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Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Beeserker
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This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
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David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
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Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Paint the Town Red
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Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
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I occasionally go mute during anxiety attacks. If suffiently pissed, I’ve been known to go from unable to intentionally make noise or even move my hands to yelling at the top of my lungs.
There’s a thing called “code switching where people with one or more languages (or one or more dialects) use different languages on different occasions. Dunno if anger, specifically, is a thing that triggers code switching, though.
Usually, when angry, most people fall into specific types of dialect or variants with, le’s say, less social respect or acceptance (as in, dialect is often not as highly regarded as e.g. RP-pronunciation), so I find it fascinating that Sal falls out of it. Might be due to her mother ingraining ‘good’ speech patterns into her (because many people fall – when agitated – into dialect due to them having known their dialects since growing up, and actually taking some effort to speak in highly-regarded pronunciation patterns). Maybe also because Malaya is specifically criticising her demeanor as fake, so she unintentionally drops the accent, because that’s a part of being criticised. Probably both.
Anyway, fascinating from a linguistic point of view, as well as a social one nonetheless.
Actually, I find that’s pretty common with accents.
I was born and raised in the midwest, but then went to college and spent much of my early professional career in New York (state, not city). While I was there, I picked up an upstate New York accent. Then I moved back to the midwest. For a while, I still talked with a New York accent, but sometimes my old midwest accent would come back. Now the New York has mostly faded. This likely means that, now that she’s back in her home state, Sal’s accent is starting to fade.
It’s not her natural accent. If I remember correctly, she was sent away from home when she and Walky were young; Walky’s accent is her ‘natural’ accent, but the southern accent was picked up at a young enough age that it’s normal for her. She’s kinda like a bilingual kid who was raised speaking language B but slips into language A whenever she gets mad enough.
It’s not fake, if I remember correctly, but she picked it up when she went to boarding school down south, and I think she’s only just recently back from there. People subconsciously pick up accents when they live in different regions/countries, but that doesn’t make the accent fake, even if it drops off sometimes.
I had a friend I was stationed with in UK. She was from Georgia, but spent a few years in Del Rio, TX. She sounded Texan, but when she talked to her mom on the phone: “Git that Texas outta yer voice!” I knew when she had spoken to her mom, because she was all Georgia, until it faded back to Texan.
I unknowingly started sounding like my ex-husband, until about 6 months after we split. He had a soft Texas accent, and I’m from So Cal. People thought I was from here.
I’m British and have spent most of my life in the UK. However, I lived in California for two years (went just after turning 6 and left I think the week before my 8th birthday). When sufficiently tired I have referred to sidewalks (despite having spent most of my life walking on pavements instead). Language is an interesting beastie.
I moved a lot as a kid, my dad was in the air force, and 1.5 year and 3 year postings are the norm. It got to the point that I could pick up the new accent within 6 months after moving.
Beyond what everyone else is saying, the southern accent is a slow, polite way of speaking. You can be angry in southern, but it ain’t easy. Yelling in midwestern is probably just easier for Sal.
She doesn’t know Sal’s history, she spent enough time down south to pick up the accent as natural but not enough time for it to permaneltly take over her way of thinking.
Malaya is just looking for something to complain about, and Marcy isn’t able to set her right for obvious reasons(take your pick)…so of course they are going to run with her being a fake until they justifiably get their asses kicked by her.
All accents change depending on emotional state and tone. And yeah, acquired accents are more likely to go away. Plenty of brits who’ve been in to the states a long time will drop back into their original accent when they’re pissed.
Other people have already chimed in with “yes that’s normal,” but just as another anecdote, I know a girl who moved from Ireland to the States when she was 8 or so and she does the same thing. American accent most of the time, but the Irish comes back when she’s angry or drunk enough.
That sounds more like you picked it up as something you like the sound of and so just keep using it for fun. Sort of like how I’m inordinately fond of the phrase “you want I should” in large part because it’s terrible english – I just find it amusing to say.
Heres a weird one, I was born in the USA and lived the majority of my life in California, but when I am around anyone with a Gaelic accent for 10 minutes, I pick it up. If I get drunk, same thing. I’ve done this most of my life, but I’ve never been in Ireland and only spent a couple of weeks in Scotland. No one in my family speaks with that accent, and I don’t pick up any other accents for the most part. Go figure.
And me! I moved out of London when I was six and for the next three or four years, I was a perfectly well-spoken Midlands kid…until suddenly I would revert to an angry Cockney child. Childhood accents are hard to shift.
Nowadays I live between UK and Ireland so my accent slides around depending on where I’ve been recently.
Sal has fake bits about her like any normal teenager but her accent ain’t one of em.
Adding to the clamour, I have a phantom English accent from 2 years in England. Sometimes people can hear it, to the extent fellow countrymen think I’m foreign. But not always. I’ve never had feedback on an emotional effect tho, personally.
Ooh, my cousin spent a year in England when she was a kid and came back with a bit of an English accent. She was young enough that it went away pretty quickly, but idk if it returned when she went back in college.
I’ve been enunciating (in “news anchor English”) for years, but when I’m angry and yelling, my weird repressed Rhode Island / Southie mix breaks through.
Maybe, maybe not. My accent appears when I get tired; I generally talk “normally” but when my mouth gets lazy I pick up a drawl that could have walked straight out of a TV Western. And since I don’t recall having it when I lived it the Southwest that may just be where I picked it up, as some sort of psychological thing after transplanting.
I’ve learned 4 separate accents in my life because I was bullied when I transitioned to various different schools (in Scotland and London) for sounding different. I now have a weird hybrid accent that makes me sound like a farmer and changes a lot. But at least I’m an adult now so I don’t get made fun of.
Long story short, if you’ve lived in different places you’re likely to slip into different accents depending on where you are, who you’re with and how you feel. That’s no faker than raising your voice because you’re angry or not swearing in front of your parents.
Not at all fake, my family is from the south but moved up north, and if I get tired/drunk/angry then my accent slips out. It’s a reverse accent. Malaya is just being snobby/thinks-she-knows-everything-doesnt-actually-know-anything.
I currently have some Suth’n draaawl from living in Knoxville for a quarter-century – but I was raised in Cleveland OH, and can go back to Standard Midwestern Newscaster vowels if I think about it.
Accents are almost entirely built out of vowel changes; learning about diphthongs and how to sing them can teach you to approximate other accents too, as a side-effect.
–Dave, and for some reason spending several minutes talking to someone has me shifting towards theirs unconsciously
No, she’s actually really good at it, but she’s still pissed off at Sal for getting into that fight at the rally that got her fired from that job. She’s under the impression that Sal either started it, or didn’t try hard enough to avoid it.
Marcie’s been acting like this for a WHILE, though. She’s got a crush on Malaya and she’s letting that blind her to how much she’s hurting Sal, and since Sal had the temerity to try to seek her out to spend time with her when she was trying to flirt with Malaya, and also to be involved in the thing at the rally, she’s basically just dropping Sal entirely, probably under the assumption that Sal will always be there.
maybe that’s a little harsh, but… seriously, Marcy needs to fucking stop and think about why Hot Girl Who Disses My Oldest Friend For Sport, Believing She Is A Poseur Despite The Very Real Shit She’s Been Through That I Am Well Aware Of is more important than My Oldest Friend, Who Really Wants To Keep Being My Friend, And Sometimes Gets Involved In Shenanigans.
Also, like… She was working for a washington shill who consistently enacted racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist policies. And she’s latinx, a woman, gay, and disabled. I get that money is money, but I don’t feel bad that the hypocrite working security lost her job when her best friend was being STALKED and a dangerous violent criminal was being caught. In these situations, you goddamn support your friends.
Before she was mad at Sal, Marcie tried to get them to get along. Her crush isn’t and wasn’t hurting Sal. Marcie not being willing or able to let Sal monopolize her time was. Sal needed to realize that Marcie has her own shit going on.
Considering how Marcie has not spoken to Sal in over a week and didn’t even acknowledge her the last time they saw each other, they aren’t friends right now. She’s not Sal’s property or her keeper.
Finally, Marcie was never working for Robin. She was working for a security firm which Robin’s campaign hired for that ONE event. Even if she HAD been working for Robin herself, Marcie is broke. She’s sharing an overcrowded loft apartment and working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Not everyone has the luxury of turning down jobs to stand on principle.
And Marcie DID support Sal when Amazi-Girl attacked her. She alerted the other security staff and got between Sal and the crowd to try to prevent things from escalating. She’s pissed about the OTHER fight, because all she saw of that was Sal and AG leaving a pile of beat up interns, and she only got the story her bosses got from Frieda, who blamed the fight on AG and Sal to cover her ass. She doesn’t know what really happened, or she wouldn’t be so angry
And to be fair, she didn’t ask Sal for what happened, she specifically ditched her at their meet up, and sent her an angry text, not asking her “Why did you start a fight?” or “What happened?”
Her friend was being stalked by a masked vigilante and her first response was “this is inconvenient for me,” not “holy shit let’s get you away from her.” We’re not talking about principles, we’re talking about “you chose to abandon Sal when she was being stalked because your job protecting a bunch of racists was more important to you.”
And also, I’m not going to continue to engage you on this when your second sentence is just “no it isn’t” with no further discussion. The comic has shown us exactly how it has hurt Sal.
And Marcie doesn’t abandon Sal, either. After Amazi-Girl stops trying to start a fight and calms down, she leaves, and Sal follows her into the crowd. Marcie simply stays at her post. With all the people crowded around them, she might not even have seen that Sal followed AG. Even if she did, the threat had clearly passed, and she had a job to do, and Sal was the one who left her behind.
Btw, that second sentence from my last comment was immediately followed by further discussion. It’s fine if you disagree with my reading of what was hurting Sal, or don’t think I sufficiently explained why I read it so differently, but I think it’s unfair to suggest that I merely stopped at “no it isn’t” like I’m some petulant child.
Though there are theories she’s been crushing on Sal too. Up until pretty recently she seemed to spend more time with Sal than with Malaya – possibly only because Marcie and Malaya paired up leaving Sal and Carla together.
I hate that “what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her attitude.” Gossiping behind people’s backs is shitty, and it inevitably DOES hurt them. This will come out, and while the comment probably won’t hurt Sal Marcie not being a stand up friend definitely will.
All of what Malaya is saying about Sal is basically exactly what she was saying to Sal’s face before she left, and would still BE saying if she were still here.
I think we can safely assume Sal already knows Malaya thinks of her. All Marcie is doing is not stopping it
I know it’s a bit late to be commenting but I have to say something here. My sister was recently in a situation just like this. She was betrayed by her friend, who it turned out had been making sexual motions behind her back in front of her other friends. When her other friends started trash talking him in front of her about unrelated things, she felt uncomfortable about it but did’nt really feel like defending him. It was a completely understandable thing to do, especially seeing as my sister was raped in the past so expecting her to stand up for someone who was sexually objectifying her like that is’t fair at all. When her ‘friends’ mum found out about her not standing up for him, she cut ties with our family who she had been friends with for years because My sister was supposedly being disloyal. STOP SAYING MARCIE IS WRONG FOR NOT STANDING UP FOR SAL. You have no idea what it’s like to be in that situation.
