Discussion (180) ¬
[ Comments RSS ]
Onyx | 
Emerald | 
Obsidian 
⚧️ 
@onua-ryder.neocities.org ⋅ 18h
Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social ⋅ 4m
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Reuters Legal @legal.reuters.com ⋅ 1d
the_dude @lebowski76.bsky.social ⋅ 20h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Joe Chouinard @joechoui.bsky.social ⋅ 8m
eeee!
♥️🧡
Shaenon K. Garrity @shaenon.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Loading ...
Barb O. Saur 
mccloud
…kinda want to see Booster say, “Here, let me demonstrate for you!” and kick off a huge fashion montage
https://imgur.com/a/rDhUNyd
i wouldn’t mind seeing one or the other but personally i think the one on the left would fit carla’s skater style more, if not like an ‘overall’ dress
(i vaguely remember overall dresses being a trend but thoguht it was odd at the time since i only associated it with like first grade and/or farmers but in rerospect that kinda dress could be cute/comfy)
This probably leads to something cool, but for me the link doesn’t work.
it s till loads for me but it’s basically an image of two diff outfits lol
The right side outfit. Omg Carla needs to wear that. With bright California Valley Girl red lipstick.
Is it odd that I immediately identified these outfits as “the Tidus” and “the Yuna”?
oh hell yeah
Booster throws open their wardrobe and it’s like the fashion multiverse in there
Please tell me this leads to one of those wacky makeover montages where Carla steps out of a dressing room wearing various eccentric outfits, and Booster either shakes their head in dismay or gives an enthusiastic thumbs up.
While a quirky 80s pop song plays, of course. Look, I’ve got one picked out for them!
I’m on board for this!
Makeover, makeover!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvCPnYI9TZo
If ’80s movies taught me anything, it’s that if she takes off her glasses and lets her hair down, she instantly becomes hot.
well, you also have to walk in slow-motion. that’s the really tricky part.
But how much hotter can Carla get without breaching absolute hot?
Dude, you saying Carla isn’t already smokin’ hot?!
Becomes?
Oh please, oh please, oh please
To show it all would take too long!
That’s why we need a montage!
I remember the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) finding his “look.” https://youtu.be/FymZvIS5VVU?si=kR36tb-MrT8qkLfw
Carla in a DRESS?!?!?! I can’t wait AAAAH
🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵
*plays “Puttin’ on the Ritz” by Taco on hacked muzak*
https://imgur.com/a/ePt49wR something like these would be good, cute but still casual
but an over-dressed kinda dress/super fancy/prom-like and sparkly might get charlies attention more XD
if not something with a seahorse print 8D; if ‘princess jellyfish’ was a thing and had jelly fish dresses i’m sure a seahorse one exists haha
From what we’ve seen of Charlie, a bomb going off in the vicinity might not get her attention.
Though I really shouldn’t give Carla ideas.
I mean, it would, there’d just be a delay
sorry how is “princess jellyfish” not a thing
jellyfish are incredibly sexy???
there’s an anime/manga series called princess jellyfish, that’s what i was referring to lol
oh aha well i wouldn’t know BUT if anyone’s doing biomimetic fashion, jellyfish is a treasure trove. they’re incredibly diverse, they have translucent parts, puffy parts, all sorts of colours, iridescence, bioluminescence, threads, frills, beads, lacework, not to mention venom which i honestly think goes with everything.
Did you not Google?!! A lot of the hits are anime, of those remaining, many are a bit bridal – but some of them are GORGEOUS…
https://www.lolitaknot.com/Lady-Miao-Princess-Jellyfish-Fantastic-Pricess-Lolita-JSK-and-OP-Dress-p591055.html This one comes in pink, sky blue, mint or black, is RIDICULOUSLY OTT and gorgeous… Totally not Carla’s typical style but a statuesque woman like her dripping in frothing aqua asymmetric chiffon and lace, possibly accessorising with some simple pearls rather than the optional bubble hat, would attract a lot of attention.
