Cadet
Posted on August 25, 2016 by David M Willis

373 thoughts on “Cadet”

  1. miados

    nice to have a job where people can talk with you.

    1. TheAnonymousGuy

      yea, now we just need decent conversation

      1. miados

        look over there a distraction

        *runs from the conversation*

    2. Oberon

      It looks ot me as if someone doesn’t think that it’s all that nice at all.

  2. Moblin Umbrella

    Marcie looks kinda like she works at walmart in this

    1. Doctor_Who

      Maybe that’s why they hang out there.

      1. inqntrol

        And get booze.

  3. AnvilPro

    Let’s play “Where’s Leslie?”

    1. Cheshrin

      To the left of the pink shirt guy in the back of the first panel, blonde w/ blue shirt, hiding her face behind the sign.

      So, what’s the prize, do I get a cookie? Because I’ve been craving gingerbread all freakin’ day and I could not tell you why.

      1. SlipcasedAnt2

        How. The. Fuck. Even.

        1. SgtWadeyWilson

          Well I assume first you’d need to like gingerbread, which isn’t that hard last I checked. Then a bunch of random stimuli that lead to a craving. (Example stimuli: not having had it in awhile, smelling it, hearing it; its component words; or even just similar words, building a house, men in ovens, gumdrop buttons, being chased by a mob, being tricked by a fox.)

        2. Heavensrun

          (“…men in ovens…”) OдO

        3. SgtWadeyWilson

          I had begun to think nobody was reading that. Honestly, your avatar’s expression alone gets the sentiment across quite nicely.

        4. Disloyal Subject

          Would you prefer children?

      2. HMRC4EVR

        The prize is an old Marvel ‘No Prize’. You don’t get a prize for finding it, other than the fame from getting your letter published for finding it.

        1. Woobie

          I bet an old No-Prize would be worth money on eBay now.

    2. Needfuldoer

      She needs more doppelgangers to make this a real challenge.

    3. Carms

      Oh also is that the student newspaper woman who hits on billy occasionally? Just behind and to right (ours) of the sign waving trio in blue?

      1. Fart Captor

        Yeah, that’s Daisy

  4. Butterscotch

    A cop who can’t talk? That doesn’t seem like it would work.

    1. Undrave

      She wouldn’t be able to yell ‘FREEZE!’ or read the perps their rights… Also how is she suppose to call for backup?!

      1. Butterscotch

        She wouldn’t be able to give instructions. Be it to criminals, civilians, her colleagues, and everything in between. That’s a lot of liability.

      2. GenericScreenName101

        She can sign the Miranda rights to hearing impaired criminals and perhaps “Yak Back” type of device for the criminals who can hear.

        1. Butterscotch

          There is a lot more to being a police officer and a lot of it involves being able to direct people around and use of a radio.

        2. GenericScreenName101

          Such as community policing, investigations, directing traffic, security posts. Yes there is a lot more to policing but being unable to speak is an easy accommodation to make for an aspiring law enforcement officer.

        3. Butterscotch

          The amount of liability the police force would have would far outweigh any ‘easy accommodation’. I feel bad for her, it’s like a blind guy who wants to be a pilot. It wouldn’t happen.

        4. zoelogical

          idk the police seem to be managing all the liabilities from these cops who kill black civilians, they should be able to manage Marcie’s handicap just fine

        5. TheGrammarLegionary

          *shots fired*

          … I’m an asshole…

        6. N0083rP00F

          You got em in the end [that’s’ gotta hurt]

        7. Woobie

          Police are civilians, too.
          And often black.

        8. Cerberus

          Yeah, for beat cops, but I can definitely see a mute police officer serving as a special interpreter for deaf or mute witnesses, suspects, or victims, doing crime scene investigation, working forensics, working in the lab, and so on.

          Not all police officers are beat cops.

        9. Butterscotch

          They all start as beat cops though. You still need to be able to talk. She at best will be able to be some sort of professional within a precinct but she wouldn’t be a cop.

        10. GenericScreenName101

          Assuming DoA has comparable & contemporary technology as real life. There is other methods for Marcie to communicate without using her voice. Just as you can reply to my comment and I can reply to your comment without hearing each other’s voice.

        11. Butterscotch

          That is hardly a fair comparison.

        12. GenericScreenName101

          I Stephen Hawkings can make speaches at TED Talks, I don’t see how Marcie cannot have a text to speech software available to her when she would be on the beat.

        13. Butterscotch

          So she’s walking around with a computer, speakers, extra equipment to keep it running for the duration of a shift, along with her gear. This equipment is expensive (if it wasn’t, she’d have it) and likely not friendly to what a normal police officer has to go through.
          It’s still not a fair comparison. Hawkings is in a very controlled environment when he uses his equipment. Marcie won’t be.

        14. GenericScreenName101

          The speaker from her radio could double as a speaker for the text to speech software. The computer could be a program on her smart phone. Where many people today type complete and concise messages every day. But good point on Marcie not owning a cell phone. I hadn’t noticed that before.

        15. Opus the Poet

          I have text-to-speech on my cheapy Android phone I got when I changed carriers. It’s not even that big an app compared to the voice command function.

        16. ischemgeek

          Cell phones exist.

          AAC apps are cheap or free depending on the app.

          It would literally cost no more than the cost of the app and maybe an external battery for Marcie to have access to AAC on-hand all the time.

          Autistic people who are nonverbal and use AAC in their day-to-day lives exist. People with speech impediments who find AAC helpful in communication exist, as well. AAC users in general have found many ways to make the tech both easy to use and portable.

          (Part-time AAC user here – use it when my stutter gets too hard to talk through, mainly)

        17. FireSTK

          No no no no Stephen Hawking’s TED talks speech required a lot of preparation on his part. He spends an incredibly long time writing his speeches and any kind of questions are prereviewed so he can answer in a quick way. The fact that he can speak in any form is amazing but the technology isn’t there yet.

        18. ischemgeek

          @FireSTK, Marcie has several advantages for speedy AAC use over Hawking – she’s ambulatory and can use her hands. In that respect she’s more like a me than a Hawking, and I often have times where I can speak much faster by typing than by vocalization.

          It’s not quite as fast as speaking aloud when I’m relatively fluent, but at the same time, I on average type no more slowly than a Southern USian speaks.

        19. Tomas

          All this talk of technological fixes and no one mentions police whistles?

        20. FireSTK

          @ischemgeek, I understand that. I’m only talking about how Stephen Hawking talks. But now that we’re back to it, Marcie would be at a severe disadvantage not being able to effectively communicate if her hands are occupied.

          @Tomas. Great point. Whistles are very effective for drawing attention, especially for hand signals, and possibly breaking up hostile situations. But the question is still effective communication past that point.

          Did they ever say why Marcie can’t speak? The page bio just says that she lost the ability as a child. The closet possibilities I can find are aphasia or dysarthria but these are apparently treatable.

        21. Cerberus

          Not really. They don’t make Forensics Investigators walk the street as a beat cops. Nor their interpreters.

        22. Dean

          Forensics investigators mostly need college degrees, I think.

        23. Butterscotch

          Forensics either begin their careers as cops (and typical requirement for advancement within the agency is 5 years on the street. Varies from State to State), or never are cops in the first place but part of the department through an outside hire.
          So, yes, a lot of them do work as regular police officers before they advance within the ranks. One of my friends is doing exactly that.
          That being said, I doubt any of this applies to Marcie, who is working two jobs at the moment and hasn’t been shown in school. Nobody is become a forensic investigator off the street with no degree in the field.

        24. Andy

          They actually don’t. I’m a professional mapmaker, and when I was looking for a job, about half my job applications were to police departments. I’ve never been a cop or anything like.

        25. Butterscotch

          This doesn’t apply to Marcie.

        26. WaytoomanyUIDs

          @Butterscotch

          Someone who is comfined to a wheelchair is a rather bad comparison to Marcie. As others have noted there is cheap & free cellphone software that will fulfill most or all of her needs.

          Hawkings uses that rather complex setup because he likes it, even though the software is old & hardware is obsolete and hard to replace. Not because its the only option, there are several other more compact and less complex systems he could use. Allegedly, he likes sounding like a dalek.

        27. WaytoomanyUIDs

          Oops, Not only did I reply to wrong comment, but it wasn’t even you who brought up Hawkings.

          Sorry

        28. Fart Captor

          The ability to communicate verbally isn’t the only issue there. I’m not aware of any device which would not require at least one hand free in order to input what she wants to say. This means if she ever had to draw her weapon, issuing orders to the person she was pointing it at would be difficult if possible at all. That makes the situation much more dangerous for both her and the suspect.

          That may not exclude her from roles where she’d need to carry a gun, but it would take many options off the table

        29. HMRC4EVR

          She could go right into the forensic sciences. Even Barry Allen was a CSI guy before he became the Flash.

          Hell for all we know Marcie could be the next Quincy!

        30. Tomas

          Or the next Dexter.

        31. thejeff

          All of which requires not just college, but graduate work. For whatever reason, that doesn’t seem to be in Marcie’s plans. At least in the short term.

    2. miados

      well there is always paper work and training of other cops to do things. you don’t need to talk to be the one who sprays people with pepper spray so they know what it feels like before becoming cops

      1. Disloyal Subject

        A buddy of mine tells me that some of his colleagues lost the paperwork stating that they’d done that.
        We had a few laughs. Schadenfreud: the best freud.

        1. miados

          you forgot an e at the end of schadenfreude. I guess we should get all the paper work out and make sure there are no further errors before turning it into the boss. I’ll put on the coffee.

    3. jeffepp

      Not police, security. Completely different animal.

      1. Butterscotch

        It’s more a reply to Sal’s comment then the current situation.

    4. Spencer

      I have a completely baseless headcanon of Marcie as a writer/poet.

      I think it’d be really neat!

    5. steelplatedheart

      she’s not a cop though she’s a security officer.

      Believe me, there is NO training or requirements to becoming a security officer. Just stand there and look menacing.

