210

Pacing
Posted on November 10, 2023 by David M Willis

210 thoughts on “Pacing”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Carla greatly opposes the manufacturing of more Walky

    1. Doctor_Who

      “People are disgusting Von Neumann probes, and should be outlawed!”

      1. davidbreslin101

        BREAKING NEWS: Two mysterious alien megastructures have arrived in the Kuiper belt and started making out.

        1. Thag Simmons

          i think that happened in Destiny once

  2. Animedingo

    Savage line in the first panel Walky

    1. Ryan

      That’s pretty much par for that age, at least where I went to school.

    2. SpaceDorf

      I think the first Panel is the most profound summary of our current media personalities and should be used by Interviewers around the globe.

    3. Mturtle7

      To be fair, it’s not only a completely accurate description of Carla, it’s also exactly the kind of image she strives to cultivate.

  3. Dara

    Of all the power lines I’ve heard out of Carlia, “and you still have time to realise your full potential” is the most powerful.

    1. Gbz

      What did she mean by that?

      1. Pun-ter the Harharharbarian

        Yeah, and by “the correct gender”, cuz that sounds dangerously close to being super fucked up.

        1. Mr D

          Yeah, saying “correct gender” followed by “you may reach your full potential” I think implies some-
          uh-
          rather distasteful ideas.

        2. Paradoxius

          I’m going to move that we stop this conversation right here, because it’s getting very close to outright transphobia.

        3. Mturtle7

          Thank you, Paradoxius, from the bottom of my heart. I was about to engage in this conversation, and you heroically reminded me why this would, in fact, be a terrible idea. I feel like I’v ebeen pulled back from the brink at the very last second.

        4. Daniel M Ball

          just one dumb question: Why is Carla saying something potentially bigoted a problem? (Possibly more than one thing, if you slice the statement up and address each topic in turn). Are Trans people no longer allowed to cling to stereotypes or say manipulative, possibly damaging things now? Consider these are KIDS, they’re barely out of their parents houses (some aren’t out at all, beyond where their room is). Kids say stupid and hurtful things ALL THE TIME. It TAKES time to learn not to be a hypocrite, or an asshole. (Or hypocritical asshole). We’re not reading about perfect little angels here, because perfect little angels are BORING.

        5. Schpoonman

          Diagram for me how “Telling anyone how to express their gender is problematic” is transphobic.

        6. Jay

          Gotta be honest, “egg hunting” *is* a thing some trans people do. And yeah, it’s gross – and most of the people doing it would *also* agree it’s gross. (Source: am trans, am overjoyed to see gender nonconformity anywhere, am also gross.)

          Walky doesn’t show the slightest interest in “traditional” masculinity. (That does not make him trans. And it still wouldn’t be Carla’s business, if he was, or make her insinuation of it being an *upgrade* less gross than every cis person who’d insinuate it was a downgrade either.)

          But, Carla is allowed to be terrible. And cisphobic. It’s fine.

      2. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

        I’m pretty sure she means “realize you are a woman,” because women are superior to men in Carla’s mind, probably.

        1. Taellosse

          No, I think Carla is just implying that Walky’s “full potential” is discovering that he holds a deep and abiding infatuation for Carla (which she would happily fail to requite, of course), as all right-thinking people ought.

        2. Daniel M Ball

          Ding!!! This strikes me as the more correct interpretation. Carla’s vanity (or at least, the outward, in your face expression of vanity) is a major trait in the character.

        3. JR

          This was absolutely my read of it. She has no use for male humans, because women are better, therefore she thinks all people should be women, the end. She’s a fun character, but a deeply unpleasant person: a gleefully misandrist self-described asshole who demands to be the constant center of attention and reveals other people’s personal business (Ruth/Jennifer, Becky/Dina) for kicks. So far, her acquaintances have all swiftly realized she’s an asshole, so they know not to take her opinion seriously enough that she can hurt their feelings, but now she’s chasing Charlie, who has some unspecified socialization difficulties…so this should be interesting. We could be looking at the end of her Mike-like imperviousness to consequences, and her first major growth arc…or just a comic romp about a person who needs to be noticed trying to grab the attention of a person whose only character trait so far is that she has difficulty noticing things.

