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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net ⋅ 1d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social ⋅ 2dDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social ⋅ 22d
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Time flies when you’re self-absorbed!
Amazing.
Absolutely, also when you’re infatuated, which I think is a first for Carla. She’s infatuated with someone other than herself or Ultracar.
I dunno, that “ten hours” sounds like someone who’s been pretty darn aware of every passing minute.
how early did she wake up for it to be ten hours lol, i’m surprised she wouldn’t have some camera tech she could set down at a table to see any passerbys whlie she grabbed a snack
That would have been impersonal. She was fully invested in this and needed to see it through herself
Though we do know she’s been back to her dorm to grab Fuckface and the hat and to rig up the display on it. Probably all separate trips.
We SAW how early she woke up!
did that code break AGAIN
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/02-its-the-love-i-havent-got/knockknockknockknockknockknock/
Ten hours? Goddamn.
It might not be a literal 10 hours, depending on how long has passed since the last scene. But still way too many hours. I hope Booster didn’t know the whole time.
Booster is very lucky he isn’t getting extremely murdered for this.
Booster uses they/them pronouns, just fyi.
Whoops, my bad
Carla has blessed us with a new tag to refer to the not-girl person.
Isn’t it cold enough to be raining iguanas?
well, reptiles(?) are cold blooded so it’d be fine in the buildling hopeflly?
Malaya stopped by or FF has free rule of the campus. Which do ya’ll think it is?
Wrong. Fuckface isn’t limited by your human rules of space or time. He is where he pleases, when he pleases, and on the head of who he pleases.
She has no idea he’s there.
What Duck?
Carla would make an excellent Discworld character. I think she would fit in best among the Unseen University staff, she’s got the right combination of being totally brilliant but so self-absorbed that the rest of the universe barely registers.
On occasion, I use the “What ?” phrase and am often saddened that I must explain myself so often.
I want to live in a world where Terry Pratchett is required reading during high school / post-grammar school.
I hope these two remain… Whatever they are even if things with Charlie don’t go well. Their interactions are just hysterical.
Ohhhh I get – she was destined to be with Booster all along. Right? Maybe?
I’m not shipping them yet, but I could be convinced to. Like, tipped over into it? I could easily see them as BFFs as well, but what I’m certain of is:
They have a strange yet fascinating chemistry together. They will keep interacting, they’ll become close, and it’s going to be really fucking fun for everyone involved (Commentariat included.)
well, carla has issues but idk if she’s as much of a ‘mess’ compared to booster initially being attracted to ruth and then amber later
Pretty sure Carla likes girls.
Yep, Carla’s an ace sapphic. She expressed interest in Malaya to an extent, but she was unaware she was nonbinary at that time, and seemed to cool in her interest by the time she did find out, so it’s not really clear if she’d consider that a disqualifying factor or if she just wasn’t especially serious in her interest and just found her previous insulting behavior hot on some level.
I’d say this iteration of Carla seemed MORE interested in Sal than in Malaya? I could definitely be forgetting something though, we are talking 13 years of strips.
alt text: I thought somebody were shouting her name in the entire conversation
alt text: We never doubted it for a second.
I thought it was Fuckface
Charlie will assume that ‘Carla’ is the name of the hat-lizard.
Someone’s getting another pie to the face.
I hope it launches out of a trapdoor in the hat.
… I didn’t think Walky had gotten a first pie to the face.
Walky might get one, but Booster’s smugness about it is probably sooner to provoke her pie-flinging.
I suppose they ARE the readier target…
Honestly if I spent 10 hours waiting around for someone based on false info I’d send the person who lied to me into outer space with their femurs added to my collection, but that’s just me
That’s misplaced retribution.
Maybe, but it would be fell very good in the moment.
Walky might deserve it. He spent a week leading on a girl he didn’t love.
I don’t think “going on dates with someone for a week” counts as leading someone on, regardless of how the relationship status changed at the end of it
I don’t know if I’d go that far. Lucy was trying to speedrun what’s possibly her first ‘real’ relationship, and Walky was taking it slow after his previous relationships fizzled out and spectacularly crashed and burned. She brought all the new relationship energy into the equation, which was an imbalance they might not be able to reconcile.
