346

Carrying
Posted on September 21, 2017 by David M Willis
Here is a reminder that TOMORROW, FRIDAY, September 22, I will be at Vintage Pheonix Comic Books in Bloomington, Indiana, from 5-7pm!  I will have books and probably character magnets and my nigh-charming self!

346 thoughts on “Carrying”

  1. Doctor_Who

    “No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater… than central air.”

    1. Wack'd

      Now, if I remember the quote correctly, the powers…will attempt to contact the last scion.

    2. ZerglingOne

      Truly it is the greatest comfort afforded to modern man.

      1. auroki

        Beat me to it lol

    3. Badtux

      You don’t know the half of it.

      When I attended the University of Louisiana, there was still a couple of dorms that didn’t have air conditioning. In Louisiana.90+F and 100% humidity. And school started in August.

      Needless to say, a) those weren’t popular dorms, and b) people spent a lot of time taking cold showers.

      1. HeySo

        “people spent a lot of time taking cold showers.”

        I hear that’s common for young males, though, so about half the population probably wasn’t much affected. 😛

      2. Victor

        I assume they’ve fixed those by now.

        The University of Tennessee still had a few without AC when I was in school, but that was a long time ago. Those were considered the worst dorms on campus, of course, the humidity wasn’t as bad as Louisiana, but still not infrequent 90+ temps and 80%+ humidity. They all have AC now, they fixed that many years ago.

        I’m surprised Indiana still has any dorms without AC.

        1. Songbird

          You went to UT? So’d my Dad! Which campus?

        2. coru

          When I was there (2004) there were still some dorms that didn’t have AC. Of course, since then they have completely demolished the dorm I lived in and the one I know didn’t have AC has been turned entirely into offices so *shrug*.

    4. thejeff

      I dunno. Depends where you live, I guess. Being somewhat more northerly, reliable heating and hot water count more.

      Honestly, in October, even in Indiana, I’d expect that “cool sensation” to be as likely an open window as AC.

      Of course, back in my college days we had no AC. Which was pretty much OK in New England and not in the summer. And the heat was erratic – sometimes requiring sweaters and sometimes throwing the windows open in the dead of winter.

      1. Shade

        Depends, reverse cycle airconditioning can do both heating and cooling.

        1. thejeff

          Not when it’s actually cold out they can’t.

    5. Jack Faire

      Billie to the R.A. “How is all of this possible?” “Because I’m a fucking demon”

      1. Scoutcat

        Maxwell demon!

        1. Carms

          It’s cool that like, in absolute frequentist terms it’s unlikely you learnt about that concept in the same place as me, but given the contextual priors of webcomic world, I can consider it a signficant liklihood that you’ve read Alice Grove by Jeph Jaques

    6. Zortac88

      And that quote has to be said with Jason Lee’s voice 🙂 I don’t know if many people here get the reference?

      1. NickG

        Dogma?

  2. Ana Chronistic

    IT’S MCAWESOME’S DORMITORY AND BOUNCE CASTLE

    1. Romanticide

      YESSSSSS!

    2. Packy

      +1

    3. RacingTurtle

      Yes! Haha!

    4. Undrave

      It totally is! Every room comes with a ballpit! But no half-bath…

    5. Frankwolftown

      That’s the first thing I thought! Will there be someone there who is a big fan of FDR?

    6. Proto

      Featuring FDR as the RA

  3. Dara

    oh gods air conditioning

    best dorm ever

    1. onetwoduck

      No joke. At Young? Sometimes you got the air. Sometimes you got the gray.

      1. onetwoduck

        Heat. I used to have a different Avatar I guess.

        1. Pablo360

          Yeah, they were shuffled a week or so back.

          For some reason Mary is still in the mix, and now so is her boyfriend, and now I know Willis is a cruel sadistic monster

          Thank God I’m a masochist

        2. Ana Chronistic

          I read your last line as Thank God I’m an atheist

        3. Mr. Bulbmin

          You need to be, on some level, to enjoy anything Willis does.

          That, or a sadist literally incapable of empathy.

  4. AnvilPro

    Beatrice is new best character

    1. Pablo360

      It’s a three way tie between Beatrice and her two girlfriends Nash and Rose (although Nash is more of a demigirlfriend)

      What do you mean “cool it with the headcanons they’ve only been in one strip”

      1. BBCC

        Never too soon for head canons! 😀

        1. Abel Undercity

          Man the head canons! This ship is going full speed ahead!

      2. Kamino Neko

        At least you waited until they were actually in a strip.

        Blaise Zabini had no such luck. (And how damn angry did half of his ‘fans’ get when he finally did appear…)

        1. EvilMidnightLurker

          I had the advantage of knowing that Blaise is a boy’s name.

        2. Liliaeth

          oh his gender wasn’t the problem. (at least not from what I saw) But the amount of people that got pissed as hell, when he was revealed to be black…

        3. Kamino Neko

          Literally every aspect of the character that wasn’t established at sorting (ie: literally everything but his name and house) had people really upset for violating their headcanons.

      3. Dusk Rain

        So like, demi-girlfriend or demigirl-friend? Is she a partial girlfriend or is her gender demigirl? I have to know for um, reasons.

        1. Sterling

          She’s both a demigirl and a demisexual.

        2. Sterling

          Oh! I have a new avatar. I like Dina a lot… but I kinda feel like Jocelyn was a little more fitting.

        3. Dusk Rain

          Good to know! I mean headcanon, but thank you for clarifying. I am also in the boat of Jocelyn being fitting so *mother fxxking deity high five*

      4. Dana

        Rose has been in two! I know my McAwesome’s peeps.

    2. Pablo360

      Okay good, I won’t lose that bet I didn’t make

    3. Paul

      I like her holographic arm!

  5. Pablo360

    So I’m just going to point out that Billie right now is the only person in the scene NOT wearing glasses.

    1. Yumi

      And Lucy also wears glasses…what if Billie is the only one on the floor not wearing glasses? And then she feels out of place, so she goes to put on her glasses only to realize that she lost them?