      1. Needfuldoer

        She could wreck anyone who starts causing trouble.

      2. Lailah

        There is definitely some minimal standard of training. You do generally have to sit in a classroom.

        Like it’s not high concept shit, but you do actually need a license.

    6. YourPartnerInScience

      In this thread: A bunch of people talking about how a mute person shouldn’t/can’t be a police officer like that kind of discrimination is alright in this day and age.

      There are plenty of things one can do for the police force that would not require a voice. And if you really don’t think allowances are made for those with different strengths and weaknesses you’re naive.

      I can’t understand this line of thinking where it’s okay to talk about what a bad cop she’d be because she lacks a voice, but if it was some jerk here talking about how someone couldn’t do something because they were gay/fat/female/male/tall/short/black/physically disabled instead of ‘mute’ which is less often encountered, you’d be all over them.

      If she wants to be a cop, then she could work her lil ass off and be a cop. Mute doesn’t mean inept.

      1. yomi

        Exactly my thought, thank you very much for writing it first!

      2. KSClaw

        That’s what I was thinking too. Things change all the time, so there could probably be a way for her to become a cop.

      3. Sarda

        There are certain implicit requirements to every job. Many people, on first thought, would think that the (very broad) job descriptor of ‘cop’ would pretty much require the ability to audibly speak to others. The technology to get around that is available, yes, but most people either don’t know that or think it’s not easily applied to the situations a cop might find themselves in.

        Your comparison is flawed as well; in your list of generally irrelevant descriptors you include ‘fat’ and ‘physically disabled’. Both terms are sufficiently broad that, combined with the wide variety of things a cop could be doing, your argument technically holds. However, on the subject of beat cop (which is what most people I’ve seen are talking about, and likely the only thing that pops into most people’s mind by the word cop) either one would be sufficient to disqualify – a beat cop must be physically fit. End of story.

        1. trlkly

          And those people who think “beat cop” when they are thinking about the police are factually wrong, and thus it’s okay to bring it up. To think that shows ignorance of what the police are.

          If you’re going to say something that could be discriminatory, it’s in your best interest to make sure it isn’t. It takes two seconds of thought to realize that there are other types of cops that Marcie could be.

          If you don’t think about that, people may interpret what you say as bigoted, and it’s not easy to fix that. Better to not allow it in the first place by actually thinking about what you type before you type it.

          (And, no, I don’t think anyone here knows so little about cops that they think that the only type of cop is the beat cop. They’ve at least seen TV shows with detectives.)

        2. thejeff

          But as far as I know, the usual route to detective starts with the Police Academy and goes through beat Cop. (Not that most actually walk beats these days, but that’s another rant.)

          Same for most other jobs I’m aware of. Some technical ones may bypass it, but they require degrees.

      4. Oysteinthenoisy

        Thank you for writing this. My thoughts exactly. G also think Sal’s tone with Marcie is incredibly hostile, even though I’m sure Sal is totes correct about Robin.

      5. Butterscotch

        Jobs involving the safety of the public have a minimum standard you need to meet. This isn’t discrimination, it’s reality. You can attack my character all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact you need to be able to speak to be a police officer. I’d be very pleased to find out I’m wrong, trust me.

        1. trlkly

          No one attacked your character. And you just ignored everything the person said who you were responded to. Instead, you decided to make it all about you and repeat the stuff that had already been refuted.

          Reality is that every possible accommodation has to be made for those with disabilities. Reality is that she can be a cop. She just can’t do the jobs that require the ability to talk to the general public at a moment’s notice.

          Most police jobs do not actually involve that, so she can definitely be a police officer. And if you really would love to hear this, you’d listen to this instead of making it about how someone dared point out that something you said had bigoted implications.

          The response to someone saying something you said is bigoted is to apologize. Not to double down. That’s when your character may be questioned.

        2. Butterscotch

          “She just can’t do the jobs that require the ability to talk to the general public at a moment’s notice.”
          Which is almost all of them. You don’t apply to be a police officer and skip the academy/training/etc. I’m not apologizing for being ‘bigoted’ because I didn’t say anything to warrant the accusation. You’re using it as a buzzterm to diffuse the actual argument.
          Sadly, I did look around to see if it is possible for a mute person to be a police officer and all I found was instances of them shooting deaf/mute people.
          But, again, attack me, don’t attack the argument. Very mature.

        3. thejeff

          Yeah, I did the same search. Scary and depressing as hell.

    7. Pinja

      I don’t think Sal is being literal.

    8. Tomas

      I don’t think Sal was referring to Marcy’s career plans. I think it was just trash talk. “You’re such a sell-out, acting like a cop.”

  5. inqntrol

    Oh hey, we got Marcie in both comics today.

    1. Doctor_Who

      Marcie Appreciation Day!

  6. MatthewTheLucky

    Sal’s not bitter. She’s too cool for that. She’s just practicing her small talk. Yeah, that’s it.

    1. Dana

      Seems she needs the practice.

  7. Plasma Mongoose

    Marcie seems less than happy about Sal’s last comment.

    1. Undrave

      I think she’s tired of the clingy desperate routine :p

      1. Fart Captor

        I think Marcie’s more sick of the constant complaining about any form of authority. I get the feeling she could recite some of Sal’s rants word-for-word.

        1. miados

          i have a friend that i have taken to keeping track of how often certain complaint points are used in their every day life. luckily i think it wont be long until i am able to cut them from my life.

        2. Oysteinthenoisy

          Do it now. People like that suck away your life soure. But do them a favor and let them know why. It may help them change down the road.

        3. Orion Fury

          What with her being mute, now that’s skill.

        4. Cerberus

          I’m not so sure it’s that. Look where she pauses.

          It’s not after Sal goes on her anti-cop routine, because why would Marcie have a problem with that, I mean, we’re usually rolling an unarmed black teen shot every couple of hours these days, so that wouldn’t seem out of place or untoward.

          No, it’s right after Sal somewhat disparages her day job as a stock clerk, a job that definitely only pays minimum wage and involves long hours on her feet. Especially since she’s working these jobs to make it possible to stay in the same town as her long time friend. A long time friend who may be practically disowned but still does also come from a background of extreme wealth and so may not fully understand how demanding multiple retail jobs actually are.

          Sal then interprets this as a slam on the security gig (and Sal has a history of misinterpreting Marcie when she’s paying attention to other things) and goes rambling about folks deporting her family, which yeah probably puts her in a foul mood because when you’re doing a job that sucks and feels morally awful because you need to eat the last thing you want is someone pissing all over you about how morally compromised you are.

          Like, yes, yes, I am, but this saves me from being literally homeless, so back off.

          That last panel especially is a much more complicated annoyed face than panel 3 which makes me think it’s a combination of “why did I even bring you again” and “you’re right, but c’mon, not cool”.

        5. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          See also the sneering at Becky’s hypothetical Chick-Fil-A job.

        6. Cerberus

          I feel that Becky hesitantly applying for the Chik-Fil-A job is the perfect distillation of the moral compromise of extreme poverty. Like, that’s not just outside her moral wheelhouse, but it’s a place that represents a lot of traumatic memories. But she needs something.

          And that’s a place I’ve been and can relate to so much and fie on anyone that shits on a tough moral struggle like that, because they have the economic safety to not morally compromise in the workplace.

        7. Fart Captor

          That’s a good point. It does seem that it was the second part of Sal’s panel 2 comme,nt she’s reacting to, now that you mention it. Especially with the way her expression goes back to neutral right after, like she’s really trying not to take it personally, but then Sal brings up her other job and it still doesn’t occur to Sal that maybe she really needs the money, and can’t afford to be choosy. Or that maybe Marcie would appreciate a bit of empathy, or at least switching to a more cheerful subject.

          And now I’m thinking that her exasperation at the end may also contain a hint of ”holy crap, Sal, I love you but you need to make other friends. This is exhausting”

    2. Moose

      And her first.

    3. tim gueguen

      Yeah. But I’m sure Marcie will tell her to get lost if she gets too annoying.

      1. Peny

        Well, not really TELL.

        Maybe give that giant flip-off that she gave while hanging out with Malaya? But there’s gotta be a better way than that.

        1. Leorale

          She could sign, ‘you’re being obnoxious, cut it out’ or whatever her heart desires.

        2. Needfuldoer

          The ol’ double-deuce gets that message across rather well.

          If that doesn’t work? Gibbs-slap.

        3. YourPartnerInScience

          She communicates fine. Ugh, this is the last comment I’m reading in today’s comment thread. I’m over my quota of sly jabs at Marcie’s muteness.

          HAR HAR she can’t actually TALK guys it’s FUNNY…ugh.

          Let someone roll up in here talking crap about a group you care about and you’d have their heads though.

  8. Doctor_Who

    So Marcie’s parents aren’t from ’round here?

    New theory: those aren’t shades/goggles she’s wearing, her eyes are like that because her father is Darkseid.

    1. brionl

      Enh, both Kalibak and Orion had normal eyes. Well, normal for super heroes anyway.

    2. inqntrol

      I thought she shoots laser beams through her eyes, but can’t control them and that’s why she wears those glasses. Just like Cyclops.

    3. brasca1

      Maybe she can talk, but doesn’t since she sounds like Michael Ironside.

      1. Doctor_Who

        That’s a good reason to never stop talking.

        1. Jay Eff

          Marcie doesn’t talk because she sounds like the Hanna-Barbera version of Darkseid.

          Which means she sounds like Dr. Claw.

        2. Orion Fury

          Or maybe she’s like Black Bolt?

          Wait, wrong `verse.

        3. brionl

          That’s it! She’s a genetic construct created from the DNA of Cyclops and Black Bolt!

        4. Thevoiceoftreason

          Nope, she’s like Doomsday before all the wrapping got knocked off him. Marcie just hasn’t faced an opponent whom she needed to talk to in order to kill.

        5. Doctor_Who

          Having Frank Welker’s voice is no reason to not talk, because Frank Welker is already every voice.

