220

Deliver
Posted on March 22, 2016 by David M Willis
Hooray!  The Dumbing of Age Book 5 Kickstarter reached $50k, meaning everybody who pledges for a paper book (versus a PDF) will get a free Amber magnet.  That's pretty sweet.

220 thoughts on “Deliver”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “hey waste not, want not, COME ON”

    1. Inkblot

      When God closes the door, you don’t push!

      1. Deanatay

        When God closes the door, the Devil scores free bonus cookies!

  2. Flynn58

    Everything’s changed Willis, you have bonus cookies now!

    1. nobodybasically

      I was totally gonna post “What’s changed is that you get bonus father cookies!” Curse you and your speedy cookie commenting skills!

      1. Leorale

        Bonus cookies??
        http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/

        (warning: time suck)

        1. GuruBuckaroo

          Way ahead of you.

          Cookies baked (all time): 4.14,24,699,002,662,934e+43

        2. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          I think I got to e+23 before I decided to give up and just cheat to keep up with the updates and not fail school.

        3. weirderthanweird

          I use an add-on that auto clicks up to 1000x per second assuming my computer is running optimally. It also auto-clicks gold cookies for me and allows me to choose which types of effects they have so that there’s no downside to grandmapocalypse.

        4. Sunny

          Your cookies taste terrible.

        5. Anon

          Oh my god.. First time playing, just got sucked into a wormhole..

        6. Sunny

          Holy shit! How have you managed that? You’re 9 orders of magnitude ahead of me, and I clicked my first cookie back when time machines were the most expensive building and the background was white. Have you had it running non-stop or something?

          You do know that cheated cookies taste terrible, right?

        7. GuruBuckaroo

          The trick is compound interest. The more you ascend/restart, the more heavenly chips you have, the faster you earn. I can pretty much double my prestige every two days now.

          And no, my cookies do not taste awful. I do have 253/255 achievements and 6 shadow achievements, though. I haven’t gotten the super-fast clicking achievement nor have I ascended 1000 times (yet).

        8. Kimchisaur

          Achieving Uncanny clicker is easy on a laptop, just do a two-finger drumroll on your trackpad.

        9. Needfuldoer

          Playing this on a tablet felt like cheating, especially as it gained momentum and clicks were worth more and more.

        10. weirderthanweird

          I’m up to several decillion (10^33) all time. I stopped for a year and then a friend of mine started playing it recently so I’m back into it again.

        11. Tvc

          Particle clicker’s more fun….

        12. Eddrop

          Because of your post, i spent the last 14 hours baking 77 Billion cookies…
          i built from farms to spaceships, to bring cookies from distant planets, while priest grandmas praised The One True Baker in the Sky!
          What have you done to me!?

    2. Roborat

      I am looking forward to the changes in art style as the sleep deprivation starts to have an effect.

  3. Mr. Mendo

    “Carla will be nice to you…AT YOUR OWN PERIL!”

  4. Stephen R. Bierce

    You’re a real tough cookie with a long history…

    1. transgressingwaffle

      Breaking little hearts like the one in me.

    2. caesaria82

      I love this song. And now it’s probably stuck in my head for a week, so thanks ;p

      1. Roborat

        I remember watching the video on much music (back when they still played videos), I also liked Love is a Battlefield, I called the video combat dancing.

  5. Nicster216

    When this is basically me when im forced to share food. MORE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES FOR ME……what? their delicious

    1. Doctor_Who

      Gawd, don’t remind me. I’m dieting, and right now the Girl Scouts are at the entrance to every store in town. I’m am assaulted with offers of Thin Mints and Samoas at every turn.

      Your delicious calories will not tempt me! I defy your processed sugar and saturated fats! Fie! Fie, I say!

    2. Opus the Poet

      Tagalongs and Dosie Dos! nomnomnomnom!

    3. Willoughby Chase

      Do they contain real girl scouts?

      1. Deanatay

        As Plas would say, “but of cause!”

  6. Charles Phipps

    Ruth looks like she’s moved from alcohol to hardcore drugs.

    1. John

      Or maybe she also became a parent of twins?

      1. Mr K

        Howard was right.

      2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        I thought Billie was the one who was lesbian pregnant.

