Carla is perfect for this, because Ruth will be able to tell that, like her, she’s not a bullshitter. Anything nice Carla says to Ruth will be true, not just to cheer her up.
Yeah, she’s bad at this, thus when she says that Ruth has worth, she’ll be more inclined to actually believe it is true rather than dismiss it out of hand.
That being said, Carla, like Billie, is way out of her depth on how to handle a suicidally depressed person, so it’ll be interesting to see how she handles it. I’m imagining a lot of fucking up and circling back all while telling herself that this is way above what she can handle.
My sister has really bad self-esteem and doesn’t believe anyone when they’re trying to cheer her up because she thinks they’re just saying it to cheer her up. For some reason the best way to make her accept it is extreme and dark sarcasm. “Oh, yeah, sure, you’re like fifty times the size of a blue whale.” “No, they don’t hate you. They just really hate you.” “No, our parents aren’t going to punish you for self-harming. To be honest, I think you’ve pretty much done a good enough job of that yourself.”
The only reason I can think she accepts it is because my tone sort of implies that her worries are so dumb they’re not even worth taking seriously.
It just goes to show you that sometimes when life has beaten you down and kicked the crap out of you, you need someone else to come along and give you an even bigger kick so you’ll jump right back up on your feet. That’s why we have sidekicks.
“I hate you, you hate me, let’s team up and kill Mary”
Chief_of_Staves
I hate you, you hate me,
Let’s team up and kill Mary
With a femur for a club,
and a broken bottle too,
We’ll agree that Mary’s screwed.
Amyra
I definitely imagined Barney the dinosaur singing this.
butts
Of course you did. Even Barney hates Mary.
SgtWadeyWilson
Then you’re missing out. I imagined Pennywise singing it thanks to the grav. It was just the right kinds of terrifying and hilarious.
EvilMidnightLurker
Warners: [singing] We love you!
Baloney: I love we!
Warners: [pointing at Baloney] He’s as dumb as dumb can be!
Warners:But we found a way that we can get along:
Baloney: I stand still for the anvil song!
(KLONG!)
…Of course, if she ever met Jeshua, it’d blow her puny mind.
Reltzik
Yup, anticipated that and I’m filing that under the “people she hasn’t met” category.
Tualha
“Jesus! It’s such an honor to meet you at last, Lord!”
“Mary, my child … what have you done?”
“Lord?”
“Mary, Mary … you were a judgmental bongo who hated everyone. Did I not say, ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged’? Did I not say, ‘He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone’? You have followed a twisted, vicious parody of the path I set before mankind; and you chose to do so even though you were given many opportunities to see the error of your ways. You are cold, and mean-spirited, and spiteful, and hateful.”
Mary said nothing, too flabbergasted to speak.
Jesus shook his head sadly. “I am sorry, Mary. The Kingdom of Heaven is not for such as you. Not yet. You will have to spend many millenia in Purgatory first, reflecting on your sins.”
“I … I hate you, Jesus! I hate you!”
“Make that many eons. Goodbye, Mary. God be with you.”
GJT0530
Nah, knowing how those kinds of people tend to react(I believe anyway), She’d probably respod to that situation by claiming he was clearly Satan lying to her, pretending to be Jesus, in order to lead her astray, and that Jesus would rescue her, or something along those lines.
3-I
“Get dunked on, loser.”
“What does that even MEAN, Jesus?”
“You’d know if you were cool, Mary.”
a snow ʍousɐ
OK, that made me laugh xD
Nightsbridge
You got it wrong. That conversation starts with “MY jesus isn’t brown!”
Tualha
Bwaha, true that 🙂
a snow ʍousɐ
“Bongo” because God uses… er, is it Aussie slang?
Tualha
It’s what this system substitutes for another word beginning with “b”.
I don’t think Mary DOES hate Ruth. She just thinks she’s terrible at her job (which is accurate) and manipulates her for her own goals (which is scummy). But she doesn’t seem to actually hate her.
She does hate her, but she mostly hates her for being queer and having that “immorality” in a position of power, when power, in Mary’s mind, should only go to the most righteous.
It was a big part of why she targeted Ruth in the first place as a person to blackmail.
Or in that state of depressive fugue where you’re just like “nothing matters and sleep is a reprieve from the crushing weight of consciousness” but then you can’t actually be asleep as much as you want (re: always) because either you can’t fall asleep or you wake up eventually. Or just straightup staring at the wall and dissociating. Also an option in depressive state.
I mean it’s possible she’s reaching the point of suicide attempts, but today appears to have been the state where there’s no energy or motivation even for that.
Oh good, Ruth did put it in a strip at some point before!
Yeah, I think Ruth and I generally have a similar form of depressive state – there’s the pain and the anger and the suffering, yeah, but mostly what you feel is empty and tired from the overwhelming drain that existing becomes. She’s holding herself together mostly by inertia, but that means EVERYTHING has to fight that much harder to get her to do something and that includes suicidal urges.
