250

Injury
Posted on August 31, 2018 by David M Willis

250 thoughts on “Injury”

  1. toby

    ohhh nooo i want to find out what happened but i know itll break my dang heart :C

    1. space

      Dear Willis,

      http://www.itswalky.com/comic/marcie/

      I have been waiting.

      1. Stoodmuffin

        For a while

        1. Clif

          Well, speaking for myself, I’ve only been curious and waiting since the one where kid Marcie spoke. And that was just, um, a little earlier in the semester.

    2. Jackson

      I think we know.

      Starts with an L and ends with an eland.

      1. toby

        I’d be surprised if it was Leland. They’re a bit older than in the previous flashback with him, and I feel like emphasizing him as the cause of Every Problem In Marcie’s Life would kinda feed the narrative that racism is just a couple bad apples doing shitty stuff and not The Entire Culture That Enables Them. I could get proven wrong in a couple strips though!

        1. thejeff

          Was it even clearly racism in Leland’s case? I don’t recall anything specific – he could have been just a run of the mill elementary school bully.

          The school’s response definitely was, which put it cleanly in the “Entire Culture That Enables Them” category.

  2. Ana Chronistic

    D=

    D= D=

    D= D= D=

    not red E

    1. BBCC

      Red is for panic attack flashbacks.

      1. Yumi

        Put it together. “Not red E”=”Not ready”

  3. adjudicus

    OHH FUCK

    1. Inahc

      indeed.

  4. Shiro

    Oh no oh no oh no :c My babies

  5. ShinyNeen

    Man, these flashbacks really leave me feeling blue.

    1. ShinyNeen

      Albeit a slightly different shade of blue, I think.

      1. Clif

        Predicting the panels get progressively redder as time flies by.

  6. Fart Captor

    The most important thing to remember when engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation is to take safety precautions -_-

    1. Darth Apatheus

      JESUS!!!

    2. Beef

      Hi you’re talking about children

    3. Yumi

      Gotta bite down on that lemon

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Who’s biting a lemon? I Google the phrase, but it just gave me dental advice.

        1. Yumi

          It’s a BoJack Horseman reference.

    4. Foxhack

      You’ve been a reader of this comic for how long and you still think making jokes like those about children is okay?

      1. Fart Captor

        I made a joke that requires acknowledging that teens masturbate. That’s all. If I could’ve thought of a way someone could injure their throat while pooping I might’ve gone that route instead and I would’ve seen it as equally not-sexual

        I only saw it as a thing people do that would be embarrassing to have result in hospitalization

        1. BBCC

          Marcie’s not a teenager though. She’s 12.

        2. Fart Captor

          That’s already far more thought than I put into it. Which I probably should’ve.

          idk. In retrospect I can’t blame anyone for interpreting it as something more gross than what I intended, so hopefully Willis deletes it because the joke wasn’t worth it

          Sorry everyone. I should’ve considered the context a bit longer there

        3. Clif

          All I can say is that if you injure your throat while pooping, I have to believe that you’re doing it wrong.

        4. Blazing Ace

          She’s also not real

        5. Fart Captor

          That’s …not actually relevant.

        6. Blazing Ace

          I disagree. Making jokes about fictional characters is fine imo. It’s not like they have feelings.

        7. Fart Captor

          Foxhack wasn’t objecting to me hurting anyone’s feelings, especially not the characters’

        8. BBCC

          I’m aware. I’m not sure why that means correcting a small bit of misinfo matters?

        9. Inahc

          aaactually in this flashback they’re only twelve.

        10. Yumi

          Twelve year olds masturbate too.
          Like, feelings about the joke aside, kids that age have a huge range of where they’re at in sexual development/exploration. I don’t think it changes the justification much that they’re 12 rather than 13.

        11. Br44n5m

          Pretty sure a friend said they started at like 8 or 9, so yeah 12 is definitely a normal starting place. Still try to make sure a characters 16 before making sex jokes about them please

        12. Alanari

          Is that confirmed? I mean, this could have happened after the convenience store. She already has her hair straight and in the robbery flashbacks, it’s curly and short.

        13. Yumi

          Sal mentioned Marcie being 12 at the time of these events in comic. Also, they’re currently in their hometown (see writing on ambulance), not out of state like Sal was sent post robbery.

        14. King Daniel

          In a previous strip, Sal mentioned that Marcie lost her voice around age 12, and Sal was 13 when the robberies took place.

        15. BBCC

          Sal told Danny that she hasn’t sang since she was 12 (presumably because of Marcie losing her voice). The robbery was when she was 13. Also, Sal would most NOT have been allowed out of the house between the robbery and shipping her off unless her parents were with her, so I sure hope this isn’t post-robbery or she’s in for it when her parents find out.

        16. Foxhack

          I think this might take place just before the robbery. I’m guessing this is one of the things that made her start to change her behavior into a more rebellious kind.

        17. CJ

          I’ve thought for ages, that Sal robbed the store because she wanted to raise money to help Marcie.
          And even though Sal thinks it’s her fault, I wonder what actually happened.

