303

Operating
Posted on October 6, 2020 by David M Willis

303 thoughts on “Operating”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    actually, this leg of the tour is spot on

    1. JetstreamGW

      I think it might’ve been too complimentary to Mary.

      1. Hinonron

        W: “This is Mary… because naming her “Ronalda Trump” would have been too obvious and invited blowback.”
        M: “You are FIRED from tout-giving, Walky!”

        1. DSL

          Well, that and … that fella … was still mostly a Brooklyn curiosity with Manhattan pretensions out there in the real world when this strip started.

        2. Deanatay

          The rest of the dorm hires Walky to give tours only of Mary’s room.

        3. Ana Chronistic

          Then Roz REALLY wants a room change

  2. Octopus Ink

    Say what you will about Walky, he seems to have everyone’s number!

    1. Keulen

      I’m enjoying Walky’s introductions of everybody so far.

    2. Eyebrow

      The hilarious thing is how cooperative everyone is being, backing up his one-line descriptions no matter how insulting.

      This reminds me of Groundhog Day, when Phil introduces Rita to everyone in the diner.

      1. J

        Mary’s is particularly awesome, and she doesn’t even care, she just takes it and runs with it. & I still have yet to see Carla not be amazing. We get to see her smash _proverbial_ pies in people’s faces now.

  3. Doctor_Who

    Wait, the goth no one ever sees is Meredith’s roomie? Like, Bloodrose?

    So who was Agatha’s roommate?

    1. Radiance

      Bloodrose was Agatha’s roommate before the room transfer. Now Sierra is Agatha’s roommate.

      1. Lingo

        But Ruth implied that Agatha’s roommate was someone they “lost”, as in they left the dorm. If that was Bloodrose, then she can’t be Meredith’s roommate.

      2. RacingTurtle

        Agatha’s old roommate left the wing entirely. It can’t have been Bloodrose. I think this strip is specifically intended to confirm Agatha’s roommate was not, in fact, Bloodrose. Maybe we never met Agatha’s roommate.

        1. Lingo

          I guess the only thing we know for sure about Agatha’s old roommate is that Sarah described her as a “notorious bongowad,” although of course Sarah hates everybody.

        2. Lingo

          Forgot about the filter, lol

        3. Jake'm

          Honestly, I thought everyone was just going along with the joke of replacing the b-word with Joyce’s choice of b-word.

        4. Needfuldoer

          Maybe it was Guns (the SEMMF Squad 48 member notable for her pistols and music hipsterdom, not literal firearms). We just didn’t see her because “NO GUNS EVER”.

        5. Reltzik

          Sorry, no. IU has a no-Guns policy.

        6. Needfuldoer

          Maybe Dumbiverse Guns (if she exists) got that nickname because she’s ripped.

        7. Geneseepaws

          I am Not of the opinion that Sarah hates everyone. I b’lieve that pretending to hate everyone is Sarah’s defense for her floor ganging-up and ostracizing her, for getting her roommate The therapy/treatment for addiction to save her life. Sarah seems to me to be afraid that everyone will be like her 1st Year floor mates, and so rejects any social interaction as a first strike protective move.

        8. thejeff

          It does mean her opinion in Agatha’s roommate shouldn’t be taken too seriously though – whether she actually hates everyone or is just performatively hating everyone.

        9. Lingo

          Yeah, what thejeff said. Didn’t mean it literally.

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Meredith’s roommate is actually non-existent, just a scam so she gets a double room for herself at the double rate. The goth chick was just some theater major she hired as a front.

      To this day my college friends insist I did this my sophomore year, in the best dorm on campus.

      1. DSL

        I had a deal almost as good. My sophomore-year roommate was basically a lump in his bed or on the couch of the TV lounge for most of the year, and my junior roommate basically moved in with his significant-other for the second semester. I’d see an occasional sign he’d been there to pick up a shirt or a book or something, but that was it. Fine with me because he was a slob.
        Then I got an actual solo room my senior year, but I was next to two freshmen who couldn’t stand each other, so the one was always standing around in my room whining about the other.

        1. leaf

          Damn, you were in the dorms all 4 years? That sucks dude.

  4. butts

    i missed carla

    y’know, briefly

    1. Doctor_Who

      Missing Carla is impossible for very long. She’ll make sure you notice her in short order.

      She’s looking into the price of having a billboard erected outside the dorm.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Man, her folks are rich as Croesus. No matter what it costs, she can afford it.

        The problem is, it’s easy to ignore a billboard after a while. She’s trying to come up with a way to keep eyes on it.

        1. Devin

          Speaking as someone who lives with an electronic billboard over a mile away that I can’t stop noticing at night…there are ways.

      2. AbelUndercity

        Specifically, outside of Mary’s window.

    2. SuperZero

      She does seem to have pretty good Dexterity.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        And the Rutech jamming system.

    3. Deanatay

      It’s okay, butts

      You can always reload, and try again

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Squeeze, don’t pull.

  5. Chris

    Yep, another silhouette filled in. Called it.

    1. Leorale

      Clearly. I’m not looking forward to Malaya but I’m curious to see Billie’s haircut.

    2. Segnosaur

      2 more to go.

      The one on the end is probably Malaya (based on the hair). The other… Probably Billie (being one of the few major characters not reintroduced yet), but it does look a bit different.

      1. Wereg

        Given the boots and pose, there’s a nonzero chance it could be a post-haircut Amazigirl. Or someone entirely new.

        Either way, Dorothy did mention that they lost Billie. I’m a little wary.

        1. Nono

          Her status is being kept very vague, but it probably wouldn’t be the worst thing for her to be out of the story? Before the timeskip her plot value was circumstancial at best, given her ‘Sal is Amazi-Girl!’ shtick and how she’s always kept out of the loop of most of the major conflicts like Joyce vs. the world and only gives side quips on the Walkertons.

