353

Clothes
Posted on November 30, 2015 by David M Willis
Thanks for buyin' up a buncha Shortpacked! and Dumbing of Age books this weekend, folks!  I... received more orders than I have padded envelopes. And I had a BUTTLOAD of padded envelopes. So, um, anyway, some of you who ordered on Sunday may be waiting for more padded envelopes to arrive. Thanksgiving weekend sale TOO SUCCESSFUL.

353 thoughts on “Clothes”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “DontExplainTheJoke.jpg”

    “I believe your URL is missing a domain address.”

    “…n/m”

    1. John

      I was gonna say, Dina looks so happy about having successfully made a joke that I almost don’t want to tell her that she shouldn’t explain it.

      1. saki

        The way she explains it is too adorable to tell her shouldn’t do it.

        1. Proxiehunter

          If she hadn’t explained it I wouldn’t have realized there was one. I would have just assumed she was wearing an old shirt of her girlfriends.

        2. Liliet

          Sometimes, explaining the joke IS the joke.

        3. Jen

          Agreed. 🙂

    2. Icalasari

      I think her joke works better because it was explained, actually. One could mistake it for one of those, “Oh sarcastically explaining the not so obvious joke hahah!” and walk off before Dina realizes there is any meta humour in it

      1. Annie

        I don’t think I would have noticed simply because Anderson’s color is so similar to IU’s. I would have subconsciously accepted it as an Indiana sweatshirt and mentally breezed right past it.

        I had this issue before when Becky was wearing that Anderson hoodie. Or maybe it was an Anderson t-shirt? I dunno. I just remember being confused as to why Becky had an IU shirt until I went back and looked closer.

      2. Aeron

        We’re teaching her irony next year.

        1. Mollyscribbles

          . . . so, next century?

        2. Scots Dragon

          Or maybe next year in real time. So… tomorrow?

        3. N0083rP00F

          That is so last century. Isn’t everything dry clean only these days?

      3. Cerberus

        I would agree, her explanation makes that joke, especially the matter-of-factness of noting how the ideology behind it regards her and her girlfriend to be abominations worthy of Hell. Wringing wry humor out of the muck of what her girlfriend has gone through and an acknowledgment that while she may have been raised to not think there is much importance to the type of person she becomes romantically or sexually attracted to, the opinions of others have impacted her relationship.

        It’s the type of dark humor that really notes her evolution as a queer individual, mining lightness out of the darkness and mocking the threat that this type of worldview hangs over those who experience attraction to those of the same gender.

        Honestly, personally, it’s my favorite punchline in a good long while and had me giggling like an idiot for awhile because it’s the type of joke me and my friends would make.

        1. Cassidy

          …I really don’t think that joke is about Dina “as a queer individual”. I think that’s just Dina. Frankly, I’d be surprised to find out that she actually really had a sexual identity or even much of a gender one.

        2. Chris

          “gender queer” – not part of the cis binary.

        3. Chris

          TBF, I’m pretty sure she identifies as cis female… it’s not her gender that’s outside the binary, only her sexuality.

        4. Marie

          I’m pretty sure she meant queer as in generally not straight, and although it isn’t exactly a joke about evolving her feelings on the matter it nonetheless shows that she does group herself that way.

        5. Cerberus

          This. She definitely identifies as something other than straight even if she is not overly concerned with finding an appellation that fits it yet and this seems to be a major moment of owning what comes from that.

        6. Deanatay

          I’d hesitate to even call her ‘queer’ right now, as her relationship with Becky isn’t very sexual. Becky, at least, has had one experience to define her sexuality (which defined it very much in the ‘lesbian’ direction).

          At their age, everything is still very fluid. I look forward to seeing how things ‘flow’!

        7. Cerberus

          Well, I mean, she’s at least queer in terms of romantic orientation as demonstrated by her dating a woman and showing genuine romantic feelings for her. Even if she was a flavor of ace or something like a bi/pan-romantic heterosexual, that would still be a queer identity.

        8. John

          This thread has way too much Roz in it.

          Anyway, it never even occurred to me that Dina might be referring to her sexuality here. I figured it was her identity as an “evilutionist” that she was talking about. Which I think is a lot more important to her than the sex of the person she’s smooching.

        9. Agemegos

          Yeah, I don’t think Dina sees it as dark humour. The threat (of eternal punishment, not of toe-shaped fanatics) is even less than when your girlfriend’s kitten tries to murder your ankle. It’s just funny.

          Robert Graves once defined “mythology” as “whatever religious or heroic legends are so foreign to a student’s experience that he cannot imagine them to be true”. It’s not just other people’s religion: it’s religious belief that seems so bizarre and implausible that you keep having to remind yourself that “people actually believe this… stuff”. And that’s why the ‘New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology’ (in which Graves wrote what I quoted) includes Hinduism and Buddhism but not Christianity, Judaism, or Islam.

          I don’t think Dina’s religious background has been explored, but it’s very possible that she grew up in a household where it was simply never discussed. Her social contacts before coming to IU seem to have been very feeble, so it’s possible that she has never discussed the subject with anyone who believed in ghosts and souls and spirits and gods and afterlives and sin and absolution or any of those hypotheses. And so although she knows that many people do believe in them such belief might easily seem quaint and not-quite-imaginable to her. Alternatively, she might have been raised in a not-really-religious-but-culturally-Buddhist family. At least some schools of Buddhism (including Zen in Japan, I think) teach that there is no such thing as an individual soul nor any such thing as immortality.

          So it’s altogether possible, even likely, that Dina finds the belief in immortal souls — or any souls at all — to be just as mythological (i.e. impossible to take seriously) as the recent Creation or the divine authorship of the Bible. Anderson’s belief that her absurdly immortal absurd soul will be tortured eternally by their invisible friend. Joking about it would then be about as dark as joking about the kitten’s infuriated assault on one’s shoe.

        10. Agemegos

          Dammit, I missed a point in there that I spent a paragraph setting up: Everyone’s religion is mythology to someone else, not just wrong but absurd.

          If Dina is a lie-long materialist or the atheist agnostic daughter of lapsed Zen Buddhists, then Joyce’s and Becky’s divine-authorship literalism cum young-Earthcrationism Christianity, perhaps even all religion, might be mythology to her. Then the threat of Anderson’s God tormenting her soul eternally might seem even funnier than the kitten, because the kitten at least exists, and being mauled to death by felids is a kind of thing that does happen. The kitten is only an absurdity of scale; the God torment thing would seem to Dina an absurdity of kind. Gods aren’t even a kind of thing, immortal souls are a misapprehension, eternal torment is not a kind of thing that can happen. The whole thing doesn’t look dark, it looks as silly as a Monty Python fish-slapping dance.

        11. Agemegos

          “life-long materialist”, not “lie-long materialist”.

    3. saki

      Off-topic, but your avatar is making me really impatient to see what exactly causes Ethan to make this face.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Ditto. I was gonna say, that’s a panel to look forward to.

  2. DarkoNeko

    Oh, nice, she could get her old stuff !

    1. DarkoNeko

      Also Dinaaaa why are you wearing Becky’s cloooothes ?

      1. Mada

        Personally I like the nod to the stereotype of ending up in your lover’s clothes after a wild night 🙂

        1. John

          They were up all night holding hands and looking at pictures of dinosaurs. And occasionally smooching. On the lips.

        2. Leorale

          Smooching on the lips is 3rd base; while looking at pictures of dinosaurs, that’s a home run!

        3. Dana

          Actually, the base depends on the completeness of the fossils and how deep in the strata you find them.

