511

Allowed
Posted on December 14, 2015 by David M Willis

511 thoughts on “Allowed”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    What happens when a hoppable force jumps an insufferable object?

    1. anna

      dunno, haven’t got the email yet.

    2. gkheyf

      i for one find sharks to be very sufferable. though i do admit to never having met one

      1. Extreme Atomic Marine

        Just as long as you avoid jumping them.

        1. Ana Chronistic

          I am still astonished that no one seems to have drawn fake Sonic the Hedgehog character Jump the Shark

        2. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          I would’ve thought that this was an example of a hoppable OBJECT, not a hoppable FORCE.
          Hoppable = able to be hopped.
          How can a force be hopped?

        3. JessWitt

          Patience and fermentation.

        4. N0083rP00F

          I see trouble brewing.

        5. gkheyf

          stop spouting barley

        6. Shadow12000

          The force used that has caused herself to hop?

        7. zoelogical

          there are two answers. one is grammatical: hoppable can refer to either the force in its action of hopping, or the object in its state of being hopped. there’s not really enough of a difference in meaning to need to clarify when the action is being so clearly stated visually. the second is poetry rules: hoppable rhymes with unstoppable and therefore makes more sense as a pun.

          this has been your local nerd shoutout. back to the web!!

        8. Spencer

          do you realize what you have done

        9. Skai Cyan

          There’s a good chance you’ll never see this, but that’s actually been around for a while. He’s named “Bitey” though.

          http://www.samandfuzzy.com/misc/sonicshark1280.gif

      2. CptNerd

        Have you eaten shark? Quite tasty, not unlike swordfish. Plus it’s good to let them know who the real apex predator is every so often…

        1. Ana Chronistic

          not lately–I remember it being super tough, dry, and tasteless (though that may have been how my mother made it)

        2. Needfuldoer

          How can it be dry if it spends its entire life in the water?!

          /seinfeld

        3. Plasma Mongoose

          You can enjoy eating gummy sharks over here in Oz in a number of fish & chip shops, the shark meat is commonly know as flake.

        4. DSL

          Has anyone ever been gummed by an old shark?

        5. N0083rP00F

          Impossible since sharks, like dinosaurs and certain vertebrates, have teeth continuously growing.

        6. Tacos

          I don’t really like seafood all that much except for shrimp. Besides, aren’t most sharks endangered?

        7. Krixwell

          I do believe they are, and it’s partly because of the Jaws movies. They really don’t deserve their reputation as man-hunters at all.

          Some stats from Wikipedia: Only about 75 shark attacks are reported worldwide each year, and the fatality rate seems to range from 4-27% depending on location. In coastal U.S. states, you’re about 40 times as likely to be killed by lightning as by a shark. And finally, only 3-4 out of 480 shark species are responsible for ten or more fatal unprovoked attacks on humans.

          Meanwhile, humans kill about 100 million sharks a year, or 11,417 sharks per hour.

          But sure, let’s show them who the real apex predators are.</sarc>

        8. TheNinthShader

          How did the comment section go from physics to seafood?

        9. Deanatay

          The phrase ‘jump the shark’ came up. Or was suggested. Or hinted at. That was all that was needed.

        10. Willoughby Chase

          Time To Toilet = (Number of sharks eaten*Holding it in)/(Amount of Sharks to Jump * Time of jump)

    3. Znayx

      NOOO, IT CAN’T BE, I AM UNHOPPABLEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

  2. Rutee

    Carla still a Best Dumb I see.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      She’s certainly hopped up a few steps in my estimation.

      1. Deanatay

        She’s leapt to the top of the chart!

        AND MY HEART

  3. DarkoNeko

    Making the best of all situations !

    1. DarkoNeko

      Sorry, Mary. Carla wins this round.

  4. Opus the Poet

    Loud giggling ensued from reading this comic.

  5. Mada

    Clearly that expression on Mary’s face is one of realization…realization that Carla is in fact, commando.

    1. gkheyf

      ::::OOOOO that would be extra plot-inducing. she isn’t done being a nuisance to billie and ruth yet. we don’t want to see her multi-tasking

    2. DarkoNeko

      hahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaaha XD

    3. Screwball

      XD That would fire her up a bit, I’m guessing… 😛

    4. Willoughby Chase

      That Carla *is* the All New Ding Dong Bandit, which may ring a bell.

  6. Kelli217

    I hope Mary doesn’t have Zeno-phobia.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Do you mean Xenophobia or is that a reference of some kind?

      1. Kamino Neko

        Presumably a reference to Zeno of Elea, known for his paradoxes (especially Achilles and the Tortoise and the Dichotomy Paradox, which are basically the same thing), although the Irresistible Force Paradox wasn’t actually one of his.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          I heard of that Zeno but I thought it might have been some kind of modern TV/movie reference.

        2. Rutee

          The paradoxes don’t really make sense here though. I would have thought Zeno of Citium, one of the better-remembered stoics. After all, Carla can only bother Mary if Mary allows herself to be bothered.

        3. Kamino Neko

          They specifically reference the Irresistible Force Paradox (with Mary claiming to be an immovable object, and Carla referencing the Irresistible Force – though she seems to think it’s an Unstoppable Force based upon her pun), so…paradoxes are involved, just none of Zeno’s.

        4. Rutee

          Well yeah, but they’re not Zeno of Elea’s paradoxes. That’s why I think it’s Zeno of Citium, though it’d admittedly be a bit of a sideways reference to stoicism without some line of his or a different stoic’s.

        5. Silly Name

          I always found Zeno of Elea’s paradoxes to be silly and not really paradoxes at all; they’ve been demonstrated false anyway. Achilles will get to the finish line before the turtle and the arrow will reach its target.
          What people forget about Zeno’s paradoxes is that he wanted to demonstrate that there was a discrepancy between pure logical thought and the physical world, since his philosophy was that the physical world was an illusion of the senses and the real world existed as a realm of pure logic.

    2. Kelli217

      Wow, nobody?

      Carla, Ultra-Car… the misattribution of Zeno to the irresistible force vs. immovable object being from an episode of Knight Rider (“Trust Don’t Rust”)… a show that featured a sentient car…

      Oh, never mind. I went too obscure with that one.

      1. No Name

        Hey, at least we got half of it. Sort of.

  7. Memyself

    Super rude.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      Which one?

      1. TheNinthShader

        All of them?

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Right answer.

  8. shadowcell

    ah, mary, still unencumbered by redeeming qualities

    1. Doctor_Who

      Nonsense. She looks like she’d make an excellent draft excluder.

      1. Screwball

        Not really, she’d make too much noise when you kick her out of the way, not to mention the extra power you’d have to put into the kick to get her out of the way…

        ..OK guys, you don’t have to put THAT much more power into it. Yes, I know who it is…

    2. AgentKeen

      …She likes to read?

      1. DarkoNeko

        \o/

    3. timemonkey

      Her rates are quite reasonable!

    4. Matt

      She’s the perfect height for jumping.

    5. Peduncle

      Pennys rule.

    6. Willoughby Chase

      She hasn’t reached her ultimate form but she’s now a speed bump.

  9. Spencer

    Mary if your course of action can only end up being part of a visual gag, you deserve what happens next.

    1. Matt

      Ya but you have to admit she was just kind of asking for it.

      1. Adam Black

        that has ‘unfortunate implications’ when you consider the visual pun

  10. gkheyf

    mary frowns at your upskirt shot

    1. gkheyf

      …and everything else, for that matter

    2. linkman0596

      unfortunately I think this is where this storyline is going, i’m almost afraid to look tomorrow

      1. Viktoria

        Well, Carla’s already out to the IU bureaucracy, so she can’t be thrown out of the dorm. Ruth hates Mary and anything that requires work on her part, so I can’t see her trying to “do something” about Carla unless she’s ordered to. The floor probably is fairly conservative as a whole, but they’d have to side with Mary to act on it and who wants to do that? Nah, Carla being outed would be bad, but she’d probably make it through.

        And if we get Joyce and Mary throwing Bible quotes at each other in the hallway shot like a western shootout, I’ll double my Patreon contribution instantly.

        1. Cody B

          The problem is that Mary is the kind to make this a moral issue, get newspapers involved and organize a sizable protest in front of her classes every day because “its the right thing to do.”

        2. Cerberus

          That… would sadly be realistic.

        3. Disloyal Subject

          Huh. Is there any solution to that? All I can think of is “wait for them to get tired of it/ find something else to do” or physical violence, and I doubt either of those would solve anything… The violence in particular would cause new problems…

        4. Regalli

          We can guess IU is on her side, and if things caused a big enough stir to go public they’d probably attract the attention of civil liberties organizations.

        5. Cerberus

          Yeah, and the student body would probably be willing to do at least a small counterprotest (there were often religious bigots who invaded our campus to scream about the evils of gay and trans people and they usually all developed quick counter-protests). But it doesn’t mean Mary couldn’t harass Carla and make enough of a stink to make Carla’s existence in the dorms “controversial”.

        6. No Name

          Not to mention the fact that the publicity might rake up things Carla doesn’t want raked up. As many people have said, her womanhood is hard won, and being outed would ruin that, at least in the short run.

          Although, depending on how supportive her parents are, and exactly how stinkin’ rich, Carla might threaten to sue Mary if she ever does make it public.

        7. Leorale

          Oh man, the best counterprotests I’ve seen involve people standing next to PP protesters with signs for *everything*. Signs like, ‘Pro-Dog!” and “Unicorns are real!” and “More bananas!” and “I HAVE A SIGN!” It’s great.

        8. DarkoNeko

          Nooo no no no no.

        9. Murphy

          She can try but considering that Carla is out to the administrative staff and possibly legally female I don’t know if Mary could gain a lot of traction. I don’t know what kind of trans protection laws there are in Indiana, if any, but since the school is private property they could disperse any protest pretty quickly.

        10. Kryss LaBryn

          Sal already knows, and says she doesn’t care; others may already consider it a non-issue (as it should be) too.

      2. gkheyf

        me too. your carlavatar however seems to be thinking “bring it”

      3. Toad

        Eh, she’s probably got shorts on under that skirt. I find it unlikely that any lady who spent that much time on skates would wear a skirt that short without something suitably junk-covering underneath, regardless of the nature of that junk.

      4. JQuire

        I dunno, with the angle and with her legs tucked up for the hop…unless she’s endowed like an ivy I doubt that Carla has too much to worry about in terms of Mary’s line of sight.

      5. Emma

        I don’t think he would do that. Even if Mary did look up her skirt, I bet Carla is wearing underwear. I’m not so great with trans issues and all that, and am fighting accidental transphobic comments all the time, but I think Carla would be able to pin herself back? Or wear underwear that conceals herself? Idk, I just really don’t think he would do that. I could be wrong though.

        1. Pizkie

          “She”. Carla is a woman, so “she/her” are the correct pronouns. Using the right pronouns is one way to avoid being accidentally transphobic 🙂

        2. JQuire

          I think Emma’s got that one down, and was referring to Willis as well as Carla in her post.

        3. Emma

          The he’s were meant to refer to Willis! Sorry if that was unclear.

    3. Willoughby Chase

      Maybe Mary likes meat and two veg?

  11. Ridureyu

    A rule broken? This looks like a job for Amazi-wait, no.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      Carla DID already hold her down against her will once, albeit with help, so she might be nursing a grudge, and acting on it might force Sal to track down Amazi-pants again to ‘encourage’ her to retire, which could get messy… I don’t think that’ll happen though. I’m enjoying today’s strip too much to consider the fallout of Amber’s current emotional & psychological state.

  12. Mr. Mendo

    Carla and Mary are the new Tom & Jerry!

    It’s true because it rhymes!

    1. Doctor_Who

      I sympathized with Tom far more than I do with Mary.

      1. Blackbird

        Wait, I always thought Jerry was supposed to be the jerk.

        1. Doctor_Who

          Well, in some cartoons Tom just wanted to eat Jerry, and Jerry only fought back in self defense.

          In others he was a little asshole who fucked with Tom for no reason.

        2. Disloyal Subject

          In short, they’re both antagonistic little fiends. As expected fron a cat and a mouse.
          And yet we love them anyway.

    2. gkheyf

      only with sadly less physical violence <: (

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Considering that these comic characters lack the elastic durability of Hanna-Barbera characters, I don’t think that’s sad.

    3. Captain Button

      More like the Roadrunner and the Coyote.

      1. Deanatay

        You are correct, sir!

        *Carla skates by*
        MEEP MEEP! pblbllblblbt!
        Mary: *silent frustrated rage* *Calls ACME*

        1. tim guegue

          Does she whip out a card that says “Mary E. Coyote, Super Genius?”

    4. Gamaran Sepudomyn

      But Tom and Jerry cooperated sometimes.

  13. Viktoria

    Mary’s face in the final panel is a perfect justification for anything ever. Carla could punch a baby as long as it makes Mary look like that. (not that it would, Mary doesn’t actually care about anyone else)

  14. Eric

    Stop having fuunnnn! You can’t have fuuunnn! Your actions offend the fiber of my being!

    1. Captain Button

      I must not have fun. Fun is the time-killer. Fun is for
      inferiors, servants and the help. I will ignore fun. I will work through it. And when the fun is gone only I will remain–I, and my will to win. Damn, I’m good.
      –The Litany Against Fun (-Doon- ,Harvard Lampoon)

  15. Yotomoe

    How do her wheels even have enough traction? The dorms must have pretty shallow carpeting.

    1. Matt

      Because she’s Carla

      1. DarkoNeko

        She got Air Gear regalias.

    2. Ana Chronistic

      some have linoleum (or whatever) flooring–one of the boys’ dorms at our college did, the girls’ didn’t

    3. Doctor_Who

      I can confirm that the carpeting in my doom hallways was approximately 1% softer than the hard floor underneath.

      I had the opportunity to give this fact an exhaustive study when I got locked out of my room, and my roommate was 45 minutes away.

      1. Betty Anne

        ^ This. The guys on the fourth floor of our dorm regularly practiced dribbling their basketball all the way up from the sidewalk to their room, and at least one person skateboarded the halls. Our carpeting was best described as a stone floor that gave you rug burn if you fell. 😐

    4. Kamino Neko

      I’ve never seen carpeting in a public place that wouldn’t be better described as a woven mat. It generally has less of a pile than a desk occupied only by a single sheet of paper.