          Seriously, I used to play a game with my brothers where they’d point to a cartoon character and ask me to identify the VA, then look it up on imdb. My success rate was pretty good, and one trick is that if I was stumped I would guess Welker (or Tress Macneille if the character was female), and that would be correct like 40% of the time.

          Everyone is voiced by Frank Welker. I am voiced by Welker. God is voiced by Welker. The voice in your head is Welker.

        6. David M Willis

          The voice in my head is David Kaye, thank you very much!

        7. brasca1

          I would’ve thought David Warner.

        8. miados

          and here i am with no clue who any of the mentioned people are…..

        9. Greenygal

          Frank Welker is probably the most prolific voice actor in Western animation. David Kaye also has an extensive VA resume, including multiple roles in Transformers, perhaps most notably as the voice of Beast Wars Megatron. David Warner’s career is mostly live-action roles, but he’s done some VA work, including the role of Ra’s al-Ghul in the DC animated universe.

        10. Orion Fury

          That makes sense.

        11. brasca1

          Superman The Animated Series introduced me to Darkseid as voiced by Ironside so I cannot imagine him with any other.

        12. Roborat

          I was once at a voice actors panel at a con and asked them if there was a rule in Hollywood requiring a minimum of one female character per show had to be done by Tress MacNeille.

        13. AgentKeen

          No no, Weird Al.

    4. MM

      Or Trigon.

    5. Jay Eff

      So Marcie’s parents aren’t from ’round here?

      Well, her last name is Diaz, so– maybe?
      At least, when American politicians start bringing up Deporting, people with surnames like Marcie’s tend to be the target…

  9. Spencer

    “Ah never get to spend time with you, Marcie. Now let me spend all that time complaining.”

  10. Achallenger

    aww she misses uuuu

    1. miados

      well its not like she has anyone else to fill in for her.

  11. GenericScreenName101

    Been there Marcie. Just keep the non-responses earnest. And look busy, people are less likely to harass you if you look busy. Try keeping your hands full of boxes or something.

    1. miados

      and if you look angry/annoyed people are less likely to ask you to help them with extra work.

  12. gkheyf

    ok, so we gathered about leslie…but why is daisy floating around a desanto rally? looking for a repressed political advisor with an angry energy? even if she is conservative of politics, you’ve gotta pick your candidates

    1. bhtooefr

      School newspaper.

      Probably reporting on it.

      1. MM

        Or she just has the same crush as Leslie.

    2. Cerberus

      Daisy was told that Republican women sublimate their true natures and are a powder keg of sexuality ready to burst at the tiniest of provocations.

      So, same reason as Leslie, she’s a thirsty girl looking for water.

      1. Emperor Norton II

        “Thirsty girl looking for water” is a really fantastic euphemism for a woman seeking another woman as a sexual partner.

        1. a snow ʍousɐ

          Is Ethan a thirsty boy looking for milk?
          Or cream, anyway

      2. Dean

        Daisy’s decision to cover the rally was shown in one of the Patreon strips.

    3. miados

      maybe she was bored and figured “meh why not”

  13. Jay Eff

    *checks bio page*

    Oh, Marcie Diaz.
    I completely forgot her last name.

  14. Dandi_Andi

    Sal, go home. Make new friends. Let Marcie grow and have a life outside of you. Have a life outside of Marcie.

    It doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you. She does. Really. She just needs time to be Marcie instead of “Sal’s best friend, Marcie.” Get it?

    1. Spencer

      Yeah in all honesty this just reads like one dick move after another for Sal.

      She calls Marcie a wannabe cop (which we know, to Sal, ain’t a good thing), justifies it over politics that Marcie probably wants to blot out of her mind so she can pay for her cramped apartment she lives in so she could follow Sal to IU, and then just pats herself on the back because she got what she want, so “at least” there’s that.

      All this while Marcie is giving her what she wants while on the clock, because she knows Sal relies on her.

      This is a seriously uncool move on Sal’s part, and I’m wondering if Marcie will tell her off before the night is over.

      1. Cerberus

        Yeah, I get why Sal is uncomfortable and leaning towards these topics.

        I mean, as a black woman in this particular election cycle, a “family values” candidate likely belonging to the same political group as Trump and his gang of neo-nazis probably feels like one of the least safe places she could be.

        Not to mention that the security thing probably bugs her because of her memories of being harassed by security forces in her life. And we can tell she’s super distracted in a negative way by her surroundings because she’s doing the same not even paying attention to Marcie thing she does when she’s trying to hang out but is distracted by something or someone she hates.

        But that doesn’t make what she’s doing respectful to the very tough economic decisions Marcie’s had to make nor respectful to the very earnest attempt to carve time out for Sal where she can. Nor respectful to her friendship and her friend.

        And so yeah, I hope Marcie does tell her off a little about not being a douche to her over it.

        1. Reltzik

          Okay, I can definitely see that type of thing being a serious issue (the minority-at-the-rally-thing). Hell, I’m white, male, and straight, and I’D be scared to be there, and while I don’t know how much worse it would be for someone who doesn’t pass as Republican-voter-base, I can guess much worse. (I’m guessing 95-99% would be oh, cool, another supporter who looks a bit different… but I also guess that those last few percentage points can be very, very dangerous.)

          …. what was my point?

          …. oh, right. Yes, this CURRENT election cycle’s bad that way. But how long has Willis had this in the planning? He draws his strips months ahead of time…. probably plots the arcs years ahead of time. He seeded the Leslie/Robin ship and her reelection campaign several books ago… and several real-life years ago.

          I mean, how could anyone have possibly predicted that the Republican Party 2016 platform was going to be a hotbed of religious extremism, zealotry, racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, jingoism, and well-armed white-privelged-anger all headed by someone noted for poor control, poorer planning skills, even-poorer empathy, and resorting to a communication strategy and vision of ill-thought-out slogans and free word association?

          …….

          …

          ..

          *perfectly deadpan face*

        2. Spencer

          Remember when commenters expressed discomfort over the chapter where Ross brought a gun to campus?

          When is it not too soon?

        3. Geneseepaws

          Dunno, sounds a lot like G.W.Bush to me. I used to be ashamed of saying that I had family who were Democrats, now I’m ashamed to admit I even SAW a Republican, …. EEuuwww!

        4. Heavensrun

          G.W. was actually fairly moderate on immigration, and popular with hispanics.

        5. Heavensrun

          Note, I’m not saying he wasn’t terrible, I’m just saying he’s nowhere near Trump levels.

        6. Roborat

          The unholy spawn of Adolph Hitler and Caligula wouldn’t be anywhere near Trump levels.

        7. Cerberus

          Haha! Nice.

      2. Pinja

        “Yeah in all honesty this just reads like one dick move after another for Sal.”

        For me this is Sal all comic.

  15. Cheshrin

    I spent like five minutes trying to google what Marcie was supposed to be signing in panels two and five before I realized she was just ushering people forward.

    I am not especially observant.

    1. miados

      depending on your sleep cycle you can blame it on sleep deprivation.

  16. Andr3wtime

    If you ever have a non-busy day you could sit back with some coffee and draw a bunch of extras at different distances and keep em in a folder to then be sprinkled into future backgrounds as need be.

    1. Conuly

      People with babies don’t have non-busy days.

  17. ZerglingOne

    Haha Sal, security guard is so so much further from police officer than you’re giving credit for.

  18. Kris

    If Marcie actually becomes a cop at some point that will her and Sal’s friendship awkward….well more awkward.

    1. tim gueguen

      I wonder if a mute person could get hired as a cop. On the one hand there’s the whole communication problem, since most people don’t know sign language and she can’t communicate by radio. On the other hand not hiring her may be against state and federal antidiscrimination laws.

      1. miados

        they would always have to have a partner at the least and probably deal with things that are a lot less likely to have dire shoot outs etc in case their partner end up shot.

      2. Kris

        I do know that law enforcement is kind of an exception to the ADA in that they can legally bar employment if the disability impairs your ability to perform your duties. Like say you lost both arms. They probably wouldn’t hire you because you can’t fire a gun. That being said I don’t think muteness is enough of an impairment especially considering Marcie is very physically adept but it all varies on a case by case basis. I immediately think a partner that knows sign language would solve the issue.

        1. Butterscotch

          Marcie gets separated from partner. She cannot radio, talk to suspects, or even call for help.

        2. Kris

          I’m saying it’s a perfect solution or even that there is one but I think it within the realm of possibiliy. Panic buttons, pre recorded dialog. texting, I think if she made a case it could be possible. No one wanted to hire a rabbit as a cop but Judy Hopps prooved them wrong!

        3. Kris

          I meant to say *not* obviously. sorry..The perfect solution would be her talking of course.

        4. Kris

          Actually I just remembered Marce did talk one. In a flashback http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/evilspacestation/ in a time before she lost he hearing.

          So maybe she still can talk if she needs to rendering this whole conversation MUTE!

        5. David M Willis

          MARCIE IS NOT DEAF

        6. Kris

          *facepalm* she’s literally hearing Sal in this very comic..whelp this embarrassing moments been immortalized..*_*

        7. Emperor Norton II

          Kris: Your only choice now is to change your nickname and email (for a different avatar) and then mock yourself.

          Or you can do this.

        8. WaytoomanyUIDs

          You can set up a gratavar account with multiple avatars and emails just for those embarrassing occasions.

        9. Fart Captor

          I don’t think it’s just law enforcement. If you can’t effectively perform the your duties with reasonable accommodation, no one is forced to hire you.

          There’s plenty of jobs in law enforcement, where it wouldn’t be an issue. Especially if you look outside of the police, there’d even be plenty of non-desk jobs where being mute could be easily accommodated. There’d probably still be a lot less action than I expect Marcie’s looking for though.

        10. miados

          she could become a sort of combat trainer for other police members or the “perp” in practice scenarios.

        11. vlademir1

          I kinda wanna add an “-ish” to your whole post. Last I knew, they can bar someone from specific positions which their disability makes performing the duties of impossible but not from any position they could perform the duties for with reasonable aid.