Even if she never finds out and goes directly unaffected, it affects how others regard and interact with her, and that can be immensely harmful. Gossip is never truly harmless
As far as she knows, Marcie’s anger towards Sal is totally justified.
Stepping in to stop someone she’s got a crush on from being obnoxious towards someone she feels completely betrayed by is a reasonable thing to expect of a saint, not a teenager.
If they aren’t friends NOW, it doesn’t matter that they friends or for how long. It’s sad that it’s happened, but Marcie isn’t obligated to defend the honor of someone she’s cut out of her life
It’s shitty. That’s what’s being commented here. Marcie is being a shitty person. She might have reason to (even though that feels like a stretch to me), but that doesn’t make it any less shitty.
Yes! I understand she is angry with Sal. But so angry that she can tolerate someone talking trash about her friend? I think it can’t be. Maybe we will witness otherwise as the comic proceeds.
Marcie’s treatment of Sal AND Malaya is pretty shit tbh. Like it’s shitty to drop a close friend because you want to get laid and it’s also shitty to strike up a friendship with someone with ulterior romantic/sexual motives and the leering behind her back isn’t particularly classy or respectful. I hope this whole thing backfires on her.
That’s true, but seeing how much of a past they have together, I feel like if that were the case some sort of resolution needs to be reached whether it’s Sal and Marcie arguing and never speaking to each other again, or them resolving it. Malaya doesn’t like Sal, yeah that’s obvious, but it’s too soon for Marcie to be ok with Malaya insulting Sal in front of her for things Marcie knows isn’t true
It’s been a week or so. She may feel like she never wants to speak to Sal again, but it’s way too soon for that. She’s mad at her, but mad isn’t a permanent state.
True as far as it goes. I just don’t think they’ve actually reached a “never speaking to each other again” resolution state. They haven’t skipped the big argument part, they just haven’t gotten to it.
The fact that they haven’t had a proper fight about what happened is a reason why their friendship might still be saved, if someone can get them to talk. It – at most – means Marcie was foolish to never get Sal’s side of the story (not that Sal ever seemed to try to reason with Marcie or change her mind). That is the ENTIRETY of what she has done wrong, and even that seems like it may be motivated by some past history with Salthat has only been hinted at so far
Their past friendship does not obligate her to do ANYTHING on Sal’s behalf if she has decided to cut Sal out of her life, even if she changes that decision later on. No more than familial bonds obligate Amber to respect her father.
The fact that Marcie stands there and does nothing while one of her best friends is getting shit on bothers me deeply. Sal, maybe you should consider hanging out more with Danny. I know she feels guilty about Marcie but I don’t know if she’s worth it.
Yeah, she really isn’t. She makes a snap judgement and then looks for any evidence she’s right. I’m actually expecting Carla to have something to say to her stance on supposed fakers.
The more I think about it, the more Malaya reminds me of Mary. She has her arbitrary standards for others to meet, and relentlessly harasses the inferior trashpeople that don’t.
Nonono, you’ve got it all wrong, see. Mary hates people who aren’t straight Christian. Malaya hates pretty much everyone, but is indiscriminate about it.
Almost right. The way i see it, Mary hates people who aren’t fundamentalist evangelical christians whereas Malaya hates fakeness in all it’s forms, including politeness and other manners.
Malaya ultimately hates everyone whose existence contradicts her Supremacy of Disliking Everything worldview. Fakeness is just her excuse for that, to declare that nobody ACTUALLY likes things, they just pretend to, and she’s better than that because she doesn’t pretend to like things.
I think that’s more correct. She hated Lucy after all and I’m pretty sure Lucy isn’t fake.
It’ll be interesting to see her interact more with Joyce, because I expect Joyce to push all her buttons, but Joyce is also pretty much the opposite of fake.
This is pretty much what I get from her. I genuinely have no idea what Marcie sees in her. Sal is abrasive but there are sides to her other than a superirority complex and hating everything. There does not seem to be any such things to Malaya.
This is only tangentially related to today’s strip, but yesterday I had a dumbing-of-age-related dream! A bunch of unrelated stuff happened first but at one point I like. Stepped inside a future strip? It had something to do with Jason trying to rally the support of his discussion-section* students to help keep his job. It involved him sitting backwards on a chair with his hair ruffled and bow tie untied. Even in-dream it was ridiculous
*idk about real or DA-verse IU but at my university math TAs are mainly in charge of leading ‘discussion’ sections, which are really more “quiz and sometimes practice worksheets” sections.
So… has Marcie just totally written Sal off as a friend now? She seems to really not care about whatever Malaya choses to say about Sal. Which… considering how Sal was supportive of Marcie pursuing Malaya, even though she didn’t like her personally, because she wanted Marcie to be happy. It just seems like poor payback on Marcie’s part. Though, I guess that’s one part of college. A lot of old friendships end and new ones begin.
This is just me speaking personally, but I know that sometimes ending a friendship can feel intensely relieving. Even if they weren’t an outright bad friend — heck, even if they were a very good friend — that’s still a lot of baggage you’re letting yourself set down. And if you’re cutting off your loyal but troubled childhood best friend who has made you her sole emotional support and who is obviously threatened by your efforts to expand your social circle? Well. I wouldn’t be surprised if that feels a lot like finally surfacing after you’ve been drowning for a long, long time.
Put more briefly: It’s easy to feel trapped by people who don’t really want you to change, no matter how much lip service they pay to supporting you. And it’s easy to see whatever straw breaks the camel’s back as a fantastic excuse to cut them off and make your escape.
It’s clear in flashbacks the support went both ways-and Sal handled it badly at first, but was able to wish Marcie the best in her pursuit of a woman who makes it a constant point to hatefully antagonize her, Sal, at literally every opportunity. She’s also never been shown to have any interest in hearing another side to the story of the Rally.
So nah. Marcie comes off sleazy, based on what’s been shown.
Though Sal’s support seemed to be more of a “Oh you want to fuck her. Sure, go ahead. Get it out of your system, so you can get back to the important person in your life: me.”
Because Sal is a checklist of various “cool” things from motorcycle girl, cool indifference, smoking, and so on. Also, Malaya gets treated like crap by Sal anyway so she’s not inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt. Because, at the end of the day, Sal doesn’t want Marcie to have any other friends.
Yeah but no matter how you splice it that’s what it is, Marcies in the friend zone. It’s not that big deal to make a fus about but unless she wants more out this she’s going to haft to take the extra step. Until then this is the status of where we’re at with these two.
Do you really think Sal was the first to be hostile to Malaya? The latter has shown to default to hostility to just about everyone, the former that just isn’t true. And anyway, remembering how Marcie and Malaya know each other-derbies-which Sal attends it doesn’t wash that she doesn’t want her to have other friends.
It’s understandably difficult to be thrilled if your bestie wants to be friends with a heinous bongo, though.
I mean, in the strip, Sal started out with nothing but contempt and annoyance for Malaya. Sure, Malaya’s not exactly being a peach at the moment, but she wasn’t actively being hostile towards anyone either.
Strongly disagree: If I did something illegal for someone else as a favour and they start whining at me for not making it an even bigger illegal favour, I’d count as that as hostile behaviour.
And I mean, even before that, it’s hostile. “Who the hell is that?” is certainly not friendly. And then when Sal explains —without hostility or snark, I might add— who Sal is, Malaya doesn’t even bother saying hello. She just thinks of Carla as “someone who’s taking beer that by rights* belongs to her and immediately pretty much all but declares that she’d rather not have Carla there.
I mean, fair. But I think there’s a difference in whining about not getting an even share and going “man I hate this person” in terms of hostility.
Though I would say pointedly separating Malaya’s name out from everyone would be considered hostile or snarky. At the very least, it points out Sal’s inherent dislike for Malaya from the start.
But Malaya didn’t declare she didn’t want Carla there. She said she didn’t know why she bothered coming, which reads as Malaya saying she wasted her time because at the end of it, she’s only going to get 1 beer when she thought she was going to get 2. Yeah, it’s whiny and petulant, but it’s not “man, why did Carla show up, I hate her” it’s “I only get one beer”.
But the problem is, that strip is -not- “from the start” when it comes to Sal and Malaya; and is thus not an inherent dislike. At this point, they obviously already know each other. At this point, Malaya’s 100% likely to already have behaved in a similar way that she just did to Carla. A person that, unlike Sal, she -did- meet for the first time ever.
And I very specifically said “all but declare” to show that I am aware those were not her actual words; but a really heavy implication; especially when you add her very first words to/about Carla: “Who the hell is that?”
I see this (Sal being possessive), but on the other hand, she seems to have no problem with Marcie having roller derby friends, or having Carla as a friend, or suggesting Carla be one of Marcie’s roller derby friends. Also, what emperor norton and newllend said.
Sal’s more complicated than I originally pegged her to be, we’ve actually seen what she’s really like when she puts on an act back when her parents paid a visit so we’re left to believe that the Sal we usually see is the genuine deal. But as time went on it feels like there was still more to her than she let on and more to her than she didn’t even knew about herself.
In story line time it’s only been what like a month and a half ? That means Malaya and Carla has known her for less so than that so I’m not surprised they haven’t learned all of her secrets yet let alone Malaya since her and Sal haven’t spent enough time playing nice to know anything about each other.
I really hope Marcie and Malaya’s date turns out better than the latter’s with Leslie. I really liked those two together, certainly more so than Robin and Leslie. Yes, even SP! Robin.
Malaya doesn’t know anything about a date and Marcie’s so straight with her about everything, she would have just said if she was interested in a date, right?
I was questioning what date Marcie & Malaya were going on, since Marcie hasn’t said anything to Malaya about being interested.
And while she did say that after the date with SP!Leslie, she also ended up with Ultra Car, which suggests that whatever Malaya’s sexuality is, it doesn’t exclude women.
My thoughts on this thread…
1) Malaya please learn how accents work.
2) Marcie is currently being more of an asshole than Malaya simply because she is supposedly friends with Sal.
3) I like Malaya less basically every time she opens her mouth.
4) Carla please call Malaya on her shit.
What’s in it for Carla to call Malaya on her shit? Memory suggests that Carla is here because she enjoys Malaya. The iguana’s just not that much of an attraction.
Marcie is so angry with Sal that they are no longer even on speaking terms. She didn’t even acknowledge Sal the last time they saw each other. Even if she’ll eventually stop being mad, it’s clear that at least right now, Marcie does not consider Sal a friend anymore.
Second, the person doing the crappy thing is always the one being the bigger asshole. It takes some screwy logic to think Marcie is worse simply because she let it happen.
Like, if Marcie still wanted to be friends with Sal, it would make her a crappy friend, but even then, Malaya would be the bigger asshole.