      1. StClair

        This, right here.

  16. izumi ryu

    She’s gonna cause Mary to go over the edge and just start causing Hell for everyone, isn’t she?

    1. gkheyf

      ……surely we can’t rob satan of most of the credit for her behavior?

      1. Satan

        Don’t blame me for her actions.

        1. No Name

          Apparently the RNG responsible for Grav assignment has a sense of humor.

        2. Solenoid

          Speak of the devil, and he shall appear, I guess.

  17. Blackbird

    Oh Carla, you’re so irresistible.

  18. John

    Did Mary mug Joyce for her boots?

    1. gkheyf

      no, the single pair of dorm uggs is on a squad rotation cycle

      1. saltchocolate

        All the rest are apparently on my campus.

  19. Hermit Hoover

    I can’t see how on Earth she would have thought this would have worked.

    1. DarkoNeko

      On the other hand, what else could she have done, spiked the ground ?

      1. Captain Button

        Clothesline.

      2. Toad

        Studied in the library where there’s a reasonable expectation of silence, I guess.

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Yeah, but then she’d have to wear pants! Or a skirt; whatever. Is there a general name for legwear? She’s wearing pants now, so I’m defaulting to those.

        2. Betty Anne

          Carla suggested she call a cop…that doesn’t require pants.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Creating a minor inconvenience opens up more opportunities for her to be smug and self-reitous.

  20. Alice Macher

    Carla not only outsmarted Mary; she out-physicsed her!

    1. saltchocolate

      This.^

  21. lime sheep

    damn it mary stop making me like things about you

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Why does 4th panel Mary have to look so fine?

      1. Captain Button

        She’s beautiful when she’s angry?

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          She didn’t look all that great the other time she was angry and that included her being nude.

        2. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          I think it may be the way her hair is spread out.

  22. Xerxes93

    I LOVE CARLA SO MUCH!!!

    and man, that was a poorly thought out plan on Mary’s part. what if Carla couldn’t jump her? She’d have just rammed into Mary, and Mary would’ve just ended up with a front-of-skate shaped bruise on her side.

    1. Viktoria

      But then Mary gets to complain and get Carla punished, whereas if she complains now she’ll just be laughed at despite being technically correct. Mary doesn’t actually care about accomplishing anything positive(seriously, how does this make it easier to study), Mary just wants other people to suffer.

      1. DarkoNeko

        Mary is a misanthrope and want to study the fuck in peace.

        1. saltchocolate

          To study the fuck she needs to be in Dorothy’s room . . . or Ruth’s room (but we really can’t let that happen).

        2. Tacos

          She’d just be trying to condemn the participant’s for pre-marital hanky panky.

        3. DarkoNeko

          I’m sure Other Carla offers that, too.

        4. DarkoNeko

          ‘s room.
          Boy that came out totally wrong.

        5. saltchocolate

          😀

      2. Killian

        Yeah, if Mary was seriously trying to study, there’s the library.

        1. Cerberus

          This. Mary doesn’t give a fuck about her studying. It’s the middle of the day and college halls are going to be filled with noise. If she wants to day study, cramming things in before class, she can throw on headphones or jaunt down to the library or grab a bench near class.

          But she doesn’t care about studying. Studying is just the excuse. What she wants is confrontation and a chance to ruin someone’s good time. And she cares more about this than her own academic success (even if she convinced Carla to move on, what is she going to do about the gaggle of students flooding into and out of class very shortly or all the conversations that will typically happen in the halls? Hell, she’s really lucky her only distraction right now is a skater punk.)

        2. Solenoid

          Counterargument: Libraries on college campuses are frequently louder than the dorms.

        3. Disloyal Subject

          Unfortunately true. And trees don’t have surfaces flat enough to write on.
          Halls, staircases, and roofs are adequate alternatives, though, as are empty classrooms.

        4. Regalli

          Lower floor, yes, but there are usually specific study rooms for the “I need quiet, now” type.

        5. Cerberus

          And have quiet study rooms in them or floors which are designated quiet floors and separated from the main flow of traffic. Quiet study spaces actually tend to be littered all over campus if she needs absolute quiet. And if the sounds of skates on carpet is too much for her, then girl needs to invest in some sort of system to start blocking sound for when everyone starts getting to know each other enough that dorm parties start becoming frequent.

        6. DarkoNeko

          There is no one else in the wing corridor right now, it seems.

        7. DarkoNeko

          Yeah, if she wanna do something, she can do it elsewhere, where do you think she is, in her room ?

          pff.

        8. Rutee

          Uh, yeah. Dorms aren’t quiet in the day. Whether it’s ‘her room’ is irrelevant, because that room is in the dorms. If she needs or prefers quiet, I empathize, but dorms aren’t where you go.

        9. Cerberus

          This.

          She’s in her room in a dorm which is a loud abrasive communal living space filled with kids living away from home for the first time and being loud and stupid.

          She’s not in a suburban neighborhood in a quiet locale with thick walls. At this time of day in her room there’ll be all manner of background noise, from outside in the courtyard, from the other dorms, from the hall. That she lucked into a quiet patch when the majority of her floor is at class doesn’t mean that she’s obligated to always have said quiet patch or a guarantee that someone won’t be doing something dumb and loud with said quiet patch (see Carla).

        10. Leorale

          Mary needs earplugs. So do people around Mary.

        11. Adam Black

          Really?
          My home growing up was just Limeboard,
          and the dorms I had in College had solid Cement Cinderblock walls.

          In the daytime I was far more likely to be disturbed by noises outside than inside.

    2. John

      Or worse, what if Carla had tried to jump her and failed. Having Carla land skate-first in her gut wouldn’t have been a whole lot of fun, even if Mary got to get Carla in trouble for it afterwards.

      And the first rung in the complaint ladder is Ruth, who’d probably cite Mary for roughhousing in the halls and give Carla a high five.

    3. Skizz

      Or, having eyes, she just would have stopped.

    4. segnosaur

      I suspect that the hallways was long enough so that Carla would have had plenty of time to stop without ever having to either jump Mary, or to run into her.

  23. Klokwerks

    These two kinda deserve each other, huh?

    1. gkheyf

      i dub thee “ship-tastrophe!”

      1. Extreme Atomic Marine

        As in the Mary Celeste?

        1. MatthewtheLucky

          Mary Carleste.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          A mysterious ship indeed.

  24. Jupiterror

    never would have thought Mary and Carla shenanigans would be so adorable

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      A hard-line holy-than-thou fundie Christian girl and a bad boy turned girl from the wrong side of the (skating)track hooking up? Now that’s a yuri manga I would read.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        I don’t even read yuri and I’d read that.

      2. Knightsky

        “J-just because I think you’re a heather sinner who’s going to burn in Hell doesn’t mean I l-l-like you.

        Baka! no baka!”

  25. IDontcarenomore

    Mary doesn’t like to be thwarted.
    Carla doesn’t care what Mary likes. Go Carla.

  26. Captain Button

    Beware the Skate Cops!

  27. Cattleprod

    Hmm, what would it take to make Mary sympathetic, aside from comparing her to an outright villain like Blaine? I was thinking Raidah, since her character arc amounts to being annoyed that her friend didn’t overdose and die, but I could see Mary laughing at someone who actually did OD because they ‘got what they deserved’ or something similarly judgy.

    1. Lord Stoneheart

      I thought Raidah was upset that Sarah got Dana removed from school, and she didn’t understand that Dana was in a much worse place than she appeared to be? (Because according to Sarah’s story, Dana did an okay job with putting a happy face for her friends)

      1. Cattleprod

        Yeah, I know I’m stripping out all the nuance, but in the best case scenario where Raidah has no idea how bad the drug problem is, Dana’s still the one breaking the law and putting Sarah at risk of being wrongly accused by association. There’s multiple reasons why Sarah’s in the right there.

        1. Lord Stoneheart

          I think Raidah is a petty bully who’s convinced that they are righteous in being a severe asshole. And that Sarah did the right thing. (At least with the info we have now. But Sarah did the right thing with the info she had too).

          Saying that Raidah is mad her friend didn’t overdose and die isn’t stripping nuance though, it makes Raidah into some kind of evil monster. She doesn’t have to be an evil monster to be in the wrong you know.

    2. Cerberus

      Hmm, probably would have to have some background of suffering, but even with that, I’m not sure much would excuse the judgmental, petty, and overall mean streak she’s got. I think you’d really need a full conversion arc ala Billie with recognizing the downside of her behavior and right now, I think she’s serving as too good a potential foil for too many characters.

      1. Rutee

        Yep. In principle, even Ross or Blaine is nominally redeemable, but either is far too toxic to the only people who have any real stake in trying. “How can this person be redeemed” is sometimes a question who’s only honest answer is “By becoming a different person.”

      2. Leorale

        In the original Roomies, many many years ago, Mary was originally intended to be a Manic Pixie Dreamgirl for Roomies!Danny. Willis put all the traits he liked onto her: dark hair and eyes, Christianity, likes to draw. But then, as soon as he started writing her, Willis immediately rebelled against his own plan! She became a moralizing hypocrite, and she’s much more useful this way.

        1. Leorale

          Oh yeah, here we go! Blast into the past:
          http://www.bringbackroomies.com/comic/mary-nono-nono-send-her-back/

    3. The Candyman

      Maybe more interaction with Joyce? She’s probably Mary’s only friend at this point. The contrast between them would be interesting, especially with how much Joyce has developed.

    4. Adam Black

      Im fairly certain Raidah knows “didn’t overdose and die” is impossible smoking marijuana.
      Im not sure if you know that

      1. Cattleprod

        Huh, I misremembered, I guess I assumed she progressed to harder drugs or something, but I don’t think the strip ever actually says that.

  28. Extreme Atomic Marine

    Gas powered rump-jet™

    1. Captain Button

      A Turbo-boost, like Kitt?

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Skate Rider. A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who no longer exists(due to gender reassignment).

      2. Screwball

        “FUEL THE BOOSTERS!!!”
        *Starts eating can after can of beans…*

  29. dailybrad

    I was honestly expecting her to just run her over, but I guess that’d have seen Carla flying, and we haven’t seen her be physically hostile that I can recall, just surly.

    1. Someone

      It turns out that Mary is actually a complete badass, who can take every other character at the same time, and win.

      1. John

        I dunno, in the other universe Billie laid her out with one punch. And Billie’s not one of the people who had superpowers in the other universe.

        1. Ana Chronistic

          She DID learn how to fight from Walky tho

  30. Graham

    Man, do I feel sympathy with Mary? What have you done Willis!

    1. Thor

      I know, right? There were times in college I was trying to concentrate and get shit done, and yet there was some inconsiderate yutz out in the hall loudly screwing around like they were the only person in the building. Look, Carla–you have new skates and I’m sure that’s just lovely, but why don’t you take that crap outside?

      Of course it will take more than just this incident to get me onto Team Mary, but it is still a decent start.

      1. gkheyf

        yes, this is all true. like, who watches loud youtube videos without headphones? at midnight? in a building with more than one occupant?

        seriously, i can’t tell if it’s my roommate or the neighbor below me, but it’s slowly driving me insane

        1. Disloyal Subject

          If it keeps up, share the madness.
          Vengeance is not sweet; it’s more savory.

      2. Viktoria

        It’s the daytime. Sure, if it’s night making noise is a problem, but in the middle of the day there’s going to be 3 people playing completely different loud music, a CoD tournament in somebody’s room, and a guy with no volume control having a normal conversation that could be heard 2 buildings over. Mary doesn’t care about any of that, she’s objecting to the relatively quiet skates. If this was about studying, she’d have put on headphones rather than lying in the middle of the floor. Mary just sees someone who she can make sad and justify it with a rule and she’s taking the opportunity.

        1. Ana Chronistic

          no, she just wants to be right

          there’s a difference

        2. Cerberus

          This.

          If this was 3am? She’s got a point. If this was 10pm? She’s got a point. If this was final’s week? She’s got a point.

          But it’s early in the semester in the middle of the damn day. She’s lucky if Carla is the only damn distraction outside her room right now, because typically the hall at this time is an orchestra of opening and closing doors, conversations in the hall, and so on. That it’s dead outside minus Carla is a Bob damn miracle and if that is still too distracting, then lady, invest in some god damn headphones.

        3. Petra

          Yeeeah… gotta agree here. It was somewhat annoying if people were rowdy in the dorms in the middle of the day on a typical week, but I could just take a walk or put in earplugs. It’s only after 10 pm or during certain weeks I get really ANGRY at noise.

        4. ninja_jesus

          Or she doesn’t have anything to block out the ambient noise.

        5. Cerberus

          Then girl needs to get something for her own benefit for the days when the noise isn’t just a rebel girl skating indoors.

        6. Kryss LaBryn

          And yet I can see fingers from here.

        7. T

          It’s still inconsiderate. Carla doesn’t need to skate in the hall, especially when she knows it’s bothering someone. If it’s daytime, can’t she go outside or to a park or something? I know Mary isn’t very nice, to put it lightly, and her way of handling this situation is petty and immature, but Carla really should have just gone outside to skate.

      3. Murphy

        As a skater I wouldn’t want to try out new skates outside – using indoor wheels outside messes them up pretty badly, and if you have outdoor wheels that you can change out then that’s still going to be a chore and also each set of wheels feels differently. So if she got new boots, plates, wheels, etc then switching out her wheels wouldn’t really be “the same.” When I got my new skates I tried them at the indoor practice space that my league owns, but not all leagues have their own practice space and also Carla doesn’t seem to be involved with a specific league.
        Also can’t Mary use, like, headphones? When my roommates are making noise in the middle of the day I put in my ear buds and listen to music without lyrics to help me concentrate. They have a right to make noise at reasonable times and I have a right to concentrate and those things can coexist.

        1. Thor

          Some of us can’t concentrate on new stuff while listening to music, as the music keeps competing for attention.

          And really Mary should not have to alter her behavior because someone else is both being inconsiderate *and* breaking the dorm rules. Regardless of which character is more likeable, Carla is the one in the wrong here and therefore should be the one to alter her behavior.