      3. peat_moss

        She means he has time to realize he’s a trans lesbian. The “correct gender” bit also reflects her opinion that women are the correct gender to date.

        1. peat_moss

          Women are also the correct gender to be, presumably because boys are gross

  4. Sirksome

    What time is it for them actually. I swear if it’s like 6:30 am and they’re acting like it’s 3 I will flip.

    1. HueSatLight

      Between 6:30 and 8, based off of the sky two strips ago. Feels like Carla waited as long as she could stand, until it was technically morning.

    2. Yotomoe

      If someone woke me up at 6:30 am I would bite them.

      1. Jo_Cubstar

        100%… I don’t wake up before 10 most days

      2. Sirksome

        I’ve woken up by 5:00 am everyday since I was in middle school.

        1. Yotomoe

          I haven’t woken up before 8 in years. I VERY rarely wake up at 9. I USUALLY wake up around 10. I’m not a morning person and I don’t wanna be. I’m a night owl.

        2. Otl1973

          I try to be in bed by 5am every day, and that’s been my schedule for 50 years. If I’m awake at 6:30am and wasn’t also at 5:30 (and at 4:30) something very serious is going down.

        3. Yotomoe

          I go to bed around 4-4:40 am every night. I stream every night at midnight for about 3 hours. Then it takes me about an hour to get to sleep.

        4. Opus the Poet

          Hard same here. I’ve been nocturnal since the Army. I function best in the dark (mind out of the gutter, not what I meant). The only downside is I get woke up by noise and there is lots of that around here during the day.

        5. missilentmurmur

          But what are you all doing to earn money??

        6. Yotomoe

          I work at a Fast Food restaurant.

        7. missilentmurmur

          Actually, me too. But I still start at 9 most mornings 😀

        8. tyersome

          One does not need money to survive and the Eloi sleep while we wake

        9. Allen Alberti

          Grocery Store

        10. Taffy

          Never heard of night shift?

        11. Needfuldoer

          Turning things off and back on again in the wee hours of the morning, mostly.

        12. NGPZ

          I’m a freelance video game programmer :3

        13. Bogeywoman

          Creatures of the night unite! I have been able to sleep nights without medications since I was 13. Naturally I will sleep 18ish hours at a time every second day. It does not vibe with work or study.

        14. Mark

          There are other morning people! I knew it!

        15. Allen Alberti

          I go to sleep at around 2 or 3PM usually, up at 9:30PM.

        16. zee

          I had to wake up at 5:30 for highschool. That’s why I would bite someone if they woke me up at 6:30. I’ve earned the right to sleep in

      3. Azhrei Vep

        If someone woke me up at 6:30am I would be very confused because I don’t normally go to bed until at least 8:00. And then bite them, because why the hell are they in my house?

      4. thakoru

        I’m currently basically nocturnal. Turns out maintaining a healthy sleep schedule is, like, really hard, and it doesn’t help that this stupid webcomic’s upload schedule has trained me to never go to bed before midnight.

        1. khn0

          time zone here is so that if I do work an all nighter, I know that when the comics is up, it’s time to get the kids up – and get even more work done.

      5. Needfuldoer

        Same, because that would mean I either overslept or fell asleep at work.

    3. Angel

      we also don’t know if charlie would even leave her room/ be out and about where carla would be pacing (but you’d think there’d be kinda some student list out there unless it’s a privacy thing [wonder if charlie ever made it on ‘joe’s list’ lol])

  5. Yotomoe

    Ah yes it’d be a shame if Walky was with the incorrect gender.

    1. Sirksome

      We can’t know that for sure though. Best have him date the wrong gender for awhile so we can see. For science.

    2. Risky

      I read this as “if Walky was the incorrect gender” and I thought “she clearly was suggesting as much”.

      1. Kelibath

        I found it really hard to tell myself, but I think “your true potential” was a nudge at seeing if he had an eggshell to crack

    3. David DeLaney

      so what I’m hearing is that Carla needs to consult Mike’s parents

      –Dave, since I’m reading backwards through the archives

  6. Laura

    I don’t really get what Carla means in Panel 6. Thoughts, my friends?