        18. Chris Phoenix

          Calling it now (thought it since the previous flashback): Marcie was being bullied, Sal tried to stick up for her, the bullies doubled down and did something that crushed Marcie’s throat.

    5. Zee

      Nah that joke was hilarious nice

  7. shadowcell

    Dumbing of Age Book 9: The Laughs Never Stop

    1. HeySo

      Coincidentally, also the title of The Joker’s auto-biography.

      I mean, the latter part. Presumably not the first.
      That’d be more Deadpool’s style than The Joker’s. 😛

  8. Beef

    god DAMNIT willis please don’t make us wait too long for the full story D:

    1. HeySo

      Don’t worry, he’ll give it to us within 3 months.

      …comic time.

      Look forward to 2024!

      1. King Daniel

        Barring the mother of all timeskips, 2024 is too optimistic – consider that we’re only about a month and a half into the semester now and that the comic’s been running for eight years, and a more likely minimum for when it’d be would be ~2034.

        This has been your irregularly-scheduled reminder of how webcomic time flows in Dumbing of Age. 😛

        1. Marsh Maryrose

          As Needfuldoer pointed out some while ago, flashbacks have already messed with the traditional empirical method of calculating DoA time flow with regard to real-world time flow. And that was back when the flashbacks were few, and short.

          It is still possible to calculate the current DoA/real-world time ratio. But making any sort of prognostication requires making statistical assumptions about anomalies (flashbacks, time skips) for which we do not yet have statistically meaningful data sets.

        2. Marsh Maryrose

          I meant to add this:

          tl;dr: It’s all a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.

        3. Clif

          Not having statistically meaningful data sets has never stopped us from dead reckoning before. I’m with King Daniel on this one.

        4. LookingIn

          Can someone please tell The Doctor to stop messing with the timestream!!!!

          I swear, he’s a madman with a box at times…

        5. thejeff

          Do flashbacks really mess with it significantly? Even without flashbacks, some days have more going on and take up more time.

          The longest chapters so far were:
          Just Hanging out with my family
          The Only Dope for Me is You
          The Butterflies won’t fly away
          When God Closes the Door
          Glower Vacuum
          The Thing I Was Before
          Faz is Great
          Of Mike and Men
          A couple of those have flashback sequences of various lengths, but not all.

          I think chapters have generally been getting longer, but I’m not convinced flashbacks have a big role in it.

          Time skips are more unpredictable.

        6. Needfuldoer

          The calculations will only get REALLY screwy if these flashbacks jump all over the place. If one chapter consistently covers one DoA day, they should still be in pretty good shape.

          The old figure was about 1 DoA day every 66.67 real-world days, but the last couple chapters were longer than that. Now that Of Mike and Men has wrapped, it’s probably a good time to break out the calculator, newspaper clippings, bulletin board, and red string and figure the timeline out again.

        7. Rabid Rabbit

          I’ve been wondering how long we still have to go before we get to see Joyce’s reaction to Halloween. I was assuming about two more years, but then I heard that this flashback is pretty long, so I’m pushing my guess to three.

        8. Schol-R-LEA;2

          I guess Joyce is following the advice Miss Einstien gave to Miss Nishikinomiya: just table it until a better time arrives.

        9. HeySo

          To be clear, I was stating that 2024 was the absolute *earliest* possible date. Frankly, 2027 already seems overly optimistic, but y’never know what kinda timeskips we might get. Your estimate is probably more on point, though. 😛

  9. Yumi

    BABY

  10. BBCC

    Dammit! I finally stopped screaming after this came up on Patreon!

    Welp, back to screaming.

    No, I’m still not sure if it’s because I’m happy to get answers or just…screaming because ow.

    1. ShinyNeen

      Gotta process all of the emotions before it’s truly over.

      And this isn’t going to be a short ride.

    2. Bagge

      Screaming is a reasonable respons

      1. Clif

        Particularly if you’re helping out by screaming “Woop! WOOP! WOOP!”

    3. Keulen

      Just make sure you take some breaks from screaming so you don’t get hoarse.

      1. BBCC

        I have water. I’m good.

  11. Nono

    I’m actually kind of dreading Carol’s next appearance in flashbacks.

    1. Yumi

      Linda?

      1. MatthewTheLucky

        Her too.

        1. newllend(henryvolt)

          All shitty moms look alike to me to be honest.

        2. Nono

          I actually had to go back through the tags to remind myself who Carol was, all I remembered was ‘terrible mum, not Naomi’.

        3. newllend(henryvolt)

          Who’s the most shit mom in DoA now that we brought it up? I’m thinking of 4 contenders and that’s Carol, Linda, Naomi, and Yuri.

          Personally I think Yuri comes last because she’s not really a bad mom to Faz but a shitty person since she had a helping hand in braking apart a family then holds resentment twords the child of that family because her new spouse has to pay child support for her.

          Then Carol and Linda would come a tie for second place making Noami #1 because honestly I think the anger I used to have for Eathen is now resurfacing twords her. That last Flashback she was involved in pissed me off.