        2. Murphy

          Altering your behavior to maintain a peaceful living situation is a huge part of communal living so if Mary can’t do that or believes she shouldn’t she’s gonna have a bad time.

        3. Betty Anne

          ^ This. After reading comment after comment about Carla being inconsiderate &etc, all I could think was, “Definitely not ruining MY new skates by taking them outside,” and it’s be something like 20 or 25 years since I’ve skated. ^^;

          …or am I actually showing my age now? Are kids today heathens who ruin the wheels of their skates on dirt and gravel? O.O

  31. les-be-friends dinosaurs

    We are just delaying the ineveiablity of Danny and Amaziber girls break up and his eventual journy to Ethan’s arms.

    1. Thor

      You say that like it is as good as done, but remember that this is Danny that we are talking about. He has the extraordinary ability to even get horrible ugly break-ups wrong. Somehow, he will not properly seal the deal on the break-up, pursue Ethan, and somehow wind up dating Joyce (providing her with incontrovertible proof that there is no God, or if there is one, he’s an ass).

      1. saltchocolate

        Danny and Joyce????

        *imagination runs with the ball*

        I get to the 20 yard line and fumble. That ship is a nonstarter. Especially because Joyce is going to end up with Joe. I can already see her drawing hearts around their closely-matched names….

        1. Screwball

          “I say, what is that there ship you seem to be trying to build?”
          “Why, it’s the SS Jojoyce, why do you ask good sir?”
          “Hmmm, well, with all the shouting coming from on board, it doesn’t seem to be very sturdy…”
          (Distant shouting) “Hey, ladies, you can help me sink my ship anytime…”
          (More distant shouting) “PREMARITAL HANKY PANKY!!!”

          “Give it time, give it time, she’ll sail, just you wait…”

        2. lime sheep

          joe/joyce is on the fast track to success especially with how much joyce is questioning her upbringing lately.
          i doubt joe will be as on board with it as he initially was, though. he might have to question his ban on “stuff”.

        3. saltchocolate

          Yeah, the tables will be turned, I predict. Joyce will have to persuade Joe that she’s sincere and put up with his resistance. Maybe he’ll have Mike to protect him from her! *mwah-hahaha!* (to quote the alt-text…)

        4. DarkoNeko

          Won’t be much of a relationship if it’s just a one night stand.

        5. Spencer

          Joe/Joyce did actually happen in one universe.

        6. Thor

          And in that universe it was built up to well and made a heck of a lot of sense. I was personally very disappointed that it didn’t continue, as it made more sense than the Walky-Joyce relationship, at least to me. (MHO, and all that.)

        7. Spencer

          I was actually referring to the alternate universe shown in Joyce & Walky!, the one Head Alien II was from. In that verse, Walky never joined SEMME and married Dorothy, and Joe and Joyce were together.

          But, yeah, Joe and Joyce’s not entirely platonic friendship in It’s Walky! was genuinely great.

  32. FR

    Honestly I’m really glad that Mary is making an appearance and I hope her character is given some depth and treated with some basic dignity after how horribly her character arc ended in Roomies.
    I get that she’s an unrepentent jerk, and that her storyline here is seperate from her storyline in Roomies, but ever since then I’ve sort of been on her side no matter how flawed she is, because she didn’t deserve what she got.

  33. AgentKeen

    Come on, Mary. Even if Carla was going to play by your rules, you don’t look like you’re covering the whole hall.

  34. Triniking1234

    Mary’s just trying to look up Carla’s skirt.

    1. Someone

      She’s upset because, she was hoping that Carla would jump over her head.

      1. Screwball

        You mean, as Carla jumps over, do a 180 spin so she faces Mary’s head the whole way, landing backwards? If that’s what floats her boat…

  35. Kaara

    I ship it.

  36. Minder

    carla at the point where you make me sympathize with mary more than you it’s time to please go skate outside (or switch POVs again)

  37. miz

    I’m honestly more impressed that Mary is willing to lay down on nasty public dorm flooring. Like?? I can’t imagine that’s even remotely sanitary???

    1. DarkoNeko

      It looks comfy enough.

      1. Tacos

        You ever sat on one of those cheap carpets? They are not comfy at all.

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Some of us prefer to rest on a firm surface.

        2. No Name

          There’s “firm” and then there’s “rock hard”. And rock hard is never comfortable.

        3. Knightsky

          As a child Mary was framed for a crime she did not commit. She spent a few years in a French (juvie) prison before escaping and soon after establishing a new identity for herself, as she plots her revenge on those who wronged her. However, due to her year in juvie, she now finds that she cannot sleep in an actual bed, as she grew used to sleeping on the hard prison floor.

        4. Disloyal Subject

          “Never say never.” One of my top 10 best nights of sleep was on a boulder.

  38. NinjaNick

    Clever Carla.

  39. Captain Button

    Needs more Sal motorcycle interceptions.

    1. gkheyf

      sal’s about to jump mary after she stands up

      1. Captain Button

        In slow motion, with a spin-around camera angle?

      2. Plasma Mongoose

        I didn’t know Sal swung that way, let alone in Mary’s direction. o_O

        1. TheGrammarLegionary

          Oh, I imagine Sal would LOVE to swing certain things in Mary’s direction.

          Mostly fists.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          OOOOOOOOOOH FISTING… 😛

  40. AY

    I’m a little bit with Mary on this one. I like when people don’t break the rules because I can’t handle the ensuing fallout or loud ruckus. Seems like Mary just hates fun, though, I dunno if she has anxiety about it or not…

  41. Stephen R. Bierce

    Steering with her knees/She got both hands free/Got Cruise Control you know…

    1. Ghostforge

      You know she used to have to wait around,
      She used to be the lonely one,
      But now that she can skate around town,
      She’s the only one

  42. Derek

    Did Mary honestly think Carla’s first choice would be to stop doing the Fun Thing to avoid hurting her?
    Even if Carla is not overly familiar with Mary yet I’m sure her order of possible actions is 1) jump over Mary 2) run over Mary (82 more options) 85)stop skating so Mary doesn’t get hurt

    1. Cerberus

      Yeah, seriously, even if all Mary knows of Carla is this encounter, she’s already seen that Carla doesn’t give a fuck and is pretty anti-authoritarian. So, yeah, what was she expecting to happen? Carla to go, oh no, the route is blocked, that is sad, I guess you’re right Mary, I’m sorry. No, she’s going to sass back.

  43. Catullus

    After the Rossocalypse and its full month of adrenaline, this arc is a welcome change of pace.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Sheningans are fun !

      also we commenters manages to disagree on stuff no matter the subject, it seems.

      1. Captain Button

        Welcome to the Internet.

        1. Screwball

          The day everyone on the internet agrees, will be the 1st day of the apocalypse…

          …Even if aliens were invading & wiping all you meatsacks out, you’ll get people going “About time, this species is doomed to wipe itself out, may as well get it over with…”

        2. inqntrol

          “Why not blow up ourselves right now?”
          Meanwhile in SPAAAACE(cough)
          “Captain, it appears the humans have launched missiles all over their planet, they are going to be exterminated.”
          “Oh man, and we wanted to give them all space cakes(lol) as a sign of peace.”

    2. TheGrammarLegionary

      Considering that the rampage of Toedad was preceded by about five similar cutaways, it feels appropriate to say only ‘Prepare yours feels.’

  44. shoeboxjeddy

    Mary… what is the PLAN here?! Let’s say she doesn’t hop you. She’ll slam into your side full force. Sure she’ll be hurt from the fall maybe, but getting kicked full force in the side by a roller skate won’t feel like a fresh Spring breeze. You just didn’t think this through!

    1. Toad

      Then she can go to administration and say “look at this bruise; you need to do something about this!”

      1. Cerberus

        Which would last right up until she had to note that she got the bruise deliberately lying in the path of another student.

        Hell, the best she can really hope for is an official reprimand from the school for Carla for unapproved use of skates indoors.

        1. Toad

          Eh, lying on the floor isn’t against the rules; skating is. All she wants is the “bad” behavior to be punished, and I imagine an official reprimand would count for that, especially as it would give her grounds for future complaints and escalating punishments if Carla keeps this up.

  45. Rutee

    On some level I find the recurring, but mercifully minority-seeming, view that “MAN HOW CAN I SYMPATHIZE WITH MARY HERE” amusing. Like, seriously, folks, it’s daylight – probably around noon- in a dorm. If you expect quiet, you’re just plain old in the wrong! This is a living space with tons of people. Yes, people /should/ be quiet at night; sleep and studies are both important. 12 hours later, I’d sympathize, and some of you are being reminded of cases where people were making noise at night. But none of that means a thing here! It’s daylight, so Mary has a clear alternative where quiet is enforced.

    1. Cerberus

      This. All the this.

      Mary has no ground to stand on except maybe rules about the allowed places to use things like skates, bicycles, or skateboards.

      1. DarkoNeko

        WHY would you purposely skate in the hall, on a sunny day ?

        1. Cerberus

          I dunno, but then kids do all manner of dumb loud shit in dorms.

          It may be as simple as the fact that this being prime class time means that the pathways are potentially clogged up enough with students that it would be dangerous to skate outside and so would be grounded.

          Or just Carla testing out her new blades for rough surfaces.

    2. lime sheep

      i dont sympathize at all, i dont even have a problem studying in lots of noise. i just somehow ended up finding the unnecessary lengths shed go to be trouble for someone a lot more endearing when its over something so petty and ultimately non-harmful.
      usually i cant appreciate it because all that comes out of her mouth is bigotry.

  46. Dean

    Cut to Mary building ever-larger and more elaborate obstacles, and growing ever more frustrated as Carla jumps them.

    Also, I think this is the longest conversation that Mary has had with anyone.

  47. Professor Fate

    Hah! Mary’s finally found her niche in life; a speed bump. Next she needs to practice her newfound skill in a parking lot.

  48. Bagge

    Curses! Foiled!

  49. Gentleman Mummy

    This feel’s like the comic’s equivalent of Garfield squashing spiders.

  50. Benjy

    Is it weird that I now ship it?

    1. Someone

      I ship it, but only for the irony

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Crack couples are a big time in fanfiction.

    3. Screwball

      You ship it?

      1. Benjy

        I SHIP IT

      2. Kamino Neko

        I knew what that was gonna be…

        And now I’m earwormed (with a mashup of that and the original).

    4. Benjy

      Oh sod, I just remembered that Carla’s asexual. Any word on whether she’s aro too?

      1. MeghanTheDreamCrusher

        Carla is homoromantic.

        1. Benjy

          THEN MY SHIP STILL SAILS!

  51. Kay

    ………..Are they going to end up dating????????

    I don’t quite ship it, but. I feel like Carla/Another asshole is a universal constant for shipping.

  52. Shanunu

    What was she thinking here? What if Carla couldn’t jump? Mary would have gotten seriously hurt.

    How did she make it to college???

    1. Ana Chronistic

      sometimes people want justification, so I can totes see, “YOU ASSAULTED ME I WILL GET YOU THROWN OUT”

    2. DarkoNeko

      Like Joyce, Mary is from a particular community.

  53. 6Qubed

    Sticking it to a fundie, +5 cool points.

    That pun, -5 cool points.

  54. Cass

    The middle panels are the closest I’ve ever come to liking Mary. Not because I approve of what she’s doing, just because it’s such a ridiculous level of spite that she’s temporarily reached the point of amusingly awful for me. Just look at that freaking smirk she’s wearing over her “clever” plan, you are reaching Snidely Whiplash levels of self-satisfied dastardliness, lady.

    1. Jesse

      It’s like she tied herself to the train tracks.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Oh merciful heavens, that’s a hilarious mental image; Mary in full bandito regalia with fringed chaps over trousers, a red bandanna, and a cowboy hat smirking that she tied the only available hostage, herself, to the tracks.

        1. inqntrol

          She could make a good Dalton Sibling. Their long lost sister, Mary the Grumpy.

    2. Kamino Neko

      Yes…the grin of evil glee in the second-to-last panel is hilarious.

  55. Tacos

    Now I’m just waiting for Ruth to show up to chew out Mary for being a tripping hazard.

    As for people sympathizing with Mary, as others have pointed out it’s still daylight. It’s probably not even noon yet. Of course there’s gonna be loud noises during the day. Sure, Mary could be annoyed by the noises but that’s what headphones or going to the library are for. It’s pretty clear that Mary cares more about being a nuisance to others than actually supposedly studying because otherwise she wouldn’t go out of her way to lay down on the floor to be an obstacle.

    1. Nono

      It doesn’t mean people can’t be annoyed at Carla though. She doesn’t really have a defense here.

    2. Cerberus

      So much this!

    3. segnosaur

      Even though Mary is, for the most part, an annoying person…

      If someone else (Carla) is making excessive noise in the halls, why exactly should the person who is trying to study (Mary) be inconvenienced? And some of the suggestions that have been made are not always practical… some people don’t actually study as well when wearing headphones. And simply going to the library would mean taking a good chunk of time out from actually studying. (You also risk leaving some study materials behind in the trip to the library.)

      1. Tacos

        Well it’s the middle of the day, there are bound to be a bunch of people making noise as they come and go to class not even counting any other things students might be doing like socializing. We also don’t see anybody else coming out of their rooms to ask Carla to be less loud or to stop so that must mean people don’t really mind. Mary literally doesn’t give a damn about studying. She only cares about using it as an excuse to enforce something so that she can “win”. If it really was an actual problem, she could take up Carla’s suggestion and tell an authority figure. The RA is literally down the hall, that’s -what- a 2 minute walk? Or she could go to another authority figure if she doesn’t want to talk to Ruth. But no, instead of that, what does she do? She lays down in the middle of the hall where she not only will be an obstacle to Carla and other students walking by but also will make it harder for herself to study. Studying isn’t important to her, just “winning” this confrontation and being in the right is all that she cares about.

        1. segnosaur

          * Well it’s the middle of the day, there are bound to be a bunch of people making noise as they come and go to class not even counting any other things students might be doing like socializing.

          I’m sure there are. But the question is, how loud are Carla’s skates? If they are significantly louder than what you would expect from regular ambient noise, then I think there would be a reason to complain.