      1. thejeff

        She doesn’t realize, because she can’t see well enough. 🙂

    2. Keulen

      Clearly Billie should put her glasses back on to fit in with the rest of them. I’m totally not saying this because I think she looks better with glasses on.

      1. StClair

        Of course not.

    3. SomeUnregPunk

      Also all the glasses don’t have a top metal/plastic frame.

      1. Sunny

        My glasses are exactly the oposite, they don’t have a bottom frame.

    4. Cephalo the Pod

      “yOu’Re AAAAAAaaaalll wEaRiNg GlAsSeS”.

      1. Pablo360

        <it>“We all wear glasses down here.”</it>

        1. Mr. Bulbmin

          “And when you come down here . . . YOU’LL WEAR THEM, TOO!”

          This reference was a lot more fun to make prior to a reboot existing.

      2. Yumi

        Every time this is referenced my first thought is that it’s something Diane said on BoJack Horseman. I hear it in her voice and everything, and I don’t know why.

  6. Sporky

    This dormitory is indeed a strange place… they don’t even have alt-text

    1. Doctor_Who

      My dormitory had air conditioning, but not alt-text. Maybe there’s only budget for one and you need to choose.

      1. Br44n5m

        “‘Goddamn I woulda schtupped my RA much sooner if I knew it got me some AC'”

    2. Wack'd

      When Billie gets a fresh start, she really gets a fresh start.

      Strip is a bit too wide, though. And why isn’t everyone’s head huge?

  7. Yumi

    Dang, isn’t Billie already short? How tall are Rose and Beatrice?

    1. Pablo360

      Rose is short due to a partially-expressed variant of the dwarfism gene native to Ecuador, and Beatrice is actually a fifteen-year-old child prodigy. Nash has been protecting these two from all danger like a mama bear since school began.

      No Dad I won’t stop writing headcanons just because “we know literally nothing about these characters so far other than what can be gleaned from previous universes”

      1. Dusk Rain

        Your headcanon skill is really impressive. As in I’m impressed. Uh please continue and stuff.

        1. Pablo360

          Okay, okay, uh…

          *glances around* Rose… uh…

          …is some sort of… video game otaku like Takiya from Kobayashi-san

          (eh, weak as hell, but I’m basically headcanoning on fumes right now)

    2. BBCC

      Billie’s 5’7. That’s not that short for a girl.

      1. Pablo360

        Yeah, I’m pretty sure Dotty and Amber are shorter than her

        It’s just that people are comparing her against Ruth, Agatha, Carla, Mary, Sierra, Grace, Sal, Sarah… And even within the context of the strip, Nash.

        Shortness is relative.

      2. Yumi

        Is she? I thought she was shorter thasn that. How tall is Ruth?

        1. tim gueguen

          One million of feet tall!!!!

        2. BBCC

          About 5’10.

        3. Pl0x

          Ruth’s 5’8 actually. Carla is 5’9. Sarah is 5’10. I don’t remember where I got this from, so no citations, but I do know David Willis said it somewhere.

    3. John

      Billie’s actually a couple inches above average female height. Tall Nash is tall. Rose is Amber’s good alternate universe twin, so she’s probably like 5’3″, like Amber. Also she probably spends her nights as an affably evil supervillain.

      1. Yumi

        Maybe I got Billie confused with Amber, since I was thinking she was 5’3″. Now I want to know how tall Nash is, since I basically refuse to consider anyone under 6’0″ as tall.

      2. Pablo360

        Wait did you just imply Amber was evil

        Cause that’s sort of Amber’s whole problem

        1. Pablo360

          Thinking she’s evil, I mean, not actually

          You know what

          You get what I mean

        2. pjeseb

          I think he implied that Amazi-girl is a rude, good super-heroine, since that would be the opposite of affably evil super-villain.

        3. Pablo360

          Yeah but if they’re opposites, and Lucy is normally good but has an evil alter ego, and Amazi-Girl is (for the purposes of this convo) a good alter ego, where does that leave Amber?

        4. Pablo360

          It’s like if you’re doing the Hogwarts House shuffle with three friends. Somebody’s going to get stuck with Gryffindor.

        5. Geno

          They were referencing Shortpacked. The joke in Shortpacked was that McAwesomes was like the good alternate universe. Rose was the good!Amber

        6. Geno

          So to take that joke farther if Rose still like alternate universe Amber. Then she dresses up at night as goofy supervillain to oppose hyper serious Amazi-Girl

        7. Pablo360

          I know what they were referencing. They could have phrased it better is all.

        8. Mr. Bulbmin

          So, Rose would basically be The Riddler? Affable, occasionally really goofy, but a threat to oppose Amazi-Girl? I’d pay bad money for this.

        9. Dana

          Evil is relative though.

        10. John

          In the Shortpacked!/McAwesome’s continuum, where Rose was originally introduced as mirror-Amber… yeah, Amber and the Shortpacked! crew were totally the evil mirror.

      3. Needfuldoer

        Have the different characters’ heights been officially confirmed? Joyce is 5’4″ according to the wiki, so I guess from there based on her relative height. Billie’s slightly taller than she is, so maybe 5’5″ or 5’6″?

        1. John

          Amazi-Girl claims her height in boots as 5’5″. The boots add an inch or two, plus Willis has said she was rounding up, so Amber’s ~5’2″ – 5’3″.

          Billie and the twins are the same height, which Willis has stated to be 5’7″ (which is his own height, IIRC).

  8. Pigeon Pollyx

    why’d billie take her glasses off anyway?

    1. Foxhack

      Trying to look cool.

    2. Yumi

      It was largely to be dramatic about things. We all do it from time to time.

      1. Tacos

        It’s true!
        Ref: Myself

      2. TemporalShrew

        I’d say it’s not dramatic to make a small change as a symbol of a new start…

        … But it might be just a *little* dramatic to do that when your new start is a new dorm at the same school.

        1. Pablo360

          Across the street.

        2. Yumi

          No, it’s dramatic either way. Not overly dramatic or something. Like, I’m not criticizing it. I just feel that it falls under the category of dramatic.