The only problem is I’m not sure Carla would be entirely comfortable with that type of attention. She’s very much an “I’m an awesome, amazing genius inventor, and do my own thing, and I just happen to be a girl. I know, I’m stunning. You can admire me best at a distance. Run along now” type. Having people notice her looks first, even if it’s very much in a positive attention way, might make her want to climb out of her own skin a bit.
We learnt not to google things…the hard way…
i…… maybe didn’t google it because i wanted to larp having original ideas for a minute?
also i haven’t slept in 24 hours or something, so i plead insanity.
i have googled it now however, and pinterested it, and oh god of course there are sooo many incredible jellyfish dresses out there, and some Princess Jellyfish underwater cosplay, and some super cute jellyfish costumes =D
She’s worn a red plaid skirt before so the second one is most in line with her style, I guess.
yeah, or maybe something dark green to contrast her hair, as long as it doesn’t look too chrsistmas-y lol
The trick for that is to skew the green toward yellow instead of blue.
I mean, I wanna see it, too, but still.
shame there isn’t a huge community on here o utside of the comments (as far as i know) , it would be cool to see a montage of carla fanarts in cute dresses as a montage/concept /preduction lol
I would also like to see that
A “tennis” dress might be cute to see
I’m putting Booster in charge of fan service!!
this is all building up to drawing Carla in a sundress, isn’t it
has carla never worn dresses before? or is it not common as ‘casual’ wear in indiana even for sundresses? even if i didn’t gain weight i don’t think i’d rly go back to wearing jeans that often compared to how comfy/flowy dresses are (like societal standards/masuclinity asidei ‘m surprised more men don’t wear skirts/kilts as well)
Joyce’s sundress, stolen directly from her closet.
Sundresses are quite excellent, especially with a straw hat. Sandals or no shoes, natch.
(I may or may not have hard-coded that exact combination into one of the deities in my fantasy world.)
wait do eyelashes exist in DOA i forget
Carla’s about to invent them.
they’re not ever emphasized but they’re just implied to be there i guess? other than some ‘natural’ makeup i guess most don’t rly stick out. tho i suppose mascara might make some ‘spider leg’ eyes too bold/flashy if you do a western style makeup versus asian
tho, i suppose, otehr than the brief comment about boosters lipstick, and that one time jennifer wore it on a date with ruth, most charas are’t shown to have makeup on
(willis has joked before about how his drawing style doesn’t feature nostrils or fingernails)
Well eyebrows often leave the head entirely, maybe eyelashes do too, but never find their way back.
Characters with sclera have eyelashes, at least the upper ones. Even characters without sclera have eyelashes when narrowing their eyes or closing them.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/untied/
Even if panel 1 Robin’s eyelashes don’t count, they’re emphasized in panel 2.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/falls/
Those aren’t just eyelids, those are Walky’s lashes, to show how dreamy he looks.
cut to a multiple dress trying on montage 8D
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2397
Claire absolutely should have gone with the Björk dress
My first thought was the Bubbles montage, but this is also an excellent choice.
now I have to reread a whole bunch of QC….this was one of my favorite arcs, and Claire is likely my favorite character
Yessss, a spectacle
I’m not sure Charlie knows she herself exists, so good luck with that, Carla.
Man, those are two really hard names to come up with a shipping portmanteau for, aren’t they. “Carlie”? “Charla”? Both of those just look like someone made a typo. I guess “CharCar” could work, maybe?
well i know that I’M going with CharCar from now on
Extending CharCar, can we extend the UltraCar similarity? UlCharCar? UlchraCar? I feel like it’s a bit too close to ulcer rather than ultra though…
It’s 4:16 here and my brain went “oh nooooo. Car 2.”
If you say CarChar it also doubles as a reference to Carcharodontosaurus
This comment has been sponsored by Dina
Plot twist: Charlie is a believer in solipsism. Herself is the only thing she thinks DOES exist.
