he goes by ‘Walkerton’ socially because ‘David’ just… does not fit him. At all. Not helping things of course is that the only people calling either of them by their birth names are their parents. Specifically their emotionally abusive mother, whose abuse involves a lot of trying to shove them into the futures she envisioned for them, never mind that they’re square pegs being fit into holes that aren’t just the wrong shape, but also half the size of said pegs. ‘David’ isn’t who Walky wants to be. It’s not a future Walky takes any steps towards. It’s not who Walky is now. It’s not his true identity in any way whatsoever except legal paperwork, and even that could be changed.

      The same applies to Jennifer, who has every right to use whatever name she wants, including her birth name. But ‘Billie’ was no less her true name when she was using it because it wasn’t the one her parents gave her. Her parents were never around. Her parents’ defining traits are never being around and throwing money at her to substitute for human connection. By comparison, ‘Billie’ was the name she adopted for herself to stand out in a sea of Jennifers (because Walky was being an ass and second-graders are cruel, granted,) and Walky gave himself a matching name when she got pushback for it. It’s not a wholly positive origin, but it did have that moment of solidarity going for it, with someone she does ultimately think of as a surrogate brother.

      Also, in another sense, their true selves are unrelated to the names they go by. Jennifer or Billie, she’s still ultimately the same person. Changed from pre-timeskip, sure, but Jennifer still has the streak of petty ego she had as Billie, and the same tendencies towards social climbing. She’s still bisexual regardless of how she tries to dismiss Ruth as a phase. She’s likely still going to have periodic struggles with depression. The reason why all her past reinvention attempts failed so hard is that she can’t simply become the persona she wants to project. Underneath, she’s still got all the traits she’s denying because they don’t fit her image. She still needs glasses in Forest Quad. Changing her name this time won’t make it any more real than the last few catastrophic flops.

      1. Sirksome

        I gotta disagree on this. Not with the name thing, I was mostly joking in my comment, names are arbitrary af.

        But I disagree with the idea that Jennifer hasn’t and can’t change. People’s personalities aren’t set in stone and if Jennifer is committed to changing her identity she can. Example being I believe she has actually managed to stay sober. Early I admittedly was waiting for that shoe to drop but it hasn’t yet, So far it seems She’s been committed to putting her history of alcohol abuse behind her. Sure, Jennifer has backslid on some old habits, some things can’t change, she will likely always be bisexual, but other aspects can be and should be open to evolution. It’s how we grow as people. I think Jennifer can become the better person she projects herself as. Even if she doesn’t achieve that, it’s well within her right to try. And if superficially changing the name she prefers helps in in that, then good for her.

      2. Sam

        If I called my siblings by their actual first names, I think they would ask what is wrong with me because it would come across as way too serious.

    4. Uly

      Jennifer is her true self….technically.

      That’s like saying that Batman’s true self is really Bruce.

  3. The Wellerman

    Vent it out loud for much needed release. ?

    Make the comic for helping to create real, positive change in the world. ?

  4. Yotomoe

    https://i.imgur.com/KD9DRV2.png (NSFW)
    Admittedly not my best but I wanted to finish this before midnight.

    Story so far…
    https://imgur.com/a/9Ob1cy3 (NSFW)

    1. The Wellerman

      ????

      TICKLING!!!! AAAAHHH!!!!

      LOVE IT YOTO!!!! ?

      This playful sex between a girl and the ADHDemon she’s been friends with since childhood, all so WONDERFUL!!!

      Thank you so much Yoto!!!!

      ???

      *plays “Celebi’s Revival” from Pokemon Movie CD on hacked muzak*

    2. Kyrik Michalowski

      That last panel is adorable, well done. The ability to laugh and not interrupt sexytimes is rare but it is (almost) always a great thing.

    3. Dara

      I don’t think I’ve said that this whole thing is almost shockingly adorable pr0n so I’m making a point of picking this strip to go, “this is almost shockingly adorable pr0n.” 😀

    4. Bagge

      He is a boob guy, I think that has been clearly established.

      1. Yotomoe

        Has it? Or are you just referring to in my story. I myself being a boob guy definitely comes through quite a bit.

        1. Bagge

          Yeah, I was thinking of your story – specifically Billie teasing him in the beginning!

    5. Rose by Any Other Name

      Awww!

