377

Weekdays
Posted on June 8, 2017 by David M Willis

377 thoughts on “Weekdays”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    shit, I need to be on THAT work schedule

  2. AnvilPro

    Did Carla get really tall? I don’t remember her towering over Joyce even with skates before

    1. Theo

      Nah, Carla was always that tall.

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/unraveling/

      1. Pigeon Pollyx

        hey that was a good comic to bring back

      2. rectilinearpropagation

        You know, looking at their faces in the background now, I think they did it just to mess with her.

        1. Pigeon Pollyx

          heck dude don’t ruin a good thing. They can do both.

      3. Lan

        Carla’s one of those Amazons from Futurama. Except with a pechant for engineering of the radical kind.

    2. Eyebrow

      I didn’t know she was Dutch.

    3. Delicious Taffy

      Carla’s father is the Slender Man. That is why she is so tall.

    4. vlademir1

      Looking back at previous strips Carla does seem just slightly taller now compared to Joyce. That said, she’s on newer skates which could have a different height…

  3. fillerusername

    Aww I miss Danny.

    1. Thor

      FFS, why?

      1. Fart Captor

        He’s a good egg, Thorp

        1. Thor

          Only accidentally, when he’s not paying attention and is merely reacting to others. The moment he tries to do something active and on purpose, he immediately starts danning things up.

          I’m still trying to figure out how he managed to get with a top-tier character like Dorothy. The only thing I can think of was that the dating pool was really terrible wherever he and Dorothy (and Joe!) came from.

        2. Fart Captor

          No, while he can be oblivious, and screws up from time to time, he’s a good, kind person who does his best to do right by people.

          In his many – very conscious, deliberate – attempts to get Amber to not be so hard on herself, he knocked it out of the park. His attempts to be supportive of Ethan were similarly well done.

          And he was did better at math tutoring than an actual teacher.

          As much as I can see why Dorothy broke up with him, I can also see why she was dating him in the first place

        3. foamy

          Damn straight. Dan’s got his flaws, but it’s mostly because he’s not had the life experience yet to ground himself. He’s genuinely kind guy.

        4. Joe Covenant

          Besides which, if he was a *bad* egg, the first tune he’d have played on that damned uke would have been “I want it now!”

        5. zoelogical

          or that hack’s cover of weird al’s “word crimes”

      2. Schol-R-LEA

        Wait, there was an S sub-series of Final Fantasy? When was that, and which game was it based on? HOW DID I MISS THIS!?!?!?!?!

        (Disclaimer: I’ve never played any FF games. Period. I have no idea if sub-series and/or alternate storylines are even a thing with Final Fantasy. I get the sense I am missing something, at least regarding the original, III, VII, and IX. Apparently with XI and XIII, not so much.)

        1. Thor

          In this case, the “S” stands for “Sports” It was a Final Fantasy game developed exclusively for the Wii, where you could take your favorite spiky-haired bishies and have them play ping-pong, go bowling, or do 18 holes of golf. It’s the Final Fantasy game for the whole family!

        2. Pablo360

          That makes sense.

    2. Bagge

      That’s the guy with the ukulele, right?

    3. Roborat

      Well, check your impact point and adjust the sight accordingly.

    4. Remmington Steele

      A uke and a trim cap is all a good egg needs to get by these days.

      Toodle pip!

  4. miados

    we? um…. red heads?

    1. Meta

      the dutch?

      1. Scoops

        Again!

      2. Mc

        No, we’re not.

    2. Doctor_Who

      Ultra Car’s muffler was manufactured in the Netherlands, so he pays tribute to that part of his heritage. It’s the same way I celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day even though only my mom’s side of the family is Irish.

      Carla observes all of the UC holidays. His tape deck is Japanese, his carburetor is German, his “Back Off” mudflaps with Yosemite Sam were made in Texas…

      1. Nono

        She?

        1. Doctor_Who

          I meant Ultra-Car, the in-universe cartoon character, I was under the impression that one used male pronouns, apologies if I remembered that wrong.

        2. Andy

          http://walkypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Ultra_Car

          She, fem-bot, and any number of other she/her pronouns on the wiki. I am not a reader of the other comics, but it was super jarring to see her referred to in male pronouns at all, being a trans person myself.

        3. Doctor_Who

          A thousand pardons.

        4. Andy

          Thank you for acknowledging your mistake.

        5. Nono

          So just a hypothetical question for the sake of clarification.

          If a trans person (who is in the process of transitioning or hasn’t started it yet) confides in me that they’re trans, but they’re not out yet, what’s the ‘polite’ pronoun to use in public company? The pronoun that they’d prefer to be called by, or the one that minimizes the risk of outing them?

          I haven’t encountered that situation myself, and it’d likely be a case-by-case basis, but just wanted to make sure I don’t step in a pitfall if that does happen.

        6. Yossarianduck

          I can’t seem to reply to @Nono, , but the best course of action is probably to ask them and go from there. A big part of pronoun usage is about giving the person in question agency over their identity, so keep that in mind.

          FWIW, I’m not Trans*, just someone who tries to listen, so if I’ve gotten anything wrong, I welcome any correction from the many smart Trans* folk here (looking at you @Cerberus).

        7. foamy

          I have in fact encountered this precise situation. I asked, which is what I would suggest anyone else do as well. If that’s not possible, try “they”.

        8. Cerberus

          Nono, the best practice is generally to ask the person what they’d prefer you to call them in public.

          Beyond that or lacking that, my general tactics are as follows:

          If you’re speaking vaguely to people with no connection or knowledge of the person in question, just use their real pronoun and don’t mention names just say “Oh, I have a friend who and (she/he/they/xe/etc…) said”.

          If you’re speaking to folks they know and are not out to or more specifically about them by name, my go-to strategy is to just cut out pronouns entirely where I can get away with it. A lot of folks will go a long way in a conversation of that style before noticing you’ve not used a single pronoun. It’s what I do a lot with parents to minimize the amount of times I have to misgender a student in the charting.

          But yeah, when in doubt, ask the trans person. Most trans people are happy to answer questions like that as it can mean less awkward interactions down the line and shows also that you respect and care about our safety and well-being.

        9. Genie

          I can’t seem to reply to Cerberus’ comment, but on an interesting tangent about not using pronouns, there’s a fantasy novel called At Amberleaf Fair where one character is never gendered at all. For 186 pages, no gendered pronoun was ever used with respect to this person – and it is not obvious or forced. It’s pretty amazing and inspirational, and really shows how flexible you can be with language to remain respectful.

        10. Pablo360

          @Genie The Japanese language is not impressed by that anecdote.

        11. foamy

          @Genie: There’s a limit to how deep comments can be nested.

          In the same vein as your suggestion, you might be interested in the Ancillary series, by Ann Leckie, which also plays some interesting games with pronouns (in addition to being good stories in their own right).

      2. Andy

        Who exactly are you even talking about with those pronouns?

      3. Foxhack

        I hope your S key is broken.

        1. Kamino Neko

          Shis?

      4. Woobie

        Burn the heretic!

      5. Shiro

        Dude, you’re a regular commenter, what’s even going on with Carla’s pronouns in your comment?

        1. Shiro

          Like, even if you’re talking about the TV show character Ultra Car, pretty sure she goes by female pronouns in this setting too.

        2. Doctor_Who

          Sorry, was talking about UC, not Carla.

        3. Shiro

          It’s okay, we’re just protective of our snarky lil asshole.

        4. Pablo360

          But UC is Amaiz-Girl

      6. Dandi_Andi

        Wow. That’s a lot of misgendering in one comment. Even before the chassis upgrade, I don’t think UC ever identified as male. And let us remember that Carla isn’t Ultra Car, anyway.

        I’m willing to assume that was negligence on your part. Please assure me that it was.

        1. Doctor_Who

          Yes, sorry, I’m an imbecile.