        12. Kris

          True. Like going back to my no arms example. If robot arms were available that would change everything.

        13. NZA

          But you’d need robot arms capable of passing the police physical for robot arms to make a difference, speech to text helps a lot but I don’t know if it would be enough, in a dangerous time critical situation it could simply be too slow and cluncky too work

        14. Clif

          But you could prerecord phrases that you might need in polive work. Like, “Hands up and out of the car.”, “Make my day, punk.” and “Oooo! Donuts!”

        15. Clif

          Not to confuse polive work with police work or an edit feature.

        16. Heavensrun

          5 seconds on google will answer this question that people have been arguing about for hours.

        17. WhoWasI

          NEVER let the facts get in the way of an argument. 🙂

      3. Conuly

        If you can’t do the job with reasonable accommodations, those laws don’t apply.

  19. Mr. Random

    ⠠⠽⠑⠎⠂ ⠓⠕⠺ ⠝⠊⠉⠑⠲

    1. Orion Fury

      Really? Really?

    2. Icalasari

      “Yes, how nice.”

      Also you’re evil

    3. zoelogical

      do you think that if i petition google, they’ll add braille to google translate

      1. Bicycle Bill

        Probably not, but if you google “Braille to English” you’ll find a couple of free on-line translators.

        1. zoelogical

          as i found!!

          it’s kind of silly that they don’t have it, though.

    4. inqntrol

      Is this one of those “secret messages” thing? If yes, what do I press to see what it says?

    5. Bagge

      https://xkcd.com/315/

    6. SgtWadeyWilson

      Is it bad that I just thought: Regirock, Regice, or Registeel?

  20. Some1

    Questing of Age

    Joyce’s phone begins to play the Dexter and Monkey Master Theme Song

    She answers the phone.

    Joyce: Yes…got it…oh shit.

    Joyce hangs up and puts her phone back in her pocket.

    Becky: What is it?

    Joyce: Riley has been kidnapped.

    Faz: Is that the twelve-year old?

    Joyce: Yep.

    Dorothy: Who called you?

    Joyce: Roz, she’s making plans for a rescue mission.

    Joycelyne: Does she have any idea who did it.

    Joyce: No, that’s part of the meeting.

    Ethan: Well, we know that one.

    Dorothy: Where’s the meeting being held?

    Joyce: Back in IU.

    Dorothy: Of course it is.

    Walky: We should tell Hank.

    Joyce: Telling Hank would be a good idea.

    Becky: Why are you using your father’s first name?

    Joyce: Am I?
    ‘
    Dorothy: Moving on, should Faz come?

    Joyce: Well, he does know a lot about this stuff.

    Faz: Faz thinks it would be good to continue hanging around such pretty ladies as yourselves.

    Dina: Ugh

    Dorothy: What can you do besides learn about resurrection.

    Faz: Faz can hack.

    Amber: I can also hack.

    Dorothy: We can have two hackers!

    Faz: But really, what’s in it for me?

    Jocelyne: You get to contribute to the world not becoming a wasteland of my mom.

    Faz: Faz thinks that is a very good argument.

    They walk back to the hotel. Where Hank is sitting on the bed.

    Hank: Wait, why are Mary and Faz here?

    Mary: I just don’t want to become your wife.

    Faz: Faz has similar issues with that.

    Joyce: We need to go.

    Hank: Where?

    Joyce: Home.

  21. ZDX

    I still want to know if this is the Tyler that Dorothy dated.

  22. tonyt94

    Isn’t it rather presumptive of Sal to assume that Robin should naturally be pro-amnesty/anti-illegal immigration, based solely on her ethnicity?

    Some of the staunchest opponents of leniency I know are legal immigrants and their children.

    1. miados

      people like to put others in arbitrary categories. that being said I am unsure how much they might discuss political matters so i don’t know if that is something that sal would know or not.

    2. MM

      I think she’s basing it on Robin’s political affiliation.

      1. Yotomoe

        Isn’t that also unfair? I know plenty of republicans that are anti deportation and I know many a democrat that’s pro deportation.

        1. Conuly

          She’s basing it on the fact that Robin will do anything to get elected and stay elected. She’s saying Robin has no iron-clad morals or principles and just does whatever is best for Robin.

        2. Heavensrun

          Like Conuly said, she’s basing it not on Robin’s actual policy, but on the assumption that politicians will say whatever gets them elected. And while democrats and republicans are all individuals who hold a wide variety of views, democrat and republican -politicians- usually stick pretty hard to a party line in order to stay “unified” and “appeal to the base”.

    3. Kris

      What the hell are Robin’s political leanings anyway? All I know is she’s pro family or something from back when she first appeared in that Roz sex tape non-scandal.

      1. WhoWasI

        Roz’s cast page says her sister is “fairly conservative”. But I think it has implied before that Robin would say or do anything that would get her re-elected.

      2. Emperor Norton II

        rRobin’s political leanings are “Pandering to the sort of people that thinks Roz is a hellbound slut. so that she stays in office.”

      3. Pat

        “Pro-family” is code for hateful. That kind, uh, lies about… well, pretty much everything.
        It’s all in weird code, so you have to get used to it to understand what they mean. Like “pro-marriage” meaning opposition to legal marriage rights for same-sex couples, even though that’s the opposite of the meaning of the actual words involved.

        1. Jhon

          “family values” means MY family values. YOUR family can die in a fire.

        2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          In practice as far as I can tell, “Family Values” boil down to “husbands own their wives” and “parents own their children”.

    4. Cerberus

      I don’t think she thinks Robin’s party would deport her parents for being undocumented. I think she thinks Robin’s party would deport her parents for being latinx.

      Cause that’s kinda the current climate right now, thanks to Trump’s stirring up of anti-latinx bigotry.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        You aren’t going to be able to deport 11 million people if you get all fussy about technicalities and paperwork.

        1. Heavensrun

          You aren’t going to be able to deport 11 million people anyway. I mean, seriously. Good luck trying. (generally speaking, not accusing you personally of actually trying. ;p )

        2. Cerberus

          The point isn’t to actually deport them, the point is to raise up demonization against them to the point that the community fears for its lives, attacks against them become more common, and they want to “voluntarily” move to different countries.

          Same thing as the Arizona “papers, please” law. I knew a lot of latinx folks from AZ who having the means to move states, did so just because they didn’t want to deal with the racist fallout and harassment. And I know of several muslim folks that felt they had to move to the Middle East to escape the sheer amount of harassment and casual discrimination they were getting in the States.

          The plan after that for those who remain is that the community will be less likely to publicly exist for fear of violence and thus less likely to be visibly present in the lives of biogts. I know of a lot of different marginalized groups that have been becoming homebodies of late due to increased violence or have shut down their online accounts and gone stealth to avoid harassment online.

          In essence to create climates of fear where people exist but they are barred from a full life and full opportunities and where they are casually discriminated from means of changing the politics of their oppression, and people are afraid of standing up for themselves out of fear of getting killed.

          Cause that’s always the strategy of the hate-filled corner of minority dominant groups trying to rule a much larger marginalized group or a marginalized group in danger of actually having social power and rights. Whether that mean the KKK, Focus on the Family, neo-nazis, or the National Party in South Africa.

        3. vlademir1

          It’s also the status quo from the NSDAP in the ’30s. You create a climate where “good, hard working citizens of [given nation]” fear and distrust whoever the chosen outgroup is (typically it’s a group with perceived favortism shown to them, where that “favortism” is just an outgrowth of bigotry against them such as the case of Hitler’s perceptions of Jewish people stuck on the German homefront during WWI). That leads to conditions where all other groups are brought together against that outgroup and act against them leading many to flee. After that, those in power then try to deport the remainder and, depending on some of the political climate and how strong the government control of the populace is, failing that try to find another “solution”.

        4. thejeff

          Hell, I doubt it’s even that. At least for the political types. Cheap labor’s too important. And it’s too important to keep rallying the base against them.

          Keep them oppressed and without rights and they’ll work practically for free. Sometimes actually for free, since they can’t sue you when you cheat them.

          But mostly it’s to keep them from becoming citizens and voting. The attempts to rule that birthright citizenship doesn’t apply to those here illegally and thus not under US jurisdiction are really scary – can you say permanent legal underclass?

        5. Woobie

          Neither party wants to deport anyone back SotB. The Republican money wants less expensive labor; they do not want the supply to drop.
          But both parties believe underthinking voters must be pandered to, however.

    5. Pinja

      People holding hypocritical and contrary political positions?

      Why I’ve never heard of such a thing!

      1. WhoWasI

        Lately some even manage to do it within the same sentence!

  23. Jordan

    It’s times like these when I can truly understand that Walkie and Sal are related. They’re both so freaking oblivious sometimes that it hurts.

  24. Dylan

    Suddenly realizing I don’t know what Sal does for money. Is she totally dependent on her parents?

    1. miados

      we will learn once it becomes relevant to some sort of story. unless willis leaks it for some reason.

    2. Jason

      no more or less than just about every other student in this comic, so far as we know.

    3. Spencer

      She paid for her motorcycle.

      She doesn’t have a job right now, but she probably worked while she was in Tennessee.

    4. Pinja

      She must have done something to buy the bike but it’s hard to say what it was. For sure she must get support from her parents now, otherwise why would she be at the same college as her bro? Or at college at all?

      Do Catholics girls schools (I assume it was Catholic) for troubled teens even let the kids have jobs? If not she must have done something during the holiday. It is easy to say stripper (She is super hot as acknowledge by everyone in comics and how Willis draws her) but I think it more likely she just worked 2 shitty jobs at the same time over the summer to buy her bike.

      Or I guess she got an allowance from her parents and just saved it all for years?

    5. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      It seems very likely that her parents would be glad to pay for her college. Consider the alternative of her returning to a criminal thug lifestyle. College is what proper good citizens do at her age. And she’ll be more likely to associate with the right type of people, hopefully.