      Also, did you… have him move his hands because of what I said?
      **blush**

      1. Yotomoe

        Naw I was considering having him lift her shift and kinda hold her ribs but that felt awkward so I just had him move up to her boobs again. I feel bad cuz while I do love boobs more than the oxygen I breathe, I feel like I’m not being very creative. So whenever I feel like I’m failing at being sexy I always double down on humor. To be fair I did have the “boobs not as soft as your stomach” line sorta in my back pocket. I just didn’t plan to use it so soon. In hindsight I kinda wish I’d had him go downwards instead of upwards since I feel like I’ve been giving a lot more love to the above the waist stuff. Also I definitely worry I’m biased towards Billie so I’m trying to give Walky more to do.
        Also my biggest concern is how boring my posing and composition is. Seriously this is some pretty repetitive boring stuff. You’d be forgiven for forgetting they’re technically inside each other right now. That’s my bad. I want this part to like… be really hot but almost all my enjoyment comes from The foreplay. I probably would’ve been better off having Billie just take over and ride him the whole time. But I’ve gone down this road already so I might as well see where it takes us. Honestly this project is already waaaaaaay larger than I planned on it being.

        So to answer your question, naw, I planned to have him move his hands. It’s just that, much like me, he doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

        1. milu

          here’s a thought, i know most straight sex is expected to follow this foreplay-penetration-ejaculation script, but i as a penis-having sexer happen to find penis-in-vagina to be fairly boring most of the time, and really prefer skipping it (maybe saving it for special occasions, honestly it’s got to a point where fucking someone with my dick feels like this weird kink to me lol.)

          so, bottom line i guess, don’t feel obligated to draw anything you don’t find particularly hot. in fact i think it’s the deviations from conventional intercourse narratives that make any given smut piece memorable. if you wanna make a comic that is 90% titty worship, go for it. draw what you enjoy, i’m sure it will shine through =)

        2. Yotomoe

          I’m inclined to agree with you but also I can’t help but think that it makes more sense for Billie and walky to bang at this point in the comic. Partly cuz it just feels more in character for them to but also cuz I feel like I’ve already set the story up to go in that direction. I can’t ALWAYS just do what I’m into, I have to try to think about what they characters are into. I’ll obviously be a bit biased and maybe focus on the parts I like more but I want it to at least fulfill its role of “Walky and Billie hook up” I just don’t imagine there wouldn’t be some penetrative sex between em

        3. milu

          yeah, that makes sense. i guess, if you’re having trouble feeling your way through the interaction, maybe it pays for the characters to be slightly less themselves and a little more you. it’s a balancing act for sure. i don’t know the first thing about writing fiction anyway, so, please disregard my advice, probably =D

        4. Yotomoe

          Naw it’s good to keep in mind at least :D. I’d argue I’ve already put quite a lot of myself into the story already. I’ve focused quite a bit more on Billie’s chest than the comics do anyway

    6. FadingMemory

      Yotomoe – you’ve done such great work with this and the first thing I’ve been doing for weeks now after reading the new strip is look for your comment/update on your strip. Given that the walkyverse is already a thing, I think of what you’ve done as being just as real as any of the other parallel universe content. The amount of work you’ve produced – not just this, specifically, but stuff going back years (I found an imgur link of an archive of your dumbverse related stuff from a google search recently) – is really prolific, and it was cool to see how your work changed & improved over time. But I also feel the characters’ established identities in the stuff you’ve written too, which is for me why it feels like actual canon walkyverse stuff most of the time. If you ever started your own running webcomic, I’d read it for sure.

      1. Yotomoe

        I’m planning to…one of these days.

  5. Nono

    Is that second to last panel dramatic irony?

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      I think so, to which Joyce has already figured but is keeping her mouth (mostly) shut.

      1. Clif

        Not sure about the drama part, but irony there is in plenty.

  6. Yotomoe

    Fun fact about Good ol’ Yoto. I used to be called Tomoe. I had an account called Yo! Tomoe and someone saw it as one word and called me Yotomoe. So now it stuck and most people just call me Yoto. But some people who’ve known me a long time still call me Tomoe.

    1. The Wellerman

      It may now be defunct, but it is a rather lovely handle.

      For “to moe”, i do believe is Japanese for “with hugs”! ?

    2. newlland(Henryvolt)

      And I practically go by two completely different names at the same time here.

      1. The Wellerman

        Yeah, me too.

        N.G.P.Z. just sounds hella cool and looks good as graffiti (while also being more gender-neutral).

        But “The Wellerman” I guess is a lot more memorable and reflects the core of what I want to do with my life somehow, in some way — making and bringing people cool things that make them happy. ?