          The fact that some noise is allowed/expected doesn’t mean that ALL noise is expected.

          * We also don’t see anybody else coming out of their rooms to ask Carla to be less loud or to stop so that must mean people don’t really mind.

          Or it could also mean that everyone else is in class.

          If Carla is being disruptive, it doesn’t matter if only one person is bothered, the disruptive person should stop.

          * Mary literally doesn’t give a damn about studying.

          We don’t really see any prove of that. Remember, in the previous strip we DID see her actually reading a book. Mary is a Class-A jerk. But that doesn’t necessarily mean she doesn’t have a valid complaint here.

          * The RA is literally down the hall,

          Assuming that Ruth is actually in. And if she is, that she’d actually answer her door. (Remember, in a previous strip she made some sort of comment to Amber that “her door is always open, except for when its not. Which is always.”)

          * Or she could go to another authority figure if she doesn’t want to talk to Ruth.

          So, rather than spend a few seconds asking Carla to stop (or even a couple of minutes to possibly block her), you expect her to spend her time tracking down a security guard, and even if she finds one, they may not respond very quickly.

          * She lays down in the middle of the hall where she not only will be an obstacle to Carla and other students walking by but also will make it harder for herself to study.

          Well, if she had any plan, I suspect she thought Carla (once she found her path in the hall blocked) would go outside. So she’s only have to lay in the hall for a minute or 2 (i.e. less time than it would take to track down a security guard and have them respond.)

        2. Rutee

          Mary is sitting out here to try to stop carla (while lying on that nasty-ass carpet), not bailing to a different space or putting on headphones or covering her ears. She’s proving she doesn’t care about her studying by her actions, dude.

        3. segnosaur

          I’ve already explained why those are impractical solutions…
          – Not everyone is able to concentrate when they are listening to stuff on headphones. Some find it distracting when trying to accomplish certain things
          – Going to a “different space” means packing up whatever resources and hauling them somewhere else, which means a delay in actually doing the studying she wants to do.

        4. Rutee

          Big headphones are noise canceling in their own right. I’ve worn mine just to stop listening to fights or CAH games. I’ll grant IAMA old hag and have learned how to live. And a “delay”? OH FUCKING NO, SHE MIGHT BE SLIGHTLY INCONVENIENCED GETTING A THING SHE ISNT ENTITLED TO. Seriously, do you read what you type?

        5. segnosaur

          Why are you assuming everyone automatically has “big noise-cancelling earphones”? Its been decades that I’ve had a set that would block out noise on their own. Can’t imagine too many students having those sorts of things (since most portable devices use ear-buds now adays.)

        6. Rutee

          I’m not. But it’s a real and lasting solution, and a long term one, especally if she doesn’t live in rural areas or suburbs for the rest of her life. Big headphones are a good idea for shared living space. She should, if she doesn’t already have them, go get them. Because this is not a problem that will go away. Carla stops? There’s still every other student tramping in and out. There’s still the everyday conversations, the communal games, the parties, the random celebrations, the sex, the EVERYTHING ELSE. Carla stopping doesn’t fucking matter to her day any but the most temporary context. If she doesn’t have the money? That’s a damn shame, and she should introduce herself to the study areas. Because again, there is the EFFECTIVE solutions, and the incredibly short term ones.

        7. DarkoNeko

          Midday or no, who in their right state of mind skate *indoor* on a sunny day ?

      2. Kamino Neko

        It’s the middle of the day, and not at exam time. She is not making excessive noise for that situation. She’s only making any kind of noise at all because of Mary.

        Mary is being an unreasonable ass.

        1. segnosaur

          Once again… we don’t know exactly how much noise she’s making. (After all, comic strips are a visual rather than audio medium.)

          If the sound of the skates were similar to (for example) someone in an adjacent room playing the radio on a normal volume, or someone talking in the hallway, then the sounds would be reasonable. However, the sounds did seem to be pretty clearly heard in Mary’s room. It suggests that they were a little louder than you would expect from regular ambient noise.

          As for it being the middle of the day, I suspect that most college residences have rules that limit noise even during the middle of the day. You have a large collection of students, all trying to live and study in the same area. To limit problems, it makes sense to set rules that cause the least amount of disruption.

        2. Kamino Neko

          However, the sounds did seem to be pretty clearly heard in Mary’s room. It suggests that they were a little louder than you would expect from regular ambient noise.

          No, it suggests they are actually exactly as noisy as any other ambient noise in a dorm.

          Footsteps, conversation, laughing, playing music…all perfectly audible.

          Let’s not even talk about the person in the room above you having sex, or walking, or praying.

        3. TheNinthShader

          Woahhhh how does one box the box?

        4. Captain Button

          This is blockquoted text

          [blockquote]This is blockquoted text with the s replaced with []s[/blockquote]

        5. Captain Button

          There should be angle brackets in front of “s” above. I.e. shift-comma and shift-period on a standard QWERTY keyboard. Too lazy to look up how to escape them.

          (We will now fork off a keyboard style flamewar.)

        6. Cerberus

          Yeah, dorm walls are as thin as tissue paper.

        7. segnosaur

          How can you tell how loud her skates are? Seriously?

          If you look at the fonts used in this strip, the skate sounds are done with a fatter letting and red outline. This indicates that the skate sounds are somehow different than what you would expect with conversation; i.e. they may fall outside what you would expect with “ambient noise”.

          In fact, the last time we saw a font that was white with a red outline (using a thicker line) was when Toedad fired his gun, which is generally seen as a rather loud noise.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/category/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/page/4/

      3. Cerberus

        Well, here’s the thing. Dorm living means learning how to live with other people and that means learning to live with distraction. You’ve got a bunch of students who may be used to having their own room in a more spread out, even suburban or rural potentially, and where they could expect their room to be wholly their own, their bathroom to be their own, and all free from distraction and noise.

        Yeah, Carla is being annoying and loud, but that’s one thing one has to learn to adjust to. The roommate with the different beliefs and the annoying habits, having to coordinate shower times with a floor, hearing all manner of banging doors, loud conversations, thumping music, and so on.

        For students like Mary, it’s probably the first time they’ve really had to live in apartment style living and with others who are not immediate family and so that comes with her needing to learn how to grow up and figure out how to handle communal living.

        That means learning not to treat your RA or landlord equivalent like a servant who’s going to drop their life to solve your non-time-dependent problem (I mean, seriously, she’s got a bad relationship with Ruth because she decided to call her incompetent and threaten her just because she didn’t drop going to class to take care of some whiteboard graffiti). That means learning how to politely ask fellow students to keep down noise. That means even more importantly how to design methods of blocking out ambient noise if you need absolute quiet to study (also there are quiet study rooms in various locations throughout the college: https://libraries.indiana.edu/services/herman-b-wells-library, also apparently there is some sort of designated study space inside the actual dorm buildings as well according to this person: http://www.weareiu.com/blog/iu-the-ultimate-college-experience/favorite-study-places-on-ius-campus, so she may only literally need to take the elevator to get to a quiet space).

        It means learning to operate in places that are not ideal. Is Carla deliberately being a nuisance because she’s ecstatically loving her skates? Totes. But that’s a symptom of a larger problem. Mary’s not going to be able to block the path of loud parties on the floor below, angry fights in the halls, a group of loud jocks grouping in a room to watch a sporting event together, and the sounds of sex. So she’s going to have to learn how to handle the distraction of noise like an actual adult.

        And right now, she doesn’t want to. She wants to get her way, because she’s used to that.

        So yeah, Carla is being a jerk, but Mary does need to figure out how to handle this stuff for real rather than expect that no one is going to be doing something loud and stupid in the dorms at 10:30 of a Friday morning early in a semester.

  56. NoHeart6265

    Similarly to Mike, I feed off of misery, and Mary’s misery is nothing if not delicious

    1. Disloyal Subject

      I dunno, I think it needs to age a bit more. The bouquet is a little harsh.

      1. TheNinthShader

        Whats this bouquet you speak of, you have not tasted true misery sir.
        True misery has the consistency and flavour of chocolate.

  57. nothri

    Don’t look so mad, Mary. It was me I’d just run over your face.

  58. Nono

    I mean, are people cheering on Carla rather than Mary simply because it’s Mary? Her initial stance is reasonable – skating is illegal in the halls, and it’s disruptive.

    I mean, you could easily have Sarah grumping it up instead of Mary.

    1. Ana Chronistic

      We’re cheering on Carla because she’s being HAPPY gaddammit, there’s been too much of the Mary attitude already

    2. zalf

      I mean personally I would still be cheering on Carla even if it was Sarah (not a big fan of her’s though). Honestly, if it is actually illegal Mary should report her, or get over it. Mostly I just have zero sympathy for people who complain about their dorms being too noisy. Ever, but especially during the day.

      1. Cerberus

        It’s important to note that Mary doesn’t even care about the “against the rules” bit. I mean Carla retorts, hey, go report me and Mary… does nothing of the sort. Doesn’t go out and grab a security patrolman, doesn’t even inform the RA that’s supposed to handle things like this and is a 2 minute walk down the hall. Doesn’t do jack shit to handle things appropriately.

        And that’s because the rules don’t matter to her other than their utility as a means of forcibly enforcing order and hierarchy. She wants to personally win. She wants to intimidate and threaten and insinuate or just play the stick-in-the-mud and ruin a good time more than she actually wants to do much of anything else and that’s really on frame here.

        Mary just doesn’t care about reporting. She instead needs Carla to back down and admit Mary won. Only then will she be satisfied.

        1. segnosaur

          I don’t think going to find security would necessarily make Mary more sympathetic… after all, she’d just be accused of being a “tattletale”.

          And as for getting the RA, there’s not even a guarantee that Ruth is even in her room.

        2. Cerberus

          Oh, liked by the fans? Yeah, no, pretty much anything Mary does would be poo-poo’d on that front largely because of the danger she represents to Billie and Ruth for instance.

          But there’s about a million ways she could have resolved this if she actually wanted to resolve it peacefully.

        3. TheGrammarLegionary

          Let’s not forget the last time Ruth and Mary spoke… http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/male-anatomy/

        4. DarkoNeko

          I could see why she wouldn’t wanna see Ruth, haha.

        5. Cerberus

          To be fair to Ruth in that moment, Mary basically demanded Ruth drop everything to solve her issue right at that moment despite her probably being on her way to class (she’s got her backpack on, most everyone has just woken up, so…). And Ruth didn’t refuse to handle it, she said she wasn’t going to do handle it right that second (because of the aforementioned class thing). She only escalated when Mary started making threats and calling her incompetent.

        6. segnosaur

          On the other hand, when asked what she was going to do about it, Ruth COULD have said “Now? Nothing. But I’ll ask around when I get back from class…” (And it was Ruth who actually used the “Now”. Mary initially asked what Ruth was GOING to do about it. She never demanded immediate action.)

          Mary is a class-A jerk, but Ruth showing no interest in addressing someone’s concerns (and then assaulting them after) might be seen as problematic.

        7. tammster

          Yeah, but she escalated it to physical violence – which removes any ‘to be fair’ in my head. It’s one of the reasons that I don’t like or ship Billie/Ruth – between the violence and the alcoholism, they’re so aggressively unhealthy that I can’t see them being together is any good for either long term.

      2. Adam Black

        I would ( have sympathy for a noise complaint) — except Mary didnt complain complain about the noise.
        Didnt mention once.

        and It isnt quiet hours, so Mary is the one imposing.

        1. Cerberus

          That’s really important to note. Mary doesn’t ever actually say “hey, I was trying to study, could you keep it down”. Like that probably wouldn’t have worked, but the fact that she doesn’t even try, just goes to “stop, that’s bad” is really really telling to how Mary operates.

        2. Adam Black

          Thanks.
          I fully expect this to spiral out of control.

    3. Adam Black

      “I mean, are people cheering on Carla”

      (1) Because Carla is awesome! She is the poster-adult , for turning lemons into fresh lemonaid ( see above strip ) .

      (2) “rather than Mary ”

      NO, I’m totally cheering on Mary! She is one of my favorite characters , because she inadvertently brings out the best in everyone else.
      ( Search your hearts, you know its true ) .
      She is the villain we love to hate.
      I’m cheering on Mary because she cant win here, and its entertaining watching her be a byeatch and lose.

      “simply because it’s Mary?”
      (3) There is no “simply because its Mary”. That’s why she makes a great villain. Even when shes in the right, she makes herself in the wrong.

      “Her initial stance is reasonable”

      4) Said No one else in the Universe about Mary, till right now!
      Carla has been wearing Skates in the Hallway AND everywhere , ( presumably all her classes ) for 6 weeks. Not a single human, professor RA, RD, has minded , till right now. There is not a single reason for Carla to think Mary is being reasonable.

      How so?
      “skating is illegal in the halls”
      (5) UM no it isnt illegal. It might break a dorm rule.

      (6) “and it’s disruptive.”
      Colleges dont regulate that. Its not highschool. But laying across the hallway to trip someone, is attempted assault. So, there is that.

      They do have things like quiet hours and study hours, and this is very unlikely to be now.

      If anything, Carla is only doing this because, its in the middle of the day and the dorms are empty.

      If Mary had, like a reasonable person, ( i.e Someone not named “Mary” )
      asked for special consideration for her studying, Carla might have obliged. Or not.

      Instead Mary was a superbongo , started barking unreasonable orders and put Carla and herself in Physical danger.

      Thats my take. I just hope Mary keeps this up.

      1. Cerberus

        Wow! This is a really good deconstruction of it all. And yeah, I think you’re dead on. Even on Mary being a great foil.

        I’d argue she’s such a great foil, because she’s the personification of the nastiest aspects of the system. Rule enforcement for the sake of rule enforcement, looking down on anyone who doesn’t belong to the most privileged group, threats, intimidations, and nastiness at all who deviate from an expected order of behavior that happens to revolve around those on the top or those who envision themselves on the top of the hierarchy.

        Mary expects the rest of the world to act as her servants and follow her whim and she’s been shown to be incredibly callous and uncurious about doing right by anyone who doesn’t belong to her exact tribe of able-bodied, heterosexual, white christians. She’s every curtain-twitcher and prod-nose, every suburban asshole whining about getting their America back, every person who finds it easier to kick those who are down than help them up.