      1. Spencer

        The Walkertons don’t think of themselves as bad parents to Sal, so it makes sense that they’d pay for her college. Sending her to Tennessee was done with love, after all. She just needed to straighten out from her criminal ways.

  25. Kuroneko

    So Marcie could hear her….how exactly???

    1. Spencer

      Marcie is mute, not deaf.

      1. kuroneko

        So strange! This whole time I thought she was deaf!! *facepalm*

    2. K

      Marcie isn’t deaf

    3. Orion Fury

      She’s also not blind.

    4. Bagge

      Or as the poet puts it… aw crap
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/fun-2/

      1. miados

        reminds me of stories of people who didnt know other person could speak random language they were speaking.

      2. kuroneko

        Thank you! I completely forgot about this strip!

  26. newllend(henryvolt)

    As a guy who once did security in a bad neighborhood I sympathize with Marcie.

  27. Saki

    SAL!!! 😀
    (I missed her, can you tell?)
    But aw man I really hope Sal can make some friends soon. Everyone needs room to breathe sometimes, just because she’s known Marcie forever doesn’t make her an exception.

    1. Spencer

      Oh look, a vague opportunity to shill my theory for Amber/Sal friendshipping!

      I’m super convinced those two bond once they hash it out. One of Sal’s major plotlines is her inability to connect with other people. Amber’s going to need a supporting cast outside of Danny and Ethan so those two can have their romance without her hovering in the corner of every page. Considering how severe Amber’s hatred for Sal has gotten, and Sal’s involvement in that, it seems to have gone too far for things to resolve with just a “okay we’re cool now I guess” and for everyone to go their merry ways.

      That, and Amber and Sal hit a lot of the same character tics, and to sum it up maybe too simply, Amber’s character arc now is the one Sal went through before the series started.

      Also, guys? Roller Derby Amber and Sal if I’m right. Think about it.

      1. Saki

        I’m super with you on an Amber/Sal friendship in theory but… I’m afraid it wouldn’t, couldn’t, happen for many, many months in-comic. The post-traumatic stress runs deep in Amber’s psyche and given her extreme reactions to Sal’s presence, it would likely take a very long time for them to be able to have a calm conversation, much less form an actual bond.
        I think Joyce would be the better ‘candidate’, IDK, I just feel like their personalities contrast well… I don’t really know how to put it into words, they just work well together imo.

        1. Spencer

          Well, remember that DoA takes place in a time consuming void. Danny and Ethan are going to be smooching before the week is over unless a time skip occurs, because that’s going to take a whole year. Likewise, Ruth will start making headway into dealing with her depression in roughly the same timeframe while Walky and Dorothy have painful conversations you wouldn’t expect in a month-old relationship.

          Buuuuut I’ve also theorized a time skip to the Winter term primarily so Becky can become a student, so it could work that way.

          Mostly though, I think the appeal of Sal/Amber bonding is just in seeing Amber recognizing that Sal isn’t the monster she’s been building her up to be, and Sal being able to say the things to Amber that she probably wishes somebody told her when she was going through all that crap.

        2. Saki

          Look, I’m not saying they’re not gonna be yelling things at each other that the other might need to hear or that might lead to some much needed realization moments BUT I just don’t see Amber being able to actually *spend time* with Sal for a really long time, as much as I would like that to happen. (but also I kinda wouldn’t because I feel like that would take away from the seriousness of her PTSD)

        3. Spencer

          I mean, I brought up Ruth specifically because she’s in a similar situation. Ruth’s not going to be in the throes of suicidal depression for the rest of the series. Even though with the timeframe of “forever the autumn semester”, she wouldn’t really have the chance to progress that much. Considering where she is, where it’s an active struggle for her to function and be alive, it’d take a good month for her to start applying some mechanisms and for some medicine to take effect. A month is a really long time in this series!

          Amber can’t be having PTSD every time Sal walks in the room for the rest her eternally 18-year old freshman existence. Being able to move past her trauma, that she doesn’t have to be constantly beating herself up for her perceived failures, it’s gonna happen at some point.

      2. zoelogical

        IT’D BE NICE

        but i think it would take a lot of work.

        1. Spencer

          So what you’re saying is that there’s potential for years of drama to be had in the idea 😀

        2. zoelogical

          well, it is Amber and Sal. so definitely.

        3. Spencer

          It just seems like too good a concept to pass up, plus I think it’s likely for the reasons I listed above. Amber will need space from Danny/Ethan and Sal awkwardly trying to help Amber process her anger and learning to live with it, inviting her along with her Carla and Marcie to try and fit her in, just seems really, really good. That, and Amber hits on so many similarities with both universes’ Sals that it can’t be unintentional.

          I mean in any real world circumstance the fixture of Amber’s PTSD should pointedly not be involving herself in her recovery, but DoA is a character narrative where all the therapists were left bound and gagged inside a closet, so it falls to her.

        4. zoelogical

          I. hmm. I’d ship it more if Amber had her own therapist, who may or may not be Leslie Bean, haha.

    2. Cerberus

      She’s been making friends with Carla which has been good for her, but she’s also the personality type where she tends to avoid making friends or showing the level of vulnerability with them that she does Marcie.

      1. Spencer

        I think Carla and Sal are definitely getting along in their own way, but I’m not sure if Carla will ever be someone Sal can connect to enough to share emotional vulnerability. I see their friendship based a lot around mutual ribbing. That’s great, not every friend needs to fulfill the same needs, but I think Carla is someone that Sal can barb with instead of having heart-to-hearts.

        It’s that shared past and trauma that makes me think that, ultimately, Sal will be able to reach Amber where no one else can.

        Also if Amber wore red goggles then she could conceivably act as a replacement Marcie.

      2. Saki

        Right! Genuinely confused about how I forgot about that. I wouldn’t expect them to show any vulnerability to each other except maybe if they were having a day so extraordinarily horrendous that they -had- to talk to someone and couldn’t find anyone else. I would love a moment like that (yes, I relish in seeing characters break down) between them.
        But even if they don’t become that kind of friends, they could still have someone to hang out with and complain about random stuff to. That would already be a big help for Sal (and relief for Marcie) imo.

  28. pjeseb

    So… Are Marcie’s parents illegal immigrants? Or can you get deported even if you are in the country legally?

    1. (((Mkvenner)))

      We were able to ban booze.

      1. Orion Fury

        Temporarily. The way the bureaucratic system works now, it’d probably be turned over before anyone was successfully sent away. Though the jail systems, and possible shooting death that occur from it would be far longer lasting. So it’s probably best that doesn’t happen.

    2. Foxhack

      Legal immigrants or visitors can be deported if they commit a crime.

      Criminals get sent back to their country after they’ve served their time in jail as far as I know.

    3. vlademir1

      Probably not, but as Robin has lately been a stand-in for Trump and his ilk I suspect the intent is that she wouldn’t really care about deporting American citizens or resident aliens who looked, to such people anyway, enough like they could be illegal.

      1. Cerberus

        This. In my experiences growing up in Southern California, the people who rant loudest about “illegals” tend to view every latinx person as an “illegal” whether or not their family’s history in the US extends to before the land they lived in was considered a part of the US.

        Whether or not people are actually undocumented is immaterial. Sort of like how “urban” and “thug” actually just mean any black person to super racist folks. Hence why 6-year old victims of shootings sometimes get referred to as “thugs”.

        Dogwhistles, fun times.

        1. Fart Captor

          I’ve seen similar growing up in Minnesota. My mom worked with this woman who would rant about how all the fights that happened down at the high school were caused by those dang Somali immigrant kids (there was a large influx of them to MN around the time I was in high school).

          As someone who was actually in or adjacent to many of said fights, I was completely baffled when my mom told me about it. Of all the fights I remember even hearing about, pretty much all of them were between white kids, and I couldn’t think of a single instance involving one of the immigrant kids.

          Like, this lady didn’t even have a kid in high school, and she’d decided it could only be the brown immigrant kids who were to blame.

    4. SpoopyFox

      some people are also of the opinion that if your parents weren’t legal by the time you were born you are not a citizen despite having been born in this country

      1. Cerberus

        Or heck, if you have the wrong skin color, you’re not a real citizen. See all of the bruhaha over “voter fraud” that quickly lets you know that a good percentage of the people complaining about it considering a non-white person voting a form of it.

        Or the dog whistle of “real american”.

    5. Pinja

      Totally illegal, that’s why Marcie is keeping quiet about it.

      1. Clif

        :-P.

  29. Amy

    Panel one looks great good job

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Larger version here.

  30. Bicycle Bill

    Nice job on the Benton Murals, Willis.
    http://www.cotidianul.ro/images/fresca_lui_thomas_hart_benton_din_indiana_murals_woodburn_hall.jpg

    1. Dellaran

      Wow, you’re right. And thanks for the great photo.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      The first picture is showing the same view as the website.  Here’s what it looks like facing the other way …
      http://static.wixstatic.com/media/cc7aed_b0cf19def7e146d2bec985f385e8ed24.png_srz_979_539_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_png_srz

  31. (((Mkvenner)))

    that is a depressing crowd.

    1. WhoWasI

      This appears to be just the lobby/entryway. We don’t know yet how full the main room is.

      If it’s like most conservative political events at a university, attendance will entirely depend on whether they have good free food (=pizza).

      Or did you mean looking these particular people depresses you. 🙂

    2. Heather

      Kind of a random question but is there a reason your ‘name’ is in ‘(((x))) like that? Or is it just a random choice.

      1. Kamino Neko

        A lot of people started doing it a couple months ago, as a protest against this racist as fuck app.

  32. Yotomoe

    http://imgur.com/VCDaGxN

    Made this a while back, never posted it, here you go.

    1. Spencer

      I’m running out of ways to express positive feelings for your incredible artwork.

    2. Kris

      But I can like totally see this happening though?

    3. Spencer

      Oh, and I don’t know if you saw my post from yesterday; do you happen to take paid commissions for artwork? I’d like to request a piece from you.

      1. Yotomoe

        Yes I do. But let me tell you. I am super shitty and procrastinate really bad. And if you let me forget I will totally forget. I’m kinda garbage like that.