      2. eh, whatever

        You changed your name from newllend(Henryvolt) to newlland(Henryvolt) a while ago. Don’t imagine nobody noticed!

    3. Opus the Poet

      I likewise have two names. The one I use here is the name I was given after I won a poetry contest in 1998 when I did a compare and contrast between myself and the comicstrip character. I was given the mononym of Opus, and the title of “the Poet” because there was already some confusion between the penguin and the Poet.

    4. mrnoidea

      To this day I wonder if anyone was surprised to learn my username actually says Mr. No Idea.

    5. Keulen

      Most places online I’m either Keulan or Kyulen, the only reason it’s different on this site is because I did the gravatar roulette too much a few years back and lost my ability to comment for a few days. And now of course I use this MLP avatar anyway.

  7. Thag Simmons

    Self-awareness has never been Jennifer’s strong suit, has it

    1. C.T. Phipps

      I mean she’s being 100% self-aware. She’s decided she hates Billie, Billie is not who she was, and wishes that people would acknowledge it. Everyone just ignores her and considers her Billie anyway.

      1. thejeff

        Meanwhile she hasn’t significantly changed her behavior and everyone respects her name change.

        1. Keulen

          Yeah, so far everyone seems to be fine calling her Jennifer, and she really hasn’t changed her behavior that much. She’s still way too concerned with being seen as “popular” and hanging out with jerks who boost her perceived popularity, rather than hanging out with people who actually care about her and like her for who she is.

        2. Alex

          Has she at any point says she wants to be popular, or just expressed comfort with her new friends and discomfort with the old routines.

  8. RassilonTDavros

    So if Team Raidah provides “some place you can scream victimless,” does that mean Jennifer’s just hanging out with her because Raidah is someone she doesn’t care about hurting?

    1. Sirksome

      I don’t think that’s it. I think Raidah and her new group are just people that don’t know “Billie” so she doesn’t have baggage with them. She has freedom to say and do things without them knowing her past mistakes. She has the freedom to confide in them things she can’t with her old friends. Like being a fan of Kit Fisto for instance.

      It’s very similar to how Joyce felt with Liz. She was a clean slate for Joyce where she could present herself as a person not associated with her fundamentalist past, something she can’t do with her current friend group because they all know and often remind her of that past, intentionally even.

      1. thejeff

        Of course this only works because Raidah and Carl are hiding their actual opinions of her for their own, probably nefarious, reasons.

    2. thejeff

      Surprisingly possible. We know she considered herself poisonous and worried that she’d ruin anyone she got close to.

  9. StClair

    “Joyce, you’re narrating again.”

  10. Kyrik Michalowski

    If Jennifer is really looking for a place to do that, I’d suggest a forest or buying large pillows and scream into them. The latter is not quite the same but it’s all I’ve got since no way to drive.

  11. BBCC

    Hey, nobody ever said your venting space had to be private! That’s not in any of the contracts.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Buying a pillow and screaming into it is the closest to private as you can expect in college.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Yeah! The Internet is a great venting space, and it’s anything but private!

      1. Spencer

        I wake up in the morning and tell people I’m sad and passively yearn to be hit by a meteor, then get about a thousand anonymous “yeah, mood.”

        1. milu

          oooh hit by a meteor that’s so aspirational. don’t mind me i’m just plagiarizing your yearning over here

  12. newlland(Henryvolt)

    OK so the first panel has me thinking “OK yeah I understand now sometimes you need to let go and grow apart, that makes more sense of what she’s been up to as of late.”

    Everything else feels like I can say something but whatever comes out of my smart-ass mouth would just feel like a cheap shot.

  13. Bryy

    Jennifer, in order to grow and change, you confront your problems.

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Don’t think this is a matter of running away. I think that Jennifer and Ruth came to the conclusion that there was a hurdle in their personal growth they couldn’t get over do to their relationship somehow. So one of the two most likely Ruth broke things off for good and the other tried their best to come to terms with it.

      Before getting better so they both could have a happy future together was the motivator but now at this point the only way for them both to a happy future is to be just so slightly apart.

    2. C.T. Phipps

      I think the problem many fans have is that Jennifer considered her old associations to be the problem and decided to get away from them. Walky doesn’t understand why “Billie” doesn’t want to be their friend anymore but Jennifer hates her old self and sees Walky as part of that.

    3. Spencer

      Well, she stopped drinking and might not be passively suicidal anymore.

      Seems like a good place to start.

  14. Roe

    ?

  15. Johan

    Loving this interaction!

    I hope we get a full week.