        4. Thorn

          I’m quietly ruminating on the theory that Yur is an active member of the Korean mob that Blaine is a part of and that her resentment toward Amber runs deeper than simply the child support

        5. Regalli

          Sometimes I hope. (I mean, based off Shortpacked she was probably from a mob family. If she got involved in the business then that means she has way higher access to resources with which she can kill Blaine.)

        6. Nono

          It’s really a tie between Linda and Carol, mostly because of the extent of their influence. Carol’s part of a church community that echoes her beliefs, she has four kids, at least one of whom is just as toxic as she is, and another who’s only now undoing some of her brainwashing.

          On the other hand, Linda’s had that much more of a negative effect, with Sal lashing out by committing actual crimes. Unlike Carol, Linda also faces no real opposition since Charles doesn’t really defend their kids.

          I’d probably give it to Carol. Linda’s pretty bad but her problems are generally made worse because she had multiple children to play favourites with. Carol would be just as bad if John was her only kid.

        7. LookingIn

          Shaming your child into suppressing his sexuality is a tough crime to overlook…as much as Linda may be a shitty mom, Sal might be doing her crimes for the right reasons even if they are misguided. She’s a natural rebel, she would have done what she did despite her mother’s love.

          Naomi willingly forces Ethan to try to be heterosexual and is doing her hardest to ensure that he stays that way. She is screwing up him internally and if he didn’t have Mike and Amber’s support he might have done the worst thing possible: kill himself.

          I take treating your children differently over forcing your child to feel like crap for liking the same sex…sorry, but I do

        8. thejeff

          It’s a common theory, but we don’t know Sal did the robberies for any kind of good reason.

          I kind of hope she didn’t. Think it makes her journey more interesting than if she was being misguidedly altruistic all along.

        9. BBCC

          Linda makes Sal feel like crap for being black, so is that really better?

          And everything we know indicates Sal’s a ‘natural rebel’ because it’s something she developed to push back against people like her parents treating her like crap. I see no reason to assume she’d still be a rebel if Linda were decent (especially since Charles is a shit father too).

        10. Regalli

          Unsure about Yuri – we still don’t know that much about her, including the very vital question of when her relationship with Blaine started and how old she was then. If it’s as bad as Amber fears, then honestly her being groomed is definitely a mitigating factor to me in how shitty she is as a person – anyone who groomed a teenager was gonna cheat on his wife regardless, and she wouldn’t have been equipped to see how fucked that situation was because teenagers or had as much power to refuse and avoid the shitstain. I’m also on the fence about her parenting skills (maybe Faz was lying when he said Amber was nicest to him, but we can’t tell now and her ‘you’ll never go to college because child support has robbed us of a future’ bit was out of line,) but really I don’t have much hope. (I make a similar ‘okay we know nothing and I don’t have much hope but there COULD be reasons’ thing for Billie’s maternal figures. Her dad’s clearly neglectful and awful and could not be garbage, but her mother might not have had as much choice in the matter. We just don’t have anything to work from there.)

          I put Carol, Linda and Naomi all on about the same level, same as Toedad with ‘Sir’ and Blaine. Their methods differ but the results are all so terribly screwed up as a result of their actions that determining a ‘worst’ is basically splitting hairs.

        11. Drunk Mike

          One could argue she did Amber and Stacey a favor. If it wasn’t for her Blaine would be around a lot more.

        12. Zee

          for me its
          1. Carol, because i cant stand brainwashy, super controlling religious parents who put their faith before their own kids, and i happen to be surrounded by the children of such folks
          2. Naomi and Linda tie in horribleness for me

  12. Regalli

    Well I see we’re off to a good start with the emotional devastation.

    Also kudos to our Damnéd Overlord for those last two panels. Sal looks so small and traumatized and AUGH.

    1. Sporky

      I believe you mean damnèd, unless you meant it to be pronounced like “flambéed”.

      1. UniqueSnowflake2

        Oh dear, what a grave mistake!

        1. Clif

          Damneed be he who cries enough.

        2. Chris Phoenix

          Slow clap.

      2. Regalli

        I can never tell accent line pronunciations apart, so yes! (Ah, rarely using them in English.)

        1. Clif

          Let all cognincia know, by the authority invested in me by Emperor Norton, I hereby proclaim that the spelling shall henceforth be Engli`sh.

    2. Regalli

      Also, Important Timeline Notes!

      The ambulance says ‘Evansville’, which means this is still in Indiana and therefore pre-holdup. Probably not by too much, though, barring further details clarifying things.

      Most noticeable thing for me here actually is that while Sal’s hair appears to be shorter than present-day (though not dramatically,) it’s also straight. So that confirms she was straightening it while still living with her parents and wearing it curly during the holdup may have been a deliberate thing. Or she was due for an appointment and couldn’t get one for whatever reason. So yeah, fuck you Charles, you knew what a time commitment it was and made pointed comments anyway. (And given she does it because her parents prefer it that way, oy. That is a very long regular appointment for someone that young to sit for something she doesn’t care about personally but matters a lot to her parents. Fuck you, Linda and Charles.)

      1. BBCC

        Marcie lost her voice when she was 12, according to Sal. The robbery was when she was 13 (or close enough – regardless, she was in 7th grade). Then she was away for 5 years.

