Even not leaving as soon as possible, I have plenty experience of “I’ve got to go, bye everyone!” and getting no acknowledgement whatsoever it feels like you’re creeping away.
Have we ever considered the possibility that Sale is hopelessly stupid and can’t make a situation better or think reasonably if her life depended on it.
Putting aside the stuff that’s not her fault in her life, she really is an idiot who goes into every situation swinging her fists or swinging her words.
I think you don’t give Sal enough credit. Sure, she’s missing some pretty important things, but a lot of that is due to what information she never receives. I don’t think she’s any stupider than, say, Walky. She’s been dealt a tough hand in life–her choices certainly play a role in this but not as much as she is aware of–and ultimately I think it’s only a matter of time before she learns to turn her life back on track.
Because Willis has the Midas touch of backstories. The moment he writes a backstory for a character, their assholery or retardedness transforms into brooding and misunderstood. They gain depth, you begin to see what makes them tick, and you start to be able to put yourself in their shoes.
Because he’s walking away from an altercation between Sal and Malaya, and doesn’t seem to realize what he’s potentially missing out on? I like Danny but boy is he sure aloof.
hm, panel four doesn’t read like natural dialogue to me and more like Malaya is reading off a script. That doesn’t sound like a thing people say, it sounds like an analysis she’s reading off
it rubs be the wrong way
Malaya’s had a long-standing bad read on Sal and what she thinks her motivations for anything are. Some of it’s probably facetious (if Malaya doesn’t know why someone would hate having a heat lamp shined in their face except ‘animal hater’, I really don’t know how she’s managed to get this far without intervention,) but a lot of it seems to be that they dislike each other so she reads everything of Sal’s as insincere. Marcie has probably informed Malaya of some of the current issues, too. Guessing Malaya might have had some of this prepared for the next time the argument came up, given how frequently it does?
Malaya does have a bad read on Sal…..but all four of them have a bad read on Kix cereal! They should unite in friendship under their shared ignorance in why Kix remains kid tested, yet mother approved to this very day! Fear not, for I hear there is a nice humble spot for them all to stay in at that roller derby.
It tracks pretty well with everything else she’s said to Sal. Malaya doesn’t like Sal’s attitude, (understandable since we’ve never seen Sal give Malaya anything but attitude) so she attacks what she perceives as the underlying cause of it.
Probably because Malaya tries to psychologically analyse everything Sal does as being fake, insincere, or having a worse reason underlying it even when there is a point blank one right there in front of her face. She likely has a running mental script of how everything Sal does is FAKE and how she is EXTREMELY important to Sal’s life by existing (she is in fact not, Sal regards her as a tiny blip of extreme annoyance that shows up sometimes, she is no way important enough for Sal to define herself by her hatred of her and the fact she would assume she cares enough about her for that to be true… yeah, I can see why Sal is so angry, I would be too if an asshole presumed my whole personality was a facade based around them).
In all fairness to Malaya, Sal responded to her offer with “And watch you continue to steal my best friend? No thanks.” which uhh definitely makes it seem like she cares about Malaya’s existence. If she was just like, “Yeah, no.” that’s one thing, but she decided to make it personal and focus it on Malaya stealing Marcie’s friendship away from her. Which is, you know, not a thing that she is actually doing in any way.
– Danny is adorable and so is his friendship with Sal.
– Malaya’s offer is only marginally more sincere than Sal’s and that just makes me snort. God I love these two.
– I mean, yeah, she’s not wrong. About it not being possible to steal a person (although you can try to entice them to leave which CAN be a dick move) and about Sal being a stubborn asshole with regards to Malaya.
– That said…yeah, the idea of watching Marcie and Malaya at roller derby while Marcie’s mad at Sal was ALWAYS gonna go over like a lead balloon. There was just no way she was going to get a positive answer there. Not that I think Malaya particularly cares.
– Annnnnd panel four is where Malaya misses the mark entirely. Beating creeps up with AG is not about Malaya, and Sal’s barely thought of Malaya today if at all outside her chat with Marcie. And Malaya can’t know this, but we saw Sal’s self definition in her talk about what she wanted and it had nothing to do with Malaya. Makes me wonder if she’s projecting but even if she’s not, just her statement made me cackle.