        4. Chris

          Sexual euphemism detected (or manufactured).

        5. DarkoNeko

          They were up all night to get lucky
          were up all night to get lucky~
          were up all night to get lucky~

        6. Disloyal Subject

          Nothing against Daft Punk, but sweet everloving Sun do I hate that song. Not only is it repetetive to the point of being boring, but it gets played so often in so many places that it’s more inescapable than whichever teen popstar the internet hates this year for being too popular.

        7. Androiddreams

          but that means that they’re doing it right, everybody will be dancing we’ll be feeling it right, everybofy will be dancing-

        8. Deanatay

          While overuse can affect my personal taste for a song, I wouldn’t let it affect my sense of a song’s objective quality. Get Lucky is an amazing song, that is, sadly, overplayed.

        9. Sensei Le Roof

          It’s less repetitive than “Around the World”.

        10. kelticat

          At least it hasn’t become a commercial theme song yet.

        11. N0083rP00F

          I thought Get Lucky was the main goal to winning that card game Get Dr Lucky?

        12. Yet Another Laura H.

          Yes, but per the rules of the game, you can’t do it while anyone else is looking. So if WE are up all night to get Lucky, it kind of defeats the purpose…

      2. Someone

        Its pretty common for people in relationships to share sweaters.

        1. Annie

          But it implies that they woke up in the same room/bed this morning.

          Of course, with these two it doesn’t really imply that, since they’re in a dorm, just a couple doors down from each other, and seem to never lock their doors.
          But in *most* relationships it would imply spending the night together! which is funny.
          Though, it is no longer funny because I just explained it.

        2. Disloyal Subject

          To the contrary, that just makes it funnier.

        3. Mindlink

          No, in MOST relationships, it would indicate that they had been in the same room together, people change sweaters during daytime as well, and pretty common in fall, when the weather suddenly changes and what you had on when you arrived is suddenly too cold. You don’t even have to be in a relationship, you just have to be friends.

      3. heyman

        I guess similar size dressing in the dark?

      4. LeslieBean4Shizzle

        … Slipshine?

      5. Kamino Neko

        Because it’s funny, like she says?

      6. Just Me

        Becky was probably going to throw out any clothes that had Anderson University on it, but ‘Someone’ thought it would be funny for Dina to wear it.

        1. Historyman68

          Oh you mean Mike? That thought hadn’t occurred to me, but it is an intriguing possibility that Mike is teaching Dina humor.

        2. DarkoNeko

          No, most probably Becky. She’s been teaching Dina how to joke for a while already.

        3. Yet Another Laura H.

          “Your mom is so massive, she requires a second fin in order to have the surface area to shed heat. The per-kilogram value on my nickel was staggering.”

        4. Bicycle Bill

          Clothes are not cheap, and as long as it still fits why not wear it out?  I’ve still got my employee polo shirts from a company I left almost seven years ago.  Worn under a sweater or a sweatshirt with the collar sticking out they still look a little classier than just the sweatshirt alone, and no one sees the old logo.

        5. John

          Because it’s advertising an institution that they’ve found the core values of to be intolerant and intolerable?

        6. Yet Another Laura H.

          Because you lack a fabric pen to indicate you were on the varsity muff-diving team? I have friends who went to Hillsdale AND to Pensacola “Christian” “College.” Good catharsis there.

    2. Cephalo the Pod

      And someone lent her bus money!
      Dina?

      1. Norah

        She might have used some of the money her parents gave her to take Becky out to dinner.

    3. Freemage

      Given the story and names have been on the news at this point, and the school are the ones who ‘outed’ Becky to her parents, it is quite possible someone on their legal staff said, “Make sure she gets everything she wants and gets out of here, before someone suggests that the school has some sort of liability here. We might not lose a lawsuit, but we’d lose by being named in one.”

      1. Cerberus

        Could be that. More likely is that well, they aren’t invested in getting Becky to reparative therapy, just punishing her to the maximum allowable extent for “moral perfidy” with regards to her lesbianism. And well, having her run off and leave her stuff behind means they’ve had a bunch of junk that needed to be taken out of the dorms to make space and were definitely hoping someone would come grab to save them the mess of hauling it all off to the dump.

        So yeah, Becky “sneaking” back to grab her stuff was doing them a favor because it’s like “oh yay, cart off this junk and save us the hassle”.

        Also, this means that A) Becky can incinerate her bus clothes and send them to a merciful end and B) Becky finally, finally has access to her toothbrush again.

  3. Dreadhawk177

    Willis, this 6-minutes-late thing has to end. I need my sleep, Willis. If I don’t get my sleep, I don’t know what I’ll do.

    1. heyman

      Some of have to wake up in 7 hours.

      1. Foxhack

        5 hours here, so.

    2. Lord Stoneheart

      Maybe it’s your computer’s time that’s off? Your post was made at 12:02.

      1. John

        Nah, the server’s time is definitely a few minutes slow.

        1. John

          (I posted that comment at exactly 01:55, according to my machine’s NTP-synched clock, which should be accurate to within milliseconds.)

        2. No Name

          So if anything, the server’s clock is fast.

        3. John

          No, it’s two minutes slow. I posted the comment at 1:55; it timestamped it 1:53.

    3. Ryan

      If you were better rested, you’d know what you would do if you don’t get enough sleep.

    4. DarkoNeko

      dude it’s published at like 6AM here =_=

      zzzz

      1. Agemegos

        4 PM here.

        I have to stay up so late!

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Only 9P here. I need to find something else to justify my sleeping pattern.

      2. SDGlyph

        5AM here in the UK. I worry when I’m up early enough / late enough (depending whether I slept first) to catch it live…

    5. Ana Chronistic

      If you don’t get your sleep, you’ll fall asleep from exhaustion somewhere unexpected.

      OR you could just go to bed, since it’s not like the comic GOES AWAY after midnight-ish EST?

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Yeah, but after a few hours enough comments pile up that reading them all can take longer than it’s worth.

        1. Ana Chronistic

          What, you read them all in a steady stream of catch-up-and-wait? I just post and read the first few, then save the majority for when I get some downtime.

        2. Disloyal Subject

          Not so much waiting as devouring them all at once, then scanning for new posts, then leaving. Sometimes I come back later to see what’s new.

  4. Fish Facade

    They seem very pleasant at Anderson! I can’t imagine why she ever would have left!

    1. sun tzu

      To be fair, for all of Anderson’s problems, leaving it wasn’t exactly her decision.

    2. inqntrol

      Blame Toedad for that.

    3. Cerberus

      Well, I mean, they did rat her out to her dad and acted like some cuddly make-outs were the equivalent of some major wrong-doing, so yanno, they’re still net negative even with helping her grab some of her stuff back before becoming homeless-ish and school-less again.

      1. Deanatay

        Also, keep in mind this is Anderson _administration and faculty_ that drove Becky out – the students there may be more open-minded. Even the more religious-minded of them may see helping Becky out as a ‘Good Samaritan’ opportunity.

  5. Porto

    This is wonderful. Yes. All of the this.

  6. heyman

    Why would it be hard to get her stuff?

    1. Shanunu

      If she no longer had her key to get in or any ID the school could use to look her up, it would be pretty difficult, I would think. Apparently they remembered her though. Seems like Ross had just abruptly taken her out and she didn’t actually go through the process if withdrawing.

      1. DarkoNeko

        I guess he didn’t even bother take her stuff from Anderson after she ran away.

        1. DarkoNeko

          Even tho he was right there, trying to get her into the car. Without her stuff ?