    Panel 7, Walky does NOT look happy about that prospect… 🙁
    Sounds like Panel 8 Carla is right on target to echo his feelings on that topic.

    1. Dot

      Girls are the correct gender to date because girls are pretty.

      1. Sirksome

        Also we have proven evidence that Walky would be a hot girl if that’s what Carla meant by realizing his “full potential”.

        1. Yotomoe

          A short haired messy Sal.

        2. Dante

          … Hot.

          But seriously, I’ve been silently begging The Merciful Willis to fuck with Walky’s gender a little. 95% sure he’s bi and hasn’t realized it; but also, every time the characters comments about his masculinity (or lack of thereof) I go “!!!”

          Booster should introduce him to drag.

        3. FlamestAndLight

          holy shit i’d love a trans walky storyline

        4. Needfuldoer

          Will a supernatural anomaly in an alternate universe suffice?

        5. RassilonTDavros

          Honestly that was my read on that line, too.

        6. Azhrei Vep

          Thirded. Carla is clearly saying that Female is the correct gender and Male is incorrect, and that Walky has potential as a woman.

        7. TulipKitten

          I mean, she’s seen Sal, so makes sense.

    2. Dday

      No same here I’m totally mystified

      1. sultryglebe

        And yet isn’t the vote of confidence sweet?

        1. Mr D

          nnno it’s not. Like, imagine someone walked up to a woman and told them “You may be worth my time if you were a man”

    3. HueSatLight

      I think panel 6 is him trying to get some kind of reaction from Carla. I think he’s reluctant to have sex with Lucy, but he also thinks church+sex is hilarious. I could be wrong, I’m not reading much in particular from his panel 6 face.

      1. Daibhid C

        You should maybe recount the panels.

        1. HueSatLight

          I’m zero-based indexing, obviously. ?

    4. SvenTS

      Sal, to my knowledge, is not interested in women.

      Not-Sal (Walky) *is* interested in women and could potentially be made more Sal-like (and have his taste in cartoons ‘corrected’)

      (So ‘correct gender’ being ‘my gender’ from Carla’s perspective in this circumstance)

      1. David DeLaney

        for the first part, we have medium-strong evidence for that from Sal being actively disinterested in her best friend for years, Marcie’s, interest

        –Dave, and of course the confirmations with Jason

      2. Thag Simmons

        Sal has been described as “Extremely straight”

        1. PedanticJerkass

          Seeing that page is a reminder that we haven’t seen Marcie in any significant way for over four years real-time now. Sure, she’s been in the background of the occasional roller derby scene since then, but she hasn’t been “in focus” since July 2019.

          This is a problem that needs to be fixed.

        2. Thag Simmons

          yeah it has been a while hasn’t it

          has she even gotten a patreon comic?

        3. HueSatLight

          7/21 is her most recent bonus comic appearance.

        4. BBCC

          Don’t remind me. I miss her!

    5. True Survivor

      I’m confused, too. Maybe Carla was making a joke that Walky was hitting on her (or really thought that for some reason)? Maybe Dot is right and Carla just thinks that is the right gender to romance?

      1. Autogatos

        It took me a moment (I assumed because I am sleep deprived) but yeah I am 99.9999% sure Carla’s reactions are a reflection of her own preferences (church no, girls yes, sex no). I vaguely remember her making jokes in the past both about girls being the best gender in any and all circumstances, and sex being gross…and we can infer she’s not into sex per her behavior in her previous inCARnation.

        (I am so sorry, that was not originally intentional but then I saw those 3 letters just sitting RIGHT there…)

        1. tyersome

          Its OK, many of us are driven to perpetrate puns§ periodically.

          §Note: other word play may be substituted as desired.

        2. Mark

          “Waste not, want not.”

      2. TulipKitten

        Not much to think about.

        Carla is trans. Carla didn’t like being a boy. She became a girl. Girl = better gender.