        1. Spencer

          So what you’re saying is that I should constantly pester you day by day :3

          I’d be happy to commission you, but if you don’t want to I’m totally okay with that.

        2. miados

          it helped me when i was had a commission. the squeaky wheel as they say.

        3. Yotomoe

          I mean I LOVE money. So I’m not at all opposed to it. Just don’t expect it anytime soon. I’m the worst at that.

        4. Spencer

          Well, no problem. You’re worth the wait.

    4. miados

      slightly amusing. i wonder whose idea it was out of the two

    5. inqntrol

      Looks like Leslie knows for who she’ll vote.

    6. Bagge

      you betcha

    7. WhoWasI

      Well, now I know what’s the exact opposite of “wrapping yourself in the flag”.

  33. Foxhack

    Does anyone know what country Marcie’s parents are originally from?

    1. merbrat

      Her last name is Diaz, I think

      1. Andy

        Which doesn’t mean a whole lot. Because Spanish colonialism, you can see that name all across Mexico, Central and South America, and it’s not an unknown name in the Phillippines – all regions that send a lot of immigrants to the US.

        1. Foxhack

          Exactly. I was just curious if her parents’ homeland was known.

    2. Pinja

      Krypton

  34. JessWitt

    It’s been forever since we saw Daisy. Still single I’m assuming?

    Work is hard to come by, Sal. At least Marcie’s not campaign managing Robin.

    1. Cerberus

      Daisy’s thirst will extend through the endless desert of her college days, methinks.

    2. Bagge

      Daises bad success at dating is one of the constants of the universe. Her getting a girlfriend will signal the beginning of the heat death.

      1. StClair

        or the coming of the Soggies.

        1. Cerberus

          Oh well played.

  35. philip p petrunak

    So I’ve got to wonder, can she really not talk? Like does she just not have vocal cords? Like, many people have speech disorders but can still partially vocalise. Other people have brain trauma or disabilities that prevent them from talking. Some people have psychological trauma, or simply chosen to never speak. The number of people who straight up physically just can’t talk at all, have perfect hearing, and have no other mental handicaps is extremely, extremely rare. Like, much less than 1 in 1000 rare.

    1. Cerberus

      People have theorized accident of some form given that baby Marcie has spoken before. So, she definitely spent some time being able to fully speak, so having perfect hearing would not be terribly uncommon.

      1. Spencer

        I’m guessing some kind of accident that caused damage to her vocal chords.

        She probably can make some noise, but can’t articulate full words.

        1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          There is also a form of cancer where they need to remove the vocal cords. Sometimes those people use a throat buzzer thingy so they can talk, or by belching.

      2. miados

        while obviously not the same we had a cat that couldn’t meow because when it was a kitten we found it out on our front porch during a blizzard and the vet, well i forget the why, but he said the cats vocal cords or something made it unable to meow so accidents can happen.

      3. Saki

        I kind of always assumed it was a psychological trauma rather than an accident. I had a friend who didn’t speak a word for an entire year because of stuff. I imagine the same thing can happen on a larger scale time-wise if the trauma is deep enough.
        But an actual accident probably makes more sense.

    2. Jason

      Today’s itswalky.com strip just happens to confirm that she lost the ability for speech sometime in her youth because [REDACTED].

      1. Spencer

        Oh no, not [REDACTED].

        What cruel god would ever inflict [REDACTED] onto an innocent child?

        1. Emperor Norton II

          I’m sure they they thought that [REDACTED] was the right thing to do.

        2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Marcie must suffer so that someone at IU can learn an important lesson about [ISSUE].

        3. Bicycle Bill

          Marcie has taken a vow of silence; she will not speak until Charlie Brown makes out with Peppermint Patty.

    3. BenRG

      I’m guessing some kind of accident but, more importantly, one involving Sal. It just seems to me that Sal has a complex about Marcie that can’t be entirely explained away by only ‘my only friend’.

  36. Bagge

    REBELS hang out with deputy security on conservative political rallies.

    1. zoelogical

      REBELS do whatever they want whenever they want and stare down anybody who asks too many questions

      much like the millennium falcon, Sal makes the atmosphere of wherever she is that much more rebellious by sheer force of personality

    2. Emperor Norton II

      Rebels also hang out in dorms.

      1. WhoWasI

        I think those were Deputy Rebel Cadets.

        1. Bagge

          +1

  37. Cerberus

    Comic Reactions:

    Panel 1: Leslie still cowering behind her sign. That auditorium foyer must feel real fucking empty to her right now, but still full of too many eyes. And poor Daisy, so thirsty, but the only other thirsty lesbian only has eyes for the Congresswoman.

    Also, Sal attempting awkward small talk with her long time friend*. I’m sure this will end well.

    *Let me state out loud the role you are currently performing. I know conversations like that, and it’s usually when I don’t fully understand why I’m at a place filled with people instead of someplace comfortable and I’m just trying to keep conversation going so I don’t freak out. I dunno, if Sal is the same way, but being in a room full of mostly white conservative folks probably doesn’t feel particularly good to her given the way modern conservatism has gone.

    Panel 2: I suspect that Sal may have some ill feelings towards law enforcement.

    But yeah, seriously, it makes sense why the idea of her best friend serving in a cop like role as “the man” might bristle her a bit. Not just because of the strong anti-authoritarianism, but because law enforcement have been really deadly for folks sharing Sal’s skin color for a very long time. (Not to mention that whole being arrested thing and then the person who stabbed you in the hand getting off scot free).

    Still, she let’s that bristle lead her to stumble into her next statement which is hella dismissive of the hard work Marcie has done to try and survive in the same town as her good friend. Like, placing that “retail stockgirl” in air-quotes feels like a dismissive gesture, which has to bristle Marcie.

    Not just because, fuck anyone who shits on someone for taking a crappy underpaid job doing stuff that the person doesn’t want to do but has to because they have to eat.**

    **And seriously, fuck those people. Cause you don’t understand unless you are on the raggedy edge, but having to take a job that bruises your morals because it’s the only way to survive or doing something that hurts you or betrays your sense of self. Too often in this economy, it’s the only way to not drown and starve and the person in that state is already kicking themselves enough for having to do this job they hate. They don’t need you beating on them while they are down and out.

    But because of…

  38. Cerberus

    Panel 3ish: Because Sal is marginalized in a lotta of ways. She’s a woman, she’s black, but she has a few privileges as well. And her biggest one is the same one Carla has, which is immense class privilege.

    Less than Carla, admittedly, given that Sal is practically disowned by her family while Carla seems to have a healthy relationship to hers, but we’ve also never seen Sal having to balance a job with school or having to seriously worry about money and it’s very unlikely she’s ever been in the position of having to worry about whether or not you’ll have enough for rent much less food this month.

    So for her to slag on Marcie’s job and status has got to feel somewhat classist, which is why Marcie looks somewhat annoyed and genuinely hurt right after that particular comment rather than the blather about cops before it.

    Especially since this is how Sal is acting after Marcie pulled the strings and risked her new position to make sure to carve out some one-on-one time with her best friend (a best friend who has whined before about her having to work double shifts to survive).

    Panel 4: Oof, Sal, missing signals again and possibly misinterpreting what Marcie is upset about (it wouldn’t be the first time that Sal’s misread an important mood of Marcie’s because she was off looking the other way at something she dislikes).

    And damn, that double down. Like, fair, super fair, in that the front-runner for the party Robin likely belongs to at this temporal moment (and who she is channeling in her re-election campaign), is terrifyingly anti-latinx and seem to be dropping the very loose dogwhistle hinting that latinx people are all undocumented in favor of calling all Mexicans and anyone with their heritage a blight on society.

    But way to misread a mood. And way to bring up a big no-no in again, shitting on Marcie for going through the hell that is having to betray personal principles to eat, making it like this was her first choice assignment and not something she may have only volunteered for so as to have a job that she could plausibly spend some hangout time with Sal at.

    1. Lailah

      Sal’s not got to worry about eating, but at the same time, she does have to get worried about being arrested – plausibly, but not necessarily, moreso than Marcie (I have no idea how Marcie is supposed to be coded because cartoon. If you look sufficiently white, you can avoid some of the worst casual racism as a hispanic person though.)

      It’s a shitty situation. And yeah, having to carry the conversation can’t be helping.

      This is basically intersectionality. Marcie is adjacent to some pretty shitty stuff (I’m reasonably confident that security guards have more leniency in doing shit to minority people, and given that they call the police, who definitely do…) Sal’s still saying classist shit, but I do understand her irritation. But your friend still has to eat. And you both need each other.

      1. Cerberus

        Yeah, that’s my take too. Like, I totally get why Sal is super uncomfortable about everything relating to this gig and I also think she’s being a little classist and forgetting her friend has to eat and doesn’t have the financial room to not be taking any job she can (especially since many workplaces tend to heavily discriminate against hiring disabled folks).

        1. Dandi_Andi

          Yeah. Owch. While Sal is pretty obviously not her parent’s favorite child, the fact that she’s in college with a meal plan and no job suggests that she’s still getting some amount of support from her family. I feel like that glare in panel 3 is almost screaming “When you find a way for me to eat my principles, then you can talk to me about money.”

        2. Cerberus

          Yeah, I totally got that vibe from Marcie’s glare.

      2. Mav

        I agree, I also think it’s intersectionality in the sense of colorism – DeSanto may be in political power, witch would be great for the Latinx community if she weren’t trying to undermine them for political gain. It’s often a sacrifice one must be willing to make, as when you get very high up in politics that are mostly populated by white men, the only way to get as far as you can is to become “one of the boys”. And it’s usually at the expense of everyone else.

        Sal’s sort of saying the same thing here: become a form of “protection” as a job, and you’re most likely gonna be protecting the white people/few POC from other POC.

        It is tough, because Marcie is looking for a better job, and if we’re honest here her inability to verbally vocalize is probably going to be a negative in the eyes of many employers in this society. Right now, she has to take what she can get if she want to eat.