          She was a major part of Ruth’s development, but doesn’t seem as essential now.

        2. Cholma

          She didn’t have any lines, but I thought we saw Billie standing in a line at the beginning of this chapter.

        3. BBCC

          That wasn’t Billie. Billie doesn’t live in this building anymore.

        4. Audkitten

          What if it’s Marcie and not Billie?

        5. Axel

          I’ve been assuming it’s Marcie

        6. Rabid Rabbit

          Except that the boots don’t have heels, so unless Amazi-Girl’s new costume really, really stretches out Amber’s spine… Even then, the silhouette seems to have longer legs rather than just better posture than Amber does.

          The same applies to Marcie, the top of whose head in on level with Sal’s eyes (https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/idontknow/ — and that’s taking the bandanna into account), and therefore seems extremely unlikely to be the missing person, unless the characters aren’t drawn to scale, which they seem to be.

        7. BBCC

          According to both Willis and Malaya, Marcie is very very small.

        8. Needfuldoer

          Amazi-Girl is physically identical to Amber; that silhouette is too tall.

      2. clif

        We lost Billie.

    3. Nono

      12 girls to 3 guys to… 1 nb?

      Boy that ratio is getting really bad considering we lost two characters and I don’t know if we’re gonna be seeing Jacob anytime soon, either.

      1. Regalli

        Malaya is likely to not be considered a girl anymore, as well.

        Do we actually have confirmation anywhere Ethan’s not at school this semester, or is it just absence of evidence being read as evidence of absence?

        1. BBCC

          The latter, as far as I can tell.

        2. a/snow/mous/e

          Also his apparent absence from the silhouettes. Unless he somehow combined with Billie?

      2. Robbie

        Who will think of the mens????

      3. Agemegos

        Bad? My class at high school (until Year 10) was 51 girls to 22 boys, and that was no problem at all.

      4. Anna

        I was thinking the same. All the missing characters are men: Mike, Ethan, Jacob. The gender ratio is getting quite skewed.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Oh, well.

        2. Spencer

          It’s kind of a bummer vis a vis the queer male representation I mean. Ethan’s on a bus and Mike is dead.

        3. thejeff

          The only problem I have with that is that it limits the romantic options for those interested in men.
          Though as long as they’re around, romantic interests don’t have to be main cast.

        4. Segnosaur

          Jacob wasn’t a central figure before, so it is possible that he may still be in the comic even if he doesn’t warrant an appearance on the banner. (Kind of like Mary in a way… Did figure into a few storylines and is back.)

  6. Buggman

    Meredith doesn’t actually have a roommate. The goth chick was a high school buddy who showed up just once to make everyone think she did so that she could keep her room to herself.

    1. clif

      She didn’t really show up once. She was just required to live in the closet and never leave by the roommate agreement.

  7. Littlebit

    Carla’s hair is almost worthy of it’s own tag!

  8. Radiance

    Carla deserves all the attention in the universe, all of it.

    1. clif

      And then her skates deserve whatever attention is left over.

    2. Varangian

      PREACH

  9. StClair

    on her, it’s amusing. at least in small doses.

  10. AeromechanicalAce

    I’m very happy Mary would hate me instantly upon learning my politics.

    1. Greebs

      Honestly, Mary seems more the hate-first-ask-questions-later type.

    2. Keulen

      She’d probably hate most of us in these comments either for our politics and/or for not being her kind of Christian. I’m used to being hated by right-wing Christians for being an atheist and a socialist though.

      1. Sirksome

        Honestly Mary has kind of become a charicature now. I can’t imagine her enjoying anything. She’s like a mini Carol. She should be glad Willis isn’t working Covid into the story because she’d probably be dead.

    3. Council

      I meanwhile am kind of frightened she might only find me moderately repulsive at times.

      1. Council

        Definitely hate me all the other times though, which is of some comfort.

  11. Stephen Bierce

    Would you buy a used Carla from this man?

  12. abysswatcher1993

    Mary can’t pretend to be a decent person for 5 seconds.

    1. Steve

      Mary is a fictional straw-woman.

      1. clif

        So she should burn well?

      2. Arian

        Mary is less a straw-woman and more someone who, unrealistically and for the sake of humour and/or making a point, voices aloud what other people like her think, but don’t say.

        Of course no real fundamentalist would make the comment that Mary’s shown saying here: it’s a punchline. But think it inside their heads? Some of them definitely do.

        1. DrunkenNordmann

          “Of course no real fundamentalist would make the comment ”

          You’d think so, but I’m pretty sure real fundies have said worse than that.

        2. thejeff

          Not usually quite so quickly or bluntly. It usually comes wrapped up in some justifications for why it’s a bad thing.

        3. Opus the Poet

          I take it you aren’t on Twitter much.

      3. Nono

        So she’s the new Mike?

      4. june gloom

        Take a look on Right Wing Watch sometime, you’ll find all sorts of people just like her.

        I’ve also known fundies who thought Mr. Rogers was evil for teaching children to love themselves.

  13. Chris Phoenix

    Based on Boomer’s expression in the last panel, I think Boomer is shipping Boomer and Carla. I know she’s ace, but Boomer does not know that.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Their name is Booster.

      1. Chris Phoenix

        Whoops, honest mistake. Booster it is. At least I was careful not to get their pronouns wrong. 🙂

        1. Rabid Rabbit

          It’s a perfectly reasonable mistake to make given that the word “Zoomer” is in the strip.