        Carla is a lesbian. She thinks girls are hot. Girl = better gender.

        Also: Walky is messing with Carla in the last two panels. He knows she’s sex-repulsed and asexual, so he mentioned it purposely.

        1. Wraithy2773

          Does he? They don’t interact much, I don’t know how often it’s come up in DoA that Carla’s ace, let alone around Walky.

        2. Autogatos

          She’s definitely made “ew gross” type jokes about it at least once before (possibly more) so presumably it’s something she’s fine being casually open about. And considering it’s *Carla* “casually open” means: make sure she has everyone’s undivided attention whenever speaking.

          So I figure it’s likely Walky knows or at least had an inkling, whether it occurred on-panel or not. Though honestly I can’t get any read on whether he’s actually trying to mess with her in that last panel (I didn’t read it that way personally) or if it’s more just him musing out loud, not really thinking about how Carla might respond/if this is TMI for her.

          He’s had such A Day with his parents and all the issues that went with, that I feel like his expressions could mean SO many things in this strip.

        3. Angel

          even without the ace aspect, “taking my christian girlfriend to church so we can have sex later” is a bit inappropriate out fo context

        4. Random832

          Eh… “having to deal with you is getting in the way of my sex life” is, if not *appropriate*, certainly a plausible thing for a 19 year old college student to have priorities that would lead to saying.

        5. Thag Simmons

          It makes just as much sense if he isn’t messing with Carla

        6. Kelibath

          Either Walky is messing with Carla or Willis is messing with both of them – perfectly realistic options either way

    6. Risky

      I read that as Carla thinking female is the correct gender, both to be and to date. She is somewhat suprised Walky is not with a man, which makes sense given some of his previous statements and actions, such as telling men to squeeze his playground ball (I believe this actually happened, outside my head?).

      I think it’s all good, hood or no hood, but I understand how her experiences could have lead to this viewpoint, which for her is inborn.

      1. Laura

        Yup. It happened:

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/forks/

        Also, this:

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/jim/

        1. Dante

          There’s also every post-skip interaction he’s had with Asher. I legit thought Willis was hinting at #Something there

        2. Laura

          Oh, definitely!

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/trying/

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/conversational/

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/twain/
          (note the strategically placed flag in the background of that last strip)

    7. Laura

      Cool, thanks for the help, everyone!

    8. Ophidiophile

      Carla thought Walky was referring to her. Walky said let’s do this later, so he can wake up early to go to church with his girlfriend. Girl being the gender Carla wants Walky to think of her as. And then he says “So we can have sex later.” And Carla found the thought of having sex with Walky thoroughly disgusting.

      1. Yotomoe

        OH MY GOD. THAT MAKES SENSE NOW.

      2. Daibhid C

        That almost makes sense, apart from the bit where it requires Carla to have literally any reason to believe Walky considers her to be his girlfriend.

        1. Wraithy2773

          You mean, beyond Carla’s comedically-exagerrated narcissism?

        2. Ophidiophile

          From Carla’s point of view, she is the center of the world. If someone is talking to Carla, she assumes she’s the subject of the conversation unless someone else is named. Walky never mentioned Lucy, and Carla probably doesn’t know about her anyway, so she assumed that Walky was proposing to take her to church as his girlfriend. And Carla doesn’t need a reason to think Walky wants her to be his girlfriend, because, who doesn’t?

        3. Ophidiophile

          Also, Carla says in the first panel “I want attention.”, and everything Walky says after that could be considered by Carla as him trying to fulfill that request.

        4. RowenMorland

          It’s still a better reading then any of the others.

        5. Thag Simmons

          Is it? If anyone in this comic is going to say someone should trans their gender it’s probably Carla

        6. thejeff

          Nope, it flows from Carla’s part of the conversation, not Walky’s.
          Carla says “you still have time to realize your full potential” and Walky replies “so we can have sex later”. She’s moved on from the “girlfriend” part

          Not sure I agree that’s what she’s thinking, but it’s at least plausible.

      3. Bash

        I’ve never seen anyone refer to Carla as boy, aside from when Mary was being deliberately malicious. I don’t think she get accidentally misgendered much.