        2. Ana Chronistic

          ToeDad Logic: You can’t take it with you, so may as well leave it at Anderson

        3. Tacos

          I think everything that he did since then have proven he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the box.

        4. Gordon

          He would have probably assumed it was…like, tainted in some way.

        5. Captain Button

          All that stuff was contaminated with satanic lesbian cooties. Obviously he was too lenient with her, and a clean sweep was necessary.

        6. Cerberus

          He needed to start chasing after her, find her, and “restore his family”. Her stuff is just stuff compared to the importance of her “immortal soul” and could always be picked up later after she was safely delivered to whatever reparative therapy he was planning on taking her to. After all, she was filled with “demons” that were causing her to weep and gnash and wail and refuse to comply with his “healing” and so it was most important to focus all his energy on physically dragging her to the car rather than getting distracted by material things.

          And they honestly might have held onto it this long because he told them that he’d be back within the week to pick up her stuff, so that he had time to “start fixing her”.

          And to the school, someone of the family said they’d be back within a week and here’s someone of the family. Either way, the crap is off their property in their eyes. In Becky’s eyes, an important piece of continuity between her old life and her new one has been established. She has her clothes, she has her old pictures of Joyce. She has cherished childhood objects that she took with her to college. She’s got a piece of her home again.

  7. Doctor_Who

    “Miss, if we let you take the stuff will you stop humming that song?”

    “DUM dum dum dum DUM dum dum dum…”

    “Gonna take that as a yes.”

    1. Needfuldoer

      She’s sneaking down her old dorm’s hallway, and sees some people coming. She ‘hides’ by standing flat against the wall while holding the note she was at in the MI theme song. The people walk by, deliberately ignoring the weird girl standing next to the water fountain. Crisis averted, resume humming and sneaking.

      1. ed rhodes

        I’m seeing Kronk from “The Emperor’s New Groove” carrying the (llama) Emperor while humming his own theme song. I also hear Kusko (the emperor); “Wait, he’s got his own theme song? I’m so glad I was unconscious for this.”

    2. Historyman68

      Now I’m reminded of Tom Cruise’s interminable leaked Scientology video, which was- I swear- at least 40 minutes of him talking about how it was his responsibility to save someone from a car crash, over THE SAME 10 SECOND MISSION IMPOSSIBLE LOOP.

  8. stevecharb

    “I guess we’ll wait up for her”
    -Mike, off his game

    1. Kamino Neko

      No, it’s ‘I guess we’ll wait up for her’, as if he considered otherwise.

    2. GenericScreenName101

      …or maybe he has something planned? Who knows maybe it involves nickels?

    3. a4lbi

      Mike’s gotta pace himself in the game.

      For a nickel. did i do that right

  9. Cheshrin

    I know I’m supposed to be laughing along at the jab at Anderson and how bad Becky is at stealth, but right now all I can think is how cute Dina looks in her girlfriend’s clothing.

    The sleeves are doing the thing where they go over the hands it’s precioussss.

    1. gkheyf

      No! Focus! There is an important point being made about that adorable sweater! Just don’t ask me what it is; I’m slightly distracted

    2. StClair

      Today, Dina is a moesaur.

      1. Ana Chronistic

        a di-moe-saur?

        1. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          No, a moe-sa-saur.

        2. StClair

          you’re right – I should have looked it up, left out that middle syllable.

    3. Bicycle Bill

      Becky was the distraction; Dina was the stealthy one.

  10. Tikitori

    Joyce is so blue still. :< She's getting worse.

  11. Znayx

    Superspy Becky: The Movie

    10/10 Would watch again

    1. tim gueguen

      It would be sort of like Inspector Gadget. Becky would think she’s doing all these incredible things, while it’s actually Dina who’s doing all the actual work.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        To be fair, “all the work” is a lot easier with a charismatic loudmouth keeping bystanders and potential foes distracted.

  12. Lena

    I read the alt-text as “Danaaaaaaaaaaaa Danaaaaaaaaaaa” So I scoured the strip for her and realized my mistake. Oops.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Heh. you too.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Oh, good. Not just me.

    2. Jason

      Moi aussi.

  13. JessWitt

    So fundies can watch Mission Impossible despite the lead actor being a Scientologist? Ok.

    1. heyman

      TV show! The OG version!

      1. Opus the Poet

        Martin Landau, Barbara Bain!

      2. JessWitt

        Ah right, she sneaks after dark to watch old shows.

        1. EvilMidnightLurker

          Snarking Out!

    2. begbert

      Maybe she watched the old TV show?

      Also if fundies required all the actors in everything they watched to be their own specifically-flavored slice of christianity then they wouldn’t watch ANYTHING. Not even super-christian stuff, because literally no two flavors of fundamentalist christianity are exactly alike.

      1. JessWitt

        Mmmmm, Fundie Xtians 31 flavors.

    3. Gangler

      I’ve never seen Mission Impossible, but I know the theme. It’s pretty ubiquitous. Everybody hums it when doing spy stuff. If you go to school with a kid who knows a kid whose dad is vaguely aware of pop culture then just like that the whole student body’s incorporated it into their recess games.

    4. segnosaur

      When a TV series or movie becomes so popular that it becmes ingrained into a culture, its possible for people to be familiar with the concepts even if they have never seen it.

      There are people who know who Darth Vader is, even though they’ve never seen Star Wars. There are people who know who Gilligan is, even if they’v never seen an episode of Gilligan’s island. So, its possible that they know the theme of Mission Impossible and that it involves “spy stuff” even if they have never seen an episode of the TV series or any of the movies.

    5. a4lbi

      Either that, or Pop Culture Osmosis is severely under-rated.

    6. Amazi-Stool

      This is after the timeskip and she has access to not-approved-by-her-parents pop-culture now (remember the party)!

  14. anna

    Reasons Not To Die:

    1) Someone’s gotta feed the cat,

    2) DoA update tonight.

    1. Lena

      I think this more often than I probably should.

    2. Someone

      As long as dumbing of age updates I cannot die.

      1. Darth

        We’ve found the key to immortality.

    3. DaCyclops

      I use this for reasons to stay motivated at work…
      “A bit longer, and another DoA update is out.”

      …. still haven’t found motivation for 4pm-5pm yet…..

      1. Tacos

        Have you tried cake? That’s always motivating.

      2. DarkoNeko

        …that’s the hour you spend reading the comments and refreshing, do you not ?

    4. Leorale

      I strongly feel that, at a given moment, I only really need one solid reason to keep on living. That gives me time, in which I can create more reasons to live.

      1. begbert

        Reason to live #1:
        Because I need to think up more reasons to live.

        1. heyman

          Not living is too much trouble.

    5. Disloyal Subject

      If a human dies, their cat will generally be perfectly happy to eat the corpse. (Waste not, want not!)

      So, while that’s not a long term alternative to Reason #1, I’d suggest finding more reasons.

      1. anna

        hey, those two reasons are more than I had for the entirety of my childhood. it’s all good.

  15. Safgaftsa

    Dinaaaaaaaaa Dinaaaaaaaa!

  16. heliumsquid

    Mike decided to wait for her? That was nice… Either something bad is going to happen, or Mike is drunk.

    1. begbert

      He’s expecting her to say something that will ruin somebody’s day. Probably Joyce’s.

      1. Cephalo the Pod

        Perhaps Mike is trying to gather enough people near Joyce that she will snap from all of the comments and questions about the Gunman.

    2. IDontcarenomore

      Mike is being sarcastic I think. He is with the group. They are waiting for her. He could care less.