        Charles can go fuck himself.

        1. Regalli

          Oh good, we have a better timeline! Useful, thanks!

          Yeah if this were something she actually WANTED to do then it would be totally fine. Her time to spend and her money to have to budget it with once she was living on her own. But since it seems like she’s currently doing it out of inertia and trying to please those jackasses? Sal you could rock whatever hair you wanted, I say go nuts next time.

        2. BBCC

          No worries! I remember Sal telling Danny that because I was like ‘Oooh, finally, an age!’

          And yeah, I guarantee that Sal relaxing her hair is not uninfluenced by ‘But you look so pretty when your hair’s long and straight’.

          Sal looked amazing with her curly hair and Charles can go take a flying fuck at the moon.

        3. Regalli

          A part of me is thinking she should shave it all off or get an undercut, and then I worry about how awful the parents would be over holiday breaks about it and don’t want her to suffer through more of that than she has to, and then I go back to the first part, realize they will be awful to her no matter what, and am back on ‘go for it Sal’. It’s a moot point because there’s no way with the timescale she would get a redesign THAT drastic, but still. Future older Sal who’s done giving a shit about what her parents think about her hair should experiment with it as much as she wants and know she’ll look awesome.

        4. BBCC

          Personally, I think it’d be great if she went natural. I think that’d be an excellent ‘fuck you’ to her parents. Mind you, her feelings may also be more complex than just her parents being shitty, so we’ll see if that comes up more.

        5. Reltzik

          12 is also a 5th-grade age and Sal could be 13 when Marcie’s 12. I’m still thinking it’s going to happen pretty soon after this flashback.

        6. BBCC

          I’m thinking Marcie’s very close to Sal’s age if for no other reason than we know she’s not 17 now (only characters 18+ get to be in Slipshines).

        7. Zee

          The idea of 12 being 5th grade age is baffling to me

        8. Reltzik

          *7th* grade age. Grah.

      2. Foxhack

        I mentioned this earlier but I’m guessing this is one of the reasons, if not THE big reason, that caused the change in Sal’s behavior, which eventually drove her to the robbery / stickup. Which means she might have cut her hair short and stopped straightening it as a form of rebellion…

        1. CJ

          We saw her hair grow curly under stress before.

  13. Goki

    Man, didn’t any of these kids have a happy childhood? (Well, maybe Joyce)

    1. BBCC

      Willis didn’t spend time and effort making up all these sad and messed up backstories so his characters could be happy, okay?

    2. not someone else

      (honestly, does anyone not come out of childhood at least a *little* traumatized? the only people I’ve ever met who’ve said they weren’t tend to have a pretty long list of things that they have to specify “don’t count”)

      1. Yumi

        I feel like “happy” and “trauma-free” are somewhat different.

        1. Cholma

          I almost feel a little guilty being someone who can honestly say happy & trauma-free childhood. Never knew that was considered a rarity until several decades into adulthood.

        2. not someone else

          Yeah, but I would also say that something like this particular thing (or at least what we know about it), seeing a friend get seriously injured, is the kind of thing that happens to a lot of people who wouldn’t necessarily qualify as full-on traumatized-as-children, y’know? Like, in order to go 18 whole years without even one serious bad thing happening to you you have to get pretty lucky.

        3. Yumi

          Yeah, my point was just that you can have trauma in your childhood and still consider yourself to have had a happy childhood.

      2. general band-aid

        I was a little traumatized, but not on the scale of these kids. We moved a lot and it made me insecure. I still had a good childhood with loving family and no drama.

        This story gets progressively less plausible as we pack more and more into these first couple months of college.

      3. Alanari

        No family-related trauma. I was groped by a stranger at 12 but apart from that, my childhood was fine. And since I completely suppressed the memory until I was 20something, I was a happy child.
        The day I finally remembered was pretty hard though.

        1. Zee

          I dont remember much of my childhood before 11/12 so thats probably not a good sign. Beyond being molested by a childhood family friend i think my childhood was pretty normal. Then again, i almost started crying the other day because my friend called me slow (in the context of my computer taking too long to load up a game), which is something i used to get bullied a lot for because i have learning disorders and motor skills issues, so i guess im a little more traumatized than i thought.

    3. DailyBrad

      Dina seemingly gets on rather well with her parents.
      Joyce, well, ignorance was bliss and she had Becky.
      Walky, again, ignorance was bliss, but he also had a sister who had a really rough time, and another sister figure become a teen alcoholic, so that was maybe not a sweet gig, either.

      1. MatthewTheLucky

        Dina almost certainly suffered from isolation and casual bullying, given that she’s struggled to get people to take her seriously and she’s developed markedly better social skills over the course of the comic despite it only being two months or so.

        1. Inahc

          I dunno, personally I suspect my own brain just wasn’t *ready* to parse social skills in high school. I somehow ended up with a good group of friends anyways, but most of my learning about humans happened in my mid and late 20’s. some of it in rather intense bursts.

          I didn’t really *suffer* from isolation, it just… was the only thing I’d known. *now* I can suffer from it, now that my brain actually wants to be social.

          then again, maybe things would’ve been different if there’d been more kids around when I was little. who knows. and Dina isn’t me.