        2. Cerberus

          *hugs* Brain farts happen, it’s cool.

        3. Dandi_Andi

          Thank you. I appreciate that.

          And you’re not an imbecile. These things do happen.

      7. Goblin Scribe

        HAS ANYBODY TOLD YOU YET—
        JK I know they have. I just wanted to be included in something. ;P

      8. PumpkinWhat

        I’ve read this comic all the way through. Some parts of it multiple times. I’ve also read much of Shortpacked, including many parts with Ultra-Car. Until you said that Carla, a person with red hair often seen on wheels who loves engineering, is Ultra-Car, I never even thought that.

        I am full of shame.

        1. DinaWho

          How recent have you read in Shortpacked? If you haven’t read much from after UC’s chassis upgrade, it’s understandable not to make the connection.

        2. Goblin Scribe

          It blew my mind when I realized that Ultra Car turned into Carla. My friend was like, “Yeah, DUH,” and I was like, “Shut up, Pam.”

  5. MK15

    Never been disappointed to see Carla before!
    Such a tease, Willis

    1. Shaunock

      ULTRACARLA

      1. Schol-R-LEA

        In my “Dumbing To Whateley” Whateley Academy/DoA crossover micro-fics, this is actually a thing.

        Then again, so is Conquest being ordered to have a child with a lesbian, and Joe having a magical Glamour that makes him irresistible to women, so I’m playing a bit fast and loose with the canon of both series in those.

        1. Schol-R-LEA

          Of course, the Whateley Academy micro-scenes thread (which is used for short fanfic vignettes) gets a lot weirder than that.

          Exhibit A

          Exhibit B

          Exhibit C

          Exhibits D-1 and D-2

          Exhibit E

          And for extra cross-over fun, here’s my own Tales of the Barman microfic for Twisting of the Hellmouth.

  6. Yumi

    Every day is a Christian Feast Day.

    1. JessWitt

      Every day is a Catholic saint’s day.

      1. Yumi

        Precisely.

        1. Yossarianduck

          The important thing is to commemorate the ones that died most gruesomely!

        2. Delicious Taffy

          What better way to honor their memories than to rub our own vigor in their faces?

        3. Delicious Taffy

          Their dead, lifeless, long-decayed faces

      2. Harvey Janus

        Technically but not quite the same as a feast day, and the actual calendar of feasts varies depending on the country.

  7. Mr. Mendo

    What a comically-mismatched pair! More please!

    1. Gigafreak

      Brown vest over a shirt with a horizontal yellow stripe? Joyce seems to be echoing her parallel-dimension self.

      Makes me wonder if that world’s Joyce has ever interacted with that world’s Ultra-Car.

      1. Shiro

        Probably at one or more of the weddings, but she was probably in her new chassis by that point.

  8. fillerusername

    I’m not done commenting on clothing choices so let me just say Carla’s looking good here.

    1. butting

      NEEDS MOAR PLAID

    2. Cerberus

      That skirt looks practically shiny!

    3. Dara

      Agreed.

    4. Inbar Fink

      Carla always wears such cute outfits! Lots of visually pleasuing color schemes!

  9. shadowcell

    “every day is a blessing from God, which makes it holy, hence every day is a holiday, and that is why i should not have to show up to any class ever, BAM CASE CLOSED MOFOS”

    1. CianM1301

      Leaked text from Joyce’s eventual rebellious phase.

  10. Cholma

    I don’t see why people even CARE about her skating in the hallway. Other than being faster, it’s the same as walking. Not like she’s driving a Segway or Go-cart down the hall!

    1. Danigami

      I take it as Joyce being worried that Carla could get scolded. because she doesn’t want the people she likes being in trouble

    2. Woobie

      Noise? Someone might be trying to sleep.

      1. Shiro

        1.) How much noise do you think skates make on carpet, and 2.) what time do you think it is?

        1. Thor

          1) They make enough noise that we have already had a whole plot line revolve around it. 2) People also study in their rooms, at all hours of the day.

        2. Fart Captor

          Dorms aren’t a library. They’re living spaces. Where people live not just sleep and study. There will always be background noise.

          That’s why at most colleges there’s study lounges all over the place.

        3. Flakky

          It’s precisely because people live in them that there are rules. If Carla wanted to skate inside, she could have brought it up at with the RA, or one of the meetings the dorm had.

          Instead she assumed, correctly, that such would get her skating banned, and just did it anyway.

        4. Fart Captor

          Sure, but the reason it’s not against the rules has nothing to do with it being too loud

        5. Shiro

          No, we’ve had a plot revolve around Mary being a goddamn wannabe hall monitor. It has not been established that Carla was, in fact, making a nuisance level of noise.

          People can put headphones on. People can go to the library. Because it’s ridiculously unfair and unreasonable to expect silence in living areas in the middle of the day.

      2. nightsbridge

        Who let Mary into the comment section?

      3. Cerberus

        Oh no. *hits emergency parachute button to bail out of this one*

        1. MatsuoTanuki

          *puts on a padded crash-test helmet that makes an adorable squeaky noise*

      4. Roborat

        Suspect it is less of a noise issue, and more of a safety issue, both for the person skating and potential impact with other people. People skating in the hallway would be travelling much faster than walking pace.

    3. Thor

      From an administrative point of view, that’s easy. Skating produces more wear-and-tear on the floor/carpet. Also higher speeds mean higher chance of injury–especially since most people are not as skilled as Carla–so skating is no good from a liability viewpoint. And as we have already seen earlier in the strip, the noise that skating makes is more intrusive than walking.

      I know that I am in the minority on this, but I think Carla skating in the hallways is really inconsiderate and makes her a lot less sympathetic to me. If not for the couple of nice things she has done, I would find it hard to like her at all.

      But at least she’s not Danny.

      1. brionl

        This is why we can’t have nice things. “Carla is skating in the halls, so it’ll be ok if I ride my scooter>BMX>Motorcycle”

      2. Reltzik

        From an administrative point of view, someone put the rule on the books back in the 50s, and no one remembers why, but it’s there so they’ll enforce it if they can think of a reason to care but they can’t so they don’t.

        1. Roborat

          Yep, that is why you can’t tether your horse to a fire hydrant on Sunday.

    4. Fart Captor

      Honestly, the only reason people at my college would’ve complained is some of the dorm’s have really narrow hallways, which would make it really hard to avoid running into people, especially in a go-cart.

      I’m not sure you’d even be able to turn sharply enough to get around corners

      1. Dara

        Yeah, all of my dorms had hallways where this would’ve been a problem. I’m willing to consider that IU has wider halls, I guess? Because seriously they’d have to be.

    5. Sam

      It can still make noise (enough to at least be annoying and disruptive to some people – as much as we all hate Mary, she gave us the knowledge that it is loud enough to be heard inside the rooms), Carla could hurt herself or others as carpets are not designed for skates and it could be obstructive for other people trying to get through the hall or even just out of their rooms as remember this is not Carla traveling somewhere, this is her going back and forth in the hall for her own amusement.

      1. Fart Captor

        Except Mary isn’t a good basis for judging acceptable noise levels. We saw how comes to check out pretty much any activity near her door.

        Also there’s a lot of things that would be loud enough to hear from inside your room, but which you’d still likely be an ass to complain about in the middle of the afternoon, such as your neighbors music, the people upstairs banging like rabbits, pretty much anything fun at all, etc.

        1. Sam

          I didn’t say Mary was a good judge of acceptable noise levels, just that she showed that it is possible to hear it in the rooms which some people would likely find annoying and disruptive to a degree. Not necessarily enough to complain about it and not necessarily because it is obscenely loud, but because some people are more easily distracted by or annoyed by sounds (though you ain’t heard annoying until you’ve lived somewhere that had fire alarm drills at like, 1:30pm on Thursdays for some weird reason) so it could still be seen as a general annoyance.

          Plus, I think it is still supposed to be some time in the morning as Danny said so only a few strips ago.