  16. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    A comic strip you have published in the place you live, with your name as the author, which all your friends know you author and can read, is really not anonymous or a good place to vent. Save the victimless screaming for the stuff you *don’t* publish.

  17. Bicycle Bill

    Joyce is undoubtedly referred to Ms. Billington choosing to go by her given name (Jennifer) rather than a nickname (Billie) given to her by her sibling.  And that’s perfectly understandable.  It was in MY first year of college that I decided I’d go by the more mature-sounding ‘Bill’ rather than ‘Billy’ (or even worse, ‘Little Bill’, since I was a junior and my dad, of course, was ‘Big Bill’ – even though I was two inches taller than he by the time I was eighteen) or a nickname derived from the first syllable of my last name.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      Sorry – should have been “Billingsworth” – got it mashed up in my mide with Walkerton.

      1. CJ

        As you said: They *are* siblings.

  18. Opus the Poet

    Oh come on Joyce, you know you can trust Jennifer…

  19. Bagge

    See, last panel Joyce, you can learn nuance

    1. The Wellerman

      Very much so.

      In this case, Joyce is using creative work not just for bringing humor and a little joy into people’s lives, but also sending an important message out there like any great author in order to make a positive difference in the world.

      Meanwhile, what Jennifer’s doing basically the human equivalent of Facebook renaming themselves to Meta. It might fool bourgeois dunderheads who invest in her to some extent, but that’s about it.

  20. C.T. Phipps

    I actually don’t think Jennifer is being hypocritical. She’s acknowledging from experience she had to do a lot more. She had to banish Walky to the corn field where she can no longer hear or experience his inane banter and slowly he will fade away without annoyance to power him.

    1. thejeff

      Just like she had to do in high school to hang with the cool popular cheerleader crowd and like she tried to do again at the start of the year in hopes of doing the same thing.
      Such growth. So mature.

  21. Francoinblanco

    Oh yeah Jennifer? Tell that to Batman.
    There are no more symbol of change than changing your name. Of course like pseudo/nickname you must earn this. You cant wake up one day and except world to akcept your “true name” Badass Kickasser without prove.
    From other hand on the internetz you can haz hamburger anonymously so yeah.

    Joyce has a point you can venting by art, maybe not by comic but by other way to Express yourself and yell that sweet youngadult dread of existence

    1. eh, whatever

      But Joyce can’t be Batman, so she always has to be herself…

  22. Booyahman

    Panel 5 is prime gravatar material!

  23. Alexander Krizak

    That proposed but rejected book title makes me realize that Willis’ goal is to eventually have a book title so long he no longer has the room for – and therefore no longer has the obligation to create – any cover art.

    1. milu

      ah yes, David Willis, that person famous for being very lazy about making art.

      oh wait no, that’s me

  24. Darkoneko

    The irony is lost on Billie uh 😀

    1. Marrow

      It feels like Billie’s past and Jennifer’s future are constantly fighting, but there won’t be any winner, it might just stabilize.
      Maybe even her name will sit halfway through and her friends will call her not Jennifer, nor Billie, but…
      …”Jenny”!

      1. Darkoneko

        Bellifer !

  25. Taffy

    Billie should get a moped and start running people over.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Now there’s a QC deep cut!

      1. Taffy

        A what, now?

        1. Needfuldoer

          More than a decade ago (holy shit), there was a one-off vigilante character in Questionable Content who ran over allegedly unfaithful boyfriends with her Vespa. Said Vespa was also a Transformer-like combat robot.

          https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=720

          In hindsight, she might be a reference to the thing you’re referencing? I don’t know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        2. Taffy

          I’m referencing the act of vehicular manslaughter, if that counts as a reference.

        3. milu

          “reference? what reference? i was just suggesting random gratuitous violence, as one does”

        4. Taffy

          It’d spice up the comic by leaps and bounds if one of the main characters suddenly became a violent criminal with a cool ride, is all I’m sayin’. Willis does like a chase scene, and what better way to incorporate more of them? We could spend an entire week with just Billie knocking over trash bins and evading police on her way to class.

        5. a/snow/mous/e

          oh yes, the Vespavenger!

    2. Darkoneko

      I’m sure Largo could lend ‘his’ muffin cart

      1. Taffy

        Largo Winch, from the PS1 game of the same name?

        1. JBento

          Largo Winch is actually a comic character originally.

        2. Taffy

          Next you’re gonna tell me that so are Scud the Disposable Assassin and Jackie Estacado also. There’s never been a video game about comic books.