        3. TemporalShrew

          Yeah, I suppose that’s pretty fair. People tend to use dramatic as almost synonymous with *melo*dramatic, so I wasn’t entirely sure whether you had meant it that way.

          Since it still would have been true of most everyone.

        4. Yumi

          Yeah, like one time I shaved my head completely, and I did it on a day when I had the same class twice in a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. And so I went to class with shoulder length hair that morning, and came to class that afternoon bald with a blue arrow painted on my head. And I’d describe my timing of that as “dramatic and perhaps “extra,” but I don’t mean it negatively. I actually still thoroughly enjoy that I did that.

        5. Dusk Rain

          Ok but did you become humanity’s bridge to the spirit world (asking for a friend)

        6. vlademir1

          She said “painted”, not “tattooed” ;D

          All seriousness, on Aang and other air nomads those tattoos indicate being a master air bender, and have nothing to do with the avatar specifically.

        7. McBogue

          Sounds like you were just working through some of your teenage Aangst.

        8. Yumi

          It was also the day after I turned 20, so perhaps the last of my teenage Aangst. Everything since then has just been regular Aangst.

        9. MatthewTheLucky

          Aangst is what happens when you need to kill the fire lord but you forgot to wear pants

      3. AgentKeen

        My eyesight isn’t good enough to take my glasses off to be dramatic.

  9. captainswift

    And so begins Dumbing of Age’s first spinoff, It’s Billie!

    1. MatthewTheLucky

      please no blowing up anyone this time

    2. jeffepp

      With, New Amber, New Dina, and New Sarah!

    3. auroki

      Amd hopefully less of that pesky Geneva Convention!

    4. Clif

      My assumption is that everyone is so glad to see Billie because she isn’t Malaya.

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        That sounds the opposite of logical.

  10. Ivy

    Nash knows they’re in the Good Dorm

    1. Cholma

      Is that the college version of “The Good Place”? Is Ted Danson in charge here, also? :O

    2. Wack'd

      Ted Danson is the residence manager.

  11. Romanticide

    So is this dorm the DOA equivalent of McAwesome’s I suppose it could be XD

    1. Rowen Morland

      This is the commentary I was scrolling down for. Rose is there so it could be.

    2. showler

      Don’t trust their good mood. Remember, they just got rid of Malaya. They are bound to be in a good mood for a while.

      1. Clif

        This.

      2. Romanticide

        That mood may last forever considering Malaya won’t go back, at least not before any positive character development on her part.

  12. nobodybasically

    Is the mouseover text supposed to be the title of the strip?

    1. Pablo360

      *shakes head somberly* Not anymore…

  13. timemonkey

    Oh mah gawd, Billie was the counterpart to Malaya the whole time. It’s so obvious in retrospect!

    1. Pablo360

      Wait, is Malaya going to keep a sense of continuity and assume that Sal is Amazi-Girl? Or will Billie transfer that suspicion onto Lucy? Why not both? HEADCANONS FOR EVERYONE

      1. timemonkey

        Malaya likely doesn’t care about Amazi-Girl, which contrasts nicely with Billie’s insistence she knows her identity.

        1. Pablo360

          I mean, she probably cares a little

      2. neeks

        Malaya would have to be a special kind of obtuse to think that Sal is Amazigirl, given the scene Pablo linked to.

        1. Pablo360

          …your point?

  14. Kathleen

    Will Mike show up in this dorm being nice or would that be too much of a repeat of storylines?

    1. Pablo360

      “Mike? You have two dorms? But that literally makes no sense! Why?”

      “To take up more space. Think about it: Every dorm I’m in is a dorm someone else can’t use.”

      “So you’re taking up one extra person’s spot? That seems a bit petty.”

      “I never said I only had two dorms.”

    2. tim gueguen

      The antiMike will show up. Oh, wait, that would be Mike’s mom, wouldn’t it?

    3. Dean

      This is Drunk Mike’s dorm. He goes back to the other dorm when he sobers up.

    4. Geno

      I for one for like a return of drunk Mike for the humor, but would kind of be put off by real world connotations of it. Maybe in this universe he just has a straight up goody two-shoes twin brother.

  15. Mr. Random

    I wonder if that one Shortpacked storyline is gonna bave any bearing on this universe.
    The one where that one dude got turned into a fighting robot.

  16. Munchkin13

    Is- Is that an alt universe Sarah and Joyce? Did Joyce and Becky just merge into one?

  17. Marsh Maryrose

    “Nashita” is a new name for me. I could google, but this is the DoA comments section, so —

    “Nosh” like what one would do with a bagel, or “Nash” like the “A Beautiful Mind” economist?

    1. Pablo360

      Probably the former since that’s how basically every language pronounces that particular roman letter.

      (Seriously, among other problems, the English language has way too many and too weird vowels)

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Well, the question I meant is not how she pronounces it, but how her peers pronounce it. The Pronouncenames.com site gives “nush,” something I hadn’t even considered.

        But I’d bet that her peers tend toward rhymes-with-gnash and she’s okay with that because, close enough.

        Almost 30 years on, I am still ashamed that my inability to catch the pronunciation of the name “Jaime” resulted in one of my student assistants going by “Jamie” for at least the next couple of years. I was ignorant, but dammit, it wasn’t that difficult — I should have tried a little harder.

    2. Pablo360

      The meaning of the name Nashita is Energetic, dynamic, lively, fresh, vigorous.

      Name In Arabic : نشيطة
      Name In Bangla : নাশিত
      Name In Urdu : ناشتہ
      Name In Hindi : नाश्ता

      1. Pablo360

        Of course it could also be the past tense of the Japanese i-adjective 無い meaning “nonexistent”, “not owned”, or “unique”

        1. Pablo360

          CONSPIRACY THEORY: Nashita is actually a computer program in the matrix that is Dumbing of Age, uncontrolled (“unowned”) by the main AI that runs the place, and this all really is taking place in the Walkyverse!