        2. a/snow/mous/e

          their pronouns are pretty much specified in the about page to be “they/them”, i don’t think you need to avoid using pronouns entirely 😛

        3. a/snow/mous/e

          although i guess it does lead to the question: do you say “they’re shipping themselves with Carla” or “they’re shipping themself with Carla”?
          honestly probably either is fine

        4. Regalli

          Apparently ‘themself’ is making a comeback (after falling out of use in the early 1900s? I think? I googled the other week but didn’t remember,) but ‘themselves’ is probably still being used by some nbs tired of dealing with autocorrect or the like.

        5. Arian

          ‘Themselves’ is standard when the gender of the person is unknown or unspecified:

          “We don’t want anyone to hurt themselves. If someone hurts themselves, it will be their own fault. Everyone has to take responsibility for themselves.”

          So I expect ‘themselves’ to be the one that sticks for non-binary people too. I’ll say ‘themself’ if someone asks me to, but no-one has yet.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Okay, Booster.

        1. clif

          Booster is short for Boomer AntiMike.

    2. ktbear

      Do we know Carla is ace for a fact? I seem to have missed it if that is the case.

      1. King Daniel

        Sexuality carries over between ‘verses, and she was ace in the Walkyverse. She’s never outright stated it here in the Dumbiverse, but has alluded to it a few times.

      2. Kamino Neko

        I don’t think it’s been mentioned in the strip, yet (I thought she’d mentioned it when asked to be a go-between between Ruth and Billie, but I found the strip with the line I was remembering, and a) Carla didn’t mention her aceness, and b) the context was totally different)…but with the ‘sexualities are consistent between universes’ and Ultra-Car (Carla’s Walkyverse counterpart) being sex-repulsed Ace, we do know.

        Ultra-Car, however, is not aromantic (she had a relationship with Malaya that made her wish she weren’t asexual), so the default assumption would be that Carla isn’t, either, so her and Booster could happen, just as long as they were content with no sex, or at least the sort of weird one-sided sex UC and Malaya settled on. (Assuming she’s fine with enbies, not just ladies.)

        1. Rabid Rabbit

          Mentioned very, very subtly in strip, but not by name, in one of the Joyce-est of Joyce moments: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/need-2/

        2. thejeff

          There was that weird wanting to be dominated by Malaya thing she had going on for a bit.

      3. Lingo

        Carla showed a lot of (possibly nonsexual) interest in Malaya at one point.

    3. Regalli

      Carla is specifically a homoromantic ace, so she is interested in dating girls, but may or may not be interested in various stripes of nonbinary peeps. (Attraction is complicated, and with genders outside the binary it only gets moreso. Especially since most of our words and models are built on the assumption of binary gender.)

    4. Lingo

      It’s funny you say that, because just yesterday I thought Booster was showing an interest in Ruth.

      1. Sombrero

        Judging by facial expression, Booster seem more interested in Ruth, for whatever reason.

    5. spookyfox

      she’s an ace lesbian 🙂

      1. He Who Abides

        To quote Rain, she’s lesbi-ish.

        1. Regalli

          Nah, just because you’re sex-repulsed doesn’t make you less of a lesbian. (There is… a very aggressive strain of anti-ace and -aro rhetoric among certain segments of the gay community, and especially among lesbians. A lot of it ends up feeding into exclusionary shit like TERFdom. As an ace who’s watched a lot of bullshit go down claiming I’m not really part of the community despite what attraction I do experience being exclusively to women as a mostly female person, it’s a sore spot.)

        2. ego

          it seems to be hardwired instinct in homo sapiens [sic] that the best way to feel better about oneself is to find someone to crap all over. marginalized groups just gotta marginalize groups, sucks.

        3. thejeff

          Tends to be a good way to ingratiate yourself to the majority. Join them in oppressing even less respected groups.

        4. clif

          Burn the Furrys.

        5. thejeff

          Furries are near the bottom of the Geek Hierarchy Chart

        6. He Who Abides

          @Regalli – sorry, didn’t mean to hit a sore spot. The term “lesbi-ish” was used in a webcomic by an asexual homoromantic girl to describe herself, when her girlfriend’s brother questions why she’s upset about classmates assuming a friend of hers is a lesbian (“aren’t you ace” is his exact question, greasy little git-sack), and I always thought it sounded funny. My bad.

        7. Regalli

          Ah, all good. Didn’t get the reference.

  14. darkproject08

    Oh. Mary’s back again.

    Super.

    1. Jamie

      On the plus side, she did not merit a silhouette.

  15. DailyBrad

    Carla is… I’d say “too cute”, but no, this is an excellent amount of cute.

  16. Newllend(henryvolt)

    I feel like too many far right wing people like Mary don’t realize that being a Christian and being a conservative ruplicans aren’t necessarily the same thing. Especially now since today’s republican values don’t at all match up with what Jesus actually stood for.

    1. SuperZero

      I’d think some of them would have gotten Walky’s reference. He wasn’t being subtle.
      But Mary is bad at things.

    2. abysswatcher1993

      The alt right stopped pretending a long time ago. They embraced racism and all other evil isms.

      1. Newllend(henryvolt)

        Yeah but if there’s one thing I’ve learned the past 4 years its that republicans are really good at being in denial about the religious standings.

        Look at kamander Bonespers, despite the racism, the constant lying, the self serving greed, the Vain pride, long list of adultery and sexual deviancy, they Still think he’s prime example of a Christian President. Reason why is because he’s a Republican like them….for as long as right after he decided to run for president the first time he ran for office.

        1. Newllend(henryvolt)

          * Commander (Don’t know what that was)

        2. Kensou

          Let’s quote different lines from the New Testament at Mary and see which one pisses her off the most! I’ll go with Matthew 25:40.

        3. Arian

          That one’s a doozy, all right, and even more so, the rest of the chapter.

          For those needing a gloss:

          Matthew 25:34-46

          34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

          37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

          40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

          41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

          44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

          45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

          46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

        4. Arian

          (Oops, forgot to include the version of the Bible; there’s a lot. This is from the New International Version, the NIV.)