StClair
she probably used up her one and only spoon on that “smile”.
Regalli
Also saying “I’m fine” twice.
Currently she is down to the broken bits of plastic at the bottom of the plastic cutlery box, and one cracked spoonpart.
“Everyone else here kinda hates you, including the gingersnaps”
Chief_of_Staves
Well, the gingersnaps have no soul, just plenty of sugar. Which is an entirely appropriate stand-in I think.
PS: Autocorrect seemed to think Gingersnaps should be Ginger Slaps. I’m now horrified at auto-correct. Almost as much as when it corrected LOL automatically to LOLLIPOP on a text.
Reltzik
Autocorrect is proof that if Skynet ever does try to launch nukes, we won’t need to worry, because all the nuclear codes will get autocorrected.
250 thoughts on “Tl;dr”
butts
“I am the worst. Tell me all of your problems.” Way to relate, Carla.
inqntrol
“Let’s begin the therapy, shall we?”
butts
Generally, I don’t think therapy begins with “everyone else kinda hates you.”
Cholma
Bad Therapists Anonymous?
“My name is Carla, and I’m bad at this.”
“HI CARLA!”
Doctor_Who
If everyone there is a bad therapist themselves, wouldn’t the response be something like “WHO GIVES A SHIT?!”
Cholma
Because it’s a rote call & response thing?
Reltzik
Or, “EVERYONE LET’S TWEET HER PIC TO THE WORLD!”
Vex Godglove
Being bad at job does not necessarily mean apathy, just as earnestness does equate to talent.
Geneseepaws
Because getting out of bed in the morning wins on enthusiasm, … Which is why I’m typing this from my dark bedroom.
Sageress
Depends on if it’s a good therapist.
AnvilPro
It’s going well so far
Mr. Random
But you’re honest enough to tell her people care.
Historyman68
Carla is perfect for this, because Ruth will be able to tell that, like her, she’s not a bullshitter. Anything nice Carla says to Ruth will be true, not just to cheer her up.
Cerberus
Yeah, she’s bad at this, thus when she says that Ruth has worth, she’ll be more inclined to actually believe it is true rather than dismiss it out of hand.
That being said, Carla, like Billie, is way out of her depth on how to handle a suicidally depressed person, so it’ll be interesting to see how she handles it. I’m imagining a lot of fucking up and circling back all while telling herself that this is way above what she can handle.
Binky
My sister has really bad self-esteem and doesn’t believe anyone when they’re trying to cheer her up because she thinks they’re just saying it to cheer her up. For some reason the best way to make her accept it is extreme and dark sarcasm. “Oh, yeah, sure, you’re like fifty times the size of a blue whale.” “No, they don’t hate you. They just really hate you.” “No, our parents aren’t going to punish you for self-harming. To be honest, I think you’ve pretty much done a good enough job of that yourself.”
The only reason I can think she accepts it is because my tone sort of implies that her worries are so dumb they’re not even worth taking seriously.
miados
I know I am bad at this but I am here for you if you want someone to be here for you.
Stephen R. Bierce
*plays “Tell It Like It Is” on the hacked Muzak*
Kris
I kinda wanna cringe at this but Carla’s at least trying.
newllend(henryvolt)
It just goes to show you that sometimes when life has beaten you down and kicked the crap out of you, you need someone else to come along and give you an even bigger kick so you’ll jump right back up on your feet. That’s why we have sidekicks.
LWS
“That’s why we have sidekicks.”
And sometimes we need rear-kicks.
Woobie
Kick-BUTT!
Sageress
It hurts… because it’s true….
Spencer
Ah come on, Carla, not everyone hates Ruth.
Mary really hates her.
inqntrol
And everyone hates Mary. EVERYONE
butts
“I hate you, you hate me, let’s team up and kill Mary”
Chief_of_Staves
I hate you, you hate me,
Let’s team up and kill Mary
With a femur for a club,
and a broken bottle too,
We’ll agree that Mary’s screwed.
Amyra
I definitely imagined Barney the dinosaur singing this.
butts
Of course you did. Even Barney hates Mary.
SgtWadeyWilson
Then you’re missing out. I imagined Pennywise singing it thanks to the grav. It was just the right kinds of terrifying and hilarious.
EvilMidnightLurker
Warners: [singing] We love you!
Baloney: I love we!
Warners: [pointing at Baloney] He’s as dumb as dumb can be!
Warners:But we found a way that we can get along:
Baloney: I stand still for the anvil song!
(KLONG!)
Brotato
Nah. Dina.
Sageress
Even Galasso?
3-I
Galasso holds Mary in such utter contempt that he would surely banish her from his domain, if he remembered from day to day which one Mary was.
Cerberus
Mary’s the one with the hair, right…?
Anorak
Then by that logic shouldn’t ruth be loved? enemy of my enemy or something?
Reltzik
To be fair, Mary hates everyone.
Well, everyone she’s met. There’s probably a few people she hasn’t met that she doesn’t hate.
butts
Jesus.
