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![We have two major problems in our party: We have a courage problem and we have a competition problem. Because we don't challenge the status quo or people who are in safer blue seats nearly enough, we [end up with certain] candidates who get really comfortable. [highlighted by me] And if there's anything that I've learned from activism and organizing, it's that comfortable people — especially politicians — do not change.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pum3nk6m6xqwqw5e7v5wcbgu/bafkreiau7p4ck7uqou2ywenr4kxtrz5scy64hkksovtg3zbd5v3eb6vryi@jpeg)
Lex McMenamin (they/them) @leximcmenamin.com ⋅ 7h
) Rigid, likely cast urethane/resin, no leg warping here! Flexible hoses. Beautiful piece! Any prototype collectors interested, hit me up! #beastwars #transformers
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Nothing to see here, folks!
mel! @mel.bzky.team ⋅ 5m
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boom, boom
(i sure hope i did this earthling meme thing right)
Hold my hat.
IMPROVED REPLACEMENT MIKE SCORES AGAIN!
You have at last claimed the coveted position atop the comment board?! My God, the dark prophecy was true after all. Everybody, run for your lives!!!
Booster be scheming here for reals, heheheehee XD
*plays “Count Bleck’s Plan” from Super Paper Mario*
Either that or i had me too much fixer elixir heheheehee
hats off to youuu 8DD
Bazil Brush? Not sure where the fox fits in?
“Admit I have FEELINGS?! That makes me feel ANGRY!”
Good thing I checked because I was going to say the same thing with different words. Before she could admit to romantic intentions for Charly, she would have to admit them to herself, and I don’t think she has.
Yeah, that’s my read as well, I would have found an additional booster “to yourself” bubble in that last panel equally funny, if not more, but it might not be the direction Willis wanted to take this convo…
You have admitted a feeling. This is great progress!
Damnit, Willis. ”You can’t just have your characters *announce* how they feel!”
I mean, i imagine half the cast are emotionally constipated
and congrats to shortpack for the bday /anniversary!
But we don’t celebrate it till April 1.
It used to be about pranks, but now it’s about waiting up till the new strip drops.
She memed
those two final panels are absolutely perfect, the utter pinnacle of sequential art, no notes
Off-the-charts satisfying, yepppp [chef’s kiss]
“wut.”
“I don’t *have* feelings! How dare you!”
ok I have to admit it
I was going back and rereading the Charlie strips and one of them featured Jennifer doing a big :C face that I found absolutely hysterical
so I have to give Carla credit for doing the same face. it’s such a funny face.
To Shortpacked:
Happy Birthday to you!
The world is a zoo!
We wish you a great party!
And some sweet presents too!
🥳 🪅
That alt text cause me to remember to check Shortpacked!
I found a couple that I hadn’t read yet. It’s always a neat feeling to go there and be pleasantly surprised by new content so long after it ended.
Also reread a few others. And then some more.
There’s a new Shortpacked! every April 1st, with a bonus update once in a blue moon.
Wait what?! There is?! I thought it’s been done for years. How did I not know this. I feel like such a terrible fan. :'(
Seeing the name change colors made me think it changed BCUZ she frowned.
*Carla intensifies*
The color change visually demonstrates the passage of time from panel to panel! A magnificent triumph of comics that would not be possible in any other art form!
I like to imagine that between panels, Carla reaches up, takes the sign off her hat and replaces it with a different one.
Oh, that nameplate is like a mini-Neon Sign. So not only did she have one of those just lying around, she quickly rigged it up to her hat even though the hat clearly did not start with it.
What? You *don’t* have a hat with a lighted nameplate?
Carla clearly didn’t prior to today either! She just had a hat and a lighted nameplate and she quickly brought them to together.
Some of us don’t have a trust fund.
brioni – not yet.
No, it’s a translucent clear plastic with RBG LED backlighting and a controller that selects random colors to light it up. I think the controllers are on the jungle site, but you have to make your own sign.
How do some of you seem to have custom avatar pics?
because that’s what we told gravatar to use as our gravatar, rather than not specifying and letting this site assign one
Is Ana ok? There are a lot of comments and she’s not here yet
The time cops finally got her.