Everyone’s had a crush on someone solely for their looks before. Nothing wrong about that. Just usually doesn’t end well.
That being said, since Marcie is a side character it’s kind of hard to judge her intentions with Malaya. At least for me.
This is my first time trying to quote html, so I have no idea I’d I did this right. But Marcie’s intentions seem pretty clear toward Malaya, if that’s what you meant
Nah, I think she actually likes Malaya, though her crush may have her blind to some of her faults. They have fun doing stuff together, like skating – that Sal’s too cool to do.
Sal’s not too cool to skate.
She skated for Carla when she had insomnia.
She doesn’t skate when they’re hanging out, though that’s probably because she has a freaking motorcycle (I get the gist that Marci hangs onto the back of the bike in a truncated Marty McFly style, but that’s just an assumption).
What Sal definitely does not do is roller derby.
But I figured she doesn’t do that because she fears she’ll go overboard with the violence.
That was a reference to a specific strip I linked elsewhere. She skated to show off for Carla when challenged on it. I don’t think she has throughout the rest of the comic, preferring to sneer from the wall, even when Marcie’s shown having fun skating outside of roller derby. Even when the bike’s nowhere in evidence.
Marcie likes to do shit.
I am however amused by the idea that Sal’s worried she’d be too violent for roller derby.
Not necessarily too violent, but would take it too personal, leading to violence off the rink. Like she wouldn’t be able to leave it as that’s just how the game is played.
But it’s just a guess on my part. Otherwise, since she can skate, wants to spend time with Marcie, and has drunkenly complained that she wants to fight, I have no idea why she doesn’t join in.
It just occured to me that Marcie is doing something that men are often accused of doing by women. They are friendly and seem like friends but then it turns out they wanted to have sex with the woman. The woman feels betrayed because she thought they were friends and instead she feels like she was just a chick to score for the man.
The problem women are complaining about is specifically that those men upset when the woman turns them down when they finally make a move, or sometimes just for not falling madly in love with them, even though they never express interest in being more than friends. Malaya is actually nice to Marcie, so we really don’t have much reason did think she wouldn’t still want to hang out as friends if Malaya isn’t interested in more.
Of course it is all true, I was just referring to one aspect of this issue. The “I thought you were interested in me as a friend and not just a chick”. The issue here is that… well initially Marcie was attracted to Malaya sexually but approached her from the Friend front. When Malaya finds out about it her opinion of Marcie will be ruined because “Upfront and no ulterior motives” aspect will go to the trash can.
This. Marcie sure seems to be acting like a “nice guy” to Malaya: hanging out and acting like a friend for friendship’s sake when really what they’re hoping for is that the object of their lust will reward their friendship with sex.
I’ve liked Marcie up until now, but this strip earns her a side eye from me.
Yeah, but even if I’m mad at a friend (and I might be really bad at it, but now and then, I am), I would still not like it when people talk shit about them behind their back.
I feel like that would mean she really doesn’t want to be friends anymore, ad she has dropped Sal completely.
Or maybe I’m just a way softer person. Dunno.
You know I think this is actually the first nice thing I have ever seen Malaya say about anybody. Granted, it’s completely wrong, but I suppose that just underscores how hilariously bad Malaya is at analysis.
I think Malaya has no inherent ability to see herself in a relationship.
Beyond that, I feel that Malaya sees Marcie as a conveniently silent fan that follows her around, and that’s about it. Whatever Marcie might feel for Malaya couldn’t matter less to Malaya. That or it’ll make Malaya turn on her, not because she might be against homosexuality, but because she’s probably convinced something like love is as fake as Sal.
I think Malaya could see herself in a relationship (to a certain extent, having a boyfriend or a fuckbuddy or whatever) but probably not with Marcie, she tried in Shortpacked to explore her sexuality and come up with liking ladies and couldn’t, and hasn’t willis said the sexualities are the same across universes?
It’s not clear how SP!Malaya’s sexuality would translate over into the more realistic DoA, where there aren’t homoromantic transchassis robotic ladies for her. UltraCar was female when they were dating (as opposed to apparently ungendered as a car), so liking ladies isn’t ruled out.
Not that that means she’s into Marcie, but I don’t think we can rule it out on those grounds.
Well, before SP!Malaya was into UltraCar, there was Leslie. Malaya wanted to do some lesbian experimentation with Lesline and then realized that nope, she wasn’t into it. So if sexuality carries over, that will mean that 1) Malaya isn’t a lesbian, but 2) she might need to experiment a bit before realizing it.
In Shortpacked!, Malaya wasn’t into Leslie. Her, specifically.
UltraCar was a woman, with whom she had a lengthy relationship, which included sex, and which Malaya was extremely into. She wasn’t straight.
As I said, it’s not clear how Malaya’s orientation carries over. I quote:
Ultra Car: “Homoromantic transchassis asexual woman.”
Malaya: “And I wanna fuck whatever that means.”
She may not be a lesbian, but there was at least one woman she was attracted to.
Actually, I’m more worried about Malaya in that particular area. I’m pretty sure that Malaya wants more than sex but I’m not sure Marcie has any feelings except the physical for her.
I expect that everyone’s gonna have a bad day here when Malaya finds out that Marcie’s full of shit and totally has an ulterior motive and feels betrayed.
Whereas I don’t see any indication Malaya wants sex from Marcie at all. She seems to like hanging out with her – as much as she’ll admit to liking anything.
I also suspect that if Marcie’s interest was purely physical she’d have either made a move or given up by now. Might have started out that way, of course.
You know what would be cool ? Becky just calls out Marcie on bull shit and is like, ” I’ve been where you’ve been at, if you don’t stop pussyfooting around this is just going to get more awkward for you in time.”
As bad as this might sound, I can definitely see where Malaya is coming from.
While I was a freshman in college, there was this guy who, no matter what he said, always sounded like he was forcing it to sound natural and funny.
I chalked it up to just him maybe having English as a second language and didn’t think much about it.
Over the years I kept running into him every so often, and every time I heard him, he had that same tone.
Like he was forcing a personality to make people around him think he was funnier.
It was just so.. Off-putting.
The thing is, I remember hanging out late at night once at an event a club had hosted. They had brought a console and it was ~2:00 in the morning. He, Two other guys and I were all playing and this guy was getting frustrated.
The more we played, the more I noticed he wasn’t “forcing” his speech.
He was being a bit of an ass, but okay-ish.
The next day, I saw him again, and he was right back to that same “forced” speech.
I don’t know WHY it bothered me so much, but it kept sticking in my head.
Just the concept of someone masking pretty much their entire personality irritated me.
As for my thoughts on Malaya, she has too high standards for what she’d term “genuine”.
Sal just likes her own aestetic. It’s for no one but herself.
Someone in my high school spoke in a fake british accent for multiple years, to get attention. Once a substitute asked her about it and it was kind of great.
“Oh, so you’re from England?”
“No, I’m Canadian.”
“So you spend a lot of time there?”
“I haven’t been yet
“But your parents are british?”
“No…”
She dropped it in grade eleven or twelve.
Re: Malaya’s standards for being genuine, I think she’s one of those people that uses ‘I’m just being honest’ to be rude- not necessarily that phrasing, but like, she’s using that justification in her head.
People put up a front for a lot of reasons. Many people do it to protect themselves. I mean, people can still complain about that, but that will only achieve that person to avoid them and put up more defenses.
My accent wanders around a bit, but it’s always parts of the country where I’ve lived.
The thing about seeming fake is that many of us are in one closet or another and our outward shell is artificial. I simulate many social interaction traits.
“But we’ve all got an image that we want to portray / and drag is something each of us does every single daaay…” – Romanovsky & Phillips, My Mother’s Clothes
–Dave, honestly, some of their work speaks to this strip in interesting ways
I wonder how Malaya would react if she learned about the fact Sal robbed a store (or was it 2?). Probably with more contempt.
I think of the regular cast, I think Malaya is the one I hate the most. I know that Mary is objectively the more terrible person (100% bigot, beaten only by Ryan, Blaine, and Toedad in sheer awfulness), but Malaya’s such a an obnoxious, negative little shit that I cannot stand her.
Malaya is every wannabe-cool edgelord who picks fights and shits on authority for shits and giggles regardless of consequences and good taste. To be completely fair, she is just plain Stupid in how she approaches the world.
Yes, Marcie has no ulterior motive; she wants Malaya’s body and I’m really not sure if she cares about the stuff coming out of her mouth.
Here’s a prediction: In time (probably a short time), Malaya may be more hated than Mary. This will be ironic because Sal is ultimately being benefited by no longer to sulk in her room in isolation.
OK, so here’s my subjective* opinion on why Malaya constantly tries to paint Sal as fake.
It’s because Sal has the reputation that Malaya wishes she had. Malaya wishes to be known and admired for being cool and aloof and not caring. Malaya wants to be known as the kick-ass girl that doesn’t take shit from anybody. Because that’s what Malaya is, in her own head.
Unfortunately, she’s rather bad at conveying this image to other people, to say the least. Her image of being the kick-ass girl not taking shit was rather shattered by her encounter with AmaziGirl, for one thing. AG made short work of her not just once, but twice. And her first encounter with Carla, she completely failed to come across as cool and aloof; and instead completely succeeded in coming across as hostile and whiny.
And the reason many of us tolerated and some even applauded her hostility a few weeks back is because she was doing it to someone that -we- know deserves it. Or as I said back then: She was being a face by default because she was targeting a bigger heel.
But the reality is, Malaya cares too much about appearing to not care; to be able to truly not care about what other people think. And as long as she remains like that, she’ll— I was about to say she’ll be her own biggest enemy, but I reckon she’ll probably turn some of the people she meets into even bigger ones.
*Haha, I’m just kidding, I’m the emperor, so all my opinions are objective truths.
I love it when people use wrestling terminology in regular conversation. Glory to the Emperor of the United States. May their reign be long and prosperous.
You know, I have a question – if you and Norton I are/were Emperor for two entirely-different entities, how could you claim him to be your predecessor?
Given that I adopted his name and took up the mantle as a direct consequence of learning about him, I think it’s fair to say that at the very least, he’s my spiritual successor.
Nope, there is no evidence that Malaya realizes that Marcie’s into her and whenever we saw those two together, Marcie was kind of sliding nearer, not being upfront about it.
So we know Malaya is wrong with her perception of people in two cases.
I don’t really get what’s going on with Marcie, though. Has she been in love with Sal for ages and that was her fundament for their friendship and now she’s in love with someone else, she will repeat the same thing with Malaya and she no longer has a basis with Sal?
I don’t think she’s in love with Sal. They’re just childhood friends, with a lot of shared history.
She’s got a bad crush on Marcie and she’s really pissed at Sal for coming to her job and getting in a fight that apparently got her fired, which given her precarious economic status and the potential for that security gig to lead to better work is pretty serious.
I think she’s also been a bit frustrated with Sal over all for being clingy, even before the blow up.
Let me clarify. I know that Marcie lost her job because someone somehow blamed her because she obviously knew Sal and that was the point at which she broke off talking to Sal.