          Bonus: D&MM is part of HA II’s plot to gather his disparate parts scattered across a bunch of different dimensions, and it’ll be up to Dotty to use her journalism skills to reveal this plot to the world before it’s too late

      2. Badgermole

        The word you spelled out in Bangla is Nashit, and in Hindi it says Nashta… which means a meal or more specifically breakfast. Very nice, Google translate.

        1. Badgermole

          Can confirm that in Hindi-Urdu it would be pronounced Nush-ita but this character is probably Anglicising it to sound like the surname of the mathematician.

    3. Kamino Neko

      Regardless how Nashita is pronounced (which I’m finding…differing opinions on), Nash is probably ‘gnash’.

      1. HeySo

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUFOIPt9VH8

        It’s.. vaguely relevant. 😛

        But yes, Nash (by standard expectation) uses a hard a. Nashita generally would either use a hard a or drop the a, with the latter creating an ‘uh’ or ‘aeh’ sound (due to how we pronounce n on its own), depending on if you exhale up or down. In that sense it’s similar to the first A in Aaron, which creates an ‘ehh’ noise before transitioning into the ‘air’ , thus distinguishing it from the “Arr” of Aron. By contrast, if it were written with a u (Nushita), it would be expected to emphasize the u, giving it the pronunciation of ‘new-shita’.

        Of course, the cardinal rule of names is that- like genders- they’re really a very personalized thing, one which doesn’t necessarily conform to localized expectations of what is “proper”. Add in the usual regional differences in word pronunciation (Back to Aaron/Aron: Aron can be used as an alternative spelling of Aaron, while others may pronounce it Aye-Ron), and you end up with there never being any reliable way of knowing how anyone will choose to pronounce a specific name (be that person Nashita herself, or Nashita’s dormmates).

  18. DinaWho

    So Beatrice has a blue arm similar to when Marcie (and Sal and Malaya) sign. Does this mean she’s speaking and signing?

    1. BBCC

      Yup!

    2. Wack'd

      I am, I’ll admit, slightly confused as to why Beatrice isn’t mute in this continuity.

  19. Passchendaele

    The Read Hall AC actually worked for two years, until an incident involving tape, pliers, a toothbrush, and illegal fireworks, and that’s all we’re going to say about that. :p

    1. brionl

      When I was at Navy tech school in Orlando, FL, there was one wing where the air conditioner never worked for years and years. “It’s own, just nothing coming out the vents!”
      Somebody finally went up into the crawl space, and there was a 3-foot gap between the air out and the ducts to the rest of the wing.

  20. brionl

    Cue the theme for “Stepford Wives”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8yygOkG7qM

    1. Stephen Bierce

      And I was going to play “The Air That I Breathe”.

      1. Stephen Bierce

        I’d forgotten who recorded this song first. It was a hit only a few months after I got my own “first” radio.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxMuR5Ly4x8

    2. Roborat

      Dammit, I was going to make a Stepford daughters reference.

  21. 4,000 spiders

    wait, are we to assume that so far there HASN’T been any air conditioning?

    …how is billie alive?

    1. Kernanator

      Well, it’s been fall for the strip’s run, sooo…

      1. Yumi

        I mean, not really if you want to be technical. Plenty of the strip had been in pre-fall September.

        But, yeah, it’s also common for dorms not to have air conditioning, at least from what I know of the Midwest. (I hope schools in, like, Arizona have air conditioned dorms.) It’s manageable, but there are definitely some days at the start of the school year that suck.

        1. Amy

          Yep, college dorms in AZ do indeed have air conditioning. It may not work very well in the older dorms, but technically they have it.

      2. 4,000 spiders

        oh, right, i forgot not everyone lives in a humid hellscape that remains insanely hot even in friggin october. also not everyone wears jackets constantly i’ve heard that helps

        1. Yumi

          I used to wear a jacket constantly, and when asked things like, “Aren’t you hot?” I would respond with, “I do not experience temperatures in the same way as you mortals.”

        2. anonymsly

          LOL, that’s what I say when people ask if I’m cold because it’s nearly freezing and I’m not wearing a jacket. That, or ‘I have a layer of insulating blubber, can’t you tell?’

        3. Yumi

          I’d also say that if people asked if I was cold when it was winter and I was just wearing the same jacket I’d also wear in summer. I basically refused to acknowledge the impact of the weather on what I should wear for several years.

        4. Liliet

          how big is the temperature differential where you people live
          I’m from Ukraine and we go between +40 and -20 (okay, +30 and -10 on average) and I cannot imagine wearing the same thing in summer and in winter for longer than, like, 15 seconds outside

        5. HeySo

          Huh. I always figured Ukraine’d lean toward colder temperatures than that.

          Where I live (also in the States), it goes from bottom lows of -23C in the winter to top highs of about 44C, with a normal range of about -16C to 36C (typically leaning close to about -10 and 30, much like your temperatures). Of course, humidity out here is awful, and that can make the highs feel far higher, and lends us getting ice far more regularly than snow [which causes air chill to feel sharper].

          That said, I know people who will bundle up at all times of the year. The main basis behind it is, most buildings tend to over-use their air conditioning, so if you’re mostly sticking to the indoors and car transportation, you’ll mostly still be in colder temperatures even during the summer.

          People in each of the States I’ve lived in tend to be more acclimated to warmer temperatures, so the opposite circumstance of seeing people underdress in the winter is a lot, lot rarer a sight, by my experiences.

        6. vlademir1

          Here, in southwest Ohio, we range from about -20°C to about 35°C at the extremes, with about -7°C to about 29°C as the high and low monthly averages.
          Similar to Yumi above, in my teens (ie back in the ’90s) I used to wear denim shorts and a hoodie or flannel shirt with a lite t-shirt under from start of school in September until end of school in June unless it dipped colder than around -4°C, at which point it went to padded versions of either or a denim jacket. These days, it’s always slacks or jeans and a fully buttoned chef jacket with a lite t-shirt under year round at work and slacks and jeans with a lite t-shirt for casual, add a hoodie and knit cap if it drops below about 5°C.
          Also, HeySo is right on, it’s much rarer to see people dress lite in colder weather than heavy in warmer weather. I know and work with people who insist they’re freezing in the 15°C to 20°C range without a heavy winter coat (mainly people originally from the Deep South).