It is nice of you to be concerned, but don’t worry. Ana is likely fine. If I recall correctly, she has missed some days before. Hopefully she just is out somewhere having a fun time and forgot to post something. She will show up again in time.
okay! so 4 or 5 hours from now she’ll have claimed the top spot again?
Sometimes Anna uses pseudonyms to avoid breaking a time-line she likes.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/home/#comment-430
I wouldn’t assume anything bad unless she’s gone for a while. Sometimes folk just get busy with other things.
Charlie’s lucky to have a twin lookin’ out for her, they really care a lot about her feelings!
I just noticed Fuckface is sitting on Carla’s head
*Carla’s hat
–Dave, now check back a few strips
You know, I do think Carla has romantic intentions with Charlie, but I’d also find it kinda funny (in relation to this conversation) if she didn’t. There are a lot of types of attraction, interest, and desire out there! And sometimes it can be hard to tell, and I’d kind of like Carla going, “Look, I DON’T ACTUALLY KNOW.”
(I think that would be more emotional vulnerability than even saying she’s romantically interested, so doubly not likely.)
Totally. In college I had several hardcore friends crushes
Yeah, I gotta say it would be refreshing if her feelings weren’t really romantic? It’d at least be funny watching Booster figure that out
That’s probably an accurate answer even if she does have romantic interests.
Or to say that Charlie seems interesting and she would like to be friends. I think the problem is that Carla is still stuck in a self-defensive posture of saying “I just want her to acknowledge me because I am great”. We haven’t seen much of Charlie but I think it would be hard for her to parse the intention behind that.
apparently ‘friend crushes’/someone you wanna be friends with is called a ‘squish’, which does sound cute, or might be a bit odd considering i associate ‘squish’ with like mosquitos/ants lol
“Hey, I have a squish on you.”
“I’m calling the police.”
I thought ‘squish’ was like a foot fetish on overdrive.
As an aromantic, I really appreciate this comment and would love this line of thinking especially since we have an ace character so why not show a bit of aro confusion or various types of attraction
Pick one, Carla. Either admit your crush and be introduced, or cling to this weird pride thing and go on being an inefficient stalker.
Inefficient stalker it is.
wouldn’t it be inefficiency by choice since walky was like “can’t you just hack the files to find out where she is?” at least there’s some lines she wouldnt’ cross
Fam this really shouldn’t be this hard, come on. Just. They aren’t even asking you to admit it to Charlie, just say “yeah I wanna ask your sister out.”
Booster is saying Carla will have to treat Charlie with understanding and patience, and I’m pretty sure a part of said understanding would involve being forthright about stuff. Charlie won’t pick hints, read vibes, or #assume stuff. TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS, CARLA. IT’S NOT (completely) FOR BOOSTER’S AMUSEMENT, ACTUALLY.
Though finding being a good sibling amusing sets up a fun potential in-law vibe.
Absolutely agreed |DD This is for Charlie, but nothing forbids Booster from enjoying it.
I think a lot of people would struggle to be so honest about their feelings. But it’s hard for Carla specifically because she’s received so much hate for being trans. She keeps herself at a distance from other people, telling herself that she’s not like them because she doesn’t have romantic or sexual feelings. To admit that she does have those feelings, and that she likes a specific person who could reject her, would make her vulnerable in a way that could awaken some of those old memories.
This is a really kind analysis (very fitting Gravatar, tbh). And I do agree with it! For many people, myself included, talking about feelings is a skill one has to practice; and I get that a lot about Carla’s “here I come!!” attitude/walls, come from a place of needing to validate herself in an hostile world. But there’s no way to form a close relationship with other people that doesn’t involve showing vulnerability. Can Carla be a person instead of a persona with Charlie? Booster doesn’t know, so they’re asking.
… Aaaannd she keeps escalating the shenanigans. Which, hey! I’m not judging-judging her, but fam, it’s counterproductive :’33
I want to argue that this isn’t Carla’s first-ever crush; she’s been enthusiastic and vocal about being attracted to specifically Sal.