Weirdly, that kind of makes her a good match for Carla, who does believe other people exist, but only for her own amusement.
I’d pay to see two solipsists arguing about each others’ non-existence.
The bit gets old fast.
DON’T MAKE HER PERFORM GENDER, BOOSTER
I mean, of all people!
Cuteness/style knows no gender 8D
well she’s the one who brought it up so i’d assume she’d be fine with wearing dresses (she at least has a plaid skirt https://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/image/183388345267) , not like she said “put on something skimpy/revealing” lol
but i’m sure booster knows charlies tastes in clothes/ppl
what? no no no when your trans girlfriend says “idkkkk dyou think i should like… wear a dress…” you say YES
(ok Carla’s may be past that phase but in general i don’t think your first instinct should be “psh no way you’re so above that gender normie bs”)
Good point; she did bring it up first herself, yeah
They’re also not the type to coddle Carla’s feelings and say “well only if you’re comfortable wearing a dress”. That’s up to Carla to decide.
She may end up going a different route, one of the character models on tumblr has a different feel to it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on until this strip. https://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/730745956935647232/carla
“If you, a woman, are trying to get someone’s attention, a pretty dress might be a good way to do it” is reasonable, particularly if the woman in question has already brought up dresses. People don’t have to be constantly GNC all the time- nothing wrong with doing and liking things traditionally associated with your gender.
Booster is pretty much the comments section tonight, aren’t they.
Booster is the comments section every night.
plot twist: Carla was actually flirting with Booster all along
Threesome with twins
Odd.
Prime, as well.
Booster, what have you done.
They gave her a boost.
Oh gosh, yes Carla dressed up plz
something like a cute sleeveless/sundress underneath a cool biker jacket as contrast would be cool
https://imgur.com/a/0dU63iG
Ah, yes, the Joyce/Sal makeover power team that Sal didn’t ask for and Joyce will die of joy for.
No, you don’t, Booster. No you don’t.
i mean, i’m sure they’ll be in the background for almost every step of this ‘courtship.
[Tip vibes intensify]
I asked Google what “tip” would mean in this context and did not receive a useful answer.
Tip was a character of the now-finished Skin Horse webcomic. Cross-dresser, knew his way around makeovers.
Fun fact: the Skin Horse character was named after L. Frank Baum’s original Oz character, protagonist of The Marvelous Land of Oz! She wasn’t exactly a cross-dresser, but “he” was a boy who was revealed to actually be a magically-transformed princess who lost her memory, so these days she’s frequently celebrated as an unintentional trans icon.
I would like to draw that.
the goddess power of a dress would be quite powerful lol
https://imgur.com/a/THUsPB2
maybe something liek this if ur taking suggestions/references lol
Please do! The people deserves a mosaic of Carlas wearing a dozen different dresses in all styles, including formal wear
I’m a little confused who Carla is actually doing this for now.
you never need a reason to put on a pretty dress but it would be hilarious if it ended up attracting attention of her o0ther classmates
TBH I’m not shipping her with Booster yet.
But there’s a “yet” up there that wasn’t there before o.o
Part 2 NSFW-ish?
Very self indulgent, I will admit. I’m in a mood.
Honestly there’s a lot I wanna do with this concept. The hard part is like…transitioning from moment to moment.
heheh =D
just a thought, love the panel 5 sequence but it’s right-to-left, which makes it a bit hard to parse? i think? maybe… mirror flip the whole thing? would that work?
Haha. I’ve been reading too much manga….
lollll or me not enough XD
The faces are very good in this, tbh.
ugh, this is hot
I just understood the whole “it’s hot that my partner can beat me up” thing in a big hurry.
“I love a woman who can kick my ass”
-Spike Spiegel.
Spoken with true wisdom tbh
“I love the kind of woman who will actually just kill me.”
https://youtu.be/-sMQpWCNTQw?si=FjtkzG28zHroUD_m
My vote goes to a cute skirt/jacket combo, perhaps with a cheeky pattern.