        7. Yumi

          Oh, temperature differentials are pretty big here (Michigan) as well. I’d say our averages are about the same as what you said. I was just very committed to my aesthetic.

          I mean, I do not experience temperatures in the same way as you mortals.

        8. StClair

          “Well, I try to be modest, but thank you for noticing.”

        9. willis

          was thinking the same thing for the same reasons–I remember at my small state school even the crappiest dorms that barely had running water had central air. In fairness, they’d have been uninhabitable otherwise. Putting people in a small concrete box with tiny windows in a Louisiana August would be a war crime, not a housing solution.

      3. DrWattson

        I spent two semesters in a dorm without AC, and August and the first half of September were insufferable. And I was in IOWA; not exactly a very hot area.

        1. Yumi

          My worst experience was went I went to my college orientation. It was a really hot few days in July, we were on the fifth floor, no air conditioning, and since it was just an orientation we hadn’t been told to bring much, including fans. It was miserable. Luckily it was only one night, but I still remember it. That was actually probably when I started to hate my college.

    2. Wack'd

      Window-sized fans!

    3. Pablo360

      You’d be surprised how many college dorms don’t have AC. Like, at all.

    4. Dusk Rain

      The first couple weeks at Georgetown College in humid KY are murder. The freshman girls’ dorm has no AC. But dang do we have all the fans. Many puns were made about this ok now I’m flashbacking.

  22. Tacos

    So is this the McAwesome’s dorm?

  23. Keulen

    I wonder if this dorm will have less crazy stuff going on than Reed did, or if they’ll just have different crazy stuff.

    1. Puckish Rogue

      To be honest I hope they don’t get too shown too much as it means less time for the other characters

  24. Jess

    Oh my gosh, I love them all already.

  25. Kathleen

    LET NICE THINGS HAPPEN TO BILLIE 2017

  26. Marsh Maryrose

    Also, Beatrice is both speaking and signing? I don’t know what that means, I just assume there’s going to be some upcoming explication.

    1. Lingo

      Probably partially deaf, maybe fully deaf. Many deaf people speak quite well.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Ah, yes. I noticed that although she both speaks and says, “Hello,” Rose is the one who says, “That’s Beatrice.”

    2. Dawn

      I figured she was just waving.

    3. John

      I think I vaguely recall from minor appearances in Shortpacked! that she’s deaf.

      1. Deanatay

        Are we sure she’s not mute? I seem to remember someone saying she’s mute.

        1. King Daniel

          She speaks in this very strip, which precludes the “mute” option.

  27. OBBWG

    Off Topic for this strip: A while back there was debate about what should happen to Amber because of what she did to Ryan. Here is a real life case not too dissimilar.

    tl;dr: Sheriff says no charges will be filed and the civil suit should be tossed out.

    1. butting

      I’d say “wearing a Transformers mask” would be on topic for any Willis strip, ever.

    2. vlademir1

      I saw that one, not going to check your specific link (recognized the case from your tl;dr) but does it include the suspect’s mother’s statements? Her attempts to justify the suit are… depressing.

      1. OBBWG

        It includes some of her statements. *SIGH*

      2. Christine

        It makes a fair bit of sense to me though. She’s holding the random guy in the coffee shop to the same standards as she would the police, forgetting that part of why we can hold the police to those standards is that they were trained.

        1. Knayt

          Since when do we hold the police to those standards?

        2. Kernanator

          Well, we’re supposed to hold police to those standards.

    3. tim gueguen

      At least a couple of the US gun magazines have regular legal columns, because if you shoot someone you will face legal problems. This can include being sued, even if the legal systems decides your use of force was justified.

  28. StClair

    Welcome to the Land of Nice.

  29. HMH

    W H O L E S O M E D O R M ?

    1. Pablo360

      Well, at least three people (four if we count Lucy). We don’t know about the rest. Odds are there’s at least one Mary, even if she isn’t necessarily as bad as Mary.

      1. 4,000 spiders

        no, please, i want to believe in w h o l e s o m e d o r m

        1. Pablo360

          yeah and I wanted to believe in a voting public that wouldn’t put Donald Trump in office, or at least that wouldn’t give him my state’s electoral votes, but it ain’t all sunshine and lollipops, out in the real world sometimes there’s a nice gentle rain and popsicles I MEAN PAIN I MEANT PAIN THERE’S PAIN and also butterscotch candies BUT MOSTLY PAIN

        2. Pablo360

          Man, I suck at pessimism.

        3. Geno

          I’m just imagining Pablo as a actual anime character sucked into the real world

        4. Reltzik

          *Yoda voice* Butterscotch candies lead to cavities. Cavities lead to pain. Pain… leads to SUFFERING.

        5. Pablo360

          And suffering leads to butterscotch candies.

        6. Kamino Neko

          No, Butterscotch leads directly to suffering. Stupid philandering horse…

      2. Reltzik

        There was. She’s now rooming with Sal.

  30. Kazumi

    What’s going on with the blue arm in panel 3?

    1. Pablo360

      It’s how DMW illustrates motion. Same technique as when characters are using sign language.

      1. Kazumi

        Ah right, it’s been a while so I forgot.

  31. Cephalo the Pod

    A bit late in the year to fawn over air-conditioning, isn’t it?

    1. Tacos

      It’s never too late to fawn over AC.

      1. thejeff

        I dunno. I don’t fawn when the AC comes on at work in January and it get down to the high 50s in the office.
        Nothing like putting on a jacket and gloves to work at your desk.

        1. SgtWadeyWilson

          Any excuse to put on a jacket is a good thing.

    2. Lingo

      Yeah, mid-October. Too little, too late.

    3. Reltzik

      Eh, buildings can become uncomfortably hot even when it’s fairly cool outside. Especially if you’re on the higher floors.

  32. Lawzlo

    Do they think she’s pregnant? I’m just sayin’ “you shouldn’t be carrying that”, plus the title could be a double entendre (sorta).