But the way she acts is not like she’s pissed off, she acts like Sal’s not a person to her any more. And so I wonder.
Sal didn’t get Marcie’s “I’d hit that” when Marcie first mentioned it. In the big confrontation when Marcie was pissed off with her because Sal started a fight with Malaya, they talked out of earshot and the dialogue was something like “what do you want from her you can’t have with me?” “Oh, that, no, you can’t do that with me. ”
To me, that sounds like this was a long standing fact.
And weeks later, Marcie is still oggeling Malaya’s butt without ever having made her interest clear to Malaya.
And she stopped even recognizing Sal’s existence.
And I wonder what’s happening within her.
She is fully aware of Sal’s existence. She’s just completely ignoring it even when Sal is in the same room. She only started doing that when Sal got her fired, while Marcie hanging out with and lusting after / crushing on Malaya started well before that happened.
C’mon Marcie, you know Sal, you know why she puts up a front. And no, I wouldn’t tell that Malaya either, she’s kind of a jerk, but tell her to not be an ass would be a start.
I was raised in the South by Northern parents and my accent or lack thereof seems to be all over the place. Some days it’s a bit Southern, some days it’s a bit Northern, some days it’s basically nothing. I think mostly it changes based on who I’m around. I seem to absorb/reflect whichever style is closest to the people around me. If they have a completely different accent, like Midwestern, then my speech seems to come out neutral/in-between.
Marcie and Sal’s friendship concerns me.
Sal has been insensitive to Marcie’s job and her friends: she’s been continually trying to push Marcie away from any relationships besides her, and kinda mocked Marcie for trying to become a cop.
Sal is dependent on Marcie, perhaps because she simply hates almost all people and Marcie is an exception to that, or, perhaps, because the two of them have been together for so long that Sal is able to feel secure that Marcie will never abandon her. Either way, the only reason any of this is an issue for Sal is that Marcie branching out on her own threatens Sal’s hold on her. I don’t feel like Sal is doing this intentionally, I think she’s just scared, but I’m pretty sure it’d be far healthier for each of them to spend time with other people right now; and Marcie seems to be aware of that.
Okay.
Why does Malaya think Sal is fake?
She compares her to Marcie, who she describes as “straight with me”.
And her facial expressions and body language imply a genuine tone so she isn’t just shit-talking.
So, Malaya seems to think that Sal is putting up a front toward Malaya.
Yet, Sal has always been pretty upfront about her contempt for Malaya. Saying stuff like how she needs to be drunk to deal with her even at the beginning.
So where does Malaya think Sal is posing?
Or is Malaya just Holden Caulfield and finds anyone with an interest in something more complex than middle school locker room talk to be a phony?
This would be easier to judge if we got to see Marcie and Malaya interacting more.
…oh god. Now that I’ve made a connection between Holden and Malaya I somehow hate the both of them even more.
I think, if I read today’s strip right, Malaya thinks that Sal is a fake with everyone. She’s alleging that Sal pretends to be someone and something she’s not just to appear ‘cool’.
Also, c’mon, that was WEAK. Sal’s accent’s stuck around plenty when she’s mad. I’d say Jason could tell you but it stuck around just the last time she snapped at you. You can do better than that.
Have to wonder how much of this Malaya’s projection. Me thinks she’s a privileged brat who acts like she’s from the street, but grew up in an upper class suburb.
I assume since the accent was picked up later because she was sent to a school in the South, it might fluctuate especially when she’s emotional.
Now I actually have the opposite problem – I tend to tone down my accent in professional settings, but if I’m upset I start talking how I did as a kid / around my family.
…Now what I wanna know is, why would someone fake a SOUTHERN accent, Malaya? It seems like such a not cool accent to fake.
And the sad thing is like. It’s not like Sal started a fight for shits and giggles. She was trying to help catch a Literal Rapist. Not that Marcie knows that, anyway. And even then, the proper thing to do in that situation would probably have been to actually….GO TO security about it, i.e. Marcie or somebody else, instead of trying to take things into her own hands. But Amazi-Girl complicated things further and Sal inherently distrusts the capability of literally any kind of authority to do anything at all, honestly not that irrationally in my opinion. I bet quite a lot that absolutely nothing would have been done about Ryan in order to keep things quiet.
So personally I think like this fight they’re having has to do with the thing Sal did, sure. But I think it’s also a longstanding conflict the two of them have had about their beliefs and views of authority figures and the law coming to a head.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
Hot Toys Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 1/6 Scale Darth Vader Deluxe ($495) & Standard ($315) is up for preorder at Sideshow - shrsl.com/4wcx6 #ad
If you preorder make sure to hit the Exclusive versions since they include a commemorative plaque and cost the same.
btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 2d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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Sal: “Ah picked up this heah accent down South, an’ it’s real heavy, so o’ course ah’m gonna drop it on occasion.”
Marcie: *signs* “Just POSterior motives”
hahaha YES
Nice.
You have some of the best comments.
If they awarded prizes, hers would be first.
Target acquired.
you rang
X-rated vision.
Meanwhile I’m wondering how long it’ll take before somebody decides to recolor those sight lines red so that Marcie has Death Beam Eyes >.>
haha “straight”
yeah. XD
That was basically my reaction.
Marcie straight out wants the V!
More like “The ‘B'”.
Gimmee dat bootay
Dat dat dat bootay
That is weird that her accent would disappear, does that mean it actually is fake?
All accents are fake. In moments of stress, everyone talks like the characters in Fargo. Yah.
Eh, not really. It’s like when people who stutter can completely stop stuttering when sufficiently pissed off.
And then: seek shelter!
I occasionally go mute during anxiety attacks. If suffiently pissed, I’ve been known to go from unable to intentionally make noise or even move my hands to yelling at the top of my lungs.
Could just be regressing to a more childhood mode of speech during times of emotional stress?
…. maybe?
…. I dunno, is that a thing in psychology?
There’s a thing called “code switching where people with one or more languages (or one or more dialects) use different languages on different occasions. Dunno if anger, specifically, is a thing that triggers code switching, though.
I’d say so. I find I’m a lot more lucid and eloquent when I get mad.
To the best of my knowledge, it is for many people.
Which implies that Malaya may be utterly and completely wrong. I like this.
Usually, when angry, most people fall into specific types of dialect or variants with, le’s say, less social respect or acceptance (as in, dialect is often not as highly regarded as e.g. RP-pronunciation), so I find it fascinating that Sal falls out of it. Might be due to her mother ingraining ‘good’ speech patterns into her (because many people fall – when agitated – into dialect due to them having known their dialects since growing up, and actually taking some effort to speak in highly-regarded pronunciation patterns). Maybe also because Malaya is specifically criticising her demeanor as fake, so she unintentionally drops the accent, because that’s a part of being criticised. Probably both.
Anyway, fascinating from a linguistic point of view, as well as a social one nonetheless.
I should have just continued reading to see all the other comments on acquired accents and examples.
Actually, I find that’s pretty common with accents.
I was born and raised in the midwest, but then went to college and spent much of my early professional career in New York (state, not city). While I was there, I picked up an upstate New York accent. Then I moved back to the midwest. For a while, I still talked with a New York accent, but sometimes my old midwest accent would come back. Now the New York has mostly faded. This likely means that, now that she’s back in her home state, Sal’s accent is starting to fade.
It’s not her natural accent. If I remember correctly, she was sent away from home when she and Walky were young; Walky’s accent is her ‘natural’ accent, but the southern accent was picked up at a young enough age that it’s normal for her. She’s kinda like a bilingual kid who was raised speaking language B but slips into language A whenever she gets mad enough.
It’s not fake, if I remember correctly, but she picked it up when she went to boarding school down south, and I think she’s only just recently back from there. People subconsciously pick up accents when they live in different regions/countries, but that doesn’t make the accent fake, even if it drops off sometimes.
I had a friend I was stationed with in UK. She was from Georgia, but spent a few years in Del Rio, TX. She sounded Texan, but when she talked to her mom on the phone: “Git that Texas outta yer voice!” I knew when she had spoken to her mom, because she was all Georgia, until it faded back to Texan.
I unknowingly started sounding like my ex-husband, until about 6 months after we split. He had a soft Texas accent, and I’m from So Cal. People thought I was from here.
I’m British and have spent most of my life in the UK. However, I lived in California for two years (went just after turning 6 and left I think the week before my 8th birthday). When sufficiently tired I have referred to sidewalks (despite having spent most of my life walking on pavements instead). Language is an interesting beastie.
https://anthologypoems.wikispaces.com/Search+for+my+Tongue
I moved a lot as a kid, my dad was in the air force, and 1.5 year and 3 year postings are the norm. It got to the point that I could pick up the new accent within 6 months after moving.
Beyond what everyone else is saying, the southern accent is a slow, polite way of speaking. You can be angry in southern, but it ain’t easy. Yelling in midwestern is probably just easier for Sal.
Acquired accents have a tendency to do that.
She doesn’t know Sal’s history, she spent enough time down south to pick up the accent as natural but not enough time for it to permaneltly take over her way of thinking.
Malaya is just looking for something to complain about, and Marcy isn’t able to set her right for obvious reasons(take your pick)…so of course they are going to run with her being a fake until they justifiably get their asses kicked by her.
All accents change depending on emotional state and tone. And yeah, acquired accents are more likely to go away. Plenty of brits who’ve been in to the states a long time will drop back into their original accent when they’re pissed.
Hell, my accent gets thicker when I’m angry.
Other people have already chimed in with “yes that’s normal,” but just as another anecdote, I know a girl who moved from Ireland to the States when she was 8 or so and she does the same thing. American accent most of the time, but the Irish comes back when she’s angry or drunk enough.
Sort of related anecdote: I stayed in South Carolina for one week ten years ago, and I still say y’all…frequently.
That sounds more like you picked it up as something you like the sound of and so just keep using it for fun. Sort of like how I’m inordinately fond of the phrase “you want I should” in large part because it’s terrible english – I just find it amusing to say.
ha, yeah, my english accent leaks through if I’m either drunk, or talking to someone with any sort of European accent. I miss it.
Heres a weird one, I was born in the USA and lived the majority of my life in California, but when I am around anyone with a Gaelic accent for 10 minutes, I pick it up. If I get drunk, same thing. I’ve done this most of my life, but I’ve never been in Ireland and only spent a couple of weeks in Scotland. No one in my family speaks with that accent, and I don’t pick up any other accents for the most part. Go figure.
Sounds like a past life is leaking into this one.
And me! I moved out of London when I was six and for the next three or four years, I was a perfectly well-spoken Midlands kid…until suddenly I would revert to an angry Cockney child. Childhood accents are hard to shift.
Nowadays I live between UK and Ireland so my accent slides around depending on where I’ve been recently.
Sal has fake bits about her like any normal teenager but her accent ain’t one of em.