That feels much more Carla’s vibe to me. I can see her really pulling off a print skater skirt with a cropped jacket.
what is a cheeky pattern ? like something ‘wacky’ like smile faces on them or like ‘check’ as in checkerboard/plaid?
Cheeky, like a cheeky Nando’s.
Chicken sauce stains
What am I supposed to do?
How about not being a giant thunder conga for a while and see how that plays out
Where’s Tip from Skin Horse when you need him?
“Did someone say Makeover?!?”
I think we would ALL like to see that
I’d love to know what carla considers ‘pretty’.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/mynameis/ be amusing if she just wore this outfit in a dress equivalent/version
Really channeling Timon here. I can already see the smash cut from the penultimate panel to her doing exactly that!
heyyyy question game time!
best-worst pickup strategy you’ve ever tried/had someone try on you?
i dont actually have an answer off the top of my head
ummmm being introduced to BTVS by a cute boy.. that was actually charming as all hell (later he broke my heart psh)
oooh wait this woman’s 7-year-old daughter came up to me and went “so hey, my mom would like your number” (she was mortified) (it was hilarious) (later i broke her heart =/)
not exactly a pickup but one time i was hanging out with a friend and delivery food and someone asked if he was my father tho our age isn’t that far apart lol
Worst: In high school, a girl came up to me with a picture she’d drawn of me and asked if I wanted to go out. I’d literally never seen her before in my life, so of course I said “Sure”. Bad idea. A couple weeks was all I could take of that.
Best: I winked at a cute girl on the bus and we passed notes for a while. Then I dropped out and a few years later she recognised me on Facebook. Our tenth anniversary was in June.
The one time I actually got a compliment on the attempt was back in college, when a friend mentioned that she liked her lovers to be very fit and usually had to do at least some (further) training. After a moment, I asked if she was accepting any new students at the time…?
I’ve never tried to pick anyone up per se. But my go to move is to try to draw them something. That’s actually how I got my first (read:only) Girlfriend.
I really wish I had literally any ability to pick up ladies
(Other than lifting with my knees)
I’ve had the most success with being really direct and obvious. As in, “I am totally flirting with you!” and “I’m going to Coney Island on Saturday, you can come too. I’m totally asking you on a date!”
…we’re married now.
The closest thing I have to an answer is that there was one occasion when a girl at college initiated a conversation about the book I was reading. I couldn’t help noticing this conversation was awkward even by my standards, and ended up actually apologising for how bad my conversational abilities are, at which point she said “Oh, okay,” and left, seeming somewhat confused. I dimly realised she’d thought I was saying I didn’t want a conversation, which was a shame, but not a huge deal, and went back to my book.
About a week later, I suddenly thought “Was … was I being chatted up and didn’t even notice? Nah, probably not. But maybe?”
Only a week? How about…forty years?
Worst: dude I barely knew wrote me a note and asked me to read it later, the note was all about how he was ‘ready to settle down’ and how he knew I was a virgin so he would ‘take it slow’. This is keeping in mind that this was high school, and all of my experiences with this guy were ‘we sat together with our friends to eat lunch’. I told him no and he thankfully backed off.
Best: dude in college told me he had a buy one/get one free doughnut coupon and I agreed to go with him and get a free doughnut. It was the best cause I went with him, but also not effective because my ace ass didn’t realize it was a pick up and just thought we were becoming friends/getting food LOL we kept hanging out together too and I kept thinking it was platonic until he laid his arm across my shoulders on the shuttle bus… then I was like “oh…”
worst: on my 30th birthday i went to go clean my car in 100-degree weather. The right turn out of the car wash is infamously a nightmare, so i decided i’d take a left turn and just goof around until i found the road that went parallel. Went through some neighborhoods unsuccessfully and some guy driving towards me got REALLY excited.
I was like, are you one of my students? Do I know you from somewhere? So I stopped and let him back up to me. Turns out, no, he saw me at the car wash and thought I was cute. I wanted to die. I said that was weird and drove off.