        1. John

          Nah, Ruth was the one with the lesbian morning sickness.

        2. biffzinker

          Thanks for the post. It would seem I missed some of the comic.

        3. podian

          *ahem* Robin *ahem*

      3. Doctor_Who

        That would be great, if from now on all the characters start looking increasingly haggard and sleepless, as the artist subconsciously expresses his own emotional state.

        1. Architex

          This could also be justified by saying that they’re moving into midterm season.

        2. Rowen Morland

          I think Walyk, Amber and Danny are up for it.

    2. thejeff

      More likely, she’s moved into withdrawal.
      She threw out the booze yesterday, IIRC.

    3. Mattyos

      she’s suffering from symptoms of sobering up AND sleep deprivation.

  7. Karen Lynn

    But… Cookies! Happy Carla!

  8. Jay Eff

    Mmmm… door cookies…

    1. John

      Better than pocket sushi.

      1. Architex

        And still better than a purse muffin

        1. John

          I’d eat Joyce’s purse muffin before I ate pocket sushi.

          … damn that sounds euphemistic.

  9. Nicster216

    Ruth is a tough cookie……to give cookies to

  10. Yotomoe

    http://i.imgur.com/6r5etKAg.png
    The slightly less offensive Carla I drew today.

    1. Ctrl+C D@

      Dem stockings tho’.

    2. caesaria82

      This is adorable 🙂

    3. Bagge

      Heh, first she makes you confused, then there is pie to the face.

    4. Rowen Morland

      The heck was the more offensive picture?

  11. Alice Macher

    “Do not interrupt my dark magick rituals!”

    1. tim gueguen

      Fortunately one of the known virgins is absent.

      1. Kamino Neko

        And the other one would be rejected as a sacrifice by any god.

        Ba’al is quoted as saying she looks ‘tough and bitter’.

        1. Ntrovert60

          Cthulu failed his saving throw against insanity and fled screaming…

  12. Architex

    FINALLY we see a door closing! I was wondering who God was supposed to be.

    1. Doctor_Who

      Ruth is God? But Sarah is Old Testament God. That must make Ruth New Testament God.

      …I don’t see it. Maybe she’s more like the Spectre, a personification of God’s wrath who kills in ironic ways.

      Just wait until someone does something evil involving femurs.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Maybe she is Baal, eating child sacrifices. Or teenage femurs, close enough.

      2. John Merklinghaus

        It must follow then that Ruth is opening a window.

        1. Falling Star

          Like Sal?

      3. Tan

        No, no, Sarah is SENT by Old Testament God: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/oldtestament/

        And in further support of this, Ruth does have a history of making sure Sarah gets where she needs to be: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/pizza/

  13. caesaria82

    Behold the real world effects of this comic: today I went out and bought chicken fingers, based on a craving inspired by yesterday’s update. If history repeats itself, tomorrow I will probably go and get cookies xD

    1. Architex

      The same thing happened to me with chicken nuggets!

    2. Deanatay

      At least you’re getting out, right?

    3. Tomas

      Just like that old Gypsy woman said!

  14. tim gueguen

    In the end, no matter what happens to everyone else, Carla will come out on top.

    And if the gross cookie should be shoved under anyone’s door, it should be Mary’s.

    1. Doctor_Who

      Mary will receive the cookies under her door post-digestion.

  15. Wheelpath

    Holy crap, black speech bubble, we getting another vigilante? I’m calling right now, Ruth is Spidercar

    1. Mr K

      So, hopefully her arch enemy doesn’t possess her body.

    2. Rukduk

      Either that, or demon possession. Not gonna lie, I’m kinda waiting for her to all of the sudden in a demonic voice shout “I am legion! For we! Are! Many!” Then again, that line is probably too cliche for Willis.

  16. Wolf

    Dumbing of Triangle: DAY 6

    http://imgur.com/ORzoEWZ

    Old strips now being ported: http://imgur.com/a/7FHYX

    1. Spencer

      Ruth in panel 3 is some straight up nightmare fuel.

    2. Dara

      okay panels 1 and 3 make this running gag worth continuing

      (jfc triangle mouths make ruth terrifying)

    3. Pl0x

      This…is…AMAZING.