Adding to the clamour, I have a phantom English accent from 2 years in England. Sometimes people can hear it, to the extent fellow countrymen think I’m foreign. But not always. I’ve never had feedback on an emotional effect tho, personally.
Ooh, my cousin spent a year in England when she was a kid and came back with a bit of an English accent. She was young enough that it went away pretty quickly, but idk if it returned when she went back in college.
My speech develops a Scottish tinge whenever I give a rehearsed speech as trying to speak normally dries my mouth out on those occasions.
I’ve been enunciating (in “news anchor English”) for years, but when I’m angry and yelling, my weird repressed Rhode Island / Southie mix breaks through.
Maybe, maybe not. My accent appears when I get tired; I generally talk “normally” but when my mouth gets lazy I pick up a drawl that could have walked straight out of a TV Western. And since I don’t recall having it when I lived it the Southwest that may just be where I picked it up, as some sort of psychological thing after transplanting.
People just naturally enunciate when they get mad. That levels out, or at least dilutes, most accents.
I’ve learned 4 separate accents in my life because I was bullied when I transitioned to various different schools (in Scotland and London) for sounding different. I now have a weird hybrid accent that makes me sound like a farmer and changes a lot. But at least I’m an adult now so I don’t get made fun of.
Long story short, if you’ve lived in different places you’re likely to slip into different accents depending on where you are, who you’re with and how you feel. That’s no faker than raising your voice because you’re angry or not swearing in front of your parents.
Not at all fake, my family is from the south but moved up north, and if I get tired/drunk/angry then my accent slips out. It’s a reverse accent. Malaya is just being snobby/thinks-she-knows-everything-doesnt-actually-know-anything.
I currently have some Suth’n draaawl from living in Knoxville for a quarter-century – but I was raised in Cleveland OH, and can go back to Standard Midwestern Newscaster vowels if I think about it.
Accents are almost entirely built out of vowel changes; learning about diphthongs and how to sing them can teach you to approximate other accents too, as a side-effect.
–Dave, and for some reason spending several minutes talking to someone has me shifting towards theirs unconsciously
Under stress, sometimes my southern accent comes back.
And if I’m talking to family still there.
I find Sal- Plausible.
(And Malaya- annoying.)
A very curve-obsessed sort of straight.
She has her eyes on the prize.
It’s been a bit since Willis drew a Malaya butt shot in the strip. This is just Marcie reminding us that other, cartoon, people see it.
Marcy kinda sucks at this friend thing, doesn’t she.
“Why yes, talk nonstop shit about my friend, girl with hot butt”.
Sal probably is better off hanging out with Danny, they have a pretty good time of things.
Yeah, but Sal needs time to ease in to the high levels of dorkitude.
She might be letting it pass because she’s still pissed at sal for the incident at the Rally.
That said, She’s being REALLY stupid to miss the massive Red Flag Malaya is waving around…
No, she’s actually really good at it, but she’s still pissed off at Sal for getting into that fight at the rally that got her fired from that job. She’s under the impression that Sal either started it, or didn’t try hard enough to avoid it.
Marcie’s been acting like this for a WHILE, though. She’s got a crush on Malaya and she’s letting that blind her to how much she’s hurting Sal, and since Sal had the temerity to try to seek her out to spend time with her when she was trying to flirt with Malaya, and also to be involved in the thing at the rally, she’s basically just dropping Sal entirely, probably under the assumption that Sal will always be there.
maybe that’s a little harsh, but… seriously, Marcy needs to fucking stop and think about why Hot Girl Who Disses My Oldest Friend For Sport, Believing She Is A Poseur Despite The Very Real Shit She’s Been Through That I Am Well Aware Of is more important than My Oldest Friend, Who Really Wants To Keep Being My Friend, And Sometimes Gets Involved In Shenanigans.
Also, like… She was working for a washington shill who consistently enacted racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist policies. And she’s latinx, a woman, gay, and disabled. I get that money is money, but I don’t feel bad that the hypocrite working security lost her job when her best friend was being STALKED and a dangerous violent criminal was being caught. In these situations, you goddamn support your friends.
Before she was mad at Sal, Marcie tried to get them to get along. Her crush isn’t and wasn’t hurting Sal. Marcie not being willing or able to let Sal monopolize her time was. Sal needed to realize that Marcie has her own shit going on.
Considering how Marcie has not spoken to Sal in over a week and didn’t even acknowledge her the last time they saw each other, they aren’t friends right now. She’s not Sal’s property or her keeper.
Finally, Marcie was never working for Robin. She was working for a security firm which Robin’s campaign hired for that ONE event. Even if she HAD been working for Robin herself, Marcie is broke. She’s sharing an overcrowded loft apartment and working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Not everyone has the luxury of turning down jobs to stand on principle.
And Marcie DID support Sal when Amazi-Girl attacked her. She alerted the other security staff and got between Sal and the crowd to try to prevent things from escalating. She’s pissed about the OTHER fight, because all she saw of that was Sal and AG leaving a pile of beat up interns, and she only got the story her bosses got from Frieda, who blamed the fight on AG and Sal to cover her ass. She doesn’t know what really happened, or she wouldn’t be so angry
And to be fair, she didn’t ask Sal for what happened, she specifically ditched her at their meet up, and sent her an angry text, not asking her “Why did you start a fight?” or “What happened?”
Her friend was being stalked by a masked vigilante and her first response was “this is inconvenient for me,” not “holy shit let’s get you away from her.” We’re not talking about principles, we’re talking about “you chose to abandon Sal when she was being stalked because your job protecting a bunch of racists was more important to you.”
And also, I’m not going to continue to engage you on this when your second sentence is just “no it isn’t” with no further discussion. The comic has shown us exactly how it has hurt Sal.
What you are describing did not happen. Marcie’s first response upon learning that Amazi-Girl was at the rally was to put herself between her and Sal:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/beef/
And Marcie doesn’t abandon Sal, either. After Amazi-Girl stops trying to start a fight and calms down, she leaves, and Sal follows her into the crowd. Marcie simply stays at her post. With all the people crowded around them, she might not even have seen that Sal followed AG. Even if she did, the threat had clearly passed, and she had a job to do, and Sal was the one who left her behind.
Btw, that second sentence from my last comment was immediately followed by further discussion. It’s fine if you disagree with my reading of what was hurting Sal, or don’t think I sufficiently explained why I read it so differently, but I think it’s unfair to suggest that I merely stopped at “no it isn’t” like I’m some petulant child.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/terms-2/
Oh Malaya, you’re the worst. Being genuinely an asshole still makes you an asshole.
Anyone else think it sucks that Malaya is openly trash talking Sal this much and Marcie (butt appreciation aside) isn’t doing ANYTHING about it?
*raises hand*
It totally does.
I’d pay money for Carla to call them BOTH out on their shit tomorrow.
Come to think of it, Carla vs Malaya could be a good case study for being blunt vs being an asshole.
I’m pretty sure Carla is crushing (platonically or otherwise) on Malaya just as hard as Marcie, and she has less stake in defending Sal, so idk.
Though there are theories she’s been crushing on Sal too. Up until pretty recently she seemed to spend more time with Sal than with Malaya – possibly only because Marcie and Malaya paired up leaving Sal and Carla together.
Yuuuup. Even if Marcie is currently mad at Sal, this is still a sucky thing to do.
It’s not hurting Sal any.
It will when she finds out, and this kinda thing always comes out in the end.
I hate that “what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her attitude.” Gossiping behind people’s backs is shitty, and it inevitably DOES hurt them. This will come out, and while the comment probably won’t hurt Sal Marcie not being a stand up friend definitely will.
All of what Malaya is saying about Sal is basically exactly what she was saying to Sal’s face before she left, and would still BE saying if she were still here.
I think we can safely assume Sal already knows Malaya thinks of her. All Marcie is doing is not stopping it
I know it’s a bit late to be commenting but I have to say something here. My sister was recently in a situation just like this. She was betrayed by her friend, who it turned out had been making sexual motions behind her back in front of her other friends. When her other friends started trash talking him in front of her about unrelated things, she felt uncomfortable about it but did’nt really feel like defending him. It was a completely understandable thing to do, especially seeing as my sister was raped in the past so expecting her to stand up for someone who was sexually objectifying her like that is’t fair at all. When her ‘friends’ mum found out about her not standing up for him, she cut ties with our family who she had been friends with for years because My sister was supposedly being disloyal. STOP SAYING MARCIE IS WRONG FOR NOT STANDING UP FOR SAL. You have no idea what it’s like to be in that situation.
But we know what the situation is for Marcie, and the circumstances are completely different from what you described.
Even if she never finds out and goes directly unaffected, it affects how others regard and interact with her, and that can be immensely harmful. Gossip is never truly harmless
As far as she knows, Marcie’s anger towards Sal is totally justified.
Stepping in to stop someone she’s got a crush on from being obnoxious towards someone she feels completely betrayed by is a reasonable thing to expect of a saint, not a teenager.
It’s not like they we’re friends for years, right? Hot butts are more important.
Those two things are completely unrelated.
If they aren’t friends NOW, it doesn’t matter that they friends or for how long. It’s sad that it’s happened, but Marcie isn’t obligated to defend the honor of someone she’s cut out of her life
It’s shitty. That’s what’s being commented here. Marcie is being a shitty person. She might have reason to (even though that feels like a stretch to me), but that doesn’t make it any less shitty.
Yep.
Yes! I understand she is angry with Sal. But so angry that she can tolerate someone talking trash about her friend? I think it can’t be. Maybe we will witness otherwise as the comic proceeds.
mm-hmm.
Marcie’s treatment of Sal AND Malaya is pretty shit tbh. Like it’s shitty to drop a close friend because you want to get laid and it’s also shitty to strike up a friendship with someone with ulterior romantic/sexual motives and the leering behind her back isn’t particularly classy or respectful. I hope this whole thing backfires on her.
Yes, I think so, too.
*plays The Bee Gees’ “Fanny (Be Tender)” on the hacked Muzak*
Funny, considering the Bee Gees are British.
I feel like Trailbreaker’s Forcefield Face would work for panel 5.
For the uninitiated
Thanx.
On a totally unrelated note, my wife worries about all the Transformers minutiae I’ve picked up lately.
I have little doubt that Mal knows what Marcie wants. The thing is, the pursuit can be fun.
Marcie told her outright.
Did she. If she did, I feel like she’d misunderstand what she said somehow.
No, she hasn’t. Unless it happened off-panel (doubtful), Marcie hasn’t even been able to determine if Malaya even likes girls yet
She has absolutely no idea and will most likely react horribly to it.
Is “Mal” short for Malaya, or typo for Sal?
Marcie told Sal outright.
Wow even if I was mad at them, I’d have a hard time stomaching someone blatantly insulting my best friends in front of me.
Agreed. The poontang could not POSSIBLY be worth being with someone who hates my best friend that much.
Bingo, that rates a smackdown.
If she’s mad enough, Marcie may not consider Sal much of a friend anymore.