        5. Agemegos

          So basically God is going to reward the Right and condemn the Left?

        6. Kamino Neko

          DEFINITELY the takeaway these people would…uh…take away from it.

        7. HenrEek

          How, for goodness sake, you came to that conclusion?

        8. clif

          It’s right there in print. Of course that’s his right and left and not ours.

          Their right and left?

        9. Agemegos

          Check the first sentence of verse 34 and first sentence of verse 41.

        10. Agemegos

          @clif The political Left and Right were originally so termed from being on the Speaker’s left and the Speaker’s right (in the French National Assembly, about 1790).

    3. C.T Phipps

      Supply Side Jesus.

      1. clif

        Yeah, if Willis isn’t giving us Historical Jesus this time around, he should at least introduce his distant relative, Supply Side Jesus.

        1. C.T Phipps

          I think he actually did. Except Willis called him “White Jesus” and he’s Leslie’s personal archenemy.

        2. Sombrero

          He gave us Mike Jesus at the end of Season 1.

    4. Keulen

      I’m pretty sure they either haven’t read their Bibles, or they have and just conveniently forgot that Jesus healed sick people and fed the poor for free.

      1. C.T Phipps

        The entire New Testament is a thing they’d like to ignore.

        1. DrunkenNordmann

          I still have no idea how you can yourself call Christian, while ignoring Christianity’s central scripture.

        2. Agemegos

          By obsessing about original sin and the substitutary sacrifice.

        3. C.T Phipps

          Because all that matters is mumble mumble DAMN ALL WHO AREN’T US!

        4. Arian

          And the so-called right to life, which belongs solely to embryos and foetuses. Once you’re born, you have no right to live. 😛

      2. thejeff

        Generally the response is that’s a matter for private charity – generally religious private charity, not the government. Many on the Religious Right do give a lot to charity and a lot of it is aimed at feeding the poor, though it’s often siphoned off by those running the charity.

        And even when it isn’t they get to exercise control over who gets helped and often use it to proselytize.

    5. Needfuldoer

      Republican marketing did that on purpose, to tie their ideology to a support base before the world completely left them behind.

  17. Tarpo

    I love this as sort of a “Mid series refresher” on who everyone is. At least through Walky’s eyes.

    1. SuperZero

      He’s doing pretty well, really.

  18. Nono

    Y’know, before Mary at least gave the (very thin) veneer of pretending to be a good person. Now she’s just doubled down on the crazy ‘nobody could actually be altruistic!’ angle.

    1. SuperZero

      The model for the sort of people she’s based on may have… declined.

      1. Regalli

        Understatement, given the ‘knowingly exposing hundreds of people to a potentially fatal virus THEY KNOW THEY HAVE’ thing.

        1. SuperZero

          And that’s just how they’ve fallen in the last week. They’ve been doing that every week for years.

    2. abysswatcher1993

      I think I know what is happening here. Willis took all the jerkassery of Walkyverse Sarah and put it in Mary to make DoA Sarah relatable and likable. I mean in the Walkyverse Mary wasn’t so despicable.

      1. clif

        Potaytoe Patohto.

      2. Peter Lewerin

        I think it’s more that Willis’ standard for whom to present as relatable or despicable has changed. Being atheist, sexually active, or even sardonic aren’t necessarily terrible in a woman anymore. Likewise, being devout isn’t as much of protection anymore.

        But do note that Sarah still isn’t portrayed as a thoroughly nice person.

        1. clif

          She has a thoroughly nice baseball bat.

        2. thejeff

          Good, but not nice.

        3. Geneseepaws

          A neutral-good baseball bat with an Ego of Zero is infinitely preferable to an L.awful-e.Vile Mary with an Ego of 18+3.

        4. DanLovatClark

          She’ll cop to smart and mean.

        5. Sombrero

          Old Testament God was not a thoroughly nice person.

        6. Opus the Poet

          To use the vernacular my daughter picked up after moving to Scotland, OT God was a “right bastard”. The kind of guy who would demand a father sacrifice his only son, not once but on several occasions. Isaiah wasn’t the only one, just the one most frequently mentioned.

        7. Peter Lewerin

          Afterthought: by stating that Sarah isn’t a “thoroughly nice person”, I did not mean that she isn’t likable, sometimes even adorable. She is truly her sister’s keeper.

      3. Needfuldoer

        Walkyverse Mary was still a holier-than-thou hypocrite, though.

    3. mrnoidea

      Sounds like a theme for 2020.

  19. SuperZero

    Everyone’s cooperating so nicely, standing in their doorways so Walky can introduce them.

  20. Harvey Janus

    Ah hi Mary, still literally human garbage I see! Hope you had an awful christmas getting pissed off over someone telling you happy holidays.

    1. Harvey Janus

      Carla is perfection though.

    2. abysswatcher1993

      I am having nice memories of Christians being offended by Starbucks.

    3. Regalli

      I for one hope she spent the whole time looking for a particular DVD she’d packed away but never took to college, but she never manages to find it, and its content is the kind of obscure shit that’s not available to stream anywhere. Superbook or something, probably. And so it just nagged at the corner of her mind, and she spent way too much time searching without success, and by the end it wasn’t even about watching it but about being able to find it. And then she found it two days after ordering a new copy for an exorbitant price on Ebay. (Incredibly specific curses are fun! ^_^)

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Regali, that’s just plain mean.

        *high-five offered*

        1. Regalli

          *High-five accepted*

  21. BBCC

    Mary, the 1930s called and they want that look back. You are undeserving of it.

    And YAY Carla! <333333 I look forward to seeing how she and Booster interact.

  22. EAG46

    Carla is way less annoying than Mary. The former is only interested in herself, while the latter is detrimental to everyone else not like her.