        2. zoelogical

          honestly i don’t think Mary is a reliable source about much of anything, but especially Carla. her transphobia would make even something really minor into something big, because she’s annoyed not by Carla going up and down the hall, but by her existence. i would find it likely that she would avoid taking reasonable measures specifically so she could be annoyed by Carla, and have something to be angry about.

          in any case if this were a news article, we’d need at least two sources in order for Carla’s loudness to be verifiable, and Mary is the only person to complain about this. despite Carla skating the halls often enough for Joyce to recognize she’s done it more than once.

        3. Kamino Neko

          Anyone significantly muscular, or even slightly overweight, or with certain strides walking through the halls. (I fall into the latter two categories. It’s hard not to hear me walking.)

        4. Jhon

          Hear the Sound of My Feet Walking, Drown the Sound of My Voice Talking.

      2. Lena

        I mean, back in my dorm I could hear people talking or just walking in the hall as well or doing stuff in the kitchen, just cause you can hear it doesn’t mean it’s disruptive. I’m just loathe to trust Mary on this who has a pre-existing bias when we haven’t even seen anyone else complain about it.

        1. thejeff

          Exactly. I would be shocked if, for example, Carla and Joyce’s conversation here wasn’t much louder than the sound of Carla skating. That’s not a reason to ban skating. “You can’t do anything in the hall that could possibly be heard by anyone in a room” is not a reasonable rule.

          Significantly less disruptive than many things I remember doing in dorm hallways – frisbee, kicking soccerballs, etc.

    6. Cerberus

      It’s against the rules is why. People tend to get antsy about people doing things that are against the rules, especially if it seems to be partially intentional, even if it is relatively harmless.

      1. Pablo360

        Conversely, if someone’s doing something horrible against which there is no rule, many people are more than willing to turn a blind eye. Hell, even if there are many, extremely clear rules against it.

        You get to decide whether you think I’m talking about Mary, Trump, or David Willis’s repeated defiance of narrative convention.

      2. StClair

        Yeah, this is me.
        It’d probably make me a little twitchy if I was a resident there, before I (most likely) decided it was basically harmless and/or not worth getting involved in.

  11. Some1

    Lawful good meet chaotic neutral

    1. butting

      Chaotic *good*, surely? Would chaotic neutral have produced those awesome shower boots out of the goodness of its heart?

      (Joyce knew. she TOTALLY knew.)

      1. Some1

        Let’s say chaotic good, but in fierce denial

        1. butting

          aw shit yeah that’s her in a nutshell

        2. Kamino Neko

          Yep, that fits perfectly.

        3. Dara

          ding ding ding ding winnah

      2. Woobie

        Annoyance played a part, I think.

      3. Reltzik

        That wasn’t goodness. She was literally showing off.

        …. also, alliteratively showing off.

        She saw shower shodding so shoddy some slimey sloggy scum should surely see seepage, so she supplanted some supports solely so she showed superiority.

        (Yeah, okay, she was being nice, but I had to intro that somehow.)

        1. Chris Phoenix

          Shoddy shodding? … interestingly, AFAIK those words are not etymologically related.

  12. Kernanator

    At least one of those days was Opposite Day, meaning you had to skate in the halls!

  13. RandomDude

    “Kinda weird how Amber slit some alt-right kid’s throat, huh?” “Yeah, we should probably talk about that at some point.”

    1. Cerberus

      I’m super anxious about that as well, but the fact that so few people seem to be saying anything about it makes me suspect that Dorothy and Amber have been keeping whatever happened on the relative down low, which makes me really worried about Dorothy*, because she was already carrying a lot and that’s a major extra pile.

      *I’m extremely worried about Amber as well, but that’s been since the strip. Now I’m starting to be worried about Dorothy more intensely as well.

      1. CJ

        Dorothy had the more traumatizing moment there: She wasn’t able to act (because of shock and Amber keeping her out of it), and people who act during crises are less likely to be traumatized.
        But yeah, all this “three days later and everybody acts like nothing happened” is making me antsy.

        1. zoelogical

          maybe nobody will know about it until Amber gets served with a notice to show up in court

        2. Needfuldoer

          If DoA drifts into police-procedural territory, I hope it skews more toward Psych than Law and Order.

        3. RandomDude

          You hear about Pluto? That’s messed up, right?

        4. Pablo360

          Yeah, a world of talking animals and he’s the only one who’s a pet? That’s just disturbing, Walt.

        5. a/snow mous/e

          TRUE. And yet somehow I was thinking of the ex-planet.

          I still don’t know the actual Pluto they were talking about, tbh

      2. Reltzik

        Maybe they’ve been talking about it a lot and Willis has just been maliciously showing us only the momentary breaks in the gossip.

    2. foamy

      Every strip that goes by without that being acknowledged makes me wonder more about what on earth is coming down the pike.

    3. butting

      A conversation about how Carla’s been skating in the hall for several days now sounds like a big hint that Mary hasn’t said a single word about it.

      I’m choosing to read that as a back-channel measure of the consequences: grim, but not sufficiently so as to flip her back to triumphalism.

      1. Pablo360

        “several days”

  14. achallenger

    skittle dee doo

  15. butting

    Carla, I love you, and wish to offer you the heads of your enemies spitted upon pikes.

    *catches glimpse of blackboard through open door*

    Ahhh, but I see your preparations for that are already well in hand. We are but worthless bugs before you, and desire nothing more than to be good subjects to your glorious reign.

  16. Reltzik

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

    Joyce might want to have kids, but JOYCE DOESN’T WANT TO HAVE KIDS.

    1. Pigeon Pollyx

      that typo though

      1. Reltzik

        What typo?

        1. Pigeon Pollyx

          okay I was running on 58 hours no sleep and don’t really know what I was doing when I wrote that, but based on context clues I’m pretty sure I was just confused as to what you meant by joyce might want to have kids but doesn’t want to have kids.

  17. Cattleprod

    (Yay, I can make this comment now that it’s finally in the strip)

    Willis: Drawing characters dressed in plaid sure can get tedious.

    Me, thinking to self: Then don’t draw plaid.

    Willis: *posts that Carla character art*

    Me: Perhaps I was hasty.

    1. David M Willis

      i can’t help it i have plaid sickness

      1. Fart Captor

        You could try giving some of your characters elaborate tattoo sleeves!

        1. Woobie

          Or pirate shirts!

        2. Cholma

          Ooh, Danny in a Puffy Shirt ala Seinfeld? “But I don’t WANNA be a pirate!”
          😀

        3. Joe Covenant

          Nah Jeph Jacques is lamenting that very fact right now! 🙂

        4. Pablo360

          Best new character, 10/10, also I thought she was Dora at first glance

      2. MM

        Is it related to butts disease?

      3. Tacos

        Will we in the comments section be forced to perform an intervention?

      4. Cattleprod

        Yeah, I posted that completely unaware you had just posted more plaid character art.

      5. Reltzik

        Aw, geez.

        I never know what to say to someone who’s sick. Everything I can offer just ends up sounding like empty plaiditudes.

      6. Cerberus

        I like how almost every one of the queer women characters has donned plaid something at one point or another… as has Joyce.

        Could be a deep closet, could be that she learned “how do girls dress” from a closeted lesbian.

        1. Rukduk

          Honestly, I’m guessing it’s a little of both but primarily the latter. I think Joyce is probably bi with a heavily male preference or at the very least now open to the possibility she might be. Her interactions with Sal definitely don’t feel entirely platonic.
          …
          Of course, I’m probably biased because I kind of ship Joyce and Carla and Joyce also reminds me slightly of my bi roommate and her current girlfriend in her interactions with Sal.

        2. Nono

          Well I imagine part of is also that Joyce really wants a sister figure and Sal fits the ‘cool older sister’ archetype.

