138

Access
Posted on September 17, 2024 by David M Willis

138 thoughts on “Access”

  1. Sirksome

    90 percent sure Ruth knows about Fuckface and just doesn’t say anything.

    1. darkoneko

      Yeeep xd

      1. Jo_cubstar

        Yeah, probably

    2. King_Salty

      I can’t remember if its ever actually been shown or mentioned as being the case, but I wouldn’t be surprised, after all there have been a number of times where they haven’t done a very good job of keeping him secret.

      1. Sirksome

        Well Joyce wore him as a prop for a Halloween party Ruth was at sooooo maybe 89 percent chance Ruth knows.

        1. Dante

          Yeaaah. Only reason it’s not 100% is because, y’know. She was preoccupied with her own personal drama.

          Otherwise, the iguana’s blatantly there – yet stays unacknowledged.

        2. thejeff

          Yeah, but she held up a frying pan to hide him when Ruth came in, so there’s no chance Ruth noticed.

        3. Felian

          i’d never get suspicious to see a frying pan held up at a dorm party.

      2. anon

        i get why pets might be considered a bad thing/distraction (wonder how many colleges have service animals), but something like an iguana/reptile just chilling in your room doesn’t seem too bad, tho i wonder if ppl are at least allowed fish lol (if not some insurance/safety issue so your cat doesn’t claw your roommates’ eyes out or someone accidentally kiling ur pet)

        1. James

          Fish come with a risk of water damage to the dorm, if the tank were to get damaged or a filter were to malfunction and start spraying a wall or something.

        2. Shade

          It’s just easier to blanket ban all pets than to make a list of what is or isn’t allowed.

        3. S.R.

          Iguanas can do some damage if pissed off, and are usually easily pissed off. They also have needs that can’t readily be met in the space the size of a college dorm- freeroaming isn’t usually good for herps, and they need a large enclosure. They’re a potential hazard to one’s roommate, won’t be properly cared for in a dorm room, and may be harmed by the pesticides used to prevent/get rid of bedbugs due to those pesticides not being tuned for “there’s an iguana in that one room”. This is a cartoon, so some of those issues don’t apply, but IRL this wouldn’t be a good idea at all.

          A fair number of campuses allow a small (usually 5gal or less) fish tank. Mine specified you can only have non-dangerous fish, which made me wonder what somebody did to inspire that rule. Tried to keep a baby lionfish or something, I guess.

        4. Felian

          yeah, seems kind of fair. And if you allow small pets, then everyone might get one for fun, and small pets are often not cared for properly (esp when it comes to enclosure size or the right amount of pack mates the species wants)

        5. Laura

          College I went to, one student had a service emu. So cool. This emu would carry his books, walk him to class, get petted, etc. He was rhe envy of everyone!

        6. lightsabermario

          The college knew that if they didn’t allow the emu, there’d be a war. And they’d lose.

        7. thejeff

          It was a little known clause in terms of surrender.

        8. Felian

          That is extremely amazing. Wow.

      3. WillowD

        Ruth almost saw fuckface in the September 2021 second bonus comic. Carla is standing in the hallway with Fuckface on her head while Ruth walks by. Carla is holding a “Maple Leafs Rock!” sign above her head which hides Fuckface. My avatar comes from this page.

      4. WillowD

        Ruth also almost finds out about Fuckface in this comic. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/tattler/

    3. Radiance

      As a counterpoint: it’s funnier if she doesn’t know.

      1. Clif

        Hey, I’m only 50% sure that Charly knows about FF.

      2. Xaeon

        As a further counterpoint, it’s even funnier if she visits fuckface regularly and keeps it hidden from Malaya.

    4. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      If someone is being blind to something like that, it is only polite to help them maintain plausible deniability.

    5. Reltzik

      I think Ruth knows that some rules are just bullshit and enforcing them is dumb.

    6. DailyBrad

      They’ve gotta have a heat lamp for Fuckface, so it’s either something she might notice, or just assume they’re growing weed.