        She is the worst aspects of Americana and that’s what makes her the perfect foil, because everyone in the cast as something that puts them at odds with the type of America people like Mary envision. Whether be it because of race, religion, sexuality, gender identity, or even just behavior, they don’t fit into her type of role and how they deal with her shows how they can deal with society’s bullshit.

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Have we seen her express racism? She’s certainly been elitist about her homophobic sect of Christianity, but I don’t recall a moment of racism, and I can’t really believe her to look down on the disabled until I see it myself… Not that I expect her to show basic decency, but I have to give her the benefit of the doub-

          Wait, am I defending Mary? Time to go to bed.

        2. Cerberus

          You’re right. We haven’t seen her express any racism yet that I can tell.

        3. Amazi-Stool

          Not openly, but “The DeSantoses are ALL MONSTERS!” shows at least a tendency to premature judgment and group judgment.

        4. Adam Black

          Weve seen hatred toward a black girl— for not wearing shoes, hatred toward a transgirl… for wearing skates, bias toward a part-asian girl for suspicious of being gay.

          I am sensing a pattern.

          But There is a same-sex couple on the floor, both white girls and weve never seen mary be a problem to them.

        5. Adam Black

          Thank-you
          Lets not forget how quickly this Mary goes to openly attempted
          group/ religious shunning.

          This version is such a 2 dimensional character of bad ,I have been hoping for a long time she is humanized more, because it will make her a better villain.

          But I am surprised by how quickly people are defending her and supporting her for merely being inconvenienced, when we have yet to see this humanization. She still isnt even as ‘good’ as roomies Mary .

          Somewhere Willis said the original Mary was his ideal woman , until he realized she stood for everything he hated. This one starts out with a full black heart but is too socially inept and openly hateful to be anything but a nuisance. i cant even comprehend her being friends with Danny or Sal. ( or anyone )

          I have been really looking forward to a Mary arc to just make her more sympathetic and thus a slightly more believable villainess.

          BUT I forgot that somehow the fandom includes people who think Ross and Blaine are decent fathers, Blaine has the right to break in dorms,
          that an out-an-Proud becky is oppressive to Joyce, or dannys a monster for smooching amber when she displays emotional availability , ( or Dannys a monster in general ) Gay and Bi people ‘hurt’ straight people for coming out ( becky, ethan and now Danny ) and 10001 other screwed up ideas which has me CONVINCED “Dumbing Of Age” title is really Willis subliminal joke against the fandom.

          So when (/ iF) Mary goes from hateful mega-Bongo with no seeming redeemable characteristics, to a slightly more human portrayal; I am now expecting a large quarter of the fandom to take her side against any minor inconvenience of privilege Mary has. It wong be long before fans start defending Marys hurt feelings and how the whole Clark wing deserves Marys hate.

          I am mentally preparing myself.

          In retrospect Marys rooming with Roz is the ultimate odd couple, and most of the comedic appeal of that has still gone unused.

      2. segnosaur

        * Carla has been wearing Skates in the Hallway AND everywhere , ( presumably all her classes ) for 6 weeks. Not a single human, professor RA, RD, has minded , till right now

        I think there might be different circumstances here… Professors might not have cared because Carla would have been sitting during the lectures (i.e. not hearing her make sounds). Other residents/the RA may not have complained because perhaps Carla was making less noise in the halls that she is now.

        * UM no it isnt illegal. It might break a dorm rule.

        That seems to be a case of splitting hairs. If its against dorm rules, it may not necessarily be “illegal” (i.e. something you could get arrested for) but I think the meaning is clear… something is being done that is against rules.

        * (6) “and it’s disruptive.”
        Colleges dont regulate that. Its not highschool.

        No its not. But it is a dorm… a place where people are both studying AND living. It makes sense to have rules to make sure one person’s “fun” doesn’t disrupt another person’s life.

        * But laying across the hallway to trip someone, is attempted assault.

        Would it be? Carla was supposedly travelling the length of the hallway. She would have had ample warning that her way was blocked and had plenty of opportunity to prevent any collision by stopping her skating. In fact, that’s what Mary was counting on.

        * They do have things like quiet hours and study hours, and this is very unlikely to be now.

        I suspect most colleges have guidelines to request students to be quiet even outside of “study hours”.

        Now, I don’t know exactly how loud Carla’s skates were… But, if they were louder than what you would expect ambient noise to be (e.g. conversations, radio on a low setting, etc.) I don’t think it would be unreasonable to ask her to stop skating, even if it wasn’t “quiet hours”.

        1. Cerberus

          “No its not. But it is a dorm… a place where people are both studying AND living. It makes sense to have rules to make sure one person’s “fun” doesn’t disrupt another person’s life.”

          Indeed, and on most campuses, that means there are designated quiet hours, usually starting in the later evenings and extending throughout the day during finals week and maybe also midterm week. This is not one of those.

          Oh, there’s also this:
          http://www.iup.edu/housing/housing-options/

          “Amenity spaces—conveniently located on the ground floor or first floor of the suites—house a variety of academic and student-support offices. In addition, specially designed study and resource rooms on each floor are used for academic and personal enrichment activities, such as tutoring, study sessions, academic advising, lectures, resource sharing, performances, exhibits, and displays.”

          Aka there’s a study room on her floor and more study resources and space downstairs. It’s not a giant imposition for her to move on if she refuses to handle a potential conflict with another student (even one doing something loud and stupid) with a modicum of tact and effort.

          “I suspect most colleges have guidelines to request students to be quiet even outside of “study hours”.”

          They don’t. Outside of “extreme disruptions” (aka it’s enough to piss off the RA).

        2. Ana Chronistic

          just for the record: http://www.housing.illinois.edu/resources/policies/hall%20policies/policies-procedures under “Sports in the Hall”

          (this was surprisingly hard to find again after finding it once, even after using the same search terms)

        3. Ana Chronistic

          ((then I realized why after I posted that, of course… pretty sure I typed Indiana in somewhere))

        4. Ana Chronistic

          okay FOR REAL:

          D. ACTIVITIES RESULTING in DISTURBANCE, DISTRESS, or DAMAGE
          1. Individual or group activities that result in distress or disturbance to others are prohibited. Individual or group activities that can cause damage or destruction to property are also prohibited. Types of behavior that fall into this category include but are not limited to hall sports, hallway disruptions, use of amplified noise producing products in student rooms or lounges, unsanitary conditions, pranks, use of water guns, and placing trash in public areas.

        5. Adam Black

          My college had all those things, PLus
          Elevator surfing. On top ( until a kid was decapitated the year before! )

          Tunneling ( Underground steam-tunnel hikes. Totes dangerous )

          Elevator astronauts ( emergency stop then jump in the elevators = 1 few seconds of weightlessness . My Gf broke her leg when someone landed on her. )

          Washing Machine Shotput ( throwing off the 22 second floor ) .

        6. Adam Black

          yup.

        7. Adam Black

          “I think there might be different circumstances here…”
          You ll have to manufacture them outside the comic. We are purely in your headcanon now.

          “Professors might not have cared”
          exactly. because Nobody did. Or more likely its because carla is considerate and not openly a menace skating to classes. Unlike Mary here

          “because Carla would have been sitting during the lectures”
          shes not transported to class on a helicopter. people will notice someone skating to class.

          “Other residents/the RA may not have complained because perhaps Carla was making less noise in the halls that she is now.”
          NO she probably is and does. Its just so quiet now that Mary is bugged by the lack of ambient noise masking it. But thats Marys problem, not Carla’s.

          * UM no it isnt illegal. It might break a dorm rule.
          “That seems to be a case of splitting hairs.”

          Um No, it isnt. I’m pointing out an objective fact. If you dont undertsant why dispelling ridiculous hyperbole isnt hairspliting you either have never been arrested or you have never lived in a dorm. When Carla says “call a cop” she is making fun of Mary. You seem to think its serious.
          It does matter a lot whether a rule-break gets you arrested and kicked out of the dorms, or gives you a wristslap from the RD.

          * But laying across the hallway to trip someone, is attempted assault.
          “Would it be?”

          YES! On every objective metric! You just got through saying miscellenous undefined “disruption” out to be totes illegal.

          the purpose of the dorm hallway is traffic. Mary is deliberately obstructing it .
          Someone walks by with wet laundry from the other direction and doesnt see Mary there are breaks a leg.

          ” She would have had ample warning that her way was blocked”
          In your headcanon only. And that would exclude every other person randomly going by. Go ahead, try that in the real world. Lay across the street and see what happens.

          Mary escalated, just like she always does. Any reasonable person could conclude that harm to 3 parties could result as a consequence of Marys actions.

          “In fact, that’s what Mary was counting on.”
          Actually , no. This is purely in your headcanon. Its on thinest ice because Willis has given us the least insight to whats in marys head than anyones.
          We know shes a concern-troll at best so we cant take her at her word.

          Literally the only reason the scene started with mary in her room is so we would actually know the noise was the reason. You arwe confusing and conflating the author telegraphing this ti having actual insight into Marys thought processes.
          You are also confusing your insider knowledge as a reader with generally known information.

          Mary has literally never complained about the Carla being loud. Nobody has Ever. So maybe Check-your-privilege?

          All complaints about noise simply dont apply, until they actually exist, in fact.
          Its a tree falling in a forest and only you heard it. Hence Privilege.

          College Kids play blasting music in the daytime in the dorms, outside of quiet hours and quiet days for midterms its expected. Its part of college life. Colleges even have special floors and dorms for people who want extra quiet.

          Is it possible you just might have a bias against …Carla?
          Marys been pretty hateful up till now. ( and still ) Carla has never picked a fight with anyone or bullied anyone. Carla isnt even being deliberately antagonistic. But Mary is. Carla is just going her own way.

          I’d love for a reason to take Marys side for once, but this isnt it.

          “Now, I don’t know exactly how loud Carla’s skates were…”
          So its irrelevent to bring up since its only excessively loud in your headcanon and to Mary. We dont even know if its too loud for Mary.

          As Cerebus said, She might just object as shes an authoritarian, and its a way to bully others.

          “radio on a low setting, etc.”
          You are welcome to go look up IU Clark wing dorm policies. I guarantee you it doesnt say that.

          “I don’t think it would be unreasonable to ask her to stop skating”
          Except its IS unreasonable because Carla CANT READ Minds. Shes not a cybernetic superhero in this cannon. She doesnt have superpowers, so no, its totes unreasonable.

          Its unreasonable to bring it up because Mary never brought it up. Mary is free to ask for a special consideration for noise. But She didnt. She is free to ask for consideration if she shows some of her own
          But she didnt.

          Even if she did all this, Carla is totally free outside quiet hours to ignore any special burden and quiet special requests , especially when its done in a jerk-ass way.

          Mary may want something outside of her rights as a resident, the word in English for this is “Privilege” . In the real world if you ask for a special courtesy with courtesy and respect, you might get it, just out of the social contract.

          But if you just start rudely bossing people around, with no explanation and merely demand compliance , you should expect to be ignored. If it doesnt provoke an asskicking. Carla isnt a passive moffett. Mary is cruising for bruising.

          , even if it wasn’t “quiet hours”.

    4. ninja_jesus

      I’m shipping them.

  59. Ton

    I can’t wait for Tuesday strip.

  60. Cerberus

    Someone was caught Flatlandedly.

  61. furthurdead

    Anyone who is defending Carla and joking about how Mary never likes to have any fun and all of that crap has obviously never been to college

    It’s been finals week up in here, and I swear, if someone pulled what Carla is pulling (Which is equal to in annoyance to “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you”), I would have reacted far more negatively than Mary. Carla is acting like a 12 year old.

    1. Tacos

      It’s probably only be like a month in comic. What is there really to study at that time? Mary is just trying to use this as an excuse to be an inconvenience to somebody. If she really cared about studying, she could easily put on headphones or go to the library.

      1. segnosaur

        * It’s probably only be like a month in comic. What is there really to study at that time?

        Well, we know that at least some courses (e.g. the calculus courses) have already had quizzes that some people may feel obligated to study for. Some classes may also have assigned reading. Or maybe some people just like to keep up with their studies (which is really the way people should be studying.)

        Of course, that’s for a normal student… Mary is a dislikable person so may just be complaining as a way to be nasty. But its not unheard of for people to want to actually study early in the term.

        1. Kamino Neko

          And those people either learn to study with absolutely normal ambient noise, or they go to the library, or they are correctly called unlikable asses.

          Mary has chosen option 3.

        2. Cerberus

          This. It’s simply not reasonable to ask all other students to stop being annoying college students so as to not disrupt her day studying and not have to be inconvenienced to a study room.

          It’s part of living with other people in a dorm environment. Hell, I can recall a giant list of dumb shit people did in the halls before silent hours and a good half are dumber than skating on carpet.

    2. Cerberus

      It’s not final’s week. It’s not even midterm week.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        It’s finals week in life at the moment. The Dumbiverse is mercifully spared.

      2. TheNinthShader

        Its midterm week for me :c

    3. Rutee

      Man. Wife is sleeping right now but I think she’d find this little bit extra hilarious, considering I’m pretty sure we both got further in our educations (tbf she’s bourgeois and I’m not sure has ever shared living space long term with someone besides me in her adult hood)

      Finals/Midterm Week’s a bit different, because the normal study areas are already going to be overflowing, but right now, this is just an average day. Mary’s got the library available to her. It’s /midday/. She’s got literally no leg to stand on, because this isn’t quiet time. And while I wouldn’t be surprised if Carla would go around making noise during quiet time, we haven’t actually seen her do it. She might actually only want to be annoying in particular ways.

      1. DarkoNeko

        And Carla litterally has the whole world outside available to her, instead of, like STAKING INSIDE.

        1. Captain Button

          Staking inside? Is Mary a vampire?

          It would explain the “still undressed at 3 pm thing, since she can’t go out in the day…

        2. DarkoNeko

          Yes.

        3. Captain Button

          Probably a Ventrue then. Which answers the “What if Carla ran into her?” question. She’d soak the damage with Fortitude.

        4. DaveM

          So would that make Carla Toreador or Malkavian?