That’s true, but seeing how much of a past they have together, I feel like if that were the case some sort of resolution needs to be reached whether it’s Sal and Marcie arguing and never speaking to each other again, or them resolving it. Malaya doesn’t like Sal, yeah that’s obvious, but it’s too soon for Marcie to be ok with Malaya insulting Sal in front of her for things Marcie knows isn’t true
It’s been over a week since Marcie has spoken to Sal:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/waitin/
She’s already gone down the “never speaking to each other again” route. It’s just that she was so mad, she skipped the argument part.
It’s been a week or so. She may feel like she never wants to speak to Sal again, but it’s way too soon for that. She’s mad at her, but mad isn’t a permanent state.
So? Even if it is not permanent, it’s the state she is in. The state she *might* me in tomorrow isn’t relevant
True as far as it goes. I just don’t think they’ve actually reached a “never speaking to each other again” resolution state. They haven’t skipped the big argument part, they just haven’t gotten to it.
The fact that they haven’t had a proper fight about what happened is a reason why their friendship might still be saved, if someone can get them to talk. It – at most – means Marcie was foolish to never get Sal’s side of the story (not that Sal ever seemed to try to reason with Marcie or change her mind). That is the ENTIRETY of what she has done wrong, and even that seems like it may be motivated by some past history with Salthat has only been hinted at so far
Their past friendship does not obligate her to do ANYTHING on Sal’s behalf if she has decided to cut Sal out of her life, even if she changes that decision later on. No more than familial bonds obligate Amber to respect her father.
…Can we have Faz back?
No.
I think I much prefer Faz to Malaya
Faz hasn’t gotten the better of Mary yet.
Just wait. He’ll pop up as soon as you don’t want him around.
The fact that Marcie stands there and does nothing while one of her best friends is getting shit on bothers me deeply. Sal, maybe you should consider hanging out more with Danny. I know she feels guilty about Marcie but I don’t know if she’s worth it.
Is Marcie deaf or mute? Also have we confirmed that she can read lips?
Marcie is mute, not deaf.
She isn’t deaf; she just lost her ability to speak in some as-yet-undescribed incident.
welp i regret being late to this particular one
Malaya’s not a great judge of character.
Yeah, she really isn’t. She makes a snap judgement and then looks for any evidence she’s right. I’m actually expecting Carla to have something to say to her stance on supposed fakers.
Malaya is not great.
She’s cartoonish levels of awful.
I was expecting the Alt Text to say, “Dat ass, tho”.
It’s in the subtext.
Marcie has caught butts disease.
Hmmmm Sal’s “Fakeness” vs Mayala’s Abrasive Nature.
Which one is worse?
I am leaning toward Mayala myself.
The more I think about it, the more Malaya reminds me of Mary. She has her arbitrary standards for others to meet, and relentlessly harasses the inferior trashpeople that don’t.
Nonono, you’ve got it all wrong, see. Mary hates people who aren’t straight Christian. Malaya hates pretty much everyone, but is indiscriminate about it.
Almost right. The way i see it, Mary hates people who aren’t fundamentalist evangelical christians whereas Malaya hates fakeness in all it’s forms, including politeness and other manners.
Malaya ultimately hates everyone whose existence contradicts her Supremacy of Disliking Everything worldview. Fakeness is just her excuse for that, to declare that nobody ACTUALLY likes things, they just pretend to, and she’s better than that because she doesn’t pretend to like things.
I think that’s more correct. She hated Lucy after all and I’m pretty sure Lucy isn’t fake.
It’ll be interesting to see her interact more with Joyce, because I expect Joyce to push all her buttons, but Joyce is also pretty much the opposite of fake.
This is pretty much what I get from her. I genuinely have no idea what Marcie sees in her. Sal is abrasive but there are sides to her other than a superirority complex and hating everything. There does not seem to be any such things to Malaya.
To quote Carla “She’s not sneering at anybody from a wall. I mean, I’m into that, but I think Marcie likes doin’ shit.”
I thought that Panel 5 pretty much showed what Marcie saw in her.
Yes this
This is only tangentially related to today’s strip, but yesterday I had a dumbing-of-age-related dream! A bunch of unrelated stuff happened first but at one point I like. Stepped inside a future strip? It had something to do with Jason trying to rally the support of his discussion-section* students to help keep his job. It involved him sitting backwards on a chair with his hair ruffled and bow tie untied. Even in-dream it was ridiculous
*idk about real or DA-verse IU but at my university math TAs are mainly in charge of leading ‘discussion’ sections, which are really more “quiz and sometimes practice worksheets” sections.
Lol
So does Malaya not know that Marcie has the hots for her?
The punchline kind of hinges on the fact that Marcie hasn’t told her and she doesn’t know so I’d assume so.
So… has Marcie just totally written Sal off as a friend now? She seems to really not care about whatever Malaya choses to say about Sal. Which… considering how Sal was supportive of Marcie pursuing Malaya, even though she didn’t like her personally, because she wanted Marcie to be happy. It just seems like poor payback on Marcie’s part. Though, I guess that’s one part of college. A lot of old friendships end and new ones begin.
This is just me speaking personally, but I know that sometimes ending a friendship can feel intensely relieving. Even if they weren’t an outright bad friend — heck, even if they were a very good friend — that’s still a lot of baggage you’re letting yourself set down. And if you’re cutting off your loyal but troubled childhood best friend who has made you her sole emotional support and who is obviously threatened by your efforts to expand your social circle? Well. I wouldn’t be surprised if that feels a lot like finally surfacing after you’ve been drowning for a long, long time.
Put more briefly: It’s easy to feel trapped by people who don’t really want you to change, no matter how much lip service they pay to supporting you. And it’s easy to see whatever straw breaks the camel’s back as a fantastic excuse to cut them off and make your escape.
It’s clear in flashbacks the support went both ways-and Sal handled it badly at first, but was able to wish Marcie the best in her pursuit of a woman who makes it a constant point to hatefully antagonize her, Sal, at literally every opportunity. She’s also never been shown to have any interest in hearing another side to the story of the Rally.
So nah. Marcie comes off sleazy, based on what’s been shown.
Though Sal’s support seemed to be more of a “Oh you want to fuck her. Sure, go ahead. Get it out of your system, so you can get back to the important person in your life: me.”
I would have to re-read the comic, but that seems to be packing an awful lot of subtext even if all four boxes were committed to it.
Hmm, perceptive but not perceptive enough.
Yeah. If she were more perceptive, she could see through those pants…
Oh, you meant Malaya, sorry.
I don’t get why Malaya thinks Sal is fake. Sal’s behavior doesn’t seem fake to me.
Because Sal is a checklist of various “cool” things from motorcycle girl, cool indifference, smoking, and so on. Also, Malaya gets treated like crap by Sal anyway so she’s not inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt. Because, at the end of the day, Sal doesn’t want Marcie to have any other friends.
“Friends” is a generous word to describe this relationship.
Yeah but no matter how you splice it that’s what it is, Marcies in the friend zone. It’s not that big deal to make a fus about but unless she wants more out this she’s going to haft to take the extra step. Until then this is the status of where we’re at with these two.
Do you really think Sal was the first to be hostile to Malaya? The latter has shown to default to hostility to just about everyone, the former that just isn’t true. And anyway, remembering how Marcie and Malaya know each other-derbies-which Sal attends it doesn’t wash that she doesn’t want her to have other friends.
It’s understandably difficult to be thrilled if your bestie wants to be friends with a heinous bongo, though.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/beer-weiser/
I mean, in the strip, Sal started out with nothing but contempt and annoyance for Malaya. Sure, Malaya’s not exactly being a peach at the moment, but she wasn’t actively being hostile towards anyone either.
Strongly disagree: If I did something illegal for someone else as a favour and they start whining at me for not making it an even bigger illegal favour, I’d count as that as hostile behaviour.
And I mean, even before that, it’s hostile. “Who the hell is that?” is certainly not friendly. And then when Sal explains —without hostility or snark, I might add— who Sal is, Malaya doesn’t even bother saying hello. She just thinks of Carla as “someone who’s taking beer that by rights* belongs to her and immediately pretty much all but declares that she’d rather not have Carla there.
*In Malaya’s head, that is.
I mean, fair. But I think there’s a difference in whining about not getting an even share and going “man I hate this person” in terms of hostility.
Though I would say pointedly separating Malaya’s name out from everyone would be considered hostile or snarky. At the very least, it points out Sal’s inherent dislike for Malaya from the start.
But Malaya didn’t declare she didn’t want Carla there. She said she didn’t know why she bothered coming, which reads as Malaya saying she wasted her time because at the end of it, she’s only going to get 1 beer when she thought she was going to get 2. Yeah, it’s whiny and petulant, but it’s not “man, why did Carla show up, I hate her” it’s “I only get one beer”.
But the problem is, that strip is -not- “from the start” when it comes to Sal and Malaya; and is thus not an inherent dislike. At this point, they obviously already know each other. At this point, Malaya’s 100% likely to already have behaved in a similar way that she just did to Carla. A person that, unlike Sal, she -did- meet for the first time ever.
And I very specifically said “all but declare” to show that I am aware those were not her actual words; but a really heavy implication; especially when you add her very first words to/about Carla: “Who the hell is that?”
Sal is not the kind of person to be nice to rude people.
That strip you referenced doesn’t read like it’s their first meeting at all, really. It reads like they’ve got history.
I see this (Sal being possessive), but on the other hand, she seems to have no problem with Marcie having roller derby friends, or having Carla as a friend, or suggesting Carla be one of Marcie’s roller derby friends. Also, what emperor norton and newllend said.
No, she means Sal is literally fictional.
Sal’s more complicated than I originally pegged her to be, we’ve actually seen what she’s really like when she puts on an act back when her parents paid a visit so we’re left to believe that the Sal we usually see is the genuine deal. But as time went on it feels like there was still more to her than she let on and more to her than she didn’t even knew about herself.
In story line time it’s only been what like a month and a half ? That means Malaya and Carla has known her for less so than that so I’m not surprised they haven’t learned all of her secrets yet let alone Malaya since her and Sal haven’t spent enough time playing nice to know anything about each other.
I really hope Marcie and Malaya’s date turns out better than the latter’s with Leslie. I really liked those two together, certainly more so than Robin and Leslie. Yes, even SP! Robin.
What date?
Malaya doesn’t know anything about a date and Marcie’s so straight with her about everything, she would have just said if she was interested in a date, right?
CT Phillips makes shit up. They confuse head canon with actual canon in almost all of their comments.
Are they referring to Shortpacked continuity?
I’m referring to SP! Leslie’s date with Mayala yes. It ended with Malaya saying she’s not gay–which would be a big problem with Marcie.
I was questioning what date Marcie & Malaya were going on, since Marcie hasn’t said anything to Malaya about being interested.
And while she did say that after the date with SP!Leslie, she also ended up with Ultra Car, which suggests that whatever Malaya’s sexuality is, it doesn’t exclude women.
Is it better to be only an asshole on the surface, like Sal? Or an asshole through and through, like Malaya? I think I’ll take Sal.