        I also wonder what Sal’s situation is. It could be that her parents are sending her money anyway, which would enable her mother to feel even more justified in treating her like shit. It could be that she is on a scholarship, because tragic backstories tend to be eaten up by admissions committees, especially if you’re a minority – asking them to scoop you up from the depths of poverty/the ghetto/the error of your non-white culture conforming ways/etc. Additionally, her mother used to be married to some important guy at the school, i think it was the dean?

  39. Cerberus

    Panel 5: And you see how much it hurts and angers Marcie in that last panel. Especially when Sal lampshades it but in the midst of dismissing every other facet of it and dumping on Marcie’s class.

    Luckily, Marcie and Sal have a healthy relationship, so I imagine Marcie will let Sal know how she hurt her tonight later and they’ll hug it out in the end. But still, I hope Sal can work through her discomfort of how toxic the environment of this is and just connect with her friend on a real level…

    Though I just realized that part of the problem that started with that awkward opening might be that Marcie can’t sign anything to Sal. She’s working, directing traffic, so frantic hand-waving would be easily misinterpreted and confuse the passer-bys as to what she was trying to tell them to do.

    So Sal is stuck trying to keep a one-sided conversation going while being in a space that’s hella uncomfortable for her and where there’s too many people around so she can’t really get into complicated emotional feelings or direct connection. So yeah, that she’s only fucked it up this much might actually be pretty good.

    Also, long brown hair, wristbands. I know there’s no tag, but I can’t help feeling that could be Mary finally changed out of her church clothes or at least her doppleganger.

    1. Emperor Norton II

      In short, Sal is currently waaay too self-absorbed with her own problems to notice that her best friend also have their own real problems with life. And said friend has no way of communicating this with Sal. Frustration ensues.

      In even shorter: Dammit, Sal!

    2. BenRG

      It’s strips like this that remind us how Willis shows characterisation contextually. Yes, Sal is the ‘sane one’ compared to Amazi-Girl and probably has a good handle on how Amber is running down a road to self-destruction. However, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have a barrow-load of her own issues and is (like most people) happily in denial about them. However, we see them most often when the focus shifts to how she comes across to people who are sceptical about her, like Marcie and Malaya.

    3. thejeff

      Of course, on a meta level, Sal’s partly opening by stating what Marcie is doing so that we know. Which doesn’t mean the in-world awkwardness isn’t intended, but it is another factor.

      1. Cerberus

        I see it as the good way to do a cold open like this.

        Like, you want to pass on the information that Marcie is working as a security guard and Sal is keeping her company while she works, so you work it into a real life characterization and make it part of an intentionally awkward conversation Sal is trying to carry since her friend can’t sign back to her while she’s on the job.

        It’s a clever way of handling the problem of the exposition dump.

  40. Thevoiceoftreason

    So what did Marcie say in sign language in panel 4?

    1. Spencer

      ‘Cadet’, of course. It’s always the title of the strip.

      In all seriousness, Marcie is guiding people along and Cerberus raised the important point that, right now, Marcie is completely silenced. She can’t speak right because she has to move people along.

      That has to suck extra hard on top of listening to Sal’s whinging.

      1. Jason

        She’s a security guard. She should just shove Sal out the door.

        1. Lailah

          She actually really can’t. Security is extremely limited in what it can really do. Ultimately, it can document and call the police. Sal being a crummy friend rn isn’t… you know, illegal. And if Marcie weren’t her friend, there’d be even less to talk about in that regard.

  41. Opus the Poet

    Has Marcie’s last name been revealed in-comic?

    1. Wack'd

      It’s Diaz in the other ‘verse, though I think Willis established it for this version first. Can’t recall if it’s popped up anywhere but the tags on ItsWalky.com or a few stray Tumblr posts, though.

  42. Idontcarenomore

    Interesting scenario.
    Keep it up Sal and Marcie is gonna smack you, bf or not.

  43. Fwip

    … I’ve gotta ask: How could Marcie ever become a police officer? Come to think of it, how did she become a security guard? Police officers and security guards need to be able to communicate with people in order to perform their job, and very few people speak ASL.

    In case it needs to be stated, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not apply in instances where a disability would be an impairment in ability to perform required duties (Section 103 of the act; section 12113 of Chapter 126 of Title 42 of the United States Code). Being unable to vocalize seems like a fairly significant impediment and one I imagine would disqualify her from most patrol work.

    1. BenRG

      Well, Marcie isn’t deaf, just 100% speech-impaired. It could be someone in the security provider’s office was asked by Robin’s local campaign manager to ‘do some diversity’ in an attempt to soften Robin’s image.

      1. Fwip

        That, I’d believe.

    2. SarahSaur

      Many things to say, but this is what I am going to say:

      In the US, while what we mostly hear about is black people being killed by the police (which is certainly a large and valid issue), another huge (and sometimes overlapping) contingent of people being killed by police are individuals with disabilities, often disabilities that impede on the individual’s ability to comply with the police (a deaf person might not here directions from the cop, someone with tourrettes might have tiks that a cop might find threatning, someone with autism might be stimming. etc).

      Marcie does not have any of these disabilities. Her disability would be being mute. However, oftentimes individuals with disabilities are better set to notice these sorts of issues – They are also discriminated against, even if not in exactly the same way as people with other disabilities. Marcie might not give a shit about general discrimanation towards people with disabilities (no reason that she has to – no reason why she has to see being mute/disabled as a primary part of her identity at all, let alone a focus of a potential career)

      What I am saying is that police sure as hell do need training on how to deal with the fact that large swaths of the population have disabilities that may impede on their ability to fully comply with police directions, and they need training on how to identify someone who is probably trying to do what the police says, vs someone who is maliciously not complying.

      And crucially, such a change in police actions will inveitably have to involve someone advocating for the disabled. Preferablly someone who is disabled themselves, but who is able and willing to communicate and think critically about issues. Marcie could totally do that.

      Obviously some advocates come from the outside (so wouldn’t be working directly for any sort of police office)… But some do get hired on to do work from the inside.
      ——————

      Beyond all that, seeing as Marcie can hear just fine, I’m really having trouble seeing how her inability to speak (using vocal cords, rather than her hands, etc) really impedes anything. There is absolutely no reason why technology used by police couldn’t be adapted to fit her needs. She might need a few buttons hooked up to automatic responses (“Stop, police” and one to read miranda rights and also a button that could send a warning to other police officers. And a button with a pre-recording that briefly states that while she cannot speak, she can hear just fine, and she will take out a phone with text-to-speach interface (and a speaker attached to her uniform) and communicate with them. Okay yes, i guess holding a phone gives her less ability to respond to an attack? but so would holding a radio i think. And, as I said, she can hear just fine, and see just fine. She’d able to be sensory aware of someone doing something as much as anyone.

      Speaking with someone who has a physical communication disability really isn’t that difficult. Especially not when they are as intelligent as Marcie.

      If she is otherwise qualified, I think the benefits of having a disabled but very capable individual on a police force would actually outweight the disadvantages of having someone disabled on the police force. Police serve everyone, not just the able bodied/minded, and even if she doesn’t directly advocate for anyone, at all, just her being there, and the fact that her colleagues would be therefore receiving a daily reminder that different people communicate differently, could be huge.

      1. thejeff

        Near as I can tell, she’d be pretty much out of luck. There don’t seem to be any national standards for police, but she wouldn’t meet any of the state or local standards I’ve seen. Whether they should accommodate or not is another question, but it doesn’t seem they currently do.

        That doesn’t mean there isn’t law enforcement work she could do, but police academy is unlikely.

        It’s also not really clear to me that’s a serious goal of hers, rather than just a random comment of Sal’s, based more on her dislike of cops than Marcie’s ambition.

        1. SarahSaur

          Yeah, I don’t necessarily think it is a goal of hers, I just mean that I think that the ADA could cover her, seeing I think there would likely be reasonably accommodations to be made. (Rather than unreasonable/impossible)

    3. Cerberus

      There was a conversation above about that. Honestly, it’s sort of a moot question since Marcie isn’t seeking a job as a cop, she’s just taking whatever minimum paid gigs she can to afford 1/14 of an apartment’s rent.

      Honestly, though, there’s a lot of jobs in and around law enforcement that don’t require you to be a beat cop on the street.

      And frankly, after the recent shooting of the deaf/mute unarmed suspect because he tried to sign to the officer arresting him, maybe more police officers should be hiring deaf and/or mute individuals who know sign language just to run community policing seminars and teach beat cops basic sign language (and also how not to shoot literally everything and everyone remotely different looking out of an exaggerated and misplaced fear of “the worst possible outcome”*).

      *But that’s a separate longer rant.

      1. Fwip

        Oh, I’m aware there’s plenty of law enforcement jobs that don’t require you to be a beat cop. Just… Relatively few of them require you to take police foundations courses, which is what it sounds like she’s doing.

        As for changing policing routines, that is indeed a problem, yes. It’s just… Whomever runs these seminars needs to be able to communicate with the officers who don’t know sign language in an effective manner to be able to guide them on issues. They’d probably be willing to hire someone who is deaf or who has worked in the deaf/mute community, but probably not someone who is mute themselves.

        I guess we might find out what her goal is in future?

        1. Cerberus

          I don’t think she’s even taking those. I’ve had friends who’ve worked private security before. Often times the bar is low so you can enter with low to minimal experience. So I can see her just applying for whatever private security firm would have her and them happening to get a gig providing crowd control for the local rally.

          It’s not even a good pipeline to real police officer jobs because law enforcement officers tend to look down on private security firms and don’t consider that work “real” experience for law enforcement work.

  44. Wack'd

    It’s weird seeing Marcie wear these goggles on the job. Reminds me of an old lady I’d often see in the lobby when I was interning in public access who wore huge, red-tinted glasses with circular indents in the middle. I can only imagine Marcie has whatever visual impairment that woman had.