But as I type those words, I have to wonder if there wasn’t a performative aspect to that. I mean, in-universe, Sal is both Unquestionably Hot (as in, if you said you found her hot, no one would have any follow-up questions about what drew your interest), and also one of Carla’s friends. A friend who knows she’s trans and probably also knows she’s ace. A friend who wouldn’t be made uncomfortable by the stated interest, but who is also Very Straight, so there’s no danger of it needing to go anywhere after being stated.
Sal is a very safe person for Carla specifically to crush on.
HUH. YEAH.
You’re MOST DEF onto something here. Holy shit OwO!!
i think she’s just used to ppl acknowledging her/willing to talk to her even if they don’t ‘worship the ground she walks on’ but i imagine she wouldn’t have asked/been asked out by anyone yet
I do actually think Booster wants Carla to admit romantic intentions TO Charlie. I think overall this is coming from a place of “Charlie isn’t great at picking up on cues and could easily spend a long time thinking she has a cool new friend but that friend actually has Designs on her, and being secretly relationshipzoned sucks”.
But unsure. We will see.
It seems a bit unlikely that Carla would push the issue if the very idea of a crush makes her frown like that. Even admitting that she wants to be friends would be a good start. So far she hasn’t really examined her own motivations for wanting Charlie’s attention, and Booster is better qualified to unpack that than Charlie would be.
Hah, just finished a more thoughtful reply to you above.
Carla’s very tsundere. Specifically the type where the writer actually thought about what would cause that kind of behavior and worked it into her whole characterization. AKA the great and interesting type. (I like tsun characters, but there are definitely some who are just tsun because their creators like the Gap Moe*, or worse, who were added to fill out a cast of characters when their creator hates tsundere characters but wants to appeal to people who like them, lol.)
*Gap Moe is the Japanese term for when the contrast between two sides of a character’s persona is cute or otherwise appealing. Super tough and grim-faced older male characters who are then surprisingly soft and kind to children or small animals? An example of gap moe. Leverage‘s Elliot has some fantastic gap moe going on.
Actually this is perfect. Solving the ‘uselessly indirect lesbian’ problem along with the ‘Charlie doesn’t understand subtlety’ problem.
+1
The commoner is quite unsettling.
Thank you, Jeeves.
I can almost see the sign changing colors. Like, it’s moving in my head. It’s such a strong image.
Genuine Vulnerability?
From Carla?
NEVER!
incidentally saving Walky by having Carla demonstrate her patience
“you know what? forget you, I’ll keep waiting here”
*charlie walks in by her wandering self*
Am I reading that second request correctly? To me, it sounds like Booster is asking that Carla promise to be upfront about their romantic intentions to Charlie specifically.
If that’s the correct read, then I like that. A lot. Booster gains a lot of points with me for that one.
That would be ideal, yeah. But Carla can’t even say it in confidence, between the both of them TwT
At the very least, she can’t be upfront with Charlie until she’s admitted it to herself.
I do too, honestly.we’ve already seen how oblivious Charlie seems to be in general, for whatever reason that ends up being. I have no trouble believing that Charlie could cheerfully interact with someone such that she thinks they’re friends and the other person thinks they’re dating, and then be super upset and feel stupid when the other person ‘gets tired of waiting’ or something.
Tell Charlie up front ‘hey, I’m romantically interested’ and she knows how to translate what you’re doing, so at least the ‘oh no I was so STUPID’ part of any eventual breakup is mitigated at least somewhat.
But Booster is going to have to spell it out for Carla, just as much as she is going to have to spell it out for Charlie. But that means being incredibly emotionally vulnerable, and that’s hard when you’ve had as much of your life scrutinized by society, and your existence and rights debated by everyone.
yyyyyyup.
*frumple*
Plot Twist: Charlie and Booster are the same person. After all, we’ve never seen them together in any strips. None. Especially not the one in Gender Studies that you’re about to reply to this comment with a link to.
that would be hilarious if it was a plot twist of charlie/booster being one person and just doing all this to troll carla. tho given that they’re ‘twins’ i’m sure there are sitcoms/other stories with similar plots
You can’t prove they weren’t just moving very fast
Have we ever seen Mike, Charlie, Jennifer (not Billie), Booster, and the DOA Flash at the same time?