    1. Geneseepaws

      I’m not sure how I read Carla; but I think that the “I’m Absorbed in myself” thing is just a game she plays/will play, until she finds some folks to open up to. I don’t think she’s found herself as much as she hasn’t found her college budds, there yet.

      1. Some1

        I’ve always figured her basic reason for acting out boiled down to “I’m afraid that people won’t like me because I’m trans, so I’m going to act out so that when people don’t like me I can believe its because they think I’m an asshole as opposed to hating me for something I can’t control”

  23. Confuzor

    I just realised I don’t see Ethan in the character lineup. Uh oh.

    1. clif

      He’s off living with the Warners while he’s working on bringing Mike back as a Zombie.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Joe and Rachel could probably build a resurrection machine, but they’re not on good terms in this universe.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      I also don’t see Blowjob Cat, Marcie, Jason, Galasso, or any of the parents … and it’s a sure bet that Hank and Carol will probably have a major story arc in one of the up-coming chapters.

      Maybe it’s just that Willis couldn’t draw everybody into a single header panel like that and eventually everyone will in fact be back (with the exception of Blaine and Ross).

      1. clif

        All dead. It turns out Carol couldn’t live without her femurs. Blowjob Cat died in an accident with a truck carrying weed killer.

      2. BBCC

        You’re no fun! 😛

      3. Agemegos

        Yes. I am really looking forward to ten years of strips consisting of bottle story in which nobody appears who is not in the group banner.

        I think what is going to happen is that the entire dorm is going to be encased in a large block of concrete, trapping those few on this floor. You can note the date. I’m calling it now.

        I’m not so certain why the dorm building is being encased in concrete. I think it’s because the university’s building budget has to be spent for tax-immunity reasons. Some architect figures that actual dorm rooms aren’t going to be needed while everyone is off campus owing to pandemonium, and of course it’s much simpler to build a modern building without any obsolete cavities in the structure. The resulting neo-Corbousier Movement will sweep the world behind a banner emblazoned with the slogan “a public building is a machine for being locked out of”. But don’t quote me on that unless I turn out to be right.

    3. sultryglebe

      Maybe he has the same haircut.

  24. Bagge

    Walky knows the score

  25. Robbie

    I love Carla

    1. clif

      Who doesn’t? Joy is contagious, even through the comic page.

      1. Bysmerian

        Oh, I hate Carla. Like, Mary is odious and an objectively worse person, I get that. But while I understand that folks in general here think Carla’s great, I personally feel like I wouldn’t be able to stand her in real life.

  26. mrnoidea

    As a stoner, I can paradoxily confirm: weed is not a personality. There are other joyous things to share with other people, including:

    Hiking!
    Video games!
    Crazy college stories!
    Boring college stories!
    Romance!
    Bitter isolation!
    Waiting to go on an actual porn site until you were 23 because Youtube was good enough!
    Omeprazole!
    The mindfuckery of seeing a 10-mile long slope reaching from the desert below to the alpine forests above—yeah okay, that’ll do.

    1. clif

      Tune in, turn on, drop out.

    2. Delicious Taffy

      Hold the fuck up. What do you mean, “YouTube was good enough”? There ain’t no porn on there.

      1. mrnoidea

        Not since the Ad-pocalypse of late 2017.

        1. clif

          When I was 21 the very idea of a YouTube would have been preposterous.

        2. Opus the Poet

          When I was 21 the Internet was still science fiction.

          I’m old, I know that. It’s not my lawn, so I can’t yell at you to get off of it, but I can still yell at you to “get a job!”?

  27. Schpoonman

    Whoa, Meredith, that’s a little much.

    1. clif

      It’s true. Walky is an undercover FBI agent.

      Remember, there’s only a one letter difference between nark and snark.

      1. clif

        He’ll never equal his work in infiltrating the Humming Hymnal gang though.

      2. paleotectonics

        It’s ‘narc’, for ‘narcotics’.

        1. clif

          Sh!

  28. cartoogle

    Huh. Blowjob cat.

  29. Kamino Neko

    Ah, Carla. Never change.

  30. Yotomoe

    You wanna hear more about Carla? Fine!
    Carla is hot as FUCK

    1. clif

      You could have stopped with Carla is hot.

      By and large, FUCK is an obsolete acronym and should usually be replaced with the modern term, PLeCK — Perfectly Legal Carnal Knowledge.

      1. Kamino Neko

        *twitches in word nerd*

        Hate that bullshit etymology….

        1. clif

          Mine, or the one I referenced?

          “Both” is a perfectly valid option.

        2. Kamino Neko

          The one you referenced. Literally nothing about it makes sense, and it makes me twitchy.

          Yours is a perfectly amusing twist on it…if only the base reference wasn’t so annoying. >_>

        3. Agemegos

          I know two backronymic bullshit etymologies for F.U.C.K. Can we come up with one for “swive”?

        4. clif

          Some Won Is Very Ergasmic.

          Hey, it’s early in the morning.

        5. Bicycle Bill

          Well, there’s the one clif alludes to, and I’ve heard another backronym that says it refers to conjugal relations after the marriage/whatever has been duly sanctioned by the ruler — Fornication Under Consent of the King.

        6. Arian

          100% agreement. No words were derived from acronyms before the 20th century. If anyone tells you a word that existed before 1900 was derived from an acronym, they’re wrong. Always. Including whichever word you’re thinking of right now.

          The great majority of words that came into existence after 1900 were also not derived from acronyms, and I’m not sure exactly when the earliest acronym-words were. But if someone says a word newer than 1900 was derived from an acronym, there’s a non-zero chance that they’re correct.

          For words older than that, there’s NO chance. None.

        7. Bicycle Bill

          Beg to differ with you there; some mnemonics which date to pre-1900 are in fact acronyms.  I’m thinking about things like HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior) to remember the names of the Great Lakes, or ROY G. BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) to remember the colors of the spectrum.