  17. GenericScreenName101

    Oh Dina, you’ll be a Hipster before you know it

  18. Stara

    So the former president of Anderson– current president of Mississippi College– is Lee G. Royce.

    He’s the father of my last polisci prof. ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION from this storyline. 😀

    1. Opus the Poet

      By my count that’s 3 degrees of separation.

      1. Gigafreak

        That’s half a Kevin Bacon! A demibacon is better than what most people have!

        1. heyman

          If there aren’t people in the area taking selfies at UI locations from DoA, there should be.

      2. Stara

        One degree because I met Dr. Royce, later. 🙂

    2. Jezi

      Hey, I did summer day camp at MC as a wee one. They’re pretty nice, one of the less Super Religous of the religious private schools in the Jackson area.

  19. Kronk Pepikrankenitz

    I approve!

  20. Stephen R. Bierce

    *plays Steely Dan’s “My Old School” on the hacked Muzak*

    1. Jezi

      And now that’s going back and forth with the M:I song for being stuck in my head…

  21. Zagreus

    This strip got so much better once I started reading Dina’s lines in Arin Hanson’s Joke Yoda voice.

    THE SWEATER IS IRONIC!
    MMMMMMMMM, FUNNNNNNY JOKE!

    1. Cephalo the Pod

      I imagine her saying it quite plainly. But, like, she slowly slides towards someone, sports a massive grin, her eyes beam, and then, in the casualest voice:

      “Funny joke.”

      1. saki

        With your description I couldn’t help hearing it in the same tone Baymax says “hairy baby”.

    2. Belle

      Joke Yoda is best Yoda. 😀

  22. saki

    Oh my gods, Dina is sooooo cuuuuute! ><
    The light-heartedness of this strip is much needed after the past month. I love it!

  23. Dana

    Whenever Dina says “funny joke” I hear her in a tone of voice that’s explaining what category of joke it falls into (funny), rather than explaining why the joke is funny.

  24. Cephalo the Pod

    So, Becky and Joyce are safe from getting in trouble with I.Uni., right?

    Surely if they were facing repercussions, they would have faced them by now.

    1. Leorale

      Not necessarily. Nobody in charge knows that Becky is crashing there yet.

      1. Cephalo the Pod

        Would the police not have asked Becky where she was staying?

        1. segnosaur

          They might have asked. But, the police may not be familiar with the regulations at the university. (i.e. they may not realize that there’s a limit on how long people are allowed to visit.)

        2. Agemegos

          Probably, but they might not be aware of the dorm’s regulations, they might not be required to inform the university, and that might even have be disinclined to make problems for a victim.

        3. Cerberus

          I’m not actually sure. They might not have asked about her current address if they didn’t see it as relevant to the investigation and they might feel they have all the information they need to prosecute and have a phone number to get in contact with her if the DA needs to ask her more questions or if she needs to go to court if Toedad chooses to go to trial.

        4. Ana Chronistic

          I had almost this very argument with somebody today… most places do NOT need a record of where you live if they have the relevant info (e.g. how to contact you). Place of residence is the slowest contact EVAR.

    2. Captain Button

      I am wondering what stories got told to the police and the Uni officials, and how much of them they believe.

    3. John

      As of Monday evening, they’re keeping Becky’s continued residence on campus on the down-low so that she doesn’t get kicked out of the dorm.

    4. DarkoNeko

      Seen like that, it’s smarter for Dina to wear that sweater, seeing she can prove she’s a student here. For Becky that’d be met with suspscion.

    5. Bagge

      “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, old deanie, you know that toeshaped ‘dad’ you allowed to drag me from school the other week? Fun fact, he pulled a gun on me and threatened to kill my friends. Now, I know this journalist who wants to ask you some qu…. oh, my old stuff, that was quick.”

  25. Carms

    Dina is love

    1. DarkoNeko

      Dina is life.

  26. DinaWho

    I’m probably the umpteenth person to say some variety of this, but:
    Dina in Becky’s sweater = too cute for this world

  27. 6Qubed

    Dina is remarkably gung-ho about eternal damnation

    (an example for us all)

    1. Riku

      An eternity with becky vs an eternity with a tyrant and who knows how many lesser tyrants

    2. Agemegos

      It probably doesn’t occur to her that Anderson could conceivably be right about that belief. Wouldn’t cross her mind.

      1. Cerberus

        Yeah. It’s genuinely funny, because to her, it’s like she was told that someone’s imaginary friend wants to murder her. She just has no connection to the God of Joyce and Becky’s ideology and has zero faith in its peculiar idea that who she loves should be deserving of eternal angry judgment. She just doesn’t genuinely believe that is something that could ever happen.

        To Becky, Dina has opened up her world to hope and evolution, and cool Biology facts about dinosaurs and biological change. But Dina’s eyes have also been opened to the true extent of Joyce’s background and the harm it has caused her girlfriend. And it makes it cute because this is her supporting said girlfriend in her way and mining dark humor out of her tragedy.

  28. DarkoNeko

    the “Dananaaa Dananaaa” reminds me of this.

    1. saki

      Thank you. I need the Ouran HSHC op theme stuck in my head. XD

      1. DarkoNeko

        There are worse songs as far as earworms are concerned XD

        1. saki

          True, true. At least this one’s cheerful and brings me good memories from the anime & the manga. XD

    2. Bicycle Bill

      And I thought of *this*.

  29. Professor Fate

    “Your mission, should you decide to accept it …” C’mon, they ALWAYS accepted it; otherwise, no show.

    “Y’know, I don’t accept the mission. We’re all gonna go get drunk.” 😀

    1. Bicycle Bill

      In that case James Bond is an extremely overpaid/underutilized public servant as well, since in over fifty years we’ve only seen him involved in a couple of dozen missions.

      1. Agemegos

        Yeah, but those missions have been doozies. On a “bang per buck” basis he’s better value than a lot of higher-paid civil servants.

        1. Gigafreak

          I wondered what England’s equivalent to “bang for buck” would be.

          Then I realized it’s “pound per pound” (Pound of weight per Pound Sterling currency). Hunh.

        2. DarkoNeko

          Well, he sure bangs a lot, as well.

        3. Agemegos

          In more ways than one. “Mr. Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang”.

  30. Mr K

    Not exactly Solid Snake material, Becky.

    1. Tacos

      She shoulda taken some lessons from Dina. :nods:

    2. DarkoNeko

      Being a shining red beacon doesn’t help.

      1. Ana Chronistic

        she needs a good sturdy cardboard box

  31. A Scientist

    That joke is hilarious. “Eternal torment” is a top-notch punchline.

  32. DarkoNeko

    Short note : Joyce still have that protective thing on her right hand (panel 1).

    1. Ana Chronistic

      It’s a wrist brace, and it’s very possible to need it for the rest of your life (off and on)

      why NO I’m not speaking from experience =<

      ¬_¬

      1. DarkoNeko

        My english sucks.

        1. Agemegos

          It’s miles better than my French.

      2. Bicycle Bill

        Since we never got a recital of Joyce’s injuries we don’t know for sure just what happened to her arm.  She may have a hairline fracture of the ulna or radius, in which case this is a probably a lightweight splint that will need to be worn for at least a couple of weeks (and I am speaking from experience here) until the break gets past the initial stages of healing.

        Which means that Willis has committed himself to drawing that thing on her arm for the next couple of years.

        1. GhostWriterL

          Probably she went to the hospital to be with Becky and they did an eval on her as a precaution since she was at the scene and a nurse may have noticed the healed cut on her hand and asked her some routine questions about it and if she’s experienced discomfort. Joyce may have said something like “It gets tingly/numb sometimes” and they issued her a brace as a precaution since she may have damaged tendons or nerves that need extra support to heal properly.