        3. zoelogical

          joyce can’t figure out what to do with sal’s boobs, is the thing

        4. Cerberus

          Yeah, some of her ways of expressing “sisterly” appreciation of strong women in her life are a bit… really queer. Like, it’s one thing to show appreciation to another straight woman, but when you’re talking about fantasizing about stroking their hair and getting all flustered thinking about their boobs, you start to drift into Bend it Like Beckham territory of “mm, yeah, not buying the whole straight thing here”.

        5. zoelogical

          the only lady i can’t ship joyce with is becky. (sorry becky) (but you have a great dinosaur girlfriend! who is also canon!!)

        6. McBogue

          Funny, because Joyce has at least one idea about <a href="http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/curiosity/&quot; title="what to do with Billie's boobs".

        7. McBogue

          Second try?

          Funny, because Joyce has at least one idea about <a href=http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/curiosity/ title=what to do with Billie's boobs

        8. McBogue

          Well, crap. 🙁

        9. Pablo360

          You need to type <a href=”http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/curiosity/”>what to do with Billie’s boobs.<a>

        10. Pablo360

          Except use the default straight quotes rather than curly quotes if you have a choice

        11. zoelogical

          lol -pets you and your many adventures with html gently-

          yes. but lest we forget Sal’s excellent boobage started this magical boob adventure

          i don’t know what becky kissing joyce did but i imagine it unlocked Feelings, of Import

          apropos of nothing, joyce crushing on carla would be cute. i think joyce is attracted to people who are the rebels she wishes she could be

        12. Halpful

          Pablo360 almost had it, but it should end with </a> not <a>

          the pattern is <tag attribute=”value”>text</tag>

        13. zoelogical

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/borrowed/

          check this out

        14. Chris Phoenix

          Hm, a quick skim of Jocelyne’s tag doesn’t show her wearing plaid. Of course she isn’t presenting as female yet. And… hm, is she queer? She seemed interested in Ethan, which might indicate she was straight in the sense of interested-in-opposite-gender. But it seems almost like queer-erasure to say that a male-presenting person who’s attracted to men can be described simply as “straight.” (I’m pretty sure it would not be accurate to call her gay, regardless of how she’s presenting?)

          …I guess this may just be a case where existing labels are inadequate…?

          …Now I’m inspired to go meta for a moment: I can see how we need labels because default society is so straight-focused that people who aren’t straight need labels to help them identify themselves. But in some alternate reality where it’s recognized that everyone is different and most people are queer one way or another (poly, kinky, ace, bi, etc., etc.), would we actually have a use for any of these labels?

          I guess there’s another use for some of these labels: if I tell another man that I’m straight, I’m assuring him that I’m not attracted to him. But the more I think about this usage, the more I’m seeing how it’s related to several kinds of sub-optimal-ness.

          Anyway, it’s late and I’m probably over-communicating, so I’ll stop here. If I’ve said or implied something offensive, I apologize in advance, and I’ll check back to see what I can learn if anyone wants to call me on it.

        15. Inbar Fink

          “Queer” usually includes “trans” under it’s umbrella, a heterosexual trans woman would still count as queer cause she’s trans.
          (And I indeed can’t find a pic of her wearing plaid, the closest is the pink striped shirt she wore in one of the bonus strips I believe??? I bet that was also hell to make)

        16. zoelogical

          idk like just because she’s not presenting as female doesn’t mean she stopped being female or anything. so like her attraction to a gay dude is still pretty straight, although she herself would fall under the queer umbrella. it’s why trans people get their own letter in LGBT.

          try this test: if you wouldn’t say it about a cis person, don’t say it about a trans person. if a cis woman presenting as male showed interest in a man, it would still be straight. we would probably call her butch.

          i think…in a world where straight was no longer default…i kind of think we would have more labels, not less? like, think about how tumblr is: straight is no longer a default, and so there is a preponderance of labels. you can be aromantic, homoromantic, heteromantic; asexual, bisexual, demisexual, graysexual, lesbian, gay, pansexual. you can have queerplatonic relationships, romantic relationships, sexual relationships. in a world where your relationship to your orientations is only as limited as your ability to define, there are very few bounds.

          im saying that your world where straight isn’t default already exists, the mainstream just hasn’t acknowledged it yet

        17. Chris Phoenix

          Hm, what you’re describing on tumblr sounds almost more like descriptions than labels. In the sense that a label puts someone in a pigeonhole and says almost nothing about them, while a description actually attempts to be informative and useful.

          I guess I just don’t like labels. People are more nuanced and labels are too often used for some kind of erasure. “Oh, that person’s _____” too often means “Oh, that person’s just _____.”

          Identities, of course, are different from both descriptions and labels. When Becky says “I’m a LESBIAN!!” she’s claiming an identity. If someone else said “Oh, Becky’s a lesbian” they might be describing – if there were an actual reason why that knowledge was useful in context – but they might be erasing/discounting.

          If a cis woman presented as a man and showed attraction to a man, it would still feel to me like _something_ was probably being erased if that was described (by a third party) as just “straight.”

        18. ValdVin

          I haven’t noticed this but it shoulda clicked with me before now.

      7. Inbar Fink

        Is this a bizarre mutation of butts disease?

  18. ValdVin

    But how are the shower stilts?

    Carla needs her pwnage of Joyce for validation! Validating that she didn’t do it to be nice.

    (But I would like Carla to warm up to someone.)

  19. Tacos

    Every day is a holiday if you try hard enough. *nods*

    1. JessWitt

      Well, it was National Doughnut Day last Friday.

      So June 8 is now…(checks google)…Best Friends Day!

      1. Lan

        What the hell is tomorrow? “National Banana Split Day”? Oh please let it be that. I would give up my pocket money for a trip to the Dairy Queen.

        1. JessWitt

          Sorry, it’s Donald Duck Day. Is the new Ducktales airing then?

        2. vlademir1

          Not ’til August I’m afraid.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          I am the voice of your inner child. Duck Tales won’t be any good, and you’ll wonder why you ever thought it would be.

        4. Kamino Neko

          National Banana Split Day is August 25.

  20. Guairdean

    L’Chaim!

    1. Joe Covenant

      Great… now I’m gonna have Fiddler on the Roof battering through my head all day…

      Hey! GREAT!!! 🙂

      1. Guairdean

        If I were a rich man……….

  21. Passchendaele

    a Dutch year-long holiday that goes on every single year. they secretly made robots do all the work a long time ago, and decided to celebrate by smelling the tulips and starting a permanent holiday. 😛

    1. Minotaur

      I must have missed the memo, then…
      Or I might be a robot without knowing it.

  22. Romanticide

    I am guessing Carla can’t bear now to be mean to Joyce even when she is pulling her leg.

    1. Fart Captor

      I think she might just be starting to warm up to her a bit.

      Everyone succumbs to that smile eventually.

      1. Cerberus

        It’s adorable and also shows Carla’s mode with someone who isn’t an antagonist. Some gentle ribbing and jocularity, but all smiles and genuine affection.

    2. nightsbridge

      Those are probably new skates, too! She’s probably just really happy to be on them agian.

    3. zoelogical

      joyce is, probably, a really hard person to be mean to

  23. Stephen Bierce

    *plays April Wine’s “Roller” on the hacked Muzak*

  24. newllend(henryvolt)

    Wow I’m surprised Joyce hasn’t heard of the Holy holiday known as “Festivus.”

  25. John

    Joyce is just trying to study.

  26. maxyai

    To quote a funny movie: That’s a big bongo.”

  27. Pigeon Pollyx

    Okay while I’m a fan of the comic pairing of these two >coughmildshipcough< I'm increasingly anxious as to what the fuck happened to Amber and that everyone's hunky dory right now.

    Hell for that matter Ruth and Billie are still unaccounted for. So I'm going to have to keep checking the updates to see if anything even remotely addresses them. You're a capitalist bastard David Willis, but you're a good one at that.

    1. Ansel

      Joyce looks more concerned than Carla rollerskating calls for.