      4. Crow

        Wait, but why would Carla remark on being referred to as the correct gender, when she transitioned at a young age and is surrounded by mostly trans-accepting college students?

      5. Leadsynth

        To be fair, I don’t think Carla found the thought of having sex with (specifically) Walky thoroughly disgusting. Carla found the thought of *having sex* thoroughly disgusting. It’s not, like, a comment on Walky per se, I don’t think!

  7. Yotomoe

    Bi-visibility Part 2 (suggestive)
    And a Bonus

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Thanks!

    2. It Happens

      I had a heckuva time ctrl+F’ing your name through backlog comment sections trying to track down the various Imgur links you’ve posted lol. You do the absolute best fan art but you don’t always make it easy to find lmao.

      1. Yotomoe

        One day I’ll put my art all in one place. It woulda been fine if Imgur didn’t fuck me over!

        1. RowenMorland

          The scavenger hunt is fun in some ways, but also give me ze body of your work!

    3. cbwroses

      That’s Walky, Jennifer, and Dorothy, right?
      Is Dorothy officially bi now or are we just assuming that ever since the laundry room masturbation session and horse dream?
      Not arguing if it’s the latter, just asking for clarification.

      1. cbwroses

        Never mind.
        Just realized it’s Ruth.
        Jennifer seemed taller, so I defaulted to the other person with freckles and glasses, and was wondering why Dorothy had freckles on her face.

      2. Yotomoe

        It’s Danny, Jennifer and Ruth. It’s a bit easier to see in yesterday’s post
        Bi visibility trio.
        My Danny does look a bit like Walky…

        1. AlexaSpuds

          At first I thought it was either Ruth, Billie and Joyce or Dorothy, Billie and Joyce lol.

    4. NGPZ

      ??️‍?

      1. NGPZ

        For reals I LOOOVE Jennifer’s dress <3

        Was it based on something she wore or something you saw elsewhere?

        1. Yotomoe

          This whole pic is based on this.
          Bi Visibility day picture Willis did a few years back.

        2. NGPZ

          I was talkin bout her dress in your bonus pic LOL

        3. Yotomoe

          Oh. I already told you I made it up. Though I did google “bellydancer outfits” for reference.

        4. NGPZ

          NGL it’s a great look for Jennifer ?

    5. Dante

      Yoto, you’re the best artist in this place. Holy shit O///O

      I adore the way you draw Jennifer, female characters, and plush curves in general. Your boys are also super cute!! If you offered DOA commissions I’d def want one ♥♥♥

    6. PirateTawnee

      Oh gosh that bonus. Um, wow.

    7. David DeLaney

      ah, the Dance of the Seven Bottles!

      –Dave, to the soft rhythmic chiming of finger-glass

    8. Laura

      Oooh, that bonus is amazing!

  8. Bittersweet

    Awww, Walky smiling about church with Lucy is very cute. Too bad he is down about the snu-snu time.

    Not super cool to dump on Carla, but it’s also like 5:30-6 am (if they have church and he wasn’t already up), so I will allow it lol. Kinda having trouble parsing what she means about the correct gender. I know she means “Girl > Boy in all aspects [Because I am girl and therefore girls are more similar to me and I am the greatest]” it’s just a strange way of wording it lol

    1. Coatl

      First the Church and then the passionate desire, I don’t know why but in these two things are not going to turn out well at all.

      1. Dante

        Yeahhh, unless someone here has a sacrilege fetish, I really can’t connect with “we’ll go to church then bone once we’re out”

        1. Laura

          Well, they’ll bone ya when you’re singing in your church.
          They’ll bone ya, then they’ll leave you in the lurch.
          They’ll bone ya, when you’re driving in your truck.
          Yeah, they’ll bone ya, and then, they’ll say, ‘Good luck.’
          So I would not feel so all alone:
          Everybody must get boned!

    2. Bash

      I’m in favor of him using Carla as a sounding board for his anxieties. She showed at an ungodly early hour, so she has to take what she can get.

  9. DarkoNeko

    UGH !