          Highly doubt she told them she broke a glass across someone’s face after they tried to rape her.

        2. kelticat

          Even with a sprain or a strain, that brace would have to stay on for a few weeks. (also speaking from experience. )

    2. Dana

      I’m sleepy as I type this so it may be all mixed up, but it’s on the reader’s left which puts it on her right. It looks wrong because if you were looking at in a mirror, a cast on your right hand would be on “mirror image you”‘s left hand. Which would be to your left side. Did I mention I’m tired?

    3. Kamino Neko

      It’s only been 4 days. Even the most minor injury that would require a brace takes longer than that.

    4. Amazi-Stool

      It has been shown on a preview panel of February 29 (real time), so better get used to it – we will see it for months!

  33. Lan

    Oh Dina… You slay me. Tell us another while I pour everyone a drink.

    1. DarkoNeko

      They’ll need it

  34. newllend(henryvolt)

    Why didn’t they just give her back her stuff before they kicked her out.

    1. IDontcarenomore

      I don’t think they know. I think her Toedad just yanked her out of the dorm and took her home. Then she ran away to see Joyce and get away.

    2. Tacos

      She wasn’t kicked out. From the looks of it, Toedad just suddenly showed up one day to forcibly take her away.

      1. Peduncle

        This is correct. Here is the flashback.

        1. Cerberus

          This. She didn’t really have time to grab anything and kind of needed to run as fast as she could so as not to be dragged back the first time. She kind of barely escaped that first go around and luckily made it to the bus with the clothes on her back and a tiny ember of hope that her first crush could save her.

        2. DarkoNeko

          Back when Becky still trusted parents. So nostalgic.

      2. Agemegos

        He showed up after the administrators got in touch with him and told him that Becky had been caught kissing a girl.

      3. Cephalo the Pod

        Would Anderson offer to bring Becky back?

        1. Agemegos

          Good question. I doubt they want her back, even if they don’t know about the radioactive crater where the closet used to be and think that they can shame her back into it. It seems to me that her recent career raises questions about the 5th/4th Commandment That they don’t want their inmates thinking about.

          A good negotiator might be able to insist on Becky’s right to enjoy the tuition, accommodation, and food “she” has paid for, and use that to lever Anderson into giving her a refund and making out the cheque to “R. Macintyre”. But I doubt Becky is that negotiator.

  35. IDontcarenomore

    Love Dina.
    Willis is so good at manipulation. He brings in Becky who is soooo annoying and at end of her run, she is admired as brave resourceful and etc.
    I don’t believe Willis can stop the love on Dina no matter what he does.
    So now that I’ve said that, why do I get this feeling…..

  36. Dean

    I choose to believe that Becky was caught while descending from the ceiling on a rope, like Tom Cruise in the first movie.

    1. IDontcarenomore

      Or any number of high return jobs stealing from museums in which the thief has to dangle from the ceiling 😉

      1. saki

        My favourite version of this has to be Tangled’s.

        1. Deanatay

          I’m sorry, but load-bearing hair HURTS. I wince every time I think of someone hanging from someone’s hair (incl their own).

        2. saki

          Ah, I was thinking of the scene at the beginning where Eugene steals a crown. ^^

        3. Deanatay

          Yeah, OK, but that whole movie leaves me rubbing my scalp. I mean, yes, it’s magical hair, but STILL.

    2. Bagge

      headcanon!

    3. BenRG

      Personally, I think that she attempted to sneak in wearing an utterly implausible disguise and initially insisted to the faculty member who intercepted her that she wasn’t Becky MacIntyre (even though no-one had accused her of being that person).

  37. Eukie

    I don’t get Dina’s joke; she believes Anderson University will spend an eternity in torment???

    1. IDontcarenomore

      I think she means that Anderson University being a fundamental religious college and she herself is not religious. Therefore AI thinks she will spend eternity in torment because she doesn’t believe.

      1. David

        That’s sort of a funny joke, isn’t it?

        1. Agemegos

          So sue her: she likes absurdist humour.

    2. Someone

      Anderson believes that Dina will spend an entirety in torment.

    3. Norah

      No, Anderson University, a fundamentalist Christian college, believes the Dina will spend eternity in hell, because she’s either lesbian or bisexual, not to mention believing in evolution.

      1. Dean

        It’s spelled EVILution.

      2. David

        There is a difference between devil worshippers and the deuce himself, and Dina clearly is evolving.

  38. Bicycle Bill

    Let’s see.  It’s Friday morning; we’ve got Billie, Walky, Joyce, and Mike all together; so if I accept the Walkypedia version of the DoA class schedule they are all most likely on their way to their 10:00 AM calculus class, where they will eventually run across Sal and Alan.
    (Dina’s there too but according to the Word of God she is in a different calculus class but more than likely in the same academic building.)

    But what are they going to do with Becky?  Or are the powers that be at IU so lackadaisical that even non-students can sit in on a class as long as they are carrying the appropriate book?  And for that matter, where did Becky get the book?

    1. kaleface

      Honestly, no one really gives a shit if someone sits in on a class (or classes) in college, especially if you’re in a big lecture class. If they start to ask, just mumble something about auditing the class because you really like their research and they should check with the dean of [inaudible muttering]. More likely than not, they’ll be flattered and too lazy to check with the dean so you can keep sitting in.

      1. Spidergirl

        This has generally been my experience. One of my professors even recommended that we go to an earlier section of the same class that he teaches if it would be easier for us.

        1. Bagge

          As long as there are seats left a few extra students won’t cost you anything in administrative duties or anything else. As worst it makes the room more crowded, as best you are giving next years students a head start.

          In my experience the problem is not keeping the students IN the lectures.

      2. Agemegos

        Geoff Brennan’s lectures in Public Choice Theory were so entertaining that I used to take friends along to them. He knew and didn’t mind. One time he saw my friend Tony reading his OHP slides upside-down, and when someone in the class flubbed the answer to a question Geoff asked Tony, who had read the answer on the next slide. Tony answered correctly, and Prog Brenna said “See! Even a mathematician can work it out.”

        One time (in another class) we had a guest lecture by Walter Oi (who was fantastic). The room was jammed with faculty members and grad students and whomever-have-you, and all the professor did was insist that his enrolled students had to have first claim on the desks.

        No-one cares. In fact I think they’re flattered.

        Remember: universities don’t make their money by teaching. They make their money by certifying. And from research grants etc.

        1. Agemegos

          Aargh! “Prof. Brennan”, not “Prog Brenna”. Dammit!

        2. Agemegos

          Note: that wasn’t at IU or even in America, and it was about thirty years ago.

          The past is s different country, and so are different countries.

      3. Gamaran Sepudomyn

        Now I’m wondering what a dean of inaudible muttering would do.

        1. John

          Sounds like a faculty position at Unseen University.

        2. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          It’s almost certainly one of the dozens of positions held by Rincewind or Stibbons.

        3. Agemegos

          About the same thing as my first-year Chemistry lecturer, I suppose.

    2. AnishY

      Leslie didn’t seem to have a problem with Mike sitting in her class despite not being a student.

      1. Kryss LaBryn

        –So long as he wasn’t bothering any of her legitimate students.

    3. Norah

      Who is Alan?

      1. inqntrol

        Their Calculus teacher.

      2. No Name

        If my vague recollections of the Walkyverse are correct, most likely Professor Rees, although Bicycle Bill probably meant someone else.