    (I would, for the record, see this lady in the lobby because she had a son employed in the building who needed to be driven. She wasn’t, like, a ghost low-key haunting the place or anything nutty like that. I don’t think.)

    1. SgtWadeyWilson

      Aww! *Stops dialing Ghostbusters.*

    2. Cerberus

      My gf has something similar, tinted glasses that essentially look like sunglasses that she needs to wear at all times to be able to make out the little that she can.

      Interestingly enough she’s reported that several interviewers have been upset with her because of it and asked her to “remove your sunglasses” without realizing that it’s something she has to wear because of her visual impairment.

  45. BenRG

    Two things occur to me here:

    1) Sal is acknowledging that she may sometimes be Marcie’s “pesky friend who comes around and just hangs out no matter how inconvenient it is”;

    2) If Billie’s dad is something of a racist or snob, then her friendship with a second-generation immigrant may have been another force that drove a wedge between Sal and the rest of her family (blood and surrogate).

    1. Pinja

      Eh, I never got the impressions from Billie her distant parents are due to them being disappointed in her, just that they are more into themselves and their lives than being parents.

  46. Bagge

    So Sal hangs out at the rally… Shit, I think Amazigirl will show up. This will NOT be good.

    1. BenRG

      Actually, I have to say that a part of me finds the concept of Amazi-Girl and Amber in the rafters, listening to Robin’s speech and delivering a MST3K-style running commentary potentially quite funny.

      1. BenRG

        I meant Amazi-Girl and Sal, of course.

        1. SgtWadeyWilson

          Where did Amber go?

    2. Spencer

      Amber’s the only dangling plot thread from this chapter, so I think it’s incredibly likely.

      Or we just spend the rest of the chapter here. Either or. Maybe Amber’s shift to Amazi-Girl was just meant to be a one-panel thing and she’s back to writing fanfic.

    3. Pinja

      Oooooh, I hope she gets shot!

      1. trlkly

        Really wish this comment section had a report function. The mentally ill girl should be shot. That’s the outcome that’s supposedly good. Not her getting better, but being shot.

        That’s the same attitude that some police officers have, and that creates all this animosity.

        Well, either way, I will no longer see Pinja’s posts. I learned long ago that a comments section is no good without a ignore feature.

  47. thumb

    It’s good to know that Sal doesn’t just belittle Marcy. I mean she does, but she’s also pointing out her moral compromises.

    Sal is the coolest person you know, unless you’re her actual best friend.

    1. Cerberus

      Well yeah, it’s with her best friend that she actually relaxes and lets loose her insecurities and imperfections instead of being the cool girl from afar.

      Best friends tend to get to see the best and the worst of a person.

  48. Keulan

    Leslie’s still hiding behind her sign, I see.

  49. MMHaus

    Great depiction of scale in panel 1. Love the Benton Indiana Murals reference.

  50. Lailah

    God Dammit, Sal. Yes, the police are generally fucking terrible, but aside from the fact that this is your best friend in the whole world, you hammer home the idea that the police and the civilian populace are totally seperate hwen you put it this way. Assuming she’s not just becoming a security guard, in which case you’re being a titanic asshole with no good justification whatsoever.

    Like, I’d be kinda miffed too in your shoes, but still.

    1. Commodore Jeep-Eep

      Cops are separate, and by choice. I have no sympathy for anyone who wants to be one – especially one from a visible minority background who’d only serve as a minority face on a truncheon so white liberals can sleep at night.

      1. WaytoomanyUIDs

        How will we ever change the police if anyone if tries to change them gets attacked by the people they are trying to help?

        1. Commodore Jeep-Eep

          Short of a institutional nuke and pave, improvement beyond what can shown on the left leaning news to make liberals feel good about themselves isn’t happening.

        2. thejeff

          It can be and has been done on a local scale. There are vast differences between departments across the country. We actually have a pretty good idea how to drastically improve policing.
          The problem is political will on the local level, since there’s essentially no federal (and not much state) control.

        3. Lailah

          Frankly the whole structure needs to be redone. If it’s to be done on a useful scale, top-down is probably safer than bottom-up. So, yanno, in a way that entirely circumvents the criticism.

        4. Fart Captor

          Part of the problem (in my mind) is that there isn’t much of a top. There really should be some kind of federal standards for ensuring the police actually have independent oversight and are actually held accountable when they break the rules.

          And there’s a lot of relatively simple changes that can and should be made nationally. For example there should not be anywhere in this country where it is is illegal to film a police officer, in public, performing their duties. The only reason for that kind of law is to protect bad cops. The only reason there’s any hope for change right now is that everyone having smart phones means that people are finding out about this shit happening, whether the media cares or not.

      2. Pinja

        I have no sympathy for a position more stupid than “The earth is flat”.

        1. trlkly

          And I have no sympathy for you since you refuse to try and understand things from other points of view.

          You flat out said you want the mentally ill girl to be shot. You’re no better than Mary.

        2. Pinja

          In my defence Amber is REALLY annoying.

        3. Kernanator

          Oh, she’s annoying? Well, golly gee, that completely justifies attempted murder!

      3. Lailah

        I have every sympathy with people who need to eat. Having to make the choice sucks. In fairness, it’s more likely that Marcie isn’t actually becoming police, which helps (Even if it still leaves her adjacent to some really terrible shit). But that only makes me a little more annoyed with Sal.

  51. Stairmasternem

    I like how Marcie’s nametag matches her…goggles?

  52. Commodore Jeep-Eep

    Frankly, if she is trying to become a cop, I can’t give a damn about what Sal just said.

    A ‘friend’ of a black person or other visible minority with a history like hers is 5 times as much a slap in the face as what she said here, and far less deserved.

    I can’t give a fuck. I can’t, especially as a trans woman.

    1. Cerberus

      I don’t think Marcie is trying to be a cop, just accepting whatever minimum wage job she can to squeak by.

      But yeah, Sal’s views on cops might be the most reasoned and understandable comment in this, which is why I suspect Marcie is reacting more to the casual classism and implied “your morals are compromised by the job you only accepted out of economic desperation”.

      1. trlkly

        Hasn’t Marcie’s desire to be a cop come up before, as one her dream jobs? I seem to remember that.

        And I figure you, with your encyclopedic knowledge of the comic, would know.

        1. Spencer

          It has not. Nothing’s been stated about Marcie’s longterm career goals.

          I am actually super down with the idea though, TBH.

    2. Pinja

      Did you just diss all cops simply for being cops?

      Also Sal is the victimised person when she comes from a family of privilege and her previous interaction with them is based on her taking someone hostage with a fucking knife?

      1. Fart Captor

        Being a criminal leads to being subjected to doesn’t exactly reduce the likelihood of abuse at the hands of law enforcement. Even though Sal has no doubt already been punished by the legal system for those crimes. It certainly doesn’t mean you deserve to get shot for no damn reason.

        While not all cops are bad ones, there’s enough bad ones out there that her distrust seems prudent, frankly. Having seen that some police officers will apparently shoot a black man lying on the ground because they were aiming at the mentally handicapped black man playing with a toy nearby, I really can’t hold Sal’s attitude against her.

      2. Lailah

        Her previous interaction also involves a white girl getting off scott free for stabbing her in the hand with a knife, and fear of being shot for being a black girl with a criminal record. And yes. Cops are part of a fucking evil superstructure. The overwhelming majority do less than nothing to change it. They prop it up. They form the Blue Wall that protects the worst cops from any real introspection. They sit idly by while other bad cops destroy evidence or start beating suspects, or killing kids ‘because they were under threat’. The Blue Wall means that every officer not actively going out of their way to blow the whistle is complicit. That’s pretty much every cop.

        White People.

        1. Commodore Jeep-Eep

          Pigs are scum until proven otherwise.

  53. WaytoomanyUIDs

    So is Daisy there as a reporter or is she crushing on Robin? Could be both, I suppose.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      She is covering it as a journalist, and in case some repressed Republican lesbian or bisexual woman wants to unrepress with her.

      1. Fart Captor

        Damn it, I know there’s some kind of brilliant wordplay to be made here involving finding a repressed republican to press against her, but even though all the pieces are there, I can’t quite put them together…

  54. Reltzik

    I love how Sal knows Marcie well enough to say “don’t give me that look” without ever needing to glance her way.

    … though now that I think about it, not glancing her way means that Sal will miss anything Marcie says. Hmmm.

    1. Cerberus

      She’s doing that seeing Marcie out of the corner of her eye thing that has led her to miss context clues before:

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/hitthat/

    2. Fart Captor

      I think you have it right, just backward. She caught the look Marcie gave her because she’s probably made it a habit either to keep Marcie somewhere in her field of vision, or else look back frequently in case Marcie starts signing to her

  55. Oberon

    From the 2016 hottest DoA gals poll:

    Becky (20%, 666 Votes)

    I always knew Becky was evil!

    1. Emperor Norton II

      Is this when I come in and tell you that 666 was a mistranslation, and the “actual” number is 616?

      1. Tom T.

        That’s Marvel’s mainstream universe!

        1. Spencer

          That explains so much.

  56. JepMZ

    Oh!! Now I get it!

    she CAN’T talk because she has to direct people all night

  57. JesterKing

    i-is that leslie in panel 1? sneaking in with the sign in front of her face to cover her shame?

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Yes. Love will find a way. The other nexus of politically out-of-sync horniness is Daisy, the blonde center right.

  58. Tomas

    Robin DeSanto needs a mute bodyguard if she wants to be a proper James Bond villain.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Does this make Roz the villian’s beautiful daughter sister who is seduced by the hero into shutting down the force field?

  59. Jhon

    As a security agent, Marcie can have a bunch of pre-recorded responses ready:
    “Freeze, muffin fluffer! Hands where I can see them!”
    is only one.

    1. zoelogical

      other possibilities:

      “Stop! In the name of love!”
      [during a footchase] “Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you!”
      “You have the right to remain silent, and you have the right to do the chicken dance, and you have the right to know how cute you’re looking today, where do you get your eyeliner.”
      “Who you gonna call??? …911!”

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