        2. Regalli

          Based off how Dina seems familiar with the infantilization and ‘oh, you’re… special’, I suspect you’re right. Sounds in line with my childhood at least. (And while we don’t have a confirmed diagnosis that she’s neurodivergent, speaking from experience you can tell when you’re the Weird Different One and the other kids definitely treat you differently because they can tell too. Not having a diagnosis can actually make it worse, because you don’t have a name or reason for the Different.)

        3. Zee

          Teachers probably contributed too, with the whole “special” treatment. They probably meant well, most people who give that treatment do i think, but just went about it in a really bad way

      2. Regalli

        Add in the way Walky’s crashing now and I’d say he probably wasn’t exempt from the emotional abuse, he just processed it differently (by writing their treatment of Sal off as her fault until he realized the treatment predated the holdup) and got it from a different angle (you are the Good One and must do as I expect of you or you’ll be a disappointment like your sister.) I also have no frame of whether Billie got any of that or if it’s her biological family’s neglect and abandonment that was the bigger problem.

        Sierra seems to have grown up in a loving, supportive environment that encouraged her to be herself even if she was socially atypical, though!

      3. Conuly

        Being the twin to an emotionally abused and neglected child is not really a healthy, happy situation. Plus, as pointed out, Walky doesn’t talk or act like somebody who had a happy childhood. His reaction to failing math can be summed up as “If I don’t succeed effortlessly, Dorothy will dump me because nobody loves a failure”. It seems funny that he said “My sister is black, but I’m ambiguously brown” until you realize that his sister perceives the parental favoritism as racist in origin (and given that they clearly don’t like her with unstraightened hair, she may be right on that front).

        Honestly, Sal’s the lucky one. She was sent off to boarding school, which means she was able to get away from that dynamic a lot earlier – and because she was the scapegoat, instead of the golden child, she had a vested interest in rejecting it entirely.

        1. BBCC

          Can we NOT call the one who was the primary victim of emotional abuse, neglect and racism the lucky one?

        2. CJ

          Your idea of being lucky implies that the school she was in was a better place that her parent’s house and I doubt that.

        3. BBCC

          Her descriptions are ‘like prison’ and ‘it wasn’t as great a choice [between her school and juvie] as you’d expect’ so my money’s on reformatory.

        4. Zee

          I believe the quote was “generically beige”, which i know because i use it for myself

    4. Viktoria

      Dorothy, Joe, Danny, and Walky all seem to have had pretty good childhoods. Some of them ended up screwed up anyway, but they weren’t traumatized, which is a low but important bar.

      1. Nono

        Eh, Joe has some serious issues with intimacy from watching his dad.

        1. MatthewTheLucky

          And Danny’s parents never believed in him.

          And Dorothy and Walky’s parents believed in them too much.

        2. Regalli

          I think we can distinguish between Dorothy’s hangups (which appear to all be pressure that was self-inflicted, or at worst ‘We believe you can do whatever you set your mind to but you’ll have to work hard’ combined with how ridiculously rigorous academics these days are and a cultural devaluing of relaxation as a vital health aspect) and Walky’s issues (which, again, are from emotional abuse.)

          Dorothy’s parents support her in her goal to be president because it’s what she wants. Linda wants Walky to be a doctor/lawyer whether he wants to be or not because that’s what her son SHOULD be, and sees his goofball nature and interests as something he’ll grow out of and put aside in due course to be the Respectable Son.

        3. Regalli

          And Danny’s self esteem has clearly been flattened by his parents criticizing him and saying he won’t amount to much. Maybe not trauma, but certainly not nothing.

      2. Conuly

        Given Joe’s incredibly helpful advice to Joyce on dealing with an emotionally unsafe situation, I don’t think his childhood was that good. He’s 18 years old, and not particularly studious. This isn’t information 18 year olds normally have on tap unless they needed to figure it out in order to survive.

        1. DailyBrad

          Yeah, Joe definitely had some serious issues stemming from his dad’s infidelity and his parents’ divorce.

      3. Agemegos

        I used to work as a volunteer in the local PCYC. I knew a kid there who slept on a mattress in the ceiling cavity because his father couldn’t get up there when drunk. I like not to trivialise that by using “abused” too freely.

    5. Marsh Maryrose

      All happy kids are alike; each unhappy kid is unhappy in their own narrative-enhancing way.

    6. Reltzik

      Dorothy had a… studious childhood. Studious is happy, right.

    7. Chris Phoenix

      Carla probably had a pretty good childhood. Her parents are very supportive of her, and are wealthy.

  14. Axel

    I’m so ready.

    1. Bagge

      I’M NOT

      1. Clif

        Yeah. Curious but definitely not ready here.

  15. Kernanator

    Just coming straight out of the gate swinging, huh.

  16. Sporky

    Ohhhh shiiiiiit. That’s a hell of a way to start Book 9.

  17. Kris

    Eh, I’m sure it’s fine. Not at all related to Marcie’s muteness.