He didn’t lead her on though? He said it himself He liked her and that’s literally what going on dates is all about, seeing if you can make like into love. It’s Lucy who turned the intensity to 100.
I think there was a little leading on. Definitely not maliciously, but I think knowing someone thinks you love them and letting them think that could be considered leading them on.
It could be taken that way and Lucy could certainly be forgiven for doing so, but I’d put it more as “spent a week trying to figure out how to handle the messed up situation her misunderstanding put them in.”
Okay Walky did not lead anyone on. He’s a dick for not standing up for his girlfriend in the face of his shitty parents. But the dating thing or her infatuation is not his fault.
That’s probably what should’ve happened to Carla for showing up and bugging someone on a Sunday morning about a person Carla’s never even talked to
unless it was some kinda emergency or something required for work or so, i would not wait for more than one hour,
Frankly it kind of is your fault for waiting so long, but if I found out someone had wasted almost half-a-day on a snipe hunt I sent them on, I would definitely consider myself lucky to end the day with all my limbs attached to my body.
That is a sweet hat.
Dumbing of Age 14: Just Standing Here Being Beautiful for No Reason.
I like yours, but I will also present alternatively
Dumbing of Age Book 14: The One I Don’t Care About
He didn’t technically lie. He guessed. He told Carla something that had a small probability of being true.
no
He still had a greater than 0 chance of being right. There may be an alternate universe where Charlie lives in Briscoe.
Her fundamental error was in trusting someone who believes that Monkey Master is better than Ultracar. That kind of delusional thinking should have tipped her off right there
accidentally being right when lying is not a “guess”.
If he had used the word “maybe” I’d give him technically correct.
I love being technically correct as much as the next obnoxious pedant but even I think this is a stretch.
We need PedanticJackass to come weigh in on whether this comment is technically correct or not.
Technically Walky didn’t lie, he just said a bunch of words, and it was Carla who interpreted them as being a sentence.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12608-when-i-use-a-word-humpty-dumpty-said-in-rather
He didn’t guess. He bullshat.
I’ve always maintained that one of the major life skills acquired from the college experience is the ability to bullshit intelligently on demand. Walky may be a natural.
He guessed is a perfectly accurate description of that exchange. He also lied, by presenting his guess as factual information.
I suspect he didn’t guess. I suspect he picked Briscoe because it’s the furthest away.
You’d think she might have had a seat in the ten hours, rather than just stand there the whole time. (Could we assume she sat down at some point between strips? No.)
No! If she wasn’t standing there every minute Charlie might have missed seeing her.
her tall ness is one of her features. idk if it’d be easy to pick charlie out from a crowd if she was sitting down and multiple ppl passed by tho
Fuckface is back!!!! From Dina they have learned — INSTANT TRANSMISSION!!!! XD
*plays “Battle Which Summons Death” from DBZ Kai CD on hacked muzak*
How did she get Fuckface across campus in the cold without killing him, anyway?
He only dies if he literally freezes. Ice crystals are really not good for cell membranes.
Just ask frozen chicken!
(Or Alton Brown. He had a good demonstration with either water balloons or zip bags, and a knife.)
She didn’t. Fuckface knows Instant Transmission now, he honed in on Carla’s chi
I mean I’m not sure Walky lied, that assumes some level of intent, we have no reason to assume he knows where Charlie lives
A more accurate statement would be he guessed in order to get Carla to leave
Nah, saying he lied is pretty accurate, he said “Charlie lives in briscoe” as an answer to a “question”, let’s call it that, with the intention of making her leave, when his truthful answer would be “I don’t know where she lives or even who that is leave me alone I am very sleepy”.
Yeah, it’s a lie in so far as it was dishonest, not because he was knowingly changing the facts. He misrepresented how much information he had to get out of an annoying conversation, which, was pretty much valid, just also still lying.
you just described his intent to deceive and a motivation.
well he did pick a random one to get carla to go away, so kinda a douchey move
He lied about knowing for certain. It would still be a lie even if he happened to be correct.