Not my most flattering interaction, but, uh. I died inside for a good couple of hours afterwards.
Best: My friend asked me if I’d like to go see a movie with him, as a date. I said yes. Then I picked up my cat and scurried off into the house. We had our tenth total anniversary in Sept, and our third year anniversary for marriage will be in Dec.
I was once sitting at a table under the temporarily abandoned campus kfc, pretty out of the way from the walking path, contemplating the fact that I suddenly had waaaay less money in my bank account than I thought I did, when I guy came up to me. He said “I like your face. It’s very symmetrical.” I said thanks uncomfortably. He asked my name. I gave him a fake one. He asked if I had a man, through a very thick Trini accent so I thought he was asking for a mint, which made the whole thing even more awkward. I said yes. He said “oh” and left.
I’ve been hit on a lot, harassed a lot, but that was the single weirdest interaction of the sort I’ve ever had
Best, less a pick up strategy but my best friend and I got kinda flirty after I got out of a really bad relationship. He’d never confessed to the other person in his previous relationships, just sorta went with it when they came to him (later realized he’s demi-ro). So he kept joking that he’d confess to me in 5 years or something like that. The time kept getting shorter, until he said “I’ll confess to you next week”. We have a 6-7 hour time difference between us and it was around 11ish my time, on a Saturday. so I told him “hey, it’s Sunday for you. It’s already next week.” And he said “oh, okay. Well then, zee i love you.”
Our 4th anniversary is next May
Okay that feels transactional
ugh, Carla was really trying to buy Charlie/Booster…
rich people scary ne
well, not that it worked
but man where were these rich kids when i was in school i would’ve done smaller things for bribes at least but if anything my friends were kinda cheapskates, which in retrospect makes sense since we didn’t all have allowances
I knew some of these, one of them were my friend.
It sounds fun for who’s outside, but he used to bought things like candies, chocolates, when I was 8 years old; I felt unconfortable, and almost all times, I refused any gift from him. I don’t know exactly why, I didn’ liked the idea of him bringing me things.
The bigger gesture was acknowledging that’s what she was doing, and that it was because she didn’t want to be mean.
I feel bad for Carla, for once this doesn’t seem like narcissism, but genuinely… Not knowing HOW to be a normal person
i mean she’s prolly had normal convos with her parents without being ‘mean’ but i guess she never had to fight for their attention either
to be fair
it’s unclear being a normal person to Charlie would get her attention
it would be interesting if charlie already knew, other than that one ‘delayed’ comic strip like
“Yeah…we have class together.”
“….”
“So…how are you?” i feel like carla wouldnt’ have the patience/attention span herself otherwise tho unelss charlie can like hyperfocus in a scene or so or they have like the whole weekend to awkwardly small talk at like a cafe table together
Booster with the good advice about how purchasing affection is scummy, then right back into “that would be hilarious, please do”
??? in what world is cleaning up nice “purchasing affection”
also Booster didn’t say it would be hilarious
but please don’t let me spoil your hatefest
It’s…. It’s literally the conversation about the Xbox. It’s in the first half of the comic. What are you even mad about
oh ok, maybe i misread your comment? it’s that phrasing:
“Booster [telling Carla off for doing X] then right back into [encouraging Carla to do X]”
am i reading this wrong, i don’t understand your comment if that’s not what you’re saying. in which case i apologize
The swing from “[reasonable, responsible, mature advice]” to “hell yeah, [unrelated thing]” is a bit funny.
I mean, dressing up/peacocking isnt necessarily a bad strategy unless carla was rly uncomfortable with it or so , even if they find amusement in it, i doubt booster is setting up carla to fail
I think Booster is allowed to enjoy this situation in some way.
Got to admit, the mental image of Carla dressing up made me chuckle.
Something tells me Carla has difficulty initiating social contact when she has any investment in the outcome.