      1. S.R.

        Heat lamps often emit little to no light, and many models of them look like inconvenient desk-type lamps. Even UV lights for reptiles are usually not very large.

        1. DailyBrad

          I used to have a turtle, so I did know all of this, I just was being silly.

    7. Francoinblanco

      She know and let them kids have their little secret

    8. staszu13

      Yep

    9. Needfuldoer

      “I know nothing! NUH-THING!”

      – Sgt. Shultz Ruth, probably

    10. Cattleprod

      The only times Ruth and Fuckface exist in the same scene is when Fuckface is with Joyce, so even if Ruth knows an iguana exists, there’s no link to Malaya.

    11. Librain

      My bet: she knows about the existence of “fuckface”, but has absolutely zero context. She is vaguely torn between desperately trying to figure out what’s going on from the few clues she picks up here and there, or aggressively not giving a shit about the whole thing.

  2. timemonkey

    I believe her.

  3. bcb

    Oh my Cheeze Charlie and Malaya’s interaction is perfect

  4. Yeet

    eventually every character must gain an iguana-on-head panel

    1. Reltzik

      Except Mike.

      1. Francoinblanco

        Good one 🙂
        difficult but not impossible

        1. Rowen Morland

          Maybe for next Halloween Walky can carry around a skull with Fuckface riding it.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Flashbacks are a thing.

      2. Shade

        Fuckface on his headstone.

  5. JA

    Ok who else thought Fuckface was wearing a little hat in the first panel?

    1. Doctor_Who

      It’s a fez. Fezzes are cool.

      1. Decidedly Orthogonal

        No he’s no…. oh. Oh yeah. Fez. Not Faz. Yeah, fezzes are pretty cool.

    2. Risky

      I liked that reality better. Now I double-checked, this new reality is not as good.

      1. Mark

        Send it back. Tell them, no, you chose the other one.

    3. Opus the Poet

      It’s the alarm on the wall behind him.

  6. darkoneko

    I dunno about leaving a guitar outnlike that with a free iguana in the room…

    1. Taffy

      What’s he gonna do, play Chop Suey?

    2. Doctor_Who

      Fuckface has thankfully outgrown Wonderwall and mostly moved on to playing Nirvana covers, so it’s tolerable.

      1. Taffy

        Sure, if you have a time machine with a rewind function.

        1. Mark

          Oh? What do you get when you play Nirvana backwards?

        2. Needfuldoer

          The Wiggles.

          Or maybe Anavrin.

        3. Taffy

          A migraine

    3. Thag Simmons

      worried about the guitar or the iguana?

      1. Taffy

        Fuckface could totally get stuck inside the guitar and die, Sal is being a very irresponsible pet owner.

        1. Clif

          I’m somewhat sure that Sal is not a pet owner. Unless you count Danny.

        2. Rowen Morland

          Is that Malaya talking?

        3. Needfuldoer

          She should’ve gone solid-body electric!

        4. Roborat

          Iguana is a bit too big to fit inside that guitar.

  7. Taffy

    I love Charlie and her 1024 ping.

  8. Doopyboop

    I’ve learned that opinions are wrong to have, as is any attempt to do any that thar theorizing or anything so instead I’m just gonna say Charlie is very cute and Carla is lucky to be her girlfriend. There! Nobody could possibly have an issue with that sort of opinion.

    1. AY

      *takes a deep breath*

      1. Doopyboop

        OH GOD STRUCK DOWN BY MY OWN HUBRIS

        1. Dante

          SO LONG ICARUS

        2. Nymph

          You girlbossed too close to the sun.

      2. Jeremiah

        I don’t get it.

        1. Doopyboop

          It’s a joke based on how I feel like sometimes in the comment section of this comic, people seem to take things so seriously or just truly become so incensed that I regret ever commenting on a comic I enjoy.

        2. Jeremiah

          I mean the inhale comment, I felt like it was referring something but I didn’t get what.