It’s not a lie, it’s bullshit.
It also wasn’t random; it was the plausible answer that would get her as far away as possible.
I like this article a lot. Thank you for posting it.
I was trying to figure out what time it was. We don’t know exactly what time Carla woke Booster up, except it was ‘very early morning’.
Assuming it was 5 or 6am, ten hours later would put it at late afternoon.
it could be hyperbole and she only waited til after noon versus like 9pm, unless she literally woke them up at like 3 am or so
It was pretty much at the time Walky had to wake up to go to church with Lucy, so my guess is 7 to 8 am, which on a campus and on a sunday morning qualifies as very early !
She waited there for 10 hours? Assuming she didn’t want to take a chance on food or going to the bathroom…
Girl is flat “down horrendous.”
the power of thirst/horniness is something lol, tho she did take a brief break to run to get her hat and i assume fuckface
In fairness, Carla is very VERY ace, so it’s more like the power of infatuation rather than horniness!
I would say “the power of love”, but I’m pretty sure Carla would murder me outright for directly associating such a mushy trope with her, so I’ll stick with “the power of infatuation”.
Assuming she’s taking spironolactone as part of a possible hrt regimen, this would be a heroic feat in and of itself.
The not going to the bathroom for 10 hours, I mean.
She did get Fuckface and rig up the sign on the hat at some point during those 10 hours.
sin of omission
I know Carla is making this more of an ordeal than it needs to be, but the fact Booster can easily help with this and has chosen not to while simultaneously being very smug in their teasing feels mean. Help or don’t, just enjoying someone jump through the hurdles you’ve set is kind of a dick move. Maybe that’s just me being too sensitive though. I get that these interactions are jokes.
I’m sure if Carla had gone about this in a polite, respectful, maybe even somewhat humble manner, then they would’ve helped out fine.
Instead, she’s approached this like an entitled asshole demanding to get her way, no matter how it inconveniences others, and Booster is entirely justified in how they’ve handled this.
Co-signed. Booster themselves all but stated it back when the politics + pie scene (standard USA holiday?) happened, and she’s kept at it.
Also, Carla insists on behaving like a cartoon character. Booster is just committing to the bit.
I kind of think this is a bit of an uneven critique. Carla’s default is obnoxious narcissist so Booster was fair to be apprehensive, but they also insulted Carla’s parents to her face in that first interaction too. To me that kind of breaks even. Booster has no obligation to help Carla but I don’t know if they also get a pass to tease her.
As someone with a Cluster B disorder, the way people are watering down “narcissist” is kind of a problem.
Amen.
I may be wording this badly, apologies. Like, I can understand where Sirksome is coming from (re: Booster’s reaction being proportional? Specifically that?) But yeah, every time I see “narcissist” nowadays I wince. It used to happen with “bipolar” and “schizo”, and nowadays it’s the internet’s favorite armchair diagnosis. I can’t with that.
It’s Trump’s fault. He has confronted people with the fact that narcissists exist, and now they’re seeing them everywhere.
We -are- everywhere.
“… everywhere that _matters_, anyway”
Yeah, and if Carla’s parents weren’t famous billionaires I might feel a little stronger about that.
frankly, I’d say if Carla picked even ONE of those three (“polite, respectful, humble”, threading is tough on this comment system) she’d be winning.
but carla can’t even clear that low bar.
If any of the characters even once picked one of those options, it would torpedo the premise of the entire strip. Sort of like the Titanic, but with U-boats instead of an iceberg.
They’re really living up to Mike’s legacy.
If it turns out Booster found out what Walky did very recently, then her waiting the whole day in the wrong place isn’t their fault. And it’s still very early in the conversation, I don’t think a few seconds is past a line where they aren’t going to help, and are just doing smug teasing and hurdles.
Also there’s no reason to assume that Carla would have spent the whole day on this. Most people wouldn’t given up within an hour.