      1. Fart Captor

        Probably because nobody has seen or heard from Becky or Dina for three days now

        1. zoelogical

          joyce calls from beyond the door: “hey, are you guys okay in there?”

          dina throws becky’s underwear at her, hitting her smack dab in the face

          joyce: “i brought water! and tater tots! … don’t forget to breathe!”

          becky throws dina’s underwear at her

          joyce puts them both neatly on the doorknob

          this was two days ago

        2. John

          And neither Dina nor Becky noticed when Amber came back in covered in blood.

        3. zoelogical

          haha in this headcanon amber is hiding, bloody and crusted, under ethan’s bunkbed trying to deal with the person she is and the things she’s capable of doing. ethan feeds her with bits of cereal and is trying to coax her to take a shower instead of living her raccoon hobo life permanently

          dorothy made an emergency visit with a therapist the morning after. she talked to her mom once she got to her room and it turned into a two-hour long conversation complete with breaks to retrieve her power cord and so much sobbing. she doesn’t know it yet, but she and joyce and sal are going to go on a life-changing fieldtrip involving underage booze, illicit roller derby shenanigans, and joyce pledging to fight a local tree

          ryan is sitting in a hospital room across from toe!dad. none of this is funny

    2. timemonkey

      Meh, she probably just gave him anouther cut across the face and he ran off again.

      1. Pigeon Pollyx

        And how’s Becky dealing with that? Fuck Ryan at this point my dude there’s a lot of things not addressed and its deliberate

        1. timemonkey

          Becky’s probably been fooling around with Dinah the last few days. If anyone was going to have a reaction it was Joyce.

        2. Delicious Taffy

          There’s an unauthorised H in your post. I am issuing a warning, this time. Do it again, and you will receive a fine, up to but not exceeding the maximum amount allowed by federal regulations.

        3. Pigeon Pollyx

          I think I meant to write dorothy

  28. Rukduk

    This is sweet nectar for the soul right here. Also, this feels like the continuation of the beginning of a beautiful friendship (right now I’d say they’re just closely acquainted and not yet full on friends).

  29. Shiro

    Carla is just beautiful.

  30. nobodybasically

    Does Carla think up these excuses beforehand or is she just the best improvisational comedian ever?

    1. Cerberus

      Yes.

  31. Foxhack

    I can’t tell, are those actual skates, or those weird plastic thingies that were tied with plastic straps to your shoes to give them skates?

  32. Lauralot

    I’m beginning to fear that this entire story line will consist of lighthearted events and will not contain Dorothy or Amber at all.

    1. Tacos

      S’all a part of Willis’ insidious master plan to get you to continue reading to try and learn what happened.

    2. Kris

      Dorothy? Amber?…Who cares about those two losers and any potential consequences of an assault/ possible murder? You got get on the ukelele and rolling skating in the halls train Lauralot. That’s where all the intrigue is.

      1. Pablo360

        We’re going off the rails on a ukelele and roller skating in the halls train *epic guitar riff*

    3. timemonkey

      Judging by the fact that Danny and Joyce are perfectly happy I’m going to say they’re both fine.

    4. Lingo

      Dorothy? Amber? I’ve already forgotten who they are.

      1. Kris

        Exactly.

      2. zoelogical

        *x-files theme music*

      3. DaveM

        Last I heard they’d gone to meet up with Chuck Cunningham. 🙂

    5. Cephalo the Pod

      I mean, Walking with Dina featured a run-in with the Gunman. Before, you know, becoming the Gunman.

      This storyline is bound to go places.

    6. BBCC

      Amber and Dorothy are both in this storyline. Honestly, the more time goes on the more I think ‘yeah, there wasn’t a murder.’

  33. Some1

    Thinking about it, if Mary was smart she would have released a few roombas into the hallway. Or reconfigured a roomba so that she could control it from her room, allowing her to both trip up Carla and gain valuable information/secrets. The biggest issue would be attaching a camera to it. Mary should think through her plans longer.

    1. Some1

      Please don’t think I’m evil.

      1. JasonAW3

        Too Late!!!

    2. Bagge

      Thing is – it would have worked, because rather than skating Carla would have kept busy reprogramming the roombas in a suitably ridiculous fashion.

      1. Pablo360

        *Carla spells her name with Roombas*

        Mary: “Oh come on!”

        *Mary gets hit with a pie*

    3. zoelogical

      “if Mary was smart.” too implausible. im sorry your premise was flawed from the start

      <3

  34. Roger Sterling

    “I should slap you, you click-whoring punk.”

    I swear I didn’t say that-fifty of my fellow readers voted in a referendum to have that posted and appointed me their delegate. There’s no resisting the vox populi.

    1. Roger Sterling

      Democracy, Willis.

    2. Cephalo the Pod

      What the fuck?

    3. zoelogical

      i didnt vote for you

      1. Joe Covenant

        You don’t vote for Kings.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Well, how’d they get that, then?

        2. Joe Covenant

          A watery tart threw a sword at him!

        3. McBogue

          Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

        4. Roborat

          Supreme executive power derives
          from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

        5. zoelogical

          help! help! i’m being oppressed!

        6. Joe Covenant

          BLOODY PEASANTS!

        7. KSClaw

          Considering currently politics tho’, it’d make voting hell of a lot easier to deal with.

        8. John

          I’ve been kind of wishing we picked Presidents the same way we pick Kings in the SCA. Because there isn’t a single one of the usual suspects that I’m not pretty confident that I could take in a swordfight.

          Mr. “exercise uses up the fixed amount of energy you get when you’re born” I would’ve thumped like a bongo.

  35. Kris

    I’m confused. Is skating in the hall against the rules or not?…Or does Carla have special priviledge?..Does anyone actually care about this?

    1. timemonkey

      It’s not allowed, nobody really cares.

    2. Nono

      It is against the rules.

      Ruth never enforced it as far as we know, and nobody seems to want to press on the issue that hard. Bar Mary.

    3. Shiro

      …honestly, if skating in the halls even is really against the rules, I’m willing to bet it’s one of those stupid petty rules no one cares about.

      1. Kris

        But wasn’t skating the halls the seed for a storyline involving; transphobia, practical jokes, paranoia, and BLACKMAIL!!!!?!?!?!….Nobody cares.

        1. timemonkey

          Carla existing set Mary off. Only someone with Mary’s sense of entitlement would care about the minor noise from someone skating.

      2. Reltzik

        Mary is a no one.

    4. Cerberus

      It’s very much against the rules, officially. Carla is just very much an anti-authoritarian and so has little respect for rules of this type and likely sees them partially as challenges.

      1. Kamino Neko

        And, since Carla’s one of those rare people who really is as skilled as she thinks she is, nobody likely feels like taking on the agita of trying to enforce this rule for this person.

        But they’ll probably come down real hard if she does cause an accident.

  36. MatsuoTanuki

    I want a girl who gets up early (gets up early!)
    I want a girl who stays up late (stays up late!)
    I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity
    Who uses a machete, to cut through red tape!

    With fingernails that shine like justice!
    And a voice that is dark like tinted glass
    She is fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack…
    She’s touring the facilities and picking up slack!
    I want a girl with a short skirt and a loooong jacket!

    1. Absorbingman

      I’d like a girl who’s sweet, funny, but funny in a smart way. She should be up for a night out, or cool with just chilling at home watching movies.

      Oh, and she should also be an airplane.

  37. varius

    The brace is gone.

    1. JessWitt

      Huh, so it is. How long was Joyce supposed to wear it again?

      1. vlademir1

        Not sure without walking through the old strips to check (which would require exposing myself to a dose of Ross again).

        1. JessWitt

          I’d avoid the Ross stuff too – but only because I want to reread in a paper book later in the year.

      2. Kamino Neko

        Wasn’t it just a sprain? ~2 weeks sounds about right for a moderate sprain.