  18. Cheshrin

    THIS IS FINE

  19. newllend(henryvolt)

    I had a theory at one point saying that Sal tried to rob a store to pay for Marcies medical bills and now that’s looking more likely. But now I’m even more curious as to how it was because of Sal that this happened, was it do to her being in a accident she caused or is it just survivors guilt. Regardless though, a lot of the tragedy that unfold because of this could have been avoided if we had Medicare for all for fucks sakes

    1. BBCC

      That’s a good question – is this ACTUALLY her fault, or is this survivor’s guilt?

      1. CJ

        Given that this shitstain bully we saw in earlier flashbacks saw he could hurt Marcie without repercussions there is also the option that someone went for Marcie to hurt Sal.
        Or that Sal had the idea to some game which ended up with Marcie being hurt though it wasn’t something she caused, but feels responsible because it was her idea.

        1. BBCC

          I’ve been pondering the possibility Marcie got hurt skating lately and that’s why Sal doesn’t like to skate anymore, because she blames herself (meanwhile, Marcie does NOT blame Sal and so does things like try to get her to join roller derby).

      2. Emily

        Considering how quick Marcie was to assign blame for something that was only sorta Sal’s fault I kinda find it hard to believe she’d let it go if Sal actually was responsible for her suffering a crippling injury.

        1. BBCC

          That’s a good point.

    2. Koms

      Oh I never thought of it that way. Also it seems Marcie may have gotten injured trying to protect Sal from someone? That’s why she’s feeling guilty? Either way, what a whiplash.

  20. tim gueguen

    Yes, Sal, you shouldn’t have been playing with that Stark International MKIII Positronic Cannon.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      That is safer than anything created by Reed Richards.

      1. Clif

        Point.

  21. Ivy

    Holy shit, did Amber stab Marcy in the throat?

    1. Yumi

      If this was a joke, then for the record, I laughed.

      But just in case it was serious, I’m guessing no.

      1. Clif

        Let’s agree to blame an out of control auto correct with identity issues

    2. Inahc

      what.

    3. HeySo

      “My fault, Marcie. My fault that I hold up a liquor store in a year, causing a girl to stab my hand during a temporal flux event, causing a feedback wave that redirects the injury back in time to hit your throat. In the future, I will be forever damned to wear gloves at all times so that you can never find out the truth, that your throat was injured in place of my hand.”

      Yeah, uhm. That seems like a completely plausible scenario you’ve got going on there..?

      1. HeySo

        ..in fairness, that’d be pretty par for the course for Shortpacked. 😛

  22. Terry

    There seems to be an art typo here. a drawpo? Sal had frizzy hair back then, not straight.

    1. Pablo360

      Right, because we clearly know exactly what point on the timeline this is. That is obviously information we have access to.

      Either that, or Sal’s hair is an indication that this is NOT happening at exactly the same time as other Sal flashbacks.

      1. thejeff

        Given the suddenness of her previous reversion to more natural, it’s quite possible her robbery hair was the result of shock or stress.

    2. Conuly

      I’m guessing that this is BEFORE she went rebel chick on her parents, back when she was still trying to look the way they wanted. That means straighteners.

      1. Agemegos

        Does it? I thought she got it curled to please her mother, and prefers it straight herself.

        1. George

          Nah, she frizzed up from shock at her grades, and just didn’t have time to straighten it back out.

        2. Zee

          Linda’s racist, doesnt like sals kinky hair

        3. thejeff

          I don’t think Linda commented on the hair. That was Charles.
          Linda just completely ignored Sal.

        4. BBCC

          Yep, Charles is the one who insulted Sal’s hair. I mean, Linda’s pretty shitty too (still mad at how she referred to Marcie) but that one was on Sal’s dad, not her mom.

        5. Zee

          I really wouldn’t put it past her though

        6. BBCC

          Me neither.

    3. Kernanator

      Yes, clearly you are only allowed to have one hairstyle for your entire childhood. No one ever changes their hairstyle more than once a year.

      1. Cattleprod

        That’s not what CinemaSins told me.

        (No idea if they’ve ever claimed that, but I’d 100% believe you if you said they had)

        1. Kernanator

          There’s a Rich Burlew quote I want to send to every person who automatically assumes that anything that confuses them is a sign the author made a mistake: “Rather than making assumptions that don’t fit with the text and then complaining about the text being wrong, why not just choose different assumptions that DO fit with the text? “

        2. thejeff

          On the other hand, authors do sometimes make mistakes and running down blind alleys trying to reconcile them isn’t always profitable.

          I’m still wondering if Sal not being tagged in Amber’s most recent flashback panel is significant.

        3. Kernanator

          You are missing the point. I’m not saying that authors are infallible. I am saying that for some reason, when a reader encounters something in a work that they don’t understand, 99% of the time they immediately jump to the conclusion that the author fucked up rather than consider the possibility that they are the one who is making the mistake.

        4. Conuly

          Nah, you’re only seeing the people who bother to comment about it.

    4. Reltzik

      Drawpo? You, you mean like a drawing typo.

      Hmmm. Don’t like it.

      Maybe line-mistake? Picture error? Image mishap?

      Oooh! An artfart!