    1. Yumi

      Somehow the rumors about her got majorly mixed up between when Malaya heard them and now. It was like a massive game of telephone.

      1. King Daniel

        Does this mean Howard was right?

        1. Yumi

          Howard is actually the Cassandra of this comic. Just watch, knowledge about Game of Thrones is going to end up being super important.

        2. StClair

          Winter is coming.

        3. adjudicus

          Wait… does this mean that the dysfunctional Read hall is the equivalent of the Lannisters and Forest Quad the Starks? Does this mean that the 2 dorms will go to war over who gets the air conditioning?

        4. Marsh Maryrose

          “While you were partying, I studied the boobies.”

      2. ValdVin

        That’s how these rumors get started!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ4efhazAgM

    2. Dusk Rain

      Well she said “all that” which doesn’t quite have the same connotation, but without the “all” I see what you mean.

    3. Owlmirror

      Actually, I was reminded of the term “baggage” as a metaphor for problems, troubles, and woes. “You shouldn’t be carrying all that [baggage]”. The new dorm will (supposedly) to relieve Billie of (some of ) her tsuris. (This comic being by Damn You Willis, I suspect that this is a head fake)

      See (or hear) also: Don’t Carry It All

  33. Derek

    so are any of these new characters from the Walkyverse?

    1. captainswift

      Rose was a Bizarro version of Amber from Shortpacked, who worked at a store where everyone was a reverse version of one of the main characters. And Beatrice was a brief Christmas-hire at Shortpacked. I don’t recognize Nash.

      1. King Daniel

        Walkyverse-Rose was also one of Amber’s many, many half-siblings (which is not the case in the Dumbiverse, if I recall correctly).

        1. Geno

          Kinda hope it is personally. More drama for Amber, but a super nice sister could a great storyline. Though nice things in Willisverse tend to get smashed with truck shaped shaped objects. Perhaps I shouldn’t wish for anything good to happen here.

  34. Danni

    rose looks suspiciously like ruth

  35. Raijin

    Wow, modern comforts. Billie scored the golden ticket!

    1. Raijin

      Oh my, new gravitar. I like it!

  36. TrueVCU

    No seriously, AC is critical. When I went to VCU back in 2003 there were two dorms, and you were either one of the incandescent gods blessed to inhabit the AC dorm, or one of the wailing unfortunates damned to the non-AC dorm.

    Also VCU is in Richmond, and the summer sun in Virginia is a burning star indeed.

    1. Reltzik

      That, and who has converters for DC?

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        [Insert Amalgam Comics joke here.]

  37. UniqueSnowflake2

    Is anyone else getting the same “We’re so glad you’re not Malaya!” vibe that I am?

    1. Danni

      i didnt before, but now i am

    2. Raijin

      Yes I did.

    3. Reltzik

      More of a “Malaya did not belong here” vibe.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        Malaya was not of the Body.

        1. Fart Captor

          Malaya was not committed to Sparkle Motion

        2. Dusk Rain

          Was that a reference to that one TOS episode with the cult leader super computer named Landru? If so I tip my hat — no wait I do this. \\//

    4. McBogue

      The thought definitely crossed my mind.

    5. Pat

      Oh.

  38. nightsbridge

    . . . Rose is adorable and I love her irrationally much right away.

    I wonder what exactly the ‘If you SAY so’ means. I have a thought, but i cannot help but wonder if I am biased, ’cause I feel like I imagine that kind of stuff everywhere.

    1. captainswift

      I’m pretty sure “If you say so” is just referring to “Billy” not being a common nickname for “Jennifer.”

    2. Kamino Neko

      It means that ‘Billie’ is a non-intuitive short form for Jennifer. I honestly can’t think of any other interpretation of that line in context…

      1. Needfuldoer

        We know it’s derived from her last name, but the new characters don’t. They should have read the archives to catch up before she moved in!

        1. John

          Seriously, it’s literally the first thing Billie says in the comic.

          It’s not like trying to find out her middle name, which takes a bit of an archive crawl.

          (It’s Yunru.)

        2. a/snow mous/e

          Of course, that is a fake ID.

        3. BBCC

          Word of Willis is the middle name is legit.

        4. John

          It’s a quality fake, though. None of this, “Oh, yeah, here’s an ID for someone over 21 who looks vaguely like you, better memorize their vital statistics so you don’t get tripped up,” shit for Billie. That’s a custom job, with everything accurate except the birthdate.

          Anyway, Willis told us her middle name back when she got her first byline. It just hadn’t appeared in the actual comic until the fake ID strip.

      2. Nightsbridge

        Oh yeah, WE know, I’m just wondering what exactly Nash is (wrongly) implying here, if anything.

        1. Kamino Neko

          I’m very confused here.

          About 2 things:

          1) What, aside from ‘Billie is not a usual nickname for Jennifer’, do you think she could be implying?
          2) How does her not knowing the origin of the nickname make the above in any way less likely what she meant?

  39. Saaaam

    Sup, B-squad

  40. Pablo360

    This comic gives me Life™

    (so that it can take it away at a moment’s notice BUT STILL)

    1. SgtWadeyWilson

      *Imagines Willis stealing a bowl of cereal from one of his readers.*
      That’s likely not what they meant, but…

      1. Pablo360

        I put a ™ there, what else could I have meant

        1. Pablo360

          Cereal keeps appearing and I don’t know if I should be worried

        2. SgtWadeyWilson

          Okay, but I think the important question is: has David Willis been literally running in and taking bowls of it off your breakfast table, or does it just disappear in an equally mysterious manner?

  41. Deadjolras

    Wow, this is such a nice dorm!

    … Nope, no, I don’t trust this.

  42. Gwen

    Nice to meet you, new gravatars

    1. Jhon

      Hi!

      1. Jhon

        Yo!

        1. Jhon

          Hello.

  43. ellernock

    i….did not realize the first dorm did NOT have AC. i guess this comes from me being a floridian since if somewhere doesn’t have AC here, the power is probably out.

    1. DonDueed

      And old people are dying.