        5. Captain Button

          Carla is a Malkavian.

          Joyce is the Toreador, she keeps getting entranced by Sal and by Ethan’s manly chest.

          Sal and Mike are Brujah, of course.

        6. Captain Button

          On second thought, maybe Carla is Gangrel. Contempt for authority, physicality, shapeshifting…

        7. Rutee

          Carla moving solves noise for maybe 15 minutes.

          Mary moving solves noise. Which of these is an EFFECTIVE choice?

        8. Rutee

          Yup. But Carla leaving won’t make the dorms quiet. Dorms are the worst place for quiet; youth aside, you have people coming and going at all hours. Mary needs to learn to deal with what she has.

          Also, and I’ve avoided this so far, but *fuck Mary*. Right now, the woman pissing her off is one of the people with the best reasons to make that her policy. Because Mary, generic terribleness aside (I actually like and empathize with her fun-hate. Fun is awful), she is terrible to people like Carla specifically. When you try to Fuck people, don’t be surprised if they fuck back.

    4. Kamino Neko

      The idea that people shouldn’t be making any noise – even the remarkably low-level noise inevitable from moving – during the day is baffling to me. And I say this as someone whose natural state is nocturnal.

    5. Adam Black

      Um “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you” Is LITERALLY what Mary is doing in this comic by laying on the floor.

      The I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you” Scam is to invade someone’s space to make them technically responsible for hitting you.

      ( ( I’m proud of myself because I was just going to type:
      “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you” )

  62. ninja_jesus

    So… Marla?

    1. Mercimary

      Marla.

      1. Tacos

        The only Marla I know is a fat cat that EatMyDiction has >.>

      2. Spencer

        Definitely Marla.

    2. Rutee

      …Wow, I didn’t realize people were /that/ mad at Carla 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

      …but no seriously Mary/Lots of antagonizing people makes sense but her with a queer person just makes me shiver with unpleasantness. There’s enmity, and then there’s that.

      1. ninja_jesus

        I must be looking at this more optimistically. I wasn’t even thinking about the evangelical portion of Mary’s personality. I anything, I think Mary would become more open minded with the presence of Carla in her life.

  63. newllend(henryvolt)

    not a good plan Mary

  64. altalemur

    sweet skates

  65. Squirrel

    Taking bets on Amber tripping over Mary. 1:10
    Danny tripping over Mary: 1:5

  66. Cerberus

    Man, panels 1-3 really reveal so much about Mary’s character.

    I mean, let’s look at the interaction. She’s tried an open-ended “could you not?”, but then she follows with this: an appeal to authority and rules. Not a “hey, I’m trying to study, could you please not do this right now or at least move down the hall” (I mean, I don’t know if that’d be any more successful, but it’s telling she doesn’t at all try to appeal to empathy, understanding or taking any tack that could put her in a vulnerable position). She just goes straight for demanding the system do her dirty work.

    And then most importantly, we see she is unwilling to expend any real effort in having that happen. Carla gives her a route. Report me to an authority. There’s an authority literally down the hall Mary can go to and if she thinks that one is too queer and hates her for constantly pestering her to fight her battles, she can go grab a security person outside or even report it to Asma at the front desk.

    But she doesn’t really care about the authority any more than she cares about her studying. She just wants to use it to stop others doing what she thinks they should be doing. And she doesn’t want to inconvenience herself, by say moving to a location that is literally designed to be a quiet place for students to study during the day (like seriously, the library, but also campuses tend to be flooded with little study rooms all over the place for easy access, she really doesn’t have to go far). Nope, she wants to intimidate out the nuisance and have that be that (it’s also worth noting that nobody else is coming out to tell Carla to knock it off. Either literally everyone is off in classes, or the ones who are left just don’t consider it a nuisance over the background radiation of morning college stuff.

    And that panel 3. Her next tack is to try and physically block Carla’s path or attempt to have fun. And we see in Panel 4, she’s moving to a less comfortable spot that will probably be quickly in the way of someone going to class or coming back from class, just to inconvenience someone being happy when they haven’t earned it.

    And that last part is kinda a central aspect of her current character. She has been raised in a religious tradition where only “good” people are allowed joy and they are defined by doing “good” things like sacrificing for Jesus. So someone skipping all that and being happy is a direct stab in Mary’s ideology. Carla hasn’t suffered like her. Carla hasn’t sacrificed like her. Carla doesn’t pray like her. So how dare she be loud and exuberant and happy?

    And it’s why she doesn’t just get someone in authority. Because it’s too important to Mary that she be the one to stop this person and hold them to heel to her particular pathway of joy and worth. Because that way she can validate her own capitulations to the system.

    It’s all very twisted.

    1. segnosaur

      > She’s tried an open-ended “could you not?”, but then she follows with this: an appeal to authority and rules. Not a “hey, I’m trying to study, could you please not do this right now or at least move down the hall”

      Its a college dorm… There are a few things people could be doing where people could be expecting quiet… studying, taking a catnap.. If Carla is doing something that is noisy and against the rules, the people who are being disturbed shouldn’t have to justify [i]why[/i] they are affected.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        True, but Mary hasn’t actually asked Carla to stop. She asked if she could, and then jumped straight to antagonistic rule-quoting when that failed.

        1. segnosaur

          I think ou might be splitting hairs here.

          She didn’t use the word “stop”, but if someone asked me “could you not?” I think their meaning would be rather clear… they don’t want me to continue doing something.

          Carla must have understood the meaning, after all, not like she asked for clarification.

        2. Adam Black

          I think you shouldnt blame people for things they cant control.

          (1) Carla is a Skate-person. Accept it. Its simply a fact-of-life in this comic. You cant reason around it. Its a fact that must be accepted as-is. Carla cant control this, because the God of the strip mandates she be this way.

          Its not a minor part of her character.
          Its a deep incontrovertible fact of the narrative. Carla is a translation of Ultracar as human. From this we know she’s trans ( cuz ultracar was trans…former ) and Ace.

          Carla being in Skates is equal to Joyce and Mary being Christian, Amber being Amazigirl , Ethan being Gay and transformer lover, and Joe being a horndog. For narrative purposes, its a core part of her identity and a metaphor for sexuality.

          (2) You keep overusing this “hairsplitting” metaphor.
          Again, thats not something people can control. right? Nobody deliberately tries to get split ends. Nobody. Accusing people of doing it on purpose, is bad-hair day bigotry.

          That’s like saying: “Can you try NOt to get split ends” .
          LIke it was deliberate neglect.
          No, no I cant.

          Look, Its great if you are a walking Pantene commercial, but there is no reason to lord over people with less hair-privilege. I’m all for aspirational hair motivation , but there is no reason to descend into hair-end shaming.
          Not everybody can afford spa-product

      2. Kamino Neko

        Yes, it’s a college dorm. Where people live and socialize.

        During the day.

        Nowhere near exam time.

        Therefor, noise will happen.

        People should expect it.

        The ‘skff skff’ of Carla’s skates is no louder or more annoying than the footsteps of people walking through the halls.

        1. ninja_jesus

          “The ‘skff skff’ of Carla’s skates is no louder or more annoying than the footsteps of people walking through the halls.”

          Could you show me anywhere in the comic where ambient noise is clearly shown to be heard during a strip?

        2. Kamino Neko

          Can you show me a strip where ambient noise is part of the plot?

        3. ninja_jesus

          Yes. The previous strip.

        4. Cerberus

          I can think of one.

          The one where Billie and Ruth were banging each other hard against the wall they share with Carla while Carla was trying to study. And you know what Carla did? She adapted and continued studying. Because she’s a sophomore and so has had a good year to practice living with other people and putting up with typical dorm distractions.

        5. Kamino Neko

          That’s the same plot, and the same plot-relevant noise, and you’ve apparently completely missed the point.

          The sound is put there, not because it’s unusually loud, but because it’s part of the plot.

          Other ambient noise, that is not plot-relevant, does not get sound effects, because a strip that was full of ‘tick tick tick’ ‘clip clop clip clop’ ‘thud’ ‘blahblahblah’ ‘tweet tweet’ etc, would be annoying to letter and difficult to read. Being a comic and not a film, ‘sound’ is something that one needs to be parsimonious with, only bringing it in when it’s important to the plot or setting a mood.

        6. Adam Black

          skff skff? thats it?

          thats just the sound of the bearings in the wheels as the wheels touch the floor. itslike a rattle-click. Radio will drown it out.

          Its not a bang, or bass heavy noise

          Its not like the assholes outside my window at 7am hammmering brick off the building.

      3. Rutee

        You can expect all you want. It’s just not a reasonable request during the day.

      4. Cerberus

        Have you ever lived in a dorm? Or like a massive communal space? Because people are not expected to be quiet as churchmice because someone could be disturbed. In fact, students can count on having their quiet study time disturbed, which is why campuses have all manner of quiet study rooms scattered all over campus.

        It’s unreasonable to expect a quiet study environment during day hours, during a non-critical studying season.

    2. StClair

      Very nice.

    3. Adam Black

      “I mean, I don’t know if that’d be any more successful, but it’s telling she doesn’t at all try to appeal to empathy”

      Thats really interesting.
      But i think it shows a key character difference between Roomies-Mary and DOA-Mary.

      Roomies-mary would have done this first. she would have used empathy or sympathy or friendship or loyalty to manipulate.

      DOA is socially inept i dont think she actually knows how to appeal to empathy.

      Does the noise even bother Mary, or does the noise disrupt her becuase its rule being broken and she cant ignore it. Would that difference even matter to Mary?

  67. WingedBeast

    Carla, there’s this thing, it’s called consideration of other people. Try it.

    Mary, just report her and be done with it.

    This is another example of something that’s acceptable in Shortpacked but not acceptable in DoA. In Shortpacked, things are generally whacky and there’s a general unreality to the whole thing where this kind of thing is antics.

    In a more realistic setting, this is just being rude to two floors, the floor she’s on and the floor below. It’s a college setting, which means that it’s not actually Animal House, but a place where people, on a regular basis, study. You’re not there to get into antics!

    1. brumagem

      Do you listen to yourself? No really I’m curious.

      Everyone has their own agenda. Carla’s is being contrary and annoying. Mary’s is moral stubbornness and inflicting her beliefs onto others. Of course this is what happens when they meet and quarrel over something inconsequential. Silliness isn’t limited to one universe or another. It’s a fact of life

      1. Torra

        no need to be rude, I do get the other commenter’s point. All they’re saying is roller-skating in the hallway is annoying, which it is! plus short-packed is definitely on a different silly level than DOA.

        This arc looks good though, Mary and Carla interacting is bound to be hilariou

      2. ninja_jesus

        How is Mary inflicting her beliefs on anyone? Carla’s actions were clearly shown to be disruptive.

        1. Amazi-Stool

          Not in this scene, but earlier she was shown calling Dorothy evil and recommended to Joyce to “avoid hanging out with these people” when she learned that Dorothy is not a Christian (also see following strip).

        2. ninja_jesus

          Agreed, but that doesn’t make her wrong here.

        3. ninja_jesus

          Honestly, I think what this comes down to is whether or not one values their dorm room time. I, like Mary, would not put up with someone skating noisily down the halls. I’d ask them to stop, and put a stop to it myself if possible.

        4. ninja_jesus

          Oops, this was meant to be a separate post.

        5. Adam Black

          Laying on the ground to disrupt hallway traffic to trip people,
          out of a belief she has that right, has the ability to enforce rules ( she doesnt )
          or a belief that Carla should not skate

          Are we reading the same comic? mary is imposing her body on the whole hallway. Where is there a truck when you need one?

      3. WingedBeast

        You seem to be saying that Mary’s in the wrong, or at least equally in the wrong, because she didn’t respond right to Carla… rollerskating indoors on not-the-first-floor.

        And, while I agree that Mary doesn’t have the perfect response and, possibly, not the perfect motivation for her response… so what?

        Not factoring in the next strip, so far she hasn’t done anything actually wrong. Next strip we get into something not acceptable… that would be in a strip like Shortpacked.

    2. brumagem

      Also, see the comment directly above yours. It’s great.

  68. AutobotDen

    Mary is just being a crusty old lady, without actually being old. If she really did care about studying, or the rules for that matter, she’d go about getting an authority figure.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Last time she complained to Ruth, she got a dick slapped on her face. So much for trusting autority figures to take care of any problem.

      1. Adam Black

        Im hoping for a sequel to that.
        (( Willis, please, please make the next Dick slapped-on uncircumcised. for reasons . Slap a dick on Mary for #Intactivism .

        Also that would make a GREAT Tshirt. : “Slap a dick on Mary for #Intactivism ” Below that Picture

  69. Triniking1234

    Mary’s wearing boots? I thought only Joyce and Amazi-Girl did that.

    1. DarkoNeko

      They do came from similar backgrounds after all.

  70. BenRG

    Well… Mary’s ineffective enough to be a RA!

    Also, do she and Joyce go to the same clothes shops? They definitely seem to have the same sartorial style.

  71. dmaxx

    I don’t care what people think of carla, i would gladly have gotten together with her if it was possible:-P

  72. Torra

    do you know i actually love mary

    everything with her is just hilarious, oh mary

  73. Resulli

    Hahahahahahaha fuck you Mary. >8(

  74. Wolf

    You know, I actually ship it…

  75. Nono

    A lot of people are deriding Mary, but there’s no actual defense on Carla’s side is there? I mean there are better places for her to skate.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      My guess is she just got the skates in the mail, opened them in her room, and didn’t want to wait to get downstairs to break them in.

      1. ninja_jesus

        Doesn’t make her right.

      2. DarkoNeko

        It would be “ok” if it was just that, but it seems she’s been doing back and forth in the hall instead.

        1. Adam Black

          How many skates down an empty hallway, does it take to become
          a crime against humanity?

    2. brumagem

      Frankly they’re both being equally jerkish today, it’s just more fun to talk shit about Mary because of her fucked up beliefs.

    3. Cerberus

      She’s being stupid and 19. Which is a dorm staple. Hell, kids doing dumb loud shit is a staple anywhere. If I’m home during a weekday, the afternoon where I live is usually filled with screaming kids and stomping feet because of a game of tag happening on my floor.