    2. caesaria82

      Ooooh, it is! How long did she wear it anyway, in-comic time? Can’t be much more than two weeks, right?

      1. Cephalo the Pod

        The Gunman incident of Book 6 was on a Monday. Joyce visited home the weekend after that. And this is the next Saturday.

        Definitely less than two weeks.

      2. vlademir1

        It has only been 12 days (day of the incident with Ross, three day timeskip (3), six days covered by comics (9), three day timeskip (12), today). If you look around online there is a timeline with day/chapter correlations, but that is on the same wiki as all the spoilers for the original Walkyverse so I’m not directly linking it.

    3. hof1991

      Willis got tired of drawing it.

  38. Kitschensyngk

    It’s happy hour somewhere.

  39. Optimal Optimus

    This is… amusing.

    As for Dorothy and Amber, we all know that they are fine – physically. I guess the question is: what will be the psychological fallout?

    I’m on the fence as to whether the time skip is annoying or suspenseful.

    1. Norah

      It can be both!

      1. DonDueed

        New Three-Day Timeskip is a floor wax and a dessert topping!

  40. UltraKyrie

    caaarrrlllllaaaaa!

  41. Tenzhi

    Well, at least we cut away from Danny and Joe for a moment. I’m sure we’ll get around to Schrödinger’s Elephant eventually…

    1. Joe Covenant

      “Schrödinger’s Elephant”

      Oh, I am SO stealing that one!!

  42. caesaria82

    Yesterday, cute smiley Danny (dorky, pure). Today, cute smiley Carla (wicked, glorious). Pride month is delivering so far 😀

    1. Bagge

      Yes, yes, but when will we see cute smiley Becky?

      1. Shiro

        Entire month of June: nothing but cute, happy, smiling queer characters doing pleasant and enjoyable things with friends.

        No mention of Amber or Dorothy whatsoever.

  43. nightsbridge

    Carla got new skates!

    yaaaaaaas

    1. nightsbridge

      Also I can’t help but figure that Joyce’s approaching Carla about this is meant to be deliberately contrasted against Mary’s approach of the same.

      Aka, Joyce: Not being a horrible person about it.

      1. Bagge

        “Joyce: Not a horrible person”. She should print business cards or something.

        I also think Joyce got a taste of helping out with the RA-work and keeps it up.

        1. Inbar Fink

          JoyceL Not a Horrible Person would make a good alternative title for this whole webcomic

        2. zoelogical

          she and zuko should form a club: “Not As Much Of A Jerk As You Could Have Been”

      2. Cerberus

        I think that’s the case and I think it shows how it would be done if Mary had been in good faith and actually cared about the skates rather than the chance to justify being crappy to Carla.

        And it also shows how Carla responds when the request is earnest and well-meaning rather than in bad-faith. Basically still having no truck or care about the rules, but a lot more friendly and bantery.

        1. Pablo360

          Carla is basically Tadachi from Cardcaptor Sakura right now.

        2. Pablo360

          Wait no I mean Takashi

          Tahachi

          The guy who hangs out with Chiharu

    2. hof1991

      betting she has a closet full of different skates for different surfaces and fashion effects.

  44. Keulan

    Carla only skates in the halls on days with the letter y in them.

    1. Bagge

      She has few principles, but she stands by them.

      1. Reltzik

        You mean she skates by them.

        1. Bagge

          …yes. Yes, that’s what I mean.

    2. Cephalo the Pod

      And even then, only if the date can be divided by a prime number.

      1. Reltzik

        …. so she DOESN’T skate on the 1st?

        1. Pat

          That doesn’t say divide evenly.

  45. Bagge

    I find it incredibly cute that rather than her usual aggressive aloofness, Carla deals with Joyce by being facetious.

    Also, HAPPY DUTCH HOLIDAY, EVERYONE!

    1. Jhon

      I need to observe more Dutch holidays. Those folks know how to have fun.
      Dang, I missed Dodenherdenking.

  46. Reltzik

    Look, Joyce, don’t expect a logical response out of Carla. Sure, she’s smart, but she’s a bit skaterbrained.

    1. zoelogical

      she was a sk8r girl
      she rocked my whole world
      no one was good enough for her

      and now she’s an engineer
      robotics pioneer
      no one was good enough for heeeer

  47. Cephalo the Pod

    I like these two interacting. Carla’s like a fun Sarah, and this could be a set-up for Joyce-Mary conflict down the road.

  48. BaronCognito

    I just want to say that, if you’re talking holidays, Chag Sameach would be more appropriate than Mazel Tov.

  49. Alex Boston

    Gosh it is fun to see Carla and Joyce interacting so well WHAT HAPPENED WITH AMBER?????

    1. John

      Still stabbin’ a dude. It takes time if you’re going to do it right.

  50. Reltzik

    Okay. We’ve checked in with Joe and Danny bonding, and now with Joyce and Carla bonding. In another 4 days it will be Dinah and Becky. Then Walky and Sal having an actual sibling moment. Then Ruth and Billie actually having some happy downtime.

    In other words, we’re getting all the happy stuff we want, except Willis has found a way to make even good things painful.

  51. BenRG

    Joyce, it’s really this simple: Carla doesn’t care about the rules. She’ll eventually knock someone over and seriously injure them. She’ll care then, maybe.

    1. Whatever

      Didn’t Danny have to dive out of her way on the sidewalk? I don’t think she cared then either.

      1. thejeff

        Actually, Danny jumped off the stair into her path and Ethan had to knock him aside.
        That one was pretty much on Danny.

  52. zoelogical

    the suspense is tantalizing…i hope it lasts

    pretty much tho the longer we wait with this nice, sweet, charmingly funny stuff, the more sure i am that Whatever Happened Was Really Bad

    frick

  53. Boomer Gonzales

    I love Carla. Have I mentioned before how much I love Carla? Well if you don’t know then now you know. Carla is made of awesome.

  54. Reltzik

    …….

    ……

    … it just occurred to me that this could be the storyline where Joyce discovers that trans is a real thing with real people rather than just something her old church used to rant about.

    If so, I have a prediction for three strips from now.

    1. zoelogical

      idk. like. they did seem to know about gay people but with Jocelyne in the house, Carol might’ve opted for the “ignorance is protective” route

      anyways nonbinary joyce would be a dream

      1. Zatar

        Carol Doesn’t know Jocelyne is Trans.

        1. zoelogical

          yeah, she might not one hundred percent know, but like…she homeschooled all these children. either she wasn’t paying attention, she was willfully ignorant, or she suspected and repressed the frick out of it in Jocelyne. and i kind of seem to remember a lot of discourse at the time being like “oh shit look at all that enforced masculinity”.

          and honestly…Carol is terrible. so it’d be nice to have something that supports that headcanon of mine

        2. John

          They did make sure that Joyce was inculcated with proper gender roles.

          And, I mean, Joyce has always been a girly-girl, in both universes. But, given how she acts towards Dorothy… maybe it’s just that she learned how to be platonic besties from a girl who secretly wanted to bang her like a screen door in a hurricane, but I’m still not completely sold on Joyce being entirely straight.

        3. zoelogical

          yeaaaaaaaaah.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/foranybody/
          this is the only thing that would make me think that joyce’s straight but like

          i just don’t think she’s attracted to becky, because becky is intense in ways that joyce seems to need to take a break from. and becky can be a lil sexually aggressive, but mostly because she’s friggin’ desperate for affection and camaraderie and closeness and attention. things that she needs to get from more than one source!! they were just too close to be good for each other i think

          but also like. joyce pushed herself into a lot of boxes that becky learned to avoid as a way of being. becky’s never really stopped being that irrepressible self, because that irrepressible self is what made life bearable. but joyce never really got to be herself because she was always being tamped down to fit the life her mom wanted for her.

          like: becky knew she was a lesbian for a while. joyce has assumed that she’s straight and never really questioned it because it was the truth she knew. and when her truths changed, her everything changed. she has to go through that internal schema change before she can change everything else

          and i feel like – Sal fits into the Grease/Footloose schema, for Joyce. she’s the rebel with a heart of gold who does all the edgy things Joyce wishes she could let herself do.

          and i think that Joyce has always wanted to do the things she’s not allowed to do: fly airplanes, wear red, be the cool kid in a social setting instead of the awkward religiously-motivated kid. i can’t think of many times where she’s worn skirts or dresses for anything other than, like, church or a special occasion. i feel like there are a lot of traditionally feminine things she just can’t relate to.

          and then there’s Twilight, which is a unique phenomenon based around women having their own fantasies, WHICH IS ANOTHER POST ENTIRELY im sure.