      1. segnosaur

        That is really cruel.

        At least up here in Canada we leave our old people on ice flows.

  44. BP

    My god… It’s back.

  45. Mr D

    Hey Guys It’s Mr D here, not dead, I’m in the middle of my country’s Independence week (yes, week, we take a whole week off). I’m choke full of roasted pork, sausages, potato salad, rice, soda, juice, Empanadas….

    Let’s just say I’ve got enough food inside of me to sleep the rest of the week away, and we got leftovers from BBQ to last the rest of the week.

    1. Mr D

      I’m a shape-shifter
      What else should I be
      Please don’t take off my mask
      My disguise

      1. Mr D

        GDI that is a bad mask

  46. Marsh Maryrose

    I’ve got to shut down now and can’t let myself be sucked into online research…but I don’t remember Rose being diastemic in the SP-verse?

  47. Carms

    DAAAAANG. A legit fresh start for billie

  48. Lingo

    Beatrice looks a lot shorter than I imagined her being, from the Tumblr preview.

    1. DinaWho

      Same!

      I definitely was not expecting Beatrice to be a smol.

  49. Morrison

    Willis sir, is the hidden DJ lady you found under four layers of IT’SWALKY! dancing characters going to be in this dorm?

  50. Badgermole

    Why is air conditioning in the hallways a thing? #globalwarming

  51. Bagge

    Awww they are all so happy that Malaya is moving.

    1. Pl0x

      Right?! They’re so excited for a replacement.

  52. Pl0x

    Nash is amazing and my new favorite character

  53. Koms

    So nice. My dorm had no air conditioning, no laundry, no water heating system and the internet was such that it took half an hour to download a 2 MB file.

  54. Eldritch Gentleman

    She died and went to air conditioned heaven…

  55. Skraeling

    Ah I remember those days. Fresh out of the dorms and into my first real person apartment. It might have been a crappy studio with a galley kitchen but after three years of crappy, tiny, dorms I thought it was a freakin palace. Good times.

  56. Josh Spicer

    The fact that the subtext actually has some level of legitimacy to it is making me unable to stop laughing.

  57. Benet

    Rose has a diastema!

    Not enough characters have diastemas!

    (Then again, I don’t know many other adult real people with them 🙁 )

    1. Badgermole

      I have one, between upper front incisors. It got covered up with some sort of dental cement by an orthodontist for reasons I won’t get into, but to to my joy the material is slowly chipping off and the gap is reappearing.

      1. Benet

        I have one in the same place. My mother had it, my grandfather had it, and both my brothers had it, but all of theirs closed up with time – I’m the only one to keep it into adulthood. I also had a significant overbite from my father’s side, though, and I don’t know if the gene combination is what meant mine stayed!

        My infant son has the gap in his gums at the moment, so he certainly will have it, not sure if his will go to adulthood!

  58. Eldritch Gentleman

    Is Rose the RA of this wing? She feels and looks like a softer, nicer, more competent Ruth with no hunger for femurs… Ruth might feel her position is being threatened.

    1. BenRG

      She’s certainly pushy enough to be an RA! I think that she’d be one in the mould of Dorothy – Team Mom and motivational cheerleader combination.

  59. BenRG

    Ah! So this is where the college accommodates all the irrepressibly nice ones. Friendly, accepting and always there for each-other. It’s about as different from your usual Read Hall experience as you can get!

    Either that or they’re so glad to see the back of Malaya that they’d give anyone a warm welcome! 😉

    Anyway, I suspect that Billie is going to get a very strong ‘Twilight Zone’ vibe from the whole experience!

  60. Thomas

    Billie has entered a Mirror-Universe, where Mirror-Amber, Mirror-Sarah and Mirror-Dina are all much better at social interaction than their Read Hall counterparts.

    (This is not being fair to Rose, Nash and Beatrice. I’m sure there’s more to them than superficial similarities to other people. Air conditioning probably means Billie got transferred to Forest Hall.)

    1. Reltzik

      Meanwhile, Mirror-Mary is never seen because she’s too busy doing charity with every spare second she’s got, Mirror-Dorothy-and-Ruth-Fusion is a naturally-charismatic leader and RA who never has any trouble juggling her time, and Mirror-Joyce is a calm and collected rock of stability to anyone and everyone who wants to be her friend.

    2. Eldritch Gentleman

      Oh now I know why Nash felt eerily familiar. She is what would happen if Sarah and Joyce performed fusion dance.

      1. UniqueSnowflake2

        Are you saying that Nash is an Archon?

        1. Eldritch Gentleman

          The Starcraft one? Yeah. Tough I had Dragon Ball fusions in mind.

    3. Thomas

      Also, more inclusiveness for hijab-wearing Muslim girls, users of sign language and red-haired women with tooth gaps!

      (Billie’s going without glasses is counterbalanced by the introduction of no less than three(!) bespectacled new characters, so yay!)

    4. Derek

      I think that’s Mirror-Dorothy, not Dina

  61. LooksLikeDaniel

    Are all these people from the other universes, or are they new?

    1. BBCC

      All but Nash.

      1. LooksLikeDaniel

        All from the other universes but Nash, or all new but Nash?

        1. C.

          The first one.

  62. Reltzik

    Okay, so Nash is a woman wearing a hijab rather than a guy wearing a hoodie. I was wondering about that. …. could’ve been a woman wearing a hoodie too, I suppose. Why didn’t that occur to me?

    …. calling it now, Nash is a fan of game theory. (No, real game theory, not the youtube channel.)

    1. vlademir1

      Only so long as she never changes.

      1. vlademir1

        Oh, also, Film Theory is the superior MatPat channel anyway.

  63. Rosicrucian

    Rose had a truamatic event in her past and as result took up EXTREME KNITTING.

  64. Moose

    You don’t wanna know the people I would shtup to get AC in my apartment.

    …Billie Piper

  65. Lamppost

    I can’t wait to see what all this positivity does to Billie. Especially if she has to live with Malaya’s old roommate.

    1. thejeff

      Can’t wait for Billie/Lucy.