        1. Bicycle Bill

          You’re correct; I got Professor Rees and Jason (his TA that Sal was banging) mixed up.

    4. Cerberus

      It’s a giant auditorium style introductory calculus class. Jack the Ripper could sit in the class and the professor wouldn’t even blink an eye. Even if he cared to screen, it’s impossible in those giant classes. Honestly, the only times I’ve seen a problem come from someone auditing the class is when there’s a very small workshop intensive class like a literature class with 10-15 students. Otherwise, even in small scope lecture/discussion classes, the professor tends not to blink too much about auditors unless they feel they are disrupting the class. And with the large classes, they honestly couldn’t give a rat’s ass if you’re supposed to be there or not until it’s time to tabulate the grades.

      1. Solenoid

        By which time, Becky is running off and laughing into the night with her purloined calculus knowledge.

      2. Cephalo the Pod

        “Jack the Ripper could sit in the class and the professor wouldn’t even blink an eye.”

        Now I’ve got this nightmare in my head of Becky turning around and seeing the Gunman just a few rows behind her.

    5. Amazi-Stool

      Becky has been visited a class with Joyce already in the past.

  39. doubleW

    Noo Dina, do not delve into wearing clothes ironically, it leads only to hipsterdom

  40. Plasma Mongoose

    Universities are entities now? Next thing you will be telling me that companies are people.

    1. inqntrol

      Nope, not people.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Now that’s a chart.

  41. Spidergirl

    I want to comment on how chill the people at Anderson apparently are, but the sight of Dina in a slightly oversized hoodie has rendered me unable to do anything but go “d’awwww!”

    1. Cephalo the Pod

      Huh. Reading back, Anderson University didn’t actually kick Becky out. They just told the Gunman about Becky and Kaitlin’s make-out session. Dragging her out was all the Gunman’s doing.

      Now I’m wondering if Becky could technically go back. I’m sure she doesn’t want to at all.

      1. John

        Becky’s 18, a free adult. Butthole dad almost certainly paid her tuition, but assuming that the check had already cleared and Anderson wasn’t about to give it back, I don’t think butthole dad had any legal right to yank her out of school, short of refusing to pay for the next semester. He certainly didn’t have any right to actually physically abduct her.

        However, Anderson has rules about lesbian makeouts. They could have kicked Becky out for smooching on Kaitlyn; they just chose not to escalate that far immediately. But if she persisted in her girl-smooching ways, I’m pretty sure they would’ve gotten there eventually. Since I don’t think Becky’s about to stop smooching girls (especially now that she’s got a cute dinosaur chick all of her very own to smooch), trying to go back to Anderson would just be delaying the inevitable. And even if she kept her girl-smooching out of their scope of authority and off their radar, there’s still the problem of the tuition running out at the end of the semester.

  42. EvilMidnightLurker

    Dinanaaaa, dinanaaaa

  43. Bagge

    Dina is wearing her sweater Joyce style.

    Listen, Dina, you already broke the adorable-meter. It’s broken. Kaputt. Please don’t make it worse.

    1. inqntrol

      IT’S OVER 9000!….sorry(not sorry)

    2. Gamaran Sepudomyn

      I think the panel of Dina/Becky kissing was cuter to be honest.

  44. Lawzlo

    Danananaaaaaa Danananaaaaaa, hey hey, Goodbye…

  45. Bagge

    On a more somber note… I wonder if Becky met Kaitlin at Anderson’s. I hope she did. Painful at it would have been, Kaitlin has her own toe-parents to deal with, and could get some inspiration.

    1. Cerberus

      It seemed like Kaitlin at the least was being moved to a different dorm room, but that may not have been the case anymore when Becky was dragged out. Honestly, that interaction would have been hella awkward for both of them, especially since Kaitlin dumped all the responsibility for their make-out session on her.

      1. Bagge

        I see no reason to trust ANYTHING we have been told about Kaitlin’s action post-kiss. She was rushed away by school staff and parents and we can be sure everyone involved made sure to not give her and Becky time to compare notes. We can also be sure that no one – least of all Toedad – were interested in what Kaitlin actually had to say. Once they formed the narrative of Becky as the seductress – something Toedad would only be too willing to agree on (that would strengthen his ideas of Becky needing to be more controlled) – Kaitlin was just a prop in that story to be isolated and disciplined at her parents leisure. Also, she has had no way to contact Becky. For all we know she tried to call her just as franticly as Joyce.

        What we actually know about Kaitlin is that she comes from a homophobic background, still was willing to take a chance with her rad roommate and that she shares Becky’s lack of foresight vis-à-vis doors. I wish her no ill will.

        So, yeah, a meeting between them would be awkward as hell, it might be hurtful, but it might also be helpful for Kaitlin. At the very least she deserves to see with her own eyes that her former roommate and fling (friend? crush? love?) is doing fine. At best it might give her the push to question her own culture and what place in she wants to have, much like Joyce.

        1. Cerberus

          I agree with that and I definitely don’t really blame Kaitlin for much. She was definitely under heavy duress and at risk for being in a very similar situation to Becky if she was to fight the administration and her parents on the matter and I would agree that seeing Becky not broken would do a lot for Kaitlin both in alleviating any guilt or worry and giving hope to someday maybe feeling safe to come out and maybe being able to do that sooner than otherwise or at least have less conflict within herself.

          Honestly, in that scene, I get a similar vibe to a pivotal scene in “But I’m a cheerleader” where one character gets thrown out of the reparative therapy program while another doesn’t because they took a deal to claim the other seduced them and the moment where the one that’s bullied into taking that deal is feeling guilty and sorry for doing so just for their own survival.

  46. BenRG

    Poor Billie! Out of the surreal pressure cooker of her domesticity with Ruth and she learns that everyone else has a weird life too! Of course, she can always rely on Dina to explain the situation to her in exhaustive detail!

    Poor Joyce! That little sparkle is missing. Will she ever get it back?

  47. Adj

    “Buss” is a synonym for “kiss” so when Becky bussed somewhere with Dina…oh my.

    Though that sort of buss trip tends to lead to less clothing, not more.

  48. Agemegos

    I wonder whether Becky withdrew from her classes and dorm early enough to get a refund on her tuition and accommodation.

  49. Disloyal Subject

    Man, my brain can’t even process the Mission Impossible theme after a song from Anarchy Reigns showed up in a RWBY vs Final Fantasy VII episode of Death Battle. That soundtrack is the most violently catchy music around.

  50. Liliet

    …I don’t know that song.

    And my reading at first was “Dinananana” because I mean come on

    gotta say, that pink goes great with her green, somehow

    1. Falling Star

      Oh my gosh you poor person.
      Here! Be enlightened!

  51. AutobotDen

    …See, if I were Becky, I’d have broken out the matches and burned the Anderson stuff already. Fire is cleansing. Fire is cathartic.

    1. Cephalo the Pod

      Fire is attention-grabbing.

  52. Cerberus

    Oh man, I love Becky’s optimism and how fully she’s throwing herself into rebuilding her life. She’s got a textbook, she’s auditing classes she can sneak into, she’s stealing back some of the stuff of the life she came from and has a sense of continuity again and of having the pieces of her home (or at least what’s left of it). She may be scarred on the inside, potentially, but she still seems to be in the celebratory haze of having won her life back under what surely felt like divine intervention from all the physics-defying action of her rescue.

    And she’s even having fun doing so, even though returning to her dorm must have been painful. That’s some serious internal strength and I hope one day, things stabilize enough for her that she feels safe breaking down a little without feeling like she’s just being a Debbie Downer.