      Yeah, there’s no reason for her to be doing this. And it’s stupid. But learning how to appropriately react to stupid loud fun stuff is kinda what dorm living is trying to teach.

      Which is why Mary’s correct course of action if she found it disrupting would have been to appeal to empathy, report to RA, or report to staff member downstairs. Total disruption to day <5 minutes.

    4. Adam Black

      Yes.

      What defense would you like?

      Carla is awesme defense?
      Skating is sweet defense?
      Mary is a perpetual megabongo who’ll probably get slapped again by the RA , defense?
      the Chewbacca Defense?

      How about the ‘Carla-isnt-a-crime-and-doenst-need-to-justify-her-very-existence, least-of-all-to-Mary-defense’ ?

      they all have their appeals

  76. Ruthful

    Mary looks kind of adorable in panel 2, where she has more of a normal angry face and not her usual “I hate everything in the world” angry face.

    I hope some day in the many years Dumbing of Age will run that Mary will get some character development instead of being a one-dimensional character designed to be hated, but I kind of doubt she’ll ever get the necessary screen time for that.

    1. anna

      Somewhere in the depths of tumblr, Willis has hinted that a Mary storyline was coming. (I’ll be disappointed if a prank war with Carla is all he meant. There’s so much potential here.)

  77. Needfuldoer

    Mary craves petty superiority. She’s technically in the right, but she’s the only one who cares. She probably has some underlying hypocrisy that eventually becomes public knowledge.

    Wait… She’s Frank Burns from M*A*S*H!

    1. StClair

      Mary “Ferret Face” Bradford.

    2. Arianod

      Ow, that’s harsh. Burns was often ‘technically in the right’ in arguments about rules and regulations; but his medical practice was hardly ‘right’: he had a count of dead patients higher than the combined counts of all the other doctors. At least Mary’s obnoxious attitude hasn’t caused anyone’s death by incompetence.

      (Yet)

      1. AeromechanicalAce

        Okay, since i’ve been watching a lot of M*A*S*H lately, when DID burns ever kill a patient? As far as i saw, while he was nowhere near as good as the others, he never actually screwed up badly enough to kill anyone in the OR (Though this may be from the fact that everyone knew better than to give him anything but the routine jobs).

        That said, still seeing a LOT of similarities between Mary and Burns.

        1. Kamino Neko

          Yeah. Hawk claimed that Frank was lethal in the OR, but he was shown to be every bit as competent as anyone else at the 4077. (IIRC, Blake once specifically said as much.)

          (That said, I do seem to remember one episode where Frank was giving up far too early on an edge case as ‘hopeless’, then someone else went on to save him, but it’s a vague memory of a one-time disagreement on time management priorities, not an ongoing issue with his skills.)

        2. Rutee

          I seem to recall that Burns was by no means as lethal as his lack of presence, but was genuinely worse than average, with mortality rates dropping after Mr. Super Pompous came in to replace him.

        3. Arianod

          Well, my M*A*S*H is a bit rusty, and I certainly can’t recall any Burns-related deaths happening on screen. But that’s what Trapper and Hawkeye always said about him; that I remember quite clearly. I also remember a time when Burns himself admitted that a funeral director (?) sent him ‘thank you’ cards for Christmas every year, or something like that. As Kamino Neko says, there were a couple of times when he very nearly got someone killed, but the others spotted his mistakes on time. If nothing worse happened on screen, it may have been because the showrunners didn’t want to make things too dark and nasty. It was a family show, after all.

        4. Arianod

          (A *comedy* show is what I wanted to say)

      2. Bicycle Bill

        Both in the movie and the series, Frank was portrayed as a competent surgeon.  About the only thing ever said against him in the movie was the assessment by one of the Swampmen that ‘whenever a patient dies it’s “God’s will” or somebody else’s fault”.  I too cannot think of anyone who actually died solely because of Frank’s alleged ineptitude — and as far as lost patients go, in one episode of the series Blake himself consoled Hawkeye over a patient who did die with the truthful observation of the rules of war: “Rule #1 — young men die.  Rule #2 — doctors can’t change rule #1.”

        1. Roborat

          Don’t forget the books that the movie and series were based on.

  78. CianM1301

    Didn’t think that one through, didja Mary?

  79. Garrulous

    Probably proof that I am male, but I can only imagine farting while also hopping. Preferably a nice long one that lasts the whole hop.

    Also for some reason I keep thinking the floor is carpeted.

    1. Arianod

      Isn’t it?

    2. Commodore Jeep-Eep

      May not be assigned female at birth, but this lady would consider it too.

  80. ninja_jesus

    So, I’m gonna back the underdog here (underdog in terms of popularity, at least). Mary shouldn’t have to cajole someone to stop them from disrupting her study time. Carla is clearly in the wrong, no matter how you look at this. Don’t blame the victim.

    But Mary is such a goofball here. Did she really think that would stop Carla? At least Mary didn’t try to block her while standing. Carla would’ve probably steam rolled her.

    1. Kamino Neko

      Carla is not, by any reasonable definition, disrupting Mary’s study time.

      MARY is disrupting Mary’s study time, by pretending that normal ambient noise levels are excessive – and no, it’s not reasonable to claim that Carla’s skates are somehow significantly louder than footsteps, conversations, music playing, or anything else that you could expect to hear in a dorm hallway at noon.

      1. Zaxares

        Perhaps not, but Mary did at least ask Carla to stop that politely. (I’m sure that skating in the halls IS against the rules.) Carla is being rude/obstinate by continuing to do so. She should take it outside or to a proper skate park.

        1. Kamino Neko

          A rule against skating in the halls certainly exists.

          It doesn’t make Mary, or her supporters, right, except in the utterly meaningless sense of ‘having a rule to cite’.

          Because she’s not trying to get Carla to stop to prevent her from plowing into someone because she’s not looking where she’s going, or going too fast to stop. Because that’s what the rule is about, not this transparent bullshit about ‘disruptive noise’.

          She is, in fact, actively becoming a safety hazard herself.

          It’s almost like she’s being an asshole for no good reason.

        2. Amazi-Stool

          “Disruptive noise” was never spoke out by Mary.
          She jumped immediately to “against the rules”.

          Followed by lying on the dirty floor and risking a bruise just to teach Carla a lesson – heroic self-sacrifice, WWJCD-style.

      2. ninja_jesus

        Do you have a bias against Mary? I mean, I wouldn’t blame you, but she clearly has not done anything in this case to warrant blaming her. Carla’s skates clearly disrupted her, as shown in the previous strips, and Carla’s refusal to stop puts her in the wrong. Against the rules or not (it has not been established), Carla is wrong.

        1. Kamino Neko

          I have no more of a bias against Mary than I do against any other asshole that starts a fight then claims that they have the moral high ground.

          This ‘disrupted her studying’ crap is utter bullshit.

          No, the shooshing of rollerskates is not unreasonably loud.

          No, a sound at the same levels as any other ambient sound, in a time and place that’s not expected to be exceptionally quiet, is not ‘disruptive’ by any sensible definition of the word.

          How could this have been solved?

          Mary could have just gone on with her studying, like she no doubt has when people have walked by, or talked outside the door, or done any of the other dozens of things that are no less noisy and ‘disruptive’ than this.

          Not kowtowing to an aggressive asshole doesn’t make the the aggressive asshole right.

      3. segnosaur

        Why do you keep assuming that the sounds of the skates are considered “normal ambient noise”?

        Font used to indicate characters speaking: black lettering on white background. Thin lines
        Font used when toedad fired his gun: White letting with red outline. Very thick lines

        What font was used to show the sound of Carla’s skates? Hint: the font was done more like a noisy gunshot. Granted, its not absolute proof, but its certainly evidence to suggest that the skating IS more than what you would expect from regular background noise.

    2. Rutee

      Mary isn’t really the victim here, because she has such easy options to get studying done, and her ultimate expectation, of silence in the dorm during the day, is fundamentally unreasonable. “Be quiet in the dorm” is not “Don’t rape me”. One of these is a trivial thing, that breaching is infinitely more effort than not. Where Carla’s got a problem, it’s with the safety hazard, not with the noise.

      1. ninja_jesus

        Mary has a problem with the noise. She asked Carla to stop. Carla said no. You are correct in saying that Mary has options, but so does Carla. Carla could go somewhere more appropriate for skating. One’s dorm is not an inappropriate place to study.

        1. Rutee

          Yeah, but mary’s options are her only actual choice if she wants to avoid noise. Because it’s day, in the fucking dorms. Carla changing what she’s doing would be awful considerate of her, but it’s not going to make Mary a victim.

          And your dorm is an inappropriate place to study *if you need silence, and it is the day*. You aren’t getting that silence.

        2. Cerberus

          There’s this. It’s a communal living situation.

          Heck, Indiana University even makes this distinction in that they offer a different type of dorm for those who want a serious study environment called a “living-learning community”. Mary deliberately did not choose this. That being said, there are supposedly learning resources on each floor and more on the first floor of the building for those who want to study without distraction during non-quiet hours.

          And that’s kind of the thing. Communal space where everyone’s bumping into everyone else means dealing with each other and the distractions they present. Is Carla being rude and loud and stupid? Totes. But Mary needs to learn to deal with rude and loud and stupid in healthy manners and I don’t think she’s cottoned into that yet. She’s still expecting people to stop what they are doing and focus on what is important to her in all examples and that’s the side issue that makes her behavior inappropriate as well.

        3. segnosaur

          Its also possible that Mary didn’t chose the quieter “Living-Study” residence option because there was no space available.

          When I went to university, we had 2 floors in my residence building designated “quiet floors”. However, there was a lot of demand for those rooms, and they had to have a random lottery to decide who got the rooms. Its possible that Mary was in the same situation.

          Or maybe she wasn’t informed of them. (I’m not sure how well those things are advertised to incoming students.)

        4. Rutee

          None of which obligates other students who didn’t want them.

        5. segnosaur

          Even in areas that were not “quiet areas”, students did not have free reign to be as loud and disruptive as they wanted.

          In quiet areas, you couldn’t (for example) talk in the hall, or leave your room door open when watching TV. Although the non-quiet floors were more lenient (i.e. you could talk in the halls), you didn’t have free reign to make any noise you chose (e.g. yelling would be against the rules). And wearing skates in the hall that MIGHT be far noisier than a typical conversation would be against the rules.

        6. Rutee

          No, but Carla’s skates are almost definitely quieter than spirited conversation, so she’s fine. They’re skates, not dual wielded boomboxen. And again, THIS ISNT A FUCKING QUIET AREA.

        7. segnosaur

          * No, but Carla’s skates are almost definitely quieter than spirited conversation

          Once again, why are people assuming that?

          The font used for the skating noise was similar to that used when toedad fired his gun, and looks nothing like the font used for normal conversation (or even the font used for Walky’s farts). Kind of implies its a little bit louder than “normal conversation”.

          * And again, THIS ISNT A FUCKING QUIET AREA

          And once again…. The fact that it isn’t a quiet area doesn’t mean that at least SOME control over noise isn’t warranted. There is a wide difference between “quiet as a churchmouse” and the sound of a 747 taking off… Somewhere in there there is a dividing line between unacceptable and unacceptable noise levels, and its quite possible that Carla overstepped it.

        8. Rutee

          Have you skated at some point in your fucking life? There’s a reason people are assuming that – because they *ARE* quieter than spirited conversation.

          And yes, the fact that it isn’t a quiet area means that it *IS* unwarranted. It’s an understandable desire – I think it’d be really nice if Carla left. But if it isn’t quiet time, YOU DON’T HAVE A FUCKING RIGHT TO QUIET. That is how it works. You learn to fucking deal with it if you’re going to be a successful student.

      2. BlimpFruit

        Okay, there is a massive difference between, “needing absolute silence when studying” and “being unable to concentrate because someone’s being obnoxiously loud for literally no reason than being annoying”. Seriously.

    3. tammster

      I don’t know…I feel that unless it’s past a certain time, Mary doesn’t have any right to police the noise levels of the dorm. What if someone was playing their trumpet for practice, laughing outside her door, having a knock down fight in their room? Noise – both ambient and loud – is a basic part of life in shared space, outside of nighttime quiet times.

      And I say that as someone who would have been driven to distraction by Carla, due to the fact that variable, repetitive sound drives me batty.

  81. Siyajkak

    I see a friendship blooming!

    Also, Mary is one of those characters where I recognize she’s not a swell person, but I love it whenever she shows up.

  82. Just Here

    Billie and Ruth started out like this. Just sayin’.

  83. Jimmy

    I know that Mary has done little to gain any sympathy (and it’s a comic), but it’s funny how Indiana University is 2000 acres with plenty of open area, yet to some, Mary’s the jerk for asking Carla to stop.

    1. Spencer

      Asking Carla to stop was perfectly okay.

      Trying to sabotage her when there’s a million other solutions, including just going to the RA, is douchetastic.

      Also nobody likes Mary. It’s like asking us to feel bad for Blaine when Amber flossed her teeth with his spine.

      1. segnosaur

        * Trying to sabotage her when there’s a million other solutions, including just going to the RA, is douchetastic.

        Just out of curiosity, why is trying to stop her by laying in the hall considered more douchetastic than reporting someone to the authorities?

        Many people might thing that telling security (or the RA) is being a “tattletale”. (Running around making complaints, even if they are valid complaints, can be just as douchetastic, in my opinion.)

        1. Spencer

          Because the latter at least has the veneer of going through the proper channels? It seems like Mary’s thought process this strip was to actually lace herself in position for a gag.

    2. Kamino Neko

      It’s funny how Indiana University is a full campus with libraries and other silent areas, and yet, to some, Carla’s a jerk because Mary didn’t go to one of them, or learn to deal with the absolutely normal ambient noise of living in the same space as other people.

      1. Jimmy

        Carla skating in the dorm room hallway is akin to Mary reading a book on a skating ramp.

        1. Spencer

          It’s annoying but Mary’s response is disproportionate when she could either just tell the RA or go somewhere else. It’s a college dorm in the morning; there’s going to be noise whether Mary likes it or not.