    4. Emperor Norton II

      Good person, you have just earned yourself a bonus to your wages, to wit: One cookie, unbitten, unput-upon-the-floor, for your personal consumption of. I hope you will enjoy it, and trust that your day continues well.

      Sincerely
      Joshua Norton II
      Emperor of the Internet

  17. Cerberus

    Man, Ruth looks rough. Having cookies offered by the person you feel you failed probably didn’t help.

    On the other hand, Carla got bonus cookies and is happy, so… balance?

    1. Rukduk

      And I feel like Carla’s “I’ll just push this kinda gross looking one under the door” is her way showing Ruth that she did appreciate Ruth at least trying to stand up for her before getting blackmailed. Or at least, that’s what I perceive panel 7 to be.

      1. Cerberus

        I can see that. Or even just a “I’m not going to admit I feel bad about anything I do, but I slightly regret calling you out on your cowardice when you were already down and taking all your cookies today, so here have the worst cookie and now we’re all square.”

  18. shadowcell

    re: alt text, “dealing with gross things” is like 45% of fatherhood, as you should know by now

  19. Vangeln

    Not a great story.

    1. JessWitt

      Hopefully creative writing isn’t Carla’s major.

      1. Cerberus

        Supposedly she’s in electrical engineering or computer science.

    2. Shiro

      That depends on your perspective, it’s a great story from Carla’s POV. Free cookies! So many free cookies!

  20. newllend(henryvolt)

    Has she Been crying ?…well this is a first.

    1. Shiro

      Or drinking instead of sleeping…

      1. Bladeglory

        Probably not-drinking instead of sleeping. She’s trying to go completely by the book so she can be rid of Mary’s influence.
        Hopefully this time she doesn’t have to flip any villain-dads.

      2. BenRG

        Drinking instead of just about everything is a possibility. She’s a suicide risk right now, IMO.

        1. Cerberus

          Yup. She’s been made to feel powerless and like all her hopes for a future have finally been closed off, has broken up with her girlfriend (a gf she placed way too much on in terms of “saving her”), and has a new enemy who wants to destroy her and which would be a lot of effort to fight off… and might not ever rest, given how pettily she targeted her in the first place.

          All of that on a mind that was already dancing on the edge of broken coping strategies is a really dangerous recipe. For all we’ve seen so far, this is Ruth at a whole level beyond that and every morning she wakes up alive is a minor miracle from here on out.

    2. TamiDOA

      Not sure she’s was crying now, but Ruth has cried because of Billie before:
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/reassess/

  21. Uniqueantique

    Maybe Ruth is trying to dry out, I hope.

    Carla doesn’t deserve extra cookies, imo. She’s been a real pita lately.

    1. Ctrl+C D@

      She’s been a type of Syrian bread?

      1. Mr K

        Maybe she has a yeast problem.

        1. Ctrl+C D@

          [SCREAMING]

        2. Dellaran

          Well that’s one way to get a rise out of her.

        3. tim gueguen

          Yeah, that loaf of bread she’s trying to make in her unauthorised toaster oven just won’t rise.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      I can understand Billie wanting to share the bag of cookies with Ruth, but please explain to me again just why Carla got half the cookies merely for being a delivery-girl?

      1. Betty Anne

        Extortion

      2. Disloyal Subject

        Well, how do you pay delivery girls? Billie didn’t want them anymore, and Carla did, so it worked out nicely.

      3. Cerberus

        Because Carla is a college student… and a brat and wouldn’t have done it without an incentive. And Billie can’t be seen right now giving cookies to that “RA I fight with all the time” especially now that Mary is on the warpath.

  22. ninja_jesus

    Biggest change is that Ruth has the face of someone who had to wake up every few hours to feed a newborn child.

  23. Harvey Janus

    Bonus cookies! Yay! But Ruth seems like she’s going to do something drastic…

  24. Flugendorf

    Congratulations David Willis! 🙂

    . . . I do not like how Ruth looks.

    1. Flugendorf

      (Well, buffer-time congratulations. It still counts.)

      1. Palamdrone

        The one ring is turning her into Gollum.

  25. dailybrad

    Carla crush, intensifying

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Crush. Kill. Destroy.

  26. Palamdrone

    Should have told her they’re butter rum cookies.