  10. shrub

    Stop enabling her, don’t ask “can you”, tell her to go away, close the door and go back to bed, if she keeps knocking on the door then throw a large jug of water over her

    Learn some boundaries Walky and stop letting people walk (heh) all over you

    1. Yotomoe

      Just fart super hard. It’d make Carla leave and might have the side effect of hitting booster for making you deal with this.

      1. shrub

        The only problem is if you fart too hard you might get another, unwanted visitor

      2. Azhrei Vep

        Yoto, you clearly have less faith in Carla’s stubborness than I do.

    2. Mark

      She might construct an Infernal Device to do the knocking for her, if it takes too long.

    3. Angel

      i imagine she’d prolly be stubborn and keep bothering them, tho surprisei t wouldn’t occur to her to ask leslie or even jen about charlie

      would be a powermove to wait/sit in her seat during gender studies class, asusming charlie is so ‘unaware’ she’d just end up sititng on carlas lap lol

  11. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    You know Carla, people can have preferences different from yours and still not be wrong.

    1. Imogen

      idk, she’s got a point

    2. Aura

      Carla: Ugh!

    3. Emperor Norton II

      I’m pretty sure that Carla has already built a machine that proves it is scientifically impossible to have different preferences from hers and not be wrong.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Does it produce charts, like Faz has?

    4. Mark

      Blasphemy!

  12. RassilonTDavros

    Does Walky’s “full potential” happen to involve a trip to Canada

  13. Coatl

    I want attention
    Hehe, and it looks like you got Walky’s attention straight ahead.

  14. HueSatLight

    More “Carla is faceblind” circumstantial evidence possibly incoming. Carla hung out with Lucy in the fall semester. Even if they aren’t still hanging out, Carla would have recognized her at the floor meeting Lucy and Walky crashed together. If she relies on context plus a checklist of traits, instead of recognizing faces, she might not have noticed Lucy with Walky.

    1. Otl1973

      Not “blind” so much as doesn’t care. If it’s not about her, it’s irrelevant.

      1. Dante

        I feel like it’s a bit of A, and a bit of B.

      2. morleuca

        It’s harder to keep track of distinct faces when you are spending most of your energy in a state of hyper awareness trying to keep ahead of potential danger. Good for picking up threats, bad for cataloging faces to names.

      3. HueSatLight

        That’s a pretty effective cover for not recognizing people right off the bat.

    2. Mym

      I mean, she could also only acknowledge “girl” faces

      1. zee

        No cuz the biggest evidence of face blindness we saw was her struggling to tell Joyce and Dorothy apart for several strips

        1. Mym

          Fair point

        2. thejeff

          If I’m thinking of the same scene that wasn’t really anything to with face blindness, it was trying to match a name to one of them. She didn’t know their names and the joke was that Dorothy matched “short blond glasses” and then “problems with socialization”.
          It was “big blue eyes” that made her realize Joyce was the one with the jugs.

          Might be more a problem with names than with faces.

        3. Mym

          I actually think we should learn who everyone is off of their jugs.
          And by that, I mean their footwear

  15. UrsulaDavina

    Well pannel one confirms Carla spirt animal is my cat Minerva who wakes me up at early hours in the morning not for food but for attention, though my cat doesn’t wear a dress. She hates clothing.

    1. Imogen

      Carla’s not too happy about the dress either.

    2. Laura

      Sounds like my pup! 4:30 AM, daily, on the dot!

  16. crys

    aww, that soft smile.
    i’m in the camp that isn’t quite convinced that walky really “likes” lucy, not as much as he liked dorothy or amber. but walky does care a lot for her, at least as a friend, and it seems he wants their relationship to work out. we’ve seen that walky’s low self esteem has intensified since mike died. and since the falling out with amber, he’s lost garbage roof as an outlet for those feelings. but lucy’s always been there, just cheerfully radiating the fact that she LOVES hanging out with him. she doesn’t “get” him like amber or dorothy do but i’d like to believe that he appreciated her presence and her faith in him. … idk i just rly like both walky and lucy

    1. crys

      omg finally a gravatar i like. it’s pretty fitting for this particular comment lol

    2. Bash

      I worry that it might be more of a friendly feeling. Compare the way he looks saying “my girlfriend” versus “have sex”.