  23. lilyliv

    Predicted summary for this flashback: baby Sal and baby Marcie need lots of hugs.

    1. BBCC

      I’ll start putting together the hug bomb.

      1. Pablo360

        The hug pile must never stop from getting taller.

  24. Pablo360

    I never realized how much I liked it when I didn’t know things.

    1. Bagge

      Not knowing things was fine. Let’s go back to not knowing things.

  25. Bagge

    Ah, finally the chapter where we dig into Amber’s traumatic childhood is over. Now lets… dig into Marcie’s and Sal’s traumatic childhood.

    …OK

    1. Bagge

      🙁

    2. Reltzik

      I’m pretty sure this digging into Marcie’s and Sal’s traumatic childhood is going to intersect with Amber’s traumatic childhood.

    3. JBento

      It’s the Damn You Oprah Willis show! You get a traumatic childhood! And you get a traumatic childhood! And YOU get a traumatic childhood! EVERYBODY GETS A TRAUMATIC CHILDHOOD!

      But at least in this version no-one (hopefully) is getting treated by hacks like Phil and Oz and Deepak Chopra.

    4. Emperor Norton II

      Let’s not forget that last chapter also came with a side dish of showing a little bit of Ethan’s shitty child/early teenage years.

      And this chapter may well include showing some flashbacks of Danny’s parents being shitty to him.

      And next chapter, we’ll get to see Joe’s and Sarah’s worst childhood moments.

      So much to look forward to, right?

  26. abysswatcher1993

    This is no time for a trip to Juggalo Island! Marcie needs help!

  27. Bathymetheus

    Looks like blood at the base of Sal’s neck. Which suggests she was in front of and facing Marcie – and quite close – when whatever it was happened.

    1. BBCC

      I think that’s the shadow of her collarbone.

    2. Yumi

      I think that might just be how Willis draws clavicle

      1. Bathymetheus

        That’s not how he draws adult clavicles. I have no idea whether children’s anatomy is different in that respect.

        1. Yumi

          Look at Walky here:
          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/wrongly/

          Doesn’t look that different.

        2. Bathymetheus

          I see what you mean in panels 5 and 6, but 1 and 3 are more what I consider typical.

          I guess we’ll have to see if any reference is made to it later (where silence means it’s not blood).

        3. Clif

          I now believe that Walky had blood on his clavical from the first kiss.

    3. Bathymetheus

      Or I guess that might have got on her while she was trying to help. So actually not much of a clue.

    4. Regalli

      I was gonna say probably clavicle until I realized Marcie’s tagged in this strip, does not appear to be on-panel, and that blood was used to tag a character once already.

      I really don’t WANT this to be right, and her tagging to be either an oddity (like Sal being untagged in the last red flashback) or her in the ambulance, but. Yeah I’m worried right now.

      1. thejeff

        Actually, purely by coincidence, the ambulance driver is also named Marcie. 🙂

    5. Bicycle Bill

      98% sure it’s not blood. Ambulance driver clearly states “her friend’s coming in with a throat injury”, but I don’t think Willis has ever drawn Marcie with any kind of scar on or near her neck. Secondly, if there had been blood enough to get on Sal’s neck, you would think there would be bloodstains on her shirt too.

  28. kitty

    ? how can they see sal in order to assume she related the the driver ?

    1. Yumi

      …he’s saying she’s not…Marcie’s…family…

    2. Bathymetheus

      Family of the patient only allowed to ride in the ambulance.

    3. HeySo

      In circumstances where you see questions like that pop up, you should always assume there’s some kind of company/legislative/etc policy involved. In other words, they’re checkboxing data, not making assumptions about the specific individuals.

    4. kitty

      i understand now also i have made an ignorant assumption and im sorry

      1. Portland

        I made the same assumption at first. I was super confused!

      2. HeySo

        Your last comment, in which you seem to be assuming criticism, definitely seems to fall under that expectation of yours, sure. 😛

  29. DailyBrad

    Poor Sal.

  30. butts

    WUH OH

  31. space

    Dear Willis,

    http://www.itswalky.com/comic/marcie/

    I have been waiting.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Damn, only off by six days! That was pretty good.

  32. Varius

    Somehow, hairstraightening was involved in damaging Marcie’s throat.

    1. Zee

      She dared Marcie to eat relaxer, didnt think shed actually do it

  33. Farmer_10

    And we’re already off to a fun start

  34. Keulen

    Oh shit. So now we’re gonna see how Marcie became mute, huh?

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Sal suggested they summon Adam Sandler, Marcie went along with it reluctantly. The ritual worked, and he showed up with his Click remote, hit the mute button, and then vanished into the aether.

      Or maybe something less stupid happened. We’ll probably never know.

  35. Delicious Taffy

    Jeez, these kids are really committed to becoming professional football players. They’re taking the faked injuries thing a little too far, though. A gentle brush should only lead to them rolling across the field like a tumbleweed, not a needless hospital visit followed by several years of never speaking.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      Seriously? You post something like this??

      1. Clif

        Meh. Seen much worse. Probably have posted much worse.

      2. Delicious Taffy

        The gag is that I’m undermining the characters’ tragic backstory, which drives a lot of their present-day interactions, by making it about something completely asinine.