  27. DarkoNeko

    atl text : so, has anything changed now ? (beside not being able to sleep anymore)

  28. Tacos

    Free bonus cookies yo. Score indeed.

  29. Spencer

    I’m genuinely glad Carla is still an annoying butthole after last chapter. Often moments like that get used to strip everything interesting about Queer characters away from them in the name of turning them into an issue of the week, and Carla will have none of that.

    1. Charles Phipps

      Well she’s always been an annoying butthole, even when she was a Prius. I agree with your statement, though. It’s kind of refreshing actually as there’s plenty of people who love that Carla is a trans character while loathing her as an annoying jackass. As Terry Pratchett said, ‘Just because someone’s a member of a ethnic (or sexual) minority doesn’t mean they’re not a nasty small-minded little jerk.’ It means she’s awesome for representation and interesting as a character in a cast of nasty small-minded jerks.

      1. Charles Phipps

        Let’s face it, the good guy characters are usually the most boring.

    2. Cerberus

      I’ve very much been of the opinion that Carla was the jerk character who most benefitted from the universe switch, because yes, she’s a jerk, but there’s context on why she’s a jerk. On why she’s prickly and puts up a front of being too cool for school and has no respect for authority or social propriety and so on. And it makes her a far more interesting and in-depth character (though I will always love Ultra Car’s story arc with Malaya in the other universe).

      So yeah, super happy to see her still being a bit of a butthole and a brat and very curious to see whether or not her mask will crack enough today to see what’s underneath.

      1. Random832

        Eh… careful with that. None of that is really evident in the text, and you’re being a bit overly reductive in basically saying that she can’t just be a jerk independent of anything that might be a reason, because arbitrary jerkishness is reserved for non-minorities.

        1. Spencer

          I mean, Carla has shown on more than one occasion that she’s not wholly devoted to just being a jerkface. She loudly stated that ganging up on Amazi-Girl made her deeply uncomfortable, she was the first one to check up on Malaya after she got tossed, and when she sees that turbo nerd Amber bleeding from her head, instead of laughing at her and flipping double birds she just takes control of the situation and cleans her up because she’s been there.

          Like, she’s still a butthole, to be frank if she wasn’t then that scene with Mary would have meant a lot less, but being vaguely kind of a pest doesn’t mean that’s all there is to her.

        2. Cerberus

          All of this. Plus we’ve seen that her “I don’t care” pose is a pose by her totally convincing attempt to say she was totally unaffected by Mary while talking to Billie or her outburst about the dick on her door being a hate crime.

          Also, I should clarify that I don’t think Carla having context for her jerkiness makes her not a jerk. I think it makes her an interesting jerk.

          Cause one of the problems with having a jerk character in a “realistic” setting is that they can end up just being a one-note asshole and thus no longer be fun. Like, Mike is a great example of a character fucked over by the universe change, because he’s a jerk to be a jerk, without purpose, reason, or justification.

          And in a stylized world that’s one thing, but in DoA, he just is too evocative of people who are jerks to be jerks in real-life, such as edgelords and sad asshole trolls and so he’s not as interesting to explore or spend time with.

          But, Carla? There’s clearly a history hinted at that makes her misanthropy and “fuck the world” attitude make sense and explain where her jerkiness is coming from. And that? That is fascinating, at least to me, as it makes me want to dive into that complexity and see more of what makes her tick (hell, when UC got more characterization is SP! Is when she got most interesting, same with Malaya).

          So yeah, it’s not that she isn’t a brat and a jerk and a bit of a butt or that trans characters can’t be buttheads, it’s that I care way more about this jerk and want to see them way more than any other “jerk” character for reasons outside the raw representation angle.

        3. Marie

          I disagree about Mike. I agree that he’s (rather) one-note, but I agree with the portrayal of someone who just is a jerk and rather malicious because they can be. It’s a type of person I’ve known (though rarely as upfront as him), and just one in part of a college setting isn’t really implausible. Not everyone who’s a jerk is trying to protect something, and he is amongst many jerks and jerky actions that do make sense.