– Sal’s face is my everything, especially when it makes me laugh like this.
Plot twist: This inspires Sal to get AG into roller derby. She would make an excellent blocker, and I can see Sal as a pivot who can block but also just zoom around the rink. Marcie is happy her friend (and also new friend, sort of?) have healthy aggression outlets, Sal gets to be as counterculture as she wants while also engaging in a team sport through which she can make more like-minded friends (and which she can know to herself when Linda gets awful that it’s a real sport with leagues and such,) Malaya learns a bit about everyone which includes some ‘huh, Sal has reasons for her aloofness besides just presenting herself as too cool for everyone,’ improving their roommate relationship, and Carla gets to cheer them on the whole time. Together they recruit the whole hall, except Mary. And the whole strip ends as a well-adjusted roller derby team!
Your optimism is nice, but Malaya admitting that Sal might have a good reason for the way she acts is less likely than hell freezing over. And we’ve already established many things that will happen in this comic before winter reaches hell.
We know she actually can be sincere and make a genuine effort to be a non-douchebag (or at least less-douchebag) with people – she learned to sign for Marcie simply because she wanted to be able to talk with Marcie. So I have to think that maybe if they rammed each other on the rink a couple times or had to cooperate for a common goal it would get some of the pure dislike out of their systems and they might actually cede some common ground.
And in fairness, I just remembered that during the move, Sal’s first instinct was that Malaya got on the list just to screw with Sal. Neither of them ascribes good or even neutral motives to the other, even when it doesn’t make much sense. Some way of establishing to themselves that the other isn’t The Literal Worst and Their Nemesis would probably help a lot.
Kyrik Michalowski
Hmm, that’s a fair point. And my intense hate of Malaya may be preventing me from seeing this objectively. So I’ll have to concede this one to you, and it would give Sal another chance to hang out with Marcie.
cbwroses
I always felt that Malaya started to learn sign more to not go through Sal and less for Marcie.
It’s not like Marcie needs her to understand sign as she’s more than willing to write what she wants to say.
Also, I’m pretty sure the only times we’ve seen her use sign is to say something negative to Sal.
Regalli
Pretty sure looking back that she learned to understand Marcie during practice, fair. But she also clearly is making an effort so Marcie doesn’t have to write everything, and as a disabled person seeing an able friend make an attempt to meet you on your level means a lot regardless of motivation. Even if she learned it 100% out of spite for Sal, it’s a lot of work that she takes pretty seriously.
ShinyNeen
Marcie being friends with both of them got them kind of part of the way to coexisting peacefully, but yeah now that’s kind of falling apart. Not sure what else could do it though!
thejeff
Malaya does seem to have made efforts to be friends with Marcie, but that’s pretty much it.
I haven’t seen any real effort to not be a jerk with anyone else.
Regalli
It’s the fact that she’s clearly capable of it at all that baffles me about her interactions with everyone else. Carla appears not to mind Malaya being a jerk so Malaya feels no need to try, sure, and she’s the only other one Malaya has a remotely positive interaction with… so why does she like Marcie? Is she all-around decent to the rest of the derby team, since she relies on them to protect her ass and they rely on her to score? (Note: we’ve seen from prior strips Malaya’s a jammer.) That’s my best guess, but we’ve never really seen anyone else on the team to confirm and she may or may not hang out with them offscreen. So until we know that, what’s Malaya’s deal continues to be one big ?
Blaine reappears to try and mess with Amber before the Big Match. Suddenly he is surrounded by the entire damn Indiana University Roller Derby League, making their most intimidating faces. He runs for his life and then everyone gives speeches about the power of friendship and teams and their Love Of The Sport allowing them to overcome any obstacle, and then skate their everloving hearts out, as is good and proper.
Regalli
Also either Becky or Dina’s derby name is Terrorzinosaurus. I can’t think up a second Dino pun for them both but you know that one’s perfect.