          And then there’s PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction) to assist you in remembering the proper order to perform mathematical processes within a single equation.

        8. Kamino Neko

          Mnemonics and acronyms aren’t really the same thing.

          The Great Lakes aren’t called Homes, nor is the spectrum a Roy G. Biv. Those are just ways to remember their names. That’s not the same as, say, the USA PATRIOT Act or SCUBA which are referred to as…well, the former is usually simply the Patriot Act, but the acronym is actually the name of the organization or item.

        9. Arian

          As Kamino Neko says. A mnemonic is not a word, even when it is an acronym.

          acronym
          /ˈakrənɪm/
          noun
          an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word
          (e.g. ASCII, NASA ).

          Words that are often alleged to have derived from acronyms, but definitely weren’t, include ‘golf’, ‘tip’ and ‘posh’.

        10. Kamino Neko

          Also, ‘fuck’ has (likely) cognates in various other Germanic languages (which English is, at it’s core), making the acronymic etymology a needless extra complication, which would require hard proof to make it reasonable to believe.

        11. Kamino Neko

          Also-also…While looking up when ‘fuck’ is first attested (to compare it to when ‘carnal’ first appeared (to test whether ‘for unlawful carnal knowledge’ was even logically possible if you ignore the other issues (results unclear*)), I discover that the phrase ‘for unlawful carnal knowledge’ is attested…from the 19th century. Well after the first attestation of ‘fuck’.*

          * I found a couple different references, which didn’t agree on when it first appeared – it could be anywhere from the 14th to 16th centuries. If it attained its offensive connotation early on, of course, it would likely have been in use well before it was written down. ‘Carnal’ dates from the 14th, so…unclear.

        12. CJ

          The other language had a shift on the vowel.

          I vaguely remember there was a distinction for abbreviations that are spoken as one word, like radar, or were you spell out the characters like EU. Can’t remember it now. Huh, looking at the definitions I German Wikipedia, I misremembered.

          The German Wikipedia also distinguished backronyms (inventing a String of words to assign a new and often more or less humerous meaning to an existing word) and apronyms which are created for new things to come out as an existing word. Whoever though up ELSTER(magpie) as the name for online taxes system in Germany needs to be hit. Too many rightwingers frame taxes as stealing as it is.

        13. Kamino Neko

          CJ – that distinction is acronym (word) vs initialism (letters).

          So, scuba is an acronym, ATM is an initialism.

        14. clif

          According to the New York Times:

          Acronymy has ancient roots, as illustrated by the early Christian use of the Greek word ichthys meaning “fish” as an acronym for Iēsous Christos, Theou Huios, Sōtēr (“Jesus Christ, God’s son, Savior”). In English, the first known acronyms (as opposed to plain old initialisms) cropped up in the telegraphic code developed by Walter P. Phillips for the United Press Association in 1879. The code abbreviated “Supreme Court of the United States” as SCOTUS and “President of the…” as POT, giving way to POTUS by 1895. Those shorthand labels have lingered in journalistic and diplomatic circles — now joined by FLOTUS, which of course stands for “First Lady of the United States.”

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/operating-2/#comment-1498868.

        15. clif

          Wrong link. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19FOB-onlanguage-t.html

        16. Needfuldoer

          Blame Van Halen for that one.

        17. Needfuldoer

          WELP. I’d better not name-drop any bands for a while.

      2. Yotomoe

        Naw I like FUCK

    2. Varangian

      You’re right, and you should say it.

  31. Robbie

    Oops I slipped and started shipping Carla and Booster.

    1. Geneseepaws

      Robbie, that is why they used to put lard on the rails in the dry dock. To make it easier to get the ships afloat. (Later it was petroleum grease). Get those ships underway!

  32. Rainhat

    Weirdly, that last panel is the most likeable I’ve ever found Carla to be.

    1. clif

      Of course your reaction is your own, but do you recall her glorious mechanical revenge on Mary?

      1. StClair

        IIRC, it also involved optics and a couple of other fields of science and/or engineering.

        1. Bicycle Bill

          The only thing that would have made that better would have been someone like Ruth coming by once it was all over and saying, like Kingsley Shacklebolt did in HP+OOP, “”You may not like it, but you can’t deny it … Carla’s got style.”

      2. Rabid Rabbit

        That inspires awe and applause, which is not quite the same as likeability.

  33. NinjaNick

    Carla’s so cool. No need to explain more.

  34. clif

    Any bets on how Walky will describe Amber?

    Or for that matter, Dorothy.

  35. Doongus

    Oh, I thought that Carla’s silhouette was actually Billie’s. Can’t believe that she AND Ethan have been put on a bus for now.

    1. BBCC

      I’m pretty sure the short haired person between Amber and Danny will be Billie with a haircut.

  36. PB

    She’ll be back~
    Soon they’ll see~
    And she’ll ask “tell me more about me~”

    1. Varangian

      She’ll be back
      With some drones
      That designate this hallway a “Carla Zone”

      1. Joe

        Oceans rise,
        Empires fall,
        ‘Cept for hers, because she wins ‘em all

  37. Juanoku

    Wow… He’s CRAZY accurate with these… You ok walky?

  38. RacingTurtle

    Hi Carla! *waits ten seconds* Hi Carla!

  39. Varangian

    Fucking hell, Walky, way to be a fuckin’ narc >:(

    Also, literally Mary’s entire character: https://youtu.be/FZUcpVmEHuk

    finally CARLA HOUR, THE BEST HOUR

    lookit how fuckin cute she is

  40. BenRG

    There are those who think that Carla is a narcissist. I prefer to think of her as being insecure and lonely.