…Of course, if she ever met Jeshua, it’d blow her puny mind.
Reltzik
Yup, anticipated that and I’m filing that under the “people she hasn’t met” category.
Tualha
“Jesus! It’s such an honor to meet you at last, Lord!”
“Mary, my child … what have you done?”
“Lord?”
“Mary, Mary … you were a judgmental bongo who hated everyone. Did I not say, ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged’? Did I not say, ‘He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone’? You have followed a twisted, vicious parody of the path I set before mankind; and you chose to do so even though you were given many opportunities to see the error of your ways. You are cold, and mean-spirited, and spiteful, and hateful.”
Mary said nothing, too flabbergasted to speak.
Jesus shook his head sadly. “I am sorry, Mary. The Kingdom of Heaven is not for such as you. Not yet. You will have to spend many millenia in Purgatory first, reflecting on your sins.”
“I … I hate you, Jesus! I hate you!”
“Make that many eons. Goodbye, Mary. God be with you.”
GJT0530
Nah, knowing how those kinds of people tend to react(I believe anyway), She’d probably respod to that situation by claiming he was clearly Satan lying to her, pretending to be Jesus, in order to lead her astray, and that Jesus would rescue her, or something along those lines.
3-I
“Get dunked on, loser.”
“What does that even MEAN, Jesus?”
“You’d know if you were cool, Mary.”
a snow ʍousɐ
OK, that made me laugh xD
Nightsbridge
You got it wrong. That conversation starts with “MY jesus isn’t brown!”
Tualha
Bwaha, true that 🙂
a snow ʍousɐ
“Bongo” because God uses… er, is it Aussie slang?
Tualha
It’s what this system substitutes for another word beginning with “b”.
Sageress
I don’t think Mary DOES hate Ruth. She just thinks she’s terrible at her job (which is accurate) and manipulates her for her own goals (which is scummy). But she doesn’t seem to actually hate her.
AGV
Probably not proactively, but that doesn’t quit the fact that many want to smack and yell at her “Get a bit of empathy, you heartless dunce!”
Kamino Neko
Sure she does. Mary hates everybody. Including herself.
Cerberus
She does hate her, but she mostly hates her for being queer and having that “immorality” in a position of power, when power, in Mary’s mind, should only go to the most righteous.
It was a big part of why she targeted Ruth in the first place as a person to blackmail.
NoHeart6265
The fact that Ruth hasn’t moved in this strip is concerning…
inqntrol
Maybe she’s just sleeping? Or at least pretends that she does.
butts
Moving would require motivation.
NoHeart6265
more importantly moving requires life
Reltzik
Literally.
Regalli
Or in that state of depressive fugue where you’re just like “nothing matters and sleep is a reprieve from the crushing weight of consciousness” but then you can’t actually be asleep as much as you want (re: always) because either you can’t fall asleep or you wake up eventually. Or just straightup staring at the wall and dissociating. Also an option in depressive state.
I mean it’s possible she’s reaching the point of suicide attempts, but today appears to have been the state where there’s no energy or motivation even for that.
butts
Yeah. This.
Regalli
Oh good, Ruth did put it in a strip at some point before!
Yeah, I think Ruth and I generally have a similar form of depressive state – there’s the pain and the anger and the suffering, yeah, but mostly what you feel is empty and tired from the overwhelming drain that existing becomes. She’s holding herself together mostly by inertia, but that means EVERYTHING has to fight that much harder to get her to do something and that includes suicidal urges.
StClair
she probably used up her one and only spoon on that “smile”.
Regalli
Also saying “I’m fine” twice.
Currently she is down to the broken bits of plastic at the bottom of the plastic cutlery box, and one cracked spoonpart.
Deanatay
We’ve seen this behavior in this comic before.
Amazi-Stool
Found this in the comment section of this comic (many months ago).
Leave that in the comment section of this comic:
Adventures in Depression
Amazi-Stool
Also:
Depression Part Two.
Chrissy
Her hands curled like that suggests to me she’s possibly mid-panic attack
Regalli
Another option, that is.
tim gueguen
Next strip Carla reaches out to touch Ruth, only to realise it’s a mannequin with a red wig in the bed.
Sageress
she ded
Orion Fury
Yeah, that.
Hiraku
She still hasn’t touched those cookies…
Slartibeast Button, BIA
They are off the bed. Have they rejected her?
butts
“Everyone else here kinda hates you, including the gingersnaps”
Chief_of_Staves
Well, the gingersnaps have no soul, just plenty of sugar. Which is an entirely appropriate stand-in I think.
PS: Autocorrect seemed to think Gingersnaps should be Ginger Slaps. I’m now horrified at auto-correct. Almost as much as when it corrected LOL automatically to LOLLIPOP on a text.
Reltzik
Autocorrect is proof that if Skynet ever does try to launch nukes, we won’t need to worry, because all the nuclear codes will get autocorrected.