  55. C.T Phipps

    I hate Mary and the horrible abuses she does. However, I find I still think Carla’s actions suck if someone is trying to study.

    1. BBCC

      If you’re gonna live somewhere with other people, you need to expect other people are going to live. Silence at all hours of the day so you can study is not a reasonable expectation.

  56. CianM1301

    I’m now imagining Carla skating through the halls in a Viking helmet and beard shouting “Hey everybody! It’s Leif Erikson Day!”

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Now, when you say “Viking helmet”, what do you mean by that?

      1. CianM1301

        I was making a reference to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm7NqeTK7No

    2. Daniel

      I seriously can’t believe I’m seeing an OC Emerl character here.

      1. CianM1301

        Hey, another person gets it!

        1. Spencer

          Sonic Battle was pretty groovy.

  57. KSClaw

    Carla, stop troling Joyce.

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      Someone has to now that Ruth is restraining herself.

  58. Cerberus

    Comic Reactions:

    Eee, Carla! 😀

    And she’s absolutely full of bliss.

    It’s a beautiful continuing growth of friendship between Carla and Joyce who have such an amazing dynamic together because Joyce’s earnestness and naivety pairs off nicely with Carla’s wry anti-authoritarianism and fronting. And it’s great to see Carla learning to appreciate that in her own way and be heartened by it.

    Plus, this shows so many great pieces of everything here. It shows how Carla would respond to being told her actions are against the rules in good-faith. Still refusing to play along, but in a jocular friendly ribbing sort of way instead of a “yeah, fuck off and report me if you care so much”. Like she gets that Joyce is just worried about her and is a bit lawful neutral whereas Carla probably has an antifa button somewhere on her person and is anti-authoritarian as all hell.

    And I love that moment in Panel 3 where Carla checks the waters and her face drops a bit, like, okay, it’s probably in good faith, but also fundie, so tread carefully and be ready to bail if she blows up at the obvious BS or goes bad faith.

    And it shows how much she’s already grown to trust Joyce to be well-meaning and is willing to trust her in a way I doubt she does many people in general to a degree not to harm her. And that’s beautiful, because Carla needs interactions like this to fully connect and heal some of that old damage.

    And we see that in Panels 4-6, where Joyce earnestly tries to logic around Carla’s obvious nonsense and Carla starts genuinely beaming about it. Not just because ha, naivety, but more because a light banter of this type is clearly what her best case scenario for how this would turn out and she’s so glad to confirm that Joyce really was just being Joyce in her own way and actually good-faith was caring about rules and making sure she didn’t get in trouble.

    It makes everything so sweet here between them and makes me want to see so much more of these doofuses together (and the fact that they seem to be forming this friendship feels super useful, because it’s probably only a matter of time before Mary notices it and tries hard to out Carla to her and that’ll likely hit about the time Jocelyne finally decides to take the big risk and come out herself).

    Rutten, yeah, checks out as Dutch. And now I’m extra amused because google search for Rutten brings up a champion MMA fighter and now I can’t help thinking about how much Carla kicks ass.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      I am unfamiliar with this term, “antifa button”. Google has proven unhelpful in the past, so I’m wary of trying it now.

      1. amanda

        Antifa = antifascist. Button = something you put on your backpack/shirt to show how political and cool you are. 😉 I had tons of such buttons in my college years.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Oh, that sort of button. Hmm… The only sort of political button I’d personally be comfortable with is something from a game or show I enjoy. Is there some sort of discreet logo for this anti-fascist movement (is it a movement?), or is it pretty obvious what it is? I ask because my area is pretty centrist overall, but the right-wing elements are a bit touchy.

        2. Jhon

          Um, you couldn’t take a moment to goggle ‘antifa button’? Jeez, the yoof of today…

      2. Reltzik

        Nowadays it’s also a politically left American movement focused on “deplatforming” (denying and disrupting opportunities to publicly speak) people on the right.

        1. nightsbridge

          Deplatforming nazis, you mean.

        2. Reltzik

          Depends how broadly you define “nazi”. But they haven’t limited themselves to white supremacists.

        3. Cerberus

          Actually, they have. It’s just there’s a weird and terrifying movement right now to argue that literal neo-nazis and white supremacists are just “free-speech activists” of “the right”.

          Like, pretty much every big target antifa has tried to “no-platform” (i.e. protesting that their money is being used to pay for someone actively harmful to come onto campus and recruit new fascists leading to a massive increase in harassment and hate-crimes in their wake) has at some point or another donned a literal swastika armband and done a Hitler salute and many of them are heavily connected with a lot of terrifying neo-nazi and white supremacist groups.

          So, y’know, literal nazis.

          Like, can we as a society just agree that there’s a line and literal fucking nazis should be the absolute maximum limit of that line of what we normalize in this society in the name of “both sides do it”?

        4. Delicious Taffy

          That explains the, er… “troublemaking” reputation I’ve seen ascribed to it. Not that I agree with that particular sentiment, of course. The less chances the far right has to speak, the less people will have to listen to them.

        5. Commodore Jeep-Eep

          They’re using the strategies that have always worked against fascist vermin, back to when they chased the trash out of British punk.

    2. zoelogical

      lawful neutral is a really good morality alignment for joyce

      i feel like at the beginning of this i would have slotted her into lawful good; except she cared more about good than laws; but i can really see her slipping into lawful neutral as she figures out what good is and what she really respects, and laws are a part of that for her. they’re security and safety and reliable in a world where so much isn’t

      whereas becky, obvs, is chaotic good

      1. John

        Nah. Joyce is a proper paladin. She’s Lawful, but above all else she’s Good. When she gets pushed into a corner where she has to choose between doing the right thing and following the rules, doing the right thing wins every time, and evil gets smote.

        But she still kind of freaks out about the rule-breaking.

        … I think Sal is Joyce’s paladin mount.

        1. zoelogical

          ….why are you making a black woman an animal

        2. John

          … why are you making it about race

          It’s a joking reference to that time Joyce literally got on Sal’s back to give chase to butthole dad.

        3. BBCC

          Because PoC = animals is a really basic racist trope that still happens a lot and is one that should probably be avoided if you can.

          Also, no she didn’t. She got on the back of her motorcycle.

  59. Dariu55

    Damn right the Dutch are festive!

    1. Delicious Taffy

      It’s true, they make wonderful decorations.

      1. Scar Man!!!

        you saying that with a knife-wielding bastard for a profile pic definitely changes the meaning a lot

        1. Reltzik

          *aussie accent*

          “I see you’ve played phony-knifey before.”

  60. DarkoNeko

    …

  61. Colineo

    I think off-panel smiling Carla is my favorite character in this universe.

  62. Aprion

    its true, we Dutch love our holidays 😛

  63. Vulcanodon

    Police are probably not releasing much information, and Dorothy may not have come back to campus yet. Three days is a long time to keep rehashing the same few facts. It could be everyone’s trying to think about normal things, and not fully succeeding. Well, except Joyce and Carla. This one is all success.

    1. thejeff

      Maybe, but getting increasingly less likely as we see more characters not apparently reacting. I would find it exceedingly strange if there was a big police thing and no one in the dorm had heard anything. Even more so if Joyce, as a possible target of Ryan, hadn’t been questioned.
      Or if Dorothy & Amber had disappeared with no word and no one being concerned.