My thoughts on this thread…
1) Malaya please learn how accents work.
2) Marcie is currently being more of an asshole than Malaya simply because she is supposedly friends with Sal.
3) I like Malaya less basically every time she opens her mouth.
4) Carla please call Malaya on her shit.
What’s in it for Carla to call Malaya on her shit? Memory suggests that Carla is here because she enjoys Malaya. The iguana’s just not that much of an attraction.
Sure it’s just the iguana.
It might depend on how far Malaya takes the “Fakeness” thing, all things considered, it could end up being very transphobic.
This strip suggests a bit more – that Carla is here because she enjoys Malaya’s abuse, specifically. Or maybe just Malaya talking to/noticing her?
–Dave, not judging, girl’s got enough issues, one more appearing isn’t startling
… er, next strip, apologies.
–Dave, timey wimey
Marcie is so angry with Sal that they are no longer even on speaking terms. She didn’t even acknowledge Sal the last time they saw each other. Even if she’ll eventually stop being mad, it’s clear that at least right now, Marcie does not consider Sal a friend anymore.
Second, the person doing the crappy thing is always the one being the bigger asshole. It takes some screwy logic to think Marcie is worse simply because she let it happen.
Like, if Marcie still wanted to be friends with Sal, it would make her a crappy friend, but even then, Malaya would be the bigger asshole.
I think they are implying that Marcie is being a bigger asshole because she’s ogling Malaya like a sexual object, and not a person.
That implication doesn’t seem to work too well together with what was actually said, though:
“simply because she is supposedly friends with Sal.
Everyone’s had a crush on someone solely for their looks before. Nothing wrong about that. Just usually doesn’t end well.
That being said, since Marcie is a side character it’s kind of hard to judge her intentions with Malaya. At least for me.
This is my first time trying to quote html, so I have no idea I’d I did this right. But Marcie’s intentions seem pretty clear toward Malaya, if that’s what you meant
I failed
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/hitthat/
I can’t believe that she spends all this time with Malaya, a grade A asshole, just to get laid. Marcie can’t find her THAT attractive.
I know guys who do it. It’s not that big a stretch to see a girl doing it.
Nah, I think she actually likes Malaya, though her crush may have her blind to some of her faults. They have fun doing stuff together, like skating – that Sal’s too cool to do.
Sal’s not too cool to skate.
She skated for Carla when she had insomnia.
She doesn’t skate when they’re hanging out, though that’s probably because she has a freaking motorcycle (I get the gist that Marci hangs onto the back of the bike in a truncated Marty McFly style, but that’s just an assumption).
What Sal definitely does not do is roller derby.
But I figured she doesn’t do that because she fears she’ll go overboard with the violence.
That was a reference to a specific strip I linked elsewhere. She skated to show off for Carla when challenged on it. I don’t think she has throughout the rest of the comic, preferring to sneer from the wall, even when Marcie’s shown having fun skating outside of roller derby. Even when the bike’s nowhere in evidence.
Marcie likes to do shit.
I am however amused by the idea that Sal’s worried she’d be too violent for roller derby.
Not necessarily too violent, but would take it too personal, leading to violence off the rink. Like she wouldn’t be able to leave it as that’s just how the game is played.
But it’s just a guess on my part. Otherwise, since she can skate, wants to spend time with Marcie, and has drunkenly complained that she wants to fight, I have no idea why she doesn’t join in.
It just occured to me that Marcie is doing something that men are often accused of doing by women. They are friendly and seem like friends but then it turns out they wanted to have sex with the woman. The woman feels betrayed because she thought they were friends and instead she feels like she was just a chick to score for the man.
The problem women are complaining about is specifically that those men upset when the woman turns them down when they finally make a move, or sometimes just for not falling madly in love with them, even though they never express interest in being more than friends. Malaya is actually nice to Marcie, so we really don’t have much reason did think she wouldn’t still want to hang out as friends if Malaya isn’t interested in more.
Of course it is all true, I was just referring to one aspect of this issue. The “I thought you were interested in me as a friend and not just a chick”. The issue here is that… well initially Marcie was attracted to Malaya sexually but approached her from the Friend front. When Malaya finds out about it her opinion of Marcie will be ruined because “Upfront and no ulterior motives” aspect will go to the trash can.
This. Marcie sure seems to be acting like a “nice guy” to Malaya: hanging out and acting like a friend for friendship’s sake when really what they’re hoping for is that the object of their lust will reward their friendship with sex.
I’ve liked Marcie up until now, but this strip earns her a side eye from me.
Yeah, but even if I’m mad at a friend (and I might be really bad at it, but now and then, I am), I would still not like it when people talk shit about them behind their back.
I feel like that would mean she really doesn’t want to be friends anymore, ad she has dropped Sal completely.
Or maybe I’m just a way softer person. Dunno.
You know I think this is actually the first nice thing I have ever seen Malaya say about anybody. Granted, it’s completely wrong, but I suppose that just underscores how hilariously bad Malaya is at analysis.
More like… posterior motives amirite?
last panel marcie: “hi malaya how are you friend i was definitely not doing anything weird just now”
As I suspected, Marcie is going to have her heart broken.
Do you mean when Malaya doesn’t want a relationship, or do you mean fifty times over when in a relationship with Malaya?
I think Malaya has no inherent ability to see herself in a relationship.
Beyond that, I feel that Malaya sees Marcie as a conveniently silent fan that follows her around, and that’s about it. Whatever Marcie might feel for Malaya couldn’t matter less to Malaya. That or it’ll make Malaya turn on her, not because she might be against homosexuality, but because she’s probably convinced something like love is as fake as Sal.
I think Malaya could see herself in a relationship (to a certain extent, having a boyfriend or a fuckbuddy or whatever) but probably not with Marcie, she tried in Shortpacked to explore her sexuality and come up with liking ladies and couldn’t, and hasn’t willis said the sexualities are the same across universes?
It’s not clear how SP!Malaya’s sexuality would translate over into the more realistic DoA, where there aren’t homoromantic transchassis robotic ladies for her. UltraCar was female when they were dating (as opposed to apparently ungendered as a car), so liking ladies isn’t ruled out.
Not that that means she’s into Marcie, but I don’t think we can rule it out on those grounds.
Well, before SP!Malaya was into UltraCar, there was Leslie. Malaya wanted to do some lesbian experimentation with Lesline and then realized that nope, she wasn’t into it. So if sexuality carries over, that will mean that 1) Malaya isn’t a lesbian, but 2) she might need to experiment a bit before realizing it.
In Shortpacked!, Malaya wasn’t into Leslie. Her, specifically.
UltraCar was a woman, with whom she had a lengthy relationship, which included sex, and which Malaya was extremely into. She wasn’t straight.
As I said, it’s not clear how Malaya’s orientation carries over. I quote:
Ultra Car: “Homoromantic transchassis asexual woman.”
Malaya: “And I wanna fuck whatever that means.”
She may not be a lesbian, but there was at least one woman she was attracted to.
*Sigh* Yeah there is a good chance of that, but you know what it’s better than living a lie she needs to be upfront about this.
Actually, I’m more worried about Malaya in that particular area. I’m pretty sure that Malaya wants more than sex but I’m not sure Marcie has any feelings except the physical for her.
Were reading this in complete opposite ways and I’ll love seeing where it goes, seriously.
I expect that everyone’s gonna have a bad day here when Malaya finds out that Marcie’s full of shit and totally has an ulterior motive and feels betrayed.
Whereas I don’t see any indication Malaya wants sex from Marcie at all. She seems to like hanging out with her – as much as she’ll admit to liking anything.
I also suspect that if Marcie’s interest was purely physical she’d have either made a move or given up by now. Might have started out that way, of course.
Right, didn’t take into account that Marcie is still probably just in it for the ass.
You know what would be cool ? Becky just calls out Marcie on bull shit and is like, ” I’ve been where you’ve been at, if you don’t stop pussyfooting around this is just going to get more awkward for you in time.”
“…. though don’t open with a no-consent kiss, that didn’t work out too great.”
Ok yeah totally your right, don’t draw this out for to long but also don’t come on to strong.
As bad as this might sound, I can definitely see where Malaya is coming from.
While I was a freshman in college, there was this guy who, no matter what he said, always sounded like he was forcing it to sound natural and funny.
I chalked it up to just him maybe having English as a second language and didn’t think much about it.
Over the years I kept running into him every so often, and every time I heard him, he had that same tone.
Like he was forcing a personality to make people around him think he was funnier.
It was just so.. Off-putting.
The thing is, I remember hanging out late at night once at an event a club had hosted. They had brought a console and it was ~2:00 in the morning. He, Two other guys and I were all playing and this guy was getting frustrated.
The more we played, the more I noticed he wasn’t “forcing” his speech.
He was being a bit of an ass, but okay-ish.
The next day, I saw him again, and he was right back to that same “forced” speech.
I don’t know WHY it bothered me so much, but it kept sticking in my head.
Just the concept of someone masking pretty much their entire personality irritated me.
As for my thoughts on Malaya, she has too high standards for what she’d term “genuine”.
Sal just likes her own aestetic. It’s for no one but herself.
Someone in my high school spoke in a fake british accent for multiple years, to get attention. Once a substitute asked her about it and it was kind of great.
“Oh, so you’re from England?”
“No, I’m Canadian.”
“So you spend a lot of time there?”
“I haven’t been yet
“But your parents are british?”
“No…”
She dropped it in grade eleven or twelve.
Re: Malaya’s standards for being genuine, I think she’s one of those people that uses ‘I’m just being honest’ to be rude- not necessarily that phrasing, but like, she’s using that justification in her head.
Yeah… she’s just using the whole “I see through society’s fakeness” and an excuse to be a shitty person. I have no patience for people like that.
SAME. THANK YOU.
People put up a front for a lot of reasons. Many people do it to protect themselves. I mean, people can still complain about that, but that will only achieve that person to avoid them and put up more defenses.
Malaya is worried about accents.
Marcie is more focused on the ass-ents.
I feel like just ass-ets might’ve worked better
No, I think she’s looking for an assent, too.
Well I guess those are the ass-cessities of life.
More like ‘nice-assities’ of life.
Marcie only wishes they were ‘Bare’…
That is a fantastic comment
Ass tree people are gross!
They never bath and they have SO many butts.
“Straight” sure, keep thinking that
This strip needs more fuckface.
To much chewie not enough Fuck Face.
Fuckface is what makes Malaya palatable.
My accent wanders around a bit, but it’s always parts of the country where I’ve lived.
The thing about seeming fake is that many of us are in one closet or another and our outward shell is artificial. I simulate many social interaction traits.
“But we’ve all got an image that we want to portray / and drag is something each of us does every single daaay…” – Romanovsky & Phillips, My Mother’s Clothes
–Dave, honestly, some of their work speaks to this strip in interesting ways
Have we heard Marcie talk about trans people? Because I’ve heard that logic applied in dangerous ways.