        It’s probably not that funny, and that’s fine, but let’s not go overboard.

        1. dethtolldotmid

          It’s definitely not that funny.

        2. Delicious Taffy

          I was gonna make a Raidah joke at first, but then I remembered this is a flashback, so it wouldn’t have made any sense.

        3. Zee

          it’s a joke about fictional characters, chill. If they were real kids then it would be fucked up

  36. Fire_daws

    I’m around 95% sure that we’re not going to be told what went on, we’re going to see the aftermath not the cause.

    1. Clif

      Maybe, but Willis usually gets around to a payoff. Sometimes much later, but still.

  37. Mr D

    I asked this once before and I ask it again: How do you injure your throat in such a way that you damage your vocal chords but dont’ drown in your own blood???

    1. Reltzik

      Cinnamon challenge.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        (Gone Wrong)

    2. BenRG

      Blind luck; weird stuff happens.

    3. Kamino Neko

      She will obviously get blood in her lungs, but unless Sal waited a lot longer to get help than we can probably assume she did, it’s not likely to get near the point of drowning, unless whatever caused the damage came in through the carotid (in which case, she has other problems).

    4. ischemgeek

      Blunt force trauma can do it.

    5. Agemegos

      I reckon that a puncture from the front ought to do it. There are no significant blood vessels anterior to the larynx, and the trachea is not richly supplied with blood.

      Besides, I’ve seen someone drown in her own blood. It takes a while. She was still alive when the ambulance got there.

    6. Needfuldoer

      She has to be intubated on the way to the hospital, but the ambulance just so happens to hit a pothole at that very moment.

  38. BenRG

    So it all comes out. There is a reason for Sal’s guilt.

  39. Joe Helfrich

    Really should have seen that coming.

  40. Stoodmuffin

    Sal’s Amber moment.

    Oh fuck. I don’t know if I’m ready.

    1. BenRG

      “Sal’s Amber moment”

      This why I predict that they’ll end up as good as sisters (maybe even therapy-buddies and I post that without a hint of humour). They’ve both got innocent blood on their hands due to matters arguably only partially under their control and they’ve both responded to it in remarkably similar ways.

      1. Sporky

        They have that classic superhero nemesis thing where they have very different principles but are also very similar people.

  41. Ainara

    Oh nice, I’ve been looking forward to this

    1. Delicious Taffy

      No, this is a flashback, so it’s in the past. You can’t look forward to the past, that would be silly.

      1. Clif

        The content of the flashback is in the past, but the flashback itself is mostly in the future.

  42. burntnorris

    *Spits out drink* Evansville Ambulance???

    I realized it took place in Indiana but that’s too close to home.

    1. BenRG

      Maybe you can check out if the Walkertons live anywhere near you?

  43. JBento

    My vote is this is Leland’s doing, and Sal blames herself because the little shit probably said something like “your firend isn’t here to protect her now” or some crap like that.

    1. JessWitt

      Yeah this has that Leland brat’s name plastered all over it.

  44. Nenja

    Oh, this is really interesting! I wonder what happened.

  45. Portland

    One thing that kind of strikes me with this is how the ambulance driver says “I didn’t want to leave her there alone.” If Leland (or anyone else) was involved, it sounds like they skedaddled before Sal called for help. I wonder if Sal’s parents knew where they were and are going to wonder when she doesn’t come home, or if they’re that oblivious they won’t even notice until they get a call from the hospital.

    1. JBento

      As long as they know where Walky is, it’s all good for them.

  46. Cyfarfod

    My prediction is someone was picking on Marcie for being an illegal, potentially due to her singing a vaguely ethnic song, and Sal stepped in to stick up for her but also escalated things, which were counter-escalated and got Marcie’s windpipe mangled. PROBABLY by relative accident, i.e. shoving her without realizing she’d then fall onto a fence throat-first or something like that.

  47. Geeky Warrior

    Anyone else think that Marcie is going to require therapy or medical care that her family can’t afford? Thus causing Sal to take matters into her own hands and try to rob convenience stores to get the money?

    1. Needfuldoer

      There’s probably a delay before it gets to that point. The robbery doesn’t happen for at least another year or two, and it sure looked like her first attempt.

      1. King Daniel

        We know Sal robbed two convenience stores before she was sent off, and somehow I doubt Sal would’ve had the ability to rob a second store after the whole hand-stabbing thing went down.

  48. Beef

    makes me think you’re right. She was probably “lucky” that she didn’t have to risk her family’s safety by going to the hospital. Sal attacked Leland’s throat and he probably went and did the same thing to Marcie causing permanent damage

    1. Beef

      I knew I’d screw that up, go me!

      1. ValdVin

        Eh, no prob–you got the point across. And now I think you might be right.

  49. Andrusi

    Good for you, ambulance guy.

  50. Needfuldoer

    No Muzak today?

    *Cues the Emergency! theme song on the hacked Muzak*

    (It’s a good show! If you ever catch it, watch the ambulance montages carefully. They had footage of a Ford and a Chevy ambulance and just stitched them both together at random.)

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