Ten hours sounds like a pretty good chunk of the day.
is that better or worse than being pied in the face lol, other than a friend i can get over it tho i feel like if i was attacked by a pie throwing machine by some entitled rich kid going to the school, they would be in for a lot worse if i was able to get ‘revenge’ lol
It’s worse than the pie.
Wasn’t Booster in the room when Walky told Carla the wrong destination? They knew from the beginning.
not really in a state of wakefulness though.
I mean, their dorm room isn’t big, and I doubt Booster could fall asleep with this conversation happening like 10 feet away. They probably knew the whole time what happened.
I think it is a dick move, but Booster doesn’t seem to like Carla that much and does not seem to want them dating their sister.
Who Booster likes and doesn’t isn’t really super obvious, honestly. Like, Booster intentionally fucked with them multiple times now, but they’ve done that to people they do like, too. Like, go back and look at how they treated Amber and how they did express (fleeting, granted) remorse for it.
They kind of seem like someone who likes pushing buttons with equal opportunity, though they have been gentler on Ethan for probably a variety of reasons.
Carla is not entitled to any information about a girl she’s obnoxiously obsessed with for no reason
HEROICALLY!
The longer they waited, the more heroic it became!
pictured: two fuckfaces
And an iguana.
+. 1. sir.
The difference between a lie and an opinion is a “probably”. Or a reasonable facsimile.
10 hours sounds enough to consider Carla as Briscoe’s new statue.
She’s a colorful Performance Art Piece for sure :’33
that’s not what opinion means.
Gawd. Girl’s so self-absorbed, she’s swollen to three times her size.
But, as appears to be Grand Unifying Theory for DoA, she’s cute so she gets away with it.
Dub, who the hell stood you up for prom?
I kind of feel bad for Carla. A little bit.
i half expect charlie to actually talk to her and be like “Oh hi, whats your name again” and not notice/process the sign on her head (b/c tbh it could easily be a random brand name too like how ppl wear polo tees)
‘Carla’ is obviously the name of the hat-lizard.
Carla: The goddess we need, even if we don’t deserve her! (she *does* look divine in that dress)
with the hat and iguana added, she looks Divine
Carla you can’t simultaneously not be able to tell the difference between Walky and Booster and also be mad that Booster waited 10 hours to help you.
well. you CAN. obviously. but I’m going to cite you for it.
I mean, I’m pretty sure Carla is the sort of person who would cheerfully WELCOME your citation, and then actively try to engage in whatever behavior she think provoked it as much as possible. She likes the attention!
well she’s also been talking to booster before and getting frustrated like “what you’re saying i have to disown my family before i can talk to your sister” or so but potential ‘cuteness’ of a ship aside idk how realistic/long it’d be since o ther than not getting ‘attention ‘ from charlie which provoked carla into being desperate for her attention to begin with, idk if she even likes anything about charlie otherwise, would she even find talking to her interesting at all
imagine if she hated ultra car as a twist lol
Carla knows the difference. Walky is the not-girl version of Amazigirl.
Before the comments section crashes into overly analyzing these two, who have like, probably the wackiest interactions (pie to the face, anyone?). BEHOLD.
RUTH/BILLIE PLAYLIST
Your Stupid Lockpicking Is Nostalgic
If I missed anything, please let me know. If you wanna add more, PLEASE ALSO LET ME KNOW!! We can keep adding stuff here ad infinitum. Maybe even until they get back together.
PS: I’m a bit obsessive with playlists so I’ll be probably fiddling with the order of the songs so they sound cohesive if not played in random mode ;3
Ooh, I love it! Thank you!
I’m glad to hear!!! Everyone put a lot of effort into it ;www;
Yayyyy
I love the title of the playlist 🥰
Thank you so much!!! ;www; I think I’ve also managed to make it more or less sound nice when played in order?? It was a really fun puzzle X’DDD We had a lot of genres!
I hate everything about you by three days grace. Always comes to mind around those two.