        3. milu

          i don’t know what the game is like but Largo Winch the comic book series is incredibly blatant neoliberal propagandy. it’s about as literally pro-big business as i can imagine.

          It’s all about this playboy-adventurer who inherits a massive conglomerate and as it turns out he’s also a skillful CEO. people also constantly try to steal his money with high-finance shenanigans, and also try to assassinate him every so often (because a comic book purely about corporate intrigue and aggressive takeovers would be a bit boring, but there’s still plenty of that) but he’s also great at martial arts and flying helicopters or whatever, because sure why not, also he fucks a bunch of ridiculously interchangeable 20-something bombshells (some of whom are actually industrial spies).

          basically it’s James Bond without the excuse of saving the world. the topmost value in the Largo Winch universe is actually just explicitly financial profit. it’s wild.

        4. milu

          propagandy? lol @ my brain

        5. The Wellerman

          Milu, these kilo-paragraphs, this energy I sense….

          Say… you think you could be an ADHDemon too?

        6. milu

          eh! who knows!

        7. The Wellerman

          Say if ya want I can ask you about your quirks and stuff so I can get a better energy reading.

          Do you have a Discord handle?

        8. milu

          nope!
          but anyway dear Wellerman with respect i don’t think i’m interested in being DIY-diagnosed right now. i’m happily anxious-depressive and currently treated by a therapist and psychiatrist ^^

          also. can’t help but find your offer a bit weird coming from a psycho-skeptic…? feel free not to elaborate, i don’t mean to pry. i’m just surprised.

        9. The Wellerman

          For sure I can’t be one to officially diagnose you with anything!

          All I can really do is give you an impression of how likely it is that you have some kind of neuro-divergence!

          But yeah, in particular I am very against the business of pop psych and bourgeois gate-keeping of the bloated concept of mental “””disorder”””, and their lies about “personality type determines success” and other implements to maintain class barriers, and the grand illusion that their power, the status quo is a natural and universal order.

          What I’m doing here is re-appropriating those instruments, see? Basically taking power away from them!

          I definitely don’t want to think of ADHD as a “mental disorder” — it’s not “incorrect functioning”, just functioning differently, and also bizarre powers!

          ADHDemon sounds so much cooler!!!! ???

        10. milu

          yeah ok. i think i see your point. it’s certainly not a conversation i’m in any way qualified to contribute to anyway!

        11. milu

          anyway, i’m happy not considering the likelihood i have adhd or other neuroatypical trait for now. who knows, maybe someday =)

        12. The Wellerman

          still think it could be worthwhile to talk about it someplace else (these things can get personal), if only to see if its worth the time to get a diagnosis. Lots of people around here say you could have neuro-divergence for decades and not even know about it!

          But honestly I also really want more friends like you on Discord. It feels good to have them, you know?

        13. The Wellerman

          woops didn’t see that reply ?

          that’s alright, thanks for talking about it anyway!

        14. Darkoneko

          from Megatokyo, in the odd case it wasn’t a joke

  26. Rabisch

    Fantastic Joyce in the last panel! She’s growing up really well. Able to not laugh in face at other when they show to understand their own stupid behaviour in other but not in themselves.

    1. Daibhid C

      I mean, laughing in the face of others was never really a Joyce thing, was it? Blurting out “But isn’t that what you did?” with confusion and concern that Jennifer doesn’t see this, but no malice, sure.

  27. Needfuldoer

    I had Joyce’s response to that comment before I even laid eyes on the last panel. Self-burns are rare!

  28. Nicoleandmaggie

    Ooh love the additional Joyce as Willis layer to this one.

    Man this storyline is so good.

  29. Pylgrim

    Joyce now will introduce a /male/ character into her comic to exorcise her demons through it. The perfect misdirection! Nobody would suspect she’s using a character of another gender to talk of, analyze and mock her life as a fundie. Maybe she can call him Willis.

    1. Needfuldoer

      His name is William Davis, but all the other characters call him Dave.

      He starts off as an engineering major, and ends up as the Lowell-from-Wings-like mechanic for Julia’s squadron.

      1. JBento

        *red light turns on*

        “I’m sorry, you can’t do that to Dave.”

  30. Sombrero

    DoA Book 12 will be obviously titled: “Changing Your Name Isn’t Really Going To Help You Accomplish Anything”, all with a nice Jennifer cover.

  31. Spencer

    It is okay for people to change in ways that don’t specifically benefit us, actually.

  32. Spencer

    Anyway yeah Jennifer’s right. She’s been right this whole time, but in particular in panel 1.