I think you mean Malaya, Marcie is butt-staring.
Do we know if she knows about Carla?
I doubt that she’d apply it that way though. Partly because I think the logic about fakey is mostly a cover for her own cynical posing.
I don’t think she knows, she just moved, and she is a very oblivious person.
But also, yeah, I doubt she’d apply that logic with trans people. She’s a jerk, but she’s an equal-opportunity-jerk.
I wonder how Malaya would react if she learned about the fact Sal robbed a store (or was it 2?). Probably with more contempt.
I think of the regular cast, I think Malaya is the one I hate the most. I know that Mary is objectively the more terrible person (100% bigot, beaten only by Ryan, Blaine, and Toedad in sheer awfulness), but Malaya’s such a an obnoxious, negative little shit that I cannot stand her.
Malaya is every wannabe-cool edgelord who picks fights and shits on authority for shits and giggles regardless of consequences and good taste. To be completely fair, she is just plain Stupid in how she approaches the world.
Yep that’s how I feel too. Though Mary has her days where she “wins” at terribleness.
Probably mock her for doing it in such a stupid way.
That’s how I feel too.
why would malaya notice something like that??
Got to learn something about the person your living with right ?
And she is pissing Sal off on regular basis so she would definitely notice at Some point.
Malaya is an ass because she doesn’t care about you and your problems, not because she doesn’t notice them.
There’s a big difference there! (I guess)
Yes, Marcie has no ulterior motive; she wants Malaya’s body and I’m really not sure if she cares about the stuff coming out of her mouth.
Here’s a prediction: In time (probably a short time), Malaya may be more hated than Mary. This will be ironic because Sal is ultimately being benefited by no longer to sulk in her room in isolation.
That depends. Everytime we see Malaya and Mary interact, Malaya’s popularity goes up.
Also, every time we see Malaya interact with Carla, Malaya’s unpopularity goes down. Interact with Sal, the esteem held for Malaya loses ground.
There’s a sliding scale at work. Malaya seems like the inverse of one of those sport teams which proverbially plays at the level of their opponent.
Malaya is such a great judge of character..:)
Marcie can’t be straight with you Malaya.
At least she doesn’t want to be.
If she was straight with you, she wouldn’t be straight with you. If you know what I mean.
Yeaaaa i thinl u got it backwards buddy
Think* dang typos
OK, so here’s my subjective* opinion on why Malaya constantly tries to paint Sal as fake.
It’s because Sal has the reputation that Malaya wishes she had. Malaya wishes to be known and admired for being cool and aloof and not caring. Malaya wants to be known as the kick-ass girl that doesn’t take shit from anybody. Because that’s what Malaya is, in her own head.
Unfortunately, she’s rather bad at conveying this image to other people, to say the least. Her image of being the kick-ass girl not taking shit was rather shattered by her encounter with AmaziGirl, for one thing. AG made short work of her not just once, but twice. And her first encounter with Carla, she completely failed to come across as cool and aloof; and instead completely succeeded in coming across as hostile and whiny.
And the reason many of us tolerated and some even applauded her hostility a few weeks back is because she was doing it to someone that -we- know deserves it. Or as I said back then: She was being a face by default because she was targeting a bigger heel.
But the reality is, Malaya cares too much about appearing to not care; to be able to truly not care about what other people think. And as long as she remains like that, she’ll— I was about to say she’ll be her own biggest enemy, but I reckon she’ll probably turn some of the people she meets into even bigger ones.
*Haha, I’m just kidding, I’m the emperor, so all my opinions are objective truths.
I love it when people use wrestling terminology in regular conversation. Glory to the Emperor of the United States. May their reign be long and prosperous.
Oh, I am not emperor of the US. That was my predecessor.
Instead, I am emperor of the internet.
You know, I have a question – if you and Norton I are/were Emperor for two entirely-different entities, how could you claim him to be your predecessor?
He was also Emperor Norton. Is it not obvious?
Given that I adopted his name and took up the mantle as a direct consequence of learning about him, I think it’s fair to say that at the very least, he’s my spiritual successor.
The only thing she hasn’t been with you is Straight…
Jesus, Malaya, way to be fucking Holden I guess
I hope the rest of your life turns out very Catcher in the Rye, too
… Marcie, you HAVE told Malaya that you’re a lesbian/bi and into her, right? Riiiiiight?
Well Technically speaking Marcie can’t really Tell Malaya anything so her conscience is clear.
Nope, there is no evidence that Malaya realizes that Marcie’s into her and whenever we saw those two together, Marcie was kind of sliding nearer, not being upfront about it.
So we know Malaya is wrong with her perception of people in two cases.
I don’t really get what’s going on with Marcie, though. Has she been in love with Sal for ages and that was her fundament for their friendship and now she’s in love with someone else, she will repeat the same thing with Malaya and she no longer has a basis with Sal?
I don’t think she’s in love with Sal. They’re just childhood friends, with a lot of shared history.
She’s got a bad crush on Marcie and she’s really pissed at Sal for coming to her job and getting in a fight that apparently got her fired, which given her precarious economic status and the potential for that security gig to lead to better work is pretty serious.
I think she’s also been a bit frustrated with Sal over all for being clingy, even before the blow up.
Malaya has nothing to do with why Marcie and Sal aren’t talking anymore
Let me clarify. I know that Marcie lost her job because someone somehow blamed her because she obviously knew Sal and that was the point at which she broke off talking to Sal.
But the way she acts is not like she’s pissed off, she acts like Sal’s not a person to her any more. And so I wonder.
Sal didn’t get Marcie’s “I’d hit that” when Marcie first mentioned it. In the big confrontation when Marcie was pissed off with her because Sal started a fight with Malaya, they talked out of earshot and the dialogue was something like “what do you want from her you can’t have with me?” “Oh, that, no, you can’t do that with me. ”
To me, that sounds like this was a long standing fact.
And weeks later, Marcie is still oggeling Malaya’s butt without ever having made her interest clear to Malaya.
And she stopped even recognizing Sal’s existence.
And I wonder what’s happening within her.
She is fully aware of Sal’s existence. She’s just completely ignoring it even when Sal is in the same room. She only started doing that when Sal got her fired, while Marcie hanging out with and lusting after / crushing on Malaya started well before that happened.
Girl, there’s absolutly nothing straight about Marcie.
C’mon Marcie, you know Sal, you know why she puts up a front. And no, I wouldn’t tell that Malaya either, she’s kind of a jerk, but tell her to not be an ass would be a start.
Is the hovertext a Gail Simone reference
’cause sweet Gail Simone reference
I think its a Holden Caulfield reference. Which just makes me hate Malaya more by association.
I was raised in the South by Northern parents and my accent or lack thereof seems to be all over the place. Some days it’s a bit Southern, some days it’s a bit Northern, some days it’s basically nothing. I think mostly it changes based on who I’m around. I seem to absorb/reflect whichever style is closest to the people around me. If they have a completely different accent, like Midwestern, then my speech seems to come out neutral/in-between.
Marcie and Sal’s friendship concerns me.
Sal has been insensitive to Marcie’s job and her friends: she’s been continually trying to push Marcie away from any relationships besides her, and kinda mocked Marcie for trying to become a cop.
Sal is dependent on Marcie, perhaps because she simply hates almost all people and Marcie is an exception to that, or, perhaps, because the two of them have been together for so long that Sal is able to feel secure that Marcie will never abandon her. Either way, the only reason any of this is an issue for Sal is that Marcie branching out on her own threatens Sal’s hold on her. I don’t feel like Sal is doing this intentionally, I think she’s just scared, but I’m pretty sure it’d be far healthier for each of them to spend time with other people right now; and Marcie seems to be aware of that.
I think Sal’she realized that as well and has gotten past that : http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/erase/
I feel like Sal and Marcie’s friendship is honestly pretty fine.
If this has to do with why her and Malaya butt heads, I’m gonna have to disagree.
Okay.
Why does Malaya think Sal is fake?
She compares her to Marcie, who she describes as “straight with me”.
And her facial expressions and body language imply a genuine tone so she isn’t just shit-talking.
So, Malaya seems to think that Sal is putting up a front toward Malaya.
Yet, Sal has always been pretty upfront about her contempt for Malaya. Saying stuff like how she needs to be drunk to deal with her even at the beginning.
So where does Malaya think Sal is posing?
Or is Malaya just Holden Caulfield and finds anyone with an interest in something more complex than middle school locker room talk to be a phony?
This would be easier to judge if we got to see Marcie and Malaya interacting more.
…oh god. Now that I’ve made a connection between Holden and Malaya I somehow hate the both of them even more.
I think, if I read today’s strip right, Malaya thinks that Sal is a fake with everyone. She’s alleging that Sal pretends to be someone and something she’s not just to appear ‘cool’.
Congratulations, I too hate Colden and am now too hating Malaya because of your comparsion.
Does she got the booty?
She doooooo~
Pffft, Malaya, word choice!
Also, c’mon, that was WEAK. Sal’s accent’s stuck around plenty when she’s mad. I’d say Jason could tell you but it stuck around just the last time she snapped at you. You can do better than that.
Have to wonder how much of this Malaya’s projection. Me thinks she’s a privileged brat who acts like she’s from the street, but grew up in an upper class suburb.
Them are some Mutt & Jeff dotted lines there, yessiree
*extremely Shadow the Hedgehog voice* Faker? I think you’re the fake one around here.
“There is no rule that says an imitation cannot defeat the original”
“Notice how her accent drops”
*breathes in*
Gurl!
I assume since the accent was picked up later because she was sent to a school in the South, it might fluctuate especially when she’s emotional.
Now I actually have the opposite problem – I tend to tone down my accent in professional settings, but if I’m upset I start talking how I did as a kid / around my family.
…Now what I wanna know is, why would someone fake a SOUTHERN accent, Malaya? It seems like such a not cool accent to fake.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who think that a southern accent is cool.
And the sad thing is like. It’s not like Sal started a fight for shits and giggles. She was trying to help catch a Literal Rapist. Not that Marcie knows that, anyway. And even then, the proper thing to do in that situation would probably have been to actually….GO TO security about it, i.e. Marcie or somebody else, instead of trying to take things into her own hands. But Amazi-Girl complicated things further and Sal inherently distrusts the capability of literally any kind of authority to do anything at all, honestly not that irrationally in my opinion. I bet quite a lot that absolutely nothing would have been done about Ryan in order to keep things quiet.
So personally I think like this fight they’re having has to do with the thing Sal did, sure. But I think it’s also a longstanding conflict the two of them have had about their beliefs and views of authority figures and the law coming to a head.
I like seeing Malaya smile. Doesn’t happen too much.
I like the little “ZOMG” lip-biting mouths we see here and in the next strip.
–Dave, trust me, it still happens when you’re three times these folks’ age
Given Marcie’s perspective, shouldn’t it be posterior motives?
But of course.
Marcie doesn’t have ULTERIOR motives, buuuut she’s got POSTERIOR motives.