        3. Taffy

          The idea is that AY is taking a deep breath before launching into a tirade.

        4. Jeremiah

          Ah okay, that makes sense, thanks you.

    2. Taffy

      Lieke omg my gawd, u cain’t just call? a neuro dibergence chara cute , ur liek totes infantilisming ? herrrrr

      1. Doopyboop

        Game over guys, the call out is being written as I speak, ‘Doopyboop called someone cute, Doopyboop is gross’. It’s been a good run guys.

    3. Regret

      I’ll sacrifice myself and distract the rampaging horde from your post.

      Uhm, actually, it really really sounds like Charlie needs medication. She obviously can’t function.

      1. Daibhid C

        I mean, point me to the strip that says she doesn’t take medication. And she clearly does function. Like, she hasn’t flunked out, and it doesn’t look like she regularly forgets meals. That’s better than I did at uni!

        1. Regret

          Do I really have to explain how medication needs to be dialed in and how figuring out the correct medication and dose can take a while and until you do you’re as likely to be worse or better off? But sure, have it your way: I add that if she is taking medication she needs more or less, but the current dose isn’t working.

          Walky was not flunking out either as he got in more and more trouble, so that’s not an argument, that just means we haven’t seen that side yet.

          And it does sound like you were not doing great either, though you just expressed a longer coherent thought than we’ve ever seen from Charlie. Charlie is so disconnected from reality at almost all times that she should be kept out of traffic. Like for instance here she’s not even noticing there’s a heavy animal on top of her head, that’s not a good thing for someone not to notice.

          (How am I doing Doopyboop?)

        2. Jeremiah

          I don’t see what that first paragraph have to do with anything with whatever. The “coherent thought” part actually pissed me off, do you seriously don’t hear how that sounds? Just because she often is lost in her thoughs and stay quiet doesn’t mean anything about her how “Coherent” and calling her “disconnected from reality” is just really taking things out of proportion. Yes she has a disability, that’s clear,, yes she probably do need some amount of support to get by that others don’t, that doesn’t she is just actually incapable of functioning, which i don’t think she is, since she seems to be fairly okay, having got to college and assuming she must be flunking her classes without having seen anything related to that is just weird. As an autistic person: Kindly piss off

        3. Yumi

          I *think*– based on the overall context, the person’s previous comment, and the last line of the comment you’re replying to– the commenter is doing a bit and not meant to be taken seriously.

        4. Jeremiah

          Then it is a pretty shitty bit imo.

        5. Regret

          It is half-serious. Yes, the point was to distract.

          On the serious side: if she was just lost in thought and quiet, she wouldn’t constantly need to be redirected by friends and family. Lots of people get support from friends and family and that is why they do well despite being unable to do it themselves. I honestly think that is most people, we are a social species, we need a social network to function, and that social network will pick up tasks we are less good at. This is not insulting to any specific person, this is a description of humanity. Some are just a few standard deviations further from functional in a certain field. For Charlie that is the ability to be present in the here and now and to choose which thought to go deep in.

          Todays comic (two after than this one) has Charlie saying “Huh with this Iguana on my head, events are occurring linearly and I feel strangely focussed.” This strongly implies her experience of reality normally isn’t linear and she isn’t focussed. I think that means incoherent is not innaccurate. I much prefer animal support to medication. Training/practice would be even better, but not all options always apply to everyone. For example, I cannot give presentations without my sanity crumbling. Maybe I could do it with drugs, but I choose not to explore that option. Likewise, if Charlie doesn’t want medication, then that’s their choice, but that choice doesn’t mean they’re functioning as well as other people in important skills like “hold a conversation or task in their mind long enough to hold a job”

        6. thejeff

          This is kind of the problem though.
          Yes, she’s made it to college and apparently through one semester without flunking out, but this is fiction and we’re allowed to wonder if kind of established background fact actually matches what we’ve seen of her portrayal.

        7. Doopyboop

          Your sacrifice will be remembered, soldier!