    1. Spencer

      I don’t think she’s *insecure*, but she knows that there are people who will hate her for being a trans woman, so she gives everyone a reason to hate her for being an annoying pest, then when she finally pushes them away she latches onto the friends who stuck around because she can trust that they won’t backstab her.

      1. thejeff

        And because it hurts less when they hate her for her annoying cover persona than for being trans.

        1. Apostate

          For real.

      2. ischemgeek

        This was me as a queer teen in a very religious conservative region. I was a combination insufferable know it all who went around looking like I got in a fight with a lawnmower then fell in a vat of fluorescent dye.

        If I was an insufferable prat with crazy hair and fashion, they’d hate and make fun of me me for the shit I wanted them to hate me and make fun of me for rather than the stuff that actually hurt (queer slurs & making fun of a facial deformity I had), which gave me control of my own narrative and also was a sort of armor or magician’s misdirection. Look at my hair, isn’t it ridiculous?! (Pay no attention to the bi in the closet)

  41. Sirksome

    *Yawn*….Look I kinda fell asleep so I’m late to the party on this one, but it’s never to late to say Walky is being a dick! Seriously Mary is probably the only one who deserves his very callous and rude introductions here. If Carla didn’t enjoy anyone saying anything about her by default I’d be pissed.

  42. Eldritchy

    Did Danny’s hat mutate and attach itself to Mary as its new host?

    1. Sunny

      If it did it must’ve grown at least three sizes over christmas.

  43. Carla's #2 Fan

    I ship Carla and me, obviously. I’ve been waiting for that skates silhouette to be filled in! Also, to those saying that the one silhouette can’t be Billie cause she doesn’t live there anymore, Lucy doesn’t either and is on the image.

  44. DarkoNeko

    Walky’s pooffy haircut is so nice the more I see it

    1. DarkoNeko

      ALSO STOP DOING ROLLERS INSIDE THE DORMS WTF

      1. BenRG

        We’ve already been here. Yes, Carla is disrespecting the dorm and endangering her dorm-mates but I can’t see her stopping unless she hurt someone and she’s the sort of person who wouldn’t even stop then as it was “their fault for not getting out of the way quick enough”. I want to be wrong but I have yet to see much of Carla to suggest that I am.

        1. Sirksome

          Honestly Carla is probably better at skating than she is walking so I highly doubt she’s endangering anyone. If she actually hurt someone I think she would stop at least to practice more or get better skates cause that would really damage her ego.

      2. Amelie Wikström

        She’s not just transgender, she’s also really a car in a human body. Gotta let her have wheels at least.

        Or, on a less meta joke level, she will find a way to express her belief in her own ultimate freedom to do whatever she wants, rollerskating is probably the least destructive option for all involved.

  45. Willoughby chase

    I hate Ronald Reagan that is all

  46. Martin Smith

    Wait, Meredith doesn’t rate the cast picture? Meredith?! Pfft. What a bunch of narcs.

  47. Delicious Taffy

    Carla’s hair.

  48. Lorien Inksong

    Yay Carla’s back! I know she can be a bit much but I love her.

    Ugh Mary is back… and worse than ever. Guessing she spent the break in a hateful echo chamber with her family.
    American/conservative Christianity is the worst. I’m not really confident in calling myself a Christian (sort of lost the faith, didn’t want to, but that’s another story) but I can say for certain that if Jesus exists in heaven, he weeps observing so many violent and nasty Christians.

    If anyone wants to share church horror stories I’d be happy to, but I don’t want to ramble too long.

    Also lets end on a positive note. Yay Carla!!

    1. Amelie Wikström

      I think Willi’s Jesus talked about that in his other comic, how the sanctimonious establishment is still working just like it did 2000 years ago except for using his name. That part would probably be what bothers him the least I think.

      I do look forward to all the soundly supported crap I imagine the comic is going to give Mary, but hey, Carla! See below I guess.

    2. BBCC

      What’s really sad is Willis has said before that Mary’s parents are probably very nice people, but she picked up the wrong lessons at church.

      So I’m just imagining them going ‘wtf’ at their daughter telling them they’re going to hell for whatever reason it is today.

      1. C.T Phipps

        Mary is the anti-Claudia Conway.

        Which I suppose is the Anti-Joyce.

      2. Regalli

        I’ve got a cousin like that, unfortunately. Though for him it was Gamergate. His parents are… extremely concerned by his life choices.

        1. thejeff

          That seems more likely. Getting into an extreme version of religion that your parents aren’t part of isn’t something I’d expect – at least not until older. Religion is more commonly something you get from your parents.

          Whereas GamerGate grew out of common teenage boy activities.

    3. C.T Phipps

      And yes, Jesus would be enormously pissed about the things done in his name since its more or less the opposite of every lesson he did. Also to the exact same sort of fundamentalists.

  49. Amelie Wikström

    I love Carla. And I’m sure she would be unbearable to be around for real, and she’d actively try to annoy you the more you calmly accept her and keep loving her through her unbearableness, and I’d spite-love her for that until she begs for mercy.

  50. maarvarq

    If only Mary were a ridiculous exaggeration of gun-loving “Christians”, rather than a fair rendition of one.

    1. Spencer

      I was gonna say. I remember saying stuff like “I prefer it when Mary isn’t written as a spite machine with no character.”

      Then it turns out, no, that’s just what the Right are. All of them.

      1. 80-watt Hamster

        I get that you’re pissed off at the state of the world. Seems as though most of humanity is at the moment. But that’s not true. At all. May as well say that all Muslims are terrorists, or that immigrants from south of the border are all job-stealing murderers and rapists.

        1. Spencer

          The Muslim faith is a religion and culture. Latin America is a continent.

          Being a Republican is a choice. Supporting rich white dudes stamping your rights because they’ll take just a little more away from people you irrationally loathe is something you have to actively do.