233 thoughts on “Callus”
Ana Chronistic
Dumbing of Age Book 9: Few More Rides an’ It’ll CALLUS UP, Wonderbread
also, hey, last panel is me at pretty much every human interaction
DaveM
Dumbing of Age Book 9: But my dainty taint!
Keulen
Dumbing of Age Book 9: Oof, I’m Gonna Be Sore For Days
DSL
DoA Book 9: You CAN Be A Stubborn Asshole About Everything.
ego
DoA book 9: A collection of suggested titles for DoA book 9
Jade
DoA Book 9: Dainty Taint.
Concise, but Tantalizing 😛
DEG1377
Taintalizing
everlastingwonder
Dumbing of Age Book 9: [no words; the “subtitle” is just Sal’s face in panel 5 of this comic]
ShinyNeen
I, too, relate strongly to a social strategy of ‘leave as soon as possible even though it feels like running away’!
Xenocide
Even not leaving as soon as possible, I have plenty experience of “I’ve got to go, bye everyone!” and getting no acknowledgement whatsoever it feels like you’re creeping away.
Doctor_Who
We can all agree I had no choice but to do this, right?
I mean, someone was gonna, and I’m going to hell anyway so I’ll take the hit.
JessWitt
Hell?! No way this is pretty good.
Deanatay
am I supposed to recognize that face? ‘Cuz I don’t.
EvilMidnightLurker
Yellow Diamond, from Steven Universe.
Lieutenant Dan
You clod!
kay
You can’t steal a best friend – but you can lose one.
Cronomatt
Have we ever considered the possibility that Sale is hopelessly stupid and can’t make a situation better or think reasonably if her life depended on it.
Putting aside the stuff that’s not her fault in her life, she really is an idiot who goes into every situation swinging her fists or swinging her words.
I’ve completely lost interest in Sal.
thejeff
Considered and rejected.
Cronomatt
Suuuuure. I believe you~
adjudicus
Seconded
thereaverofdarkness
I think you don’t give Sal enough credit. Sure, she’s missing some pretty important things, but a lot of that is due to what information she never receives. I don’t think she’s any stupider than, say, Walky. She’s been dealt a tough hand in life–her choices certainly play a role in this but not as much as she is aware of–and ultimately I think it’s only a matter of time before she learns to turn her life back on track.
I am eager to see more of Sal’s development.
AnvilPro
Why is this universe’ Malaya, like, a dozen times better than Shortpacked’s?
Durandal_1707
Well, it would have been hard for her to be worse, wouldn’t it?
Pterodactyl Ghost
Agreed.
Keulen
I still think Malaya’s about the same level of annoying in both universes.
Freezer
This Malaya doesn’t waste time and energy being cartoonishly misanthropic and antagonistic.
thejeff
She wastes no time. She gets right down to it.
timemonkey
Because she’s not stuck at a job she doesn’t want, dealing with subject matter she has no passion for, dealing with idiots constantly harassing her?
Spriteless Girl
Because she pays more attention to the people around her. She isn’t surrounded by ‘boring nerds’ who just love to ‘make connections’ all the time.
Rowen Morland
Now that she’s moved rooms.
thereaverofdarkness
Because Willis has the Midas touch of backstories. The moment he writes a backstory for a character, their assholery or retardedness transforms into brooding and misunderstood. They gain depth, you begin to see what makes them tick, and you start to be able to put yourself in their shoes.
William Leonard Reese Jr.
. . . Why do I both relate and reject Danny in that last panel there?
Deanatay
He’s Danning up saying goodbye.
Goodbye, Danny
thereaverofdarkness
Because he’s walking away from an altercation between Sal and Malaya, and doesn’t seem to realize what he’s potentially missing out on? I like Danny but boy is he sure aloof.
Stephen Bierce
Last time I saw a face like that it was on a Luftwaffe Hauptmann in Enemy Ace.
John
Bye, Danny! Don’t let the panel border hit you in the ass on the way out!
Tacos
Well according to Sal, it’ll callus up so he won’t feel it.
Roger
oh that Onion article. Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
Meta
hahahahah too true
Sam
oh no, his daint
Pterodactyl Ghost
The dialogue in that first panel!