A++++ choice omg yes
Booster is right, this is heroic
Because Walky is no longer going to be the target of Carla’s ire
Oooh I dig this avatar
yee!
lol didn’t expect fuckface to be borrowed, unless mayala’s off screen just watching this go down tho idk if she’d gloat/mock carla for this
Malaya respects Carla for not being fake & let her borrow Fuckface.
She sent him over to bring the hat and the sign.
the sign has an electric heater attached inside the hat
which Fuckface is gleefully absorbing the warmth of
to prevent Carla’s lleged brain from cooking
this allowed the hat to be walked over to this dorm
in the iguanas-fall-from-trees weather
by an iguana under it
–Dave, just a bubblegum pink hat with a flashing sign saying CARLA, slowly walking across a snowy quad
Whatever else Carla is, she is definitely not fake.
Do characters in this comic ever wear high heels? It seems that Jennifer might wear them. Maybe it’s a type of footwear that Willis has a strong aversion to?
I am sure they sometimes must, but it’s also probably not really something most people would want to trudge around campus wearing. On dates, though, sure.
Though please note, this was important enough to Carla that she didn’t just put on a dress, she took off her roller skates.
I am impressed that she managed to use this time to make a color-changing, glowing neon sign. Though if it’s Carla, I guess it probably only took her 15 minutes.
She probably has boxes of those.
If she’s been here for 10 hours the boredom must have been killing her.
She made it after the posterboard-on-a-stick didn’t work, and has been carrying it ever since.
I like to think Carla’s hat sign is animated, like the neon advertising billboards of yesteryear.
C—-
-A—
–R–
—L-
—-A
CAR–
—LA
CARLA
—–
oh I love this.
I know the whole point is for her to look silly, but Carla’s still honestly looking damn cute here.
Fresh lesbian flag just dropped (Carla) (she in that exact getup including the iguana is the flag)
Does she have to be a “”healthy person””. Is it not enough, to be a character, an icon, and a disaster, in this cast
We added green to the lesbian flag?
there are irish lesbians!!
That’s why she makes for a new one
That dress is kinda ugly ngl
I like, but I’m very impressed at her willingness to bare her shoulders.
She rocks it anyway.
I don’t know how I’d feel if Charlie turned out to also be Booster. One the one hand, I’d give it a side-eye. On the other hand, it’d be the most incredibly Carla thing to do to Carla.
“Yeah, I faked an entire person, including giving myself a whole second class schedule, just to mess with you for some reason. Talking about having a sister before I even met you was all part of the plan.”
They just jump back and forth between both roles fast enough for persistence of vision to kick in, like the Olsen twin.
I think we’ve seen them both in the same place before. Unless everyone time we’ve seen them together no on else was around to notice
We have. More to the point, so has Carla.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/charlie/
hi Fuckface
Good thing she didn’t setup the laser show.
Carla’s got it bad…
It’s going to be very funny if Charlie wanders past while they’re arguing
I love Booster. Mike with a smile
Fuckface is stealing the show.
I am definitely saving panel one Fuckface in case I ever need a gravatar.
Oh my Cheese Carla and Booster are a perfect duo.
Wish this strip could be a gif, like in Questionable Content some pages.
I’m betting she’s pretty hangry after all that time…
Booster *is* replacement Mike, but I like Booster more. Not quite as much of a direct contemptful asshole, but much more funny about it.
Booster is an alternate company alternate component Mike. He fits in the same places the Mike component does, but he works differently, has different reviews on the cultural interpersonal circles website, and doesn’t take dimes.
That said, I do not think any situation run through Mike would be the same as if it was run through Booster, even if Booster works in the same niche.
So, is Booster going to formally introduce Carla to Charlie now or not?
The longer they waited to tell her, the more heroic it became.
Heroic in the sense that Booster realized how bad Carla’s retaliation will be the longer they waited.
Yep. That’s the joke.
please tell me we aren’t jumping away again tomorrow
According to blurry patreon preview, i don’t think so?
I really want Carla and Charlie to at least be friends lol
I’m going to assume fuckface can bend space and time to appear were he is needed beacuse I can’t imagine the poor guy out in the cold. Also Booster you may have made a grave miscalculation.