        4. Charles Phipps

          As a psychologist, there’s a lot of people who like hurting other people emotionally and physically because it makes them feel strong and good about themselves. Mike is that guy, at least in Dumbing of Age. There’s no hidden pain. He’s just a jackass who will probably be a CEO in ten years or head of Congress.

        5. Charles Phipps

          Sorry, typo, as my favorite (and former teacher) psychologist says.

        6. trlkly

          It is indeed implausible that he gets away with it the way he does. Jerks who can’t at least fake being nice or have some money or something to get friends just wind up friendless in real life.

          He was much more realistic in the old universe. He did something other than be a jerk. I actually went in thinking “Why would I care about this guy” but was pleasantly surprised.

  30. meanderling

    Hm. This storyline is called “when God closes the door” and Ruth just slammed the door, so…corallary: Ruth is God?

    1. Jacques Cornelius Parrot III

      If that is true, then the phrase “fear of the Lord” takes on new urgency.

    2. tim gueguen

      Nah, she’s an amnesiac Jean Grey. When something bad happens to Billie she’ll regain her memory and turn into Dark Phoenix again.

    3. buzzsaw

      If this chapter is referencing Ruth, then the title of the final chapter of Book 6 has me VERY concerned.

      “It all Returns”

      1. Spencer

        Looks like things are just gonna keep tumbling down.

    4. John

      Willis has been using her as his Twitter avatar.

    5. Silly Name

      What, you guys don’t worship Ruth Lessick, Harvester of Femurs, Mistress of the Third Floor of the Clark Wing, Lady of Darkness, Bringer of Doom?

      You /heathens/

      1. Roborat

        Now you can add:”refuser of noms” to her collection of titles.

      2. nothri

        “Regretter of nothing, splatterer of trucks”…

  31. Shiro

    :c Ruth’s in a bad place…

    1. TamiDOA

      Been there in a dark room with even darker inside me. And no one offered me cookies!

      (So I learned to make my own, which also helps to fight the darkness.)

      1. Shiro

        Same, it helped me through a bleak time when I was out of a job. Baking is so precise that it doesn’t leave much room for depression, assuming you can convince yourself it’s worth starting.

        I find painting mini figs helps too, for the same reason.

    2. Needfuldoer

      She’s a darkness turducken.

      1. Pl0x

        \\\NOOO PAREEENTS///

  32. Jacques Cornelius Parrot III

    Only now do I realize that I didn’t know what Carla’s last name was. Guess I took it for granted that it was “Ultra”

    1. No Name

      I wonder how Willis chose it. In the old verse, Ultra-Car’s last name, if she deigned to have one, would have been Rosenthal. Or perhaps Rosenthal-whatever-Rachel’s-last-name-was.

      1. John

        “Carla Rutten” is an anagram of “Ultra Car.net”. So I guess we know what Joe and Rachel coded her in.

  33. Plasma Mongoose

    I for one would happily partake in some of Carla’s cookies.

    1. inqntrol

      And then do parkour moves?

  34. miados

    I feel like i want to offer ruth a hug now but at the same time worry she might rip out my spleen if i offer.

    1. Rukduk

      Not your spleen. She doesn’t collect those yet. Only femurs.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        She doesn’t need to keep it; spleen juices might make an adequate temporary lubricant for the floor’s garbage chute. The femurs can then be harvested at her leisure.

        1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          This is Dumbing of Age. Shirt Guy Dom is over that way.

    2. BenRG

      Yeah… Me too. Ruth isn’t the nicest of women but no-one deserves to live in that sort of pain.

  35. Bagge

    Aaaaand after last week’s THRILLING CLIFFHANGER we have our answer – CARLA DID GET MORE COOKIES!!!!!!!

    The end.

    OR IS IT????

  36. Someone

    Wait a sec, I know that Willis is an Internet Pornlord. However, do multiple people hold that title, or is it more like the sorcerer supreme?

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      It is a level of achievement. Anyone can be an IP, as long as you have a big enough backlog of filfth. And the volcano island base full of jumpsuited Uzi-wielding minions and scantily clad babes.

      1. Silly Name

        However, since Willis likes to be inclusive, he also has scantily clad hunks. You need to be willing to do all kinds of porn to be a Pornlord, after all.