    3. Mark

      I think Walky is trying hard not to “like” Lucy the way he did Dorothy and Amber, since that led to disaster twice. Or maybe, for the same reason, he just can’t get to that place now, and trying has nothing to do with it.

      1. GholaHalleck

        I have no idea why this is hard for people to figure out. My man got burned multiple times, by multiple ladies, in multiple ways.

        He’s going to be guarded now, because hey, he nearly got murdered by hammer before and his roommate died trying to save everyone.

        But he’s not instantly down to fuck this time, so he must feel nothing amiright?

        1. HueSatLight

          nobody’s said he feels nothing. the thread you’re replying to is about how his feelings are complicated.

  17. jeffepp

    What Carla wants
    (Carla wants)
    Carla get
    (Carla gets)
    And, little man
    Big Carla doesn’t want you
    (Maybe later)
    (Probably later)

  18. BBCC

    Carla can’t deal with this emotional whiplash!

  19. Nono

    I mean, Carla has Charlie’s first name, probably wouldn’t be hard to find Booster’s last name. Based on that can’t she just start looking through the student directory to find out her room assignment?

    1. Dante

      That would involve making a genuine effort. She’s doing all this song and dance at Booster because Booster is still not Charlie and therefore safer.

      1. Bash

        She isn’t even entirely sure what she will do once she gets the information, but she has tentatively settled on something unlikely to be effective.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Effort and not pestering other people!

  20. DashWallkick

    Carla’s commitment to only thinking about herself and only caring about things that affect her personally slamming into the brick wall of being generally annoying and irritating is a delight to watch.

  21. sdrainbow

    so this is what it takes to make me side with Walky in today’s War.

  22. Yeet

    was booster’s plan just to get walky to annoy carla into leaving? seems like it might be working

    1. Autogatos

      I’m starting to think Carla is my cat. Constantly LOUDLY demanding to be the center of attention, believes her opinions on all are the Most Superior. Extra annoying before the sun rises. Likes to eat chunky chicken in gravy for breakf- wait.
      Maybe not that last one…

      1. Big Z

        Have we SEEN Carla have breakfast?

      2. zee

        She does have extremely cat like behavior most of the time…

  23. ValdVin

    “Full potential” and “so we can have sex later” are more closely linked for a lot of people than for Carla.

  24. Mym

    I agree on so many levels, Carla

  25. Adept

    I actually couldn’t follow this one. What’s going on?

    1. Adept

      And now to get my avatar back

      1. Adept

        I said, _my_ avatar dammit.

        1. Adept

          why Willis, why do you keep doing this?

        2. NGPZ

          It happens whenever a new gravitar is added to the site’s pool, which is now 30 thanks to Jacob’s addition. :3

  26. joy

    Is…. Is Carla okay?

    1. DashWallkick

      Carla in this arc is in the role of the playboy philanderer pimp who gets every girl he could ever want, and there’s one cute unremarkable girl who blows him off and he becomes fixated because he finally found something he can’t have, and it drives him insane. So she’s not okay, she’s fascinated and not getting what she wants.

      1. Mturtle7

        I…ok, I get what you’re actually saying here, and you’re entirely not wrong in that, but comparing Carla to someone who’s both hypermasculine and flamingly allosexual feels SO, SO, WRONG on SO MANY LEVELS.

    2. Amelie Wikström

      She IS awake at 5:30. Probably no more coherent than the other people in the strip, but trying to keep up her usual facade of effortless aloof flawlessness.

    3. Woof McGee

      if you accept that these days she’s written to be like 2/3 early The Office Michael Scott and 1/3 Pierce Hawthorne from Community – she makes a lot more sense.

  27. John

    Carla continues to be pretty much insufferable.