All kinds’a wrong.
All kinds’a RIGHT!
Panel 3: Malaya is an expert on such things.
Last panel: If awkward is a superpower, Danny is THOR.
Doctor_Who
After that ride, he’ll be thor for hourth.
Pterodactyl Ghost
*rimshot*!
Derek
hm, panel four doesn’t read like natural dialogue to me and more like Malaya is reading off a script. That doesn’t sound like a thing people say, it sounds like an analysis she’s reading off
it rubs be the wrong way
Regalli
Malaya’s had a long-standing bad read on Sal and what she thinks her motivations for anything are. Some of it’s probably facetious (if Malaya doesn’t know why someone would hate having a heat lamp shined in their face except ‘animal hater’, I really don’t know how she’s managed to get this far without intervention,) but a lot of it seems to be that they dislike each other so she reads everything of Sal’s as insincere. Marcie has probably informed Malaya of some of the current issues, too. Guessing Malaya might have had some of this prepared for the next time the argument came up, given how frequently it does?
Swissaboo
Malaya reads everything from everyone as insincere. She basically just does not believe that sincerity is a thing.
Kris
Malaya does have a bad read on Sal…..but all four of them have a bad read on Kix cereal! They should unite in friendship under their shared ignorance in why Kix remains kid tested, yet mother approved to this very day! Fear not, for I hear there is a nice humble spot for them all to stay in at that roller derby.
Solenoid
… ? what
Classic Appa
It tracks pretty well with everything else she’s said to Sal. Malaya doesn’t like Sal’s attitude, (understandable since we’ve never seen Sal give Malaya anything but attitude) so she attacks what she perceives as the underlying cause of it.
Sam
Probably because Malaya tries to psychologically analyse everything Sal does as being fake, insincere, or having a worse reason underlying it even when there is a point blank one right there in front of her face. She likely has a running mental script of how everything Sal does is FAKE and how she is EXTREMELY important to Sal’s life by existing (she is in fact not, Sal regards her as a tiny blip of extreme annoyance that shows up sometimes, she is no way important enough for Sal to define herself by her hatred of her and the fact she would assume she cares enough about her for that to be true… yeah, I can see why Sal is so angry, I would be too if an asshole presumed my whole personality was a facade based around them).
the final pam
In all fairness to Malaya, Sal responded to her offer with “And watch you continue to steal my best friend? No thanks.” which uhh definitely makes it seem like she cares about Malaya’s existence. If she was just like, “Yeah, no.” that’s one thing, but she decided to make it personal and focus it on Malaya stealing Marcie’s friendship away from her. Which is, you know, not a thing that she is actually doing in any way.
jeffepp
Get the hint, boy, and run. Don’t look back.
Screwball
https://youtu.be/lmc21V-zBq0
BBCC
Ohhhh, so much to talk about here.
– Danny is adorable and so is his friendship with Sal.
– Malaya’s offer is only marginally more sincere than Sal’s and that just makes me snort. God I love these two.
– I mean, yeah, she’s not wrong. About it not being possible to steal a person (although you can try to entice them to leave which CAN be a dick move) and about Sal being a stubborn asshole with regards to Malaya.
– That said…yeah, the idea of watching Marcie and Malaya at roller derby while Marcie’s mad at Sal was ALWAYS gonna go over like a lead balloon. There was just no way she was going to get a positive answer there. Not that I think Malaya particularly cares.
– Annnnnd panel four is where Malaya misses the mark entirely. Beating creeps up with AG is not about Malaya, and Sal’s barely thought of Malaya today if at all outside her chat with Marcie. And Malaya can’t know this, but we saw Sal’s self definition in her talk about what she wanted and it had nothing to do with Malaya. Makes me wonder if she’s projecting but even if she’s not, just her statement made me cackle.
– Sal’s face is my everything, especially when it makes me laugh like this.
– I love Danny. That is all. <3
daredaemon
Well you have to keep in mind.
To Malaya, everything is about Malaya.
BBCC
I mean, that is true. After all, she IS Malaya.