  37. Shiro

    Relevant to yesterday’s comic: today at work, I had a tiny little girl tell me her name was “Josswin” just like that one Patreon comic, and I about died of cute.

  38. DarkoNeko

    I think Billie is *really* lucky Carla could care less and doesn’t really think about why you’d want to give Ruth your cookies…

    1. Disloyal Subject

      Or she suspects, but feels for whatever reason that it’s none of her business. Hell, she was right there when Mary accused Ruth of ‘defiling the cheerleader.’

      1. Cerberus

        Actually Carla is the best person to know. She’s the anti-narc and is definitely not big on spreading around people’s secrets (though she might use them to privately mock them).

        She’s homoromantic herself so wouldn’t really blink much of an eye at a queer relationship even if she might go “ew” at the realization that all that screaming and banging noises of the last week were actually sex.

        And she’s also probably very supportive of people being somewhat private about their non-normative lives given her everything.

  39. Rowanmikaio

    So I misread that as “That’s the story of how Carla scored Gluten-free cookies” and wondered if Ruth had Celiac Disease until I reread it.

  40. TamiDOA

    I don’t think Ruth’s “spite” plan is working out to well for her so far.
    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/win/

    1. Cerberus

      Nonsense, she’s doing a ton to hurt and make miserable the person she despises the most.

      1. TamiDOA

        I’ve said it before, we build our own dungeon’s and fill them self-torture devices.

  41. Bagge

    Apart from everything else, I think it’s a pretty good idea for the tyrranic RA not to accept cookies from the resident prankster.

    1. Cerberus

      What? Nah. Just because Carla is a prankster… who Ruth has recently let down… and was left alone to handle Mary on her own… and… yeah, if I was Ruth, I would assume those cookies were laced with a laxative too.

      1. Bagge

        Carla pranking Ruth would basically be her saying “Don’t worry, I’m OK, no hard feelings.”

        1. Cerberus

          Oof, that might be the most brutal prank of all!

        2. Bagge

          No no, I mean that a prank would convey that meaning. A prank would mean that Carla is herself and that Ruth doesn’t have to worry about her, much like Becky making a joke in the end of the ToeDad* storyline.

          Actually, her attitude here says pretty much just that.

          *) Fudge you Ross

  42. neeks

    and that’s how the DOA commentariat learned carla’s last name.

    1. Tenn

      The part of the DOA commentariat that doesn’t read Willis’ Tumblr, that is.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Or the cast page.

  43. Lapin

    In a kind of off-topic way, this makes me appreciate Carla’s hair and the length. Like, either Carla had parents who didn’t care about that sort of thing, or they’ve known for awhile that Carla is Carla and have a cabin built in the Parental Acceptance/Love Camp.

    Seeing Carla though, after seeing Jocelyn, who is still having to fly under the radar for now, also makes me sad. Carla is Carla, even though we don’t know her circumstances right now, whereas Jocelyn still has to pretend at being Joshua, especially with all the shit going down with Becky.

    Oh jeez, now I’m scared Jocelyn is going to snap and be like “You know what -” at this lunch.

    1. Sir Robin

      I’m kind of curious to when we’ll see Carla’s parents. In the old universe, her father was Joe, unless time travel becomes a factor later, I don’t think that’s happening

      That, or Joe was already getting it on with the ladies at a VERY young age

      1. No Name

        I think Carla’s actually older than Joe in this universe. So, time travel it is!

      2. Silly Name

        Considering Joe’s father gets around a lot, maybe Joe and Carla are half-siblings*

        *Yes, I know this makes no sense, BUT IMAGINE THE DRAMA!

    2. Rutee

      I mean, this entire thing was constructed to give us that worry. Whether she does, or doesn’t, snap, I don’t know, but we’re definitely supposed to worry for her.

      1. Cerberus

        Especially since we know she’ll snap at some point in the future, whether it is this lunch meeting or sometime later.

        Her closet has been putting a lot of strain on her and she’s already had to limit her exposure to family as much as possible just to avoid “saying something she can’t ever take back”. Add in the upping of anti-LGBT statements by the family in the wake of Joyce’s defense of Becky and you’ve got a potent recipe for Jocelyne hitting her “fuck it” point.

    3. Cerberus

      And it’s a stark reminder of the importance of family that doesn’t suck.