  28. Smooti

    Carla continues to be the best and most relatable character in the entire Walky multiverse

    1. Smooti

      hm. dunno about asher. lemme try again

      1. Smooti

        i’ll take walky unless THIS one is really good

  29. Dara

    HEY WILLIS! Are you aware that one of the nameservers for dumbingofage.com hasn’t been responding for a couple of weeks? (I suspect since October 15th but I’m not 100% sure. Sounds right though.) It’s causing recurring connection problems.

    If I do a dig on dumbingofage.com I get

    ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
    dumbingofage.com. 635 IN SOA ns1.js1003g.ioflood.com. antares.thehiveworks.com. 2023101502 3600 1800 1209600 86400

    ns1.js1003g.ioflood.com is responding fine.

    antares.thehiveworks.com doesn’t seem to exist; neither my nameservers nor google’s can resolve it, much less query it. I think it’s misspelt.

    I think some other hiveworks people are affected by this too.

    1. Amelie Wikström

      It’s good that someone who apparently knows what’s going on has noticed this. Me and one other commenter I’ve seen have just been shaking our heads at finding the site mostly inaccessible.

      1. Dara

        Ah, not just me. Good to know.

        What I’m being told from people who know bind (a DNS server package) better than I do is that child-centric DNS is going to have serious issues reaching any site currently configured as dumbingofage.com is currently configured. And that means “anyone running debian or ubuntu” amongst others.

    2. Dara

      Oh wait I’m being dumb. antares isn’t a host, my bad. However, I’m still seeing these issues and there is still some problems with name servers failing to respond and misconfiguration out there on hiveworks’s side, send this along to them maybe:

      https://framapiaf.org/@pmevzek/111388320639462028

    3. Angel

      might be something to send them a twitter/tumblr message about

      1. Dara

        1: Screw Elon Musk and the fascist disinformation fountain and propaganda machine he’s turned Twitter into, I left the moment his intent became obvious. Fortunately, I’m pretty sure Willis monitors comments, particularly given…

        2: …it looks like someone pushed an update through, because DNS records look more coherent at the moment:

        https://dnsviz.net/d/dumbingofage.com/servers/

        Hopefully it’ll stay fixed.

  30. Noribushi

    Even as a joke, “correct gender” leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

    1. Rowen Morland

      Yeah, had the read it a few times and go to the comments to get a non-crummy way to interpret what Carla was saying.

      1. Yotomoe

        I feel like even in my most charitable read I still think Carla’s being terrible here. Like not in a cute way. Just in a gross way.

        1. RowenMorland

          Yeah

    2. DailyBrad

      She isn’t at all into dudes. It still isn’t exactly a great thing to say, but I sort of get the impression Walky and Carla know they can just say shit to each other, neither of them takes this sort of thing terribly seriously.

      1. Schpoonman

        I really don’t think Walky and Carla are that familiar with each other. Carla’s just a bit of a narcissist.

  31. bcb

    Ace pride!

  32. PB

    OK seriously can someone explain the sixth panel to me as if I’m five years old?

    1. Jonathan

      All I can say is it feels like it came out of nowhere and you’re right to be confused. I read it as “Walky is supposed to date girls, and he still has time to be what I was supposed to be,” possibly echoing expectations she internalized from her parents or society, as opposed to her own sincerely held beliefs, but I don’t know. I don’t think we’ve seen this from her before. Hopefully we will find out more.

      1. mindbleach

        Pretty sure Carla’s thought process is “there could be two Sals.”

        1. ThumbsupJoyce

          She’s thinking “there could be a second Sal who is a lesbian, and therefore superior to original Sal.”

  33. Jonathan

    Hovertext: “Carla has opinions.” Oh boy, looks like it, if the third to last panel is any indication.

    Is this the first time we’ve seen Carla pass judgment on someone else’s sexual choices? I am now curious about Carla’s values/worldview.

    Also, “*You* still have time.” From Carla I would normally read this as “You still have time to catch up to how awesome I am,” but here, I am getting “I have lost my chance, but at least you haven’t” feelings. Is it just me?

    1. David DeLaney

      I’m actually thinking it’s Carla thinking ‘there could be TWO Sals’, as some have noted elsecomment.

      –Dave, she’s not _wrong_ but she’s sorta outta line there

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