      The longer we go without reference and the more characters we see, the less significant and traumatic whatever happened is likely to have been.

  64. Deviant

    Come on, Joyce. She’s happy, let her do her thing. Policing the floor is Ruths job anyway.

  65. Reltzik

    Every day is a Dutch holiday?

    ….

    Yeah, okay, that makes sense. If every morning is the morning after a party, no wonder the country seems so very drained.

  66. JasonAW3

    Is it just me or did Carla go a LOT in just a few days time?

    Even accounting for the skates, she’s at LEAST 7 foot tall now!

    She stands between one and a half to two feet taller than Joyce!

    Someone wanna clue me in?

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Joyce is short anyway, and Carla has a certain…biological boost? If that makes any sense?

  67. altalemur

    New Skates??!!!
    it is hard to see, but it looks like there’s a lot of detail on the skirt.

  68. Mr.Morningstar

    Either Joyce is really short or Carla is really tall and im okay with both

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Joyce’s official height is 6’8″. Carla’s father is the Slender Man, though, so she inherited his height.

      1. Scar Man!!!

        wait, 6’8″?! Huminahuminahuminahumina

  69. brasca1

    Joyce doesn’t seem shaken by what happened a few days ago so I wonder if she even knows.

  70. JBento

    Good luck for today’s election, you of British persuasion!

    1. Daibhid C

      We are very much going to need it…

  71. Daniel

    Carrlaaaaa no skaaaatinnnnggg!

    1. Valerie

      Carla, no skating!
      Carla, no skating!
      Carla, no skating!

      Carla: *snaps fingers* Aw MAAAAN. *runs away*

  72. Hiraku

    Is it just me, or has Carla always been that much taller than Joyce?

    1. Daibhid C

      I think about half of it is the skates.

  73. Andre

    Yes we Dutch are a very festive people 🙂

    1. Bagge

      That’s what I hear 🙂

  74. JBento

    Ok, I need independent verification for this, because it’s too surreal:

    Did the Republicans at Comey’s hearing REALLY ask him if when Trump illegally told him to do something he retorted with “what you’re doing is illegal”? Like it was Comey’s job to tell him the limits of his job? And did they, in fact, postface that with “well, sure, the President DID commit an impeachable offence, but it wasn’t on purpose, so it’s okay”? So, their defence is that Trump’s not evil (he is – you don’t clear the room before you order someone to do something if that order is on the up-and-up), just criminally incompetent?

    Did I misread something?

    1. Rodimiss

      Yeah, basically. It was like “yes, what he did was wrong, but why didn’t YOU tell him it was wrong?”

    2. George_V

      Haven’t actually seen that particular gaffe (not American, so no direct concern of mine. i just read the papers here), but I would believe it. it seems par for the course for this presidency. Every week there’s a new display of incompetence from Trump, and every week there’s a new ridiculous excuse from his administration and/or the Republicans to somehow justify his ever increasing list of failings.

      It’s surreal that he is somehow still allowed to be president, even after demonstrating his unsuitability for the job at every single opportunity. The man is a moron. Every sane voter and politician should’ve rallied against him. It doesn’t matter which party or policies you’d endorse, you just don’t put that much power in the hands of someone so unqualified to wield it.

    3. thejeff

      I didn’t hear the first part, but Paul Ryan did defend him by saying “He’s just new to this.”
      Which I can’t really argue with. Trump has shown profound ignorance (and disinterest) of how government works. Of course this was clear during the campaign and raises the question of why Ryan supported someone who was dangerously unaware of what the job involved.

      The main actual defense they seem to be going with is “Comey’s lying. Trump didn’t actually say that and if he did, it was only a “hope” not an order so it doesn’t count as obstruction even if Trump later fired him because of the investigation and besides it’s legal for the President to fire the FBI director so he didn’t do anything wrong and Obama said something in public about Hilary’s emails and months later the Justice Dept closed the investigation saying something similar and look over there! Is that a demonic duck of some kind?”

      1. 3oranges

        “Hope” is such a great excuse. I hope you find the money, because it would be a shame if anything were to happen to your family is apparently just thoughtful concern these days.

    4. zoelogical

      literally everything i have heard about how comey is being questioned by certain parties goes like “and what were you wearing that night? weren’t you asking for it? what did you expect from a man like donald trump? did you tell him no? why didn’t you fight back?” like an endless nightmare of bad discourse

      and then like the way comey talks about it is textbook abusive relationship, straight down to being terrified to say no

      on one level i feel really vindicated. on another i’m horrified

  75. Kugai

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ahHWROn8M0

  76. Puckish Rogue

    Testing

    1. Puckish Rogue

      Seems a strange combo to me, like hoodie = warmth but knee length skirt = cold

      Having said that I wouldn’t take fashion advice from myself

      1. Puckish Rogue

        That’s it I’m drunk, I can’t even hit the right reply button

      2. Cattleprod

        There’s definitely a time of year where it’s warm enough to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt around the house, but it might still get chilly enough to throw a jacket on to go outside. So I do hoodie + shorts often enough to see no issue.

  77. Lala

    Carla’s skirt is super cute. Actually, her whole outfit is great.

    1. Scar Man!!!

      who knew hoodie and knee-length skirt worked so well?

    2. zoelogical

      carla’s fashion is always tops

  78. Halpful

    mmkay, while we wait for the incoming comic, I’m hijacking the comments to talk Steven Universe.

    spoilers, end of season 1:
    va tnearg’f fbat, gurer’f n cneg gung tbrf “V nz gurve shel, V nz gurve cngvrapr, V nz n pbairefngvba”. V’ir orra guvaxvat nobhg gung yvar n ybg, yngryl. Cresrpgvbavfz jnagf gb unir guvatf fgngvp, bar cresrpg zbzrag sberire. Gung’f oebxra va n ybg bs jnlf, bar orvat gung vg qbrfa’g nyybj sbe fhpu guvatf nf pbairefngvba. Vg qbrfa’g nyybj sbe nalguvat gung gnxrf gvzr, juvpu pbiref fgbevrf, zhfvp, eryngvbafuvcf… n tbbq puhax bs rirelguvat zrnavatshy gb uhznaf. Lbh pna *ercerfrag* zhfvp va n fgngvp sbez (sebz furrg zhfvp gb zc3 svyrf), ohg gung’f whfg n frg bs vafgehpgvbaf – vg arrqf gb or vagrecergrq ol n pbzchgre be lbhe vzntvangvba be fbzrguvat gb ghea vagb npghny zhfvp.

    V yvxr zhfvp, fb gung tnir zr fbzrguvat gb svtug cresrpgvbavfz jvgu, gb cebir vg’f abg gur tbyqra puvyq vg pynvzf gb or. Ohg gurer jnf zber gb gung dhbgr… jung vs v guvax bs *uhznaf* nf n “pbairefngvba”, nf fbzrguvat gung qbrfa’g znxr frafr jvgubhg gvzr? Orpnhfr ernyyl, frrvat n uhzna sbe n fvatyr zbzrag, “htyl ont bs zbfgyl jngre” svgf. Vg’f va bhe npgvbaf naq bhe *eryngvbafuvcf* gung gur erny ornhgl yvrf.

    …qnzavg, V srry yvxr V’z abg rkcynvavat guvf jryy. V jvfu V’q jevggra vg qbja jura V svefg gubhtug bs vg. Gurer’f fbzrguvat ernyyl vzcbegnag gb zr va gurer fbzrjurer.

    1. Lingo

      …I admire your commitment to avoid spoiling others, but I ain’t decrypting that.

      1. Halpful

        sorry, forgot to mention it’s just rot13 🙂 (if you use firefox, the LeetKey plugin can translate it)

  79. Akahane

    She is the cutest ;_;

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.