      Carla is often brave and happy in a way not many trans people are allowed to be and that’s partly because even when people are being awful, she knows that her parents have got her back and fully support her.

      Compare that to Jocelyne who knows the minute she’s herself, she’s saying goodbye to all the family she has ever known and becomes persona non grata in her hometown.

      1. Bagge

        …but I think she has started to clue in to the fact that she might still keep her sister.

  44. Fairyth

    Congratulations!

  45. phildog

    How dare her. ALL COOKIES ARE BEAUTIFUL.

    1. Adam Black

      #BrokenCookiesMatter !

  46. skdk

    rutten literally means rotten in swedish. or maybe “the path”. like if you use a gps, the path that it makes for you to drive your car on is called a “rutt” or “rutten”

    1. Bagge

      Heh, true. I didn’t pick up on it but I think Carla would like the allusion to being the baaaad seed. “Det är något är ruttet i konungariket Danmark”

      1. Cerberus

        “You think I am rotten, I know I am on my own path. Fuck the divots, I got wheels.”

      2. Jhon

        rødgrød med fløde?

        1. Bagge

          +1

    2. tim gueguen

      Carla probably has Dutch ancestors. I was jokingly thinking this morning that her dad will turn out to be Bas Rutten.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bas_Rutten

  47. BenRG

    Oh dear God, someone kick down Ruth’s door before it’s too late!

  48. Charles Phipps

    Wait, due to the timescale, weren’t Billie and Ruth together for a grand total of a week?

    1. BenRG

      It was an important week, at least for Ruth.

  49. Gamaran Sepudomyn

    Carla has the best expressions.

  50. Tenzhi

    Cursed filler strip… now I want ginger snaps.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Speculoos are fine too.

      1. Tenzhi

        Never had them, but from descriptions they sound to me more like gingerbread cookies than ginger snaps. The former, while tasty, lacks the spicy heat of the latter which I crave.

    2. Emperor Norton II

      I would argue that it is more than a filler strip. For one thing, we got resolved whether or not the cookies that Billie wanted delivered were going to be to Ruth or to Sal.

      And in three panels and with a total of only four words within those panels, we now know exactly how Ruth is doing: Badly. She is trying to cope, this time most likely without alcohol (though I could be wrong on this) and most definitely without Billie. And with Ruth shutting that door, it is clear that she is still trying to shut out Billie, even though Billie has made it clear time and again that this is not going to be an option.

      Also, it is clear from this strip that Carla currently does not know anything about Ruth’s plans to become untouchable, so that she can, among other things, stand up properly to Mary about Mary’s transphobia once and for all. That was, after all, pretty much the whole reason for why Ruth started throwing out every shred of evidence of the type of wrong-doing that could actually get her fired and/or expelled.

  51. DonDueed

    The past is gone but not forgutten
    This is the story of Carla Rutten

  52. Lieutenant Dan

    “Dad You Willis?” 🙂

  53. Wublub

    But… but I wanted to see what happens at the Lunch.

    1. Spencer

      We need some depressing alcoholic panel time before we get our depressing family breakdown panel time.

      1. JQuire

        That, in my experience, is exactly the opposite order to how those usually go.

  54. RZ

    Congratulations!! We’ll forgive you if you end up late on a strip or two with the new daddy schedule.

  55. Bob Bobberman

    Congrats Dad!

    As to nothing changing… they tell you that EVERYTHING changes. Then the day comes… not much changes. Newborns sleep a lot and they don’t move around on their own! Pre-crawling babies are great that way. Just stick them in a carrier and you can take them most of the places you used to like to go and do most of the things you used to like to do. You should too… because… once they get a little bigger… then EVERYTHING actually does change!

    Don’t worry though… it’s very much worth it!

    Congrats!

    1. tim gueguen

      Actually Willis has been working on daddy time for a while now. The boys were born December 3rd. But he has a several month buffer of already written comics, and this one was written shortly after their birth.

  56. Luchucholo

    Cue in a sight of Ruth looking miserably at one bitten&muddied cookie, pondering profoundly at earthly matters of her life. She´s not quite fit to be a RA, isn´t she? A shut-in & desperately depressed, alcoholic RA is all kinds of things but none good… I wonder if the campus administration there runs any decent checking on their RA… or hire them more like as an afterthought, which is the more probable case.