The idea of just going up to Charlie and introducing herself just doesn’t occur to her, does it?
That adorable and sad at the same time.
It’s the trope of lesbians being afraid to talk to each other, but in the most Carla-like way.
As I said last comic: authenticity requires risk and making oneself vulnerable to rejection (among other things).
My take as well.
Lesbian sheep.
she kind of did. https://www.dumbingofage.com/mission-2/
It’s sad, but hopeful. She knows her toolbox is mostly being obnoxious, and doesn’t want to do that. she’s getting coaching.
It feels objectifying
It would be … interesting, to say the least. Although we know Willis can do pretty. Remember Joyce in the yellow dress?
Never knew Willis has a Deviant Art, too.
(Yeah, not updated anymore, but it’s still nice)
Who could forget Joyce in the yellow dress?
I promise I love the entire DOA cast. It’s just that my MP bar is so low, only the power of Dat Gay Shit lets me tank through it and come to the comments section, it’s incredible.
Booster so far has been an outstanding wingpal, Carla. Heed the advice, give us the fashion montage you’ve volunteered OwO
An important note that “I would like to see that” does not mean “That will work”
Yeah she’ll just look awkward. Get Brutus in here! He’ll look great!
It does imply they’ll help with the introduction.
Carla, have you considered maturing past the Elementary School Level of Social Interactions?
For some of us, it’s harder than you think!
I hope this somehow leads to the entire cast in tuxedos.
Is there any way to do a musical episode in a comic?
I haven’t visualized Carla’s yet. The impression I get for Booster’s is it’s balancing the line between ironically bad and stylish. Like “oops waited too long to rent a tux before formal and this is all they had left” pink with should-be-terrible shirt, but it’s cut very well.
… Fuck i would too
Booster, don’t try to manipulate Carla.
Once someone goes out of their love language, never pass up on the chance.
Then again, Carla has the vibes of a mini dress…
I mean, it probably won’t work, but do iiit
Carla’s quest to get Charlie’s attention will take her to explore types of boldness that she didn’t even consider before
… well now I wanna see Carla in Gwen’s prom outfit from Across the Spider-Verse.
Have we given up on the dream of Carla Claud wearing the entire red suit plus acrylic beard and mustache?
Imagine the fight that would break out at the dress shop if Carla and Sal (in a rare moment) both spotted the “perfect” dress at the same time.
Lotta punches, lotta pies.
Carla walks down the dorm hall in said outfit. The other residents doubt the evidence from their own senses. The campus therapists suddenly find themselves overbooked. In the distance, sirens.
Carla being vulberable 🥹🥺
Shocked to learn that Karla has this much self-awareness.
Duck season, rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season….dress season.
I notice Booster didn’t say it might work…
Yes, Carla, so close to human interaction!
it is generally nicer to be flirted at by looks, interactions, and getting to know the person you want to spend time with, as opposed to getting expensive gifts. I’d be creeped out if i got an expensive gift from someone i don’t even really know. It would indeed feel transactional, as if i now owe them a date.
I might go on the date if the gift was sufficiently awesome, like a stack of TPBs I’d been eyeballing or a perfectly fitting Magna Defender costume with all the accessories. One date, to see if I liked the person enough for another, and I’d be very up front about that part. I’d also be very up front about the fact I’m keeping the gift no matter what the outcome, so I hope they’re willing to take that gamble and be on their best behavior. (Honestly though, the costume would probably earn them at least a proper shagging, brains-out style.)
As long as you’re up-front and self-confident and make it clear to them that they are not entitled to anything you don’t freely give, that does sound healthy!
If someone gets you such a custom gift, regardless of the price, it might be an indication that they actually know your tastes and care about you (assuming they’re not an evil manipulating butthole), so yeah, I might be inclined to give them a chance too
Mary will see Carla in a dress and start to become obsessed. She will want to have Carla as her personal model. That will not end well.
Am I going insane? I could have sworn Carla said “should I set up a press conference”???!!!
Poor Carla!