    You need to be kind enough to yourself to understand that your feelings have value and need to be spoken aloud, and you need a space to do it away from the consequence of saying them to whoever’ll be chapped by them even if their reasons for being chapped are reasonable.

    (you especially need this space when you finally have it but clingy dipshits intrude on it without your knowledge or consent to make you justify your own feelings to them with no reasonable or morally acceptable grounds for chappeditutde)

    I think having problems with people you love is just an innate fact of life. There are people I love who viscerally, deeply annoy and aggravate me, and if I can’t phrase it to them in a way that won’t hurt them then I need a space to safely vocalize my feelings so I can continue to be with these people I love; they matter more to me than the problems they cause, and also those problems are real.

    We’d all be a lot healthier if we could just plainly state “this behaviour of yours is hurting me” with the understanding that doing so is an attempt at problem solving instead of passing blame, but until then; yeah if I love you and also you’re a big stupid douchebag sometimes I need a place away from you to be mad about that last part.

    1. Sombrero

      One very nice realistic touch in these last strips is how Jennifer can be simultaneously spot-on regarding Joyce and somewhat blind about herself.

      1. Spencer

        I’ve never been better about giving advice than for things I almost deliberately ignore in myself.

  33. Beau Kirin Maysey

    That reaction image where it’s the one character raising their hand and the character next to them softly grabbing the hand and lowering it back, except that both characters are Joyce

  34. thumb

    Is this Willis inhabiting Joyce at his most right now?

  35. a/snow/mous/e

    If you think about it, this is exactly what Joyce was trying to do with Liz with her grievances of the toxic atmosphere created by fundamentalist religion, but then of course Becky came by and took it personally because Joyce hasn’t worked out how to separate “fundamentalists” from “all Christians” in her head

    1. a/snow/mous/e

      …and then Joyce doubled down on it, so uh. That was a thing. Generally Joyce is getting a lot of shit these days, and I’m glad to see someone who doesn’t disproportionately blame her for every failed communication ever.

      1. Spencer

        I dunno what the distinction is when they get the same benefits and privileges in a system that benefits them both even if one of them is good by virtue of not committing the same wrongs. I feel as if the least to be expected from a good person in a position of privilege is to bear the responsibility of anger that comes the victims of folks who definitely are not good, my life is not that direly impacted if I hear within earshot “ugh, this is why I hate men,” I do not actually need to triumphantly rush in to declare that it’s not all men.

        Like one would think A Good Christian could take five minutes to go “oh huh this has actually ruined your life so it’s cool, be angry for a while,” but I guess it tracks since Becky’s not really a good Christian to begin with.

        1. C.T. Phipps

          I feel the problem is with that is that Becky is the primary victim of fundamentalist violence. It basically assumes that she benefits from the privilege when…well, she doesn’t.

        2. Spencer

          Nah, she does. Pretty sure getting hired as a republican mascot and given an apartment wouldn’t have happened to Carla or Booster if they were in her position.

          Becky’s not a good Christian in a personal sense because she’s a possessive nutbar trying to indoctrinate her friend back, but she gets the privilege of Good Christian when her feelings on Joyce being mad about their death cult matter more than Joyce being mad she was almost shot in the face.

  36. Reltzik

    Subtle, Joyce. Subtle.

  37. zee

    I was trying to remember who was the main character of the original roomies comic for the parallels and i am so fucking dumb
    David Willis
    Danny Wilcox

    I was too distracted by David Walkerton to notice until now

    1. Spencer

      Yeah it’s a long running gag of the Walkyverse.

      Danny Wilcox

      David Walkerton

      Dethan Wsiegal

      1. The Wellerman

        Hey Spencer!

        How’ve things been going?

        1. Spencer

          Could be better. Set my hand on fire in welding class but was too embarrassed to tell the teacher.

        2. Spencer

          (it was just a burn but saying “set my hand on fire” is funnier. I did keep going while burning though because that guy’s scary)

        3. The Wellerman

          ?

          Fuck…. hope you’re having fun there anyway! Welding is among the many interesting things in my practically infinite backlog of things I want to learn but can’t commit to long enough unless they somehow become urgent or really really interesting.

          ADHDemon stripes bruh ?

      2. JBento

        Doyce Wrown.

  38. milu

    Mike “Dick” Warner? same initials, just switched around.

  39. Alex

    I’m living for more last panel Joyce.

  40. crow

    Life hack: Instead of saying the rude thing, imply it in a very obvious way by explaining how you’re not gonna say it

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