    1. TamiDOA

      Sadly, must places are so desperate to fill this thankless job that as long as they don’t have any convictions on record and aren’t carrying a weapon, they’re hired.

      1. TamiDOA

        *most places
        (stupid fingers shouldn’t count on spell check)

  57. Luchucholo

    And congrats, by the way! what Bobberman said is spot on, trust that! 😀

  58. HiiroArana79

    C’mon Ruth take the damn cookies!

  59. trlkly

    There’s no way she doesn’t know the cookies are from Billie. Literally no one else would give her cookiesanything.

    1. trlkly

      (I’m gonna be sad when my gravatar changes. I’m hoping maybe to find a character who looks like me and use it, but, so far, no one in the comic is tall fat guy with a goatee and shoulder length hair.)

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Propitiatory offerings to a vengeful god are often a wise choice.

  60. nothri

    Carla….is trying very hard to get me not to like her. Which is impressive, given that she has a lot of good will t burn through as Mary’s apparent nemesis. But she’s getting increasingly hard to like, and deciding to eat the cookies you promised to deliver in exchange for half of them is kind of shitty. You should be returning them to the original owner at that point. ugh.

    1. Spencer

      I like that Carla is an annoying butthole! Whenever Queer characters show up in basically anything they’re always paragons of virtue of justice. Carla’s just here to be a pain in the ass and have a good time. She ain’t a horrible shithead or anything, but she’s still someone deliberately written to be a jerk.

      Like, we got a bi dude as the designated butt monkey of the series, a bi woman who is written to be deliberately kinda sorta a horrible asshole sometimes, a gay dude who spited his best friend because she was trying to help him, and complications in the nigh-perfect magical romance between Becky and Dina, a homeless kid and a neurodivergent woman. Do you know how hard it is to find series where Queer characters get to be characters? Often time a lot of writers only swing to the extremes of “perfect magical sex pixies” and “everything is drama and misery because being queer means you inherently suffer.”

      1. JQuire

        That’s an interesting way to read the Ethan/Amber thing.

        1. Spencer

          Specifically just referring to the part where Ethan gave Amber a major case of stink eye while he was kissing Joyce because of their earlier argument.

          Which, you know, doesn’t really match p to Amber flipping her shit on him, and literally flipping a table.

        2. JQuire

          Ohh. Gotcha.

      2. nothri

        Apparently I’m a paragon of the modern age, because I’ve managed to decouple things like transgender sexuality and sexual preference from whether I like a character or not. Its not that I don’t care about Carla and what issues arise from her being transsexual. Its just that I care about those issues when they are relevant. Right now, in my simple opinion, they are not relevant. She is just being an asshole. I do not like assholes. I do not like them regardless if such other qualities as what sex they identify as, what they look for in a sexual partner, what race they are, etc. Assholes defy all boundaries, and I hates them.

    2. trlkly

      Wut? Why in the world would it be wrong for her to eat the cookies if the person she’s supposed to give them to doesn’t want them?

      What’s she supposed to do, force Ruth to take them somehow? Throw ’em away and waste cookies?

      1. nothri

        Give them back to Billie, obviously.

  61. Strangeshapes

    I can say one thing: Ruth’s wan face and undereye shadows look really realistic. Like you somehow really *felt* the up all night thing.

  62. Tenn

    Ruth: “What”
    Carla: “Ooouilderness Geeehrls!”

    (Not implying that Carla looks like a man, just that she showed up at someone’s door holding cookies, and really, what more reason do you need to invoke Tim Curry?) 😀

    1. Sunny

      Are you implying Tim Curry does not look like a girl? He can make any Kinsey scale zero male question their sexuality.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6wKRWFOoE

  63. jepmz

    ………….

    That was the most uneventful follow up page I ever read from this comic T_T
    But I’d totally eat my words if this is leading to something unexpected for today’s strip, lol

  64. Dark

    Having finally finished Roomies!, It’s Walky!, Joyce and Walky!, and Shortpacked! (in backwards order for some reason), I will say: Dumbing of Age just got a lot more awkward.

  65. blues

    congrats, Dad.

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