      2. Whirlakitty

        (Note that I’m talking without any expertise here) I get the idea that Charlie hyper-focuses on things and has a hard time ‘changing gears’. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s actually quite effective and good at whatever it is she happens to be focusing on. Probably does well in class, because she’s focusing on class. But when she tries to do things like “read something on her phone while also looking for Carla’s dorm”…one of the two tasks is going to not work out. 🙂

  9. Sajuuk-Khar

    Fuckface: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.

    1. Taffy

      *distorted_horn.ogg*

    2. Deanatay

      CHUCKFACE

    3. Loki

      I recognize that reference!

  10. RassilonTDavros

    This strip is really cute and wholesome, can’t wait until I reread it in like ten years’ time after knowing more about her as a person and it’s a massive tear-jerker in hindsight

  11. Mr. Random

    She’s going to walk outside with FF on her head.

    1. Taffy

      Hope she brings plenty of water.

    2. Bruno

      Joyce has done it.

  12. Lia

    this is so cute

  13. Pocky

    I think you could pass an elephant in front of her, and she’d miss it.

    You gals are fine, the iguana is as good as invisible!

    1. Reltzik

      I mean, if someone tried to pass an elephant in front of me, I’d be doing everything I could to miss it. I’d dial 911, but I’d do so on the way out of the door.

      1. Taffy

        If it’s anything like passing a kidney stone, they’re in for a good time.

    2. AGV/Ruby

      You laugh but elephants are shockingly silent and stealthy considering that they’re 4 ton animals

  14. elfroyalty

    i love charlie so much TT-TT… girl of all times. i know that carla’s just trying to show off a little but i think it’s sweet she’s Also introducing charlie to her friends.

    1. Derek

      I gotta ask, what’s so cute about Charlie? she’s just…oblivious to a concerning level? like she might actually walk into traffic without someone being her helper sort of oblivious? that’s the cute part?

      1. Jeremiah

        She is just like, pretty nice and has a pleasing design and Neurodivergent people can identify with the traits she exhibits and that make her appealing to some of them (and me). You don’t have to get it if you really don’t, I just answering your question.

  15. BBCC

    Awww, Carla is introducing her girlfriend to her bestie!
    And by that, I mean Fuckface.

  16. Amós Batista

    You can’t tell anything, if you don’t know nothing…

    1. Amós Batista

      You can’t tell anything, if you doesn’t know nothing…

      1. Colin McKenzie

        Reminds me of the old Stan Freberg sketch, “Elderly Man River”.

        “Proper grammar is important, Mr. Freberg. We must consider the tiny tots.”

        1. Amós Batista

          as a non-north-american and non-european, I can say: you’re God-damned right

    2. anon

      Honestly, given how ‘nerdy/weird’ some college kids are, if not the ones just doing ‘random shit for the luls’ while they’re young, i would totally believe someone would be able to have a hyper realistic iguana figure/plushie on their head just cause (altho while a bit morbid, i wonder if you were to wear like some taxidermy’d snake around your head to class if that’d break any rules versus just freaking out ppl)

      (i wonder what malaya’s parents are like/surprised they’re ok with her taking fuckface to the dorm unless they don’t care or she’s specifically rebelling against them too lol)

      1. staszu13

        Oh geez Malaya being rebellious. How very shocking.

        Pretty sure her parents have seen it all with her

  17. AGV/Ruby

    Fuckface has deemed Charlie worthy

    1. Jeremiah

      Like it was ever a fucking question.

  18. NGPZ

    Happy Transformers Day!!! ^^

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lUbGHnFfUTs

    1. morhek

      “AND NOW, THROUGH THE MAGIC OF THE CYBER-NET SPACE CUBE, THE COMPUTER ENHANCED STORIES OF THE TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION TWO!”
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vQppFvdPsM&ab_channel=AeonConvoy

  19. IntangibleMatter

    There are few things more secure than a system that can’t remember anything

  20. anon

    lol i guess a malaya interaction should be fun. unless she’s ‘mean’ to charlie and it sets carla off or so (altho i guess she only ever rly purposefully antagonized sal)

    1. Jeremiah

      And that one guy with the podcast. And maybe Lucy though she doesn’t really care.