    And Dina, oh Dina. That joke is just gold. A beautiful dark humor mined out of the tragedy of her girlfriend, full of an edge towards the worldview that thinks she and her girlfriend are wrong. Dina is starting to get a little education that just because she doesn’t see much difference between men and women as far as romantic attraction goes, doesn’t mean that the world isn’t going to treat her and her girlfriend differently. But she’s not letting it hurt her, instead she’s laughing it off. Oh, hey, here’s the worldview that thinks we should burn for eternity in Hell just for existing. So what?

    It also shows the support Dina has for her as well as Joyce. Aiding Becky through fraught emotional moments and mining humor out of some genuine traumatic moments. It’s a type of healing and a genuine sweet moment of connection.

    1. Regalli

      Yes. Supporting Becky as she gets back to a life she can manage, and also getting her clothes back. (I’m betting she hasn’t gone home to get her documentation yet, but that Joyce will be able to help her there given the upcoming previews of her back home. Still, that’s gonna have to be painful.)

  53. Cerberus

    Also, is it just me or does Joyce look sad and distant in Panel 1?

    1. BenRG

      It’s not just you; I noticed it too. She’s… hurting and hurting badly. Her world has fallen apart around her over the past five weeks and she’s so determined to support others that I don’t think she has felt it right to seek help for herself.

      1. saki

        Yup. To add to that – I think that she may feel that she doesn’t -get to break down. I’m not sure how to explain this right… Since Becky is the one whose life did a 180° and whose dad kidnapped her and is going to prison etc, yet is being all cheerful and cracking jokes, Joyce might feel like it would be self-centered / self-absorbed of her to break down, to be in a worse mental health state than Becky. : /

        1. Solenoid

          She needs that good “how are you holding up” talk, a better one than Ruth would be likely (or prepared) to give.

        2. John

          RUTH: So I hear you punched out that asshole with the gun. High five? … Oh, sorry, I guess you’ve got to use the other hand. Want me to show you how to throw a punch so you don’t hurt your wrist next time?

        3. Bicycle Bill

          Amazi-Girl would be the one to show Joyce the proper way to punch.
          Sarah would be more like “I’ll show you where I keep the bat.”

        4. Cerberus

          I can see that. Like “oh, I shouldn’t be as messed up as I’m feeling, because Becky seems to be relatively okay and she was the one ‘more’ affected by everything”.

          That type of comparison never serves anyone well but it’s an easy pattern to fall into.

        5. thejeff

          You know, like several people here have said.

    2. Captain Button

      I was reading it as distracted and melancholy about her ongoing reassessment of her beliefs and values. It will take a good while for her to work through it all.

    3. Cephalo the Pod

      She did have a gun pointed at her. And it was by someone she knew all her life.

      Even without context, I can imagine that putting ANYONE in a dour mood for the next little while.

      1. TamiDOA

        Not to mention having your Mom say some of the same things as the crazy man with the gun did. It takes a while to bounce back after your whole world is shattered. “Yup”, “Everything’s .. really broken”

      2. Agemegos

        And this while already on the edge of panic. Remember how Joyce got to the fountain.

    4. Guairdean Beatha

      Sad and distant in PTSD sufferers is often called the “Thousand Yard Stare.” PTSD, and its after effects, are a definite possibility. PTSD is induced any time you’re in a frightening situation where you have absolutely no control. Having a rifle pointed at you while your best friend is kidnapped fits that description. Fortunately, both she and Becky have a good group of friends to serve as a support group. So far, Becky seems to be handling things well, but there could be a long crying session in the future if it hasn’t already happened in the background. Joyce, on the other hand, has had her world ripped apart and probably feels like she’s been betrayed by just about everyone she loves. That crying session is going to be a lot more intense, and it’ll be followed by a lot of anger.

      1. Agemegos

        It has only been three or four weeks (since the attack by Ryan), so I think it’s still a bit early to be confident of a diagnosis of PTSD. But the things you say are also true of Acute Stress Reaction, which is what I’d say Joyce probably has at the moment.

        Joyce ought to be seeing a clinical psychologist: there are three protocols for treating ASR that have better outcomes than supportive counselling, but even supportive counselling might help. The decision not to take Joyce to hospital when she was drugged by Ryan, and not to make a report to the police afterwards, is proving to have been a fateful one.

        1. Guairdean Beatha

          The nice thing about cartoon characters is that you can be wrong, and everything will turn out ok. As for the counseling, I’d recommend someone that specializes in PTSD. They’ll be able to differentiate between PTSD and ASD and adjust treatment as necessary. A grief counselor might also be in order. Joyce has lost a lot in the last few weeks.

  54. Aolbain

    You’re right, Dina. That IS a good joke.

  55. JustShy

    I would crush so hard on a girl like Dina.

    1. fizzywafflezsuperstore

      Wouldn’t we all?

      1. TamiDOA

        But I was/am like Dina. And the only crushing I got was into lockers. Then I too learned how to be invisible.

    2. Agemegos

      I did. Handled it very badly, though.

  56. kay

    I still want to read more shortpacked! But…

    *Settles in here* This is the universe as it should be, right here. ;;;;;;;

  57. AeroQC

    Meastro, if you please.

    1. Captain Button

      One with a similarly not-usual-spy-stuff target

      1. DarkoNeko

        ooh, this is really good.

    2. Willoughby Chase

      Lalo Schifrin was a genius IMO. OG theme:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QlplayAjM4

  58. Mandy

    I’m really glad she could get some of her stuff, but I worry about things that she probably would have had at her house, like her birth certificate or social security card. It probably won’t be an issue anytime soon, but it would be really difficult to get by without that kind of documentation.

    1. Valerie

      It’s kind of an annoying process, but she could apply for copies of those.

    2. Clodia

      I honestly found the strip where she reveals she doesn’t have that documentation more anxiety-causing than the idea of her dad showing up. (Until the gun, at least.)

    3. Nono

      Actually, what would be the legal situation towards her house? The primary payer of bills and such is gone, even if there wasn’t any mortgage left. Would it just get repossessed? Would Becky even get a notice that it’s been repossessed?

      1. Agemegos

        It can’t get “repossessed” if there is no mortgage left to pay. If Big Toe Daddy doesn’t pay the taxes, though, it will eventually be seized and sold to cover back taxes.

        However, just because BTD is in gaol doesn’t make him legally incompetent to manage his financial affairs, and it doesn’t mean that legal papers can’t be brought to him to sign. Acting through an attorney and an agent he can let the house to tenants and use the rent to cover mortgage, maintenance, and taxes, or he can sell the house, pay off the mortgage, and invest any remaining balance in bonds and shares.

      2. Agemegos

        Legal notices will be served on BTD in prison, not on Becky. Unless he gives her power of attorney she’s not in the loop concerning the house. (Presuming it’s his house, that is, and not for some reason hers.)

    4. thejeff

      Seems to me she could make a Mission Impossible style raid on her house too. Ross isn’t there, so it should be safe. The cops have probably searched it, but she should be allowed in. Or just go in, if they’re not there.

      1. Agemegos

        Yeah. It’s probably still her legal residence, too, though I don’t know what happens when the bank forecloses. The issue is probably transport: Becky needs the help of a couple of guys the size of refrigerators to shift furniture for her, a driver, and a U-Haul.

        1. thejeff

          I was thinking more of her various papers and personal stuff she’d left there. Furniture would be nice, but needs to wait until she’s got a place to put it.

          Foreclosure will happen, but will take months at least.