          Like, let’s say you’re out shopping, and then you’re suddenly approached by a naked, obese man in a clown mask, throwing fireworks at small children and yelling about how the south will rise again. Sure it sucks that this distraction is getting in the way of what you want to do, but bailing seems like a way better idea.

        2. Jupiterror

          well it’s not like she has bad experiences with the RA

        3. segnosaur

          Unless of course that obese naked man is standing in front of the store that has the stuff you REALLY wanted to buy. Yes, you could go somewhere else, but you’d end up not getting what you wanted.

          Yes, Mary could have found somewhere else to study, or found someone to complain to, but both of those options were less than optimal for her (either using up time, or putting her in a situation where she may not study as well.)

        4. Spencer

          There’s always going to be a point in time where you can’t get what you want.

          Ideally Carla wouldn’t be in the hallway and Mary could study in peace, but she is, and what Mary does next is on her. She could put on a pair of headphones and continue in her room, talk to an official to force Carla to stop, go to the library where there’s no chance of disruption. Instead she’s choosing to get in Carla’s way. She’s going straight to a confrontational solution to her problem.

          Also it’s just really hard to care about what Mary wants because she’s an asshole.

        5. segnosaur

          All of your suggestions have been made before, and all of them have been addressed:

          Put on headphones: May not be practical because, for some people, listening to music when trying to study makes them less effective

          Going to the library: So she ends up using up, what, half an hour of her study time to get her materials, head off to the library, and then come back? (And that’s assuming she doesn’t have a need for stuff in her room when studying.)

          Talk to an official: Ruth may not be in her room, and even if she is, there is no guarantee she would help. And Mary wandering around to find someone else to help is (like going to the library) going to chew up time. (And that’s assuming security would actually respond… Mary could be stuck waiting an hour for some guard to come to the floor and say “Please stop the noise”.)

          Its amazing how many of the “easy solutions” involve inconvenience the person who may have a valid complaint. (Again, I’m going on the assumption that, based on the font used, the sound of the skates exceeds what would be normal background noise.)

        6. Spencer

          I’m not saying that Mary doesn’t have the right to be annoyed, I’m saying that dealing with that annoyance by way of petty revenge isn’t endearing anybody to her.

          The universe doesn’t need to be bend to Mary’s whims. There’s times where I want peace and quiet but screw me if I’m gonna get it.

        7. Eric Hansen

          This is freshman year of an undergraduate program. There’s no real need for intensive studying in the first place, and there certainly isn’t so much of it that a few minutes relocation to a dedicated study space would actually inconvenience Mary.

        8. segnosaur

          * There’s no real need for intensive studying

          We’ve already seen that some courses (e.g. calculus) have already had quizzes. Other courses may have had required homework, and/or reading assignments. Not everyone has an interest in sloughing off first year (or even the first few months of first year). We’ve seen Dorothy do some pretty intensive studying too.

          Waiting until exams then ‘cramming’ probably isn’t the best way to learn; you’re better off to keep up with the material as presented.

          * there certainly isn’t so much of it that a few minutes relocation to a dedicated study space would actually inconvenience Mary.

          Nice of you to dictate to other people what actually inconveniences them or not. Never mind that that “few minutes” could stretch into half an hour or so (depending on where she has to go to find a quiet space), or that it may be problematic depending on the materials she needs. (When I was a student, I would sometimes use multiple textbooks when doing homework. I didn’t really like having to lug that many books around with me.)

        9. Ana Chronistic

          I just want to point out what I learned from college… AFTER graduating.

          1. College is about learning to live with people. Mary and Carla both have to learn how to resolve their conflict (even if Carla’s resolution is “Status Quo”).

          2. Choose your battles. As has been pointed out, there’s been worse noise to have to endure. I lived by a TRAIN for three years! Hell, people having SEX (which has been well documented in and around the comic so far) is surely more distracting.

          3. Go the fuck outside. Assuming it’s the same timeframe as the prior sequence, it’s a beautiful fucking day out! Staying in your dorm by yourself all the time is the best way to get cabin fever (unless you’re killing Spiders). Also, you need exercise to fight off that Freshman 15.

          but then if Mary and Carla weren’t themselves, we’d have a more boring comic to read =p

        10. Jimmy

          Oh I agree Mary’s response is inappropriate, but that doesn’t mean that Carla’s right either. Skating’s not allowed in the hallway for a reason. We haven’t even mentioned the safety factor; someone could get seriously hurt.

        11. Amazi-Stool

          Did you know that Mike was altruistic enough to improve the skating ramp infrastructure?

          Did he ever receive a “Thank you” from Carla or Mary or what ever kid is using that ramp?

      2. segnosaur

        Yeah, In the same way that when I go to a movie and ask someone behind me to stop talking or kicking the seat, I’M the bad guy. After all, I could have gone to another movie or gone some other time. Why should the people talking or kicking the seat stop what they’re doing when there’s alternatives available to me?

        1. Ana Chronistic

          I don’t think anyone’s arguing that Mary has a right to quiet.

          As 2nd-Amendment-defenders seem to forget, though, rights are only as guaranteed as others’ willingness to enforce them. Yes, it’s in the dorm rules to “don’t be a dick” (paraphrase), but realistically, there are no Dorm Police Drones that will slap you with penalties at every infraction.

    3. GhostWriterL

      Mary’s an unsympathetic character who when not sneering at people for being as religious and judgy as she is, is scheming to screw people over and likely will do so in the future. She hates Joyce for wanting to see good in people first rather than making snap judgments on them for their faith, hates Billie for being a ‘rulebreaker’ that wasn’t a perfect angel in highschool like she was, hates Sierra for not wearing shoes like a “normal person”, etc. She constantly complains about not having peace and quiet when it’s the dorms, other people live there, and there are designated quiet areas that she can go to… or heaven forbid she get some earphones and a music player of some kind or another.

      Her asking someone to stop being annoying is fine, but there’s a saying of “pick your battles wisely” that comes to mind. She doesn’t pick wisely. She seeks to attack anyone she possibly can, and then will likely play up being a victim when they don’t back down and give her what she wants and push back at her.

      1. segnosaur

        Actually, of all the times we’ve seen her, this is perhaps the one time when she IS picking her battle wisely, since it might be the only time she could be morally right.

        1. Amazi-Stool

          Fighting this battle just because she actually is morally right is not really “choose your battles wisely”.
          The way she is fighting she is bound to lose – she gains only a bad temper from this.

    4. anna

      “Technically you’re right, but nobody’s really going to care because you’re behaving like an ass,” is a concept that is demonstrably difficult to understand, for a ridiculously large number of people.

      1. Kryss LaBryn

        “Oh, Rimmer. You are a smeghead.”

  84. smooti

    Out of curiosity, does Mary have siblings? Because this seems like something a middle sibling would do to try and get a younger one to stop doing something.

    1. Just Me

      She strikes me as more of an Older Sibling type than a Middle one.

      1. smooti

        Oh, but that would be pretty passive-aggressive for an older sib–

        wait it’s Mary. Passive-aggressive is her default state. I concede that she is an older sibling.

  85. Just Me

    Mary is wearing the same boost as Joyce…did they have a sale on them?

    1. Just Me

      I meant Boots. Typing too fast typo.

      1. smooti

        Well if both of her parents are the type to boycott certain businesses for being “anti-Christian” then eventually their options are limited…

      2. Amazi-Stool

        Boosting your typing speed too much?

    2. Eric Hansen

      Ughs are standard issue for white girls.

  86. Someone

    I feel like commenters judging each other for their opinions, arguing over a character that is hated for judging others. Is really freaking hypocritical.

  87. Sam

    After the Danny-Amber angst, it’s just plain weird to read these light-hearted comics.

    Also, is this the first instance of Mary and Carla interacting?

    1. Spencer

      They were also in a Patreon-sub comic that you see if you pledge one dollar.

      *hint hint*

      *nudge nudge*

      *give david willis your money*

  88. GhostWriterL

    Why am I thinking this is a precursor to Mary finding out Carla wasn’t always assigned as a female and is subsequently going to cause a shitstorm of drama trying to get her evicted out of the female dorms because of that whole “Them trans peoples gonna do things to our womens and childrens!” and Duggar inspired fear-fad?

    1. Spencer

      If she were to try it, which I can actually see because it’s Mary, then chances are that Carla’s folks would sue the school into oblivion for making it an unsafe place for their daughter.

      1. GhostWriterL

        I can see that happening, but not until after Mary in an overacted ‘panic’ goes around screeching that the school has allowed “A MAN DISGUISED AS A WOMAN” to have free residence in the female dorms, thus creating a volatile and dangerous situation for Carla and anyone LGBTQ.

        With any luck it ends with her getting asked to leave the university since it doesn’t seem like her being there is a good match given that the university would want to be open and accepting of everyone, whereas she’s probably wanting to be in some cloistered convent type school.

        1. Amazi-Stool

          I heard recently a dorm-place is available at Anderson…

    2. Someone

      Heres hoping that Mary and Carla develop a personal relationship, that leads to Mary finding out that Carla is transgender, and having to compare her deep seated believes to actual life.

      1. Commodore Jeep-Eep

        More liek horrible betrayal after that.

    3. cricricri13

      Wait carla in this universe is trans? Where did it say so? I either missed or forgot that memmo, last I know carla was a bionic pie-thrower with the soul of a car…

      1. Spencer

        It’s never been outright stated, but there’s been plenty of hints (her calling someone drawing a dick on her whiteboard a hate crime, there being “a reason” for her height) in the comic and was confirmed by Willis.

        1. segnosaur

          Not to mention the fact that she has a room to herself “for some reason” (as stated by Joyce).

        2. cricricri13

          Oh wow… Yeah it’s fun that someone that loves subtle hints as much as me in horror games and mistery stuff is sometimes so completelly dumb when picking them for social stuff, I guess I’m blind to what isn’t some kind of conspiracy or mathematical code cracking XD

      2. GhostWriterL

        Ultra-Car’s whole deal in the IW universe was that everyone assumed ‘he’ was a ‘he’, and yet when an upgrade into a humanoid form was made available, ‘he’ chose a female-resembling chassis as opposed to a male, thus making ‘he’ a ‘she’, and that she was always a ‘she’ because she felt like she was, regardless of what everyone else assumed and assigned her to be.

        It was a very evocative allegory to what many transgender persons go through in their life, I thought.

        Willis very well could have just made Carla a girl from the get go and leave that aspect of the character behind, but having Carla formerly be a ‘Carl’ opens up a lot of character dynamics, and also adds in diversity not often seen in much media outside of Orange is the New Black.

        Much like how Mary is still a sour, ultra judgy, and wretched person despite her religiousness and her attractiveness just like she was in IW, Carla has in some form confronted what her parents and society labeled her at birth and said “Nope, this is what I am, deal with it”.

    4. Guairdean Beatha

      If Carla’s wearing a skirt, it could give a new meaning to Mary’s expression in panel 5.

  89. Eric

    Must be tile or something, wouldn’t think carpet would be good to skate on.

    Should have known an experienced skater could jump. Or hop. 🙂

  90. Guairdean Beatha

    Why didn’t she grab an ankle as they passed by?

    1. Thor

      Because that would be assault.

      1. Guairdean Beatha

        What’s she going to do, call an RA and report herself at the same time?

    2. Amazi-Stool

      The whole idea of her “being an inmovable object” was that she could stop “Carla the irresistable force” (see the comments about the paradoxon above).
      However Carla surprised her by side-hopping the paradoxon with her being “hoppable force”.

      Mary did not expect this.

  91. Willoughby Chase

    Tomorrow, Carla does the splits as an encore.

    Carpet burns.

    ouch.

  92. segnosaur

    By the way, to anyone who is suggesting Mary “doesn’t have the right to quiet”, I looked up the Indiana University residence handbook. On page 11, it states:
    “Residents have the right to sleep and study in their rooms AT ANY TIME without interference from those around them….Residents are expected to demonstrate courtesy and consideration toward others at ALL TIMES and, if asked to respect this right, are expected to comply immediately”

    The handbook does mention “quiet hours”, but the above quote is pretty clear that even outside of those times, disturbing others is not allowed. (Hence the use of terms like “all times”.

    1. Cizak

      Mhm, yes, I see. But consider this.

      We don’t like Mary.

      1. Someone

        Ah, but consider this.
        There may be other people trying to study besides just Mary.

    2. Toad

      Well okay, but there’s a certain reasonable expectation of noise in a dorm. They may have the right to “courtesy and consideration” even at 11am, but the “skff skff” of skates can’t be louder than people having a loud conversation while walking by, or watching TV in the room next door. If someone was screaming or something, that would be over the line, but if it wasn’t already against the rules, there’s no way skating in the halls would be a unreasonable activity even given that.

      1. segnosaur

        Once again… We don’t know exactly how loud the skates were (since comics are a visual medium). But, Willis did use a white font with a red background, suggesting a different level of noise than regular conversation. (The last time I saw that font used, it was when toedad fired his gun.)

        1. Toad

          That’s just the “sound effect” font. Common sense tells us that roller skates cannot possibly be as loud as a rifle shot, and is unlikely to be louder than any other reasonable activity going down at noon in a college dorm.

  93. motorfirebox

    I feel like this is a pretty accurate summary of Mary’s role in the comic.

  94. JQuire

    So apparently I lived in an abnormally quiet dorm in college, where most people actually spent most of the day in different buildings for classes, eating, studying etc. or were just outside.

    1. DarkoNeko

      *gasp*

  95. Nena

    Go Carla!

  96. Sam

    Am I the only one who gets super annoyed by Jess in Gilmore Girls? I hv been dragging season-2 forever because of him and my friends (who started watching the show later than me) just skated through it.

  97. Smiling Cat

    You know, if Carla is being disruptive and is well aware she’s being disruptive, then Mary isn’t actually in the wrong in this case.

    (Though I’m sure she’ll manage being in the wrong shortly. It’s kinda Mary’s thing to be aggressively in the wrong).

  98. OnyxIdol

    Yes, it’s all fun and games until someone loses some teeth. After that, it all spirals into a maelstrom of hate and madness.

    1. Willoughby Chase

      See tomorrow’s/todays comic.

  99. Lulu

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7UPDtA0ceY

    Whee songs!

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