Deanatay
Malaya’s offer in this strip is an ironic reflection of Sal’s ‘offer’ to be nicer to Malaya.
BBCC
YUP and I love it. <3
Regalli
Plot twist: This inspires Sal to get AG into roller derby. She would make an excellent blocker, and I can see Sal as a pivot who can block but also just zoom around the rink. Marcie is happy her friend (and also new friend, sort of?) have healthy aggression outlets, Sal gets to be as counterculture as she wants while also engaging in a team sport through which she can make more like-minded friends (and which she can know to herself when Linda gets awful that it’s a real sport with leagues and such,) Malaya learns a bit about everyone which includes some ‘huh, Sal has reasons for her aloofness besides just presenting herself as too cool for everyone,’ improving their roommate relationship, and Carla gets to cheer them on the whole time. Together they recruit the whole hall, except Mary. And the whole strip ends as a well-adjusted roller derby team!
Kyrik Michalowski
Your optimism is nice, but Malaya admitting that Sal might have a good reason for the way she acts is less likely than hell freezing over. And we’ve already established many things that will happen in this comic before winter reaches hell.
Regalli
We know she actually can be sincere and make a genuine effort to be a non-douchebag (or at least less-douchebag) with people – she learned to sign for Marcie simply because she wanted to be able to talk with Marcie. So I have to think that maybe if they rammed each other on the rink a couple times or had to cooperate for a common goal it would get some of the pure dislike out of their systems and they might actually cede some common ground.
And in fairness, I just remembered that during the move, Sal’s first instinct was that Malaya got on the list just to screw with Sal. Neither of them ascribes good or even neutral motives to the other, even when it doesn’t make much sense. Some way of establishing to themselves that the other isn’t The Literal Worst and Their Nemesis would probably help a lot.
Kyrik Michalowski
Hmm, that’s a fair point. And my intense hate of Malaya may be preventing me from seeing this objectively. So I’ll have to concede this one to you, and it would give Sal another chance to hang out with Marcie.
cbwroses
I always felt that Malaya started to learn sign more to not go through Sal and less for Marcie.
It’s not like Marcie needs her to understand sign as she’s more than willing to write what she wants to say.
Also, I’m pretty sure the only times we’ve seen her use sign is to say something negative to Sal.
Regalli
Pretty sure looking back that she learned to understand Marcie during practice, fair. But she also clearly is making an effort so Marcie doesn’t have to write everything, and as a disabled person seeing an able friend make an attempt to meet you on your level means a lot regardless of motivation. Even if she learned it 100% out of spite for Sal, it’s a lot of work that she takes pretty seriously.
ShinyNeen
Marcie being friends with both of them got them kind of part of the way to coexisting peacefully, but yeah now that’s kind of falling apart. Not sure what else could do it though!
thejeff
Malaya does seem to have made efforts to be friends with Marcie, but that’s pretty much it.
I haven’t seen any real effort to not be a jerk with anyone else.
Regalli
It’s the fact that she’s clearly capable of it at all that baffles me about her interactions with everyone else. Carla appears not to mind Malaya being a jerk so Malaya feels no need to try, sure, and she’s the only other one Malaya has a remotely positive interaction with… so why does she like Marcie? Is she all-around decent to the rest of the derby team, since she relies on them to protect her ass and they rely on her to score? (Note: we’ve seen from prior strips Malaya’s a jammer.) That’s my best guess, but we’ve never really seen anyone else on the team to confirm and she may or may not hang out with them offscreen. So until we know that, what’s Malaya’s deal continues to be one big ?
CK
It’s high time DoA became a sports anime.
Regalli
Blaine reappears to try and mess with Amber before the Big Match. Suddenly he is surrounded by the entire damn Indiana University Roller Derby League, making their most intimidating faces. He runs for his life and then everyone gives speeches about the power of friendship and teams and their Love Of The Sport allowing them to overcome any obstacle, and then skate their everloving hearts out, as is good and proper.
Regalli
Also either Becky or Dina’s derby name is Terrorzinosaurus. I can’t think up a second Dino pun for them both but you know that one’s perfect.