    2. Amelie Wikström

      I remember when she was just innocently blackmailing and passive-aggressiving people to make Carla stop existing instead of enthusiastically going along with the suggestion she’d like to shoot poor people. I didn’t know I was trans then but it was already so easy to hate her, a true-heart hatred reserved for characters you just really wish weren’t so realistic.

      1. Spencer

        Oh no, that’s not what I meant.

        It’s like, Mary just did evil shit constantly for no reason other than she seemed to get off on it, and that just made no sense to me. She just acted like an asshole and got instantly defanged and beaten all the time with no effort, and it was kind of boring, I guess.

        Now I’m at a point where a person motivated entirely by gibbering mad hatred, to the point of constantly throwing themselves into a meat grinder on the off chance their sputtering bones will fly out and hit someone they don’t like on the head, that’s not unrealistic anymore. That’s just what Right Wings are worldwide.

        1. thejeff

          They always were. It’s just higher profile now.

        2. Willoughby chase

          Yes.

      2. Spencer

        Oh jeez you weren’t even responding to me. Sorry about that.

        1. Amelie Wikström

          Elder Mr Winklevoss voice: Don’t apologize for a spit-fire post like that.

  51. FacelessDeviant

    Ouch. Meredith got roasted hard.

    Harsch bud!

  52. RedComet

    Is this something he’s doing because Mike is gone?

  53. SlothfulCobra

    Now that’s a lot of character drift. Or is it flanderization?

  54. Rabisch

    Walky has a true talent for describe people with two words.

  55. John

    Ahh, Carla. She’s really grown on me over the course of the comic.

  56. thumb

    Walky’s personality has flattened out. It’s that thing where you don’t quite feel the things you used to. You don’t laugh or really get angry or anything. Everything’s kinda lowkey humming, but nothing pops enough to provoke full blown emotion. You can feel maybe annoyance, maybe some quiet, maybe nostalgia, maybe a smile, maybe you can find as much as a chuckle, but not much else. I think my dude’s still grieving.

    1. Spencer

      This is also my read. He’s not done processing Mike’s death.

  57. Smooti

    Ah yes, the best character in DOA has arrived. Also, do the kids not call people narc anymore? “You’re such a cop” is a weird phrase to me, but then again my college days are behind me.

    1. Smooti

      I realize that my not separating that thought might cause some confusion. For the record, Carla is the best doa character.

    2. Deanatay

      ‘narc’ means ‘narcissistic’, right? Why yes, thank you, I AM awesome. 😉

      1. BBCC

        No,’Narc’ is short for narcotics squad, basically someone who rats you out on using drugs.

    3. tbf

      I presume “cop” has morphed into a general insult following Black Lives Matter.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        I mean, it’s never really been a compliment.

  58. raultsi

    neat literary mechanism Willis is using to refresh the character roll call. You know, in case anybody was worried that Mike is the only missing character (Blaine and ToeDad don’t count)

  59. bcb

    I love Carla and Walky’s interaction on this page!

  60. Peter

    Interesting that Walky, normally so oblivious to what goes on in other people’s heads, sees right through Carla in this strip.

    Also, narcissist though she may be, Carla is adorable here.

    1. Regalli

      She makes no secret of her motives, really.

  61. Wakeangel2001

    Mary must think Star Trek is the most horrible dystopian world in all fiction

  62. Heather

    Ah so perhaps this is Booster’s true purpose: introducing new readers who might not want to delve into ten years worth of previous comics for context on who the heck certain people are, especially when it might have been a full calendar year or two since their last actual appearance or longer. (Wild people to be sure especially with the decent tagging system, but I’m sure they exist).

    1. Sombrero

      Booster’s true purpose is to allow an event trade, conservation of energy and all that. They perfectly shield the trade-off mass (Mike, maybe Ethan and Billie too?) from Season 1.

  63. Hilzabub

    I, too, want more Carla. She’s a delight.

  64. Vulcanodon

    Expository introductions, everyone moving on, I feel like sending a sympathy card to Willis for losing Mike. I wonder if he was expecting him to die.

    Also I like Booster, looking forward to stories around them.

    1. Vulcanodon

      In related news, hey it’s Carla! Yea Carla!

    2. clif

      Nah. Willis is used to Mike dying.

  65. Brighter Side

    Why does Booster get fuller lips than everyone else in the college? Are we setting up a kissing thing later?

    1. BBCC

      Because they’re wearing lipstick. At least, it looks the same to other characters (Sarah, Rachel, etc.) who wear lipstick.

    2. Agemegos

      So as to match Amber’s ideal of a beau.

  66. FirePrincessLily

    I was really hoping Mary had also taken a terrible fall off a roof.

  67. Arianod

    Booster is beginning to wonder whether they made the right choice coming here.

    1. Bagge

      People usually ask that question after being around Walky for any length of time.

  68. Eric

    So what is this? A “welcome to my comic if you don’t want to read 10 years of it” bit?

  69. Josh Spicer

    Carla really is one of those people you can’t hate, aren’t they?

    1. Rabid Rabbit

      Unless you’re Mary.

      I mean, I’d probably hate Carla in real life, because her annoying traits are just the sort of thing that would really annoy me, but as a character she’s pretty great.

  70. Megan Rivera

    Carla’s hair looks long and pretty and fluffy

  71. Jhon

    ‘Feeding and healing people for free’ — isn’t that what Christians do? But if Mary had meant that, she would have said ‘we’.

    So Christians need ar-15s to fight the Socialists who are trying to undermine the system with free food and healthcare in order to hurt rich people. Who are not Christians because Christians are not supposed to be rich.

    1. Bysmerian

      The hypocrisy is the point of the line. But I feel like the phrasing is a little too on the nose here, although the expression is unfortunately accurate to Mary’s character type.

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