  66. AgentKeen

    Oh dang, does Alice live in this dorm? That would end up being super awkward…

    1. thejeff

      I don’t think Alice is nice enough.

      Billie really isn’t either, but she’s enough of a step up from Malaya, they’ll take what they can get.

  67. BenRG

    A guess: Nash is alt-Joyce, Rose is alt-Ruth and Beatrice is alt-Amber.

    1. Kathleen

      I think rose is alt-amber and bea is alt-Dina

      1. Shade

        Yep Rose was Alt-Amber in Shortpacked.

        1. Shade

          Given the height though thinking Nash might be alt-Sarah.

  68. ValdVin

    But there’s no arrow visible on the box! Is it being carried upside down, like the free spirit it is, or right side up, like every other cubicle drone?

    1. vlademir1

      Superposition of the two.

    2. Random832

      Sideways.

  69. OnyxIdol

    Yay, more cute girls!

  70. Valerie

    AHHH BEATRICE HAS A GHOST ARM

    I assume she’s actually saying “hi” in ASL, but the blueness is throwing me off.

  71. Liliaeth

    Why do I get the feeling that she’s being so welcomed, because of whom she’s replacing….

    1. BenRG

      Yeah, I got that feeling too. “Greetings Not-Malaya!”

      1. ValdVin

        Sometimes it’s better to stick with the devil you know.

        But this crew, having known Malaya, will figure out that this isn’t.one of those situations.

  72. podian

    Billie found McAwesome’s!

  73. Will

    William and Mary still has certain dorms without ‘central air’. Screw the back corridor. They recently removed Freshman from them though so now it is an upperclasman nightmare.

  74. Jezi

    Man, growing up in the deep South, it still baffles me when places without central air exist. You just… DON’T, down here.

    1. Doopyboop

      I live in Florida so I’m right there with you. Irma came down, knocked our power out for a week. 7 days without a/c was HELL.

    2. foamy

      I live in Canada. I feel the same bafflement towards places without fireplaces.

    3. Deanatay

      California, in a college town. It’s hard to find functioning AC here.

  75. Sam

    ‘Billie, short for Jennifer’. Perfect explanation skills clearly.

    1. a/snow mous/e

      I guess she likes to be a bit enigmatic. Keep an air of mystery.

    2. BenRG

      “How is ‘Billie’ short for ‘Jennifer’?”

      “Ah, my young Learner, there are some mysteries for which you are not yet ready to gain insight!”

  76. PapayaPunkPixie

    New characters! And they’re all so adorable

  77. NotAnElf

    Is Billie the DoAerse Mike? leading a double mirror universe existence? Straddling two worlds seperated by a short walk?

  78. TheAmazingKMan

    Wait, some campuses DON’T HAVE AC?!

    …That’s it, I’m not living on campus when I go to college.

    1. BenRG

      I’m thinking that Carla keeps messing with Read Hall’s AC, partly for the lulz and partly out of genuine engineering curiosity. The most recent rooftop unit has been positively tracked in a high Molniya Orbit. Carla’s dad paid off the college but no-one can be bothered to go through the effort anymore.

    2. Fart Captor

      It’s really not that bad. The dorms may not have AC, but other buildings usually will. Gives you incentive to hang out in the library. Plus the fun of living in the dorms makes up for it

      1. thejeff

        Depends where you are. We didn’t have AC in the dorms when I was in school, but I’d also never lived anywhere that had AC.

        Now if it had been without heat we would have been in trouble. And probably either frozen to death or burned up when someone lit a fire in their room to stay warm.

  79. miados

    hmmm my first thought was is rose an RA a random person that lives there or billies new roomie (if she doesn’t get a roomie i guess i forgot that.)

    1. Kamino Neko

      Her new roommate is Lucy. She swapped with Malaya.

    2. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

      She’s actually a friendly poltergeist.

      “Are you telling me your dorms don’t even have a rose?!”

  80. Daddy-O

    Having spent my youth in the South, I can attest that AC is considered a Wonder of the World in some parts.

  81. Joseph Picard

    “Billie, hm? Odd name, mind if we call you Steven?”
    “Wha.. why?”
    “Because we..”
    “Are the crystal gems..”
    “Steven, line.”
    “…”
    “Billie, you’re Steven. Jump in.”

  82. wynne

    Billie has ascended to a better place.

    Also listen, you whippersnappers, I didn’t get AC until senior year and the brand new extra fancy upperclassmen dorm! You just ran paper towels under the faucet and hung them on your fan!

  83. Vangeln

    Goddammit Malaya! You ditched AC because an overfriendly roomate?

    1. Yumi

      Really, moving out of the air conditioned, larger dorm room dorm because someone was nice to you…well, we all have our priorities.

  84. JohnnyO

    I remember moving into a dorm with no A/C and thinking “it’s in the mountains, I’ll be fine.”

    It was 90 degrees on move-in day.

  85. Random832

    Ah, well, that explains who some of the new gravatars that previously had no tagged appearances are.

  86. Random832

    Ah, well, that explains who some of the new gravatars that previously had no tagged appearances are.

    (Oops, made a typo in the email field, and I already had a Galasso anyway – delete my other comment please)

  87. Deanatay

    *Billie’s cell rings*
    Billie: hello?
    Walky: Hey Billie! I just –
    Billie: NO, WALKY.
    Walky: Huh? But I-
    Billie: Don’t care what kind of wacky hijinks you’re involved in, I’m not going to help you.
    Walky: I’m not-
    Billie: I’m staying HERE. Where it’s COOL.
    Walky:… Uh-
    Billie: NEVER LEAVE THIS PLACE. NEEEEEEVEEEERRRR…

    1. SgtWadeyWilson

      “Son of a Ben and Jerry! Now who’s going to help me eat all this ice cream we found?”

  88. Remmington Steele

    This can’t last. EVIL LURKS BEHIND THE DOORS! ABAN

  89. steelbright

    why am i both excited and strangely terrified that the people in this dorm will be just as interesting/horrible as our main characters…?

  90. Sibre

    ? I think I’m gonna like it here! ?

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