Ever since that assassins bullet hit all those hospital chemicals in Mike’s room I mean.
Not sure I approve of Booster’s actions here.
Does Charlie have some condition that affects / prevents her agency?
Is Booster Charlie’s legal guardian or power of attourmey?
If tte answer to both these questions is ‘no’, then Booster is gatekeeping; any potential relationship between Carla and Charlie is none of their business. Any rules or boundaries on the relationship are for Charlie to set, unless there are legal or medical factors that make her incapable of doing so. Right now, regsrdless of talk about ‘understanding and patience’, Booster is denying Charlie’s personhood, just to mess with Carla.
I mean, if we’re taking that route, we could also say Carla is having Stalker Behavior and Booster could be right about being worried on rewarding it. They aren’t gatekeeping Charlie, Carla was the one who demanded (not asked) to be introduced on the first place, and everything else after that point has been a back and forth of “I’m not sure I want to help you? Nothing points at you being a good person?” BUT AFKSDJL PLS I KNOW CARLA IS A GOOD ONE despite her worrying self-centeredless. What I mean is.
Sometimes this comic stretches realism a little. At times that happens with superheroes. Others, with the weird Looney Tunes dynamic these two (and the slippery Charlie) seem to have going on.
^this
But Carla could go talk to Charlie on her own, without Booster’s help. They even have a class together. There may be some difficulties, but Carla could keep at it until she finds something that works. Booster is their own person and can decide if they want to introduce someone to their sister, and can determine the conditions that would make them comfortable doing so. If Carla won’t talk to Charlie without an introduction, then Booster will understandably feel responsible if Carla does something to hurt Charlie.
Bash is speaking with the truth. I went for a Doylist
tangentangle but yeah, Charlie and Carla are in Gender Studies together :33 Far away from Booster, even.But “wait and talk to Charlie in the next gender studies class” involves waiting, and doesn’t involve wacky hijinks.
I think hijinks have become a way to plausibly move towards the goal without actually getting there.
The
journey ishijinks are the destination, man…The destination is Valentines day. We should start seeing the setup soon.
+1
Carla is asking for help that Booster does not want to give.
You are not obligated to help someone you do not know and do not particularly like hook up with your sibling
The idea that, since I’ve been deemed capable of making my own decisions, nobody else is allowed to look out for me, ever, is absolutely terrifying and makes me want to go back to the autism centre and get a second opinion.
But yeah, what everyone else said. If this isn’t any of Booster’s business, maybe Carla shouldn’t have dragged them into it?
I think it’s pretty normal to request people treat your loved ones with respect. It’s called “looking out for them,” not “denying their agency”
I mean, on top of everything else, you’re assuming Booster and Charlie haven’t had prior conversations about this where Charlie has said that these are things she wants from people who approach her for relationships. That’s not a neutral assumption to make; it paints Booster as being very controlling of their sister, which isn’t consistent with how we’ve actually seen them interact so far.
(Booster was flustered and a little bit concerned when they couldn’t find Charlie, but there was an issue of returning property involved and they’d agreed to meet her somewhere specific at a specific time; it’s clear Charlie generally lives independently and attends classes on her own.)
I know that if someone who barely knew my sibling or one of my friends demanded they introduce them to me, and the only thing they know about said person is that they’ve been very stalkery about getting my attention, I would HOPE they ask them to treat me with patience and understanding.
I would hope my sibling would talk to me before providing info on like, where I lived and stuff.
Booster isn’t stopping Carla from talking to Charlie. They’re just refusing to introduce them. And introducing people is a way of saying “hey I think you two should know each other” for some reason and right now Booster has no reason to think that.
i wonder if she even realized it herself, if she’s supposed to be ace coded, she might be more ‘demi’ leaning? since i imagine charlie would also wanna be ‘friends’ first as opposed to “15 minutes of talking to her and agreeing to a ‘first date'”
She could be a romantic asexual.