    2. Daibhid C

      The word “purposefully” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, although maybe not as much as the inverted commas around “mean”.

  21. Bryy

    The irony of Malaya tolerating Carla.

  22. BorkBorkBork

    I very much want us to learn over time that the only person that Charlie notices without effort is Dina, and they wave to each other as they pass walking to and from class.

    1. Nymph

      “Who? Oh that’s my best friend.”

      “But… you didn’t know her name?”

      1. BorkBorkBork

        I mean, this is Dina we’re talking about. It’s 2:1 that Carla doesn’t even know that Dina exists, and wouldn’t notice her even if Charlie waved to her.

        I mean, I’m not entirely convinced that Dina isn’t standing just to the left of the guitar in panel 1.

  23. Da Boy

    Fuckface pulling a power move on Carla “My Charlie now!”

  24. staszu13

    Observations:
    1.”What iguana?” Anyone else, this would be a wink-nudge, “say no more guv’nor” thing. I truly believe Charlie doesn’t notice.
    2. “Seems a little scatterbrained” Yeah, as always, Malaya and sensitivity are total strangers

    1. staszu13

      And I read Carla’s look last panel as “I don’t think we need to worry about that”

  25. FlamestAndLight

    New Theory: Charlie is actually Hyper-Vigilant but is a VERY good actor and pretends to be clueless for The Bit

    (i don’t really believe this but sometimes you gotta float theories you don’t believe for the bit)

  26. ValdVin

    If Charlie doesn’t notice an iguana I’d love to see a chameleon on her.

    –

    Hey, who plays the left-handed guitar?

    1. Taffy

      Who’s Malaya’s roommate with the fucked up hand?

      1. Jeremiah

        Don’t know if it’s intentional but you gravatar (the one I am seeing right now which is a red and blue circle) remind of the eyes of Pommi from The amazing digital circus.

        1. Taffy

          As we say in the biz, there’s a reason for that.

        2. Jeremiah

          I am guessing you not gonna tell me what it is so you can act all cool and mysterious?

        3. Taffy

          If there’s one thing I’m not, it’s mysterious. Basically, I just watched the first episode of the show last night and like the main lady’s eyes.

        4. Jeremiah

          Ahh good to know you are someone of culture.

        5. Clif

          It was never in any doubt. We would keep Taffy around just for comments like the one about passing an elephant.

  27. Pergola

    Can you really get an iguana to sit on your head?

    1. David M Willis

      https://www.tumblr.com/grammatically-incoherent/180082941983

    2. Jeremiah

      You can get anything you want as long a you believe in yourself.

  28. Firseal

    Its worrisome when Malaya is the voice of reason and caution.

  29. Leorale

    I really hope we get some more background for Charlie and she’s not just played one-note “lol she doesn’t notice things”.

    Like, I have severe ADHD-inattentive. I would definitely wander searching the wrong hallway, or nearly-but-not-quite forget to go to class. Charlie could become my stand-in character!

    But not if she’s just an ongoing joke that she doesn’t notice an animal on her head.

    1. NGPZ

      Fuckface loves being on lots of peoples’ heads, including but not limited to Joyce and Malaya.

      And considerin the ways neurodiversity has already been explored in this comic, it is very much likely we will get some background on her ^^

    2. Wilde

      Worse, she doesn’t remember why she came here with Carla at all. I dunno…If this comic didn’t have a prior trajectory of taking one dimensional stereotypes about autism (early Di a) and then eventually getting into serious discourse about it with more fully fledged characters (later Dina and Joyce), I would worry more about this rep of ADHD, but I’m sure Willis will get there.

  30. Nathan

    What is Charlie’s diagnosis likely to be?

    1. Taffy

      Lung cancer.

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