        2. Agemegos

          Not necessarily. There might not be a mortgage: maybe the Macintyres rent, maybe their house or condo is paid off. And even if there is a mortgage, the bank would be much happier for Toedad to sell it himself and pay off the mortgage out of settlement than to go through foreclosure proceedings.

  59. Valerie

    Jesus Christ I love Dina.

    1. Willoughby Chase

      +1

    2. Kamino Neko

      <Jesus Christ> ‘I love her, too, but why am I being drawn into this conversation?’

      1. Smiling Cat

        Surely, Jeshua, you’d rather be in this conversation than so many of the others you get pulled into… People still blame you for the Duggars you know.

        1. Edupoet81

          I once saw the Duggars on a talk show some years back. I remember them saying some B.S. about remaining “pure.” Then there was a commercial break, and the first commercial was for a birth control pill. That was awesome.

  60. Captain Button

    So is the Dina & Becky Show going to be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl plot? Crazy girl drawing the isolated girl out of her shell?

    (Am I overdoing things? Sorry. (Not really sorry.))

  61. onetwoduck

    I know I’m a bad person, but i hope there’s a Becky-Dina slipshine.

    1. Bagge

      Sure there is! I found a trailer
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEljXeYMxRo

      (Note, only the first five seconds. The rest is some filler material)

      (Note, I’m just being silly. There is no actual hanky-panky going on in that clip and I have no super-secret insight into the slipshine creation schedule)

    2. Spencer

      IIRC Willis said it wasn’t going to happen for a long time, if ever.

      1. thejeff

        I wouldn’t expect it to. Both of them are very inexperienced sexually, despite Becky’s brashness, and I would expect them to take a long time to go beyond cuddling and kissing.

        1. Agemegos

          On the other hand Dina is bursting with curiosity and may not have internalised the general social expectation that two people who want to fuck and have mutually established not just consent but enthusiastic concurrence should nevertheless put off fucking. It always seemed weird to me.

        2. Spencer

          It’s more that, from what I understand, Dina doesn’t have much in the way of sexual inclinations.

          I prefer to think that means she’s Ace, but it can also just mean that she doesn’t have a noticeable sex drive.

        3. thejeff

          I’m not so sure Dina’s anything like Ace. This is just new to her.
          She could be, of course.

          Becky on the other hand, still has a lot of the religious conditioning. God may answer lesbian prayers, but I’m not at all sure she’s up for premarital hanky-panky. At least not this quickly.

        4. Spencer

          It’s not just that this is new to her; Becky is literally the first person she’s ever felt “different” about when compared to her friends. She even had to figure that out by comparing her feelings for Becky towards Sarah, and has stated she’s never felt sexual attraction for anyone.

          I think you’re spot on about Becky, though.

        5. Adam Black

          I think you and @theJeff are misreading the characters
          You not so much.

          There is no religious conditioning holding these two back.
          Just a combination of social awkwardness, inexperience
          and not wanting to screw things up.

          In the real world Id put that in under a month. But since a month of this comic is 5 years, it might only be a week.

  62. segnosaur

    Ok, Becky now has some of her clothes and stuff…

    Now the big question is… did she remember to pick up her toothbrush when she visited Anderson?

    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/nearing/

  63. Roborat

    So, is it going to occur to Becky to go home and get whatever documents, etc., she is going to need/want while her dad is still in custody and unable to interfere?

    1. segnosaur

      I’m not sure of the geography of the region, but its possible that her home town is further than Anderson College is, and she’d need more preparation to make a trip there.

      It is also possible that she may have legitimate fears over returning to her home town, since some in the community may take Toedad’s side and viewer her as the one who “destroyed her family”. (If she does return there, she may want to bring Joyce or Dina as backup.)

      And then there is also the possibility that either the cops have toedad’s house blocked off while they investigate. (I know the home wasn’t a crime scene, but they may need to enter to check for additional weapons, accomplices, etc.)

      1. Agemegos

        The geography is like this.

        Google Maps tells me that it is 1 hour and 47 minutes by road (149 km) from Bloomington, IN, (where Indiana University is) to Anderson, IN, (where Anderson University is), but 3 hours 47 minutes by road (317 km) to La Porte, IN, where Joyce and Becky hail from.

        1. segnosaur

          My congratulations in digging that up.

          So, it looks like it might certainly be possible that Becky hasn’t gone home because its a longer trip (and thus requires more planning) than simply going back to Anderson.

  64. GreyLurker

    Ok…there is a question I’ve had for a whle now but it’s a silly question and the Comic was in Drama mode, so not the time to ask.
    Drama mode seems to have settled down now so I am asking

    How would Dina react to Dinobots?

    1. Kei

      I feel like we actually did see this, or something similar in the comic… Ah, wait, it was her reacting to the inaccurate depiction of dinosaurs in movies. I think she would have a pretty neutral/slightly negative reaction.

    2. Bagge

      Maybe a long sincere explanation of why current understanding of dinosaurs don’t depict them as robots.

    3. Ana Chronistic

      prolly the same way she reacts to Barney or Dino from The Flintstones, with the understanding that they aren’t remotely supposed to depict (or more importantly, be mistaken for) realistic representations

      Let’s throw in some Dino-Riders, though–can’t have enough of those!

  65. SpoopyFox

    Since Becky’s gonna be sitting in on their calculus class do you think we’ll eventually see her join the Gender Studies class? Leslie would probably let her in despite it being a small discussion style class.

    1. Lord Stoneheart

      Leslie was okay with Mike showing up until he starting disrupting the class and Dorothy requested him to be removed.

      1. Ana Chronistic

        I don’t ever recall the professors taking roll call when I was in class.

        I guess except for the by-necessity-highly-interactive ones like Japanese or Computer Animation (restricted class size).

    2. Edupoet81

      I hope so. Joyce and Becky might want to see about staying to talk to Leslie after class. She could probably point them toward some useful resources.

      Incidentally, Dina’s brand of humor may not be to everyone’s taste, but *I* laughed. Dina, I appreciate you.

  66. Agemegos

    OMG! I just looked up Anderson “University” on Wikipedia. The only STEM they offer seems to enough maths to teach junior high, in their School of Education. More than that, their School of Humanities offers communication and design arts, english, history and political science, modern foreign languages and cultures, and religious studies. No philosophy, logic, anthropology, sociology, economics, linguistics….

    1. Peduncle

      For what it’s worth, they definitely have a department.

      Here’s the link.

      1. Agemegos

        Whew! What a relief.

        1. Peduncle

          I am super-relieved.

          Also, * anderson “eternity in torment” * gets no real hits in Google except for today’s DoA.

  67. Tenn

    Becky and Dina combined may be too much awesome for me to handle.

  68. Peduncle

    * Thanksgiving weekend sale TOO SUCCESSFUL. *

    Doncha hate it when that happens.

    1. Ana Chronistic

      nope, not at all! =D

  69. D'roc

    NO!!!!!!! :[ I missed the sale. I knew there was something I needed to do over the weekend. I started archive binging BBR, and only now came up for air. So sad. Must wait for the next sale.

  70. Koms

    Joyce looks very nice. And last panel Dina’s smile melts my heart!

  71. Someone

    *
    E

    pay attention-there will be a test later
    I’m trying to set a joke up but I can’t think of a sentence that relates to the subject matter that starts with E

  72. motorfirebox

    Humor through intermediate physical clothes-swapping!

  73. Raibean

    Dina I love you

  74. starsaber123

    This has been nagging at me. Wouldn’t the school have to know Becky is there by this point? Especially since this would be a high profile case and especially since Joyce was involved. She would probably need to be available for police reports and maybe even visits from lawyers. I just can’t buy into the school being clueless.

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