Willis has said all characters have retained their orientations from previous incarnations and Carla previously was (and thus is) asexual-homoromantic.
That’s not precisely what Willis said. What Willis actually said also needs to be taken in context, as the context was like 800 different people repeatedly asking “IS ETHAN STILL GAY IN THIS UNIVERSE??????”
Willis has since amended the overall statement to be something like, no one’s orientation is CHANGING, but some characters have gotten a deeper understanding of themselves in this universe; thus, Walkyverse Danny is retroactively bi.
This was before he started killing people.
I find it hard to imagine Carla as anything but inspired by Ultracar.
not saying that she can’t subconsciously be attracted to charlie and end up like dina/becky but even with the ‘agreeing to be patient’ idk if they’d still be able to get along otherwise as a couple, let alone friends, with charlie having ‘delayed reactions’ to things i can imagine her thinking she would get frustrated if she gets a chance to be introduced, and the next time it’s just the two of them she was ignored again
its also possible that Carla does a 180 in her usual behavior once she has an external party that she feels invested in. I could see her doing everything possible to help Charlie navigate things and becoming quite agressive to anyone who takes issue with Charlie’s…let’s call it inattentiveness
Calling it now, Charlie is gonna turn out to be straight and politely refuse Carla. If the two ever get around to having an actual conversation, that is.
Why wouldn’t Booster tell Carla that Charlie is straight?
He might not know. If Charlie has never been in any romantic relationship before and has never mentioned her romantic interests to Booster, then he probably doesn’t.
Darn it. *they
unless booster actually gives their sister privacy and stuff and not fussy, theyve kinda shown to be a ‘busybody’ to where they’d probe about ppl’s lives and stuff, tho even if not detailed i’d think it’d be a common question as a friend or sibling if it’s like “so you seeing anyone?” or like “is that person more than just a friend” but i imagine carla would be fine with being friends since she’s basically ace (and yeah you can still date as an ace person but i imagine she wouldn’t be as let down if charlie was liek “i’m not interested in people”
How should I know? Booster’s brain is basically fuckin’ alien to me, maybe they think it’s funny.
Where’s the fun in that?
Ok, but what if I just hug Carla?
C’mon Carla, just spill the beans this once. Booster is a good confident.
You can trust Booster with your deepest feelings! He would never use that information for his own amusement!
(Actually, it occurs to me that if you actually tell him, it stops being fun; he’s only interested in the emotions people aren’t admitting.)
Not-girl.
That’s how we refer to Booster now.
Something something pronouns, whatever at this point.
*Them
Iiiii-I-Iiiii-I-Iiiii’m
Tricked into feeling
Forced into revealing
That I’m in love with you
+1
That’s a very wrong request. Booster sure has still a very long way to do before become a psychologist. You can’t force people like this, even if they are your friends and not your clients.
It’s over, Booster, Carla has the high ground
And a much wider color pallette.
+1. Would laugh again.
“I will never admit vulnerability.”
-Carla, probably. Every second of everyday sotto voce.
Admitting interest in anyone else? Never
Out of the corner of my eye I read the hovertext as ‘happy 19th Dumbing of Age’ at first and had a brief but overwhelming existential crisis.
You’re missing five and a half years of the pre-comic.
Think how Anna feels.
Booster, why would you do that to your sister?
Because he Carla would never get past the questions.
Ha! In your face Carla!
Shortpacked’s birthday is a great day to have Carla and Fuckface.
(Of course EVERY day is a great day to have Carla.)
And/or Fuckface.
i can’t place that expression at the end.
is that the “what are you talking about?” 1 eyebrow raise, or the furrowed brow of “how dare you call me out on that”
aww, poor little baby corpo’s gotta be upfront and honest with her selfish intentions, that must burn
its okay carla this would be a hard ask for me too
i just realized the comment box is at the bottom of the page and not the glitched out white box (that seems to be a facebook plugin) right underneath the tags. :I
welp, just coming here to tell that i binged DoA over the course of a few months (though im not sure thats a binge anymore?) and i absolutely love it c: